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EXCERPT FROM THE ACQUISITION A Full-Length Play By Stephen Bittrich
CONTACT ME FOR A FULL COPY. 3 SCENES ONLY - FROM VARIOUS POINTS IN THE PLAY. 5701 W Slaughter Lane
Suite A130-204
Austin, TX 78749
Tel: (646) 245-4507
E-mail: SBittrich@aol.com
Copyright ©
by Stephen Bittrich
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"THE ACQUISITION"
BY STEPHEN BITTRICH
Act I, Scene 1
SETTING:
The sprawling grounds of WILLIAM
AINSWORTH's Willowbrook Estate near
Bishops Waltham in the county of
Hampshire. September 10th of 1815.
AT RISE:
JULIA HIGHTOWER, 20s, handsome, proud
and clearly distraught, paces about the
garden. AINSWORTH, late 30ish, rich
and rakishly handsome, enters the
lengthening evening shadows and
observes her a moment before he speaks.
AINSWORTH
There you are Miss Hightower. I was beginning to think I'd
be called upon to fish you from the trout stream.
JULIA
Beg your pardon, I required a bit of air.
AINSWORTH
Ah, yes. Lovely evening for it.
(pause)
And are you sufficiently pleased with the grounds of
Willowbrook?
JULIA
Of course.
AINSWORTH
Splendid--then you approve?
JULIA
Who could find fault with...the grounds, Mr. Ainsworth?
AINSWORTH
No indeed. No indeed.
(beat)
But then I derive from your careful inflection that there is
that at Willowbrook which you could find fault with, Miss
Hightower.
JULIA
I--I cannot--
AINSWORTH
Ah, tush, tush, not another word of it.
(beat)
Beautiful, clear night. Did you take in the full moon rising
above the peat bogs?
JULIA
I marked it.
AINSWORTH
Dramatic indeed.
(pause)
You know, Miss Hightower, I rather blush to say, but the
highlight of my trip to Sussex this summer was not the
tedious family business which beckoned me thither, no, no,
but rather my brief sojourn in Heathfield and the various
social gatherings during which I was privileged to make the
acquaintance of you and your family.
JULIA
(with a taste of irony)
It was a thrilling season.
AINSWORTH
And during the picnic at Lady Woolcock's estate I must
confess I was incredibly smitten with your wonderful charcoal
sketches of the countryside. It is thrilling indeed to
discover a woman of such varied and studied accomplishment.
Upon leaving there, I admit, I could think of not much else
for sometime...but you...and your beautiful sketches.
JULIA
You flatter, Mr. Ainsworth.
AINSWORTH
No, indeed, I do not. From very early in our
acquaintanceship, I very greatly wished to be...connected to
you and your great talent--to have some ownership in it.
JULIA
Ownership?
AINSWORTH
And when your family took lodgings in Hampshire late in the
summer it seamed a fortuitous event indeed.
JULIA
Quite fortuitous. I must return to the house, Mr. Ainsworth.
It grows cold.
AINSWORTH
Then let me warm you, Ms. Hightower...Julia.
JULIA
No--
AINSWORTH
Please, take my coat.
JULIA
I fear the chill has deeply set in. There is no remedy you
can provide.
AINSWORTH
(relinquishing all false
civility)
I grow weary of these intrigues and double entendres. I am
not a stupid man, Miss Hightower. I know the particulars for
your family's visit. Plainly, your parents mean to parade
you about polite society as a farmer at the county fair
flaunts his choicest pig--
JULIA
Mr. Ainsworth!
AINSWORTH
--but, and please excuse my audacious candor, you won't be
winning any ribbons, I'm sorry to say, nor any husbands
either for that matter, because, as sordid as it may be,
there are scurrilous and unseemly tongues that wag this way
and that 'round this tiny little hamlet. And they wag, Miss
Hightower, about you.
(JULIA appears almost dizzy
from AINSWORTH's utter lack of
decorum)
JULIA
I'm sure...I'm sure I haven't the faintest notion--
AINSWORTH
You are a marked woman. There it is. Sorry to be the bearer
of ill tidings. But there 'tis. You may as well sew your
old maid's weeds forthwith because no suitors of any repute
will be knocking at your door.
JULIA
How dare you, sir!
AINSWORTH
I dare, Miss Hightower. I am the first born son of the
wealthiest man in Christendom. In all truthfulness, mere
social convention is a paltry constraint for my sizeable
wealth and stature. I dare... because I can. The fates,
however, have been less kind to you. Being without a male
sibling, your birthright, such that it is, has been entailed
away, and your future, but for the unsecured and certainly
meager offerings of an obscure male relative, can promise
nothing more than abject poverty.
