31 Plays in 31 Days, #2 - "What If I Don't Want To?"

Today's piece is a snippet for the third Mrs. Hawking story, tentatively titled Base Instruments. While I'm fairly certain I have the major themes and journeys hammered out, I find that there's a lot I don't know about this story yet, the plot in particular. I might have to do a fair bit of thinking before I can do scenes of it for 31 Plays in 31 Days. But here's something, getting at the idea that as much as Mary wants to be Mrs. Hawking's protege, she may not be ready for everything Mrs. Hawking's going to expect.

What If I Don’t Want To?
By Phoebe Roberts

MARY STONE, Mrs. Hawking’s maid and protégé
NATHANIEL HAWKING, Mrs. Hawking’s gentleman nephew
~~~

MARY: Did you know that Mrs. Hawking studied ballet when she was young?

NATHANIEL: Is that so? I'd no idea, how interesting.

MARY: Apparently she once considered making a career of it.

NATHANIEL: Oh, really? Was she any good, then?

MARY: I don't know. But doesn't that surprise you?

NATHANIEL: I quite honestly don’t believe there’s anything she couldn’t do if she cared to. Why, does it you?

MARY: It’s, well… Mrs. Hawking doesn't often like things for their own sake, now, does she?

NATHANIEL: She doesn't like much of anything.

MARY: That's not what I mean. Everything's to a point with her. She practices skills to hone her craft. She studies facts in case it might serve her to know them. For goodness sake, she only reads for the points of reference. To think of her dancing for only the love of it... why, it's entirely new.

NATHANIEL: Goodness. I think I see what you mean.

MARY: Do you think… she’s always been that way?

NATHANIEL: I’m hard pressed to imagine her before she was so bitter.

MARY: It could have been that. Or… do you think she’s found it necessary? For her work, I mean. To care for nothing but that which serves her purpose because that’s the only way she’s capable of accomplishing the enormous things she accomplishes?

NATHANIEL: Goodness, I hope not. I mean to be of help to her, but I couldn’t bear to live as she does. Devoting herself to nothing but her work.

MARY: What if that’s what it takes?

NATHANIEL: Well, then I haven’t got it. I’ve a family, for heaven’s sake, and a hobby or two I’d care to pursue.

(He laughs, but MARY sits very quietly, eyes wide.)

NATHANIEL: Are you quite all right?

MARY: What if I haven’t got it either?

NATHANIEL: Oh, Mary. I’m sure you too can do anything you want to. If you put your mind to it, I’m sure you could become as honed and dedicated as she is.

MARY: No, Nathaniel… what if I don’t want to?

"I don't prowl after the help."

Finished a draft of a scene today that turned out surprisingly long, set sometime in the future of the Mrs. Hawking continuity. You may have heard me mention Nathaniel's elder brother Justin, who's a world traveler and a bit of a rake. I wanted to write a scene between the two of them, and I settled on a theoretical moment where Justin is in London and has been starting to hit on Mary, which Nathaniel, knowing his brother, doesn't approve of.

I wanted to show the brothers' relationship as well as possible raise large plot-relevant issues, which I think I succeeded with. The one thing I struggled to accomplish was I want it to subtly reveal some of the classism in Nathaniel that he hasn't confronted yet-- that he may think of himself as high-minded, but that he considers attraction to a lower-class person to be vulgar for a gentleman --and I'm not sure I executed with sufficient clarity and understatement. It was too easy to gloss over "I'm not attracted to people beneath my class" with "I don't sexually harass people at work" and "I'm married and so not paying much attention to any outside people romantically."

But I think I did a good job characterizing Justin. He tweaks Nathaniel, who's way more of a goody-goody, which is fun. And I love writing the relationship between them as brothers. "Frasier" is one of my all-time favorite shows, and the way they depict the brothers and their relationship really is the best part.

NATHANIEL: Just what do you think you're doing?
JUSTIN: Why, making friends.
NATHANIEL: Bollocks.
JUSTIN: Such language!
NATHANIEL: Don't play the innocent with me. I see how you're prowling around Mary.
JUSTIN: You said she's a lovely girl, I wanted to make her acquaintance for myself.
NATHANIEL: I know what you want with lovely girls.
JUSTIN: Well, can you blame me?
NATHANIEL: Stay away from her.
