Original Sin at the Haymarket, Basingstoke
Original Sin
Steve Hawes tells the story behind his new play that opens at the Haymarket, Basingstoke on the 16th October.
My new play, Original Sin, was prompted by a decree issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298, Periculoso, which required the perpetual enclosure of all nuns.
Boniface (whom, incidentally, Dante consigned to Hell before he died) declared that he wished “…to provide for the dangerous and abominable situation of certain nuns, who, casting off the reins of respectability and impudently abandoning nunnish modesty and the natural bashfulness of their sex, sometimes rove about outside of the monastery.” His provision was to lock them in.
He concluded a wonderfully circular argument with the supposition that nuns would be thereby “… able to serve God more freely, wholly separated from the public and worldly gaze and, occasions for lasciviousness having thus been removed… most diligently safeguard their hearts and bodies in complete chastity.”
In other words they were to be sheltered from those very perils that they otherwise brought on themselves. They couldn’t get out but men could get in. Well, certain men - priests, church officials, inquisitors - usually with the aim of bossing the nuns about, some with more obviously nefarious purpose.
Mary Laven’s book, Virgins of Venice, quotes extensively from the trial of a confessor who ran a convent as his personal brothel for over twenty years. When they confessed their sins, the nuns confessed to him. Boccaccio couldn’t have invented it.
Something made me wonder what might have happened if – 20 years or so after they had been forcibly separated – Abelard had visited Eloise in the monastery in which she was confined and of which she became prioress. Give Abelard some authority. Make him an inquisistor. But spare him the emasculation her family had visited on him in revenge. Friends reunited?
I mentioned the idea to Christine Bradwell, who runs Anvil Arts, which had recently taken over the Haymarket in Basingstoke. She was interested in finding ways to stimulate new work in straitened times. She asked me for a couple of pages. Then she commissioned me to write some sample scenes to workshop with a professional cast. The idea was to rehearse for a day and a half and then do a reading on the second afternoon in front of a small invited audience, including directors of a few of the theatres with whom the Haymarket ‘shares’ touring productions.
In the end I wrote a complete first draft - sometimes it’s easier than writing sample scenes. And it was only remotely connected to Abelard and Eloise. I found the illegitimate daughter of a Venetian doge instead. I wanted to call it Periculoso. Christine didn’t say no, but I think she winced. So I called it Obedience. Christine put together a wonderful cast, led by Hilary Tones. Paul Chamberlain directed. And, amazingly, rather than sitting and reading it, the cast got up and performed – really performed.
That was a year ago. I don’t think there was any kind of consensus among the visiting directors. I wrote a second draft based on lessons learned in the performance, in the hope of persuading them. But by now Christine believed in the play and was determined to back it as far as she could – on the condition that I found a better title. Hence the nine performances of Original Sin scheduled in the Haymarket’s autumn season. Rehearsals began on Monday. Hilary Tones is still with us.
Perhaps those theatre directors will be convinced. Or a producer will want to tour it, or investors be persuaded transfer it. Then if it earns any money, some of that money will be ring-fenced to pay another writer to write ‘sample scenes’ for a rehearsed reading of another new play. That’s the idea.
What we now have to do is persuade investors, producers and theatre directors to come and see it. But fellow writers are more than welcome.
Original Sin runs at the Haymarket, Basingstoke, 16-24 October (no performances Sunday 18 or Monday 19: matinée Thursday 22nd).
anvilarts.org.uk/whats-on/09/oct/original-sin
originalsintheplay.wordpress.com
back to top