Plays 6 Read online

  Tom Murphy

  Plays: 6

  The Vicar of Wakefield, The Cherry Orchard, The Drunkard, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant

  The Vicar of Wakefield: modelled on Oliver Goldsmith’s classic novel, Tom Murphy’s comedy is peopled with thieves, pimps, bawds and impostors who prey on innocence unless God – or the ruling class – takes a hand.

  The Cherry Orchard: ‘shot through with an insightful and colloquial sparkle.’ The Times

  The Drunkard: ‘a wonderfully eloquent play. Murphy’s ear is finely attuned to the glories and absurdities of melodramatic exclamation, and even while he is wringing out its ludicrous overstatement, he is also making it sing.’ Irish Times

  The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant: ‘its contemporary Irish resonances are amplified to highlight greed and the hollowness of religious hypocrisy . . . as a morality tale, this is thumping with home truths.’ Guardian

  Tom Murphy was born in Tuam, County Galway and now lives in Dublin. He has received numerous theatre awards and holds honorary degrees from Trinity College Dublin and NUI (Galway). A six-play season celebrating his work was presented by the Irish National Theatre – ‘Tom Murphy at The Abbey’ – in 2001. He has written for television and film, and a novel, The Seduction of Morality. His stage plays include A Whistle in the Dark, On the Outside (with Noel O’Donoghue), Famine, A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant, The Morning After Optimism, The White House, On the Inside, The Vicar of Wakefield or She Stoops to Folly, The Sanctuary Lamp, Epitaph Under Ether (a compilation from the works of J. M. Synge), The Blue Macushla, The Informer (from the novel by Liam O’Flaherty), The Gigli Concert, Conversations on a Homecoming, Bailegangaire, A Thief of a Christmas, Too Late For Logic, The Patriot Game, The Wake, The House, The Drunkard, The Cherry Orchard, Alice Trilogy and The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant.

  by the same author

  PLAYS: 1

  (Famine, The Patriot Game, The Blue Macushla)

  PLAYS: 2

  (Conversations on a Homecoming, Bailegangaire, A Thief of a Christmas)

  PLAYS: 3

  (The Morning After Optimism, The Sanctuary Lamp, The Gigli Concert)

  PLAYS: 4

  (A Whistle in the Dark, A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant, On the Outside, On the Inside)

  PLAYS: 5

  (Too Late for Logic, The Wake, The House, Alice Trilogy)

  TOM MURPHY

  Plays: 6

  The Vicar of Wakefield

  The Cherry Orchard

  The Drunkard

  The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant

  with an introduction by the author

  Methuen Drama

  METHUEN DRAMA CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  This collection first published in Great Britain in 2010 by Methuen Drama

  Methuen Drama

  A & C Black Publishers Limited

  36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY

  www.methuendrama.com

  The Vicar of Wakefield originally published as She Stoops to Folly in 1996. Revised in this volume. Copyright © 1996, 2010 by Tom Murphy

  The Cherry Orchard first published in 2004. Revised in this volume. Copyright © 2004, 2010 by Tom Murphy

  The Drunkard first published in 2004 by Carysfort Press. Revised in this volume. Copyright © 2004, 2010 by Tom Murphy

  The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant first published in 2009. Revised in this volume. Copyright © 2009, 2010 by Tom Murphy

  Introduction © 2010 Tom Murphy

  Tom Murphy has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of these works

  eISBN: 978-1-40812-389-8

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent Printed and bound in Great Britain by Lightning Source UK, Milton Keynes

  Caution

  All rights in this collection are strictly reserved and application for performances etc. by professionals and amateurs should be made before rehearsals begin to: Alexandra Cann Representation, 52 Beauchamp Place, London SW3 1NY (email: [email protected]); and by amateurs for The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant to Methuen Drama (Rights), A & C Black Publishers Limited, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY (email: [email protected]).

  No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

  No rights in incidental music or songs contained in the Work are hereby granted and performance rights for any performance/presentation whatsoever must be obtained from the respective copyright agent.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of A & C Black Publishers Limited.