JUSTIN: Why ever should I?
NATHANIEL: She's a sweet and decent girl. She doesn't deserve to be led on by the likes of you.
JUSTIN: Led on!
NATHANIEL: I'll not have you telling her pretty lies just so you can...
JUSTIN: So I can what, brother?
NATHANIEL: Get your own way. Whatever that is.
JUSTIN: Ha! Who's playing the innocent now?
NATHANIEL: Don't be vulgar.
JUSTIN: Ha! I should think you'd know me by now, old boy.
NATHANIEL: And you call yourself a gentleman. I mean, really, Auntie's maid?
JUSTIN: What's the harm? It's not like she has some grand society reputation to protect. Unless you think Aunt Victoria would be cross?
NATHANIEL: No! Well, perhaps, but--
JUSTIN: Well, I'm quite used to weathering Auntie's wrath. What, do you think she'd dismiss the girl over it?
NATHANIEL: I don't think so-- but that's not the point.
JUSTIN: Aunt Victoria doesn't have to know.
NATHANIEL: It's nothing to do with Aunt Victoria, for heaven's sake!
JUSTIN: Then what's it to you? Unless you fancy her.
NATHANIEL: Justin!
JUSTIN: Shame on you, you're a married man.
NATHANIEL: It isn't that! How dare you?
JUSTIN: It's just as well. Wouldn't have thought you had it in you.
NATHANIEL: Of course not.
JUSTIN: She is lovely girl, though, isn't she?
NATHANIEL: She is.
JUSTIN: And you were the one that brought her here. Are you telling me you've never noticed her?
NATHANIEL: I don't prowl after the help.
JUSTIN: I'd forgotten, you're far too lofty to spare a glance to a creature of lower classes. I confess, though, I'd rather begun to wonder.
NATHANIEL: About what!?
JUSTIN: About why you spend so much time around Auntie's maid. The fine old boy hasn't descended to the level of the rest of us, has he? Started to envy all the fun I have while you're bound up in the monotony of married life?
NATHANIEL: Yes, that's it exactly, Justin, I've installed my working class mistress in my aunt's own house because I wanted to be just like my dear big brother. Mary and I, we've... rather made friends, is all.
JUSTIN: Friends.
NATHANIEL: Yes! Is that so unheard of?
JUSTIN: I'd say so.
NATHANIEL: There's no harm in it.
JUSTIN: Still, it's very odd. Just out of curiosity, what does Clara think?
NATHANIEL: Of what?
JUSTIN: Of your most harmless friendship.
NATHANIEL: Well... I don't suppose she knows much of it.
JUSTIN: You mean you've kept it from her? I thought she led you so around by the nose you had no secrets!
NATHANIEL: I don't! Not really! It's only that I haven't... brought it up as yet.
JUSTIN: Hmmm. And why is that, do you think?
NATHANIEL: Oh, wipe that look off your face!
JUSTIN: You must know what that sounds like.
NATHANIEL: It's nothing untoward!
JUSTIN: Then why, my virtuous brother, must you hide it?
NATHANIEL: I don't mean to. I only... I only don't know how to do it. Tell her, I mean.
JUSTIN: Afraid she'll cast the same aspersion upon your character as I have just now?
NATHANIEL: I'm afraid she might... misunderstand.
JUSTIN: Oh, why worry for it? You need never tell her if it will only make trouble.
NATHANIEL: I hate keeping things from her.
JUSTIN: Why prod the bear if you don't have to?
NATHANIEL: She's my wife, Justin, not some terrible monster from the woods.
JUSTIN: Wives, terrors, it's all the same to me. But it isn't even as if you're deceiving her. If you've done nothing, then you've nothing to tell her.
NATHANIEL: It isn't only that.
JUSTIN: What, then? Do you she think she wouldn't believe you?
NATHANIEL: Not so much that...
JUSTIN: Or wouldn't approve?
NATHANIEL: Perhaps. Of my reasons for spending time with Miss Stone.
JUSTIN: And what might they be? Beyond her more obvious charms.
NATHANIEL: Oh, you wouldn't understand.
JUSTIN: My. Must be byzantine indeed if it's beyond both Clara and myself. Well, brother, I hope you can find a way to make things clear one way or another.
NATHANIEL: I thought you advocated avoiding the issue entirely.
JUSTIN: So I do. But I know you well enough to see it won't sit well with you. And if you're keeping it from your wife, it must be something remarkable indeed.

31 Plays in 31 Days: #31 - "Serving"

Push to the finish!

This idea was Bernie's suggestion. He thinks that Nathaniel's admiration for the Colonel would lead him to enlist the way he did, but that it went a very different way for him. It also ties Ito the idea of finding the way he can properly contribute to Mrs. Hawking's work.

Day #31 - "Serving"

MARY STONE, Mrs. Hawking's maid and assistant
NATHANIEL HAWKING, Mrs. Hawking's nephew
~~~

