A Tale of Two Cities (stage version) (NHB Modern Plays)

Charkes Dickens

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780014036
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

A bold new adaptation of Dickens' classic novel.

An epic story of love, sacrifice and redemption amidst horrific violence and world changing events, interweaving one family's intensely personal drama with the terror and chaos of the French Revolution.

This version of A Tale of Two Cities premiered at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton in March 2014.

'relentless' builds up the terminal velocity of a political thriller' Guardian

'gripping' has a cinematic quality' there isn't a dull moment' Telegraph

'an atmospheric, appealing adaptation of a novel that remains relevant to our times' The Stage

Scene One

1780 – at the Old Bailey. Music. CHARLES DARNAY in the box. A break in proceedings. At one table sit MR LORRY, LUCIE, DR MANETTE, and the Chatham witness, PAMELA KEATING. DR MANETTE is in a world of his own. At a table at the other side of the court, STRYVER prepares his papers. SYDNEY CARTON takes a message from DARNAY to LUCIE then lounges at the table and stares at the ceiling. An angry JURY.

NARRATOR. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness… It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair – we had everything before us! We had nothing before us – we were all going straight to Heaven, we were all going directly to the other place. In short, the times were so like our own as to be almost indistinguishable from them…

MOB starts baying.

In this year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty, a young man, having pleaded –

DARNAY (shouting above the mob). Not guilty! Not guilty! Not guilty! –

NARRATOR. To an act of treason against His Majesty King George III – was put on trial for his life at the Old Bailey.

CROWD pelt DARNAY with vegetables, etc. – the OFFICERS of the court try to restore order.

This young man – this one – Charles Darnay, is accused of spying – spying on His Majesty’s Naval Dockyard at Chatham and with selling information – about England’s little war with thirteen of her troublesome American colonies – to America’s allies, to our old enemy, the French.

Boos and jeers. JERRY CRUNCHER enters, hands some papers to LORRY.

LORRY. Thank you, Jerry.

JERRY. Mr Lorry. (Comes into the crowd.) What’s going off? Is it the forgery case?

LORRY. No – treason. Spying on the Naval Dockyard at Chatham.

JERRY. Oho! Is he for it?

JURYMAN (interrupting). Oh yes. It’ll be quartering. Drawn on a hurdle, hung, taken down and opened up, insides pulled out and privates cut off before his face and burnt, then he’ll be headed and quartered. That’s the sentence.

LORRY. If he’s found guilty.

JURYMAN. We’ll find him guilty! Don’t you worry about that.

CLERK OF THE COURT. His Lordship’s coming back. Silence in the court!

The JUDGE enters and takes his place.

JUDGE. Mr Stryver?

STRYVER. M’Lud?

JUDGE. Any further questions you wish to put to the witnesses?

STRYVER. Yes, M’Lud.

CARTON, without looking at it or him, hands STRYVER a list of questions.

Mr Barsad.

Quickly studies CARTON’s list. BARSAD is put up.

Mr John Barsad? We have heard from Mr Attorney-General that you are a gentleman of unimpeachable character, and that your motives for accusing my client, Mr Darnay, of being a French spy are selfless and patriotic?

BARSAD. Yes, sir. That’s right.

STRYVER. Ever been a spy yourself?

BARSAD. No, sir! I strongly resent the imputation.

STRYVER. What are you then?

BARSAD. A gentleman.

STRYVER. What do you live on?

BARSAD. Income from my property.

STRYVER. Where is your property?

BARSAD. I couldn’t exactly say. Various places. What gentleman knows the extent of his investment?

STRYVER. Was this property inherited?

BARSAD. Yes.

STRYVER. From whom?

BARSAD. Why do you –

STRYVER. From whom?

BARSAD. Well… A relation.

STRYVER. Father? Uncle? Rich aunt?

BARSAD. A distant relation.

STRYVER. Oh? How distant?

BARSAD. Very distant I should say.

STRYVER. So should I. We don’t believe in your property, Mr Barsad. Ever been in prison?

BARSAD. No, sir, I have not!

STRYVER. Sure? You’ve never been in a debtors’ prison?

