April Showers : Part One.

 

CAST LIST :

 

JOANNA CHADWICK  :  a young girl of sixteen, pretty and attractive.

SHAW  : a young man of sixteen who must grow up fast.

BERYL CHADWICK  : mother to Joanna, sensible and calm.

TOM CHADWICK  : father to Joanna, quick to anger.

NICOLA  : a young girl of sixteen, jealous and small-minded.

ANGELA  : a young friend of Nicola and of a milder temperament.

MRS. PLENDERLEITH  : a teacher of music, concerned and competitive.

 

THE STAGE PLAN :

 

The stage has three main centres of focus. On the stage to the right is a car, facing the audience. It has no windscreen so the audience can hear the dialogue. To the centre of the stage (Centre back) is a tent with open flaps so you can walk in and still be seen by the audience. It is about six feet wide. To the left of the stage is a set of double doors set in a wall marked ‘Community Hall’. Alongside the doors is a low wall about four feet high going in the direction left to offstage. In front of the wall is a wooden bench. Teenage bands are gathered together in the month of April for a competition and this is the setting of the play.

 

MUSICAL INTRODUCTION

 

(Change of music which then fades to background but is still audible)

 

ANGELA : You don’t like her, do you, Nicola?

NICOLA : No I don’t.

ANGELA : Why not?

NICOLA : She is a little ‘miss-goody-two-shoes’, and she has got no time for anybody but him.

ANGELA : Yes, they are together a lot. You are not jealous, are you?

NICOLA : Of course not, and anyway, although they are always together, I don’t think that they are getting on very well.

ANGELA : They both look miserable really.

NICOLA : Well, they will be, if they can’t be bothered with anyone else.

ANGELA : They are not in our band.

NICOLA : No, but some of the Stovehampton Silvertones are friendly.

ANGELA : I don’t know why you are picking on her, Nicola.

NICOLA : In the last competition she laughed at us, Angela.

ANGELA : Well that would not surprise me. Sabrina got all her syncopated beats in the wrong place, and Wesley dropped his caracas. She would not be laughing at you.

NICOLA : I don’t care. I was on the parade ground with them and I felt humiliated.

ANGELA : I would forget it. I think they are just like us.

NICOLA : No, they are not. She’s spoilt. I would like to teach  her a lesson.

ANGELA : How?

NICOLA : I don’t know but I certainly don’t like her, and I certainly hope they lose this competition.

ANGELA : I don’t know how anybody will be able to concentrate. It’s freezing.

NICOLA : Yes, it is. I think it’s ridiculous holding the competition in this weather. They should wait until the summer. Oh no, look who’s coming, Angela.

ANGELA : Oh our friends. You are rotten to them, Nicola.

NICOLA : I’m going.

(The two girls exit. Joanna and Shaw enter. The music stops)

JOANNA : Do you care about me, Shaw?

SHAW : Care about you? Of course I do, Joanna.

JOANNA : Look, I need to know if you really love me.

SHAW : Yes, we go together like peaches and cream.

JOANNA : Yes I know that we get on together but I mean something more. I want to know if we have something more lasting.

SHAW : Something that lasts forever you mean.

JOANNA : Yes.

SHAW : Has something happened?

JOANNA : Yes, I don’t know what to do.

SHAW : You are pregnant, aren’t you?

JOANNA : I can’t stand that word coming out. Don’t say it again. My mum and dad will kill me.

SHAW : Don’t you mean they’ll kill me?

JOANNA : Well that as well.

SHAW : This is awful. You can’t tell them.

JOANNA : Look, I have got to. I want to tell them straightaway before I go crazy with worry.

SHAW : Why have you waited till today? The day of the competition.

JOANNA : It has just worked out that way. I bought a pregnancy test kit yesterday after school. It came out positive. This is the first opportunity I’ve had to tell you. I haven’t put it off.

SHAW  : No, well this means a whole lot of problems for me. I want to go to college next year and take an engineering course. Also, we’ve got no money for a kid or even just living together.

JOANNA : We would get help from the state. When I leave school this summer I’ll get Jobseeker’s Allowance.

SHAW : How can you, you won’t be available for work with a new born baby? Anyway that won’t be enough. We can’t afford to rent, let alone buy a house. The problems are terrific. We are stuck, we are stuck with something which messes everything up.

JOANNA : Well thanks very much. You weren’t telling me you were stuck with something terrible that weekend we spent in the Lake District, when this must have happened. My mum didn’t want me to go. I should have listened to her. You have just taken advantage of me, and now you don’t want to know.

SHAW : No, I’m just saying it gives us a load of problems to solve, and I know that I am not equal to them. And to come out with this today, a day when we need to concentrate on our performance, is not the best of news, is it?

JOANNA : Oh I’m not bothered about the band. I want to give it up anyway. I’m sick of sounding like a half-drowned queen bee.

SHAW : I like the sound of the bands.

