Country Girls

  Edna O’Brien

  The Country Girls

  adapted for the stage by the author

  Contents

  Title Page

  Characters

  Act One

  Act Two

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Characters

  Kate

  Baba

  Mr Gentleman

  Mother

  Father

  Thady

  Miss Moriarty

  Hickey

  Martha

  Molly

  Mr Brennan

  Simpleton

  Sister Immaculata

  Cynthia

  Sister Mary

  Lay Nun

  Priest

  Singing Woman

  Young Boy

  Joanna

  Gustav

  Mrs Burns

  Messenger Boy

  Harry

  Reg

  Mrs Gentleman

  Hobo

  Busker

  Dolly

  Tall Man

  Innocent Man

  The Body

  Girls, Women

  The play is not intended to be performed realistically

  Actors play several parts, sometimes donning their new robes and their new roles in view of all

  The parts which cannot be doubled are Kate, Baba and Mr Gentleman

  THE COUNTRY GIRLS

  The Time

  1950s

  The Place

  A parish in the West of Ireland, then Dublin

  Act One

  Night. Dark blue light.

  Picture of a ship on back screen with HIBERNIA in gold lettering.

  Three steps at rear of stage leading to higher area.

  Various props for the play are, as yet, invisible in the dark, but they include a melodeon, a bunch of wild flowers and grasses, a folded feather Christmas tree, several candles in iron sconces of different sizes, a statue of the Infant of Prague, a photograph of Kate’s mother, a bucket of water, a clothes horse and chairs hanging on nails on the wall.

  Kate, a young girl in a navy gym frock, is standing with arms outstretched, eyes closed. She is dreaming.

  From opposite sides of the stage, two people enter – Kate’s Mother in black satin nightgown. Mr Gentleman in long, navy nap coat.

  The characters as they appear in Kate’s dream are unaware of each other.

  Mr Gentleman Kate … are you coming?

  Kate Yes. Yes. Where are we going?

  Mr Gentleman Where do you want to go?

  Kate Where we went before … to Cluaintarb, Clontarf, the Fort of the Bull. (Half in, half out of her dream.) The sea was so still, the water just, lapping … You said why don’t you say something and I said it’s because I am so happy, there’s no need to say anything when you’re happy.

  Mr Gentleman Wasn’t there snow …

  Kate That was a different time … when we went to Limerick and it started to snow … on the way home.

  Mr Gentleman goes.

  (To audience.) Mr Gentleman lived in the white house … on the hill. It had turret windows and an oak door … They kept to themselves. He worked as a barrister in Dublin and came home at weekends. In summertime he sailed his houseboat all along the Shannon River.

  Mother Caithleen … Caithleen.

  Kate Dada didn’t come.

  Mother No.

  Kate Will he come today?

  Mother I heard the banshee.

  Kate I didn’t.

  Mother It means someone is about to die.

  Kate That would be Thady’s mother … She’s a bag of bones, she only eats carrageen moss.

  Mother The strange thing is, the voice was beautiful but the song was lonesome.

  Mother goes.

  Repeated ring of a bicycle bell as Baba cycles in on her pink-witch bicycle, singing lustily. That brings Kate awake.

  Baba

  She’ll be coming down the mountain

  When she comes

  When she comes

  She’ll be wearing silk pyjamas

  When she comes

  Singing oy oy yippee yippee oy

  Oy oy yippee yippee oy

  She’ll be wearing silk pyjamas

  When she comes

  When she comes …

  Over the song, Kate puts on her school satchel and picks up a woollen scarf and a bunch of country flowers.

  She walks towards the clothes line, which has a sheet hanging on it. Baba cycles past her brazenly.

  You’re like a bloody eskimo with that scarf.

  Kate’s Mother in wrap-around apron walks towards the clothes line with a basin of clothes that she starts to hang.

  Kate kisses her mother through the sheet and their conversation is played as they walk in and out under that sheet.

  Kate (proffering the flowers) Smell.

  Mother They say lilac is unlucky in the house.

