Cory and the Showman
SOUND OF A CAR APPROACHING. HEADLIGHTS SWING ACROSS THROUGH THE TREES. SCREECH OF TYRES ON GRAVEL.
SHOWMAN ENTERS WITH SUITCASE
CORY
Oh!
HE OPENS IT, AND OUT COMES KNOWLE - OR ANY OTHER GIANT MANSION OR GOTHIC CASTLE
CORY
Oh! My home!
SHOWMAN
Really?
CORY
Perhaps you know -
SHOWMAN
Yes.
CORY
What shall I do?
SHOWMAN
In order to achieve what end, exactly? Happiness? Love? Security? Fame? Prosperity?
CORY
I only want a little castle of my own.
SHOWMAN
Is that all?
CORY
No. No it isn’t all. I want a big castle. I want THE castle. I want YOUR castle.
SHOWMAN
Madam you are under some misapprehension. I am a man who travels lightly on the earth.
HE PACKS HIS CASTLE BACK IN HIS BAG AND EXITS.
CORY
What shall I do? Plenty of work to be done.
SHE RETURNS TO HER GARDENING
CHILDREN’S VOICES
She knows not what the curse may be,
CORY (DESPERATELY BUSY)
I plant a fig in secret. And Madonna Lillies. 500 daffodil and narcissus where the cherries are to go, at the end of the moat. ..
CHILDREN’S VOICES
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shallot.
CORY RISES AND LOOKS IN THE MIRROR. IN THE MIRROR, SHE HAS A KEY ROUND HER NECK
CORY
Oh -
I have my key around my neck all along.
I used to imagine it opened an iron door in the great wall of the thick ramparts of a grey fortress in the mountains. White mountains. But the mountains, you see, turn out to be inside the walls. That’s the trick. It isn’t the key to the Great House at all. It’s the key to the gate of the Garden.
The Key to the Garden of Eden!
CHILDREN’S VOICES
And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year
Shadows of the world appear.
CORY
"I am half sick of shadows,"
CHILDREN’S VOICES
Said The Lady of Shallot
CORY’S TEMPLE DISINTEGRATES AND SHE HAS HER GLIMPSE OF EDEN, BEFORE LEAVING TO GO INTO THE GARDEN