JOANNA : Well, let’s not quarrel about what is completely unimportant. I would rather quarrel about our real problems. Look, Mrs. Plenderleith is coming over. Go away.

(Exit Shaw, Joanna remains, Mrs. Plenderleith appears)

MRS. PLENDERLEITH : Maybe it will not happen.

JOANNA : What?

MRS. PLENDERLEITH : The disaster that is coming.

JOANNA : Do I look that bad?

MRS. P : Well, you don’t seem too happy. There is no need to worry about a competition like this you know, Joanna. It’s only meant to be a bit of fun, a chance to widen your circle of friends and get ideas for the next presentation. It’s the taking part that counts.

JOANNA : I’m not worried about the competition. In fact I’m not worried about anything. I had cold last week, that’s all. It’s lingering on.

MRS.P : Mmm, it’s not the warmest of days, I must admit.

JOANNA : No, I think everybody looks cheesed off.

MRS.P : You are probably right, Joanna. Would you like a cup of warm soup? It’s tomato and beef.

JOANNA : Alright, I will have some.

MRS.P : Come over to the tent then. It’s always disappointing when the weatherman doesn’t do his best for us. Last year was no better. In 2014 it snowed briefly. I’ve asked them to put the date forward so the competition is later in the summer but they haven’t done anything about it.

JOANNA : Later on in the year we have our school exams.

MRS.P : Yes that’s true. Maybe that’s why they have consigned us to an episode of ‘South with Scott’.

JOANNA : I’m not that cold.

MRS.P : No there’s no point in going on about it. We can’t change the facts of life, can we?

JOANNA : The facts of life, Mrs. Plenderleith?

MRS.P : Oh I didn’t mean the actual facts of life, silly me. You are right to pull me up, Joanna, you have to be so careful what you say, particularly these days.

JOANNA : Yes.

MRS.P : Anyway to change the subject I’m in charge of the raffle, would you like to buy a ticket?

JOANNA : Are the prizes any good?

MRS.P : Yes of course they are, but funnily enough the second and third prizes are mystery gifts, so I can’t actually say what they are.

JOANNA : What is the first prize?

MRS.P : A food mixer.

JOANNA : Mmm, my mum has already got one.

MRS.P  : They always come in handy. Maybe you will do some cooking yourself in the future. If not there are the mystery prizes.

JOANNA : Okay I will have a ticket.

MRS.P : Good, that’s fifty pence, Joanna. I think that’s your boyfriend walking over here isn’t it? He looks as cheerful as you do.

JOANNA : Look we are okay.

MRS.P : Sorry, Joanna. There is no understanding you. When you are old you wish you were young again. Silly really, isn’t it? Particularly if it’s more painful than rheumatism, but I don’t remember it being that bad.

(Shaw enters)

SHAW : Hi.

MRS.P : Hello, Shaw. Come in a minute. (He enters tent) Would you like a cup of soup?

SHAW : No thanks.

MRS.P : A raffle ticket?

SHAW : No, I was looking for Joanna.

JOANNA : What do you want?

SHAW : Nothing in particular. I just wondered where you had got to.

JOANNA : I’m going.

SHAW : Where?

JOANNA : I won’t be long. I will see you outside the hall in two minutes. Goodbye, Mrs. Plenderleith.

MRS. P : Goodbye. There is plenty of time before you go on. I will give you a few brief  musical reminders then. For the moment enjoy yourselves and listen to the competition. Not that I think you can learn much from it. We are still the best.

(Exit Mrs. Plenderleith. Joanna and Shaw leave the tent. Enter Angela and Nicola outside the community hall)

NICOLA : Look, if she comes this way I am going to do something.

ANGELA : What, Nicola?

NICOLA : Just something. I don’t like her.

ANGELA : She’s going in the hall.

NICOLA : Stay here. I’m going to follow her in.

ANGELA : Do you have to?

NICOLA : I won’t be long – just hang around for a minute, listen to the band. It’s going to play.

(One of the bands starts to play. It has been playing for one minute when Nicola comes out of the hall. Music fades to background)

ANGELA : Where did you get that?

NICOLA : Out of her purse.

ANGELA : Oh, pick-pocket.

NICOLA : It’s not important, it’s only a raffle ticket.

ANGELA : Give it back.

NICOLA : Let’s get out of here. She will be coming out shortly. I don’t want to see her again.

(Exit Angela and Nicola. Joanna appears and sits on a bench outside the hall. Shaw approaches and sits beside her)

JOANNA : Why are you seeking me out, Shaw? There is nothing to say.

SHAW : Nothing to say? I feel as if I have been hit over the head with a cricket bat.

JOANNA : That is typical of boys. Some people think it is good news.

SHAW : Well it is, in a way, Joanna. I don’t want you to be upset.

JOANNA : I have got all the telling to do, you haven’t.

SHAW : Yes that’s true. Do you want me to be with you when you tell them?

