Riverside Roundabout

John Livesey

Description

The play offers a glimpse of life in and around the river and the conflicting hopes and dreams of the fish, amphibians, worms and dragonflies who make it their home. Only the amphibians (a natterjack toad and a great crested newt) are entirely happy with things as they are but sadly their very presence offends one of the fish (Aunt Charlotte) who feels that they lower the tone of the river. She's the bane of Uncle Percy's life - very much a live-and-let-live kind of fish. Alvin, their nephew, is a smolt or young salmon. As he's about to follow his absent parents downstream and away across the ocean, he has a built-in wanderlust, which here expresses itself in his desire to find out what life's like on land. The amphibians (Isaac the newt in particular - a great scientist) set out to help him achieve his goal - to Aunt Charlotte's horror. Glory, the dragonfly nymph, also dreams of life on land, but doesn't feel cut out for it. Finally on land the worms look at the river and resent the fact that, while they're cramped and over-crowded on land, the river is virtually empty. Their race memory tells them they first lived in the water but somewhere down the line they took a wrong turn and now it may just be that the river is a reminder of a worm paradise lost- until human intervention changes everything.

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 26 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781800466302
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2021 John Livesey

The moral right of the author has been asserted.


Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.


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ISBN 978 1800466 302

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.


Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd



For Sarah, Tom, Cathy-Ann, Niamh & Katie


Contents
Dramatis Personae
Notes On The Characters
Note On The Setting

Act One
Scene One
Scene Two
Scene Three
Scene Four
Scene Five
Scene Six
Scene Seven
Scene Eight
Scene Nine
Scene Ten

Act Two
Scene One
Scene Two
Scene Three
Scene Four
Scene Five
Scene Six
Scene Seven
Scene Eight
Scene Nine
Scene Ten


DRAMATIS PERSONAE
NATTER
A natterjack toad
ISAAC
A great crested newt
GLORY
A dragonfly nymph
ALVIN
A young salmon
AUNT CHARLOTTE
Alvin’s aunt (A Char)
UNCLE PERCY
His uncle (A Perch)
WALTER
An old farming worm
CYRIL
Worms…
SIMON
…in the service…
SID
…of the Angler
THE ANGLER
(Voice-over only) The worms’ leader


NOTES ON THE CHARACTERS
NATTER
A natterjack toad: distinguished by a yellow stripe down his back – his colouring being otherwise predominantly green. He has a habit, when excited, of twitching his hands in a sort of grabbing motion. Is impetuous, always getting into scrapes, and very volatile – can go from highest excitement to deep despair in a second. An amphibian – spends most of his time on land, but keeps dropping in on his friend Isaac who, as we shall see, has established his laboratory in the river.
ISAAC
A great-crested newt: like Natter, an amphibian, but spends most of his time in the water, where he has his laboratory. Generally a pond-dweller, Isaac finds this stretch of water convenient for its warmth and its stillness, for the familiar jumble of bladderwort and equipment which fills his laboratory, and also because the quiet of the river is more conducive to study than is the bustle of the average pond. He is deep olive brown in colour – almost black – with a yellow to orange spotted belly/waistcoat.
GLORY
A dragonfly nymph: small, round and rather ugly. She has enormous eyes, which enable her to see all round; six legs (four arms & two legs) & small wings. Apart from her eyes her most notable features are her tongue, which is enormous (meant for catching food but used by Glory mainly for sticking out at Aunt Charlotte), and the fact that she is well-nigh invisible. Her camouflage is so good that we are never aware of her unless she calls attention to herself. Born & bred in this reach of the river, she is Charlotte’s domestic servant – not because she has to be – there is nothing servile in her nature – but because otherwise one of the fish might eat her. She is sluggish in her movements.
At the end of the play she morphs into a dragonfly & for this will need to under-dress her dragonfly costume.
UNCLE PERCY
A perch: – very handsome – olive green above, silvery below, with black stripes on his sides. An easy-going sort of fish, not endowed with great intelligence. Has passed most of his life among the clutter of bladderwort, lilies, nymphs and amphibians & is not bothered by them. Would be perfectly happy to be left alone with his garden, but with Charlotte around that is not to be.
AUNT CHARLOTTE
A char – a very beautiful fish – silver, pink-spotted. A cold water fish, she would be happier in the deep, cold water of the lake where she and Percy met, but there alas she would have to fend for herself. Here, sharing Percy’s abode, she does have domestics (in the person of Glory) and that does wonders for her self-esteem. She would like to stamp her personality on the river, to make it clear and uncluttered as she remembers the mountain streams of her youth; but here there are amphibians with their proletarian, pond-life habits, intent it seems on frustrating her.
ALVIN
A young salmon: Charlotte’s nephew and under her guardianship. In contrast to Charlotte and Percy he is not at all good-looking – an unremarkable brown colour. A schoolboy, not yet concerned with his appearance. Great friends with Natter & Isaac, much to the disapproval of his aunt.
THE WORMS
Are all quite bald & nearly blind. They wear dark glasses, which have the dual function of protecting them from the sunlight and enabling them to see. Individually they are…
WALTER
…an old farming worm – not a bumbling hayseed, but an articulate working worm – the worm equivalent of the skilled craftsman in old English village life.
CYRIL, SIMON, SID
Worms in the service of The Angler: all wear shiny, slightly sinister uniforms and carry fob watches, Cyril is the leader – it was he who persuaded them to go with The Angler; Simon is the hard-case, the bullet-head; and Sid, the youngest, is the enthusiast – carried along by Cyril without ever really knowing what it’s all about.


NOTE ON THE SETTING
The play is on two levels:

The lower area represents the river-bed. This is fully realised, in contrast to the upper area (representing various parts of the bank) which is not defined except where necessary by the angled mirrors

THE RIVER-BED
Contains from SR to SL
1. DR Boulders for climbing up the bank
2. SR Isaac’s laboratory – a jumble of scientific equipment – including a telescope and perhaps a row of optics (as in a pub). At the back of the lab is an exit leading to Isaac’s inner sanctum. The lab is shielded from the rest of the river by a tangled mass of bladderwort.
3. A chute for Natter to come down & for Alvin to go up.
4. UC Percy’s garden – yellow water lilies, some in bloom, some with ‘brandy-bottle’ pods – hanging about seven feet above the river-bed (ie just below the upper level) with trailers reaching down to the stage by means of which they can be pulled down. The lilies (or one thereof) should be strong enough to carry one person (Alvin) in the final scene.
5. SL The fishes’ area – boulders marking doorway, through which one can exit off L. One deckchair.
6. DL Washing line leading from L of doorway off L. Charlotte’s washing, which she hangs out in scene one is all silver with pink spots.
7. DL Exit upstream
THE UPPER LEVEL
About eight feet above stage level, can be used for a variety of places. Except where indicated, it does not represent the immediate riverbank (In the first scenes it is the cricket field, with the river some way away. Later, in the worms’ scenes, the river is imagined off SL – running towards the audience.
The sole features on the upper level are…
8. The angled mirrors SL behind the worms to give the impression of a seething mass. (If possible, at the end of the battle, these mirrors should swivel and disappear.
9. The hole (C) out of which Walter emerges, and down which the other worms finally disappear.
TWO WIRES ARE REQUIRE