Welcomeby Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2002
(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)
Production Notes:
• running time: approx. 40 minutes
• style: ensemble Christmas ghost story
• suitable for general audiences
• 21 characters (16 female, 5 male)
• gender-flexible casting
• a good play for developing disciplined ensemble performance skills
• black-box staging (no set required)
Summary of Script Content:
• “Orphans Under Ice” is the lyrical story of a happy family haunted by the ghosts of two girls who vanished while skating on a creek on Christmas Day.
(This play was first performed on December 16, 17, 18, & 19, 2002, at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.)
∗Published Online by Good School Plays, February 27, 2018.
Go to:
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scene 9
Scene 10
Scene 11
CHARACTERS:
Mr. Derek Santa Claus, 78
Mrs. Chantal Claus, 73
Mr. Teddy Claus, 36 (Derek Claus’s son)
Ms. Melanie Claus, 32
Harriet Claus, 7
Mr. Claud Snoman, 40
Ms. Saskia Snoman, 37 (Derek Claus’s daughter)
Carol Snoman, 11
Billi Snoman, 10
Leopold Frost, 40
Jennifer Frost, 38 (Elaine Claus’s sister)
Mandy Frost, 10
Claudette Frost, 9
Herman Claus, 38 (Derek Claus’s son)
Elaine Claus, 36
Rocket Claus, 9
Scooter Claus, 8
Bonita Rudolf, 44, (the family’s housekeeper)
Larissa Blitzen, 29, (the children’s nanny)
Hyacinth Teekupp, 11, a ghost
Eliza Fizzipot, 11, a ghost
(The given ages are approximate, and may be adjusted. There are only a few stage directions included in the script. In the initial production, the actors were set in family groups in a horseshoe, leaving the center stage area open for the performance of actions, the telling of stories, etc. There are many opportunities for such actions, limited only by the imagination of the director and actors.)
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 1:
(HYACINTH and ELIZA, the two ghosts, are onstage. They narrate.)
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
This is the home of Derek Santa Claus. I’m little Eliza Fizzipot.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
And I’m Hyacinth Teekup.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
We’re ghosts and have been for 100 years..
HYACINTH TEEKUP
We died on Christmas Day.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Would you like to meet the Claus family?
HYACINTH TEEKUP
Here they come, each in their own way.
(DEREK and CHANTAL CLAUS enter and take up their positions.)
DEREK CLAUS
I’m Mr. Derek Santa Claus, and this is my wife Chantal.
CHANTAL CLAUS
We’re old now.
DEREK CLAUS
We have three children.
CHANTAL CLAUS
They’re grown up and married.
DEREK CLAUS
The oldest is Herman Claus.
(HERMAN CLAUS enters.)
CHANTAL CLAUS Then there’s Saskia.
(SASKIA SNOMAN enters. She has a stern demeanour.)
DEREK CLAUS
She’s married to a Snoman.
CHANTAL CLAUS
And last but not least, our youngest son Teddy.
(TEDDY, who is blind, enters)
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 2:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
The Claus children have families of their own.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
And they all live here in this big house that used to be Eliza’s father’s.
DEREK CLAUS
Herman Claus, my boy, where is your wife?
HERMAN CLAUS
(calling)
Elaine Claus! Elaine, where are you?
ELAINE CLAUS
(running in to join HERMAN)
Oh, Herman, here I am! I was just decorating two little gingerbread girls baked by Bonita.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Elaine Claus, my daughter-in-law, where are your children?
HERMAN CLAUS
Yes, where are the children, my dear?
ELAINE CLAUS
Why, playing in the snow, Herman! I’ll call them!
(calling)
Rocket! Scooter!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Make sure they take off their little booties, Elaine!
HERMAN CLAUS
Now, now, Mama, they know their booties must stand by the door.
DEREK CLAUS
They must line up the boots like trees in the forest.
(ROCKET and SCOOTER enter, running to their parents.)
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Mama! Daddy! We made two little girls out of snow!
SCOOTER CLAUS
Rocket hit me in the head with a frozen snowball!
ROCKET CLAUS
Scooter pushed my face in the snow until I fainted!
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
It was wonderful!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Rub your hands together children, to thaw them out!
(ROCKET and SCOOTER vigorously rub their hands together.)
DEREK CLAUS
Ho, ho, ho! Christmas is coming!
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 3:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
If only we could meet Saskia’s family!
HYACINTH TEEKUP
That would be wonderful!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Saskia, where is your man?
SASKIA SNOMAN
Man?
DEREK CLAUS
Your husband, dear.
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Uncle Claude! Uncle Claude!
SASKIA SNOMAN
Claude Snoman! Where are you, you naughty man!
CLAUDE SNOMAN
(entering)
Sorry, Saskia. I was making presents.
HERMAN CLAUS
Claude, old boy, are you knitting a pair of cozy mittens for me?
CLAUDE SNOMAN
It’s a secret, Herman.
ELAINE CLAUS
Your husband is a wizard at knitting things, Saskia.
