Fleet Script

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1- Drowned Souls

Chorus: Drowned souls, Bones and Meat
Fear not the Beak, or the Rope or the Fleet
Drowned souls, Afloat Together
And never shall we die

A Thief, a Thief, a Thief I’ll be,
There’s none leads a life more jocund than he;
A Thief I was, and a Thief I am,
A Thief I’ll be, from a Thief I came;
If, as it begins, our trading do fall,
We, in Conclusion, shall Beggars be all.

Repeat Chorus

There’s none leads a life more jocund than he
A Canter my Father, that cared not for Pelf,
A Lifter my Mother, and a Thief myself;
In white wheaten Straw, when their Bellies were full,
Then was I got between Tinker and Trull.

Repeat Chorus

There’s none leads a life more jocund than he;
All these we remember--rotted, destroyed,
Sent far from England to die in the void,
We lived in pride until fate struck us down,
Our word to the Tawny Prince kept us bound
In death, we are humble, Too late.
Oh Late, Late, much too late
In death we are humble too late, too late

Chorus: Drowned souls, Bones and Meat
Fear not the Beak, or the Rope or the Fleet
Drowned souls, Afloat Together
And never shall we die

FLEET CRASHNBURN THEATRE LTD

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2- Tuning In

Goose sees a conch shell; picking it up she listens and as she does a change takes place
among The Dead.
(Didgeridoo s/fx begins)
Chorus: Ahhhhhhhhnnnnn (Spastic movements that vary in size and intensity from the
gigantic and full of tension to smaller “tics "of tension and momentary release tear through
the Chorus of the Dead)
Ralph Clarke enters; he is looking intently at an object that seems far away.
Group 1: A dream, a dream, a dream, a dream he cannot wake!
Group 2: gahan-ma nganku, ga-yu bore-yh gahan.
Group 3: You are a famous dreamer, a seer of ghosts, you see us. You see us.
GOOSE: Wake up! Wake up! Mr Clark!
(Ralph Clarke walks off the beach towards the Dell, Goose and the Dead follow led by Harry
and Duckling, they sing as they stroll)
HARRY BREWER: Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
CHORUS: H Parsley , sage , rosemary and thyme ,
H H H H H H H

HARRY BREWER: Remember me to one who lives there,
For she once was a true love of mine.

CHORUS: Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
H H

HARRY BREWER: Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
CHORUS: Without any seam nor needlework,
HARRY BREWER: And then she'll be a true love of mine.

DUCKLING: Ask him to find me an acre of land,
CHORUS: Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
DUCKLING: Between the salt water and the sea-strand,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

HARRY BREWER: DUCKLING:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
CHORUS: H Parsley , sage , rosemary and thyme ,
H H H H H H H


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DUCKLING: Remember me to one who lives there,
HARRY BREWER: For she once was a true love of mine.
(They arrive at the wooded area)
Sub-unit (a) (Harry Brewer swears an oath to the Tawny Prince)
Chorus: (A spastic tic follows every piece of dialogue)
Group 1: The Tawny Prince god of the cross, the god, the god, the god of the cross (tic)
Group 2: "Menuny mamin mawu ga-yu-ma
Group 3: This is the oath that will get old Harry, HA, HA, HA, Harry!

HARRY BREWER: I Harry Brewer do swear to be a true brother and will in all things obey
the commands of the great Tawny Prince
I will guard the secrets of my brethren nor reveal our mysteries or language although I am
flogged to death. I will never leave nor forsake this Company, but observe and be bound in
my duty at all times; either by Day or by Night, or in any Place whatsoever.
Lastly, I will cleave to my Doxy and never flinch but will bring her Duds, Margery Praters,
Goblets, Grunting-cheats, or Tibs of the Buttery, or anything else I can come at, as winnings
for her wappings. This I swear!
HARRY BREWER: There, ghosts!
Group 3: This is the earth that will get old Harry, HA, HA, HA, Harry!

Sub-unit (b) (A Man is holding the ends of a long piece of cloth that is wrapped at the other
end around the waist of a young woman; Mary Branham. The man is teasing her)
MARY BRANHAM: & Man: (sing)
ANDREW HILTON: Ye fair British nymphs of beauty and fame . . . .
MARY BRANHAM: List to my story and beware of my fate . . .
ANDREW HILTON: She once was happy, like you she was blest . . . .
MARY BRANHAM: But now I am wretched with sorrows oppressed
ANDREW HILTON: Oh pity her sorrows ah me well-a-day
MARY BRANHAM: As a convict I’m forced now to Botany Bay
BOTH: Singing Toor-a-loora lassie, sing toor-a-loora day
ANDREW HILTON: Oh pity her sorrows ah me well-a-day


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MARY BRANHAM: As a convict I’m forced now to Botany Bay
CHORUS: (A spastic tic follows every piece of dialogue)
Group 1: Taking in extra washing Lady Shitttt!!!
Group 2: Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up!
Group 3: Yondorrin ba-dipba-yi, mam-buga.
Sub-unit (c) (Duckling Smith runs through the Chorus of the Dead and is chased and caught
by a man. She faces downstage and as she is dragged back upstage her face remains
impassive even as she is pulled backwards and alongside Harry Brewer who's eyes never
leave her face)
DUCKLING: Welcome to town cousin Silvia (ironic)
HARRY BREWER: Our education was the same
Group 1: Nibulin ya-nggi nung gahan gajirri.
Group 2: A mouthful of lime or a mouthful of air . . .
Group 3: Ayyyyyyha, Twisting honours the Prince (tic)

Sub-unit (e) Betsey Alicia is standing silently, she is wearing a bonnet and her face cannot be
seen as she is looking down. It is a first difficult to tell if she is laughing or crying silently
and then slowly she begins plucking a louse from her breast and holding it away from herself
with disgust on her face. She looks at the louse and screams silently
Group 1: Boreyh-bore-yh ga-ya guk-ga-ma.
GOOSE: He still dreams.
Group 2: I dreamed, I dreamed, I dreamed, I dreamed this very shore
Group 3: Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up, a dream you cannot wake!
(Ralph Clark falls to his knees and opens his eyes as Goose stands and then kneels in front
of him)

3-Wake Up!

GOOSE: Wake Up, Wake up Mr Clark. I am famous for dreams too
LT. RALPH CLARK: What are you doing in my quarters? Go back to the women's camp
immediately!
GOOSE: Your dreams can be heard even from there Mr. Clark. Mr Brewer sees the dead and
you have your plague of dreams.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Go back to the women's camp, what is your business here?


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GOOSE: You dream every night that your wife is dead. She dies every night between
lightning and sunrise. That is so much to bear
LT. RALPH CLARK: My dreams are not for picking over!
(Goose grasps his wrist)
GOOSE: Listen! I dream like the Pharaoh. When I was fourteen I dreamt this shore. I was
here in this exact place. But I too have some dreams I cannot utter.
A meaningful silence
GOOSE: Listen to me darling! You dream your wife is in mourning and that she plucks a
louse from her breast like this and you do not know what the louse means, death or hate.
What a sad little lord you are!
Chorus of Dead
Group 1: Boreyh-bore-yh ga-ya guk-ga-ma. 'He's dreaming
Group 2: You are a famous dreamer, a seer of ghosts, do you see us?
Group 3: Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow [that] flieth by
day;
[Nor] for the pestilence [that] walketh in darkness; [nor] for the destruction [that] wasteth at
noonday.
(Ralph turns away and hides his face. Goose touches him and tenderly at first, then with
mounting ferocity she fights to make him want her and when she wins, she pulls away and
challenges him)

GOOSE: So Mr. Clark, you are not so different as they say.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You dare speak with me . . .
GOOSE: Goose dares anything! Goose can give or take away . . .
LT. RALPH CLARK: Aye and what price? I will not be held to account for that . . .
GOOSE: I will take your trouble from you Mr. Clarke, I ask nothing in return.
Come and see me in the women's camp. (Goose exits speaking)
GOOSE: You will have a change of fortune Mr. Clark
Audience are moved back to Beach.


