Suffragette Page #5

---

VIOLET:

Hello kids. Give me half a mo.

VIOLET tails MAUD, the rag bag of GRUBBY KIDS close behind.

VIOLET (CONT’D)

Are you gonna give your testimony

then?

The SLICE of human traffic. Cars. Carriages.

MAUD:

(shakes head)

Mr Taylor’s a good employer.

VIOLET:

To you he is.

MAUD stops, turning on VIOLET.

MAUD:

(sharp)

Take that back.

VIOLET:

I can’t take back what I see.

MAUD:

You’ve been here less than a month.

VIOLET:

And?

They sidestep passing BICYCLES.

VIOLET (CONT’D)

I’ve been doing laundry work ever

since I was thirteen. Maggie's only

twelve and she's in here already.

It’s as tough for us women as it’s

ever been. We’ve got to do whatever

we can. However we can.

MAUD:

(hushed)

What like smashing windows? It’s

not respectable.

VIOLET:

(hushed)

Strangle what’s respectable. You

want me to respect the law, then

make the law respectable.

INT. FRONT ROOM. MAUD’S HOUSE. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912. EVENING.

On MAUD, watching SONNY counting coins from his wage packet

on the table as she sews. GEORGE, nose pressed close to the

table, watches SONNY stacking the coins into a pile.

SONNY:

So Georgie, Georgie! This is six.

You ready? You watching?

He balances a small stack of them on his bent elbow. Then at

once, he flicks his arm with a SLAP! Catching them flat in

his hands, entertaining GEORGE.

SONNY (CONT’D)

You got yours?

MAUD hesitates, and nods reaching into her pocket, pulling

out a second wage packet and pushing it across the table. He

rips it open, counting out the wages, a small stack of coins,

half the size of SONNY’s pay.

MAUD:

You see Mrs Haughton today? Wants

some of the women to go to

Parliament. She thinks we should be

paid more.

SONNY:

On her high horse again.

MAUD wavers, shakes her head, GEORGE in her arms.

SONNY (CONT’D)

Say goodnight to the King, George.

GEORGE raises a hand in salute COUGHING as he does so.

GEORGE:

Good night, Sir.

On MAUD, watching GEORGE and SONNY saluting to the painting

of King George V on the wall.

SONNY:

Good boy.

EXT. ELLYN PHARMACY. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912. DAY.

CLOSE ON GEORGE, trying to keep pace with MAUD as they cross

a busy street.

Come on.

MAUD:

She takes his hand and they enter ELLYN PHARMACY.

INT. BACK ROOM. ELLYN PHARMACY. BETHNAL GREEN. 1912. DAY.

MRS EDITH ELLYN [40’s], neat and earnest, listens to GEORGE’S

heart with a stethoscope.

EDITH:

Big breath in please. Good boy. And

out.

CLOSE on MAUD, her eyes grazing over the endless shelves of

medicines and mixtures, halting on a photograph of MRS

PANKHURST on the wall.

Rate this script:3.0 / 2 votes