Centenary of Federation Play Kit
Starter script
HistorySmiths Pty Ltd
A Centenary of Federation History and Education Project
1999
Cast of Characters
The Chorus, group of Australians who narrate, sing the national anthem and backup vocals when required and enact events described by The Witnesses (see below).
Court Clerk of the Intergalactic Court of Appeal (ICA).
The Judges, who preside on the ICA bench:
Six ‘out of this world’ (alien) judges:
Judge 1, Judge Whatsup Watchit
Judge 2, Judge Vilmot Sventufoure
Judge 3, Judge Maugro Disnasterly, the ‘nasty’, impatient Judge
Judge 4, Judge Augerly Antabergruntly Forge
Judge 5, Judge Phssszzz
Judge 6, Judge Histeremion Natur Ally Gorgeous, the wistful Judge
Australian Judge, the representative of Planet Earth on the ICA bench.
Smithy (Sir Charles Kingsford Smith), aviator and time-traveller.
Information Officer (IO), alien life form in charge of Super Speed Information Transfer to Smithy.
Ginger, an Australian primary-school-aged child, adventurous spirit, confident, best friend of Felix.
Felix, another Australian primary-school-aged child, best friend of Ginger, slightly bookish, cautious, but very knowledgeable about Australian history.
The Witnesses:
Six prominent Australians chosen from the 100 years of Australia’s history since Federation. Each is a representative from the six major themes as set out in the representatives’ charts.
1. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Advance Australia’.
2. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Australians All’.
3. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Girt by Sea’.
4. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Golden Soil, Wealth for Toil’.
5. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Nature’s Gifts’.
6. [Name], [occupation], representing ‘Young and Free’.
Other characters:
Characters as required in scenes 3, 4 and 5.
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Act I, Prologue
The scene
The year is 2038. Over the last ten years, the population of the Universe has grown so huge that the space-time continuum is now desperately overcrowded. To try to find a solution, representatives from all known, inhabited planets of the Universe have attended a meeting on the centrally located Lymmorxia Six. The Intergalactic Council Controlling Universal Population (or ICCUP for short) has devised a plan. ICCUP’s plan is to RECYCLE some countries from every planet in the Universe. Countries are chosen at random and have the right to appeal against being recycled. If a country can prove it has anything to be really proud of, it is allowed to stay in the space-time continuum.
A synthesizer plays ‘space music’ while the chorus gives the following speech.
The combined voices of the Chorus echo through the audience.
The lines should not be rushed. (The year 2038 is pronounced ‘twenty-thirty-eight’. ICCUP is pronounced as one word, ‘ik-up’, not spelled out, ‘i, double c, u, p’.)
Chorus:
The year is twenty-thirty-eight, the
situation bleak,
A Universal crisis looms—we may not last the week!
On every single planet where there’s
life—the picture’s poor
The natural ecosystems now are failing by the score!!
The Universe has grown TOO FULL, resources
have run out—
Our only hope: to meet, and form a plan that has some clout!!!
Upon a central planet (with the name
Lymmorxia Six)
The planets’ representatives came up with this ‘quick fix’.
The council, known as ICCUP, will choose
countries randomly
And wipe them out, recycling them, so others can live free.
Each country to be doomed will have the
right to an appeal—
They must research their history to find some pride that’s real.
A country that can make a case of reasons to
be proud
Will be reprieved from being axed, its right to live avowed.
But should a country fail to prove a reason
to be proud,
ICCUP exterminates it in a protoplasmic cloud.
Today a country fights to live! Can this one
prove its worth?
Now join the court for ICCUP v. Australia, Planet Earth.
Scene 1
Place: the Intergalactic Court of Appeal.
Time: the year 2038.
The Court Clerk and Smithy are on stage. The members of the Chorus file in and sit down to observe the case.
Court Clerk: All rise.
Chorus members make sounds of shuffling feet and shifting chairs. The ‘full bench’ of seven intergalactic judges (six from alien planets and one from Australia, Planet Earth) enter and take their seats on ‘the bench’.
Court Clerk: On this twenty-fourth day of January twenty-thirty-eight, the Intergalactic Court of Appeal is now in session. Please be seated.
Chorus makes sounds of shuffling feet and shifting chairs, perhaps some coughing and clearing of throats.
Court Clerk: This is case number 20-38Alpha4-2-5-7Beta3 in the matter of ICCUP (The Intergalactic Council Controlling Universal Population) versus Australia, Planet Earth.
