ACT2   Wuthering Heights  SCENE 1  Heathcliff

In Wuthering Heights   In 1770

N: Nelly  C: Catherine  Hi: Hindley  Ea: Mr. Earnsh  ( H: Little Heathcliff )

N: It’s time for bed. You should go to sleep right away!

C: No, please. I’d rather wait dad back.

Hi: It’s not very late at the moment. I hope we can wait for a little longer.

C/Hi: (hear the sound)Oh, it must be dad. Hurry.

Ea: Hey, dear children. I’m home! It’s really exciting----look what I’ve brought you!

All the people: Wow…

C: He’s so dirty!

Hi: Just like a dirty dog! Look at his black face…Father, why did you bring him back?

Ea: I found him all alone in the busy streets of Liverpool and I couldn’t leave him to die. He can sleep in your room, Hindley.

Hi: In my room? He can’t! I can’t share my room with such a dirty, gipsy dog!

C: Father, where are our presents? You have promised us.

Ea: Oh, I nearly forget it. Here you are. And Hindley! You may as well learn here and now to share what you have with others.

C: They’re already broken, dad!

H: It’s all because of him!

Ea: Don’t make me angry. From now on he is your relative. You should get on well with each other. Nelly, take charge of the boy.

N: Come along, let’s go to the kitchen. And what’s your name, child?

Ea: From now on we’ll call him Heathcliff.

 

Hindley:

  I detest him! That Heathcliff! He suddenly appeared in my family and grabbed all my belongings. I’m no longer the pride and joy of my father. It’s all because of him! Well, at least I will be the master of this house. I’m Hindley Earnshaw!

 

ACT 2   SCENE 2  “You are my Queen for ever”

In Wuthering Heights    In 1774

H: Little Heathcliff  C: Catherine  Hi: Hindley

H: I won! I won!

C: Oh, that’s not fair. It’s too real.

H:(Hi comes)What do you want?

Hi: Your horse!

H: No, you can’t.

Hi: I don’t care. Mine’s lame and I’m going to ride yours.

H: You are not!!

Hi:(fight)Give him to me or I’ll go to tell my father you boasted you’d turn me out of doors—when he die!

H: That’s a lie. I never said such a thing!

C: Of course he didn’t. Just because dad likes him better than he does you—

Hi:(to C)It’s none of your business. (to H)You never had a father and you can’t have mine! You gipsy dog!

C: Let him go! You’ve killed him! I’m going to tell father! He’ll punish you for all this!

Hi: You forgot father’s illness? Do not bother father with this.(leave)

C: Are you hurt badly? Talk to me please. Don’t look like that… How are you, Heathcliff?

H: How can I pay him back? I don’t care how long I wait—if I can only pay him back!

C: It’s for God to punish wicked people. We should learn to forgive. Come, Heathcliff. Let’ go to the Pennistone Crag on the moors.

H: No…

C: Please my lord (^^). (H smiles) Oh, Heathcliff, you should smile all the time. You’re handsome when you smile.

( walk to the moors)

H: Don’t make fun of me. I’m only a dirty, gipsy servant…

C: No. Remember what I’ve always told you? Your father was the King of China and your mother an Indian Queen. You were kidnapped by wicked sailors and brought to England.

H: All the princes I’ve ever read about had castles.

C: Look! That’s your castle!

H: You mean Pennistone Crag? That’s only a rock, Cathy.

C: If you don’t see that it is a castle, you’ll never be a Prince, Heathcliff.

( climb onto the Pennistone Crag)

H: It’s a wonderful castle. I hope we will never leave it. Never in our lives!

C: Not even to go back to Wuthering Heights. We’ll live here for ever---- we two against the world! But I’m still your slave…

H: No, you are my queen. Whatever happens out here---here you’ll always be my queen.

 

Joseph:

 Mr. Earnshaw passed away on a gloomy day . His son, Hindley Earnshaw became new master after he graduated from University and returned home, and with a wife! New life just began…

Wuthering Heights

                        Emily Bronte (1818-1848)   England

Mr. Lockwood :

I have just returned from a visit to my landlord----the only neighbor that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful countryside! In all England I do not believe that I could fix on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. That suits me perfectly.

