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eBook - ePub
Mr Takahashi and other falling secrets
About this book
Darwin, 1942. A town collapses under the threat of invasion. Mothers and daughters, sisters, friends, and entire cultures are torn apart by the secrets that start to fall. Is Mr Takahashi to blame?Japan unleashes a wave of attacks on Northern Australia, and Darwin is hit with more bombs than Pearl Harbour. Mr Takahashi turns the lens upon ordinary people caught in the storm that was World War II. It tells the stories of Darwin's multicultural and Indigenous women whose lives were forever changed by the bombings of February 19.'Something's wrong – the air is shifting.It's waiting...Waiting for the tardy storms.You could cut the humiditywith the sword of a Samurai.Where is the Imperial Army?Closer...'
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Mr Takahashi and other falling secrets by Sandra Thibodeaux 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
ACT ONE
Darwin, July 1941.
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] Over the garden wall,
I let the baby fall.
Then mother came out and gave me a clout,
And sent me over the wall, the wall, the wall, the wall …
The GIRLS continue to chant softly as a wind howls up from the south. It sounds like a baby wailing.
Lights build on DOLORES, who’s on the verandah of the convent at Garden Point, investigating the day. CONCEPTUA comes out.
CONCEPTUA: That’s a Dry Season hymn …
DOLORES: Bold as brass, that wind. [To the wind] Bringing up the desert again?
CONCEPTUA: You should go inside, Mother.
DOLORES: The leaves are stripped …
CONCEPTUA: Shut the louvres.
DOLORES: It sneaks through the cracks.
CONCEPTUA: Close the curtains.
DOLORES: The curtains rip. The cradles—
CONCEPTUA: Rock, Mother. They rock.
Lights find MAGGIE and KRISTINA, skipping.
GIRLS: January, February, March, April, May, June …
MAGGIE skips in double time.
CONCEPTUA: There’s Maggie Takahashi …
DOLORES: And her bosom friend, Kristina.
CONCEPTUA: Maggie’s leaving Darwin. Take a photo, Mr Takahashi!
A light flashes.
GIRL: That camera gonna take her spirit, Sister. That camera gonna take her away!
GIRLS: No, it won’t!
GIRL: Cover your face, sis!
The camera flashes.
CONCEPTUA: Your spirit, Maggie Takahashi, is in the hands of our Lord. A fine Catholic school it is …
KRISTINA: Why can’t you go to a public school?
MAGGIE: Mum won’t let me. You know what she’ll say …
GIRLS: ‘Public dogs sitting on logs, eating maggots out of frogs.’
DOLORES clips the ear of the nearest GIRL.
KRISTINA: Let’s run up Chinatown, Maggie.
MAGGIE: I have to pack!
KRISTINA: I’ll buy you some salty plums. Won’t have them at your dried-up nunnery!
Arm-in-arm, they skip down Cavenagh Street, sweeping up treats from shops.
GIRLS: Wing Cheong Sing.
Wing Wah Loong.
Wing Sang Toy.
Fang Chong Loong.
KRISTINA: And the Chung King Café.
GIRLS: G.P. Wong.
C.P. Cheong.
Sun Hing Kee.
Yean Ying Bakery.
MAGGIE: [awestruck] And the Man Fong Lau. It’s a bonza place. Like you see in the pictures!
KRISTINA: Mum says it’s full of communists.
MAGGIE: Nah—KMT, Dad reckons.
KRISTINA: What’s that?
MAGGIE: [shrugging] Something political …
KRISTINA...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Introduction by Katrina Fong Lim, Lord Mayor of Darwin
- First Production
- Characters
- Act One
- Act Two
- Copyright Details