Perspective - Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Original London Cast Of 'The Woman In White', Maria Friedman

Is she not the way that I described her?

We’re as unalike as black and white

Still, we are inseparable

Joined as day to night

Very clearly of a different feather

We’re an odd but merry pair of birds

She’d say I’m verbose and garrulous

But in fewer words

(laughs)

Laura!

(Hartright laughs)

I fear your journey here was tedious?

My journey was filled with drama!

First I met the local Signal Man… a strange and unearthly man.

He told me he’d had a vision that I would come here — and that I would bring

tragedy in my wake

Heavens!

Indeed!

But he said: «You will mark my words…

When a year to this day

The dead lie on the tracks!

The dead lie on the tracks!"

How strange!

What happened next

Was stranger still

A woman, breathless and afraid

Appeared out of the night

Completely dressed in white

She had a secret she would tell

Of one who had mistreated her

Her face and frightened gaze

My mind cannot erase

But then she ran from view

(to Laura)

She looked so much like you

Perhaps you saw a ghost?

Ghost or not… she haunts me still

She looked so much like you…

We must clear up this mystery!

But first, ladies — we must take advantage of this wonderful light!

(He moves off and the women follow, collecting their hats and sketch books)

SCENE: «Drawing Lessons»

(A beautiful summer’s day for their first drawing lesson. They are outside in

the formal gardens of Limmeridge House with a couple of servants,

all three before their easels.

Laura puts on a hat and

Shawl.

They stand before their easels drawing.

We hear both what they express

openly and their inner thoughts)

Nothing’s duller

Than my watercolouring

I’ve next to no technique at all

My pen and ink are passable

My pen and ink appall

All my sketching soon will have you retching

I’m a notch below a chimpanzee

But we’re highly trainable!

We shall wait and see

You can capture shade and light

Best of all, perspective

All I ever do is trite

Beauty is subjective

You’ll develop your own style

He has such a winning smile

You will know when it feels right

I could trust him at first sight…

(It is now a few weeks later. We are in mid-summer)

Be observant!

Be a humble servant

Solely dedicated to your art!

I can hardly concentrate…

What a shaky start

(She tears up the paper)

Don’t conceal

The thing you think and feel

Get your emotion flowing through your brush!

If I follow your advice

You would surely blush

If I practice what you preach

I’d be more effective

She’s so clearly out of reach

Seen from my perspective

He’s a breath of summer air

See the sunlight in her hair

I must disregard his charms

And his manly rugged arms

(The maids lay out a picnic lunch. The three eat. There is the sense that we

are drifting through a long hot summer of drawing lessons)

Give me people!

Not a tree or steeple

Not a slice of apple and a knife

Still, life’s not as interesting

As a slice of life

You’re improving!

This is very moving

That’s a cocker spaniel, clear and true

Thank you for the compliment

I was sketching you

What’s the reason I am here?

What is my objective?

What a stirring atmosphere

But where is my perspective?

Can you get a dizzy thrill

While the world is standing still?

Yet the summer’s drifting by

While these golden moments fly

SCENE: «Late Summer»

(We are now in wilder countryside. It is hot. Collars are undone,

shawls are abandoned.

Hartright starts to sketch Laura)