Telltale
One Act Drama
- First performed by Eastwood Entertainers, January 1991
- Careless talk jeopardises a Jacobite plot to capture Edinburgh Castle. The play is based on a true incident
- Published by Brown, Son & Ferguson
Characters (2m 2f)
Doctor Robert Arthur: An Edinburgh Physician
Mrs Crombie: His housekeeper
Mrs Catherine Arthur: His wife
Lieutenant Thomas Arthur: His Brother
The Setting: Dr Arthur's surgery within his private house in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh
Period: The evening of 8th September, 1715
Running Time: 40 minutes
Synopsis
September, 1715. Edinburgh is in a state of alarm. Rumours of a Jacobite uprising in the Highlands are widespread. Government troops guard the city. Armed civilian volunteers patrol the streets.
At his surgery in the Lawnmarket, Doctor Arthur anxiously awaits a visit from his brother - a disgraced ex-army officer newly returned from France. His brother eventually arrives and rashly discloses details of a Jacobite plot to capture Edinburgh Castle. Sentries at the castle have been bribed to lower ropes over the walls, thus enabling the Jacobites to launch an unopposed surprise attack.
The plan appears foolproof, but was the doctor a wise confidant? Although a Jacobite sympathiser, he is no fanatic, is one of life's worriers and, most ominously for the Jacobite conspiracy, has a strong-willed wife whose loyalties are unswervingly Hanoverian.
Devised to be easily staged, this drama of trust and betrayal blends fact with fiction and offers four strongly contrasting character parts.
