On San Miguel, Maddox, Leon, and the August's officers talk of what has been done and what comes next.
A tale of queer love and mutiny on the high seas! Tune into the Voyage of the August, a nine-episode serial radio drama chronicling the final voyage of a merchant ship bound for England in 1717, whose crew takes their fate into their own hands. The story centers around the August’s first mate, Robert Maddox, a well-respected officer with frustrated ambitions; Dr. Leon de Isla, a surgeon with an unhappy past who follows Maddox to sea for reasons of the heart; and Sophia Montague, the willful daughter of the shipping line’s owner. Exploring 18th century nautical culture, queer history, and shipboard conflict, this work of historical fiction will be be released in nine weekly installments starting August 1st, 2020. Find episodes weekly on our website and also on the Electric Lite Collective Youtube channel.
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Cast (in order of appearance)
Caraid O'Brien as the Intro Voiceover
Sebas Ward as Robert Maddox
Tiz Rome as Leon Francesca de Isla and Harold Blackwall
Daniel Haas as Richard Montague
CJ Humphries as Ambrose Teague
Minna Gorry-Hines as Cecil Laurence
Ernie Alugas as James Douglas
Memphis Washington as Sophia Montague
Katie Faust-Little as Silvia Montague
Special thanks to Jim Wald, Will Ryan, and Ezekiel Baskin.
Voyage of the August is written, directed, and sound designed by Wynn MacKenzie and Sean French-Byrne, with shanties arranged and directed by Wynn MacKenzie and acoustic tracks written and performed by Sebas Ward. Sound effects courtesy of the community of freesound.org.
Full Attributions:
“LS_33882_PH_PebbleBeach.wav” by kevp888 of Freesound.org
“Birds Ambience Loud.wav” by Doc Jon of Freesound.org
“BIRD NIGHTJAR fem.mp3” by Geldart of Freesound.org
“Waves and seagulls.wav” by justkiddink of Freesound.org
“Nuit-Amb animaux.aif” by roubignolle of Freesound.org
Episode Nine: Counsel
Captain’s cabin, the August. Normal indoor ship ambience.
TEAGUE: We’re coming in close to Sao Miguel, Captain. We’ll get her anchored in half an hour or so.
MADDOX: Thank you, Ambrose.
TEAGUE: The boys- and Sophia- greatly fancy going ashore.
MADDOX: As do I. This will be a fine place to find our new heading. Report back to me once you have her anchored.
TEAGUE: Yes, sir.
The sound of waves and shouts rushes in as the August makes her way into the bay. Birds and wind through trees can be heard as she draws closer to the island--different birds, different trees, even different waves are here in this tropical paradise, this far from Boston. The sight makes an impression only on Sophia and Sylvia and the other passengers--most of the sailors are jaded to such beauty, familiar as they are with places like it from their travels.
The wind dies down and a symphony of jungle insects replaces it. The night birds and sound of fires crackling on the beach can be heard, as well as laughter, shouts. Teague starts singing, and the rest of the sailors join - “Health to the Company”
MADDOX sits alone, at a small fire near the edge of the Augusts’ makeshift beachside camp. He gnaws at a leg of mutton, courtesy of the Portuguese farmers that inhabit the island. He stares into the fire, contemplative. TEAGUE walks up and sits down on a piece of driftwood next to MADDOX.
TEAGUE: Hey there, Captain. Woolgathering again? Crew would be mighty pleased if you’d join us for a song.
MADDOX: Oh, don’t call me Captain here.
TEAGUE: If ye say so, Maddox. Like old times.
MADDOX: (still brooding) Old indeed. I feel like I’ve lived a thousand years, Ambrose, though I’ve only seen 26 summers. Almost 27, now.
TEAGUE: Oh! It’s almost your birth day then, Maddox? There’s absolutely no excuse to be melancholy.
MADDOX: (teasing, lightening up a little) Try and stop me, you devilish man.
