David and Arthur’s attempt to deceive Dr. Drury goes horribly wrong. [For the best experience, please listen with headphones.]
WW1 - 1917
When David Allister, a facially disfigured war hero, writes a biting condemnation of the war, he is placed in the care of Dr. Ethan Drury at Craiglockhart mental hospital until he agrees to publish a retraction. While there, he meets Arthur Bridgland, a shell-shocked soldier obsessed with returning to battle after having been labeled a coward. David delights in tormenting Arthur until he meets and falls in love with Arthur’s suffragette sister, Lucy.
Written and Directed by Frank Hudec.
Produced by James Faller and Frank Hudec.
Edited by James Faller.
Music by Andrei Gravelle.
Casting by Gregory Wolfe.
The Cast:
Nicholas Few as DAVID ALLISTER.
Michael Frederic as ARTHUR BRIDGLAND.
Jenna Krasowski as LUCY BRIDGLAND.
Shauna Bloom as MARTHA ALLISTER.
Rik Walter as DR. ETHAN DRURY.
Additional Voices by Gregory Wolfe and James Wolfe.
Voice-Over by Jason B. Lucas.
Audio Consulting by Ricardo Berrios.
Dream Sequence Music from
"Midnight Mushroom Music" by Nanotopia on SoundCloud.
CRAIGLOCKHART was cast, rehearsed, and recorded entirely over the internet during New York City's COVID-19 quarantine in the Spring of 2020.
©2020
ACT 2: THE DECEPTION
DRURY: Enter!
(DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING)
DRURY: Bridgland?
ARTHUR: I've come to make a formal request?
DRURY: (ANNOYED) Yes?
ARTHUR: I need a three-day pass to London. It's a family matter, sir.
DRURY: You know I do not offer passes, Bridgland. You've been placed under my care and it would be unethical of me to allow you leave without a valid reason. Has there been a death in your family?
ARTHUR: No. Not yet.
DRURY: What is that suppose to mean? "Not yet?”
ARTHUR: It's about my sister, sir. I believe her life is in danger and I must speak with her.
DRURY: Could you not do this through the post?
ARTHUR: Yes, I could write to her, but it will mean nothing. She is very stubborn.
DRURY: Why the urgency?
ARTHUR: Dr. Drury, sir, my sister is working at Woolwich.
DRURY: Good God, man. What's a woman of your sister's standing doing there?
ARTHUR: You see, sir, my sister is a suffragette and is working at Woolwich to help organize the workers.
DRURY: Well, I'm sorry you disagree with your sister's politics, but that's not reason enough.
ARTHUR: Sir, I believe my sister is suffering from TNT poisoning. Poisoned at Woolwich, I think. I need to convince her to stop working there. It's killing her.
DRURY: How do you know she has TNT poisoning?
ARTHUR: It's her hands. They're stained yellow.
DRURY: So?
ARTHUR: Well, 2nd Lieutenant Allister pointed out…
DRURY: Stop right there.That's enough of that. David Allister is only confusing you. I would be distrustful of anything that comes from his mouth. He is perverse. He has a savage war record that belies his newfound pacifist philosophy. I suggest you write your sister a letter speaking of your concern and ask her if she thinks you are right.
ARTHUR: Sir, my sister… my sister is a stubborn woman with strong political views. I doubt she'd listen to reason.
DRURY: I cannot help you.
ARTHUR: But Doctor, she won’t listen to reason…
DRURY: That's enough, Bridgland. This excitement only serves to increase your nervousness and exacerbate your neurasthenic problems. Please calm yourself.
ARTHUR: Doctor? I insist!
DRURY: You don't want me to call the orderlies, do you? Perhaps you need to spend the night in a cold pack to regain your composure?
ARTHUR: N-n-n-n-no, sir.
DRURY: Then, please do as I said and write your sister a note. If she is a quarter as reasonable as yourself, then she'll reconsider her radical politics. Now get some rest and I'll see you at your therapy in the morning.
ARTHUR: But sir! I beg you to reconsider. This is the life of my sister, an innocent.
DRURY: Orderlies!
ARTHUR: Please, sir, please!
DRURY: Orderlies! Orderlies!
ARTHUR: Please, sir, please! No!
(DRIPPING WATER. DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)
ARTHUR: Oh, go away.
DAVID: Don't be that way, Arthur. You did the right thing.
ARTHUR: I t-t-t-told Drury what you said. He s-s-s-s-said to write her and tell her to reconsider her politics.
