Dramatic Shorts by James Quince

Author:James Quince
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dramatic, Shorts, Plays, Scripts, Acting, Writing, Playrights, Monologues, Duologues, Short Plays, Drama, Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781785380341
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2014
Published: 2014-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

GINNY : I don’t want to know any more.

EDMOND : Mr Daunt. He knows. I told you he knows. That’s why they kicked him out. He knows how the Africans are paid for their goods.

GINNY : And how are they paid?

EDMOND : They’re not. Don’t you see, Ginny? They can’t be. There is nothing going out from Belgium to pay them with. Just guns and whips. There’s no other explanation. They’re not being paid. They’re being forced to work. With whips.

GINNY : Edmond. What does mitrailleuse mean?

EDMOND : What?

GINNY : It’s in this manifest. Mitrailleuse. This ship is carrying ten of them to the Congo.

EDMOND : Let me see. I don’t believe this. Mitrailleuse is the French word for a machine gun.

GINNY : What is happening here? What is all this, Edmond?

EDMOND : You know what this is. You know what happens when people force others to work for no money. When you take what they produce and give nothing in return. Except a few pieces of copper wire. It’s called slavery. Look at it. Guns. Whips. The Congo is one vast slave colony. And King Leopold is running it : King Leopold owns it.

GINNY : It can’t be. He fights against the slave trade.

EDMOND : Against other people’s slave trades maybe. He’s clearly not fighting against his own one.

GINNY : Edmond - you mustn’t get involved -

EDMOND : I am involved whether I like it or not, Ginny. I shall get writing again. I’ll send a note to Hetheridge, tell him I’ve found a new issue. A full page piece. This must be exposed.

GINNY : Edmond, you can’t do it all. Not on your own.

EDMOND : Just watch me. Professional secrets! Ha!

GINNY : Edmond, stop. Please. Just for once think about this. Think what will happen. If you go to Sir Henry and say the Belgians are practising slavery in the Congo you will be out of a job before you’re out of his office. And where will that leave us? Edmond, we are supposed to be trying to start our family.

EDMOND : I can’t just let this go, Ginny. I have to do something.

GINNY : But why does it have to be you? Why can’t you get someone else to take it on?

EDMOND : I can’t pass this to someone else. It has to be me.

GINNY : Oh you are so stubborn!

EDMOND : I have to be stubborn in the cause of right.

GINNY : How will it help the cause of right if you lose your job? How will it help the natives if you lose your job?

EDMOND : Who says I’ll lose my job?

GINNY : The Belgians will insist on it. Even I can see that.

EDMOND : I don’t work for the Belgians. I work for the Malvern Line.

GINNY : The Malvern Line will do what the Belgians tell them to.

EDMOND : Why?

GINNY : Because the Belgians are the ones with the money. Whoever has the money always gets his way. Haven’t you learnt that yet?

EDMOND : The Malvern Line will not work with slavers.

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