JULIA
(after a beat, regaining her
composure)
And yet...I do not tremble, Mr. Ainsworth.
AINSWORTH
(after a beat, taking her in)
And yet you do not. There is much to be admired in you,
Julia.
JULIA
And much to be abhorred in you.
AINSWORTH
And still...such an abhorred man as I might yet be your
salvation.
(beat)
I like you, Julia.
JULIA
Mr. Ainsworth, you've said quite enough.
AINSWORTH
Are you surprised? Yes, I like you. You are as handsome a
specimen as ever I've seen, lively and energetic, talented in
music and art, intelligent almost to a fault. These
attributes, I daresay, when matched with my own myriad
graces, could well produce exceptionally pleasing off-spring.
JULIA
Thank you for you astute observations, Mr. Ainsworth, but
despite your previous reference to prized livestock, you'll
be surprised to learn, I am no farm animal. Producing
"exceptionally pleasing off-spring" is not my life's chief
objective.
AINSWORTH
(ignoring and pressing on)
Be assured, I am not looking for love, Julia, and I am quite
certain that you do not love me. However, I do require a
wife, a partner, in the business of expanding my honorable
lineage. It is a grand, unbroken line spanning centuries
before me, and I am called upon to bid adieu to the
temptations and distractions of my youth and perform my
family duty. I see you as a worthy candidate.
JULIA
Mr. Ainsworth, though your described partnership of
convenience is no doubt brimming with fruitful promise, you
will be shocked to discover your eloquent declaration of
affection met with rejection. I hope the disappointment will
not linger with you for long. Good evening, sir.
(SHE starts to leave, and HE
cuts her off)
AINSWORTH
Julia, certainly you are not ignorant of what I can offer a
woman such as yourself in a "partnership of convenience" as
you describe it. Not that I care a jot for social mores, but
you cannot be completely unaware that your very reputation
has recently been called into question. Your association
with a local artist, a certain Monsieur Legard, whose name
alone inspires suspicion, is fatty meat for the maw of
outrage, namely, the elder matrons of Bishops Waltham.
JULIA
My association with the gifted Mr. Legard is of my concern
alone--
AINSWORTH
Unjust, I know. Your guilt in this acquaintance, real or
imagined, pure or impure, has set you alone and adrift at
sea. And I alone am your last hope for security, Ms.
Hightower.
JULIA
Really, Mr. Ainsworth, I think you missed your calling.
Prize pigs, gristle filled maws, adrift at sea. It seems you
have a bent toward the poetic. But perhaps you should have
said, "I alone might offer a sturdy mast and sail"...or "I
alone am a fruitful uncharted isle in your course" or better
still "I alone am the God Poseidon deigning to grant fair
seas for your passage home."
AINSWORTH
Perhaps I might have.
JULIA
Mr. Legard, whom, as you have intimated, is of French
heritage is in fact as true an Englishman as you or I. He is
my friend, and his skill with either brush or chisel is equal
to anything I have seen displayed in the National Gallery. I
admire his talent.
AINSWORTH
Yes, I agree he is talented. I've seen his nudes. He's an
eye for detail.
(SHE starts again to leave. HE
grabs her arm)
JULIA
Mr. Ainsworth, you will let go my arm!
AINSWORTH
(pulling her close)
The deal is sealed, Ms. Hightower. Your parents have already
accepted my offer of matrimony and despite social proprieties
dictating the contrary, have accepted a generous gift of real
estate in this accord. You have been sold--
JULIA
--I will not bow--
AINSWORTH
Nay, but you will! As I said, Miss Hightower. You have been
sold. I possess the painting!
JULIA
Wh-what did you say?
AINSWORTH
I possess the painting. And I think you must know the one I
mean.
JULIA
Impossible...
AINSWORTH
(quiet and vicious, in her ear)
It did not come cheaply.
(beat)
You now sit precariously on the edge of ruin. If you do not
accept my magnanimous offer, you will suffer the pangs of
social ignominy that only an itinerant leper might endure.
And moreover, I am quite certain that Mr. Legard will never
in his short career see profit from a single painting in all
of Hampshire. You will give me satisfaction.
(The Willowbrook Rectory bell
tolls 6 times during the
course of the following
exchange)
JULIA
Have you no heart? Have you no soul? I--I love him.
AINSWORTH
I know.
(beat)
The rectory bell begs the question...will we be married?
(Before Julia can answer, the
lights fade to black)
(END OF SCENE)
Act I, Scene 10
SETTING:
A park on Lady Woolcock's estate in
Sussex. August 15th of 1815.
