The Overgrown Path

Robert Holman

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781788502351
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático británico

'History is not the study of facts. It is the study of ourselves. Of our stories. The stories we tell each other.'

Nicholas Marks, an aspiring academic from Yorkshire, arrives on the Greek island of Tinos to interview reclusive scientist Daniel Howarth about his work on the atomic bomb. But as he tries to tease apart fact and fantasy, science and mythology, chance and destiny, Nicholas discovers a surprising truth about himself.

Robert Holman's play The Overgrown Path is about history, and the stories we tell each other to make sense of ourselves. It was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 1985.

ACT ONE

Scene One

The small stage of a primary school in modern-day Nagasaki.

A black drape hangs at the back. A low wooden bench is set to one side. A long blue ribbon is lying on the wooden floor.

A group of nine Japanese CHILDREN, all ten years old, are about to present their play. Eight of the CHILDREN now enter, one after the other, through the drape. The CHILDREN are smartly dressed in their school uniforms. One of the GIRLS walks to the front. Two of the BOYS go to either end of the ribbon where they kneel down. The rest of the CHILDREN sit on the bench.

The girl at the front, her name is SUZUKO, waits for the CHILDREN to settle, and then she bows to the audience.

SUZUKO. Mrs Oogushi’s class welcome you to their play. (She narrates the story.) It is a hot, August morning. The sky has been cloudless for several weeks, and the citizens of Nagasaki grumble as they go about their business.

The CHILDREN on the bench make the ‘sounds’ of grumbling. One of the BOYS takes a bird-whistle from his pocket and blows it.

The birds sing. Only the children are happy in this heat.

The BOYS, kneeling, raise the blue ribbon.

Imagine the Urakami River on that sultry day in 1945. Nature has formed a small pool here. The river flows gently.

The BOYS flutter the ribbon.

It was to this pool that five children came, whenever they could sneak away, to play their game called Find the Bell.

The five CHILDREN on the bench, three GIRLS and two BOYS, stand up. As they go to the riverbank, the narrator continues.

The game was simple.

The five CHILDREN mime getting undressed.

One of the children, Etsuko, had a small gilded bell. When they were wearing nothing but their pants, Etsuko would throw the bell into the pool.

The girl playing ETSUKO mimes throwing the bell.

The children would dive in after it.

The five children dive in. They look very happy as they swim and dive searching for the bell. The boys with the ribbon quicken their fluttering.

It was great fun. Whoever should find the bell first was the winner. But, on this particular morning, the river was cloudy.

The five CHILDREN climb out onto the riverbank. One of the boys, his name is KOICHI, speaks first.

KOICHI. Etsuko, I can’t find it.

YASUKO. Nor I.

KEIKO. Nor I, Etsuko.

ETSUKO pulls a long face. The narrator continues.

SUZUKO. Etsuko was worried. She had taken the bell from her sister’s workbox without her permission. It had to be found. Etsuko well knew the wrath of her angry sister.

ETSUKO dives into the river. The BOYS flutter the ribbon.

So, once again, she dived into the Urakami River, and was gone for thirty seconds.

ETSUKO disappears beneath the ribbon.

A BOY enters through the drape. He is padded-up to be grotesquely fat, his suit is the colour of metallic black. He is FAT MAN, the atomic bomb.

The BOYS flutter the ribbon as if there were a violent storm.

(Shielding her eyes.) There was a blinding white flash like lightning, and the next moment Bang! Crack! as thunder rang out. It was Fat Man, the atomic bomb.

The boy playing FAT MAN rushes about. As he touches the CHILDREN playing the divers, they fall over. Then the boy playing FAT MAN disappears the way he came, back through the drape.

There is silence for a moment before the girl playing ETSUKO appears from beneath the ribbon.

Etsuko surfaced, having not found the bell, to find everything different. Gone was her primary school. Gone, too, was the College Hospital where, under a protest of screams, Etsuko had been taken by her mother to have her injection. The Mitsubishi Steelworks had disappeared. Etsuko climbed from the river.

ETSUKO mimes climbing out.

Her friends were gone, too. Was this a new game they were playing? Had they found the bell and not told her? If that was so, it wasn’t fair. Suddenly it began to snow on Nagasaki.

The two BOYS holding the ribbon put it down. They stand up. They have white confetti in their pockets which they throw over ETSUKO.

White snowflakes fell over the whole city.

ETSUKO hugs herself.

Etsuko, thinking it was already winter because everything looked so dark and desolate, hugged herself to keep warm. She cried out: ‘Mummy.’

ETSUKO mimes calling.

‘Mummy, where are you?’ But her cry must have been in silence for her mother never appeared.

ETSUKO catches a single piece of the confetti.

And when she touched the snow it didn’t melt, but crumbled in her fingers.

The two BOYS stop throwing the confetti.

That is the end of our story, except to say that Etsuko never did find her friends, but grew up and is the name of our teacher, Mrs Oogushi. We hope you liked our play with the happy ending.

The CHILDREN stand up. FAT MAN comes through the drape. They hold hands, and bow.

Scene Two

Thursday 10 May. Two o’clock in the afternoon.

The frontage of a house at the village of Panormos on the Greek island of Tinos.

The front of the house has two doors. One is the main entrance and leads into the house through the kitchen. The other is to a small, spare bedroom. This door is painted pale blue. The kitchen door is open, coloured strips of plastic hang over the entrance. Beside the entrance is a small, cross-paned kitchen window which is painted the same pale blue. The wall of the hous...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Original Production
• The Natural Cause
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Information