The Living
By Anthony Clarvoe
Alison
Shanks, Lisa Beezley, Silas
Cooper
Cast:
Mr.
John Graunt
(a scientist)
Mrs. Sarah Chandler
(a shopkeeper's wife)
Mr. Edward Harman
(a physician)
Mrs. Elizabeth Finch
(a searcher of the dead)
Mr. John Lawrence
(Lord Mayor, a merchant)
Lord Brounker
(a cavalier)
Rev. Dr. Thomas Vincent
(a nonconformist minister)
Man 1
Mr. Sawyer
(a cabinet maker)
First Constable
Paul
(Sarah's brother,
shopkeeper)
Lawrence's Clerk
Robert
(a smith from Walthamstow)
Man 2
Mr. Mills
(an Anglican minister)
Brounker's Clerk
Man 3
Dr. Goddard
(a physician)
Jamey
(a watchman)
Bill
(a farmer from Walthamstow) |
Kelly
Foran
Alison Shanks
David Carey Foster
Lisa
Beezley
John
Ross Clark
D.
Ewing Woodruff
Silas
Cooper
Al
D'Andrea
Greg
Foran
Clayton
Whitfield |
THE SCENES OF THE
PLAY
|
ACT I
|
Scene 1 The home of George
and Sarah Chandler
Scene 2 The office of the
Lord Mayor
Scene 3 A vacant church
Scene 4 The street outside
the Chandler home
Scene 5 The office of the
Lord Mayor
Scene 6 A country road near
Walthamstow
Scene 7 The home of Dr Edward
Harman |
ACT II
|
Scene 1 The street outside
the Chandler home
Scene 2 A clearing on the
outskirts of London
Scene 3 The home of Elizabeth
Finch
Scene 4 A London Street
Scene 5 The office of the
Lord Mayor
Scene 6 A burial pit outside
London
 |
TIME: 1665
PLACE: In and around London
|
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Anthony Clarvoe
writes in his preface to The Living, "The events that took place in London
in 1665 have survived thanks to the extraordinary testimony left by Captain
John Graunt, Dr. Nathaniel Hodges, Sir John Lawrence, Samuel Pepys, and
the Reverend Dr. Thomas Vincent; and to a remarkable act of historical
imagination, Daniel Defoe’s novel A Journal of the Plague Year. This
script owes a handful of sentences, and its existence, to them." So, in
fact, the characters of John Graunt, Mayor Lawrence, Rev. Vincent and,
presumably, Dr. Harmon, were inspired by individuals who experienced the
Great Plague of London firsthand.
Bites from a flea which had
pastured on a black rat poisoned the human system so severely that the
victim could expire within days, covered in sores called "buboes" or "plague
tokens." Plague also took a pneumonic form which was transmitted by coughing
or sneezing. Some folklorists contend that the symptoms - a rosy rash or
sneezing (A-tchoo!) - along with the aromatic herbs people carried to ward
off sickness, is the genesis of a popular children’s song. Its original
form was
Ring a ring o’ roses
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo
A-tishoo
We all fall down.
|
When plague burst into an
epidemic in the summer of 1665, most scholars agree that there was gross
underreporting in the weekly Bills of Mortality, caused by families fearful
of retribution, and by parish clerks who conspired to prevent widespread
panic. By mid-June, over a hundred plague deaths per week were announced
in the bills, although the real numbers were much higher. The government’s
remedy was to hire older women as "searchers of the dead" - if plague was
found, the city quarantined the infected household, nailing shut the doors
and posting watchmen to guard against flight. By early July, almost everyone
who could afford to leave the capital did so. The King and his court, the
Privy Council, families of means, and almost all clergy and physicians
fled, leaving the general population to fend for themselves. Those who
tried to leave the city after July found the people of the surrounding
towns fiercely guarding the roads, turning back anyone from London.
The dire lack of doctors and hospitals, coupled with the flight of the
clergy, caused great hardship for those who were left behind. A few brave
physicians stayed to tend the sick as best they could, wearing protective
clothing and beaklike leather headpieces stuffed with herbs. Nonconformist
clergymen - whose presence had been outlawed in the Restoration - returned
to minister from vacated pulpits. Funerals were forbidden, thus burials
took place at night in massive pits dug outside the city walls, attended
by the few maverick preachers willing to provide services for mourners.
As is so often the case in
human affairs, fear provoked desperation, despair, and the common response
to flee. However, London’s Great Plague also saw many acts of uncommon
courage and compassion. The Living chronicles an extraordinary effort to
survive, not just as individuals, but as a society. Historical accounts
are full of behavior that illuminates both the worst and best that human
beings are capable of. England’s institutional response to this epidemic
allows many interesting comparisons to crisis in our own times. And the
response of the individuals in this play allows us to look into our own
hearts - to consider how we will respond if those around us fall.
--David Rose
Read the Back
Stage West review
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