  This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  To

  JB

  all happiness

  Contents

  Chronology

  Introduction

  THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD

  THE CHERRY ORCHARD

  THE DRUNKARD

  THE LAST DAYS OF A RELUCTANT TYRANT

  Tom Murphy

  Chronology

  1961 A Whistle in the Dark (Theatre Royal, Stratford East)

  1962 On the Outside (with Noel O’Donoghue), Radio Eireann

  1968 The Orphans (Gate Theatre) Famine (Peacock Theatre)

  1969 A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant (Abbey Theatre)

  1971 The Morning After Optimism (Abbey Theatre)

  1972 The White House (Abbey Theatre)

  1974 On the Inside (Peacock Theatre)

  1975 The Vicar of Wakefield (adaptation; Abbey Theatre)

  1976 The Sanctuary Lamp (Abbey Theatre)

  1976 The J. Arthur Maginnis Story (Irish Theatre Company)

  1979 Epitaph Under Ether (compilation from J. M. Synge; Abbey Theatre)

  1980 The Blue Macushla (Abbey Theatre)

  1981 The Informer (adaptation; Olympia Theatre)

  1982 She Stoops to Conquer (Irish setting; Abbey Theatre)

  1983 The Gigli Concert (Abbey Theatre)

  1985 Conversations on a Homecoming (Druid Theatre)

  1985 Bailegangaire (Druid Theatre)

  1985 A Thief of a Christmas (Abbey Theatre)

  1989 Too Late for Logic (Abbey Theatre)

  1991 The Patriot Game (Peacock Theatre)

  1994 The Seduction of Morality (a novel, pub. Little, Brown)

  1995 She Stoops to Folly (South Coast Repertory Theatre, Costa Mesa, California)

  1998 The Wake (Abbey Theatre) 2000 The House (Abbey Theatre)

  2003 The Drunkard (b*spoke Theatre Company)

  2004 The Cherry Orchard (Abbey Theatre)

  2005 Alice Trilogy (Royal Court Theatre)

  2009 The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant (Abbey Theatre)

  Introduction

  If chance there is, it is how the commissions to do these adaptations/versions of Goldmsith, Chekhov, W. H. Smith & A Gentleman and Saltykov-Shchedrin came about.

  I had wanted for a long time to do a version of a Greek play, and my wish was to be fulfilled, I thought, when the Abbey Theatre came knocking and asked me would I have a look at Antigone. Of course I would. It was an invitation, one that relieved me of the business of selecting a particular play, the Abbey would commission a literal translation and, all being well with my part, I had a management and theatre that would put the thing on. Then the caveat: ‘Set
it in Belfast.’ I could see the theatre’s point: the play’s potential could be worked to overtly represent and relate to the contemporary situation that was happening in Northern Ireland. But it wasn’t for me.

  I discovered that the word ‘contemporary’, or indeed ‘ancient’, did not come into the matter of how I read, recognised, was excited by, loved and was deeply affected by Greek drama; and Greek drama couldn’t be local to anywhere – not even to Greece! It was about humankind, alright, in action and at war, looking for order; but I couldn’t get away from the abstract: that it was more to do with self-conscious mankind in holy, pure, eternal, existential quest of itself.

  So, regrets to the Abbey and to say, honestly, that I did not have the skill to fulfil the requirement. Well, came the reply, would I like to do a stage version of The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith? Flattering: I was considered to be an allrounder.

  I knew of Goldsmith’s book from childhood, but I had never read it.

  It is delightful. It is a book that makes one happy. The Primrose family: Dr Primrose the vicar – pastor, father, husband, with humanity, humour, wit, moral dignity, innocently not as wise as he thinks he is, but superior to the shrewdest wisdom; Deborah, his loving wife, with her harmless vanities; and six children: all a familiar family gallery; generous, credulous, deluded. And the rogueries waiting outside this bright family circle.

  For the best part of a year, prior to this, I was working on an original play and it was giving me a very hard time. I phoned the Abbey, said I’d love to do an adaptation of the book, and added, ‘Now if you like.’

  Doing the adaptation was not easy, but compared to the writing world I’d been inhabiting it was a honeymoon.

  The adaptation of The Vicar of Wakefield was presented by the Abbey Theatre in their Christmas slot and it was very successful. The success was due to the fine, stylish direction of Hugh Hunt, to the designers and actors. I wondered about the script. (A honeymoon is not the time for sobriety of judgement.)

  I returned to the original work that I had suspended to do the adaptation and it was like going back to conquer a disease. (The work was The Sanctuary Lamp, a play that now leaves me happy enough.)

  The Vicar, though, continued on my mind, that I hadn’t done my best justice by it and twenty years later, like a man wanting to pay conscience money, I revisited the Primrose family.

  The revised adaptation (1995) is much shorter than my original effort, the Vicar’s patience, like Job’s, isn’t so limitless, the eccentric character, Mr Burchill, who is really Sir William Thornhill in disguise, becomes more clearly a fallible deus ex machina, and so on with other emendations. To distinguish the revised adaptation from the earlier one, I gave it a new title, She Stoops to Folly; and though it has been performed under that title and though that title is true to the play’s sub-plot, Olivia’s story, I feel now that it is a bit too clever of me. Now, in 2010, I revert to calling it The Vicar of Wakefield; it is the best title. She Stoops to Folly, if wished, may be used as a sub-title.

  *

  Actors Jane Brennan and Alison McKenna, founders of a new theatre company called b*spoke, assembled a group of actors to read a play with a view towards producing it. It fell out that my living room became the venue for the reading and it fell out that I comprised the audience of one. The piece, a melodrama, an American Temperance play, was The Drunkard by W.H. Smith & A Gentleman.

  A discussion followed the reading, every contra immediately followed by a pro. It, the play, would be expensive, it required a large cast, but ‘something’ could be done about that, like ‘doubling up’, like ‘the usual’. Technical demands would make it difficult to stage and, again, expensive, but the same could be said about ‘almost anything’. Minor characters were hogging the piece, their orchestrations threatening the melody, but look at the acting opportunities for the leads, for big playing. Really, objectively, all that was wrong was that the play didn’t have a prologue, and it was essential that it have a prologue, and if, as someone said, the play was all over the place, couldn’t someone be found to remedy these trifles? What did the audience think? I said, can you not find something better to do with your time than the play you have just read?

