This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:02] Gather by the Ghost Light presents Romeo and HER SISTER, starring Anna Demetriou and Charlotte McBurney, written by Jillian Blevins.

[0:12] For a more immersive listening experience, please enjoy the show with headphones.

[0:28] Charlotte Cushman: Two sisters, unalike in every way.

[0:32] Charlotte Cushman: In gloomy London where we lay our scene.

[0:35] Charlotte Cushman: They nurse their ancient grudge, rehearse a play, and keep their ruinous scandals still unseen.

[0:42] Charlotte Cushman: Their rivalry for fame, for wealth, for love, hath poisoned both the sisters all their life.

[0:49] Charlotte Cushman: The elder evermore her worth must prove.

[0:53] Charlotte Cushman: The younger wishes most to be a wife.

[0:56] Charlotte Cushman: The only way this coil.

[0:58] Sallie Mercer: Miss Mercer, stop!

[0:59] Charlotte Cushman: What?

[1:00] Sallie Mercer: We've only just begun, and you're about to give away the ending.

[1:03] Charlotte Cushman: It's the prologue.

[1:04] Sallie Mercer: Ah, such a silly convention.

[1:06] Charlotte Cushman: Let's leave them in some suspense.

[1:08] Sallie Mercer: Forgive me, Miss Cushman, but I don't work for you, I work for your sister.

[1:13] Charlotte Cushman: Of course. My sister, the sensational Charlotte Cushman.

[1:19] Charlotte Cushman: My sister, my sister, my sister.

[1:22] Sallie Mercer: She's waiting for you.

[1:23] Charlotte Cushman: Please, Sally, I need a respite from this drudgery.

[1:27] Charlotte Cushman: I'm going mad with boredom, speaking the same words day after day.

[1:31] Sallie Mercer: Rehearsing.

[1:32] Charlotte Cushman: And all this rehearsal has left me with no time to meet a single suitor here in England.

[1:37] Sallie Mercer: I think we both know suitors should be the furthest thing from your mind.

[1:42] Charlotte Cushman: After the unhappy matter with Mr. Merriman—

[1:44] Sallie Mercer: Do not speak that vile old man's name in my presence.

[1:48] Charlotte Cushman: He's your husband.

[1:49] Sallie Mercer: Not any longer.

[1:51] Sallie Mercer: He made certain of that after he refused to die as promised, abandoning me with his son to raise, and without the comforts I was due.

[1:58] Sallie Mercer: The shame is nearly as terrible as never having married at all.

[2:01] Charlotte Cushman: Suitors are what got you into this mess, and your sister is what's gotten you out of it.

[2:07] Sallie Mercer: You might show a bit more gratitude.

[2:09] Charlotte Cushman: Ah, yes. Gratitude.

[2:11] Charlotte Cushman: I must always be grateful to dear Charlotte for saving our fatherless family from disaster and dragging me on stage to act in her shadow.

[2:20] Sallie Mercer: I can never for a moment forget the debt I owe her.

[2:23] Charlotte Cushman: All that gratitude is stifling.

[2:25] Sallie Mercer: She cares for you.

[2:27] Sallie Mercer: Mother and I were quite cared for by her money.

[2:30] Sallie Mercer: She needn't have carted me off to London to spend hours a day in a dark theater.

[2:33] Charlotte Cushman: Well, you're here now, aren't you? Boston will still be there when the play has ended, and you'll be returning quite a bit richer.

[2:41] Sallie Mercer: I'd much rather marry into riches.

[2:43] Sallie Mercer: Earning one's own is so sordid.

[2:46] Charlotte Cushman: Some of us feel lucky to be able to earn money for our work at all.

[2:50] Sallie Mercer: Oh, for heaven's sake, Sally, you were born a free woman.

[2:53] Sallie Mercer: And so were you.

[2:54] Sallie Mercer: And you freely married a man who gave you a child.

[2:58] Sallie Mercer: Freely accepted Miss Charlotte's offer to bring you forward in New York.

[3:02] Sallie Mercer: Freely accepted her money, and freely agreed to join her in London and to play Juliet.

