A Tale of Two Lovers
A Rather Spontaneous Play
Alekay as the role of Winston Thornberry
Claery as the role of Clara Lake
Steafan as the role of Steafan (Audience Member)
Audience as the role of the Audience
Clara twirls as she arrives on stage, beaming at whoever came and found no promised free food. Winston runs after Clara and immediately takes his place next to her, announcing rather dramatically, "This... is the story of two lovers who had forgotten one another, come together to reunite once more." He bows his head solemnly.
Clara nods a few times, before shuffling over to Winston and leaning over to him, whispering something. Winston pauses. A dumbfounded expression finds it's way onto his face. "Uhm...." He blinks as he tries to imagine something, before murmuring, "Ah, I know...."
Winston blinks yet again, then whispers in reply- he raises his index finger in a "shhh" gesture, accompanied by a wink, before he takes a step forward to talk to the audience. Clara blinks right back at Winston, but nods. She steps forward as well, but stays behind him for now until it is her turn!
Winston says, "I am the good man Winston Thornberry, a lone stablehand of mere twenty-two winters! It was but a simple winter day spent hauling bales of hay to the horses, when I stumbled across the most intriguing sight in this sleepy little village!" He bows his head, gestures at Clara, and takes a step back, indicating it to be her turn.
Clara flashes him a grin before stepping forward with the most innocent of innocent faces. She says, "I am Clara Lake, a fair maiden of but twenty summers! One of many children, my life was quite boring... that is, until this fateful winter day, when I had been running errands for my parents and caught sight of the handsomest lad I had seen in a long time!" She steps aside, gesturing to Winston.
Winston continues, "And oh, what a beautiful dame she was! So fair-skinned, with hair so dark and lips so plump. While I may be a fool and a terrible bore, I do declare, my eyes did not deceive me as I laid them upon this Breeish beauty!"
Clara looks away, fanning herself as she flutters her eyelashes.
Winston says, "So it was that on this fair evening, where the snow was plentiful on the ground and white as the dove's feathers, I turned to the beauty and said, Dear miss, I do declare, what brings you out on this cold evening?" He turns to Clara, making an elaborate gesture as he does.
Clara first turns her head to Winston, then the rest of her body, giving him a sweet smile. She approaches, saying in a high-pitched tone like any lady would, "I was running the last of my parents' errands, for bread and apples! And what brings you out here, kind sir?"
Winston replies, 'Hay for the horses, as ever! By some tomfoolery, I was to pick up an emergency bundle for one of the sicker mares at the stables, but now as I stand here I suddenly find my knees weak and my feet unable to carry me where I must! What is this spell, I wonder?"
"Oh, my! It must be the cold!" Clara exclaims. She pulls off her scarf and nears Winston to wrap it around his shoulders instead, making sure to do all this in big gestures so the audience knows what is going on.
Winston pauses, then turns to face the audience with a wide, feigned look of shock and surprise before turning back to Clara. "Yes, yes, indeed! I am quite frozen to the bone, such a cruel winter this is, although, my dear woman, perhaps that may not be the only thing to bind me to this place...." He has a scarf wrapped around his shoulder.
Winston then attempts to turn lightly to conceal his face from the audience as he attempts to smoothly place his hand over Clara's, mumbling something as he does. Clara puts on a shy expression, glancing away again as if she were blushing. She says, "Oh, but what else could there be?"
Winston says, 'Perhaps the lady's fair eyes simply have me enraptured within her cold grasp, perhaps it is the form of her visage that keeps me so rooted here, for it is so beautiful that I simply cannot let my eyes wander!'
Clara doesn't reply- she decides to be dramatic and look up at Winston with wide eyes, before slowly going on for a kiss! Sadly, she only kisses him on the cheek, and says, "For now I must be getting inside, for it is cold and I have just lost my scarf! But I hope I see more of you in the future, kind sir!"
Winston flushes a light tinge of red. Obviously in and out of character he is very pleased. He turns back to the audience and takes a step forward.
"Did you see that, fine ladies and gentlemen? A kiss! A kiss for the poor lad! This may be my luckiest day yet!"
Clara steps back then, and keeps walking backwards till she is at one of the stage curtains. She waves to Winston before she ducks behind it, as if going inside her home. She soon re-appears, however, peering out from the other side.
Winston makes a point of skipping around the stage flamboyantly. This makes him look like an idiot.
"And thus, the cold harsh winds of winter passed and gave way to the bloom of spring and the smell of fresh dew on the grass... a normal day as it were, with the sun shining on my back and the fresh scent of dew permeating the village, ah, lovely spring, but only as lovely as the fair maiden from the winter. Oh, how I long to see her!"
