Eye of The Lamb. 2.18.16

EYE OF THE LAMB
A play by Trista Baldwin
based on the life of Gertrude Bell

with music by the Wilhelm Bros. & Co.
2016 all rights reserved
Main Characters
GERTRUDE BELL The British explorer responsible for

the borders of modern-day Iraq. At the
time of the plays beginning, she is
the Oriental Secretary of Iraq.
MARIE Bells French maid and seamstress.
KING FAISAL 1 The first King of Iraq. Prior to Iraq,

he was briefly the King of Syria,
before the French took over. An elegant
man. Described by some as looking
like Christ.
PERCY COX British High Commissioner of Iraq.

Aligned with most of the positions
asserted by Gertrude Bell. Stoic.
FATTUH Gertrudes lead man / guide through her

most important and dangerous excursion
in the Arabian Peninsula. For his work
with Gertrude Bell he was tortured by
the Ottomans in WWI. Settled in Syria.
HENRY DOBBS Replaces Percy Cox as British High

Commissioner. Hostile to most of the
positions asserted by Bell. Knows how
to tell a joke at a party.
*The actor who plays Gertrude plays no other roles.
Three to four other performers play all other
characters, including:
STEPMOTHER, FATHER, SHEIK, FATTEYUH, SHEIKS WOMEN

Note: with the exception of certain relationship dynamics that were not documented (such
as Gertrude and Marie), the relationships depicted and actions depicted are all based (if
at times freely) on historical documentation.
2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 1

Iraq. Baghdad. 1922. A nice evening.
The mood is pleasure.
We are in a Baghdadi caf, which is

also a desert camp, which is also
Gertrude Bells home in Baghdad. Which
can also become many other things. A
mutable place. In transition.
A Baghdadi band plays: Jewish, Arab,

gypsy-like tones. They play, eat,
smoke, drink.
GERTRUDE BELL is sitting and singing

with them.
Gertrude eventually notices the

audience. Addresses them.
BELL
This is Baghdad! 1922, if you can believe. I can, though
hardly. Father was convinced I wouldnt make it past 1892,
fearing Id die upon a mountain-top! Well I did have a
good slip on the ice, but that was the easiest part of the
descent. Ive often said, well, to myself anyway, and I
will talk to you as I talk to myself, as I talk in my
letters, I have often said that I desire to become a
Person. Well here we are now in Baghdad, and its well
past 1920, and I am, right here today, a Person.
IRAQI
(from the sidelines, calling to Bell)
Al-Khatun!
BELL
They call me.
IRAQI
Khatun!
BELL
(As I go through town on my steed, though I prefer a camel,
Noblewoman, Queen, but really al-Khatun means neither
and both of those things, we dont have quite a word like
it in English, you shall find theres many things like
that, the more you find.) *could cut

PARTY picks up. BRITISH SOCIALITES and
IRAQI ARAB LEADERS are mingling and
drinking as the band plays.
BELL
Baghdad decadence. Music and cocktails and dancing Jewish
girls, its abhorrent, on one hand, on the other hand its
relief. The whole world seems relieved to be alive after
the Great War. And the Iraqis relieved that Baghdad still
stands, after that malignant revolt.
BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

(to another British Lady)
There she is now! Miss Bell! Oriental Secretary, of course.
BELL
How the world has shaken, and how the dust of it all still
settles.

I confess I rather like these cocktails.
BELL
(to the ladies)
Rosewater. Thats the secret.

Oh! Rosewater!
BELL
(to audience, referring to the party)
Baghdad decadence, yes: a distraction from the web of
Oriental politics. For we are in a web. Weaving
structures. Building the very blocks of society. Schools.
Hospitals. And of course, building the Iraqi government
itself.
SHEIK
(to BELL, in Arabic)
Good evening.
BELL
(in Arabic, to Sheik)
Evening of light. Massaan-nuur.

BELL
While its wonderful in most ways to be in Baghdad, where
theres almost always a party going on, I do so miss the
real desert. (With real stillness in the night. With the
wide gape of the star-filled sky. Where the moon can look
so violently full as to take you, body and soul. And youve
no idea what will come. Death by gazzuh,? Or camels milk
and fig from a furtive sheik and his harem? ) could cut*

(to other lady)
Well you know she wrote those travel adventure books,

Photographs of the most magnificent ruins-

An archeologist as well!

But did you know? Shes a poet!

(to BELL directly)
Oriental Secretary, and a Lady-poet?
BELL
A translation of Hafiz poems.

They are so much more than simple translation!
BELL
Is there such a thing as simple translation?
(out, to the audience)
The females at these gatherings, these wives to these Lords
and Esquires, men with brains, mind you, men with meat in
their skulls, their ladies these women are dogs. Female
dogs. Fetch, and jump, and into the lap.
BRITISH SOCIETY LADY

(to BELL)
What is it you like of the Orient?
BELL
The Orient, I expect.

(to another guest at the party)
Its all the rage with the unmarried girls.

Traversing the Empire.

Lady travelers.
BELL
(out to audience)
Lap dogs! How I fantasize about dropping these women in the
desert with the Bedouin.
(laughing at the thought)
Sidesaddle on a camel!
(back on subject; to the audience)
1922 and, yes, things are coming along, all things
considered. (Though the local newspapers protest the
Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, Id say 90 percent of the people are
behind us, as they overwhelmingly prefer us to the French,
who govern much too firmly.) *could cut
ARAB 1 leans towards BELL, affectionately.
ARAB 1
Subhanallah, what a beautiful night!
(responding in Arabic)
Truly! Truly it is a beautiful night.
The band plays a tune popular oriental

tune.
ARAB 2
(to BELL in Arabic)
Peace be upon you.
BELL
Ali cum sayam (sp)

(to another)
Cocktails made with Rosewater!

Now I know Im somewhere exotic.

BELL
(out to the audience)
Its all good-fun and fine-and-well but theres much to be
done in this Iraq. Much to be done.
SIR PERCY COX appears in the crowd. He sees

Bell.
COX
Gertie!
BELL
Percy!
COX
Gertie!
BELL
(aside to the audience)
No one calls me that. But I suppose High Commissioner Cox
can call me whatever he likes.
COX
Gertie!
BELL
(calling back to Cox)
Over here, Percy!
COX
There you are.
BELL
You made it to the party, I see.
COX
Thought I should at least make a showing.
BELL
(to the audience)
Hes a real man, Sir Percy, and I quite like to think were
on nearly the same page, yes exactly the same page, when it
comes to the future of the Arabs.

COX
Gertie, I cant stay.
BELL
Youve only just arrived.
COX
Yes, well.
BELL
Youre quite un-relaxed. What is it?
COX
I need your ears on Faisal.
BELL
My ears are always on Faisal.
COX
Yes well I need them more so.
BELL spies a plate of her favorite cookies.

Takes one.
BELL
Haji Badah!
COX
His Majesty is hesitating.
BELL
Faisal has been unwell.
COX
Thank God for that.
BELL
You wish illness upon his Majesty?
COX
Of course not.
BELL
No, of course not! Oh yes, of course I know his illness
provides cover for his inaction on the Anglo-Iraqi treaty.
I do know your mind.

PERCY
But what of Faisals mind?
BELL
I can guess it.
PERCY
I dont want you to guess it.
BELL
You want me to ask him something.
(referring to the cookies)
First-rate Hadji Badah, you should enjoy one.
COX
It is difficult to find an appetite when the Anglo-Iraqi
treaty blows in the wind, so dreadfully unsigned.
BELL
Am I to persuade him to sign it?
COX
You, my dearest Secretary, are to unearth the truth of why
it has not yet been signed-
BELL
Well it does seems obvious, but alright, /if you-
COX
Yes alright. It will be quite alright to have the
Anglo-Iraqi treaty wet with the ink of his hand.
BELL
In order to sign the Treaty as written, The King needs to
be assured that well be there with the bite to match our
proverbial bark.
COX
Of course. But he must know that we will now allow the
Turks to hover so near to India, a magnet for all Moslems.
BELL
Dont you think you should further consult him?
The King, dear Percy, simply wants to be treated as a
Person in this matter.

COX
My dear Miss Bell.
BELL
And we should all be requiring that Iraq be treated as a
nation in this matter. Not as a colony.
COX
He said we were treating it like a colony?!
BELL
No, thats what sheiks are saying. Do take a biscuit.
He takes a Haji Badah. Its good.
BELL
Of course Ill meet with Faisal if thats what youre
asking me to do.
COX
Mmm.

High Commissioner!
COX
(aside to Bell)
I do believe thats my exit.
(to the LADY; to the whole party)
Lovely to see you! Lovely, as always!
COX exits, PARTY swirls. BELL thinks to

herself.
BELL
In the midst of it all: self-determination. In the midst
TWO SHEIKS approach her. They have Bells

ear. They speak in Arabic.
SHEIK 1
(in Arabic)
You have heard what the Turkish soldiers have been
undertaking-
SHEIK 2
so near Mosul, it is Mosul that we cannot lose-
SHEIK 1

for if they succeed in retaking one, they could retake all.
BELL
(overlapping, turning out to the audience, in English)
The Turks are pushing at the Northern border, yes the very
border that I drew. And of course the Iraqis are terrified
that their Ottoman struggles are not over, that the Ottoman
Empire might rise up again and seize them yet again, as it
held them in their grip for so long. Yes, even though the
Ottoman Empire as a whole is quite gone, their fears have
some basis.
(back to SHEIK as if to conclude a longer
conversation)
Inshaallah.
SHEIK 1 & 2
Inshaallah.
Shift. Party is dispersing. BELL is on the

move.
BELL
(to audience)
Yes. I am compelled to wish our dear King Faisal better
health. Yes, I must request a meeting.
The street. Members of the ensemble lift

GERTRUDE BELL up and, as if on a steed, she
rides to King Faisal. As she rides, people
call out to her. She waves to them.
IRAQI MAN 1
Al-Khatun!
BELL
(they call me)
IRAQI MAN 2
(in Arabic)
Mother of the land!
BELL
(too much, I dare say)
IRAQI MAN
Al-Khatun!

