CONCEPTUA: Like a picture theatre!
DOLORES: A tomb. With no ticket out.
Lights up on Government House where a broken AGNES takes down a picture.
Mrs Lamb is wrapping her portrait.
CONCEPTUA: Like a gift!
DOLORES: Like a corpse.
GIRL: Her spirit’s gone …
CONCEPTUA: Takahashi can’t be blamed for that.
GIRLS: It was all his fault!
DOLORES: The light!
CONCEPTUA: The lies!
DOLORES: The crack in the glass—
GIRLS: And no-one could fix it!
DOLORES: Takahashi took a picture—
GIRLS: A dirty picture.
CONCEPTUA: It showed all our weakness—
DOLORES: And Darwin fell like a secret.
DOLORES wails.
Lights up on the post office where JOAN is listlessly sorting mail. It’s morning, and a bedraggled BETTY walks in. JOAN looks up.
JOAN: He sent you a letter, Bett.
Pause.
Wrong postcode—it’s done the rounds.
She hands an envelope to BETTY.
I told you he missed you …
BETTY looks at the stamp.
BETTY: Singapore …
She opens the envelope, withdraws the letter; it’s pockmarked with holes.
[Reading] ‘Dear Betty Boop. How’s my beautiful princess? We’ve got to—’
The location has been censored.
Must be Singapore [Reading on] ‘—at last. Bloomin’ ship took forever, and I must say, I was crook! It probably doesn’t seem like it, but I think about you a lot—wonder how you’re getting on, and that. [She skims a censored line.] Real sorry I didn’t make it there for me leave. I got stuck down the track at a mate’s fortieth. I will definitely, definitely, see you next time—wild horses and all that. Take care of the old girl for me. I know she’s a bit of a handful …’
She searches for more of the letter.
That’s it …
JOAN: Fortieth, eh?
BETTY shakes her head.
Ah, he probably tried. He was always messing up like that.
BETTY is fighting tears.
BETTY: That was my last chance to see him!
JOAN: Oh, darlin’—no, no, no. You don’t know that! Come ’ere.
She hugs her daughter.
I reckon he’ll be alright. Billy, you know—he falls from one disaster to another and, somehow, always makes it through. It’s probably that stupid smile, hey—saves his neck.
BETTY folds the letter, returns it to the envelope.
You’re gonna send a reply, though?
BETTY: What would I say? ‘You’re a useless git’?!
Pause.
JOAN: Let me think …
She collects paper and pen. Planes murmur gently as they compose.
[Writing] Dear Dad … too bad you didn’t come home … ’cause you actually missed my wedding! I married a bonza bloke. His name’s … Hiroshi Yakomoto.
BETTY: Mum!
JOAN: [writing] You don’t know him—he’s new in town.
BETTY: He flew in one morning and knocked me off my feet.
JOAN: [writing] And the rest, they say, is history.
The planes growl louder.
Lights up on DOLORES and CONCEPTUA.
DOLORES: Listen—the planes are growling.
CONCEPTUA: It’s only an exercise, Mother.
JOAN: [writing] He’s two foot tall—
BETTY: And two thousand pounds!
JOAN: [writing] He didn’t walk down the aisle—he rolled!
The planes plough onwards. The GIRLS run inside.
GIRL: Sister, the tails are red!
GIRLS: The sky is black!
CONCEPTUA: Get under the beds!
JOAN: [writing] He’s seventy-two.
Beat.
But has great stamina for his age.
BETTY: It’s the blood he drinks for breakfast.
JOAN: It’s the babies he eats for tea!
DOLORES: Darwin—the sky is breaking! The birds are falling!
GIRLS: The planes are red!
CONCEPTUA: They’re not listening to you, Mother. You’re the nun who fell off the wall …
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] The wall, the wall, the wall.
BETTY: His eyes are black.
JOAN: But his skin’s not yellow.
BETTY: Except after drinking.
JOAN: He quaffs champagne with kerosene.
BETTY: I have to mix it for him each night.
JOAN: Or he punishes me with a samurai sword—
Beat.
JOAN/BETTY: And a Betty Bomber!
A bomb cracks open the world. The air-raid siren howls. Bombs keep falling.
CONCEPTUA: Bomb after bomb after bomb!
GIRLS: Blowing churches, pubs, hopes, homes, the picture theatre, the post office.
DOLORES: No-one listened to me. I’m the nun who fell off the wall.
GRACE: The cliffs, sis!
RUBY: The office—it’s safer.
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] The wall, the wall, the wall …
CONCEPTUA: Hundreds of planes—
DOLORES: From a murderous sun!
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] Over the garden wall.
LILY: Let’s get in the trench!
ROSE: I have to go help!
LILY: Too late!
