A short play for a paper theatre. Two speaking parts, one silent boat, and a storm required to wait its turn.
The theatre
A harbour, with a lighthouse at one side. Leave a black window in the lighthouse; a scrap of yellow card moved behind it will make the light flash. A paper boat travels across the front. A cloud travels above.
The Keeper may be a figure, or simply a voice from the lighthouse. Thunder speaks from the cloud.
For thunder, crumple a sheet of waste paper behind the scenery. No water, flame, or electrical effects are needed. This staging is imagined, not performance-tested; adjust the timings to the hands available.
The play
The light flashes. The boat enters at the extreme edge of the sea.
Thunder enters overhead.
THUNDER: Ready?
KEEPER: Not yet.
THUNDER: I’ve come a long way.
KEEPER: So has she.
THUNDER: Who?
KEEPER: The last boat.
Thunder moves towards the boat.
THUNDER: That little thing?
KEEPER: She’s a long way off.
THUNDER: Oh. I never know with boats.
The boat advances a little. The light flashes.
THUNDER: I could do something distant.
KEEPER: Can you?
A small, experimental rumble.
The boat stops.
KEEPER: Apparently not.
THUNDER: Sorry.
KEEPER: Not to me.
THUNDER (towards the boat, much too loudly): SORRY.
The boat retreats a little.
KEEPER: Just wait there.
Thunder waits. The light flashes twice. The boat advances.
THUNDER: It’s very slow.
KEEPER: Yes.
THUNDER: Is it meant to be?
KEEPER: Tonight it is.
A silence long enough for someone to become impatient. Preferably Thunder.
The boat advances again.
THUNDER: I could count.
KEEPER: Quietly.
Thunder counts silently. The cloud bobs with each number.
The boat reaches the harbour. The Keeper’s light stops flashing.
THUNDER: Now?
KEEPER: One moment.
The boat moves the final, almost insulting distance to the quay.
KEEPER: Now.
Thunder. Give it the whole sheet.
The boat does not move.
THUNDER: Was that all right?
KEEPER: Very good.
THUNDER: I’ve another.
KEEPER: Go on, then.
More thunder. The cloud makes a triumphant circuit of the lighthouse.
KEEPER: Mind the chimney.
Curtain.
Written after reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s “A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured”. He preferred the sheets and the colouring to the trouble of an actual performance. I have supplied the trouble separately.