Suffragette Page #5

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LLOYD GEORGE:

Your employer allowed that?

The TAP TAP of a typewriter as the FEMALE TYPIST transcribes,

MAUD growing in confidence. ALICE watching closely.

MAUD:

He’d have you back as soon as you

could.

He?

Mr Taylor.

LLOYD GEORGE:

MAUD:

LLOYD GEORGE:

And does your mother still work at

the laundry?

MAUD:

(shaking head)

She died when I was four.

On ALICE catching on this.

LLOYD GEORGE:

I see.

MAUD nods, hesitates, yet LLOYD GEORGE’s silence, quietly

provokes her on.

MAUD:

Vat tipped, scalded her.

The TAP of the typewriter momentarily comes to a still. LLOYD

GEORGE and others visibly unsettled. ALICE looks on, moved.

LLOYD GEORGE:

What of your father?

MAUD:

(shrugs)

Don’t know him.

LLOYD GEORGE:

And you worked for Mr Taylor-

MAUD:

..part time from when I was seven,

full time from when I was twelve.

Don’t need much schooling to

launder shirts. I was good at

collars, steaming the fine lacing.

Got the hands for it. I was made

head washer at seventeen. Forewoman

at twenty. Twenty four now so-

LLOYD GEORGE:

You’re young to have such a

position.

MAUD:

Laundry work’s a short life if

you’re a woman.

ON STEED seated at the back of the room, watching her,

assessing.

LLOYD GEORGE:

And why is that?

MAUD:

You get your aches and your chest

cough, crushed fingers. Leg ulcers,

burns, headaches from the gas. We

had one girl last year poisoned.

Can’t work again. Ruined her lungs.

LLOYD GEORGE:

And your pay?

MAUD:

We get thirteen shillings a week,

sir. For a man it’s nineteen and we

work a third more the hours.

They’re outside most days on

deliveries so at least they’re in

the fresh air.

LLOYD GEORGE:

What would the vote mean to you,

Mrs Watts?

LAUGHTER-

MAUD:

I never thought we’d get the vote

so I’ve never thought about what it

would mean.

LLOYD GEORGE:

So why are you here?

MAUD hesitates, then with realisation-

MAUD:

The thought that we might...

MAUD wavers - suddenly moved, caught out by her own emotion.

MAUD (CONT’D)

That this life... that there is

another way of living this life-

MAUD unable to go on until-

MAUD (CONT’D)

Sorry. My words... I’m not...

LLOYD GEORGE:

No..No..

On LLOYD GEORGE visibly moved, MAUD looking beyond, sensing

the room listening to her, wavering with surprise.

LLOYD GEORGE (CONT’D)

The finest eloquence is that which

gets things done.

STEED quietly noting it all down.

LLOYD GEORGE (CONT’D)

Thank you, Mrs Watts. I believe we

have that all down. We will have a

response for you very soon. An

amendment to the bill might just

force the change towards the vote.

MAUD:

Thank you, sir.

ON MAUD, considering, she nods.

INT. MAUD’S BEDROOM. MAUD’S HOUSE. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912.

NIGHT.

MAUD creeps into her bedroom and starts taking off her

clothes.

SONNY OOV:

You’ve been drinking.

MAUD:

(shrugs)

Just a brandy. Mrs Haughton treated

us.

SONNY is lying in bed.

SONNY:

Mrs Haughton can afford it.

MAUD pulls off her clothes.

MAUD:

(confidently, still high)

I spoke, Sonny.

SONNY:

I thought you was just gonna

listen.

MAUD:

Violet couldn’t so they asked me. I

was just going to say what she

would have said but then he asked

me if I worked in the laundry as

well and I just started talking. To

Mr Lloyd George.

She walks over to their bed.

MAUD (CONT’D)

If we got the vote-

SONNY:

What would you do with it Maud?

MAUD:

Do the same you do with yours,

Sonny. Exercise my rights.

SONNY:

Exercise your rights? You a

suffragette now, one of those

Panks?

No-

MAUD:

MAUD climbing into bed next to him.

SONNY:

Mrs Miller is. You know how they

like to talk. You spend your time

with her, that’s what they’ll call

you.

(MORE)

(beat)

SONNY (CONT'D)

I’m only looking out for you, Maud.

MAUD:

I know.

SONNY:

It’s all I’ve ever done-

Sonny turns out the light. He spoons into her. They lie

together, SONNY’s arms around MAUD. MAUD face pressed against

the pillow, searching for the cool.

INT. WASHING ROOM. LAUNDRY. BETHNAL GREEN. LONDON. 1912. DAY.

Machines whirring. A FACTORY BELL chiming loudly.

EXT. YARD/STREET. LAUNDRY. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912. DAY.

VIOLET runs to catch up with MAUD, linking arms with her.

VIOLET:

Oi Maud, Mrs Ellyn’s invited you to

tea.

Has she?

MAUD:

VIOLET:

She says you’ve gone and woken up

the dinosaurs of Westminster.

They laugh, a little giddy.

INT. BACK ROOM. ELLYN PHARMACY. BETHNAL GREEN. 1913. EVENING

MAUD alone, eyes falling on EDITH’s coat hanging on the back

of the door. MAUD reaches out a hand to touch the thick strip

of purple, green and white ribbon with several silver bars.

EDITH enters, carrying a small tray of food. She sets it down

on the side.

MAUD’s eyes graze over the various chemistry certificates on

the wall. She peers closer, each award in EDITH’s name.

MAUD:

Where are Mr Ellyn’s certificates?

EDITH:

Oh he hasn’t any. He has me. His

father passed the business to him.

But he never took to chemistry. I

actually wanted to become a doctor.

My father didn’t approve. I’m still

good at diagnosis.

MAUD:

So you married-?

EDITH:

(nods)

23 years now. I had hoped that one

day it might have read Ellyn and

daughters.

Edith - momentarily lost in her thoughts.

EDITH (CONT’D)

One must look to the next

generation.

(pouring tea)

I hear you spoke well.

INT. MAUD’S BEDROOM. MAUD’S HOUSE. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912. DAWN.

MAUD pulls on her dressing gown, SONNY in bed blinking awake.

MAUD:

I was thinking we could take him to

the seaside in the summer.

SONNY:

Don’t go drinking champagne on beer

money, Maud.

MAUD inwardly sinks-

LATER-

She dresses George.

Arms up!

MAUD:

Popping his head around the door.

SONNY:

We could take him to the pictures

Friday.

MAUD nods, smiles. SONNY smiles back. George giggles,

enjoying the morning ritual.

EXT. TENEMENT. MAUD’S HOUSE. BETHNAL GREEN. 1913. DAY.

On VIOLET waiting outside MAUD’s house. A MALE LAUNDRY WORKER

comes out of his house, looking on at her with obvious

disapproval.

MALE LAUNDRY WORKER

Oi, Mrs Miller, bet you wish you

were a man.

On MAUD, catching on this as she ushers GEORGE out of the

house, SONNY close behind ignoring the MALE LAUNDRY WORKER.

VIOLET:

(calling after)

Bet you wish you were too.

MALE LAUNDRY WORKER

Saucy cow!

The MALE LAUNDRY WORKER falls into line with OTHER WORKERS,

nodding to SONNY, smirking in passing-

MAUD:

Wish us luck.

SONNY:

(hushed)

Luck’d be you’d stop this now, go

to work.

MAUD goes to kiss him, SONNY pulls away. On MAUD stung.

SONNY pushes GEORGE ahead of him. GEORGE bemused-

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