MADE BY GOD

By Ciara Ni Chuirc

Draft 10/11/2021

Represented by:
Chris Till
Phone: (212) 506-0750
Email: ctill@vervetla.com
 Characters:

ANN (14/15)
Irish. Witty. Headstrong. Can hold her own.

YOUNG RICKY (16/17)

English, raised in Ireland. Sweet. Mild. Trying his best.

EVA (30s)
Mexican-American. Observant. Tense. Thinks carefully before she speaks.

RICKY (50s)
English, raised in Ireland. Kind. Cautious. Stumbles over his words sometimes.

THE VIRGIN MARY

A statue. Ageless. Infinite.

ISABEL (15)
(played by the actor playing ANN)
Scared. Trying to reach out for help but doesn’t know how to.
Setting: Co. Dublin, Ireland
Granard, Co. Longford, Ireland

Time: Early 2018

1983-84

Notes: An ellipsis (“…”) is not a pause, it’s a space for a character to give a reaction, or
gesture, or move about the stage.

A slash (/) indicates the moment at which one character interrupts another.

Square brackets [ ] indicate the rest of a line that’s being cut off by another
character, or a thought that’s cut off.
 PROLOGUE

EVA walks onstage and over to a desk. On

the desk, there’s a laptop, two USB
microphones, and a pair of over-ear
headphones.

EVA puts the headphones on and presses

some keys. As she listens, she opens a bottle
of pills and takes a few, without water. She
presses pause.

She puts on the headphone again, types on

the computer for a few moments. She leans
into the microphone.

EVA
This is a test.
This is a test.

She presses a key – and her voice plays

back.

EVA (V.O)
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test…

As her voice echoes, the lights dim. When

they come up again, EVA is gone.

This desk remains visible throughout. Red

lights on the microphones indicate that
they’re recording. They are recording
throughout the Ann and Ricky scenes.

ANN LOVETT (14) lays on the ground in

the Grotto of Our Lady, Co. Granard, 1983.

There’s a steep rocky wall behind her. In a

nook of the wall is a statue of the VIRGIN
MARY. Her eyes are closed.

Ann is laying with her head in YOUNG

RICKY’s lap.

1
 SCENE ONE

ANN lies with her head in RICKY’s lap.

They look at the stars. He plays with her

hair.

ANN
Ricky?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah?

ANN
…nothin’.

They look at the stars.

The VIRGIN MARY wakes up, as if from a
long sleep. She listens and reacts to their
conversation.

ANN
Ricky?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah?

ANN
…nothin’.

The VIRGIN MARY is very annoyed by

this. They look at the stars.

YOUNG RICKY
Ann?

ANN
Yeah?

YOUNG RICKY
…nothin’.

VIRGIN MARY
Oh for fuck’s sake.

2
 ANN and RICKY grin dopily.

ANN
Ricky?

RICKY
Yeah?

ANN
Got a question for ya.

RICKY
Mm.

ANN
What would you do if I got pregnant?

YOUNG RICKY
…are you pregnant?

ANN
Nah. But if I was, like.

YOUNG RICKY
This definitely isn’t your way of telling me you’re pregnant?

ANN
(laughing) I’m not!

YOUNG RICKY
We’ve been responsible, like. I’ve been pulling out.

VIRGIN MARY
Christ.

ANN
Ricky I’m really not!

YOUNG RICKY
Except that one time. But that was an accident.
And the other time. But that was an accident too.
But you said it was grand, like.

ANN
I’m not! It’s just a hypothetical. I’m just wonderin’, like.

3
 YOUNG RICKY
Oh, a hypothetical. I don’t know.
I guess… you could bring the baby and we could live in mam’s house.

ANN
Did she send you the key?

YOUNG RICKY
No. But… maybe she would if we were having a baby. We’d probably need a house and all.

ANN
D’you miss her?

YOUNG RICKY
Nah, not really.

ANN
D’you think she’d be annoyed?

RICKY considers this.

YOUNG RICKY
I don’t know if it would be her favourite thing I had ever done, like.

ANN
Mmm.
What would it be like? Living in the house.

YOUNG RICKY
Eh. It would be… very nice.

ANN
Ricky!

YOUNG RICKY
What?

ANN
Describe it, paint me a picture!

YOUNG RICKY
But it would be nice.

ANN
Nice!

4
 YOUNG RICKY
What’s your problem with nice?

ANN
You can’t just say it would be very nice, what would it be like?

YOUNG RICKY
Let’s see.
Let’s see.
(laboriously) We’d have… we would have pink velvet curtains. Like the ones in that film you
liked.

ANN
Is that it?

YOUNG RICKY
I’m thinkin’.

ANN
Not much of a house. Just an empty house with pink curtains, brilliant so.

RICKY
I’m thinkin’ I said.

ANN
We’d have everything pink. Pink carpet, pink sofa. Pink pots and pans. A pink baby. And I’d
wear a pink apron and pink slippers – fluffy pink slippers that is – and I’d make you dinner every
night.

YOUNG RICKY
Oh yeah? What would you make?

ANN
Emm… rabbit. Anything you caught.

YOUNG RICKY
We go lamping hares not rabbits.

ANN
Hare then. Hare, rabbit, what’s the difference?

YOUNG RICKY
(seriously) Hares are usually larger than rabbits, and their / ears are longer –

ANN
Ricky, you’re so literal.

5
 YOUNG RICKY
Oh right.
Grand so.
Rabbit or hare stew, yum.
In the pink house.

ANN
Did I say stew?

YOUNG RICKY
Sure what else would you make with a hare.

ANN
A nice sandwich.

YOUNG RICKY
That sounds disgustin.

ANN
Listen you’ll eat what I cook you, hm? You’d be lucky I’d be cookin’ for you at all, what with
me being so busy with the baby and all.

YOUNG RICKY
Maybe I’d look after the baby and you’d go out and catch the hares. Or you’d be an artist and
you’d be out at art shows sellin’ paintings and I’d watch you on the telly.

ANN
They don’t show paintings on the telly.

YOUNG RICKY
They’d show yours. Me and the baby would watch at home and say, there’s Ann’s paintings on
the telly.

ANN
All right all right. So you’d be in the pink velvet house with the pink baby, and I’d be selling my
paintings of hares on the TV. Grand so.

YOUNG RICKY
Hares or rabbits. No one would be sure which you’d painted.

ANN slaps him playfully.

YOUNG RICKY
It’d be like one of those optical illusions on / the cereal boxes, y’know –

6
 ANN
(laughing) Shut up!

They look at the stars.

RICKY is mulling something over.

YOUNG RICKY
You’re definitely not pregnant?

ANN
Ricky! No!

YOUNG RICKY
You would tell me if you were, wouldn’t you?

ANN
Course I would.

YOUNG RICKY
Good.
What would you do really?

ANN
I’d go up to my cousin in Dublin. She’d know what to do.

They look at the stars.

YOUNG RICKY
If you… if you had to go over to England or anythin’, I’d give you the money.
Just so you know.
Or I’d go with you if you want.
Whatever you wanted, like.

ANN
Thanks, Ricky.

They hold hands.

ANN
(dreamily) Ricky?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah.

ANN
Write me a letter.

7
 RICKY smiles. He thinks about it for a
minute.

YOUNG RICKY
Dear Ann.
I’m just sitting here staring at the stars, a beautiful girl lying with her head in my lap.
I’ve been very busy and very stressed and very tired, but soon as I saw her alla that melted away.
I wish you could see how lovely it is here.
Love, Ricky.

He raises ANN’s hand to his lips and kisses

it.

Suddenly he shakes his head. ANN does not

react.

He speaks out.

YOUNG RICKY
Sorry… I, um. I don’t know if this is even helpful. Or relevant.

EVA (V.O.)
No, no, it’s all, it definitely gives me a sense of what she was like, what you were like at the
time. Whatever you want to talk about is helpful.

YOUNG RICKY
Oh, okay. I just don’t want to waste your time, you know.

EVA (V.O)
You’re not wasting my time! It’s great.

YOUNG RICKY gets up.

ANN takes a copybook out of her red

schoolbag and starts drawing in it.

EVA (V.O)
What was with the letters?

YOUNG RICKY
Oh, it was just a thing we did where we’d pretend we were writing a letter to the other.
You know.
Kind of a cute silly thing between us.
Like she’d say “Dear Ricky” and I’d say “Dear Ann,” and then just write a letter. Or say a letter,
really.

8
 EVA (V.O)
That’s very sweet.
All of this is great, Ricky, it really is.

YOUNG RICKY
It was great. I loved her to bits.

He looks at ANN.

YOUNG RICKY
I was devastated when we broke up. I just didn’t see it coming – it as so sudden, everything felt,
everything was perfect. And then suddenly she started drawing back from me.

EVA (V.O)
Why don’t you tell me about that?

A transition.

The VIRGIN MARY addresses the

audience.

INTERLUDE

VIRGIN MARY
Picture a girl.
She turned fourteen in April.
She lives in a small town, less than a thousand people live there. They’re a community. Everyone
knows everyone’s name. Everyone knows everyone’s business, though they try to keep their
noses out of it. Everyone knows that Maureen Taylor is in a wheelchair because her husband
pushed her down the stairs, but what they say is: isn’t he a great man for looking after her.
That kind of town.
The girl was born in 1968.
She’s the third youngest of nine children, God Bless her mother.
They live above the Copper Pot, a bar on the main street of this town. It doesn’t seem to open
much.
The girl goes to the local school. Her favorite subjects are English and Art.
She seems, for want of a better word, pretty happy.
She is intelligent.
She’s also loving and caring and kind.
It’s summer now, it’s 1983.
Within a year, the girl will be dead.

