eBook - ePub
Wolf Lullaby
About this book
Is there intrinsic evil in the world?In a bleak, remote town, a small child is murdered. Suspicion falls on nine-year-old Lizzie. Convinced her daughter is guilty, Lizzie's young mother must make the torturous choice between ignoring her intuition and presenting Lizzie to the police.Lizzie is not the only one who is changed forever by the act. The adults around her, bewildered and full of denial, find their accepted beliefs crumbling around them in a play which explores the sources of violence and its legacy.1998 Jill Blewett Playwright's Award.
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Yes, you can access Wolf Lullaby by Hilary Bell in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Characters
LIZZIE GAEL, 9 years old
ANGELA GAEL, 28, Lizzieās mother
WARREN GAEL, 28, Lizzieās father
SERGEANT RAY ARMSTRONG, 50
CHILDRENāS VOICES
VOICE OF TOBY, a two-year-old.
Setting
Time: The present.
Place: A small industrial town in Tasmania.
Action: The story unfolds over a period of about ten days.
Props and set should be minimal.
Note on Layout
A slash / denotes the following character interrupts while the first character continues talking.
RAY: The tests on her shoes / were positive ā
ANGELA: Yes but what if she didnāt?
Acknowledgements
The authorās research for this play included reading a wide variety of newspaper articles on the James Bulger case, the Eric Smith case, the Mary Bell case and the Jeffrey Dahmer case as well as various childrenās rhymes and fairy tales. Gitta Serenyās book, The Case of Mary Bell (London: Arrow Books, 1972) was another very helpful resource.
SCENE ONE
The wasteland. LIZZIE plays a game with stones and sticks.
LIZZIE:
Ding dong my funeral bell,
Farewell to my mother.
Bury me in the old churchyard
Beside my elder brother.
My coffin shall be white,
Six white angels by my side,
Two to sing and two to play
And two to carry my soul away.
SCENE TWO
The hairdressing salon. ANGELA cuts WARRENās hair as he reads the paper. ANGELA and WARREN are good-humoured throughout, if slightly exasperated. LIZZIE, doing homework, shouts above the radio.
LIZZIE: Guess what?
She waits.
Mum? One more day of school. Then itās Christmas Eve! Dad, will you come to our place for Christmas? And then itās the holidays, I can wash their hair for you! You shouldāve seen all the animals we had. Andy brought his fish in a cornflake box and it died. Samantha brought three chihuahuas and sheās got even more at home. Sheās got about seven. She collects them. How do you spell chihuahua?
Pause.
Mum?
ANGELA: Do you think we could have five minutesā silence? Please?
WARREN: How much you taking off?!
ANGELA: You had knots.
LIZZIE: How many minutes left?
ANGELA: Four and a half.
LIZZIE: I have to spell it right, or Iāll get busted.
ANGELA cuts. WARREN reads the paper.
Mum, can you show me how to do that?
WARREN: Not on my hair you wonāt.
ANGELA: The scissors are too sharp for you. When youāre older. [To WARREN] So what about Christmas? You doing anything?
WARREN: Iāl...
Table of contents
- Wolf Lullaby
- Playwrightās Biography
- Authorās Note
- First Production
- Characters
- Copyright Page