Zamorna! And The House By the Churchyard, which was performed by students of the George Brown Theatre School in 1999, has been published for the first time in Reaney Days in the West Room: Plays of James Reaney, edited by David Ferry.
The play blends the real world of the Brontë family with a creation from their literary juvenilia, Branwell’s fantasy world of Zamorna. On April 17, 1999, James Reaney attended a performance of the play at George Brown College. Afterwards, he and David Ferry, the play’s director, participated in a discussion with members of the audience.
From Scene 4, 1831 Heatherbell:
BRANWELL Well, you see, girls… I’m a poet.
EMILY (with a book) There’s an old Welsh law, Branwell, that says—
GIRLS There are three things it is death to be:
CHARLOTTE death to be a king
ANNE fall in love with a fairy woman
EMILY death to be a poet
Sewing music swells up.
GIRLS Death… it is death to be a poet.
James Reaney 