JOANNA : No that would be fatal. I don’t want anybody interrupting when I do come out with it.

SHAW : I know that I will not be flavour of the month but I am not afraid of your mum, or even your dad, if it comes to that. He might hate me more.

JOANNA : Oh don’t go on about who is going to hate more; when something is as much of a mess as this is it is irrelevant. But you know those two lessons you have had in kick-boxing, you may need them. (Joanna giggles)

SHAW : Why are you making fun?

JOANNA : Well desperation really. Look I don’t think we should get too pessimistic.

SHAW : No you are right, Joanna. I can face them. I’ve got to face them.

JOANNA : I could say we have both got to face the music. (Joanna giggles again)

SHAW : Oh, very funny.

JOANNA : Well this playing in the band and marching around like toy soldiers is as bad as anything else we have got to deal with.

SHAW : Look I know you are unhappy, in spite of your laughter, but I am sure things will get better.

JOANNA : How?

SHAW : Positive thinking probably. We will have to do a lot of thinking about what is possible for us in the future. I don’t want to change what I had planned. My life is important to me, the sort of job I have is important to me.

JOANNA : Oh what a rotten thing to say. You are heartless. If you can’t see it’s something completely different ahead you might as well walk off now and not bother coming back.

SHAW : Well I might just do that.

JOANNA : You selfish little bastard. You’ve just used me. Go away and don’t come back. I don’t want to see you again.

SHAW :There is a lot to think about, Joanna, you know there is. I am too young to give up what I’ve got.

(Music stops)

JOANNA : Oh go away. You are just a moaner, you’re no good. I was stupid enough to think that you were going to accept it and do the right thing.

SHAW : I need time to think, that’s all.

JOANNA : Think, you couldn’t think if it meant saving your life.

SHAW : I can’t just give up on my future.

JOANNA : Future, what future is there for me if I’m left on my own? I thought I would be like every other family; I would have a new three-bedroomed house on a nice estate, a husband who has a good job, and two children who do well at school. Well it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case, does it?

SHAW : No it doesn’t, but all you are doing is moaning.

JOANNA : I have every right to moan. You don’t love me. That’s all that matters to me now and you have let me down.

SHAW : It’s not as simple as that, whether I love you or not, everything is messed up.

JOANNA : If you loved me you would not care about yourself at all.

SHAW : Nobody is that selfless.

JOANNA : Love is selfless.

SHAW : I thought love was selfish.

JOANNA : Well that’s typical of boys.

SHAW : Whatever you might think of me, Joanna, I am no different to any other lad that you will find around here.

JOANNA : That’s what I have just said.

SHAW : Yes, but what I am saying is you would be hard pushed to find anyone of my age happy with this situation.

JOANNA : I don’t expect you to be happy with it, I just want you to face up to the new responsibilities it’s given us.

SHAW : I’m sixteen.

JOANNA : So am I. It doesn’t mean the end of our life, we won’t suddenly become boring stay-at-homes who watch every single episode of some awful Australian soap and never get to paint the town red again. There must be a lot of happiness surrounding the arrival of a new baby.

SHAW : Such as..........

JOANNA : Well findiing out after nine months whether you have a boy or a girl. There are lots of nice things that you can do with children. You can go to places like theme parks or zoos and have holidays by the sea, paddling and making sandcastles.

SHAW : It sounds great.

JOANNA : Look if you have closed your mind to accepting reality there is nothing I can say will change that. The reality of the matter is that you are the father of my child.

SHAW : Do you have to come out with it so obviously?

JOANNA : Oh don’t be such a wimp. You don’t even want to face up to the sound of it.

SHAW : You hypocrite. You’ve soon forgotten your distaste for the word ‘pregnant’. And if we ever were in love it doesn’t look like we have much chance of staying that way.

JOANNA : I’m under strain, that’s all. I just want to be reassured.

(Music starts again)

SHAW : I think that music is putting us all under strain.

JOANNA : I thought you liked it.

SHAW : I do normally. Let’s walk away from it. (Music fades)

JOANNA : What are you thinking of?

SHAW : Well to be quite honest I’m not thinking of the music or anything else we’ve been talking about. I keep thinking of a wild stallion. In fact it’s becoming a bit of an obsession. (Music stops)

JOANNA : Oh not that one in the field by Fencehouse Lane. It’s given me nightmares before now.

SHAW : I didn’t mean that one particularly.

JOANNA : No, but generally speaking it’s a rough ride on your horse.

SHAW : The poor horse is trapped, tethered when it should be free. I feel sorry for it.

JOANNA : So you are thinking of that one in Fencehouse Lane.

SHAW : The horse has to be tamed or allowed to just run free. It’s mad because it’s trapped but you can’t just let it run free.

JOANNA : What will we do?

SHAW : I want to forget the stallion.

JOANNA : Me too, sometimes.

(They kiss)

(Continued in April Showers Part Two)