Winston starts tugging at his scarf to remind the audience of the symbolic meeting. He suddenly smacks himself on the forehead.
"But what a lovestruck fool I am, prancing about and hoping and dreaming! Is this not a pointless pursuit to stand and do nothing? My mother had always said that dreams are the tunes that keep that heart beating, but my heart remains cold from winter no matter how much I yearn for my dream of her!"
"Ah! Is that my scarf?!"
Winston says, "I must find her, I will not rest until I see-- Gracious!" He startles comically and stumbles onto his rear end. "M-M-Miss Clara?!"
Clara, as if just noticing Winston for the first time, strides to the front of the stage and looks down at him with a raised brow. "Are you alright there, sir?"
Winston quickly scrambles to stand up, dusting himself off, "Yes yes yes, indeed I am! A mere stone out of place on the road, it will be all right..." He trails off and stares at Clara's face, attempting a mystified expression, before suddenly pointing his finger at her dramatically.
"You! You!"
Clara's eyes go wide at being pointed at. She puts a hand on her neck in surprise.
"Me!?"
"Yes, you!"
"Me what?!"
Winston briefly turns to the audience to remark, "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our story began."
He suddenly rushes towards Clara and attempts to give her a big, beary hug! Clara would stand frozen at such a hug, looking at the audience with a terrified expression. But then she looks back down at Winston and melts into the hug, wrapping her arms back around him.
Winston says, "At last I have found you after weeks of dreary gloom..."
Clara replies, "And I have found you after weeks of dreary boredom!"
Winston says, "Then, let us reaffirm our love and allow it to bloom alongside the flowers of spring....!"
He moves in to kiss Clara, but instead of sealing it with his lips, he pulls back at the last second and clutches at his head as if he had been struck by a rock, "Oh... oh my, it appears a rock has struck my forehead.." Winston stumbles backwards, and dramatically faints, sprawling onto the wood below.
Clara would have been leaning in as well, before Winston was struck by a rock at the last second! "No, no, my love!" Wide-eyed, Clara jumps forward, readying to help him before she clutches her head suddenly as well. "It seems a rock has struck my forehead as well! How... coincidental! And sad!" And so she faints dramatically as well!
Winston rumbles as he stirs, opening his eyes before he sits up and rubs at his face with his hands, "Goodness gracious, it seems that a mysterious rock has struck me on the head... mayhaps a mischievous child thinking it amusing with such a cruel prank... now... where was I?"
He stands up and abruptly slips out of character: "And now, Ladies and Gentlemen... we come to the second part of our-- Goodness, who may this be?!"
Winston gasps as his attention is drawn down to Clara lying 'unconscious' on stage. He suddenly attempts to prod the hem of her dress with his boot as he circles around her.
"Beautiful, and somehow..."
"Hullo! Are you dead?"
Clara sits up immediately. "Who did that?!" she exclaims, getting to her feet and dusting herself off. "Oi! Don't touch m-" she pauses, frowning a little at the man. She moves closer to inspect him. "Do I know you?"
Winston raises a brow in return, "Excuse me? For a beauty, you are quite rude! I was merely looking to see if you were alive! ... Are you? Or am I merely in a dream?"
Clara says, "I... I feel very much alive, sir! Or perhaps I am the one in a dream?" And she pinches Winston without warning!
Winston yelps out with an exaggarated, high-pitched voice, "AIEEEP! Brushes and Bridles, how dare you simply pinch me! Have you lost all your sense?! And for that matter, how heinous is your taste?!"
"You asked if you were merely dreaming... are you dreaming now?"
Steafan pulls his lute off of his back and waits for one of them to finish speaking, after which he would strike a few strings. He repeats this every time one of them says something, the melody befitting the tone in which they speak.
Winston says, "Nay, I do not feel as if I am dreaming -- for one, the woman before me simply cannot be so plain!"
Clara giggles the girliest giggle that can be, and opens her mouth to say something, but is cut short when she clutches her head again. "Ow... my head hurts!" Winston wrinkles his brows, circling Clara again as if she were some sort of freakish monster.
"Is that so?" he says. "Pray tell, dear woman, do you know what has happened? I cannot seem to remember what has transpired the past few hours... I feel as if I must remember... something important."
"I remember nothing!" Clara says.
Winston clutches at his forehead, wrinkling his brows yet again, "And I cannot seem to recall more than the headache I am currently suffering, urgh..."
Clara says, "Perhaps we are both tired after a long day of work, and need sleep!"