IRAQI MAN 2
(in Arabic)
Mother of the land!
BELL is carried to FAISAL with great

extravagance. She dismounts the people as if
they were her horse.
FAISAL and BELL greet each other warmly. FAISAL

is a man of slight build, magnetic, with fine
features. He is formal but warm in the way he
carries himself.
SOUND of a newsreel: NEWS ANNOUNCER in a

propaganda film.
NEWS ANNOUNCER/PROPAGANDA FILM

King Faisal of Iraq. The first monarch of the former
Mesopotamia, this fledgling Iraq, now with their own
monarch, a King for this proud Arab nation, a proud Arab
peoples, liberated at last from the chains of the Ottoman
Empire. And there you see our Arab King now, walking now,
with the Lady Gertrude Bell, Oriental Secretary, in
diplomatic deliberation with the great British Empire, the
liberator of his people.
BELL and FAISAL wave for the press.
SOUND of cameras flashing. BELL and FAISAL pose

for photographs.
At last they are alone. Privacy.
BELL
Youre looking in better health than reported, if I dare
say so.
FAISAL
I am feeling better. Thanks be to God.
BELL
So glad to hear it. Even more glad to see it.
FAISAL
(in Arabic)

I do appreciate your concern.
BELL
Your gardens have suffered a bit in your infirm.
Appearances can be so critical to ones success. As you,
more than most, know well.
Who was directing your gardeners?
FAISAL
One of the house staff.
BELL
I should see to it that I am in direct conversation with
your gardener should you be absent from your house. Your
staff do not understand your vision for your gardens as I
do.
FAISAL
Surely you would not have the time.
BELL
Surely I would make the time.
FAISAL
Mmm. And how is your garden?
BELL
Just delicious. The smell of the chamomile blossom. The
lovely privets. And the quivering violets are so elegant.
FAISAL
(in Arabic)
Lovely.
BELL
We have so much to catch up on, now that your health has
returned.
FAISAL
Returned, yes, but not to full triumph.
BELL
Enough to stroll?
FAISAL
Enough to stroll.

They stroll.
BELL
I have been wondering myself about the phrasing of certain
sections of the Anglo-Iraqi treaty
They shift to speaking in Arabic.

Faisal expresses concern for military
protection from Turks/what is left of the
Ottoman empire. After FAISAL has been
speaking for a beat, BELL turns out to the
audience with a gleam in her eye.
BELL
(to the audience)
As frustrating as he is, I adore the King, I simply adore
him, and he adores me (as much as I also must frustrate
him). Why he even holds my hand at political dinners. The
sight of which does me much good with the Sheiks, for the
tribal leaders are quite keen to know the Kings feelings
about me.
BELL turns to FAISAL, staring into him.
BELL
Trust builds trust, now doesnt it.
(beat)
There was something I wroteon Personhoodsomething
Scene swirls, (eventually to BELLs home in

Baghdad.)
BELL
Trust
Yes. On trust.
(to herself)
Yes there was something I wrote
We are now in Gertrudes drawing room.
BELL
Marie?
MARIE
Oui, my Lady.

BELL
Ah, good, youre here.
MARIE
Always, my Lady. How was your morning swim?
BELL
My swim was wonderful, thank you. The Euphrates was
positively engulfing. And my stallion seemed especially
pleased to be by the riverbank.
MARIE
Lovely, oui.
BELL notices that MARIE is standing by with

her outing jacket.
BELL
Ah! You finished my new outing jacket?
MARIE
Oui, my Lady.
BELL
Wonderful!
MARIE helps her try it on.
BELL
The sleeves
MARIE
Yes my Lady?
BELL
Are you quite sure youre pleased with the sleeves?
MARIE
(in French)
You are not pleased?
BELL
They do not seem as you planned them.
MARIE
I can make them more to your liking.

BELL
I trust you will, thank you, Marie.
(to herself)
TrustSomething I wrote
(to Marie)
Marie, have you unpacked my letters? Id quite like to get
all my letters together, in one place. Ive an idea for
something.
MARIE
Yes, my Lady.
BELL
(to the audience)
Ive an idea for a new book.
MARIE
There is a briefcase of-
BELL
Just go and get everything, will you? everything you can
find, I want all of the writings together in one space so I
can sort my mind.
MARIE
Oui, my Lady.
BELL
(popping out to audience)
Marie. My maid extraordinaire. You cant have her. Shes
mine.
(back to Marie)
Oh, and Marie-
MARIE
Yes, my Lady?
BELL
Has there been any word from my dear guide, Fattuh?
MARIE
No, My Lady.
(in French)

Not as of yet.
BELL
Oh, Fattuh. Im becoming concerned that he didnt make it
thorough the
Thank you, Marie.
MARIE
(in French)
I shall gather your papers.
BELL
(in French)
Yes, thank you.
BELL
(to audience)
If there is any one person to whom I owe my life, it is
most trusted guide, Fattuh. I must find him in these
papers. I must know what became of him after the War.
Fattuh, my guide through the most barren deserts. Through
the most treacherous worlds Ive ever known, or ever shall.
Inshallah.
PERCY COX arrives at Bells home.
COX
Gertie!
BELL
(to us)
(No one calls me that.)
COX
Dear Gertrude-
BELL
Percy, yes, could you wait a moment?
PERCY COX
If I must.
BELL
Do we need to negotiate it or could you please just follow
my request, yes-

(back to audience)
Requests, yes. I of he, he of me, its good like that,
pulling the line together.
COX
Gertrude, now really, do stop all this buzzing about, we
must sit and talk seriously.
BELL
Of course, Percy, all you have to do is ask. I am at your
service.
COX
Now, Gertrude-
BELL
Well we cant very well talk without tea. Marie!
MARIE appears.
MARIE
Oui, my Lady?
BELL
Tea for Sir Cox and I, and something lovely to nibble on.
MARIE
Oui, my Lady.
BELL
Oh, but not those little sandwiches.
COX
(remembering)
No, not those little sandwiches.
BELL
No, not today.
MARIE is off to fetch tea.
COX
I am growing impatient with this Anglo-Iraqi treaty,
Gertrude.
BELL

We must let Faisal do his work to prevent a revolt! If he
signs this Treaty without the details of independence
spelled out in plain English-
PERCY
Well theres a bit of irony for you.
BELL
If the steady transference of power is not made clear in
the treaty the Shia and the Sunni will not trust Faisal,
they will not stand behind him, they will not stand behind
the State, the Shia/Sunni will not stand with each other as
People with a shared border. Then chaos, blood, and all
the work that you and I and we all have done to wrest this
from the Germans and the/ French, the-
PERCY
Dear God, Lady, what have I done to deserve this lecture!
BELL
(suddenly laughing)
Well its all very serious!
PERCY
A matter of life and death to this little country of yours.
BELL
Country of mine! How you disown your children whenever
they misbehave.
PERCY
(sharp)
Tell me he will sign the damn Treaty, Gertie.
MARIE has tea. And scones.
PERCY
Ah, scones.
BELL
Date scones.
PERCY
Date?!
BELL

Havent you tried a date scone?
PERCY
I dont believe so.
BELL
Youll believe so shortly.
He tries one. Considers it.
PERCY
Hmm.
BELL
A perfect mix of cultures, in my assessment.
(smirks)
At any rate, I do believe Faisal will sign the Treaty if he
is given proper reassurance that we are ready to defend the
borders from the Turks.
PERCY
(dry scone)
By proper, you mean in writing?
BELL
Of course not. Marie?
MARIE
Yes, my Lady?
BELL
I do believe Commissioner Cox shall need an extra napkin.
MARIE
Right away, my Lady.
BELL
(to Percy)
Its the perception of intent of the Treaty. Im sorry you
dont like the scones.
PERCY
I didnt say I didnt like them.
BELL

But you did. Which is exactly what our dear King
understands. We arent saying that they wont have self-
rule yet we arent saying they will. We arent saying that
we will protect them with our soldiers, yet we are saying
they wont have real soldiers of their own.
PERCY
Dont be so dramatic. Were training their bloody
soldiers.
BELL
Indeed, were taking control of their military.
COX
What military. They havent a military. Theyve hardly a
government.
BELL
How are they to have a proper government without a proper
military? Thats their perspective. Of course I
understand our side / on this-
COX
Theyve no tanks, no artillery, no / planes-
BELL
Yes, exactly. Theyve no tanks. No aero planes. And we
do. Which means, of course, that we have them in our
custody.
PERCY
Yes, well.
BELL
Yes, well. What shall we do with it? Will we protect them
from the Turks? Or for that matter, the French?
PERCY
Of course were not going to let the Turks rush in.
BELL
But the French?
(beat; Percy says nothing)
Or the Wahhabis?
(beat; Percy says nothing)
The Crown is stretched tight. Faisal knows this.
Whitehall isnt entirely sold on Churchills argument that

it all has to be run on oil. Of course Faisal knows this,
too. Is it not true that the support of Great Britain for
Iraq is in fact a bit precarious?
PERCY
The whole East is precarious, Gertie.
BELL
Well thats accurate.
(beat)
Faisal will sign the Treaty.
PERCY
Good.
BELL
Yes.
PERCY
Ill sign it with him, tomorrow. Ill invite the press.
PERCY stands, straightening himself.
BELL
Ill smoke to that.
MARIE presents BELL with a cigarette.
Shift.
Music. Marie and Bell smoke together.
SOUND of a newsreel. BAND MEMBER takes

the microphone, becoming NEWS ANNOUNCER
in a propaganda film.
PROPOGANDA FILM
King Faisal of Iraq gives evidence that courtesy and
patience rule not just hearts and minds, but nations.
Thats King Faisal there now, in his suit and headdress.
Waving. You see that, how he waves. A globe-trotter. An
Internationalist. Educated in Europe, relative of Mohammed
himself, hes experienced as well! (having been the King of
Syria before the French gave him the boot).
SOUND of cameras flashing. BELL and

FAISAL pose for photographs.

