I recently retitled CHARLEY AND EMMA as THE DARWINS. Another script that received wonderful responses in numerous readings and workshops, it has yet to be produced. Unfortunately, it arrived on the scene just after another Off-Broadway production about Darwin was being done. I am so drawn to the mystery of faith versus reason and here, once again, they come into conflict in a story that focuses less on the history and more upon the personal journey of Charles Darwin in relationship to his wife, Emma. Hope you enjoy it!
The Darwins
by
William S. Leavengood
THE DARWINS
Cast of Characters
Charles Darwin, ages 22-51
Emma Wedgewood Darwin, ages 23-52,
Charles’ cousin and wife
Richard Owen, ages 32-56, a fellow
naturalist and gentleman
Elizabeth Wedgewood, 31-41, Emma’s
sister, dwarfish with a twisted spine
*Captain Fitzroy, commander of the
Beagle
**Jemma Buttons, 20’s, a Christian
convert and native of Tierra Del Fuego
**Thomas Huxley, ages 26-35, a naturalist and famous agnostic
*Charles Lyell, 39-63, a renowned
naturalist
Annie Darwin, 10, Charles’ beloved
daughter
*These two roles can be double cast with one actor
**These two roles can be double cast with one actor
SYNOPSIS
THE DARWINS is about the tumultuous life and relationship of
the famed father of evolution, Charles Darwin, and his devoutly Christian wife
and first cousin, Emma Wedgewood.
The play is rich with the history and science of Darwin’s life and
discoveries, but also focuses on the struggle and triumph of two people who,
despite being divided by an ideology that guided their entire existence, held
their marriage together through their compassion and compromise.
Act I
Scene One
Office at the Library of Oxford - 1860. From outside in the main library, we
hear the hubbub from the community
at the annual meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science.
THOMAS HUXLEY, 35,
enters, holding a book. He sets it down, grabs a coat, scarf and gloves
draped over the back of a chair.
CHARLES LYELL, 63, follows, holding a piece of paper.
LYELL
This
is nothing short of betrayal!
(no
answer)
Huxley!
HUXLEY
I
have no intention of facing that
crowd...
You can feel the ignorance
seeping
through the walls.
LYELL
And
what is our purpose as scientists other than
to
enlighten the ignorant.
Snatches paper from Lyell’s hand, reading:
HUXLEY
“The
Annual Meeting of the British Association for
the
Advancement of Science”? It’s a bloody circus
in
there. Zealots of every stripe, drunken
Oxford
college boys--
LYELL
We
are in their library.
HUXLEY
I
don’t mind the drunken college boys, Lyell.
But
I’ll be damned if I’m going out there to be
Episcopal-ly
pounded by Bishop Wilburforce.
The
man need only break wind and this mob
cheers
with ecstasy.
LYELL
Huxley,
you’re our greatest naturalist--
HUXLEY
It
won’t work.
LYELL
Darwin
is depending on us.
HUXLEY
Yes?
Then why isn’t he here? Why are
WE
defending HIS theory?
LYELL
He’s
ill.
HUXLEY
“Dead”
would be an excuse. “Ill” is not.
LYELL
You
know Charles, he would be a disaster
in
front of a hostile crowd.
HUXLEY
As
his dear friend, I know you will represent him
admirably.
Goodbye.
A knock. RICHARD OWEN, age 56, enters without waiting for a response.
OWEN
Ah!
I knew he was mistaken! The Bishop feared
you
had departed.
LYELL
No.
OWEN
Good-good!
Are you prone to cold, Huxley? Oh,
of
course-- the two of you in this little
chamber,
alone. However, the heat generated by
the
throng within will keep you nice
and
warm.
(laughs
cordially)
Come,
my friends, the public is
restless...
at the least.
HUXLEY
Owen,
my apologies, some urgent business has
arisen.
I must be off. Lyell will
debate
in my stead.
OWEN
Any
one but Darwin, it seems.
LYELL
Darwin
is unwell, I explained that.
OWEN
Unwell
again. Pity, the price God can
exact.