9
 SCENE TWO

Enter YOUNG RICKY.

YOUNG RICKY
Hey! Ann! Hey!

ANN
Hi, Ricky, what.

YOUNG RICKY
Just - haven’t seen you around in a little while is all.

ANN shrugs. She flicks her hair over her

shoulders, left and then right.

ANN
Haven’t felt much like it.

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah well, we’re all missing ya.

ANN
Sure.
What?
I’ve been busy.

She wraps her arms around her knees.

YOUNG RICKY
I’m missin ya.

ANN shrugs. She gets up.

ANN
Ricky, listen, I have to go –

YOUNG RICKY
Ann hey listen - if I did, I dunno if I did anything that upset ya or said something wrong or
somethin I’m really sorry like.

ANN
Okay.

YOUNG RICKY
Is everything alright? With your / Dad like -

10
 ANN
You didn’t do anythin Ricky. I’ve got / to -

YOUNG RICKY
Was it the pool?

ANN
Was it which?

YOUNG RICKY
Was it because I kept beating you in pool? Because I could let you / win, like –

ANN
No it wasn’t the –
Were you letting me win?
Like when I did win was it because you were letting me?

YOUNG RICKY
No! No! Of course not.

ANN
Were you? Because you know I hate that. I’m good enough to beat you. And I’m not going to get
any better if you’re letting me win.

YOUNG RICKY
You are good enough to beat me and all, did I say that you weren’t?

ANN
Why are you talking about I could let you win so?

YOUNG RICKY
I don’t know.

ANN
Why would I be upset about something like that anyway?

YOUNG RICKY
So you are upset.

ANN
I’m not.

YOUNG RICKY
But – you just said [why would I be upset] –

11
 ANN
I’m not upset, it’s nothing.

YOUNG RICKY
Is it because…

ANN looks at him with dread. The VIRGIN

MARY looks at him too.

YOUNG RICKY
Y’know.

ANN
I don’t.

YOUNG RICKY
You’ve… put on… a bit… of…

She stares him down.

VIRGIN MARY
Don’t say it.

YOUNG RICKY
… weight.

ANN
Ohhhh! Ohhhh!

VIRGIN MARY
Idiot.

YOUNG RICKY
Sorry – sorry - !

ANN
How dare you say that to me! Never say that to me! Never say that to any woman!

YOUNG RICKY
Sorry! I didn’t – well – you look, you look great. You could weigh twenty stone and you’d still
look great.

VIRGIN MARY
For fuck’s sake.

12
 ANN
Twenty stone! Twenty stone? How would I put on twenty stone? What am I going to do, eat ten
bags of chips a day?

YOUNG RICKY
Ah – Jesus – ah – no – God – you’d never put on twenty stone anyway – I was just saying if you
did – but no you / wouldn’t anyway -

ANN
Unbelievable.

YOUNG RICKY
Sorry, Ann. I’m a real gobshite.

ANN
That’s the truth.
(off his look) Ah, Ricky you’re not a gobshite at all.

YOUNG RICKY
Well – I’ve just –
I’ve been thinking about you a lot.

ANN
Okay, Ricky.

YOUNG RICKY
I don’t want you to think that –

ANN
What?

YOUNG RICKY
I just, I don’t want you to think that, that I haven’t been thinking about you. Is all.
Because I have.
And just –
If I did anythin’ that upset you I wanted to say that I’m / really sorry, Ann –

She flicks her hair over her shoulders, left

and then right.

ANN
(shrugs) It doesn’t matter.

YOUNG RICKY
That’s not a very nice thing to say.

13
 ANN
You’re right.
I’m the one who’s sorry, Ricky.

YOUNG RICKY
What do you mean?

ANN shrugs.

YOUNG RICKY
Sure you’ve nothing to be sorry for.

ANN
I do.

ANN looks like she might cry.

YOUNG RICKY
D’you want to go and get some chips or something?

ANN
I don’t think so. Watching my figure, aren’t I.

They both laugh a little.

YOUNG RICKY
Are we broken up?

ANN
What do you think?

YOUNG RICKY
Alright.
Well.
I’m sorry if I did something.

ANN
Ricky.
You didn’t do anything.

He waits for her to say more. She doesn’t.

YOUNG RICKY
Then why?

ANN shakes her head.

14
 YOUNG RICKY
I’d just like to know.
I mean –
Obviously I can’t force you to tell me. And I’m sure you have a good reason. You always have
good reasons for everything you do.
I really – I just didn’t think we’d break up. Maybe that was stupid of me.
But… yeah.
If I did something I’d like to know.

ANN
You didn’t.
I’m telling you, you didn’t.

YOUNG RICKY
Well. I’m sorry all the same. If it was the pool or if / it was something I said –

ANN
I already said it wasn’t the pool.
And you know what, I don’t believe you were letting me win, I think I was pretty good.

YOUNG RICKY
You were.
You were brilliant.
Pause.

ANN
Well... it’s beside the point anyway.

YOUNG RICKY
Well what’s the point then?

ANN
Nothin. There’s no point.

YOUNG RICKY
No point to what?

ANN
To anythin. I’ve got to go.

YOUNG RICKY
Ann –

He tries to catch her arm.

15
 ANN
Don’t touch me!

He draws back.

YOUNG RICKY
I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry, Ann.

ANN
It’s fine.
I overreacted.
I don’t know – I’m a little touchy these days, I guess.

YOUNG RICKY
You / didn’t [overreact] –

ANN
Stop being so fuckin’ nice, Ricky.

YOUNG RICKY
Ann –

But she’s gone.

RICKY looks after her, then looks up at the

VIRGIN MARY. She’s impassive.

He rubs his forehead. He sits down. He

seems like he might cry. Tries not to.

EVA (V.O)
That’s terrible.

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah.

EVA (V.O)
But I guess… at the time, you didn’t know.

YOUNG RICKY
No. I just thought she’d put on a bit of weight.

EVA (V.O)
When was the last time you saw her?

16
 YOUNG RICKY gets up.

YOUNG RICKY
It would have been either Stephen’s Night in 1983 –

EVA (V.O)
Stephen’s Night?

YOUNG RICKY
The day after Christmas. Either then, or New Year’s Eve going into 1984.

EVA (V.O)
New Year’s Eve? She’d have been eight months pregnant at that point.

YOUNG RICKY
I know.

EVA (V.O)
And you didn’t –

YOUNG RICKY
Like I said, I was stupid.

EVA (V.O)
Were you stupid or did you just not want to know?

YOUNG RICKY
I don’t know how I didn’t – I just don’t know.

He puts his hand to his heart as if it’s

hurting him. The VIRGIN MARY makes the
same gesture simultaneously.

YOUNG RICKY
I wish I had done everything differently.
I wish I had been anyone other than myself.

EVA (V.O)
Don’t say that.
Have some compassion for yourself.

YOUNG RICKY
I don’t know what else to say.

17
 EVA(V.O)
You were just a kid.

YOUNG RICKY
So was she.

EVA (V.O)
When you saw her on – Stephen’s Night, was that what you said?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah. Either then or New Year’s Eve.

EVA (V.O)
So that’s either December 26th or 31st.

YOUNG RICKY
That’s right.

EVA (V.O)
Did anything happen that night? Whichever night you saw her.
Anything that made you think…?

YOUNG RICKY
Nothing out of the ordinary. Not that night anyway. We had been at the same place but had gone
there separately. Like a kind of nightclub. We were drinking.
We were all underage, we shouldn’t have been drinking at all.

EVA (V.O)
She was drinking?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah. Then we got a lift back together, dropped her off at her house. It felt – normal.

EVA (V.O)
And you never suspected anything?

YOUNG RICKY
I had heard rumours… we all had.

EVA (V.O)
You said “nothing out of the ordinary, not that night.”

YOUNG RICKY
Sorry?

18
 EVA (V.O)
Was there a night when something out of the ordinary did happen?

YOUNG RICKY
Well… yeah. There was one night she showed up on my doorstep.

EVA (V.O)
When was that?

YOUNG RICKY
A little before. I don’t remember exactly.

EVA (V.O)
But she showed up…?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah. On my doorstep. I was living alone in my Mam’s old house –

EVA (V.O)
She gave you the key?

YOUNG RICKY
Yeah, eventually she sent it over. I didn’t really know how to look after myself, you know, I
mostly just used two rooms, my bedroom and then the front room with a telly in it. The heating
would get cut off and I’d wear my jumper and coat inside.

EVA (V.O)
That must have been tough.

YOUNG RICKY
Ah… it was grand, like. What young lad doesn’t dream of living by himself, you know?

EVA (V.O)
So Ann showed up, one night.

YOUNG RICKY
She was in an awful state.

EVA (V.O)
What happened then?

A clap of thunder. The VIRGIN MARY

looks up unhappily.

YOUNG RICKY
It was raining.

19
 It rains.

A transition.

The VIRGIN MARY addresses the

audience.

INTERLUDE

VIRGIN MARY
I have been caught in every fucking rain shower in the midlands of Ireland for the last... hundred
odd years.
And that’s a lot of rain.

It continues to rain.

