Free Classic Speeches Search! Enter Your Topic Below:

One-Act Play

What could be a more fitting climax to the Speech Course than the production and, perhaps, even the writing of a suitable one-act play in which all members of the class may participate. Today, we find high school students, under capable supervision and instruction, not only taking part in plays, but building the scenery, making the costumes, and handling the stage lighting. This play is included as an example of what might be done. It may be produced free of royalty, or it may serve as a model for the class to write its own one-act play. The following has been adapted from the story of "The Gray sons" written by Edward Eggleston.

THE CHARACTERS

Tom Graysonon trial for his life, accused of murdering George Lockwood.

Abraham Lincolnattorney for the defense

Ross Allenthe public prosecutor who hopes to convict Tom Grayson of murder

The Judge, Donald Miller

David Sovinechief witness for the prosecution who is ready to swear he actually saw Tom Grayson shoot George Lockwood

Sheriff Bailiff

Jurors, spectators, witnesses, friends of the accused, relatives of the murder victim, etc

SCENE: A crowded courtroom in a small rural town in Illinois in 1850. The judge's bench is on a raised platform on the side. In the background may be seen the jurors. In front of the judge's bench is a table. At one end of it is seated Tom Grayson on trial for his life. Next to him is his attorney, Abraham Lincoln, looking solemn but confident. At the other end of the table is the public prosecutor, Ross Allen, a sardonic smile upon his face as if he has already won the conviction of Tom Grayson and will soon have another hanging to his credit. Next to him is seated a typical rural character, David Sovine, who seems to be enjoying his role as chief witness for the prosecution. His testimony is expected to send young Tom Grayson to the gallows.

TIME: One o'clock in the afternoonthe trial has been recessed for an hour for lunch and is just about to start again.

The curtain rises on a crowded courtroom scene. The afternoon session has not started yet, as the judge has not returned from lunch, so the spectators and hangers-on are discussing the morning session.

THE TRIAL OF TOM GRAYSON

First Man: I wouldn't want to be in young Tom Grayson's shoes. Ross Allen has all but tied the rope around his neck.

Second Man: Yep! Ross is just about the best prosecutor in the whole dern state of Illinois, but I thought that that fellow Abe Lincoln, whom they brung up from Springfield, was going to show us some fireworks.

First Woman: If that Mr. Lincoln is so good, why didn't he do something this morning instead of just sitting there?

Second Woman: If you ask my opinion, Cynthia, he already knows he's lost the case. Did you notice him? He just sat there throughout the morning without a book or a scrap of paper before him. Goodness Gracious, he let Ross Allen keep on talking without even asking any of the witnesses a single question. That nice Tom Grayson wouldn't kill nobody. Didn't he say he went right home after the camp meeting and never saw George Lockwood that night. Just because George Lockwood took one of Tom's cows without paying for it is no reason Tom would want to murder him. What if they did have a few angry words earlier in the day?

The Bailiff: [Ready to announce the judge.] Hear ye! Hear ye! The court is about to begin. All rise! All rise for Judge Miller!

[The judge takes his place on the bench.]

Judge Miller: [Rapping for order with his gavel.] I now declare this court to be in session. Mr. Allen, you may proceed. I believe that you were getting ready to call David Sovine as your next witness. Are you ready?

Ross Allen: Yes, your Honor, I am ready. Mr. Sovine will you please step up on the witness stand and be sworn in. [David Sovine swaggers up to the witness chair. He's a large clumsy man dressed in overalls and a blue denim shirt. His coarse face twitches and quivers under the emotional strain. He seeks to hide this involuntary twitching by an affectation of nonchalance, as he rests his weight now on one foot and then on the other.]

Bailiff: [Rising from chair and crossing to Sovine with a large Bible in his hand.] Put your hand on this Bible. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Dave Sovine: I do.

Bailiff: Sit down.

Ross Allen: Tell the jury whether you were at the Timber Creek camp meeting on the night of August the 9th.

Sovine: Yes, I was.

Allen: What did you see there? Tell about the shooting.

