The Chimes (adapted from Charles Dickens by Ron Nicol)
Ron Nicol
Genre: Comedy
Cast size: 14
Duration: 50 mins approx
Ron Nicol | Comedy | One Act | 8m, 5f, 1+m/f
Short synopsis
- Synopsis
- Characters
One New Year’s Eve, porter Trotty Veck is filled with gloom at reports in the newspaper about crime and immorality. He’s begun to wonder if the working class is wicked by nature, and confides his doubts to the church bells, believing that their chimes speak to him. His daughter Meg brings him news that she and Richard intend to get married.
An encounter with Alderman Cute makes Meg and Richard doubtful about their forthcoming marriage, while a meeting with MP Joseph Bowley and his supercilious wife, who suggest that the poor are ungrateful and have no place in society, seems to confirm Trotty’s doubts. Then Trotty meets homeless vagrant Will Fern and his orphaned niece Lilian, offers them his hospitality, and takes them home to meet Meg.
That night Trotty is summoned to the church by the Bells, who in a series of visions show him how dismal the future is. Will has been in and out of jail, while Richard and Meg have married and live with landlady Mrs Chickenstalker and her husband Tugby. Richard has become an alcoholic, while Lilian has had an illegitimate baby and has descended into prostitution. Meg looks after Lilian’s child, but has been asked to leave her lodging by Tugby and is contemplating suicide. In despair, Trotty confesses to all his doubts.
He wakes to find that the visions have simply been dreams and the New Year has dawned happily. Meg and Richard are about to be married, Mrs Chickenstalker, Lillian and Will come to visit, and the Bells ring in the New Year.
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