VIRGIN MARY
I mean I guess I have these leaves covering me.
So that’s something.

A drop of water falls off one of the leaves

onto her face.

VIRGIN MARY
Ah! Jesus! Jesus.

She wipes her face. She sighs.

VIRGIN MARY
Picture a girl.
She’s fifteen years old.
She won’t turn sixteen in April.
By December 1983, by the last time Ricky has ever seen her, she will be eight months pregnant.
Everyone in her small town will claim that they didn’t know, they didn’t know, how could they
have known.
On January 31st, 1984, she will come to the Grotto of Our Lady, a pair of scissors in her
schoolbag, lay down before me, and give birth in the rain. She will wrap the baby in her coat and
lay down in the gravel.
When she is found, still alive, but only barely, they will run for a priest, not a doctor.
But for now it is still 1983. She is still trying to be saved.

SCENE THREE

Enter ANN, in a soaking wet raincoat,

trembling.

20
 YOUNG RICKY meets her at the front of
the stage with a towel.

YOUNG RICKY
Jesus! Come in, you’re drenched.

ANN
Sorry - thanks - sorry –

YOUNG RICKY
Give me that coat – some – some weather we’re having, huh?

ANN
Yeah, some weather all right.

YOUNG RICKY
Jesus Ann your uniform is soaked, do you want to –

ANN
No! No.

YOUNG RICKY
I won’t look or anything – I can go in the other room –

ANN
No. It’s fine.

She starts to laugh a little.

ANN
God Ricky but you’re a prig. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.

YOUNG RICKY
Well I don’t want to – give you the wrong idea, you know.

ANN
And what would that be?

YOUNG RICKY
That – eh – that – you know – I like you for your personality as well.
Not that you aren’t gorgeous.
You’re also gorgeous.
But you also have a lovely personality.

21
 ANN
Okay.

ANN starts to cry, burying her face in the

towel.

YOUNG RICKY
Ah – God – what is it Ann, what’s the matter?

ANN shakes her head.

YOUNG RICKY
You’re freezing, Ann, you’re soaking wet, you have to take off that uniform…

ANN
No, no…

YOUNG RICKY
Please stop saying no – what is it, talk to me, you can tell me.
You really can. I’m listening.

ANN
I’m just –

She shakes her head.

YOUNG RICKY
What?

ANN
I’m frightened.

YOUNG RICKY
What is it? What’s frightening you?

She shakes her head again.

YOUNG RICKY
Ann – come upstairs and we’ll talk. You’re soaking wet.

ANN
I can’t.

YOUNG RICKY
What’s going on? You’ve been so strange, and –
I want to help you, Ann, I really do.

22
I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.
I don’t know if – I don’t want to assume.
But if you did something and you think I’ll get upset – I promise you I won’t.
You can tell me anything, Ann. You know that, right?
Anything at all.

She pulls her skirt up a little, revealing

bruises on her thighs.

YOUNG RICKY
Who did that to you?

She shakes her head, starting to cry again.

She puts her face in her hands. He grabs her
by her arms. She just keeps crying.

YOUNG RICKY
(getting angry) Ann! Look at me, who did that to you? What happened? Ann, I can’t help you if
you don’t tell me what happened. Ann! Pull yourself together.
(pleading) Just tell me what happened. Please just tell me what happened.
Did someone touch you? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened. Should I call the
police?

ANN suddenly turns fierce.

ANN
No!
You can’t tell anyone!
You can’t say anything, to anyone, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll never forgive you.

She gets to her feet.

YOUNG RICKY
Ann –

ANN
You can’t tell anyone.
You can’t ever tell anyone.
Please don’t say anything.
Please.

She collapses into tears again. He holds her.

He looks scared.

EVA (V.O)
And that - ?

23
 YOUNG RICKY
That was it.
She just kind of… disappeared into herself.
I saw her in the street a couple times but she wouldn’t stop to talk.
After she showed me the bruises, I didn’t really spend any time with her until that night,
Stephen’s Night.
And that was the last time I ever saw her.

EVA (V.O)
God.

YOUNG RICKY
She begged me not to tell anyone, not to say anything.

SCENE FOUR

EVA
Maybe here is a good place to stop.

Lights up on EVA and RICKY, both

wearing headphones.

She pulls down her headphones. She flicks

her hair over her shoulders, left and then
right. RICKY notices this. She presses some
keys on her computer. She continues typing
until indicated. RICKY doesn’t remove his
headphones until indicated.

He stares at her as she types.

RICKY
I’m sorry I can’t remember more.

EVA
No, I can picture it quite vividly.

RICKY
Good. Granard wasn’t really a – vivid – place.
Wouldn’t call it a vivid place, like.

EVA
Well, you paint it quite vividly.

24
 RICKY
Do you edit it all together yourself?

EVA
I do some of it, more make suggestions of here’s how I imagine the structure, this to this to this
you know. But I have an editor who works with me and knows more about that kind of thing.
And sometimes we get actors to recreate scenes, record lines of dialogue, stuff like that. We
usually do that in a sound booth though.

RICKY
Will you do that for this?

EVA
Maybe… I think people would get a kick hearing the Irish accent. And it would help, like, locate
them. But it can be a little on the nose if it isn’t done well. You can take those off.

RICKY takes off the headphones.

RICKY
Seems like an interesting job.

EVA
I like it. What?

RICKY
What?

EVA
Why are you looking at me like that?

RICKY stops staring.

RICKY
Sorry. Just got some weird – déjà vu. (he shakes his head) Something about you feels – familiar.

EVA
Maybe we met in another life.

RICKY
Maybe.

EVA
Maybe you’ve just told this story too many times.

RICKY
Must be weird hearing your own voice. When you’re editing.

25
 EVA
It can be. You get used to it.

RICKY
Not me. I did one other radio interview and thought I sounded like a right gobshite.

EVA stops typing.

EVA
I interviewed this girl once and I only had to ask her one question and she was on this 20 minute
tirade. I just sat there and she talked and talked. I got some really good stuff, actually. I do think
often with interviews you need to know how to led the conversation, cut people off when they’re
on a tangent, but she kind of led herself.

RICKY
I hope I wasn’t like that.

EVA
Not at all. My point is, you didn’t sound like a “gobshite.”

RICKY
Ha. Thanks.

EVA turns off the microphones. She takes

her pills out of her bag and absentmindedly
takes a couple.

RICKY
Everything okay?

EVA
What?
Oh, yes, just a little headache.
Everything is fine.

She starts packing everything into a bag.

RICKY
Are you interviewing other people?

EVA
I talked to a few people on the phone who remembered her.

RICKY
Oh yeah? Who? I haven’t really stay in touch with anyone from Granard.

26
 EVA
Nuala something… Mary… Maguire? I want to say.

RICKY
Oh yeah. God. That’s mad. That takes me back.

EVA
You don’t have to stay, you know, I think I got everything I needed.

RICKY
No, I’m not in any rush. I feel a bit like I’ve been rushing around the last few weeks. It’s
interesting hearing about it. The work you’re doing I mean. Do you always do stories like this?

EVA
What do you mean?

RICKY
Like Ann’s story. Actually I don’t even know what category her story would be in. Strange
deaths?

EVA
You could put it under the category of strange births too.

RICKY
I guess you could.

EVA
No, it’s always kind of religious stories. Like visions, or miracles, things like that.

RICKY
Oh, that’s interesting.

EVA
And I mean, given where she died – there’s definitely a religious angle here.

RICKY
Yeah, it’s a weird one all right.
Because Ann wasn’t religious at all, you know.

EVA
Still. There must have been a reason that she did what she did.

RICKY
I’m sure she had her reasons, but – I guess we’re never really going to know.

27
 EVA
You must have wondered.

RICKY
Oh yes. I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve always thought it was kind of an act of protest, you
know, given what was going on at the time. But – I change my mind about it all the time.

EVA
Of course.
I’ve thought about it a lot too.

RICKY
Yeah. So you’re religious are you?

EVA
I guess.
Yeah. I’m religious. I would call myself religious.
I think it can a little controversial to talk about nowadays.

RICKY
I think people jump to a lot of conclusions about people who say they’re religious.

EVA
I grew up in the church, my Mom was very devoted. She had a little like shrine to Our Lady of
Guadalupe in our house.
A statue of the Virgin Mary.
And then like flowers and beads and candles. It was quite pretty actually.
In a closet.
She used to lock me in there when I misbehaved, God but I was scared of Mary. My Mum had
convinced me that she – Mary I mean – would whisper things to her. Stupid thing to tell a little
kid.

RICKY
Ah that’s awful. You’d never get away with that nowadays.

EVA
I know! Literally you’d never see your mother again. I don’t know if that’s better. My Mom was
actually praying to her, to Our Lady, when her water broke with me.

RICKY
Jesus, that’s mad. Isn’t it mad the things that happen.

EVA
Well she prayed to her a lot. So it wasn’t a complete surprise.
I think she kind of, it was one of those things she willed into being, you know.

28
 RICKY
I couldn’t do it.

EVA
Couldn’t do what?

RICKY
The whole – you know. Giving birth.

EVA
(laughing) Why do you say that?

RICKY
I just don’t know how women do it, is all. The thought of it, just – (he shudders) It just seems
very primitive or something.

EVA
I guess you… I mean my friends who’ve had kids, they say you just have to get through it.

RICKY
So what’s the story with Our Lady of – what was it?

EVA
Guadalupe?

RICKY
Yeah.

