Lionboy (NHB Modern Plays)

Zizou Corder, Marcelo Dos Santos

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781780015590
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Charlie Ashanti lives in a future where phones are powered by the sun, cars are banned and companies are more powerful than countries. Charlie is a perfectly normal boy, except for one thing: he can speak to cats.

When his parents are kidnapped, he sets off on a rescue mission – with a little help from a floating circus and its pride of performing lions.

Based on Zizou Corder's bestselling novels, Marcelo Dos Santos's adaptation fuses storytelling and circus in a gripping tale that provides great opportunities for amateur and school groups looking to perform a magical adventure.

Lionboy was commissioned and first produced by award-winning theatre company Complicite in 2013, and was revived in 2014 for an international tour.

'It twinkles with a sense of magical possibility... liveliness, invention and effortless appeal' - The Times

'A wonderfully imaginative adventure' - Evening Standard

PART ONE

Scene One

CHARLIE. One day I came home to find my parents had disappeared.

All the lights in the house were off, no sound, no lovely cooking smell. All the doors were locked… except one. The door to Mum’s laboratory was open: she never left it open. Never.

The ACTORS suggest the laboratory by bringing forward objects of significance for CHARLIE. The ACTORS begin to animate them – a lab coat with an actor’s arm threaded through it hugs CHARLIE, while another holds up his mother’s spectacles, hovering them near his face.

Everything in the lab reminded me of them. My parents were scientists. They were the lab.

DAN. Charlie’s mother: Magdalen Start, BSc, MSc, PhD, ETC. One of the most famous scientists in the world for her pioneering research into a cure for asthma.

MAGDALEN. Nullius in verba. Do you know what that means, Charlie, it’s Latin? Take nobody’s word for it. Always ask the people in charge the most difficult questions and always ask for evidence. And pass the biscuits, Charlie, dear.

DAN. And a great mum.

MAGDALEN. Nullius in verba.

LISA. Charlie’s father: Aneba Ashanti, Doctor of Endoterica and Tropical Sciences at the University of London, Chief of Knowledge of all the Tribes of Akan.

ANEBA (sung). Tuwe tuwe mamuna tuwe tuwe.

CHARLIE. Dad would know what was going on. My dad, you should know, is huge. Not just big, huge. And when he smiles, he’s like the god of happiness.

CHARLIE gets out his phone and dials.

Dad?

ANEBA. Hello? This is Aneba Ashanti. I can’t take your call at the moment, I am saving the world. But don’t hang up, it shouldn’t take long.

CHARLIE. Parents! Why do they never leave their phones on? Where were they? Something was wrong. Something had happened. They wouldn’t just leave without telling me, would they? What if they had been taken?

I started. I couldn’t breathe properly. I started. I had an asthma attack.

CHARLIE has an asthma attack.

CEO. Asthma is a horrible thing. Very scary, your throat contracts, your ribcage closes around your lungs like a fist, and you can’t breathe. Thousands of children suffer from it and it’s getting worse. Who is to blame? Is it man-made pollution, or is it cats, with their increasingly allergenic fur? Well, I don’t believe in a blame culture but I think it’s only fair that cats take their share of the blame.

CHARLIE. It was all right, I had my inhaler with me.

The CEO takes his inhaler.

CEO. It was all right. He had his inhaler, see. My company, The Corporacy makes that.

He hands CHARLIE back the inhaler.

CHARLIE. As I got up, I felt this strong, furry, twining thing around my ankle. I bent down. It was Petra, a skinny cat from the ruins. You don’t stroke these cats – cuddly, they are not.

Wait! Can I tell you a secret? Can I though? A really big one which no one knows about apart from my parents. I speak cat.

‘Quick, Charlie, you need to find your parents now.’ She said.

‘They’ve been taken.’

Who by?

‘Two humans. Strangers. Watch out, Charlie.’

I heard a noise, I ran around to the front of the house again, hoping Dad would be there. But he wasn’t. Instead, framed in the doorway was Rafi Sadler.

