The Damned

Reg Cribb

• Éditeur: Currency Press
• Année: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781925210026
• Sujet: Littérature
• Sous-sujet: Théâtre

Two teenage girls shack up together in the haunted house of a small town. Swamped by loneliness, drug abuse and psychosis, it seems their life choices will repeat indefinitely. When they're joined by a more precocious and popular girl from out of town, it can only lead to … the basement. Based on a true story, The Damned chillingly examines the darker side of small-town dynamics and human nature.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

The triple j logo. The voice of a radio announcer.

ANNOUNCER: [voice-over] Triple j… triple j… triple j!

Oookay! Triple j radio is hunting! From Walgett to Wagin, from Hyden to Humpty Doo, the search is on… the feelers are out. Somewhere out there in this big wide brown land of ours is a town. A town in desperate need of a One Night Stand! Triple j will bring to that town for one night only, the best music in the land. All you have to do is convince us… what makes your town special? What makes your town tick? What makes it sick? Give it to us… warts and all. So what are you waiting for? Start convincing!

Triple j!

Lights up on a schoolgirl, SARAH, standing on a bridge. She addresses the audience.

SARAH: Dear triple j,

My name is Sarah Jane and I used to live in Rainbow.

On a screen at the back of the stage, a graphic of Google Earth.

We tilt downwards until we are somewhere in the south-west of WA. Google Earth hurtles down into a piece of Earth somewhere until we are above a decrepit State Housing-infested street.

We never used to be on the map. We are now.

Everyone thinks it’s for all the wrong reasons… the wrong story.

I guess at least we have one now.

And I’m it. I’m the story.

We hurtle ever downwards toward the street until we are inside one of the houses, then inside a dark basement. The image dissolves. SARAH starts to exit then stops. A dead bird on the ground. She picks it up, looks at it curiously, then up at the sky. She exits.

SCENE TWO

Lights up on two COPS, sitting at two different desks at opposite ends of the stage. They are looking up from their respective desks.

Lights up on KYLIE and NATASHA, each standing in front of one of the COPS. These two scenes are in different rooms but play out at the same time. KYLIE is talking to COP 1 and NATASHA is talking to COP 2.

COP 1: Yes?

COP 2: Yes?

COP 1: Can I help you…?

...