The Piano Lesson

Sc 1 Sc 1

ADA (VO - Scs 2 to 7)

The voice you hear is not my

speaking voice, but my mind's

voice.

I have not spoken since I was

six years old. No one knows

why, not even me. My father

says it is a dark talent and

the day I take it into my head

to stop breathing will be my

last.

Today he married me to a man

I've not yet met. Soon my

daughter and I shall join him

in his own country. My husband

said my muteness does not

bother him. He writes and hark

this:
God loves dumb creatures,

so why not he!

Were good he had God's patience

for silence affects everyone in

the end. The strange thing is I

don't think myself silent, that

is, because of my piano. I

shall miss it on the journey.

Sc 2 EXT SCOTTISH FIELD NEAR HOUSEDAY Sc 2

A woman in a dark crepe Victorian dress sits leaning against a tree,

her hands cover her face, around her neck she wears a writing pad. She

crosses a field with large bare trees, in the far background stands a

3 storey stone house.

Sc 3 INT SCOTTISH HOUSE CORRIDOR DAY Sc 3

A small girl roller skates down a dimly lit corridor. A parlour maid

looks down the hall where the girl has disappeared.

Sc 4 INT SCOTTISH HOUSE DRAWING ROOMDAY Sc 4

Three men wearing long grey aprons are fitting the packing for a

piano. On one of the men's arms is a tattoo of a whale in a wild sea.

Sc 5 EXT SCOTTISH HOUSE GROUNDS DAY Sc 5

The girl wearing her skates sits on a small black pony. An old man is

pulling it, but it won't move. (In the background, another aspect of

the grey stone house.)

Sc 6 INT SCOTTISH HOUSE FLORA'S BEDROOM NIGHTSc 6

The woman lifts back the sheets from the bottom of the sleeping girl's

bed. She is still wearing her skates. The woman cuts through the laces

and removes the boots. One disembodied skate rolls across the room.

Sc 7 INT SCOTTISH HOUSE DRAWING ROOMNIGHT Sc 7

The woman stands at a window lit by moonlight. Her skin appears

luminescently white. She touches the wooden window frame, the curtain,

the objects on the window sill, her mind abstracted, her hands

unconsciously performing a farewell. Turning from the window she moves

to a square piano crowded by packing boxes. In the dim light she

begins to play strongly. Her face strains, she is utterly involved,

unaware other own strange guttural sounds that form an eerie

accompaniment to the music.

An old maid in night-dress looks in. Abruptly the woman stops playing.

The emotion leaves her face, it whitens and seems solid like a wall.

CUT TO BLACK:

Sc 8 EXT UNDERWATER BEACH DAY Sc 8

Under water a long boat passes overhead, its oars breaking the

surface.

Sc 9 EXT BEACH DAY Sc 9

Amidst a riotous sea a woman, ADA, is carried to shore on the

shoulders of five seamen. Her large Victorian skirt spreads across the

men's arms and backs, on her head a black bonnet, around her neck her

pad and pen. We should be forgiven if this woman seems a sacrificial

offering as the bay they carry her to is completely uninhabited. A

black sand backs on to an endless rise of dense native bush.

The breakers are chaotic, the men strain to keep their footing,

calling to each other.

SEAMEN:

Hold still you smutt! Blast the

boat!

Look up! Look up!

Lay to! Lay to.

Up with it you buggerers, hold

hard!

Damn me won't you hold?!

Etc.

Two of the men are black, all are battered, tattooed and tough, some

are drunk.

Behind the woman is her daughter, a girl of ten in Scottish dress. She

too is carried on the shoulders of seamen.

ADA is placed on the sand. She looks down at her feet sinking into the

wet sand, then up at the huge confusion of fern and bush in front of

her. The sound of sea behind is thunderous.

Several of the seamen have formed a group and are pissing on the sand.

Her daughter is on all fours evidently being sick. But ADA's attention

is diverted to the seamen who are staggering through the waves with a

huge piano shaped box. They put it down as soon as they get to 5hore

but ADA makes gestures that they must immediately bring it to higher

safer ground. The piano placed to her satisfaction she hovers near it,

one hand in constant touch of it while her daughter grips her free

hand.

Sc 10 EXT BEACH DAY Sc 10

TWO SEAMEN finish carrying the last crate to shore. Trunks and boxes

including an open crate with hens are scattered carelessly along the

shore.

The SEAMEN gather together. After a discussion in which they look

between ADA and her child and their Coaster out on the sea, one of the

men approaches. Behind him the other men keep their eyes out to sea or

down on the sand. They don't want to be involved. The sight of the

women alone on this beach is too hopeless.

SEAMEN:

It's a little rough out there.

Could be they can't get through

to you in this weather. Maybe

they'll come over land.

ADA nods.

SEAMEN:

Have you things for shelter?

ADA nods.

SEAMEN:

What things have you?

ADA signs to her daughter. The little girl speaks clearly and loudly

without emotion.

FLORA:

She says, "thank you".

Puzzled, the man walks off, then turns and comes back.

SEAMEN:

Does your mother prefer to come

on with us to Nelson?

ADA signs vigorously to FLORA.

FLORA:

She says, No. She says she'd

rather be boiled alive by

natives than get back in your

tub.

SEAMEN:

(stunned) You be damn fortuned

I don't smack your puppy gob,

missy. Damn lucky.

SCENE 11 DELETED

Sc 12 EXT BEACH DAY Sc 12

ADA is sheltering behind the crated piano, anxiety etched on her face.

FLORA is asleep at her feet a half eaten biscuit in her hand ADA has

found a gap through the crate so that she might lift the lid and play

a few notes. The sweetness and comfort of the piano seem only to

exaggerate their isolation and hopelessness.

2- See notes

Suddenly a rush of sea water shoots straight under the raised crate of

the piano wetting her shoes. ADA stands, pushing FLORA onto her feet.

She is aghast to see the tide has crept in completely unnoticed.

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