NONA VINCENT A play by Frank J. Morlock

Inspired by Henry James' story of the same name

Etext by Dagny
  • Scene I.
  • Scene II.
  • Scene III.
  • Scene IV.
  • This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in 
    print or other media may be made without the express consent of the 
    Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about 
    performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or 
    audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee 
    or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank 
    Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or 
    frankmorlock@msn.com. Other works by this author may be found at 
    http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130
                                   C 1984


    Characters:

    Allan Wayworth, a young playwright
    Mrs. Alsanger, a wealthy patron of the arts
    Violet Grey, a young actress
    Nona Vincent


    Scenes:

    A London flat belonging to Mrs. Alsanger. In the 1890s.

    Wayworth's apartment.


    Scene I.

    A handsomely appointed drawing room. Allan Wayworth, a good- looking young man, very ill at ease, has just finished reading his play to Mrs. Cora Alsanger. Mrs. Alsanger is a quite lovely hostess and the owner of the premises. She is in her early thirties, calm, under perfect control, and, like most successful hostesses, a little calculating.

    Allan (reading)
    “Nona: Goodbye, Alfred. — The Curtain falls.”

    (A slight pause. Cora Alsanger sits absolutely silent, moved. She brushes a tear from her eye. Uneasily Allan waits for a reaction of some sort.)

    Allan
    Well, we who are about to die salute you. What do you think of it?

    Cora (quietly)
    I think—I think it's absolutely stupendous.

    Allan (joyously)
    Do you? You like it! You think it's good!

    Cora
    It's beautiful. And now, to get it produced. To get it done.

    Allan
    But, that's completely unimportant. The important thing is to get it right.

    Cora
    But, you want to see your play acted, don't you?

    Allan
    Of course, of course. I want to intensely. But, you don't know how important your approval is to me. I want to share it with someone who has—taste, for lack of the right word. I want to be a huge success, too. But, that is something to guard against.

    Cora
    Why so?

    Allan
    Because it's easy to sell out in the theatre. To do something just because it's commercial. It's more important to be artistically right, than to have a long run.

    Cora
    The reason I've always liked your work is that you never compromise. You must leave it with me. I want to read it again—over and over. Who in the world will do it? Who in the world can, without spoiling it? Who in the world can play “Nona”?

    Allan
    We'll find people to play every part.

    Cora
    But, not actors and especially actresses who are worthy.

    Allan (enthusiastically)
    I'll work with them. I'll grind it into them.

    Cora (laughing)
    You speak as if you'd been producing plays for twenty years at least. (seriously) You mustn't let them spoil “Nona”. She's the life of the play.

    Allan
    First, I've got to find someone to produce it. I've had no luck at that. I've got to get a manager to believe in me.

    Cora
    Yes, they're so stupid.

    Allan (waving the script)
    Do you see me hawking it about London?

    Cora (with revulsion)
    It would be sickening.

    Allan
    From what I've discovered so far, most theatres make up their schedules more than a year in advance. So even if I were accepted today, it might be a while. (glumly) I'll be an old man before it's produced.

    Cora
    I shall be old very soon if it isn't! I know some theatre people. My husband knows them, too.

    Allan
    Do you mean you would speak to them?

    Cora
    The thing to do is to get them to read it. Otherwise, they might never. I could do that.

    Allan
    That's the utmost I dare ask. But, even for that, I shall have to wait.

    Cora
    You shan't wait.

    Allan
    You're too kind.

    Cora
    You may have to wait, but I won't! I'll make them. We'll see what money can do. Will you leave me your copy?

    Allan
    Certainly! I have another. Oh, if you were only an actress!

    Cora
    Good heavens! Why?

    Allan
    You could be Nona. You're perfect for it.

    Cora (a little disconcerted)
    That's the last thing I am. There's no passion in me.

    Allan
    Is there any tragedy?

    Cora
    Perhaps. That will be for you to determine.

    Allan
    I?

    Cora
    Let's talk of more pleasant things. Nona, for instance. I can't tell you how I like that woman. She's so alive.

    Allan
    I'm awfully glad you feel that way about her. She's a good deal like you.

    Cora (uncomfortable)
    Not at all. (guardedly) I'm not impressed with the resemblance. I don't see myself doing what she does.

