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CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD

a theatre piece for all ages

Stage Adaptation by Russell Davis

Based on Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Originally commissioned by People’s Light and Theatre Company through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006

© Russell Davis 2007

Revised February, 2009

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CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD

a theatre piece for all ages in two acts

based on Crispin: The Cross of Lead by AVI stage adaptation by Russell Davis

SECOND DRAFT: January, 2007

People's Light & Theatre Company 39 Conestoga Road Malvern, PA 19355

The Susan Gurman Agency

865 West End Avenue New York, NY 10025-8403

212 749 4618

(FAX) 212 864 5055 Susan@GurmanAgency.com

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characters:

CRISPIN a 13 year old boy

FATHER QUINEL the priest of Stromford village

JOHN AYCLIFFE steward of Lord Furnival's manor at Stromford village

MATTHEW, LUKE & CERDIC villagers

GOODWIFE PEREGRINE the oldest person in the village of Stromford

BEAR (real name: Orson Hrothgar) a traveling juggler & musician

the PRIEST of the village of Lodgecot

a ONE-EYED MAN from the village of Lodgecot

WIDOW DAVENTRY proprietor of the Green Man Inn in Great Wexly

JOHN BALL a radical priest

various other VILLAGERS, RICHARD Du BREY, SOLDIERS, a PAGE, LADY FURNIVAL, CITIZENS of Great Wexly, & several INDIVIDUALS seeking to meet and make plans with John Ball.

NOTE: ONE ACTOR plays CRISPIN. ONE ACTOR plays BEAR. A COMPANY OF FOUR OR MORE ACTORS play all other roles.

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setting:

Medieval England.

The villages of Stromford & Lodgecot, an abandoned church, the city of Great Wexly, and various roads, fields and forests in between.

time:

1377 CE

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/1 Act One Prologue

A cemetery behind a small church.

FATHER QUINEL chants Latin prayers beside a freshly covered grave.

CRISPIN kneels beside him.

CRISPIN (to audience) When my mother died, no birds sang. No bells

tolled. The sun hid behind the dark and lowering clouds. Other than the priest, my mother had no friends. My mother's name was Asta.

The sound of chanting continues.

CRISPIN I am Asta's son,

That is my name.

A light come sup on JOHN AYCLIFFE at the edge of the cemetery.

AYCLIFFE Asta's son!

CRISPIN turns. He sees AYCLIFFE.

The sound of chanting stops. AYCLIFFE Asta's son, come here.

CRISPIN approaches AYCLIFFE, his head bowed.

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/2 AYCLIFFE Look at me. Look at the steward of your manor when he says so.

CRISPIN looks. AYCLIFFE With your mother gone you're required to deliver your ox to

Lord Furnival's manor house tomorrow. It will serve as a death tax.

CRISPIN But, sir. If I do. I won't be able to work the fields.

AYCLIFFE Then starve.

Light goes out on AYCLIFFE.

FATHER QUINEL comes forward.

FATHER QUINEL Come to church, Asta's son. Come.

CRISPIN shakes his head.

FATHER QUINEL God will protect you. As he now protects your mother.

Light goes out on FATHER QUINEL. CRISPIN (to audience) I didn't go to church with Father Quinel. Instead I

ran away to the forest. Deeper and deeper into the ancient woods, past thick bracken and oaks, past brambles and bushes, tripping and falling all the time, until finally, as God in His wisdom would have it, my head struck stone.

Pause. The middle of a forest.

CRISPIN When I awoke, it was dark. Long past the hour of Compline.

Then I recalled my mother's death, how I left the cemetery and the priest, my plunge into the woods. I remembered tripping, falling.

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/3

Pause.

CRISPIN And then I saw a light. A flickering light in the forest.

CRISPIN approaches the light. CRISPIN (muttering to himself) Godly folk have no business beyond their

homes at such a time. Night is a mask for outlaws, wolves, the Devil and his minions. Then who or what can cause this light?

