The action takes place totally within the deeply troubled mind of Dr William Chester Minor, a retired American army surgeon, in his study in a hospital in Berkshire, England in the late nineteenth century. Chronology becomes confused, often with events from different times in his past taking place at the same time.
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Track 01ACT ONE OPENING [Extract]
Dr Minor is alone, playing his flute, trying to recapture music he heard in his youth. One phrase he plays leads him to an anguished cry for forgiveness. His head fills with definitions of the word “shot” and he finds himself at a formal dinner to celebrate his work on the Oxford English Dictionary. The dinner is interrupted by the spirit of his stepmother, who reminds him that he was not, in fact, present at that dinner. The sequence ends in the chaos of a nightmare.
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Track 02THE ARROW OF LOVE
Minor tries to imagine how George and Eliza, two young farm workers in Wiltshire, might have met and fallen in love forty years earlier.
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Track 03COMES THE BROKEN FLOWER
Dr Minor has a visitor to his rooms at the hospital. A Victorian parlour singer comes on to introduce the widowed Mrs Merrett. The parlour singer’s song breaks down into a striptease with Minor’s three attendants howling at her like dogs.
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Track 04JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY MURRAY
the director of the Dictionary project -- who’s clearly a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan -- introduces himself, backed by Minor’s attendants.
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Track 05THE SLIPS
Murray explains to Minor and Mrs Merrett what working on the Dictionary will entail.
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Track 06SINGHALESE HYMN
Mrs Merrett asking Minor about his youth in the 1840’s as the child of American missionaries in Ceylon, leads him into a memory of a Singhalese hymn.
Minor’s missionary stepmother then leads an unwilling local congregation in a more Western hymn.
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Track 07THE ROSE OF CEYLON / WILD MUSIC [Extract]
As Mrs Merrett starts to ask Dr Minor about his childhood, two very English parlour singers introduce an imperialist romance of the exotic east. Minor interrupts, desperate to recapture his own innocence. His stepmother berates him and, as definitions of the word “word” flood his head, the sequence ends in nightmare.
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Track 08ACT ONE FINALE
In the ACT ONE FINALE, Mrs Merrett encourages Minor to work on the Dictionary whilst, still in the country, George tells Eliza that they will move their family to London. James and Ada Murray visit Minor and Ada lets slip the name of the hospital – Broadmoor. Minor is not a staff member but an inmate. Alone, he grieves, incarcerated, “I shall always live in England” but the act ends with almost everyone in a spirit of optimism. Minor will find peace working on the dictionary in his Broadmoor cell whilst George and Eliza will find a better life in London. Only Minor’s stepmother keeps negative words floating in his head.
-
Track 09ACT TWO OPENING [Extract]
Murray congratulates Minor on the progress of the Dictionary but the sequence ends in nightmare.
-
Track 10AND I THINK OF YOU
Alone in his study, Minor dwells on how the release he now finds in his work on the dictionary, brings him some peace about the events that brought him to Broadmoor.
-
Track 11THE BELL
A chance remark from Mrs Merrett visiting Dr Minor makes them realise that on one night in 1872, she and Minor both attended a music hall in Lambeth. As did George and Eliza. The characters in a music hall song reflect the four of them.
-
Track 12HIPPOCRATIC OATH
Thinking back, Minor remembers his graduation from Harvard and, despite his stepmother’s cynicism, his determination to be a good doctor.
But shortly after his graduation, the American civil war breaks out. Minor joins the Army of the Union and is sent as a surgeon to the savage Battle of the Wilderness.
-
Track 13PATRIOT BOY [Extract]
An Irish immigrant sings of how, for lack of work, he comes to be a soldier in America’s Civil War. Young Dr Minor is told by his Colonel that new orders say that deserters will be branded on the face with a letter “D” for deserter. It will be Dr Minor’s duty to rub gunpowder into these wounds so that the marks will never go away. In Minor’s confused mind, a deserting soldier becomes George, definitions of “love”, “hatred” and “murder” flood his thoughts and the sequence ends in nightmare.
-
Track 14BOOKS / FINALE TO ACT TWO
Murray’s visits bring Minor some solace but ultimately he is left alone with his books. With the realisation that Mrs Merrett and Eliza are one and the same, the full facts of the crime which has led to Minor’s incarceration are revealed.