TEAGUE: Very well, I won’t stop you. But I will sit a while here with you, and drink with you, and share in your contemplation if you’ll let me.
MADDOX: You’re sounding more like Cecil every day, my friend.
TEAGUE: (a smile in his voice) Aye, well, it’s hard not to. He’s a fine, uncommon sort of man, to be sure.
MADDOX: An uncommon sort, you say?
Footsteps on sand approach.
CECIL walks up, holding a bottle of rum.
TEAGUE: Well, you know him. Speak of the devil.
CECIL: Me, the devil? You give me far too much credit, Teague. I can only aspire to be half as conniving or clever. Might I join you?
TEAGUE: Aye, well, to my eyes you’ve twice the charm to make up for it.
MADDOX: Hoy, Cecil.
CECIL: Maddox, my man.
MADDOX: You’ve been in your cups, I see.
CECIL: We’re free men now, Maddox, and I feel the warmth of it in my chest. I’ve just been deep in discourse with Leon. He’s a man with some funny ideas about death in his head. ‘Twas most enlightening.
MADDOX: I told you they’d get on, Ambrose.
TEAGUE: Aye, of course they do. Heads full of dreams and silver tongues, the both of them.
(Beat. Comfortable silence as the fire crackles and the waves beat against the beach, under the sound of the crew reveling.)
MADDOX: (suddenly) Cecil, I just realized...we never thought up any sort of punishment, for your killing of Smith.
(A short beat of tense silence. The sound of revelry draws away briefly.)
CECIL laughs, low and dark, similar to the way he laughed after killing SMITH.
CECIL: Well now, Captain, do you intend to punish me?
TEAGUE: Cecil, come now--
MADDOX: Calm yourself, Teague. (to CECIL) I’m not about to try and hang you from the yardarm. Do you feel any...remorse for killing him?
CECIL: To speak plainly, Maddox, I’ve felt remorse for precious few things in this life. Killing that cowardly worm was not one of them.
MADDOX: (with a smile in his voice) I’ve always appreciated your rare candor, Cecil. (sombering) Though, I ask that you refrain from murdering any more of the crew. Sailors are fractious enough as is.
CECIL: Happy to be of service.
There is a beat of silence again, and the sounds of the beach rush back in. Another song starts up--half-hearted and out of tune.
TEAGUE: I’ve got to rescue this tune from being butchered. ‘Tis a sad thing to hear a song without a helmsman! Don’t get too morose, now, boys.
CECIL: (teasing) Don’t get too drunk now, Ambrose. We have to share a tent later.
MADDOX: Tell Leon to come join us, would you, Teague?
TEAGUE: (distant) Aye, aye.
(Beat.)
MADDOX: Mrs. Montague left easier than I thought she might. She gave me a wicked scolding the day past.
CECIL: She’s not the kind of woman who would take to the August so easily, I think.
MADDOX: I thought for sure she might stay and try to protect Sophia. Despite her...unmotherly nature, I believe she might care for her daughter more than she lets on.
CECIL: She’s had a hard life. Different than ours, to be sure.
MADDOX: What do you mean, a hard life? Protected by rich old Montague, in a townhouse in Boston, with a fine daughter and servants, never lifted a finger to work…
CECIL: Which are all fine accommodations if you haven’t got the sense that God gave a fly. But Sylvia, she’s got a sharper wit than all of us, and suffers all the more for it. Imagine the boredom. To be married to an idiot and confined to the frivolous, empty pastimes that rich women are expected to be entertained with, and only laudanum for comfort...it’s enough to drive someone insane.
MADDOX: I can’t imagine it. The wealth or the boredom.
CECIL: I thank God we never have to. (in a different tone) Leon!
MADDOX: Ah, Leon! Good of you to join us.
LEON: Aye, well, Mr. Teague kept trying to deal me in a game of Ombre, but I told him that unless he was ready to lose his money and his dignity then I’d best refrain.