My only neighbor----Mr. Heathcliff lives in the house named Wuthering Heights. And I rented Thrushcross Grange not very far from here. Look! That’s Wuthering Heights over there.

 

ACT 1   Old Story And Old Love     SCENE 1    The visitor

In Wuthering Heights   In 1801

L: Lockwood  H: Heathcliff  J: Joseph  Z: Zillah 

( Sound of the blizzard, weaker and weaker)

L: Good afternoon Mr. Heathcliff. My name is Lockwood. I’m renting Thrushcross Grange from you. I just wanted to come and introduce myself.

H: (unhappy) Joseph, take his horse! And bring up some wine from the cellar. Come in!

J: (also unhappy) God help us! A visitor! (leaves)

H: Joseph! Wine! (to Z)Is the dinner ready, Zillah?

Z: Yes, Sir. It’s the time to serve dinner.

H: (to L) If you want to have dinner with us, come with me.

L: Excuse me, but maybe we should wait for Mrs. Heathcliff to come…

H: (cross)My wife? My wife is dead!

L: (embarrassed and turns to the window) …Er…What heavy snow! The path must be covered! Could I stay here tonight?

H: No, you can’t. I hope my hospitality is a lesson to you to make no more rash journeys on the moors. A stranger is a stranger (leaves)

L: Please wait… (to J)Excuse me…

J: (very rude)Take the road you came on. That’s the best advice I can give. (leaves)

L: Oh, my God. Could you help me to break away from this trouble, kind Zillah?

Z: Well, follow me as quietly as possible. I’ll take you upstairs to find a chamber. But remember don’t make any noise. My master allows no one to stay in that chamber.

L: OK. But why?

Z: I don’t know as I’m new here. It is said it was the bridal chamber.

Sir, here is it. (leaves)

L: Also a dirty place. Perhaps nobody lives in for long. (finds a chair and falls asleep)

 

Zillah:

  My name is Zillah. I’m the servant in Wuthering Heights. There are loads of weird things and routines in this house, especially about my master Heathcliff. HE must have an unusual background I suppose. After all, to keep silence is safe.

 

ACT 1   SCENE 2  Lockwood’s nightmare

In the chamber   In 1801

L: Lockwood  C: Catherine  H: Heathcliff  Z: Zillah  J: Joseph

----Bang! Bang! Bang! (something hits on the window)

L: What noise is that?

( a ghost-like figure appear behind the half-broken window )

C: (outside) Let me in! It’s so cold! Let me in!

L: Who are you?

C: Catherine! Catherine Linton. It’s me! I’ve come home, I’ve lost my way on the moors!

L: Oh! A ghost! Go away!

C: No, please, let me in…

L: I’ll never let you in, not if you go on crying for twenty years!

C: It’s almost twenty years. I’ve been on the moors for nearly twenty years… (reaches inside the chamber)

L: Ah----Ghost----Help----( falls on the floor)

(ghost disappears)

H: (come in) Is anyone here? (sees Lockwood )Ah----

L: (gets up) I’m sorry. It’s only your guest, Lockwood. I’m afraid I have had a bad dream and screamed out…

H: To the devil of you! Who allowed you to sleep in this room?

L: It was your housekeeper, Zillah. Now I’m angry with her myself. She led me to a room full of ghosts!

H: Ghost? What ghost you say?

L: A little girl called … called… Catherine! Catherine Linton, I’m sure.

H: How dare you speak of her to me!? Catherine!?

L: She said she lost her way. It was almost twenty years… And she tried to come in…

H: (sits down, be silent for a while)…well, leave this room. You can sleep in my bedroom tonight.

L: Excuse me, but…

H: (fierce) Get out! I say get out! Leave me alone!

(Lockwood leaves, Heathcliff runs to the window and opens it.)

