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CHAPTER Two: WHAT Is A DRAMA EVENT
The group forces Naomi, who does not want to take part, to throw a brick as
well. In the next scene we see Joe arriving home after setting fire to the house,
his mother slaps him when he tells her he did it and denies asking him to do
it in the first place. When the bell rings she panics that it is the police and
sends Joe to his room. Joe’s friend Jill arrives and though the mother tries to
send her away she manages to speak to Joe and tell him that a boy was killed
in the fire. The two children leave together. Next morning the children meet
Joe to find out what he is planning to do. They are worried about the police
questioning them and blaming them for the arson. Joe tells them that he is
going to leave and the others decide to go with him. Just as they make up their
minds to leave a tall thin man with matted hair, a white face and in a long
black overcoat enters and collapses. He does not move. As they do not know
how much he has heard and are worried that he may die the children decide to
take the man with them till the next hospital. They carry him on a shed door.
We see the children carrying the Man a few days later after they have noticed
that all other people have vanished; even the town they reach is deserted.
As the play proceeds we see the group in different situations as they continue
their journey, quarrelling, falling into despair as their number diminishes, but
still carrying the man. They take turns as guards at night, but the man gets up
and strangles the guards with a towel and smacking their heads with a brick
before dragging them out; these objects are used as a pillow by him during the
day. When the other kids get up they think that their peers who were killed
have run away and betrayed them. During the day the Man encourages the
remaining children to head on towards the harbour that he says is nearby.
Finally, only Joe reaches the docks that are empty, but full of malls where he
can pick goods without paying for them. He walks on stage with many bags of
goodies when he sees the boy, the stranger from the new estate, who was the
child killed in the fire. They talk about the fire and the Stranger says he has
forgiven Joe. Suddenly the father of the dead boy runs on stage and tries to
kill Joe, who escapes, and the Man, who is struggling to stay alive, leaves and
takes all the shopping bags with him. In the last scene Joe comes on and says:
“I’ve got everything. I’m the last person in the world. I must find someone”.‘°
Then exits.
There are many possible DE moments in the play. One example is after
the Man encourages the remaining five kids to carry on their journey to the
harbour and even offers to be the guard in the first half of the night. By this
point in the play the audience have already seen him kill some of the other
children in the group. The situation is the following:
130 Tbid., 52.
+ 110 +