DAVID: We should escape this place. Jump the wall.
ARTHUR: They'd court martial us. But you, you could go. They couldn't touch you. You're decorated. You could go to her, tell her what you told me.
DAVID: Why would your sister speak to me?
ARTHUR: You don't know my sister. She would listen to you. She respects you. Your actions. Your letter.
DAVID: Are you in pain? Do you want me to untie you?
ARTHUR: It would only make it worse for me.
DAVID: What if they "cured" you? You could try and stop your stammer. Just hold yourself together when you are around Drury. Lie about your recovery in your therapy. I've read his book. It would not be so terribly complicated to deceive them. Once you were declared "cured" by these quacks the Medical Board would let you go. You could write your sister and she'd come running. She'd promise you anything to keep you from going back. Then before you actually go back to the front, you tell them that you're afraid. You have a relapse. It's that easy.
ARTHUR: No, I could never do that.
DAVID: Why not? It’s a perfect plan.
ARTHUR: After they found me in No-Man's land, I didn't know where I was or who I was. My C.O. openly accused me of cowardice. He pointed me out for ridicule.
DAVID: Bastard.
ARTHUR: He said I was a coward trying to use my condition as a way out of the trenches.
DAVID: It’s things like that make me want to run a man through.
ARTHUR: To tell you the truth, I miss it. I miss the front. I miss the camaraderie
(FOOTSTEP. JIGGLING OF THE DOOR HANDLE)
DAVID: Shhhhhh. Someone’s outside the door.
(THE ORDERLY PASSES)
DAVID: He’s gone. Listen, if you stick a pin in your leg every time you start to stammer, it will distract you. But the screaming in your sleep? How would you get around that?
ARTHUR: A stocking in my mouth?
DAVID: Yes, yes, that’s the spirit. Now, I've read Drury's book. I can coach you, what to tell him.
ARTHUR: I still don't know if I could live with myself, if I faked the relapse. Shell shock or not, I would be called a coward for the rest of my life.
DAVID: Even to save your sister's life?
ARTHUR: But what about my honor?
DAVID: Your sister will die, Arthur.
DRURY: What's this, Allister? What are you doing outside the cold-pack room? Were you just with Bridgland?
DAVID: Who me? No, sir.
DRURY: I am warning you to stay away from him. I know you put those ideas about his sister's supposed illness into his mind.
DAVID: I don't know what you're talking about.
DRURY: Don't play with me, Allister. Bridgland's therapy is coming along much too well for you to start upsetting him with this nonsense.
DAVID: You call that successful? My God, your patients are all in serious trouble.
DRURY: Write your retraction, Allister. You are only wasting your own time. The Army will keep you here until the War is over, so just get on with it. It's lights out in ten.
(SCRIBBLING ON NOTEPAD)
DRURY: Arthur, your ward attendant tells me you didn't scream out in your sleep last night. That's the third night in a row. Do you have anything to comment on this surprising, albeit highly pleasant, development?
ARTHUR: I can't explain it, Doctor. But I must say that my dreams had been moving from the war to accidents, to simple fisticuffs, so maybe now it has gone over to regular dreams.
DRURY: And what do you mean by "regular" dreams?
ARTHUR: I see my family...
DRURY: Living or dead?
ARTHUR: Living. The living ones. My sister. My father.
DRURY: Your sister? What are your dreams like when they involve her?
ARTHUR: It's nighttime and we're children again, at the seashore, bathing in warm ocean waters. When we come out, it's day, all bright and warm.
DRURY: Really?
ARTHUR: I can feel this sense of relief. I think I'm ready to go back to the front, Doctor.
DRURY: It's not that easy, Arthur. I fear you could be telling me what you think I want to hear…
ARTHUR: Doctor, I would never…
DRURY: We need to continue with follow up. See if this is permanent. Board Day isn't for another three weeks.
VOICE: Visitor for 2nd Lieutenant Bridgland!
LUCY: I came as soon as I received your telegram. You can't go. Roland and I were to have been married this month. If I lose you there really will be nothing. You can't put your life back at risk.
ARTHUR: But you put yours at risk everyday.
LUCY: How’s that?
ARTHUR: Everyday that you spend at Woolwich you place yourself in needless danger. I know what your yellow hands mean. So do you, Lucy.
LUCY: Let go of me! You can be so dramatic sometimes.
ARTHUR: I know what those stains are.
LUCY: They’re nothing. You go off work for a few weeks, eat well, drink milk for the white in your skin and you get better.