EVA
Actually – the first episode of this season was about her. It’s a cool story. I can send you a link to
it if you like?

RICKY
I don’t really listen to podcasts.

EVA
Oh no?

RICKY
No… like this is my phone.

He shows her his phone. It’s a flip phone.

She laughs.

EVA
Oh my God! I can’t believe that even works anymore! Can I see?

29
 RICKY
Sure.

EVA
God, retro. That’s so funny. I can see why you don’t listen to podcasts. Why don’t you get an
iPhone?

RICKY
Don’t really need it. My car has GPS, like.

EVA
I can’t remember the last time I saw a flip phone. So Our Lady of Guadalupe – just tell me if this
is dull, okay? It’s one of those stories I grew up with so I never get tired of hearing it.

RICKY
Sure.

EVA
Mary appeared four times to this peasant named Juan Diego. This was in the 1500s. She was
trying to convey a message to him – “Here I will hear their weeping, their sorrow, and will
remedy and alleviate all their multiple sufferings, necessities, and misfortunes.”

RICKY
What does that mean?

EVA
That she was merciful. Then, the fourth time she appeared, she told him to gather roses from the
top of Tepeyac Hill, and this was December so nothing was blooming, but when he climbed up
there, he found Castilian roses.

She looks to RICKY for a reaction. He

shrugs.

RICKY
Good for him.

EVA
They aren’t native to Mexico. They’re Spanish.

RICKY
Oh right. So that was a bit of a surprise was it?

EVA
…yes. So Mary arranges the roses in his cloak, and then he brings the roses back to the bishop,
because he was trying to prove to him that he was actually having these visions - and when the

30
roses fell from his cloak onto the floor an image of the Virgin Mary had appeared on his cloak
and the bishop wept.

Pause.

RICKY
Is that the end?

EVA
Yes. That’s the end.

RICKY
Could he not have painted it himself? Juan I mean?

EVA
…

RICKY
I’m just saying. Seems a bit dodgy.

EVA
There’s more to it. I’m giving you the broad strokes.

RICKY
How old was your mum?

EVA
What?

RICKY
When she, when her water broke while she was praying.

EVA
Oh. She was eighteen.

RICKY
Jesus, that would be fairly young.

EVA
Well – in the community she grew up in it wasn’t so strange.

RICKY
How old was your Dad?

EVA
A little older.

31
 RICKY
How much –

EVA
But he was out of the picture then anyway.

RICKY
Oh – I’m sorry –

EVA
He died a few years ago. Well – God. Almost ten years ago now.

RICKY
I’m sorry to hear that, Eva. That’s tough, to lose your Dad so young.

EVA
I don’t really think about it.

RICKY
So that’s what your Mum believed in? Juan and his roses?

EVA
Yeah.

RICKY
What appealed to her about that?

EVA
I don’t know. Well, I do know. She’s Mexican, so she had heard the story a lot growing up.
And… Our Lady of Guadalupe is kind of a patron saint for the pro-life movement.

RICKY’s demeanor visibly changes.

RICKY
Oh.

EVA
In the image that appeared on the cloak, she appears to be pregnant. Mary, I mean.
That’s very very unusual, to see an image of the Virgin Mary where she appears to be pregnant,
you know.
And on the day abortion was legalized in Mexico, this was 2007, a bright light appeared
suddenly on the Tilma. That’s the cloak, they call it the Tilma, it’s kept at a church in Mexico.
My Mom was there that day – the people there claimed that this light appeared, and it shone right
where Mary’s womb would be, in the shape of a fetus.

32
So my first episode was about that. I interviewed my Mom for it, actually. She remembered it
very distinctly. She claimed that she could hear Mary speak to her when she prayed / to her –

RICKY
Whisper to her, you said.

EVA
Yeah. Whisper. So we talked about that. That’s technically not an apparition though, it’s called
an interior locution.

RICKY
Wow.

RICKY mulls this over.

RICKY
So are you… pro-life?

EVA
Kind of.

RICKY
(irritated) Kind of? I didn’t realise it was a “kind-of” proposition.

EVA
I guess I was. Now I feel like I have a lot more doubts about it.

RICKY
It’s a grey area.

EVA
Yes. Definitely.

RICKY
Do all of the episodes have a kind of, like an abortion aspect to them?

EVA
No, not all of them. But it is something I’m particularly interested in.

RICKY
And where does this episode fit in?

EVA
This is the last episode.
This season it’s all about Marian apparitions. Visions of Our Lady.

33
 RICKY
What will the next season be about?

EVA
This is actually, the last episode ever. I’m done after this one.

RICKY
Moving on to something else?

EVA
… yeah.

RICKY
Great. That’s exciting.
Have you done many seasons?

EVA
This is the third. It’s about times when Our Lady appeared to a person, or a group of people, you
know. Actually it’s probably the thing I’m most interested in. I was thrilled when they accepted
the pitch.

RICKY
I’m surprised there’s that many times she’s appeared. Or that many times people’ve said she
appeared, I guess.

EVA
Oh there’s tons. We couldn’t cover them all if we wanted to. We have to pick and choose the
best ones. There’s literally so many.
(by rote) Our Lady of Fátima, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Laus,
there’s Pontmain, Beauraing, Gietrzwałd, Banneux, Zeitoun, Our Lady of Akita, Our Lady / of
Kibeho -

RICKY
(laughing) Right! Got it. It’s a long list.

EVA
And those are just ones that are recognized by the church. There’s others that aren’t, they’re
almost more interesting.

RICKY
Our Lady of Knock?

EVA
Knock?

34
 RICKY
Well I don’t know all the details. A woman, in the 1800s this was, late 1800s I think, saw Mary,
Joseph, and another one… was it John the Bapist? Saw them all outside of a church. Are you
writing this down?

EVA
It sounds like something I might look into. Is Knock on the way to Granard?

RICKY
Oh no, it’d be further. If you were driving from Dublin it’d be, I don’t know, probably more than
an hour along from there.

EVA
Oh. Well. I probably won’t have time.

RICKY
I think a few people saw her. And they said, well, they said she was beautiful.

The VIRGIN MARY wakes up.

RICKY
And people, who are sick, they go there and they’re cured.

EVA
What kind of sicknesses?

RICKY
I think people usually leave crutches, and walking sticks there. That kind of thing.

EVA
Interesting. Our Lady of Knock.

She looks at her notebook, tapping her pen

on it. Makes a decision.

EVA
Do you want to get a drink?

RICKY
(surprised) With you?

EVA
Who else?

EVA briefly makes eye contact with the

VIRGIN MARY.

35
 RICKY
Sure. Yeah. I’d love to.

EVA
I haven’t had a Guinness yet.

RICKY
Well, we’ll have to fix that. Best Guinness in the world in Ireland.

EVA
So they say. I read one of the oldest pubs in the world is around here. The Brazen Head?

RICKY
Perfect. Great.

They exit. The VIRGIN MARY watches

them go.

INTERLUDE

VIRGIN MARY
Picture a girl.
Six years of age.
Locked in a closet with nothing but a shrine.
A shrine that your mother always said was able to talk. To whisper.
Locked in there for hours.
You’d start to go a little mad, after a thing like that.
And maybe if it happened enough times, there would always be a little statue of the Virgin Mary
in the corner of your mind. Always looking at you.
Picture the same girl.
Seventeen years of age.
Her mother comes back from Mexico and claims that she witnessed a miracle.
If you are told all your life that miracles happen, that statues can speak, that there is a reason for
everything that is larger than yourself, you’d have to be very sure of yourself not to get swept
away by it.
If you are told all your life that there are women out there who kill their children before they
even get a chance to live, and that good people are the ones who fight to change that fact, you
would want to be one of those good people.
Because good people help those who can’t help themselves.
Picture the same girl.
Well, the same woman.
She’s right in front of you.
Watch her carefully.
She’s asking to be saved.

36
 SCENE FIVE

RICKY sits in a pub. He has a coke in front

of him. There’s an empty Guinness glass on
the table. A moment alone with RICKY.
Maybe he checks his phone but doesn’t have
any texts. Sips his coke. He’s not entirely
comfortable with himself.

EVA comes back to the table with another

Guinness. She almost falls sitting onto her
stool.

EVA
Oops!

RICKY
Steady on.

EVA
Not much of a drinker.

RICKY
Sure you had to try the Guinness. Sacrilege not to.

EVA
Okay, I’ll admit it’s pretty good.
Also I can’t get over how friendly Irish people are. The bartender had me do a shot of whiskey
with him.

RICKY
How was that?

EVA
Oh, God, awful.

They laugh.

EVA
When did you stop drinking?

RICKY
Years and years ago. I wasn’t a great drunk. I got very morose.

EVA
Well. Morose is better than angry.

37
 RICKY
I suppose I had a few things to be morose about. I definitely drank too much after Ann died.

EVA
You joined the military, right?

RICKY
Yeah, the British Army. Just wanted to get away I guess. I kept, well, kind of a diary at the time.
I should dig it up, might be helpful for you. For your podcast.

EVA
Don’t worry about it.

RICKY
When I started it, it was kind of more of those letters to Ann that I was talking about. Dear Ann.
You know. Kind of like Ann was my diary.

EVA
That’s nice.

RICKY
I still think about her a lot.

EVA
Of course you do.

RICKY
When you went up to the bar there, I was thinking about your podcast. About the Marian
apparitions.

EVA
Yeah?