The action takes place totally within the deeply troubled mind of Dr William Chester Minor, a retired American army surgeon, in his study in a hospital in Berkshire, England in the late nineteenth century. Chronology becomes confused, often with events from different times in his past taking place at the same time.
-
Track 01ACT ONE OPENING [Extract]
Dr Minor is alone, playing his flute, trying to recapture music he heard in his youth. One phrase he plays leads him to an anguished cry for forgiveness. His head fills with definitions of the word “shot” and he finds himself at a formal dinner to celebrate his work on the Oxford English Dictionary. The dinner is interrupted by the spirit of his stepmother, who reminds him that he was not, in fact, present at that dinner. The sequence ends in the chaos of a nightmare.
-
Track 02THE ARROW OF LOVE
Minor tries to imagine how George and Eliza, two young farm workers in Wiltshire, might have met and fallen in love forty years earlier.
-
Track 03COMES THE BROKEN FLOWER
Dr Minor has a visitor to his rooms at the hospital. A Victorian parlour singer comes on to introduce the widowed Mrs Merrett. The parlour singer’s song breaks down into a striptease with Minor’s three attendants howling at her like dogs.
-
Track 04JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY MURRAY
the director of the Dictionary project -- who’s clearly a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan -- introduces himself, backed by Minor’s attendants.
-
Track 05THE SLIPS
Murray explains to Minor and Mrs Merrett what working on the Dictionary will entail.
-
Track 06SINGHALESE HYMN
Mrs Merrett asking Minor about his youth in the 1840’s as the child of American missionaries in Ceylon, leads him into a memory of a Singhalese hymn.
Minor’s missionary stepmother then leads an unwilling local congregation in a more Western hymn.
-
Track 07THE ROSE OF CEYLON / WILD MUSIC [Extract]
As Mrs Merrett starts to ask Dr Minor about his childhood, two very English parlour singers introduce an imperialist romance of the exotic east. Minor interrupts, desperate to recapture his own innocence. His stepmother berates him and, as definitions of the word “word” flood his head, the sequence ends in nightmare.
-
Track 08ACT ONE FINALE
In the ACT ONE FINALE, Mrs Merrett encourages Minor to work on the Dictionary whilst, still in the country, George tells Eliza that they will move their family to London. James and Ada Murray visit Minor and Ada lets slip the name of the hospital – Broadmoor. Minor is not a staff member but an inmate. Alone, he grieves, incarcerated, “I shall always live in England” but the act ends with almost everyone in a spirit of optimism. Minor will find peace working on the dictionary in his Broadmoor cell whilst George and Eliza will find a better life in London. Only Minor’s stepmother keeps negative words floating in his head.
-
Track 09ACT TWO OPENING [Extract]
Murray congratulates Minor on the progress of the Dictionary but the sequence ends in nightmare.
-
Track 10AND I THINK OF YOU
Alone in his study, Minor dwells on how the release he now finds in his work on the dictionary, brings him some peace about the events that brought him to Broadmoor.
-
Track 11THE BELL
A chance remark from Mrs Merrett visiting Dr Minor makes them realise that on one night in 1872, she and Minor both attended a music hall in Lambeth. As did George and Eliza. The characters in a music hall song reflect the four of them.
-
Track 12HIPPOCRATIC OATH
Thinking back, Minor remembers his graduation from Harvard and, despite his stepmother’s cynicism, his determination to be a good doctor.
But shortly after his graduation, the American civil war breaks out. Minor joins the Army of the Union and is sent as a surgeon to the savage Battle of the Wilderness.
-
Track 13PATRIOT BOY [Extract]
An Irish immigrant sings of how, for lack of work, he comes to be a soldier in America’s Civil War. Young Dr Minor is told by his Colonel that new orders say that deserters will be branded on the face with a letter “D” for deserter. It will be Dr Minor’s duty to rub gunpowder into these wounds so that the marks will never go away. In Minor’s confused mind, a deserting soldier becomes George, definitions of “love”, “hatred” and “murder” flood his thoughts and the sequence ends in nightmare.
-
Track 14BOOKS / FINALE TO ACT TWO
Murray’s visits bring Minor some solace but ultimately he is left alone with his books. With the realisation that Mrs Merrett and Eliza are one and the same, the full facts of the crime which has led to Minor’s incarceration are revealed.