Come in! Cathy, do come! My darling, hear me this time! Come back to me! I’ve been waiting for you for twenty years…Cathy…

(H rushes out like a crazy man)

L: How could my dream have produced such madness? There must be something unusual…

Z: (comes in) What have you done in the room? Didn’t I tell you not to make any noise?

L: Oh, please. I can’t bear it any more. Ghost! Ghost in that room! It’s called Catherine.

Z: What? You mentioned the name Catherine Linton?

L: Yeah, what’s the matter with it? She does exist, doesn’t she? You know her?

Z: I think you must leave now, or you will be involved in big trouble when my master come back. Joseph, you take Mr. Lockwood downstairs as soon as possible.

J: (unwillingly) You are both in trouble now! Take care of your job, Zillah.

 

 

 

ACT 1 SCENE 3 Old memory

in Thrushcross Grange    In 1801

N: Nelly  S: Servant  L: Lockwood 

N: Oh, Mr. Lockwood! I thought you died in the blizzard! Welcome!! (to S)Go to prepare some food and hot water.

S: Yes, madam.

L: How long have you lived in this house, Nelly?

N: Eighteen years, sir. I came here early in 1783 when my mistress was married. And when she died, I stayed here and served the family as a housekeeper.

L: Who was your mistress?

N: Her name was Catherine Linton. Before she married she lived in Wuthering Heights.

L: Ah! Catherine Linton! (whispers)The ghost girl in my dream…

N: She married Mr. Edgar—the young master here.

L: Nelly, I’m very interested in Mr. Heathcliff. Would you please tell me something about him? Anything is OK.

N: It’s a long story… Well, it began in 1770 when I was young…

 

Nelly Dean:

When I was a child, I was always at Wuthering Heights because my mother was a servant of the Earnshaw family. It was a very old family traced to many and many a generation ago. I grew up with Catherine and her elder brother Hindley Earnshaw. In the old days we were the best friends. Wuthering Heights then was very peaceable… 

FIRESTARTER PRESENTS

2004

 

On the threshold of

2003

A group of enthusiastic people gathered

at Class 18

Our

FIRESTARTER

founded

We had our own English Spoken Dramas

We liked the feeling of shining on the stage

That’s made by our

Own

 

 

Actors and Actresses

Wuthering Heights of Emily Bronte

Heathcliff            Holmes Meng

Catherine                Carol Hu

Edgar               Ferrari Shang

Nelly                Peggy Guan

Hindley               Mochi Liu

Isabella              Hellen Ding

Frances            Cinderella Zhang

Young Heathcliff          Kangda Ma

Earnshaw               Batty Liu

Joseph                 Shuo Lee

Kenneth               Cheng Peng

Lockwood                Eric Sun

Hareton                Liang Ge

Zillah                  Ann Ann

 

Light and Music          Peggy Guan Yunguang Yin

Stage                        Cinderella Zhang

Director                        Peggy Guan

Script                          Peggy Guan

Communication                  Cinderella Zhang

 

Together With You

----To a friend of mine in High School

Peggy Guan

 

 

Thank you for being with me always

When I need you most

Without you I’ll be on the solitary

Bewildered linger

‘What on earth am I going after? ’

On the long, long path of the so called campus life

I know you’re as lonely a girl as me

though

I know you just need someone as lonely a girl as you

though

I know it maybe me, maybe someone else

though

But I need you as eagerly as you need me

Can that be called friendship?

 

Thank you for being with me always

You shall have new friends as the same as I shall

You shall find a companion as lonely as you

And you shall once again ask her as the same question as before

 

‘Because you suffer as the same as you master

Because you achieve more than any other ’

That was my final answer

To both you and me, and to the girl as lonely as we

Solitary, bewildered, no one to turn to

Only because we’re strong

Having no right to be down

 

You still adhere to what you’ve owned

This shattered prison, the harder you hold the harder it irks

But I will be with you, no matter how you feel, no matter what you are

Since I’m as lonely a girl as you

 

Till one day you are set free

Will you be happy?

Being content? Or else break down?

