Note

The play seeks to include words as an active part of the action, via ongoing visual signage. Words and their meanings are core to this story and feature beautifully in the original novel. The script aims to replicate that in the developing visual narrative as well as in the minds of the protagonist Esme and her cohort of lexicographers.

There are two kinds of audiovisual signage in the script. The first (LOCATIONS SIGNAGE) is to indicate time and/or place. Both novel and script cover Esme’s forty-six-year lifetime in a world of major events (World War I; the suffragist campaign for the emancipation and voting rights of women in England; and the slow progress of the OED to completion). Visual cues will help an audience keep track.

The second (WORDS SIGNAGE) is to cover the impact of words in this ‘world of words’. The play uses a convention that allows each usage to be differentiated. We see the main word, and characters voice the definition and/or quotation as needed. There are two uses of a montage of words where the words themselves turn against Esme or express something that she can’t.

THE DEFINITION and QUOTATIONS SLIPS are the visual and linguistic framework for this play. These slips are: ‘A piece of paper, typically six by four inches, onto which information about a word was written by a contributor to the work that would become the OED. Volunteer readers used slips to record quotations showing words in use, along with bibliographical references to the quotations’ sources. The slips were initially sorted into alphabetic, chronological and semantic sequence by sub-editors. Later, the editors and their assistants would use the slips as evidence in determining (and defining) the meaning of a word, which was then written on a “top-slip” along with an etymology, pronunciation, and so on. From there, top-slips and selected quotation slips were sent to the printers for use in typesetting the dictionary’s page.’ (murrayscriptorium.org/resources/glossary.shtml)

The play also seeks to integrate the very old university town of Oxford (a centre of intellectual life in England for some hundreds of years) as an active ingredient in the narrative.

A forward slash within dialogue – such as ‘/Like Mama?’ – denotes one character speaking over another.

Duration: approximately 2 hours, 50 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.