Writing the Stage, short exercise

This is a short exercise I've put together for my stage writing class tomorrow - also not a particularly strong point of mine! The brief was to take a small, insignificant act in the play and to show both character's reactions. This piece doesn't give enough info of the background on the play as a whole, as this is where we first see a change in both characters. Dilys is a typically friendly, chatty old lady in a residential home, who notices Elywn: a self professed "grumpy old git" who keeps himself to himself. She's a sucker for rescuing abandoned animals - and Elwyn is no exception. She encourages him to talk to her by challenging to a game of chess every night. He agrees, on the condition that he doesn't have to talk to her - as ever, a rule they are both quick to break.

The parts in bold indicate sentences that will be changed or lost. I realise I need to find some way of indicating Dilys' stress a bit better, but I figured at 83 she wasn't one to swear! Dilys is also one of the characters who will potentially develop dimensia, and I am unsure whether to give hints of this at this point - I'll see as the narrative develops. If so, this will be the part we first suspect something is not quite right with her.

A Game of Life 
(Title also subject to change!)

(Elwyn and Dilys have been playing their nightly game of chess for the past week. Dilys is asking the usually quiet and reclusive Elwyn about his past. He reveals information about a family tragedy, involving the loss of his wife and child. He also tells of another love, Molly, who he never married out of respect to Brenda, and due to religious constraints. Molly died a few years ago, after Elwyn went into care. She was his only visitor, and he fell silent after her passing.)

DILYS: And who will you be buried with? (Silence)

DILYS: I wasn’t trying to pry, I-

ELWYN: Brenda’s with the kids. Molly’s on her own. No family. Can’t just leave her there on her own. (Pause) I’ll be buried with Molly. 

(They continue to play their game of chess. Dilys shifts her chair to move a piece and a mirror falls to the floor with a smash)

DILYS: My mirror! It’s smashed!

ELWYN: Well what are you doing carrying a bloody mirror around with you?

DILYS: I didn’t know I had it; it fell out of my pocket. (/It must have fallen in to my nightgown off the counter)

ELWYN: Ah well, silly girl.

DILYS: What am I going to do, what am I doing to do!

ELWYN: What the hell’s wrong with you, it’s a bloody mirror!

DILYS: My mirror! What am I going to do!

ELWYN: Whoa now, calm down girl, you’re working yourself into a state!

DILYS: No, No, this is all wrong! It’s all wrong...

ELWYN: (Goes to her side and puts his arm around her) Calm down, calm down, come on, breathe...

DILYS: No, Elwyn, it’s not alright, I’ve broken a mirror; I don’t get what you don’t understand!

ELWYN: It’s alright, calm down. (Gently)

DILYS: No, you stupid, stupid man, you don’t understand, it’s seven years bad luck! (She wipes her eyes with a handkerchief)

ELYWN: Any what’s so bad about that? You're stuck in here with me for now, seven years or not - It doesnt get much worse than that! Come on girl, calm down.

DILYS: (Quietly) Seven years, it’s a long time, isn’t it?

ELWYN: Seven years, five years, all the same when you get to our age, I can’t remember what day it is, seven years is nothing.

DILYS: What if I don’t have seven years left?

ELWYN: What are you talking about; you’re like a spring chicken!

DILYS: But the mirror!

ELYWN: Well, we won’t let any old mirror outsmart us then, shall we?

DILYS: What do you mean?

ELYWN: Well, all this witch-craft and heebie-jeebies, how do we go about sorting out this mirror of yours, there must be some way of setting it right, surely?

DILYS: You have to throw earth over your left shoulder, and throw a piece of the broken glass into a river...

ELWYN: Well then, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll go find us a river, and turn it back right again so I can beat you in this damned chess game.

DILYS: But there’s no river here, and we’re not allowed outside without someone, you know what they’re like, babysitting us, they’ll never let us outside with broken glass!

ELWYN: And it has to be you that throws it, because you broke the mirror? (DILYS wipes her eyes again, indicating yes.) Then here’s what we’ll do. Tomorrow night, when they turn out the lights, there’ll be a knock at your door. Be ready to leave.

DILYS: Elwyn, we can’t...

ELWYN: Just be ready.