A Full Length Play

Spirit and Flesh

By G. L. Horton
copyright © 2000 Geralyn Horton

SPIRIT AND FLESH

VICTORIA CLAFLIN WOODHULL BLOOD MARTIN was born in Homer, Ohio in 1838, to a medicine show family who traveled the Midwest one step ahead of the law. Victoria graduated from selling magical cures to giving Spiritualist advice based on her clairvoyant trances, but it was her pioneering success as a stockbroker and her mesmeric oratory that rocketed her to the leadership of the Women's Rights Movement in the early 1870's. After the debacle of her 1872 run for the U.S. presidency (on a platform of Equal Rights and Free Love) the law caught up with Vicky, and she served a term in Ludlow Jail. Exiled to Britian, she married into the English gentry and spent much of the rest of her life trying to erase all trace of her radical youth.

With doubling, seven actors can play all the parts in this epic.
 

CHARACTERS

TENNESSEE CLAFLIN -- Vicky's younger sister-- is in her mid-twenties at the beginning of the play, but at any age she displays the dress and manners of a charming child prodigy.

ROXY CLAFLIN-- Vicky's mother-- at 50 she is eccentric and excitable, and speaks with an indefinable accent.

VICTORIA CLAFLIN WOODHULL -- handsome, intense, charismatic, dignified, and sensual; with a glorious voice for oratory.

MRS. CLARA HIRSH -- a middle aged farm wife.

COLONEL JAMES HARVEY BLOOD -- a romantic-looking Southern gentleman of principle, who fought on the Union side in the Civil War.

COMMODORE VANDERBILT -- 70, the legendary capitalist.

BENJAMIN RUTHERFORD -- at 20, an eager, idealistic cub reporter.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON -- 50, plump, benign, the philosophical polemicist at the center of the movement for women's rights.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY-- 50, famous preacher of ECS's feminism.

ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER --20's, radical enthusiast of the famous Beecher family, sister of bestselling author Harriet Beecher Stowe & Rev Henry Ward Beecher (most popular preacher in the US)

CATHERINE BEECHER --40's, older sister of the above Beechers, a crusader for women's education and moral uplift.

THEODORE TILTON, -- 30's, handsome, self-dramatizing clergyman.

JUDGE CARTER, -- 50, active in the Suffrage Movement.

ETHAN WAHL-- a lawyer.

JOHN BIDDOLPH MARTIN--English banker.

ZULU MAUDE WOODHULL -- appears as a babe in Vicky's arms in the early scenes, age 60+ in the final scene.

Also: COCKNEY MESSENGER, NEWSBOY, POLICEMAN, DELEGATES TO THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTIONS OF 1871 and 1872.
 

TENNESSEE
- by the blessed power flowing though me, your hand is growing strong again, and free from pain. Even now the holy healing light streams down upon you, even now it is making you well and whole.

MRS. HIRSH
Oh, yes, Lord. Yes it is. Hallelujah!

ROXY
Hallelujah!

MRS. HIRSH (demonstrates flexibility)
Will you look at how I can move it, now! Isn't that a wonder!

ROXY (hugs Tennie)
That's my Tennessee. The Wonder Child. You see that, Colonel Blood?

BLOOD
Most remarkable, Mrs. Claflin.

ROXY
Praise the Lord.

MRS. HIRSH
I surely will. And I'll praise your daughter, too, Miz Claflin.

ROXY
My Tennessee, she lifts up her holy mother in Israel.

MRS. HIRSH
Amen.

TENNESSEE
If you want your hand to stay healed, Mrs. Hirsh, you'd best dose regular with my Elixir. Rheumatiz has a way of coming back.

MRS. HIRSH (looks at elixir bottle)
I'll take a dozen of these bottles, then. Will that be enough? Don't the two of you look sweet! How old are you, here? In your picture?

TENNESSEE
How old was I, Ma? Twelve?

ROXY
Victoria was twelve. You was ten.

MRS HIRSH
Looking just like a angel.

BLOOD (kisses TENNIE's hand)
"Fair as May, or a rose in promising bud."

TENNESSEE
Why, Colonel Blood!

ROXY
Run and get Miz Hirsh her Elixir, girl. Eleven bottles.

MRS. HIRSH (gives money)
Here's for the dozen. I'm adding in a little something for your family, Miz Claflin. That girl of yours is a miracle.

ROXY
My wonder child. A blessing on us from the day she was born.

BLOOD
You say Miss Tennessee manifested these powers from birth?

ROXY
I say both my girls manifest. From the cradle, they had the signs. Ain't you satisfied, you Blood? A message, and a healing. Even if you come from Missouri, what more d'ya need?