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] Over the garden wall,
I let the baby fall …
CONCEPTUA: The might of the Japanese Empire—
DOLORES: Hurled at a tin-shed town.
GIRLS: [singing/chanting] Then mother came out,
And gave me a clout …
A bomb whistles.
DOLORES: It was like cracking an egg with a hammer.
A massive bomb explodes. The lights cut out.
Silence.
In the darkness, a GIRL starts to sing:
GIRL: [singing] Mother, Mother, I am coming …
The all-clear siren wails.
GIRLS: [singing] Home to Jesus, and to thee,
But my country’s hills are distant,
And their lights I cannot see.
Lights find a devastated Government House.
RUBY struggles out of the rubble. AGNES stirs.
RUBY: Grace …? All clear!
RUBY looks around.
AGNES: Where is she?
RUBY: Grace?
She notices red shoes sticking out of the rubble.
Grace! You right, sis?
She starts to clear the rubble.
We’ll get you out. Just tell me—you right?
She tries lifting a beam.
[To AGNES] Help!
AGNES: We can’t—
RUBY: We have to!
AGNES: Ruby …
RUBY: Please!
AGNES: [cracking] Later! [Quietly] We’ll get some men and … we’ll bury her later.
RUBY: She’s not dead … she’s not dead, you liar! [Screaming] Gracey! Grace!
Crying, she collapses beside the shoes.
Lights scan the post office that is now a hole in the ground.
CONCEPTUA: The post office …? Mother, there’s nothing left!
DOLORES: Flying ants prefer to die in company …
CONCEPTUA: Mother and daughter—both?
DOLORES: They fell.
Pause.
And who will remember their wings?
Pause.
GIRLS: [quietly] We will.
Lights up on the Chins’ where LILY is throwing last things into a bag. ROSE is lying down.
CONCEPTUA: The Chins were leaving tomorrow.
DOLORES: A day beyond the horizon.
CONCEPTUA: There’s still a chance before the Japs arrive. They’re rushing to the train.
DOLORES: Time is cruel. Rose is burnt, and Lily will desert her.
CONCEPTUA: Of course not, Mother! Lily—your sister needs a hospital.
LILY:
The hospital’s wrecked! Everyone’s leaving! [To ROSE] Don’t worry, Rose. I’ll think of something. I’ll get a car! Alright? I’m not gonna leave you.
Lights crossfade to CONCEPTUA and DOLORES.
CONCEPTUA: Girls, we need to hurry!
DOLORES: We need to hide. I saw two birds abandon a third!
CONCEPTUA: Mother.
GIRL: They goin’ without us, Sister?!
DOLORES: Birds aren’t nice, you know; they’re not nice!
CONCEPTUA: The train is leaving.
GIRLS: They’ll leave us behind!
DOLORES: The bomb breaks. The moon bleeds. The cradle—
CONCEPTUA: Mother, would you shut up?! [Then, with a smile] Girls …?
She ushers the GIRLS. A chastised DOLORES trails behind.
A train horn toots. A steam engine warms up and departs.
Lights up on the train where the survivors are huddled inside, some asleep.
That was Katherine … Rose and Lily’s new town.
CHORUS: The People’s Army …
CONCEPTUA: They’ll fight the fight from the riverbank.
DOLORES: Watch for the enemy.
CONCEPTUA: Darwin’s a charred memory—
DOLORES: And it’s finally safe to bleed.
CHORUS: All of the women are bleeding—
CONCEPTUA: In a simultaneous sigh of relief.
CHORUS: Napkins are delivered.
DOLORES: Mrs Lamb begs like the others—
CONCEPTUA: For a cloth to dam her fears—
DOLORES: While shattered Ruby—
CONCEPTUA: Takes comfort in her loss.
RUBY: It’s finally safe to bleed; it’s finally safe to breathe. Far from the horror of Grace’s shoes, it’s finally safe to bleed.
CONCEPTUA: The girls’ frocks are stained, Mother.
DOLORES: The pain begins …
CONCEPTUA: But fifteen-year-old Maggie Takahashi—
DOLORES: Withers.
CONCEPTUA: She’s not bled since she left Darwin.
MAGGIE: How can I trust my blood
To a bougainvillea friend?
Sometimes flowering, other times falling.
Always full of thorns.
CONCEPTUA: Someone has to trust somewhere in the world.
DOLORES: How many times should I forgive my enemy?
MAGGIE: Nine thousand times?
CONCEPTUA: Nine thousand times nine thousand. Trust, Maggie.
DOLORES: Bleed.
The train is swallowed by the night. The lights fade.
SCENE TWO
Dry Season, 1946.
Lights build on DOLORES who’s on the convent verandah, investigating the day. CONCEPTUA comes out.
