Literacy and History: Using the play as a stimulus for role play, speaking, listening and writing A Crack in Time Script © Dragon Breath theatre2015.

Literacy and History:

Using the play as a stimulus for role play, speaking, listening and writing

A Crack in Time Script © Dragon Breath theatre2015

At the beginning of the play A Crack in Time,

set at Papplewick Pumping Station,the Water Guardian asked the audience

to think about the management of water in the past, in order to consider water and its management in the present and the future….

In this PowerPoint are some extracts and character vignettes from the play to use as stimulus for class work, with suggested activities…

* Use different extracts as examples of prose and poetry in literacy….

* Ask the children to write new stories or lyrics based on the characters in the play,or to develop their own characters /stories from them

(e.g. “what happened next….”)

* Encourage the children to read the monologues and dialogues to develop confidence in presenting a character using formal language….

* ….and to think about the water issues and questions raised by the characters and their lives…

* Use the script as the starting point for role play in the classroom or hall…get the audience to ask questions and to help the “character” out where necessary…

CHARACTER POP UPS

James Montagu (Superintendent’s House)Mr Montagu is Papplewick’s Superintendent. He makes sure the machines are in good running order, and that everyone is doing their job properly. He

wants to ensure clean water reaches Nottingham every day. He is also interested in the history of Papplewick, recording it through photography and film.

Jess Montagu (Superintendent’s House)

Mr Montagu supports her husband in his important work, looks after their children Pem and George, and runs the house. Water is essential to everything Jess does in the home. Like many Papplewick workers, her history has been passed down by word of mouth. But Jess believes she is as important as people

who are written about and famous.

Water Guardian (A Visitor to Papplewick)The Water Guardian’s people have lived in the high, dry land of Bolivia for many centuries. Because of the way people use water elsewhere in the world, she

cannot obtain fresh water easily, so her traditional way of life is threatened. She wants us to consider how precious water is, and to think how it could be managed globally in the future.

Wilf (The Boiler House)Wilf cleans the boilers that turn water into steam, which powers the engines, that pump fresh water up to the reservoir, before it travels down through

pipes, to the people of Nottingham. Without Wilf, Papplewick couldn’t function properly. Because he has to work to support his family, Wilf has never been to school, doesn’t play, and can’t imagine a world beyond Papplewick.

Thomas Hawksley (Engine House)Hawksley dreamed of pumping fresh water from Papplewick into Nottingham, through a system of pipes. By keeping bacteria out of the water supply, he kept it clean and safe to drink. Hawksley believed in standing by your beliefs, and listening to your conscience. He was determined that money should be

used to make sure everyone could afford clean water and stay healthy.

Jenny Sparrow (A Visitor to Papplewick)Jenny lives in a very poor part of Victorian Nottingham. She is grieving over the loss of her children, who died from cholera because the only water she could

afford was unclean. Jenny believes everyone should have clean water, rich or poor. People like Jenny inspired Mr Hawksley to use his talents and skills to change the world and make a difference.

Seth the Gardener (Greenhouse)

Seth works in Papplewick’s grounds, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers for everyone who lives and works here. He maintains the gardens, and feeds the cooling pond fish. Seth feels part of nature’s cycle here. He understands that everything in Papplewick is connected to water; how precious water is to life;

and how it can be found in everything we do and make.

Outside the Papplewick gates:

Water Guardian starts striking the camp such as it is, as she talks to the audience.

Rivers running into dustFields crumble into sandMetal turning into rustFamine devours the arid landFish flip flapping on the shoreOil sinking to the ocean floorFactories producing more and more and more…A city burning in the heatSewage running through the streetsWomen carrying water day and nightChildren carrying water day and night…A long long walk to waterA long, long walk to water

She is ready to go. She indicates something in her belongings to suggest water poverty:This is now, this is water now,across the world, my world… our world,by sea, by air, by email, far away…Water, wasser, voda, aqua… agua, uma, omi, maa,…amanzi, paani, ab, av, jal… water now, this is water now…

By the lake – a scene in Nottingham town:

Higgler (strong Nottingham, sings)

Who will buy my waterFresh clean lovely waterWho will try my waterPure as the mountain stream

(spoken) and the best you’ll find in the Narrer Marsh ladies…

Who will buy my waterFresh clean lovely waterWho will try my waterPure as the river’s flow…

(spoken) and the best you’ll find in Nottingham tahn…Half a penny a bucket, fill your boots ladies, it’s a bargain, it’s a bargain…

Who will buy my waterFresh clean lovely waterWho will try my waterPure as the driven snow …

(Lifts a receptacle up. It’s leaking).

