Edward and the Shell Mounds notes

First of all, thank you for reading my script today!

Edward and the Shell Mounds is a light-hearted piece that is based on a real story. In 1876, a
man called Edward Sylvestor Morse discovered the Omori Shell Fish Mounds while travelling by
train and forever changed the face of prehistoric Japanese history. He is still studied by
Japanese school children to this day. I heard the story and wanted to create an interesting
reason for him to be staring out of the window (enter Demelza, who I created for this reason).

The play is about the snap judgement we make when we look upon a person, and how it isn't
always wise to make assumptions about someone we have just met.

Demelza
● Born in London, UK. Father was an archaeologist. Demelza had a fascinating interest in
academia from a young age, which her father encouraged despite her gender. She is
upper-class - Posh with a capital P. This allows her to get away with flouting social
convention.
● Demelza is the sort of person who, if dining alone in a restaurant, will go up to other
people and ask if she can join them.
● She has an inherent interest in people and loves getting a reaction from them - look at
how she flouts social conventions (smoking wasn't usual in women at this time, nor were
spontaneous conversations between genders, and she travels without a chaperone in a
foreign country. Even titles go out the window early on in the conversation).
● She is a bit of an amateur psychologist; she is always asking herself what other people
are thinking. This is why she engages Edward in the game of 'I Spy' - because she
knows he isn't going to take her seriously because of her gender. She plays up to the
idea that women are just frivolous and don't talk about anything of substance.
● She knows who Edward is upon entering the carriage, but she pretends she doesn't.
● During the game of 'I Spy', I'd like to see her adopt a more school-teacherly manner. For
her, this is a hastily designed guided discovery exercise for pointing Edward in the
direction of his big revelation.
● INFLUENCES: Anne Lister (look up Gentleman Jack on Youtube) and a bit of Mary
Poppins.
● EXTRA QUOTES: "I find that if one ignores the rules, other people tend to quietly rewrite
them so that they no longer apply." "I have money. That means I can behave however I
like."

Edward
● Born in Maine, United States. Edward is based on the actual Edward Sylvestor Morse, a
zoologist and orientalist who travelled to Japan in the 19th century.
● Edward doesn't enjoy interacting with people he doesn't know, and certainly not women
(whom he simply doesn't consider intellectual equals). He definitely doesn't want to talk
 to Demelza when she walks into his train compartment (although she has other ideas!!).
Most of his sentences at the start do not invite further conversation.
● He has been in Japan around 3 weeks at the time of the play, and he is feeling a little
out of his depth and far from home. He doesn't want this to show, but it does a bit. He
may well be feeling sick - feel free to give him a sniff or a cough. (New country, new
bacteria or allergies).
● Despite not particularly enjoying the company of other people, Edward has managed to
have a family - a wife and two children. However, it says something that he is perfectly
fine with leaving them in America while travelling the world in search of new and
interesting species of snails and shellfish.
● Unlike Demelza, Edward likes social conventions and lives his life by them. They give
him security and safety in a world that is nowhere near as predictable as snails and
shellfish.
● After his discovery, Edward donated all of his books to the University of Tokyo when a
fire destroyed the library. In future drafts of this play, I would like to include this fact.
There is kindness in his soul, despite how much he buries it.