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4- Prayer Meeting

On the shoreline, walking ashore is Rev Dick Johnson and a host (Chorus+) As he
approaches he calls for prayer and all kneel. He leads a prayer for the new world (the prayer
makes this clear)
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the LORD, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I
trust.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow [that] flieth by day;
[Nor] for the pestilence [that] walketh in darkness; [nor] for the destruction [that] wasteth at
noonday.A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked
because thou hast made the LORD thy refuge. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall
any plague come nigh thy dwelling for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee
in all thy ways.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample


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under feet because he hath set his love upon thee, because he hath known thy name. Thy
name is called Sydney Cove.
(Dick leads a hymn)
(Audience move along the beach)

5-Welcome to Town

(Melinda and Silvia (Duckling and Mary) begin to rehearse The Recruiting Officer
Ralph and Harry (Harry at a little distance, drinking from a bottle or flask) watch. Harry's
eyes never leave Duckling. Goose enters and stands by Ralph)
MELINDA
Welcome to town, cousin Silvia. (Salute) I envied you your retreat in the country: for
Shrewsbury, methinks, and all your heads of shires, are the most irregular places for
living; here we have smoke, noise, scandal, affectation, and pretention; in short,
everything to give the spleen, and nothing to divert it!
SILVIA
Oh, madam, I have heard the town commended for its air.
MELINDA
But you don’t consider, Silvia, how long I have lived in’t! For I can assure you, that
to a lady the least nice in her constitution, no air can be good above half a year:
change of air I take to be the most agreeable of any variety in life.


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MARY BRANHAM: That's because fine ladies do not stay in the city of a summer time,
they dismiss their servants and move to their country houses.
DUCKLING SMITH: Then the servants must turn whore or thief to survive, but what does it
mean by "air"? (Melinda & Silvia discuss the meaning of plays underneath the dialogue that
follows)
GOOSE: A change of fortune Mr. Clark
LT. RALPH CLARK: Do you come to join my play? You could play Rose, a country girl,
her lines are bawdy and very funny!
GOOSE: A Sawney? A stupid Zedlander? Why should I play a country girl? To fetch myself
men?
I can have any man I want darling ha, ha, ha!
LT. RALPH CLARK: It will give you great pleasure. I know in my blood you can use that
dangerous will to be clever on stage and it will keep you from trouble.
GOOSE: There are many ways to give and receive pleasure and when your blood was up you
were thinking that same thing. But someone else has your eye, I can see it in a man.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: I will not be in your debt. You shamed me once but that will not
happen again!
MELINDA
Welcome to town, cousin Silvia. (Salute) I envied you your retreat in the country: for
Shrewsbury, methinks, and all your heads of shires, are the most irregular places for
living; here we have smoke, noise, scandal, affectation, and pretention; in short,
everything to give the spleen, and nothing to divert it!
SILVIA
Oh, madam, I have heard the town commended for its air.
(Mary reads the next section of the script and repeats it to Duckling before the "rehearse"
each time there is a pause in dialogue to make way for the dialogue of other characters)
GOOSE: Have you ever been flogged Lt. Clark Mister?
LT. RALPH CLARK: Of course I haven't.
GOOSE: Some people look upon flogging as the most terrible insult. To bare your arse in
public and be beaten until it is turned to jelly.
LT. RALPH CLARK: You conspired to cause unrest, here and on the ship amongst the
women and the marines.
GOOSE: I took my due is all.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Your due was too much, too much by far.


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GOOSE: That can never be for I am the Abbess, the Dimber-Damber, Mr Clark.
Ask Mr. Brewer if it is not so!
LT. RALPH CLARK: St. Giles and London is eight moons behind us, you are not in
command here!
GOOSE: No? We shall see Mr. Clark!
LT. RALPH CLARK: Very well.
(Goose exits speaking)
GOOSE: A change of fortune . . .

SILVIA
But prithee, my dear Melinda, don’t put on such an air to me; your education and mine were
just the same and I remember the time when we never troubled our heads about air, but when
the sharp air from the Welsh mountains made our noses drop in a cold morning at the
boarding-school.
MELINDA
Our education, cousin was the same, but our temperaments had nothing alike; you have the
constitution of a horse!
LT. RALPH CLARK: You must be quarrelsome Duckling, quarrelsome? You have seen
women quarrel? Were there not quarrels in the hold of the Lady Penrhyn or in Newgate? I
want you to believe in your enmity for your cousin Silvia and to put some fist and pace into
it!
(Dick Johnson enters)
REV DICK JOHNSON: Ralph, I must ask you to abandon this play you are managing.
SILVIA
But prithee, my dear Melinda, Don't put on such an air to me, your education and mine . . .
REV DICK JOHNSON: I ask you as both a friend and as Christ’s priest in this most decadent
parish.
SILVIA
Don’t put on such an air to me; your education and mine were just the same
REV DICK JOHNSON: You know I am not an enemy to decent joy Ralph; my motives are
based on the most serious considerations of morality.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Dick, it is a comedy!
SILVIA (very fast)


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. . . and I remember the time when we never troubled our heads about air, but when the sharp
air from the Welsh mountains made our noses drop in a cold morning at the boarding-school.
MELINDA (with fist!)
Our education, cousin was the same, but our temperaments had nothing alike; you have the
constitution of an 'orse!
REV DICK JOHNSON: In an ordered society it may be considered a comedy although there
are some lines at which even the most civilised people should not laugh!
SILVIA
So far as to be troubled with neither spleen, colic, nor vapours; I need no salt for my stomach,
nor hart shorn for my complexion;
REV DICK JOHNSON: Here however, in this . . .society the play cannot be considered
anything other than a dangerous incitement to violations of property and persons the like of
which already abound!
(Dick moves Ralph a little distance from the women)
This girl, Mary Branham, she tells me this, aboard the Lady Penrhyn each woman had to
align herself with a sailor. If you did not, if you were not known to be the property of one of
the seamen, they you were likely to be violated by an entire pack of sailors. So Branham
aligned herself with the sailor Crudis, one of the few who were better than beasts, but even so
her favours were forced from her.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Perhaps she did not give them so grudgingly! What is your point
Dick?
REV DICK JOHNSON: That this girl was raised decently, about that there can be no doubt.
SILVIA
I can gallop all the morning after the hunting-horn, and all the evening after a fiddle.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Nevertheless, she was forced to give herself to a sailor aboard the
Penrhyn in order to survive. Consider this Ralph, there was nowhere aboard ship where
bodily commerce could be carried out in the kind of privacy we may consider essential to the
purpose.
SILVIA
In short, I can do everything with my father but drink and shoot flying; and I’m sure I can do
everything my mother could, were I put to the trial!
REV DICK JOHNSON: Her sensibilities were outraged by the voyage and yet even here
those sensibilities still survive but now Ralph you encourage, urge her to abandon her
delicacy.


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No Ralph, you must quash this play immediately and quash it’s poisonous influence!
LT. RALPH CLARK: But I do not believe it Dick!
MELINDA
You’re in a fair way of being put to’t; for I’m told your captain is come to town.
REV DICK JOHNSON: You do not believe that Captain Plume asking Melinda whether she
is as big a whore as she is a jilt, and when Worthy denies it, Plume exclaiming, “Tis ten
thousand pities”, improper?
SILVIA
Aye, Melinda, he is come, and I’ll take care he shan’t go without a companion.
LT. RALPH CLARK: It is there only for the comedy Dick!
MELINDA
You’re certainly mad, cousin.
REV DICK JOHNSON: And that justifies it?
SILVIA
And there’s a pleasure, sure, in being mad, which none but madmen know.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Am I not an honest Protestant?
MELINDA
Thou poor, romantic Quixote, hast thou the vanity to imagine that a young, sprightly
officer that rambles o’er half the globe in half a year, can confine his thoughts to the little
daughter of a country justice in an obscure corner of the world?
REV DICK JOHNSON: That is a state you possess only by the grace of your saviour Jesus
Christ. You do not stay there by your own merit but by favour of his blood!
LT. RALPH CLARK: Then are you dictating to my conscience the way a Pope would?
SILVIA
Pshaw! What care I for his thoughts?
REV DICK JOHNSON: My God, I am not!
SILVIA
I should not like a man with confined thoughts, it shows a narrowness of soul. Constancy is
but a dull, sleepy quality at best, they will hardly admit it among the manly virtues; nor do I
think it deserves a place with bravery, knowledge, policy, justice, and some other qualities
that are proper to that noble sex.
REV DICK JOHNSON: I argue what is self evident to any civilised Christian conscience!
SILVIA
In short, Melinda, I think a petticoat a mighty simple thing, and I’m heartily tired of my sex.


