by Charles Dickens

adapted by Deborah McAndrew

1
ACT ONE

Dawn.

Soft sighing of a quiet shore; the crying of gulls; a distant ship’s bell.

Mist – a low sea fret rolls over the stage.

MUSIC – Tales on the Tide (Original)

Slowly the COMPANY appear out of the mist.

Actor 2: (Sings) O’er the wide, wild, salty flats of Yarmouth

Where the fine, hardy fishin’ folk bide –
Comes a whisperin’ mist;
And the turn and twist of tales washed up with the tide.

In the fair, blue summer skies of Yarmouth

Where the gulls and the guillemots glide -
Come the easterly gales
To fill out the sails - with tales, born up on the tide.

COMPANY: (Sing) From the wild, white foamy waves of Yarmouth

When the boats haul their nets o’er the side
Comes a hero; a fighter;
A lover; a biter – a writer caught up with the tide…

A bodhran drum beat – David’s heartbeat.

DAVID appears – full of energy, carrying the manuscript of his novel.

DAVID: Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or

whether that station will be held by anyone else, these pages
must show. I have written far into the night, and now…
morning.

I look back once more before I close my story – and I hear the
roar of many voices.

The roaring of the sea swells; dies away. The COMPANY melt into the mist.
DAVID places the manuscript somewhere visible on the set.

My name is David Copperfield.

My father was also David Copperfield, though he never saw me,

having died six months before I came into the world.

2
BLUNDERSTONE

I was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk; at a house called The

Rookery. [Lots of rooks, cawing etc…]

Lights up on MAMA – in a rocking chair; nine-months pregnant.

There my poor, widowed mother sat by the fire each day of

those last months before my arrival, fearful and alone.

MAMA: [Strokes her tummy] Poor little fatherless stranger.

DAVID: Then, one bright Friday afternoon in March – a visitor!

Lights up on MISS BETSEY TROTWOOD

MAMA is startled.

An aunt of my father’s, and a great aunt of mine - Miss Betsey

Trotwood.

MAMA – labour twinge!

MISS BETSEY: Mrs David Copperfield, I think.

MAMA: Yes.

MISS BETSEY: Miss Trotwood. You have heard of her, I dare say?
Now you see her.

DAVID: Aunt Betsey had never met my mother. She disapproved of my

father taking such a young wife and had not attended their
wedding.

MISS BETSEY: Take off your cap child. Let me see you.

MAMA removes her cap. Her hair falls about her face.

Why bless my heart! You are a very baby.

MAMA starts to cry

Oh, tut tut tut. Don’t do that. Come now.

MAMA: I am all in a tremble. I shall die, I’m sure.

MISS BETSEY: Nonsense, child. From the moment of this girl’s birth, I intend
to be her friend.

MAMA: But what if it’s a boy, ma’am.

3
MISS BETSEY: Don’t contradict. I have no doubt it will be a girl. I intend to be
her godmother, and I beg you’ll call her Betsey Trotwood
Copperfield.

MAMA suddenly clutches her tummy – labour has begun.

MAMA: Oh! Help me. Peggotty!

MISS BETSEY: That’s right. Off you go.

MISS BETSEY produces cotton wool to plug her ears against the cries of the
labouring MAMA. Lights fade on MAMA.

Oh yes. From the moment of this girl’s birth I intend to be her

friend. There must be no mistakes in life with this Betsey
Trotwood.

DAVID: My aunt had been married once - to a husband who, according

to family legend, had attempted to throw her out of a second
storey window before running away to India.

MISS BETSEY: Young Betsey Trotwood Copperfield must be well guarded.

There will be no trifling with her affections.

DAVID: My poor Aunt waited all night for the arrival of Betsey
Trotwood Copperfield.

MISS BETSEY: Yes, I have no doubt that it will be a girl.

A young baby’s cry.

DAVID and MISS BETSEY are overjoyed.

DAVID: I am born!

COMPANY: It’s a boy.

Shock! The smile fades from the face of MISS BETSEY, who gathers her fury,
clouts DAVID across the head with her bonnet and exits.

DAVID watches her go and begins to laugh.

COMPANY: (Sing) It’s a boy – who’s destined for adventures

Where the past and the future collide.
A hero, a fighter, a lover, a biter –
A writer caught up with the tide.

DAVID: The first people that I remember distinctly, as I look far back
into my childhood, are my mother –

Lights up on Mama (minus bump)

4
 - with her pretty hair and youthful shape, and Peggotty –

Lights up on Peggotty

- with no shape at all.

Peggotty gives him a look.

And I love them both.

YOUNG DAVID runs out from behind DAVID to be embraced by MAMA

and PEGGOTTY. They play together.

We are all three excellent friends.

MAMA pauses, out of breath. DAVID and Y. DAVID adopt an identical pose.

I watch my mother winding her bright curls round her fingers.

Nobody knows better than I do that she is proud of being so
pretty.

MAMA wraps a shawl around her shoulders, kisses Y. DAVID and exits.

I think our housekeeper, Peggotty, a different school of beauty

– and a perfect example.

Y. DAVID, with a book; PEGGOTTY sewing.

Y. DAVID: Peggotty, were you ever married?

PEGGOTTY: Lord, Master Davy, what’s put marriage in your head?

Y. DAVID: You are a very handsome woman, an’t you?

PEGGOTTY: Me handsome, Davy! Lawk, no, my dear.

Y. DAVID: If you marry a person, and that person dies, then you may
marry another person, mayn’t you, Peggotty?

PEGGOTTY: That’s a matter of opinion.

Y. DAVID: But what is your opinion?

PEGGOTTY: I never was married myself, Master Davy, and I don’t expect to
be. That’s all I know about the subject. Now read me some
more about the crocodiles.

Lights on Actor 3 – smoothly slipping on a dark coat…

5
Y. DAVID: [Reads] The crocodile is a fearsome monster; cold-blooded –

Y. DAVID/DAVID: - and cruel.

Actor 3 becomes MR MURDSTONE.

DAVID: You may think he is smiling, but don’t be fooled. He is

thinking only of his next victim.

Y. DAVID looks up from his book with a gasp.

A smiling MR MURDSTONE is joined by MAMA

MAMA: Thank you for taking the trouble to walk me home, Mr

Murdstone.

Y. DAVID: Mama!

Y. DAVID runs to MAMA. She embraces him.

MURDSTONE: What a privileged little fellow, you are.

DRUM – David’s heartbeat

Y. DAVID: [Defiant] What does that mean?

MAMA: Oh, Davy!

MURDSTONE: Come, let us shake hands, my fine boy.

His right hand in his mother’s, Y. DAVID reluctantly offers the left.

Why, that’s the wrong hand, Davy.

MAMA forces Y. DAVID’s right hand forward.

There, let us be the best friends in the world.

DAVID and Y. DAVID watch MAMA walking with MR MURDSTONE, picking

a flower and placing it in his buttonhole.

DAVID: Gradually I see Mr Murdstone more and more, and I like him
no better than at first. My mother goes out a good deal, wears
all her prettiest dresses, blushes, laughs, sings.

MR MURDSTONE leaves MAMA, who lingers dreamily.

Tactful PEGGOTTY at Y. DAVID’s shoulder.

6
PEGGOTTY: Master Davy, how should you like to go along with me and
spend a fortnight at my brother’s at Yarmouth? Wouldn’t that
be a treat?

Y. DAVID: Is your brother a nice man, Peggotty?

PEGGOTTY: Oh, he is. And there’s the sea; and the boats and the beach.

Y. DAVID: What does Mama say?

MAMA: I say it’s a wonderful idea.

Y. DAVID: Who will take us?

BARKIS enters – a long carriage whip in his hand.

BARKIS: Barkis is willin’.

MUSIC
Bustle of preparation – luggage, hats etc...
DAVID and Y. DAVID pull on travelling coats in unison – with little character
mannerism.

DAVID: How eager I am to leave my happy home;

Y. DAVID runs to kiss MAMA goodbye.

…how little I suspect…

They embark on their journey.

YARMOUTH

MUSIC – Windy ol’ Weather (Trad)

ACTOR 2: [Sings] Come all you fishermen, listen to me.

I’ll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.

COMPANY: [Sing] In this windy ol’ weather; stormy ol’ weather –

When the wind blows we’ll all pull together.

ACTOR 2: [Sings] Smell the salt fish, and the oakum and tar
Down where the sea meets the broad River Yare.

COMPANY: [Sing] In this windy ol’ weather; stormy ol’ weather –

When the wind blows we’ll all pull together.

PEGGOTTY: This is Yarmouth, Davy. The finest place in the universe.

ACTOR 2: [Sings] A fine Yarmouth Bloater is salty and fat –

7
 Pink as a lobster and smart as a sprat.

COMPANY: [Sing] In this windy ol’ weather; Stormy ol’ weather –

When the wind blows we’ll all pull together.

Enter HAM

PEGGOTTY: And here’s my nephew, Ham – growed out of knowledge.

HAM: Now then, Mas’r Davy. How do you find yourself then?

Y. DAVID: Very well thank you.

HAM: Up you get –

HAM hoists Y. DAVID onto his shoulders. They walk.

PEGGOTTY: So – what do you see, up there in the crow’s nest, Davy?

Y.DAVID: Gas works!

DAVID: Ship yards!

Y. DAVID: Riggers’.

DAVID: Forges.

HAM: Yarmouth is the finest place –

DAVID/ Y. DAVID: In the universe!

HAM: Now what do you see?

Y.DAVID: Some kind of boat…

DAVID: High and dry on the ground.

Y. DAVID: With an iron funnel sticking out of it –

DAVID: Smoking – like a chimney.

Y. DAVID: And a woman in a white apron –

Actor 6 dons bonnet and white apron and bobs a little curtsey –
MRS GUMMIDGE.

HAM: Yon’s our house.

Y. DAVID: That?

8
DAVID: It is a real boat, which had no doubt been upon the water
hundreds of times. If it had ever meant to be lived in, I might
find it small, or inconvenient – but being as it is, I think it’s
perfect.

The inner boat-house is brought onstage (a truck?)

MRS GUMMIDGE: Come in out of the cold wind.

PEGGOTTY: Thank you missus.

They step inside.

DAVID: It is beautifully clean, but…

Y. DAVID: [Whispers] Peggotty – it smells of fish.

PEGGOTTY: My brother deals in lobsters, see? Lobsters, crabs an’ crawfish.

MRS GUMMIDGE: Danl’ be home by-and-by. Meantime, there’s boiled dabs,

melted butter and potatoes, and a chop for the young master.

Y. DAVID notices a pair of feet sticking out from under the table.

Y. DAVID: Hello.

MRS GUMMIDGE: What you adoin’ under there Em’ly. You come out now –

YOUNG EM’LY crawls out from under the table.

DRUM – David’s heartbeat.

Y. DAVID: Em’ly.

DAVID: Little Em’ly.

The drummed heartbeat quickens to a new rhythm.

MRS GUMMIDGE: Hear that?

Y. EM’LY runs out to greet the approaching MR PEGGOTTY

MR PEGGOTTY: [Sings] Up jumps the sunfish – to lift up the latch -

Bright as the summer, and queen of the catch!

MR PEGGOTTY lifts Y. EM’LY in his arms.

She joins him, singing -

Though it’s windy ol’ weather, stormy ol’ weather.

When the wind blows, we’ll all pull together.

9
DAVID: Daniel Peggotty. Master of this enchanted vessel.
As good as gold and as true as steel.

MR PEGGOTTY: [To Y. DAVID] Glad to see you, sir. You’ll find us rough, sir, but
you’ll find us ready.

Y. DAVID: Thank you Mr Peggotty, sir.

MR PEGGOTTY: And if you can stay here for a fortnut, sir, we shall be proud of
your company.

DAVID: I’m proud too - and very curious. Later that evening, I’m bold
enough to ask questions, and discover that Ham is not Mr
Peggotty’s son –

MR PEGGOTTY: My brother Joe was Ham’s father.

Y. DAVID: Dead, Mr Peggotty?

MR PEGGOTTY: Drowndead.

DAVID: I also discover that Little Em’ly is not his daughter.

MR PEGGOTTY: My brother-in-law Tom was Em’ly’s father.

Y. DAVID: Dead, Mr Peggotty?

MR PEGGOTTY: Drowndead.

Y. DAVID: Haven’t you any children, Mr Peggotty?

MR PEGGOTTY: No, master. I an’t married.

DAVID: But if Mr Peggotty is a bachelor – I wonder, who is the lady in

the white apron?

PEGGOTTY: That’s enough questions Davy.

MR PEGGOTTY: [Aside to Y. DAVID] That’s Mrs Gummidge.

She’s the widow of my fishin’ partner.

DAVID / Y. DAVID: [Whispered] Dead, Mr Peggotty?

MRS GUMMIDGE: Drowndead. And I’m a lone lorn creetur.

MRS GUMMIDGE weeps into her apron and exits.

MR PEGGOTTY: Poor thing. She’s thinking of the old ‘un.

EMILY grabs Y. DAVID’s hand and they run out onto the beach.

10
 MR PEGGOTTY picks up an instrument and begins to play softly.

DAVID and Y. DAVID look back at MR PEGGOTTY

DAVID: I hear the wind howling out at sea - and it occurs to me that
when the storms come and the deep rises up, Mr Peggotty is
just the person to have on board. Little Em’ly thinks so too…

Y. EM’LY: If I was ever to be a lady, I’d give him a sky-blue coat with
diamond buttons, a large gold watch, a silver pipe and a box of
money.

Y. DAVID: Would you like to be a lady?

Y. EM’LY: I should like it very much. Then I should help the fishermen.

Y. DAVID: You’re a good sailor, I suppose.

Y. EM’LY: No. I’m afraid of the sea.

She is balancing along a little broken jetty.

DAVID: She doesn’t seem to be afraid, as she balances at the brink of an

old wooden jetty.

Y. EM’LY: When it blows at night I tremble to think of Ham and Uncle

Dan out at sea. But I’m not afraid like this.

She stretches her arms wide, throws her head back and seems about to fall
into the sea.

DAVID/ Y. DAVID: No!

EM’LY turns and runs back to Y. DAVID, laughing.

MR PEGGOTTY steps from the boat-house.

MR PEGGOTTY: Come on you young mavishes. Let’s have you in to bed now.

The children run to MR PEGGOTTY, with trust and love.

DAVID: And so the fortnight slips away. Ham and Mr Peggotty fishing
out at sea; and Little Em’ly and I playing endlessly on the
pebbled beach…

MUSIC – The Wanderer (Original)

The boat-house is smoothly struck from the stage.

ACTOR 7: [Sings] When Time is a child picking pebbles and shells on the sand
A fluttering angel, a mite in the bright blue-eyed day -
Carelessly chasing the waves as they break on the strand -

11
 A world with no past and no future, and ever at play -

Sail away. Sail away - to that far foreign shore –

Where Time is a child no more.

BLUNDERSTONE

DAVID: We return home to Blunderstone on a cold grey afternoon, with

a dull sky threatening rain.

Y. DAVID and PEGGOTTY, with luggage.

Y. DAVID: Peggotty, where’s Mama?

DAVID: Why hasn’t she come out to meet us?

Y. DAVID: Isn’t she here?

PEGGOTTY: Yes, yes, she’s here. Wait a bit Master Davy and I’ll – I’ll tell
you something.

Y. DAVID: What’s the matter?

PEGGOTTY: Oh, my dear I should have told you before now – but I hadn’t
an opportunity and I couldn’t azackly bring my mind to it…

DAVID: Go on Peggotty.

