National Theatre Connections 2012: Plays for Young People

Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me; Journey to X; Little Foot; Prince of Denmark; Socialism is Great; The Grandfathers; Alice by Heart; Generation Next; So You Think You’re a Superhero?; The Ritual

Hilary Bell, Nancy Harris, Craig Higginson, Michael Lesslie, Anders Lustgarten, Charlotte Stowe, Steven Sater, Meera Syal, Paven Virk, Samir Yazbek

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781408160572
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

This brilliant new collection of ten plays for young people will prove indispensable to schools, colleges and youth theatre groups. Specially commissioned by the National Theatre for the Connections Festival 2012 involving 200 schools and youth theatre groups across the UK and Ireland, each play is accompanied by production notes and exercises. Power struggles, rites of passage, love and forbidden relationships are some of the rich themes that run through the 2012 cycle of plays. Some are deeply funny, some are provocative and some reflective; and one has really catchy songs! For the 2012 Festival, the anthology has an international feel and offers a window on the world. It includes from Australia a play based on a nineteenth century court case in which a teenage girl was falsely convicted; from Brazil a drama about young lovers doomed to tragedy; set in Russia, a play exploring differing attitudes to National Service and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; a drama about students' rights to an education and the Cultural Revolution of 1966 in China; and a comedy involving a group of Irish country girls travelling to London to audition for the X-Factor.

Alice by Heart

book and lyrics by
Steven Sater

music by
Duncan Sheik


story by
Steven Sater and Jessie Nelson

Time and Setting

1940, an underground station, London; and late one summer afternoon in Wonderland. (The familiar storybook figures mysteriously appear, then melt away once more, as if part of some half-remembered dream.)

While the set of this show could be rather elaborate, I want to stress that the design could also be quite minimal. The entire underground station could be constructed of nothing but light and sound cues. It could also be a simple unit design which then transforms into Wonderland.

Wonderland itself may surely be suggested merely by imaginative costumes, the proper props, and a sense of play.

Song List

1 West of Words (Alice and Alfred Hallam)

2 Down the Hole (All)

3 Getting Bigger (Mock Alice, Little Mock Alice, Another Mock Alice and Alice)

4 Get Dry (Mouse, Dodo, Duck, Magpie and Alice)

5 Do You Think We Think You’re Alice? (Mouse, Dodo, Duck, Magpie and Alice)

6 Chillin’ the Regrets (Two Caterpillars, Alice and Chorus)

7 And When We’re High (Alice, Two Caterpillars, Cheshire Cat, Mouse, Dodo, Mock Alice, Little Mock Alice and White Rabbit)

8 Manage Your Flamingo (Duchess, Knaves of Hearts and Clubs, Ace of Hearts, Mock Alice, Little Mock Alice, White Rabbit and King of Hearts)

9 Sick to Death of Alice-Ness (Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse)

10 Isn’t It a Trial? (Queen of Hearts, Little Mock Alice, Another Mock Alice, and Knaves of Hearts and Clubs)

11 What Have I Done with Me? (All)

12 Another Room in Your Head (White Rabbit and Alice)

13 And There You are (Cheshire Cat, Alice and Chorus)

14 Down the Hole – Reprise (All)

Characters

This play can be performed with as few as six actors or as many as desired. (Even the first scene can accommodate more voices – by adding characters to it and simply distributing some of the extant lines to those new characters.)

All the roles, except for that of Alice, may be doubled, and the division of those roles can be made according to the production scheme and the particular actors’ strengths. Certain roles, however, are written specifically to be doubled. Those I list here:

Alfred Hallam, White Rabbit, March Hare

Red Cross Nurse, Mock Alice, Queen of Hearts

Dodgy, Duchess

Harold Pudding, Mad Hatter

Buxby, Duck

Angus, Caterpillar

Tabatha, Cheshire Cat

Mabel, Magpie

I’ve always imagined the actor playing Nigel would also play the Mouse and Dormouse – but that could vary according to available casting.

London, 1940.

Lights rise on a ward of displaced young teens, encamped in an Underground station. Camp beds and hammocks stretch across the platform; coats and hats hang above; rows of shoes lie beneath; photos are tacked to walls. A frail teenage boy, Alfred Hallam, lies on a makeshift hospital bed. Down the platform, Alice sits on the floor, propped against her bed – as if beside her sister on the bank – immersed in a storybook.

In total denial of their surroundings, several besotted upper-crust youths – Ada, Dodgy, Nigel – attempt a night-time high tea. Meanwhile, Mabel, Buxby and Angus, working-class teens, play cards.

Beyond, wounded young soldiers on stretchers.

Note: the pace of this scene should be brisk. These characters have been living like family together, and are more than accustomed to finishing one another’s sentences.

A siren sounds.

Dodgy (that insufferable sound) And just when all our hearts had grown so tired …!

Nigel The endless chain of days, you know.

Ada Cream?

Dodgy If you can call it cream – and calling makes a thing.

Nigel (touches his teacup to his heart, then extends the cup) In honour of our dear, departed cream.

A bomb sounds. The Underground shudders.

Music sounds. Song light finds Alice. She looks longingly towards Alfred ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction by Anthony Banks
• Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me by Hilary Bell
• Journey to X by Nancy Harris
• Little Foot by Craig Higginson
• Prince of Denmark by Michael Lesslie
• Socialism is Great by Anders Lustgarten
• The Grandfathers by Rory Mullarkey
• Alice by Heart by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik
• Generation Next by Meera Syal
• So You Think You’re a Superhero? by Paven Virk
• The Ritual by Samir Yazbek
• Participating Companies
• Partner Theatres
• Performing Rights
• Imprint Page