Shakespeare in Love Page #7

He drains his glass.

WILL (CONT'D)

Good luck with yours, Kit.

MARLOWE:

I thought your play was for Burbage.

WILL:

This is a different one.

MARLOWE:

(trying to work it out)

A different one you haven't written?

WILL makes a helpless gesture and hurries after NOL.

INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. GALLERY/STAGE/AUDITORIUM. DAY.

HENSLOWE and WILL are sitting in the gallery, listening

to a YOUNG ACTOR auditioning.

YOUNG ACTOR:

" …Was this the face that launched a

thousand ships, And burnt the topless

towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me

immortal with a kiss!"

HENSLOWE:

Thank you.

HENSLOWE and WILL look a bit deflated. The YOUNG ACTOR

leaves and is replaced by a SECOND ACTOR.

SECOND ACTOR:

I would like to give you something

from Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

HENSLOWE:

How refreshing.

SECOND ACTOR:

"Was this the face that launched a

thousand ships, And burnt the topless

towers of Ilium?"

HENSLOWE and WILL let him continue a bit further, but

exchange despairing looks. A succession of would-be

actors offer their version of Marlowe's lines, each as

inappropriate as the other. Among them is a small URCHIN.

URCHIN:

"…the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet

Helen, make me immortal with a--?"

HENSLOWE:

(bellows)

Thank you!

The URCHIN leaves, glowering furiously, and is replaced

by a beanpole of a man (WASBASH). WABASH has a bad

stutter.

WABASH:

"W-w-w-w-was th-th-this th-th-the f-f-

f-face…"

HENSLOWE:

(unexpectedly)

Very good, Mr. Wabash. Excellent.

Report to the property master.

WILL looks at HENSLOWE in outrage.

HENSLOWE (CONT'D)

(apologetically)

My tailor. Wants to be an actor. I

have a few debts here and there. Well,

that seems to be everybody. Did you

see a Romeo?

WILL:

I did not.

HENSLOWE:

Well, I to my work, you to yours. When

can I see pages?

WILL:

Tomorrow

HENSLOWE leaves him.

WILL (CONT'D)

(a prayer)

please God.

WILL sits brooding alone for a moment. Then he realizes

he is being addressed from the stage. ANOTHER ACTOR.

ACTOR:

May I begin, sir?

WILL looks at the stage and sees a handsome young man,

with a hat shadowing his eyes.

WILL:

Your name?

VIOLA AS THOMAS:

Thomas Kent. I would like to do a

speech by a writer who commands the

heart of every player.

WILL can hardly manage a nod.

VIOLA AS THOMAS (CONT'D)

"What light is light, if Silvia be not

seen, What joy is joy, if Silvia be

not by? Unless it be to think that she

is by And feed upon the shadow of

perfection.

It does not take four lines of "VALENTINE'S" speech to

confirm for us, if confirmation be needed, that THOMAS is

VIOLA. For WILL, amazement at hearing his own words soon

gives away to something else. He is captivated. He has

found his "ROMEO".

VIOLA AS THOMAS (CONT'D)

" …except I be by Silvia in the night,

There is no music in the nightingale.

Unless I look on Silvia in the day,

There is no day for me to look upon."

WILL interrupts "him."

WILL:

Take off your hat.

VIOLA AS THOMAS:

My hat?

WILL:

Where did you learn how to do that?

VIOLA AS THOMAS:

I . . .

WILL:

Wait there.

VIOLA AS THOMAS:

Are you Mr. Shakespeare?

WILL:

Let me see you. Take off your hat.

THOMAS begins to panic. WILL jumps down to ground level.

THOMAS runs offstage, to WILL'S bewilderment. WILL

hurries after him. We go with WILL as he crosses the

stage, then backstage, then into the

INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. RETIRING ROOM. DAY.

RETIRING ROOM which is crowded with actors and HENSLOWE'S

lieutenant, property manager, copier, and general

factotum who is a new character, PETER.

ACTOR:

What are we playing?

NOL:

Where are the pages?

WILL enters into the middle of this.

WILL:

(shouts)

Where's the boy?

NOBODY knows what he is talking about. WABASH, the

stutterer, grabs Will's hand and shakes it excitedly.

WABASH:

B-b-b-b-break a l-l-l-leg!

The street door is swinging shut. WILL sees it. He fights

his way through the men to get to the door.

EXT. THE ROSE THEATRE. BANKSIDE. DAY.

WILL emerges from the theatre into a street throbbing

with nefarious life. Whores, cutpurses, hawkers, urchins,

tract-sellers, riffraff of all kinds in an area of stews

(lowdown pubs), brothels and slums. It is some time

before WILL spots THOMAS, way ahead of him in the crowded

street. The chase is taking them to the riverbank.

EXT. THE RIVER. DAY.

When WILL gets to the riverbank he sees that THOMAS is in

a smallish boat being rowed upriver and in midstream. The

river is quite busy, and among the boats there are a

number of waiting "taxis." WILL jumps into the nearest

one and shouts at the "Taxi Driver" BOATMAN.

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