ARTHUR: Am I supposed to believe this? I want you to stop working there immediately. I can't have you throwing your life away on this cause. No matter what you say it's for, it's a sin.
LUCY: And who are you to speak of sin? What do you think will happen if you wind up dead, caught on the barbed wire? Do you think that God would find that a noble way to die? You have your reasons and I have mine. Woman's suffrage is everything to me, as important as my family and I will not have you questioning me about how I live my life.
ARTHUR: And I will not have you questioning me. The doctors have pronounced me cured and I will go back to my duties unless you… unless you stop with this suffragette nonsense.
LUCY: Arthur, you've been warned!
ARTHUR: But you give me no choice. You have to quit. You're going to die. Is woman's suffrage worth your life?
LUCY: Maybe. Has David Allister signed up to go back? I'm sure not.
ARTHUR: No, but only because they would never let him. But if he could, he'd fight harder than anyone else, I know it.
LUCY: That's not what I understand about him from Mr. Lees-Smith. He says David Allister is a principled pacifist.
ARTHUR: I'll have you know, David Allsiter has no respect for them. In fact, it was on his advice that I go back.
LUCY: It was? How can that be? A pacifist advocating taking up arms?
ARTHUR: You women just don't understand the soldier mentality. David Allister has had a change of heart. He is still wrestling with whether or not to make a retraction, but I'm sure he'll come around.
LUCY: Has everyone gone mad? My brother wants to return to the trenches and then I find the hero of the pacifist movement is a warmonger.
ARTHUR: I never said David was a warmonger. I only said he feels the situation too complicated to reduce it to pacifist rhetoric. Can't you understand?
LUCY: I only understand that he is staying here and that you are going back to the trenches. If so, then he is a coward! I'd like to give him a piece of my mind.
DAVID: Well, well, well, it’s your lucky day. Isn’t it? Here I am. Go ahead, give me a piece of your mind.
LUCY: How could you? How could you do this? First go back on your word and second advise my brother to return to the trenches?
ARTHUR: David! You must leave us. This has nothing to do with you.
DAVID: It's alright, Arthur, let her speak her mind. I love an opinionated woman.
ARTHUR: Go. You’re not wanted here.
LUCY: No! No! Let him speak. Let him defend his words and his contradictory actions.
DAVID: I am no Svengali who can make your brother do something against his will. He wants to go back to the trenches on his own. Did you know your brother's commanding officer accused him of cowardice? Did you know that? Did you?
LUCY: What does it matter? You’re all just a gaggle of children name calling on the playground. They’re just words.
DAVID: Very powerful ones. No matter what he does now, he will have to carry that burden for the rest of his life. You have to admire him for trying to regain his honor.
LUCY: What good is honor if you're dead?
DAVID: And what good is your life if you don't have honor?
LUCY: Oh, what a sharp retort! Save your eloquence for your apparently worthless letters.
DAVID: There is no use explaining this to someone who cannot or will not understand it. You're like those pacifists in Parliament. They've never seen war and couldn't understand my letter no matter how hard they tried. Their mistake is to assume I am against the war. For once and for all, I have no problem with the war. With war. I only have a problem when it is run by arrogant incompetents. I hope it goes on forever.
LUCY: How dare you!
(LUCY SLAPS DAVID)
LUCY: Oh, my God!
ARTHUR: Lucy! How could you? Here, Allister…
DAVID: No… leave the kerchief on the floor. Let Miss Bridgland get a good look at the real effects of war by incompetence.
LUCY: I must say you’re as ugly on the inside as the out.
ARTHUR: LUCY!
LUCY: If he has his way and the war never ends, then I am condemned to continue working at Woolwich. Sorry, Arthur.
ARTHUR: It's insane for you to go on with this. You'll be dead from the TNT long before anything happens to me in the trenches. Lucy, listen to reason. Please, Luce! Quit and I'll fake a relapse.
LUCY: I can't. You wouldn't understand, but I can't. Please, Arthur, please don't go. Don’t go back.
ARTHUR: I'm sorry, Luce, but you can't have it both ways.
LUCY: I will not be manipulated like this! Even if I know it means I'll never see you again.
ARTHUR: Lucy! No!
DRURY: What’s this? What’s going on? Allister! What did I say about always wearing your kerchief? Put it back on this instant!
DAVID: Yes, good doctor!
DRURY: You can stop with the “good doctor” routine. Your constant sarcasm is exhausting.
