G.I. 2018
XSEXCENTENARY
NOT DEAD YET 2
Author! Author!
It should just be said that these three actions took place in Glasgow's Necropolis on Sunday, April 22, 2018.
The audience is given a chance to settle down again.
When Kate eventually stands, the others stand, and all three walk left, round from the western face of the four-sided monument, to stand at the southern face.
Kate reads:
"To
the Memory
of
MARGARET OLIPHANT
Novelist, Glasgow and Liverpool
Author
of
Over a Hundred Novels.
who died in 1897
aged 69 years
This
Monument has been Erected
by her XSexcentenary Sisters
2018"
Norma: “Many of Margaret Oliphant's novels criticise subservient women but also the society which confines them. Kirsteen is one of her most complex stories. Rebelling against a marriage to an elderly suitor, Kirsteen sets out on a quest to find freedom but the decision to leave behind her family is not an easy or romantic one. The real journey is Kirsteen's move from idealistic child to a successful businesswoman. It is a celebration of the ability of women to succeed independently of men.”
Wanda: “Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better.”
All three XSexcentarians walk round to the eastern face of the monument.
Kate etches her words into the stone, as it were:
"To
the Memory
of
JOANNA BAILLIE
Playwright, Glasgow
Author
of the
Plays on the Passions
who died on the 23rd of February 1851
aged 88 years
This
Monument has been Erected
by her XSexcentenary Sisters
2018"
Norma: “As a child, Baillie was sent to Glasgow to attend a boarding-school and it was in Glasgow that she visited the theatre for the first time, kindling a passion which was to continue for the rest of her life. The Plays on the Passions consisted of a tragedy on love, a comedy on love, and a tragedy on hatred. Each play focusses on the growth of one master passion... 
"...Published anonymously, authorship was attributed to a male author until someone pointed out that all of the protagonists were middle-aged women.”
Wanda: “This will be triumph! This will be happiness! Yea, that very thing, happiness, which I have been pursuing all my life, and have never yet overtaken.”
All three XSexcentarians walk round to the northern face of the monument.
Kate:
"To
the Memory
of
MARY BRUNTON
Novelist, Orkney and Edinburgh
Author
of
Self-Control
who died in 1818
aged 40 years
This
Monument has been Erected
by her XSexcentenary Sisters"
Norma: “Mary Brunton was a close contemporary to Jane Austen, writing Self-Control at the same time as Sense and Sensibility, Brunton’s work refused to accept women should marry for the sake of convention rather than love.”
Wanda: “It was on a still evening in June, that Laura Montreville left her father's cottage, in the little village of Glenalbert, to begin a solitary ramble. Her countenance was mournful, and her step languid; for her health had suffered from long confinement, and her spirits were exhausted by long attendance on the deathbed of her mother.”
All three women walk round to the western face of the monument and resume their seats.
And, after a pause for contemplation, they're off again, towards action 3 of 3.
Which the viewer of this website can catch here