The Lost Ones by Jo Hardy

Characters

Girls in the boarding school in 1952:
MARY
ELIZABETH
CAROLINE
JANE

Girls in the correction centre, present day:
MAXINE
SHARON
SHANNON
GEMMA

Soldiers:
MICHAEL
ROBERT

Boys in the present day:
SAM
ED

The play is designed so that all roles are doubled:
MARY/MAXINE
ELIZABETH/GEMMA
CAROLINE/SHANNON
JANE/SHARON
MICHAEL/SAM
ROBERT/ED.

Doublingmakes this a versatile script. The minimum number of players are 6: 4 girls and 2 boys, but if necessary a larger number can take single roles.

Playing time: approx half-an-hour. A challenging script for a brighter cast, ideal for examination purposes.

The play takes place in two different time zones: the 1950s and the present day. The building in which it is set is an old Victorian mansion which was a boarding school for well-to-do girls in the 1950s, but is now a correction centre for girls who have been in trouble with the law, broken the terms of their ASBOs etc.

To keep the flow of the play going, it will be necessary to devise the simplest of costume changes to indicate the different periods, e.g. the addition of blazers covering modern-day tops teamed with neutral colour skirts [e.g. black] which would do for both time zones.

Sample Pages from the script

Extract 1

The opening speech is delivered by Mary and Gemma, representing the two time zones.

MARY
This is how it all started.

GEMMA
We found an old book.

MARY
In September 1952.

GEMMA
In October 2006.

MARY
There were two soldiers.

GEMMA
Two brothers.

MARY
They signed up.

GEMMA
Went to fight...

MARY
In the Great War. They were under-age but no one checked.

GEMMA
And they died there.

MARY
Somewhere in the trenches.

GEMMA
A long time ago.

MARY
We put the diary back in the attic when we left in 1957.

GEMMA
I put the journal back in the tin with the other stuff when it was all over. That was in January 2007.

SCENEONE. Breakfast, 1957. Mary and Jane have been out with two boys last night.

MARY yawning
Elizabeth, will you pass me the milk, please?

ELIZABETH
What's the matter? You look as if you've been up all night.

MARY looking round furtively
We have.

ELIZABETH
What?! You mean you've been out in the night? I never heard you.

CAROLINE
That might have something to do with your snoring....

The others giggle.

ELIZABETH
I do not snore!

JANE
What was that noise last night then, Caroline?

CAROLINE
Er... [Pretends to think hard.]... An escaped pig? [Everybody laughs, then stifles their laughter.] Look out. We're being watched. [In an entirely different voice.] So what news have you had in your letters today, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH picking up letter
Well, Moonlight lost a shoe on the first jump. That's Madeleine. She hasn't any idea how to take jumps and...

CAROLINE
It's all right. She's gone. Where were you two last night?

ELIZABETH
Yes. Why didn't you tell us? We could have come along as well.

JANE giggling
Because there are only two of them.

CAROLINE
Two of what?

JANE looking round slyly before she speaks
Not what. Who. Boys!

There is an immediate response. It is obvious boys are in short supply in this establishment.

ELIZABETH
What? There aren't any boys in this building at all! You mean you went out? How?

MARY
We didn't go out. Though I don't see why we shouldn't. After all, it is 1957, not 1900. They were here.

CAROLINE
Here?

MARY
In the attic.

Shocked response. Blackout.

Extract 2

Recreation time. The girls enter the stage just as the boys leave.

GEMMA
Yeah. You're not kidding. The whole place is like a relic from the past. I hate it.

MAXINE
We all hate it. When they said 'Correction Centre', I didn't think they meant graveyard.

SHANNON
Six bloody months. It'll kill us.

SHARON
And not a lad in sight. Do you reckon we can break out of here - find the local pub?

MAXINE
Not a chance.

GEMMA
At least we can do some exploring tonight. You know, peep into all those creepy haunted rooms. There's a big rack of keys behind the desk and one of them says 'attic'. How about some treasure hunting?

MAXINE
Not me. I'm in enough trouble. I don't want to get another six months.

SHANNON
Well, if you're stupid enough to get caught...

MAXINE
Count me out.

SHARON
And me. There's nothing I'd rather do than make a break for it but my Dad'll kill me if I get into any more trouble. If you two go out in the night, you're stupid. Old Fat-Arse'll come down like a ton of bricks.

MAXINE
Two tons at least. I want out of here as soon as possible, so I'm going straight for a bit.

SHANNON
Wuss.

MAXINE
It'll be you who's the wuss when you're in even more trouble. Being 'Detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure' is enough for me. I'm lucky me Dad didn't murder me. If I get in any more trouble, he will.

Extract 3

In the attic, 2006.

GEMMA as Sharon squeals
Sssh! You'll wake the whole house up! If it's left to you, we'll be peeling potatoes for a week.

SHANNON
It's not my fault I was attacked by a giant spider! I don't know why we're bothering to come up here. There's just a load of cobwebs.

GEMMA
But look at the boxes! We might find some treasure. Or ghosts.