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REV DICK JOHNSON: There, there you see Ralph!.
MELINDA
That is, you are tired of an appendix to our sex that you can’t so handsomely get rid of
in pettitcoats as if you were in breeches. O’my conscience, Silvia, hadst thou been a
man, thou hadst been the greatest rake in Christendom.

REV DICK JOHNSON: In God's name, I tell you Ralph that is an inflammatory sentence to
utter before the combined and barbarous felonry of this outpost. Indeed it is Ralph!

SILVIA
I should endeavour to know the world, which a man can never do thoroughly without
half a hundred friendships, and many amours.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Is there need to listen further Ralph?
(Enter Harry Brewer)

REV DICK JOHNSON: I warn you Ralph, you have a foot on the road to damnation!
(Exits)
HARRY BREWER: Christ Ralph! What a cracked sermon that man preaches. A clothes thief
and a whore may be redeemed but a heretic like you is beyond help!
LT. RALPH CLARK: Harry!
SILVIA
But now I think on’t, how stands affair with Mr Worthy?
HARRY BREWER: So, my girl has come forward to claim a part in this play has she?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Yes, she is doing well.
HARRY BREWER: But she cannot bloody read Ralph!
MARY BRANHAM: He's my aversion!
MELINDA
What does that mean?
MARY BRANHAM: It means you hate him!
MELINDA
He’s my aversion!
SILVIA
Vapours!
MELINDA


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What do you say, madam?
LT. RALPH CLARK: But she has a good memory. She did not tell you she would offer
herself for the play Harry?
HARRY BREWER: She did not and I shall beat her for it!
LT. RALPH CLARK: Harry, you know you will not! But she is a different person if you let
her act and, well, I have had great problems finding convicts who can act.
SILVIA
I say that you should not use that honest fellow so inhumanely. He’s a gentleman of
parts and fortune, and beside that he’s my Plume’s friend, and by all that’s sacred. If
you don’t use him better, I shall expect satisfaction.
HARRY BREWER: Ralph, Although I am Provost Marshall here, to some I am still
laughable, a 47 year old midshipman! Some of your fellow officers are careful not to be too
genial to Harry Brewer when they are being watched, but you Ralph are always genial. You
are welcome to her, my friend. But no risqué lines mark you; I do not want others to stare at
her!
(Ralph and Harry watch the rehearsal and pass a bottle between them as they do so)
MARY BRANHAM: We could do the parts that we have practised?
MELINDA
Satisfaction! You begin to fancy yourself in breeches in good earnest.
SILVIA
Oh, madam! You never saw him since you were mistress of twenty thousand pound.
You only knew him when you were capitulating with Worthy for a settlement, which
perhaps might encourage him to be a little loose and unmannerly with you.
MELINDA
What do you mean, madam?
SILVIA
My meaning needs no interpretation, madam.
MELINDA
Better it had, madam, for methinks you’re too plain.
SILVIA
If you mean the plainness of my person, I think your ladyship as plain as me to the
full.
MELINDA
Were I assured of that, I should be glad to take up with a rakehelly officer as you do.


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SILVIA
Again! Look’ee, madam – you’re in your own house.
MELINDA
And if you had kept in yours, I should have excused you.
SILVIA
Don’t be troubled, madam, I shan’t desire to have my visit returned.
MELINDA
The sooner therefore you make an end of this the better.
SILVIA
I’m easily advised to follow my inclinations – so, madam – your humble servant. Exit
MELINDA
Saucy thing!
LT. RALPH CLARK: No, No! You must remain loyal to the sensibilities and genteel
manners of two ladies of quality.
HARRY BREWER: In short my darling, you cannot behave like a whore!
(Duckling smacks Harry across the face?)

6-Harry's Story

Harry and Ralph move toward the wooded area (Audience follow)


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HARRY BREWER: Ha, Ha, Ralph, you know, I might love this place my friend if it were
not for the lags and the terrible duties I must perform. Though if it were not for the lags, there
would be no place at all! The puzzle you see!
LT. RALPH CLARK: You talk as if you had come home
HARRY BREWER: I think I have. I feel I will never go back to England. I am transported
too Ralph, so perhaps this is the earth that will get old Harry, Ha, Ha, Ha!
LT. RALPH CLARK: So you have found your homeland Harry, but it don't seem to have
made you or your convict girl very happy?
HARRY BREWER: You are such an honest little bugger Ralph! You are so determined not
to give offence! You can see that the girl has me twisting. I love her Ralph, there I have said
it. With her I cannot help myself. That is how I became an ancient oaf of 40 years carrying
shillings to a fifteen year old moll in Newgate. A decent fellow like you cannot understand.
LT. RALPH CLARK: I can understand the appeal of some of the women here, but you knew
Duckling before you sailed here.
HARRY BREWER: I put her name on the transport list and saved her life. She had stolen too
much stuff to receive a lighter sentence; the stupid little bitch. So she was condemned to
hang. I took her three shillings the day before she was due for the drop. She thought I wanted
to hire her.
A a girl who in a day will hang and be thrown into a lime pit, and yet is willing to fuck me
because I have three shillings. How can I reach a girl like that, Ralph? Perhaps all she sees is
the three shillings? That is my nightmare and that is why I am sometimes unhappy. As for
Duckling; I wish I knew, but, she is unfathomable.
LT. RALPH CLARK: How did you know of her, in London?
HARRY BREWER: A drink! I, Ralph, was once the king of St. Giles! Harry Brewer, my
name in every public ledger!
LT. RALPH CLARK: Public ledger?
HARRY BREWER: That is the cant term for a whore! My life and pleasure was spent on the
whores of Seven Dials but I stole to pay for that pleasure. In St. Giles I took my oath to the
Tawny Prince and to her, to Duckling. But I broke the oath and I went to sea. And she will
not forgive me. She says she doesn't care that she didn't hang. She holds her silence when I
speak of my dread of it. They will never ask for mercy Ralph. The lags who are raised in the
London gangs; it is their way to die in silence and pay duty to the Tawny Prince even if it
may take 15 minutes to strangle.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Tawny Prince?


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HARRY BREWER: He's the god of the cross, the god of disorder and is worshipped by all
lag-kind and for twenty mad years by I too. He sponsors and celebrates hanging. It is his
Mass and his Evensong, and his people down in the camp are preparing for his coming and I
am damned to be his agent.
Audience move

7-Dick & Mary

Mary Branham is taking washing from the line strung between trees. As she bends, stretches
and sings to herself she is watched by Reverend Johnson

The Song of the Young Thief
c. 1819 (freely adapted)
Author unknown


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My mother she dwelt in Dyot’s Isle,
One of the canting crew, sirs;
And if you’d know my father’s style,
He was the Lord-knows-who, sir
I first held horses in the street,
But being found defaulter,
Turned rumbler’s flunkey for my meat,
So was brought up to the halter.

Frisk the cly, and fork the rag,
Draw the fogies plummy,
Speak to the rattles, bag the swag,
And finely hunt the dummy.

My name they say is young Birdlime,
My fingers are fish-hooks, sirs;
And I my reading learnt betime
From studying pocket-books, sirs;
I have a sweet eye for a plant,
And graceful as I amble,
Finedraw a coat-tail sure I can’t
So kiddy is my famble.

A night bird oft I’m in the cage,
But my rum-chants ne’er fail, sirs;
The dubsman’s senses to engage,
While I tip him leg-bail, sir
There’s not, for picking, to be had,
A lass so light and larky,
The cleanest angler on the pad
In daylight or the darkey.


And though I don’t work capital,
And do not weigh my weight, sirs;


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Who knows but that in time I shall,
For there’s no queering fate, sirs.
If I’m not lagged to Virgin-nee,
I may a Tyburn show be,
Perhaps a tip-top cracksgirl be,
Or go on the high toby.