DAVID: Yes, good doctor…
DRURY: Oh, for the love of Christ, please shut up! I see you two together. I get reports from the staff. Do you think I’m a fool? You think I’m blind? I can see the pinpricks of blood on your trousers, Bridgland. Oh, you both think you’re so clever. That this is all a game.
ARTHUR: But, but, but that’s is not true!
DRURY: You asked for leave to see your sister and then you make a miraculous recovery? And now here she is or was before whatever that was all about.
ARTHUR: But I can explain…
DRURY: There is nothing to explain. My work and all this effort to make you whole again is nothing but a joke.
DAVID: But Doctor Drury…
DRURY: Silence! I cannot listen to another word from you, Allister. Neither of you know how much pressure I am from the War Office to “cure” you. To send you back. I have a quota to fill and it will be filled! Orderlies!
ARTHUR: Please, Doctor Drury. Please.
DAVID: Drury! What are you doing?
DRURY: Orderlies! Seize Lt Bridgland. Take him to Room 212.
ARTHUR: Please Doctor Drury! Not Room 212! Please!
ARTHUR: Let me go! Let me go!
DAVID: What’s Room 212?
DRURY: Oh, here I thought you knew everything, Allister. Orderlies! Room 212!
DAVID: Don’t do this! Dr. Drury!
(STRUGGLING SOUNDS)
DRURY: This way, Gentlemen. This way.
ARTHUR: Please, Dr. Drury. Please, no. You said so yourself. I’m cured. Please?
DRURY: Yes, there. Strap him to the chair. Make sure his arms and legs are secure.
ARTHUR: Please, Dr. Drury, the Talking Cure worked. Please, God, no! What is that? Get it away!
DRURY: It’s a salve. It helps conduct electricity. Shhh, I am just applying it to your temples.
ARTHUR: But you said I was cured.
DRURY: Chin straps!
ARTHUR: You said I was cured.
DRURY: I said the Talking Cure appeared to be working.
ARTHUR: That is not what you said.
DRURY: Bridgland! Get a hold of yourself! We have to be certain. I have to certain. I've had some small crisis of conscious and cannot send you back without absolute faith in your recovery. I do not trust whatever you and Allister have been cooking up.
ARTHUR: Pleeeease. I dreamt about a woommannn lassst night. We were havvving relations.
DRURY: Bridgland, you’re stammering. Now more than ever.
SRTHUR: But I can s-s-s-stop. I can s-s-s-s-stop the stammmmmerrrrring.
DRURY: Shhhh. Shhhh. It’s alright to be afraid. In fact, normal. But you should know the sex instinct is no driving force, as far as war neurosis, that is. And that was the red flag on your speedy recovery.
ARTHUR: Please, no. I ammmm currrred.
DRURY: While I have great faith in The Talking Cure and I believe it surely has had some effect on your psyche, I must know for certain. No doubts can remain. Stopfighting, Arthur. This will be all you need and you will be cured. Ready to go back to the front. To be with your beloved ‘mates again. To be a man again. Open. I said “Open”. A moment’s courage and it is done. Open.
ARTHUR: You're certain this will fix me?
DRURY: Without a doubt. Now open, please. Bite down on the mouth guard. Otherwise, you’ll lose your tongue. There. Ready?
(CLICK! FRANKENSTEIN ELECTRICITY SOUNDS! MUFFLED SCREAMS FROM ARTHUR. CONVULSING. THE MACHINE IS SWITCHED OFF.)
DRURY: Forgive me, Arthur. It has to be this way. There can be no failures as far as the War Office is concerned. Or with myself.
(TOSSING AND TURNING. MOANING. FLICKERING SOUND. MUMBLING IN SLEEP.)
DAVID: (MUMBLING) Arthur. Arthur?
LUCY: No, it’s me, Lucy. Wake up. Wake up, my darling.
DAVID: Am I dreaming?
LUCY: You are such a handsome man. Here, let me wash your face.
(WATER AND A RAG BEING SOAKED THEN WRINGED OUT)
LUCY: There, there. See? All washed away now. Your scars are all gone now. You are beautiful again.
DAVID: Can you say that about a man? Am I beautiful?
LUCY: Yes, you are beautiful, through and through. You are just angry, but you have no cause anymore. Anymore. I've found you.
DAVID: May I… Can I kiss you?
LUCY: You know that you can.
(LIGHTNING CRASH! WIND!)
PASTOR: Unto Almighty God we commend the soul of our brother departed, Arthur Bridgland and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ…
DAVID: NO! NO!