PEGGOTTY: Master Davy, what do you think? You have got a new Father.

DRUM – David’s heartbeat.

Y. DAVID / DAVID: I don’t want to see him.

Enter MR MURDSTONE and MAMA

MAMA: Davy!

MR MURDSTONE: Now Clara my dear, remember – control yourself.

Davy boy, how do you do.

MR MURDSTONE offers his hand; Y. DAVID does not take it.

MAMA: Oh Davy.

MR MURDSTONE In you go, my love. David and I will join you presently.

Exit MAMA and PEGGOTTY.

12
 David, if I have a difficult horse or dog to deal with, what do
you think I do?

Y. DAVID: I don’t know.

MR MURDSTONE: I beat him!

A metallic mechanical rhythm begins – clinking of chains, spoons etc…

COMPANY: One three is three; two threes are six; three threes are nine; four
threes are twelve; five threes are fifteen; six threes are eighteen;
seven threes are twenty-one. Twenty one. Twenty one.

Actor 7 steps from the COMPANY - MISS MURDSTONE.

The rhythm continues.

MR MURDSTONE: This is my sister, Jane Murdstone.

She will be your tutor, David.

DAVID: I have never seen such an altogether metallic lady as Miss Jane
Murdstone.

MISS MURDSTONE: Generally speaking, I don’t like boys.

MR MURDSTONE hands a large set of keys to his sister. MAMA enters.

MAMA: May I not have the house-keys Edward? I am sure I managed

very well before we were married.

MISS MURDSTONE: You are too thoughtless and too pretty to run my brother’s
house. Now David – let us hear your multiplications. Eight
threes are twenty four; nine threes are twenty seven; ten threes
are thirty. Eleven threes are…?

Metal rhythm ticks expectantly

Twelve threes are…?

David doesn’t know; MAMA tries to tell him.

MR MURDSTONE: Do not help him Clara.

MISS MURDSTONE: He doesn’t know it!

MR / MISS MURDSTONE: He doesn’t know it!

DAVID: I do!

MR MURDSTONE: Hand me the cane. Hand me the cane.

13
 MAMA hands MR MURDSTONE a cane –

DAVID/Y. DAVID: Mama!

The COMPANY chant, increasing in volume, as MR MURDSTONE grabs Y.

DAVID.

COMPANY: Eleven threes are thirty three; DAVID: Mr Murdstone, pray

twelve threes are thirty six. don’t beat me!
Thirty six. Thirty six. Thirty six! Please!

MR MURDSTONE has David’s head in a vice – he lifts the cane – FREEZE -

slow motion. A single pulsing rhythm.

DAVID: He holds me so tightly, but somehow I catch his hand in my

mouth – between my teeth – and bite it through.

Y. DAVID bites MR MURDSTONE.

The COMPANY also bite - ‘Angh!’

A single, loud, metallic crash; blackout on all but DAVID.

He beats me then, as if he would beat me to death.

Then he is gone; and the door is locked outside –

A pool of light on Y. DAVID, lying on the floor, crying angrily.

Knocking in the darkness.

PEGGOTTY: [Whispered] Davy. Davy my darlin’.

Y. DAVID: Peggotty? Is that you?

PEGGOTTY is lit in a separate light – talking through the keyhole.

PEGGOTTY: Yes, my own precious Davy. Be as soft as you can, or the cat’ll
hear us.

DAVID: What’s to be done with me, Peggotty?

PEGGOTTY: They’re sending you away.

DAVID: They have persuaded my mother that I am a wicked fellow.

Lights – MR MURDSTONE - his hand bandaged.

MISS MURDSTONE – triumphant; MAMA – weeping.

MR MURDSTONE: It’s for your own good, David.

MAMA: You will come home a better boy.

14
MISS MURDSTONE: And may you repent, before you come to a bad end.

PEGGOTTY: I’ll take good care of your Mama.

Promise you’ll write to me, Davy.

Y. DAVID: I promise.

PEGGOTTY hands Y. DAVID a purse and a bag of buns.

DAVID: I am to be sent away.

Y. DAVID: Who will take me?

BARKIS enters.

BARKIS: Barkis is willin’.

Y. DAVID: But where am I going?

DAVID: To school!

SALEM HOUSE

COMPANY – adults and children – file on with benches to take their

schoolroom seats as the boys of Salem House.

COMPANY: [Sing] Salem House School Anthem (Original)

To form my youthful character and educate my mind,
The walls and halls of Salem House are thus assigned.
And I will carry all my life, the feelings nurtured here –
Loneliness; humiliation; pain and fear.

DAVID: Salem House. The hardest school that was ever kept.

COMPANY: [Sing] The schoolroom fills each day with rows of freezing boys
It smells of rotting fruit and mildewed corduroys.
With tear-blotted copybooks, and inky atmosphere –
This is a school whose only rule is fear! Fear! Fear!

Actor 2 becomes MR CREAKLE

Salem – Oh Salem. Our dear old Salem. Salem House.

MR CREAKLE: Where is the boy whose teeth are to be filed?

DAVID/Y. DAVID: Here sir.

MR CREAKLE: Name?

DAVID/Y. DAVID: David Copperfield.

15
MR CREAKLE: Do you know me boy?

DAVID: Mr Creakle. An ignorant brute.

MR CREAKLE approaches Y. DAVID with a placard.

MR CREAKLE: Can you read boy?

Y. DAVID: [Reads the placard] Take care of him. He bites.

DAVID: Take care of him. He bites.

Y. DAVID: Is it dog, sir?

MR CREAKLE: What?

Y. DAVID: That bites?

MR CREAKLE: No Copperfield. It’s not a dog. It’s a boy.

A boy famous for biting.

MR CREAKLE hangs the placard around Y. DAVID’s neck.

DAVID: I am to wear this placard wherever I go.

MR CREAKLE: You might like to know that I am also famous for biting.
[Swishing his cane] How’s that for a tooth, eh? A sharp tooth!
A double tooth! Does it bite? Does it bite, eh? Eh?

One of the children begins to cry.

Silence! Now Copperfield, you have begun to know me.

DAVID: Yes, I know him. The sternest and most severe of masters, that
knows nothing but the art of slashing.

The children line up, in turn, to be caned by MR CREAKLE.

COMPANY: [Sings] We do our best to please the masters, work hard as we should.
We eat our boiled up mutton and our suet pud.
And side by side with youthful pride, we stand with grave
intent – not to cry, but bravely take our punishment.

Salem – Oh Salem. Our dear old Salem. Salem House.

MR CREAKLE exits, leaving the children rubbing their sore hands, legs etc...

DAVID: But there is one boy in the school on whom Mr Creakle never
ventures to lay a hand.

16
 JAMES STEERFORTH stands up among the boys.

STEERFORTH: I’d like to see him try.

ALL applaud the wonder that is JAMES STEERFORTH.

DAVID: James Steerforth. The most senior boy in the school.

Handsome, rich, brilliant.

STEERFORTH: So – Copperfield, is it? What’s this placard all about?

Y. DAVID: I bit my stepfather.

STEERFORTH: Is that so. [He removes the placard and casts it aside] Don’t
worry – you won’t have to wear it for long. It’ll get in the
Master’s way when he’s thrashing you.

DAVID: He’s right about that.

STEERFORTH: Got any money, Copperfield?

Y. DAVID pulls a handful of change from his pocket to show STEERFORTH.

STEERFORTH: Seven shillings! You had better give it to me to take care of.

Y. DAVID hands over his money

Do you want to spend anything now? A couple of shillings on a

bottle of currant wine – for the bedroom.

DAVID: I am proud to learn that I belong to Steerforth’s dormitory.

STEERFORTH leads Y. DAVID paternally through the boys, who break and
lounge around, as in the dormitory.

STEERFORTH: And you’ll spend another shilling or so, in almond cakes, I dare
say? And some biscuits and fruit.

DAVID: Steerforth can go out whenever he likes, and agrees to smuggle

it in for me.

A basket is smuggled on.

The boys gather round the midnight feast, slapping Y. DAVID on the back.

So in the moonlit bedroom, we share our midnight feast.

Lights lower on the feasting boys; Y. DAVID, still in moonlight, closes his eyes
and stretches his hands behind his head.

17
 DAVID steps behind him and does the same.

That night I dream I hear the wind blowing over the flats at
Yarmouth. I hear the roar of the ocean; the laughter of little
Em’ly, and the powerful person of James Steerforth promising
faithfully to take care of me.

Lights.

STEERFORTH: Visitors for Copperfield.

MR PEGGOTTY and HAM, with a small canvas sack.

MR PEGGOTTY: Mas’r Davy! By, how you have growed.

HAM: Growed, Mas’r Davy.

DAVID: How is Peggotty?

MR PEGGOTTY: Un-common.

Y. DAVID: And Mama?

MR PEGGOTTY: Un-common.

DAVID: And little Em’ly and Mrs Gummidge.

MR PEGGOTTY: Likewise.

Y. DAVID: Steerforth. This is Mr Peggotty and his nephew, Ham.

STEERFORTH: I’m glad to meet you.

Y. DAVID: Be sure to tell them all that Mr Steerforth is very kind to me.

STEERFORTH: Nonsense! Nothing of the sort.

DAVID: And one day I will bring him to Yarmouth; to the boat-house –

MR PEGGOTTY: You’d be welcome, sir, if you should ever come to see us.
Brought you some relish, Davy. [He pulls a large crab from the
bag]

HAM: Mrs Gummidge boiled him.

Y. DAVID: Thank you.

MR PEGGOTTY and HAM depart, and the crab is taken to the bedroom.

18
DAVID: We make a great, secret supper of the crab in the bedroom that
night; crab that had travelled all the way from Yarmouth in a
warm canvas bag.

In unison, the boys retch slightly; hand over mouth; VOMIT!!

Y. DAVID seated, writing a letter.

Y. DAVID: Dear Peggotty…

DAVID circles his younger self, as he writes…

DAVID: As promised, I write to Peggotty, with a special message…

Y. DAVID: [Writing] From Mr Barkis.

DAVID: He has asked me to say that ‘Barkis is willin’.

Y. DAVID: [Writing] I don’t know what he means by this.

DAVID: But he says that he is waiting for an answer –

Lights up on PEGGOTTY, reading the letter and laughing.

PEGGOTTY: Barkis is willin’? Oh, drat the man. He wants to marry me!

DAVID: It would be a good match for you, wouldn’t it?

PEGGOTTY: I wouldn’t have him if he was made of gold. I’ll never leave
your precious Mama, Davy. Not for all the world.

DAVID: But what if Mama leaves us…

PEGGOTTY: What?

A bell tolls.
DAVID and Y. DAVID look at each other.

DAVID: I am told by Mr Creakle that my Mama is very ill…

She is dangerously ill…

Y. DAVID: She is dead.

BLUNDERSTONE – A grave. A bell tolls constantly in the distance.

Enter MR and MISS MURDSTONE.

DAVID: The day seems different to me from every other day, and the
light not of the same colour – of a sadder colour.

19
 Y. DAVID rises to collect a flower and place it on the grave.
They all turn from the grave.

- and standing apart I see that good and faithful servant, whom
of all the people upon earth I love the best.

Y. DAVID runs to a weeping PEGGOTTY for comfort.

Other events float from me to the shore where all forgotten

things will reappear, but this stands like a high rock in the
ocean.

The bell ceases.

Exit MR MURDSTONE
MISS MURDSTONE approaches PEGGOTTY.

MISS MURDSTONE: Your services are no longer needed.

DAVID: What will you do Peggotty?

PEGGOTTY: I shall go to Yarmouth.

Y. DAVID: May I come too?

Y. DAVID and PEGGOTTY look to MISS MURDSTONE.

MISS MURDSTONE: Humph! It is of paramount importance that my brother should

not be disturbed. I suppose I had better say… yes.

MUSIC

DAVID: So when the month is out – Peggotty and I are ready to depart.
And who do you suppose will take us?

BARKIS enters with their luggage.

BARKIS: Barkis is willin’

The MUSIC picks up tempo -

YARMOUTH

The boat-house truck comes on, with MRS GUMMIDGE ‘indoors’. HAM and
MR PEGGOTTY come out to greet PEGGOTTY, Y. DAVID and BARKIS.

MR PEGGOTTY: Mas’r Davy. Sorry for your loss.

HAM: Very sorry.

20
 Enter Y. EM’LY

MR PEGGOTTY: Ah – here’s another orphan, you see, sir. And here [Slaps HAM
on the back] is another of ‘em, though he don’t much look like
it.

DAVID: If I had Mr Peggotty for my guardian, I don’t think I should

feel like an orphan at all.

MR PEGGOTTY: Em’ly goes to school now.

Y. DAVID: Me too.

MR PEGGOTTY: And so you do. How is your handsome friend?

Y. DAVID: Steerforth?

MR PEGGOTTY: That’s the name.

Y. DAVID: He’s very well, sir.

DAVID: My friend Steerforth. Generous and noble.

Y. DAVID: The best cricketer you ever saw –

MR PEGGOTTY: That he is. Why look at my Little Em’ly! Full of wonder at the
sound of him. She’d like to meet him – wouldn’t you Em’ly?

Y. EM’LY hides her face, blushing. There is a general chorus of ‘ahs’, and
they step into the boat-house; Y. DAVID last.

DAVID: In the midst of my grief for my mother, I find true comfort here
with these good hearted Yarmouth folk.

BARKIS appears with a canvas bag. Addresses DAVID

BARKIS: Psst! I say. It was all right. You know who was willin’ and you
made it all right first, with your letter. I’m a friend of your’n.

DAVID: What’s in the bag, Mr Barkis?

BARKIS: Gifts – for her.

BARKIS moves from DAVID to Y. DAVID

Y. DAVID: For Peggotty?

BARKIS: Oranges; a pincushion; a pair of earrings and a leg of pickled

pork.

21
 BARKIS lays the bag on the doorstep of the boat-house.

DAVID: With such gifts as these, how can Peggotty resist?

Wedding bells – MUSIC

PEGGOTTY steps out, in her best hat – followed by Y. EM’LY.

COMPANY: [Sing] Wedding Song (Original)

On a dreamy morn when the grey-eyed dawn
Smiles on the drowsy night
And the world is spinning like a drunken reel
My heart, it sings as the lark it brings
A herald of the warm daylight
And the promise of the marriage vows I’ll seal.

My love is deep - my bounty is as boundless as the sea

And the wedding bells are ringing out for me
My love is deep - the more I have, the more I give to thee
And the wedding bells are ringing out for me.

DAVID: I am in love too.

I tell Little Em’ly that I could never love another.

Y. DAVID whispers in Y. EM’LY’s ear.

Y. EM’LY: [To Y. DAVID] You silly boy!

PEGGOTTY: Young or old, Davy – as long as I’m alive and have a house
over my head I shall keep a room for you, just as I always have.

COMPANY: [Sing] My love is deep, the more I have, the more I give to thee
And the wedding bells are ringing out for me.

BARKIS and PEGGOTTY exit happily, arm in arm.

The COMPANY waving them off.

DAVID: I am glad for my Peggotty’s happiness, but it means that I must

return to my cruel stepfather – alone.

BLUNDERSTONE – An echoing, empty sound of Rooks.

Y. DAVID alone and small.

MR and MISS MURDSTONE loom over him.

MR MURDSTONE: David, this is a world for action: and not for moping in.

MISS MURDSTONE: As you do -

MR MURDSTONE: I say, this is a world for action – especially for a boy like you.