REV DICK JOHNSON: That is a pretty song Mary, but I do not recognise the words?
MARY BRANHAM: Oh it is but a moral song of foolish ways punished by torment sir.
REV DICK JOHNSON: I am assured that it is Mary. Tell me, are you happy here and in your
work within my household, your living arrangements and suchlike?
MARY BRANHAM: Yes sir.
REV DICK JOHNSON: You do not miss the companionship of the women's camp
MARY BRANHAM: No sir, I have your company.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Yes.
MARY BRANHAM: And I can read the bible without being ridiculed sir.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Well that is gratifying to hear Mary but I am troubled by your
involvement in the play you are rehearsing with Lt. Clark. What is it called?
MARY BRANHAM: The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar.
REV DICK JOHNSON: I want you to stop rehearsing Branham.
MARY BRANHAM: Very well sir. I will tell Lieutenant Clark tomorrow, that I can no
longer be in the play.
REV DICK JOHNSON: You are a good and wise young woman, Mary, now kneel and we
will pray together.
Mary kneels before him as he places a hand on her head and begins to read a psalm.
Mary then excuses herself and moves off-the audience follow her


P a g e | 20

8-Mary's story
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You read well Branham and you have helped Smith to learn her part
well. Thank you.
MARY BRANHAM: Thank you Mr. Clark. I used to read on the Lady Penrhyn, to the other
women; magazines that were presents to Esther from Lieutenant Johnston.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You used to read to Esther Abrahams?
MARY BRANHAM: Yes sir.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Refresh my memory as to why you are here.
MARY BRANHAM: I stole clothing from my employer, sir
LT. RALPH CLARKE: And what was your employment?
MARY BRANHAM: I was sent at thirteen to be maid to a Mrs. Kennedy in Little Queen
Street.
(Goose and Duckling arrive; they sit in the shade and watch)
She had such clothes that I had never seen the quality of before or since and I stole two
petticoats, a pair of stays and four and one half yards of cloth and now I am punished for it by
seven years transport, sir.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Do you know Goose?
MARY BRANHAM: I only know she and Duckling are sisters.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Sisters, that is curious!
MARY BRANHAM: Well, not sisters in the ordinary sense, but sisters just the same.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: I think it curious nevertheless.
MARY BRANHAM: Duckling is a friend to me in the play but a puzzle to me in the flesh.


P a g e | 21

LT. RALPH CLARKE: And your family?
MARY BRANHAM: My father died when I was ten and my mother sought assistance from
the Quakers. They educated me and the consequence is that I do not fit the canting tongue or
have the same mind as those who were felons from babyhood. I am no better than they,
probably worse for having known better and still become a thief. I have repaid my Mother
miserably for her efforts to give me a good upbringing.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You mustn't flay yourself. Neither society, nor I demand that. You
have been placed in this distant place for your crime; you cannot give more in recompense
than this.
And, is your mother still with the Quakers?
MARY BRANHAM: When I sailed from the Thames, yes. I could say my crime confirmed
her imprisonment with the Quakers, just as it assured my transportation
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You do not like the Quakers?
MARY BRANHAM: I do not think I could be a Quaker. It seemed to me they were very
severe on ordinary joy! In any case, better or worse, the ones like Goose and Duckling I do
not understand and therefore cannot-since they choose it-be their friends. And you, Mr.
Clark?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Mr. Brewer is perhaps my truest friend?
MARY BRANHAM: No, forgive me, do you have family still in England?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Indeed, I have a wife, although sometimes I feel that we are as far
apart as the stars. She is too delicate for a voyage like this and she would not choose to
live . . .
MARY BRANHAM: I have spoken at terrible length Mr. Clarke. I beg your pardon.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Yes, yes, we are here to rehearse after all! We should perhaps
consider the parts of the play in which Silvia; that is you, is dressed as a man so that she may
enlist in Captain Plume's regiment to be near to him. You will need to adopt a male posture
and I can perhaps help you, if you are willing? I will read the part of Plume.

SILVIA: Let me beg you to lay aside your recruiting airs, put on the man of honour, and
tell me plainly what usage I must expect when I'm under your command?
PLUME: I find something so agreeable about you, that engages me to court your
company; and I can't tell how it is, but I should be uneasy to see you under the
command of anyone else. Your usage will chiefly depend upon your behaviour;
only this you


P a g e | 22

must expect, that if you commit a small fault, I will excuse it, if a great one,
I'll
discharge you; for something tells me I shall not be able to punish you.
(Goose and Duckling exit)
SILVIA: And something tells me that if you do discharge me 'twill be the greatest
punishment you can inflict; for were we this moment to go upon the greatest
dangers in your profession, they would be would be less terrible to me than to
stay behind you. And now your hand-this lists me, and now you are my captain.
(They become more intimate and enjoy each other's company as Ralph helps
Mary to adopt a masculine posture. Audience move as Captain Campbell calls)

9-The Ration Thief
CAPTAIN CAMPBELL: Mr Brewer! Mr Brewer!
(Harry runs to the beach)
This lag is drunk Mr. Brewer!
HARRY BREWER: What of it Captain Campbell?
CAPTAIN CAMPBELL: What of it? The Provost Marshall asks me what of it? He is drunk
on brandy and grown fat on butter, pork and peas stolen from the Hospital store Mr Brewer,
that is what of it!
You will hang! You will be the first Christian twisted in this awful place and when we leave,
as we will; you will rot unknown in a grave visited, from now until the first fart of doom, by
no-one but savages. And you a Papist! A Papist! Aren't you laddie? Answer me!
THOMAS BARRETT: I have to confess dear Captain that I am indeed of the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church.
CAPTAIN CAMPBELL: Some bastard in a bog in Ireland trained him to say that if he was
ever challenged by a filthy Presbyterian such as myself.
And what of your religion, Mr. Brewer? Or is that a veil that we should defer to lift while in
the muddy and heretic waters of this barbarous cove eh?
Now you are a believer aren't you laddie, in yon small hell called Purgatory from which you
can be delivered only by the prayers of the just?
Who will pray for the remission of your sins Thomas Barrett? Mr Brewer, will you pray for
the immortal soul of yon thieving Papist bastard?
HARRY BREWER: Not I.


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CAPTAIN CAMPBELL: Not I! Then who will, Barrett? The natives covered in fish oil? The
convicts who share the same debauched heresies as you, you pick-pocketing Irish pedlar, you
Romany pig! Who helped you Barrett, save your neck and tell me who helped you in your
heinous plot! Very well, you will talk soon enough. Mr Brewer, take him.
(Audience move)

10-Djinn

Mary Brenham as Silvia / Goose as Rose, they are rehearsing The Recruiting Officer

SILVIA: I have rested but indifferently and I believe my bedfellow was as little pleased.
Good morrow, my dear, how d'ye this morning?
ROSE: Just as I was last night, neither better nor worse for you
SILVIA: What's the matter. Did you not like your bedfellow?
GOOSE: I have a fellow who is in want of a bedding Mary Brenham.
MARY BRANHAM: Then you should please him yourself
GOOSE: But he 'as asked for you special and he is a fine cove.
MARY BRANHAM: Then he must ask in vain.
GOOSE: So you stole clothes?
SILVIA: Did I not lie with you?
GOOSE: From your mistress?
MARY BRANHAM: Yes, from my mistress!
GOOSE: There is something in you Mary, some streak of excess, and a great lust.
You can have any man you want and be rewarded for the pleasure. You have good features,
no pockmarks and that turned up nose has a delicate look that is most unlike a lag Mary.
MARY BRANHAM: If you will not rehearse the play, then I must go! (Mary exits)
GOOSE: But you have a tattoo on your arse, ha, ha, ha. Andrew Hilton, I love thee to the
grave!
MARY BRANHAM: What of it?
GOOSE: A pagan mark does not fit the story of the innocent fool you tell to those who will
listen. Was he your fence?
MARY BRANHAM: No, Yes . . .