AT RISE:
JULIA and ANNA WORTHINGTON, 17
garrulous and silly, but possessing an
untapped wisdom, sketch in the grass.
ANNA
Oh! It's no use. I cannot draw a tree, Julia. It looks
like a great ugly bush. How you can sit and draw sticks and
grass with such passion is an astonishing feat of magic.
JULIA
Draw what you see. You will improve.
ANNA
Yes, that's what I'm afraid of. I cannot imagine an
undertaking more frightfully boring.
JULIA
Perhaps then you should take up the flute.
ANNA
The flute? Oh no, no, no. I shouldn't be able to sing
whilst playing the flute. Fine gentlemen like young ladies
who sing.
JULIA
Do they indeed?
ANNA
It has been my experience.
JULIA
I think, Anna, at 17, you may have a vast many more
experiences that may surprise you. Just wait and see.
ANNA
Oh, there's no improving it!
(after a beat, frustrated)
Should we not return to the picnic, Julia? I fear this self
imposed isolation may well be construed as a slight to Lady
Woolcock--
JULIA
Go then if you wish, Anna.
ANNA
--not a woman one would wish to neglect, I assure you. Well,
I cannot leave you alone.
JULIA
Why can you not? I wish to draw, and you have made it
perfectly clear that drawing holds no great interest or
importance for you. You should make your escape while you
can.
ANNA
Because, my dear cousin, you need me as your protector.
JULIA
Do I? Against whom may I ask?
ANNA
Why against Mr. Ainsworth, of course.
JULIA
Oh him. Humph.
ANNA
Do not tell me that you do not find him handsome.
JULIA
Very well then, I shall not.
ANNA
...and do not forget charming...and rich.
JULIA
I will concede that he is rich. He's conveyed that plainly
enough in his dress and manner, and I have no reason to
disbelieve it.
ANNA
And why should he not convey that in his dress and manner?
He is a man of distinction and class. Should he instead wear
the garb of a tradesman and speak in a lowly accent?
Or...perhaps he should cover himself in paint splatters and
speak of--
(quoting LEGARD)
--"capturing that which is vulnerable in art."
JULIA
You are not so old, dear Anna, that I might not put you over
my knee and give you a sound spanking.
ANNA
You wouldn't dare!
(AINSWORTH enters)
AINSWORTH
What would she not dare, Miss Worthington?
ANNA
Mr. Ainsworth! Just in time. You must save me from my
cousin. She has threatened to spank me if I let slip certain
secrets that she holds locked inside her heart.
JULIA
Anna!
AINSWORTH
Well, this is most intriguing! But I shan't inquire what
these dark secrets are, Miss Worthington, as I do not wish to
see you spanked...nor I do not wish to see Miss Hightower in
the slightest compromised.
ANNA
You are a gentleman, Mr. Ainsworth, even if my cousin does
not...that is to say...oh, never mind.
JULIA
Yes, never mind indeed.
AINSWORTH
And what do you sketch most intently, Miss Hightower? May I
be permitted to see?
JULIA
Merely sticks and grass, nothing more.
AINSWORTH
I should be most honored to view your sticks and grass.
JULIA
Very well.
(AINSWORTH kneels beside her)
ANNA
Mr. Ainsworth, you shall sully your beautiful clothes on the
bare ground.
AINSWORTH
No matter. Is that not the aim of a country picnic, to take
some of the earth back with you on your clothes...and in your
heart.
(JULIA nearly rolls her eyes at
this. It is not much more
sentimental than that which
LEGARD has sincerely uttered
to her on occasion, and yet
coming from AINSWORTH, SHE
finds it ridiculous)
AINSWORTH (cont'd)
Let me see what you have created, Miss Hightower.
JULIA
Very well.
(SHE hands over her sketch)
AINSWORTH
Thank you.
(AINSWORTH is clearly taken
aback. HE had not expected
JULIA to possess such talent)
ANNA
You see, Julia, he is speechless, so smitten is he...with
your great talent with...trees.
JULIA
It's quite all right Mr. Ainsworth. You needn't heed any
ridiculous utterance emanating from my cousin's over-taxed
mouth.
AINSWORTH
I must see more.
JULIA
Sorry?
AINSWORTH
I must see more of your drawings. Have you a portfolio of
your work?
JULIA
I've not--I do have a collection of drawings, but I've not it
with me. Why are you so interested, Mr. Ainsworth?
ANNA
Perhaps he is a lover of great art.
JULIA
Then he would hardly feel the need to see my portfolio.