MARY: There's more to this work than knives and brawling. It's not the end of everything to not be a martial man.
NATHANIEL: Here now! I've a martial side. Why, I'll have you know I served my bit a few years back!
MARY: You did?
NATHANIEL: Don't sound so surprised!
MARY: Forgive me, it's only... well, you're a gentleman.
NATHANIEL: And I've lived a soft life accordingly, is that it?
MARY: It isn't necessarily to be expected of a gentleman.
NATHANIEL: Miss Stone, I idolized my uncle from the time I was a boy. I've spent my whole life wanting to be like him. You can bet that when I was old enough I stepped up to serve my queen and country just as he did.
MARY: My, sir! Well, I am sorry I expected any less. I am duly impressed.
NATHANIEL: Oh, you ought not to be.
MARY: It's very admirable! You must tell me sometime of your adventures and your exploits as a dashing servant of the empire.
NATHANIEL: It was hardly that. Yes, I enlisted when I was twenty or so. But do you know where they stationed me?
MARY: India? Singapore?
NATHANIEL: Newcastle. At the naval headquarters in the north country. When they learned I was a finance man they assigned me to keep the books for the armory.
MARY: I see.
NATHANIEL: Hardly the adventure I imagined it. And not much in the Colonel's style.
MARY: They saw you had a talented and they put it to use, though. I can't help but think we ought to do the same.

31 Plays in 31 Days: #29 - "After the Funeral"

Hawking faaaaaaaamily! I have started thinking about the extended Hawking family, as I think they intersect interestingly with Mrs. Hawking's very different personality and life.

This is the first time I've ever written about Justin Hawking, Nathaniel's older brother. I don't know too much about him yet-- where he lives, what he does, what kind of participation he can have in the larger story --but I know I need to set him up to be able to contribute some sort of dramatic tension. I know a major struggle of Nathaniel's will be needing to move past his patriarchal upbringing, and the issues that come from being the youngest adult member of a family of old-fashioned and hypermasculine alpha males. I like the idea of setting up a conflict between him and his cooler, charming-but-somewhat jerkish older brother.

Day #29 - “After the Funeral”