[3:09] Sallie Mercer: A role any actress would kill for.

[3:12] Charlotte Cushman: So get dressed and meet her in the theater in five minutes.

[3:17] Sallie Mercer: Aren't you supposed to help me dress?

[3:19] Charlotte Cushman: I'm Charlotte's dresser.

[3:21] Charlotte Cushman: Perhaps you'll have your own one day.

[3:23] Charlotte Cushman: Until then, you'll have to manage.

[3:28] Sallie Mercer: I never come to London, Susan.

[3:38] Charlotte Cushman: Get dressed, Susan! Play Juliet, Susan! A role any actress would kill for.

[3:54] Sallie Mercer: Romeo. Romeo. Wherefore art thou?

[3:59] Benjamin Webster: Miss Cushman is indisposed and will have to postpone the rehearsal for a few hours.

[4:03] Sallie Mercer: You must be joking.

[4:04] Benjamin Webster: She'll send for you at the apartment when she's ready.

[4:07] Sallie Mercer: I'm not a parcel to be picked up whenever she likes.

[4:09] Benjamin Webster: No, Miss. You're an actress. Perhaps you better get used to it.

[4:28] Benjamin Webster: I'm not sure I understand your concerns.

[4:30] Benjamin Webster: Well, um you see, Miss Cushman.

[4:33] Benjamin Webster: The play is due to open in just over a week.

[4:37] Charlotte Cushman: I'm aware of that.

[4:38] Benjamin Webster: And of course, we're honored to have you play Romeo here at the Haymarket.

[4:42] Benjamin Webster: I mean, you received such reviews for the role in America.

[4:45] Benjamin Webster: And your Fasio here in London was well, the Herald called you the greatest of actresses.

[4:51] Charlotte Cushman: I've read my notices, Mr. Webster.

[4:53] Benjamin Webster: The problem?

[4:55] Benjamin Webster: It's your sister.

[4:56] Charlotte Cushman: What about her?

[4:58] Benjamin Webster: Well, I can't help but notice that well, uh, she doesn't quite seem uh she hasn't.

[5:06] Charlotte Cushman: I'm afraid she isn't.

[5:08] Charlotte Cushman: I hope you'll finish at least one sentence before this conversation is ended.

[5:12] Benjamin Webster: She hasn't memorized any of her lines.

[5:14] Benjamin Webster: And she's playing Juliet.

[5:17] Charlotte Cushman: I'll never get used to the English inclination to say everything but what one really means.

[5:22] Benjamin Webster: I'm so sorry, Miss Cushman. I don't mean to be impertinent or to waste your time.

[5:28] Benjamin Webster: It's just. I'm concerned that Miss Cushman, that is the other Miss Cushman, that your sister may not be quite ready to perform by the time we open the play.

[5:38] Charlotte Cushman: And what do you suggest we do?

[5:40] Benjamin Webster: Perhaps, uh perhaps another actress might is there someone else who could um—

[5:40] Charlotte Cushman: What am I, Mr. Webster?

[5:50] Benjamin Webster: What?

[5:50] Charlotte Cushman: Um, you're the most famous actress in America.

[5:54] Charlotte Cushman: I'm the most famous woman in the world.

[5:56] Benjamin Webster: Uh yes, yes, yes, quite right.

[5:58] Charlotte Cushman: Do you know what people did the last time I went back to Boston?

[6:01] Charlotte Cushman: They threw me a parade.

[6:04] Charlotte Cushman: They pasted up bills that said, Welcome home, Charlotte.

[6:07] Charlotte Cushman: The papers called it Cushmania.

[6:10] Benjamin Webster: Miss Cushman.

[6:11] Charlotte Cushman: I'm a star, Mr. Webster. And I can enact Romeo wherever I please.

[6:15] Charlotte Cushman: Shall I go home to Boston? Perhaps a revival in New York. Paris is lovely this time of year.

[6:21] Benjamin Webster: Miss Cushman. I'm not sure you realize what a privilege it is to host the Cushman sisters for this engagement.

[6:26] Benjamin Webster: Sisters, playing the greatest lovers of the literary canon.

[6:30] Benjamin Webster: Women enacting passionate love as only two women can.