BLOOD
I'd hoped to meet both of the Sister Seeresses. Miss Victoria-

ROXY
Miss Victoria's gone off to San Francisco, with her husband, The Woodhull. The Woodhull's set up. He's a medical doctor. Her husband can fix her up with ruffles and frills, now; while her family toils in the Lord's fields, nowise but in sackcloth--

MRS HIRSH
I could maybe give you a bit more--

TENNESSEE
Here you are, Miz Hirsh. Your Elixir.

BLOOD (reaching into his pocket)
If contributions are customary--

TENNESSEE
Put your money away! The Lord has blessed me with his gift of healing. I don't mean to take profit from it.

ROXY
We got to live.

TENNESSEE
Like the lilies of the field, mother.

MRS HIRSH
Well, you’re saints on earth, and that's the truth. (massaging her healed hand) My stars, hope I'm not stiffing up.

TENNESSEE
Soon's you get home now, Miz Hirsh, you take 3 spoonfuls of Elixir and lie down for a bit.

MRS HIRSH
I surely will. Bless you. Miz Claflin, Col. Blood--

BLOOD
Allow me! (Blood carries Mrs Hirsh's box of elixir - exeunt)

TENNESSEE
Don't try to take this gent, Ma!

ROXY
Lookit the pockets on him!

TENNESSEE
Blood's president of the St. Louis Spiritualists. Convince the Colonel we're legit, and he'll send us others. Worth twenty times what we can get out of him.

ROXY
Where's the Colonel gonna send em, Tennie? This town ain't good for more than another day or two. I won't rest easy until we've got a hundred miles or so between us and that spavined son of Satan they call a sheriff--

TENNESSEE
I'm not leaving here until Vicky catches up with us.

ROXY
Victoria's in San Francisco!

TENNESSEE
She's on her way here, I'm telling you!

BLOOD
Is she? Perhaps I could arrange to stay a day or two. How soon do you expect her?

ROXY
We don't expect her!

TENNESSEE
Oh, yes we do! My sister and I are joined in spirit, Colonel Blood. Vicky has sent me Word.

ROXY
I told you, Tennie, this man is not a Believer. Not a real one. That's why you wasn't working on top today.

TENNESSEE
Don't be silly, Ma. I did all right. A distinguished researcher like Col. Blood knows better than to expect 100%. I may slip on some details, but the Colonel has seen proof that I have the power. Within three days--

BLOOD
But Miss Tennie---,

TENNESSEE
I'd bet cash money on it.

BLOOD
How much?

TENNESSEE
What'd we get from Miz Hirsh, Ma?

BLOOD
Really, Miss Tennessee, I know details such as time and distance don't register in the Ethereal Sphere. I doubt that it would be wise of me -(ROXY'S Speech begins and overlaps) to delay my return to St. Louis on the expectation of your sister's arrival.

ROXY
Woe, I say! Woe to them that shoot out their lips! Woe to them with scorn and spitting, though they have a handsome outside!

MRS. HIRSH
Miz Claflin! Look what I've found for you out in the road!

TENNESSEE
Vicky! (VICTORIA Enters--a handsome woman in her late twenties well-dressed in a dramatic style, carrying an infant)

MRS HIRSH
Recognized Miz Victoria from her picture.   Figured she didn't know quite where to look for you.

VICTORIA
You called me, and I've come!

TENNESSEE
I thought you called me?

ROXY
Where's the Woodhull?

VICTORIA
He's tending our idiot boy Byron, but he'll be here.

ROXY
He got the mortal sickness again?

VICTORIA
I'm his income; he'll be here.

ROXY
Let's see your Little Gal.

TENNESSEE
Precious Zulu Maude ... come to Auntie Ten.

MRS HIRSH
Zulu Maude?

ROXY
Is this one an idiot too?

VICTORIA
I think she's all right. No thanks to Woodhull.

TENNESSEE
He at the drink again?

MRS HIRSH
Temperance, temperance is a mighty crown. Before my Jake got& saved, sometimes he would--

ROXY
God help him, and his crown of thorns! The Woodhull's a good man, though good-for-nothing, as they say. I remember the day he come to ask her father the Buckman could he have Victoria--

VICTORIA
I was a child of fourteen! And my father sold me! Where is the old reprobate? In jail?

ROXY
Your father the Buckman has gone ahead to prepare our way. For straight is the gate--

VICTORIA
I don't know how my father expects to stagger through it, then! I asked him for bread; he gave this millstone of a Woodhull!

ROXY
Victoria Claflin, where's your gratitude? You told us you wanted book learning, the Holy word weren't enough for you, bless your soul. How else was you to get educated? Traipsing around?

TENNESSEE
The Woodhull's made a lady of you, Vic.

