One person tells a story to another.Caryl Churchill
WHO Unspecified.
TO WHOM Unspecified.
WHERE Unspecified. You decide.
WHEN Present day.
WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED This monologue, entitled ‘The Child Who Didn’t Know Fear’, is one of over seventy short scenes that go to make up Caryl Churchill’s full-length play Love and Information.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
• | The play is in seven sections. Within the sections there are several scenes. These scenes can be played in any order. There is no indication about what age or sex the characters are, other than the content of what is written. Here, the speaker could be a man or a woman. All we have to go on is a stage direction that reads: ‘One person tells a story to another.’ |
• | Arguably, it is an unusual piece for an audition. However, if you are looking for something that shows off your storytelling skills (perhaps you are auditioning for the role of a narrator), or you need material for a voice showreel, then, I suggest, it would make an excellent choice. |
• | Use the opportunity to create a character for yourself and make a decision about to whom exactly you are speaking. How would it differ if you were talking to a stranger/friend/ lover/partner/wife? |
• | Create a context for yourself. Perhaps the speech is serving to make a wider point within a relationship. |
• | What is the moral of the tale? |
• | Look for ways of animating the speech. For example, how might the child and children speak? |
Within the play there are over one hundred voices all trying to cope with an information overload. |
WHAT HE WANTS
• | To humour the listener. |
• | To warn the listener. |
• | To instruct the listener. |
KEYWORDS fear shiver tingle creeps shudder haunted frightened dead monster screams
Unspecified
One person tells a story to another.
Once upon a time there was a child who didn’t know what fear was and he wanted to find out. So his friends said, Cold shiver down your back, legs go funny, sometimes your hands no not your hands yes your hands tingle, it’s more in your head, it’s in your stomach, your belly you shit yourself, you can’t breathe, your skin your skin creeps, it’s a shiver a shudder do you really not know what it is? And the child said, I don’t know what you mean. So they took him to a big dark empty house everyone said was haunted. They said, No one’s ever been able to stay here till morning, you won’t stay till midnight, you won’t last a hour, and the child said, Why, what’s going to happen? And they said, You’ll know what we mean about being frightened. And the child said, Good, that’s what I want to know. So in the morning his friends came back and there was the child sitting in the dusty room. And they said, You’re still here? what happened? And the child said, There were things walking about, dead things, some of them didn’t have heads and a monster with glowing – and his friends said, Didn’t you run away? and the child said, There were weird noises like screams and like music but not music, and his friends said, What did you feel? and the child said, It came right up to me and put out its hand, and his friends said, Didn’t your hair your stomach the back of your neck your legs weren’t you frightened? And the child said, No, it’s no good, I didn’t feel anything, I still don’t know what fear is. And on the way home he met a lion and the lion ate him. 