The Redemption of Jessie Murdoch one act play script

ONE ACT PLAYS

THE REDEMPTION OF JESSIE MURDOCH
Les Clarke’s powerful and moving two-hander for one man and one woman set in the American mid-west.

Plot Summary
The play is set in a small American town in the present day. Jessie Murdoch visits the home of Rose Johnson, a woman he has never seen before. Working to a personal agenda, he enters her home against her will and subjects her to a humiliating treatment both verbal and physical. In the end he crumbles under Rose’s strength of will and refusal to give in.
ISBN 1 904930 61 1

CAST ONE MALE ONE FEMALE

JESSIE MURDOCH, domineering and a bit of a bully ROSE JOHNSON, feisty and strong-willed

SET
Rose johnson's front room

TIME - present day
DURATION - approx. 30 minutes

Script Sample - The book lover

Jessie Ya said ya like book reading, Rose. What kinda books ya like to read?
Rose (She is thrown by this sudden change. A beat) Uh …thrillers mainly, I guess … an’ … an’ I do like adventure stories …
Jessie Ya sayin’ ya wanna escape yer dull life Rose, that it? You lookin’ fer a way out?
Rose No! No … I jest like them, that’s all. It’s jest readin’.

He moves away from her to the bookcase and then spins back round to her pointing both hands at her with index fingers extended and thumbs up

Jessie Favourite author, Rose!
Rose (panicking) I … I … I’m not sure …
Jessie (moving back towards her) Come now, Rose, all them books, all that readin’. Ya gotta have a favourite, ain’t fittin’ ya don’t.
Rose (a beat) Jo … John!
Jessie John? Figure John gotta have more’n that to his name. What’s the last part, Rose?
Rose (remembering blurts it out) Grisham! John Grisham!
Jessie (nods) Yep, think I heard o’ him. Seem to remember I seen a film they made o’ one of his books one time. (A beat, thoughtful) Ya know, my mumma used to read to me when I was a kid, ain’t never forgot that. (Fondly) I used to snuggle right down in my bed all warm an’ cosy an’ she’d sit ‘longside me an’ open up a book an’uh start to read, an’ jest take my imagination off somewheres. (A beat) Ain’t much fer book readin’ meself. Never get the time fer it. (Sarcastic) So he the one, Rose. This John Grisham. He yer fantasy man or somethin’?
Rose No! No I … I jest like the way he writes …
Jessie (a beat) D’ya read in bed, Rose? Late at night when ole Wayne’s snoring there beside ya. D’ya lay there, Rose, wishing ya was one of them characters in a book? That it, Rose? That what cha do?
Rose I … I do read in bed sometimes …
Jessie So on the night’s when ole Wayne’s too full o beer to rut with ya Rose, d’ya lay there conjuring up all manner o’ things jest like the folks in them books? (Grins) That’s what cha do, ain’t it, Rose? (Grins) Ain’t no use you lying to me, I can see it plain as day, it’s writ all over yer face. Ya lay there wishing ya was with someone else. Wishing ya was someone else. Ain’t that the way it is, Rose?
Rose No! It’s not like that! Me and Wayne’r good together.
Jessie Sure ya are. You tell it yer way but I know it ain’t so. Ya wear one face but there’s another face underneath that’s the real you, Rose, I knowed it straight off.

from The Redemption of Jessie Murdoch

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