Wolf Lullaby

Hilary Bell

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781921428852
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

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.

Characters

LIZZIE GAEL, 9 years old

ANGELA GAEL, 28, Lizzie’s mother

WARREN GAEL, 28, Lizzie’s father

SERGEANT RAY ARMSTRONG, 50

CHILDREN’S 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 –

ANGELA: Yes but what if she didn’t?

Acknowledgements

The author’s 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 children’s rhymes and fairy tales. Gitta Sereny’s 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 WARREN’s 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 it’s Christmas Eve! Dad, will you come to our place for Christmas? And then it’s the holidays, I can wash their hair for you! You should’ve seen all the animals we had. Andy brought his fish in a cornflake box and it died. Samantha brought three chihuahuas and she’s got even more at home. She’s got about seven. She collects them. How do you spell chihuahua?

Pause.

Mum?

ANGELA: Do you think we could have five minutes’ 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 I’ll get busted.

ANGELA cuts. WARREN reads the paper.

Mum, can you show me how to do that?

WARREN: Not on my hair you won’t.

ANGELA: The scissors are too sharp for you. When you’re older. [To WARREN] So what about Christmas? You doing anything?

WARREN: I’l...

Table of contents

• Wolf Lullaby
• Playwright’s Biography
• Author’s Note
• First Production
• Characters
• Copyright Page