AINSWORTH
I am indeed a lover and collector of art, among other things,
though I do not profess to be an expert in what makes a
composition noteworthy. I do not know "what is art." But I
do know what pleases me, and your hand pleases me greatly,
Miss Hightower. I am intrigued. I feel I need...a wider
spectrum of your work to truly judge your merits as an
artist.
JULIA
With all due respect, Mr. Ainsworth, I do not undertake these
artistic diversions to be judged. It is merely for my own
amusement and edification.
(beat)
But if you insist, I shall send you my portfolio for you
perusal.
AINSWORTH
Thank you, but you mustn't send it to me. There is that
danger that the precious cargo may be lost or damaged. No,
no, I will call upon you and your family in person. Do you
have any fixed engagements tomorrow? Or might I pay a visit
in the afternoon?
JULIA
(somewhat reluctantly)
We have no...fixed engagements.
ANNA
Nor have I.
AINSWORTH
Then you must stay the night at your cousin's, Miss
Worthington, and I shall call upon the both of you at 3
o'clock in the afternoon.
(HE rises)
AINSWORTH (cont'd)
Well, I must pay my respects to the rest of Mrs. Woolcock's
party. I have not seen many of them in all of three years.
To my duty.
(JULIA is about to rise and
bow)
AINSWORTH (cont'd)
Please do not rise, Miss Hightower. Continue your drawing.
Ladies, until tomorrow.
(HE bows slightly)
JULIA
Mr. Ainsworth.
(ANNA curtsies)
ANNA
Mr. Ainsworth.
(AINSWORTH exits)
ANNA (cont'd)
Oh, oh, oh, can you believe it, Julia?
JULIA
(continuing her drawing)
Keep your composure, Anna. He will hear you.
ANNA
He will call upon you, Julia, and he will fall in love with
you, and then you will marry.
JULIA
And then we will all eat cheese upon the moon. Don't be
silly.
ANNA
And why mightn't he fall in love with you, Julia?
JULIA
Because he is very rich, and the rich need other rich people
to increase their fortunes. And if he did harbor even the
embers of such feelings, they would certainly die from lack
of nurture, as I have no particular feelings for him, polite
and rich though he may be.
ANNA
And why do you not have particular feelings for someone who
is perfectly good?
JULIA
Because he is perfectly good. Perfect in every way he is...
but there is something hollow in his manner. I cannot read
his true nature, his true passion.
ANNA
I suppose you prefer penniless artists who talk endlessly
about their passions.
JULIA
That's quite enough. Poor in pocket or poor in character. I
choose the former.
ANNA
I am sure you do. Until your stomach grumbles, then perhaps
your bent will be to the latter.
(beat)
And I think you are wrong about Mr. Ainsworth, Julia. I
think there is some great secret passion in him, just below
his genteel manner, that may yet be revealed.
(beat)
I do believe it.
(The lights fade to black)
(END OF SCENE AND ACT)
Act II, Scene 2
SETTING:
AINSWORTH's Willowbrook Estate in
Hampshire. September 27th of 1815.
The bedroom of the new MRS. AINSWORTH
on the night of the wedding.
AT RISE:
JULIA readies herself for bed.
AINSWORTH can be heard shouting OFF
STAGE.
AINSWORTH (O.S.)
Julia! Julia!
(AINSWORTH bursts in, coat off,
shirt loose at the collar,
breathing heavily, a bit
nervous)
JULIA
What do you mean, sir, bursting into my bed chamber? Did I
not bid you good night?
AINSWORTH
I--I trust you are comfortable.
JULIA
What do you want?
AINSWORTH
You are my wife. I believe some familiarity is commonplace.
JULIA
I am tired from the journey.
AINSWORTH
Yes. Is there anything I may do for your present comfort?
JULIA
Leave me.
(HE lingers)
JULIA (cont'd)
Well...what do you desire?
AINSWORTH
I-I desire what husbands through the ages have desired from
new wives.
(HE advances on her and kisses
her deeply. SHE does not
resist, but when HE has drunk
his fill, HE pulls away, and
SHE looks upon him coldly and
speaks with utter calm)
JULIA
Though you may indeed view me as a prize that you might keep
upon a shelf or hang upon your wall, I am in fact a living
breathing woman with a mind and soul unique to all the world,
and singularly my own--never to belong to another--unless I
so choose. You may never touch this about me. You may never
own this about me. This truth is sound and immutable.
(HE releases her and backs
away. HE looks at her for a
long moment, then turns out of
the room without a word)
(The lights fade to black)
(END OF SCENE)
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