MADDOX: Your noble restraint is appreciated. Teague’s an awful hand at cards.
LEON: (laughing) As if you’re any better, Maddox! All summer in Boston I think you won less than ten hands.
CECIL: I believe it’s the rather unfortunate combination of Leon’s rare skill and your rare foolishness, sir.
LEON: Foolishness indeed! I once heard the greatest racket while working one night, and came to Maddox’s cabin to find all the cards on the floor and Teague and him in a great fisticuffs over who cheated first.
CECIL: (teasing) I’ll bet you the world neither cheated.
MADDOX: (affectionate) Come now. I never claimed to be the sharpest man, to be sure.
LEON: (sweetly) I’ll forgive all your foolishness from so fair a face.
CECIL: Would you like me to join Teague’s musical efforts and leave you to it, then?
LEON: (laughing) No, that won’t be necessary, friend.
CECIL: (dryly) Thank the Lord; singing is the one talent Teague has over me, and I’m loathe to give him reason to gloat.
MADDOX: (teasing) Is that any way to speak about your superior officer?
CECIL: I thought we’d forsworn notions of superiority, along with safety, good morals, and the condescension of old Mr. Montague-
MADDOX: (laughing) -Oh, aye-
CECIL: (with the air of one winding down a tipsy rant) -and besides, he’s superior in technicality only.
LEON: To be sure. I wonder...though I am not so deep in your notions of rank and command- there has been no talk as to how all of that will work aboard the August now.
MADDOX: Mm.
LEON: You may be captain, Maddox-
CECIL: A ship, arguably, requires one, and he might as well be the closest thing we have to a decent man.
LEON: … But what of the other ranks? What of the men? The-
CECIL: The foremast jacks. They won’t be drawing pay on the regular any longer. Promises of freedom and liberty are well and good, but pale in comparison to empty stomachs.
MADDOX: We have the money Montague gave Blackwall, and a hold full of cargo. That’s enough to give each man what’s owed for this voyage, and fit the August for more dangerous purposes.
LEON: That’s all well. But the matter I had more on mind was one of- life. Are we to go forward as we have been, with the only change being our course and your place on the ship? What does it mean, for Cecil to be the second officer, or Douglas to be a midshipman, if such a thing exists onboard a pirate ship? Sophia being a midshipman, at very least, already changes something of our life before. But what of us- you and me-
MADDOX: Aye. We have claimed this life, but now we must decide what it means. It’s been on my mind, as well.
CECIL: It will be on everyone’s on the morrow, once this holiday mood has passed.
MADDOX: I can’t claim to have an answer for you, Leon. For either of you. I can only- I can only share a story, and the promise I will listen to whatever you advise me. And ask for your trust.
LEON: (with a little laugh) You needn’t ask for something you know you have.
CECIL: A story? From Maddox? Teague will be sad to miss it.
MADDOX: It’s not so good, nor will it be as well-told as any of his.
CECIL: Not an auspicious beginning.
MADDOX: Years ago, when I was but a boy, I… found myself with nothing in the world, save the strength of my body and a notion to go to sea. I joined the crew of a merchant ship sailing from fair Ireland. It with a young, rotten captain, willful and stupid, a crew of seasoned sailors, and me, not yet ten years of age. It was a miserable cruise- and not just because it was my first. The stores were rotten, the water worse, and the captain steered the ship into a squall the first night out, and wouldn’t listen to the advice of a man aboard her. After a week or two out of sight of those green shores, the men decided their captain was more likely to steer them to Damnation than to America, so they took matters into their own hands.
MADDOX: I remember that night in the mess, all the men clustered together, water leaking through the boards above our heads and the sound of the storm outside. I was so miserable cold- those days, it felt like I would never be warm again. But they clapped me on the shoulder, drew me into their circle, and let me cast a lot with the others- whether we would mutiny.
