Morning Sacrifice

Dymphna Cusack

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781760623227
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

Set in the staff room of an all-girl school, Morning Sacrifice interrogates the stifling sexual morality of post-War Australia. The all female cast are divided by the conflict between a waning Victorian sensibility and the sexual freedom of the coming age.The play is a powerful critique of how women's sexuality was controlled by law, and hostility between women formed a barrier to emancipation.

ACT ONE

The scene is the staff room of Easthaven Girls’ High School. Two large tables of crude design stand on either side of the room, and a small desk is at the right. At the back of the room is a shelf with several teapots on it, a gas ring on which a kettle is boiling, and a sink. There is a cupboard containing crockery and a row of lockers at the left. A large wall clock points to 8.45 a.m. It is a bare, ugly room, with no signs of comfort. On the left is an uncomfortable horsehair sofa. There is an old-fashioned wall telephone and beside it a booklet for messages. Piles of exercise books litter the tables.

MRS MACNEIL, an attractive woman in her late thirties, is seated at the table on the left, marking exam papers.

MISS SOLE, a sweet-faced woman in her late forties, is standing at her locker. For all her dowdiness and unfashionable hair arrangement, there is an air of vitality about her.

MISS HAMMOND, middle-aged, grim of face, masculine in dress, is removing the dates 17, 18, 19, from a large wall calendar and leaving August 20 visible.

MISS KINGSBURY is seated at the desk at the right, absorbed in a list. She is a middle-aged woman of great beauty and dignity, with an exquisitely modulated voice. Her clothes are well-chosen, fashionable and expensive, in contrast to those of most of the other teachers.

MISS BATES, plump, self-important, and with an unfortunate taste for frills in the wrong place, plus an ingratiating manner that sometimes becomes almost obsequious, bounces in bearing several bunches of flowers. She always moves as though she is on springs. She goes to Miss Kingsbury’s desk with an over-sweet smile.

BATES: Oh, excuse me, Miss Kingsbury, but Elsie Wayne and Dorothy Elrington asked me to give these to you. I told them you were far too busy to see them. I hope that was all right?

KINGSBURY: [with a flashing smile] Thank you so much, Miss Bates. You are always so thoughtful. Aren’t they beautiful? It really is sweet of the girls, though I am always telling them they should not do it.

BATES: Oh, Miss Kingsbury, it’s such a pleasure to them. You wouldn’t rob them of that.

KINGSBURY: Of course, if one looks at it in that light.

BATES: [who is pinning a posy to her frock] I certainly do.

KINGSBURY: I see that your faithful Evelyn has not forgotten you.

BATES: I tell her every day that she shouldn’t—but what can one do?

KINGSBURY: I sometimes wonder myself. It is so tragic when one sometimes sees teachers abusing the confidence the girls place in them.

BATES: As far as you are concerned, I think it is splendid for them to have such an ideal before them.

KINGSBURY: Oh, come, Miss Bates, flattery on Monday morning.

BATES: It’s not flattery. Shall I put them in water for you? I know how busy you are.

KINGSBURY: I should be so grateful.

SHEILA RAY enters. She is very young, pretty in a fragile way, but at the moment she is too pale. Dark shadows under her eyes and a worried expression give her a haunted look.

SOLE: [warmly] Hello, Sheila. Are you feeling better?

SHEILA: Yes, thank you, Miss Sole.

KINGSBURY: Good morning, dear; are you quite recovered?

SHEILA: Yes, thank you, Miss Kingsbury.

KINGSBURY: It is good to hear it. I was afraid you might be going to be really ill again.

SHEILA: I’m quite better, thank you.

She puts a coat on a hanger on the wall.

BATES: [looking in the cupboard] I’m sure the cleaners have been at our tea again. It was half full on Friday.

HAMMOND: Shouldn’t be surprised. You look as though you should be still in bed.

MRS MACNEIL: [to SHEILA] Nice to see you.

SHEILA: [sitting down opposite her] I’m really quite all right, Mrs Mac. But I haven’t finished marking my exam papers.

MRS MACNEIL: Neither have I, if it’s any comfort to you.

MISS PEARL enters. She is very feminine, faded and fluttery, and with what she privately considers ‘a delicate air’. MISS HAMMOND turns and welcomes her with a smile that transfigures her grim face. She has a habit of clipping her sentences until they resemble explosive bullets rather than conversation.

HAMMOND: [almost cooing] Morning, Dodie.

They kiss warmly.

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