Month: August 2013

This is the second scene of the second act of my play, A Sword Unsheathed, originally written in French and translated into English for publication on the blog. If you haven’t yet read the first scene, you can find it here. You can find all the scenes published so far on this page. The original French version of this scene is found at the end of the post. (Read in French.) Please read the historical note here.

Voici la deuxième scène du second acte de ma pièce, Un sabre dégainé, écrite à l’origine en français et traduite en anglais pour publication sur ce blog. Si vous n’avez pas encore lu la première scène, vous pouvez la trouver ici. Vous pouvez trouver toutes les scènes déjà publiées sur cette page. La version originale en français de cette scène se trouve à la fin de l’article. (Lire en français.) Veuillez lire ici la note historique.

SCENE 2
(Read the previous scene.)

The Characters

FRANCIS HUGER, now about 24 years old
ALICE, his cousin, now about 33 years old

Seventeen years later: the year 1794. The stage is divided. Stage left, an austere bedchamber, stone walls, a small bed against the wall. There is a desk in front of a window, through which we see a cityscape. The lighting is rather cool and blue. The sword in its scabbard, still attached to the blue silk sash, lies on the desk. Stage right is a salon, with a few chairs, a settee, a few other small items of furniture. Benjamin’s desk from the plantation house is in front of two windows through which we see a pastel-painted cityscape, a ship’s mast with folded sails. The lighting is rather warm, pink and orange.

When the curtain rises, Alice enters stage right and sits at the desk, looks out the window a long while, picks up a quill, and begins to write. Francis — now a young man — enters stage left, goes to the window and looks out for a short while, finally sits at his desk. He opens a letter. Continue reading Act Two, Scene 2