RAFI. Do you like my trainers? Not cheap. How did I get them? What sort of question is that? You’re rude, you are. I bought them. With my money. Because I work. I have a job, do you have a job, or does someone just buy all your stuff for you?

CHARLIE. Rafi left school years ago, had cool clothes and money, but he never looked at me. Not since we were both little and our parents were friends. What was he doing here?

RAFI (bark, bark, bark). Don’t worry about Troy. He’s a good dog. He’s a staffy. We work together. What do you think we do? I know what you’re thinking. Go on, say it. Drugs. Well, you’d be right.

CHARLIE. Have you seen my parents, Rafi?

RAFI. That’s what I’m here about, Charlie boy. You’re coming with me.

CHARLIE. What about my parents?

RAFI. They want you to come with me. They’ve left a note.

CHARLIE (reading the note). ‘Dear Charlie, I’m awfully sorry but Mummy and Daddy had to go away for work business. We ought to have let you know sooner but we just couldn’t. You’re to go and stay with Rafi. Be a good boy, do as you’re told. Love you lots. Mummy.’

CEO. Rafi worked for me. He was a very promising Corporacy trainee. Lots of get up and go, just the right sort of entrepreneurial spirit that this country needs.

RAFI. See, drugs, the good kind. Pharmaceuticals. And the boss, the CEO chose me because I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I know how to get hold of Charlie’s parents for example. Charlie’s family.

CHARLIE. The note was fake. It had to be. ‘Mummy’? I hadn’t called her that in at least five years! And work business is a tautology, she’d never say that. Something was wrong if she’d had to write like that. I had to think fast. What did Mum always say, really say?

MAGDALEN. Nullius in verba, take no one’s word.

CHARLIE. I didn’t trust Rafi. I didn’t trust that note. I started to pack. I took my phone and my inhaler, never leave home without that. Money, Swiss Army Knife, toy tiger – I find it hard to sleep sometimes, all right?

A movement at my bedroom window. Petra.

‘Hurry, Charlie.’

The cat’s eyes looked deep into mine, she put her face really close and I could feel her whiskers. The cold wet of her nose. The smell of fur.

‘Where do I go?’

‘Follow the river.’

And then she was gone. No time to ask questions. I grabbed my bag in one hand, my courage in the other. Climbed out of the window, and ran.

RAFI. Five minutes, whatever, I’m checking my apps. Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? No way. Not having it. Something was up. Gone.

Escape sequence with ladders, music, lights.

Why? What does he know? Damn. Punch. Punch the window. Punch Troy. Kick Troy. His fault after all. ‘Troy, you stupid dog.’ What was I supposed to tell The Corporacy?

The CEO makes his presence known.

All right, Troy, make it up to me, track Charlie.

CHARLIE. By the time the sun was rising I was freezing. I was fairly sure I’d lost Rafi, but I was also completely sure I was now utterly, hopelessly lost. I needed help. I needed a cat.

Scene Two

The rest of the company appear as cats, however they do not speak – CHARLIE translates their cat-like physical gestures into words for us, the audience. They become increasingly emphatic and frustrated throughout the following.

CHARLIE. ‘Follow us, Charlie.’

‘This way, quick.’

‘Head downriver.’

‘Down to the sea.’

‘To France, Charlie, France.’

But how am I supposed to get to France?

SERGEI. Wait! It’s obvious, isn’t it? Unless you fancy swimming it, you’ll have to go by boat.

CHARLIE. At this point, the loudest, who made me itch just being near him, the mangiest cat –

SERGEI. Charming.

CHARLIE. A real scrapper of a mouser, the one all the other cats seemed to hate so much, came stalking forward. As he came nearer I found it harder and harder to breathe. Just being near him gave me an asthma attack.

He starts to back away from SERGEI.

SERGEI. Wait, Charlie, come back. Have you ever been made to feel bad about yourself because you’re different?

CHARLIE. Yeah.

SE...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Adapter’s Note
• Original Production
• Characters
• Lionboy
• About the Authors
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information