22
MISS MURDSTONE: Stubbornness won’t do here.

MR MURDSTONE: You will not return to school, but work for your keep now – at
Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse in London.

MISS MURDSTONE: You are provided for, and will please to do your duty!

MR MURDSTONE: What is before you is a fight with the world; and the sooner you
begin it, the better.

Lights out on MR and MISS MURDSTONE.

MURDSTONE and GRINBY’s - The clinking of a single bottle – rhythmic beat.

DAVID: And so I become, at ten years old, a labourer in a filthy London

warehouse, down by the river – black with the dirt and smoke
of a hundred years, and literally over-run with rats!

Squeaking and scuffling – a couple of rat puppets run across the stage.

Murdstone and Grinby supply wines and spirits to ships

travelling across the world. The consequence of this trade is a
great many empty bottles –

CHILD LABOURERS enter, marching to the clink of the bottles.

CHILDREN: Check bottle; rinse bottle; fill bottle; cork bottle.

Seal the cork. Paste the label.
Pack bottle.

Y. DAVID joins the back of the line. Each child has a bottle, which he moves,
in mechanised fashion, to the rhythm of the chant.

Check bottle; rinse bottle; fill bottle; cork bottle.

Seal the cork. Paste the label.
Pack bottle.

Y. DAVID: Check bottle; rinse bottle; fill bottle; cork bottle

Y. DAVID wipes his eyes.

CHILDREN: Seal the cork. Paste the label.

Pack bottle.
Stop.

DAVID: I am alone, ashamed and utterly miserable.

Y. DAVID blows across the top of his bottle. It makes a whistling sound. (This
may be cheated as a sound cue)

23
 A distant whistling - the first phrase of the College Hornpipe.

All the children look down into their bottles in surprise. They blow over their
bottles – a cacophony. (Again – sound cue)

Again – the first phrase of the College Hornpipe.

The children hold the bottles to their eyes like telescopes and turn to face
upstage. Drum roll?

Actor 3 takes centre – MR MICAWBER.

MUSIC – The College Hornpipe (Trad) Jaunty and joyful.

The children file past MR MICAWBER, who bows regally to each of them.
Last in line – is Y. DAVID.

MR MICAWBER: Master Copperfield? I hope I see you well, sir?

DAVID: I am not well at all, but it would be rude to complain.

MR MICAWEBER: Wilkins Micawber. Ahem. That is my name.

I have a letter from your stepfather, Mr Murdstone, in which he
desires me to offer you an apartment, at present unoccupied, at
the rear of my house – in short, you are to stay with me and my
family as our lodger.

Y. DAVID: Thank you, sir.

MR MICAWBER: No doubt your peregrinations have not as yet been extensive,

therefore, I shall be happy to install you in the knowledge of
the nearest way to my address. In short – you might get lost, so
I shall escort you home.

Y. DAVID: Thank you, Mr Micawber sir.

MR MICAWBER: At your service, Master Copperfield.

They link arms and set off through London.

MUSIC – College Hornpipe!

DAVID: We walk to the house in Windsor Terrace; which, like Mr

Micawber himself, is shabby, but showy.

Suddenly MR MICAWBER ducks into the shadows, dragging Y. DAVID with

him. A COBBLER is calling, as through the closed door of a house.

COBBLER: Oi! Micawber – you old swindler! Three pairs of boots you’ve
had off me! Pay me what you owe me, d’you hear!

24
DAVID: Mr Micawber doesn’t look like a swindler to me. But neither
does he look like he has very much money.

The COBBLER shakes his head and gives up. As he departs, MR MICAWBER
and Y. DAVID emerge carefully from their hiding place and enter the house.

MR MICAWBER: Mrs Micawber, ma’am. Are you and the twins at liberty?

MRS MICAWBER enters – with twin babies in her arms (muppets).

Allow me to present our new lodger - Master David

Copperfield.

MRS MICAWBER: I never thought, that I should ever find it necessary to take a
lodger; but Mr Micawber being in difficulties, all private
feeling must give way.

Y. DAVID: Yes, ma’am.

MRS MICAWBER: [With mounting emotion] But do not doubt, Master Copperfield –
I will never desert Mr Micawber. Never.

MRS MICAWBER bursts into tears – and the twins too. MR MICAWBER
moves instantly to comfort her.

A MILKMAN raps at the Micawbers’ door.

MILKMAN: Mr Micawber – when are you going to pay for your milk? Eh?
I’m not a-going to stand it, you know. If you don’t pay what
you owe me, you won’t get milk tomorrow!

The COBBLER returns.

COBBLER: Three pairs of good stout boots, Micawber!

A BUTCHER joins them

BUTCHER: A fortnight’s supply of chops and sausages!

A BAKER…

BAKER: Bread, puddings and pies since the first of the month!

A WASHERWOMAN…

WASHERWOMAN: Shirts and smalls, boiled and starched! Mr Micawber – where’s

my money?

COBBLER: You pay us, d’you hear?

25
CREDITORS: Micawber!

DAVID: It seems that Mr Micawber owes everybody money.

MRS MICAWBER and the twins, wail and lament.

MR MICAWBER reels and rolls his eyes in tragical fashion.

MR MICAWBER: Alas! I am crushed! Hope has sunk beneath the horizon.

CREDITORS: Oh – what’s the use.

The CREDITORS disperse. MR MICAWBER, hearing them leave, recovers

instantly.

MR MICAWBER: Master Copperfield – I am in difficulties just at present, but I

am confident in the prospect that something will turn up. In the
meantime…

DAVID: … the sale of a couple of silver teaspoons will easily buy

supper, and all the ingredients required to make –

MR MICAWBER: Punch! Lemon peel, sugar and rum!

MR MICAWBER rolls up his shirtsleeves and begins making hot rum punch.
Steam etc… Y. DAVID looks on – delighted.

MUSIC – The Punch Song (Original, patter song)

When difficulties threaten to disturb our domesticity -

When fiscal fiends offend the fragile fabric of felicity –
It is beholden to a man of wisdom and sagacity –
To grasp the nettle; show his mettle, courage and tenacity!

His lot is lemon bitter but his heart is sugar sweet.

He fears he will be vilified and cast into the street.
And in the fire’s flames he sees his prospects slowly burning up
But places all his faith upon the chance of something turning up!

COMPANY: Places all his faith upon the chance of something turning up!

MICAWBER: And yet I must declare that in despair I have a hunch –

The only real solution is to make a bowl of punch!

The CHILD LABOURERS enter; clinking bottles.

MUSIC – the rhythmic accompaniment to the patter song continues quietly;

CHILD LABOURERS whisper their bottle chant in time to the music.

COMPANY: [Sing] His lot is lemon bitter but his heart is sugar sweet.
He fears he will be vilified and cast into the street.

26
 And in the fire’s flames he sees his prospects slowly burning up

DAVID: [Spoken] And places all his faith upon the chance of something turning
up!

MICAWBER: And yet I must declare that in despair I have a hunch –

The only real solution is to make a bowl of punch!

COMPANY: And yet he must declare that in despair he has a hunch –

The only real solution is to make a bowl of punch!

End MUSIC – Rhythmic pulse of bottle clink continues.

MICAWBER: Ah! The punch is prepared, and is at present in high flavour.

My love, will you give me your opinion?

MRS MICAWBER tastes the punch.

MRS MICAWBER: Excellent!

MR MICAWBER: A toast. Ahem! I give you – Young Copperfield!

The toast is lifted –

Enter CREDITORS – a cacophony of voices!

CREDITORS: Micawber you swindler! Pay us what you owe! We’ll have the
law on you! Micawber! Robbers! Three pairs of boots! Pudding
and pies! Chops and Sausages! You’ll be thrown in jail till you
pay up! Etc…

MR MICAWBER stops his ears.

CHILDREN: Check bottle; rinse bottle; fill bottle; cork bottle. Stop!

ALL FREEZE!

Y. DAVID weaves through frozen company, gazing with mingled sadness,

wonder and fear.

DAVID: As I walk each day between home and work, I begin to invent
stories about all the people I see - making an imaginative world
out of my experiences. Is it any wonder then, that at this
difficult time in my childhood, it first occurs to me that when I
grow up I want to be –

Y. DAVID and DAVID look at each other – excitement/hope.

DAVID/ Y. DAVID: A writer!

27
 MRS MICAWBER breaks out of the freeze and calls –

MRS MICAWBER: Master Copperfield!

All break from the freeze to become a crowd that MRS MICAWBER (with
twins) fights her way through to reach Y. DAVID. The crowd disperses.

MRS MICAWBER: Oh – Master Copperfield. Disaster! Oh disaster! Mr

Micawber’s difficulties have come to a crisis. He has been
taken to prison until he pays his debts. What shall I do?

Y. DAVID: Let us go to see him together, Mrs Micawber.

MRS MICAWBER: Yes. Oh yes. Thank you Master Copperfield. You are more
than a lodger. You are a friend.

DAVID: We find Mr Micawber in the King’s Bench Prison.

Mr MICAWBER discovered – playing skittles, with another prisoner. He

breaks off upon seeing MRS MICAWBER and Y. DAVID.

MICAWBER: Emma, my Angel.

MRS MICAWBER: I never will desert you, Micawber.

MICAWBER: My life! I am perfectly aware of it.

MRS MICAWBER: He is the father of my twins. He is the husband of my affections

– and I never will desert Mr Micawber!

MICAWBER: Ah – this has been a dreadful day! We stand alone now –

everything is gone from us.

MR and MRS MICAWBER, the twins, and Y. DAVID all burst into tears.

DAVID: A dreadful day indeed – but Mr Micawber declares himself

bankrupt, and applies for release.

All stop crying. MR MICAWBER addresses himself to DAVID

MICAWBER: Really?

DAVID: And in six weeks – he is free!

MICAWBER: And then, no doubt I shall begin to be beforehand with the

world, and to live in a perfectly new manner, if – in short, if
anything turns up.

THE MICAWBERS prepare to travel.

28
DAVID: Upon his release from prison, Mr Micawber decides to take his
family to Plymouth in search of employment.

MRS MICAWBER: It’s important that he should be there on the spot – that he may
be ready in case of anything turning up.

MR MICAWBER: Learn, Young Copperfield – learn from the wretch standing

before you. Learn this - Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure nineteen pounds and six, result happiness. Annual
income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and
six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered
– in short you are forever floored. As I am.

Y. DAVID: Good bye, sir.

MR MICAWBER: Farewell Copperfield.

MRS MICAWBER: God bless you Master Copperfield God bless!

Exit MICAWBERS
Y. DAVID stands alone again.

DAVID: The Micawbers have been a strange sort of family for me, but a
family none the less. And now – I am alone again.

Y. DAVID: But I will not check, wash or fill another bottle.

DAVID: I have a plan.

Y. DAVID: I will go to my Aunt – Bestey Trotwood.

DAVID: Aunt Betsey is the only true family I have. And though I know
she was very disappointed that I wasn’t born a girl -

Y. DAVID: She is my only hope.

DAVID: And so I walk – all the way from London… to Dover.

MUSIC – The Wanderer

Y. DAVID removes his coat, which is taken by one of the adult cast.

I sell my coat to buy bread.

Y. DAVID removes his shoes, which are taken as the coat was.

Then my shoes

Y. DAVID lies down to sleep.

29
 I sleep in the fields and hedges.
Eventually, exhausted and ragged, I find my way to my Aunt’s
house at Dover.

DOVER – Seagulls.

MUSIC – Donkey music!

Enter a donkey (puppet).
Enter MISS BETSEY TROTWOOD, brandishing a broom.

MISS BETSEY: Janet! Donkeys!

Enter JANET with a carpet beater.

MISS BETSEY and JANET chase the donkey away.
Exit JANET. MISS BETSEY pauses, out of breath.

DAVID: Donkeys come to graze on the patch of green outside my aunt’s

house - and it is something she simply cannot abide.

Y. DAVID rises to his feet and staggers towards MISS BETSEY.

MISS BETSEY: Go away! Go along! No boys here!

Y. DAVID approaches softly and touches MISS BETSEY’s hand.

Y. DAVID: If you please ma’am.

DAVID: If you please Aunt…

MISS BETSEY: Eh?

Y. DAVID: I am your nephew.

MISS BETSEY: Oh Lord!

Y. DAVID moves his lips, faintly – trying to speak.

DAVID: I am David Copperfield. You came on the night I was born and
saw my dear mama. I have been very unhappy since she died. I
was put to work in London, but I have run away and…

Y. DAVID collapses to his knees. MISS BETSEY catches him.

MISS BETSEY: Oh my Lord! Janet!

Enter JANET

Janet – go upstairs, give my compliments to Mr Dick, and tell

him I wish to speak to him.

30
 Exit JANET
MISS BETSEY half carries Y. DAVID, to sit him on a chair.

Mr Dick is my great friend, and the wisest creature in existence.

Enter MR DICK

Ah – Mr Dick. You have heard me mention my grand-nephew,

David Copperfield – now, don’t pretend not to have a memory,
because you and I know better.

MR DICK: David Copperfield? Oh yes, to be sure. David, certainly.

MISS BETSEY: Well – this is he, and as like his father as it’s possible to be, if
he was not so like his mother too.

MR DICK: Indeed.

MISS BETSEY: And he has run away!

MR DICK: Run away.

MISS BETSEY: Yes – and the question I put to you, Mr Dick, is what shall I do
with him?

MR DICK: What shall you do with him…? Oh, do with him!

MISS BETSEY: Yes. Come, I want some very sound advice.

MR DICK: Why, if I was you, I should… I should feed him!

MISS BETSEY: Mr Dick sets us all right. Janet!

Enter JANET with broth.

MISS BETSEY applies herself to stirring and blowing on it.

Are you hungry child?

Y. DAVID: Yes Aunt. Very.

MISS BETSEY: Then here we have a bowl of good strong broth.

MISS BETSEY lifts a spoon to Y. DAVID’s lips, as a note of Donkey Music

sounds and a donkey appears once again – then freezes.
MISS BETSEY pauses momentarily, the spoon poised; lowers it to the bowl;
thinks; shakes her head; lifts the spoon – Donkey moves!
MISS BETSEY pauses; lowers the spoon; thinks; shakes her head; lifts the
spoon – Donkey moves!
MISS BETSEY freezes, stiffens and cries…

31
MISS BETSEY: Donkeys!

MISS BETSEY, MR DICK and JANET exit after the fleeing donkeys.

DAVID: Eventually I am fed and, upon the advice of Mr Dick, I am

bathed and put to bed – in a room at the top of the house,
overlooking the sea.

Y. DAVID stands, looking out at the night. DAVID stands behind – same pose.

The moonlight makes a bright path on the water – and I think

of my mother in heaven Then I float down that shining track
upon the sea, away into the world of dreams.

Enter MISS BETSEY

The next morning, my aunt has some news for me.

MISS BETSEY: I have written to your step-father.

Y. DAVID: To Mr Murdstone?

MISS BETSEY: And he must attend to my letter, or he and I will fall out, I’m
sure.

DAVID: Will he take me away?

Exit MISS BETSEY.

Enter MR DICK, with a large kite.

MR DICK: David, what do you think of that for a kite?

Y. DAVID: It’s beautiful.

MR DICK: I made it. We’ll go and fly it, you and I.

MR DICK hums the KITE SONG to himself as he prepares the kite for flying.

DAVID: I notice there’s lots of writing all over the kite.

MR DICK: Facts. Facts and history. But there’s plenty of string, and when
it flies high, it takes the facts a long way away. Then they don’t
bother me so much.