Judge 6: Which planet is it?
Australian Judge: Planet Earth.
Court Clerk: The issue before us today concerns an APPEAL on behalf of Australia against ICCUP’s decision to EXTERMINATE and RECYCLE that country.
Judge 4: Planet Earth? Which one is that, exactly?
Australian Judge: You know the Milky Way?
Judge 4: Yes.
Australian Judge: Well, in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, there’s a very nice little solar system with nine planets; and the blue planet… third from the centre… is Earth.
Court Clerk: ICCUP’s accusation is that since Australia became a federated nation it has done NOTHING of which it can be proud, and can therefore be DELETED from the space-time continuum. Appearing for Australia is Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith.
Judge 1: What have you got to say on behalf of Australia, Smithy?
Smithy: I … uh … muh … My mind’s a blank. I got here so suddenly. I don’t even know what I’m doing here. One minute it was 1935, I was flying over the Bay of Bengal and then … phhhhhht! … I’m here—(Looking around the courtroom) wherever ‘here’ is—and you tell me it’s the year twenty-thirty-eight! I’m terribly confused.
Judge 2: Didn’t you get your information pack?
Smithy: (Holding up a file containing a pile of papers.) Do you mean this? Someone just pushed it into my hands and told me to ‘REMEMBER’ hard. Then they put a strange-looking cap on my head, and thousands of pictures I’d never seen before ran through my brain.
Judge 1: Yes, well, THAT was your crash course in Australian history in the 103 years since you… (Judge 1 suddenly gasps and jumps as Judge 2 elbows Judge 1 in the ribs)
Judge 2: (Whispering in Judge 1’s ear so Smithy does not hear.) You’ll FREAK HIM OUT if you tell him he DIED 103 years ago!
Judge 1: (Nods and then continues speaking.)… ah … since you were … (finding the right words) last on Earth. (Turns to Judge 2 and smiles. Judge 2 smiles back approvingly.)
Judge 2: That’s right! We gave you the facts and brought you here to RESCUE Australia. Now what have you got to say on behalf of that nation? What has Australia got to be proud of?
Smithy: I … I … I can’t think. You haven’t given me time to prepare.
Judge 3: Hurry up man, time is running out.
Judge 4: I don’t think he can remember anything. I think we’d better load him up again!
Judge 3: All right, but make it fast. BRING IN THE INFORMATION OFFICER!
Enter Information Officer (IO) carrying Super Speed Information Transfer (SSIT) Cap.
IO: (Places and holds the SSIT Cap on Smithy’s head.) Ready for Super Speed Information Transfer… (Removes hands from the SSIT Cap and stands back.) CLEAR… (brief pause) Commence!
Smithy shakes violently in his seat and his eyes spin round and round as the events of one hundred years of Australian history race through his head. IO looks at his watch and counts 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…
IO: Super Speed Information Transfer is now complete. (IO takes off cap and exits.)
Smithy: Er, er … um, ah (Desperately shuffles the papers in his information pack. Starts reading from the first his eyes can focus on. Smithy begins to recite the lyrics, a little uncertainly at first but getting more confident as he goes along.) Chorus from their seats, not facing the audience, begin to sing the National Anthem softly in the background, then get louder and louder.
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
With golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in Nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
In history’s page let every stage
Advance Australia fair
Judge 5: Hold it! Hang on a minute. What does all that mean? That’s a SONG, not a CASE. ‘Australians all’? Who do you mean by that?
Judge 6: And what do you mean, ‘young and free’. How does that work, when Australia is clearly many millions of years old?
Judge 4: You mentioned ‘golden soil’… now that REALLY puzzles me because anyone who has orbited your planet Earth will tell you that much of Australia’s soil is red! And what does ‘wealth for toil’ actually mean?
Judge 1: I want to see evidence of some of these ‘things’ you call ‘Nature’s gifts’. If Nature has GIVEN them to you, then how can YOU be proud of them?
Smithy: Well, you see it’s …
Judge 2: And just who, exactly, has ‘Advanced Australia’? Who?
Smithy: Well, there’s…
Judge 4: Look, Smithy, we’ve all reviewed your information pack. YOUR job is to tell US what’s SO IMPORTANT about Australia that it DESERVES to remain in the space-time continuum.
Smithy: I need an adjournment.
The Judges let out a loud, collective judicial groan.