PROPOGANDA FILM
And theres High Commissioner Cox for the signing of Anglo-
Iraqi Treaty
FAISAL, coughing and wheezing and

looking weak from illness, signs the
treaty.
PROPOGANDA FILM
Binding the nations in fraternity. King Faisal, the
incontrovertible the Founding Father!
PERCY is formal; sound of cameras

snapping. PERCY holds up the Treaty.
Snap.
FAISAL, coughing, is left alone, as

PERCY goes off, press following. BELL
comes to his side. FAISAL takes her
hand, holds it.
BELL
(to FAISAL, in Arabic.)
Are you alright?
FAISAL
(in Arabic)
Thanks be to God.

The two shift from Arabic to English.
BELL
Thank you.
FAISAL
For bending to your will?
BELL
It is not my will. And you are not bent.
FAISAL
I do not look bent to you?
BELL
You look like you could use some meat. Eye of the lamb.
Thats what I should feed you.

FAISAL
Eye of the Lamb, for al-Khatun.
BELL
This time, for the King. You have earned your crown today.
Beat. FAISAL looks weak for a moment.

Recovers.
FAISAL
What am image you are to all the Sheiks. Even the ones that
do not like your policies. How they still respect your
fiery ambiguity.
BELL
Yes, well.
FAISAL
You must help me with them now.
BELL
You know I will.
FAISAL
You must ease the Sheiks fear of betrayal.
BELL
The best way to do that shall be not to betray them.
FAISAL
Time will tell whether you have any say in whether or not
your country betrays mine.
BELL
It is my country as much as it is yours, Your Majesty. My
beloved Iraq
Shift. FAISAL is gone. GERTRUDE is looking

for something in her apartment.
BELL
My beloved
Personhood, yes. Personhood.
MARIE is there, smoking.

BELL
Oh, there you are, Marie.
MARIE has brought BELL a cigarette. They

smoke together. Beat.
MARIE
Would you like lunch, yet, my Lady?
BELL
Not yet, no. No, Im thinking, Marie.
MARIE
Oui?
BELL
Oui.
Personhood. Do you know what I mean by it?
MARIE
My Lady is thinking about Person?
BELL
Personhood. Words can be so disappointing, Marie. Yet
theyre all the clay we have to pot with.
MARIE
I suppose this is true, my Lady.
BELL
Im trying to understand how to say what I mean by it.
Personhood.
(they smoke)
Hmm. Yes, Ill have to work it out, wont I, Marie, if Im
going to write a book about it.
Yes.
Get my papers.
MARIE gets BELLs papers. They begin to

sort.
BELL
No, not that, the early ones. Im looking for the early
ones.

MARIE pulls something out.
MARIE
1899?
BELL
18991899
MARIE
Palestine and /Syria-
BELL
Oh, Syria! That early, yes! That will become quite
important.
MARIE
1902?
BELL
Mm, yes. Lebanon and Jerusalem, thats where I really got
my tongue-
(to the audience)
Farsi, then Arabic. Arabic: the language that opened the
doors to it all.
A BAND member turns into ARABIC teacher.

MARIE continues organizing papers.
MARIE
Oui.
Then PERSIAN language teacher.
BELL
Five hours a day of Arabic, following by three hours Farsi.
MARIE
(yes, thats what is says in her notes)
Oui.
BELL
Then to the caf to smoke. Five, then three, then smoke.
Every day for two months.
MARIE

1900, oui?
BELL nods yes, MARIE hands her a cigarette.

BELL takes it, and smokes.
BELL
Redcar. Then Beirut. Then, yes, thats the first time in
Jabal al-Druze.
MARIE
Damascus?
BELL
Through Aleppo, yes.
MARIE
(in French)
You need a secretary.
BELL
(in English)
Ill have a secretary, Marie, but first I must sort the
papers, mustnt I.
(to the audience)
Marie. My Maid extraordinaire. You cant have her. Shes
mine.
MARIE
(impatiently in French)
Aleppo, Damascus, on to Turkey?
BELL
Beirut, Jebel Druze, past Damascus, through Aleppo to
Turkey.
MARIE
(in French)
And these photographs? 1907?
BELL
Thank you Marie, yes, that is Binbirkilise, all of that
there.
(looking through the documents)
Binbirkilise, Binbirkilise. Yes, all those photographs and
sketches there.

MARIE
1909?
BELL
Yes, that was my return to the ruins of Binbirkilise.
SLIDESHOW of Bells photographs and sketches

of the ruins of the ancient Byzantine center
of Christianity, Binbirkilise.
MARIE
(looking at a photograph, in English)
Oh, very nice.
BELL
Yes, that was taken with my new camera.
MARIE
(in French)
Quite a discovery.
BELL
Mmm.
MARIE
(in French)
The light and dark in your photography here is much better.
BELL
(in French)
Thank you.
(in English)
I was working on contrast to capture the details of the
ruins, yes. Yes.
MARIE has been looking at photographs. She

comes upon one of a German mountaineer.
MARIE
(in French)
Who is this?
BELL
That is my fellow mountaineer. Who climbed with me to the
top of the Matterhorn. And nothing else, goodness Marie,
stop thinking of romance. He was German.

MARIE
Of course, German.
(in French)
Who else wants to climb to the top of a mountain for no
reason?
BELL
The reason is to get to the top, Marie!
MARIE
But for what, my Lady? Only to say
(in French)
I am at the top!?
MARIE
(in English)
Well, then, just say I went to the top! and save yourself
the trouble. I am glad you are too old now to Mountaineer.
I would suffer to sew you Mountaineering skirts. For this,
I could cry.
BELL
You could cry?
MARIE
I could cry.
BELL
That I cant imagine. You, crying.
MARIE
We all cry, my Lady.
(in French, then again in English)
We all cry for something.
BELL
(considers, becomes blue, turns to the audience, but
speaks half to herself)
The Matterhorn
I cried for the Matterhorn once. I cried to take it, the
whole mountain, and I did take it. I took it all the way
to the top. And as I ascended there was no more crying.
We never cry in the thick of battle. That is why a battle
can be so satisfying.

MARIE
And this?
BELL
Thats Sir Doughty. Dick DoughtyWylie. Please. Could
you put that -? If I open it all, now
(pivots)
The best days are the days you dont know what will happen.
Yes!
(suddenly energized)
The best afternoons are when nothing at all can be seen but
sand, and what will come? Death by gazzuh, those desert
raiders, a fearful tribe, or sheer lack of water?
FATTUH is appearing, directing the men.
BELL
Is it death that awaits us? Or milk and fig from a furtive
sheik and his harem? Perhaps this is what did it, perhaps
this is what made me a person walking that edge, between
the known and the unknown, the challenge of it.
No one will want to read a book on Personhood of course,
which is why I shall disguise it as a book of exotic
adventures filled with handsome Orientals!
BAND plays a handsome oriental song, as

FATTUH appears to Gertrude BELL, a vision.
She continues to work.
BELL
Fattuh. The Alpha and Omega. My shelter from the wind. My
right arm. If theres a thing to learn immediately, it is
that one doesnt rush off into the most dangerous of
deserts without a proper guide. This man here, this Fattuh,
modest, nearly mild, this is just the sort of man you need.
Though you cant have him. Because hes mine. Fattuh!
FATTUH
(Arabic)
Come lets go.
BELL
The camels are ready. How I love camels. Some say theyre
wicked creatures but dont you believe it. Speak to the
camel with respect, speak it with your whole body, speak it

with your hands, your rear-end! and that camel will save
your life.
FATTUH
(in Arabic)
This one is strong.
BELL
(in Arabic)
The camel is yours, then.
FATTUH
(in Arabic)
The camel is yours, Lady Bell.
BELL
(to audience)
He just gave me the best camel.
FATTUH
(in Arabic; to the other men)
Put the ladies things there.
BELL
(to Fattuh, in Arabic)
Thank you.
(in English, to the audience)
The best afternoons are right, precisely there, at that
point of complete unknown, atop a camel, in this endlessly
severe sea of sand, good men in my service, and a profound
indifference for whether I live or die.
FATTUH
Let us Live. Inshallah.
BELL
Inshallah.
(beat)
Fattuh?
(realizing)
I havent heard from you since the War
BELL drops for a moment. Looks at the

audience. Tries to recover.
BELL

Of course it was Dick that Sir Doughty, Doughty-Wylie. he
he was the reason, the
The inspiration for this most critical journey. To the
most remote tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. It was he who
put them on my horizon.
(Trying to be clearer, for the audience)
Sir Doughty-Wylie was an archaeologist I met, in -
(stops, starts again)
Im sorry. Its The War. It did end so many things.
Doughty. Fattuh, I dont even know
Yes, well. I neednt speak like Im the only one whos
ever suffered a loss.
FATTUH has receded.
MARIE is near, with a cigarette ready for

Gertrude.
BELL
Marie. Marie, there you are.
BELL takes the cigarette. Bell and Marie

smoke together.
BELL
(to Marie)
Didnt Sir Percy say he was coming today?
MARIE
Oui, my Lady. And it is nearly teatime.
BELL
So it is.
PERCY COX appears. We begin to swirl into

GERTRUDE BELL, at HOME.
PERCY COX
Gertie!
BELL
(to Percy)
Percy, could you wait a moment?
PERCY COX
Not really.
(referring to the mess of documents)

Goodness. Whats all this?
BELL
Im working on a new book.
PERCY COX
A new book? You have time for that, in the midst of
everything else?
BELL
Percy, please. Dont step there. Please just wait a
moment. Marie will get this sorted.
COX
Gertie, I really cannot wait-
BELL
Really, Percy, must we negotiate it, or could you please
just follow my request-
COX
Heavens, Gertie, at times you really do insist on speaking
to me as if I were your wife.
BELL
Every Oriental Secretary should have one. Didnt you say
so?
COX
I suppose I did. Darling Gertrude. Really. I havent much
time.
BELL
Whats so urgent? Well I suppose we do need to strategize
on Treaty ratification-
PERCY COX
Yes. But thats not why Im here.
BELL
I dined with the Shia leader you were so concerned about.
While his view of Sunnis is troubling, I do believe he was
persuaded. In fact he even held my hand at the end of the
meeting, after he had seen the King doing so! He was quite
interested in what the King thinks of me.

