RILLA- The Musical, Sneak preview 3
We open on the kitchen and living room of Ingleside. Susan is chopping up carrots, Anne is knitting a shirt and Rilla is rocking the baby. Slowly we see more women of Glen St. Mary filter into the room. Miss Cornelia comes and begins darning socks. Miss Oliver descends the stairs and starts pacing the floor. Mary Vance appears, opens a book and begins turning the pages. Nan enters the back door and starts sweeping the floor. Rosemary enters and begins packing mess kits. Faith enters the front door and starts taping the floor with her foot. Una comes in and washes the dishes. Di enters and starts scratching out a letter. The combined rhythm of their chores mesh together and slowly becomes one steady beat. Music fades in.
(song: "WAITING" AS THE "THE PIPER PIPES REPRISE", featuring male and female and choruses excluding Dr. Blythe, Shirley and Mr. Meredith WOMEN: Rilla, Anne, Una, Miranda, Faith, Nan, Di, Susan, Mary Vance, Rosemary, Miss Oliver and extras-MEN: Jem, Walter, Carl, Jerry, Joe, Kenneth Robert and extras)
WOMEN: sung Waiting, waiting...
MARY VANCE: Day after day
UNA: Endless night after night
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
ANNE: For our dear boys to come home from the fight
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
FAITH: Month after month
NAN: Enduring year after year
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
RILLA:To think that the best years of my life should be wasted away in torment and fear
SUSAN: Have patience my dear
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
MISS OLIVER: An agony as unbearable as this European strife
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting
RILLA: spoken They only give themselves! We give them!
WOMEN: sung We...
ANNE: Mothers...
DI: Sisters...
RILLA: Sweethearts...
MISS OLIVER: And wives
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
MISS CORNELIA: Somehow we cope
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
We'll never lose hope
WOMEN: Waiting, waiting...
Be strong, not a tear, dear
Waiting, waiting...
The end must be near
The light dims on the women and then opens on a group of boys in khaki who are marching in rank with their guns over their shoulders.
MEN: The piper pipes and we hear his call
JEM: So we go to our graves, our demise and our fall
MEN: The piper has piped us to this fated fight
KEN: To take one for our country
WALTER: 'Till we are taken by night
MEN: The piper still pipes and we follow him still
JERRY: O'er treacherous mountain, moor, river and hill
MEN: The piper has piped and we answer his call
CARL: We are gone, out of sight if we're going at all
The women march out from the wings and meet the men on center stage; they continue to do their previous tasks while marching in a rank like the soldiers.
WOMEN: But not out of mind!
Waiting, waiting...
For sooner or later the dawn must break
Waiting, waiting...
Wondering who's life this war must next take
MISS OLIVER: Ohh!
MEN: The piper pipes a flame of courage 'to our minds
We go fight for a cause that's unclear and unkind
The piper pipes in tune to our dance of death
But still we go on, till we breathe our last breath
WOMEN: Mothers
Sisters
Sweethearts
And Wives!
ALL: Paying in blood and tears and lives
MEN: Brothers
Husbands
Friends
Fathers
And beaux
ALL: When we will see them again, only heaven will know
MEN: The piper pipes, I may never return
WOMEN: Waiting, hating, heart is breaking
MEN: I go cause I have to, or rot and burn
WOMEN: Oh we wait and we wait and we leave it to fate
MEN: The piper pipes, it's you we defend
WOMEN: You've left us behind, disappeared round a bend.
ALL: Just until the dawn breaks, until the-
A gunshot sounds and Private Walter Blythe falls down dead, out of rank. The rest of the cast is frozen in action. The light dims except for a red floodlight on Walter's body. That too is dimmed and we are plunged into darkness.
ALL: ...END.
Dog Monday lets out a haunting howl that echoes and fades slowly. The lights all come back on again and we open on the Ingleside kitchen. The telephone rings and Rilla steps lightly towards it and then picks up the receiver. A loud booming voice announces: "We regret to inform you that Private Walter Blythe was killed in action." A white light appears on the opposite side of the stage, shining on a white cross with poppies swaying at its base. Rilla lets out a cry and crumples to a heap on the floor dropping the receiver and letting it swing by its wire. Both lights fade and the scene closes.