MISS BETSEY: [Off] Donkeys!

MISS BETSEY crosses the stage with a gardening implement!

A moment later a donkey crosses the other way, with MISS BETSEY in pursuit
and MISS MURDSTONE following in disarray!

32
 Donkey exits. MISSES BETSEY and MURDSTONE remain.

MISS BETSEY: How dare you ride donkeys on my green. Go along with you.

MISS MURDSTONE: Do you know who I am?

MISS BETSEY: I don’t care who you are. I won’t be trespassed upon!

Enter MR MURDSTONE

MR MURDSTONE: Miss Trotwood. I am Edward Murdstone, and this lady is my

sister.

MISS BETSEY: I don’t allow anybody to ride over that turf.

MR MURDSTONE: I received your letter, Miss Trotwood, and thought it

appropriate to answer in person.

Y. DAVID: Shall I go away, Aunt?

MISS BETSEY: Certainly not.

MR MURDSTONE: This boy has been a great trouble, Miss Trotwood. He has a
sullen, rebellious spirit and a violent temper.

MISS MURDSTONE: Of all the boys in the world, I believe this is the worst boy.

MISS BETSEY: Ha!

MR MURDSTONE: I placed him in a respectable business and he ran away like a

common vagabond.

MISS BETSEY: And if he had been your own boy, would you have sent him out
to work at just ten years of age?

MISS MURDSTONE: If he had been my brother’s own boy, his character would have
been altogether different.

MISS BETSEY: Humph!

MR MURDSTONE: I am here, for the first and last time, to take David back and to
deal with him as I think right. Is he ready to go? If he is not,
then my doors are shut against him forever.

MISS BETSEY: Are you ready to go, David?

Y. DAVID runs to his aunt and clings to her.

DAVID: Please aunt – protect me.

33
MISS BETSEY: [To the MURDSTONES] You can go when you like. I’ll take my
chance with the boy – for I don’t believe a word you say.
Do you think I don’t know what a woeful day it was when this
boy’s poor mother took the disastrous step of marrying you,
you tyrant!

MISS MURDSTONE: I beg your pardon?

MISS BETSEY: Good day, sir! And as for you, ma’am - let me see you ride a
donkey over my green again, and as sure as you have a head
upon your shoulders, I’ll knock your bonnet off!

The MURDSTONES exit darkly.

MISS BETSEY and MR DICK embrace Y. DAVID.

Mr Dick, you and I will be guardians of this child.

MR DICK: I shall be delighted to be David’s guardian.

MISS BETSEY: I’ve been thinking. I should like him to have my name. I
wonder if we might call him Trotwood.

MR DICK: Trotwood Copperfield.

MISS BETSEY: Yes. Trotwood Copperfield.

Enter JANET, with shoes, jacket and hat for Y. DAVID.

DAVID: A new name; a new life! I put the misery of the past behind me
and begin a far happier chapter.

MISS BETSEY: Trot! Would you like to go to school.

COMPANY: [Sings] Salem – Oh Salem!

DAVID: No – not there. She means a school at Canterbury.

COMPANY: [Sing] Doctor Strong’s remarkable school –

Y. DAVID: I should like that very much.

DAVID: Mr Dick is very sad at the prospect of my going away to school

– but my aunt promises he may visit me.

MR DICK: I will make another kite – even bigger than the last.

MR DICK shakes Y. David’s hand and exits, satisfied.

DAVID: And so I am ready to resume my education–in Canterbury.

34
CANTERBURY – Cathedral bells.

MUSIC – Dr Strong’s School (Original)

MISS BETSEY: I have arranged for you to lodge with my good friend, Mr
Wickfield.

Enter MR WICKFIELD.

MR WICKFIELD: I’m very pleased to meet you Trotwood.

MISS BETSEY: Mr Wickfield is also my lawyer. He takes very good care of my

money.

Y. DAVID: How do you do.

MUSIC reduces to one note…

Actor 5 to one side becomes URIAH HEEP

DAVID: I am aware, as we shake hands, of another person, lurking at

the door. A pale, bloodless face and a long skeleton hand.

MISS BETSEY: Is that Uriah Heep, skulking there?

URIAH: It is ma’am.

MISS BETSEY: Come forward, sir, and meet my grand-nephew - Trotwood

Copperfield.

URIAH: I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Copperfield.

Y. DAVID and URIAH shake hands.

DAVID: His hand is cold and wet – like a fish.

Y. DAVID wipes his hand on his trousers.

Y. DAVID: Are you a lawyer too, Mr Heep?

URIAH: Me, Master Copperfield? Oh, no! I am a very umble person.

MR WICKFIELD: Uriah is studying while he works for me. He may be a lawyer

one day.

URIAH: And I have much to be thankful for in Mr Wickfield’s kindness

to one who is so umble.

Y. AGNES enters – with a basket and a bundle of keys on her belt.

35
Y. AGNES: Father.

MR WICKFIELD: Ah – here is my little housekeeper.

DAVID: Agnes.

MR WICKFIELD: Agnes, this is Trotwood Copperfield. He will be lodging with

us while he goes to school here in Canterbury.

Y. AGNES: Hello Trotwood.

MR WICKFIELD: I’m sure that you will be good friends.

DAVID: We will. The greatest friends ever – my dearest Agnes.

MISS BETSEY: The pony’s at the door, and I am off. Trotwood – never be
mean; never be false; never be cruel. Be a credit to yourself, to
me and to Mr Dick and heaven be with you.

She embraces Y. DAVID briefly and exits, emotional.

URIAH bows and backs off into the shadows.

MR WICKFIELD takes a seat and Y. AGNES brings him some wine.

DAVID: I quickly settle into my life at Canterbury, where I attend

Doctor Strong’s school – as different from Salem House as
good is from evil.

MUSIC
Enter DOCTOR STRONG’S PUPILS, calling to Y. DAVID (Trotwood) to
come and play.

COMPANY: [Sing] Doctor Strong’s School (Verse original: Chorus tune Trad)
Every morning bright and early
Through the streets of Canterbury
Boys and girls are in a hurry
(Mustn’t be late! Mustn’t be late!)

Dull or clever, children all

Hasten to that hallowed hall,
The great stone urns, the red-brick wall
And rusty iron gate of

Doctor Strong’s remarkable school

Doctor Strong’s remarkable school.

Y. DAVID and DR STRONG’S PUPILS sit studiously at their work.

DAVID: Doctor Strong tells me I am a promising young scholar!

36
 My aunt and Mr Dick are wild with joy.
I begin to grow up!

COMPANY: [Sing] Doctor Strong’s remarkable school!

In the heart of Canterb’ry town.

DAVID: I rise higher in the school, and no-one breaks my peace.

No-one that is, except…

Y. DAVID and the children stop working to see ACTOR 4 don the
striped apron of the BUTCHER-BOY

COMPANY: [Sing] In the town there lives a butcher –

And his name is bully-boy Brown!

DAVID: The bullnecked butcher boy. Terror of the youth of Canterbury

– and especially Dr Strong’s young gentlemen.

The BUTCHER BOY chases the children off –

Y. DAVID rejoins MR WICKFIELD and AGNES

WICKFIED: Has young Butcher Brown been bullying the boys again, eh
Trotwood?

Y.DAVID: Yes sir.

Y. AGNES: I’m glad that Father teaches me at home.

MR WICKFIELD: I couldn’t spare you to go anywhere else, Agnes.

AGNES smiles at him indulgently.

DAVID: There is a kind of soft light, which seems to fall on Agnes

always – and on me whenever I am near her.

MR WICKFIELD dozes in his chair. Y. AGNES sits dutifully by.

COMPANY: [Sings] Every morning bright and early

Through the streets of Canterbury
Boys and girls are in a hurry –
[Bully-boy Brown! Bully-boy Brown!]

BUTCHER-BOY: [Overlapping] I could beat any one of you weaklings with one
hand tied behind –

COMPANY: [Sings] Butcher-boy is rough and square

Combs suet through his hair
A bull necked bear, and who would dare
To try and bring him down…

37
 [Whispered] Bully-boy Brown. Bully-boy Brown. Bully-boy -

BUTCHER-BOY: [Overlapping] Any one of you, do you hear? Especially that

shrimp Copperfield!

COMPANY: Brown!

Drum – David’s heartbeat

Y. DAVID rises and turns – danger!

Y. DAVID: What did you say?

BUTCHER-BOY: Any time you like Copperfield!

DAVID: I resolve to fight the butcher!

PERCUSSION

Y. DAVID and the BUTCHER-BOY square up.

There follows a fight of tableaux. DAVID commentating; percussion
underscore.

In a moment, the butcher lights ten thousand candles out of my

left eyebrow! [Tableau]
Now I run madly at him! [Tableau]
I hardly know which is me and which is the butcher! [Tableau]
Then, I know nothing at all. [Tableau]

COMPANY: [Whispered] Bully-boy Brown. Bully-boy Brown!

DAVD: I am awake. The victory is his!

The BUTCHER-BOY walks away, laughing. A battered Y. DAVID is half

carried by the children to MR WICKFIELD and AGNES – who tends his
wounds.

COMPANY: [Sings] In the town there lives a butcher.

And his name is bully-boy Brown!

DAVID: For three or four days I remain at home, with two black eyes
and a very fat lip.

Y. DAVID: I had to fight him, Agnes.

Y. AGNES: I know.

MR WICKFIELD: You like excitement, don’t you Trotwood. I’m afraid it’s a dull
life we lead here, boy.

38
Y. DAVID: Not dull at all, sir.

DAVID: I am truly happy in the home of my friend Mr Wickfield and

his beloved Agnes.

Exit Y. AGNES and MR WICKFIELD

URIAH HEEP looms suddenly out of the shadows, carrying a large book.

URIAH: Master Copperfield.

Both DAVIDs jump.

DAVID: I wish he wouldn’t do that.

Y. DAVID: You’re working late tonight, Uriah.

Y. DAVID moves towards URIAH.

DAVID: Little boys are fascinated by slugs, and snails; perhaps that’s
why I am so fascinated by Uriah Heep.

URIAH: I am studying law, Master Copperfield –

DAVID: I notice that his nostrils seem to twinkle, but his eyes hardly
twinkle at all.

URIAH: - though, I am well aware that I am the umblest person going.

But I have much to be thankful for.

He offers Y. DAVID his hand to shake.

DAVID: Fish!

URIAH: Goodnight, Master Copperfield.

Both DAVIDs wipe their hands.

DAVID: There is something about Uriah Heep that gives me bad dreams.

Exit URIAH, with an ominous backward glance.

But my days are filled with happiness.

Y. AGNES runs on.

Y. AGNES: Trotwood, come quickly. Mr Dick has arrived – with the new
kite!

MR DICK enters with kites. Y. DAVID and Y. AGNES greet him.

39
COMPANY: [Sing] The Kite Song! (Original)
Catching the breath of a summer sigh!
Glittering jewel in the bright young sky –
Fluttering and guttering and gaining height.
Lifting our care
Into the air - up with the glorious kite!

Dancing for joy on a cloudless day

Troubles and sorrows seem far away
Anything is possible, but hold on tight.
Sudden and sly,
Time starts to fly – on with the glorious kite.

DAVID: I am growing up.

Y. DAVID and Y. AGNES, each holding a kite, hold hands – freeze!

The song drops volume – individual voices from the company sing:

COMPANY: [Sings] Puzzles and troubles and boyhood dreams

Turn into bigger and grander schemes -

DAVID: I am fourteen; I am sixteen!

Enter DOCTOR STRONG’S PUPILS

COMPANY: [Sings] Nothing is impossible; the future’s bright -

DAVID: I am Head Boy of the School!

COMPANY: [Sings] Shoes you’ve outgrown

Childhood has flown…

DAVID: I am 16 and Head boy of the school!

Enter BUTCHER-BOY

BUTCHER BOY: You’re still a shrimp, Copperfield.

Drum – David’s heartbeat

Everybody gets out of the way!

DAVID: What did you say?

BUTCHER-BOY: Any time you like, Copperfield.

DAVID walks over to the BUTCHER-BOY and floors him with one punch!
DR STRONG’S PUPILS cheer and congratulate him. MUSIC picks up again.

40
DAVID: I am seventeen. I wear a gold watch and chain and a long-tailed
coat. I go to parties, and have been in love several times. Now
my school days are coming to an end…
And the little girl I saw on my first day here – where is she?

Enter AGNES –

Agnes – my counsellor and friend – is quite a woman now.

AGNES walks to Y. AGNES, who hands over her kite and exits.
DAVID approaches Y. DAVID

And this little fellow seems no part of me now – I almost think

of him as someone else.

Y. DAVID hands his kite string to DAVID and melts out of the light.

The world and all its prospects are opening before me; and Life
is like a great fairy story which I am just about to begin.

COMPANY: [Sings] Ribbons and bows in the endless blue –

Borne on the breeze for a bird’s eye view.
Tug the string, promising a higher flight -
On the ground we
Long to be free - just like the glorious kite!

INTERVAL

41
ACT TWO
LONDON – Red Velvet tabs frame the stage as a London theatre.

An orchestra tuning… Lights lower – cat calls and whistles.

Drum roll – Enter Actor 2 – Master of Ceremonies?

MC: Ladies and Gentlemen. The New Covent Garden Theatre is proud to
present, for your delectation and delight, our New Pantomime – a
musical drama entitled The Mermaid’s Tail!

Enter Actor 4 - an ENGLISH SEA CAPTAIN

CHILDREN and COMPANY as Able Seamen (and women)

MUSIC – The New Pantomime (Original)

COMPANY: Heave ho! Heave ho! (etc…)

ACTOR 4: [Sings] I am an English Captain of the Sea.

I serve the navy and Her Majesty.
From boyhood hopes, I learned the ropes
And gained the life I crave –
To take the tide at flood, with pride
And ride the cresty wave.
But now I am a slave…

COMPANY: [Sing] But now he is a slave.

ACTOR 4: But now I am a slave.

Actor 7 revealed – a MERMAID, in a cage.

COMPANY: Heave ho! Heave ho! (etc…)

ACTOR 4: While anchored at some distant tropic shore

I scanned the near horizon and I saw –
A lovely girl, with skin like pearl,
Above the cresty wave
At once she broke my heart of oak
As all my love I gave –
And now I am her slave.

COMPANY: [Sing] Now he is her slave.

ACTOR 4: And now I am her slave.

But oh a dreadful thing I did –

COMPANY: (Unforgivable)

ACTOR 4: A dereliction of my bounden duty

42
COMPANY (Quite derisible)

ACTOR 4: I caught and caged, this lovely maid –

COMPANY: (His fondest wish)

ACTOR 4: That I might always gaze upon her beauty.

COMPANY: (The girl’s a fish)

COMPANY: And now this English Captain of the Sea

No longer lives to serve Her Majesty.

ACTOR 4: And though I know we both are doomed to live in misery

I cannot let my Mermaid love go free.

COMPANY: He cannot, will not, shall not set her free.

Exit Actor 4
Enter Actor 5 – a PIRATE. (Spanish accordian)
CHILDREN as Pirates dancing on behind.

ACTOR 5: [Sings] A pirate am I, of the Caribbee

The wickedest soul on the southern sea
My crimes are atlantic, but also romantic
For I love a mermaid and she loves me.

COMPANY: His crimes are atlantic, his exploits are antic –

ACTOR 5: But still a romantic

For I love a mermaid and she loves me.

COMPANY: But where is she?

ACTOR 5: Yes, where is she?

