Salt Marsh

A tragedic dramatisation to explain, evoke and value the salt marsh
World premiere at LOB11 May 31st 2011 in Mulranny Ireland

Cast:
Wind and Nymph – Sarah Neild
Salt merchant – Angela Davitt,
Voice of Wikipedia – John Heffernan
Lear – John Davitt
Edgar and Jachimo – Richard Millwood
Co-conspirator and Goblin – Tim Rylands

Part 1.
The wind: Whistle bits – suggestive of the sea-wind over the saltmarsh

Part 2.
Salt tasting – the salt merchant circles the room inviting all to taste a little Sodium Chloride

Part 3.
The Voice of Wikepeia, in a monotone: “A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salty or brackish water, dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses or low shrubs.”

Part 4.
Co-conspirator, whispering: “It’s just a room, don’t tell him, just a room…”

Part 5.
(Extracts from Act 4, Scene 6 of King Lear – William Shakespeare)

Fields near Dover. (in our case a room!)

Edgar leads Lear by the arm – clearly blinded and clutching his ears:

Edgar:
“Come on, sir, here’s the place; stand still. How fearful
And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down
Hangs one that gathers sampire, dreadful trade!”

Part 6.
The Voice of Wikipedia, in a monotone: “Salt marshes play a large role in the aquatic food
web and the exporting of nutrients to coastal waters also providing support to terrestrial animals such as migrating birds as well as providing coastal protection”

Part 7.
Edgar:
“Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminish’d to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That on th’ unnumb’red idle pebble chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.”

Edgar and Lear fall to the ground.

Part 8:
(The poem Overheard on a Saltmarsh – Harold Munro)

Goblin and Nymph:
“Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
Give them me.
No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No.
Then I will howl all night in the reeds,
lie in the mud and howl for them.
Goblin, why do you love them so?
They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man’s fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver ring.
Hush, I stole them out of the moon.
Give me your beads, I want them.
No.
I will howl in a deep lagoon
For your green glass beads, I love them so.
Give them me. Give them.
No.”

Part 9.
The Voice of Wikipedia, repeats, in a monotone: “A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salty or brackish water, dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses or low shrubs.”

Part 10.
(Extract from Act 1 Scene 6 of Cymbeline – William Shakespeare)

Edgar/Jachimo(!) tears off the blindfold from Lear (was he in Cymbeline?!)

Jachimo:
“What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish ’twixt
The fiery orbs above, and the twinn’d stones
Upon the number’d beach, and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
’Twixt fair and foul?”

Part 11.
The wind: Whistle bits – suggestive of the sea-wind over the saltmarsh

THE END