A STRANGER & JOHN AYCLIFFE stand together in a clearing. They hold lighted torches. Nearby is a horse. The STRANGER hands a parchment packet with seals to AYCLIFFE. AYCLIFFE opens and reads it.

AYCLIFFE By the bowels of Christ. When will it happen?

STRANGER If God wills, it will come soon.

AYCLIFFE Am I to act immediately? STRANGER Are you not her kin? Do you not see the consequences if you

don't? AYCLIFFE A great danger to us all.

STRANGER Precisely. There could be those who will see it so and act

accordingly. You'll be placed in danger, too.

AYCLIFFE folds the parchment. He hears something. He sees CRISPIN.

AYCLIFFE Asta's son!

(advancing with sword and torch) There!

CRISPIN flees.

Light goes out on AYCLIFFE & STRANGER.

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/4 CRISPIN (to audience) I ran as far as strength and breath allowed, halting

only when my legs gave out and I fell, gasping for breath. For the remainder of the night I found little rest. I could think

only of John Aycliffe our steward's wrath and my mother death. How she called me, Son. I was Asta's son. How my father, like so many, died before my birth during a recurrence of the Great Mortality, the Plague. Or so my mother told.

CRISPIN gets up from the ground. He looks around.

The sound of birds. CRISPIN The next morning as I headed back to the village, I was about to

leave the forest, when I saw the bailiff, Roger Kinsworthy, and the reeve, Odo Langland, approach the hut where my mother and I had lived.

TWO MEN, with pikes and axes, approach a hut. CRISPIN stays hidden behind a tree. The TWO MEN look inside the hut. They pull it down and destroy it.

CRISPIN (to audience) When I saw our hut destroyed, I fled back into the

forest and from a high rock later saw the whole village sum- moned to the church for important news. Then I saw the steward and bailiff and a band of armed men come toward the forest, I believe in search of me. I spent the day hiding and once I even overheard two men, Matthew and Luke, as they searched.

CRISPIN scrambles up into a tree.

MATTHEW & LUKE pass underneath. They search. MATTHEW (holding a glaive) I don't think we'll find the boy. He'll have gone

leagues by now. There's a strength in lunacy. I've seen it before. The steward

says it was madness over his mother's death that caused the boy to break into the manor house and steal.

CRISPIN stirs.

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/5 LUKE (holding a bow) So it's said.

They continue to search.

MATTHEW If you believe it. Do you?

LUKE Do I think that Asta's son, a boy of thirteen, who's as skittish as a

new chick, entered the steward's home, broke into the money chest, and ran off into the forest?

MATTHEW No. Nor do I. But the steward says it's so.

LUKE And that's the end of it.

They exit, searching.

CRISPIN (to audience) That night I decided I better speak with Father

Quinel. My mother's only friend. Who was said to have had no father, like me. Some even claimed he was the unwanted son of the previous Lord Furnival, who had provided him with the church living when Quinel was still a boy.

Light goes out on CRISPIN.

* * * Scene One

A small stone church.

FATHER QUINEL sits in the dark.

A soft knock is heard.

Pause.

FATHER QUINEL (whispering) Who's there?

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/6 CRISPIN (offstage) It's me, Father Quinel. Asta's son.

FATHER QUINEL opens a side door.

FATHER QUINEL (whispering) God be praised. Come quickly in.

CRISPIN slips inside.

FATHER QUINEL You're being looked for everywhere. I have some food for you.

FATHER QUINEL goes to the altar. He kneels. CRISPIN kneels beside him.

FATHER QUINEL Speak low. There's always Judas lurking. Are you hungry?

CRISPIN Yes, Father.

FATHER QUINEL I was hoping you would come.

FATHER QUINEL brings out a loaf of bread from behind the altar cloth. He hands it to CRISPIN.

FATHER QUINEL Where have you been?

CRISPIN In the forest.

FATHER QUINEL Did you know they've been searching for you?