    Allan
    It's not so much what she does—

    Cora
    But what she does is the whole point. I could never do that.

    Allan
    But, if you don't like what she does, how is it you like her for doing it?

    Cora
    That isn't what I like her for.

    Allan (puzzled)
    What, then?

    Cora
    I like her because you made her.

    Allan (sincerely)
    You made her a little. I've described her as looking like you.

    Cora (looking in the mirror)
    She should look much better. No, I couldn't do what she does.

    Allan (coaxingly)
    Not even in the same circumstances?

    Cora
    Not under any circumstances! Her behavior is natural for her.

    Allan
    It's you, Cora. Nona is you.

    Cora
    Then, she'll ruin your play!

    BLACKOUT


    Scene II.

    When the lights go up we are still in Cora Alsanger's drawing room. It is about ten years later.

    Allan
    I told you I'd be an old man. It's ten years trying to get this play produced.

    Cora
    But we've succeeded at last. I'm the one who's old. You're only thirty-eight, whereas a woman is reckoned old after she turns forty.

    Allan
    Nonsense. You don't look a day older than you did the night I first read you my play.

    Cora
    Well, I feel it. Anyway, I'm so thrilled for you.

    Allan
    You did it. You got the Renaissance to agree to it.

    Cora
    Because it's a good investment. My husband is willing to be a backer, and he wouldn't do it unless he knew there was money in it.

    Allan
    I wish you'd come to the rehearsals.

    Cora
    No. I really don't care to. How is it coming?

    Allan (guardedly)
    Well enough.

    Cora
    And the actress who plays Nona?

    Allan
    Violet Grey.

    Cora
    Is she good?

    Allan
    She's a fine actress. She does Hedda Gabler and Nora to a marvel. But, frankly, she isn't turning out the way I hoped. She makes Nona so different from you.

    Cora
    So much the better.

    Allan
    I wish you'd train her. You could so easily.

    Cora
    Please don't make fun of me.

    Allan
    I'm not making fun at all. I'm serious.

    Cora
    What is Miss Grey like?

    Allan (after a pause)
    She's charming, talented.

    Cora
    Married?

    Allan
    No.

    Cora
    Lovers?

    Allan
    Innumerable.

    Cora
    Does she like the part?

    Allan
    Yes. Very much. She's been fascinated from the first. She has many good ideas for the part.

    Cora
    That's fine. Do you like her?

    Allan
    Yes. She's funny.

    Cora
    She is funny. I met her, you know.

    Allan
    When?

    Cora
    She has a part in Hedda Gabler which I saw with my husband the other night. We were introduced then.

    Allan
    What do you make of her?

    Cora
    Very talented and very pretty. She's in love with you, you know.

    Allan (nervously)
    Don't make jokes.

    Cora
    I'm perfectly serious.

    Allan
    Well, that's convenient to know.

    Cora
    It may be no joking matter to Violet Grey.

    Allan
    Well, it can make no difference to you.

    Cora (with asperity)
    How in the world do you know what makes a difference to me?

    Allan
    I'm sorry, I seem to say the wrong things today.

    Cora
    You're nervous about Nona. But, much more nervous about Violet Grey?

    Allan
    She IS Nona Vincent.

    Cora
    No. She's the woman you love.

    Allan (laughing nervously)
    Not quite, not quite. I'm not used to theatre people. I'm fascinated, that's all.

    Cora
    If she's a success you'll love her.

    Allan (glumly)
    She won't be.

    Cora
    I'll pray for her.

    Allan
    You're the most generous of women. The play's all right, but she's all wrong. She does what she can and she's loaded with talent and energy, but she just doesn't see the woman I had in mind. I wish to God she had known you! She can't pull me through.

    Cora
    Forgive her. Be kind to her.

    Allan
    Oh, I will. It's not enough to write a good play. That won't prevent it from going to the dogs.

    Cora (emphatically)
    It shan't go to the dogs!

    BLACKOUT


    Scene III.

    When the lights go up we are in Allan's small, scantily furnished apartment. There is a bed at back and a window. Allan is absorbed in reading. A clock shows ten minutes to midnight. The door opens and a very well-dressed woman enters. Allan is not aware of her. She glides quietly to the window and closes the blinds. She dims the light.