PERCY COX
Well it is quite useful that Faisal is so affectionate
towards you in public events.
BELL
Useful, yes.
PERCY COX
Gertie, I cant stay-
BELL
You keep saying that. Even though youve hardly arrived.
Let us at the very least have tea.
PERCY COX
No thank you.
BELL
Why this furrowed brow, why are you furrowing at me?
Whats wrong.
PERCY
Im leaving Baghdad.
BELL
Going adventuring? Id love to.
PERCY
Not quite, my Lady. Not quite.
BELL
Its been so long since Ive had a real adventure. One
with real stakes to it.
PERCY
The stakes are high here in Baghdad-
BELL
Adventure is not in Baghdad, for I live in Baghdad, I know
/ Baghdad.
PERCY
Its a wobbling little country, a child of a nation,
learning how to walk on its own two feet and every moment
is unknown and every moment is full of surprises.

BELL
Percy.
PERCY
Gertrude.
BELL
Percy whats happening.
PERCY
Ive been reappointed.
BELL
You cannot be.
PERCY
I can be. In fact I have been.
BELL
No. No, it isnt so.
PERCY
It is so.
BELL
What reappointment, where are you going, why are you going
there, you cant go Percy, theres so much for us to do
here, you and I, King Faisal, were all just getting
started-
PERCY
Thats quite what I was saying. Theres so much for you to
do and you must do it, Gertrude, whether Im here to serve,
or another. You will serve the next as well as you have
served me. You will serve the Sheiks of Iraq as well as
you have served them under me. And you will continue your
good work with Faisal. All will go on.
Beat. MARIE makes her presence known: she

is on hand.
BELL
The Sheiks trust you, trust us, together-
PERCY
And that is exactly how I am able to leave, now, isnt it?

BELL
Whats really going on. Dont tell me were going to
dangle Nationhood at these people only to snap it away.
You know how dangerous it would be if we back out on our /
promises-
COX
Backing out, nonsense. I have accomplished what they
desired me to accomplish and now they desire me to do
something else.
BELL
But who are they replacing you with? Youre saying nothing
of that, Percy. / Why not.
COX
Iraq walks, albeit with a wobble, but Iraq walks. Youve
done it, Gertrude. Youve given birth to a country.
BELL
Now I am to raise it on my own? And how can you call it
mine-
PERCY
Yours, theirs - you are the real genius behind Iraq, Ive
made sure thats clear to everyone in London. Now I know
that not everyone is as supportive as I-
BELL
Meaning?!
PERCY
Not everyone in London knows the extent of your credits and
accomplishments, as well as I do, but when they do-
BELL
Churchill himself called upon me!
PERCY
Well they know that-
BELL
They can read my report!

COX
And you were the only one to be able to write it. With
your knowledge of the tribal leaders /of-
BELL
Have they truly read my report?
COX
Self Determination in Mesopotamia is a triumph, no one
/is questioning that-
BELL
Its the basis for this country!
COX
Which is the very thing I was saying to you!
BELL
Why are you leaving?!
COX
Youre speaking as if we have control over our own
destinies, Gertrude.
BELL
We damn well do!
COX
What nonsense.
BELL
Self-determination is not nonsense.
(whipping out to the audience)
I have determined my own life. My life that was supposed
to be a wife or a governess, my life that was tinkling on
pianos and plucking roses with supplicant gratitude, that
was the path laid for me,
(back to Percy)
as you know it was, and that was the path I re-drew.
COX
Of course.
BELL

That I destroyed and made new. As you know I did.
PERCY
Gertie.
BELL
Please. Dont call me that, not now.
PERCY
Gertrude. Thank you for tea. Truly.
And Marie. The scones were not so bad.
MARIE
I do what I can, Sir Cox.
BELL
(to Marie)
As we all do.
PERCY
And some do more than they can do.
(beat; gently)
Some such as you, dear Gertrude.
BELL
Flattering me now, as you head for the exit.
PERCY
Not flattery if its a fact.
PERCY is exiting.
BELL
Im a Person, Percy. Not a woman to be flattered into the
corner, hand over mouth. Im a Person.
PERCY is gone.
BELL
(to audience, and Marie, to everyone)
The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty isnt even ratified. Percy Cox
reassigned? At this moment?! The Arab people can smell
betrayal like they smell water. Having become so deeply
familiar with betrayed under the Ottomans. If we take that
path, the lines Ive drawn in the sand will be blown away.
(to MARIE, angry)
Why are these papers so out of order!

MARIE
I am sorry, my Lady.
BELL
We must work. Its really quite critical now.
Marie. I need my papers from Cairo.
MARIE
Cairo, oui.
BELL
I need to go back to the borders.
MARIE
Drafting of borders
(in French)
I will try, my Lady.
BELL
Well we must do more than try, musnt we.
MARIE
1917.
BELL
When I helped our Army the British army that is get to
Baghdad without being blown to bits.
MARIE finds a photograph of Churchill, Bell,

Lawrence, and co., on camels in front of
pyramids. We see it on screen as BELL sees
it.
BELL
(to audience)
The end, at last, of the awful War. Peace, yes, but great
disorder. And so, Cairo. Where it was all drawn. Carved.
Lined. Ordered.
(popping out to the audience)
No one can argue my position when they understand my role
in Cairo.
Slideshow. Maps changing. Or perhaps just a

series where the map of what is now Iraq becomes

clear, in pieces. Maybe a moving image. Drawing
a line around what is now Iraq.
MARIE
(in French)
You are remembered in lines on a map. Forever.
BELL
(in English, to Marie)
Forever. Nothing is forever, Marie. Nothing, perhaps,
but sand. And the sand washes over the lines, the
footprints of us all.
BELL
(to audience)
I suppose you know youre a Person when Churchill calls
upon you to design the borders for a country.
I was an agent for Britain, of course, But I did feel an
agent for Mesopotamia as well, as I drew the borders.
BAND plays a song, perhaps, as BELL

considers her work. MARIE goes off to get
something. BELL looks out at the audience.
BELL
Do you think it hubris?
(to herself)
Hubris
(to audience, again)
All the promises made to gain their revolt against the
Ottomans The Arabs have had no autonomy since the twelfth
century, it isnt like there is an Arab governmental system
to resurrect.
(to herself, justifying)
No. There was no choice but to group the tribes together
to make a country of legitimate weight. (Taking British
national interests into account, for all their sakes.)
MARIE returns, a telegram in hand.
MARIE
A telegram, my Lady.
BELL
What is it?

MARIE
Announcing the new High Commissioner, my Lady.
BELL
Who is it?
(snatching the telegram)
Henry Dobbs.
MARIE
Oui. Sir Henry Dobbs, my Lady.
BELL
Henry Dobbs? I have hardly heard of him. How is that
possible?
(reading the telegram)
His credits are impressiveBut his knowledge of Mesopotamia
seems pale, awfully pale. No, I cannot find demonstration
that he knows what hes walking in to this unsettles me.
They could be going in a different direction in Whitehall.
What direction? Im left outside the conversation.
Completely outside. How can they leave me out of the Iraqi
conversation when Im one who started the Iraqi
conversation?! Must I remind them who I am?
Dig back to the start. Yes, I must prepare. I need to map

it. Ill show them. Show him. Yes. Map it!
GERTRUDE clears space, gets a large paper, a

pen, maybe even a stick with chalk at the
tip on a black paper/board.
BELL
All the way back to
MARIE tries to keep up, digging for her

early letters.
MARIE
1892?
BELL
Oxford.
MARIE
Graduate of Oxford, a first in History, announced in The
Times!

BELL
Oxfordly, free of an engagement, and stuffed full of
Farsi, off I went to Tehran-
MARIE
(confirming the order of papers)
All 1892.
BELL
Did (I) start there in Persia? No.
MARIE has been looking at photographs. She

comes upon one of a German mountaineer.
MARIE
(in French)
Who is this?
BELL
A mountaineer who climbed with me to the top of the
Matterhorn. And nothing else, goodness Marie, stop
thinking of romance. He was German.
MARIE
Of course, German.
(in French)
Who else wants to climb to the top of a mountain for no
reason?
BELL
The reason is to get to the top, Marie!
MARIE
But for what, my Lady? Only to say
(in French)
I am at the top!?
MARIE
(in English)
Well, then, just say I went to the top! and save yourself
the trouble. I am glad you are too old now to Mountaineer.
I would suffer to sew you Mountaineering skirts. For this,
I could cry.
BELL
That I cant imagine. You, crying.

MARIE
We all cry, my Lady.
(in French, then again in English)
We all cry for something.
BELL
(considers, becomes blue, turns to the audience, but
speaks half to herself)
The Matterhorn
I cried for the Matterhorn once. I cried to take it, the
whole mountain, and I did take it. I took it all the way
to the top. And as I ascended there was no more crying.
(to Marie)
Im looking for the bit before 1900-
MARIE
1899, Palestine, Syria, Jerusalem-
BELL
Jerusalem! Arabic, Farsi - Five, then three, then smoke.
Five then three then smoke. Jerusalem where I got my
tongue.
MARIE
Jerusalem: 1905.
BELL
Jerusalem, where I got my saddle.
Photo of BELL on a stallion in Jerusalem.
MARIE
(reading a document of Bells)
The yellow deserts of Palestine
BELL
How old was I, 30? Yes. I bought a stallion in Jerusalem,
and rode alone into the yellow deserts of Palestine-
MARIE
(reading)
Sidesaddle on a stallion in the sands of Palestine?
BELL

Sidesaddle on a stallion in the deserts of Palestine?
Ridiculous! No, it simply doesnt work in such terrain. So
I borrowed my dear friends man-saddle-
MARIE
(reading; speaking in French)
A man saddle, so much more effective!
BELL
And it was so much more effective!
MARIE
(in French)
But your skirt!
BELL
Yes, my skirt! Yes, exactly, Marie: I found some nuns in
Palestine quite excellent seamstresses, these nuns, and
very sturdy people. I hired these nuns-
(MARIE acts as the seamstress)
-to do a split skirt for me like this.
(she sports a split-skirt, models for audience)
You see its still quite feminine.
MARIE
Oui!
(in French)
Split skirt, mans saddle, feminine, effective.
(reading from Bells notes, in English)
A mans horse saddle! Please understand, Im not one of
these suffragette types that wants to wear trousers and
pretend Im my own brother
BELL
For I am in many ways superior to my own dear brothers-
MARIE
But the visual effect
BELL
Yes, yes, the effect, I realized, was that until one got
right up close to me for a full look, why I was dressed
like an Arab man! For they wear skirts of a kind, as well!
MARIE
And so it begins.