BARSAD. I don’t see what this has to do with anything.

STRYVER. Let me ask again. Have you ever been in a debtors’ prison?

BARSAD. As it happens –

STRYVER. How many times? Have you been in prison? As it happens?

BARSAD. Two… or three.

STRYVER. Not… er… (Consulting his notes.) five or six? Or more?

BARSAD. I might have been.

STRYVER. You’ve no income from property, have you, Mr Barsad? So, tell the court – do you have any profession?

CARTON hands him another paper.

BARSAD. I’ve told you, I’m a gentleman.

STRYVER. Ever been kicked?

BARSAD. I might have been. I don’t see how that’s –

STRYVER. Are you frequently kicked?

BARSAD. No!

STRYVER. Ever been kicked down stairs?

BARSAD. No! No I wasn’t – never! I know the incident you’re referring to. I was kicked at the top of the stairs. And I happened to fall down them.

STRYVER. My information is that you were kicked down stairs for cheating at dice.

BARSAD. Yes, by a drunk and a liar who accused me of cheating but I never did. I never cheat!

STRYVER. You swear it? Let me remind you that you are still on oath, Mr Barsad.

BARSAD. I do swear it. A thousand times I’ll swear it.

STRYVER. That you never cheat at dice? You give your oath very readily. Do you not in fact make your living by cheating at dice?

BARSAD. No, sir. I am a gentleman and a patriot – the prisoner is guilty of what I accuse him.

STRYVER. That, I believe, Mr Barsad, is for the jury to decide. No further questions for this scoundrel. Beg pardon, M’Lud, for this witness.

CARTON hands him a paper.

M’Lud, with your permission I have a few more questions for the Crown prosecution witness, Miss Jenny Herring.

JUDGE. Very well, Mr Stryver.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL. My Lord, is this really necessary?

STRYVER. It is, M’Lud – very necessary.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL. I have shown Miss Herring to be a truthful and reliable witness. She was the prisoner’s maid-of-all-work. She of all people must know if her master is a traitor or not.

JUDGE. You presented Barsad as a truthful and reliable witness, Mr Attorney-General. Put up Jenny Herring again.

JENNY HERRING is put in the witness box.

JENNY. What’s up? I’ve told you all I know.

JUDGE. Mr Stryver?

STRYVER. Thank you, M’Lud. Jenny. The court has heard that the prisoner was in the habit of travelling back and forth to France. It was as he was setting out on one such journey that you begged the prisoner to take you with him as a chambermaid and laundress?

JENNY. Not begged exactly. He was in need of an honest servant to do for him, sir.

STRYVER. But he found you instead. You say you began to suspect my client as a spy. Why was that?

JENNY. He was forever coming and going, sir.

STRYVER. To France and back.

JENNY. Yes, sir.

STRYVER. That makes him a spy, does it? Did you know the gentleman had business and property in France?

JENNY. No, sir. I never knew he had any business, sir. Other than spying.

STRYVER. Yet Mr Attorney-General suggests that you were in the best possible position to know his business?

JENNY. Yes I was, sir. It was spying.

STRYVER. You found incriminating lists and letters – sensitive information about the Naval Dockyard at Chatham – in your master’s pockets?

JENNY. I done his linen, sir. Washed for him – I had to turn out his pockets.

STRYVER. I’m sure you did, Jenny. And you found these lists and letters on the journey from Dover to London?

JENNY. Yes, sir. We was coming back from France.

STRYVER. Coming from France – you’re sure?

JENNY. Sure, sir – we was coming home.

STRYVER. Strange. I find that strange. Why should the prisoner be bringing those letters and lists of naval warships back from France? If he were a spy would his purpose not have been to deliver his information in France?

JENNY. Maybe… Well… I don’t rightly understand you, sir.

STRYVER. You’re a very stupid woman, aren’t you, Mrs Herring? The dupe of others? I put it to you that the letters and lists were given you by Barsad there, to be planted in the prisoner’s pockets? Barsad paid you well to lay false information against my...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Characters
• A Tale of Two Cities
• About the Authors
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information