Little Foot

Craig Higginson

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849434003
• eBook ISBN: 9781849436168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Drama
• Index: Literature

Thirty miles outside Johannesburg, a group of school friends decide to spend the night in a network of underground caves. The area is known as the Cradle of Humankind. The oldest pre-human remains have been found there, including a four million year-old ape-man called Little Foot. As the friends go deeper underground, forces are unleashed between them and around them. Part reality, part nightmare, South African playwright Craig Higginson's dark and poetic play takes us on an unforgettable journey into our unconscious ancestral memory.

Ten

The characters are lying where they fell. REBECCA is in WIZARD’s arms. WIZARD is kissing her. The CHORUS are still present. Sometimes, they will stir, like the wind moving amongst rocks.

COCO: When Little Foot was alive, living in his nest, this whole area was sub-tropical bush. Not grassland. There were these giant and long-limbed hyenas. And sabre-toothed tigers, leopards and -

WIZARD: We aren’t in the mood for one of your History lessons, Coco.

COCO: There was also a huge eagle. It would carry children off. Its claws going right through their skulls.

WIZARD is still kissing REBECCA.

WIZARD: You know what Rebecca tastes of?

COCO: Spare us the details.

WIZARD: Some people taste of sour grapes. But Rebecca tastes of cinnamon.

MOBY takes another photograph of REBECCA and WIZARD.

WIZARD: (To MOBY.) I wish you’d stop doing that. (To REBECCA.) When we were still at school, he used to take photos of me without my permission and post them on Facebook.

REBECCA: Why?

WIZARD: No idea.

REBECCA: Why, Moby?

MOBY: I have no idea either.

BRAAI: Moby’s a bit strange, but eventually you get used to him.

COCO: Moby has a whole new identity these days.

WIZARD: Are you talking about his delusions of faggot-ness? There’s nothing new about that.

REBECCA: I think Moby’s nice.

MOBY: Thanks.

WIZARD: That isn’t much of a compliment. Rebecca thinks everyone’s nice.

REBECCA: Aren’t they?

WIZARD: They aren’t who they think they are.

COCO: So who are they then?

WIZARD: That’s impossible to know.

COCO: People who want to weasel their way out of situations talk like that.

WIZARD: It’s like we’re watching this movie. A movie of what we want to be. And we believe in it while we’re watching it. But when the lights come up, and we look around, we see that the reality was always somewhere else.

COCO: And where would that be, exactly?

WIZARD: Who knows? The only thing given to us are shadows moving across a movie screen. Or the walls of a cave.

BRAAI: (With a laugh.) Wizard sounds wasted.

MOBY: It’s the air down here. It can make us mad.

WIZARD: Wasn’t there some mountain in ancient Greece where you stood at this crack in the rock and breathed in gasses that made you hallucinate? The Oracle of Delphi, wasn’t it? You were given the gift of prophecy.

COCO: Only if you were pure in heart. None of us are that.

WIZARD: Is there any water? I need to drink.

REBECCA: Here.

REBECCA passes some water to WIZARD. WIZARD drinks.

WIZARD: (To COCO.) What was that you put in my mouth?

COCO: What?

WIZARD: When we were dancing.

COCO: Only some rescue remedy I found in my pocket.

Thunder rumbles far away. Lightning flashes from the sinkhole above them.

BRAAI: It’ll rain soon.

COCO: It always rains on New Year’s Eve.

MOBY: Remember that time up at the campsite when it rained all night?

WIZARD: (To REBECCA.) We’ve been coming here sinc...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Characters
• Witersnotes
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight
• Nine
• Ten
• Eleven
• Twelve
• Thirteen
• Fourteen
• Fifteen
• Sixteen