Hitler's Daughter: the play

(adapted from Jackie French's novel)

Eva Di Cesare, Sandra Eldridge, Tim McGarry, Jackie French

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781921429385
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Four country children waiting in the rain for the school bus take turns telling stories. In an unusual twist, Anna's story takes the children to Nazi Germany and an intriguing tale about Heidi, a young girl caught in the turmoil of World War II, whose father was one of the most dreaded men in history.One of the children, Mark, becomes engrossed in Heidi's story. In his conversations with his friends, his teacher and with his parents, he explores the moral and ethical issues it raises.This intriguing play poses powerful questions about a frightening period in history and forces us to examine moral issues in relation to society's fears and prejudices in a fresh, compelling light.

Prologue

We hear HEIDI singing a gentle verse of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ in German:

Heidi Funkel, funkel, kleiner Stern,

Ach wie bist du mir so fern,

Wunderschön und unbekannt,

Wie ein strahlend’ Diamant,

Funkel, funkel, kleiner Stern,

Ach wie bist du mir so fern.

The lights come up to reveal HEIDI sitting on the ground in front of one of the trees.

As the song finishes, the light fades and we hear heavy rain.

Scene 1

Early Tuesday morning.

The lights come up on a bus shelter somewhere in the Australian countryside.

The sound of heavy rain on the yellow tin roof of the bus shelter.

The crack of thunder and lightning. A car door slams. The car drives off.

MARK, wet, appears and runs to the bus shelter. He stands alone.

We hear a cow mooing nearby.

BEN bolts into the bus shelter, soaked. His frenetic energy is the antithesis of MARK’s stillness.

Ben Hey, move your bag!

He throws his bag which hits the back wall of the shelter with a thud.

Check out the creek. It’s all gone yellow. The bridge’ll go if this keeps up.

A flash of lightning.

Mark Hey, Ben, have you ever noticed that cows look all shiny when they’re wet?

Ben Nuh.

He sneezes.

Mark Like someone’s polished them. Do you think cows can sneeze?

Ben Nuh.

Mark How come they can’t, then?

Ben Dunno.

Mark Maybe they only sneeze when we’re not around.

Ben Whatever?

BEN scrapes the mud off his boots.

Mark It’s just they’re kind of sad looking—wet cows.

Ben Hey, there’s Anna. Her mum must have picked up Tracey too.

Two car doors slam shut offstage. The car skids off.

ANNA and TRACEY run into the bus shelter. ANNA carries both backpacks and holds TRACEY’s hand.

Anna Hi, Mark.

Mark Hey, Anna, have you ever heard a cow sneeze?

Anna No.

Mark Maybe if a cow had hay fever, it’d sneeze.

Tracey Come on, Anna…

Anna Later, Tracey.

Mark What?

Tracey If the bus is late, Anna says we can play the game again.

Ben Which game?

Anna The one I used to play with my grandma.

Tracey You know, we make up a character and Anna makes up the story.

Ben Boring.

Mark There’s nothing else to do.

Tracey I want a story about a fairy… or a pony.

Ben How about something good like some dude that steals a million bucks and—?

Mark How about a dinosaur? A Pteranadon?

Tracey Yeah. A baby one. A baby Pteranadon called Billie. She gets separated from her mother and—

Ben Blerck!

Anna I’ll choose this time.

Mark You? But you never choose.

Anna Then it’s my turn, isn’t it?

Ben Just make it something good. No fairies or fish or crap like the last time.

Mark The bus’ll be here if you don’t shut up. Go on, what’s the story going to be about?

Anna It’s about… it’s about Hitler’s daughter.

Ben Hey, cool.

Tracey Who’s Hitler?

Ben Hitler? He was this bloke in World War Two. He was the leader of Germany and they were the enemy. He had all these Brown Shirts and the Gestapo and they tortured people and had concentration camps and everyone had to go ‘Seig Heil’ or ‘Heil Hitler’! You know, like in those movies on TV.

Mark But Hitler didn’t have a daughter.

Ben So what? Hitler’s heaps better than a stupid old Pteranadon. Who cares if he had a kid or not?

Mark But… but we can’t have a story about something that’s not real.

Ben Why not? Fairies and other crap like that aren’t real, are they?

Tracey They are too real.

Mark No, of course not. But… it’s just different when you make stuff up about a real person. It’s just… Okay then, what was Hitler’s daughter’s name?

Ben Buffy.

Mark You so got that from TV.

Ben So what?

Mark You can’t have someone from TV in th...

Table of contents

• Biographies
• Foreword
• First Production
• Acknowledgements
• A Note from the Adaptors
• A Note from the Director
• Characters
• Prologue
• Copyright Page