Up the Garden Path & The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God
Page 7
alma slams the phone down.
edmund: Mummy!
alma: Got to keep de line clear.
alma yells at the phone again.
rosaaaaa! roooosaa —
Lightning followed by a crash of thunder.
Oh Lawrd.
alma, amelia and edmund all look at one other.
Scene 6
Wednesday evening.
Fort George, the dilapidated vines and alma’s broken-down board house.
The starlings screech in Niagara, the rain pours down in Barbados and the visitors listen in the fort.
isaac: (to his audience) Hello and welcome to Fort George. My name is Isaac and I’ll be your interpreter. This evening I’ll be talking to you about (takes a deep breath) the Battle of Fort George.
The vines.
rosa: So wha’ de plan is?
richard: We raid and drive them out acre by acre.
The board house.
amelia: We got tuh give Jennifer she phone. She gine call de police.
The vines.
richard: No matter what occurs, do not break formation.
The board house.
alma: Good. Dem can help tuh hold de house down when Tor-teel-ia start mashin’ up de place.
The vines.
richard: Stay together and lead them to me.
The board house.
amelia: Cane storm always t’reatening tuh trouble de place, but den hear de shout, it turn west and knock out Sin Vincent and —
Tor-teel-ia makes her first strike and the church bells ring.
alma: Oh Gawd.
The fort.
isaac: May 25, 1813, American forces attacked Fort George.
The vines.
rosa: I see dem, you ready?
laura: (as Joan) I will be first up the ladder when we reach the fort, bastard. I dare you to follow me.
The board house.
edmund: Why dem ringin’ de church bells?
amelia: It a warning —
alma: — tuh tek cover.
The fort.
isaac: The Americans outnumbered us.
The vines.
laura & rosa: charge!!!!!
laura runs and rosa rides straight into the flock of starlings. The birds scatter every which way.
The board house.
amelia: Guess Cornelia decide tuh come back east after all.
The fort.
isaac: They bombarded Fort George with cannons.
The vines.
rosa: arrrraaak / arrrraaaak arrrraaaak —
laura: die, you bloody english starlings! die!
The fort.
isaac: Then crossed the Niagara River and initiated a land attack.
The board house.
amelia: Dat door better hold, ’cause I too old tuh drag it back again.
The fort.
isaac: Damage caused by the Americans forced us to abandon Fort George.
The board house.
alma: Lawrd Gawd I ain’t able tuh hold de roof up dis time.
The vines.
rosa: It workin’, it workin’!
The fort.
isaac: The Americans took over the fort and plotted their next move.
The board house.
edmund peeps out the window.
edmund: We got tuh get outta dis house.
alma: Come away from dat window!
The vines.
rosa: Richard, come, man, we ready!
The board house.
amelia peeps out too.
amelia: Look like dat soursop tree gine come right down pun we.
The fort.
isaac: But we persisted and ultimately thwarted their attempts.
The board house.
alma: You should have chop down dat tree / all like now.
amelia: If you want it chop down, do it yuh damn self.
alma: Yuh know I can’t go near no soursop since Sticky!
amelia sucks her teeth.
Simultaneously in the vines:
richard moves into the chaos of the starlings, who quickly take flight and flee. laura and rosa stand amazed.
Simultaneously at the fort:
isaac: And on December 10, 1813, the Americans abandoned Fort George.
The board house.
edmund: Stop yuh quar’lling and come . . . come before —
The soursop tree begins its descent.
The fort.
isaac: But not before burning much of it to the ground.
Simultaneously at the board house:
The soursop tree comes down.
edmund, amelia & alma: ahh! oh lawrd! oh gawd!
Simultaneously in the vines:
The starlings fly away.
rosa & laura: yaaaaaaah!
The fort.
isaac: Now, if you’ll follow me we can begin our tour.
The vines.
rosa: We did it! We did it!
laura: Only nine more acres to go.
rosa: Yuh see how dem birds just dash way.
laura: They are never coming back.
richard: (to the unseen) No . . . no no please . . . stop stop!
rosa: Richard —
richard: (to the unseen) Where are you taking me? Where are we going?
laura: (to rosa) Come on, we’ve got to move before it gets too late.
richard: (to rosa) Run. Run!
laura: Rosa.
richard: If they catch us we will be dead.
laura: Rosa!
richard: go!
rosa: (to laura) We have tuh stop.
richard: Yes, sir!
laura: What?
richard: Pull back!
rosa: (to laura) We can’t do dis.
richard: Stay in formation!
laura: But we’re actually getting somewhere.
richard: fire fire fire fire — (repeat till rosa says “Gawd”)
rosa: Oh Gawd.
richard: (singing “God Save the King”) God arise,
Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall:
richard continues to hum “God Save the King” till rosa says “ten.”
laura: What’s going on?