RICKY
And – sorry Eva. I don’t want to speak out of turn. But I still don’t understand how this fits in.

EVA
What’s that?

RICKY
I mean… Ann didn’t see Mary.

EVA
That we know of.

38
 RICKY
Right… so are you… trying to prove she did? Seems like an uphill battle.

EVA
No, no, it’s more of a… I don’t know. I read about Ann Lovett years ago when I was doing some
research and I just – I guess I got kind of obsessed with the story.

RICKY
It’s a strange one.

EVA
It is strange – there’s so much that doesn’t add up. Why did everyone deny knowing that she was
pregnant? Why didn’t she get help? You said yourself, she could have gone to anyone in the
town and they would have helped her.

RICKY
Well – maybe not anyone.

EVA
You said she went to the grotto, and she did that for a reason.

RICKY
Yeah.
But. I don’t think it was for a religious reason.

EVA
Right, you think it was an act of protest.
(EVA can’t stop herself)
But it’s interesting that you’re coming out in 2018 and saying that. Because it fits in with this
narrative of, oh, abortion should be legalized in Ireland, it’s kind of, it’s turning her into the
patron saint of that. Like did you always think it was an act of protest or did you start thinking
that when it became clear there was going to be a referendum on abortion? You know? Forgive
me, I don’t mean to speak out of turn.

RICKY
No no. It’s all right. I guess. Well… the year before Ann died they had added a line to the
constitution about the unborn baby being equal to the life of the mother. Something like that. Or
they had equal rights. In 1983 this was. That was the year she got pregnant. So I think it could
have been an act of protest against that. But I also think it could have been an act of protest just
against, her situation in general. But ultimately I don’t, I don’t know, Eva, and honestly I don’t
think you’re going to find out. Even if you went up to Granard I don’t think anyone would have
much to tell you.

EVA
I am going up to Granard. Tomorrow.

39
 RICKY
Really?

EVA
Do you want to come?

RICKY laughs a little.

RICKY
Jesus, no! Sure I’d only go there if I was going to kill myself.

After a second, EVA laughs too. An

awkward moment.

RICKY
But seriously. No, thank you. I haven’t been back since, well.

EVA
…

RICKY
You must get to travel a lot.

EVA
What’s that?

RICKY
I said, you must get to travel a lot. That’s nice.

EVA
Not really. Usually I just interview people over the phone.

RICKY
Oh.
So why are you here?

Though perhaps she should have, EVA did

not anticipate this question. She becomes
flustered.

EVA
Oh, well, the opportunity came up. We – my church that is – we fund a lot of travel abroad for
various reasons. And, uh, I was so interested in Ann’s story, and I had always wanted to go to
Ireland anyway, but like I said an opportunity came up so I just jumped at the chance to go. I
needed to get away from things for a while and this seemed like a, uh, a good, uh –

40
 RICKY
Opportunity?

EVA
Yeah. To do it.

RICKY
Right.
So the opportunity came up… through the radio station?

EVA
Podcast.

RICKY
Why did they make an exception for this? If you don’t usually travel. We could have spoken on
the phone. Not that it wasn’t lovely to meet you in person.

EVA
Well… it’s part of the church. They paid for it, actually.
My church sent a group of us over here so we could help with the campaign.
The one to vote No.
Sharing information and that kind of thing.

RICKY
Oh.
Wow.
Right.
But I thought you said before you thought it was a grey area?

EVA
I do – and it’s not – it’s nothing under the table, we aren’t trying to interfere – it’s just sharing
information. I don’t think Irish people understand what it’s like to live under an abortion regime.
Regime isn’t the right word. That isn’t what I mean. And I agree with you, it’s a grey area, it is.
But it is, it’s quite a problem in the US. There are other options – I think women are made to feel
like there aren’t other options.
I’m sorry, I hope you don’t feel like I misled you about anything.

RICKY
I do wish you had told me this earlier.

EVA
It’s, it has nothing – nothing to do with the podcast, I swear. Like yes it is something else I’ve
been doing here but I’m not trying to make Ann’s story about that, I mean my church is
definitely, like they have stated that they’re pro-life but that isn’t the only thing we focus on and
talk about. It’s just one aspect of it.

41
 RICKY
So you’re all volunteers?

EVA
What do you mean?

RICKY
You all volunteered to come here and do this?

EVA
Some of us are volunteers. A few of us, they thought – well there was an incident at this center
we worked at and, well it was quite traumatizing for a few people, people in my group, and
basically they thought it would be better to get away for a while, focus on something else.

RICKY
What’s your group?

EVA
Just members of my church. We’re all pretty involved. My friend Maggie, the one who put us in
touch, she’s employed by the church.

RICKY
I thought she was some kind of marketing person. That’s what she said on the phone.

EVA
She is – she’s the Communications Director of our church.

RICKY
The Communications Director of your Church?

EVA
Yes.

RICKY
What kind of church needs a Communications Director?

EVA shrugs.

RICKY
How big is this church?

EVA
Big. Our weekly attendance averages around five thousand.

RICKY
Five thousand?

42
 EVA
Yes. That’s small compared to some of the other big churches… there’s a church in Texas,
Lakewood, their average attendance every week is something like 45,000.

RICKY
Jesus.

EVA
(nervously joking) Praise him! (off Ricky’s look) No, that was – I’m joking, but, I went there
once, it was very moving.

RICKY
That’s bizarre. 45,000 people, that’s the size of a town. I don’t think there’s even a thousand
people in Granard. Certainly not when Ann and I were growing up. Honestly I’d be surprised if
there were a thousand now.

EVA
There’s 816.

RICKY
Why are you going to Granard?

EVA
(shrugs) I want to see it. The grotto. The statue of Our Lady.

The lights come up on the VIRGIN MARY.

RICKY
I don’t think Ann had a – what was it? Marian vision?

EVA
Apparition. I guess neither of us will ever know.

RICKY
I guess not.

Pause.

RICKY
I’m just going to go grab another coke. D’you [want anything?]

EVA
I’d take a glass of water, thanks.

43
 Exit RICKY. EVA seems nervous. She
rummages through her bag and takes out
her pills, takes a couple. Chases them with
Guinness.

VIRGIN MARY
Eva.

EVA shakes her head violently. The lights

go out on the VIRGIN MARY.

RICKY comes back. He sets down a glass of

water in front of EVA. Once he sits down:

EVA
I feel like I owe it to her.

RICKY
What’s that?

EVA
Going to Granard? I feel like I owe it to Ann. It’s a kind of, it’s a pilgrimage, I guess.

RICKY doesn’t know what to say to that.

EVA sips her water.

RICKY
What was the incident?

EVA
What?

RICKY
You said, there was an incident at a center where we all worked.

EVA
You should be the journalist, a memory like that!
No. Well. I guess I should tell you. If you google my na – my church’s name, it comes up, so I
should probably just tell you.
A girl killed herself, a lot of people were upset. Obviously a lot of people were upset. It’s good to
get out of your context to try to move on from something like that.
I guess that’s why I’m having, some doubts you know.

RICKY
I’m sorry, Eva, did you know her?

44
 EVA
No, I didn’t know her. I kind of feel like I did. I kind of feel like I know Ann, too. I guess it’s a
pilgrimage for both of them. She was fifteen too.

RICKY
The girl who died?

EVA
Yeah. Same as Ann.

RICKY
Ah.

EVA
And… she was pregnant. She was pregnant too.

RICKY
Oh.
Wow.
That’s really – something.

EVA
Yeah. We – the church runs kind of a, like a crisis pregnancy counselling service. And this girl –
Isabel, her name was Isabel – she came in and she spoke with one of us, not us, one of the
workers, and then she, that same day she went home and she hanged herself.

RICKY
Christ.

EVA
Yeah.

She flicks her hair over her shoulders, left

and then right.

RICKY
That’s awful, Eva.

EVA
It was awful. And her mother – God bless her, what she went through – but her mother found a
letter she had written, that this girl had written – Isabel – and she posted it on Facebook, her
mother did – and it was just – it was a real mess. Looked really awful for our Church, turned a
lot of people against us. The letter mentioned people by name. The person she spoke with. I just
don’t know why, how, why and how I guess, it happened. It’s a terrible thing.

45
 RICKY
You could tie yourself into knots trying to make sense of something like that.

EVA
I know – as if it isn’t bad enough to kill yourself, but to do it while carrying a child.

RICKY stares at her.

EVA
It’s selfish.

RICKY
It sounds like she was in a desperate situation.

EVA
She shouldn’t have done that.

RICKY
(carefully) I guess she didn’t get the help she needed when she talked to your colleague.

EVA
But what help did she need? You can’t come and put your life in another person’s hands without
them knowing that that’s what you’re doing, it isn’t fair. It’s not. If that girl had walked in and
said “I am going to kill myself if you don’t give me the answer I want,” don’t you think things
would have gone differently?

RICKY
It’s impossible to say.

Pause. EVA shakes her head. RICKY

desperately wants to reassure her without
telling her he sees through her. He thinks for
a moment, trying to find the right words.

RICKY
I will say this, Eva.
There’s been many a night I’ve laid awake with my eyes fixed on a mark on the ceiling. Or on a
shaft of light coming in from a crack in the curtain.
And I’ve thought to myself: if only Ann had told me, Ricky, I’m pregnant, and I want to get rid
of it. Can you help me? Or if only Ann had knocked on my door instead of going to the grotto
that day, or if only Ann and I had never met, if only I had just left her alone, if only my Mum and
Dad had stayed together and I’d never left England, if only I had never been born.
You can tie yourself into any kind of knot you want but you aren’t going to change the past. All
we can do is move forward and say I won’t let that happen again.