CRISPIN (eating) Yhm.

FATHER QUINEL Our steward claims you stole money from the manor.

CRISPIN Father, in all my life, I've never even been in there.

FATHER QUINEL I don't doubt you. Most people in the village don't believe the accusation either. But why does Aycliffe put your name to the crime?

CRISPIN I saw him, Father, last night. In the forest.

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/7 FATHER QUINEL Aycliffe?

CRISPIN Yes, with a stranger. Who gave him a parchment to read.

FATHER QUINEL You saw this in the forest?

CRISPIN Yes, and then he saw me. He pursued me with a sword. Until I tumbled down a hill and he lost me.

FATHER QUINEL He said none of this.

CRISPIN It's true.

FATHER QUINEL What was the parchment the steward read? He never mentioned that either.

CRISPIN I don't know.

Who was the man he met? FATHER QUINEL Sir Richard du Brey, I believe. He's brought word that Lord

Furnival - God keep him well - has returned from the wars abroad. He's ill and expected soon to die.

CRISPIN The stranger said Aycliffe must act immediately.

FATHER QUINEL About what?

CRISPIN He said, Are you not her kin? Do you not see the consequences if you don't? There could be those who will see it so. You'll be placed in danger too.

It made no sense to me.

Pause.

CRISPIN Father, what will happen if I'm caught?

FATHER QUINEL The steward has declared you a wolf's head.

CRISPIN A wolf's head!

FATHER QUINEL Do you understand what that means? CRISPIN That I am no longer human? Anyone may kill me?

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/8 FATHER QUINEL You are now a monster, yes. Something unnatural, inhuman.

Peculiar. Beyond the protection of our village, our laws. You are an outlaw to be killed, by any means, on sight.

Pause.

CRISPIN Is this why they destroyed our hut?

No response.

CRISPIN Father, is it something about my mother?

Pause.

FATHER QUINEL Asta's son, unless you flee, you won't live long.

CRISPIN But how can I leave? I'm bound to the land. I have no permission to go.

FATHER QUINEL Asta's son, listen to me with the greatest care. When I baptized

you, you were named Crispin. CRISPIN I was?

FATHER QUINEL It was done in secret. What's more, your mother begged me not

to tell you or anyone. She chose to simply call you, Son. CRISPIN But why?

FATHER QUINEL Did she tell you anything, ever, about your father?

CRISPIN My father? Only that he died before I was born. In the Great

Mortality. FATHER QUINEL Dearest boy, I beg you to find your way to some town or city

with its own liberties. If you can stay there for a year and a day, you'll gain your freedom.

CRISPIN Freedom? What has that to do with me?

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Crispin - The Cross of Lead: The Cross of Lead/9 FATHER QUINEL You could live by your own choices. (muttering) As a highborn

lord, perhaps. CRISPIN Father, it's impossible. I know nothing but the village of

Stromford. FATHER QUINEL Even so, you must go. There are cities enough: Canterbury,

Great Wexly, Winchester. Even London. CRISPIN Father, I don't know where these cities are. What these places are

like. FATHER QUINEL Follow the roads, I believe. Ask for help as you go. God will

guide you. CRISPIN Is there no other way?

FATHER QUINEL No, the most important thing is for you to get away.

Pause. CRISPIN There's something about my mother that you are keeping from

me, is there not? Father, was God angry at her? And me?

FATHER QUINEL It's not for men to know what God does or does not will. What I

do know is you must leave. Your way will be long and difficult. But if you remain hidden in the forest for another day, I'll find some food to sustain you for a while. And perhaps someone will know the best way to go.

CRISPIN As you say.

FATHER QUINEL Your obedience speaks well for you. Come back tomorrow night.

Meet me at Goodwife Peregrine's house. I'll ask her to give you some things to protect you on your way.

CRISPIN heads for the side door.

FATHER QUINEL And when you come back. I'll tell you about your father.

CRISPIN Why can't you tell me now?