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Tired of confinement to her father's house, Mary Traverse, a young eighteenth-century woman, decides to see more of the world
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a T . £ ^ The Grace of M ary Traverse was first produced at the Royal Court Theatre on 1 7 October 1985 with the following cast: Mary Traverse Janet McTeer Giles Traverse Harold Innocent Mrs Temptwell Pam Ferris Lord Gordon Tom Chadbon Old Woman Jonathan Phillips Sophie Eve Matheson M r Manners James Smith Boy Jonathan Phillips M r Hardlong David Beames Lord Exrake Harold Innocent Robert Jonathan Phillips Old Woman Pam Ferris Old Woman Eve Matheson Jack David Beames Guard Jonathan Phillips Spy James Smith Locksmith Tom Chadbon Man Tom Chadbon Directed by Danny Boyle Designed by Kandis Cook Lighting by Christopher Toulmin Note Although the play is set in the eighteenth century, it is not a historical play. All the characters are my own invention and whenever I have used historical events such as the Gordon Riots I have taken great freedom with reported fattTi founcfthe eighteenth century a valid metaphor, and was concerned to freejhe_people of the play from contemporary preconceptions. " Thegame of piquet in Act Two, scene four, was devised with the help of David Parlett. T .w . -v , v,' a A ct One lu k ; i f o o . SCENE ONE The drawing room o f a house in the City o f London during the late eighteenth century. Mary Traverse sits elegantly, facing an empty chair. She talks to the chair with animation. Giles Traverse stands behind and away from her. M ary Traverse Nature, my lord. (Pause.) It was here all the time and we’ve only just discovered it. What is nature? No, that’s a direct question. Perhaps we will not exhaust nature as easily as we have other pleasures for it is difficult to imagine with what to replace it. And there’s so much of it! No, that’s too enthusiastic. (Short pause.) How admirable of you to have shown us the way, my lord, to have made the grand tour of such a natural place as Wales. Ah, crags, precipices, what awe they must strike in one’s . breas - in one’s spirit. Yes. And I hear Wales even ha^sv^ peasants. How you must have admired the austerity of c their lives, their human nature a complement to the land’s starkness. Peasants too I believe areTTnew discovery. How delightful of our civilization to shed light on its own dark and savage recesses. Oh dear, is that blue^sfockinged or merely incomprehensible? When you said the other day that he who is tired of London is tirecLof life, did you mean - but howioolish_o£me. It was Doctor Johnson. Forgive the confusion, you see there are so few men of wit about. (Pause.) You were telling me how we are foTcnow nature. Do we dare look at it directly, or do we trust an artist’s imitation, a poet, the paintings of M r Gainsborough. Whirlpools. Trees. Primordial matter. Circling. Indeed. Oh. 67 ,,c T IM B E R L A K E W ERTEN BAK ER Mary stops Mary talks faster. ina panic. Giles Traverse clea You visited the salt mines? Ah, to hover over the depths in a basket and then to plunge deep down into the earth, into its very bowels. Giles Traverse No, no, my dear, do not mention bowels. Especially after dinner, t M ary To have no more than a fragile rope between oneself and utter destruction. How thrilling! Giles No, Mary. It shakes your frame with terror and you begin to faint. __ Mary I wouldn’t faint, Papa. I’d love to visit a salt mine.^Giles You are here not to express your desires but to make conversation. M ary Can desire n m T e ^ a rto fa conversation? jilese agreeable, a young woman must make r the other person say interesting things M ary He hasn’t said a word. Giles Ah, but he won’t know that. Now faint,, apd even the most tongue-tied fop will ask how yomare^That allows you to catch your breath and begin a