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GOOSE: So you comes to London, working as a maid and then you meets him who is an
adder behind the sparkle of his face, am I right? Dark eyes and a treacle tongue, a smile
like . . .and a prick like a dagger! Give you gin did he? And then in one of them bad fevers he
gets you marked on your sweet little arse. For the sake of him, you go fumbling through the
mistress' wardrobes, handing him down the linen through the window. Then someone cries
beef and before you get down the stairs, he's gone and your brimstone and nabbed? That
about the shape of it?
MARY BRANHAM: About the shape.
GOOSE: The beak like your face? "Little Mary only thirteen and sweet as they come."
Seven years transported to parts across the seas!
MARY BRANHAM: What do you care?
GOOSE: You may catch an officer, but you won't catch him for long. Even though you say
it's not so; you are one of us. I can see it and so will he when he catches a look at that tattoo!
Think on that.
(Goose whistles for Duckling who comes running. They sit near a fire, the Chorus, Goose,
Mary and Duckling)
GOOSE: We are the children of the subtle and smokeless fire.
Chorus: gahan-ma nganku, ga-yu bore-yh gahan
GOOSE: As Adam was formed of earth so we are of the flame. We are the djinn.
We are creatures of free will.
Group 3: Born of the smokeless flame
GOOSE: They cannot know us, they cannot see into our world
Group1. The cross, the cross, the cross
Group 2: Thrown from the garden
Group 3: Hidden from sight
GOOSE: Because we would not worship him that is made of the earth!
Group 1: Nibulin ya-nggi nung gahan gajirri.
Group 2: A mouthful of lime or a mouthful of air . . .
Group 3: Ayyyyyyha, Twisting honours the Prince (tic)
GOOSE: Soon they will make a road in, a wryneck day to honour the Prince!
Group 1: achava (tic)


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Group 3: bitchado pardal (tic)
(chorus repeat into a frenzy) achava, achava, bitchado pardal
GOOSE: Transported, we remain servants of the crooked way! We are free spirits and we
live our way, the way of the cross! Remember the Lady Penrhyn? 101 women, 60 men in the
crew takes their lag wives and safe in their married beds. The rest of us? Every darkmans
how they came creeping, crawling, looking for buttock and file and offering no iron for their
pleasure and if you squeal for the bangdog that Jack Tar leaves you abrams and bleeding and
thinks no more of it. A floating hell it was for some. Well things are different now, oh now
we own them!
MARY BRANHAM: Why? We are not ill-treated, or at the mercy of every drunken ruffian,
as we were before when in England. When we rose in the morning we knew not where we
would lay our heads in the evening or if we would break our fast in the course of the day.
Banishment is a blessing to us. Have we not been banished for a long time and yet in our
native land? We dared not go to our relations whom we have disgraced. Other people would
shut their doors in our faces. We were as if a plague were upon us, hated and shunned.
DUCKLING SMITH: Men will pay for their pleasure with food and wine and we must eat
and drink! Can you not see that is who we are, wherever we are?
GOOSE: You think you are safe with that priest, that bawler? Perhaps you are sucking on the
milk of human kindness? He will take you for free, today, tomorrow, soon enough but he will
take you.
MARY BRANHAM: I will not service every man who calls on you Goose!
GOOSE: Then you are a pigeon and you will starve.

GOOSE: In Being's flood, in action's storm,
I work and weave--above, beneath,
Work and weave in endless motion
Birth and death, an infinite ocean
A seizing and giving
The fire of the living.
'Tis thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply
And weave for my Prince the garment thou seest Him by.

(Chorus repeat into a frenzy) achava, achava, bitchado pardal


P a g e | 26

They move around Mary who cannot see them, but feels their presence and backs away from
Goose and exits, as:)
GOOSE: I've seen you where you never were, and where you never will be
And yet within that very place, you can be seen by me.
For to tell what they do not know, is the art of the Romany.
When I call you will come!
(Audience move)

11-Whore's wedding


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DUCKLING SMITH: I do what I must. You know this. You have always known this. You
have your ways and I have mine.

HARRY BREWER: But your way demands you give yourself to any marine or lag she
favours and mine does not!

DUCKLING SMITH: No? Then you are free to come and go as you please? To choose
amongst those duties you are given? Then you are free to refuse the duty of hangman!

HARRY BREWER: You know I cannot do that!

DUCKLING SMITH: No more can I, Mr Provost Marshall the great Harry Brewer!

HARRY BREWER: I am not a whore commanded by a whore abbess!

DUCKLING SMITH: I think your fondness for whores is what bought you and me to this
pox-ridden star.

HARRY BREWER: Aye, and what saved you from twisting at Tyburn!

DUCKLING SMITH: I don't care. A mouthful of lime or a mouthful of air; is the same to
me.

HARRY BREWER: Why must I live with this? The dangers I have passed to keep you safe
and you
don't care if you live or die! I am once removed from a lag. A member of the same criminal
gang where you took your oath my girl!

DUCKLING SMITH: Do not flatter yourself Mr Amidships, you ran away to sea when you
took fright. You came to the game only through your love of the whores of St. Giles.

HARRY BREWER: St. Giles is another world away, we have passed through a mirror, fiery
and transforming and the past can be sieved away if you let it go! Why can you not forget the
past?
You will not go tonight! If I cannot beg, I will command!

DUCKLING SMITH: Listen to me Harry; you are no nubbing cove, you cannot see them
hang that is why you are twisted up inside; you know the day is coming and it cannot be
escaped.

HARRY BREWER: Do you care? Perhaps I am no more than meat, drink and a roof.

DUCKLING SMITH: Don't be foolish I like you well enough, better than any other.

HARRY BREWER: If you like me so well then keep from the women’s camp and from
Goose!

DUCKLING SMITH: I do what I must do.

HARRY BREWER: Stay with me, stay, you are my only true love. You are my flash girl.


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DUCKLING SMITH: No Mr Brewer, I am nobody’s girl.

12- Sleepwalker

(Ralph Clarke is alone near the sea-strand, he is on his knees and even though his eyes are
closed he is having what seems like a dialogue with another)
The Chorus of the Dead are watching with interest


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LT. RALPH CLARKE: Here you chickens!
Here you chickens!
Here you chickens!
Group 1: Boreyh-bore-yh ga-ya guk-ga-ma. (all sung/chanted)
Group 2: A dream, A dream, A dream, a dream he cannot wake!
Group 3: Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up, a dream he cannot wake!

(as Plume) Come hither pretty maid
(Enter Goose, taking up a position kneeling in front of him)
GOOSE: : Will you buy, sir?
PLUME Yes child, I will buy
Let me feel. Young and tender, you say?
GOOSE: As ever you tasted in your life sir (she kisses him)
(as Rose)
PLUME: Come, I must examine your basket to the bottom, my dear (he begins to undress
her)
ROSE: Nay, for that matter, put in your hand; (she guides his hand) Feel sir; I warrant my
wares as good as any in the market!
PLUME: And I will buy it all, child, were it ten times more!
(Goose stands and moves back into the chorus who are now laughing loudly at Ralph)
MARY BRANHAM: Mr Clark, Mr Clark!
(Ralph wakes and immediately stands)
MARY BRANHAM: I have come to rehearse Mr. Clark.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Yes, of course . . .
MARY BRANHAM: We'll begin, Mr. Clark.
MARY BRANHAM: (as Silvia in drag as a man) Plume! Do you know Captain Plume?
GOOSE: (as Rose) Yes, I do, oh, and he knows me! (she plays to the Chorus)
He took the very ribbands from his shirtsleeves and put 'em in my
shoes
I assure you, I can do anything with the Captain!
MARY BRANHAM: So! And pray, what do you expect from my captain?
GOOSE: Your captain? I expect sir! I expect-but he ordered me to tell nobody-(sotto voce-I
have tasted his mouth, this captain of yours, have you?) but suppose that he should promise
to marry me?


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MARY BRANHAM: You should have a care, my dear, men will promise anything
beforehand.
GOOSE: I know that but he promised to marry me-afterwards!
MARY BRANHAM: Afterwards? After what?
GOOSE: After I had sold him my chickens! I hope there is no harm in that? Lady Shit!!!!
(Goose and Mary fight)
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Leave her be, or I will call the Quarter guard and have you flogged!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You have been awfully treated Branham, Mary. You should rest
awhile in the shade until you recover your sensibilities.
MARY BRANHAM: No, Mr Clark, I am well enough to rehearse. May we practice Act IV,
Scene i?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: But Mary, Kable is at work, we have no Captain Plume!
MARY BRANHAM: Then you must read his part.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Very well.
PLUME: (Kisses her) 'Sdeath! There's something in this fellow charms me.
SILVIA: One favour I must beg-this affair will make some noise and I have some
friends that would censure my conduct if . . .
PLUME: Will you lodge at my quarters. You shall have a part of my bed.
SILVIA: Lie with a common soldier! Would you not rather lie with a common woman?
PLUME: No, faith, I'm not the rake the world imagines. I have an air of freedom which
people mistake for lewdness as they mistake formality for religion. The
world is a cheat. I hurt nobody but myself . . .
MARY BRANHAM: Do you believe that Mr. Clark? The world is a cheat?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Well, they are merely the words of a play, there is no truth in it only
what we put there.
MARY BRANHAM: The world is a cheat. The world is a baited trap Mr. Clark and we
U U

must keep to our path in it or we shall be made to suffer.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Do not distress yourself. Why are you troubled Mary?