46
I understand where you’re coming from and I’m not saying abortion is this great thing that’ll fix
all of Ireland’s problems but if it being legal helps even one girl like Ann, or someone like the
girl you’re talking about –

EVA
Isabel.

RICKY
– like Isabel, then, or any girl who feels alone and desperately afraid and backed into a corner –
then that will be enough for me.
I’m never going to make right what happened to Ann and there is always going to be a part of me
that’s aching but I am just trying to do something that is right. I believe in my heart this is the
right thing to do. And I know you believe in your heart that you’re doing the right thing too.
Maybe you care so much about Ann’s story because it isn’t straightforward, there isn’t a clear
answer. Maybe you care about it because you recognize something of yourself in Ann.
And you are like her, Eva, I thought it the moment I met you. She was very sharp, very witty.
She could hold her own, she could stand up for herself about what she thought; she was able to
back it up. She was brilliant at drawing. She was intelligent. She was also loving and caring and
kind.
I’m sorry if I’m speaking out of turn.

EVA
No. I just wish I had been recording all of that.

They laugh.

EVA
Sorry, I feel like I really dumped a lot on you there.

RICKY
Well, the feeling’s mutual.
At least I wasn’t recording you.

EVA
That’s true.

RICKY
Don’t go to Granard, Eva, I don’t think you’ll find what you’re looking for there.

EVA
Thank you. For doing this.

RICKY
Are you okay?

47
 EVA
Yeah.
Yeah.
I’m fine.
Really I am.
I’m fine.
Don’t I seem fine?

RICKY
Go easy on yourself, you hear?
What was it you said earlier?
Have some compassion for yourself.

EVA
Yeah.
Thanks, Ricky.

They shake hands. They freeze.

The VIRGIN MARY wakes up.

INTERLUDE

VIRGIN MARY
Picture a girl.
She’s fifteen years old.
She’s pregnant.
She’s very frightened.
She’s looking for help.
There is a limit to compassion.
What if the thing that you believe makes you compassionate is also the thing that limits your
compassion for others?
What if it limits your compassion for yourself?
This girl is named Isabel.
She grew up very poor.
She lives in a small town, in a small house. Not really a house. More of a trailer. A kind of
settled trailer.
There’s a little addition built on to the side of it, that’s her room. It’s the only place she feels
safe.
Safe from the world. Safe from the mother. Safe from the revolving door of her mother’s
boyfriends. Safe from her school. The names they call her. A place where she can be entirely
alone.
But there is a limit to the extent to which one child can keep herself safe.
Sometimes you need to ask for help.
The best you can hope for is that you ask for help from the right person.
The best you can hope for is a little compassion.

48
 SCENE SIX

EVA arrives at the Grotto of Our Lady in

Granard. The VIRGIN MARY observes her
as she looks around. She avoids looking
directly at the VIRGIN MARY. She never
looks directly at her when she’s speaking.

VIRGIN MARY
What do you think?

EVA kneels down in front of the railing and

blesses herself. She faces away from the
VIRGIN MARY.

VIRGIN MARY
Do you like what I’ve done with the place?

EVA keeps praying.

VIRGIN MARY
I don’t think you’re going to find any answers here.

EVA stops and takes a bottle of pills out of

her pocket. She shakes two into her hand
and takes them. She blesses herself again
and resumes praying.

VIRGIN MARY
Those help, do they?

EVA
My doctor said these are just intrusive thoughts.
You’re not actually speaking to me.

VIRGIN MARY
Is that right.

EVA
That’s right.

VIRGIN MARY
And the pills help, do they?

49
 EVA
Shut up.

EVA blesses herself and stands up.

VIRGIN MARY
Are you allowed tell me to shut up?

EVA rubs her temples.

VIRGIN MARY
How would you know, anyway? Either they’re intrusive thoughts or I am intruding into your
thoughts.
So of course it’s intrusive either way.

EVA
Yes but –
I suppose that makes sense actually.
I thought if I came here you might speak to me.

VIRGIN MARY
Well, here I am.

EVA
But how do I know it’s not just a self-fulfilling prophecy?
As in, of course you are talking because I came here. Or of course I think you are talking.

VIRGIN MARY
It’s hard to say.
I can tell you about Ann.
She came here to sacrifice herself to me. She martyred herself. The ultimate act of devotion.

EVA
But that’s just reinforcing what I already think.

VIRGIN MARY
Is that what you think?

EVA
…

VIRGIN MARY
All right then.
She was just a scared teenager.
She came here because she was out of her mind with pain.
She didn’t know what she was doing.

50
But she knew no one would be here.

EVA
That makes sense too.

VIRGIN MARY
Actually she came here as an act of protest.
Ricky is right.
She was angry about the 1983 change to the constitution that made equal the life of the unborn
baby and the mother.
So she came here to make a point.

EVA
Yes. Okay.
That makes sense.

EVA shakes her head.

VIRGIN MARY
Maybe she came here to have some agency.
She came here, gave birth, and died without explaining to anyone why she did what she did.
Something for herself alone.
We can assume and guess and make up our own tidy stories all we like, but she was the only one
who knew what was in her heart.

EVA
She wrapped the baby in her coat. That makes me think she didn’t want it to die.

VIRGIN MARY
It was already dead.
It came out blue.

EVA
Wait.

VIRGIN MARY
She cut the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors she took from the kitchen drawer in her family
home. A dark little kitchen, a drawer to the right of the sink.
The handle of the scissors was black.
The curtains / were pink -

EVA
Wait.
Wait.
I don’t know that.

51
 VIRGIN MARY
I think you do.
I think it’s something you’ve thought about a lot.

EVA takes the pills out of her pocket as the

VIRGIN MARY speaks and takes a couple
more.

VIRGIN MARY
I think it’s something you’ve imagined from beginning to end.
Ann Lovett waking up in her single bed in that sad house, a strange pain in her bulging stomach.
Ann Lovett getting dressed in her school uniform and walking down the stairs to the poky
kitchen with the sound of rain beating on the roof of the house.
There’s no one in the kitchen.
She made sure to get up early.
Maybe she never went to sleep.
Pains in her stomach.
Ann Lovett -

The VIRGIN MARY stops speaking at

whatever point EVA has swallowed the
pills. EVA exhales shakily. She takes a few
deep breaths.

A red mark appears on the ground. She

stares at it. She touches her hand to it and
lifts it up. She inspects her hand. Nothing.

EVA exhales shakily.

EVA
Now I’m seeing things.

She turns to look at the statue of the

VIRGIN MARY. She stays frozen in place.
EVA stares at her a long moment,
wondering if she’s going to do anything.

Suddenly EVA puts her hands over her ears.

A jarring noise resolves itself into:

VIRGIN MARY (V.O)

Ann Lovett opens the drawer to the right of the kitchen sink and withdrew the scissors, the big
ones her mother uses to cut cloth.
Ann Lovett puts the scissors in her school bag, pulls on her coat, and opens the door of her house
for the very last time.

52
 EVA is on her knees.

The statue of the VIRGIN MARY continues

to look heavenward.

EVA
No…. no….

VIRGIN MARY (V.O) EVA

Ann Lovett walks down the street with her No… no…
red schoolbag on her back. Stop. Stop it.
Ann Lovett goes to a friend’s house, asks Please –
her to come with her, but her friend is Just –
babysitting. Stop it. Stop.
Ann Lovett asks her for a cigarette. Stop. STOP.
Ann Lovett walks towards the church and STOP!
the grotto. STOP!

The VIRGIN MARY looks at EVA.

VIRGIN MARY
It’s raining heavily now.
Can’t you hear it?

The sound of rain.

EVA
Stop.

After a few moments, EVA takes her hands

off her ears. EVA slumps against the
railing. She looks up. Perhaps it is actually
raining. It rains quietly for a while.

EVA
Aren’t you going to help me? Is this not the part where you try to save me?

VIRGIN MARY
I can’t save you.

EVA
Can’t you do anything?

The actor playing ANN enters. It takes EVA

a moment to notice her.

53
 EVA
Isabel?

She doesn’t respond.

EVA
I – no. What is this? Why is she here?

The VIRGIN MARY doesn’t respond.

EVA
Hey! Wake up. What is it?

ISABEL
(American accent) I’m frightened.

EVA
Stop.

ISABEL
Please – I just need to talk to someone. I need your help.

EVA
I don’t have time.

ISABEL
Please. There’s nowhere else I can go.

EVA
I said I don’t have time for this.

ISABEL
Please. Help me. Please.

EVA turns to ISABEL. She steps into the

memory.

EVA
You need to at least tell me your first name.

ISABEL
Isabel.

EVA
I’m sorry?

54
 ISABEL
Isabel.

EVA
What age are you?

ISABEL
Fifteen.

EVA
Okay. And why did you come here today, Isabel?

ISABEL
(even more quietly) I’m pregnant.

EVA
Can you speak up?

ISABEL
I’m – I’m pregnant. And I don’t want to be.

ISABEL hangs her head.

EVA
I understand.

ISABEL
I can’t have a baby.
I just can’t.
I can’t do it.

EVA
It’s completely understandable that you feel that way.
But you have options, you know.
We’ll help you.