  Kate That’s the white lilac, not the purple.

  Mother Put on your scarf.

  Kate It’s sunny.

  Mother Put it on … You could get a relapse.

  Kate reluctantly puts on the scarf.

  Where did you find all the flowers?

  Kate In the woods … but I took a little bit of lilac from the garden. Will you meet me after school?

  Mother Yes, darling. I’ll be down at the gate calling hens … They’re laying out like crazy … pure divilment in them … real wanderers. (Urgent.) Say a prayer that he’ll come home sober.

  Kate goes.

  Baba cycles back up and grabs a pyjama bottom from the clothes line, still singing.

  Baba

  Oy yoy yippee yippee yoy

  She’ll be wearing silk pyjamas

  When she comes … when she comes …

  Mother (shouting) Baba Brennan, put that garment back.

  Baba (coy) Oh Mrs Brady, aren’t you the great woman to have your washing done and a fine soft morning that’s in it and the birds and the bees agog.

  Mother (cutting in) Put it back, I said.

  Baba flings the pyjamas on to the line.

  Baba By the way, Mummy says to tell you she hasn’t forgotten that she’s going to ask you over for afternoon tea … The drawing room is being redecorated and she doesn’t want you subjected to that smell – it’s the paste for the wallpaper, quite foul.

  Baba cycles off even more recklessly.

  Mother Afternoon tea! I’ve been hearing that for God knows how long.

  Baba catches up with Kate.

  Kate What soap are you using, Baba? It smells like roses.

  Baba How would you know? You don’t even wash in that bathroom of yers … bowls of water on the kitchen table and an old face cloth cut up from rags.

  Kate (defensive) We have a guest room.

  Baba Jesus, ye have, and there’s oats in it. Did yer old fella come home?

  Kate No.

  Baba (boisterous) Oh, he’s on the batter.

  Kate Don’t say that.

  Baba grabs the flowers and puts them in her bicycle basket.

  Kate I got them for Miss Moriarty.

  Baba (as she cycles off) You’re a right-looking eejit.

  Kate is met by Thady, who is holding a scythe. He is in his shirtsleeves, peaked cap and old greasy trousers. He sees himself as a bard in voice and gesture. Kate is trying to get away from him.

  Thady Caith-leen … daughter of Houlihan.

  Kate Hello, Thady … are you not in your pub?

  Thady In the bosom of nature … disposing of thistle and ragwort.

  Kate … Oh that’s grand.

  As she walks he follows.

  Thady Your dear mother, clad in her wonder, handbag and shoes of the lizard fraternity, ext
remely thin ankles as she alighted from the bridal carriage. (More rational.) How is your dear mother on this sultry morning? … Your dad not come home?

  Kate (over-quickly) He had business in Nenagh.

  Thady My little taverna is making ripples. Local T.D. pops in whenever he’s nigh, Dublin crowd last weekend, drinking till the small hours, malt and the odd biscuit to soak it up … very famous heart surgeon interested in the history of our little townland that yours truly is penning.

  Kate I know, you told me.

  Thady Jocular chap, contends that daily brush with death sharpens zest for life.

  Kate I better be getting on, Thady … Miss Moriarty would belt me if I was late.

  Thady Too highly strung … runs in that family. Your mother coming thisaway?

  Kate She might … there’s hens laying out … divils.

  Thady Clad in her wonder … I have a few little keepsakes she might enjoy … heirlooms, belonged to Mother and dear Aunt Agatha – an amber brooch that glimmers when shaken, when still a mere amber, but when shaken … bursts.

  Kate (calling back as she points in the distance) Is that the graves of the Leinster men over there?

  Thady watches her go, his voice now angry, rapid, the words disjointed.

  Thady What about the graves of the Ulster men and the Connaught men and the Munster men … Bachelors, beware of youth’s dream. It rusts, it rots, it warps, it wilts, it weeps … Unsilent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy waters.

  Light fades on him.