SHANNON
Whoooo! Don't be stupid. There's no such thing.

GEMMA
How d'you know?

SHANNON
I just do. This is the twenty-first century, not the middle ages. [Giving a sudden start and looking behind her.] What was that?

GEMMA
What was what?

SHANNON
That noise.

GEMMA
I didn't hear a noise.

SHANNON
There's something in the shadows! Something moving.

GEMMA
Don't be ...

The boys step out of the shadows. The girls jump a mile!

ROBERT
Good evening, ladies.

MICHAEL
Delighted to make your acquaintance.

ROBERT
Not many people come up here.

GEMMA
I'm not surprised. Bloody dump.

SHANNON
Anyway, what are you doing in here? I thought it was meant to be a girls-only prison.

ROBERT puzzled
Prison?

SHANNON
Might as well be.

MICHAEL
Why are you creeping about?

GEMMA
Because we're not meant to be here, are we?

MICHAEL
I don't know. Are you?

GEMMA to Shannon
Weird.

SHANNON whispering
Fit, though ... er ... [To the boys.] Do you come here often? [The girls giggle.] Do you fancy a date?

ROBERT
A date? Do you mean we might step out together?

SHANNON
We can step anywhere you like, darling. How about sneaking out to the pub?

MICHAEL
The pub? Public house?

GEMMA
Yeah. We might have to climb out of the window. [There is a noise downstairs - both girls 'freeze' for a moment, then she whispers.] We'll meet you in the George and Dragon later. Half an hour. [To Shannon.] We'll get out somehow.

The two girls exit.

MICHAEL
They mean a public bar. They must want to meet us outside it. They wouldn't let girls into a public bar, would they?

ROBERT
No. [Thoughtfully.] Unless they are, well, you know - those girls.

MICHAEL
Well, they didn't look like ladies of the street. Though their clothes seemed to be a little unusual.

ROBERT
Perhaps they are working clothes. The war has meant that women have to do men's work. They must be working on the land. They're very different from the others, aren't they?

MICHAEL
Oh yes - the school girls.

ROBERT
How long ago was that?

MICHAEL
I'm not sure. A long time, I think.

Extract 4

SHANNON explains. Behind her, Gemma studies documents.
Gemma got totally obsessed with that diary thing. She kept reading bits out of it. It was really bloody morbid. All about people dying and getting bits of them blown off. As if we weren't miserable enough in that musty old prison without having horror stories read aloud every five minutes. Then her Mum brought her a mouldy old biscuit tin with loads of junk in it, and she got even worse!

GEMMA
This bit is written about six months later. It's different...

SHANNON
Leave it out, Gemma. You're making me lose the will to live.

GEMMA reading
I keep thinking about home...

ROBERT speaking the first five words at the same time as Gemma
I keep thinking about home, and about Father. How proud he was that we were going to fight for our country. First William and George, and then us. He never said a word about the fact that we were a year too young to join up. I wonder where he put those photographs of us in our uniforms?

MICHAEL
On the mantelpiece. Either side of the portrait of Mother. Next to George and William. And every night he will drink his port and stare at us all and ...

ROBERT
... wish he was young enough to come with us. Poor father. He has spent five years missing Mother and now he'll be missing us too. [After a thoughtful pause.] Especially when he knows the truth.

MICHAEL
The truth? You keep talking about truth. [Reading the journal over his brother's shoulder.] ... and when they got Daniel back to the trench, his leg was blown off and there was nothing we could do but listen to him moaning... Robert - that might be the truth but it is something we must keep to ourselves. I'm certain the folks back home will not want to know details like that.

ROBERT
I don't care what they want. It's only right that they know the truth. There are too many lies told about this war.

MICHAEL
But what if his mother reads it? They'll have sent her a telegram saying he was a hero and that he didn't suffer.

ROBERT
Lies. All they do is tell lies. In here - [Indicates the journal.] - is the truth. In here, people will be able to find out what this war is really like... how stupid it all is ... how the generals send men to certain death without any hesitation. What about the 14th squadron? Sent into enemy territory without enough ammunition and with no defence cover. Eleven men lost, and what for? To bring back a so-called deserter who they never found anyway. [He pulls himself together.] It's all in here. [Michael looks at him uneasily.] Yes, Michael, it's all in here.

MICHAEL
The firing squad? The execution?

ROBERT
No. Not execution. Murder. The murder of Tommy Jennings. Killed for desertion, and his only crime was to get lost and frightened...

MICHAEL
Robert, you know I didn't want to...

ROBERT
I know, Michael. [There is a pause.] There was nothing you could do. But Tommy did not deserve to die. He was frightened. Just frightened, like I'm frightened - like we all are. So why don't they just shoot us all?

Extract from: PRODUCTION NOTES + TECHNICAL CUES, ETC.

INTRODUCTION: THEMES, THE PLAY’S INTENTIONS

This is a ghost story with a World War I background. Twins Michael and Robert were killed protecting each other in the trenches. They used to dream of being back home in the place they used to play as kids - the attic of their substantial house. Now they are back there as ghosts, but they don’t know they are dead. Meanwhile the house has been through two transformations: as a girls’ boarding school and a modern correction centre for girls. One of these girls has a family link with the boys in the attic.