ISABEL
You don’t understand.

EVA
I do understand.
I understand perfectly.

ISABEL
My mom will kick me out.

55
She already thinks –
She thinks I want to be with my stepdad.
He’s awful.
She’ll kick me out.
She’ll take one look at me and that will be it.

EVA
A baby is a blessing.
I think she will surprise you.
Your mother.

ISABEL starts to cry. EVA pulls a tissue

from the box and hands it to her.

EVA
Let me tell you a story.
When I was around ten years old, my mom was pregnant.
We were all so excited.
I saw the baby’s heartbeat on an ultrasound.
She was six weeks pregnant. Just six weeks!
Put your hand on your chest, feel your heart beat.
That beat is your life.
That beat is how you know you’re alive.
That beat started when you were six weeks old and it has never stopped.
Then, when my mom was around twelve weeks, just before twelve weeks, she had a miscarriage.
We were at home. And it was tiny, it was smaller than my thumb.
It was so small.
I was able to hold it in the palm of my hand.
So tiny.
But I could see that it was a human being.
You could see that it had been made by God.

ISABEL
I don’t know what to do.

EVA
I think you do.

ISABEL
I can’t have a baby.

EVA
God wants you to have this baby.

ISABEL
Oh God. I can’t.

56
 EVA
You have options.

ISABEL
I can’t have a baby.

EVA
You really do. You go to Planned Parenthood, you go to one of those other places, they’ll tell
you: you only have one option. But that isn’t true.

ISABEL
I can’t have a baby.

EVA
You kill this baby, you’ll always regret it.
You’ll never be able to forgive yourself.
It will eat at you.
For the rest of your life, it will eat at you, you’ll never forgive yourself, you’ll never forget.
You won’t get into heaven.
Is that what you want?

ISABEL
I want to get into heaven.

VIRGIN MARY
She told you what she was going to do.
She was asking you for help.
And now you come here asking for my help.

EVA puts her hands over her ears.

ISABEL leaves.

VIRGIN MARY
You’ll never be able to forgive yourself.
It will eat at you.
For the rest of your life, it will eat at you, you’ll never forgive yourself, you’ll never forget.
You won’t get into heaven.

EVA
Enough!

EVA stands.

57
 EVA
Oh, God, sorry!
Sorry, I’m sorry, I am sorry! Is that what you want? I am sorry! Please just help me. Help me.
What am I supposed to do?
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand, why you didn’t save me. I did everything right. I did everything I was
supposed to do. I said all the right things, I did everything right.
I’m not, some –
So many people. You’ve helped so many people. But not me. Why not me?
I just want you to tell me what to do.
Why weren’t you there when I was talking to Isabel?
Why didn’t you stop me? Why didn’t you warn me?
Why didn’t you help her? Why didn’t you help Ann?
You saved so many people.
You appeared to people who didn’t need help.
I’m telling you now.
I need help.
I need help!
I am asking for help.
And I am sorry.
Help me!
Save me!

The VIRGIN MARY doesn’t react. EVA

takes the pills out of her pocket again and
examines them.

EVA
You saved so many people.
You appeared to so many people when they needed you.

She unscrews the lid and lets it fall to the

ground.

EVA
But not Ann.
But not Isabel.
But not me.

For every name she lists, EVA takes a pill.

Until she runs out of pills.

EVA
Our Lady of Fátima
Our Lady of Knock
Our Lady of Lourdes

58
Our Lady of La Salette
Our Lady of Laus
Our Lady of Pontmain
Our Lady of Beauraing
Our Lady of Gietrzwałd
Our Lady of Banneux
Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Kibeho
Our Lady of Guadalupe…

The pill bottle is empty. She turns it upside

down. Then drops it and lets it roll away.
She watches it roll.

EVA
I’m very tired now.

She rests against the railing. The sound of

rain. She closes her eyes.

ANN comes in. She’s heavily pregnant.

She’s in labour. She carries a red
schoolbag. EVA and the VIRGIN MARY
watch her. ANN doesn’t see either of them.

ANN takes her schoolbag off her back and

sets it on the ground. She struggles out of
her coat and lays it on the ground. She
doubles over, clutching her stomach. She
groans.

After a moment, she straightens up again.

She opens her schoolbag and withdraws a
huge pair of scissors.

ANN
Mary, God, help me.

ANN moans, clutching her stomach. The

VIRIGN MARY looks at her.

VIRGIN MARY
(to Eva) Do something.

59
 ANN takes off her knickers and lays down
on the coat. She braces her elbows against
the ground, the scissors in one hand.

EVA tries to get up but her legs give way.

She crawls over to ANN to help her.

ANN
Help me.

EVA
I don’t –
I’ve never done this before.

ANN hands her the scissors.

ANN
Neither have I.

EVA looks at the scissors. They’re so large.

They’re more like garden shears.

EVA
But what are these for?

ANN
Help me.
Help me, help me.

EVA
What do I do?

VIRGIN MARY
I can’t help you now.

EVA looks at the scissors, looks at ANN

helplessly.

EVA
The body… the body knows what to do. You’ll be okay.

ANN moans. EVA looks back at the

VIRGIN MARY.

EVA
Do something! Can’t you do something?

60
 The VIRGIN MARY doesn’t respond.

EVA
Please! Please do something! Help me – help me!

The VIRGIN MARY doesn’t respond.

ANN
Please – you have to help me deliver the baby.

EVA moves around and looks up ANN’s

skirt.

EVA
Okay. Okay.

ANN moans.

EVA starts pulling roses out from under

ANN’s skirt.

At first she uses the scissors to cut them free,

but she eventually puts the scissors aside
and starts pulling out more and more roses.
As she pulls them, she becomes increasingly
frantic. The pulling seems to cause ANN
pain.

ANN moans as if she is giving birth.

EVA
No. Nonononono. Ann! Ann!

EVA looks at the roses in her hands, the

roses all around her.

EVA
I don’t understand.

ANN is dying.

EVA
There’s so much blood.

EVA drops the roses and holds ANN.

61
 EVA
Someone will come.
Someone is going to come.
Someone is going to help us.

ANN
Thank you for helping me.

EVA
Ann. Ann! Look at me. Look at me. It’s going to be okay. Someone will come. It’s going to be
okay.

ANN closes her eyes.

EVA
No! Ann!
Look at me.
Don’t go to sleep.
Someone is coming.
I know someone will come.

ANN opens her eyes and smiles at her

dreamily.

ANN
Thank you, Eva.

She closes her eyes.

EVA
Ann. Ann!
Wait. Please.
Don’t go.
Why did you do this?
Ann?
Why did you do this?

ANN dies in EVA’s arms. EVA lays her

body down on the ground carefully.

VIRGIN MARY
Maybe you should rest now Eva.
You’re so tired.

62
 EVA
I still don’t understand.

VIRGIN MARY
Aren’t you tired?

EVA
I am tired.

She crawls back to the railing.

EVA
I’ll go for help in a moment.
I just need to rest my eyes.
I’m so tired.
A little rest is what I need and then I’ll feel better.

EVA closes her eyes. It continues to rain.

A few moments pass.

Enter YOUNG RICKY. He sees EVA. He

does not see ANN.

YOUNG RICKY
Hey!

EVA’s eyes open.

YOUNG RICKY
Hey hey hey. Eva?

He kneels down beside her. Sees the empty

pill bottle. Picks it up.

YOUNG RICKY
Eva? Hey! Did you take these? Are you all right?

EVA
I’m just a little tired.

YOUNG RICKY takes a flip phone out of

his pocket. EVA laughs at the sight of it.

EVA
Where did that come from?

63
 YOUNG RICKY
(into phone) Yes, ambulance.
(to EVA) Don’t move.

EVA
But what are you doing here? You weren’t there.

YOUNG RICKY
(into phone) I’m at Our Lady’s Grotto in Granard. Yes.
A young woman, I think she took some pills.
Thank you.
Please hurry.

He hangs up.

YOUNG RICKY
I’m going to lift you up now. Okay?

EVA
Okay.

YOUNG RICKY starts to lift EVA up.

She remembers ANN.

EVA
What about Ann?

YOUNG RICKY
It’s too late for Ann.

EVA
No – she’s right there.
I was talking to her just a moment ago.

YOUNG RICKY
There’s no one there.
We need to get you to a hospital.

EVA
We can’t leave her here alone!

YOUNG RICKY
It’s too late.

64
 Exit YOUNG RICKY, carrying EVA.

INTERLUDE

We hear EVA’s voice again in the darkness.

EVA (V.O)
This is a test. This is a test. This is a test. This is a test…

The VIRGIN MARY steps down from her

pedestal, walks through the roses, and picks
ANN up. She carries her away.

Lights out.

SCENE SEVEN

A phone rings in the darkness.

Lights up on RICKY, holding his phone to

his ear.

EVA appears, in a dressing gown. She

answers the phone.

EVA
Hello?

RICKY
Eva, hello! It’s Ricky.

EVA
Oh! Ricky, hey. I got your message.
Sorry, I didn’t call back.

RICKY
Yeah, just wanted to give you a buzz, say hi, check in on you.

EVA
You really didn’t have to do that.

RICKY
I wanted to.
Are you back in America?

65
 EVA
Yes, back home.
I’m staying with my Mom for a while, actually, getting some rest, taking a little time off.

RICKY
That’s great.

EVA
Are you back in England?

RICKY
I am yeah, back home too.

