Grace (2019) To be performed July 2019 at Milton Court Studio Theatre, London
A Chamber Opera in three weddings (developed with Maeve McCarthy)
(Excerpt: For full libretto please use the Contact form) Copyright: Sophie Rashbrook
GRACE
PART ONE
Chorus 1: Irish Ballad
The Priest, Prison Guard and Soldier enter as three storytellers/Chorus and perform a ballad in the tradition of the ‘noble call’, popular in Irish gatherings – it should have the feel of a performance in itself.
PRIEST
As we gather in the chapel here
before the Trinity
We tell a tale of love denied
of love that could not be
PRISON GUARD
Our hero, Joseph Plunkett
was a gifted man of words
He vowed to marry Grace, his love,
But then this call he heard:
PRIEST, PRISON GUARD & SOLDIER
Hoorah for Irish freedom
At the rising of the moon
All the wind that shakes the barley
Cannot break our rebel tune.
PRISON GUARD
The battle for this country’s soul
That was our hero’s fight
PRIEST
So the rebels
SOLDIER
No, the traitors
PRISON GUARD
No, the martyrs
PRIEST, PRISON GUARD AND SOLDIER
Did unite
PRISON GUARD
Fuelled by centuries of foreign rule
by Kings across the sea
In 1916 seven men
proclaimed their liberty:
PRIEST, PRISON GUARD & SOLDIER
Hoorah for Irish freedom
At the rising of the moon
All the wind that shakes the barley
Cannot break our rebel tune.
SOLDIER
With his seven rebel brothers
Joseph battled six long days
They might not have surrendered
If they hadn’t been betrayed
PRIEST
A tale of love and duty
Now plays out for all to see
PRISON GUARD
For what greater battle is there
than the one, for history?
Wedding I
The Prison Guard, Priest and Soldier now transform out of their Chorus roles into character.
This is the romanticised/heroic/tragic view of the wedding as seen by the pro-Irish side. Joseph and Grace are preparing for their wedding, split-stage – Grace is excited and nervous, Joseph is putting on his tie as he reminisces, full of love. Joseph is a romantic hero, Grace his devoted supporter. The Soldier (British, anti-Irish) and the Prison Guard (Irish, pro-Irish) are present in the ceremony as witnesses to the wedding.
GRACE: Where are the rings?
A wedding may be holy without church walls
A bride needs no dress of white
But two bands of gold must loop two souls
JOSEPH: When we lay in the valley of Gleann na Scath
The shadow shone like new fire
Wild between us drove the keening rain
Burning bright desire.
I was never meant to be this happy
Joseph’s Aria
[Turning to the audience out of time]
They will tell you
That I was a hero, a coward, a traitor
But Ireland’s time had come
I cannot wish my deeds undone
It wasn’t until our wedding day that I saw
The life we might have had together
[Going back into the ‘present’ of the wedding ceremony]
GRACE
The rings
JOSEPH
That she could love a man like me
With my scars and my patriot’s vow
I’m sorry we don’t have more time
But let us marry now
PRIEST: We gather in the chapel here
GRACE: Joseph first
JOSEPH: Grace first
PRIEST: If anyone here knows of any reason
JOSEPH: Grace last
GRACE: Joseph last
PRIEST: Why these two may not be joined in holy matrimony
You are to declare it now
SOLDIER, PRISON GUARD, GRACE, JOSEPH & PRIEST
Silence
GRACE: Joseph first and Joseph last and Joseph over all
JOSEPH: Grace first and Grace last and Grace over all
PRIEST: I now declare you married – you may now kiss your wife
[Grace and Joseph kiss]
PRIEST: Sign here.
The SOLDIER and PRISON GUARD sign the documents as witnesses and withdraw, giving the illusion that Joseph and Grace are almost alone together.
JOSEPH: My Grace, my ideal
GRACE: You signed your name
You made a Proclamation
JOSEPH: I cannot wish my deeds undone
GRACE: Nor I, nor I.
A memory of you, my darling Joe
will grow within me
SOLDIER: Time
GRACE: More time, we need more time
SOLDIER: Time
GRACE: Still time
Joseph is led away by the Soldier as the Priest comforts Grace. The music should give a sense of the impending execution.
JOSEPH: [Singing defiantly as he is taken offstage]
Hoorah for Irish freedom
at the rising of the moon
All the wind that shakes the barley
cannot break our rebel tune
PRIEST: Come now, come now
GRACE: My Joe
There is an evocation of a gunshot, and the Priest, Prison Guard and Soldier immediately snap back into their chorus roles. The Priest leads Grace back to her starting position, and the staging inverts, so that the couple is upstage, and the Soldier, Prison Guard and Priest are downstage in Storytelling mode.
Chorus II: A Remnant of the Ballad (Continued from the opening)
PRISON GUARD
A tragic bride and a sacrifice
A truly romantic tale
This will surely provoke sympathy
On an international scale
SOLDIER (Interrupting sarcastically. A Prelude to the verse)
A sacrifice and a tragic bride?
They’re taking you, matey, for a ride
When you’ve come from the trenches in Wipers
And you’re in Dublin dodging the snipers
Soon you’ll find you’ll croon a different tune…
BRITISH WW1 SONG
SOLDIER, PRIEST AND PRISON GUARD [Like a Kitchener recruitment poster]
We’ll beat the Irish like we’ll beat the Germans
We’ll win on the Western front be-
‘Cause we’re fighting for King and country
And we won’t let them do it
For the Empire, we’ll get through it
Rule Britannia another day!
PRIEST: While Britannia’s guard was down
The Irish rebels went to town
PRISON GUARD: (Covering the Soldier’s eyes) They thought they’d pull the wool over their eyes
SOLDIER (Shoving the Prison Guard out of the way) Oi!
But King George’s troops are strong
And we’re here to prove them wrong
And those traitors, well, they’re in for a surprise…
SOLDIER, PRIEST AND PRISON GUARD [Chorus]
So when the Irish try to tell their story
They’re likely to blame old Blighty
And to shame our red-blue-and-whitey
But there’s rather more to it
And those newlyweds, they blew it
Rule Britannia another day!
PRISON GUARD (Indicating Joseph): If he wanted to marry his girl
He should have thought of that before
PRIEST: Before he joined the Irish rebels and unleashed the dogs of war
PRIEST, SOLDIER and PRISON GUARD: Woof! [Pause]
SOLDIER: He wasn’t so victorious
A bridegroom quite inglorious
And I heard the “tragic bride” had a naughty secret to hide…
PRISON GUARD and PRIEST: (Scandalised) Oo!
The Priest slaps the Prison Guard. The Prison Guard slaps the Soldier. There is an awkward pause, in which the Priest and Prison Guard recover from their involuntary outbursts, and the Priest re-casts himself as the peace-maker in a slow ‘middle eight’.
PRIEST: Now history can be muddling
PRISON GUARD: And a tragic story, troubling
SOLDIER: But let’s see the way that ‘tragic wedding’ was
(Pointing to the Prison Guard) Ignore his ‘take-the-piss’-tory
The victors write the history
PRISON GUARD, SOLDIER, PRIEST: This is how it happened and it’s all because…
Instead of the ‘We’ll beat the Irish’ chorus restarting, Grace’s voice cuts across them all, like a lightning bolt.
GRACE: The rings
Prison Guard, Priest and Soldier immediately snap back into their Wedding characters.
PART TWO
Wedding II