NATHANIEL HAWKING, a gentleman, nephew to Victoria Hawking
JUSTIN HAWKING, his elder brother
~~~

(NATHANIEL, dressed in funerary blacks, stands alone in the study. Enter JUSTIN, his older brother, similarly dressed.)

JUSTIN: Nathan?

NATHANIEL: In here.

JUSTIN: Wondered where you’d gotten off to.

NATHANIEL: I wanted a bit of quiet.

JUSTIN: Certainly can understand that. Must say, the tide of mourners and well-wishers has started to wear on me as well.

NATHANIEL: Well, Uncle was a war hero. He had plenty of admirers.

JUSTIN: Are you all right? I know the two of you were quite close.

NATHANIEL: Afraid I’m not, Justin. I’m terribly blue over it. I am quite terribly blue.

JUSTIN: Well, buck up, little brother. We’re all going to miss the old fellow. It’s even put a crack in Father’s mien. I don’t think he ever expected he’d outlive his younger brother.

(Pause.)

NATHANIEL: That’s not all of it, though.

JUSTIN: Oh?

NATHANIEL: It’s only that… well, it’s Aunt Victoria.

JUSTIN: What of her?

NATHANIEL: Didn’t you notice?

JUSTIN: Nothing particularly.

NATHANIEL: You didn’t happen to pay any notice to the widow at the man’s funeral?

JUSTIN: I stay well out of Aunt Victoria’s way if I can help it, you know that.

NATHANIEL: Well, if you hadn’t been hiding from her behind Mother’s hoop skirt, you might have noticed how she looked.

JUSTIN: Which was…?

NATHANIEL: Like a statue. Like a mask carved out of stone. All through the service, all through the receiving line after…

JUSTIN: In fairness, she is the strangest person I’ve ever met.

NATHANIEL: For Heaven’s sake, Justin!

JUSTIN: Well, she is.

NATHANIEL: She hardly said a word, she wouldn’t look a soul in the eye— that doesn’t strike you as the least bit troubling?

JUSTIN: She never says a word to me. Or looks at me, for that matter. Unless she’s upset with me. In which case this seemed a positive.

NATHANIEL: You’re an absolute ass.

JUSTIN: What have I done?

NATHANIEL: The woman just lost her husband of twenty years, you tit. She must be destroyed. And now she’s quite alone in the world.

JUSTIN: I suppose.

NATHANIEL: It doesn’t seem right to me.

JUSTIN: Perhaps not, but what’s to be done?

NATHANIEL: Someone ought to step in. See that she’s taken care of, that she has some proper company.

JUSTIN: Oh, heavens. How very dashing of you.

NATHANIEL: It’s a matter of responsibility.

JUSTIN: So now you’ve named yourself head of the family, eh?

NATHANIEL: Father lives too far off to do it, I’m the only one left in London. And it isn’t as if you would do it.

JUSTIN: That’s because I’m not a fool.

NATHANIEL: Very gentlemanly, Justin.

JUSTIN: Come now! It’s not as if she cares much for any of us.

NATHANIEL: That is most unkind, and not true besides.

JUSTIN: She has a strange way of showing it, then. Because I always got distinctly the opposite impression. Or else she’s just horrid.

NATHANIEL: You are horrid.

JUSTIN: Well, there’s one thing on which you and Auntie likely agree. All I mean is— your instincts are commendable, little brother, but I’m not entirely sure your effort shouldn’t go to waste.

NATHANIEL: Whatever else, the Colonel loved her. And he would want us to see that she was taken care of by his family. I mean to see that the decent thing is done.

JUSTIN: Suit yourself, Nathan. But she won’t thank you for it.

NATHANIEL: I don’t plan to do it for thanks.

31 Plays in 31 Days: #4 - "Worth a Crack or Two"

Today's piece is a scene that could be incorporated into the first sequel to Mrs. Hawking. As I've said, I think Nathaniel is going to want to get more involved in helping Mrs. Hawking. But he's got a lot to learn, not just about her business, but also about how to work effectively with women. He's got a lot of cultural prejudices that will have to be whacked out of him-- perhaps literally, in this scene. But it's the first step to him figuring out what his unique skills and contribution can be, the way he can actually be something truly useful to the endeavor.


Day #4 - "Worth a Crack or Two"

MRS. VICTORIA HAWKING, avenger of downtrodden women
MARY STONE, her housemaid and assistant
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her nephew with ambitions to help her
~~~

