The Portrait - the Play Acts III and IV

Act III

Date: February 6, 1908

Place: 7 Lansdowne Crescent, Worcester

List of characters:

Louisa Trew King, aged 61, granddaughter of Richard and Martha Trew

her daughter, Muriel, aged 28

Muriel's husband, Harold Day, aged 24. Harold is a mining engineer, and he
and Muriel are soon to go to Malaya.

John Day, aged 26, Senior English master at Warwick School.

May Day, aged 26, John's wife and Muriel's best friend and neighbour

 

Scene: The drawing room at 7 Lansdowne Crescent. Different furniture. However, the fireplace with the portrait above remains the same.

As the scene opens Louisa and her daughter and son-in-law are seated, but the young couple are wearing coats and hats, as they are obviously about to leave.

John and May rush into the room.

May: Oh, I'm so glad that we managed to make it in time. I'd never forgive myself if we'd missed seeing you off. (She goes to Muriel and gives her a hug.)

Muriel: The cab will be here in a few minutes to take us to the train. Our cases have already gone and are on the ship in South Hampton.

May: How long will it take you, once you embark?

Harold:
About six weeks, as we'll be stopping off for almost a week in Cape Town.

John: I don't know what to say, old chap. It was smashing seeing you here, and I hope you'll be able to get back again soon.

Harold: Well, our plans are to try to come back every two years.

Louisa: (In tears) As if it wasn't bad enough having to bury my dear husband only over a month ago, and now I must lose my only child as well.

Muriel: You aren't losing me, Mother. I'll write every day. And you've lots of friends here. Mrs. Day and Mrs. Stinton are just down the road.

Louisa: But you won't be down the road. You'll be in that awful country half way around the world, with savages and snakes and what not. And an unbearable climate. How will you cope, my dear?

Harold: It's really quite civilized where we'll be living, Mother King. Muriel will have two servants, and there will be other wives there for her to socialize with.

Louisa: But most of the people are not even white! Nor are they Christians. Will she even be able to get to church?

Harold: We'll make every effort. There is no church in Lahat, that's true, but there are sometimes visiting missioners. Ipoh is not that far off, and there is a splendid church there.

May: Oh, Mrs. King, don't fret so. I know Mother will be around all the time. She's gone through the same thing herself you know, when Father died.

Louisa: (tearfully) But you didn't leave too, at the same time. It's just too soon. I don't know how I will cope.

Muriel: Be brave Mother. I've no choice. I must go. I'm Harold's wife now, and I must be where he is. I too will be counting the days until we return.

Louisa: I 'll probably be dead long before you return. And that reminds me, I want you to promise me that you will take care of my Grandmother's portrait after I'm gone. My aunt Martha or her children might try to claim it, but I want it to stay with you. Do your promise?

Muriel: Of course, Mother. I promise you that I'll take very good care of her portrait, and make sure that when I'm gone, my children will do the same. There. Are you happier now? Rest assured Mother. It'll also take place of pride in my house, once it's mine. But that won't be for very many years yet.

Harold: It think I hear the cabbie. Come on Muriel. Make your goodbyes, and then we must go.

Harold shakes hands with John, while Muriel hugs and kisses her mother, and then her friend May, and then back to her mother once more. Then the couple go out of the room, and Louisa breaks down in loud sobs.  

 

 

Act IV, Visit from Cousin Christine

 

Date: September 10, 1925

Place: High Street, Ryhall, Rutland

List of characters:

Muriel Edith King Day, aged 43, mother of four children: Jan, George, Mark, Gertride

Muriel's husband, Harold Day, aged 39. Harold is a chicken farmer.

Rev. John Day, aged 41, headmaster at Stamford School

May Day, aged 40, John's wife and Muriel's best friend.

Christine Patti Trew Pakenham, 25, Duchess of Longford, great granddaughter of  Richard and Martha Trew, daughter of  William Trew's son Richard.

Her husband, Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham, aged 25, 6th Earl of Longford.

