The Last Post

ONE ACT PLAYS

THE LAST POST
A World War I drama written by Jill Sumner and first directed by her in the 1998 production at the Swallow Theatre Whithorn.

PLOT RESUME
The narrative describes the love affair and marriage of Alick and Molly Merrick, a young couple caught up in the events of the Great War. At first Alick tries not to get involved, but in the end decides that he has to take part. In a series of scenes taken from personal diaries and War Office accounts, and using authentic sounds and music of the time, the playwright gives a moving and vivid portrayal of the young couple's lives and of the events leading up to Alick's fateful dawn patrol on 10 September 1916, at Leuze Wood, on the Somme.

CAST 1 MALE 1 FEMALE 1MALE/FEMALE PARTS

MAJOR MINOR

Alick Merrick, 30s
Marian (Molly) Johnston, late 20s Narrator
David
Jill
(David and Jill appear only in the epilogue)

1 SET
a split stage denoting Molly's room, Alick's study, and a dug-out

TIME - 1913-16
DURATION - approx. 50 minutes

Script Sample

MOLLY An awful day. Oh how I hate Helen Palmer! Alick and I were out walking in the Park - a Sunday afternoon stroll...I wore my new hat, the first I’ve had for months! There were other couples there and - yes - a lot of the men were in khaki...but that was absolutely no reason for Miss Palmer and her “friend” to do what they did. Which was to place themselves plumb in the middle of the footpath and, arms akimbo, a most unladylike stance! - say to Alick “Women of Britain say Go”; and then to me “Why isn’t your best boy in khaki?” Her friend sniggered a bit, and had the grace to look ashamed, but Helen Palmer stood her ground and accused me of keeping Alick at home.
ALICK This has been a wretched summer. I’m finding it harder and harder to deny what’s going on. They said it would all be over by Christmas; now they’re calling for a million and a half new recruits before the year is out. Numbers like that mean only one thing...that men out there are getting killed. That bullets and bayonets hurt. That digging trenches and running about in fields give the impression of a big jolly picnic, and are not the slightest use in preparing men for war.
MOLLY Attended a charity concert in the park. Babs slept through most of it, but woke up with a jump when the brass band began to play. She started screaming, and I was mortified for a time, and quite at my wits’ end to know what to do with her. Then Miss Eleanor Buckley started to sing, such a sweet, gentle little ditty, that Babs - and all the rest of us - fell silent under her spell.

FX: Song (taped): "There's a Little Grey Home In the West"

MOLLY Coming home from the concert that evening we saw a meteor bursting in the sky and the light from it was lovely, in fact dazzling. But in bed that night Alick told me he has volunteered for the army. He is to move to training camp in another three weeks.
ALICK (to Molly) A new seriousness has entered my life. Suddenly I’m aware that history is being made. If I don’t go to war and become part of it I will never understand why my life, and everything I’ve known is so changed. Nobody will be able to tell me. I will spend the rest of my life wondering what has happened to me, and looking into the eyes of others to find out.

from The Last Post

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