CONCEPTUA: That’s a Dry Season hymn …
DOLORES: Bold as brass, that wind.
CONCEPTUA: We should spend the day outside!
DOLORES: The sun burns.
CONCEPTUA: We’ll take an umbrella.
DOLORES: The wind whips it from your grasp. The bough breaks, the cradle rocks—
CONCEPTUA: Rocks.
Beat.
Adelaide was good for you, Mother.
DOLORES: It was the horizon … it never broke.
A skipping rope is turning.
GIRLS: [chanting] January, February, March, April …
The skipping rope goes to double time.
CONCEPTUA: Goodness! That must be Maggie Takahashi …
DOLORES: She’s eighteen years now …
MAGGIE sits on her step, fiddling with a tattered camera. KRISTINA nervously approaches.
KRISTINA: Does it work?
MAGGIE: Don’t think so.
KRISTINA: Where’d you find it?
MAGGIE: Backyard.
KRISTINA: Are you … by yourself?
MAGGIE: Mum’s at the shops. Eddie’s in Brisbane.
Beat.
KRISTINA: What about your dad?
MAGGIE: He passed away last year—got sick.
KRISTINA: I’m really sorry, Mags.
MAGGIE shrugs.
MAGGIE: He lost his spirit … Must’ve flown to Japan, eh?
KRISTINA: Mags, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—
MAGGIE: No, you were right—he was a spy.
Lights crossfade to the Chins’ where ROSE and LILY enter the trashed shop.
DOLORES: The People’s Army are back.
CONCEPTUA: Oh dear. What happened? Were they bombed?
DOLORES shakes her head.
DOLORES: The damage was inflicted by our own.
LILY: That makes me wild, Rose—I wouldn’t wreck someone else’s place!
ROSE: Disgusting …
DOLORES: Well, if their shop was in Chinatown, they’d be looking at a piece of dirt. Razed to the ground.
CONCEPTUA: The enemy?
DOLORES: Enemies come to the Territory. These ones spoke English.
LILY: I suppose we were the lucky ‘Chinks’.
ROSE: I suppose we were … They smashed our doors and our welcomes—
LILY: Our mirrors and smiles—
ROSE: Our beds, our pillows—
LILY: Our dreams …
ROSE notices something strange out the back; she laughs.
ROSE: But they left us something?!
Lights crossfade to Government House.
RUBY enters the dining room; notices it’s empty.
RUBY: Her piano!
AGNES rushes in, carrying shoes.
Bloody, stinking mongrels! I’ll kill ’em!
AGNES: Oh … oh, how could they? She loved that piano!
RUBY: There’s nothing left now—nothing left of her …
AGNES approaches RUBY; awkwardly touches her shoulder.
AGNES: I found these.
She holds out Grace’s red shoes; brushes the dust clear. She gives them to RUBY who presses them to her chest, overcome.
Dear Grace … I didn’t know her like you did, but she was a … she was beautiful.
She removes her hat. She coughs and timidly starts to sing:
[Singing] Amazing Grace …
How sweet the sound …
Lights crossfade to Maggie’s.
MAGGIE: Dad was a spy for the Australian army.
KRISTINA: Oh …
MAGGIE: He cracked codes, translated messages—that sort of thing.
KRISTINA: Why didn’t you tell me?
MAGGIE: [shrugging] I found out after.
KRISTINA: If I knew, I wouldn’t have said those things!
MAGGIE: You knew me; you knew my dad?!
KRISTINA lowers her head.
KRISTINA: Mum said … do youse wanna come for tea?
MAGGIE stares at her, then past her.
MAGGIE: What are the Chins doing?
They both stand up.
KRISTINA: Take a photograph, Maggie!
She tries.
MAGGIE: It doesn’t work.
KRISTINA: What if you took that thing off?
MAGGIE removes the lens cap and takes a photo as the Chins push a grand piano onto the street. MAGGIE and KRISTINA run to help. They push it towards Government House where RUBY and AGNES sing together:
RUBY/AGNES: [singing] I once was lost,
But now am found,
Was blind …
ALL: [singing] But now … I see.
ROSE: Yoohoo, Mrs Lamb! Don’t suppose you lost a piano?!
All of the town’s women push the piano inside Government House as they sing:
ALL: [singing] ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed.
They gather around the piano. RUBY plonks the famous red shoes on its lid.
CONCEPTUA: Take a photograph, Miss Takahashi.
DOLORES: People will look at this one day. They’ll study it with a magnifying glass … and they still won’t know its secrets.
MAGGIE takes a photo.
THE END
COPYRIGHT DETAILS
First published in 2017
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Copyright: Mr Takahashi and Other Falling Secrets © Sandra Thibodeaux, 2005, 2017.
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Mr Takahashi Page 5