Only twelve hours have passed since yesterday’s shoot and I arrive to the Brooklyn brownstone in Fort Greene to find the kitchen transformed into a French café. I pass the set builders and art directors as they sleepily grab a cup o' jo and head to their respective hacienda’s for a few hours of much needed sleep. The scenes scheduled for today are between Charles Thornton played wonderfully by Keith Herron and Vincent Morris portrayed with gentle aplomb by Jerry Marsini. Mr. Morris is a business associate of Mr. Thornton. In the first scene Charles tells Vincent that he has been appointed to the royal treasury by Queen Victoria. Hmmmm. He tells his business partner before he tells his wife. Here is an interesting insight into the marriage between Charles and Victoria and the partnership between Charles and Vincent. All along I have witnessed that the marriage is an arrangement with no sexual component whatsoever. Devotion? Yes. Platonic love? Certainly. Protection? You bet. Charles seems to be in a monogamous relationship with his business partner. Victoria not only accepts the love affair between the two men but willingly plays the beard so that Charles can be fulfilled without the threat of scandal. What does she get out of the union? She can freely devote herself to reform, travel and charity without the trappings of marriage and that includes companionship, sex and children. Everyone wins in this complex arrangement until Richard enters the scene and something within Victoria is awakened.
I want to talk about the possible scandal that could have taken place with these characters. In 1895 Oscar Wilde was arrested and tried for sodomy and gross indecency. Sodomy in Britain at the time was a felony crime and punishable offense earning years in confinement with hard labor. Oscar Wilde was an aesthete, a celebrated playwright, a philosopher and poet who came from an upper class family, his father a surgeon and knighted by the crown. The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Woman of No Importance are some if his best loved works. Here is a man who is rich and famous even for his time. He has friends in high places and yet the dark side of Victorian London remands Oscar Wilde to two years hard labor in Wandsworth prison. At about the same time Paul Verlain, a symbolist poet and writer was also tried for ‘buggery’ in France and imprisoned for two years hard labor. The famed myth that Prince Albert Victor Duke of Clarence was the killer also includes the royal family covering up the fact that the prince had ‘unnatural affections’ for men. He was implicated along with other aristocrats in the Cleveland Street Scandal---a homosexual brothel located in the bohemian section of London in which telegraph boys were paid by wealthy clients to engage in sexual activities. Lord Arthur Somerset had a warrant out for his arrest by the Metropolitan police and his friend Prince Albert Victor insured his escape to France to avoid prosecution for sodomy. It was common at the time for aristocrats and society to ‘slum it’ in the east end of London during the Victorian era. Charles and Vincent indulge in a little slumming as well. Whitechapel was rife with prostitutes of both genders. It was the perfect hunting ground for Jack the Ripper. Slipping in and out of a densely populated area of immense poverty and anonymous people was easy and violent crime was common. It was where the sex trade thrived.
Through the course of the scene Vincent suggests that Charles have an heir. A child would prove to a court of law that Charles was a dutiful and loving husband and Vincent could be the child’s ‘uncle’. Such a shame that even today over a hundred years later some LGBT people feel compelled to hide their true selves for fear of job-loss, abuse and prejudice.
It is during this scene that Charles agrees that an heir would make things ‘look’ better and that he is certainly willing, but Victoria is delicate and has been advised ‘not to conceive’. When Vincent presses further Charles tells him that she could die from pregnancy. This information sets up the risk that Victoria takes when she knowingly conceives with Richard.
We break for lunch and a costume change and skip to the end of the movie. In one of the last scenes Charles meets with Vincent in the same genteel café. Charles is obviously troubled over Victoria’s emotional state. He blames Mr. Rhys to which Vincent offers to ‘do something about him’. Vincent is problem solving as a partner might do. Charles explains that he will have to take Victoria to New York. Vincent assumes he will be going as well already planning where he will stay and how they will continue to carry on with their partnership. Charles tells him he must go alone. He must take care of his wife. BOOM. The equilibrium is thrown out of balance. Vincent asks him point blank if Charles is leaving him. The pain on Charles’ face is palpable. He is between a rock and a hard place. He is betrothed to two people at once and must make decisions based on priorities. Society dictates ‘for better, for worse’ and Charles takes his vows seriously. After all Victoria’s presence in his life has afforded him the freedom to find his true love. Charles asks him to wait for his return when Victoria feels better, but Vincent is unsure if waiting will prove anything different. Charles is devoted to his wife. Vincent is not the center of Charles’ world as he once thought. So Vincent decides to leave the relationship. Watching Charles sacrifice his happiness for his duty and seeing the love of his life walk away is excruciating. Played with subtlety and nuance the actors give the scene an agonizing touch.
During the scene there was an extra sitting at a table nearby. He was directed to read or make notes in a notebook so that he blended in with the café patrons. The actor took the direction and ran with it. I’m not sure how much of him will be seen in the final edit but when the last take rolled and the director said that the scene was done our extra revealed what he had written:
Got to run to the store to pick up a few things:
· knives
· gloves
· stain remover
· flowers for my mother, Mrs. The Ripper
· butterscotch drops for me
· top hats
· a new walking stick for dad, Ralph the Ripper
Things to do:
· go on a bloody rampage
· buy a new horse and carriage
· clean scalpels
· rejoin facebook
· look into a new therapist
· kill a few more women
· have my cape altered and cleaned
· Have lunch with Sweeny Todd
Thank you, Louie Vitiello.
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