Smithy: I’m sorry, but I need time to collect evidence, summon witnesses! I have had no time to put a case together. Give me an adjournment and I PROMISE I will prepare a good case for the Defence.
All seven Judges put their heads together and have a private discussion. Judge 3 doesn’t want to give Smithy any more time, but the Australian Judge argues that they MUST grant an adjournment. The other Judges join in the haggling as to HOW MUCH time to give Smithy. Judges 1 – 5 all stop and look at the Australian Judge.
Australian Judge: You are a Frequent Flyer, Sir Charles?
Smithy: Ah … yes. I do fly … (pause) frequently.
The Judges resume their discussion. Smithy has obviously earned enough Frequent Flyer points to be given a time-travel package in order to collect witnesses to give evidence to support Australia’s appeal.
Australian Judge: It is clear that, in order to prepare your case, you will need to travel back in time.
Judge 1: You must find some examples of WHAT Australia has to be PROUD of…
Australian Judge: …narrow your search to the period of 100 years after Australia became a federated nation.
Judge 2: Use your information pack to choose the examples.
Australian Judge: You will be allowed to bring back witnesses to give evidence in this case. The Court has decided to award you a Frequent Flyer Time-Travel package with a total of seven stopovers.
Judge 3: You can have no more than seven stopovers because we cannot be adjourned forever.
Australian Judge: After your seventh stopover you must return to this court and present your case. If you fail to meet that deadline you will leave us with no choice but to DELETE Australia from the space-time continuum and RECYCLE it for resources. It will have no past, and therefore no future! Do you understand all that Smithy?
Smithy: Yes, Your Worships! (To the Australian Judge) I won’t let you down. (To the audience) I must rescue Australia from EXTERMINATION!
Australian Judge: I hope you do!
Judge 1: This court is adjourned until tomorrow morning, at the rise of the third sun. (Bangs gavel on desk.)
Court Clerk: All rise.
All the Judges stand and exit stage left. Smithy flings his flying scarf over his shoulder dramatically, pulls his flying goggles over his eyes and exits in a rush stage right. BLACKOUT
.
Scene change
Chorus:
The desperation of the case spurred Smithy
on to dare
To fly through time—without a clue—but with a courage rare!
With his Southern Cross-turned-time machine,
in SECONDS Smith could reach
Past DECADES—and he soon splashed down on this Australian beach.
Scene 2
Place: a beach anywhere on the Australian
coast, except Bondi.
Time: the present.
Offstage, or acting as a ‘living ocean’, the Chorus hums Advance Australia Fair. One at a time, they start chanting: ‘The roar of the surf, the roar of the surf, the roar of the surf, Crassshhhh’. Repeat until all members of the Chorus are chanting, then fade.
Enter Ginger stage left, carrying a towel and a boogie board. Walks to downstage centre, places board down but still upright. Looks off to stage right. Sighs, then looks impatiently stage left.
Ginger: Come on, Felix! The water looks great.
Enter Felix (awkwardly) carrying towel, boogie board, bucket, spade, beach umbrella, sun cream, sun hat, and wearing goggles, snorkel, flippers.
Felix: I’m going as fast as I can! (Clomps to downstage centre where Ginger (now with back to audience and looking skywards) has been distracted by the sound of an aeroplane with engine trouble.)
Noises off: Sound of prop aeroplane engine, as if it is stopping and starting. Use sound effects or Chorus voices.
Felix turns back to audience too and follows Ginger’s gaze. Both look ‘skyward’ and follow ‘aeroplane’ across the ‘sky’ from stage left to offstage right, where plane ‘crashes into sea’.
Felix and Ginger drop all their gear in a big pile, and rush off stage right. Return pulling end of Southern Cross on to stage (upstage right). Smithy is ‘seated’ in Southern Cross covered in seaweed and assorted sea creatures.
Smithy: (Coughing and spluttering) Oh! I say! That was a bit rough! Lucky I hit the water! Oh! What’s that? (Dives down under the cockpit-seat and comes up struggling with gummy shark.) Non-paying passenger! Back into the ocean with you! (Throws shark offstage right.)
Ginger and Felix (puffing from the exertion involved in pulling the Southern Cross from the ocean) move down-stage centre (back towards their pile of gear) watching Smithy suspiciously as they go. Smithy gets out of the plane still pulling bits of seaweed and fish from his clothing. He sees Ginger and Felix.
