The Harp in the South Trilogy: the play

Parts One and Two

Ruth Park, Kate Mulvany, Kate Mulvany

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781760622473
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

The Harp in the South Trilogy follows the trials and tribulations of the Darcy family over thirty years, from country New South Wales in the 1920s to the inner-city slums of Surry Hills in the 1950s. %##CHAR13##%The beating heart of this exuberant play is its carousel of characters. From hard-boozing Hugh Darcy and his long-suffering 'Missus' Margaret, to their children, sensitive and romantic Roie, smart and sassy Dolour, and poor little Thady who ran out onto the overcrowded road and has been trying to find his way home ever since. Along the way there's the Chinese greengrocer Lick Jimmy, who tempts Dolour with his 'poor man's oranges', no-nonsense brothel madam Delie Stock, who tempts everyone with her girls, and handsome young Charlie Rothe, who tempts Roie with the promise of a better life.%##CHAR13##%Kate Mulvany brings her trademark humour and tenderness to bear on Ruth Park's much-loved novels in this epic adaptation. Join the Darcy family as they journey through laughter and tragedy, booze and blood, poverty and cruelty, but most of all love.

ACT ONE: MISSUS

SCENE ONE

The outskirts of Trafalgar, New South Wales, 1920. A dam on the far edges of a rural property.

A small boy of eight, THADY DARCY, wanders. He doesn’t belong there. He is of another time and place. He wears navy trousers and red braces and clutches a bag of marbles. He watches as …

A woman, FRANCES DARCY (late 40s), appears—an odd figure on the barren landscape.

THADY: Frances Darcy.

FRANCES is dressed in a slip and an extravagant coat with deep pockets. She has a red embroidered shawl swathed around her neck. She sings as she travels.

FRANCES: [singing] ’Tis the last rose of summer,

Left blooming alone;

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone …

THADY: Often she was fantastically merry, though falling suddenly from laughter into tears.

FRANCES: [singing] No flower of her kindred,

No rosebud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes,

Or give sigh for sigh.

A man appears in the distance—Frances’s husband, MARTIN DARCY (50s). He watches his wife solemnly. He does not see THADY.

THADY: Martin Darcy had brought Frances to Trafalgar at the start of the century when everything was hopeful. Long before today—1920.

Long before her throat started to swell and her brain started to boil.

But now … he did not know what to do with a madwoman.

FRANCES drinks from a bottle of laudanum, wincing as it burns her throat.

FRANCES: [singing] I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!

To pine on the stem;

Since the lovely are sleeping,

Go, sleep thou with them.

Although her song has ended … another plays in the distance. A lone harp.

THADY: Perhaps she was haunted by the harp. Calling from a faraway land.

They all hear it. Like the call of a ghost.

FRANCES removes her shawl to reveal a horrifically flayed neck. As she sings on, she gathers stones and places them in her pockets. Her husband watches on. As does THADY …

The harp plays on.

FRANCES: [singing] Thus kindly I scatter,

Thy leaves o’er the bed,

Where thy mates of the garden

Lie scentless and dead.

When true hearts lie withered,

And fond ones are flown,

Oh! who would inhabit

This bleak world alone?

She steps into the water and disappears. The harp echoes …

MARTIN wanders away.

THADY walks down to the dam. He looks into the water then out to us.

THADY: We are all haunted by the harp.

The harp echoes …

Blackout.

SCENE TWO

Two young men now stand over the dam. They are HUGH and JER DARCY.

HUGH: Ma …

HUGH is a small, muscular 22-year-old. ‘He often found a lump in his throat for no reason. He began to look at things, stars, girls’ hair, the way a paddock of cabbages was not green, but blue …’

JER is his younger brother (18), but they don’t look alike. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Playwright’s Biography
• First Production
• Acknowledgements
• Characters
• Suggested Doublings
• Setting
• The Harp in the South Trilogy: The Play
• Copyright Details