BELL
The image that takes me to the deepest desert. I gather my
men, and we ride to Syria. Where there was no more crying.
MARIE
Syria.
BELL
SyriaI enter the ancient city of the Druzea Druze boy
approaches. His charcoal-black-lined eyes...
BELL sees MARIE as if she is the Druze Boy.
BELL
Am I to be killed?
BELL stares at MARIE. Remembering the

feeling.
BELL
I may be killed. I dont care. I dont care, for it is
worth it to see this, to be here, to see this beautiful
Druze boy.
BELL takes both of Maries hands in

hers.
BELL
I am not killed. I am held. In both hands. He takes my
hands, just like I was a Person.
A Person.
Oh, yes, oh yes, it comes flooding back.
FATTUH is there. Shift. Deep desert. The

ensemble readies.
BELL
(to audience)
With my men, Fellah, Mohammed,of the tribes Ghiyadi and
Shawam and Agail, and my faithful Fattuh. Fattuh who can
see a bird a thousand meters in the distance and smell
water with his knee-caps. Fattuh. My rifles and furs. And
little presents to smooth our way across the unknown
desert.
Where life wholly changes

Shift. As it is remembered, it comes to
life.
IMPROVISE/BUILD GREETING, COFFEE WITH SHEIK.
BELL
(to audience)
Be patient. First, coffee.
(in Arabic, re: coffee)
Good.
Strong and sweet.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
Your father is a Sheik?
BELL
(in Arabic)
Yes.
(in English)
My father is a Sheik of Northern Europe.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
Sheik of Northern Europe!
BELL
(in Arabic, to Sheik)
I am most underserving and grateful
(to the audience, in English)
And I quote an entire Hafiz poem, of which the Sheik knows
only a line, and the Sheik swells with respect. And
something even more useful: curiosity.
Read or sing a bit of the HAFIZ poem here.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
I offer you the eye of the lamb.
BELL

He offers me the eye of the lamb. This sheik, who has
never seen anyone of my skin. Nor a woman so unveiled.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
Are you made of fire? I have never seen such small bones.
Dont your bones break under the weight of your clothes?
Not if they are bones made of fire-
BELL
(translating him in English, for the audience)
He wonders if I am Fire. Red-white skin and flaming hair
from under this wrap, licking my small bones. I want to
laugh in gratitude. I want to burn for this sheik and make
him warm tonight as I drink the milk from his camel, and
eat his womens figs.
I wonder if he has seen a camera.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
I have.
BELL
(turning to him)
Would you like a portrait?
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
I would.
BELL takes a photograph.
SHEIK
(in Arabic)
Let us eat!
Milk in bowls, and figs. That is what there is to

eat tonight. Perhaps music* (MUNI alone?)
SHEIK recedes, scene shifts.
BELL
I see his womans tent. Am I woman enough, having sat with
the men, am I woman enough to sit with the woman of the
Sheik?
SHEIKs wife appears, offering BELL figs.

BELL sits next to her.
BELL
Thank you.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
It is how we treat all guests to our camp. (Keep, if in
Arabic)
BELL
(in Arabic) Thank you.
SHEIKS WIFE
Taous nods in acknowledgement.
BELL
(Arabic)
Thank you.
(in English)
Is this how you often eat? Is this how you often sing? I
want to know what it is like.
SHEIKS WIFE
(reaching out for BELLs hair; speaks in Arabic)
I want to know what it is like.
BELL
(then in English)
Tell me what it is like, to be you, here, now.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Tell me what it is like, to be a red woman.
BELL
Just the color of my hair.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Why are you here?
BELL
(in English)
To find out what is here.

SHEIKS WIFE
You want to know what is here?
BELL
And how you live in such a place.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Many times, all there is, is this that you see tonight:
Camels milk. Date.
BELL
Camels milk. Dates. This is what you eat most days.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Yes.
BELL
And these are your children?
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Some have died.
BELL
You have other children that have not survived.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Many die here.
Here, in this part of the desert, many of our babies die.
BELL
Your babies often die in this harsh land. Yet this is your
land.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Yes, our lands.
BELL
With milk, and dates.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic)
Milk, dates.

BELL
(to audience)
Yet tonight I eat eye of the lamb. The hospitality, in
such barrenness, our language does not have the music for
it. I cannot do justice to it in English.
SHEIKS WIFE
(in Arabic, reaching for Gertrudes hair)
May I touch your hair?
BELL
You may. If I may take a photograph?
BELL does. Shift to slideshow. Bells

photograph of Turkiyyeh, at Hayyil.
Arabic music. Desert.
Silent scene.
BELL
They tell me stories that stink with the smell of death.
In this place, they tell me, spilt blood is like spilt
milk.
I wonder if they are trying to impress me. Or put fear in
my heart. Or simply tell me what is true.
Shift. BELL writes. MARIE appears beside her.
BELL
(writing)
My darling. My Dear D-W. Nejd is not for the thin of skin.
I am told stories of murder, life undonethe spill of
blood, of no more consequence than spilled milk.
MARIE
(finding a paper)
Hayyil.
BELL
Then, Hayyil! Oh, Dick. As my man said: we have come to
hell. I did not think there could a darker place than
Nejd. Until we came upon the mud castle in Hayyil, with
the boy Price. For all the men of Hayyil had been killed
by each others hand.

MARIE
Abduction in Hayyil. The Times.
BELL
Abduction in Hayyil? Is that really how they phrased it?
MARIE
Oui?
BELL
Held captive for four months against my will in a world
without men. Abduction is too light and too heavy a
word. Words A frail vessel for experience.
MARIE
(in French)
I can only imagine, my Lady.
BELL
The upshot I suppose is that being held prisoner in a harem
is not something any of my colleagues can claim.
(to herself)
Gave me the inside knowledge. Ha.
(serious, out)
Critical knowledge.
SHIFT.
GERTRUDE turns to writing furiously. A

reenactment of writing to Dick in her desert
tent.
BAND plays In my Harem. BELL listens.

She speaks the lyrics.
BELL
In my harem, my harem
Theres Rosie, Josie, Posie
Wives for breakfast
Wives for supper time
Lots of fancy dancing
And it doesnt cost a dime
Because theyre slaves.
Music stops.

BELL
(to the audience)
Agen eleven to sixty-seven, cooks, scrub-maids, unadorned
and under-fed
(writing to Dick)
In Hayyil it is said a woman should leave her house on
three occasions: when conducted to the house of her
bridegroom, on the deaths of her parents, and when she goes
to her own grave. This, this is place I was held captive.
(BELL smokes, considers writing)
Overseeing the harem are eunuchs, then male slaves, divided
into ugly, stupid men, and intelligent, handsome men.
The handsome slaves can gain trusted positions. It is wise
to bring them into your trust. As well as the women, for
the are more direct, if you can gain access.
(She smokes, considers)
Which of course is only possible for another womansuch as,
Ia woman
(Beat; MARIE watches her; Bell continues)
My darling D.W.how the moon over this night does increase
my loneliness
MARIE finds a letter from Dick D.W. to

Gertrude. She begins to read a section
aloud.
MARIE
(reading an actual letter from Dick to Gertrude)
Might we have been man and woman as God made us and been
happy? I know what you felt, what you would do, and why
not-
BELL
Marie. What have you found?
(taking letter from Marie)
Might we have been man and woman as God made us and been
happy? I know what you felt, what you would do, and why
not
but still and after all you dont knowthat way lies a
great and splendid thing
But for you, all sorts of dangers.
BELL is quiet. A beat.
MARIE
(in French)

Sir Doughty should have been yours.
BELL
Please. Dont.
MARIE
(in English)
I am sorry, my Lady, but it is no less than a tragedy. Sir
Doughty was not married, not in the true way.
(in French)
He was not married in the heart. Only in the pocketbook.
Only in paper. These arrangements, they do great harm-
(in English)
Why are we arranged in patterns that have no that keep us
from our heart. Our basic humanity!
BELL
He looked at me, Marie. Dick Doughty. He saw me, a
Person. And I saw you
MARIE
(in French)
It has wrong, that you could not be together.
(in English)
To be kept from love has done you injury. And I must say
so.
BELL
Marie.
Please.
(in French)
Do not take such liberties in your speech.
MARIE
(in French)
I am sorry. You are right of course. Please forgive me, my
Lady.
MARIE has started to exit.
BELL
No. You do not need to leave. But please hear
Please see, Marie, that I have done well without?
I have done well.
Well, without. (Love)
In fact I triumphed. I was the one to map the way for our
troops to take Baghdad without being slaughtered, for I

knew the tribes, I knew the Sheiks, the watering holes, I
had seen, I had spoken the wide Arabian Horizon, and it I
that Churchill called - I was the one to draw the borders
of a country. And draw them I did.
MARIE
My noble Lady. Let us design you a skirt. A fine new dress
for your meeting with the new High Commissioner.
BELL
The new High CommissionerI am not impressed with the
current fashion in dresses, but I cannot ignore the trends,
can I. Shall we lower the waist, but keep it a bit more
tailored?
MARIE
(in French)
You will look perfect.
MARIE
(continuing, in English)
He will respect you as Commissioner Cox respected you.
BELL
I would be goats milk without you, Marie. With you, I am
like camels milk.
MARIE
Im sorry, my Lady, but you must find something else to
compare the effect of my designs.
BELL
Very well.
MARIE
And so?
BELL
Without your tailoring I am-
(in French)
but a common daisy
(in English
but with your work I become a brave little geranium.
MARIE
Geranium.
(in French)

Geranium, fine, okay.
BELL
Did I tell you of the time I saw just one, one lone
geranium flower in the most barren of deserts?
MARIE
(in French)
Yes. But you may tell me again if you want.
BELL
I could not have told you all my stories.
MARIE begins to measure Bell for the skirt.
MARIE
Mmm. Would you like to pick the fabric?
BELL
The fabric for the small battle ahead.
MARIE
The fabric to get the Lady what the Lady wants.
BELL
(in French)
One hopes.
MARIE pulls out a couple of fabric swatches.

