Today’s Flashback Friday is Pied, a piece of theatre that I wrote back in 2010. Pied has three acts. Each act portrays a different viewpoint of a pandemic, referencing theories and versions of the Pied Piper’s story. I wanted to share the whole of the last act of Pied for this week’s Flashback Friday, however, the ending of the piece is quite disturbing and maybe a bit uncomfortable, for that reason I am cutting the last scene out.
Act 1 sees a baker’s business blighted by plagued rats. They force him to shut up shop and isolate himself and his family. A stranger (Pied) visits and offers a solution to his problem. But solutions come at a high price, the plague of rats dissipates, and the stranger returns for his payment, the baker’s children.
Act 2 sees the baker’s wife fighting a battle against the unseen microbes. Eventually, the need to scrub herself with bleach consumes her with madness and she ends up giving the children to the stranger (Pied) believing she is protecting them.
ACT 3
The baker and his wife are sat back to back on stage. They look weak. There is a sound of children playing in another room
Wife
Are you awake?
No reply
Wake up
No reply
Are you awake?
No reply
Please wake up.
No reply
(louder) Are you awake?
No reply
Don’t be dead. Wake up
Baker
I was asleep
Wife
You need to stay awake. You’re not well. You might die in your sleep
Baker
My body needs the rest. Rest will make me better
Wife
But I need to hear you so I know you are alive, so I won’t panic. See, I hear the children playing and I know that they are fine, if the children stop playing I would worry they had got ill too.
Baker
I’m fine. I was just tired
Wife
Good. I just worry that’s all
Baker
It’s fine. I feel better for sleeping. I feel better today than yesterday. In fact I think I’m getting over this
Wife
I feel just as bad. Maybe worse
Baker
We will both get better.
Wife
I hope so
Baker
I might open the shop tomorrow
Wife
You said that yesterday
Baker
I’ll be well by tomorrow
Wife
I wish I had your optimism, have the children eaten?
Baker
I told them to eat something. They are fine. I can hear them.
Wife
I wish I could be so carefree to be able to play
It’ll be ok
Wife
I need some sleep, but I’m too scared in case I don’t wa..
Baker
Don’t keep on, you’ll be fine.
The wife begins to drop off to sleep, after a few moments Baker also begins to drift out of consciousness. In his delirium, he looks up as Pied enters wearing a plague doctor’s mask. He carries a long stick
Baker
We’re not open
Pied
When are you ever? Well isn’t this an unfortunate sight? Let me introduce myself. I’m Doctor Piper. I work for the government, I deal with treatment and restriction of the current pandemic. I’m currently making my way around the village, to homes much like your own which have been affected. Are there just the two of you living here?
Baker
We have two children
Pied
(Not really directed at anyone as he walks around the room inspecting) So I visit these houses, all, much the same. I offer chances of survival. In percentage. I could draw a graph, or a pie chart. But the simple fact, rated against a numeric value of one hundred generally suffices. I tend to find that the plague do not retreat or diminish in the locality from my visits. In a society of the plague, I have come to learn that the flow can be stopped by stemming the growth in the population.
I save one person, two people die.
The maths is bizarre. A colleague of mine, aside from his duties, his tours of the cities and towns of the land, has conducted a survey and written reports scaling the averages and scores, the ratios and chances. He has projections of the growth of disease and declines in life.
I save two people, the rest of their street dies.
So, I endeavor. My task not wholly focused on the pointless and irrelevant concept of recovery. The stark and harrowing realization of the world’s mortality proves such endeavors would be counterproductive. Instead, I am inclined to build human blockades for the disease. It shall not pass from this house to the next. It ends here, and if it ends with your deaths so be it.
I save a street, but the whole city dies instead.
(to baker) Anyway, I digress, shall we commence
Your symptoms. Any Nausea and vomiting?
Baker
Yes
Pied
Any headaches?
Baker
Yes
Pied
Any aching joints?
Baker
Yes
Pied
And what about sores? Do you or your wife have any sores?
Baker
Yes. I have quite a few. My wife has more.
Pied
How many days have you been ill
Baker
My wife was ill first, a few days, maybe a week.
Pied
Ok, what about the children?
Baker
I don’t think they…
Pied
(cutting him off) Good. Please can you wake your wife?
Baker
Are you awake?
No reply
Wake up
No reply
Are you awake? A doctor has come, wake up
Pied prods her with a stick
Pied
I have to be honest, I’m not sure how long your wife has got left. She is very ill. I’d say the chances of her surviving are as little as five to ten percent. You should prepare for the worst. Now, can you stand?