SASKIA SNOMAN
But he’s lazy. My toque remains half done.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Wherever are your bundles of joy, Saskia?
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Where are our cousins Carol and Billi?
CAROL and BILLI SNOMAN
(entering, together)
Here we are, Scooter! Here we are, Rocket!
(CAROL and BILLI give SCOOTER and ROCKET quick hugs and then run to sit with their mummy SASKIA and daddy CLAUDE.)
DEREK CLAUS
What lovely grandchildren!
CHANTAL CLAUS
What were you up to, my little lambs?
CAROL SNOMAN
We were reading a story about two orphan girls.
ELAINE CLAUS
If Rocket and Scooter could learn to read, I would be a happy mother!
BILLI SNOMAN
The orphans were freezing in the snow on Christmas Eve.
SCOOTER CLAUS
Did they go to heaven, cousin Billi?
ROCKET CLAUS
Did someone pluck them from the snow and give them candies?
CHANTAL CLAUS
Now, now, Rocket and Scooter, you ask too many questions!
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Oh, Granny! You smell like oranges and cloves!
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 4:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Teddy Claus looks lonely.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
He needs to be comforted by his wife and children.
TEDDY CLAUS
Melanie! My headache! I must have my pills!
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
How sad that he is blind, and in such pain.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
His mother smells of oranges and cloves!
CHANTAL CLAUS
My poor blind son. He knows where I am because I smell like oranges and cloves!
MELANIE CLAUS
(entering)
Teddy, dear Teddy, here are your pills.
(TEDDY swallows them.)
MELANIE CLAUS
Gently, dear, gently.
ELAINE CLAUS
Where is my little niece Harriet, Melanie?
MELANIE CLAUS
Heaven knows, Elaine. I suspect she sleeps onwards into the morning.
HARRIET CLAUS
(hurrying in)
Here I am, Aunt Elaine! There was a monster under my bed, so I ran down the stairs as fast as I could!
DEREK CLAUS
A monster?
CHANTAL CLAUS
Harriet, that was your dog Rubbadub.
ELAINE CLAUS
He’s not a monster, dear!
CLAUDE SNOMAN
He’s a cuddly beast with mounds of long fur!
ROCKET CLAUS
I want a doggy, Daddy!
SCOOTER CLAUS
But kitty would be jealous, silly!
SASKIA SNOMAN
Billi wrote a story about Rubbadub the hairy dog.
(SASKIA claps her hands, and BILLI goes down center, curtsies, and begins her story.)
BILLI SNOMAN
Rubbadub goes on a sleigh ride…
(BILLI falters.)
CAROL SNOMAN
(helping BILLI remember)
…and the sleigh tips over.
HERMAN CLAUS
What next!
MELANIE CLAUS
(helping BILLI remember)
Rubbadub is thrown into the snowdrifts, but bursts forth strong and true.
BILLI SNOMAN
Rubbadub goes into the forest to seek the lost orphan girls.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Into the dark cold forest.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
The deep, silent snow.
CHANTAL CLAUS
The trees painted with frost.
TEDDY CLAUS
The touch of the cold air on the little orphan girls’ faces.
HARRIET CLAUS
Into the dark, cold forest goes Rubbadub.
SASKIA SNOMAN
Towards the girls in the snow, their ice-blue eyes staring at the moon.
DEREK CLAUS
The moon floating in the dark, frozen sky.
HARRIET CLAUS
Rubbadub, save me!
ELAINE CLAUS
So you see, he’s not a monster, dear.
HARRIET CLAUS
How silly of me to think he was!
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 5:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Everyone lives together in this big old mansion.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
Even Elaine Claus’s sister and her family.
ELAINE CLAUS
Where is Jennifer Frost, my sister?
JENNIFER FROST
(entering)
Here I am, Elaine. I was helping Bonita the housekeeper make a plum pudding for Christmas Day.
MELANIE CLAUS
A fine pudding for us all to gobble.
TEDDY CLAUS
Tart on my tongue, the plum pudding on Christmas Day.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Call for your husband, Jennifer Frost.
JENNIFER FROST
Leopold! You are wanted in the parlour!
LEOPOLD FROST
(entering)
I was sliding on my toboggan, my dear, as is my habit at Christmas.
ROCKET CLAUS
Uncle Leopold’s toboggan has reindeer antlers on the front!
SCOOTER CLAUS
Once I ripped my trousers on their sharp points!
JENNIFER FROST
Leopold, those antlers are a menace.
CHANTAL CLAUS
But they are beautiful, and covered in velvet.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
I sewed the velvet myself.
TEDDY CLAUS
So soft, that velvet.
MELANIE CLAUS
Leopold’s toboggan races along, with antlers proud, toward the bottom of the long hill.
JENNIFER FROST
Where the dark waters of the little creek must be avoided.
LEOPOLD FROST
The icy shore is slippery, and my galoshes will not grip.
CAROL and BILLI SNOMAN
(together)
Leopold! Do not drown!
LEOPOLD FROST
If I should slide under the ice, all will be lost.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Your daughters, Leopold. Where are they?