MERMAID: A pris’ner of the Captain of the Sea!

ACTOR 5: Then I will set –

COMPANY: Then he will set –

ACTOR 5: Then I will set you free!

COMPANY: Yo ho! Shiver me timbers!

Anchors aweigh Then I will set you free!
And a bottle of rum!

Yo ho! Shiver me timbers!

43
 Anchors aweigh Then I will set you free!
And a bottle of rum!

ACTOR 5 releases the Mermaid and embraces her.

Enter ACTOR 4

ACTOR 4: [Recitative] Hold! You devil pirate!

That lovely creature is my captive.
And I am hers.

ACTOR 5: [Recitative] And she is mine!

They fight while the Company sing the Refrains 1 and 2 together…?

The Pirate and Sea Captain fall into the water – still fighting, and are covered by the
waves.

MERMAID: [Sings] (Soprano cadenza?) Ahhhhhhhhh

Dives into the ‘water’ and swims away.

COMPANY: [Sing] The Pirate and the Captain of the Sea

Fought each other most ferociously
And unafraid. They loved the maid
And paid with breath and bones.
Yo ho ho – down they go
Down to Davy Jones
Yo ho ho – down they go
Down to Davy Jones.
Down to Davy Jones!
[Big finish!]

At the end DAVID is discovered in the audience. He stands to applaud –

DAVID: Bravo! Bravo!

All on stage – freeze.

My life has begun. I have travelled to London on my way to

Yarmouth and, for the first time in my life, I have been to the
theatre!

A rowdy encore by the Music Hall performers – and exit.

Tabs and props are struck.

What a wonderful performance! The lights, the music, the

glittering scenery… dazzling!

A clock strikes midnight. DAVID makes his way back to the stage.
COMPANY, with umbrellas, jostle in the street.

44
 In fact, now, as I step out in to the rainy street, I feel as if I have
come from the shining clouds to a bawling, splashing,
umbrella-struggling, muddy, miserable world.

MUSIC - snatches of The Rain Song

Umbrella choreography – reveal the coffee room of a hotel, where a solitary
figure sits, with his back to the audience.

I hurry back to my hotel, where I sit, ‘til past one o’clock with
my eyes on the coffee room fire.

I am thinking of my childhood.

Lights on YOUNG DAVID, watching him.

Of my school days.

Low light on BOYS OF SALEM HOUSE, softly humming the School Anthem.

Y. DAVID: Of Yarmouth.

DAVID: My friends in Canterbury;

Y. DAVID: Agnes.

DAVID: My Aunt and Mr Dick;

Y. DAVID: But mostly, my school days.

DAVID: I’m so deep in my thoughts that I don’t know exactly when the
elegant young man came into the room…

The man in the armchair rises and turns – STEERFORTH.

…but when I finally look at him plainly, I know him in a

moment. Steerforth!

BOYS OF SALEM HOUSE applaud.

DAVID: Steerforth, won’t you speak to me?

STEERFORTH: I’m sorry – I…

Y. DAVID: He doesn’t remember me.

STEERFORTH: My God! It’s little Copperfield.

DAVID: My dear Steerforth. I never never never was so glad!

45
STEERFORTH: Copperfield. Now I look at you, you’ve not changed at all - the
daisy in the field is not fresher than you are.

DAVID: I knew you immediately.

STEERFORTH: How do you come to be here?

DAVID: I came from Canterbury today; I have just finished school there
– and I’m on my way to visit some old friends in Yarmouth.
You remember Mr Peggotty and his nephew Ham?

STEERFORTH: They visited you at Salem House once; and, as I recall, our
entire bedroom had belly ache on account of some boiled crab.

BOYS OF SALEM HOUSE vomit in unison, as in ACT 1.

DAVID: And what about you, Steerforth? What brings you here?

STEERFORTH: I am what they call an Oxford man. It’s really very tedious, so
I’ve come up to London on the way to my mother’s.

DAVID: I was at the theatre tonight. It was wonderful.

STEERFORTH: My dear young Daisy I was at the theatre tonight too, and there
never was a more miserable business. Holloa, you sir.

Enter - A WAITER

Where have you put my friend Copperfield?

WAITER: Mr Copperfield is in room forty-four, sir.

STEERFORTH: Put him in seventy-two, next to me.

WAITER: Of course, sir.

Exit WAITER. STEERFORTH claps DAVID on the back.

STEERFORTH: See you at breakfast - Daisy. Sleep well.

DAVID: Goodnight, my dear Steerforth.

Exit STEERFORTH

BOYS OF SALEM HOUSE: [Sing] Salem – Oh Salem.

DAVID: At school, Steerforth was my protector; and here he is again,

quite unchanged. My heart is full joy to have found him again.

BOYS OF SALEM HOUSE: [Sing] Our dear old Salem. Salem House.

46
DAVID: And so it falls out that Steerforth, who seems in no particular
hurry to visit his mother, makes up his mind to accompany me
to the country, and spend some time in the finest place in the
universe - Yarmouth.

YARMOUTH

COMPANY: [Sing] In this windy ol’ weather; stormy ol’ weather –

When the wind blows we’ll all pull together.

DAVID: In no time at all, Steerforth has made friends with everyone in

the place.

STEERFORTH: [Sings] A fine Yarmouth Bloater is salty and fat –

Pink as a lobster and smart as a sprat.

COMPANY: [Sing] In this windy ol’ weather; stormy ol’ weather –

When the wind blows we’ll all pull together.

DAVID: [n] Then together we walk that familiar childhood path across the
salt flats to the old boat-house.

COMPANY: [Sing] Sail away. Sail away - to that far foreign shore –
Where Time is a child no more.

Lights up on the boat-house. MR PEGGOTTY; MRS GUMMIDGE,

PEGGOTTY and HAM in a state of great excitement. EM’LY, hiding.

MR PEGGOTTY: Well, I’m gormed – if it isn’t Mas’r Davy!

PEGGOTTY: Oh! My darling boy! It’s my Davy – growed out of knowledge.

Growed so much even his old Peggotty hardly knows him.

DAVID embraces Peggotty with great love.

DAVID: Darling Peggotty. How is Mr Barkis?

PEGGOTTY: Willin’, as ever.

DAVID: Mr Peggotty, sir, you remember my school friend, Mr James

Steerforth.

MR PEGGOTTY: That I do.

STEERFORTH: Delighted to meet you again, Mr Peggotty.

MR PEGGOTTY: Oh Mas’r Davy - that you should come here tonight, of all
nights. See this here lad [HAM], he comes in all of a sudden
tonight with my Little Em’ly and says, ‘Look here! This is to

47
 be my little wife!’ And she says - ‘yes uncle, if you please’. If I
please! Lord, as if I should do anything else. My Ham and my
Little Em’ly to be married.

STEERFORTH: But where is she?

MR PEGGOTTY: Em’ly, my darling, come here. There’s Mas’r Davy and his
friend, Mr Steerforth – come to see you on the brightest night
of your uncle’s life. Come on now –

EM’LY emerges, shyly, from the shadows – watched by all.

HAM: [To DAVID] She warn’t no higher than you was, Mas’r Davy – when you
first come here.

DAVID: I remember.

HAM: I see her grow up, like a flower.

DAVID: And her eyes are even bluer now than they were then.

HAM: I love her true, and I’d lay down my life for her – so I would.

STEERFORTH steps forward to greet EM’LY

STEERFORTH: Em’ly. [With sudden energy] Ham, I give you joy, my boy.

General congratulations.

A song! A song for the occasion. Mr Peggotty – please.

A moment of bluffing – then folk instruments appear – MUSIC!

MR PEGGOTTY: [Sings] The Mermaid’s song (Trad)

‘Twas Friday night when we set sail,
And we were not far from the land,
When the captain he spied a lovely mermaid
With a comb and glass in her hand.

ALL: [Sing] Oh the ocean waves may roll,

And the stormy winds may blow –
While we poor sailors go skipping to the tops,
And the land lubbers lie down below, below, below.
And the land lubbers lie down below.

EM’LY is playfully given a comb and mirror to be the mermaid of the story…
DAVID looks on, enjoying the song and admiring his friend –

STEERFORTH: Now this lovely maid was a siren of the sea

And her beautiful song cast a spell.

48
 Over every man on board that fated ship –
As the waters beneath began to swell.

STEERFORTH/
HAM: [Sing] Oh the stormy winds did blow
And the waves beneath did swell
And the ship hit the rocks and began to break apart
While song of the mermaid held the sailors in its spell
Yes, her song held the sailors in its spell.

HAM/
STEERFORTH: [Sing] Three times round went our gallant ship
And three times round went she.
Three times around went our gallant ship
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.

The scene breaks and the boat-house is struck.

COMPANY: [Sing] Oh the ocean waves may roll,

And the stormy winds may blow –
While we poor sailors go skipping to the tops,
And the land lubbers lie down below, below, below.
And the land lubbers lie down below.

DAVID, sitting on the Yarmouth wharf, reading a letter. STEERFORTH

approaches.

STEERFORTH: Daisy! There you are. I’ve been looking for you.
I wanted to tell you that I’ve bought a boat down here.

DAVID: What an extraordinary fellow you are, Steerforth!

STEERFORTH: I’ve taken fancy to the place.

DAVID: [n] And he is, of course, a brilliant sailor.

STEERFORTH: I heard about this boat for sale and – I bought her. Mr Peggotty
will be master of her in my absence and I have decided to call
her ‘The Little Em’ly’ – what do you think?

Who’s the letter from?

DAVID: My Aunt. She reminds me that I must begin a career. She

thinks I might like to be a proctor? What is a proctor, Steerforth?

STEERFORTH: He’s a dusty old fossil that deals in the law regarding wills,
weddings and boats.

DAVID: My aunt considers it a rational occupation.

49
STEERFORTH: What do you want to be?

Lights on YOUNG DAVID

Y. DAVID: A writer.

DAVID: I don’t know.

STEERFORTH: Then Daisy, I suggest that you follow your Aunt’s advice.

Exit STEERFORTH

DAVID: [n] My Aunt is waiting for me, in London.

LONDON

Enter MISS BETSEY – with umbrella.

MISS BETSEY: London! Nothing genuine in the place, but the dirt. And a
pickpocket on every corner. I have taken lodgings by the river –
in case of fire.

DAVID: [n] My Aunt has a very low opinion of London.

MISS BETSEY: We must settle you into your new position immediately. I have
left Mr Dick at home, but I am convinced that Dick’s character
is not a character to keep the donkeys off. Just this afternoon a
cold feeling came over me from head to foot – and I just know
there was a donkey trespassing on my green.

DAVID: [n] She sees donkeys in the wallpaper.

MISS BETSEY: Trot.

DAVID: Yes Aunt.

MISS BETSEY: Since you came to me a little runaway boy, my one aim in life
has been to provide for your being a good, sensible and happy
man. Your career as a proctor awaits you – all is agreed. You
start in the morning.

DAVID: Thank you Aunt.

MISS BETSEY: Now, give me a kiss and I’ll return to Dover. [She gives a
sudden shudder] There – did you notice that. A cold feeling,
from head to foot… It’s donkeys, I tell you! Donkeys!

Exit MISS BETSEY, in haste.

50
DAVID: [n] So I begin my career tomorrow. But tonight, I have dinner with
dear friend Mr Wickfield, who is up from Canterbury on
business.

Enter MR WICKFIELD – tired.

I am very sorry to find him in poor health.

Enter AGNES.

But to my delight, my darling Agnes is travelling with him –

URIAH HEEP looms out of the shadows.

Unfortunately, so is Uriah Heep.

AGNES: Trotwood – be friendly to Uriah. I know you dislike him, but

he’s… I believe he’s going to enter into partnership with papa.

DAVID: What? You must not let your father take such a step.

AGNES: Uriah has some power over my father. I don’t know what it is,
but my poor papa is - afraid of him.

DAVID: That worm? I’ll knock his teeth out.

AGNES: No, please Trot. Be friendly. For my sake.

URIAH approaches. AGNES withdraws to her father.

URIAH: I hope I find you well, Master – I should say, Mister

Copperfield.

He shakes his hand.

DAVID: [Mouths to the audience] Fish!

URIAH: I myself, in my umble station, seem to have blessings raining

upon me.

DAVID: Indeed.

URIAH: You have heard something of a change in my expectations

Master – I mean Mister Copperfield? Who would have thought
it likely that one so umble would be a partner in Mr Wickfield’s
business? Mr Wickfield is a worthy man, Master Copperfield,
but oh how careless he has been.

DAVID: Mr Wickfield, careless?

51
URIAH: Oh yes. If anyone else had been in my place during the last few
years, by this time he would have had Mr Wickfield under his
thumb. Under his thumb.

URIAH presses a thumb into DAVID’s forehead.

DAVID clenches his fist.

Miss Agnes is looking very beautiful tonight, wouldn’t you say,

Master Copperfield?

DAVID: She looks as she always does, superior, in all respects, to

everyone around her.

URIAH: She is much attached to her father, Master Copperfield – and I

think that she may come, on his account, to be kind to me.

DAVID: In what way?

URIAH: If you’ll have the goodness to keep my secret, I’ll tell you. I
love the ground my Agnes walks on – and I hope, one day, to
make her mine. You’ll not go against me, Master Copperfield.
You wouldn’t want to make any unpleasantness for the
Wickfields. Loss… disgrace…

DAVID: Have you made your feelings known to Agnes?

URIAH: Oh no, Master Copperfield. I am only just emerging from my

lowly station. I am still so – umble.

With a sinister bow, URIAH insinuates his way over to AGNES and MR
WICKFIELD.

DAVID: [n] I am seized with a delirious urge to grab the poker out of the
fire and /

URIAH: Master Copperfield! Miss Agnes has consented to play for us.

AGNES plays a soft, slow version of The Kite Song.

The music drops under DAVID’s narration.

DAVID: [n] Certainly, this villain has some hold over Mr Wickfield; and
it’s possible that Agnes will marry him out of devotion to her
father. Hardly a night passes without my dreaming of her in the
clutches of that crocodile – but what can I do?

MUSIC changes. Lights fade on AGNES, MR WICKFIELD and URIAH.

COMPANY: [Sing] Rainy Street (Original)

London, grey in the middle of the day –
With a drizzling rain (Call a cab! Call a cab!)

52
 And a dribbling drain.

London gloom on a summer afternoon –

Just a grimy lamp (Mind the mud! Mind the mud!)
And a rising damp!

DAVID: [n] I am utterly miserable.

COMPANY: [Sing] Crowded, splashing, crashing (crash) in the rush to get -

Somewhere, anywhere (crash) that isn’t quite so wet!
Boggy street. Soggy feet.
Struggling, jostling, bustling, (crash) down a London lane –
In the pouring rain.

DAVID: Miserable and alone. My good friend, Steerforth is not in

London, and my new career as a proctor is as dull as can be.

Enter - MR SPENLOW – carrying a huge box of legal papers.

MR SPENLOW: Mister Copperfield!

DAVID: Sir? [n] My employer, Mr Spenlow.

MR SPENLOW loads DAVID with the box of papers.

MR SPENLOW: Look carefully at the evidence in this case. It’s a disputed will -
worth about thirty thousand pounds; pretty pickings for us,
Copperfield. Get to it my boy.

DAVID: [n] The days just fly away.

MR SPENLOW: It occurs to me, Mr Copperfield, that we have not yet

celebrated your joining the firm.

DAVID: No sir.