And there goes my profit!There’s an ‘ole in mah bucket, dear Liza dear Liza,There’s an ‘ole mah bucket!...Do you want some? Fresh, clean and very very tasty.

The boat is arriving. Jenny Sparrow sings. The Higgler watches.

Jenny Sparrow (maybe the Water Guardian sings with her here as well? Or accompanies her? And I laid her downThe little oneAnd I laid her downDeath’s red rose on her cheekAnd I laid her downThe little oneThe old man’s cartRattling on the cobble stonesAnd I watched her goAnd it broke my heart

Jenny and the Higgler argue:

Higgler Do you want my water or not…it’s all the same to me, I’ve plenty of customers/

Jenny It’s the water made my little ones sick… the typhus and the cholera…/

Higgler It wasn’t my water, mine’s honest water…

Jenny You drink it then – no? No. You’d rather pickle yourself with beer than drink that stuff/ Higgler …It’s not my water, it’s... it’s something in the air, a cloud of vapours, that’s what they’ve told me, that’s what causes the…the

cholera, they told me… that’s what took your little ones duck (pause) … that’s what took away my wife…. Jenny I know the rich are spared, whatever it is. Is that God’s work or what? Higgler ….and my brother…never made it to be a grown man, it was the vapour in the air, not my water… Jenny How can you take the money, how you can spend the money? Higgler Spend the money? (He’s getting ready to go) You think I’ve any more money than you? You think I’d be lugging water around day

and night if I had money/

Jenny Be off with you. Find somewhere else to push your poison. Higgler It’s the water company that makes the money, not me, buy your water off them if you don’t like mine/ Jenny I can’t afford the water company. …We can’t afford piped water round here, like wealthy folk up in the Park, you mad? Higgler Well if you don’t like my water, go and fetch it yourself… you can lug it from the other side of Timbuktu for all I care, I’m off ‘ohm…

(he’s gone, leaving behind a large bottle of dirty water)

Jenny Are you mad?…Go and find someone else to poison…

Hawksley tries to persuade the water companies to support his dream:

Hawksley Armstrong, listen to me… Do you not think it shameful, in this day and age, that the life expectancy of a man in some parts of Nottingham is 17 years? An average life, lasting 17 years only?/

Armstrong Well, we’re none of us immortal Hawksley, and I need to get on, before I’m called to the pearly gates of heaven

myself, so, if you don’t mind/ Hawksley …and that waste of life, Armstrong, as you very well know, is caused by the cholera, by dysentery, and by other

water- borne diseases… Armstrong Cholera, cholera/

Hawksley …diseases caused by bacteria in the water…and in the sewage rising up through the water into people’s houses… and in the filth that seeps into the wells from which they drink /

Armstrong That might be the case, I don’t know, it’s not been proven as far as I’m aware, it’s all scientific scaremongering. But

I can tell you that my company’s water is clean.. Hawksley Oh, I’ll come to your water company in a moment, Armstrong…Jenny, where’s Jenny Sparrow?...

Jenny Here Mr Hawksley….

Hawksley Armstrong, what this woman, and thousands like her, would like to know, is why this disgraceful state of affairs is still the case, when there are so many riches in our land?...

The Scullery:

Jess Montagu sings I am the wateroh my daughterI am the wateroh my sonI am the snow flakes fallingI am the melting iceI am the oceans callingI am a vessel/ boat floating in the mistIn rivulets and streams I cryMy tears are rollingMy tears are spentMy tears are dry

I am the wateroh my daughterI am the wateroh my son

That song comes from where I grew up, in the wet mountains of the west. My Da used to sing it to me, to remind me of home when we came here. Then… he left, for South America, to start a new life, to Patagonia, in Argentina. A lot of Welsh people have gone there. But when they arrived they discovered it hardly ever rains, not like Wales where it rains all the time. They found it hard to grow things to eat. But when the river flooded, they noticed ut gave life to the land and they used that water to irrigate their crops.

Pem!...George!.... It’s like trying to catch hold of water, the both of them! But they’re good children. My husband’s a bit too kind if the truth be told. He loves nothing better than whisking them off for a ramble through the hedgerows, or taking them off for a couple of nights camping under the stars, when the weather’s good…

Outside the Engine House:

Hawksley Yes, I dream. I dream of a greater good for humankind. And I believe in my responsibilities as a citizen. (to audience) And yours. And yours. And yours. And yes, this is my dream. This pumping house here at Papplewick. It’ll pipe fresh, clean water, nine miles down the road, down to the people of Nottingham. Come inside my dream. Come inside, and see the possibilities of the time….