 

Time: 11 a.m.

Scene: The front room of a typical farm house. However, the fireplace with the portrait above remains the same.

As the scene opens Muriel and Harold are standing up to greet their newly arrived guests. John and May are seated, but also stand when the newcomers arrive.

 

Muriel: Welcome to our house. I'm Muriel. You must be cousin Christine, and you are Earl Longford (she curtsies awkwardly).

Edward: Oh, please don't worry about such formalities. We're so fed up with all that sort of thing and were hoping to just have a relaxed hour or so amongst normal people.

Christine: I'm so pleased to meet you, Muriel. I was so happy when you sent a card for our wedding, and wrote to invite us here. I really enjoy tracing my family history, and you're very important especially as you're the one who has our mutual great grandmother's portrait.

Muriel: As you can see, (pointing over the mantle)  there it is, in pride of place, just as I promised my mother it would always be. But where are my manners. Let me introduce you to everyone.

This is May Day and her husband, Rev. John Day. And this is my husband, Harold.

Edward: Pleased to meet you all. (All shake hands.)

Muriel: Please sit down, and I'll go and get the coffee in a minute. I'm afraid we don't have any servants.

May: Let me do that, Muriel, while you and your cousin get to know each other.

Christine: I want you to fill me in on my family history. First tell us about yourselves. I know that you're related to Martha of the portrait in much the same way I am - in other words, she was great-grandmother to us both. But who was your grandfather?

Muriel: He was called John Banyer Trew, and he died relatively young at 64. He worked as a printer, but according to the census report, he died in an insane assylum.

Edward: Why was it you who inherited it?

Muriel: I think it was because my mother lived in Richard Trew's house after his wife died and for six months after he died in 74. She married in 1877. Tom's wife his Eliza and her three children also lived there. He was a master mariner, so away at sea much of the time. The money from the sale of the house and the household goods were to be divided between mother and Eliza. Because mother was more closely related, she got the portrait.

Edward: What about the other brothers - for instance, Christine's grandfather, William? Did they have no interest in claiming the portrait? I think I speak for my wife when I say that she would be
very pleased if she could buy the portrait from you. Just name your price. But you might not be willing to part from it.

Muriel: No, certainly not. I promised my mother I would value it, and although I know you would do the same, I cannot give or sell it to you. However, I expect you could take a photograph of it, if you have that sort of equipment available.

Edward: Not with us at the moment, but I will try to arrange for that. But I interrupted your telling us about Christina's grandfather.

Muriel: From what I've heard, William lived much of his early grown up life in Ireland, and married an Irish lady. When they came back to England, he worked for awhile under Richard Trew, as clerk to the Guardians of the workhouse - just as great grandfather himself did. later, I think they moved to Manchester.

Christine: I know father was in the Merchant Navy, the first officer on the Marwarii, based in Cardiff and spent very little time at home. He drank a lot, wrote too many cheques and disappeared when I
was only three. Mother raised me by taking in boarders, and when I was 11, we moved to Oxford where she advertised herself as an "Officer's Wife." and took in paying guests to keep us afloat. My father drowned at sea during the Great War.

Muriel: Well, I will tell you everything I know. But first of all, let's have coffee.

(May comes back in with the coffee on a tray, and pours out and serves it with scones to everyone, starting with the Earl and Duchess.)

John: I'm interested in how you two met. And I'm assuming, Christine, that you have no aristocratic roots.

Christine: No, I don't, although my grandmother was Irish, so that was in my favour when we decided to get married. As you probably know, Pakenham Hall, Edward's estate, is in Ireland.

Edward: We did have a bit of family opposition. But we met at Cambridge, where we were both studying. We made our decision to marry and I was not going to let my mother oppose me in that. If it was possible to disinherit me because of it, I let them know that I wouldn't be particularly worried.

Harold: I understand your father was in the war. Can I ask more about that?