MR SPENLOW: Perhaps you would visit me at my house this weekend. My

daughter, Dora, has just returned from school in Paris and we
are having a little picnic in her honour.

DAVID: [n] Dora. What a beautiful name.

A dog, barking!

DORA: [Off] Jip! Oh Jip, you naughty boy!

Enter DORA, dragged along by JIP (dog puppet) on a lead. She whirls
around DAVID, who loses his balance and tosses the box of papers into the
air – which is full of flowers/petals(?)
Light change – a summer day.

53
 DORA is dragged off by JIP, returning seconds later with the dog in her arms.

DORA: I’m so sorry – Jip is very naughty today. [Taps JIP on the nose]
How do you like my picnic?

DRUM – David’s heartbeat.

You must be Mr Copperfield. I’m Dora. Dora Spenlow.

DAVID: How do you do, Miss Spenlow.

DORA: Goodness, how solemn you are. I do hope you are not a cross
person, Mr Copperfield. We don’t like cross people, do we Jip?
Especially not on beautiful, bright days like these.

DAVID: It is indeed a very bright day, Miss Spenlow; though only a

minute ago it seemed dark to me.

DORA: [Looking at the sky] Really?

DAVID: You have just come home from Paris, I believe?

DORA: Have you been there?

DAVID: No.

DORA: Oh. You would like it very much.

DAVID: I like it here.

DORA: Oh.

MR SPENLOW: Ah, Dora, there you are. We want you to sing for us. You too,
Copperfield.

DAVID: Me? Sing?

MR SPENLOW: Of course not. Whatever are you thinking of, Copperfield?

MR SPENLOW and DORA join the COMPANY of picnickers.

DAVID: [n] I am thinking of a straw hat with a blue ribbon; a little black
dog, held in two slender arms against a bank of blossoms… I
love Dora Spenlow to distraction!

MUSIC - DORA on the guitar – Vive la Rose (Trad)

DORA: [Sings] Mon amant me delaisse - O gue vive la rose

Je ne sais pas pourquioi - Vive la rose et le lilas

54
 Il va-t-en voir une autre - O gue vive la rose
Ne sais s'il reviendra - Vive la rose et le lilas

DAVID: [n] All day I am intoxicated in the company of Dora. The sun
shines Dora; the birds sing Dora; and the wild flowers of the
hedges are all Dora, to a bud.

DAVID scoops up a bunch of wild flowers.

DORA has put down the guitar and is now seated, with Jip on her lap.

Oh! See her there, under the lilac tree; among the butterflies.
(Butterflies on wires?)

DAVID approaches her. Offers his bouquet.

DORA: Thank you, Mister Copperfield. What dear flowers.

DAVID: [n] I am lost in feeble ecstasy.

DORA: Look Jip. Smell these lovely flowers that Mr Copperfield has
picked for me. [JIP eats the flowers] Oh, Jip! You naughty
thing! You shall go to your basket for the rest of the day.

DORA puts JIP in a basket.

MUSIC – a waltz; reprise of Vive la Rose

DAVID: Miss Spenlow – would you care to dance?

DORA: I’d be delighted, Mr Copperfield…

They dance.

…or may I call you Trotwood?

DAVID: [n] I am burning all over!

DORA: It’s an unusual name.

DAVID: My Aunt named me after her when she adopted me.

I was christened David.

DORA: David.

DAVID: And may I dare to call you Dora?

DORA: You may.

DAVID: And may I, sometimes, write to you - Dora?

DORA: You may write to me every day – David.

55
 Enter MR SPENLOW

MR SPENLOW: You still here, Copperfield.

DAVID: I’m just leaving, sir.

DORA offers her hand, which David kisses with excessive gallantry.
Exit DORA and MR SPENLOW.

DAVID: [n] Dora. Dora. Dora. Dora. Dora - Every day, as I walk to work I
am in a dream of Dora.

Enter MR MICAWBER, whistling jauntily; bumps into dreamy DAVID.

MR MICAWBER: Beg pardon, sir.

DAVID: Mr Micawber!

MR MICAWBER: Sir?

DAVID: How do you do.

MR MICAWBER: Sir, you are exceedingly obliging /

DAVID: And Mrs Micawber and the twins?

MR MICAWBER: I rejoice to reply that we are in the enjoyment of salubrity.

DAVID: Don’t you know me sir?

MR MICAWBER examines DAVID

MR MICAWBER: Is it possible! Have I the pleasure of again beholding

Copperfield?

They shake hands rigorously.

DAVID: My dear Mr Micawber, I thought you were at Plymouth.

MR MICAWBER: Talent is not wanted in Plymouth. You find me sir, at present

paused, until certain expected events should turn up. Myself
and the companions of my heart are in lodgings hereabouts.
You will dine with us tonight. [Hands DAVID a calling card] I
have the ingredients for punch!

DAVID: I should be delighted, sir.

MR MICAWBER: I will not tell Mrs Micawber you are coming. You will be a
marvellous surprise! Farewell Copperfield. Until tonight!

56
 Exit MR MICAWBER

DAVID: [n] It might have been better, as it turns out, not to surprise Mrs
Micawber -

A shriek from MRS MICAWBER, off.

For she, being in a delicate state of health, is taken so unwell at

the sight of me that Mr Micawber is obliged to run for a basin
of water to bathe her brow.

Lights up on MRS MICAWBER, being bathed by MR MICAWBER, and fanned

by THE TWINS – a boy and girl of around 8 years old.

That is, run to the water-butt in the back yard, as they’ve had
their water cut off this very afternoon, for failing to pay their
rates.

MR MICAWBER: Mrs Micawber, are you quite recovered?

MRS MICAWBER: Quite.

MR MICAWBER: A glass of punch, my love?

MR MICAWBER busies himself with the punch.

MRS MICAWBER: Mr Copperfield, I always regarded you as a true friend; and I

should much very much like your opinion on Mr Micawber’s
prospects.

MR MICAWBER: Really, my dear /

MRS MICAWBER: My love, be silent. The fact is, that we cannot live without
something turning up, and things cannot be expected to turn up
all by themselves.

DAVID: Indeed.

MRS MICAWBER: Therefore – Mr Micawber has to throw down the gauntlet to

society, and advertise himself in all the papers.

MR MICAWBER: I will advertise, and - in short - see who picks up the gauntlet!

Everyone now has punch.

A toast.

MRS MICAWBER: Mr Micawber’s gauntlet.

57
 The toast is lifted – freeze. Lights fade on the MICAWBERS.

DAVID: [n] It is between ten and eleven o’clock when I finally walk home
through the clear night to my own fireside.

DAVID sits, in firelight.

I am thinking of Mr Micawber and wondering who in the world

might answer his advertisement.

A movement in the shadows.

Who’s there?

Enter STEERFORTH.

STEERFORTH: Daisy – you’re a sight for sore eyes.

DAVID: Steerforth!

STEERFORTH: How are you, Daisy? In full bloom, I see.

DAVID: I have been out tonight at a feast.

STEERFORTH: A party! You proctors beat us sober Oxford people all to

nothing.

DAVID: Have you come from Oxford tonight?

STEERFORTH: No – I’ve come from Yarmouth. Been at sea – in my new boat.

Just for a week or so.

DAVID: Are Ham and Little Em’ly married yet?

STEERFORTH: Not yet. Going to be, I believe – next week, or something or

other. I say, might I stay with you tonight?

DAVID: You shall have my bed.

STEERFORTH: No, I’ll make myself quite comfortable by the fire. I’m on my
way to see my mother, only it’s rather late /

DAVID: You’re always welcome, Steerforth.

STEERFORTH: Thank you.

STEERFORTH settles himself into a chair.

Daisy – if anything should separate us /

58
DAVID: Why should it?

STEERFORTH: You must think of me at my best, old boy.

DAVID: Steerforth, you’re always loved and cherished in my heart.

STEERFORTH: Daisy – you’re so good. I wish we all were.

STEERFORTH settles back, with his head on his arm and closes his eyes.

DAVID: [n] The freshness of the sea wind is in his face; though there is a
change in him – something strained. But now he sleeps – as I
have often seen him at school, with his head upon his arm.

YARMOUTH

MUSIC – The Mermaid

DAVID: [n] Steerforth’s news of Yarmouth made me long for the old places
and people, and I make a trip just in time to see Em’ly and Ham
married.

COMPANY: Oh the stormy winds did blow

And the waves beneath did swell
And the ship hit the rocks and began to break apart
While song of the mermaid held the sailors in its spell
Yes, her song held the sailors in its spell.

DAVID: [n] It’s dark when I arrive, but I am soon within sight of Mr
Peggotty’s boat-house, with the light in the window guiding me
over the sands to his door.

The boat-house – MR PEGGOTTY, PEGGOTTY and MRS GUMMIDGE.

PEGGOTTY: Davy, my darlin’. Don’t keep that coat on, it’s wet.

DAVID: Thank you Peggotty.

MR PEGGOTTY: Sit ye down, sir. You’re welcome, kind and hearty.

DAVID: Thank you, sir. I am sure of that. How are you Mrs Gummidge?

MRS GUMMIDGE: Lone and lorn.

MR PEGGOTTY: So, Mas’r Davy, you found your way to us all right.

DAVID: I headed for the light in the window.

MR PEGGOTTY: That’s for our little Em’ly. I allus puts the light in the winder
after dark to guide her home. And after she’s married and gone,

59
 I shall put that candle theer, just the same, and sit before the
fire, pretending I’m expecting of her.

A figure approaches the boat, MR PEGGOTTY senses it.

And here she is.

HAM enters

MR PEGGOTTY: Wheer’s Em’ly?

HAM: Mas’r Davy, will you come out a minute. There’s something I
have to show you.

DAVID and HAM exit the boat-house.

DAVID: Ham! What’s the matter?

HAM pulls a letter from his pocket and breaks down.

Ham! For heaven’s sake, tell me what’s the matter!

HAM: She’s gone.

DAVID: Gone?

HAM: Em’ly’s run away. My love, the pride and hope of my heart –
she’s run away. Oh Mas’r Davy, what am I to say to him
indoors? How am I ever to break it to him?

MR PEGGOTTY emerges from the boat-house, followed by the women.

MR PEGGOTTY: What’s going on? Wheer’s Em’ly?

MR PEGGOTTY sees the letter; takes it; reads; hands the letter to DAVID.

MR PEGGOTTY: Read it, sir – slow please. I doen’t know as I can understand.

DAVID: [Reads] When you, who love me better than I ever have deserved, see
this, I shall be far away…

MR PEGGOTTY: Fur away…

DAVID: …and I will never come back, unless he brings me back a lady.

Lights on Em’ly – on another part of the stage.

EM’LY: Oh, if you knew how my heart is torn. Forget that we were ever
to be married, and find some good girl, that will be true to you.
God bless you all – and tell uncle that I love him dearly /

60
MR PEGGOTTY: Unless he bring me back a lady…? Who’s the man? I want to
know his name.

HAM: Mas’r Davy, it ain’t no fault of yourn –

DAVID: Mine?

MR PEGGOTTY: Who is it?

HAM: A strange carriage was seen this morning at first light, out on
the Norwich road. Em’ly went to it – to him. Mas’r Davy, I’m
far from blaming you, but he’s a damned villain – and his name
is Steerforth.

STEERFORTH appears behind EM’LY and draws her out of the light.
The stricken family withdraw to the boat-house.

MUSIC – A strain of Salem House

DAVID: [n] Oh God forgive you Steerforth – never more will I touch your
hand in love and friendship. Never, never more!

Dawn breaks – cold. The sounds of the sea.

MR PEGGOTTY and HAM step out of the boat-house – with a travelling bag.

MR PEGGOTTY: We’ve had a talk, sir, and we see our course now. I’m a going
to seek her. That’s my dooty evermore.

DAVID: Will you desert the old boat, Mr Peggotty?

MR PEGGOTTY: Ham’ll stay, and Mrs Gummidge. And every night, as reg’lar as
the tide, the candle must be stood in the winder, that if ever she
should see it, she might take heart to creep in and lay down in
her old bed.

HAM: Mas’r Davy, he doen’t know where he’s going or what’s afore
him. I’m sure you’ll be a friend to him.

DAVID: Trust me, Ham. I will indeed.

MUSIC – The Wanderer

They shake hands and HAM exits into the boat-house, which is struck as MRS
GUMMIDGE lights a candle in the window.

DAVID: [n] And so Mr Peggotty and I go our separate ways on a warm,

dusty evening.

MR PEGGOTTY: I am a going to seek her, fur and wide. If any hurt should come
to me, remember that the last words I left for her was, ‘my

61
 unchanged love is with my darling child, and I forgive her.’

MR PEGGOTTY turns towards the sunset, and is gone.

MUSIC ends.

DAVID: [n] All this time, I have gone on loving Dora, more than ever, and
we exchange passionate letters – but in my distress, I long for
the quiet counsel of my dear Agnes; and so, at the first
opportunity I travel to Canterbury.

CANTERBURY

Enter DR STRONG’S PUPILS – trotting to school with their books.

CHILDREN: [Sing] Every morning bright and early

Through the streets of Canterbury
Boys and girls are in a hurry
(Mustn’t be late! Mustn’t be late!)

DAVID: [n] I loiter awhile in the old streets, which calms my spirits. There
are the old signs, the old shops, the old people serving in
them…

COMPANY: [Sing] Dull or clever, children all

Hasten to that hallowed hall,
The great stone urns, the red-brick wall
And rusty iron gate… of

DR STRONG’S PUPILS file past to exit –

Doctor Strong’s remarkable school

In the heart of Canterb’ry town.

DAVID: It’s all so familiar. I can still see myself, a schoolboy here.

Y. DAVID, slightly apart, on the end of the line – winks!

End MUSIC little flourish.

There is, however, a change in the in the happy home of my

youth – for the family law firm now trades under the name of
Wickfield…

Lights on MR WICKFIELD, seated, old and defeated.

…and Heep!

Lights on a triumphant URIAH HEEP.

URIAH: Oh, who would have thought it Master Copperfield that one as
umble as I would one day be a partner in the business?

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DAVID: Where is Agnes.

URIAH: My Agnes.

Enter AGNES

AGNES: Here I am.

DAVID: Dear Agnes. How different I feel in one short minute with you
at my side.

AGNES: We will have little time alone, I’m afraid.

DAVID: Uriah has moved into the house?

AGNES: He watches me all the time and I cannot get near Papa. Uriah
has such power over him. If you can glean something while you
are here, Trot – please tell me.

DAVID looks over at URIAH, standing malevolently over MR WICKFIELD.

URIAH: You’ll not go against me, Master Copperfield. I know you will
not go against me.

DAVID: [Urgent, low] Agnes, promise me you won’t sacrifice /

AGNES shushes him with a shake of her head and withdraws, watched by
URIAH

URIAH: Is not Miss Agnes the divinest of her sex, Master Copperfield.

DAVID: She is – and as far above you as the moon itself.

URIAH: I know you have never liked me, Master Copperfield, as I have
liked you – though you are a dangerous rival. You always was.

DAVID: Do you suppose that I think of Miss Agnes as anything other

than a very dear friend? I am in love with another young lady,
and she loves me.

URIAH: Oh, Master Copperfield, if you had only told me so before. This
watchfulness would not have been necessary if you had trusted
me, as I trusted you. [Addressing MR WICKFIELD] Come,
fellow partner – a toast. [He hands out glasses of wine] Your
elth and appiness, Master Copperfield.

DAVID: [n] I would give all I have to knock him out.

URIAH: And another – one I admire and adore. Agnes.