  Kate walks into the classroom and is met by Miss Moriarty, distraite, unkempt hair, grey lisle stockings not drawn up tightly enough, holding the flowers.

  Miss Moriarty We have news to be proud of … our school has made a name for itself because our prize pupil has swept all Ireland before her.

  Baba Who, who?

  Miss Moriarty (to Kate) You, Kate, have made the annals, you are one of two girls to have won a scholarship and so secured for yourself a coveted convent education.

  Kate Gosh.

  Miss Moriarty Oh yes, I schooled you in the works of our bards. (Getting carried away.) ‘O Dun-dalgan, Dun-dalgan, thou city of my sires, my own city, how red now are thy consuming flames; but on the other march there shall be a red eric for thy destruction, when the Boyne shall receive the hosts of that bitter and relentless queen –

  She gestures Kate to join her and together they finish the recitation.

  – and their horses shall trample down their footmen, and mariners out in the Murinet will wonder at the ruddy tide which those sacred waters will roll down to the sea.’

  Baba (interrupting) Where will she be going?

  Miss Moriarty I am recommending that she go to St Enda’s … they have a great record with exceptional pupils.

  Girl Can we have the day off, Miss?

  Miss Moriarty Certainly not.

  Girls (together, in Gaelic) Séad séad séad séad séad.

  The Girls shout her down and then spontaneously begin a song in Gaelic, which also involves a hand-clapping game. The song is broken up between the snippets of conversation.

  Beidh aonach amarach I gcontae an Chlair

  Cen mhaith dom e, ni bheidh me ann!

  Curfa:

  Is a mhaithrin,

  A ligfir chun an aonagh me?

  A mhuirnin, O

  Na heiligh e!

  Rachaidh me a ’bailiu leat caora is cno,

  Is bearfamid ahaile lan an chiseain mhoir.

  Bhearfaidh me cnuasach chugat on tra

  Crubain, creanach, duileasc brea.

  Cuirfidh me an t-iorna ar an chrois

  Is bogfaidh me an cliabhan le mo chois.

  B’fhearr liom fein mo ghreasai brog,

  Na oifigeach airm fen a lasa I oir.

  Nil tu a deich na a haon deag fos,

  Ach a bheas tu tri-deag, beidh tum or.

  Baba I’m going to St Enda’s too. Daddy has it all fixed. We’re paying of course … it’s nicer when you pay.

  Kate Liar.

  Baba I’ll have my own cubicle … you’ll be in an open dormitory with the riff-raff.

  They break away from each other and Baba runs off singing the Irish song lustily.

  Miss Moriarty starts another of her recitations but the light goes down on her. The recitation is carried over Kate’s walk.

  Miss Moriarty (voice, off)

  Did they dare, did they dare to slay Owen Roe O’Neill?

  Yes, they slew with poison him they feared to meet with steel …

  May God wither up their hearts, may their blood cease to flow …

  May they walk in living death, who poisoned Owen Roe.

  Kate almost tramples on Hickey, the young workman, who is having a doze, his cap over his face. He is about twenty and sits up, sleepy-looking, hair tousled.

  Hickey Dotey … darling … honeybunch … you gave me a fright.

  Kate Why aren’t you in the bog?

  Hickey I brought home two creels of turf already.

  Kate I got a scholarship, I’ll be going to St Enda’s in September … Mama will be glad.

  Hickey She’s gone to her mother’s.

  Kate Why?

  Hickey He came home staggering … the hat back on the head … angling for a fight. He wanted money, she refused, he began to get rough … I was in the dairy, I could hear it all, she saying she wouldn’t, she just would not and in the end she walked across and took the money from the tea caddy and off he went. It was for the rates. She’s gone to her mother’s to borrow more … you’re to stay the night with Baba.

  Hickey goes to leave.

  Kate I don’t want to stay with Baba … You’ll mind me, Hickey … we’re friends.

  Hickey I can’t mind you … I have to carry this place on my shoulders … I can’t sit at the end of the kitchen table minding you.

