The box office smash hit stage adaptation by Verity Laughton of the international bestselling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams In 1901, the word 'bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Set when the women's suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It's a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.
Release date:
December 31, 2024
Publisher:
Affirm Press
Print pages:
144
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The play seeks to include words as an active part of the action, via ongoing visual signage. Words and their meanings are core to this story and feature beautifully in the original novel. The script aims to replicate that in the developing visual narrative as well as in the minds of the protagonist Esme and her cohort of lexicographers.
There are two kinds of audiovisual signage in the script. The first (LOCATIONS SIGNAGE) is to indicate time and/or place. Both novel and script cover Esme’s forty-six-year lifetime in a world of major events (World War I; the suffragist campaign for the emancipation and voting rights of women in England; and the slow progress of the OED to completion). Visual cues will help an audience keep track.
The second (WORDS SIGNAGE) is to cover the impact of words in this ‘world of words’. The play uses a convention that allows each usage to be differentiated. We see the main word, and characters voice the definition and/or quotation as needed. There are two uses of a montage of words where the words themselves turn against Esme or express something that she can’t.
THE DEFINITION and QUOTATIONS SLIPS are the visual and linguistic framework for this play. These slips are: ‘A piece of paper, typically six by four inches, onto which information about a word was written by a contributor to the work that would become the OED. Volunteer readers used slips to record quotations showing words in use, along with bibliographical references to the quotations’ sources. The slips were initially sorted into alphabetic, chronological and semantic sequence by sub-editors. Later, the editors and their assistants would use the slips as evidence in determining (and defining) the meaning of a word, which was then written on a “top-slip” along with an etymology, pronunciation, and so on. From there, top-slips and selected quotation slips were sent to the printers for use in typesetting the dictionary’s page.’ (murrayscriptorium.org/resources/glossary.shtml)
The play also seeks to integrate the very old university town of Oxford (a centre of intellectual life in England for some hundreds of years) as an active ingredient in the narrative.
A forward slash within dialogue – such as ‘/Like Mama?’ – denotes one character speaking over another.
Duration: approximately 2 hours, 50 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
ACT 1, SCENE 1
LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: FEBRUARY 1886
HARRY and YOUNG ESME (4) are in the Scriptorium. There is a grate with a low fire burning. HARRY is sorting slips alongside caring for ESME, so he is sometimes distracted. The following is their little ritual.
HARRY: How old are you?
ESME: I am four years old!
HARRY: And where are we?
ESME: We are in the Scrippy! Scrip-tor-i-um. (diverts from the ‘script’) And I am on top of the table instead of under it!
HARRY looks around, worried.
HARRY: True.
ESME: I like under-the-table, Da!
HARRY: You do?
ESME: I do! It’s – secret. I can hide there. Under the table. Inside the lamp!
HARRY: Inside the what?
ESME: The lamp. Of Aladdin. Like ‘under-the-table’ is ‘inside Aladdin’s lamp’. In his cave! Like in the story. That you told me. Aladdin.
HARRY: I see.
ESME: I can hide. Under the table. Inside the lamp.
HARRY: And be very quiet.
ESME nods.
ESME: And good. Sooo good.
HARRY nods.
ESME: (beat) So … (she prompts) ‘What are we …’
HARRY: Oh yes. What are we doing?
ESME: We are opening the post. (beat) And … /
HARRY: /And what is in the post?
ESME: Slips!
HARRY: What kind of slips?
ESME: QUO-TAY-SHUN slips! People send them. Here.
HARRY: Volunteers.
ESME: Vol-un … Yes. Send Quo-tay-shun slips. About words. With meanings. Of words. And examples. Of words. From books. Words from books. Vol … (defeated) People! Find them. And send them. To the Scrippy. Here.
HARRY: For?
ESME: (triumphant) For the Dic-shon-ar-ee!
HARRY: You are a very clever four-year-old, Esme Nicoll.
ESME: I know. Perfect.
HARRY: So. To work. This slip (he hands it to her) to the pigeonholes’ pile.
ESME: Uh-huh!
HARRY: And this slip to the fire pile.
ESME: There he goes. (beat) She goes.
HARRY: She?
ESME: There are girl slips as well as boy slips.
HARRY: Of course. And this – (he stops)
ESME: Da?
HARRY: It IS a girl slip.
ESME: What does it say?
WORDS SIGNAGE: LILY
HARRY: ‘Lily.’ (reads)/ ‘A plant or its flower of the genus Lilium’. (fades)
ESME: /Like Mama?
HARRY: Like Mama.
ESME: (sounds the letters phonetically) L-I-L-um-another letter. (beat) Does ‘L-I-L – mmm’ on this slip mean that Mama will be in the Dic-shon-ar-eee?
HARRY: In a way. Yes.
ESME: Will we all be in the Dic-shon-ar-ee?
HARRY: No. We won’t.
ESME: Why not?
HARRY: A word must mean something other than just being a person’s name to be in the Dictionary.
ESME: Like Mama was a flower.
HARRY: The most beautiful flower. But. This particular slip –
ESME: (chanting) My mama – the most beautiful flower!/
HARRY: /is incomplete so …
HARRY stands with slip, collects the others from the ‘fire pile’ and moves towards the fire.
ESME: Da?
HARRY: It barely has a definition, Esme. (beat) So – into the fire it goes!
ESME: Da!
He throws the slip onto the fire.
ESME: NO!!!!
And she dives after the slip, thrusting her (right) hand into the fire to retrieve it. Screams with pain.
HARRY: Esme! Esme, your hand!
ACT 1, SCENE 2
LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: THE SCRIPTORIUM, 78 BANBURY ROAD, OXFORD, MAY 1887 (Esme aged 5)
MURRAY (aged 50 in 1887) is sitting at the Sorting Table at the Scriptorium. HARRY (mid-40s) is sitting next to him.
Enter SWEATMAN (pronounced ‘Swetman’), followed one by one by the other assistants.
MURRAY: Good morning, Mr Sweatman.
SWEATM. . .
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