Smithy: Ah! At last! Thank goodness I’ve found you! (Smithy walks towards Ginger and Felix.)
Ginger and Felix take a couple of steps back, but are blocked by their pile of gear.
Smithy: (Still holding out his hand.) Smithy’s the name—Charles Kingsford Smith. I say, you’re awfully young for Bondi Surf Lifesavers! Never mind, I’m glad you’re here. We should get going immediately. There’s no time to lose!
(Ginger and Felix look at each other, then turn to run off stage left. Smithy calls after them.) Hey! Where do you think you are going? That’s no way for Bondi Surf Lifesavers to act! You’re supposed to be courageous!
Ginger and Felix stop their retreat and face Smithy, Felix hiding slightly behind Ginger.
Ginger: We’re NOT Surf Lifesavers…
Felix: …and this ISN’T Bondi.
Smithy: Isn’t it?
Ginger and Felix say the following at exactly the same time:
Ginger: NO!
Felix: NO!
Smithy: Blast! I WAS trying to get to the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club. I need them to help with a RESCUE. (Pauses as if remembering) They rescued me from the surf, you know, when I was about your age. The Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club was the first one of its kind in the world. Formed in nineteen hundred and six. Lucky for me, eh? (Pauses again to return to his previous thought) But you’re NOT lifesavers, you say?
Ginger and Felix shake their heads vigorously.
Ginger: (With energy.) No! We’re not lifesavers, this is not nineteen hundred and six, and you’re NOWHERE NEAR Bondi!
Smithy: Double blast! This time travel business is harder than I thought. What year is it?
Felix: The year 2000*. (*Or replace ‘2000’ with whichever is the present year e.g. ‘The year 2001’.)
Smithy: Oh, I see. Dear me! One stopover used up. You two will have to return with me. I can’t waste a stopover. Come on! (Smithy moves towards his plane.)
Felix: Return where?
Smithy: Long story. I’ll tell you on the way, but come on! Australia’s future is at stake and there’s no time to lose! (Exit stage right to go to the plane to remove seaweed etc., getting ready for take-off.)
Ginger: Is this guy crazy? Does he SERIOUSLY think we are going anywhere with him in that HEAP-of-a plane?
Felix: Ginger! That ‘HEAP’ is the SOUTHERN CROSS.
Ginger: So?
Felix: So! It’s Australia’s most famous three-engined Fokker!
Ginger: (Raising an eyebrow) So?
Felix: So! It carried Smithy—(pauses to explain) Sir Charles Kingsford Smith—along with Charles Ulm and two American crewmen in the FIRST flight EVER across the Pacific Ocean!
Ginger: Felix, how long ago WAS this?
Felix: Well, let’s see… Um… Smithy disappeared over the Bay of Bengal in 1935, on a flight from…
Ginger: See! The plane IS a HEAP if it ditched him in the Bay of Bengal in 1935!
Felix: No! Listen—he wasn’t flying in the Southern Cross on THAT flight. He was in the LADY Southern Cross. It was seven years earlier, in 1928, that the Southern Cross was the first plane to cross the Pacific from California to Brisbane (via Hawaii and Suva). They did it in 83 hours and 38 minutes of flying time!
(Ginger, during Felix’s long speech, sighs, rolls her eyes, gently shakes her head and adopts a resigned expression. She is used to the way Felix goes on and ON when he is displaying his knowledge on a particular topic. Felix continues his speech.) Then the Southern Cross flew non-stop from Point Cook in Victoria to Perth in Western Australia! And THAT was the FIRST non-stop, trans-Australian flight. The Southern Cross didn’t end up in the Bay of Bengal! As a matter of fact it was out on the tarmac at Essendon airport for years and now I think it’s in a museum somewhere.
Ginger: Well, this doesn’t look like a museum to me!
Smithy: (Enters) Look here, you two, I’ve told you that the future of Australia is at stake! Now will you hurry up?
Ginger: Listen Mister Smithy…
Felix: Um… that’s ‘SIR’ Smithy, actually, Ginger…
Ginger: (To Felix) Yeah, whatever. (To Smithy) Now I don’t know what makes you think we COULD help you, even if we wanted to, but there’s NO WAY I’m getting into that bucket-of-a plane, with a COMPLETE stranger, when I have NO IDEA what any of this is all about!