    Allan (startled)
    What the devil!

    Woman
    Shh! It's very late, not so loud.

    Allan
    Mrs. Alsanger—Cora, what are you doing here?

    Woman
    I'm not Cora Alsanger.

    Allan (puzzled)
    Is it you, Miss Grey?

    Woman
    Don't you recognize me?

    Allan
    I'm not sure, in this light.

    Nona
    It's me, Nona.

    Allan (astounded)
    Nona! But—

    Nona
    I'm alive! I'm alive—

    Allan
    I'm very tired. I'm hallucinating.

    Nona
    No, dear. You're tired, that's true, but you're not hallucinating. I could sense how unhappy you are, so I came to you. Things went wrong at the theatre tonight. Poor Violet can't do anything with me. The play will be all right, but Violet can't seem to get me right.

    Allan
    That's true. She'd improve if she knew how, but she doesn't.

    Nona
    You've got to show her.

    Allan
    She has to trust me.

    Nona
    How can she trust you when she knows she's losing you?

    Allan
    Losing me?

    Nona
    She's in love with you.

    Allan
    Someone else told me that.

    Nona
    Oh, Mrs. Alsanger. She's in love with you, too, poor thing. But she can't do anything. Her husband doesn't love her, but she can't give in to her feelings about you. She's not like me in that respect. I can love.

    Allan
    No, Cora's different. But I made you like her.

    Nona
    And you gave me a heart. Cora Alsanger is a prisoner of her own pride. She could never come to a man's room and kick her shoes off and make love to him.

    Allan
    I thought she could. I really believed she could. For so many years, I believed that.

    Nona
    She wants to, but she can't.

    Allan
    Violet could do that.

    Nona
    Yes, but she hasn't got Cora's pride. Violet can defy conventions easily enough. She just can't understand anyone who lives by conventions.

    Allan
    Two half women.

    Nona
    United in me. I am whole. Conventional and unconventional at the same time. Chaste and adulterous.

    Allan
    This can't be happening.

    Nona
    It's happening, just as it happened in your play. I've come to you.

    Allan
    Nona— (huskily) Nona.

    Nona
    Hurry. I can't stay long, you know. But I had to come just once.

    (Nona coils around Allan as the scene fades.)

    BLACKOUT


    Scene IV.

    Allan's apartment. When the lights go up, Allan and Violet Grey come in. Violet throws off her cloak. Violet is very good- looking; she is in an exuberant mood. Both have been celebrating.

    Violet
    I was better! I was better!

    Allan
    You were perfection. You'll be like that every night, won't you?

    Violet
    Every night? There can scarcely be a miracle every day.

    Allan
    What do you mean by a miracle?

    Violet
    Oh, I had a revelation.

    Allan
    Tell me.

    Violet
    Well, last night, I was so disappointed with the rehearsal that I made up my mind I was going to quit. I was ruining the play and I knew it.

    Allan
    Violet, that's not true. You were growing into it, that's all.

    Violet
    Not a bit of it. I had no idea what to do. Then, late last night, I had an unexpected visitor.

    Allan
    Who? When?

    Violet
    Oh, about this time last night. It was Mrs. Alsanger. She stayed two hours.

    Allan
    Wh—what did she say to you?

    Violet
    She was very kind. She said the nicest things about you. She loves you, you know.

    Allan
    Did she talk about Nona?

    Violet
    She said that you'd told her she was like Nona. She is. She's exquisite. That's why I couldn't get her. I've never known anyone like her before. So conventional, yet so sensual. I drank her in.

    Allan
    What was she wearing?

    Violet
    Oh, you know what she wears. Altogether too well, I suspect, my darling. Have you been to bed with her?

    Allan
    No, not exactly. I've sort of dreamed of it.

    Violet
    There's no need to lie. I am not jealous of her. You don't love her.

    Allan
    Please tell me what she was wearing.

    Violet
    Oh, something blue, with some pearls. Don't try to change the subject.

    Allan
    That's impossible.

    Violet
    Why?

    Allan
    Mrs. Alsanger was killed with her husband in an accident last evening about ten o'clock. The train was derailed.

    Violet
    Then, I saw a ghost. I think I'd better sit down.

    Allan
    Do. There's more I have to tell you.


    CURTAIN