Inside the Engine House office :

Hawksley ….I’ve never forgotten what he said to me on his death bed. “Thomas…Thomas Hawksley, always do what you believe is right. And never do anything only for yourself, always consider others as well” And I’ve never forgotten that…Right and Wrong…. No…And I suppose there are things you young folk believe in, things that are right and wrong…Are

there?…

The Boiler House:

Wilf What’s going off?…nobody tells me anything…

He sings Every dayThey send me hereTo do my jobTo clean the boilerEvery dayEvery day I do my jobI clean the boilerAnd then I sleepAnd I never dreamAnd I never play

Well, ah’ve never been to Nottingham, ‘ave you? … You go to school there?...……’ow come you go to school? … Everyone? Everyone goes to school? … When do you work then?...… You don’t

work? What d’you mean you don’t work?..I ‘ave to work here, me Dad tells me, I walk over from Linby, and he gets the money.… No, ‘ah don’t get nowt. How come you don’t work? Don’t kids work?[… At all? …Nowhere? …

The Greenhouse:

Seth So I’ve worked here for a few years now, and I love this place, I really do. When I first came to these parts I was …well, I was a troubled young man shall we say. … But, I found sanctuary and safety working with nature and with the cycle of the seasons. And even today, if things get on top of me, I just stand still and close my eyes and listen for a moment…to the sound of the birds, or the wind in the trees. Or the sound of the rain pattering on the glass here in the greenhouse….Just close your eyes for a moment and listen and breathe….(They do so) Yes, thank you and then maybe afterwards I’ll write my thoughts down because in my spare time, I’m a bit of an amateur poet, and musician, though I say so myself!

Anyway, this green house is very important to the pumping station, it’s where I cultivate the seedlings to grow the vegetables for the men who work here, and their families, like Mr and Mrs Montagu and their two children Pem and George…

Hawksley (extracts from the reservoir)

…..I saw how water is the key to life,

I saw the factories, the slums, the sewage

running in the streets, I saw the sick, I

saw the dead. I knew that water should be

fresh and clean, and cheap, and plentiful for the

poor, not just for the wealthy. Clean, fresh, running

water means that every child can and should be healthy

I pumped that water under pressure, it

cleansed the city day and night and now we

turn a tap, we let it run, the water

gushes out, it flushes out, it slips away,

transparent gold, the necessity for life.

Down here beneath these arches, constructed to

my plans, it’s cool and dark….

Above the world grows warmer every day.

There’s floods, and drought, across the planet…

A crack in the brick, a crack in time,

A chance to take action, to think

beyond ourselves, to think what water means

beyond the sea, for life, and food, and health…

and peace

I built this place, and others across the world.

We believed that we were masters of the earth.

A crack in time is all that’s left…

for us to know, and say, what water’s worth….

In the bell tent, Jess and Jenny are drinking tea:

Jenny Thank you for showing me around today Jess. And thank you children as well. Mr Hawksley did a wonderful thing, building Papplewick. Too late for my little ones, but… nevertheless…a wonderful thing. He kept his promise.

Jess He did. Jenny He stood up for what he believed in. Jess He did. They’ll put a statue up to him one day perhaps. Jenny And will you get a statue Jess, for all your hard work? Jess Me?! Jenny And all the others?…. The men who sweated their blood to build the Pumping Station. The men who stoke the fires all day and

night?... And Seth Worthington who works so hard to feed them with fresh vegetable and fruit?... Will we see a statue of your Mr Montagu in Market Square?

Jess I shouldn’t think so, no, I don’t think he’d want one! Jenny Or the poor people, whose lives were spent making our country rich and great, so we could afford such a wonderful place as

Papplewick? Will they get statues? Jess No Jenny. Jenny No, it’s not the way, is it Jess, for people like you and me. Jess We just get on with our jobs, and do our best, and then we’re forgotten I suppose. Jenny Oh, they’ll remember me when I get back down to Nottingham, don’t you worry! (Pause) Poor Wilf. Nobody will remember him in

a hundred years either. Poor lad. I’d have liked to have talked to him again. I bet he could tell story or two, if he had the confidence, and if only people would listen….

The Water Guardian sings:

High sun

Dry sun

Dry land

Dry sand

My land

Far away

Every day

A long walk to water

A long long walk to water

A high burning sun

A dry burning sun

My land is a dry

burning land where the

mountain snow melts and

trickles away and

far far away and

every day the

children walk a long

walk to water, a long

long walk to water