The Piano Lesson Page #6

STEWART:

There is something to be said

for silence

AUNT MORAG:

Oh indeed. Cotton'.

She holds her needle up for NESSIE to thread.

STEWART:

(warming) And with time she

will, I'm sure, become

affectionate.

AUNT MORAG:

Certainly, there is nothing so

easy to like as a pet and they

are quite silent.

BAINES watches quietly on.

Sc 35 EXT STEWART'S WOODCHOP DAY Sc 35

STEWART is at the woodshop cutting firewood. He displays his

virtuosity as an axeman, cutting the wood into ever more slender

pieces, FLORA is watching and stacking the fallen timber. She flinches

as the axe hits the wood, but scurries in to pick up the timber.

BAINES is standing talking to STEWART.

BAINES:

Those 80 acres, that cross the

stream, what do you think of

them?

STEWART:

On your property?

BAINES:

Yes

BAINES carries a log across for STEWART who talks without pausing in

his work,

STEWART:

Good, flatish land with

reliable water, why? I don't

have money. What are you about?

BAINES:

I'd like to make a swap.

STEWART:

What for?

BAINES:

The piano.

STEWART:

The piano on the beach? Ada's

piano?

BAINES nods. STEWART stops, this is serious.

STEWART:

It's not marshy is it?

STEWART has walked a few paces away from his wood chop in the

direction of the land.

BAINES:

No.

STEWART:

You'd have to organise it up

here.

BAINES:

Yes, I thought that.

STEWART:

Well Baines the music lover, I

never would have known. Hidden

talents George.

BAINES:

I'll have to get lessons. It

wouldn't be much use without

them.

STEWART:

Yes, I suppose you would.

BAINES remains silent. He looks away.

STEWART:

Well Ada can play.

BAINES shrugs.

STEWART:

I have it in a letter she plays

well. She's been playing since

she was 5 or6.

FLORA has stopped stacking. She is lying along the top of the wood,

lifting a leg up and down, watching the men.

Sc 36 INT STEWART'S KJTCHEN DAY Sc 36

STEWART, flushed with his plans, is pouring tea into cups. FLORA peers

at cup level through the steam. ADA sits beside her at the table.

STEWART:

I have got us some excellent

land. Baines has taken some

queer idea to have a piano, and

you are to give him lessons.

Have you taught before?

ADA signs to FLORA.

FLORA:

What on?

STEWART:

On your piano, that is the

swap.

ALA finger signs, her face furious.

STEWART:

What does she say?

FLORA:

She says it's her piano, and

she won't have him touch it.

He's an oaf, he can't read,

he's ignorant.

STEWART:

He wants to improve himself...

and you will be able to play on

it ... (ADA is not responding

well) Teach him to look after

it.

ADA's breathing becomes heavy with anger, she writes Curiously on her

pad.

NO! NO! THE PIANO IS MINE! IT'S

MINE!

STEWART regards her note and her passion with suspicion and disdain

STEWART:

(getting up) You can't go on

like this, we are a family now,

all of us make sacrifices and

so will you.

You will teach him. I shall see

to that!

ADA's emotions are suddenly removed and she views STEWART blankly,

eerily so.

Sc 37 EXT BUSH FROM BEACH DAY SC 37

The piano is taken up through the bush by a group of six to eight

MAORI MEN. It's very heavy and awkward and they grunt and struggle

with it.

HiM na ake 'nun na'.

(Lift up the back)

UNSUBTITLED:

Tern - tern!

(Ass hole!)

Hei niti niti maan!

(turning around)

You lick it.)

Someone stumbles and the back of the piano comes crashing to the

ground thundering out in the bottom end of the scale. People scatter.

Only one stays who warrior like challenges the piano.

Sc 38 EXT PATH TO BAINES DAY Sc38

The women duck low to avoid a branch as STEWART leads them to BAINE'S

hut. STEWART carries the piano stool. The path slopes up through a

strange, bearded forest where the tops of trees are bare and ghost

like.

STEWART:

I'd try children's tunes,

nothing more complicated

ADA is unrepentant, she does not want to teach BAINES the piano.

STEWART:

Just be encouraging no one expects him to be good.

Sc 39 INT/EXT BAINES' HUT DAY SC 39

The piano is the only cared for item in the rough hut

STEWART:

(lifting the lid) It looks

good, very nice looking thing.

Well . I wish you luck. The girls

are very excited about the

lessons.

The "girls" look anything but excited. FLORA shy, plays obsessively

with a long strand of greasy hair. ADA is cold and grim.

STEWART:

Flora will explain anything Ada says.

They talk through their fingers,

you can't believe what they say

with just their hands.

STEWART leaves. BAJNES goes to the piano and lifts the lid. He looks

at them. ADA signs to FLORA.

FLORA:

My mother wants to see your

hands. Hold them out.

BAINES holds out his hands, spread wide as if holding a ball.

No, no, like this

FLORA puts her neat little fingers together, first with their backs up

then she turns them over. HAINES does the same only his bands are big

and coarse. ADA signs to FLORA. BAINES is shyly keen.

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