  Kate goes up the steps to the inner room and picks up a nightgown and hairbrush, which she puts in her school satchel for her overnight stay with Baba. To one side is a jewellery casket.

  Baba enters whistling, opens the casket and takes out necklaces and bracelets, which she dons, preening.

  Kate I’m to stay with you.

  Baba Hope you haven’t lice or scabies.

  Kate No, I haven’t.

  Baba (lifting Kate’s hair both jealously and roughly) If you had lice in that hair you couldn’t stay … I can’t have crawlies all over my pillow … crawlies carry you off to the lake. We’ll have to douche you with paraffin oil. (Dangling a rope necklace and rings.) These will do for your keep.

  Kate They can’t … they’re Mama’s.

  Baba (mimicking) ‘They can’t … they’re Mama’s.’

  Kate’s Father on the bottom step, drunk, vexed, his hat pulled back on his head.

  Father All quiet in the castle. Where’s your mother?

  Kate I don’t know.

  Father Answer my question.

  Kate I don’t know.

  Baba tries to squeeze her way past him but he blocks her.

  Baba tries to squeeze her way past him but he blocks her.

  Father (to Kate) Who are you packing them things for?

  Baba She’s to stay with us.

  Father She is not … She’s staying here to look after her father.

  Baba There is someone coming to cook the dinner … Mrs Miles from the cottages … as a matter of fact we have to go down there now and tell her to come up here immediately and get it on.

  She pulls Kate and they squeeze past him and run out.

  Father Come back here.

  Baba Jesus, he’s blotto.

  Father Come back here.

  Light on Martha, Baba’s mother, sitting on the chaise doing her nails. She has a cuticle set, a bottle of nail polish. Her actions are affected. The Girls come running in, breathless.

  Baba Jesus, her aul fella attacked us … We’re lucky to have escaped.

  Martha Hello, Kate.

  Kate Hello, Mrs Brennan … (Clumsy.) I’m sorry to be a nui
sance.

  Martha I like visitors … it puts my hubby in a good mood.

  Baba I’m starving … Where’s that dope, Molly?

  Molly (offstage) I heard you … It is a worm you have in you … an’ no manners.

  Molly comes on with a Pyrex bowl of trifle and two spoons. Baba nabs it.

  Martha Give Kate some.

  Baba She doesn’t eat trifle, she’s fasting.

  Martha She shouldn’t. (To Kate.) You’re very thin. (She dons a shawl that is on the back of the chaise.) I’m taking you girls to a show … a treat. I believe Kate has won a scholarship. Congratulations, love.

  Baba (fixing the shawl) Those actresses don’t hold a candle to you, Mummy … You could have had a career on stage or screen … instead you marry Mr Grump.

  Martha stands and wraps her shawl around herself very affectedly.

  Who’ll be there?

  Martha A few people of note and the plebs.

  Baba Will old heart-throb be there?

  Martha Meaning …

  Baba Old Gentleman.

  Martha He might … he’s so elusive. (To Molly.) Tell Mr Brennan I took the girls to a show … There’s some cold cuts in the pantry and you can heat those potatoes.

  Molly (offstage) I thought it was my night off.

  Martha (with an arm around Kate) I would have invited your mother but she’s not at home.

  Kate She’ll be back … she only went to get something.

  Music. The company, some playing, some humming, arranges chairs for the movie house. Thady in smart waistcoat and high collared white shirt is holding posters of Nosferatu and acting as Master of Ceremonies.

  Thady Ladies and gentlemen, step right up, travel to the Castle of Night, Nosferatu the Vampyre, the insufferable one. All are welcome to share in the extravaganza of terror.

  Martha, Kate, Baba and others begin to find their seats. Mr Gentleman enters, tall, aloof, wearing a long motor coat, vague smile.

  Thady (giving him a programme) Sir, what an honour.

  Martha (to Mr Gentleman) Hello, stranger … I thought we’d see you at the hunt ball.

  Mr Gentleman Work work work. I’m in chambers all week. I rarely get home.

  Martha Lucky you … I pine for the city.