Smithy: I’m afraid it’s all rather hard to explain… You see I’ve just travelled back in time from the year twenty-thirty-eight, where the Intergalactic Court of Appeal is about to decide whether or not to EXTERMINATE the entire country of Australia … FOREVER!
Felix: How terrible! They CAN’T DO THAT!
Smithy: I’m very much afraid they can! And they WILL, unless WE can win our case—(pauses to explain) er you’ll have to help me, (switches back to previous story)—it’s up to US to prove that Australia has something to be really proud of. We have to find WITNESSES—important Australians—who can give evidence to the Court that shows why Australia deserves to stay in the space-time continuum. Now we must hurry! The Court is only adjourned for a DAY, in twenty-thirty-eight time, and we’ve got a whole CENTURY to cover!
Ginger: Time travel! Did you say you’ve travelled through time? Prove it!
Felix: (Taking Ginger aside) Ginger, how else would you explain the fact that Charles Kingsford Smith, who went MISSING, presumed (drops his voice to a whisper) DEAD, (raises his voice again to normal volume) in 1935 is standing here with us now?
Ginger: Hmmm you’ve got a point. (Thinks for a second.) Time travel, hey? Amazing! This could be fun! (Ginger runs towards the plane where Smithy is already seated trying to get its engines started.)
Felix: This could be dangerous, you mean. (The engines fire up and Smithy gestures to both of them to hurry up.) I’m not too sure that this is a good idea.
Ginger: (Shouting over her shoulder) You don’t want Australia to be wiped out, do you, Felix?
Felix: Of course not. (Still not looking too sure about the idea.)
Ginger: Well, come on, then!
Smithy: Push me around so that I am heading into the wind. Then we can take off! Come on!
Ginger moves to the rear of the plane and starts to push, then gestures impatiently for Felix to help. Felix throws his hands up in despair, and goes to the plane to assist. They push the Southern Cross off stage right. Sound of plane taking off. Use sound effects or Chorus voices. BLACKOUT.
Scene change
Chorus:
While flying, Kingsford Smith explained (at
least, as best he could)
The inter-stellar lunacy he HAD to stop for good.
He told the two about the case… and all
that he would need…
And how he could call witnesses to help him in the deed.
He had to find Australians who’d made
themselves a name
To tell the court the reasons why Australia should remain.
Still ringing loud in Smithy’s head
‘Advance Australia Fair’
Gave Felix his first inkling of a plan with certain flair!
If they could use the lyrics of
Australia’s national song
They’d have ideas for THEMES to use to help their case along.
‘Australians all’ could be one
theme, and next, there’s ‘Young and free’,
Then ‘Golden soil and wealth for toil’ preceding ‘Girt by sea’.
They’d follow suit with
‘Nature’s gifts’—there’s much potential there
And finally, they’d clinch the case with ‘Advance Australia’ fare.
Scene 3
Choose one Witness (Witness 1)
Choose other characters as necessary and write dialogue
Place: [INSERT]
Time: [INSERT]
[INSERT Stage directions]
(All look up and listen.)
Sound of aeroplane engines. Blackout.
Scene 4
Choose one Witness (Witness 2)
Choose at least one other character as necessary and write dialogue
Place:
Time:
[Stage directions]
(Character 1 freezes and Felix, Ginger, Smithy and Witness 1 approach Witness 2 from behind.)
Witness 2: (To Character 1) Excuse me, are you all right? (Waving her hand in front of her/his face.)
Ginger: Sorry, WE did that.
Witness 2: Did what?
Ginger: We ‘froze’ [INSERT CHARACTER 1]. Whenever we turn up, time freezes for everybody except the one person we need.
Witness 2: What do you mean ‘need’?
Ginger: We need you to help us SAVE Australia.
Witness 2: (Letting out a ‘Huh’ of scorn.) I’ve got enough to do trying to …[INSERT appropriate pursuit]. I’m sorry but I haven’t got the time.
Smithy: Actually, time is one thing you DO have. Until we take you to testify in the year twenty-thirty-eight and then deliver you back here, time will be frozen in this dimension.
Witness 2: Pardon?
Felix: We’ve travelled back in time to collect witnesses to save Australia. So UNTIL you come into the FUTURE with us, and give evidence at the Intergalactic Court of Appeal, we can’t bring you back to the PRESENT, and time won’t start again in this dimension.
Witness 2: (Scratching her head.) This dimension? (pause) What?
Witness 1: Yeah! I didn’t get that part either!