  Several photocopied scripts of The Drunkard by W.H. Smith & A Gentleman were left lying about the place, I observed over the next few days, as were a few fledgling attempts at what were purporting to be a prologue, one of which I picked up in idle curiosity, began to doodle with it, which is how I became involved and the commission came about.

  W. H. Smith has nothing to do with our famous bookseller. His real name was William Henry Sedley, who added Smith to become Sedley-Smith, to lessen his parent’s embarrassment, it is said, at his going on the stage; he later dropped the Sedley part entirely, or at least for the purpose of writing The Drunkard. The identity of A Gentleman has been attributed to half-a-dozen others, none of whom disclaimed the honour, including one Phineas Taylor Barnum of circus fame. Barnum, too, is said to have been something of a temperance reformer.

  To become match fit I suppose, I read whatever there was on my shelves of Victorian drama. Later in the process I looked up what plays I could find about drinking, drinkers, inns and bar rooms. The script contained in this volume is indebted to Douglas Jerrold’s melodrama of 1828, Fifteen Years of a Drunkard’s Life.

  I worked from the original script, the same as was read by the b*spoke assembly of actors. I assume it is the original script. It is dated 1844, it gives the original cast and the venue is down as Boston Museum.

  There is a comic character called Miss Spindle in the original script who isn’t very funny any more; she is of minor importance and of little interest, yet she has possibly more lines than anyone else in the play. (Curiously, Miss Spindle is down in the original cast as having been played by ‘Mrs ——— ’, while the other eighteen specified characters, male and female, are credited with their names in full, as well as their titles. For instance, Edward Middleton, the leading character, was played by Mr W.H. Smith. Perhaps ‘Mrs ——— ’ was a speciality actress of popular favour and repute with audiences, an improvisator whose embellishments on stage, ad libs and asides, were recorded and printed; though she, for some reason or other, was not one to have her name included with the others.) In the version given in this volume Miss Spindle becomes Widdy Spindle, who appears in one scene only and with a widow’s mite of lines.

  I moved the setting to this side of the Atlantic, altered characters’ names, dropped characters, introduced songs and new material and, as well as the prologue that was said to be essential, I wrote an epilogue.

  *

  Did I know The Cherry Orchard was the greatest play of the twentieth century? I said I believed Three Sisters was given that credit. No, Three Sisters was arguably the best; The Cherry Orchard was the best.

  That exchange, with an Abbey personage did not prevent my eventually receiving an invitation to do a version of The Cherry Orchard, but, arguably, it endangered it and, arguably, it delayed the matter considerably, because when the invitation did come it was four years later, and the literal translation given to me, that the Abbey had commissioned, was dog-eared and dated 1998, the year of the exchange with the Abbey personage on the order of precedence of Chekhov’s masterpieces.

  I needed second opinions and I asked for a second literal translation. The version of The Cherry Orchard contained in this book derives from two literal translations: the 1998 one, which was done by Chris Heaney, and the second one done by Patrick Miles. I needed advice. Patrick Miles was also engaged as my consultant.

  The objective of a literal translation – to render in another language the exact contextual meaning of the original – differs from the purpose of a version. A version, as I see it, is more subjective, more interpretatively open, which does not mean that nonchalance, broadness of approach are allowed to whoever is doing the version; but it is speculative in its consideration of the ‘spirit’ of the original and seeks to translate that ‘spi
rit’ into a language and movement that have their own dynamic and vibrancy and, hopefully, music. And in the case of Chekhov: who could faithfully inhabit that sensibility and exceptional delicacy? And a version, of itself, does not want to look like the back of a tapestry.

  *

  1998. I had a meeting with the theatre director Anthony Page in London. The meeting done, en route to the front door through a sort of ante-room that had a lot of books, without stopping he reached to a shelf, withdrew a book from it and gave it to me. No reason given for the gesture. I’d never heard of the book nor of its author: The Golovylov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.

  The book, a novel, first issued in 1880, has classic status in Russia; its author was a commanding literary figure (more famous as a satirist than as a novelist) in a time that included Tolstoy, Lermontov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev.

  There are seven or eight translations into English of the book. I acquired four of them including the one given to me by Anthony Page, which was the one I worked from, which I thought the best. (It is an Everyman’s Library publication, translated by Natalie Duddington, the edition dated 1934.) I used the other versions in my possession for cross-reference purposes. And, again, I had the invaluable help of the translator Patrick Miles.

  The book is a very compelling read that chronicles the degeneration of a provincial family of minor gentry who are landowners.

  Its stage potential, I thought, obvious. The process, though, of adapting it was going to be a long one and difficult. Several times while working on it I tried to recall what it was that made the book so compelling in the first place; whatever it was, wasn’t to be recaptured. The book hasn’t much by way of plot and development and all the characters are dead at the end, except one – and she is mortally ill. Several times I regretted ever having clapped eyes on it. (I have read that The Golovlyov Family can be read as a series of obituaries. I have also read that it is the bleakest or blackest of Russian novels, which is quite a badge when you consider the field.)