The Changeling
A young Scottish wife with a boorish husband and a colicky infant is convinced her child is a changeling.
When an omen of death, the Black Dog, keeps appearing, the wife prepares for the inevitable.

Penned by Alexandra Keister, this period piece is a haunting story of poverty and superstition.

Isla comes from a higher born family, but now suffers under the hands of a boorish husband. Unable to cope with her first child, Una, she's suffering. But who is there to help her? 

Isla’s song grows quieter. She walks slowly to Una, still singing. Puts her laundry down. Picks Una up. Studies her face, as though alien. She takes Una into the water and gently lowers her as if for a bath. 

ISLA
Tell me, wee-ane, are ye mine? Can ye spake? Faerie-tongue, maybe? 

Isla lets the water flow closer and closer to Una’s mouth and nose, while watching her intently. They stare at each other. 

ISLA
Yer een were blue the day ye were born. And now -- are ye the devil?

Una cries at this. As she is just about to slip completely under the stream, a BIRD lets out a PIERCING SCREAM that startles Isla and she jerks the baby from the water. 

When raised under superstition how would you know reality from fantasy? Will it help - or hurt, guiding your hand to a tragic end?

Visually and emotionally rich, The Changeling is a poetic tale of post partum depression in a superstitious age. 

If you have access to the Scottish countryside or a reasonable facsimile of it, a shack, and some cheap costumes this script is a chance for you to tell a haunting tale that will leave your audience with feelings as deep as any Scottish lake.