Tin Bucket Drum by Coppen Neil;

Author:Coppen, Neil;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wits University Press
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Scene 7

Silent confinement

We move back to Mkhulu’s shack. The shadow of a window frame appears on the centre screen.

NARRATOR: So the Little Drummer Girl’s mother was forced to keep her hidden in the safety and silence of Mkhulu’s back room. Here they padded the floors with grass mats so that the girl would not be tempted by the rhythm in her own footsteps; sealed up the windows and doors, removed all objects from the house …

The NARRATOR moves around the house, miming the removal of a variety of offending objects. As she does this, the PERCUSSIONIST orchestrates each sound. This is done in perfect unison.

NARRATOR: Cutlery.

The NARRATOR mimes opening a drawer and collecting all the cutlery, then tossing it aside. The PERCUSSIONIST provides the sound.

NARRATOR: Tin.

The NARRATOR mimes throwing out tin items.

PERCUSSIONIST provides the clatter.

NARRATOR: Bottle caps.

The NARRATOR mimes gathering bottle caps.

PERCUSSIONIST provides the sound from the actual objects.

NARRATOR: And plates.

The NARRATOR mimes sliding the plates off a shelf.

PERCUSSIONIST provides the sound using tin plates. After the final tin plate hits the floor, the NARRATOR, nerves frayed, turns back to the audience and whispers.

NARRATOR: Anything that might inspire forbidden rhythmic activities. [Pause.] Eight years would pass like this. Eight long years of this silent confinement.

The NARRATOR sits on the edge of the table (the red tablecloth is now doubling as a bedspread), assuming the character of NOMVULA, the Little Drummer Girl. Her legs dangle awkwardly off the edge.

NARRATOR [mischievously]: But she found a way. She always found a way to keep the rhythm in her heart alive. You see, she had kept a secret beneath her pillow.

The NARRATOR removes something from underneath the pillow and holds it out for the audience to inspect.

NARRATOR: a box of matches, the one her mother had used to light her bedside candle. Well, at night, when all of Tin Town was asleep, the child would shake the box, rattling the matches.

NOMVULA produces an (imaginary) box of matches. She hops off the table and rises on tiptoe to peep through the window, ensuring that no guards are patrolling. Once she is certain that it is safe, she begins to tap the box musically against her chest.

The PERCUSSIONIST creates the rattling matchbox rhythms as NOMVULA dances in defiant circles around the room. She then moves to the table and folds back the red cloth, as though she is climbing into bed.

NARRATOR: Then, falling into a deep, musical sleep, she would dream. The same dream over and over. Even though it had not rained in Tin Town for 20 years, in her dreams she could hear it … [pause] … a raindrop striking the bottom of a tin bucket.

For this sequence a few miniature tin buckets are attached to a spinning mobile device set downstage. The NARRATOR spins the mobile gently and, lit by the floor lights, the whirling shadows of the buckets are amplified on the screen.

Shadow buckets dance magically around the room as the NARRATOR spins in circles amongst them. The PERCUSSIONIST plays on the bottom of an upturned tin bucket to create the falling rain effect/music.

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