63
 MR WICKFIELD rouses.

To be her father is a proud distinction, but to be her husband…

MR WICKFIELD: No!

URIAH: I have a better right to it than any man.

MR WICKFIELD: NO! Look at him, Trotwood. Look at my torturer. He has me so

I don’t know all I have done.

URIAH: You had better stop him, Copperfield, if you can.

MR WICKFIELD: He is ever at my elbow, whispering. He has, step by step,

robbed me of my name, reputation, home and peace of mind.

Enter AGNES

AGNES: Papa, you’re not well. Come with me.

AGNES exits with MR WICKFIELD in great distress.

DAVID: [n] The villain has entrapped me too. I dare not say anything to
Agnes for fear of the hold he has over her father.

URIAH: I didn’t expect he’d cut up so rough, Master Copperfield. But I

will make it all smooth again. I am umble, but I have a little
power – and he understands his interest when he isn’t drunk.

DAVID: I hope you will apologise to him.

URIAH: Oh, to be sure. When a person’s umble, what’s an apology?

And perhaps I was a little hasty. You have sometimes plucked a
pear before it is ripe, Master Copperfield?

DAVID: What?

DRUM – David’s heartbeat

URIAH: That’s what I did, just now. But it’ll ripen yet. I can wait.

DAVID looks out at the audience and then, with a sudden fury, smacks Uriah
in the mouth. URIAH crumples.

DAVID: [n] When I leave Canterbury the next morning, Uriah is not there
to see me go. I hear he is at the dentist, having a tooth out.

LONDON MUSIC – Rainy Street

64
DAVID: [n] Upon my arrival back in London, I find two strays waiting at
my lodgings.

MISS BETSEY, sitting on a suitcase – umbrella: MR DICK, clutching a kite.

Aunt! Mr Dick! What an unexpected pleasure?

Please, take a seat in the chair.

MISS BETSEY: I prefer to sit on my property tonight, Trot.

DAVID: You do?

MISS BETSEY; I do. Because it is all I have. I have lost everything – all my
money is gone, and the house too.

DAVID: But how?

MISS BETSEY: Don’t ask me how. I will not speak of it. Only know this – we
must be firm and self-reliant now, for we are ruined.

Lights up on DORA – with JIP. Lights down on MISS BETSEY and MR DICK.

DORA: Ruined?

DAVID goes to her.

DAVID: Oh my dearest Dora, can you love a poor man.

DORA: I declare I’ll make Jip bite you, if you are so ridiculous.

DAVID: I am poor, but I’ll work hard and the crust well earned /

DORA: I don’t want to hear about crusts. Jip must have a mutton-chop
every day, or he’ll die.

DAVID: I have an idea, Sweetheart. I’m going to learn short-hand, so

that I can write for the papers.

DORA: Oh, please don’t be practical!

DAVID: We must be strong.

DORA: But I haven’t any strength at all, have I Jip? Oh do kiss Jip and
be agreeable.

DORA playfully forces DAVID to kiss the dog, which then sneezes.
Enter MR SPENLOW – with a bundle of letters.

MR SPENLOW: Mr Copperfield. A word with you, sir.

Dora!

65
 Exit DORA and JIP

DAVID: Yes, Mr Spenlow.

MR SPENLOW: I believe this is your writing, Mr Copperfield.

DAVID: [n] He has found my letters to Dora.

MR SPENLOW: You have abused my confidence.

DAVID: But I love / her.

MR SPENLOW: Pooh! Don’t tell me that you love my daughter, Copperfield.

You are no longer welcome in my house.

DAVID: [n] I am in torment. Forbidden to see, speak or write to Dora ever

again. However, just a week later, Mr Spenlow’s carriage
returns from his club without him. A search party finds him,
about a mile back on the road – dead.

MR SPENLOW: Dead?

DAVID: I’m afraid so.

MR SPENLOW gives a rueful shrug and, obligingly, falls down dead.

Enter DORA, in mourning veil.

DORA: Oh papa. Dear papa.

DAVID: [n] Mr Spenlow is dead; Em’ly has run away with Steerforth; Aunt
Betsey has lost all her money and my beloved Agnes is in real
danger of being married to Uriah Heep! Can there be good
news anywhere?

A delivery boy enters.

DELIVERY BOY: Letter for Mr Copperfield.

DAVID opens the letter

DAVID: [n] It’s from Mr Micawber.

Light up on MR MICAWBER

MR MICAWBER: My dear Copperfield, something has turned up. The gauntlet,

being thrown down in the form of an advertisement, was taken
up by one Uriah Heep, of Wickfield and Heep, Canterbury.
And so – in short - I stand pledged and contracted to Mr Heep,
as his confidential clerk.

66
DAVID: [n] Mr Micawber, working for Uriah Heep! Is this good news or
bad? I am too busy to ponder this for long. In addition to my
work as a proctor, I have begun teaching myself short-hand. It’s
fiendishly difficult, but Dora is the reward. Dora must be won.

Enter the MISSES SPENLOW, CLARISSA and LAVINIA.

MUSIC - a fragment of Vive la Rose

MISSES SPENLOW: Mr Copperfield.

DAVID: Good afternoon Miss Spenlow, Miss Spenlow.

MISSES SPENLOW: Pray be seated.

DAVID sits, obediently.

DAVID: [n] Following her father’s sudden death, my darling Dora has been
living with her spinster aunts.

CLARISSA: We have no reason to doubt, Mr Copperfield, that you are a

young gentleman…

LAVINIA: …possessed of good qualities…

CLARISSA: …and honourable character.

LAVINIA: However, it seems to us, wise to bring your feelings for Dora to
our own observation.

CLARISSA: Therefore, we shall be happy to see Mr Copperfield to dinner,

LAVINIA: Every Sunday - Our hour is three.

CLARISSA: We shall be happy to see Mr Copperfield to tea.

LAVINIA: Twice in the week.

CLARISSA: Our hour is half past six.

DAVID: Thank you for your kindness, dear ladies, thank you.

MISSES SPENLOW: Good afternoon, Mr Copperfield

The MISSES SPENLOW glide over to the piano.

DORA runs on into DAVID’s arms.

DAVID: Dora, my own.

DORA: Oh Doady, it’s all been so dreadful.

67
DAVID:
Oh Dora. Lovers have loved THE MISSES SPENLOW: [Sing]
before, and lovers will love
again; but no lover has ever Mon amant me delaisse -
loved, might, could, would O gue vive la rose
or should ever love, as I love Je ne sais pas pourquioi -
you. Vive la rose et le lilas

Exit DORA. Il va-t-en voir une autre -

O gue vive la rose
DAVID: [n] It’s official. Dora and I are Ne sais s'il reviendra –
engaged. I divide my time Vive la rose et le lilas
now between work, study
and Dora. My Aunt visits
the Misses Spenlow regularly
and everyone is very friendly.
Even Jip seems to like me.

MISS BETSEY joins the MISSES SPENLOW at the piano.

CLARISSA: Though, Miss Trotwood is a somewhat masculine lady, don’t

you think, Lavinia?

LAVINIA concurs with a pursed lip.

DAVID: [n] And, before it hardly seems possible – our wedding day arrives.

MUSIC - Wedding Song

Enter MR DICK, with DORA on his arm – a bride.
BRIDESMAIDS and PAGES

DAVID: [n] In a dream of happiness, Dora and I are married.

COMPANY: My love is deep - my bounty is as boundless as the sea

And the wedding bells are ringing out for me
My love is deep - the more I have, the more I give to thee
And the wedding bells are ringing out for me.

Confetti. DORA poised to throw her bouquet – freeze.

MUSIC ends; lights fade.

DAVID: [n] I awake from the dream and believe it at last. Now every
evening I come home to sit by my fireside with Dora.

Enter DORA, humming – with JIP in a little pagoda kennel.

I could not have wished for a prettier little wife but,

unfortunately, neither of us knows anything about house-

68
 keeping. [To DORA] Dora, my love – do you think you might
have a word with the cook.

DORA: Whatever for?

DAVID: Because it is five o’clock and we should have dined at four.

DORA: Oh, what ugly wrinkles on my bad boy’s forehead.

DAVID: Dora, darling /

DORA: Don’t be serious.

DAVID: We must be serious sometimes. It’s not comfortable to have to

go without dinner, is it?

DORA: Oh now you’re going to scold me.

DAVID: My sweet, I’m only trying to reason with you.

DORA: I didn’t marry to be reasoned with.

DAVID: We both have to learn /

DORA: Why the other day, when you said you would like a bit of fish, I
went out myself to order it and surprise you.

DAVID: But it was a whole salmon, which was too big and more than
we could afford.

DORA: You didn’t say that at the time. You enjoyed it very much and
said I was a mouse.

DAVID: And so you are /

DORA: Oh you cruel, cruel boy to say that I am a disagreeable wife.

DAVID: No, my dear Dora, you must know that I never said /

Exit DORA, weeping.

Dora!

[n] I cannot follow her; I have work to do. I’ve mastered short
hand and begun to write up the parliamentary debates for the
newspapers.

DAVID sits to work. Enter DORA.

DORA: Oh, what a weary boy.

69
 They are reconciled with a little kiss.

DAVID: It’s far too late for you, Dora.

DORA: No, don’t send me to bed. Let me stop and see you write.
Then, clever boy, you will not forget me.

DAVID: How could I forget you?

DORA: May I hold the pens? I need something to do all those hours
when you are working.

DORA collects a bunch of pens and sits, while DAVID writes.

A knocking at the door.
Exit DORA

DAVID: [n] Who can be calling at this late hour.

Enter MR PEGGOTTY.

Mr Peggotty, sir. Come in, please.

MR PEGGOTTY: Thankee, Mas’r Davy.

DAVID: You have news of Em’ly.

MR PEGGOTTY: She’s not with him any more.

DAVID: Steerforth.

MR PEGGOTTY: He’s left her. They went abroad when they left Yarmouth. I
tracked ‘em across France and Switzerland, to his villa in Italy.
He’d left it to the servants to break it her that he was gone. She
went mad, so they said, and had to be locked up. But she got
out one night and never has been seen or heard of since.

DAVID: My dear friend /

MR PEGGOTTY: I know she’s alive. All this time – know’d I should find her.

DAVID: Do you think she’ll come to London?

MR PEGGOTTY: She might, Mas’r Davy.

DAVID: But how will you find her in this vast city /

MR PEGGOTTY: Your name is in the papers, ain’t it Mas’r Davy. Writin’.

DAVID: Yes.

70
MR PEGGOTTY: She might come to you.

DAVID: I’ll keep watch.

MR PEGGOTTY: Thankee, Mas’r Davy. Thankee.

MR PEGGOTTY starts to go.

DAVID: Won’t you stay?

MR PEGGOTTY: No, sir. I must keep searchin’. That’s my dooty, evermore.

Exit MR PEGGOTTY

DAVID: [n] And so we part again, and Mr Peggotty resumes his lonely
journey through the night.

Enter DELIVERY BOY

DELIVERY BOY: Letter for Mr Copperfield.

DAVID opens the letter. Lights on MR MICAWBER

MR MICAWBER: My dear Copperfield. My peace is shattered; I am in mental

pain beyond the reach even of Mrs Micawber; and so it is my
intention to fly to some metropolitan scenes of past enjoyment.
In short – I shall be outside the south wall of the King’s Bench
Prison the day after tomorrow at seven in the evening. There,
Mr Copperfield, you will find the ruined vestiges of a fallen
tower - Wilkins Micawber.

DAVID: [n] I meet him, of course.

MR MICAWBER approaches.

MR MICAWBER: Copperfield, you are a friend indeed. Allow me to offer my

inquiries regarding the physical welfare of Mrs Copperfield.

DAVID: Unfortunately Dora has been a little unwell lately; but I hope
that Mrs Micawber is in good health.

MR MICAWBER: Thank you, she is but so-so.

DAVID: You’re in low spirits, Mr Micawber.

MR MICAWBER: When I was an inmate of this prison here, I could look my

fellow-man in the face.

DAVID: How is our friend, Uriah Heep?

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MR MICAWBER: Heep! Whatever his state of health, his appearance is foxy; not
to say diabolical.

DAVID: And Mr Wickfield and Agnes?

MR MICAWBER: Miss Agnes is the only starry spot in a miserable existence – ah,
homage to that young lady is a flight of arrows in my bosom.

DAVID: Please, Mr Micawber, won’t you come back with me. You shall
make us a glass of punch, and forget your trouble.

MR MICAWBER: Do with me as you will. I am a straw on the surface of the deep.

Enter MISS BETSEY and MR DICK to greet MR MICAWBER.

MR DICK shakes his hand vigorously.

DAVID: [n] We go to my Aunt’s house, rather than mine, because of Dora

not being well. Mr Dick is at home too but his warmth and
sympathy only seem to distress Mr Micawber further.

MR MICAWBER bursts into tears.

MR DICK: You must keep up your spirits.

MISS BETSEY: You are a very old friend of my nephew’s, Mr Micawber. I

wish I had had the pleasure of seeing you before.

MR MICAWBER: Madam, I was not always the wreck you at present behold.

DAVID: Won’t you make us a bowl of punch, Mr Micawber.

MR MICAWBER: My dear Copperfield, the making of punch is an occupation,

requiring an untroubled mind. I cannot perform it.

DAVID: Mr Micawber, what is the matter?

MR MICAWBER: Villainy is the matter; baseness is the matter; and name of the
matter is – HEEP!

I will lead this life no longer. I will put my hand in no man’s

hand; I’ll know nobody – say nothing – live nowhere – until I
have crushed – to undiscoverable atoms that detestable –
serpent – HEEP!

MR MICAWBER rushes wildly from the stage.

MR MICAWBER rushes back on stage.

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 I apologise to you for my late excitement, and invite you to join
me on the morning of this day week, at my place of work in
Canterbury; where an act of justice will be performed by yours
truly, Wilkins Micawber!

Exit MR MICAWBER

DAVID: [n] I am lost in pondering this mystery as I walk home that night
from my Aunt’s house. So deep in thought am I that at first I
fail to notice that I am being followed…

MUSIC – The Wanderer

EM’LY appears, clinging to the shadows.

One glance back at this small, ghostly figure strikes my heart

directly. I slow down, but still she remains at a distance.
[He stops and turns] Em’ly?

EM’LY’s face is briefly lifted to the light;

Em’ly!

Ashamed and afraid, she flees.

[n] She’s gone.

I go directly to Mr Peggotty’s lodgings and rouse him.

Enter MR PEGGOTTY

MR PEGGOTTY: Wheer is she, Mas’r Davy? Wheer did ye see her?

DAVID: If we return to the street where I saw her –

MR PEGGOTTY: Take me there.

DAVID: [n] I have little hope of us finding her again, but nevertheless I join
Mr Peggotty in his search; questioning those wretched creatures
who haunt the cold night streets of London.

COMPANY: [Sing] When Time is a child picking pebbles and shells on the sand
A fluttering angel, a mite in the bright blue-eyed day -
Carelessly chasing the waves as they break on the strand -
A world with no past and no future, and ever at play -

A population of homeless children and beggars emerge, sheltering/sleeping in

pools of light. MR PEGGOTTY approaches and questions them.

Our search leads us closer and closer to the river – until we

reach Westminster Bridge…

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COMPANY: [Sing] Sail away. Sail away - to that far foreign shore –
Where Time is a child no more.

MR PEGGOTTY: Mas’r Davy – look!