BELL notices her papers/letters and is
distracted.
MARIE
My Lady?
BELL
I had notes from the Paris Conference.
MARIE
Yes?
BELL
The Paris Peace Conference, self-determination
MARIE

Uh-huh. My Lady, if now you will focus here? Please tell
me what you think?
BELL
Yes, yes, Ill look at it. What I need to find is the
letter I wrote with Lawrence.
MARIE
Sir T.E. Lawrence.
(in French)
An ugly yet pretty man.
BELL
On the Arab justice system, and how it must be allowed to
remain
MARIE
(showing her another fabric swatch)
What about this one?
BELL
Perhaps.
MARIE
(in French, looking at other fabric)
You are not in love with it.
BELL
This new High Commissioner Dobbs. His credits are
impressive yet his knowledge of the Arabs seems pale. I
cannot find demonstration that he knows what hes walking
in to.
MARIE shows GERTRUDE another swath of

fabric.
MARIE
(in French)
And this?
BELL
Yes. Yes, that one is good.
MARIE
(in French)
Yes, I think so.

BELL
(in French)
Good, then.
MARIE
(in English)
Good, then.
MARIE goes off to work on the sewing.
BELL
Perhaps Commissioner Dobbs will lean on me more as Oriental
Secretary than did his predecessor, given his lack of
experience. And the pressure were under from the Kurds
Mosul must not fall to the Turks. Weve so much to do so
quickly. Surely he will need my perspectives. Well.
Theres nothing one can expect these days but for nothing
to be what one expects.
UNEXPECTED MUSIC PLAYS. We are suddenly at

a political gathering. A party to welcome
High Commissioner Dobbs.
SIR HENRY DOBBS takes the stage at an

event to welcome him.
BRITISH SOCIETY WOMAN 1

High Commissioner Dobbs!

High Commissioner Dobbs!
A spattering of applause; DOBBS holds up his

hand.
DOBBS
Thank you, thank you, however, there is no need, as Ive
done nothing yet except receive my new title.

Welcome to Baghdad!
DOBBS
Why thank you. Baghdad certainly knows how to throw a
party.
BRITISH WOMAN 2

Were so very pleased
BRITISH WOMAN 1
To have you and your gracious wife in Baghdad.
BRITISH WOMAN 2
How are you finding it?
DOBBS
Warm!
Everyone laughs. Except BELL. Who smiles

from a distance.
DOBBS spots her and raises his martini glass

in acknowledgement. She raises her
cigarette, a kind of cheers as a response.
People mingle. BRITISH SOCIETY LADIES on

the scene.
BELL
(out)
Lap dogs.

Youve seen The Sheik, with Valentino?

The Sheiks abduction of a British adventuress?
BELL
At least the Sheiks of Iraq dont decorate themselves with
useless women.
DOBBS
(turning to society ladies)
Oh yes, my wife loves Valentino. Of course she does!

It does make you wonder-

If Lady Bell was the inspiration!
DOBBS

(laughing graciously with a society lady)
Of course he was superb in The Sheik. He does that dark
eyed primitive thing well.
(still in conversation with society lady)
Quite exotic.
BELL
Apparently, Im decorative tonight as well.
She steps further out from the party. Looks

up. She is outside. Perhaps we can hear
the desert night.
BELL
The endless sky
DOBBS approaches her. He holds himself with

more sloppy arrogance than his predecessor,
COX.
DOBBS
Miss Bell, what a pity weve not met earlier.
BELL
Commissioner Dobbs, I am at your service.
DOBBS
I am told you are the one that bridges this country and
ours. That you know Arabia like no other.
BELL
I am sure thats not true, but Im flattered to hear.
DOBBS
Weve much to do in Iraq, havent we.
BELL
Yes indeed.
DOBBS
Starting with this Anglo-Iraqi treaty, decorating the desks
of the Iraqi governance. Id love to hear your insights on
why it isnt yet ratified.
BELL
There are many factions, as you know, and indeed the Arab
systems of governance so greatly differ from our own-

DOBBS
Ill have to get used to the heat here, wont I.
BELL
As soon as youre used to the heat of Baghdad, it turns
quite chilly. And as soon as youre used to the night
chill, youre roasting in the light of Spring. This is a
land of extremes. We should discuss it more over tea.
Will you join me at my home? I should love to show you my
garden.
DOBBS
I would be delighted.
Party ends. Shift. Bells home. They

continue.
DOBBS
I am having an extremely hard time sitting with a Shia /
diplomat-
GERTRUDE
Yes the Shias did not receive me either, until quite
recently, as their women were not allowed to look at me
unveiled, and neither, ironically, but not to them, were
their men. So it seems I was at once too female, and too
male. A problem Ive never had with the Sunni, whose women
have provided me with some of the more blunt perspectives-
DOBBS takes something off a plate, offered

to him by MARIE.
DOBBS
(to Marie)
Quite tasty.
MARIE
Thank you, Sir.
DOBBS
(to MARIE)
You are from Paris? I hear a Parisian accent.
MARIE
Oui.

DOBBS
My favorite language for the word yes.
BELL
Do you like Paris, High Commissioner Dobbs?
DOBBS
I like Parisian bread.
MARIE
Not the wine, Commissioner Dobbs?
DOBBS
Wine, is it time for wine? Wonderful, thank you.
BELL
The Sheiks and their Headman will not tell you all you need
to hear, as they cannot say anything that could look badly
upon them, or badly on another that they by affiliation are
required to hold up.
MARIE brings wine. DOBBS partakes. BELL

looks agitated, but takes a glass.
BELL
(continuing)
Humiliation is something that must be avoided at all costs
with the Sheiks, as I am sure you know, but their women
have none of these restraints and can give a picture of
what is really happening / in the
DOBBS
This wine is certainly not from Paris. But it does have an
interesting density.
BELL
Yes, it does.
DOBBS
Faisal seems like a good chap, doesnt he.
BELL
He is good-hearted man. And quite charming as Im sure
youve noticed.
DOBBS

Yes I keep hearing Faisal, in appearance only of course,
compared to Jesus Christ!
BELL
Oh, but hes no intention of martyring himself.
Dobbs laughs.
DOBBS
No one warned me of your sense of humor.
BELL
Didnt they?
DOBBS
And how did you come to land on Faisal as the man for the
crown?
BELL
Well his ancestors can be traced to the prophet Mohammed,
which satisfies the Shiites, and the Sunni-
DOBBS
Youll really have to help me understand more why the Sunni
are so at odds with the Shia-
BELL
Its a long standing split over power. To simplify it for
you: the Shiites insist on leadership with direct bloodline
to Mohammed and the Sunnis insist on leadership thats
proven by experience, in a given tribe. Its comparable, if
you will, to monarchists versus parliamentarians, which is
why weve essentially established a constitutional monarchy
like our own.
DOBBS
Though the details of governance couldnt be more
different.
BELL
Exactly so. For the details of culture couldnt be more
divergent.
DOBB
Mmm. You think highly of Faisal?
BELL

Fondness and respect are not the same thing; I do say Im
terribly fond of the King, and my respect grows. Reliable
though he may not always appear, Ive come to see his many
pivots on the issues, well Ive come to understand those
pivots are truly ours, the Empires, more than his own.
DOBBS does not look particularly pleased.

Hesitates. Then smiles down on her.
DOBBS
You must have given him consultation on his gardens. For I
have noted an English influence. Not only European.
BELL
I consult with him on many aspects of his outward
appearance.
DOBBS
Do you? And what does Queen Faisal think of this? She
doesnt mind your involvement in his domestic affairs?
BELL
His domestic affairs create an image, Commissioner.
Domestic affairs become political affairs. As he must
project so many things to please so many people, musnt he?
DOBBS
Would you say so of yourself, as well?
BELL
Pardon?
DOBBS
Going back and forth between tribes, religions, nations-
BELL
Quite the same as yourself, surely.
DOBBS
Youre not quite the same as anyone Miss Bell.
Beat.
DOBBS
You and Sir Doughty-Wylie had some commonalities, though,
didnt you?

BELL
Pardon?
DOBBS
Well you did know Sir Doughty-Wylie well.
BELL
Yes, we were archaeologists, at the same station. He had
quite a lot of information to offer, on travel through the
Turkish-
DOBBS
Yes, exactly. Your interests rather entwined.
BELL
Yes.
DOBBS
Did you know his wife?
BELL
Yes.
DOBBS
A lovely woman. Though I hear they werent close.
BELL
(No.)
DOBBS
No. It is a pity to have lost such a man in that awful
War.
BELL
Yes.
DOBBS
A heroic deed, though, his final one.
BELL
Yes.
DOBBS
May we all end as well.
BELL
Yes indeed

BELL stumbles, slightly, from the room, out
into the open sky.
BELL
Darkness. The pure darkness of the truest desert.
It is 1924, now. We are in Gertrudes home

at tea time.
MARIE, back to being Marie, brings tea.
MARIE
My Lady.
BELL
Marie, there you are. What time is it?
MARIE
Time for tea, my Lady.
BELL
Is that all youll give me.
MARIE
(in French)
Teatime.
BELL
Teatime in Baghdad
MARIE
Pardon? Is there something else / you?
BELL
Lets smoke before tea.
(in French)
Shall we?
MARIE
Oui.
MARIE and GERTRUDE smoke.
MARIE
A letter has come. From your father.

