Amanda Coe - Life In Squares

Written by Amanda Coe
Bloomsbury Films Limited INT. DRAWING ROOM. GORDON SQUARE. 1905. DAY On NESSA as she paints. INT.

VICTORIAN PARLOUR. 1905. DAY A moribund atmosphere. NESSA takes tea sitting next to a confident, good-looking YOUNG MAN. NESSA, very bored, is preoccupied by some green paint staining her fingers, which she tries to rub away. VIRGINIA sits next to AUNT MARY who is chaperoning, opting out by reading Tennysons In Memoriam.

YOUNG MAN Only two more days, Miss Stephen, until the opening of the trout fishing season. A little cough from AUNT MARY prompts NESSA. NESSA [BEAT] Is it really? YOUNG MAN [ENCOURAGED] Of course, for sea trout its rather later! [BEAT] [DESPERATE INSPIRATION] Theres tremendous sport to be had on the Dee even as early as February! CUT TO: INT. DRAWING ROOM. GORDON SQUARE. 1905.

DAY An interior very different to the one at Hyde Park Gate NESSAS arty touches in the plainer space. A framed photo of FATHER dominates the room incongruously from the mantelpiece. THOBY [20s], strappingly handsome, humane and relaxed, is the brother who comes in age between NESSA and VIRGINIA. Like his sisters and the youngest of the Stephen family, gangling ADRIAN [19] also wears mourning. AUNT MARY sits with a glass of sherry. AUNT MARY [60s] is a shrewd bastion of Victorian middle-class values.

NESSA and VIRGINIA enter, immediately chafing under AUNT MARYS critical gaze. Theyre dressed up to go out. AUNT MARY It seems Nessa, since your poor fathers death, that you have been campaigning to put yourselves beyond the pale! As if removing from Kensington werent enough... Looks among the siblings. AUNT MARY (CONTD) There is the question, Thoby, of how your sisters are being chaperoned now you are alone. I can only spare so much of my time.

THOBY Chaperoned. Lord. By me, of course! A pillar of the legal profession. Surely I couldnt be more respectable. AUNT MARY And Virginias... Delicacy.

VIRGINIA I am perfectly well now! NESSA sensitive to VIRGINIAS affront. NESSA [INTERVENING] As long as Ginia feeds, and rests ... ADRIAN Honestly Aunt, the Goats no madder than the rest of us these days. VIRGINIA Adrian! THOBY [OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS] Which isnt sane, God knows, but will simply have to do. Nessa takes great care of her, always. AUNT MARY finishes her sherry, gathers herself to go with NESSA and VIRGINIA.

AUNT MARY [TO NESSA] I understand you are at the Painting Schools every day. [NESSA BITING HER LIP, FOLLOWING] What your poor father would have thought of this arrangement, I cannot imagine. AUNT MARY stands. INT. BEDROOM. 1905. 1905.

LATE DAY NESSA kicks off her shoes, frantically scrabbles to unhook her corset. A roar of exasperation at the afternoon. VIRGINIA imitates the YOUNG MAN with intense and accurate mockery, exaggerating his lechery. VIRGINIA Have you ever caught a trout, Miss Stephen? VIRGINIA (CONTD) [HERSELF] Thank the Lord insanity exempts me from such nonsense. Released from the corset, NESSA takes a decision. NESSA Goat.

VIRGINIA Aunt Mary wont rest until shes married you off to some purple squire with a family... Whatever are you doing? NESSA There! Freedom. NESSA posts her corset out of the window. VIRGINIA Nessa! VIRGINIA is both shocked and admiring. A moment, then she starts to undo her own bodice to get at her corset. tea tables. tea tables.

Why not coffee, for once? The so ugly piles of linen, Ive decided, we shall each just have the same napkin until theyre too dirty to use... VIRGINIA posts her own corset out of the window. Very satisfying. They both slump on the bed. NESSA sees a glass of milk on a bedside table. NESSA (CONTD) Or be rid of napkins entirely.

