Tusitala - Teller of Tales

Impressions of the Life and Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson.

    Based on the words of Stevenson himself, his family and friends, acquaintances and critics. Extracts include Treasure Island, An Inland Voyage and Kidnapped. Devised to be staged as a rehearsed dramatised reading by a flexible team of performers, scripts are used, but some passages are best memorised. There are many opportunities for imaginative movement and action. Period costume would be a colourful option and the number of players involved can be easily adapted to suit. This script is available in two versions with running times of 75 minutes and 1 hour 40 minutes.  
    Tusitala - Teller of Tales  was specially written for the author's own drama group and received its first performance at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

Sample Scene

(Note: MR1 = First male reader. MR2 = Second male reader. MR4 = Fourth male reader.
FR1 = Second female reader. FR2 = Second female reader. FR3 = Third female reader.)

FR3     In May, 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson made his last visit to Edinburgh. The reason was the death of his father.

MR1     "Louis is in mourning for his father and he was quite stylishly dressed, so that instead of looking like a Lascar out of employment as he generally does, he looked extremely elegant and refined. He prowled around the room in his usual noiseless panther fashion, talking all the time, full of wit and feeling and sweetness, as charming as ever he was, but with a little more sadness and sense of crisis than usual."

FR3     Now he was no longer tied to the shores of Britain. Doctors had recommended Colorado's mountain air, but there was the problem of leaving his widowed mother. She, too, had no ties, so she elected to accompany Louis, Fanny and Lloyd to America. On the 27^th August 1887, he left Britain for the last time. His reception in New York was in complete contrast with eight years previously. A stage version of Jekyll and Hyde was about to open. Treasure Island and Kidnapped were best-sellers. Reporters swarmed on board the ship the moment it docked.

MR4     "Our reception here was idiotic to the last degree. What a silly thing is popularity."

FR1     What is your object in now visiting America?

MR4     "Simply on account of my health, which is wretched."

FR2     Where do you propose to go?

MR4     "Well, the Lord only knows, I don't. I intend to get out of New York just as fast as I can. I like New York exceedingly. It is to me a mixture of Chelsea, Liverpool and Paris, but I want to get into the country."

FR3     The prospect of a journey to Colorado was too demanding for Stevenson's health so instead they headed for Saranac, a small logging village in the Adirondack Mountains in the north of New York State, where they rented a cottage.

MR4     "We have a house in the eye of many winds, with a view of a piece of running water - Highland, all but for the dear hue of peat - and of many hills - Highland also, but for the lack of heather. Soon the snow will close on us."

FR3     That winter, temperatures plummeted to forty below zero. While Louis enjoyed good health, Fanny suffered from various ailments, eventually absenting herself to San Francisco. Although far from home, he started another Scottish novel; The Master of Ballantrae. On arrival in America, he had received many tempting offers such as $10,000 a year from Joseph Pulitzer for a weekly contribution to World Magazine. More realistic, and much more tempting was an offer from Sam McClure, an expatriate Scottish editor.

MR1     "If you get a yacht and take long sea voyages and write about them, stories of adventure and so forth, I'll pay all the expenses."

FR2     By April, 1881, Louis, Margaret and Lloyd had left Saranac. By May, they were in New Jersey. One day a telegram arrived from Fanny in San Francisco.

FR3     "Can secure splendid seagoing schooner-yacht Casco for seven hundred and fifty dollars a month. Can be ready for sea in ten days. Reply immediately. Fanny."

FR2     He did. "Blessed girl, take the yacht and expect us in ten days." Before departing for the Pacific, he wrote to Baxter.

MR3   "If I cannot get my health back (more or less) 'tis madness; but of course there is hope. If this business fails to set me up, well, two thousand pounds is gone, and I know I can't get better."

FR2     The money came from Stevenson's inheritance from his father. Louis, his mother and Lloyd, journeyed to San Francisco. Preparations began for a seven month voyage. Most important of all was the choice of skipper.

MR2 enters the "interview" area.

MR1   Your name, sir?

MR2   Otis.

MR1   First name?

MR2   Captain. My passengers struck me as an odd collection of rich landlubbers. To be candid, I was most reluctant. Bad enough having a woman on board, but to have two. The middle-aged one, the literary cove's chain-smoking wife, started interfering from the outset. And she would persist in talking to my helmsman. I had to tell her; "Please don't talk to him today Mrs. Stevenson. Today I want him to steer." Then there was the older one they called "Aunt Maggie." Dressed in black with this starched white cap on her head. It was like having Queen Victoria on board. She kept quoting from the scriptures and saying grace at meals. And she went on about her author son. One day, the author's wife asked me the wrong question.

FR3     What would you do if Aunt Maggie fell overboard?

MR2   "Put it in the log." I tell you something else I did not like; the way those women dressed. After a few days at sea, they started wearing the holoku. It's a long, loose gown, brought to the islands by the missionaries to cover heathen nakedness. And worn without a corset. Not proper dress for respectable white woman, in my opinion.

MR1   You've said little about your famous passenger.

MR2   To say that I was favourably impressed with the great author would be stretching the truth. I have read his Treasure Island and see no reason to read another.

MR1   May one ask why?

MR2   The seamanship. Not all square. As for the man himself, he was so painfully thin that his clothes seemed a burden to him. I did add to the ship's provisions, discreetly, the proper equipment for a burial at sea. But I must admit that Mr. Stevenson looked healthier day by day and I admired his courage in the face of the bad storms we encountered. His wife did improve the cooking on board and 'Aunt Maggie' turned out to be a first rate whist player. If you'll pardon me, I have a ship to sail.

FR2     Thank you, Captain Otis. And yet, even in the midst of the Pacific, Stevenson's mind still drifted homeward.

MR3   "There was nothing visible but the southern stars and the steersman out there by the binnacle lamp. The night was as warm as milk; and all of a sudden I had a vision of - Drummond Street. It came to me like a flash of lightning; I simply returned thither and into the past. And when I remembered all that I hoped and feared as I picked about Rutherford's in the rain and the east wind: how I feared I would make a mere shipwreck, and yet timidly hoped not. How I hoped (if I did not take to drink) I should possibly write one little book, etc, etc, etc. And then, wow - what a change!"

The cast of the first production by the Mercators. Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August 2003

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