Misha Williams

 35 
 
ALBERT 
She's a dyke. You're a dyke. That's what I can't stand… 
 
JESS 
(In her light banter) Don't be so dramatic. Anyway. 
You're not interested in me any more. So what do you 
care? 
 
ALBERT 
I care terribly. 
 
JESS 
(Laughing) You liar! How can you care when you sleep 
with other women?  
 
ALBERT 
That's the perfect excuse for you to dump me for good 
and have a dyke relationship with Ida. 
 
JESS 
It's not an excuse, it's the reason! And despite that 
betrayal, I'm actually helping you. I can't stand 
Fawcett. I'm trying to help you get your obsession 
behind you. So don't be so ungrateful!  
 
ALBERT 
I am grateful. What you're doing is fantastic. I wish I 
could do something for you. 
 
JESS 
Just give me my freedom, Al. 
 
ALBERT 
….Alright then. (he is on the verge of tears and starts 
to leave). Alright. 
 
JESS 
(Laughing) You are so dramatic! 
 
They go. 
Strange music.The sounds of East End "Edwardian London." 
 
 

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 36 
SCENE TWELVE. A HOTEL ROOM IN THE EAST END, 1918. 
 
The light reveals "M" sitting on a straight chair with her back to the 
audience. Two men in long black coats and bowler hats approach. At the 
other side of the stage, BRIAN in a spotlight. 
 
BRIAN 
As a boy, when we were staying in London, I followed 
my father one evening. He met his best friend, a 
sinister character called Harold Large, who was a 
member of the Golden Dawn and a friend of Aleister 
Crowley. 
 
FAWCETT 
Oh, mysterious man! "I, like a child go by thy 
direction"… 
 
BRIAN 
In Shoreditch, they braved the lines of prostitutes and 
drunks to check into a cheap hotel room with a "Mrs 
Letheran". For a private session. 
 
LARGE holds a candle above her. She is already in a trance. 
Her moans in the séance are ambiguously sexual. 
 
"M" 
Yes...Yes… Oh mighty one!  
 
BRIAN 
(To audience) Daddy loved that form of address.  
 
"M" 
Oh…Oooh. I see your elder son…Your elder son. Yes. 
He'll walk with the Gods. He'll be a type of messiah. 
But your younger son…He was trouble to you in a 
previous incarnation. He has to atone for it. Beware. 
 
BRIAN 
Ah. That's why Daddy didn't like me. 
 
FAWCETT holds up a small idol. 
 
FAWCETT 
Tell me about this statuette? 

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 37 
 
"M" 
It is you in a past life. You were an Atlantean priest 
from Hi-Brazil and it is your destiny to take it back 
there to your city. 
 
FAWCETT 
What do the letters on it mean? 
 
"M" 
"He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does 
not know". 
 
FAWCETT 
Can human beings…. have sex with fairies? 
 
"M" 
Providing the fairy materializes into solid form before 
the event. 
 
Lights fade except on BRIAN. 
 
BRIAN 
(To audience) Credulity! You see, Daddy couldn't 
achieve the power of clairvoyance himself and had to 
rely on distorted messages from mediums. And this 
brought him to a state of that credulity…which, I'm 
convinced, took him to his doom. 
 
Blackout.  
 
 
 
SCENE THIRTEEN. WILDERNESS.      
 
 
RALEIGH lies on the ground, weak from heat and hunger.  
 
RALEIGH 
(To audience) Dear Mother…er. How are you? We are 
by a river as wide as the Thames from our view in 
Chelsea. But this river has no name.  I don't think I 
shall see you again, mother. It's my own fault for 
following Jack. He and his father are heading for 

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 38 
disaster and I've got stupidly drawn in. I don't know 
the way back. But it's strangely exhilarating to be so 
out of touch with the world. Anyway, I've been limping 
with a bad foot. 
 
JACK enters in a full-length priestly robe, looking self-conscious. He also 
looks weak from hunger and exhaustion. 
 
RALEIGH 
That looks good.  
 
JACK 
Are you sure? 
 
RALEIGH 
Yes. It's rather super. 
 
JACK 
Thank you. I am a bit worried.  
 
RALEIGH 
You can't back out. He'd go mad. 
 
JACK 
I know. But to be quite honest, I'm really scared. 
 
RALEIGH 
We're never going to get out of here again, are we? 
What's going to happen?  This colony that's going to be 
founded here for the enlightened? Who the hell's going 
to find this place? 
 
JACK 
Do you know what's in store for me? These "Earth 
Guardians" are going to transfer my soul..er my 
personality into the body of one of their elders and his 
personality into my body. 
 
RALEIGH 
How utterly revolting. You haven't agreed to that, have 
you? 
 
 
 

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 39 
JACK 
I was very young when it all started. At home it was 
partly a joke. So I thought. Till one day the time came 
and I was told to get ready for this journey. 
 
RALEIGH 
He's condemning you to death.  God knows what's 
going to happen to you. 
 
JACK 
I even thought of killing him actually. A mercy killing, 
very quick, so he wouldn't have to suffer the 
disappointment of me! Feeling as I do. 
 
RALEIGH 
Come on. Get that stupid dress off. Let's make a run 
for it. 
 
JACK 
No, no. Not just now. I can see him. He's coming back. 
 
RALEIGH 
Whatever happens. I want to say… I love you Jack. 
 
JACK 
Steady on, old chap. You'll be wanting a kiss next. 
 
RALEIGH 
I came along for your sake. For no other reason. 
                                                                
FAWCETT 
(Offstage. Jauntily) I've found them at last! 
(Entering) The Guardians await you Sajaz! All hail to 
the young God! My dear son!  They are ready to 
receive you. I'm so proud. You couldn't look more 
worthy to ascend the golden path of a messiah. 
 
"M" draws a veil over them. BRIAN comes into his living room where 
RUTH and NINA sit on the sofa lit by a low light from the television. They 
seem frozen in time. "M" wanders in the shadows. 
 
 
 
 

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