[6:34] Benjamin Webster: And the most famous woman in the world with top billing? We'll draw full houses no matter which theater we play in.

[6:41] Benjamin Webster: If you would prefer that we fill those houses elsewhere.

[6:44] Charlotte Cushman: No, no. You're quite right. Please forgive me.

[6:47] Charlotte Cushman: Susan will perform next week. I'll have no other Juliet.

[6:52] Benjamin Webster: Of course.

[6:53] Charlotte Cushman: Until then, you will kindly stay out of the rehearsal hall and let us work.

[6:58] Benjamin Webster: Yes. Anything else?

[7:02] Benjamin Webster: Oh. No, I uh uh right, um well.

[7:12] Sallie Mercer: I thought he'd never leave.

[7:19] Charlotte Cushman: That's enough, Pet. I will eventually have to rehearse at this rehearsal.

[7:23] Sallie Mercer: My sister's been waiting.

[7:25] Charlotte Cushman: Just a little more time, please.

[7:27] Sallie Mercer: You promised you'd give me acting lessons, but instead you've had me hiding under your Shay's lounge.

[7:33] Charlotte Cushman: Oh, yes, of course. Acting lessons, but but not today. I have to focus on opening the play next week.

[7:39] Sallie Mercer: I still can't believe I'm in Charlotte Cushman's dressing room.

[7:43] Charlotte Cushman: Neither can I.

[7:46] Sallie Mercer: Can you please do Hamlet for me just one more time?

[7:50] Charlotte Cushman: No, I I couldn't.

[7:52] Sallie Mercer: Oh, please.

[7:53] Sallie Mercer: Eleanora. You know what it does to me to hear you speak those words.

[7:57] Charlotte Cushman: All right, all right, Pet. But you must leave afterwards, or else I'll get no work done all day, and there will be no Romeo next week.

[8:04] Sallie Mercer: You do really want to see me play Romeo, don't you?

[8:06] Charlotte Cushman: Oh, more than anything, Charlotte.

[8:09] Sallie Mercer: But first, Hamlet, please.

[8:15] Charlotte Cushman: To be or not to be. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them to die, to sleep no more.

[8:40] Charlotte Cushman: And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to a consummation, devoutly to be wished, to die, to sleep, to sleep perchance, to dream.

[9:02] Charlotte Cushman: Aye, there's the rub of death. What dreams may come.

[9:12] Sallie Mercer: I can barely stand it.

[9:15] Sallie Mercer: I still remember the first time I saw you play Hamlet.

[9:18] Sallie Mercer: I was only 14.

[9:20] Charlotte Cushman: Oh, please don't say that. It makes me feel grotesquely old.

[9:23] Sallie Mercer: And I thought she is a finer man than any real man I've ever met.

[9:28] Charlotte Cushman: Good thing. I've always been only a passable woman.

[9:29] Sallie Mercer: Oh, stop. You're beautiful.

[9:34] Charlotte Cushman: I am very many things, Eleanora, dear, but beautiful is not one of them.

[9:40] Charlotte Cushman: Now, hurry along. You promised you wouldn't distract me any longer.

[9:43] Sallie Mercer: Handsome then.

[9:45] Charlotte Cushman: All right, I'll go. Don't forget to leave through the back door.

[9:49] Sallie Mercer: Charlotte?

[9:49] Charlotte Cushman: Yes, Pet.

[9:51] Sallie Mercer: You didn't mean that thing you said to Mr. Webster, did you?

[9:53] Charlotte Cushman: What thing was that?

[9:55] Sallie Mercer: The thing about Susan being the only Juliet you play with.

[9:59] Sallie Mercer: Because you told me, or you promised that when you left London to tour the provinces, that I would be your Juliet.

[10:05] Charlotte Cushman: You do remember.

[10:07] Charlotte Cushman: Yes. Yes. Of course I do. That was just a little bluster to get the old fool to stay out of my way.

[10:14] Charlotte Cushman: You have so much to learn about the theater business, Pet.

[10:17] Sallie Mercer: How fortunate I am to have such a formidable teacher.