P a g e | 31

MARY BRANHAM: I am always caught out. It seems to be a condition of my life that I
cannot do anything secret without being found out. May apologies Mr. Clark, may we try
again?
PLUME: (Kisses her) (Mary, kisses him in such a way that there can be no
misinterpretation of her intentions)
SILVIA: One favour I must beg-this affair will make some noise and I have some
friends that would censure my conduct if . . .
PLUME: Will you lodge at my quarters. You shall have a part of my bed.
MARY BRANHAM: Yes.
(Audience moves)

13- Heart
HARRY BREWER: How is my girl, Ralph?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: She has the manner, and no risqué lines Harry!
HARRY BREWER: But tell me the truth. She's good?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: She is excellent.
HARRY BREWER: Ralph, there is trouble.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: No man ever got to the Land of Promise without going through the
desert.
HARRY BREWER: What? Barrett has named three others. The gallows will bloom!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Who has he named?
HARRY BREWER: Baker and Dukes and the lag Branham.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Branham? Surely not, she is a most honest person.


P a g e | 32

HARRY BREWER: She is a lag Ralph! A pretty one 'tis true, but they are birds of a feather.
She is named and clapped to stand trial. Jemmy Campbell says he has a witness.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Who is the witness?
HARRY BREWER: Goose. She says she saw Branham take stolen goods from Handy Baker.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You believe her?
HARRY BREWER: It does not matter what I believe, there is evidence that I cannot
disavow.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: If it is the truth I will lose my Silvia.
HARRY BREWER: It is only a play, you must be philosophic, Ralph.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Philosophic! You should be philosophic when you see the ghosts of
the hanged!
HARRY BREWER: Do not speak of hanging further for it may come to pass that I must hang
a woman! I dream of it every night Ralph. I have a dread I cannot master even to fulfil my
post, and how can I live without wages and a post in life.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: But, Harry, there were such plans for the colony; it was to be a
liberal utopia.
HARRY BREWER: I must ask you a great favour Harry, says His Excellency. The ration
thieves must hang. Captain Collins will have it no other way; an example must be made.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: My old friend, I know your dread of it . . .
HARRY BREWER: To play your part he says (He places Ralph's hand inside his shirt over
his heart) you must stop a heart. Can you do it?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: But two of the prisoners are Marines, Privates Baker and Dukes and
there is the woman . . . Mary Brenham and this is not a true court, surely we cannot . . . ,
Captain Collins is not a Judge!
HARRY BREWER: Davy Collins is judge advocate Ralph. You know this!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Brenham is the victim of a grudge, she did nothing wrong!
HARRY BREWER: They must hang! Or we are all lost . . . Take this burden from me Harry.
Do not make me command you, he says. If not for His Excellency I would be without
position, but I cannot face the horror of it Ralph.
LT. RALPH CLARK: It may never come to that Harry!
HARRY BREWER: Stealing of rations is a twisting crime, you know this.
I cannot hang them that are no worse than me. I cannot countenance that. I cannot!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Be calm, Harry. Justice may be served by other means . . . .
HARRY BREWER: Will you stand me, my friend?


P a g e | 33

LT. RALPH CLARK: When?
HARRY BREWER: On gallows day.
LT. RALPH CLARK: Wait till it happens.
HARRY BREWER: It is coming. Will you stand by me?
LT. RALPH CLARK: I will support you, Harry, I promise.
HARRY BREWER: Take this burden from me.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Do you understand Harry?
HARRY BREWER: Get away! Ralph!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Do you understand? Answer me Provost Marshall!
HARRY BREWER: Get away from me!
(The physical tics of the chorus are in mockery of a hanged person's death throes)
Group 1: Twisting honours the Prince, the tawny, tawny prince!
HARRY BREWER: Get away from me!
Group 2: Menuny mamin mawu ga-yu-ma
Group 3: Can you stop a heart Harry?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Harry?
Harry's grabs Ralph by the wrist and holds it against his heart in a mock ceremony, a parody
of the raising of Lazarus.
HARRY BREWER: I cannot hang another being, I cannot do it!
Group 1: A dream, a dream, a dream, a dream you cannot wake!
Group 2: gahan-ma nganku, ga-yu bore-yh gahan.
Group 3: You are a famous seer of ghosts, you see us. You see us. Ha, Ha, Ha
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Harry, what are you doing?
HARRY BREWER: Duckling! Get away from me you devils, what do you want?
HARRY BREWER: Who are you speaking to?
Group 3: Twist and honour the Prince, twist and honour the Prince, the tawny, tawny prince
HARRY BREWER: Duckling! For the woman is the crown of man,
She is the nearest to the throne of God, and walks clothed with the sun.


P a g e | 34

Group 2: Can you stop a heart, Harry? Can you stop a heart, Harry?
Group 3: Twist and honour the Prince, twist and honour the Prince, the tawny, tawny prince
Group 1: Can you stop a heart, stop a heart, stop a heart,
CHORUS: CAN YOU STOP A HEART HARRY!
HARRY BREWER: O Mother of God, Duckling!
(Harry begins searching for Duckling amongst the Dead, staring into their faces, grabbing
and discarding them each in turn as he looks at them they speak:)

Chorus: I Harry Brewer do swear . . .
You see us . . .
Guard the secrets of the brethren . . .
Toor-a-loora lassie, sing toor-a-loora day
You see us . . .
Twisting honours the Prince . . .
She is earning her winnings elsewhere, Harry!
Buttock and file, buttock and file, she serves a different master

Group 2: Mamin mawu ga-yu-ma
Group 3: This is the bitch that will get Harry!
Three women (chorus): You swore Mr. Brewer.
You took an oath Mr Brewer!
CHORUS: A Thief, a Thief, a Thief I’ll be,
There’s none leads a life more jocund than he
A Canter my Father, that cared not for Pelf,
A Lifter my Mother, and a Thief myself;
In white wheaten Straw, when their Bellies were full,
Then was I got between Tinker and Trull.

HARRY BREWER: Duckling! Duckling!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Smith, why don't you answer Harry? Harry!
DUCKLING SMITH: He cannot hear or see you Mr. Clark, he sees only the Dead now!
Three women (chorus): What's the matter Mr. Brewer, can't you keep your whore at
home.

Chorus: achava, achava, bitchado pardal (repeat)

(Duckling is on the other side of the chorus, as Harry moves towards her, the chorus move in
such a way that Harry and Duckling are separated further. The chorus part and Handy
Baker is holding and caressing Duckling's body. He is behind her possessing/fucking her? As
Harry rushes at them
The chorus of the Dead close on him, surround him and beat him to the ground. Duckling
moves further away from him and he follows but the Dead get in the way and she runs
towards the wooded area, Harry follows)

Audience move across the beach


P a g e | 35

14-Thrown Out


P a g e | 36

15-Goose Magic
(Goose is drunk, drums are playing and she sing/speaks with the Dead who sing (italics)
GOOSE:
The sun is high up in the sky and I smell the fear
Sinking down into this abattoir
Do you see what I see? (yimbama)
Do you see what I see?
The air grows heavy. I can hear your breath
Entwined together in this culture of death
Does it make you feel afraid? (hahn)
Everything's dissolving according to the plan (yimbama) (hahn)
The sky is on fire, the dead are heaped across this land (yimbama) (hahn)
Do you feel what I feel? (yimbama)
Do you see what I see?
Mass extinction and hypocrisy
These things have always meant to be
Do you see what I see? (hahn)
I wake with the dead and I hear their song (yimbama) (hahn)
So now you come to tell me why I must be wrong but (yimbama) (hahn)
I hear the song of the abattoir (yimbama)
I hear the song of the abattoir (hahn)
I hear the song of the abattoir (yimbama)