Felix: (Trying to explain despite his impatience to get moving.) Look! Our arrival in your time zone has created a fourth-dimensional-hiatus anomaly. This anomaly will pause life indefinitely until we all LEAVE this time, travel to the FUTURE and then RE-ENTER this time zone again. It’s a safeguard, you see, (explains further) a time-travel safety protocol, that allows us to travel back in time without affecting the space-time continuum or messing up the future. (Felix sees blank faces looking back at him. His voice gradually gets louder with each sentence as his frustration grows.) If life were to go on here WITHOUT YOU, you would be missed… you might not be able to do something you were MEANT to do. Similarly if time went on WITH US still here, we might do something that WASN’T meant to happen. Your absence … and for that matter, our presence… could distort the timeline. So you see, when we arrive in a new time zone, all around (gestures ‘around’ with his hands) us, EVERYTHING STOPS in the space-time continuum! (Desperately trying to make them understand, he shows them his wristwatch.) See, my watch has stopped!
Both Witnesses look at each other, shrug their shoulders and SLOWLY say the following at the same time:
Witness 1: Oh! The space-time continuum!
Witness 2: Oh! The space-time continuum! (But Witness 2 continues to look suspiciously at Felix.)
Witness 1: (Suddenly realising what has happened, she takes a breath of surprise.) THAT’S why everyone and everything just stopped when these guys walked in? (To Witness 2) Everyone except me was frozen. At first I thought they were playing a big joke on me, but after sitting around waiting for what felt like a whole DAY, I figured I might as well come and help.
Witness 2: So, you’re telling me that life here is on permanent pause until I help you? (They all nod.) And WHY is it, exactly, that Australia needs ‘saving’?
Ginger: Oh, it’s terrible! The Intergalactic Council Controlling Universal Population…
Felix: ICCUP.
Witness 2: Excuse you!
Felix: No, it’s CALLED ICCUP for short!
Witness 2: (Not convinced by all this talk of intergalactic time travel.) Oh, of course.
Ginger: Yeah, well anyway, in the future the Universe gets so overcrowded that these ICCUP guys decide that the ONLY way they can solve their problems is to WIPE OUT whole COUNTRIES, to free up a bit of space, and the next one on their list is OURS—(pauses for breath) AUSTRALIA! And unless WE can show the Intergalactic Court of Appeal something from Australia’s PAST we can be proud of, we will have NO FUTURE! They’ll exterminate Australia then RECYCLE it so they can REUSE the natural resources!!!
Witness 2: (Still not believing all this ‘rubbish’ about intergalactic time travel, she responds to Ginger’s energetic speech in a gentle tone with this understatement:) Sounds bad.
Witness 1: Look, I didn’t believe them either, but when I got into that plane of Smithy’s, it was [INSERT DECADE]—now it’s the [INSERT DECADE]! I know this whole thing is BEYOND WEIRD but trust me, nothing’s going to happen around here if we sit and wait.
Witness 2: (Still somewhat reluctant) Well, I s’pose we’d better get moving.
EXEUNT (Exit all). BLACKOUT.
Act II
Chorus:
So, zooming in and out the years brave
Smithy flies apace
Still searching for more witnesses to help him plead their case.
Scene 5
Choose Witnesses 3, 4 and 5. (Here the playwright takes a little dramatic licence. Witnesses 3, 4 and 5 have already been picked up in stopovers that the audience did not see!)
Choose one Witness (Witness 6) to be collected in this scene.
Choose other characters if necessary.
Write dialogue for the rest of the scene.
Place:
Time:
(Enter Felix, Ginger, Smithy, Witness 1, Witness 2, Witness 3, Witness 4 and Witness 5.)
Witness 6: [INSERT appropriate dialogue]
Write dialogue for the rest of the scene.
Witness 6: … But wait a minute – how did you get here – and who are you?
Smithy: Allow me to do the introductions! … [Introduces Witness 6 to Felix, Ginger, Witness 1, Witness 2, Witness 3, Witness 4 and Witness 5.] … Oh, and I’m Charles Kingsford Smith. But it’s rather chilly out here … let’s get back to the plane, shall we, and we can get to know one another on the trip.
Scene 6
Place: the Intergalactic Court of Appeal.
Time: the year 2038.
‘Space music’ played on a synthesizer, sound effects CD or using Chorus voices.