BELL
Has it.
MARIE
Would you like it?
BELL
What does it say.
MARIE
I dont read your letters, My Lady.
BELL
Well you should start.
MARIE
My Lady.
BELL
Oh, go on, open it. He might as well be your Father, too.
MARIE
But he is not my Father, my Lady.
BELL
Well, open it because I said so, then.
MARIE opens the letter.
BELL
What does he say?
MARIE
He wonders when you will come home.
BELL
Home? I am home.
MARIE
And something about how The Business is going.
GERTRUDE takes the letter from her, reads it

quickly.
BELL

If I have any more bad news I shall simply sleep until life
is over altogether. What a selfish reaction. Im sorry.
Its very worrisome, this Labour party, poor Fathers
businessseems the whole world keeps changing shape.
MARIE
Why dont I see if they have some Haji Badah.
BELL
No, dont go. Stay for a moment, will you?
MARIE
Of course, my lady.
BELL
Marie? Where do you call home?
MARIE
(in French; like what the fuck)
What?
(in English)
My home is here with you, my Lady.
BELL
You consider Baghdad home? You dont miss Paris?
MARIE
It does not matter if I miss it or not.
GERTRUDE
Do you regret following me to Baghdad?
MARIE
If I regretted Baghdad, I could leave Baghdad, could I not?
GERTRUDE
Could you?
MARIE
Would you forbid it?
GERTRUDE
Certainly. But seriously, now, Marie, Im asking you.
Would you have a home, in Paris, now, after following my
mother to London, after following me to Baghdad? Would
Paris be your home?

MARIE
No. No, I think it would not.
GERTRUDE
Do our homes wash away like sand in the sea, once were not
in them anymore?
MARIE
For some, I think not. For us, I think so.
GERTRUDE
For us For usyes. Yes, Marie, yes.
Sands, shift.
Shift.
RADIO VOICE/ PROPOGANDA FILM. DOBBS poses

for cameras as he is announced, BELL joins
him as she is announced.
NEWS ANNOUNCER/PROPOGANDA FILM

High Commissioner Sir Henry Dobbs, with the ratified Anglo-
Iraqi treaty! And there, the Lady Oriental Secretary,
author of exotic travel books! With the triumphant Sir
Henry Dobbs - a strong, sure hand for the Empire!
Pose, wave, camera-click.
Shift. Party of British-Iraqi elite.

Oh, Commissioner Dobbs!
BELL
(to audience)
Baghdad. Still, Baghdad. 1924, if you can believe. I can,
though hardly. To be still, in Baghdad.
IRAQI MAN
(from the sidelines, calling to Bell)
Al-Khatun!
BELL

They call me.
DOBBS approaches BELL at the party,

playfully
DOBBS
Khatun!
BELL
Commissioner Dobbs. Its a good night for a ratified
treaty, isnt it.
DOBBS
Indeed!

I confess I rather like these-

Exotic cocktails!
BELL
I may. Lap dogs.
DOBBS
Arent you drinking?
BELL
I may.
DOBBS
I wouldnt think youd go strictly Moslem on us.
BELL
Pardon me?
DOBBS
You should try these cocktails, theyre quite good.
BELL takes a cocktail.
DOBBS
Now youre on the trolley!
(beat)
DOBBS

Were starting to look quite official here, arent we.
BELL
Ratified and bow-tied.
DOBBS
Mission accomplished.
BELL
Not quite.
DOBBS
Its wonderful how your archeological endeavors continue.
How you talked us into opening a museum!
BELL
Well, it was Faisal-
DOBBS
Yes, soon a National Museum of Iraq! I look forward to the
opening ceremonies.
BELL
(to the audience)
Ceremonies, indeed! Ribbon cuttings seem to be his primary
concern.
DOBBS
(to the party)
Yes, she does need to stay busy, doesnt she.
BELL is out to the audience, and DOBBS to

the party/the room/the audience, throughout
this scene.
BELL
Never mind that he is eroding the trust Sir Percy and I so
carefully built with the Sheiks.
DOBBS
With the oil profits, yes, a good investment. Though
Iraq is still a burden in many respects.
BELL
The transference of power will unburden Britain, / in due
time.

DOBBS
Transference of power, yes I have heard her use that phrase
before. You neednt worry. That is not the route well
take.
BELL
He is wholly unfamiliar with this terrain!
DOBBS
She must surely concede my superior knowledge of the
political terrain.
BELL
A dog. Follower, not a leader.
DOBBS
Of course its all very delicate. We must keep a tighter
hold than ever.
BELL
(almost to herself)
A tight hold on delicate matters? Will he and the rest of
them risk breaking-?
(out to audience)
The British Empire will suffer as the Ottoman Empire did
before it, and in that case deservedly so! For we should
learn from what we witness, we should learn from history.
DOBBS
History is, as they say, history.
BELL
Does he then advocate the strategy of bombing for
friendly cooperation?
DOBBS
These people do not know what a government is, so how are
they supposed to govern one?
BELL
Does he want us to be in a position to constantly repress
uprisings? For that is where he is leading us. Bomb them
to bits to keep the peace?
DOBBS
Theyve no history of nationhood.

BELL
Arab self-determination is /critical to British success-
DOBBS
Surely you can see that without us theyd be ripping each
other apart. Theyve no loyalty but to their tribal
circle, /sometimes not even that-
BELL
All we have really done here, thus far, is to prop up a
scarecrow of a government. If the scarecrow is not soon
inhabited by something of flesh and bone, the masses will
see that its not real.
DOBBS turns to Bell directly now.
DOBBS
No one can argue your contributions, Miss Bell. Indeed,
theyre your borders.
BELL
Im not regretting the borders Ive drawn, if thats what
youre implying.
DOBBS
Ive no need to imply anything.
BELL
No, Im not regretting them. I cant regret them.
(out to us, defensive)
There was a choice, as the War played out. Either you make
a tiny little country of one tribe, too small to protect
itself or you group the tribes together, a size that can
actually protect itself.
(to us, and to Dobbs now)
Weve been asked to prop up a meaningful looking person in
a meaningful looking position and we have. But this
scarecrow can fool crows for so long-
DOBBS
Id no idea there were crows in Baghdad. This is quite an
education.
BELL
Theres no getting out of the conclusion that we have
made an immense failure here.

DOBBS, amused and aghast, turns back
to the party.
DOBBS
Immense failure?

A success!

The partys quite a success, indeed.
BELL
I have not come to this position lightly.
DOBBS
(again to the party)
At least she still dresses as a British gentle-Lady.
BELL
At first look, I too, saw nothing of a political will or
power of central leadership among the Arabs. However, /
upon living amongst the people
DOBBS
You should see her gardens. If they impress my wife,
surely theyll impress yours. Its quite soothing, such a
garden in Baghdad.
BELL
Self-determination is both reasonable and in the best
interests of the Empire.
DOBBS laughs with the band.
BELL speaks over The Band, to the audience.
BELL
Both Sir T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia they call him,
both of us came to be known in Syria as-
DOBBS laughs loudly, too loudly, to the

Band.
BELL
Lawrence and I had a swim in the Euphrates together, once-

DOBBS notices her story, and turns to the
party goers. They compete for the partys
attention.
DOBBS
Oh, yes, Lawrence is a real character. He runs around
dressing like them now. The head wrap and /everything.
BELL
Keffiyah
DOBBS
Quite impressive.
BELL
Sir Lawrence understands that if you are to wear any Arab
attire at all, it must be fine, and it must be done all the
way.
DOBBS
Once, when I was in Cairo, Sir /Lawrence-
BELL
I was the one who taught Lawrence to tie the keffiyah in
such a manner as to truly keep the sand from the ears. For
I had traveled in deeper deserts than even he.
DOBBS
I was once a boxer.
BELL
I was once a mountaineer. Perhaps youve heard of the
Matterhorn.
DOBBS
(confidentially, to another man at the party)
I expect there would be much hair once you get above the
ankle-bone--
BELL
I expect he doesnt know how tie a keffiyeh. Sand. The
ears. It gets in there.
DOBBS
Though I hear she can ride the hell out of a camel.
BELL

Alright.
A bit buzzed, and feeling pretty good about

his relationship with the audience, DOBBS
eyes MARIE who is coming through with a
plate of cocktails.
DOBBS
I quite like those cocktails.
BELL
Rosewater.
DOBBS
(to Marie)
A Rose!
BELL
I learned the recipe in Tehran.
DOBBS
Ah, thats right. Persia, too. So many places. Didnt you
do a book of Hafiz poems?
BELL
Yes. Yes, I did.
DOBBS
My wife loves it. Ill have to read it for myself.
BELL
You may certainly pass on my Hafiz translations, and read
/my papers
DOBBS
I am told they are no mere translation. That theres real
passion in them.
BELL takes a cocktail. Downs it.
The BAND plays a lively gig. Everyone gets

down. With the exception of Gertrude.
MARIE looks with some admiration at DOBBS.
BELL notices.
We spin into a surreal scene- DOBBS plays at

being Valentino, in The Sheik. MARIE

becomes the heroine, wearing one of Bells
hats, Dobbs with the headwear of Fattuh
DOBBS chases MARIE around the stage, a wild,

primitive Arab, sexually out of control,
MARIE a semi-willing and shocked victim of
his urges. DOBBS climaxes with singing the
Sheik of Araby.
Shift.
GERTRUDE summons the memory of Fattuh.
We are transported from the grotesque into a

gentle, sad, truth.
BELL
What times are we living in, Fattuh? Just as I get a sense
of our time it changes on me.
FATTUH
You are part of changing it, al-Khatun.
BELL
Please. Dont call me that. Not today. Today I feel at the
mercy of everything.
FATTUH
Today then you are living in reality.
BELL
Ive no intention of living in reality if this is what its
like.
FATTUH
I could live through what the Ottomans did to me for being
your guide, your hand. You can live through some insults
from your Countrymen.
BELL
(realizing)
Fattuh!
FATTUH and BELL in the desert now. FATTUH

sees a storm in the distance.