rosa: He ain’t able tuh tek it. One acre already turnin’ he in tuh a madman. By de time we do all ten . . .
richard: Ten by ten I’ll be a baby. No speaking, just crying. How will I die then?
rosa: Richard. Richard.
richard: Stay away from me.
rosa: It okay.
richard: No no, it is not okay. You cannot haunt without being haunted. How old am I now? How much have I lost? A month; a year; a week; a day?
rosa: I . . . I . . .
laura: What’s happening?
rosa: Hauntin’ has a cost.
richard: Wave. “See that wave, slave? If you rave, if you rave!” “How much for this one?” “How fast can he run?” “Can he lift?” “Is he swift?” “The perfect officer’s slave!”
rosa: He ain’t able tuh go on like dis.
richard: “What is he, eighteen? Seventeen . . . ”
laura: What do we do?
richard: At sixteen —
laura: Rosa.
richard: — woken from a dream.
rosa: We have tuh kill he.
richard: By my mother’s scream —
rosa: Now.
richard: — ream ream.
rosa: I gine run he over.
richard: Opened like a seam.
laura: If he’s as far gone as you say, we need something bigger.
ric
hard: (to rosa) What I need is a second to gather myself.
laura: How about a fire.
richard: I can do it!
laura: We could burn him. Like they did Joan.
richard: See, I’m ready.
rosa: We should do bot’.
richard: Acre number two.
rosa: Bike den burn.
richard: We are coming for you!
laura: I’ll go get the matches.
laura goes.
richard: Get back here! You cannot abandon your post mid-mission!
rosa: We tryin’ tuh help yuh.
richard: You said you cannot go home empty-handed.
rosa: It hurtin’ yuh too much.
richard: But where will you go if you cannot go home?
rosa: I’ll find a place.
richard: no!
rosa: Come, let me start runnin’ yuh over.
richard: We must finish what we started.
rosa: By de time Laura get back, yuh be half dead.
richard: We have to make it so you can go home.
rosa readies the bike.
rosa: I gine count tuh t’ree.
richard: You do not want to be stuck on this land, this, this hundred acres of quicksand.
rosa: One.
richard: All I wanted was passage home. I sent the petition; I went on that mission.
rosa: Two.
richard: But no passage home. Just an eternity to roam after a hundred acres of heave ho. ninety years heave ho.
rosa: T’ree.
rosa races toward richard.
richard: You are lucky you have a home to go back to!
rosa pulls up short.
rosa: Lucky? If I lucky dat hurr’cane headed home will wash de whole blasted place away and finish what Janet started. Dat way I never have tuh guh back. Dat would be lucky ’cause dat ain’t no home tuh guh back tuh.
All I have tuh do is walk down de street and de women turn up dey noses at me all because of what my mudder do. No good evenin’, good night, good mornin’ or afternoon. I could fall in de gully and be cryin’ out in pain but all dey gine say is, “Yuh hear dat? I t’ink we gettin’ some rain.”
Can’t walk past a rum shop wit’out seein’ de men my mudder do, “Hallow, sweetheart, how you?” In between slappin’ dominoes, dem askin’, “What it gine tek fuh you tuh mek me some clothes.”
(quoting her mother) “Is it my fault dey ain’t able tuh give dem husband what dey want? Is it my fault I able to sweet-talk any man wit’out even havin’ tuh talk?”
My mummy tell me dat “when yuh fit a man fuh a shirt and tie, yuh’s entitle tuh a little kiss goodbye.” But when it come tuh “trousers, jacket and waistcoat, yuh get de whole man head tuh foot!”
But I ain’t want a whole host of half men dat I sew up in a shirt and tie. Dat ain’t even gine come tuh my funeral when I die.
I ain’t want to have a daughter dat I keep spread out in pieces all over de place.
Fuh fear dat if I put she toget’er, I gine see she fadder face.
I want my man tuh be de whole damn t’ing, not no some piece of somet’ing I got tangle up in weak string.
I ain’t want dat ’cause dat ain’t nuh life.
richard: What is?
rosa: I ain’t know . . . I gine find out t’ough. but I ain’t doin’ anyt’ing before I kill yuh, suh come . . .
rosa readies the bicycle again.
richard: It will not work and you know it.
rosa thinks.
rosa: Go home den.
richard: What?
rosa: Yuh say dem ain’t let yuh go home when you was alive, but who stoppin’ yuh now?
richard: I could not bear to cross the sea, to see the sea.
The bones of my —
Our people are at the bottom of that sea.
His desperate plea, her attempt to flee,
all lying frozen at the bottom of that sea,
still fighting to be free . . .
rosa: Maybe ’dere are some ’dere like you.
Stuck.
Yuh could tek dem home.
You should.
Go.
I be all right.