EM’LY stands alone, high up on the bridge, muttering wildly to herself and
gazing down into the water. (An echo of her walking the jetty as a child)

EM’LY: The river – oh the river…

MR PEGGOTTY: My darlin’ /

DAVID: Take care, sir. Don’t startle her.

EM’LY: [To herself] The river is like me. It comes from country places, where there
was once no harm; and it goes away, like my life to a great sea,
that is always troubled.

MR PEGGOTTY: You go to her, Mas’r Davy. The sight of me might be too much
for her poor eyes.

DAVID approaches her softly.

EM’LY suddenly throws her arms wide, as in ACT 1.

DAVID: No!

EM’LY: Davy!

She swoons – DAVID catches her in his arms.

DAVID: Mr Peggotty! Come quickly, sir.

MR PEGGOTTY runs and takes EM’LY in his arms.

EM’LY: [Rousing] Uncle!

MR PEGGOTTY: Mas’r Davy, I thank my Heav’nly Father as my dreams come

true. I thank Him hearty for having guided of me, in His own
ways, to my darling.

MR PEGGOTTY lifts EM’LY in his arms and carries her off.

DAVID: [n] I am filled with joy at finding Em’ly, but at home my wife’s
health is increasingly frail.

Enter DORA, in a shawl – looking pale.

As we prepare for Mr Micawber’s mysterious appointment in

Canterbury, we decide that my Aunt must remain behind to
care for Dora.

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DORA: No, Doady. I will never forgive you if you don’t all go. I’ll
make Jip bark at you all day.

Enter MISS BETSEY

MISS BETSEY: Now, Blossom – you know you can’t do without me.

DORA: Yes, I can. I’m not very ill, am I?

MISS BETSEY: Why, what a question!

DAVID: What an idea!

DORA: I know I’m a silly thing, but you must all go – or I shall believe
that I am very ill, and then I shall cry.

DAVID: [n] And so we go – my Aunt, Mr Dick and myself - to Canterbury,

to assist at an explosion!

CANTERBURY

Enter MR MICAWBER, URIAH.

URIAH: Well, I am sure this is indeed an unexpected pleasure.

Micawber – would you tell Miss Agnes and Mother we have
company.

Exit MR MICAWBER

Master Copperfield… [Shakes DAVID’s hand. DAVID looks

out to the audience – they know; fish!] Miss Trotwood – things
are changed in this office since I was an umble clerk, ain’t they?

Enter MR MICAWBER, and AGNES

AGNES: Miss Trotwood; Mr Dick!

AGNES looks at DAVID, who indicates MR MICAWBER. URIAH spots this.

URIAH: Don’t wait, Micawber. [MR MICAWBER remains] What are

you waiting for Micawber. Go along. I’ll talk to you presently.

MR MICAWBER: If there is a scoundrel on this earth with whom I have already

talked too much, that scoundrel’s name is – HEEP! [Points a
large office ruler directly at URIAH]

URIAH: Oho! This is a conspiracy! You, Copperfield, envy me my rise;

and now you plot against me.

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DAVID: Mr Micawber, deal with him as he deserves.

MR MICAWBER produces a document from his coat.

MR MICAWBER: Ahem! My charges against – HEEP! [Points ruler]

In consideration of my blighted family, it was necessary for me
to borrow money from – HEEP! [Ruler] Thus I became
enmeshed in the web of his infernal business.

URIAH: [To AGNES] Miss Wickfield, if you have any love for your father, stop this
now, or I’ll ruin him.

MR MICAWBER: When Mr Wickfield’s faculties became weakened – HEEP –

confused and perplexed him and obtained a signature on
documents of a fraudulent nature. Constrained ever since with
the knowledge of this illegal act, Mr Wickfield has been for
years robbed, in every conceivable manner, by the avaricious,
false and grasping – HEEP!

In short – HEEP – systematically forged the signature of Mr

Wickfield to STEAL money and property for himself –
including, Miss Trotwood – your entire fortune and home.

URIAH: You’ve no proof!

MR MICAWBER: Ahem – I have come into possession of a pocket book [Pulls a

pocket book from his coat] belonging to HEEP!

URIAH: That’s stolen property!

MR MICAWBER: Which shows his true accounts.

URIAH: The devil take you, I’ll be even with you!

MR MICAWBER: Approach me again, you – you - you HEEP of infamy, and if

your head is human, I’ll break it. Come on! Come on!

MR MICAWBER dances around brandishing the ruler.

DAVID: Uriah Heep – you will surrender all the wealth your crimes
have gained for you; and you will remain here until you have
paid back every last farthing.

URIAH: I won’t do it!

MR MICAWBER: I have already made a reservation for HEEP! At Maidstone

prison.

A POLICE OFFICER enters. URIAH is led away.

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URIAH: Copperfield! I have always hated you! You’ve always been
against me! Micawber – I’ll pay you. Do you hear. I’ll pay you!

Exit URIAH and OFFICER

MISS BETSEY: Agnes, my dear – I never would breathe a word against your
father, though I believed my property had been lost by him.
Now I know the truth and I’ll have it back from that villain.
Every penny.

MR MICAWBER: The cloud is past from my mind. I can, once more, stand erect
before my fellow man. Now welcome poverty! Welcome
hunger, rags, tempest and beggary!

MISS BETSEY: Mr Dick – we are in need of your superior brain. What should
Mr Micawber do now?

MR DICK: Mr Micawber? Do? Oh – why he should emigrate.

MR MICAWBER: Australia? Madam, it was the dream of my youth.

MISS BETSEY: Why what a thing it would be if you were to emigrate now.

MR MICAWBER: I would, ma’am, tomorrow – but I am, at present, unemployed

and in need of funds.

MISS BETSEY: Mr Micawber, you have done us great service.

MR MICAWBER: Ma’am.

MISS BETSEY: We will pay for your passage to Australia.

MR MICAWBER: Not as a gift, Madam. A loan at say, 5% interest per annum.

MISS BETSEY: As you wish!

MR MICAWBER: I must tell Mrs Micawber, who has never deserted me and now
has her reward. She is the wife of an Australian farmer!

Exit MICAWBER. MISS BETSEY embraces MR DICK.

DAVID: [n] The plans are laid for the Micawber’s passage to Australia. And
they are to be joined by another family – Mr Peggotty and
Em’ly will also be making a fresh start in that new land.

MUSIC – mournful Vive la Rose

For myself, I must pause and look upon the blossom as it

flutters to the ground. I am again with Dora in our cottage. I do

77
 not know how long she has been ill – I am so used to it. I begin
to fear.

Lights on Dora – blanketed; weak and pale.

It is morning.

DORA: When I am well again, Doady, let us take some of the old walks
and go to the old places - for I shall be better soon.

DAVID: [n] It is evening.

DORA: Doady, I want to see Agnes - very much. Will you ask her to
come?

DAVID: [n] It is night.

Enter AGNES to sit by DORA

DAVID: I sit by the fire; all my life, rising from the sea of my
remembrance…

Dim lights on YOUNG DAVID

DORA: We were too young. It is better as it is.

DORA dies. AGNES weeps.

DAVID: It is over.

Lights fade on everyone, but DAVID.

Darkness comes before my eyes and this tender story is closed

forever.

MUSIC ends

In the midst of my sorrow, I find myself once again on the

coach to Yarmouth. Little Em’ly has entrusted me with a letter
for Ham, which I must deliver before they sail for Australia.

YARMOUTH

MUSIC – The Mermaid

DAVID: [n] I arrive as a great storm is rising out at sea.

COMPANY: [Sing] Oh the ocean waves may roll,

And the stormy winds may blow –

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DAVID: [n] I find Ham has gone to Lowestoft, so I wait at my lodging –
listening, as in days gone by, to the wind howling on the sea.

Lights on Y. DAVID

Y. DAVID: Someone is coming. Someone is returning.

CHILDREN: [Sing] Salem, oh Salem!

DAVID: [n] In the middle of the night, a shout goes up in the street.

WOMAN: A wreck! There’s a wreck – close by.

DAVID: What wreck?

WOMAN: A schooner, from Spain.

Y. DAVID: He’s returning.

WOMAN: Make haste, sir, if you want to see her. She’ll go to pieces any
minute.

MUSIC builds – storm sounds, cries and crashes.

DAVID: [n] I see it!

SILENCE! FREEZE!
STEERFORTH, high up on a rigging.

Y. DAVID: I see him.

DAVID: [n] A solitary man, his life hanging by a thread to the solitary mast,
above the boiling surge.

Y. DAVID: I know him.

The storm sounds crash in again – Enter HAM, with a rope.

DAVID: Ham!

HAM: Hold me fast Mas’r Davy – I’m going in.

DAVID: Ham – you’ll drown, for sure.

HAM: [Tying a rope around his waist] If my time is come, ‘tis come. I’ll bide it. Lord
bless you, Mas’r Davy. And bless all!

HAM gives DAVID the rope and throws himself forward, towards the wreck.

DAVID: Ham!

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 SILENCE. FREEZE.

Ham! [Pulls in the rope – Ham is gone] No!

DAVID and YOUNG DAVID look up at the figure in the rigging as it drops
out of sight.

Y. DAVID/DAVID: No!

ACTOR 2: [Sings] Three times round went our gallant ship

And three times round went she.
Three times around went our gallant ship
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.

DAVID: [n] Two bodies lie on that shore where I collected shells as a boy.
The generous heart of Ham is stilled forever. And by his side,
the one who had wronged him – lying, as I have often seen him
lie at school, with his head upon his arm

CHILDREN: [Sing] Salem – Oh Salem. Our dear old Salem. Salem House.

LONDON - Flags and banners on a London dock.

DAVID: [n] I decide that for now I must conceal what has happened from
Mr Peggotty and Em’ly, as they set sail for Australia.

Enter MR MICAWBER, acknowledges DAVID.

I take Mr Micawber into my confidence, and he promises to

hide any newspaper by which they might learn of Ham’s death.

MR MICAWBER: [Sings] South Australia (Trad)

In South Australia I was born.
Heave away! Haul away!

DAVID: [n] Mr Micawber has acquired a bold, buccaneering air, in

preparation for his journey.

MR MICAWBER: South Australia, round Cape Horn

And we’re bound for South Australia.

Enter MRS MICAWBER and THE TWINS

MRS MICAWBER: Mr Copperfield – I have a strong feeling that in Australia, Mr

Micawber will be fully appreciated for the first time.

DAVID: Goodbye and good luck, dear friends.

MR MICAWBER: Dear Copperfield, the companion of my youth – adieu!

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 Enter MR PEGGOTTY

MR PEGGOTTY: Mas’r Davy – farewell. My Em’ly’s already aboard; and Mrs

Gummidge too.

DAVID: Goodbye sir – and God bless you.

MICAWBER: To sea! To sea!

COMPANY: [Sings] Now I’m bound for a foreign strand.

Heave away! Haul away!
Full of rocks, and fleas, and thieves and sand –
And we’re bound for South Australia.

Heave away you rolling king.

Heave away! Haul away!
All the way you’ll hear me sing
And we’re bound for South Australia.

The MICAWBERS, MR PEGGOTTY, MRS GUMMIDGE and EM’LY on deck.

CHILDREN run on to wave goodbye.
FREEZE. Slow lighting fade. DAVID alone

DAVID: And now the long night gathers round me – I go away from
England to mourn my darling Dora; and poor, broken-hearted
Ham; and Steerforth, my unworthy childhood friend.

CHILDREN: [Sing] Sail away. Sail away - to that far foreign shore –
Where Time is a child no more.

SWITZERLAND

DAVID: I am in Switzerland now. I have travelled alone through France

and Italy, and I’ve not written home for many months. Nobody
knows where I am.

Enter a ‘SWISS’ DELIVERY BOY!

DELIVERY BOY: Letter for Mr Copperfield.

DAVID: It’s from Agnes.

Y. DAVID: Agnes.

DAVID: Agnes. That night – I pick up my pen and begin to write…

YOUNG DAVID: Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or
whether that station will be held by anyone else, [Picks up the

81
 manuscript that DAVID brought on at the start], these pages
must show.

Enter CHILDREN – a CHRISTMAS CHOIR

MUSIC – Stille Nacht

DAVID: [n] Christmas is approaching – CHILDREN: [Sing]

and I have been three years in Stille Nacht, heilige nacht,
exile I can’t say what has Alles schlaft; einsam wacht
kept me away for so long, [Hum]
but now I know that it’s Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
time to go home – to Agnes. Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

DOVER

MISS BETSEY: [OFF] Donkeys! Donkeys!

Enter MISS BETSEY, in pursuit of a donkey.

Mr Dick! The yard broom, if you please! Donkeys!

[Seeing DAVID] Trot! My boy! Trot!

DAVID: Merry Christmas, Aunt.

MR DICK runs on with the yard broom, but is instantly caught up in the
joyous reunion.

DAVID: It’s so good to be home. How is my dear Agnes?

MISS BETSEY: As good and beautiful as ever and, I think, very much in love.

DAVID: In love? Oh.

Enter AGNES. MISS BETSEY and MR DICK withdraw indiscreetly.

DAVID: Dearest Agnes.

They embrace

I hear you have news for me.

AGNES: Oh?

DAVID: My Aunt tells me you’re in love.

AGNES breaks away, distressed.

Is it a secret?

AGNES: If I have such a secret, Trot. It is not a new one.

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DAVID: Not a…? [The penny drops] Oh Agnes, where would I be
without you? I daren’t hope… after all these years… but – I
love you.

AGNES: Oh, Trot!

DAVID: What?

AGNES: I have loved you all my life.

Wedding bells. Enter MISS BETSEY and MR DICK to congratulate.

DAVID: [n] We are married within a fortnight.

AGNES: [n] And we are happy.

DAVID: [n] So happy.

MUSIC – Tales on the Tide

I advance in fame and fortune – writer, husband – father.

Two boys run on. He lifts them up and embraces them.

AGNES joins, with pregnant bump.

But as yet – no girl!

MISS BETSEY: Boys. Boys. Always boys!

Enter an ‘Australian’ DELIVERY BOY.

DELIVERY BOY: Letter for Mr Copperfield.

Lights up on the MICAWBERS

MR MICAWBER: To David Copperfield – the eminent author. My dear sir,

though far from the companion of my youth, I have not been
unmindful of his great success. Your stories are known even
here, in Australia – where my own family thrive; and Mr
Peggotty and the beautiful Miss Em’ly do likewise. Long may
we all prosper. One who is ever yours - Wilkins Micawber ,
Magistrate.

DAVID: [n] And now my written story ends.

YOUNG DAVID – with the manuscript of the book.

I long to linger yet as these faces fade away…

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 Lights down on the MICAWBERS

But let us end as we began – with the birth of a Copperfield.

A baby’s cry!

COMPANY: It’s a girl.

MISS BETSEY: A girl!

AGNES comes forward with a baby in her arms to present to MISS BETSEY.

DAVID: Your Goddaughter. Miss Betsey Trotwood Copperfield.

Lights on MR PEGGOTTY

MR PEGGOTTY: [Sings] O’er the wide, wild, salty flats of Yarmouth

Where the fine, hardy fishin’ folk bide –
Comes a whisperin’ mist;
And the turn and twist of stories washed up with the tide.

MR PEGGOTTY enters the scene. A joyful reunion with DAVID.

COMPANY: [Sing] From the wild, white foamy waves of Yarmouth

When the boats haul their nets o’er the side
Comes a hero; a fighter;
A lover; a biter – a writer caught up with the tide…

YOUNG DAVID is lifted onto the shoulders of DAVID and holds the
manuscript high in the air.

THE END

84