The Defence is about to make its case. All six witnesses, Kylie, Mum Shirl, Kay Cottee, Gustav Weindorfer, ‘Weary’ Dunlop and Douglas Mawson, are assembled in the courtroom. They all swear to tell the truth together in a single ceremony.
Court Clerk: Do you swear, on your HONOUR as significant Australians and on the very SURVIVAL of the country of Australia, Planet Earth, that the evidence you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
All Six Witnesses say the following together:
Witness 1: I do.
Witness 2: I do.
Witness 3: I do.
Witness 4: I do.
Witness 5: I do.
Witness 6: I do.
Australian Judge: Call your first witness, Smithy.
Smithy: Ah, right-ho… ah… I mean… thank-you. The Defence calls [INSERT NAME].
Witness 1 takes the witness stand.
Court Clerk: Please state your name and occupation.
Witness 1: My name is [INSERT]. I’m here to represent [INSERT].
Ginger: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here today.
Witness 1: Yeah, well it’s not as if I had much choice under the circumstances!
Judge 3: Speaking of ‘time’ – yours is running out, Ginger.
Felix: Yes, forgive us, Your Worships. [INSERT Name of Witness 1], please tell the Court about something of which Australia can be really proud.
[Witness 1 gives evidence.]
Felix: Thank you. The Defence now calls [INSERT Name of Next Witness]
Court Clerk: Next witness. [INSERT Name]
[Next Witness gives evidence.]
Judge 3: (Impatient with other Judges) Has anybody any more questions for this witness?
Felix: Nothing further, Your Worship.
Judge 3: Let’s proceed, then, shall we? Call your next witness.
Felix: The next witness for the Defence is [INSERT Name]
[Next Witness gives evidence.]
Judge 3: Hmm, very laudable, I’m sure. Thank you. Next witness.
Court Clerk: [INSERT Name]
[Next Witness gives evidence.]
Court Clerk: The next witness for the Defence is [INSERT Name].
[Next Witness gives evidence.]
Judge 3: Well, I suppose that’s something. Is there anything else?
Felix: Yes, Your Worship. We have one more witness. Clerk, would you please call [INSERT Name].
(During Witnesses’ evidence members of the Chorus can act out aspects of the story in mime. See Staging the Play: Ideas for Costume and Set Design for suggestions.)
[Final Witness gives evidence]
Judge 3: Well, if that’s all your evidence, then, let’s hurry up and THROW OUT the appeal (All the other Judges show their horror and disapproval to think that Judge 3 has already made up his mind before the case is over. Judge 3 pauses, remembers that this was meant to be a ‘fair’ trial, and reads from the Intergalactic Court of Appeal Rule Book for Judges.)
—er, I mean ‘carefully and impartially reach our judgement’.
Australian Judge: (Frowning at Judge 3.) I think you’re forgetting the summing-up speech!
Judge 3, a little surprised, flicks backwards a few pages to find and read the rule about ‘summing-up’.
Please note: It is an objective of this project to have participating students write:
Class Activity: Part 1: You write the speech
The task: Smithy, Ginger and Felix have to sum up Australia’s case in a speech.
a) To help write the speech, ask yourself the following question:
Q. In the ‘evidence’ in Scene 6, what are the six things of which Australia can be proud?
In the summing-up speech, include a brief reminder of the six things-to-be-proud-of that were given as evidence:
b) You could try putting the list of things-to-be-proud-of in order. Place the piece of evidence that you think is the strongest LAST. You’ll create a BIG FINISH by keeping your best argument for last! Place the piece of evidence that you consider to be the least important FIRST, and so on.
c) Give part of the speech to each of the three characters (Smithy, Ginger and Felix).
d) The speech must convince the Judges that Australia has something to be proud of, so remember to use persuasive language.
e) From all the speeches written by students in your class you will need to choose one to use in your performance of the play.
f) Paste the chosen summing-up speech into the play.
Part 2: This is YOUR courtroom…YOUR decision is final!
Will Australia be allowed to stay in the space-time continuum, or will it be erased from the Universe FOREVER?
The task: After the summing-up speech is chosen, you have to decide as a class what the Judges’ verdict will be.
a) To help you to decide, discuss:
b) Give reasons for your decision and take a vote if necessary.
c) Write dialogue that gives the Judges’ final decision. The decision will indicate to you how to act out the final moments of the play. Depending on whether or not Australia wins the appeal, we imagine the Australians will be either:
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