[10:24] Charlotte Cushman: At the back.

[10:29] Sallie Mercer: Miss Cushman. Send for my sister now, Sally.

[10:31] Sallie Mercer: Miss Hays is here.

[10:33] Charlotte Cushman: Here? But she was to be in Paris through the end of the month.

[10:36] Sallie Mercer: I take it you're seeing visitors while she's gone.

[10:39] Charlotte Cushman: Where is she? Is she dressed at least?

[10:42] Sallie Mercer: Not helpful.

[10:43] Sallie Mercer: It wasn't meant to be.

[10:45] Sallie Mercer: Shall I send her in?

[10:46] Charlotte Cushman: Uh of course. Tell her I'm ecstatic to see her.

[10:52] Charlotte Cushman: He that hath the steerage of my course. Direct my sail.

[10:56] Charlotte Cushman: Shit.

[10:58] Eleanora: My darling! I have missed you so terribly.

[11:01] Matilda Hays: My love, what brings you back to London? And so soon?

[11:05] Matilda Hays: Oh! Well, I was sitting there in this little flat poring over those George Sand texts, and I should have been thrilled.

[11:13] Matilda Hays: I mean it was- it was Paris, and the English ladies' journal was paying for everything, and I was working on translating these fantastic writings.

[11:24] Matilda Hays: But I was just miserable because I wasn't with you.

[11:29] Matilda Hays: And I thought, how can I possibly miss Charlotte playing Romeo in London?

[11:34] Matilda Hays: I can't. And so here I am.

[11:38] Charlotte Cushman: But your work on the sand manuscripts.

[11:41] Matilda Hays: I can translate right here. The estate let me travel with the texts. Isn't that wonderful? Now I can be right beside you all the time.

[11:50] Charlotte Cushman: Oh, Max. How wonderful.

[11:53] Matilda Hays: I got your letters.

[11:55] Charlotte Cushman: Oh, Charlotte. They were so beautiful.

[12:00] Matilda Hays: My dearest friend, I long for you every moment since we parted.

[12:07] Matilda Hays: I see your face floating before me as I fall asleep.

[12:12] Charlotte Cushman: You memorize them?

[12:14] Matilda Hays: I keep them with me always. They're part of the reason I had to return.

[12:20] Matilda Hays: Some of them were quite descriptive.

[12:24] Charlotte Cushman: Oh?

[12:24] Matilda Hays: Mm-hmm.

[12:26] Charlotte Cushman: I'm not the only one who has a way with words.

[12:30] Matilda Hays: Oh, I have missed you, Max. Truly.

[12:34] Matilda Hays: Now, I must take you to lunch at once.

[12:37] Charlotte Cushman: Darling, I can't.

[12:39] Matilda Hays: No, but surely you must be due a break by now.

[12:42] Charlotte Cushman: We haven't started yet.

[12:44] Matilda Hays: Well, you haven't. But what have you been doing all day?

[12:48] Charlotte Cushman: There have been some uh struggles with Susan.

[12:51] Matilda Hays: Oh, for goodness sake. Why don't you send your spoiled sister home to mummy and hire a real actress?

[12:59] Matilda Hays: Like you?

[13:00] Charlotte Cushman: Well, that is not what I meant.

[13:04] Matilda Hays: You know I don't do that anymore. I'm much too quiet and too plain, and you've already met me.

[13:12] Charlotte Cushman: Exactly. It was our destiny to meet, and because of my horrible ill-fated foray on the stage, we have.

[13:21] Charlotte Cushman: And now I can spend my time supporting your genius.

[13:24] Matilda Hays: Susan will be fine. It's important that she be my Juliet.

[13:27] Charlotte Cushman: Sisterly love is pure. It will stop any talk.

[13:32] Matilda Hays: There's been talk.

[13:33] Charlotte Cushman: Just the usual rumblings.

[13:35] Matilda Hays: That I'm somehow too real of a man. My stage love for women too convincing.

[13:41] Charlotte Cushman: How foolish.

[13:43] Matilda Hays: Would these gossips prefer a bad actress?

[13:45] Charlotte Cushman: It's Forrest, I'm certain of it. He arrived in town from New Orleans, and then the whispers began.