Edward: Yes, indeed, my father, the 5th Duke of Longford, was killed in the war, so I inherited his title some years ago. He was killed in action at the Battle of Gallipoli on 21 August, 1915.

Harold: I have heard a lot about that battle. It was where one of my best friends, Charlie Tree lost his life too.

Edward: The campaign took place at Gallipoli peninsula where a joint British and French operation
was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and secure a sea route to Russia. The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.

Christine: Edward was only 13 when he inherited.

Edward: What was your war experience like?

Harold: (awkwardly) I can't talk about it. I don't even like to think about it.

There is another period of silence.

John: So where did you go to school, Edward?

Richard: At Eton.

Christine: He is so modest. He twice received the Wilder Divinity Prize when he was at Eton. And he had two books of poems published.

Edward: Privately published at my mother's expense, I must add.

Harold: Were you happy at school?

Edward: I wasn't very popular I'm afraid. I think my Irish Nationalist tendencies made me rather stick out.

John: What about your home life?

Edward: After father died, Mother coped by retreating into her private sorrow, leaving us to vie with each other to try to unlock her cold heart. Our time was split between a drab country house in Oxfordshire and our Gothic fantasy castle in Ireland.

We had few friends outside the family circle. My sister Mary says it's perhaps because we wore such out-of-date clothes. Mary's chief grievance was that she had to wear brown, ribbed woollen stockings and brown boots, which were a nuisance all the year round but worse still was the shame of them, which ate into our very souls.

But it has given us all a fierce independence of spirit and a positive relish for being different.

Muriel: And what about you, Christine? Tell us a bit about your childhood.

Christine: Oh, you could write a book about it, and to be honest, I have actually started it. (she laughs) I write myself as the heroine, and describe her as plain, with curly hair, small eyes which
she tries to enlarge in a soulful manner by stretching them in front of the looking glass, and very little chin. She is extremely clever and totally innocent. Her besetting trouble is that she either talks
too much, or too little: she can never get right the balance of conversation.

May: I can't wait to read it.

Muriel: How did you enjoy the University?

Christine: University life for women students was tricky. In a world that was and probably still is so desperately prescriptive for women that to be seen talking to male students in public could lead to being sent down in disgrace.

May: But you weren't were you?

Edward: It was really only after Christine got her degree and was teaching that we were seen together in public.

May: Will you be living in Ireland now?

Christine: Oh, yes, but probably not until next year. Edward has given me the task of redecorating the family home. I can't tell you how exciting that is.

John: I know nothing about Longford. Tell us more about it.

Edward: It is a castle. I do have some pictures with me. (He passes them around.)

Muriel: Goodness, me. It really is a castle.

Edward: Pakenham Hall Castle, situated in County Westmeath has been home to
the earls of Longford for over 350 years.

Edward: And both Christine and I are passionate about writing, especially plays, so I expect our lives will revolve around the theatre when we get settled.

May: Please tell us more about your home. I find this so fascinating.

Harold: (looking at the photo) How can anyone afford to live like that? How can you justify it, considering all the poverty in Ireland.

Muriel: Hush, dear. We just have to accept that that's how things are.

Edward: You are quite right, Harold. The villagers don't really benefit.

Christine: Well, I came here to find out more about my family history, but we haven't really touched on that yet. What happened to Tom's family?

Muriel: Again, I can only tell you about his children, nothing more. Do you know about your father's brothers and sister?

Christine: Only Martha who married Charles Gubbins, and they lived in Ireland for awhile. I heard they moved back to the Axbridge area and her brother, Percy was living with them after his mother died.

Muriel: So it actually turns out that neither of us know any of the contemporary relatives of the Trew family. But anyway, we now know each other. And I will be very pleased to allow your photographer to take a picture of Martha's portrait.

Christine: I think we must make a move.  But we must have you to stay with us at  Pakenham Hall Castle when we get settled in. (They all stand and Edward goes around shaking hands)

Muriel: Thank you so much for dropping in. And do keep in touch.