A script I created at my time at Bournemouth University

1. A TELL-TALE HEART: AN ADAPTATION
BY
CHARLOTTE PAY

2. SCENE 1
DAYTIME, INTERNAL, PRISON BUILDING
RATTLING OF METAL BARS, PRISONERS MAKING COMMOTION AS SHE
PASSES.
SOUND HEAVY HEELED FOOTSTEPS ARE HEARD ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR.EERY
MUSIC UNDERLAYS. A GUARD UNLOCKS A CELL DOOR.
A CHAIR IS PULLED OUT AND A RECORDER IS PLACED ON THE TABLE
AND IT CLICKS ON. MUSIC FADES.
MARTHA: Theodore?
(SILENCE)
MARTHA: May I take a seat?
(SILENCE)
MARTHA: I trust you’ve been told why I’m here today?
THEODORE: (PAUSE)(MONOTONE)It wasn’t until mum died that he
started to hit me.
MARTHA: (CHAIR CREAKS AS SHE SITS DOWN) Names Martha. I’m
writing an article for ‘Psychology Now’ looking
back over your case as we’re nearing your hearing
date. I’d appreciate…
THEODORE: (INTERUPTING)(CONTEMPLATING) Martha…
MARTHA: I’d appreciate it if you could answer my
questions truthfully - don’t feel the need to
brush over any details lightly. If you could
start by stating your name.
THEODORE: (V.O)(INTERUPTING)(DISBELIEF) Every night and no
one knew- I could never tell anyone. He swore to
beat me harder.
(FLASHBACK) SFX SOUNDS OF BOY CRYING AND BEING BEATEN. OLD MAN GRUNTS
WITH HEAVY BREATHING.
THEODORE: (FLASHBACK)(ECHOES) No. Please. NO!

3. THEODORE: I lived in fear - resting only when he went to
sleep. I never had a moment where I truly thought
I was safe.
(FLASHBACK) SFX FADES OUT. FADE IN MAN SNORING FOR LONG TIME. CHILD
WHIMPERS.
MARTHA: Someone could have helped. Why did you not ask
for help?
THEODORE: You could say my family caused a lot of trouble.
Ran out of friends after her death. And we lived
out of town, with no telephone; I felt powerless…
(SILENCE)
MARTHA: (SHUFFLES PAPERS) In your case file it says your
mother died when you were 8. (PAUSE) But you
committed the crime when you were 12. What made
you snap?
THEODORE: I waited until I was numb. (LONG PAUSE)It was
after a while, too long ifya ask me, that I
began to contemplate; how could I make him stop.
MARTHA: (SCRIBBLES PEN ON PAPER) So, by this point you’d
become numb?
THEODORE: (DRAWLS) Mmmm. He’d beaten down all my feelings.
(CHAIR CREAKS) And it was only as he slept did I
feel at ease. So(LONG PAUSE)if only he never woke
up… (LAUGHS SMUGGLY).
SFX EERY MUSIC FADE IN.
MARTHA: (UNEASY) But the detective’s said you were found
unharmed, not bruised and with no scars?
THEODORE: (HANDS SLAM ON THE TABLE) They lied! They were
all lies… (PUSHES OUT CHAIR. SOBS)
MARTHA: It’s okay. Just. (PAUSE) Just tell me how it
really was.
THEODORE: He would drink all day so he never stirred in
his sleep. I stayed out his way. Gave him no

4. reason to get mad. Made no noise. Not a breath.
(LONG PAUSE) Which I why I started to watch him.
MARTHA: Watch him?
THEODORE: Every night, he never knew. I stood there
watching, planning, contemplating, over… and
over… (PAUSE) what to do.
(FLASHBACK) SFX DOOR CREAKS OPEN. LIGHT FOOTSTEPS ON WOODENFLOOR.
FLOORBOARD CREAKS. SNORING HEARD IN THE DISTANCE.
THEODORE: Just standing there… watching him as he slept.
(FLASHBACK) SFX SNORING CONTINUES. FAINT HEARTBEAT.
MARTHA: (LONG PAUSE) (INTRUIGED) Planning what?
THEODORE: I wasn’t even sure how I wanted to do it at
first.
MARTHA: (QUIETLY) How..
THEODORE: (CHAIR CREAKERS, WHISPERS) (CLOSER) How to
slaughter him in his sleep, of course.
(FLASHBACK) SFX SNORING FADES. FAINT HEARTBEAT. MUSIC INCREASES.
(MARTHA GASPS)
THEODORE: You see… I don’t want anything to think of me as
mad. I wasn’t. (PAUSE) When I looked at him my
blood ran cold. (MATTER OF FACTLY) So, I decided
to get rid of him. From the moment I first
entered his room, the ideas only grew. They
overwhelmed me. They came so frequently. So
forceful. They became familiar. (SGHORT PAUSE)
Like a part of me. Voices inside my head. I
dreamt of the day I’d see him lying dead,
surrounded by blood….
MARTHA: (TENSE AND APPREHENSIVE) Tell me more about…
about the night it happened.
SOUND MUSIC FADES.

