The Lamplighter, стр. 7

her neighbour.

BLACK HARRIOT:

She never saw me at all!

LAMPLIGHTER:

Except when I did something she didn’t like!

She was always telling me I was lazy!

CONSTANCE:

Visible. Invisible. See. Be not Seen. Hear be not heard.

To be seen and not heard.

To be or not to be, that is the Question.

MUSIC:

(The beat of a drum.)

BLACK HARRIOT:

When I arrived off the ship,

I was polished with palm oil

To make my dusty skin shine.

My anus was plugged with wadding.

MARY:

To fetch the best price for me.

LAMPLIGHTER:

A note was placed OVER my head

MACBEAN:

Good breeding stock

ALL:

To fetch the best price for me.

The women start shouting and we hear a terrifying and sudden din and clamour. The yard door opening and the chorus shouts out prices (improvise).

LAMPLIGHTER:

And without a moment’s notice

There was all hell and noise and scramble

And men rushing towards us

Wanting to buy us, turning us roughly round,

MARY:

Rushing towards us

BLACK HARRIOT:

Whirling us round

CONSTANCE:

Torn, yanked, pulled, pushed, kicked, stamped, branded. I was given a new name.

MARY:

Mary MacDonald

CONSTANCE:

Constance

BLACK HARRIOT:

Black Harriot

MARY:

Mary MacDonald.

Original meaning uncertain.

Possibly, bitter or wished for child.

CONSTANCE:

I was named Constance.

Constance so that I would behave myself

So that I would be a virtue

Like my sisters Faith, Patience and Charity

So that in my abstraction

I would forever be constant.

Standing right there

At the side of, but not seen by,

In the house of, but not heard by,

In the bed of, but not loved by,

To be touched by, but not loved by,

To be felt by, but not loved by,

To always be, to never stop,

To always be Constant – reliable,

Sturdy, neger wench!

BLACK HARRIOT is surprised at this and laughs out loud.

BLACK HARRIOT:

I had a few names before this one.

My name is a joke.

There was a white Harriot once,

Not me.

They called me Black Harriot

So that white Harriot

Never needed to be called

White Harriot

And could just be Harriot.

CONSTANCE:

The old German for home ruler!

BLACK HARRIOT laughs even more.

BLACK HARRIOT:

Black Harriot

CONSTANCE:

Constance

MARY:

Mary MacDonald

BLACK HARRIOT:

We call her the Lamplighter.

LAMPLIGHTER:

They call me Lamplighter.

ANNIWAA:

My name is Anniwaa

LAMPLIGHTER:

There are things I can’t help but remember.

ANNIWAA:

Remember my name is Anniwaa.

LAMPLIGHTER:

There are things I wish I could forget.

ANNIWAA:

Don’t forget my name is Anniwaa.

LAMPLIGHTER:

These are the things I cannot stop remembering;

these are the things I cannot stop forgetting.

MARY:

I tell my story to remember.

BLACK HARRIOT:

I tell my story to forget.

CONSTANCE:

The History of the Lamplighter,

related by Herself.

MARY:

This is slavery.

FX:

(The sound of sea on cobbles in the background.)

LAMPLIGHTER:

I was stood on the cobbles outside the Inn in Avon, not so very long ago.

My face was raining.

CONSTANCE:

I tell the story to let me sleep.

BLACK HARRIOT:

I tell the story to keep me awake.

CONSTANCE:

I tell the story to pass it on.

MARY:

I tell the story so the story will stop.

FX:

(Fade sea on cobbles.)

LAMPLIGHTER:

What I tell is not a story:

How they hid me in a sack,

How I thought I was going to be killed

Or eaten;

How I saw the furnace copper boiling.

How I smelt the blood on the galley.

How I heard the cries of women and children.

How I hit rock bottom.

My mouth was stuffed with rice, to drown my crying,

How I felt like jumping ship.

I never saw my brother again.

I never smelt the smell of my own country.

I never heard my mother’s voice again.

I never did not feel like jumping ship.

BLACK HARRIOT:

After the floating prison

There was the field prison

After the field prison

There was the kitchen prison.

Anything I did, or said

Was wrong, always wrong

CONSTANCE:

The whip was made out of plaited cow skin.

It could take the skin

Off horses’ backs or lay marks

In a deal board;

When I was being flogged for nothing

I never did cry out or scream

I stayed silent – close to serene,

I would not give the mistress

the satisfaction of my distress.

LAMPLIGHTER:

And I heard The HouseLady one day say

When she was teaching me the book,

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,

do you even so to them;

For this is the law of the prophets.

CONSTANCE:

When I was moved from the field

To the house, I thought I’d got lucky.

But The HouseLady was as demanding

As any field driver.

HouseLady would lie in bed till noon

While I looked after her children.

Her children talk my talk

And walk my walk

And know me better than their mother.

Those children know my songs

SONG:

(Spiritual: the next part the chorus sings.)

SONG:

(CONSTANCE sings a Creole lullaby under the others singing Daniel.)

ALL:

I’m gonna tell my Lord Daniel

How you done me here Daniel

This aint none of my home Daniel

Slip and slide the street Daniel

Slip and slide the street Daniel.

Didn’t my Lord Deliver Daniel

And why not every man

MARY:

In Jamaica, I worked hard.

CONSTANCE:

In St Lucia, I worked hard.

BLACK HARRIOT:

In St Kitts, I worked hard.

CONSTANCE:

Spinning and weaving and making clothes,

MARY:

Digging and planting, cutting and burning.

Water had to be carried from the wells and pumps

Heavy backbreaking loads carried for miles.

CONSTANCE:

I was plucked from the fields and trained in the house. On call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; to her, to him, to them. Used until I was sixteen and then sold again.

MACBEAN:

A neger Wench fit for plantation work, or very capable of making a Good House Wench having for some months served as such in a family.

CONSTANCE:

And in that house, the planters offered me

To their friends for sexual favours,

To neighbours, to young men.

MACBEAN:

A neger wench I have must be brought to Knowledge.

CONSTANCE:

I could tell HouseLady didn’t like it

When Fatman did what he did to me.

Next day, she’d punish me for

His punishing ways.

By the break of day, I was broken.

By the close of day, I was broken.

CONSTANCE:

This story was repeated.

LAMPLIGHTER:

This story was repeated in the sugar mills.

BLACK HARRIOT:

This story was repeated in the tobacco fields.

LAMPLIGHTER:

This is the story of the Lamplighter.

MARY:

Related by Herself.

SONG:

(The next part is sung.)

BLACK HARRIOT:

Ah well looka here missy, what in the worl’ are you trying to do.

CONSTANCE:

I said looka here missy, what in the worl’ are you tryin’ a do.

LAMPLIGHTER:

Don’ know what makes me love you, you gonna break my heart in two.

(Repeat song twice.)

CONSTANCE:

I was picked from the fields to work

In the house: I learned: sewing, spinning, steaming, boiling, hot.

Wiping, cleaning, polishing, spick and span.

The Man can have you anytime he can.

Shimmy shammy. Hand on foot. Rub a dub.

Three