MARY: I say, Nathaniel— is that a bruise?
NATHANIEL: Oh, this? It’s nothing, I assure you.
MARY: Nothing? You look as if you’ve taken quite a bash!
MRS. HAWKING: Wherever did you get that?
NATHANIEL: Just— from sport.
MRS. HAWKING: Sport? Taken up boxing, have you?
NATHANIEL: As a matter of fact.
MRS. HAWKING: Surely you’re joking.
NATHANIEL: Not at all, Auntie.
MARY: Why on earth have you done that?
NATHANIEL: Well— if you must know— it’s to make myself more useful to you. So I can handle myself and lend another arm if things come to it!
MRS. HAWKING: Nathaniel. Going a few rounds of gentleman’s boxing is hardly going to ready you for the sort of roughs we encounter.
NATHANIEL: It isn’t right to just hang back and leave it to you ladies. What kind of man would that make me?
MRS. HAWKING: Ha!
NATHANIEL: Go ahead and laugh. But how do you think I feel, knowing the two of you are putting yourselves in danger and I’m not fit to help you?
MRS. HAWKING: I don’t think you quite understand. There are no Marquess of Queensbury rules when you’re fighting for your life.
NATHANIEL: Even Mary’s had to handle herself. And she just a girl!
MARY: Sir!
NATHANIEL: No offense intended, Mary. But if you can swing that poker surely I’m worth a crack or two.
(MARY looks to MRS. HAWKING, who sighs.)
MRS. HAWKING: Very well, then, Nathaniel. If you mean to have a go, have a go at me.
NATHANIEL: I beg your pardon?
MRS. HAWKING: If you think you’re fit to take on a real threat. Take on me.
NATHANIEL: I say, Auntie, how could I?
MRS. HAWKING: If you’d like to cast yourself into the fray, you ought to know what you’re up against. Show me what
you’re made of.
NATHANIEL: I don’t know—
MRS. HAWKING: Take his coat, Mary.
(He and MARY look at each other a moment. Then he shakes his head and throws up his hands. She steps forward and he shrugs out of his jacket. She places it aside as he begins turning up his shirt cuffs.)
MRS. HAWKING: Now come on!
(Uncertainly, NATHANIEL puts his fists and advances on her. He takes a few swings, which she dodges easily, even walking backward.)
MRS. HAWKING: Is that all? You must do better than that!
(NATHANIEL starts punching in earnest, but still she evades him easily. At last he throws himself at her, and she moves like lightning, landing a sound blow almost too fast to see that knocks him to the ground.)
MRS. HAWKING: And if you can’t, you’d best keep out of the way.
(She exits. MARY rushes over to NATHANIEL as he pulls himself up off the ground.)
NATHANIEL: Well, I’ve made a fool of myself.
MARY: Oh, not at all.
NATHANIEL: Go on.
MARY: She’s been in training for years.
NATHANIEL: And made short work of me.
MARY: For my part, I think it’s quite noble of you. That you’re not content to hang back out of harm’s way.
NATHANIEL: Still, perhaps she’s right. Perhaps I’m not cut out for this.
MARY: It’s not all knives and brawling, you know. Even she does more planning and creeping than fighting.
NATHANIEL: I did so want to make myself of use to her.
MARY: And so you will. Who knows, Nathaniel? We may run up against something that only you can do. We’ll just have to find out what it is.
(Pause. Then NATHANIEL laughs.)
NATHANIEL: That was quite a belt she gave me. I wonder how long she's wanted to do that.

A scene snippet between Mary and Nathaniel

While sitting around backstage after my preshow dance was done, I wrote this little scene, a conversation between Mary Stone and Nathaniel Hawking. I've been thinking about a sequel to Mrs. Hawking quite a bit lately, and I'm not sure where it would fall in this story or in any other, but it's a bit I think would happen between our heroine's faithful maid and favorite nephew. I think the two of them would become good friends after the first adventure, in part because I think they both love having somebody with which to marvel at just how weird Mrs. Hawking is. I get the feelings they spend a lot of time sitting around psychoanalyzing her, the way you would any brilliant/infuriating friend or boss or both. :-) This notion amuses me greatly.

