Heroines of Chaos

Eco Drama: Stage Play for schools, adults, colleges and theaters.

Student forum: Climate Change, Global Warming, Politics, Planning, Ecology, Economics.

Free script for several actors.

Version 5.0
School
Colony collapse disorder.

Same Otakou farmstead: in the orchard – DAY. Two or three beehives on stage. A peaceful orchard, with beehives, toward dusk following a sunny summer day.

Delbee stands near the front of stage, to one side.

It's now 2033, and the girls are checking beehives in the new orchard.

(Delbee exits. Tamara and Zsófi come on stage, wearing white beekeeping suits. They stop to drop the veils; then walk together to the hives. Tamara is holding a smoke puffer.)

(The girls approach one hive from the side, Tamara puffs smoke, as Zsófi gently removes the lid, and draws out one frame. Some cells show medium-dark wax.)

Looks good! Brood wax is always darker.
Magic! We’ll have to check one more, eh.

(The girls replace the frame and lid, and move on to next hive.)

Wish we were on the Chathams. No Varroa mites there, eh.

(Zsófi turns, lifts her veil, smiles, then drops the veil.)

We should have borage beds dotted around the orchard, eh.
Good idea. Borage'll attract wild bees, too.

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

Europe: a sandy beach – DAY. At the top of the beach is a Red Cross tent. Waiting on the shore line is a small boat to evacuate patients to a hospital ship waiting offshore. The stage can be empty, just representing the empty beach, with the wings on one side representing the hospital tent, and the wings on the other side representing the waiting boat.

Delbee stands at the front of the stage, to one side.

Hi. The action now moves to Europe, to a sandy beach near a Red Cross hospital tent. There is a small boat waitng on the shore, waiting to evacuate wounded patients to a hospital ship, which is waiting offshore. Artillery fire and explosions can be heard in the distance.

(Delbee exits. SOUND: distant artillery fire and explosions.)

(Four stretcher-bearers appear, evacuating one patient from the Red Cross hospital tent toward the waiting small boat. On the stretcher is Ferenc, eyes closed, now gaunt, his face streaked with dirt and dried blood, but still wearing military fatigues with a Ukrainian armband. )

(Still on a drip, Ferenc is being stretchered across the beach, when the stretcher-bearers stop.)

Stop! Wait up, guys! Listen, lads!

(SOUND: whirr of drones approaching. The stretcher-bearers look up and around wildly.)

Drone! Drones, they're gonna bomb the hospital! Let's go!

(SOUND: heavy machine-guns fire continously from here on: RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.)

(They carry Ference to the waiting boat. Machine gun fire continues.)

(SOUND: explosions from Red Cross tent area.)

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

Same Otakou farmstead: verandah – NIGHT. Table and chairs as before, plus a rocking-chair.

In the quiet gloaming of the evening, Tamara, in long linen skirt, wide leather belt, lace-up bustier plus linen poncho sits on the rocking-chair, swaying to and fro gently. Altan pours tea. Zsófi (straw hat and butcher’s apron) is cooking venison on a charcoal-barbeque.

(Yuvan emerges from inside the farmhouse, bringing plates and cutlery, then goes back in and fetches salad on a tray. The radio is on.)

Under new regulations, all milk must be tested for H5N1 bird flu.

(Yuvan turns the radio off.)

We’ll think of something: we always have.
People have been saying that for years. It’s just bullshit.
Then what’re you fighting for, Zsófi?
For the future, for the children, you duckwit!

(Yuvan goes inside.)

I know, Zsófi, that you want to save the natural world; and I love you for it.

(Zsófi smiles, and plates up some venison and hands it to Tamara.)

But even if you, darling, were to speak with world leaders in person, - and to the Pope - nothin’ would change. It’s all been tried and done before.
A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
Thanks. Just don’t go breakin’ your heart, eh.

(Tamara tastes the venison and nods approvingly.)

The alternative is revolution, eh. Or nothin’. We’re out of time. We need Plan B: a refuge. .

(Zsófi shakes her head, lips compressed, shaken by truth.)

Let the rest of them go to hell, eh.

(Zsófi pays attention to the barbeque.)

People don’t want to give up the consumer lifestyle, eh.
It’s a ticking time-bomb.

(Zsófi shakes her head despairingly.)

And we’re next?
If insects took over this planet sometime in the future, so what? Why are we so special? If our species went extinct, a better species would evolve.

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

Micronesia: Nauru island. IMMIGRATION AUSTRALIA: REGIONAL PROCESSING CENTRE. There are huts. One hut is marked with a red cross.

Possibly some detainees wandering around.

Delbee stands at the front edge of the stage, to one side.
We're now on Nauru Island, in Micronesia. That's where the regional processing centre is for people wishing to enter Australia.

(Delbee exits. Ferenc, assisted by a Red Cross worker and another detainee, takes his first steps using crutches, wincing. Then again, with the help of just the Red Cross worker and a stick, limping badly.)