MADDOX: Their- our mutiny went off well, and the captain met his end in the waters off Rathlin Island. We declared ourselves pirates, sailed to America, and for a month- how would Teague say it- for thirty days, and thirty nights, we prowled the coast and the seas beyond, preying on merchant vessels and reaping the rewards.
MADDOX: But it all ended with a Navy frigate, and twenty-pounders, and those crew who didn’t die in the fight hanging for piracy on the docks of Boston.
MADDOX: … all apart from their cabin boy, one Robert Maddox, who someone merciful deemed too young and stupid at ten years old to die for the crimes of his elders.
CECIL: And that same Maddox survived with an understanding of a life of piracy- and the end such a life will usually meet.
MADDOX: Aye, I suppose so. The rumors followed me for some time in Boston- few wanted to take on a boy nearly hung as a pirate already. There were officers who were sure to give me a taste of the lash, for fear of the mutiny in me. But by the time I had gone on another cruise or two, the matter was more or less forgot- rightly or wrongly, I couldn’t say, now.
(Beat.)
MADDOX: Hah, listen to me lads, drunk and morose again. Sophia would be terribly disappointed.
CECIL: I could drag Teague back here. He can wrest a good humor out of anyone.
MADDOX: (with a laugh) No, I think it’s best I leave you all to your revelry. I have a devil of a headache, anyway. It feels as I’ve pulled the August from America myself.
LEON: Sleep, then. We can make decisions on the morrow.
MADDOX: Wise, as always. I’ll bid the both you goodnight, then.
CECIL: Aye, goodnight, Maddox.
LEON: I’ll join you shortly.
Footfalls across sand as Maddox steps away from the fire to the small tent nearby. As he steps inside and begins to undress and lie down on the pallet and blankets laid out, the low murmur of voices can be heard from the campfire, muffled by the tent and fuzzy and far-away in Maddox’s weary ears.
CECIL: Has he told you that story before, Leon?
LEON: Only pieces here and there.
CECIL: Our Maddox is reserved sort of man, to be sure, until he isn’t.
LEON: To be fair, my friend, so are you.
CECIL: You really never came to know of all this in Boston? When you were sharing a house?
LEON: No. The more I learn of Maddox’s life before me, the more I become convinced that I was the turning point for him. He wanted to be...better, when I came to know him, I think. He did not want to dwell upon the sins of his past so much.
CECIL: (contemplative) I’d like to hear more, of what you said before. About there not being a heaven nor hell.
LEON: (surprised) Whatever for?
CECIL: I find often the way most men think about their actions to be...limiting. It is always this or that. Good or bad. We are all either condemned to eternal damnation, or we are saved and may dwell in the house of the lord forever. It becomes merely a question of math. I was never very good at math.
LEON: You believe such a system to be unfair.
CECIL: Not just unfair- untrue.
LEON: I’m surprised to hear such frank words from a sailor.
CECIL: (with a laugh) We’re not all tacked together with superstition and nonsense, Doctor. I’ve only ever believed in the things I could see- the ocean, the stars, my own ability, whether poor or apt.
LEON: Sometimes it feels like the sea is all there is to believe in, in a storm. An uncaring element.
CECIL: An uncaring world.
LEON: You and I have similar frames of mind.
CECIL: Doctor… what do you think of the future?
LEON: What do I think of it?
CECIL: What do you hope for it? Do you believe in it?
LEON: I… I believe that we cannot expect anything from the world. I believe that men are cruel, and prideful, and we are not exempt from that. But I believe in them, all the same, those like Maddox, and Sophia, and Teague.
CECIL: Now and then, I think I’m near enough to feeling the same.
CECIL: It was not the case, but I… met a man, in whom I could believe, as much as I can believe in anything made of flesh and fallacy.
LEON and CECIL lapse into silence for a few moments.
CECIL: I believe I will go find Teague. I think I’m drunk enough to sing.
LEON: (with a laugh) Take care of yourself, my friend.
CECIL: Not a worry, Doctor. It’s one of my talents.