P a g e | 37

I hear the song of the abattoir (hahn)
MARY BRANHAM: But you are no better than those who send us here. You seek to profit
by our distress and loneliness. I have found some way of making the pain of separation from
all I knew and loved a little less sharp and now you seek to take me from even this small life I
have. Do you understand what you have done?
GOOSE: I understand my business! Know this Mary Branham that I was born a gypsy and
bred among that crew till I was ten year old. There I learned canting and lying; I was bought
from my mother Cleopatra by a certain nobleman for three pistols, who liking my beauty
made me his page, there I learned impudence and pimping; I was turned off for wearing my
lady's linen and drinking my lord's ratafia; and then I turned camp follower, there I learned
bullying, swearing and drinking. I at last became a forest dweller and there I learned to whore
myself. So, Mary Branham, if you please to cast up the whole sum; canting, lying, bullying,
pimping, swearing, drinking and whoring you will find the sum total will amount to Goose.
What else did you expect girl? Ha, ha, ha.
MARY BRANHAM: I want to be clean. . .
GOOSE: You imagine the compass of far flung oceans will wash your soul clean? Run back
to your priest and polish his holy book, ha, ha, ha! Whoring is what transported you and it
will do so again. Oh I know you do not call it that but it amounts to the same thing; a frock, a
shawl, a length of cloth, a little flour, you wear the badge of a bawd on your grimy arse ha,
ha, ha
MARY BRANHAM: I try only to survive!
GOOSE: We all seek survival, in our own ways. You are a child, a being used to impulsive
action and little wisdom, that is why you are here, is it not? How this great space calls to us.
You know its power. (to Duckling)You would flee if it were not for the oath you swore as
child.
MARY BRANHAM: But I swore no oath! I will escape this camp and you and yet I will not
run!
GOOSE: Who will be your saviour this time? Mr. Clark? Yes I know you are tilting at him
you poor fool. Hast thou the vanity to imagine that a young sprightly officer that has rambled
'oer half the globe will confine his thoughts to a lag bawd in this arse-end of the world?
MARY BRANHAM: Pshaw! What care I for his thoughts? I should not like a man with
confined thoughts; it shows a narrowness of soul. Constancy is but a dull, sleepy quality at
best, they will hardly admit it among the manly virtues; nor do I think it deserves a place with
bravery, knowledge, policy, justice and other qualities that are proper to that noble sex.


P a g e | 38

GOOSE: Well spoken Mary, perhaps your playmaking will keep you near your captain? But
a little air and exercise amongst the trees with the cat will teach you and remind you that
Goose is the abbess here not Mary Branham, the thief and officer's whore!
MARY BRANHAM: You are jealous. That is the truth. You try to keep us here only to keep
your own place. You are a slave. I pity you. (exit Mary Branham)
GOOSE: Do not seek it in return!
(Audience Move)


P a g e | 39

16-The Bargain

Harry lies on the floor following his beating from Baker .
Goose stands watching him

GOOSE: A foolish man who tries to stop Handy Baker. He is a runaway coach and four.
I’d take no vengeance on him if I were you Mr Brewer. If you are patient
you will see Handy Baker suffer, he has always gone to the trouble of
arranging
punishment for himself. He sent for Duckling, he knows she’s clean and in
good health. As do others. Duckling earns me many favours.

HARRY BREWER: You will not send for her again, do you hear me. She belongs to me. I
warn you if call her again I will bring everything down on you.

GOOSE: And I warn you Mr. Brewer I am the Flash Queen. He who tries to put the
wind up my skirts finds vipers beneath. You give her gifts of flour and sips of
rum. Good for you Harry Brewer. It might keep a wife in a cottage. It won’t
keep Duckling in your bed when her Dimber Damber calls.

HARRY BREWER: We are no longer in St. Giles, you are no Queen here!

GOOSE: That is true. Here we are stronger. The need is greater and the price higher!
And you are a bigger fool! But I think we could come to an arrangement Mr
Brewer. You can keep your Duckling.

HARRY BREWER: I can keep her can I? I have the Queens blessing do I?

GOOSE: I will tell those who come to buy your Duckling they must ask for someone
else.

HARRY BREWER: Oh thank you, my sweet abbess. May you piss pure cream. What do
you want in return?

GOOSE: You will speak well of me.

HARRY BREWER: I could not speak well of you.

GOOSE: Then don’t speak badly of me for if you do I will hear of it and then I will take
your little Duck

HARRY BREWER: That is all? Very well If others say you’re evil I will say you are
mischievous,
if they speak poorly of you I will improve your reputation in a small
way.

GOOSE: And one more thing. You know that soon the gallows will bloom.


P a g e | 40

HARRY BREWER: I know.

GOOSE: You must promise me this Provost Marshall.
When my friends come into your hands then you must help them to die hard.

HARRY BREWER: Friends like Handy Baker and the other ration thieves; poor Mary
Branham?

GOOSE: Branham will not hang. My memory of her part in the theft will fail me. I will
only
remind Captain Campbell that she failed to report a crime. But I cannot save
the others. You must do my work Mr. Brewer.
HARRY BREWER: I do your work?

GOOSE: Or your Duckling will be fucked by every pox-ridden lag in the camp and
Branham will die! I will do it Mr. Brewer!

HARRY BREWER: I know of no tricks to spare them that must hang.

GOOSE: There are further mercies than a hangman’s knot. (Goose gives Harry a vial)
Prussian Blue. Put this in their mouth before the rope makes them bite down
and their end will be swift.

A moment of understanding passes between them as Duckling appears.

HARRY BREWER: I have been to many hangings at Tyburn I have seen close up, the
screaming and the pissing and the choking.

GOOSE: Put the glass phial in their mouth and there will be no choking.

HARRY BREWER: So this is how the favoured may die hard and put on a show of bravery.
and honour the Tawny Prince!

GOOSE: Are we agreed Mr Brewer?

HARRY BREWER: We are agreed.

17- Two Promises
DUCKLING SMITH: Help me to learn my lines.


P a g e | 41

MARY BRANHAM: I have no helping left in me.
DUCKLING SMITH: 'Tis the greatest misfortune in nature for a woman to want a
confidante:
(As Melinda) We are so weak that we can do nothing without assistance, and then a secret
racks us worse than colic! I'm at this minute so sick of a secret that I'm ready to faint
away. Help me, Lucy.
MARY BRANHAM: Bless me madam, what's the matter?
(As Lucy)
MELINDA: Vapours only-if Silvia were in town, I could heartily forgive her faults for the
ease of discovering my own.
LUCY: You're thoughtful madam, am I not worthy to know the cause?
MELINDA: You're a servant, and a secret would make you saucy.
(But please do as Goose bids you)
MARY BRANHAM: I will not do as you do.
DUCKLING SMITH: Then why don't you run?
MARY BRANHAM: Where can I run?
DUCKLING SMITH: Run or be flogged, run or do as Goose bids Mary.
MARY BRANHAM: What do you care? It is you who have accused me of taking rations
from Baker and Barrett!
DUCKLING SMITH: Not I Mary!
MARY BRANHAM: You will tell the same lie if Goose bids you.
DUCKLING SMITH: I do not always do as she bids!
MARY BRANHAM: No?
DUCKLING SMITH: I don't always like being tied to that Goose.
MARY BRANHAM: Strikes me you do.
DUCKLING SMITH: No
MARY BRANHAM: In this heathen world some say there are different gods, how can an
oath made in England mean anything here?
DUCKLING SMITH: Maybe it don't. Harry tells me all the time it don't, he never leaves me
alone about it. If the oaths don't work here, there must be something different then?
MARY BRANHAM: We must make different oaths and different promises?
DUCKLING SMITH: I don't know. Perhaps. I know I must eat and drink.
MARY BRANHAM: Perhaps I will ask Mr. Clark to send you to Norfolk Island then you
will escape from Goose and choose different friends.


P a g e | 42

DUCKLING SMITH: I like the friends I got here. I like you Mary.
MARY BRANHAM: I will not do as Goose bids me, Duckling.
DUCKLING SMITH: Harry says you will not be hanged, but flogged.
(Audience move)

15-Flogging
(Mary is tied to a tree and is being flogged. Goose, Harry, Duckling and Ralph are watching)
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Carry her to my quarters, as gently as you can.
(Duckling washes the wounds of the prone Mary as Ralph talks)
MARY BRANHAM: (screams) Why did you not take my part?


P a g e | 43

LT. RALPH CLARKE: I ask you to keep in mind the play, to cling to the play as the thing
that will give you your spirit back. I ask you to do this for me and your fellow players.
MARY BRANHAM: I am torn asunder, I am broken!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: George Farquhar wrote The Recruiting Officer in great hardship and
within a short time of the plays first performance he had to sell his commission in the
Grenadiers just to get money to live. He died soon after.
What I wish to tell you Mistress Branham, is that of all the roles this great young man wrote,
the one he was most attached to was that of Silvia. She was a brave girl who dressed in men's
clothing to achieve a brave end; no other character could match Silvia. When George
Farquhar was a young man he visited The Mitre Tavern in St. James's market and heard a
young woman reading some passages from a play. Her name was Anne Oldfield and she was
the woman he had in his mind when he wrote the character of Silvia. No one else would do to
act the part but her. She was the first Silvia.
What I wish to tell you is, as Anne Oldfield was Farquhar's essential Silvia, you are mine
Mary. No other woman among the convicts could ever be adequate as Silvia for it needs a
certain quietness of spirit combined with courage, forthrightness and a good head. And as I so
badly need and admire your acting, I also admire you as a woman and as Farquhar was so
attached to his Silvia, then I am to mine and I will do anything to restore your soul after this
sad punishment.
MARY BRANHAM: I, Silvia, Mary, trusted in a man and was let down. That is my history
and this is my pain.