(A government diplomatic official, wearing a New-Zealand-flag badge, and carrying a clipboard, approaches Ferenc and they begin talking. The diplomat makes notes, and nods.)

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

Otakou farmstead: in the orchard – DAY. Summer harvest time.

Tamara and Zsófi work together picking fruit. They are both wearing ventilated straw hats and linen in the heat. They have front buckets strapped on, and periodically they empty them into trays standing on tables in the shade. Yuvan and Sara, also dressed for the hot sun, are further along, some distance away, using A-frame ladders, and helping each other to pick fruit.

Ya know, growin’ just one crop makes us too vulnerable, Zsófi. Storms, drought, pests, diseases. We must diversify.
But cherries is what I know.
Ya know, if the weather keeps changin’, Otakou’ll become subtropical and frost-free, eh.
So?
Let’s start plantin’ a few macadamias this year, and see how they go, eh.
Macadamia? They’re tropical, and coastal!

(SOUND of a drone whirring, as it passes overhead, turns and hovers.)

There’s that drone again, eh.
Don’t look up, Tamara! Face recognition!

(The girls hide under a tree. The drone moves away.)

There’s macadamia growin’ in Waiharakeke.
Okay. Let’s do a trial. You’re the farm-boss, darling girl.

(Zsófi shrugs her shoulders, and moves on.)

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

Same Otakou farmstead: verandah – DAY.

Delbee is at the front of the stage, to one side.

Summer turns to winter. The stream flows and rises, then falls. In the orchard, leaves fall. Later come snow flurries, and after that, the snow settles. Months pass. The snow melts and spring sets in with blossom. Then summer: the stream dries, the grass turns brown. It's now 2040.

(Yuvan, Tamara, Zsófi come out of the farmstead onto the verandah, bringing afternoon tea.)

(SOUND: the crunch of tyres on the gravel driveway. The slam of a car door; a second door slams.)

(Sara, now around fifty, comes up the driveway. She waves; and is followed by HAWAIKI, girl, 16, from Kiribati, in school uniform. The newcomers come up the steps.)

This is Hawaiki; she’s from Kiribati.
Hey there, everyone.
I’m her legal guardian, while she’s at school here.
Hi, Hawaiki. I suppose Kiribati’s crowded, and close to sea-level. Tea?
Yes please. My mother hopes to move here too. There’ll be an evacuation soon.

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)

CENTRAL OTAKOU GIRLS’ HIGH: SCIENCE CLASSROOM – DAY.

Delbee is at the front of the stage, to one side. The class consists of seventeen to eighteen-year-olds, variously dressed in black and white using non-synthetics. Leather shoes with leather soles. No wifi, nor other computers, nor mobile phones. The students include Gabriela and Hawaiki. The teacher is Tamara.

It is spring term at the central Otakou high school for girls. In the car-park, there are no petrol/diesel vehicles. Instead there are just a few electric cars, and also electric golf-carts, electric quad- bikes, and two or three traps, that is, a light two-wheeled carriage with springs. And bicycles in the bike racks.
Okay, girls. Bees.

(Hawaiki stands.)

The female, the queen, lives for several years, Ma'am; but the male drones for only six weeks.

(As Hawaiki sits, Gabriela jumps up.)

The queen mates when she is five days old, Ma'am, and only once in her whole lifetime.
The drones die after mating, Ma'am. It kills them.

(Students giggle and knock on desks. Hawaiki waits.)

Colony collapse disorder, Ma'am. If more than three percent of the bees are infected, the whole colony collapses.
Exactly. Just imagine, girls, havin’ an alien the size of a grapefruit stuck on your back between your shoulders, suckin’ blood.

(Gabriela raises a hand.)

Do they infect humans, Ma'am?
Not yet.

(HAWAIKI raises a hand.)

Why don’t we just kill them all then?
They’d just come back stronger, like with antibiotics. Better to use a bee species that is naturally resistant.

(HAWAIKI raises a hand.)

Why don’t we do that then?
It’s not that easy. Bees are not just cheap migrant labor workin’ in a factory!

(Gabriela raises a hand. Tamara nods.)

But Ma'am, we need bees to pollinate fruit and citrus, lemon, lime, and rhubarb.
That’s your challenge.

(Gabriela breaks protocol, exclaiming.)

What do you mean, Ma'am, my challenge?
People of your age.

(Hawaiki stands.)

Excuse me, Miss: whose fault is it, that we’re in this mess now?

(Tamara smiles. The other students begin knocking knuckles on desks in time with each other. Tamara holds up both hands in a stop-gesture. The knocking stops.)

It’s not your fault, girls. It was the post-war generation that -

(The school bell rings for end of class.)

( SCENE LIGHTING OFF : BLACK-OUT : Black-out)

(END OF SCENE)