The Beast and Mr. James (Excerpt)
Christopher Bernard
Excerpt from Christopher Bernard's full-length play about Henry James and World War I, touching on his relationships with Britons great and small, and his fellow expatriate Americans, including the novelist Edith Wharton, and the heavy price the war exacted from him in his old age: the loss, ultimately, of his faith in progress, in civilization, perhaps even in humanity.
Developmental reading filmed at the Shelton Theater, San Francisco, on October 5, 2015.
Produced by Charley Lerrigo.
Cast:
Dan Wilson: Henry James
Wayne Wong: Burgess Noakes,
Soldiers 1-8,
Second Officer,
Rupert Brooke
Brian Vouglas: Gareth,
Soldiers 1-8,
Wilfred Sheridan,
Offstage Officer,
Prime Minister Asquith,
Usher
Don Hardwick: Stage Directions,
Winston Churchill
Annette Oliveira: Edith Wharton,
First Nurse,
Theodora Bosanquet,
Torrey Richardson: Lady Tilbury,
Colleen
Young, Belgian Woman,
Second Nurse
Christopher Bernard is co-editor of Caveat Lector. His poems can be found at his poetry blog, "The Bog of St. Philinte." His new novel Voyage to a Phantom City is published by Regent Press.