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FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. DAY.
SKY. Over which a title "LONDON--SUMMER 1593" appears.
Title card: In the glory days of the Elizabethan theatre
two playhouses were fighting it out for writers and
audiences. North of the city was the Curtain Theatre,
home to England's most famous actor, Richard Burbage.
Across the river was the competition, built by Philip
Henslowe, a business with a cash flow problem...
...The Rose...
Gradually a building is revealed, The Rose Theatre, three-
tiered, open to the elements and empty. On the floor,
roughly printed, a poster--torn, soiled, out of date. It
says:
SEPT. 7TH & 8TH AT NOON
MR. EDWARD ALLEYN AND THE ADMIRAL'S MEN AT THE ROSE
THEATRE, BANKSIDE
THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDIE OF THE MONEYLENDER REVENG'D
OVER THIS the screams of a man under torture. The screams
are coming from the curtained stage.
VOICE (O.S.)
You Mongrel! Why do you howl When it
is I who am bitten?
INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. STAGE. DAY.
The theatre owner, PHILLIP HENSLOWE, is the man
screaming. HENSLOWE'S boots are on fire. He is pinioned
in a chair, with his feet stuck out over the hot colas of
a fire burning in a brazier. He is being held in that
position by LAMBERT, who is a thug employed by FENNYMAN,
who is the owner of the VOICE. The fourth man, FREES, is
FENNYMAN'S bookkeeper.
FENNYMAN
What am I, Mr. Lambert?
LAMBERT
Bitten, Mr. Fennyman.
FENNYMAN
How badly bitten, Mr. Frees?
FREES
Twelve pounds, one shilling and four
pence, Mr. Fennyman, including
interest.
HENSLOWE
Aaagh! I can pay you!
FENNYMAN
When?
HENSLOWE
Two weeks, three at the most, Aaaagh!
For pity's sake.
FENNYMAN
Take his feet out. Where will you get
FREES
(the mathematical genius with
a notebook)
Sixteen pounds, five shillings and
nine pence
FENNYMAN
including interest in three weeks?
HENSLOWE
I have a wonderful new play!
FENNYMAN
Put his feet in.
HENSLOWE
It's a comedy.
FENNYMAN
Cut his nose off.
HENSLOWE
A new comedy. By Will Shakespeare!
FENNYMAN
And his ears.
HENSLOWE
And a share. We will be partners, Mr.
Fennyman!
FENNYMAN
(hesitating)
Partners!
HENSLOWE
It's a crowd-tickler--mistaken
identities, a shipwreck, a pirate
king, a bit with a dog, and love
triumphant.
LAMBERT
I think I've seen it. I didn't like
it.
HENSLOWE
This time it is by Shakespeare.
FENNYMAN
What's the title?
HENSLOWE
Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter.
FENNYMAN
Good title.
FENNYMAN snaps his fingers at FREES and LAMBERT. LAMBERT
unties HENSLOWE, FREES starts writing a contract.
FENNYMAN (CONT'D)
A play takes time. Find actors
rehearsalslet's say open in three
weeks. That's--what--five hundred
groundlings at tuppence each, in
addition four hundred groundlings
tuppence each, in addition four
hundred backsides at three pence--a
penny extra for a cushion, call it two
hundred cushions, say two performance
for safety how much is that Mr. Frees?
FREES
Twenty pounds to the penny, Mr.
Fennyman.
FENNYMAN
Correct!
HENSLOWE
But I have to pay the actors and the
authors.
FENNYMAN
A share of the profits.
HENSLOWE
There's never any
FENNYMAN
Of course not!
HENSLOWE
(impressed)
Mr. Fennyman, I think you may have hit
on something.
FENNYMAN slaps a contract down on the table next to n ink-
pot and quill.
FENNYMAN
Sign here.
HENSLOWE takes the quill and signs.
FENNYMAN (CONT'D)
Romeo and Ethel The Pirate's
DaughterAlmost finished?
HENSLOWE
Without doubt he is completing it at
this very moment.
INT. WILL'S ROOM. DAY
A small cramped space in the eaves of a building. A
cluttered shelf containing various objects, wedged
between crumpled pieces of paper. Among those we have
time to observe: a skull, a mug that says A PRESENT FROM
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.
At infrequent intervals further pieces of crumpled paper
are tossed towards the shelf. The man who is throwing
them, WILL SHAKESPEARE, is bent over a table, writing
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