[13:55] Charlotte Cushman: And he despises me. Ever since we played together in New York, I received glowing notices, and he was savaged in the press. Milktoast, they called him, wasn't it? But it was no fault of mine.

[14:06] Matilda Hays: Well, what?

[14:08] Charlotte Cushman: Well, you did decide to play Hamlet just after his opened.

[14:12] Matilda Hays: Every great tragedian must try their hand at Hamlet. Booth played him at the same time as both of us.

[14:17] Charlotte Cushman: And your last Romeo played at the same time as his as well.

[14:22] Matilda Hays: I had no idea.

[14:23] Charlotte Cushman: And last time you were both in London, he switched from Brutus to Anthony, and you did too.

[14:29] Matilda Hays: And I outshone and outsold him every time.

[14:34] Charlotte Cushman: All right. So he has good reason to hate me. But I won't let him destroy my reputation here in London with petty rumors. That's why I need Susan.

[14:42] Matilda Hays: To remind my audience that I'm a paragon of virtue.

[14:45] Charlotte Cushman: And so you are. Chaste and pure as the driven snow. No one will ever see me with any man. They'll continue to assume my incorruptible maidenhood. And so our friendship is beyond reproach.

[14:58] Matilda Hays: So it is. Now, my darling, you must be off. If I'm to get any work done at all today, I can't have you here distracting me.

[15:06] Charlotte Cushman: Of course. I'll see you tonight. I'm so excited to be here with you again and see your Romeo at last. I'm even excited to meet your coddled little sister.

[15:16] Matilda Hays: Charlotte?

[15:17] Charlotte Cushman: We've discussed this. It wouldn't be wise for you two to meet.

[15:22] Matilda Hays: You're ashamed of me.

[15:23] Charlotte Cushman: No, I'm not, Max. Believe me. It's only out of love for you that I want to keep you apart.

[15:28] Matilda Hays: But I can be discreet.

[15:30] Charlotte Cushman: It's not a question of your discretion.

[15:32] Matilda Hays: No.

[15:32] Charlotte Cushman: It's a question of your pride.

[15:34] Matilda Hays: Here we go.

[15:35] Charlotte Cushman: You're a tyrant. You control your mother and your sister with your money, your managers and finances with your fame, and everyone else with your sheer charlotteness.

[15:44] Matilda Hays: And I'm a fool to imagine that I might be any different.

[15:47] Charlotte Cushman: Please, I told you I need to work. Let's not fight.

[15:50] Matilda Hays: You're right. And do you know, I have to work too. I am terribly behind on my writing for the journal, and I only have so much time before I have to return all the sand manuscripts to the estate.

[16:01] Charlotte Cushman: So perhaps it would be best if I stayed at my own flat this week after all.

[16:05] Matilda Hays: Dearest. Good luck with your rehearsals.

[16:07] Charlotte Cushman: And with Susan.

[16:09] Matilda Hays: Max.

[16:09] Charlotte Cushman: Now stay out of your way.

[16:11] Matilda Hays: Sorry to have bothered you.

[16:12] Charlotte Cushman: Please don't leave this way.

[16:15] Matilda Hays: What you mean is, please leave, but don't make a fuss.

[16:19] Charlotte Cushman: I'm all right. I'll leave quietly. Just pretend I was never here. Just pretend I'm still in Paris.

[16:34] Sallie Mercer: Is love a tender thing?

[16:36] Charlotte Cushman: It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous. It pricks like a thorn.

[16:43] Sallie Mercer: Ain't it the truth?

[16:46] Sallie Mercer: Your sister's ready to rehearse, Miss Cushman.

[16:49] Charlotte Cushman: Is she really?

[16:50] Sallie Mercer: Well, she's here.

[16:51] Charlotte Cushman: That sounds more like it. Let's get you changed. Once more into the breach.

[16:56] Sallie Mercer: Chiz.

[16:57] Charlotte Cushman: Arms up.

[17:00] Sallie Mercer: You want my opinion?

[17:01] Charlotte Cushman: Would it stop you if I said no?

