during the rise and fall of one of Americas most bizarre utopian industrial experiments.
The resulting two hour film, “The Gardener’s Son,” was made in 16mm for $200,000, broadcast on PBS in 1976, shown at the Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals, nominated for two Emmy Awards, and was my education as a film director. Twenty years have passed, and Cormac McCarthy is now an old friend and the godfather to my daughter Remy and, in many ways, to all the films I’ve made since.
—Richard Pearce
April 29,1996
Cast of Characters
In Order of Appearance
O LD T IMEKEEPER Soft spoken.
Y OUNG M AN Neatly dressed, well spoken. Under his manner a hint of truculence.
J AMES G REGG Son of the founder of the mill. Age about 30.
T HE S TOCKHOLDERS Men in frock coats.
M ARTHA M C E VOY The older daughter, age 14.
M RS M C E VOY The mother.
M R M C E VOY The father, a gardener from the mills.
M ARYELLEN M C E VOY The younger sister.
D R P ERCEVAL Tall and perhaps somewhat cadaverous. He dresses formally and is given to quoting from the classics.
D APHNE Mrs Greggs black servant.
M R G REGG A ghost lying in the bed.
W ILLIS —D R P ERCEVAL ’ S M AN A tall and stout black, dedicated to the doctor.
T HE S PEAKER (at Mr Gregg’s funeral) Perhaps one of the stockholders.
T IMEKEEPER (Captain Giles) A younger version of the old timekeeper at the opening of the film.
R AGGED M AN A thin and shifty-eyed hillbilly. Could be played by the doctor (Perceval) in rags.
F IRST B LACK A quiet spoken middle-aged man.
S ECOND B LACK (Odell) Younger and less guarded.
O LD W OMEN (at the wake) Small and tight-mouthed and disapproving. These three women are dressed in mourning, are somewhat witchlike.
O LD M AN (at greenhouse) Small, neat looking, and quietly efficient.
C LEITUS (Mrs Gregg's manservant) A dignified black, perhaps in his sixties.
P INKY A man about forty, big and stout and somewhat florid.
F IRST M AN A man about forty.
S ECOND M AN Smaller and older.
T HIRD M AN Quiet and enigmatic. Not without humor. All are dressed in overalls, some with jackets, perhaps with caps.
O VERSEER Perhaps in shirt sleeves. He is a few years younger than Patrick McEvoy.
W ORKER
P ROSECUTING A TTORNEY Reads the charges in a sort of cadenced monotone, not unlike an amateur reading of poetry or like a preacher.
OC J ORDAN A country lawyer.
C ONSTABLE A man much like the overseer in the mill.
M R W IGGINS The newspaper accounts are ambiguously worded, but he appears to have been black. He is a prosecutor for the defense.
D R C AMPBELL A dignified witness, a gentleman perhaps in his forties.
S TARK S IMS Apparently not too bright a fourteen-year-old, but with his own sense of dignity.
W J W HIPPER A black yankee lawyer with a great deal of presence about him, an air almost of arrogance.
J UDGE M AHER A thin faced man who could pass for a shop clerk or almost anything else. He reads the death sentence without dramatics or flair but with a reasonable sense of the solemnity of the occasion.
P HOTOGRAPHER He should not appear obsequious. He is good-natured, perhaps clumsy with his equipment.
V IRGIL A good old country boy, laconic, solicitous of McEvoy.
F IRST A ND S ECOND J AILERS A pair who take their duties very seriously.
S HERIFF A clean-cut type, inclined to be avuncular toward McEvoy, not without kindness.
M R C LEMENTS A tidy professional at his work.
T HE W HITTLER I N T HE H ALLWAY A thoughtful, rather sad old man, perhaps in his seventies. Perhaps wearing spectacles.
T HE P RIEST
T HE W OMAN AT THE D ESK IN THE H OSPITAL
T HE O RDERLY
O LD M ARTHA M C E VOY A thin white-haired and ghostlike old lady whose eyes suggest a liveliness that is childlike but not quite mad.
Notes
(os): offstage
The Gardener's Son
Interior. Old office of the Graniteville cotton mill. Daylight through dusty windows. An old desk. Boxes and crates standing about on the floor.