Sovine: After the meetin' was over, me and George Lockwood starts walkin' home together. At the Indian hill turnoff, I take the right fork to git to my place. So I says good night to George and starts home. I hadn't walked fur when I heard George say something. I was thinkin' mebbe he was tryin' to say something to me, so I turned around. But he wasn't talkin' to me. No, Sir! He was talking to Tom Grayson. I don't know where Tom had come from, but him and George was talking kind of loud. Tom started yellin' that George had stolen his cow, and he was going to git even. George kept tellin' Tom to calm down. Tom gits madder and madder, and hollerin' louder. Then he takes out this heah gun and starts wavin' it around. Lockwood begs Tom not to shoot him. He says he'll do anything Tom wants, if he won't shoot, but Tom tells him it's too late for that kind of talk and pulls the trigger. George didn't have no chance. He just falls over deader than a doornail.

Allen: How far away from Grayson and Lockwood were you when the shooting took place?

Sovine: Twenty feet or more.

Allen: What did Tom shoot Lockwood with?

Sovine: A pistol.

Allen: What kind of pistol?

Sovine: One of the old-fashioned sortwith a rather long barrel.

Allen: [Picking up a pistol from the table.] Dave, I hand you this pistol, marked Exhibit A. Tell the jury whether this looks like the pistol you saw in the hand of the murderer that night.

Sovine: 'Twas just sucha one as that. I can't say it was that one, but it had a stock shaped like that, an' was about as long in the barrel.

Allen: What did Grayson do after he had shot George, and what did you do?

Sovine: Tom run off as fast as his feet could carry him, an' I went up towards George, who'd fell over. He was dead afore I could git there. Then purty soon, a crowd come a-runnin' up to see what the fracas was all about.

Allen: That's all. You can have the witness, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln: [Pauses briefly before rising. It would appear from the looks of the jury that their minds are all made up to hang Tom. Gravely, Mr. Lincoln gets up and walks to the witness stand.] You said you were with Lockwood just before the shooting?

Sovine: [Alert and answering promptly.] Yes, sir!

Lincoln: Were you not pretty close to him when he was shot?

Sovine: No, I wasn't. [Sovine suspects Lincoln wants him to confess to having been nearer to the shooting and perhaps taking part in it, so he begins to be wary.]

Lincoln: Are you sure you were as much as ten feet away?

Sovine: I was more than twenty.

Lincoln: You had been talking to Lockwood, and you parted from him as a friend?

Sovine: Yes, of course.

Lincoln: By the time Tom came up, you'd gothow far away?

Sovine: I've told you twice. More than twenty feet.

Lincoln: You might have been mistaken about its being Tom then?

Sovine: No, I wasn't.

Lincoln: What time of night was it?

Sovine: Long towards ten, I should think.

Lincoln: It might have been eleven?

Sovine: No, it wasn't later'n about ten.

Lincoln: Not before nine?

Sovine: No, it wuz nigh onto ten, I said. [Sovine shows some irritation and speaks louder.]

Lincoln: How far were you from the meeting place?

Sovine: Twixt half a mile and a mile.

Lincoln: Are you sure it was not less than a half a mile?

Sovine: No, it was nigh onto a mile. I didn't measure it, but it wuz a mighty big three-quarters.

[Sovine has been answering combatively. In this mood he is making a better impression on the jury than he did on his direct examination by the prosecutor. Tom listens with an attention painful to see, his eyes moving anxiously from Lincoln to Sovine, as he wonders what point in Sovine's story Lincoln is driving at. It looks as if he'll be hanged. Tom realizes that his salvation depends on what Lincoln is saying.]

Lincoln: You didn't have any candle in your hand, did you, at any time during the evening?

Sovine: No! What would I need a candle for?

Lincoln: Did either George Lockwood or Tom have a candle?

Sovine: No, of course not!

Lincoln: Where were the lights on the camp ground?

Sovine: Close by the preacher's tent.

Lincoln: More than three-quarters of a mile away from the place where the murder took place?

Sovine: Anyway, as much as three-quarters. [Sovine wishes he could modify his previous statement of the distance.]

Lincoln: How far away were you from Lockwood when the murder took place?

Sovine: Twenty feet.

Lincoln: You said "or more" a while ago.

Sovine: Well, it wuzn't no less. You don't think I measured it, do yeh?

Lincoln: There were no lights nearer than three-quarters of a mile?

Sovine: [He becomes frightened as he begins to see Lincoln's trap opening to receive him.] No.

Lincoln: You don't mean to say that the platform torches up by the preacher's tent gave any light three-quarters of a mile away, and in the woods?

Sovine: No, of course not.

