3. THE BRINK OF SILENCE
Esther E. Galbraith, born on July 20, 1893, in Washington, DC., USA, graduated from George Washington University, receiving the degree of A.B. (Artium Baccalaureus, Latin for Bachelor of Arts). She wrote for several newspapers, and was the editor of various magazines. While in college she had some of her plays produced. "The Brink of Silence" was written as an assignment under the direction of The Drama League Players of Washington, which had asked each of its members to write a play on the Enoch Arden theme in a fresh and original form. "The Brink of Silence" was chosen as the best of them. It was produced later by The Drama League Players with great success in April 1917.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, several whaling stations, scientific bases, and way stations for explorers were set up in the Antarctic region. It is in one such whaling station in Parker's Island that the action of the play takes place.
As the play begins, Macready announces his decision to leave for England as he is unable to endure the severity of the conditions at the station. But Cole, who has been there for the last eight years, reveals that he has nowhere else to go.
Cole is the explorer Gilbert Darton of the famous Darton expedition that perished in the Antarctic ten years ago. He was miraculously saved from the jaws of death, and underwent a prolonged period of recuperation at a hospital in Buenos Aires. Just when he was all set to go home, he read an announcement in the papers about his wife's engagement to Carruthers. He felt that his wife deserved a normal life, without the uncertainty and anxiety that an explorer's wife usually suffered. He assumed a new name - Ernest Cole - and since then, has been running the whaling station on the edge of the Antarctic. His only regret has been the loss of contact with his son.
As the action cuts to the present, two young men come to the station, one of them - Johnson - injured and weak, supported by the other. When Johnson calls out to 'Darton,' Cole fears that he has been identified, but breathes a sigh of relief when Johnson's companion answers to the name.
The plot takes a new turn when young Darton reveals that he is the son of the explorer who led the doomed Darton expedition and that he has followed in his father's footsteps to undertake the work of accomplishing what his father has left undone. Cole is gratified to hear that his son has completed what he set out to do. Yet, he refuses to reveal his true identity.
As the play ends with Darton bidding goodbye to "Mr. Cole", there lingers a feeling of sadness for the father who has always dreamt of "months of comradeship" with his son and has now parted from him as a stranger.
by
Esther E. Galbraith