The Secret Rapture and Other Plays

David Hare

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9780802196446
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A collection of five plays from the Tony Award–winning playwright and screenwriter, "the premiere political dramatist writing in English" ( The Washington Post ). David Hare, "Britain's leading contemporary playwright, " has established a unique reputation for plays that are at once personal and political, deeply serious and incredibly funny ( The Times ). He is the author of seventeen plays, many of which have been presented on Broadway. Included in this collection are Fanshen; A Map of the World; Saigon: Year of the Cat; The Bay at Nice; and The Secret Rapture. Of the title play, Frank Rich of The New York Times said, " The Secret Rapture has gone further than before in marrying political thought to the compelling drama of lives that refuse to conform to any ideology's utopian plan... Mr. Hare embraces the human, messy though it may be." Praise for David Hare Fanshen "The nearest any English contemporary writer has come to emulating Brecht." — Financial Times A Map of the World "Mr. Hare's A Map of the World, which passionately embraces utopia without arrogantly presuming to annex it, is original and provocative." — The New York Times Saigon "An impressive new film which vividly captures the last desperate days in Vietnam as the Reds laid siege to the sweltering city." — Daily Express The Bay at Nice "Witty, cerebral, and full of fine-spun ironies." — The Guardian The Secret Rapture "His writing, as always, is smart, and this time, glorious. The characters are unhackneyed and complex; the insights are tough and hard to ignore." — New York Newsday

THE SECRET RAPTURE

For Blair

Characters

Isobel Glass

Marion French

Tom French

Katherine Glass

Irwin Posner

Rhonda Milne

The Secret Rapture was first performed at the Lyttelton Theatre, South Bank, London, on 4 October 1988. The cast was as follows:

Isobel Glass Jill Baker

Marion French Penelope Wilton

Tom French Paul Shelley

Katherine Glass Clare Higgins

Irwin Posner Mick Ford

Rhonda Milne Arkie Whiteley

Directed by Howard Davies

Settings by John Gunter

Costumes by Fotini Dimou

Music by Ilona Sekacz

Only half of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the longer day of happiness, wants to live to our nineties and die in peace, in a house that we built, that shall shelter those who come after us. The other half of us is nearly mad. It prefers the disagreeable to the agreeable, loves pain and its darker night despair, and wants to die in a catastrophe that will set back life to its beginnings and leave nothing of our house save its blackened foundations.

REBECCA WEST

If you don’t like my peaches,
Why do you shake my tree?
Get out of my orchard
And let a poor girl be.

POPULAR SONG

Act One

SCENE ONE

Robert’s bedroom. The curtain goes up on almost complete darkness. Then a door opens at the back and a dim and indirect light is thrown from the corridor. Marion, in her late thirties, brisk, dark-haired, wearing a business suit, stands a moment, nervous, awed, in the doorway. She moves into the room which you can just detect is dominated by a large double bed, in which a man is lying, covered with a sheet reaching up over his face. Marion stops a moment by the bed, looking down. She then turns to go back towards the door.

Isobel Marion?

Marion lets out a scream, not having realized that Isobel was sitting in a chair at the end of the bed.

Marion My God!

Isobel I’m sorry.

Marion You startled me.

Isobel Don’t turn the main light on.

Marion goes to the bed and turns on a small bedside lamp.

I needed some peace.

Isobel is younger than Marion and blonder. She is in her early thirties, and casually dressed in a shirt and blue jeans. She is sitting at the end of the bed, facing us, not moving. The room is seen now to be panelled, gloomy, dark, old-fashioned. It is absolutely tidy, hairbrushes in place, the body quite still beneath the shroud.

I decided this would be the only place. For some quiet. There’s so much screaming downstairs.

Marion moves gingerly towards the bed. She looks a moment.

Marion So were you with him?

Isobel There’s actually a moment when you see the spirit depart from the body. I’ve always been told about it. And it’s true. (She is very quiet and still.) Like a bird.

Marion looks across, nervous.

Marion Did he …

Isobel What?

Marion No, I wondered … who dressed him?

Isobel Dressed him?

Marion Yes. Is he in a suit?

Isobel I did it. And there was a nurse.

Marion stands a moment, not looking at the bed.

Marion Well, I don’t know. Are you going to sit there?

Isobel Yes. For a while. Is that all right?

She smiles and holds out her hand. But Marion does not take it.

Marion Yes. Perfectly.

Isobel Did you want to be alone with him?

Marion No. I just wanted to see him for the last time.

Isobel does not move.

I’m sorry, you know, I feel wretched not getting here …

Isobel Oh, I’m sure Dad didn’t mind. He was barely conscious. He had no idea who I was. (She smiles.)

Marion I was wondering …

Isobel What?

Marion No, it’s just … no, it’s nothing. It’s silly. I gave him a little thing. Six months ago. When I … when you first told me he was ill. I was shocked. I bought him a present.

Isobel Oh, was that the ring?

Marion I mean what I’m saying is … is he still wearing it?

Isobel No. We took it off.

Marion Where did you put it?

There’s a silence. Isobel finally realizes what Marion wants.

Isobel It’s in the drawer.

Marion nods slightly. Then she goes to the chest of drawers and opens the top drawer. She takes out a ring. Then closes it. She moves back across the room.

Marion Well, I must say, Isobel, you’ve been heroic. I wouldn’t have managed it. I know myself too well. The times I came down to see him … I’ll say this to you … it made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t be wholly at ease. I find it hard … I mean if someone’s, you know, as he was … I find it hard to strike the right attitude. Don’t you find that?

Isobel I don’t know.

There’s a moment’s silence.

Marion Look, about the ring.

Isobel It’s all right.

Marion Isobel, please let me explain to you …

Isobel Honestly, Marion …

Marion I know when I took it just now, it must have looked bad. Did it look bad?

Isobel shakes her head.

You’ve always been kind to me. But there are reasons.

Isobel I’m sure. (She looks down a moment.)

Marion I know what you’re thinking.

Isobel I’m not thinking anything.

Marion Oh, this is awful. It’s absolutely ghastly. I knew when I took it, I should have waited. I should have come and taken it when I was alone. It’s just the thought, if Katherine’s got her hands on it, you know perfectly well she’ll sell it tomorrow – he’s left her everything – what, I’m meant to leave it in that drawer, so she can spend it on drink?

Isobel looks to the bed, disturbed by Marion’s sudden loudness.

For God’s sake, I mean, the ring is actually valuable. Actually no, that sounds horrid. I apologize. I’ll tell you the truth. I thought when I bought it – I just walked into this very expensive shop and I thought, this is one of the few really decent things I’ve done in my life. And it’s true. I spent, as it happens, a great deal of money, rather more … rather more than I had at the time. I went over the top. I wanted something to express my love for my father. Something adequate.

Marion has tears in her eyes. Isobel is very quiet.

Isobel Then by all means you must take it. I can’t see why not.

Marion thinks about this a moment, looking judiciously at Isobel.

Marion I mean, God, I want to have something. It’s a sort of keepsake. Every time I look at it, I’m going to feel sad. Because, you know, I think it’s going to be a terrible reminder of … what do you call those things?

Isobel A memento mori.

Marion But I mean when it comes down to it, it’s much better that than it’s traded for eight crates of vodka for Katherine to pour down her throat.

Isobel lo...