Plays by Alan Richardson

The Black Ring

Jessie Nairn...Keeper of the Inn
Geordie... Passenger on the Lanark-Edinburgh coach                       
Provost James Meickle...Passenger on the Lanark-Edinburgh coach 
Lady Elizabeth Haldane...Passenger on the Lanark-Edinburgh coach      
Morag....her maid           
Nancy...Passenger on the Lanark-  Edinburgh coach
Sandy Carlyle....the driver of the coach

The Setting
A Coaching Inn located on the road between Lanark and Edinburgh

The Period
Late 18th Century

(Approx running time: 45 minutes)

Sample Scene

The action takes place in the interior of a coaching inn. The Lanark to Edinburgh coach has arrived late one night and will travel no further, thanks to a damaged wheel. The five passengers have mixed feelings about their unexpected stay. Some are unconcerned. Others are unaccountably edgy. The nervous atmosphere is heightened by tension between the landlady and the coach driver. We discover that the same coach had been robbed at gunpoint a year earlier and the landlady's husband had been the driver. She forces the present driver, who had been the guard on that occasion, to relive the incident.

SANDY  I'll never forget that night as long as I live. It was stormy, no unlike tonight. The road was almaist impassable. It didnae seem worth the trachle. No wi' yin passenger, and him drunk and fast asleep. But Erchie, the driver, had never turned back. I mind him sayin tae me, "Jess'll be gettin' worried by noo", when we saw a figure at the side o' the road, aboot a hundred yards awa. As we neared I could see he was dressed in a long dark coat and ridin' boots. There was a saddle lyin' on the ground beside him. Erchie drew up the coach. I couldnae see the man's face for his hat and upturned collar.
GEORDIE (one of the passengers)  Were you no' invitin' danger by stoppin'?
SANDY  I said as much tae Erchie, but he jist laughed. "Get awa, Sandy, we havenae been robbed in the seven years I've been drivin' this coach." He stopped laughin' when we found oorselves starin' at a black mask and a pistol. The blunderbuss was at my side, yet I couldnae move a muscle. Erchie did. I saw him stretch tae release the hand-brake. There was a shot. At that range the highwayman couldnae miss. I could only watch as Erchie toppled tae the ground. And a' this time the black-herted de'il never uttered a word.
NANCY (another passenger)  But afterwards, couldn't you describe whit he looked like?
SANDY  No. A' I remember is the ring. The ring on his finger, wi' a black shinin' stone. It seemed....it seemed tae match his merciless eyes. Then yin o' the horses suddenly reared. It distracted him, jist long enough. I took my chance. I leapt doon and made a run for it.
JESSIE (the landlady) You hear that? He ran away.
SANDY  Aye, I ran and ran. I never looked back until the daylight broke.

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