Six Plays for Children by Aurand Harris

Author:Aurand Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2014-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

ACT TWO

(Overture. Cue 33. Scene is the same. March music. Cue 34. Two brightly dressed guards march in from R. They do a short comic military dance. They change the sign, which reads, “Scene 5.” It may also have printed on it, “Hung by a Rope.”)

SCENE FIVE

(The guards carry in from L a barred prison cell-front, which is a self-standing unit, and put it DL. This can be the same frame as the window, which was removed during intermission, but now has bars on the front. Policeman pushes Punch in from L and leaves him behind the bars. Policeman and Guards exit.)

PUNCH. (Puts head out between bars. Sings. Cue 35.)

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

Here my cry, hear my sigh, here stand I

Behind prison bars, locked with a key.

Help! Help! Help! Someone rescue me!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

If I were a butterfly, I’d fly, I’d flee.

But I’m not a butterfly, as you can see.

Help! Help! Help! Someone rescue me!

(Shouts.)

Let me out! Let me out! Let me ou-ou-out!

(Two Guards march in from R. They carry a gallows and stand it DR.)

What is that? It has one branch on the top. It’s a tree! If I could reach—I’d eat a peach.

(Calls.)

Yoo-hoo, you and you. Who is the tree for?

(They point at him.)

Me!

(Guards fix rope.)

What are they doing? They are stealing my fruit! Help! Thieves! They are fixing a rope—with a loop. Yoo-hoo. The rope—with the loop—who is it for?

(Guards point at him.)

ME!

(Guards march off R. Punch sings. Cue 36.)

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

A rope swings high with a noose that’s crooked.

If I swing high, my goose is cooked.

Help! Help! Help! Someone let me loose!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

There is no doubt, I must get out.

Quick as quick as quick as quick can be.

Help! Help! Help! They’re going to hang me!

(Yells and shakes bars.)

Let me out! Let me out! Let me ou-ou-ou-out!

(Off L, heavy drum-beat footsteps are heard.)

Someone is coming.

(Hangman strides in and takes a stance. He wears a masking hood, but he should not be all in black. There should be some colorful accents. He is a comical hangman. Punch shakes and speaks in frightened voice.)

Who is there?

HANGMAN. I am the Hangman.

PUNCH. Oh!

HANGMAN. I have come to hang you.

PUNCH. No!

HANGMAN. (Takes out little book.) The book says: I will fling the rope over your head. You will swing until you are dead, dead, dead.

PUNCH. I am going to die three times.

HANGMAN. You have broken the laws of the land.

PUNCH. No! I didn’t touch them!

HANGMAN. The book says it is the hour to hang you. Come out.

PUNCH. I like it here.

HANGMAN. Come out! Before my temper goes. I am in a hurry.

PUNCH. I am in no hurry at all.

HANGMAN. Come out! Or I’ll hang you by the nose!

PUNCH. (Comes around cell-front to C.) Oh, no. No. Not my beautiful, beautiful nose.

HANGMAN. Have you made your will?

PUNCH. My will?

HANGMAN. Your last will and testimony. You have to make a will before I can hang you.

PUNCH. Then I never will—make a will. Rootle-dee-tootle-dee-toot!

HANGMAN. The book says—hang you! And hang you I will, will or no will! Stand there.

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