FATTUH
A sand storm is coming.
BELL
(to the audience)
One must breathe so carefully in such as storm, or one will
suffocate.
FATTUH
You will not suffocate. Wrap yourself, nose, mouth-
BELL
Were all suffocating here, Im afraid. And Father wants me
to come to London for Christmas!
FATTUH
Eid!
BELL
Yes, Ive come to prefer the parties of Eid, the whole
roasted sheep, goats, pungent camels milk Oh Fattuh. I
have put myself in between worlds, havent I. So that now
theres no world at all?
FATTUH
There is just one world
BELL
Fattuh
FATTUH
The Germans, the French, the Turkish, all of you-
BELL
Im sorry, Fattuh.
FATTUH
You are all sorry for war.
BELL
A sandstorm coming, and Father wants me at Christmas-
MARIE
Christmas in London, yes
BELL
Marie, you can hear me?

MARIE
Always, my Lady.
BELL
Thank god for that. The two who stand by me, truly beside
me.
MARIE/FATTUH
You pay me to stand by you, My Lady.
BELL
You cant pay for real loyalty.
MARIE
You can pay for a life.
FATTUH
If you pay me to be loyal, I am loyal.
BELL
Fattuh.
FATTUH
Until the end.
BELL
Fattuh, I cannot lose you. Have I lost you? Where are
you?
FATTUH
Syria.
BELL
Let me see you.
She sees him. He is old, impoverished, a

bit broken.
BELL
Im so very sorry. So very sorry you were punished for
being my friend.
FATTUH
Not friend

BELL
In my employ. I owe my life to you.
FATTUH
Life, I still have. Little else.
BELL
Your homes? Your son?
FATTUH shakes his head.
BELL
They took everything from him. They tortured him, they
stripped him of his land, his houses, he should be living
like a Lord. Lord Fattuh! Lives like a dog on the street,
his wife, who should be a Lady of the finest, in rags.
FATTUH
We are fine.
BELL
Its not fine. Marie, get my purse. I dont have what I
used to Fattuh, but Ill give you all that I can afford.
FATTUH
Thank you, Miss Bell.
BELL
Lord Fattuh. You must find a nice home with a garden. Will
you please make sure it has a garden?
FATTUH
(in Arabic)
If God wills it.
BELL
(in Arabic, the same)
If God wills it.
BELL
May there be geraniums for you, Lord Fattuh.
FATTUH fades off, BELL is sitting, worn,

with MARIE.

BELL
Geraniums
Marie, I do not know if I have done the right thing.
MARIE
You did for Fattuh the best you could do.
BELL
Did I?
MARIE
It seems so.
BELL
He was tortured, those damned Ottomans, the man was never
political, he he-
MARIE
We are all at the mercy of our times.
BELL
Why youre talking as if we have no control over our
destinies, Marie. As if theres no such thing as self-
determination.
MARIE
I am just a maid, my Lady. You are the one who shapes
herself, with determination-
BELL
Shaped what have I
Perhaps I have done too much. Maybe I have done too much.
Perhaps all that I have done can be turned, (against them)
In parallel to BELL and MARIE, DOBBS can be

seen talking chummily with the band. The
BAND is fanning themselves, smiling at
DOBBS.
Its gotten later: late Spring, 1926.
BELL fans herself with some of her papers.
BELL
(to audience)
1926? 1926 now. How time flattens and rushes on.
Its getting hot. Summer in Baghdad. The city will empty.

(to herself)
Maybe I, with it
BELL looks out, to her Baghdad.
IRAQI MAN
(faintly)
Al-Khatun!
BELL
(this time with the weight of it)
That is what they call me. Queen
MARIE enters.
MARIE
Al-Khatun! I hear them call you, my Lady.
MARIE brings Gertrude her tea.

We are now in Gertrudes home.
BELL
(vaguely, to herself)
A Person
MARIE
Person, my Lady?
BELL
Oh.
(sees that MARIE has tea)
Tea-time. Of course. Time for tea.
Thank you, Marie.
MARIE
(in French)
Would you like your medicine?
BELL
(in French)
Not yet. No, thank you.
(in English)
Have we any Haji Badah?

MARIE
(in French)
With extra cardamom. Oui, my Lady.
BELL
Good. Haji Badah will be good.
BELL is fanning herself with her papers.
BELL
And now it is truly summer.
(calling to MARIE)
You dont hate me for not fleeing the heat of Baghdad, do
you Marie? Please dont hate me (for it)
MARIE doesnt hear her.
BELL
Only the peasants remain
The servants
Servant of the Empire.
Servant of the State.
MARIE
Your book, my Lady?
(in French)
My Lady, shall we work on your book?
BELL
Mmm.
MARIE
It is not time for you to finish?
BELL
Yes, well.
The only things worth saying are the things I cannot say.
MARIE watches her mistress carefully.

Perhaps we hear Dobbs with the band:
DOBBS
A conceited, gushing, flat-chested, man-woman, globe-
trotting, rumpwagging, blethering ass! I didnt have to
say it. It was Sykes!

DOBBS laughs with the band. GERTRUDE
twitches.
DOBBS
Is there any pretense that she represents the interests of
Britain? Shes more Baghdadi than Brit at her own
admission.
Shift. A Difficult Nostalgia.
BELL
Balls, /tea parties, sporting events - tea parties,
sporting events polo and the Royal Ascot-
DOBBS
I dont know what kind of Englishwoman she ever was, or was
capable of being, but she has certainly become something
unrecognizable as English now. I imagine they would throw
rose petals at her coffin, give her a Queens funeral, if
heaven forbid she were to die. For the Arabs are convinced
that she sees them, as they are, for who they are. Is that
what they get from her? Seems such as small thing.
BELL
and the annual Royal Ascot as well as other functions-
before I am presented by Queen Victoria. Shes getting on
in yearsthe Queen.
To find me a husband
MUSIC shift. A caravan waft, sense of wind

and desert sands. BELL thinks of Sir
Doughty-Wylehe appears to her, in memory.
BELL
Find mea Person.
DOUGHTY (BELL)
Gertie.
BELL
Dont call me that.
DOUGHTY (BELL)
Im sorry.
BELL
No, Im sorry. Please, Dick.
DOUGHTY (BELL)
Are you surviving the weather, darling?
BELL
The weather. Ha

DOUGHTY (BELL)
Of course. You survive it all. Surmount it.
BELL
The way you look at me.
DOUGHTY (BELL)
How do I look at you
BELL
Like you see.
DOUGHTY (BELL)
Mmm.
BELL
And thatsyes, that is what it is. To be seen. For all
the pieces that you are, whole. Not the pieces laid upon
you by Society. No borders That is what it is
DOUGHTY (BELL)
To be a Person.
BELL is not feeling well

Beat.
BELL
(a sudden panic)
Marie. Marie, are you there?
MARIE
I am here, my Lady.
BELL
What time is it?
MARIE
Past tea. You didnt drink it.
BELL
Oh. I suppose
MARIE
Are you feeling well enough?
BELL
Enough thats quite a concept, isnt it Marie? What is
enough. Enough for what for whom for when. Well I think
its enough tea.
MARIE
Yes, my Lady.

BELL
I fear you must resent me, Marie. For chaining you to this
enormous heat.
MARIE
You cannot travel, for your health-
BELL
Oh what health, nothing is wrong with me that I cant sleep
off.
MARIE
This heat will pass. It all will pass.
BELL
Yes
BELL
Marie?
MARIE
My Lady?
MARIE
Is he really still quite gone?
MARIE
Who, my Lady?
Beat. A long Silence.
BELL
You do know me, Marie.
You have seen me, havent you, Marie?
You have seen me as a Person
To only imagine a thing you want. It is hard, isnt it.

But no, no, no it is but a small ache compared to the rip
of pain at having that thing you want, that thing you need,
right in hand, only to watch it shrivel and die. Isnt it
worse than never having it at all?
MARIE
Oui.
BELL
Is that what were doing here, Marie

Is that what were doing
MARIE
Would you like your sleeping medicine, my Lady?
BELL
Yes. You can just leave it right there. Ill ready myself
for bed. Please wake me promptly tomorrow, Marie.
MARIE
Yes, my Lady.
BELL
Yes
A swim in the Euphrates. My dear river
MARIE
My Lady. Please
BELL
What is it, Marie?
MARIE
You know the dose, to sleep, what the doctor said, My Lady?
BELL
Thank you, Marie.
MARIE slowly leaves her mistress.
BELL
Yes, a swim in the Euphrates.
My big swell of a river
Yes.
Yes, first thing tomorrow.
Before it gets too hot.
END OF PLAY.

Eye of The Lamb. 2.18.16

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Eye of The Lamb. 2.18.16

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EYE OF THE LAMB

A play by Trista Baldwin

based on the life of Gertrude Bell

GERTRUDE BELL The British explorer responsible for

MARIE Bells French maid and seamstress.

KING FAISAL 1 The first King of Iraq. Prior to Iraq,

PERCY COX British High Commissioner of Iraq.

FATTUH Gertrudes lead man / guide through her

HENRY DOBBS Replaces Percy Cox as British High

STEPMOTHER, FATHER, SHEIK, FATTEYUH, SHEIKS WOMEN

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 1

We are in a Baghdadi caf, which is

A Baghdadi band plays: Jewish, Arab,

GERTRUDE BELL is sitting and singing

Gertrude eventually notices the

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 3

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 4

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

ARAB 1 leans towards BELL, affectionately.

The band plays a tune popular oriental

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 1

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 5

SIR PERCY COX appears in the crowd. He sees

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 6

BELL spies a plate of her favorite cookies.

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 7

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 8

He takes a Haji Badah. Its good.

BRITISH SOCIETY LADY 2

COX exits, PARTY swirls. BELL thinks to

TWO SHEIKS approach her. They have Bells

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 9

Shift. Party is dispersing. BELL is on the

The street. Members of the ensemble lift

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 10

BELL is carried to FAISAL with great

FAISAL and BELL greet each other warmly. FAISAL

SOUND of a newsreel: NEWS ANNOUNCER in a

NEWS ANNOUNCER/PROPAGANDA FILM

BELL and FAISAL wave for the press.

SOUND of cameras flashing. BELL and FAISAL pose

At last they are alone. Privacy.

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 11

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 12

They shift to speaking in Arabic.

BELL turns to FAISAL, staring into him.

Scene swirls, (eventually to BELLs home in

We are now in Gertrudes drawing room.

2.15.16 Workshop Production Draft 13

BELL notices that MARIE is standing by with