The remarkable - and until now untold - story of John Hemings and Henry Condell, Shakespeare's best friends and fellow players, who saved his career, his life and ultimately his work for posterity.
HEMINGS AND CONDELL (or THE MEN WHO SAVED SHAKESPEARE)
Copyright by Martin Keady.
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Logline or Premise
The remarkable - and until now untold - story of John Hemings and Henry Condell, Shakespeare's best friends and fellow players, who saved his career, his life and ultimately his work for posterity.
HEMINGS AND CONDELL
(or The Men Who Saved Shakespeare)
A Screenplay by Martin Keady
Copyright 2022
Tel: +44(20)8 675 3302
Email: keadym1616@gmail.com
Twitter: @mrtnkeady
Web: http://theshakespeareplays.com/
BLACK.
A caption appears on screen: “ACT ONE: LONDON, 1594.”
It fades and is replaced by another: “OR FOUR DAYS B.S - ”
It fades and a final caption appears: “- BEFORE SHAKESPEARE”.
The final caption fades, as we fade up to:
1. EXT. STREET. DAY.
A SOLDIER nails a poster onto the door of a theatre. The words at the top of the poster, in large black lettering, read: “CLOSED BY ORDER OF HER MAJESTIE AND PARLYMENT”.
TWO MEN stand behind THE SOLDIER and read the poster - JOHN HEMINGS, a portly 40-year-old, and HENRY CONDELL, a thin 18-year-old – and they are wearing the typical Elizabethan actor’s outfit of “doublet and hose” (tight-fitting tunic and trousers).
HEMINGS:
We’re being closed - again!
CONDELL nods.
HEMINGS:
Which means we’ll have to take to the road – again!
He looks absolutely desolate.
HEMINGS:
I’m not sure I can survive another tour.
CONDELL looks at him quizzically.
CONDELL:
What’s so awful about going on tour?
HEMINGS looks at him in surprise.
HEMINGS:
You’ll see!
HEMINGS turns and walks away, looking despondent: CONDELL takes a last look at the poster before following him.
2. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE HEMINGS’S HOUSE. DAY (EARLY MORNING).
HEMINGS says goodbye to his WIFE and TWO SMALL CHILDREN as CONDELL waits on his horse and holds the reins to HEMINGS’s horse. Both horses are laden with props (such as swords), costumes (such as stage armour) and instruments (such as lutes).
HEMINGS (to his wife):
We’ll be back as soon as the theatres reopen.
MRS HEMINGS (nodding):
I know.
She looks at the ground, so HEMINGS gently lifts her head.
HEMINGS:
Don’t worry. We’ll be alright.
MRS HEMINGS (angrily):
I’m not worried about you – I’m worried about us!
She pulls the CHILDREN around her and looks at him accusingly.
MRS HEMINGS:
You can all protect each other.
She looks up at CONDELL and - behind him - THE FOUR OTHER PLAYERS in the company, all of them on heavily laden horses.
MRS HEMINGS:
Who will protect us while you’re away?
Unable to meet her gaze, HEMINGS himself looks at the ground.
CONDELL:
I’m sorry, Mister Hemings, but we have to go.
HEMINGS (nodding):
I know.
He puts his hands on his WIFE’S shoulders and stares at her.
HEMINGS:
I have to go – you know that!
MRS HEMINGS:
I know you do. But that doesn’t make your absence any easier to bear.
She leads THE CHILDREN inside and closes the door behind her: for a moment, HEMINGS stares at the door forlornly.
CONDELL (VOICE OFF):
I know it’s hard, Mister Hemings, to leave your family.
HEMINGS looks round at CONDELL accusingly.
HEMINGS:
No, you don’t, Henry – because you don’t have a family!
CONDELL looks shocked – and a little embarrassed.
HEMINGS:
When you do, then you’ll know how hard it is.
He takes his reins from CONDELL and climbs up onto his horse: He rides off and THE OTHERS, including CONDELL, all follow him.
3. EXT. CITY GATE. DAY.
A SOLDIER unfurls, then examines, a piece of paper, before looking up at HEMINGS and CONDELL on their horses.
SOLDIER:
You’re Lord Strange’s Men?
HEMINGS (proudly):
That’s right. We are members of his theatrical company.
THE SOLDIER – unimpressed - hands him back the piece of paper.
SOLDIER:
Your licence is in order, so you can leave. But as you can see, most people in the country are heading into the city.
He looks at THE FLOOD OF PEOPLE coming through the gate, then out at the fields FULL OF PEOPLE beyond the city wall.
SOLDIER:
I doubt you’ll find a paying audience out there!
HEMINGS smiles grimly.
HEMINGS:
We’ll try.
THE SOLDIER steps aside and ushers HEMINGS, CONDELL and THE OTHER PLAYERS through the gate.
4. EXT. ROAD OUTSIDE A SMALL TOWN. DAY.
THE PLAYERS stop on a deserted road outside a small town.
