Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis has spent two days preparing to stage her first play, The Trials of Arabella. Cousins from up north will arrive today. They will rehearse the play and perform it in the evening to celebrate the homecoming of Leon. Briony wrote her first short story at age 11, a clumsy release of imagination that is tentative, pretentious and foolish. Briony loves creating miniature worlds free of unruliness and filled with justice. She binds her finished stories for her parents, who recognize her strange mind and facility with words and encourage her efforts. Big sister Cecilia's enthusiasm is overstated, condescending and intrusive. Briony's transition to drama, undertaken to involve her cousins, is effortless. It frees Briony from all of the "she saids" and descriptive setup required by story writing. Briony does not realize that Arabella is melodramatic. The play is intended to inspire terror, relief and instruction. (read more)
