Pen Of My Aunt one act play script

ONE ACT PLAYS

THE PEN OF MY AUNT
by Gordon Daviot

The action takes place in German-occupied France, in the summer of 1944. A young French soldier on the run is arrested in the grounds of a country estate. Having no papers, he claims to be the nephew of the estate owner. A German corporal immediately takes him up to the house and confronts him with the owner, who turns out to be a collaborator …

This well-written and suspenseful drama is the work of Elizabeth Mackintosh, writing under the pen name of Gordon Daviot. She was born in Inverness in 1896, and enjoyed a successful career writing plays and novels of the mystery and thriller genre under the pen name of Josephine Tey.
Running time 30 minutes.

ISBN 978-0-9560209-2-5

CAST 2M 2F
Madame, the owner of a country mansion
Simone, a servant
Stranger, a French soldier on the run
Corporal, A German soldier

SET - the drawing room of a French country mansion
TIME & PLACE- German-occupied France, 1944
DURATION - 27 minutes

Script Sample

As the curtain rises, Madame, a woman in her 50s, enters from the garden with a bunch of flowers in her hand and proceeds to arrange them in the vase. She is admiring them when suddenly her servant Simone, a young girl in her early 20s, bursts in from U L

Simone (approaching) Madame! Oh, Madame! Madame, have you -
Madame Simone.
Simone Madame, have you seen what -
Madame Simone!
Simone But Madame -
Madame Simone, this may be an age of barbarism, but I will have none of it inside the walls of this house.
Simone But Madame, there is a - there is a -
Madame (silencing her) Simone. France may be an occupied country, a ruined nation, and a conquered race, but we will keep, if you please, the usages of civilization.
Simone Yes, Madame.
Madame One thing we still possess, thank God; and that is good manners. The enemy never had it; and it is not something they can take from us.
Simone No, Madame.
Madame Go out of the room again. Open the door -
Simone Oh, Madame! I wanted to tell you -
Madame - open the door, shut it behind you - quietly - take four paces into the room, and say what you came to say.

Simone goes hastily out, shutting the door. She reappears, shuts the door behind her, takes four paces into the room, and waits

Yes, Simone?
Simone I expect it is too late; they will be here.
Madame Who will?
Simone The soldiers who were coming up the avenue.
Madame After the last few months I should not have thought that soldiers coming up the avenue was a remarkable fact. It is no doubt a party with a billeting order.
Simone (crossing to the window) No, Madame, it is two soldiers in one of their little cars, with a civilian between them.
Madame Which civilian?
Simone A stranger, Madame.
Madame A stranger? Are the soldiers from the Combatant branch?
Simone No, they are those beasts of the Administration. Look, they have stopped. They are getting out.

Madame walks over to the window and looks out

Madame Yes, it is a stranger. Do you know him, Simone?
Simone I have never set eyes on him before, Madame.
Madame You would know if he belonged to the district?
Simone Oh, Madame, I know every man between here and St Estèphe.
Madame (dryly) No doubt.
Simone Oh, merciful God, they are coming up the steps.
Madame My good Simone, that is what the steps were put there for.
Simone But they will ring the bell and I shall have to -
Madame And you will answer it and behave as if you had been trained by a butler and ten upper servants instead of being the charcoal-burner’s daughter from over at Les Chênes. (This is said encouragingly, not in unkindness) You will be very calm and correct -
Simone Calm! Madame! With my inside turning over and over like a wheel at a fair!
Madame A good servant does not have an inside, merely an exterior. (Comforting) Be assured, my child. You have your place here; that is more than those creatures on our doorstep have. Let that hearten you -
Simone Madame! They are not going to ring. They are coming straight in.
Madame (bitterly) Yes. They have forgotten long ago what bells are for.

Enter from UL a young man in his thirties, dressed in civilian clothes, closely followed by a German corporal

Stranger (in a bright, confident, casual tone) Ah, there you are, my dear aunt. I am so glad. Come in, my friend, come in. My dear aunt, this gentleman wants you to identify me.
Madame Identify you?
Corporal We found this man wandering in the woods -
Stranger The corporal found it inexplicable that anyone should wander in a wood.
Corporal And he had no papers on him -
Stranger And I rightly pointed out that if I carry all the papers one is supposed to these days, I am no good to God or man. If I put them in a hip pocket, I can’t bend forward; if I put them in a front pocket, I can’t bend at all.
Corporal He said that he was your nephew, Madame, but that did not seem to us very likely, so we brought him here.

There is the slightest pause; just one moment of silence

Madame But of course this is my nephew.

from The Pen Of My Aunt

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