Snow Glass Apples: A Play For Voices Read Online Free

here.
     
    There is a rustling.
     
    FRIAR (CONT’D)
    Oh yes. Such a pretty little thing. Now let’s
see what you’ll do to a man of god for a shiny penny…
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    She stood up and walked around the fire, and
waited, an arm’s-length away. He pulled in his robe until he found
a coin—a tiny, copper penny—and tossed it to her. She caught it,
and nodded, and went to him. He pulled at the rope around his
waist, and his robe swung open. His body was as hairy as a bear’s.
She pushed him back onto the moss. One hand crept, spider-like,
through the tangle of hair, until it closed on his manhood; the
other hand traced a circle on his left nipple. He closed his eyes,
and fumbled one huge hand under her skirt. She lowered her mouth to
the nipple she had been teasing, her smooth skin white on the furry
brown body of him.
     
    SFX: IN THE BACKGROUND WE HAVE HEARD THE
FRIAR CHUCKLE AND MUTTER ENDEARMENTS. NOW, FOR A MOMENT, HE
SQUEALS, AND THEN ALL WE CAN HEAR IS A LAPPING NOISE
    …
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    She sank her teeth deep into his breast. His
eyes opened, then they closed again, and she drank. She straddled
him, and she fed. As she did so a thin blackish liquid began to
dribble from between her legs…
     
    The end of the Mirror sequence: we can hear
the noises of the throne room, crisp and clear.
     
    LORD OF THE FAIR
    Majesty? Do you know what is keeping the
travellers from our town? What is happening to the forest
people?
     
    QUEEN
    Yes. I know.
    LORD OF THE FAIR
    Is something killing the travellers?
     
    QUEEN
    Yes, something is. Go home, my lord. I will
take it upon myself to make the forest safe once more.
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    I had to, although she terrified me. I was
the queen.
    A foolish woman would have gone then into
the forest and tried to capture the creature; but I had been
foolish once and had no wish to be so a second time.
    I spent time with old books. I spent time
with the gypsy women (who passed through our country across the
mountains to the south, rather than cross the forest to the north
and the west).
    I prepared myself, and obtained those things
I would need, and when the first snows began to fall, then I was
ready.
     
    SFX: WE’RE OUTSIDE, AND A FREEZING WIND IS
BLOWING, HOWLING AND SCREAMING ACROSS THE CASTLE WALLS.
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    Naked, I was, and alone in the highest tower
of the palace, a place open to the sky. The winds chilled my body;
goose-pimples crept across my arms and thighs and breasts. I
carried a silver basin, and a basket in which I had placed a silver
knife, a silver pin, some tongs, a grey robe and three green
apples. I put them down and stood there, unclothed, on the tower,
humble before the night sky and the wind. Had any man seen me
standing there, I would have had his eyes; but there was no-one to
spy. Clouds scudded across the sky, hiding and uncovering the
waning moon.
     
    QUEEN
    (She starts to hum, as if she is
half-humming, half-chanting, magically.)
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    I took the silver knife, and slashed my left
arm—once, twice, three times.
     
    QUEEN
    (Sharp intake of breath as she gashes her
arm.)
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    The blood dripped into the basin, scarlet
seeming black in the moonlight.
    I added the powder from the vial that hung
around my neck. It was a brown dust, made of dried herbs and the
skin of a particular toad, and from certain other things. It
thickened the blood, while preventing it from clotting.
    I took the three apples, one by one, and
pricked their skins gently with my silver pin. Then I placed the
apples in the silver bowl, and let them sit there while the tiny
flakes of snow fell slowly onto my skin, and onto the apples, and
onto the blood.

     
    SFX: ALL THE WIND HAS GONE.
    DAWN CHORUS BIRDSONG.
     
    QUEEN—INTIMATE
    When dawn began to brighten the sky I
covered myself with the grey cloak, and took the red apples from
the silver bowl, one by one, lifting each into my basket with
silver tongs, taking care not