Before the Party

Rodney Ackland, W. Somerset Maugham

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781783192168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, Before The Party tells the story of a family attempting to return to normal in the wake of the Second World War. With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed but not alone, they prepare for the latest social gathering. Amidst the never-ending whirl of hats and dresses and below stairs skirmishes, Laura reveals a shocking secret that threatens to ruin more than one party on the climb to social success.

ACT ONE

LAURA’s room in the Skinners’ house in Surrey. A summer afternoon.

The room is a large one on the first floor and has been comfortably furnished to serve both as a bedroom and a sitting-room for LAURA. The door to the landing is centre right of the back wall and when the door is open, part of the balustrade of the stairs can be seen. The bathroom, where the pedestal washbasin can be seen when both doors are open, is directly opposite across the landing. A door approached by two steps across the corner up right, leads into KATHLEEN’s room. There is part of a large bay window left, with a balcony overlooking the drive and front garden, and the roof tops of neighbouring houses can be seen in the distance. The fireplace is in the centre of the wall right. There are well-filled built-in bookshelves to the right of the landing door. A small writing-desk with an upright chair to it stands down right below the fireplace. Between the fireplace and the door up right there is a work table. The chest of drawers with a telephone on it, stands left of the landing door with the bedstead to the left of it. There is a wardrobe in the corner up left and a dressing-table above the window bay, where there is an occasional table, an upright chair and a waste-paper basket. Two upright chairs stand to the left of the bed and below the bookshelves, and there is a stool in front of the dressing-table. A chaise-longue or couch stands centre right and a low coffee table down centre. The fireplace has an ornate mirrored overmantel and a large club fender. The floor and landing are carpeted and gay chintz curtains hang at the window. Several pictures and plaques decorate the walls. There are three pairs of electric wall brackets, one pair each side of the overmantel, and one pair over the bookshelves. The switches are left of the landing door.

When the curtain rises, it is a bright sunny afternoon and the window is open. Both doors are shut. LAURA in her underclothes and dressing-gown is seated on the end of the bed, staring unblinkingly, forlornly, in front of her. After a few moments, DAVID calls from the garden off left.

DAVID: (Off, calling.) Laura.

(LAURA looks up, startled and hunted.)

(He calls again.) Laura.

(LAURA rises, goes to the window and closes it, then moves restlessly about the room, first to the fireplace, then above the chaise to the dressing-table where she pauses, turns and finally throws herself on to the bed. There is a knock at the landing door.)

LAURA: (Raising herself on her elbow.) Who’s that?

DAVID: (Off, calling.) David.

LAURA: You can’t come in.

(She watches the landing door in silence for a few moments, then it is slowly opened and DAVID enters. He stands in the open doorway looking at her gravely.)

(After a pause.) I said you can’t come in.

DAVID: (Entering and closing the door behind him.) What’s the matter with you? Have you gone crazy?

LAURA: (Rising.) David, please go.

DAVID: Where would you like me to go to?

LAURA: (Moving down left.) Go back to London – (She turns.) and don’t ever come here again.

DAVID: (Moving centre.) Haven’t you forgotten something? We’re going to be married.

LAURA: We’re not. I told you. I’ve changed my mind.

DAVID: Apparently you changed it in the middle of kissing me on Broom Hill – and hared off home before I had a chance to answer back.

LAURA: There’s nothing to answer. I’ve changed my mind.

DAVID: (Moving to right of LAURA.) Have you? Well, I’ve not changed mine.

LAURA: David – for God’s sake. I don’t want to see you any more. I don’t want to marry you. I know it must seem very erratic and odd, but leave it at that. I shouldn’t have let it go so far.

DAVID: But what have I done?

LAURA: You’ve not done anything. I ran away to avoid a dreary cross-examination. Now go. Kathleen’s probably in her room – she’ll hear us.

DAVID: So what?

LAURA: Well – this is my bedroom. (She crosses below him to centre and turns.) You’ve been drinking again, haven’t you?

DAVID: I stopped at The Feathers on my way. Any objection?

LAURA: No – it has nothing to do with me.

(KATHLEEN enters up right. She stops right of the chaise on seeing DAVID.)

KATHLEEN: Oh – excuse me. There was something I wanted to talk to you about, Laura – something very serious.

LAURA: Later, Kathleen. After the party.

(KATHLEEN looks from LAURA to DAVID, then turns to the door up right.)

What’s the matter, Kathleen?

(KATHLEEN stops and turns.)

Do you object to David coming up here to talk to me?

KATHLEEN: I don’t want to criticise, Laura, and I know it has nothing to do with me, but I think you should remember that you’re not in West Africa now – you’re in Luffingham.

LAURA: (Moving and sitting on the end of the bed.) I’m under no misapprehension.

KATHLEEN: Well, you must realise that things that might be all very well on the Gold Coast are looked upon in Luffingham as extremely bad form. Of course, it’s nothing to do with me, I know.

DAVID: It’s my fault for coming up here, Miss Skinner.

KATHLEEN: I’m not blaming you, Mr Marshall. I know you were in the underground movement in Yugoslavia during the war –

LAURA: I don’t see what that has to do with it.

KATHLEEN: (Ignoring the interruption.) – and I can well imagine you became accustomed to a different kind of life between the sexes. But that was some time ago now.

LAURA: What do you mean by – ‘a different kind of life’?

KATHLEEN: Well – a life without time for social conventions and so on. Men fighting side by side with women – sleeping in the same tents together…

LAURA: I don’t think they had tents.

KATHLEEN: Well – next to each other on the grass, then – or whatever it is they do in guerilla warfare. But please remember, Mr Marshall – and I don’t mean to criticise, I’m speaking to you as a friend – you’re in England now – you’re not still in the Resistance – and Laura is not a guerilla.

(DAVID bursts into laughter.)

(Angrily.) Oh, you know what I mean. How else can one pronounce the word? And I don’t think it’s very nice, Laura – going on like this while you’re still in mourning.

(She turns and exits up right. DAVID is abruptly sobered by her words.)

DAVID: (Looking intently at LAURA.) Is that what’s worrying you?

LAURA: What?

DAVID: Mourning. What people will think, and all that.

LAURA: (Protestingly.) Oh, David!

DAVID: What then?

LAURA: (Looking away.) I – I just thought – I’m not a very good person for you to marry.

DAVID: (Moving in left of LAURA.) Can’t I judge for myself? (He kneels on the left end of the bed and kisses her.)

LAURA: Darling – I’ll try – I’ll try so hard to be good for you.

DAVID: What are you talking about?

LAURA: I don’t know. Nothing.

DAVID: Tell me – is there any insanity in your family?

LAURA: Yes.

(They kiss again and fall backwards on to the bed. LAURA frees herself and sits up.)

DAVID: (Trying to pull her down.) Hey!

LAURA: No, no, Bruce darling – let me go. She’ll come in again.

DAVID: (Releasing her.) Did you hear what you said then? You called me Bruce.

LAURA: How extraordinary – yes, I did. (She ponders a moment.) Yes, how extraordinary.

DAVID: Who were you thinking of? (He pauses.) Laura – did you call your husband Bruce?

LAURA: No, no. Bruce was someone I knew years ago before I married. I certainly wasn’t thinking of him consciously. (She studies DAVID’s face and runs her fingers through his hair.) You are a bit like him, though, now I come to think of it.

DAVID: Were you in love with him?

LAURA: Yes. I was very young – it was ten years ago. Really, that is odd, my suddenly calling you Bruce.

DAVID: What’s happened to him?

LAURA: Bruce? He was killed in the war – so Nanny told me. I never saw him again after I went to A...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two