5. THEODORE: (CLOSER) It was like every other. Only it wasn’t
inside my head anymore. (PAUSE) Father was
drinking. The voices were keeping me company.
MMARTHA: (HESITANT) The voices?
THEODORE: (SHUFFLE OF CLOTHES) The voices. (LONG PAUSE)
(CURIOUSLY) Has anyone ever told you to do
something, you didn’t know whether you should do
or not?
MARTHA: I… I guess.
THEODORE: That was the voices, these ideas; they would
tell me things…
VOICE: (FLASHBACK)(ECHOING WHISPER) KILL, KILL, KILL.
(FLASHBACK) SOUND INAUDIBLE WHISPERS.
THEODORE: (V.O)Things I would never tell anyone else.
(SLOW EMPHASIS) Terrible things. They told me
what was best for me. They guided me.
(FLASHBACK) SOUND FAINT WIND. INAUDIBLE WHISPERS CONTINUE AND INCREASE.
MARTHA: What kind of things would they say?
VOICE 1: (FLASHBACK)(OVERLAP)(PLAYFUL) You know you want
to.
VOICE 2: (FLASHBACK)(GIGGLE) It’s so easy.
(THEODORE STANDS UP FROM THE CHAIR. PACES THE ROOM)
(FLASHBACK) SFX THE SOUND OF SHAKLES AND HEAVY BOOTS ARE HEARD WALKING
ON CONCRETE FLOOR IN CIRCLES.
THEODORE: They told me what I already knew; he had to
go.(LONG PAUSE)It was the voices that woke up
that night.

6. VOICE: (ECHOS) The kitchen. The knife. (PAUSE)Do it
(EERY LAUGHTER).
(FLASHBACK) SOUND FAINT WIND, INAUDIBLE WHISPERS CONTINUE.
FOOTSTEPS ON WOODEN FLOOR. HEAVY BREATHING. SOUND OF
SOMEONE WAKING SUDDENLY. HEARTBEATS.
OLD MAN: (FLASHBACK)(FAINT ECHO)(SHOCK)(BREATHLESS)
Who’s there?
THEODORE: (V.O) I’d taken the sharpest knife I could
find in the kitchen a few hours before, when he
wasn’t looking. Removing it from beneath my
pillow, I clenched it so tight. (LONG PAUSE)
Leaving my room, I made my way across the
landing.
(FLASHBACK) SFX SILENCE. FAINT HEARTBEAT. CREAKY FLOORBOARDS.
THEODORE: I could hear him sleeping before I could see
him.
(FLASHBACK) SFX SNORING GETS CLOSER. HEARTBEAT RISES. QUICK BREATHS.
THEODORE: (V.O) My heart was racing. I was suddenly
overcome with the pain he had made me feel for
so long.
(FLASHBACK) SFX HEART BEATING. BLOOD RUSHING.
THEODORE: I opened his bedroom door slowly. The way it
creaked; I still remember it now.
(FLASHBACK) SFX§ DOOR SLOWLY CREAKS OPEN.
THEODORE: I felt a sense of power as I watched over him.
VOICE: (FLAHSBACK)(ECHOS) (WHISPERS) Helpless.
Pathetic. Do it. Now.
THEODORE: I could have done anything I wanted. I did do
everything I wanted. The moon shone on the
blade I still had held in my hand.
(FLASHBACK) SFX LIGHT TWINLKE.
THEODORE: I could hear the sound of my mother… screaming
for my mother life, over and over in my head.

7. (FLASHBACK) SOUND WOMEN’S BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM.
THEODORE: My head was filled with noises, voices,
screams; they were saying something.
(FLASHBACK) SOUND BLOOD RUSHING. HEART BEATS. INAUDIBLE WHISPERING.
THEODORE: (V.O) The voices… I could hear them… louder and
louder they were.
VOICE: (FLASHBACK) Do it! DO IT!
THEODORE: (V.O) I began to raise the blade and the voices
only became louder.
(FLASHBACK) SOUND BLOOD RUSHING. HEART BEATS. INAUDIBLE WHISPERING ALL
INCREASES.
VOICES: (FLASHBACK)DO IT… DO IT!
THEODORE: (V.O) And that was it. I would never forget the
sound it made as I sank the six inch blade into
his chest.
(FLASHBACK) SOUND STOPS. BLADE GLISTENS IN THE LIGHT. SCREAM. SOUND OF
STABBING. KNIFE DROPS TO FLOOR.
THEODORE: (DISTRESSED SHOUTING) I killed him! Dad? I
KILLED HIM!
SOUND THEODORE KICKS AND BANGS THE CONCRETE WALL.
MARTHA: (PANICKED CRIES) Guard! Guard!
THEODORE: I KILLED HIM!
SOUND METAL CELL DOOR BANGS OPEN. RUSHED HEAVY FOOTSTEPS. KEYS
JANGLE. SOUNDS OF A STRUGGLE.
GUARD: (IN A STRUGGLE) Stop resisting!
THEODORE: (CRYING, EXASPERATED) (HEAVY BREATHING) (LONG
PAUSE) I killed him.
(
SOUND SOUNDS OF COMMOTION AND BREATHLESSNESS.

8. THEODORE: (WHISPER) (SIT IN SEAT) I killed dad.
SOUND RINGING SOUND DROWNS OUT CRYS. THEODORE SLOWLY CHUCKLES.