BALA’S ANGEL
© 2000 by Paddy Gillard-Bentley
story by Paddy Gillard-Bentley
& Wes Hyde
Wales…the early part of the twentieth
century at the heart of the 1904 Welsh Revival in a small town near the shores
of Llyn Tegd. Breanna
and Kate are identical twins. Kate, ever jealous over Breanna’s singing talent and charm. They see Esmond, a simple man wit a love of poetry, for the first
time at a local dance. Kate, is immediately smitten, flirting with him
across the room. He finally approaches, walks straight past Kate who is
smiling in anticipation, and takes Breanna’s hand for
the request of a dance. In that moment, the loom clicks and their fates
are sealed.
Breanna and Esmond
are happy in their marriage but for two things. Breanna
cannot seem to stay pregnant, and Owein, a man in
town acquitted of the murder of his cousin, is treated harshly by Esmond, as he, along with the rest of the town, believing
he was guilty. When Breanna discovers Owein can’t read, she sets about
to secretly teach him, every Wednesday afternoon. The only one who knows
this secret, is Kate, who having had designs on Esmond’s
English boss, Spencer, sets about to seduce him in her sister’s
home, disguised as Kate, as she has been observing Spencer, and became aware
that his attentions were directed at her sister, and not her. Believing
that once she bedded him, he would be delighted to find out it was Kate and not
Breanna he was sleeping with, she soon discovers his
opinion of ‘Kate’ is not what she hoped, and she continues the deception, every
Wednesday afternoon, while Breanna is teaching Owein to read.
Esmond gets wind of the ‘affair’ and
appears one day in the doorway of the bedroom, shotgun in hand. Before
any truths can be revealed, Ian is dying in a pool of blood, and Esmond turns himself in to the authorities. Madness
quickly takes Kate over as she does a Lady MacBeth
attempt to rid herself of the blood. It is during her ranting, that she
realizes Esmond believes she was Breanna,
as she had quickly hid under the covers when he entered. There is only
one person that can prove it was her. She sets out to Owein’s
place, and informs him that Spencer was shot dead, and the police were coming
for him, believing he was guilty. Owein, on the
‘kind’ advice of Kate, quickly leaves town to be with his sister.
Esmond is imprisoned, refusing to
speak beyond his confession and seeing no one. Breanna,
thought to be the adulteress responsible, is shunned by the town and her
beloved father, Jack. Kate sticks to her story. With no one to take
her side, Breanna, succumbs to the cruelty and takes
her life. At the same moment, Jack is given the necklace that was
clutched in Spencer’s hand. He realizes then,
who the real culprit is, but too late. When he discovers Breanna’s body, floating in the lake, he is
devastated. He carries her body into the town, the necklace still in his
pocket. To deepen Jack’s sorrow, he cannot
reveal the truth. His wife has long past. His singing angel is
dead, and his only daughter, deceiver that she is, is all he has left, and he
cannot bring himself to let the truth be known, for he knows it will destroy
her life. Having once been the belle of the town, Jack is crushed by the
scant few who attend Breanna’s funeral.
The night before Esmond’s execution, Jack pays him a visit, and tells him
the truth. The sound of Esmond’s anguish rings
through the town. Esmond refuses the leniency
that might have been afforded him, as it was a crime of passion. He faces
hanging in the morning.
The film opens to
Drew, a young man in the same cell in current times. He is a punk
musician, intrigued by the poem scratched into the wall by Esmond,
almost a hundred years earlier. We fade into the same cell, Esmond scratching the poem into the wall as the minister
arrives, to hear his confession. Esmond
proceeds to tell his story as a flashback, often returning to the cell, and the
progression of the poem which progresses, during the film.
A tale of sorrow and
woe surrounding one seemingly simple lie.
Love,
passion, deception and jealousy
take
their toll on a circle of friends & family
resulting
in guilt, death and devastation.