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Characters
Kim (16): an optimistic guy who loves parties, sports and health food.
Tracey (15): Kim's girlfriend, likes shopping, parties and make-up.
Melinda (10): Tracey's younger sister, lover of books.
Story
The play is set in 2069, forty years after World War III, which only lasted for two days as America dropped nuclear bombs across Russia. Three children / teenagers are trying to come to terms with the idea that a nuclear bomb is headed their way. They are alone in a shelter, questioning the idea of a future.
The play is set in a nuclear shelter, disguised as a recreation room. The backdrop is covered with posters of movie stars, at centre left there is a stereo system and at centre stage there is a coffee table with some open textbooks and some mugs on top. There is a beanbag at downstage centre and another two at centre right.
(Kim and Tracey are in the bomb shelter, supposedly doing their homework, but really dancing to loud music downstage right. Kim is dressed in tight jeans, with a loose top advertising a sporting team. A baseball cap is on his head. Tracey is also wearing jeans and she is wearing a very revealing shirt. Her hair is loose and she swings it wildly. At the end of the song they collapse on the beanbags, laughing. Another song starts.)
Tracey: (Seductively) So where'd you learn to dance like that?
Kim: I dunno but I had a great teacher.
(He leans over to kiss Tracey but Melinda enters stage left, slamming the door and causing Tracey to shoot dirty looks at her. Melinda is wearing track pants with a loose t-shirt. Her hair is tied back but messy and she is carrying three textbooks)
Melinda: Hey you two, Mum said that you were meant to be studying and she sent me in here to make sure you do not start pashing.(making "kissy-kissy" signs) How can you study with that noise on? Mum said you should turn the radio on, something important is on the news, and you two should listen.
Tracey: Why should we listen to the news? So we can turn into goody-goody know-it-all's like you? Rack off Melinda, we're busy.(Melinda runs out, stage right, crying. To Kim) She is such a pest, always trying to get in on my social life.
Kim: (gently) Well, she is only a little kid, you know. Anyway, maybe something important is going on. What harm can turning the radio on cause? (He moves over and fiddles with the dial on the stereo, a voice is heard)
Voice: (Strongly) ...This is not a drill... Nuclear missiles have been launched and are approaching Australia as we speak... The Prime Minister has retaliated, firing at coastal US cities... (enter Melinda, stage right) War has been declared and other nations are also launching their nuclear missiles to aid Australia... Citizens are advised to seek shelter in your nearest nuclear shelter... For advice towards your nearest shelter telephone your nearest police station...
(The message starts over and Kim turns the radio off. Kim and Melinda freeze. Lights down slightly, spotlight on Melinda. Melinda moves, trancelike, to downstage centre where she sits cross-legged on a beanbag)
Melinda: (Trancelike) When I was a little girl, things were sweet, I was so innocent, unaware of the horror to come. I learnt to read and write, but was taught nothing of the way grown-ups think. I started reading newspapers when I was eight, to keep up with what was going on in the world. (she starts talking like a little girl, her voice changes slowly) I found out that, for some reason, the grown-ups who were in charge never liked sharing and being friends with one another. they always seemed to be arguing and teasing one another. (Like a child) And then they got mad at each other and would get other people to fight for them. It didn't seem fair. I read a book last month, it was on war. I've never seen a war, but the book said it was really scary. In the Olden days, people would go and use weapons to kill other people. Hundreds of people died, but that was over two hundred years ago. When Mummy was a little girl, World War III occurred. The book said it only lasted a few days, because Americas dropped nu... nuc (She stumbles on the word) nuclear bombs on Russia and there was nothing left. Once Mummy said that nothing can ever grow there again and that there are no people left. I asked her, "where did the people go?" and she said that they went to heaven. But she wouldn't tell me where heaven was or how I could get there. I'm not sure, but I think that I'll go to heaven soon. I hope Mummy can come too. (She freezes, smiling. Lights up on Kim and Tracey)
Tracey: (desperately) Kim, what are we going to do? You heard that report, we're going to die. (grabbing him) I'm too young to die, you can't let me die.
Kim: (soothingly) Hush now, (holding her) you're not going to die. We'll survive this, you and me, together. Now to survive, we have to go to the nearest nuclear shelter. Do you know where it is?
Tracey: you're standing in it. (He jumps backwards) Grandad built it when Mum was little, and when he died Mum just redecorated around it. I even forgot it was here, until now. Do you think we'll be okay in here, really?
Kim: (Putting on a brave face) Of course we will, babe. You and me will be cool. It's easy to survive a nuclear holocaust. (she looks shocked) I picked it up from TV. (confused) Didn't you ever see Rambo XII? Well the bad guys decided to kill Rambo once and for all, so they set five nuclear bombs and he fell into the trap. Just before they went off he fell into a lead-lined room and was saved. But because of the fallout, he couldn't leave, and so Rambo got old and died. (in tears) It was so unfair, Rambette had to go and kill the bad guys alone, and she spent the rest of her life alone.
Tracey: It was only a movie. How can you carry on like that when our very world is falling apart? (to audience, in dream-like state) I used to think that life was ongoing. "Have fun now", they used to say, "there's always tomorrow for seriousness". Tomorrow never came. How is it that in one moment, the time it takes to say one sentence, your whole world can be turned upside down? Someone wise once said "the children are the future of the world". I used to believe this. But how can they be, they grow up into greedy money-grabbing adults. It is these adults who rule, who tell us what isright and what is wrong. They then disregard those rules, so that they can argue and fight, not caring about what the children will think. (Melinda and Kim move to her, standing aloft. She shouts to audience) What kind of future can there be, if the world has been destroyed?
Melinda: (sadly) There's not going to be a future.
*BLACKOUT*
All stories © Copyright 1997-2002 by Catherine.
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