[17:03] Sallie Mercer: Turn. Mr. Webster wasn't wrong about Susan. Aside from the lines, she seems to loathe every moment of the play. Last night she tried to hurl herself from the balcony. Thank goodness for the nurse's quick reflexes.

[17:18] Charlotte Cushman: The foot.

[17:22] Sallie Mercer: Now right.

[17:25] Charlotte Cushman: There I am. Every inch around you.

[17:29] Sallie Mercer: Susan, on the other hand. Surely she can be replaced even at this late hour.

[17:36] Charlotte Cushman: I pay you a good salary, don't I?

[17:38] Sallie Mercer: Better than anyone else in my position.

[17:41] Charlotte Cushman: Not nearly what I deserve.

[17:43] Sallie Mercer: And what do you do with that salary, besides buy books?

[17:46] Charlotte Cushman: I send it back home to my mother and brothers in Philadelphia.

[17:50] Sallie Mercer: And so have I. For my mother and sister. For nearly half my life, I've sent them money every month, kept them out of the poorhouse. I've been the man of my mother's house since I was 16, and I've never gotten a word of thanks from either of them.

[18:03] Sallie Mercer: Nor a word of congratulations for my success.

[18:05] Charlotte Cushman: They don't see what the world sees. Only a strange and unlovely person with an open checkbook.

[18:11] Sallie Mercer: So why bring her here?

[18:16] Charlotte Cushman: I'll endure my sister for the run of Romeo so that I'll never have to again.

[18:21] Sallie Mercer: I don't follow.

[18:22] Charlotte Cushman: Once I've made her a star, she can go her own way. Let her pay the bills for a while.

[18:27] Sallie Mercer: And you think Juliet will make her a star?

[18:31] Charlotte Cushman: If she finally relents and allows us to take her in hand the next seven days, I do.

[18:37] Sallie Mercer: Well then, we'd better get to work.

[18:57] Charlotte Cushman: The gentle sin is this. My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

[19:08] Sallie Mercer: Good pilgrim!

[19:10] Charlotte Cushman: You do wrong.

[19:12] Sallie Mercer: You do wrong your hand too much.

[19:19] Charlotte Cushman: Which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss.

[19:29] Sallie Mercer: Have not saints' lips and holy palmer's too?

[19:34] Charlotte Cushman: Um yes.

[19:36] Sallie Mercer: Oh, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

[19:41] Charlotte Cushman: They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

[19:47] Sallie Mercer: I forget.

[19:48] Charlotte Cushman: Then ask Sally for a line.

[19:49] Sallie Mercer: No, I forget all of it. Not only the words, where I'm supposed to stand, the dancing, how I'm supposed to hold my arms.

[19:56] Charlotte Cushman: Susan, you can do this. You haven't forgotten.

[19:59] Sallie Mercer: I think I need a break.

[20:00] Charlotte Cushman: We've only been rehearsing for a quarter of an hour.

[20:02] Sallie Mercer: Well, that's certainly not my fault.

[20:04] Charlotte Cushman: I've been waiting all day.

[20:05] Sallie Mercer: Then why weren't you practicing your lines?

[20:07] Charlotte Cushman: Because I'm bored, Sally.

[20:09] Sallie Mercer: Bored? You're rehearsing for one of the greatest plays in the English language in one of the greatest cities in the world, opposite the biggest star in the world.

[20:17] Charlotte Cushman: Ha! Whatever you think of me, opposite a very good actress.

[20:21] Sallie Mercer: The situation you are in is the opposite of boring.

[20:25] Charlotte Cushman: I haven't been to a single party or even a proper dinner with anyone interesting since we arrived here.

[20:30] Sallie Mercer: It's only been you, Ned, and this damn play.

[20:34] Charlotte Cushman: I've invited you to dine with my friends.

[20:36] Sallie Mercer: Eating soup with old spinsters and no men is not my idea of a party.

[20:41] Charlotte Cushman: You've never had the taste for good society, or the looks.

[20:44] Sallie Mercer: My friends are some of the greatest writers and artists in Europe.

[20:47] Charlotte Cushman: The jolly bachelors.