Their POINT OF VIEW: A makeshift barricade, made up of branches, logs and even furniture, has been erected, behind which TWO MEN are standing: one holding an axe; the other a pitchfork.
AXEMAN (suspiciously):
Who goes there?
HEMINGS removes his feathered cap and even though he is sitting on a horse bows extravagantly.
HEMINGS:
We are players, Sir.
AXEMAN:
“Players”?
HEMINGS:
Aye, Sir. We are members of Lord Strange’s Men, the finest theatrical company in London.
AXEMAN:
Then why aren’t you in London?
HEMINGS (smiling):
We are currently engaged on a short tour of the inns and taverns of Kent.
AXEMAN:
Well, we don’t want you here!
HEMINGS looks surprised.
HEMINGS:
Why not?
AXEMAN:
Because players carry plague!
HEMINGS looks shocked for a moment, then shakes his head.
HEMINGS:
No, Sir, that’s not true.
AXEMAN:
It is true! Everyone else has the good sense to stay where they are – where they were born! - but you players travel round, carrying the plague with you. Well, you’re not bringing it here!
He lifts up the axe, as if ready to strike with it: THE PLAYERS quickly turn round and start riding away.
HEMINGS (calling out):
Philistines! England is full of Philistines!
5. INT. TAVERN. NIGHT.
A filthy-looking INNKEEPER smiles, showing his rotten teeth.
INNKEEPER:
Very well – you can play here.
HEMINGS, CONDELL and THE OTHER PLAYERS all look thrilled.
INNKEEPER (smiling):
In return for half your takings – and I’ll collect the money!
Now THE PLAYERS look less thrilled, especially CONDELL.
CONDELL (quietly, to HEMINGS):
He’s trying to rob us!
HEMINGS (equally quietly, nodding):
Of course he is, but there’s nothing we can do about it.
CONDELL:
Why not?
HEMINGS (with a sigh):
Because it’s late; because there isn’t another town for miles; and because even if we made it there before dark, they would probably just turn us away – like all the other towns we’ve been to today! (He looks at THE INNKEEPER, who is now sweeping the floor and whistling tunelessly.) We have to accept.
CONDELL (quietly, while eyeing the INNKEEPER):
Alright. But tonight, when I’m playing the “Evil Angel”, I shall put a curse on him!
HEMINGS laughs.
6. EXT. INN COURTYARD. NIGHT.
HEMINGS and CONDELL are on “stage” (a raised platform at one end of the courtyard), playing the “Good Angel” and “Bad Angel” respectively: HEMINGS all in white, with a silver “halo” above his head; CONDELL all in red, with horns on his head.
HEMINGS (as the Good Angel):
“O, Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it, lest it tempt thy soul
And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head.
Read, read the scriptures. That is blasphemy.”
CONDELL (as the Bad Angel):
“Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art
Wherein all nature’s treasury is contained.
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.”
HEMINGS and CONDELL step aside to cede the stage to THE ACTOR PLAYING “FAUSTUS”.
ACTOR PLAYING FAUSTUS:
“How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities?
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?”
THE AUDIENCE (the patrons of the inn) are standing close to the stage, listening intently, even fearfully, to the play. Suddenly, ONE AUDIENCE MEMBER, a middle-aged man standing in the middle of the crowd, puts both his hands to his forehead.
AUDIENCE MEMBER (quietly):
God help me, I’m hot!
He is sweating profusely and suddenly begins to shake.
THE ACTOR PLAYING FAUSTUS:
“I'll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world - ”
THE SICK MAN collapses, clutching his head, and ALL THE OTHER AUDIENCE MEMBERS scream and start to move away from him. The action on stage stops and HEMINGS, CONDELL and THE ACTOR PLAYING FAUSTUS come forward to see the “action” in THE AUDIENCE.
SECOND AUDIENCE MEMBER (peering down at the SICK MAN):
‘Tis the sweat – the plague!
THE OTHER AUDIENCE MEMBERS move further away from the SICK MAN.
THIRD AUDIENCE MEMBER:
How did it get here?
FOURTH AUDIENCE MEMBER:
They brought it!
He points up at THE ACTORS, who look down at him in disbelief.
FIFTH AUDIENCE MEMBER:
We must drive them out before they infect us all!
SIXTH AUDIENCE MEMBER:
Aye!
SEVENTH AUDIENCE MEMBER:
They’re not just dressed as devils - they are devils!
Almost as one, SEVERAL THICK-SET MEN move towards the stage (while remaining well clear of THE SICK MAN on the floor).
HEMINGS (calling out to them):
It wasn’t us. We’re not sick – we’re healthy!
As THE THICK-SET MEN start climbing onto the stage, HEMINGS looks at CONDELL and THE ACTOR PLAYING FAUSTUS.
HEMINGS:
RUN!
ALL THREE ACTORS start sprinting towards the back of the stage.