One can always wash ones face ... is that your milk from this morning? VIRGINIA [DISMISSIVE LIE] Oh yes, I must have forgotten it... If one even cares to wash! Something goes between them: NESSAS role as caretaker to VIRGINIA. She picks up the milk, hands it to VIRGINIA, who has to drink it [with no enjoyment]. NESSA All those years of pleasing Father ... INT. INT.

DRAWING ROOM. GORDON SQUARE. 1905. LATE DAY NESSA enters with a dramatic vase of branches. She feels different, and moves differently, with no corset. [NB: From this point, the STEPHEN family no longer wears mourning clothes.] Taking in the room her job, and her pleasure.

The airy, minimal space, bold splashes of colour [a few more bright throws on chairs and sofas since AUNT MARYS visit] some paintings leaning against the walls, not yet hung. A work in progress. As she goes to put the vase on the mantelpiece, she contemplates the photo of FATHER ... He couldnt look more forbidding. NESSA puts the vase in front of the photo, obscuring it. ADRIAN and THOBY rearranging the chairs into a sort of circle.

THOBY I should warn you, Nessa, that most of my friends are highly unused to females. NESSA Females. THOBY Theres really no saying how theyll behave in front of you and Ginia. NESSA
[SUDDEN DOUBT. VULNERABLE] Thoby, do you really think this evening is a good idea? THOBY Well if it isnt, theres no need to repeat the experiment. I want to see my friends, it was you who suggested it would be ridiculous to banish you and Virginia upstairs.

NESSA Well, it would be. But on second thoughts NESSA picks up FATHER and takes him out of the room. EXT. GORDON SQUARE. 1905. DUSK DAY LYTTON [20s, distinctively tall and thin, camp, clever] approaches the steps up to the house with his younger cousin DUNCAN [early 20s, gorgeous, unassuming].

DUNCAN eyeing up the facade of the house. Nervous. DUNCAN Society... I have no conversation you know. LYTTON Then you must rely on your profile. [REASSURING] Duncan.

Thoby is more a brother than a friend to me. And his sisters are reputed to be as clever as they are beautiful. Still... He takes in DUNCANS disheveled appearance DUNCANs garb very much Young Artist. Theres a piece of string holding up his trousers. LYTTON (CONTD) Lets presume they havent abandoned civilization entirely.

LYTTON brushes down DUNCANS jacket, smooths his hair. Doing this, LYTTON automatically glances round to see if anyones watching the two of them, then gooses DUNCAN. Jokey, playful. An old routine. DUNCAN Lytton! LYTTON Oh, cousins. Youre so tiresomely unpersuadable on that point.

Rest assured, it will be an evening of brilliant amusements. As LYTTON knocks on the door, DUNCANS mood darkens once more. CUT TO: INT. DRAWING ROOM. GORDON SQUARE. 1905.

NIGHT Horribly strained social atmosphere. Chairs pushed back around the edge of the room, a few pipes on the go, cocoa being drunk. [Along with LYTTON and DUNCAN the guests are the young incarnations of CLIVE, SAXON and MAYNARD. Urbane CLIVE and the silent, mole-like SAXON fancy NESSA, while MAYNARD and LYTTON adore THOBY. Everyone pretty much ignores ADRIAN, the eternal younger brother.] Moments of painful silence as NESSA hands round an austere plates of buns, VIRGINIA doing duty with a jug of cocoa. NESSA Mr. Keynes. Keynes.

MAYNARD Thank you Miss Stephen. THOBY When you come down to it though, Childe Harolde is a load of posturing nonsense. NESSA passes VIRGINIA. VIRGINIA
[UNDERTONE] This is abominable. Clearly NESSA agrees. CLIVE Oh, it has its moments, you have to give Byron that. But it cant hold a candle to Don Juan, even if the Alexandrines are forced to breaking point...

VIRGINIA reacts to this with an involuntary noise desperate to disagree but too shy to pitch in. VIRGINIA Well... NESSA reaches CLIVE with the buns and he switches on the charm of a proper ladies man. She notes his yellow socks. [hes much better dressed than anyone else.] Along with THOBY, hes the only relaxed person in the room. CLIVE Thank you Miss Stephen, how delicious.