Also, there is the problem of the Colonel. Oh, how delighted I am at the questions posed by the Colonel, as it gives endless opportunity for speculation. I love how the audience wonders about him, and I love how the characters cant stop arguing over him. This is a particular bee in Nathaniel's bonnet, because he idolized the man and had such a firm image of him in his head that he must now reconcile with Mrs. Hawking's perceptions and experience. And I think it's also interesting how Mary has to construct an idea of the person who she has never met but has had such a profound effect on two people who are so important to her.

~~~
MARY: I wonder... did she ever tell the Colonel?
NATHANIEL: Tell him what?
MARY: How unhappy she was.
NATHANIEL: I don't know. But, if I were to guess... I should think she didn't.
MARY: No?
NATHANIEL: I really think not.
MARY: She was so angry, though. One says things in anger.
NATHANIEL: She would have had to trust him to tell him what she really thought. And that she could never do.
MARY: It would have been an incredible risk.
NATHANIEL: I know. And that was not something she would have undertaken for his sake. Still... I wonder if he knew anyhow.
MARY: Do you? If she went to great pains to keep things from him?
NATHANIEL: Oh, I don't doubt that. Heaven knows she is capable of things I never would have fathomed possible... but he wasn't a fool, Mary. And he loved her, blast it; if there's one thing I shall never disbelieve of him, it's that. He would have... had a care that she was so... miserable... with things as they were.
MARY: But if he knew, how could he have done nothing for it, then?
NATHANIEL: She would never have wanted him to.
MARY: Certainly not. But still... I should think he might have tried.
NATHANIEL: Not if he understood.
MARY: Do you think he did?
NATHANIEL: He may have hardly known her, Mary... but I think he knew her well enough to know that. And I believe he would have loved her enough to give it to her.
MARY: If that's so... I wonder what else he might have given her. If he knew she needed it.

Beginning work on the first Mrs. Hawking sequel

The other day I sat down to work on editing the play I wrote for my thesis. Which meant, being me, I could not focus on it at all and felt compelled to work only on another project. The bright side of this was that what I worked on was a concrete idea for the first sequel to Mrs. Hawking. I have an idea for the direction of the plot, and what the next stage of the arcs of the characters will be. To that last end, I wrote this very short scene to give you a taste of where the conflict is going.

I picture Nathaniel wanting to get involved more with helping Mrs. Hawking in her superheroing work. Now that he's onboard, he's enthusiastic, but perhaps not as swift at picking the tricks up as Mary was. But Mrs. Hawking is not making it as easy for him as she could be, and after he is frustrated to find that she seems to be shutting him out his efforts to contribute, he finally calls her on it. It's not exactly a departure from my preferred style of scene writing that involves "You know that thing you don't want to talk about? Well, we're going to talk about it now!" but I think with some polishing it could be an interesting and character-revealing scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~

NATHANIEL: Aunt Victoria— why won’t you trust me?

MRS. HAWKING: Oh, do spare me, Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL: No. No, you mustn’t put me off. I know I haven’t been the quickest study when it comes to this business of yours, but I’ve been giving it a serious go. I surely do mean to be of help to you, and by God, on occasion I even have. Isn’t that so?

MRS. HAWKING: Yes. You have.

NATHANIEL: Then… why won’t you let me on? Really let me on? Is it— is it because I’m a man?

MRS. HAWKING: Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL: Is it because I’m not clever enough? Do you think that once in a tough spot, I’ll lose my head and disappoint—

MRS. HAWKING: You look so much like him!

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING: Too damn much.

MARY: Like whom? Do you mean— the Colonel?

NATHANIEL: You never told me that. Others have, but not you.

(MARY looks to the portrait on the mantle.)

MARY: I never noticed it.

MRS. HAWKING: The years and the whiskers throw it off, but all the men in the family have that look. Your father, your uncle, and you. Your boy will have it too before long. Strong jaw, devil-may-care grin, handsome as the day is long. The sort of face to win anything a man could want in the world. But that was face I first looked into twenty years ago when a promising young soldier was first transferred to New Guinea and trammeled up my life forever. The same eyes from which I had to hide everything of any meaning to me so I might be permitted to have it.

NATHANIEL: I don’t want you to feel that way about me anymore.

MRS. HAWKING: I know that, and not for nothing. But the years I lost and the pains I took…

NATHANIEL: I know.

MRS. HAWKING: Yes. Now you know. So it galls me, boy. I tell you, it galls me to look into those eyes and that face and give all the game away to them.

NATHANIEL: I can’t help who I look like.

MRS. HAWKING: No. But all the same, he’s in everything in you. His blood and his name and every effort in the world to be just like him.

NATHANIEL: But… I’m not like him.

MRS. HAWKING: To your eternal sorrow.

NATHANIEL: Still. I’m not him. I can learn better.

(Pause.)

NATHANIEL: And I mean to. But I’ll need you to teach me. I can’t do it without you.

(NATHANIEL draws himself up with a quiet, cold dignity.)

NATHANIEL: Rather… none of could. The Colonel neither. Because the God’s honest truth is you don’t know if he couldn’t have learned. You never gave him the chance.

(NATHANIEL turns and strides quickly from the room.)