EVA
Congrats on the, well I don’t know if congrats is the right word. I saw the Yes side won, I’m glad
it worked out.

RICKY
I am too. I think it’s a good thing. I really do, I think it’s a positive thing for Ireland.

EVA
Sure.

RICKY
How are you feeling?

EVA
A lot better. Thank you.

RICKY
Good.
Did you enjoy the free healthcare in Ireland?

EVA
I did. That’s one thing you guys do better than us.

RICKY
That and the Guinness.

EVA
The Guinness isn’t bad.

RICKY
We’ve got that one sorted all right.
A few more things we need to work out.
But that one we’ve got figured out.

66
 EVA
Ricky… I’m glad you called, I’m sorry I didn’t call you back.
I wanted to talk to you, to say thank you. Obviously.
Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed.

RICKY
Oh, you’ve nothing to be embarrassed about at all. Nothing at all.

EVA
That’s nice of you to say.
But really. Thank you.

RICKY
You don’t have to [say that] – you’re welcome.

EVA
I’ve also wanted to ask –
How did you – why did you go to Granard? I’ve been turning it over in my head. You said you
never wanted to go back there.

RICKY
Yeah… I honestly couldn’t tell you. It’s been on my mind too. I was going to spend one more
day in Dublin and then head back home. I just got this impulse. I guess. You seemed…
I’m sorry for saying this Eva.
But you seemed a bit unstable the way we left things, you seemed very upset. I didn’t feel right
about leaving you in that state.
And I thought, well, you know she’s in Granard and she’s probably at the Grotto so I decided to
drive up there. Just in case.

EVA
In case of what?

RICKY
I don’t know. It was just a feeling. I guess after… well, Ann, I didn’t want to leave anything up
to chance. You gave me a right fright when I saw you on the ground there.

EVA
I’m very sorry.

RICKY
No, no. Please, don’t apologise. I’m just glad I got there in time.

EVA
You got there at the exact right time.

67
 RICKY
And you’re feeling… better?

EVA
Yes. Definitely. I’m feeling much better.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot.
I think what you describe as an impulse or a feeling… I think that was God.

RICKY
God?

EVA
Yes. I think it was a miracle, Ricky. A real miracle. An Act of God. Or maybe someone else.
Mary. I don’t know. But a miracle.

RICKY
Are you joking?

EVA
No.

RICKY
…

EVA
…

EVA RICKY
Are you still there - ? I’m not sure about -

EVA
Oh –

RICKY
Sorry I didn’t mean to –

EVA
What were you saying?

RICKY
I was just –
I don’t know about that, Eva.
The idea it’s a miracle.
I think it was a coincidence.

68
 EVA
How could it be a coincidence? There was nothing that would make you drive ninety minutes to
Granard, a place you said you never wanted to return to, just to check on me.
At the exact right time.
I could have died.
If you had gotten there ten minutes later.
Or if you hadn’t come at all.
But you did.
At the right time, the exact right time.
That’s God, Ricky, it’s an act of God.

RICKY
I think maybe that’s how it seems to you. But I don’t think that’s what it was, Eva.

EVA
I was having a crisis of faith when I came to Ireland, Ricky. Everything that had happened here. I
wasn’t – God forgive me – but I wasn’t sure I even believed anymore. My faith was so truly
shaken. And then – a miracle. An actual miracle.

RICKY
That isn’t how I see it.

EVA
There’s no other explanation.

RICKY
There are other explanations, though, Eva, it’s just this one suits you the best.

EVA
It was an act of God.

RICKY
I don’t know what to say to that.

EVA
I understand if it makes you uncomfortable.

RICKY
It doesn’t make me uncomfortable, not exactly, I’m just not sure what you’re getting at.

EVA
What I’m getting at is – my faith was reaffirmed. I had doubts, and God reaffirmed my faith. It’s
like the story I told you about my Mom. The Tilma. The light. Now I’ve had a similar experience
and I can truly understand how she was changed by that.

69
 RICKY
Oh.

EVA
I’m finishing the episode of the podcast – but I’m bringing my story into it, my crisis of faith.
My low point, my doubts. Even the story of Isabel, the story of Ann – how it all connects, how it
all had to happened to bring me to that place at that time and call you there at the exact right
time, that I heard the Virgin Mary / speak to me –

RICKY
Eva – that’s great. I’m glad you’ve found some peace.
But the reason I came up there is because… well… I do actually care about other people, you
know. And you seemed like you needed someone to care about you.

EVA
…

RICKY
I can see why you’re saying what you’re saying, though.
…
Are you still there?

EVA
Yes.

RICKY
Anyway… listen.
That isn’t why I called you, actually.

EVA
Oh.
…
Well. Okay. What is it?

RICKY
I found, I was going through some of my old things and I found one of the letters I wrote, that I
mentioned to you. Dear Ann?

EVA
Yes, of course.

RICKY
And I thought, well, I wasn’t sure if you were still doing the podcast, that’s good to hear you’re
still doing it. But anyway I thought I would send it over to you. The letter. I don’t even know if it
would be helpful for the podcast honestly, now that you’re going in a different direction with it.

70
But I thought… part of me thought that maybe it might be some comfort to you. I was having a
very hard time when I wrote it, I was dreadfully unhappy. So I thought it might help you, it
might help you to know that… I don’t know. I just thought it might be of some use to you.

EVA
Thank you, Ricky. That’s very thoughtful.

RICKY
I don’t know if it’ll fit in. But it might be of interest to you.

EVA
I’d love to read it.

RICKY
Well. Great.

EVA
Great.

RICKY
…

EVA
Are you still there?

RICKY
We don’t have to agree on it. That’s the good thing, you know, about it being legal – you don’t
have to agree with it. You only have to get an abortion if you want to. You know what I’m
saying?

EVA
Yes. I know.

RICKY
It’ll be better. Things will be better. You’ll see.

EVA
I hope you’re right.

RICKY
Me too.

EVA
Thank you. For calling me.

71
 RICKY
Goodbye, then, Eva.

EVA
Bye, Ricky.

RICKY
Eva?

EVA
Yeah?

RICKY
We’re all just trying to get by, right? We’re all just trying to get along and do our best and live
our lives, live our lives dyou see what I’m saying? Because for a long time I felt, I thought I
couldn’t live with myself after what happened with Ann. Because there was a part of me that said
this is your fault, this is your fault, this is your fault. And that was devastating, it really was.

EVA
It wasn’t your fault.
You have to have some compassion for yourself.

RICKY
Thanks for saying that.

He hangs up.

Exit RICKY.

EVA stands up. She walks to the desk.

She takes an envelope out of her pocket and

takes a letter out of it. She looks over it. She
sets it to one side and presses record. She
speaks into the microphone.

EVA
When I returned to the US, Ricky sent me a letter than he wrote more than thirty years ago, when
he was in basic training for the army. He enlisted shortly after his eighteenth birthday.

She hesitates. Then, in a rush:

EVA
My mother gave birth to me when she was eighteen. And I thank God every day that I am here
on this earth and I am still alive and that I have been given the chance to do good and the chance
to help others and, and, and a chance to do my best and live in God’s light and in the light of Our

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Lady but if I had found out I was pregnant at eighteen, or sixteen, or fifteen I – I don’t know
what I would have done. I really don’t.

She stops talking abruptly, and stops

recording. She rubs her face. She flicks her
hair over her shoulders, left and then right.
She hits a few buttons, deleting what she just
recorded.

She puts her head in her hands for a long

moment.

Enter YOUNG RICKY. He stands a little

behind her. She looks at the letter again. She
hits record.

EVA
When I returned home, Ricky sent me a letter than he wrote more than thirty years ago. He
would write letters to Ann after her death. I want to read this letter to you all. Ricky thought…
Ricky thought that if abortion had been legal in Ireland at the time of Ann’s pregnancy that
things would have… gone a different way.

She unfolds the letter.

EVA
Dear Ann.
I’m here in basic training. I don’t think you’d like it here all that much…

EVA kind of fades away as YOUNG

RICKY takes over the letter. He isn’t
writing. He just speaks it.

EPILOGUE

YOUNG RICKY
Dear Ann.
I’m here in basic training. I don’t think you’d like it here all that much. It’s nice enough like but
I’m busy and stressed alla the time. I don’t really have much free time. Maybe if we had the pink
baby in the pink house with the pink velvet curtains I’d have something to look forward to in the
evenings, but as is I’m just so tired that I drop into bed the second I get back home. Still. I’m
trying my best, Ann. Really I am.
I think if I try hard enough I could have a nice life, or at least a life that’s nice enough. I don’t
know will I ever meet someone else I liked as much as you. But if I meet someone I like half as
much that would be good enough for me. I miss you.
(suddenly he seems close to tears)
I’ve been having a bit of a hard time recently.

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(he sniffs, smiles)
But I’m okay. I hope wherever you are… if you are anywhere… that’s you’re happy. Or at
least… that you’re okay. I think of you so often, up by Our Lady, all by yourself. You could
have told me. But I should have known. I should have done better.
I don’t know what to do anymore. I did when I was with you. I was too lucky.
It’s not right to be that happy.
I get home in the evening and I’m so tired and I lay down in my little bed and close my eyes to
go to sleep. I always have the same thought as I drift off to sleep, looking at the long crack down
the middle of the ceiling. I think about you in my arms and the two of us looking at the stars, just
being with each other.
And oh, I am happy.

The lights fade to black.

End of Play.

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