Last page of catchup: a letter

This is based on something a flm director mentioned when talking about writing to Voirrey about an interview. She wrote a polite refusal. I like the idea of this being a way to shoehorn a monologue into the thing.

18 August 2011

VOIRREY voice over as CREATIVE TYPE reads a letter.

VOIRREY: Dear Hamilton.

I write this letter with some trepidation, as I write most of these letters and all too frequently. One

of the curses of being a voter with a name like mine is that I can be located with a little trouble

and a lot of leg work. I presume that the rolls are searchable online now?

As for your very polite request for an interview, I must decline. No, thank you. I cannot help you much with your production. I am old and the memory of those events nearly sixty (or is it seventy?) years ago grows ossified with the passing years. Questions beyond the barest facts I fear will be useless. I fail to remember much of the events. My father was the diaryist and I find travelling to the past painful and frustrating. Was I ever that young? Ever that innocent? I shudder at the very thought.

[[new thought 10/30/2011: "I fail to remember much of the times to begin with let alone those particular events]]

I am not and have never been insane despite the constant implication and outright accusations of many over the years. The events of those years have left a persistant taint throughout my life and have closed many options to me.

Also, I refute claims thagt my father abused me. He was strict but I have no doubts that he love me, my Ma and my older brother and sister. Regarding the insinuation of both Mr Price and Mr Nandor, how can I refute a negation except to say they read too much into a stressful time of our life.

I will not stop you in what you propose to do. Suffice to say I am not interested in knowing how your endeavour goes and have no wise to find out.

Before I sign off I will simply say this: most all of the events are true and to the record I can add nothing. Please understand I will not reply further.

Yours sincerely, Voirry Irving.

P.S. Please do not give my address to others

Voirrey dies. Notebook catchup

Another scene, written at my job during breaks. Rereading it, I think I need to make Voirrey a little more strident, the dialogue even more oblique. Some of it is too expository when more information can be revealed later in the play. I really need to work on the Priest and giving him a definite platform. As I'm re-learning, there are many flavours of Christianity. In the early scenes the characters outside the main mongoose story are our entry into it.

9 August 2011

Voirrey Dies

In darkness.

GEF (Repeats): Pop goes the Weasel.

An old (80+ years) Voirrey in bed.

Anglican Priest sits beside bed.

VOIRREY: A monkey chased a weasel.

Voirrey chuckles.

PRIEST: Voirrey, are you afraid?

VOIRREY: Afraid?

Beat

I'm terrified. I look back over my life and it is a load of regrets with one shining moment of

importance.

* * *

OLD VOIRREY: The entire world was watching us and I, we, were witnesses to something huge.

Pause

PRIEST: What did you witness?

VOIRREY: A diabolic miracle. A malignant blessing. A weasel in hen's clothing.

Pause

VOIRREY: A stream appeared which both quenched and drowned. I have no other way to describe what happened to us. To our family.

PRIEST: You told me once you grew up on Isle of Man. I have heard tales of the fair folk and their giftss that are as much curse as boon.

VOIRREY: Aye, the walls are thin there on the island.

Beat

I think you know more about my past than you let on.

PRIEST: I thought it impolite to say.

Pause

PRIEST: Have you made your peace with it?

VOIRREY: Hell no.

Silence

PRIEST: Well, that's that, then. Do you wish you had?

VOIRREY: Only every day. I wish I could put it behind me. I've had many opportunities.

VOIRREY: I should have put it all behind me. I could have at any time.

PRIEST: It can be hard to move on, but you did.

VOIRREY: No, I didn't. I ran. I ran from it all. The teasing, the media, the family and him.

PRIEST: Who? Your dad?

Voirrey laughs.

VOIRREY: Oh no, not him. Not him at all.

Beat

Well, maybe him a little. I meant Gef. Gef, it was, I ran from.

PRIEST: Why him?

VOIRREY (mimics): Why him? Why him?

PRIEST: You're avoiding the question.

VOIRREY: I am? Yes, I am. Why him? He cracked the world wide open. Everything hurt after that.

Pause.

VOIRREY: Everything.

PRIEST: Voirrey? Do you love him still?

Voirrey nods.

PRIEST: Shall we pray together? Shall we pray for him too?

Voirrey nods.

VOIRREY: Yes.

The Priest gently takes her hand.

As the Priest talks, Voirry gets stiller and stiller until she is no longer moves.

PRIEST: Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Snip goes the prayer.

PRIEST: Amen.

He holds Voirrey's hand a little longer

then he gently fold her hands across her chest

and closes her eyes.

There s a large thump overhead and a high pitched keening wail.

PRIEST: What on earth is that?

Silence.

PRIEST: Bloody dogs.

Black.

***

VOIRREY: Do we ever really die, father?

PRIEST: I don't know what happens when we die. I put my hands of Jesus on that score.

VOIRREY: Will I be saved? I don't think I will.

PRIEST: Have you lived a good Christian life?

VOIRREY: And what would that be?

PRIEST:

Catchup, from notebooks

So this is a dump from my notebook. I wrote most of these while at work.

This post is a long list of title ideas. I think I settled on "So said the Mongoose" as the most likely option. Some of them betray their influences to me. Some are close to Lovecraft stories ('The Mongoose in the Wall') while others have escaped from roleplaying game modules ("Death Memory Mongoose").

8th May 2011

The Mongoose Play

Playing Mongoose

The 5th Dimension

A Girl and Her Ghost

Mongoose Fidelis

Isle of Mongeese

Ghost Island

Voirrey's Ghost

Echoes of Angels

The Scratch

Scratches

Keeping Score

Echoes in the Wall

Behind the Walls

Beyond the Wall

Behind Locked Walls

Ghost Rat

Echo Rat

Voirrey's Echo

Echo Miracle

Miraculous

Ghost of Time

Echoes of Time

The Shadow of the Mongoose

The Shadow of the Rat

The Ghost's Shadow

Planet Mongoose

The Shadow on the Wall

The Shadow in the Wall

Voirrey has two Shadows

The Shade at Cashen

8th Wonder

Voirrey at Cashen's Gap

The Life of a Haunted Girl

Walled In

Echoes in the Walls

Mongoose Sub-Protector

Ghost Farm

Spook Farm

Voirrey's Spooked

Voices Beyond the Wall

Spoken Wall

Bound House

The Black Urn

Crop

Shadows on the Wall

Death Comes to Cashen

Death and the Mongoose

Death and the Rodent

Death Memory Mongoose

Voirrey, said the Mongoose

Love Death said the Mongoose

I protect, said the Mongoose

We All Died, said the Mongoose

I Live in Memory said the Mongoose

I am Memory, said the Mongoose

I am the 5th Dimension, said the Mongoose

Said the Mongoose

So Says the Mongoose

So Said the Mongoose

In the Walls, the Mongoose

The Mongoose Speaks