I get used to being alone

As the same as you

 

 

 

 

 

To a friend of mine in High School

Sometimes people hesitate when they are confronted with alternatives. Someone find it hard to choose.

But actually how many of us realize what we really need in the bottom of heart? We go to any lengths for being stronger, to be superior.

But what does that really mean to you?

You lose friends, you miss relax, you ultimately achieve what you want.

But is that what you really want?

Who knows…

You make sacrifice only to find it not worth being so.

What will you reaction to it?

You fear to be left behind because you shall be alone.

Then what about other’s lagging behind you?

You are still alone.

They see you have so much and suppose you must be content.

But who ever know how much you’ve lost?

 

You say ‘at least I have you’ .

Thank you for choosing me. But it’s not the only choice for you.

Hope you could balance between what you have and haven’t.

And cry and fear as you wish.

I’ll be with you if I can.

Echo was my roommate when I was admitted to XXXX University located faraway in Shanghai. She was a native and quite fashionable unlike me. I majored in Journalism while she majored in Philosophy. She told me my name Sophia means ‘pursue wisdom’.

And I then realized why the nurse once said ‘your father must be reading Plato when you were born’ after I read ‘Respublica’ under Echo’s patient guidance.

I liked this book and Echo. And that reminded me of the kid who said ‘your father must be eating potato’. Where’s Edgar now? Who knows.

Then I moved on and thought no more of him. He was no more than a memory since the hot, humid summer day on which he moved away. His image was blurred by the long passage of time and his voice vague. I could hardly imagine what he looked like after these years’ time.

Echo was my best friend. She was a little bit childish I admitted, but sincere and kind. She had her sympathy for many things and knew how to cherish what she had already owned. Although sometimes I found her to straight to some issues and people, but she never told lies or cheated others, rather hurt them.

I liked this kind of people. They let me feel at ease. When I made a mistake they would correct me rather than spread rumors behind.

So I liked Echo. She was 7 months older than I. I was born in a hot summer day, while she belonged to the late winter.

We were together almost all day long and shared what we heard and learned. I got to like philosophy and were fascinated with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras… Meanwhile she began her love affair with DV, TV Dramas, Animation and Magazine Publishing. It was a time we painted the town red and enjoyed everyday of my campus life that I had never experienced before.

I prayed to hold time on and stay forever this way with Echo and my study. It was a wish. I knew it was willful and untrue, but I was unable to let it go.  

Life at school was a little bit lonely when weekends came. Most of the students, especially Echo, went back home, leaving myself like a housekeeper strolled around this deserted campus shadowed by ranges of parasol trees.

Fortunately Henry was also with me. He was a sophomore majored in architecture. And I was a freshwoman knew nothing about Advanced Mathematics or Advanced Physics. I discarded science and chose art when I was put to Senior 3 in High School and proudly bid a fond farewell to Maths and Physics.

 

Every year we shall have the Undergraduate Festival lasting for a whole June. During this month many warm and fragrant activities and games would be held all over the campus.

One day I stepped from the Art Library to my dormitory I got the sight of Wishing Cards Show. Wishing Cards Show was a love-passing action----to write down your motto or favorite poem and famous saying on a piece of wishing cards provided by the host, then hung them to the rope decorated the trees.

I stood on my toes and randomly picked up one and opened it. It read:

----Something will transcend the boundaries of time. Someone will remain in your heart.

 

I was frozen.

The signature on the cover was Edgar.

I slowly moved back to my dorm thinking: He was in the same university as I but I never saw him… What he looked like? What he majored in? Did he remember me still? Did he have a girlfriend?

When I opened the door with great effort I found Echo was busying eating.

‘What is the matter with you? You look tired indeed!’ She was like a small cat heated by the cooking fire.

‘Oh, that Wishing Card reminds me something. That Edgar Cho.’ I murmured unconsciously. I never concealed before Echo.

‘Edgar?’ Echo’s eyes were brightened. ‘Edgar was my boyfriend in High School!’

I was frozen again. The world was too small, or rather, tiny.

‘What about now?’ I asked. ‘You hadn’t talked about him, not at all.’

