Some Mother's Son

ONE ACT PLAYS

SOME MOTHER'S SON
Mark Rees' award-winning drama is set in a casualty clearing station in France during World War I. It was placed third in the Scott Salver 2001, and was described in Scene (June 2001) as "a good story well told, very evocative of the language and ethos of the period".

PLOT RESUME
When a murder is committed by a soldier in the line, a captain is sent to a casualty clearing station to investigate. The murderer convinces a young private, who is on his deathbed, to take the rap for him. A young nurse finds out the truth but isn't sure what to do. A tale with twists and turns set against a backdrop of the carnage of war.

CAST 4 MALE 5 FEMALE 2 MALE/FEMALE

THE MATRON
THE SISTER
LUCY, a young nurse
NURSE 1
NURSE 2

THE CORPORAL
THE PRIVATE
THE CAPTAIN
A BLIND SOLDIER
2 STRETCHER-BEARERS (non-speaking)

SET
A composite with three areas representing a hospital, the matron's office, and a court-martial.

TIME - 1916
DURATION - approx. 50 minutes

Script Sample

The scene is a field hospital. Private Thomson is lying on a bed, seriously wounded, and talking to him is Corporal Macdonald

CORPORAL This whole war's a bloody mess. It’s all wrong. Not what we expected, not what we're used to. Don't get me wrong. I've been a regular soldier for years. I've fought in India and South Africa but they were nothing like this carnage. Nothing at all. I also think that boys like you should be at home, back in blighty out of harm's way. Doing a nine-to-five, out walking with a young lady at the weekends, not stuck in a bloody field hospital in France with your tackle shot off. No offence, son.
PRIVATE None taken. It's just that. . . . .ah. . .bugger.
CORPORAL Is it the pain again?

The private can only nod, so great is the pain. His body is wracked with it

CORPORAL I'll call a nurse.
PRIVATE No, leave them. They've plenty to do. It’s passing. I'm alright.
CORPORAL Nurse. Nurse.
PRIVATE Leave them.
CORPORAL Nurse.
PRIVATE It doesn't matter about me. Let them treat the lads who've got a chance.
CORPORAL Nurse.

Lucy enters

LUCY What's all the shouting for?
CORPORAL He's in terrible pain again. Where's Doctor Kenyon?
LUCY He's really busy at the moment. They all are. They're all in the operating theatre, there's a big rush to get the amputations done before the next batch arrive. Oh, I'm not supposed to say that in front of you.
CORPORAL Don't worry, we won't tell.

Lucy goes over to the private, sits on the edge of his bed and holds him

LUCY I can't do much for your pain but maybe I could take your mind off it a little.
PRIVATE How?
LUCY I could sing for you.
CORPORAL Great idea. Do you know "Stop Your Tickling Jock "?
LUCY What's that?
CORPORAL It’s a music hall song.
LUCY I'm afraid not. I was thinking more of a hymn.
CORPORAL A hymn?
LUCY Yes. A lot of the lads we get in here ask me to sing hymns to them. It seems to help them. It helps me too. It reminds me of home, of my father, he's a clergyman. And we'd sit in the evenings sometimes, in front of a log fire and sing all the hymns we knew or bits of them anyway. We'd be nearly hoarse at the end, hoarse and totally uplifted.
PRIVATE I don’t know many hymns.
LUCY You must have a favourite?
PRIVATE What about “Onward Christian Soldiers"? That’s my mum's favourite.
LUCY That settles it then. "Onward Christian Soldiers" it is.

Lucy starts to sing the hymn quietly but strongly. The two soldiers become lost in their own personal thoughts. The mood is broken by a shout from off stage. A soldier enters, his eyes are bandaged; he’s suffering the effects of a gas attack. He blunders on to the upper level behind the two beds. After a few lines of his dialogue, the two nurses rush on to take him away

BLIND SOLDIER Ahhhhhhh. Keep them away. Keep them away. I. . .can’t see them, but I can hear them. I can smell them. Keep back, keep back you bastards. I can hear you. I know where you are. You know I can’t see you. . Can’t see you, I can’t see. It’s the rats; they’ve got my eyes. They’ve taken my eyes. Give them back. Please. . .in the name of God give them back. . . . .

The nurses have caught up with him and lead him away, still gibbering. There is a silence

from Some Mother's Son

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