[20:55] Sallie Mercer: I'm sorry that you're too frivolous and empty-headed to appreciate great minds and would rather surround yourself with preening dandies.

[21:02] Charlotte Cushman: I just want to go home.

[21:04] Sallie Mercer: I can't stand it here.

[21:05] Charlotte Cushman: I can't stand the damp and the fog, and I can't stand this dusty old theater, and I can't stand this interminable play, and I can't stand you.

[21:14] Sallie Mercer: Let's take five.

[21:16] Charlotte Cushman: Susan, what what's happened? You haven't always hated the stage this much. I thought you'd love playing Juliet.

[21:22] Sallie Mercer: Yes.

[21:22] Charlotte Cushman: With a real Romeo, I would.

[21:24] Sallie Mercer: A real Romeo?

[21:26] Charlotte Cushman: Yes.

[21:27] Sallie Mercer: Susie, you do understand that acting is pretending, don't you?

[21:33] Charlotte Cushman: I mean a real man.

[21:34] Sallie Mercer: Ah.

[21:35] Charlotte Cushman: Yes, it's always about that for you, isn't it? Someone handsome, someone I could feel something for.

[21:41] Sallie Mercer: You mean someone you could flirt with.

[21:42] Charlotte Cushman: Just because you're hopelessly frigid, it doesn't mean I have to be.

[21:45] Sallie Mercer: Should I get some coffee?

[21:46] Charlotte Cushman: No.

[21:47] Sallie Mercer: Yes.

[21:48] Charlotte Cushman: If I'm to pretend to fall in love, I want it to be with a man.

[21:51] Sallie Mercer: Like that insufferable Edwin Forrest, you mean?

[21:54] Charlotte Cushman: Well, yes, maybe.

[21:56] Sallie Mercer: A blowhard who's more interested in his own reflection in the mirror?

[21:59] Charlotte Cushman: When little girls dream of being Juliet, they don't dream of their sister standing under the balcony.

[22:04] Sallie Mercer: If I were a real man, we wouldn't have booked this engagement at all.

[22:08] Charlotte Cushman: If I were a real man, propriety would demand we barely even touch on stage.

[22:13] Sallie Mercer: Just gesture in each other's general direction.

[22:15] Charlotte Cushman: If I were a real man, this would be like every other dull, insipid, sexless Romeo and Juliet anyone has ever seen.

[22:24] Sallie Mercer: Susan, don't you see? This will be more like your fantasies than it ever could be with a man playing Romeo.

[22:30] Charlotte Cushman: That's why people are clamoring to see you, because they know that, as sisters, you will be allowed to get closer to the truth of love than any other Romeo and Juliet they've ever seen.

[22:41] Sallie Mercer: You need to trust me. You can be great.

[22:44] Charlotte Cushman: I know you can be great. Let me make you great.

[22:48] Sallie Mercer: Why?

[22:50] Charlotte Cushman: What?

[22:50] Sallie Mercer: Why do you care? Why do you want me to be great?

[22:54] Charlotte Cushman: Because you're my sister.

[22:55] Sallie Mercer: Yes, your motivations are always so pure.

[22:58] Charlotte Cushman: Like the time you brought me to the opening of that opera.

[23:01] Sallie Mercer: I was only 11, and you still had your singing voice.

[23:05] Charlotte Cushman: Figaro, this again?

[23:06] Sallie Mercer: I was so excited. I had a new dress, and I was gonna meet all the important people you'd been spending time with.

[23:12] Charlotte Cushman: I was ready.

[23:13] Sallie Mercer: I wasn't even 17 years old. You can't possibly blame me.

[23:17] Charlotte Cushman: And you dragged me around the party telling the same sad story over and over.

[23:21] Sallie Mercer: How father had lost all our money and came home with nothing but stale bread for us to chew on, and then stopped coming home altogether.

[23:27] Charlotte Cushman: How we'd moved six times, each place more squalid than the last.

[23:31] Sallie Mercer: How mother had opened that pathetic boarding house, and I was spending my days washing filthy linens and cleaning toilets.

[23:37] Charlotte Cushman: It was all true.

[23:38] Sallie Mercer: You humiliated me!