Winston says, "Mayhaps, mayhaps! Yet... where exactly are we? Perhaps one of those fine, upstanding men and women may know?" He and Clara turn to the audience expectantly.
Winston starts staring at Steafan. Very, very hard. "We... are quite lost and some directions to the nearest lodgings would be appreciated!" He coughs. What a subtle way to request the audience for an answer.
Clara says, "Oh! What is that building in the distance?! She points towards the Prancing Pony!
Steafan stares back at Winston. He takes a moment to get the hint nonetheless before turning around with a grin on his face, one finger pointed at the Pony. "What you see behind me is hte Prancing Pony! You shall find drinks in abundance there, and perhaps one for the gentle soul that pointed you that way!"
Winston says, "Hrm? Ah! My thanks, good sir, my thanks indeed! Perhaps there we shall find respite and merriment, and an explanation as to what happened!"
Clara says, "And drinks! I'm rather thirsty..."
Winston says, "So am I! Perhaps the good folk before us would let us know who is thirsty? Raise your hands and say yea!"
Roclin does not partake in crowd friendly things. He frowns. Steafan raises both hands in the air, with one holding the lute. Thamsin returns Steafan's wave with a slow short movement of one hand.
Winston automatically raises his hand while smiling like the biggest idiot in the foreseeable universe. Which, arguably, his entire character is made out of. Clara raises her hands soon after Winston, beaming. Winston suddenly shuffles closer to Clara, mumbling something to her. She leans towards Winston, calmly murmuring in his ear. Winston blinks as he listens to Clara, before nodding and putting on a wide, ridiculous grin.
"A-HA! By jove, we ought to invite these good folk into the tavern for drinks and merriment!"
Clara says, "Aye, we ought to, and we shall! To the Prancing Pony!"
Winston says, "Hup hup hup!"
Winston raises his arms in the air and gestures towards the Pony whilst marching towards the stage exit slowly. His face suggests he's having a hard time controlling the urge to laugh, but nonetheless he manages to soldier on with a relative poker face. Clara curtesies, then twirls and follows Winston out. She bows her head, keeping her face covered with her hair- clearly she's having a hard time not laughing either. As they exit the stage she loops an arm around Winston's.
Winston gestures the audience to follow along with his hand, airily waving and grinning brightly.
As they enter the Pony, Winston says, "Ah, a cozy warm fire!... How many did we count among the fine gentlefolk, my dear woman?"
Clara answers, "Five, kind sir!"
Winston says, "Five! Then so we shall have seven tankards of ale! Yes, seven of them!" He pounds his fist on the counter dramatically for Butterbur, who widens his eyes and gets about to work mumbling.
Steafan hurries foorward towards the bar, calling out loudly to correct Winston, "Eight tankards, I say eight!"
Clara jumps back in astonishment- eight tankards!
Winston receives a tray of eight tankards. Oh dear. Then he starts calling into the room, "Tankards! Get yer tankards of ale here!" He swiftly throws some silver coins onto the counter and grabs one of the tankards to eagerly drain.
Steafan makes a step forward and extends his arm to grab one tankard for himself. He raises it to the people around him before taking thirsty gulps out of it.
Clara steps back suddenly.
She says, "Is that... is that my scarf?'
Winston trails off, pausing to look down at the scarf that he's wearing. "Eh?"
"That IS my scarf! Oh my heavens, it must be a sign!"
"What do you mean, fair maiden--?"
"We were meant to be!"
Winston blinks, glancing shiftily at the two before him, then at Clara, "Oh... oh! Perhaps... perhaps you are right! The stars must be aligning! Fair maiden, let us....'
He takes a step forward. He trips over his own feet (very suspicious) and ends up falling face-first onto the floor. He looks up, "Marry?"
Clara says, "Uhhhhr, no! My name is not Mary! Winston, it's me! Clara!"
Winston says, "... I beg your pardon?"
Clara says, "I don't know."
Winston says, "What?!"
"What?!"
Clara seems to have lost track of the plot, she appears offended.
Winston springs up, looking terribly indignant. "What?!" He repeats, and suddenly reaches out to pretend to choke Clara, "Have you no brains?!"
Clara suddenly has hands around her neck- she is being pretend choked! So her eyes go wide and she makes a dramatic struggle of all of it. "N-no... no...! Let me g-goo....!" Her yelling only trails off, as her arms fall limp, as does the rest of her, and she falls to the ground!
Winston gasps, "By jove, what've I done?!" And then he dramatically falls to his knees and pretends to weep. What an awkward ending.
Clara rolls over on her back, opening her eyes and bursts into laughter. "And so ends the tale of the two lovers... the fair maiden brutally murdered for having no brains!"