T IMEKEEPER (os) God knows what all is in here. I’d
The resulting two hour film, “The Gardener’s Son,” was made in 16mm for $200,000, broadcast on PBS in 1976, shown at the Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals, nominated for two Emmy Awards, and was my education as a film director. Twenty years have passed, and Cormac McCarthy is now an old friend and the godfather to my daughter Remy and, in many ways, to all the films I’ve made since.
—Richard Pearce
April 29,1996
Cast of Characters
In Order of Appearance
O LD T IMEKEEPER Soft spoken.
Y OUNG M AN Neatly dressed, well spoken. Under his manner a hint of truculence.
J AMES G REGG Son of the founder of the mill. Age about 30.
T HE S TOCKHOLDERS Men in frock coats.
M ARTHA M C E VOY The older daughter, age 14.
M RS M C E VOY The mother.
M R M C E VOY The father, a gardener from the mills.
M ARYELLEN M C E VOY The younger sister.
D R P ERCEVAL Tall and perhaps somewhat cadaverous. He dresses formally and is given to quoting from the classics.
D APHNE Mrs Greggs black servant.
M R G REGG A ghost lying in the bed.
W ILLIS —D R P ERCEVAL ’ S M AN A tall and stout black, dedicated to the doctor.
T HE S PEAKER (at Mr Gregg’s funeral) Perhaps one of the stockholders.
T IMEKEEPER (Captain Giles) A younger version of the old timekeeper at the opening of the film.
R AGGED M AN A thin and shifty-eyed hillbilly. Could be played by the doctor (Perceval) in rags.
F IRST B LACK A quiet spoken middle-aged man.
S ECOND B LACK (Odell) Younger and less guarded.
O LD W OMEN (at the wake) Small and tight-mouthed and disapproving. These three women are dressed in mourning, are somewhat witchlike.
O LD M AN (at greenhouse) Small, neat looking, and quietly efficient.
C LEITUS (Mrs Gregg's manservant) A dignified black, perhaps in his sixties.
P INKY A man about forty, big and stout and somewhat florid.
F IRST M AN A man about forty.
S ECOND M AN Smaller and older.
T HIRD M AN Quiet and enigmatic. Not without humor. All are dressed in overalls, some with jackets, perhaps with caps.
O VERSEER Perhaps in shirt sleeves. He is a few years younger than Patrick McEvoy.
W ORKER
P ROSECUTING A TTORNEY Reads the charges in a sort of cadenced monotone, not unlike an amateur reading of poetry or like a preacher.
OC J ORDAN A country lawyer.
C ONSTABLE A man much like the overseer in the mill.
M R W IGGINS The newspaper accounts are ambiguously worded, but he appears to have been black. He is a prosecutor for the defense.
D R C AMPBELL A dignified witness, a gentleman perhaps in his forties.
S TARK S IMS Apparently not too bright a fourteen-year-old, but with his own sense of dignity.
W J W HIPPER A black yankee lawyer with a great deal of presence about him, an air almost of arrogance.
J UDGE M AHER A thin faced man who could pass for a shop clerk or almost anything else. He reads the death sentence without dramatics or flair but with a reasonable sense of the solemnity of the occasion.
P HOTOGRAPHER He should not appear obsequious. He is good-natured, perhaps clumsy with his equipment.
V IRGIL A good old country boy, laconic, solicitous of McEvoy.
F IRST A ND S ECOND J AILERS A pair who take their duties very seriously.
S HERIFF A clean-cut type, inclined to be avuncular toward McEvoy, not without kindness.
M R C LEMENTS A tidy professional at his work.
T HE W HITTLER I N T HE H ALLWAY A thoughtful, rather sad old man, perhaps in his seventies. Perhaps wearing spectacles.
T HE P RIEST
T HE W OMAN AT THE D ESK IN THE H OSPITAL
T HE O RDERLY
O LD M ARTHA M C E VOY A thin white-haired and ghostlike old lady whose eyes suggest a liveliness that is childlike but not quite mad.
Notes
(os): offstage
The Gardener's Son
Interior. Old office of the Graniteville cotton mill. Daylight through dusty windows. An old desk. Boxes and crates standing about on the floor.
T IMEKEEPER (os) God knows what all is in here. I’d
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