LEON: Cecil-
CECIL: Yes?
LEON: You’re among them. Those in whom I can believe.
CECIL: (with a laugh) We’d best look after each other, then. Goodnight, Leon.
CECIL’s footsteps fade into the trees, and the clearing is silent for a moment, with only the crackle of the fire and the distant sound of revelry interrupting the silence.
LEON: Still awake?
MADDOX: Mm.
LEON: (teasing) Eavesdropping?
MADDOX: Perhaps.
LEON: Devious.
MADDOX: Just what you would expect from a decent man?
LEON: Exactly.
MADDOX: There is much to figure out, on the morrow.
LEON: Mmm. But for now… we’re here, and safe, surrounded by friends.
MADDOX: I did not realize… that Cecil thought of me in such a way.
LEON: What do you mean?
MADDOX: The man Cecil spoke of. That he believed in.
LEON: It’s unkind to speak of another man’s secrets, Maddox.
MADDOX: Fair enough. Should I tell you one of mine, or ask you yours?
LEON: Tell me one of yours.
MADDOX: I’ve never felt half so… still, as this. It’s like… perhaps this is what they speak of, when they speak of peace.
LEON: It won’t be peaceful forever.
MADDOX: (with a chuckle) No. I know. But tonight…
LEON: Tonight. (Beat.) What secret were you going to ask of me?
MADDOX: When you met me… was this what you thought of?
LEON: Following you halfway around the world? No.
MADDOX: You know what I mean.
LEON: (with a laugh) At first? No. Well, maybe. You were- I cannot say I did not notice you, then. But by the time we were introduced- well, you were just another patient.
LEON: I came to- well. (He takes a breath.) I came to love you later. Somewhere between there and here.
MADDOX and LEON lapse into silence, and the sound of the carousing sailors rises into another verse of “Health to the Company”. The fire crackles away to embers.
The next morning, in the gray of the dawn.
SOPHIA: Ship on the horizon!
Outro Music- “Song of the August"
Caraid: Thank you for joining us on the Voyage of the August, presented by Electric Lite Collective. Written and edited by Wynn MacKenzie and Sean French-Byrne.
Sean: Hi, I’m Sean French-Byrne!
Wynn: And I’m Wynn MacKenzie. Thank you for listening to the Voyage of the August!
Sean: Cast (in order of appearance)
Sebas Ward as Robert Maddox
Wynn: Tiz Rome as Leon Francisco de Isla and Harold Blackwall
Sean: Daniel Haas as Richard Montague
Wynn: CJ Humphries as Ambrose Teague
Sean: Minna Gorry-Hines as Cecil Laurence
Wynn: Ernie Alugas as James Douglas
Sean: Memphis Washington as Sophia Montague
Wynn: Katie Faust-Little as Silvia Montague
Sean: Special thanks to Jim Wald, Will Ryan, and Hannah Friedrichs
Wynn: And extra special thanks to the pork noodle soup at our local Chinese restaurant, all the sea stories that we were raised on, and Ezekiel Baskin.
Sean: If you’ve enjoyed the Voyage of the August, tell a friend, leave us an itunes review, or let us know! We can be contacted at electricliterailway@gmail.com.
Wynn: Electric Lite Collective is a massachusetts-based group of theatre makers telling stories of the deep blue sea, the end of the world, and everything in between.
Sean: We are interested in exploring queer and trans lives and experiences throughout the realms of history and imagination. To see more of our work, find us on Facebook under Electric Lite (L I T E) Collective, or on tumblr at @electriclitecollective.
Wynn: To see more of my work, find me at wynnmackenzie.com.
Sean: Thank you for listening!
One last clip of a shanty- "Health to the Company"
TEAGUE: And if ever I should meet you by land or by sea
I will always remember your kindness to me
So here's a health to the company and one to my lass
Let's drink and be merry all out of one glass
Let's drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may or might never all meet here again