Contrasts in style are built in to the piece: all the girls double up, so that they each play a boarding shool girl and a troubled youngster at the correction centre. The boys too double as boyfriends of a couple of the correction centre girls.

The setting can only be sketchily ‘real’, since there are many locations and time periods, but the playing style is a mixture of naturalistic and narration, as more of the facts about these boys’ pasts unravel. The contrasts give it variety, and light relief, but it is a serious piece.

CHARACTERS

SAM. It is not clear whether he is admiring or disapproving of Ed. Could be played either way. Since they are still together at the end, I suspect that he is supportive rather than otherwise. Either way, the contrast for the actor playing Michael should be good.

MICHAEL in love with Maggie, who is Gemma’s Great-great-aunt. More confident than his twin and protective of Robert. But he is vulnerable underneath; he is being eaten away by guilt that he had to take part in a firing squad of a deserter. The actor playing both these parts should ensure that both voicxe and stance is completely differe,t. Michael comes from a good middle-class background and has polite manners; Sam is working class and rougher manners.

ED - loud and uncaring. What Sam calls him - a drunken womaniser.

ROBERT the younger twin, Mother’s pet. He is the most overtly sensitive of the two brothers, desperate to leave the ‘truth’ behind him in his diary, so that future generations will understand the horrors they had to put up with. His sensitivity should contrast well with the arrogant bolshie Ed.

MARY boarding school girl - naughty [though not on a par with the remand girls]. Boy mad.

MAXINE modern correction centre - the most timid. Doesn’t want to be caught again. Keen to go straight after this.

ELIZABETH boarding school girl - lowest in the pecking order. teased by others. The sensitive one, drawn into the world of the diary.

GEMMA modern correction centre - spirited. Though naughty, should work to make her likeable. She is the one who grows and learns most through her experience.

CAROLINE boarding school girl - shocked but delighted with the adventure

SHANNON modern correction centre - naughty and rebellious - female equivalent of Ed. But not as brave as she’d like to think she is.

JANE 1950s, boarding school girl - Mary’s friend, who also goes to the attic- so she has some daring. Boy mad.

SHARON modern corrction centre - afraid of Dad. She would like to rebel against the rules at the centre, but this fear keeps her in check. However, she hasn’t learned at the end. She reverts as soon as she is out of the centre.

SETTING

The main part of the stage is a permanent setting as the attic. This can be as detailed as you like - festooned with ‘cobwebs’ [available from party and joke shops] and full of opportunities for hiding, for levels and for sitting on. Any amount of random looking pieces of furniture and objects, mainly from the old-fashioned times from which the boys come. These can be festooned with drapes, which will mean that the boys can emerge from behind them, and so on. This area needs to be raised. [If you are using a traditional school stage, the attic can be the whole stage, with a rostrum area built in front as a kind of lower level apron.] On one side, into the wings, there needs to be visible a working door. It would be good if there was a way for the girls to be able to move from the forestage directly into the wings and then up through this working door to enter the attic.

Though the furnishings and additions of the attic can be detailed, make sure there is a central area of the whole stage that is free of clutter, which can be separately lit for when the boys are in the trenches. Might be nice if some of the furnishings look dark and bulky on the edge of this area - resembling trenches. Back centre is a screen on which slides can be projected.

A separate area at the front needs to be bare, to denote the street, or the corridor outside the attic, as needed. The area used for such as dining-room and common-room in different periods could be either a front corner area, kept free of attic paraphernalia, which can be separately lit as a neutral area, or also the lower rostrum area, seating being then the edge of the stage itself when needed. The lower level could have a couple of chairs and a table permanently set too. Seating could thus be these chairs and the edge of the stage, as required. In this case, I would have the boys ‘outside’ either in light at the front of the rostra area, the light cutting off the set furniture - or even in the central aisle of the audience itself.

SETTING FURNISHINGS:

as many as desired to set up attic.

table and chairs in dining-room/ common-room [4 chairs or two if front of stage used as seating]

LIGHTS

Different areas need to be denoted by light. Areas are:

The attic - the main part of the stage in which most things happen. The light should be dim, using blues and straws to keep a ghostly but not too cold an atmosphere. Create pools of light and shadow. This to be called in cue list: Area A

strip of light right at the front of your performing area - used for neutral scenes - speaking out front etc., and the street. Called in Cue list Area B

area either on front rostra or defined by light on the opposite side to the attic door, front part of the stage - used for dining-room, common-room etc. warm interior bright light. called in Cue list Area C

central stage area, spilling up to the edge of furniture and attic clutter, which dark and shadowy behind could suggest the walls of trenches, used as trenches. Lit with a sombre orangey-red light. Called in Cue list, Area D

LIGHTING CUES

PAGE 2 Beginning of play. Lights up on Area B - front strip neutral area.

Halfway down page. Cue: ‘January 2007.’ Quick cross-fade from Area B to Area C,