Beat.
richard goes. rosa watches. laura comes running back with a box of matches and some kerosene oil.
laura: (out of breath) Sorry, it took forever to find them.
rosa: It all right.
laura: So where is he?
rosa points to an empty spot.
rosa: Right dere.
laura: Did you run him over already?
rosa: Yes.
laura: Okay, we need some kindling to start the fire. Let’s use —
rosa: Use dis.
rosa begins to take off her suit.
laura: What are you going to wear —
rosa: Still got muh hawk costume.
laura: . . . okay.
laura starts dousing the suit in kerosene.
rosa: What’s dat speech dat Saint Joan give just before dem ’bout tuh burn she at de stake?
laura: You mean when they give her one last chance for survival and she signs a recantation?
rosa: And everyt’ing seems like it gine be fine but den dey say she must —
laura: — live in perpetual imprisonment so she tears up the paper and says, You promised me my life; / but you lied.
rosa: But you lied. Can yuh say it? Richard like dat one.
rosa lights a match and sets the suit on fire. She steps back to watch it burn, and over the course of laura’s speech picks up the bicycle and keeps stepping back until she is gone.
laura recites into the fire, at first as Joan and then as herself . . . or maybe just all herself. You decide.
laura: You promised me my life; but you lied. You think that life is nothing but not being stone dead. It is not the bread and water I fear: I can live on bread: when have I asked for more? It is no hardship to drink water if the water be clean. Bread has no sorrow for me, and water no affliction. But to shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of the fields and flowers; to chain my feet so that I can never again ride with the soldiers nor climb the hills; to make me breathe foul damp darkness, and keep from me everything that brings me back to the love of —
— love of . . . love love love — Shoot what is it?
(to rosa) Is that good? Is he dead yet or — I could start over if he’s not —
laura looks around.
Rosa? Rosa?
Scene 7
Thursday morning.
A gravel road in the Niagara Region.
The sun rises to reveal rosa riding laura’s old bicycle in her hawk costume.
The starlings sing and rosa rides to . . .
The end.
The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God
Adapted from the short story by Bernard Shaw
For black girls.
Special Thanks
I would like to thank the cast and creative team that worked to bring the play to life for the Shaw Festival production; the many actors at the Shaw Festival who participated in the workshops and readings of the piece over the years; Jackie Maxwell for her commitment to and invaluable feedback on the play over the course of its development; Joanna Falck for her insight and encouragement as I made my way through the years-long process of adapting and writing the play; and Ravi Jain for pushing me to get the most dynamic characters and story off the page and onto the stage.
I would also like to thank Philip Akin, Elizabeth Amos, Hughlene Codrington, Eileen Codrington, Lisa Karen Cox, Ijeoma Emesowum, Virgilia Griffith, Alana Hibbert, Eda Holmes, Natasha Mumba, Honor Waithe, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Counci
l.
Production History
The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God was first produced by the Shaw Festival at the Court House Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, from June 10 to September 11, 2016, with the following cast and creative team:
GBS / The Lord of Hosts / Naturalist: Guy Bannerman
Black Girl: Natasha Mumba
White Missionary / Mathematician: Tara Rosling
Micah the Morasthite / King Solomon / Physicist: Ben Sanders
Black Mamba: Kiera Sangster
Black Bearer: André Sills
The Almighty / Biologist / The Artist: Graeme Somerville
The Conjurer: Jonathan Tan
Director: Ravi Jain
Dramaturg: Joanna Falck
Set and Costume Design: Camellia Koo
Lighting Design: Louise Guinand
Original Music and Sound Design: John Gzowski
Stage Manager: Meredith MacDonald
Assistant Stage Manager: Ivory Neal (to May 29)
Assistant Stage Manager: Andrea Schurman (from May 29)
Production Stage Manager: Alison Peddie
Assistant Lighting Designer: Nic Vincent
Voice and Dialect Coach: Sarah Shippobotham
Assistant Director: Lisa Karen Cox
Notes
This play is an adaptation of / response to Bernard Shaw’s allegory The Adventures of a Black Girl in Her Search for God. It includes text from Shaw’s allegory, its preface, the King James version of the Bible, a tiny bit from Shaw’s Back to Methuselah, a teeny-tiny bit from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and then a bunch of stuff I made up myself.
This play is not The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. That’s an amazing play (you should read it if you haven’t) by Djanet Sears. When I first saw a staged reading of The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, I gave it an involuntary standing ovation and cried. It changed my theatrical life. The play that I wrote, this one here, it’s not that play.
Setting and Style
This play is a comedy set in “The Darkest Africa,” a.k.a. a forest, and takes place in 1932, when Shaw wrote the original. That said, this play is also home to a talking snake and a dead playwright delivering a preface in the present. Time and space are all mixed up, plus “The Darkest Africa” is not a real place, so do what you will.