Audience Move

16-Concubinage
REV DICK JOHNSON: Ralph, Good day to you. You know I think the reason for my call?
Once again I must ask you to abandon this play. Its influence is pernicious and damaging to
morale.

LT. RALPH CLARKE: I disagree with your views absolutely Dick!
REV DICK JOHNSON: But you cannot disagree that since beginning this play, Branham has
left my service and thrown her salvation away in pursuit of nothing more than a mere


P a g e | 44

comedy! Was that your plan? Did you use my household as a refuge for your concubine until
you had prepared for her in your own? I had the right to expect something less arch
Lieutenant Clark!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: I will not abandon the play and I will not geld the tragedy for the
sake of the convict population!
REV DICK JOHNSON: Branham's recent crime and punishment are entirely due to the
dreadful influence of your playmaking. The evidence is tangible and the results incarnate,
incarnate Ralph!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: The play is not to blame Dick, please take hold of yourself!
REV DICK JOHNSON: In a felon colony where everything, even the land itself, is set
against the Lord and his priest, I had counted on you as an ally. It is clear that I no longer
can!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: I will not give in to you Dick, no matter how often you demand it!
REV DICK JOHNSON: Then it means you cannot expect to enjoy Communion in your own
household!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Do not bully me with the Sacraments of Christ, Dick!
REV DICK JOHNSON: This matter is important enough as to preclude any future intimacy
between us Ralph! I cannot enter a house of sin!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: You need not trouble your conscience Dick, Mary has not moved in
to my household, she fights to regain her health in the women's camp.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Perhaps she has experienced redemption at last it seems!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Perhaps we have travelled too far from the loyalty and warmth of our
English marriages. I wish it were not so. I will honour my English marriage, Dick. Had she
accepted me I also would have honoured what you may choose to call my arrangement with
Mary Branham even if you denounce it. My punishment it seems has not been commuted to
your judgment, Dick. She will not have me!
REV DICK JOHNSON: Oh the truth! No moral duty would have kept you from devoting
yourself entirely to concubinage. Only the rejection by your strumpet saves you!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: I am not satanic nor am I hell bent on disappointing you, Dick. It is
only that I have a clearer understanding of what is possible with human flesh and what is not!
REV DICK JOHNSON: Get thee behind me! There are always high sounding arguments for
sin. Satan himself is a lawyer. The commandments are not transmuted at the equator. That
excuse will not save you from the lick of hell!
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Are you sure Dick, that living in your household as she did, Mary
Branham did not prove too much of a temptation even for you?
REV DICK JOHNSON: How dare you! Do not use the possible crimes of one man to ease
the conscience of another! I come to counsel you against the play and you implicate me in
your own crimes. Shame on you and God save you Ralph!


P a g e | 45

17-Hanging
(Three men, Thomas Barrett, Handy Baker and Private Dukes are standing with ropes
around their necks and the trailing end falling behind them.
Three others stand behind them. Harry Brewer is standing nearby, speaking to each man in
turn, Ralph and Dick are some distance away and facing them at some distance again are
Goose and the chorus)

LT. RALPH CLARKE: Harry Brewer is beset by spirits and a madness I cannot fathom.


P a g e | 46

REV DICK JOHNSON: Is it surprising Ralph? Has there been since the Babylonia a place
like this?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Probably not. His convict girl tells me he is sinking deeper into
madness by the day.
REV DICK JOHNSON: Must I sanctify more of these debauched arrangements with my
presence?
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Harry is not fornicating with her, he keeps her close for fear of being
alone. Come Dick, be an honest friend!
http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/EnglishPrayerBook/EPB_Burial.htm
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head
with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the
house of the LORD for ever.

CHORUS: Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley , sage , rosemary and thyme ,
H H H H H H H

Remember me to one who lives there,
For she once was a true love of mine.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
H H

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without any seam nor needlework,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Ask him to find me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the salt water and the sea-strand,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

HANDY BAKER: Kiss my arse Mr. Brewer, and kiss your whore's grimy arse for me!
CHORUS: Cheer!


P a g e | 47

(The three are hanged. They fall to their knees and drop their heads. The ropes are held up
behind their backs)
Audience are moved

18-Forgiveness

REV DICK JOHNSON: I am told that you are troubled by spirits Mr. Brewer?
HARRY BREWER: Oh, Jesus, I have always seen the bastards, it doesn't matter.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: Duckling is frightened for you, so am I and so is Dick.
HARRY BREWER: Are you here on behalf of that deity who damns the oldest midshipman
in the fucking Royal Navy for lying joylessly beside a ruined child? Duckling, do you tell the
playmaker here that the old man is gone mad? You aren't my favourite girl!
REV DICK JOHNSON: I did not impose the Commandments on humankind, Harry.
HARRY BREWER: No, but you would have enjoyed it. No doubt you will run to Major
Ross and tell him that I see spirits. I have no income other than from this post, and you two
with your terrible kindness will do me out of it! You must swear you will not speak of this!
REV DICK JOHNSON: I do not take oaths lightly, but you have my promise.
LT. RALPH CLARKE: And mine.


P a g e | 48

HARRY BREWER: Thank you. I am not a godless person. I know you cannot countenance
my attachment to this girl but I am not blind to the graciousness and hope which religion
lends to our culpable lives and I ask you what manner of life she'd be leading now, over in
the women's camp if it were not for me?
REV DICK JOHNSON: Harry, I would tell you otherwise if I was able, but it does not do to
argue the good effect of an act which, by its nature, is sinful!
HARRY BREWER: I do not need philosophy! I am one footed in the shoe of a hangman and
the other foot in the land of the dead, and I am hopelessly alone!
CHORUS:
Group 1: Twisting honours the Prince, the tawny, tawny prince!
HARRY BREWER: Ahhhhhh! Get away from me!
HARRY BREWER: Jesus, deliver me as I am!
Group 3: bitchado pardal (tic) repeat.
REV DICK JOHNSON: I adjure you, spirit of Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord to
return to the pit whence you came. . .
HARRY BREWER: Duckling!
(Harry falls to his knees and Duckling embraces kneels in front of him, holding him tightly
and covering his head protectively)
DUCKLING SMITH: Leave him alone you dead and living. I forgive you Harry, do you hear
me Harry Brewer, you are forgiven!


P a g e | 49

19- Death

Rehearsal of Men/ Goose's death?

20-Life
Ending


P a g e | 50

Come, all you gallant poachers,
That ramble free from care,
That walk out of a moonlight night,
With your dog, your gun, and snare;
Where the lusty hare and pheasant
You capture every day,
Not thinking that your last career
Will be in Botany Bay

Oh! when we sailed from England
We landed at the bay,
We had rotten straw for bedding;
We dared not to say nay.
Our cots were fenced with fire,
(we slumber when we may,)
To drive away the wolves and bears
That live in Botany Bay.

Oh! when that we were landed
Upon that fatal shore,
The soldiers they came flocking round,
Full twenty score or more;
They ranked us up like horses,
And chained us not to stray,
They yoked us to the plough, my boys,
To plough up Botany Bay.

Oh! oft when I am slumbering,
I have a pleasant dream:
With my sweet girl I am sitting,
Down by some purling stream,
Through England I am roaming,
With her I'll always stay,
Then waken, broken-hearted,
Here in Botany Bay.

God bless our wives and families,
Likewise that happy shore,
That isle of sweet contentment
Which we shall see no more.
As for our wretched females,
Goodbye to them we say,
There are twenty men to a woman


P a g e | 51

Here in Botany Bay.

Come all you gallant poachers,
one day you will be free
Your body they will witness there
Hanged from that gallows tree
No more of hardships to endure
Forever you may play
You'll find eternal rest when you
Escape from Botany Bay


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