[23:40] Charlotte Cushman: I wasn't a guest, I was a prop.

[23:42] Sallie Mercer: Charlotte's pitiable little sister, there to illustrate your maudlin tale of woe.

[23:47] Charlotte Cushman: And there you were, starring in an opera out of the goodness of your heart.

[23:51] Sallie Mercer: Not because you wanted applause or to be looked at.

[23:54] Charlotte Cushman: No, being in the spotlight was a sacrifice you were making for the silly little girl in the stupid fancy dress.

[24:00] Sallie Mercer: I bought you that dress.

[24:02] Charlotte Cushman: You're not as good an actress as you think, Charlotte.

[24:05] Sallie Mercer: You may have everyone else fooled, but every time you do something generous for someone else, it's always really for you.

[24:11] Charlotte Cushman: I'd respect you much more if you'd admit it.

[24:14] Sallie Mercer: Fine, then fine. Be that way. Keep up the good sister charade.

[24:21] Charlotte Cushman: I'll do your show.

[24:22] Sallie Mercer: Fantastic. Let's get back to it then.

[24:24] Charlotte Cushman: I may even be great. But when this is over, so are we, Charlotte.

[24:29] Sallie Mercer: Another grand proclamation? I've heard this one before.

[24:31] Charlotte Cushman: We're wasting valuable time.

[24:33] Sallie Mercer: I mean it.

[24:34] Charlotte Cushman: But you always come crawling back for another handout.

[24:37] Sallie Mercer: And you love it!

[24:38] Charlotte Cushman: Enough! You're no better than squabbling schoolgirls!

[24:41] Sallie Mercer: I'll tell you what, Susie, I would love nothing more than to be done.

[24:45] Charlotte Cushman: I have a good life here in Europe. I have friends. People are more interesting and open-minded and all the Puritans left 300 years ago.

[24:52] Sallie Mercer: The only thing bringing me back to Boston is my obligation to the three of you, which I'm frankly just as exhausted by as you are.

[25:00] Charlotte Cushman: Just say the word, and you'll never see me again.

[25:03] Sallie Mercer: But I swear to God, if you don't start actually trying to play Juliet, show up to rehearsal on time, pretend you like me, and memorize your goddamn lines.

[25:24] Charlotte Cushman: Do your job.

[25:27] Sallie Mercer: Sally, where were we?

[25:30] Charlotte Cushman: Saints do not move.

[25:32] Sallie Mercer: Saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake.

[25:36] Charlotte Cushman: Then move not, while my prayers effect I take.

[25:41] Sallie Mercer: If you're to let me kiss you here.

[25:43] Charlotte Cushman: No thanks.

[25:44] Sallie Mercer: Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.

[25:48] Charlotte Cushman: Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

[25:52] Sallie Mercer: Stop it!

[25:53] Charlotte Cushman: Sin from thy lips.

[25:55] Sallie Mercer: Oh trespass, sweetly urged.

[25:58] Charlotte Cushman: Give me my sin again.

[26:03] Sallie Mercer: You kiss by the book.

[26:06] Charlotte Cushman: Sally, tell Miss Cushman that I'm going back home to see Ned, ice my knuckles, and to memorize my goddamn lines.

[26:16] Sallie Mercer: Huh.

[26:17] Charlotte Cushman: She's good.

[26:19] Sallie Mercer: Hell of a right hook, too.

[26:23] Charlotte Cushman: Romeo and her sister is a Gather by the Ghost Light production, produced by Jonathan Cook and Devin McSherry.

[26:30] Charlotte Cushman: Written by Jillian Blevins.

[26:32] Charlotte Cushman: Directed, edited, and sound designed by Jonathan Cook.

[26:36] Charlotte Cushman: This episode features the voice talents of Anna Demetriou as Charlotte Cushman.

[26:41] Charlotte Cushman: Charlotte McBurney as Susan Cushman.

[26:44] Charlotte Cushman: Paris Pringle as Sallie Mercer.

[26:52] Charlotte Cushman: Neil Hellegers as Benjamin Webster.

[26:54] Charlotte Cushman: This program is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.