VOICE: All departing officers please report to the loading area.
DAVID: Arthur! Arthur!
ARTHUR: Well, this is it. Wish me luck.
DAVID: Arthur! Arthur!
ARTHUR: Are you alright?
DAVID: I had no sleep last night. I had bad dreams every hour. Arthur, don't go. You can't. You're not ready.
ARTHUR: I’m cured. I was terrified of the electro-therapy. But I’m cured now. Good as new. Right as rain.
DAVID: I dreamt last night, for the first time since I came here. You were dead, Arthur, and it was my fault. Please, don't go. I have a bad feeling something terrible will happen if you go.
VOICE: All departing officers please report to the loading area.
ARTHUR: That's for me. Don't worry, it will be alright. I'm fit and ready. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before.
DAVID: Arthur, please. Perhaps you should try again with Lucy. Maybe this time she'll change her mind.
ARTHUR: You know what she's like. She won't change her mind, no matter what. She has chosen her path and I mine. We have no choice, but to follow them.
(WHISTLE SOUNDS)
ARTHUR: I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll write to you.
(ARTHUR MARCHING AWAY. SOUND OF A TRUCK DRIVING AWAY)
DAVID: Arthur! Please don’t!
DRURY: Here, here, you're scaring me, Allister. I'm beginning to think you need my services after all.
DAVID: I've made a terrible mistake.
DRURY: Only one?
DAVID: Don’t send him back. He’s not ready. Not ready at all.
DRURY: Oh, but he’s ready. The combination of the Talking Cure and the electroshock have made him a whole man again.
DAVID: How can you know this is not a part of our plan? Our elaborate, clever plan?
DRURY: You hold yourself in too high regard. Pins in the leg are just proof of Arthur’s resolve and desire to be healthy again. He’s cured alright.
DAVID: Madness! Madness! Madness!
DRURY: Calm down, Allister, or I'll have no choice but to put you in a cold-pack!
DAVID: What if I told you I would retract my letter? That I would sign anything the War Office put in front of me if you promised me one thing? Just one thing?
DRURY: And what's that one thing?
DAVID: Send me back to the front. I want to go back. I must. I have nothing here. No future in England, but back in France I have purpose. Send me back!
DRURY: You know I cannot.
DAVID: What? Am I going to scare the men? Trust me, they see worse everyday. Everyday they live with the dead, the dead are all around them, but I'll be the un-dead that fights with them, killing Fritz more than any other. Send me back!
DRURY: I can't.
DAVID: Am I such a terrible monster I am not even fit to kill?
DRURY: There. There. There. You're not the monster you think you are. Perhaps if you sign a retraction…
DAVID: I’ll sign anything!
DRURY: … they’ll send you back.
DAVID: Anything!
DRURY: I'll see what I can do with the War Office.
DAVID: Yes! Send me back, Doctor. I have to go back to France. It's the only hope I have.
MARTHA: Are you ready?
(SILENCE.)
MARTHA: Say something.
(MORE SILENCE.)
MARTHA: I understand your anger, son. They tricked you. But did you actually believe they'd send you back? You're dangerous to them. They can't control you. But I tell you I am glad you're coming home. Your letter was nothing and I am sure that you will come to see that.
DAVID: Nothing? It's all I have. Or had. Look at my face. After you're gone, I will have no one because of this face.
MARTHA: David, please don't be angry. I was only trying to console you. It was just a misspoken phrase.
(SOUND OF SOMETHING PHASING IN AND OUT)
DAVID: Arthur?
MARTHA: What's wrong? What is it?
(PHASING IS LOUDER)
DAVID: Arthur? Arthur?
MARTHA: I don't see anyone.
DAVID: It was Arthur, come back from the grave.
MARTHA: But he just went back to the front, surely...
DAVID: He's dead. I know it. HE'S DEAD. I KNOW IT!
MARTHA: Silence yourself. They'll think you really have gone mad and keep you here.
DAVID: But I tell you I just saw him. He's dead. I know it. I sent him there.
MARTHA: I believe you, I believe you, son. I do, but others… they are not as open minded. Now let me get the driver and get you safely out of here.
DAVID: It was Arthur. There was something in his eyes, he was trying to make me understand something. Oh, God, take me now.
MARTHA: David, you will be quiet about this until we are at least to the train. Do you understand? Now you get a grip on yourself and I'll be right back.
(MARTHA WALKING AWAY)
DAVID: I wish I were dead. I wish I was dead.