LYELL
He
was bitten by an insect which infected him.
OWEN
An
insect in South America, which bit him some
twenty
years ago. Good science to those
who
need
it to be, I suppose.
LYELL
I
once considered you a man of science,
Mr.
Owen.
OWEN
I
am not “a” man of science, Mr. Lyell.
I am
the
foremost man of science in England.
HUXLEY
Again,
gentlemen, if you will excuse me.
OWEN
I
regret, Huxley, that you will not be
present
to see us strangle
Darwin’s
“monkey theory” at its birth.
Owen grabs the book off the table, which is “Origin of the
Species” and demonstrates, though the Bible must be mimed.
OWEN
(cont’d)
Bishop
Wilburforce plans to open by holding
aloft
“Origin of the Species” in one hand
and
The Bible in the other. Before he even opens
his
mouth, the debate will be over.
Owen drops “Origin of the Species” back on the table, Huxley
retrieves it.
HUXLEY
Or
I could stand there with a clock and a sundial.
OWEN
Please
do.
HUXLEY
I
am not ashamed to have a monkey for
my
ancestor, Owen, but I would be
ashamed to
be
connected with a man who used
great
gifts to obscure the truth.
OWEN
Truth?
HUXLEY
Darwin’s
research and science are undeniable.
OWEN
Undeniable?
Has anyone ever seen a single
case
of a species evolving into another?
HUXLEY
That’s
simplistic--
OWEN
The
permanence of specific form
is
a fact confirmed by all observations.
Do
you really believe that all
favorable
varieties of turnip are tending
to
be men?
HUXLEY
A
few clever phrases from you, Owen,
will
not win the day.
OWEN
I
won’t be me saying them. It will be our
beloved
Bishop. And we all know they will
listen
to him.
HUXLEY
Darwin’s
theory--
OWEN
Then
why run from it, Huxley? If you are
“Darwin’s
Bulldog”.
HUXLEY
I
won’t argue to a crowd so openly
hostile
to evolution.
OWEN
The
crowd you speak of is “the world”.
(beat)
I
am sorry, my friends.
(touching
Huxley’s arm gently)
Difficult
decision today but the right one,
you
will know in time...
As Owen exits, a WOMAN is hat and veil enters.
WOMAN
Mr.
Lyell--
Seeing Owen, she bows her head, hiding her face.
OWEN
Madam,
this is a private office--
LYELL
It’s
fine, Owen.
OWEN
Well,
we will look forward to seeing you,
or
Lyell,
or neither, on the platform in the next
five
minutes.
Owen exits. The Woman pulls back her veil. It is EMMA
DARWIN, age 52.
LYELL
Mrs.
Darwin? Emma, my goodness.
EMMA
Forgive
me. I felt I had to be here.
LYELL
Mr.
Huxley, you know Mrs. Darwin?
HUXLEY
(at a loss)
Yes.
Thank you for-uhm...
LYELL
Where
is Charles?
EMMA
Home.
Too ill to come.
HUXLEY
Honestly?
EMMA
Honestly.
He is ill more often than well now.
LYELL
But
who is with him?
EMMA
Bearing
ten children has its advantages. I
wanted
to
be able to report to Charles, he is so
dreadfully
nervous, and that only makes him worse.
HUXLEY
Well,
it was a pleasure seeing you again,
Mrs.
Darwin.
EMMA
You’re
leaving? Charley understood that you
were
to defend his theory.
HUXLEY
I
don’t see the point. I’m sorry.
EMMA
But
your supporters, Mr. Huxley, he feels
you
are his only hope.
HUXLEY
Not
your hope, too, Mrs. Darwin?
EMMA
(pause)
No,
not my hope.
HUXLEY
Yet,
you would have me stake my career--
EMMA
Do
you believe Charley’s theory?
HUXLEY
(beat)
Yes.
EMMA
Then
nothing in the world should
stop
you from defending it. If I believed it,
nothing
in the world would stop me.
Lights fade as Emma steps downstage into a spotlight, as the sound of a sea shanty is heard.
She reacts as if hearing the beginning of the scene below.