‘He never dreams of getting rid of me!’ Echo giggled like a kid. ‘He’s mine! He’s mine! He’s mine!’

‘I know I know I know.’ I sighed. Perhaps a little bit bitter.

‘Er… By the way, do you know him?’ She stopped laughing and turned to me.

‘Er… I don’t think so. I just read his Wishing Card accidentally.’

‘But he came from your hometown 3 years ago. He told me.’

‘My hometown is more than a school and it’s impossible to know all of them.’

‘How foolish am I! But this is because I care so much of him. So will you forgive me?’

‘Nothing serious. Why need I forgive you.’

‘Oh, you’re right. How foolish am I. Oh, right. I want to see it, the Wishing Card!’ Echo suddenly jumped up. ‘I need to know what he says about me! It’s very important!’

‘Oh, really.’ I dimmed perhaps. Because I felt me eyes narrowed.

 

When we got to the place, she cautiously picked up Edgar’s card.

‘It says: Something will transcend the boundaries of time. Someone will remain in my heart. That’s me! That’s me!’ Echo cheered up like a kindergarten kid. I pondered over the little card and felt chilly.

Why my heart painfully beat? Why I felt hard to breathe? I didn’t even know which one he was. Edgar was no longer what he used to be. He was a half-native in this metroloplis city and may forget completely about the past and me.

So why?

 

And I’ve got the answer shortly after the Wishing Cards were recycled and kept by the Student Union. For I was in charge of a campus-released newspaper titled <Young Star>, I received a proposal of the responsible editor of front page about interviewing a promising freshman majored in Architecture. I took it serious and finally agreed two days ago and sent the journalist.

The promising Architecture star was proved to be Edgar. Fate played a frustrating trick with me and took great interest of it. The journalist handed in a picture of him. It was a very unfamiliar face. I could find little in common with the boy in my poor memory.

‘So… this is you.’ I lowered my eyes and saw something shining attached to the necklace of him. It was a white, heart-shaped stone.

‘It must be from Echo.’

 

The next couple of days I was amid an uncomfortable circumstances and in a bad mood. Echo thought I was too exhausted with my work of newspaper and student union, so she always bought some snacks and fruits back on her way back to our dorm and told me the latest jokes that fashionable on campus to let me relax.

She was an angel of my life. I supposed. And I should wish them a good, happy ending because I owed her too much.

 

The day came after the midterms.

I together with Echo rushed to the bus station to go shopping and let out the many pressures that hunted us all the two months long. At the bus station we happened to meet him. Edgar.

‘Edgar!’ Echo screamed out and flung herself to him.

‘Echo?’ Edgar dodged a little, very indifferently.

‘Haven’t you remembered me? How dare you!’ Echo was hit on the head and grew angry immediately. Edgar then slowly spoke, ‘Joking only. Long time no see.’

‘It’s unbelievable not to meet everyday since we’re in the same school!’ Echo protested intensely.

‘Oh really?’ Edgar returned to his indifference and turned away to another side. That gave me a very bad impression. He was no longer the curious, energetic little boy I acquainted but a sophisticated, boring, indifferent man as now it looked like I thought.

‘Of course it is!’ Echo would not give up the chance to chat with him and was going to find something else worth mentioning. At that time Edgar moved his eyes towards me suddenly. ‘Echo, who is this?’

Echo was obviously unwilling to let him know other girls even if it was me. So she murmured ‘my roommate’.

‘Edgar. And you?’ He focused on me and I felt his sights like fire burning on my face. I flushed and said ‘Sophia.’ And my heart beat faster and faster. He hesitated for a while and for me it was like a whole year. Will he remember who am I?

 

‘Nice to meet you.’ Then Edgar once again returned to his usual indifference. I was wholly at a loss and wondered whether I was still in conscious. I traced every detail on his face to find something in common with the one in my faded memory but failed. He was not the one I expected although with the same name.

He was not the Edgar in my heart. But why he wrote down the words ‘Something will transcend the boundaries of time’? What on earth remained in his heart? Where was my place?