Classic Plays by Women

From 1600 to 2000

Hrotswitha, Elizabeth Cary, Aphra Behn, Susanna Centlivre, Joanna Baillie, Githa Sowerby, Enid Bagnold, Caryl Churchill, Marie Jones, Susan Croft

• Publisher: Aurora Metro Books
• Print ISBN: 9781906582005
• eBook ISBN: 9781910798782
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Classic Plays by Women: an anthology of the best plays by female dramatists from 1600-2000

Staged in theatres by successive generations and proving relevant to contemporary audiences, the plays demonstrate the wit, theatrical skill and innovation of their creators in exploring timeless topics from marriage, morality and money to class conflict, rage and sexual desire. An essential resource for students, playwrights, colleges, universities and libraries, this collection also provides theatres with the opportunity to programme a range of theatrical classics by women.

Plays from: Hroswitha's Paphnutius (extract); Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedy of Mariam (extract); Aphra Behn's The Rover; Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke For A Wife; Joanna Baillie's De Montfort; Githa Sowerby's Rutherford and Son; Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden; Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (extract); Marie Jones' Stones in his Pockets.

The Chalk Garden

Enid Bagnold

First performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York, on 26th October 1955.

CHARACTERS

Miss Madrigal, the 1st Applicant

Maitland, the manservant

A Little Lady, the 2nd Applicant

3rd Lady, the 3rd Applicant

Laurel

Mrs St Maugham, her grandmother

Nurse

Olivia, Laurel’s mother

The Judge

Pinkbell, unseen but not unfelt

ACT ONE

A morning in June. Time – the present.

The sitting room of Mrs St Maugham’s house in Sussex. The house, built on lime and chalk soil, is close to a village by the sea. The sitting room is also used for luncheon, the main dining room is probably under dust sheets. The room has a look of the country, also of vigour and culture and is much lived in. Through a wide arch and up two steps, is the hall, staircase and passage to the drawing-room. At the head of the stairs is a small curtained arch leading to the bedrooms.

A door Right of the staircase leads to the butler’s pantry, the kitchen, etc. The front door is downstage in the hall and the outside of it is visible through a window down Left in the room. Up Centre is a glass-panelled door giving access to the garden, and large casement windows are Right of the door. Up Right is a door leading to the conservatory and thence again to the garden. Down Right is a door leading to ‘Pinkbell’s’ room. In front of the window up Centre is a large table littered with gardening paraphernalia, a watering-can, a tin of nicotine insecticide, etc. A desk, with a house telephone is up Right. There is a small table down Right, and a couch. An armchair stands Centre with an occasional table Left of it. There is a small console table under the window down Left. The setting has four upright chairs normally placed one at the desk, one down Left, one below the arch Left and one in the hall. Built-in bookshelves are down Right and Left of the door up Centre. Outside the windows up Centre there is a garden wall and gate with a distant view of the Sussex Downs beyond. Over the window up Centre and over the door down Right are shelves set with books, pictures, etc. At night the room is lit by electric candle wall-brackets above and below the arch Left, and a table-lamp on the desk.

When the Curtain rises, the four upright chairs are set diagonally in a row Left Centre, facing down Right. Miss Madrigal is seated on the upstage chair. She is an enigmatical, contained woman, neat and noncommittal in dress, with fine eyes and a high aquiline look. She has the still look of an eagle at rest upon a rock. Her mackintosh is over the back of her chair, her handbag is on the chair immediately below her and her zip-bag is on the floor beside the chair on which she is seated. On the chair with her handbag is a feather boa. Almost immediately the Little Lady appears outside the front door Left and rings the bell. She is a little, birdlike woman. Maitland, the manservant, wearing a white jacket, enters from the pantry, crosses the hall to the front door and opens it. The Little Lady comes in rapidly, like a bird over a lawn, stops quickly, then moves on quickly below the line of chairs to Centre.

LITTLE LADY (aflutter)

Good morning. May one sit?

Maitland nods and exits up Right to the garden. She sits on the chair next but one to Miss Madrigal, removes her gloves and places them with her handbag beside Madrigal’s bag on the vacant chair between them. She hides her hands, looks at them and hides them again. It is a trick of hers.

LITTLE LADY

Lovely blowy weather. (There is no answer.) Are you too here for the interview? (Miss Madrigal looks towards the Little Lady.) As I came in – I saw a lady going out – (confidentially) in a temper.

The 3rd Lady, whose beauty is decayed, sails in by the front door. She wears a chiffon scarf on her head. Maitland enters up Right.

MAITLAND (to the 3rd Lady)

Who let you in?

3RD LADY

The front door stood wide open – so humane. (She moves down Left. To the others) Good morning. How do you do?

MAITLAND (moving in front of the couch)

Have you a letter?

3RD LADY (taking a letter from her handbag and facing Maitland)

I wouldn’t have come, dear, if I hadn’t had a letter.
(She waves it at him.) Are you the butler?

MAITLAND

I am the manservant.

3RD LADY

A world of difference! (She replaces the letter in her bag and removes her scarf.) In my days it was thought common to wear a white coat. A relic of our occupation in India. Now over. (She turns to the others.) In those days only worn in Cheltenham. (She moves above the table Left of the armchair and waves a coy finger.) In those days – in the Hill Stations – I was thought to have extraordinary charm. (She turns suddenly to Maitland.) Is this a house where there are gentlemen?

MAITLAND (stiffly)

I am not to give information.

3RD LADY (putting her scarf on the back of...

Table of contents

• Classic Plays
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Plays
• Paphnutius (circa 960)
• The Tragedy of Mariam (1613)
• The Rover (1677)
• A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718)
• De Monfort (1800)
• Rutherford and Son (1912)
• The Chalk Garden (1955)
• Top Girls (1982)
• Stones in his Pockets (1996)
• Bibliography