Lincoln: How could you see Tom and know that it was he who fired the shot when the only light was nearly a mile away?

Sovine: [Snappishly.] By the moonlight, of course.

Lincoln: What sort of trees were there?

Sovine: Beech.

Lincoln: Beech leaves are pretty thick in August.

Sovine: [Seeing a new pitfall yawning just ahead of him.] Yes, ruther.

Lincoln: And yet light enough from the moon came through those thick beech trees to let you see Tom Grayson?

Sovine: Yes.

Lincoln: And you were a full twenty feet away?

Sovine: [Shifting his weight to his other foot.] Well, about that; nearly twenty, anyhow.

Lincoln: And you mean to tell this court that by the moonlight that came through the beech trees, in August, you could even see that it was a pistol that Tom had?

Sovine: [Becoming very uneasy.] Yes.

Lincoln: And you could see the kind of a pistol it was?

Sovine: [Resolved to keep up his story.] Yes, I could.

Lincoln: And you could even see the way the stock looked?

Sovine: [Feebly.] Yes.

Lincoln: And you were twenty feet or more away?

Sovine: [Whining apologetically.] I've got awful good eyes, and I know what I see.

Lincoln: [Pauses to regard his uneasy witness for a few moments. He then thrusts his hand into his coat pocket and takes out a small book. He turns the leaves with extreme deliberation while the courtroom is completely silent. At last, his thumb fixed on a certain page, he turns his eyes to Judge Miller.] Now, your Honor, this witness has sworn over and over again that he recognized the accused as the person who shot George Lockwood near the Timber Creek camp meeting, on the night of the 9th of last August, and that he, the witness, was standing at the time twenty feet or more away. He has told you that there was no light around there except the light from the moon. So remarkably sharp are the witness' eyes that he even saw what kind of pistol the prisoner held in his hand, and how the stock was shaped, and he is able to identify this pistol of Grayson's as precisely like, and probably the identical weapon. All these details he saw and observed in the brief space of time preceding the fatal shotsaw and observed them at ten o'clock at night by means of moonlight shining through the treesbeech trees in full leaf. Do you believe his story? How much light does even a full moon shed in a forest of beech trees? Hardly enough to see even the path, as everybody knows who has had to stumble through those woods. [Pausing for a moment.] But may it please the court, before proceeding with the witness I would like to have the jury look at this almanac which I hold in my hand. They will see that on the night of the 9th of August when this extraordinary witness saw the shape of a pistol at twenty feet away, at ten o'clock by moonlight, the moon did not rise until half past one the next morning.

[Sovine has become quite agitated and begins to mutter something.]

Lincoln: You may have a chance to explain when the jury finishes looking at the almanac. For the present you'd better keep quiet. [He walks slowly to the jury box and gives the almanac to the foreman.]

[One, after another, the jurymen satisfy themselves that on the night of the 9th, the moon did not come up until after midnight. Prosecutor Allen tries to think of some objection to make, but decides to say nothing. When the last juror has examined the page of the almanac, Lincoln recovers the book and lays it face downward on the table in front of him, open at the place of its testimony. The courtroom is silent.]

Lincoln: Now, may it please the court, I wish at this point to make a motion. I think the court will not regard it as out of order, as the case is very exceptionala matter of life and death. This witness, Dave Sovine, has solemnly sworn to a story that has, manifestly, not one word of truth in it. In order to place the guilt on this innocent man, Tom Grayson, he has invented an atrocious web of lies, to the falsity of which the very heavens above bear witness, as this almanac shows you. Now, why does David Sovine go to all this trouble to swear away the life of that young man who never did him any harm? [He stands still a moment and looks at Sovine who has grown quiet and pale. Then he continues slowly.] Because the witness, Dave Sovine, shot and killed Lockwood himself. Therefore, I move, your Honor, that he be arrested at once for the murder of George Lockwood.

Judge Miller: This is a case of extraordinary perjury. Sheriff, arrest David Sovine! This matter will have to be investigated.

Sheriff: [Crosses from his post to Sovine, taking him by the arm.] I arrest you for murder.

Sovine: [The constant fear of being found out, with which Sovine has lived day in and day out since the crime, overwhelms him. He turns to Tom Grayson.] Tain't any use of my keeping the facts hid no more. I didn't mean to shoot George Lockwood, an' I wouldn't a come here against you, Tom, if I could a got away.

Curtain