VICTORIA
Tennessee! I hope I've always been a lady!

ROXY
Queen Victoria! You was a queen in your cradle.

TENNESSEE
Well, you didn't always talk like one. Or dress so fine, either. Take little Zulu, Ma --tell Polly to keep an eye on her. I want to try on Vicky's flash hat. (ROXY carries ZULU MAUDE off).

ROXY (calling off)
Polly! (TENNESSEE tries on VICTORIA'S hat, ROXY returns)

MRS HIRSH
That's a mighty pretty turn out, Miz Victoria. If you could see your way clear to favoring our town with one of your lectures--

ROXY
Wait till they hear! Till the whole town hears the both of you! Oh, there'll be a shouting on the mountaintops. We will take this town, and the next town, and shake em up till it rains down manna! With God's help there will be a mighty prophesying done here.

VICTORIA
I think a lecture could be arranged. Does your town have a suitable hall, Mrs. -- ?

MRS HIRSH
Mrs Hirsh.

VICTORIA
Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Hirsh.

TENNESSEE
That ain't all, Vicky. Bang over here, Colonel Blood--here's that certain somebody you've been looking to meet.

BLOOD
How do you do, Ma'm? I've been-- -My God!
  (When VICKY turns and catches sight of BLOOD, she sees an unearthly white-clad ANGEL standing beside him. The figure's arms are raised in blessing. VICKY starts in surprise, staggers, and then drops to the ground in a faint. When the others gather around, the figure disappears.)

MRS HIRSH
The girl's fainted!

TENNESSEE
She's gone into a trance.

MRS HIRSH
Does she always drop like that?
 

TENNESSEE
Shh-- she's trying to say something. Be-- betr--be something.

BLOOD
"Betrothed". She said "betrothed".

TENNESSEE
Back off a little. She's coming around. Vicky?

VICTORIA
Ah. Tennie. Did you see what I saw?

TENNESSEE
Not exactly. But I could tell it was something.

VICTORIA
My guardian, arrayed as one of the powers of the air ...

TENNESSEE
Then this message was for you, not for a Seeker--?

VICTORIA
Yes. For me and for-- (she looks up at BLOOD) Who are you?

TENNESSEE
I told you, Vic. That there's Colonel Blood, up from St. Louis. He's president of the spiritualists there.

BLOOD
James Harvey Blood, at your service.

VICTORIA
I am Victoria. Must I tell you what I saw?

BLOOD
I think I know. I believe I was called here to find you.

TENNESSEE
Vicky? What does this mean?

MRS HIRSH
I think it means a crime in a Christian country .

ROXY
She's got one husband, before God. Two is blasphemy and bigotry.

VICTORIA
Bigamy, mother.

TENNESSEE
Mr. swagger and stagger, she's got. What's the Woodhull good for, now that Vicky's all polished up?

ROXY
You thought the Woodhull good enough to climb up on his knee, Tennessee.

TENNESSEE
When we were children!

ROXY
Abide in the Lord, and in kith and kin.

BLOOD
I have a wife and two small sons, Mrs Claflin. I love them. But if a Higher Duty calls me, I must answer-- just as I answered the call to defend the Union, though my kin fought for the South.

VICTORIA
All my life I've been waiting for this call! Since I was ten--

ROXY
Out, get out! This is fakery!

MRS HIRSH
Fakery?

VICTORIA
You're saying my visions are fake, mother? You've lived off them often enough.

ROXY
This is the whited sepulcher, this is.

MRS HIRSH
So it is!

ROXY
Out, you--you Hirsh!

MRS HIRSH
Would a blessed spirit talk to harlots? My Jake--

TENNESSEE
A john if ever I saw one!

MRS HIRSH
I want my money back!

TENNESSEE
Oh, go along home, Mrs. Hirsh. Every word I told you was the gospel. You just test it out and see.

MRS HIRSH
You can keep your phoney Elixir!

ROXY
You'll need more than that Elixir if you don't get out! You'll be so crippled up you'll need a corkscrew to wipe your bum!

TENNESSEE
Simmer down, Roxy-Loxy. Mrs. Hirsh, pay no mind to my mother. Victoria's been given a Prophetic Vision--.

ROXY
A brass face and wax moustaches!

TENNESSEE
It'll all work out for the best.

MRS HIRSH
Not in this town, it won't! (exits)

ROXY
See what you've done, you Blood!

TENNESSEE
I don't care, I'm tired of telling fortunes! If Vicky's Guardian Angel has a better scheme, I say let's get on with it.

ROXY
This comes of denying your holy Mother---

TENNESSEE
Deep breaths, Roxy-lox. Come have a spot of the 'Lixir.
(TENNESSEE leads ROXY out)

END OF ACT I SCENE I

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