Baker
Yes
Baker stands up and weakly drops to the floor.
Pied
It’s ok, you can stay here. I’ll have a look around on my own. I’m going to see to your children and look at how your home is equipped to deal with the pandemic.
Baker
ok
Pied exits, Baker turns to his wife and shakes her.
Wake up
No reply
Please, stay awake, for the children. You have to get better to look after the children
No reply
You’re going to die. The doctor just said you’re going to die. Can you hear me? He has to be wrong. It’s just a virus. Wake up
No reply. The sound of Children stop
Please.
No Reply
Ok, so when you wanted to keep me awake and I wouldn’t listen to you, you were right. Can you hear me?
Please wake up
No reply
Can you hear? The children are quiet. Why are they quiet? Can you hear? What’s going on? The doctors up there with them, I hope they are ok. I hope he hasn’t hurt them. He doesn’t look much like a doctor. What if he’s come to abduct or molest them? What if he wants to crush their bones into glue? Why has he come here? He knows we’re ill and he is going to steal out children. He says your dying. Can you hear me. He thinks you won’t pull through. He’s wrong, he’s a liar and he is stealing our children. What if he sells them to slavery? Or does twisted sick things with them? You hear all about them. He knows I can’t fight him.
Starts to shout
Come back. Leave the children where they are.
Wake up. Come on before he gets away. They haven’t made a sound. What if he has suffocated them up there?
Why do they come and steal away,
The innocent, young, and weakest prey?
What vile pleasures they hold,
ruined lives lay untold
Who are these people, what makes them tick?
What of their world, why are they sick?
If it has to be someone’s, why pick on mine?
leave them here safe, don’t cross the line.
Wife begins to come around
Can you hear the children?
Wife
I’m not sure. I think I…
Baker
Well?
Wife
Why?
Baker
I think he has taken them.
Wife
Who?
Baker
Never mind, we need to get up
Wife
I don’t know if I can
Wife gets up, but falls back down
Baker
Come on, get up.
Wife and baker stand up as they Pied re-enters
Pied
(quickly) I insist that you both remain here, don’t leave and don’t open your shop. The disease should be contained. I have checked your house, please keep the doors and windows closed. Please, when your children return, keep them here.
Baker
Where have you taken them?
Pied
Taken them?
Baker
What have you done with my children? You said when they return, return from where?
Pied
I’m afraid I don’t know. Where are your children?
Baker
They were in the room upstairs
Pied
No one is in the room upstairs
Baker
What have you done with them?
Pied
They were not there when I went up there. I assume that they are out somewhere?
Baker
The children haven’t left this house for some time. They were upstairs playing before you arrived.
Pied
I assure you there is no one there. Is there a chance you are mistaken
Wife collapses to the ground
Baker
(trying to tend to Wife) Could you not hear them play when you arrived?
Pied
I heard nothing.
Baker
You’ve killed them! Why would you do that?
Pied
I have done nothing.
Baker
Then where are they?
Pied
I’ve told you I do not know.
Baker collapses onto his wife and begins to cry, it is clear that she is dead, soon his sobs subside, he also is dead.
Pied begins walking around the room, he is inspecting in great detail, every aspect of the room.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand here before you, a Plague Doctor under the employment of the local authorities. The case in question was very strange. I arrived at the house of a baker and his wife, delirious and in the later stages of the disease that would, in front of my eyes, claim both of their lives. They died within minutes of each other. They were both under the shared delusion that their children were both in the next room, free of disease. Adamantly and erroneously the Baker argued with me, blaming me, accusing me of hurting or kidnapping the children. In my experience, it is not unusual to find emotions run high, but I felt this was different. After their death, while arranging for the removal of their bodies…
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
terrific!
be great to see that performed 🙂
I was trying to get a theatre company together with some friends last year and that was going to be the first project. But life seemed to get in the way, again!
Bummer. I got a cousin that has produced and directed off Broadway stuff, even took one show to South Korea. Perhaps by some miracle and it will have to be a miracle this will happen for ya. It’s really good Pete
thanks Matt. I’m glad you like it. I think one day we’ll get it made. It’s just a question of having the time and being able to get the funding. I think theatre funding is going to be sparse as the economy recovers- though will there be a market for pandemic theatre?!
wonderful!
I helped too 🙂
You most certainly did! 🙂