LEOPOLD FROST
Jennifer, what has become of Mandy and Claudette?
JENNIFER FROST
They have vanished, Leopold, into the cold thin air.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
Jennifer is teasing. Her words stitch the air like sharp pointed needles.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Where are they, Jennifer, for god’s sake?
MANDY and CLAUDETTE FROST
(entering)
Here we are! Here we are!
MANDY FROST
Mummy made us hide.
CLAUDETTE FROST
Until the last minute!
MANDY FROST
How dark is the closet!
CLAUDETTE FROST
With mothballs and wool coats.
DEREK CLAUS
And possibly presents.
CHANTAL CLAUS
No child should fiddle with the gifts.
MANDY FROST
Claudette shook a package, and we heard tiny bells.
CLAUDETTE FROST
Mandy said the big bundle was a tent for Scooter.
SCOOTER CLAUS
A tent!
ROCKET CLAUS
We’ll pitch it in the snow by the creek on Christmas morning!
BILLI SNOMAN
The night will fall and the tent will be a bubble of air by the dark watery creek.
CAROL SNOMAN
And in the tent will be a lamp so we can see our faces.
HARRIET CLAUS
My face will have red, red lips and a rosy nose as I snuggle in the cold.
TEDDY CLAUS
I should love to see your faces, but alas I am blind.
MELANIE CLAUS
The faces of the children are glowing, dear Teddy.
JENNIFER FROST
On Christmas morning, Leopold has the face of child, and so I love him all the more.
LEOPOLD FROST
The children shall have gifts aplenty, but I will bless the heavens for giving me my dear Jennifer.
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 6:
HYACINTH TEEKUP
None can see us for we are ghosts.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
In the air we hover, like incense in a church.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
The family gathers and we watch.
TEDDY CLAUS
Sometimes I sense that spirits roam the mansion.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Here come the help, their toil never done.
(BONITA RUDOLF and LARISSA BLITZEN enter.)
DEREK CLAUS
Bonita Rudolf, how goes the cooking?
BONITA RUDOLF
Well enough, Master Claus, though the turkey is too large for the pot.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Bake it on a sheet, Bonita. No pot is needed.
HERMAN CLAUS
A sheet for the bird will serve us well.
BONITA RUDOLF
There will be a mountain of edibles for your delight tomorrow, my fine ladies and gentlemen.
LARISSA BLITZEN
Do not forget the hungry children, Bonita!
ALL THE CHILDREN
(in unison)
Bird and pudding! Stuffing and nogg!
MELANIE CLAUS
Larissa Blitzen, you must bend to your task of training the children!
JENNIFER FROST
You are, after all, their governess!
HERMAN CLAUS
Their training and their future rests with you!
LARISSA BLITZEN
Governess is a weighty title. I fear the children do not want my burden at Christmas.
ALL THE CHILDREN
(in unison)
No, no, dear Miss Blitzen, you do not burden us!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Such love is warranted, Miss Blitzen. You do good work.
BONITA RUDOLF
The children have ransacked their bedrooms, Grandmother Claus. Such a mess of sheets and dollies, tin soldiers and wind-up choo choo trains! Their clothing is everywhere!
SASKIA SNOMAN
They will pick up every bit of it, mark my words!
ALL THE CHILDREN
We will place the old toys in a sack, and give them to the poor.
MANDY FROST
Who needs them, with presents heaped in the closet like treasure in a cave.
LARISSA BLITZEN
Children, let’s repeat the rhyme I taught you while we hiked across the snowy fields.
(The children stand and curtsy.)
ALL THE CHILDREN
Thank you, god, for snow and cold
Thank you for our mittens
Thank you for the gift of life
With which our hearts are smitten.
(The CHILDREN curtsy again, and sit.)
DEREK CLAUS
How delightful.
HERMAN CLAUS
A ditty that rhymes, and spoken clearly for us all!
CHANTAL CLAUS
The children’s use of the word “smitten” is nothing short of miraculous.
BONITA RUDOLF
Miss Blitzen trudged many miles in the drifting fields, drilling the children all the while with words such as those.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
Their little footprints in the snow are stitches marking their merry way.
LEOPOLD FROST
They march like soldiers behind their lovely governess, across the conquered fields.
LARISSA BLITZEN
Little Billi’s feet were frozen.
BILLI SNOMAN
I cried and Miss Blitzen said to stomp.
HARRIET CLAUS
And so we stomped and soon the blood came rushing to our toes.
CAROL SNOMAN
Cousin Mandy said her ears were solid.
MANDY FROST
They were stuck to my head like two little snowballs.
CLAUDETTE FROST
We hurried homeward through wind and snow, but Rocket and Scooter were lost.
SCOOTER CLAUS
My sister had gone off into the blizzard, and I followed her.
ROCKET CLAUS
The fierce flakes made me blind.
TEDDY CLAUS
My nieces, blind like me and lost at Christmas.
BONITA RUDOLF
Miss Blitzen shouted that Rocket and Scooter were gone, and I blundered off in my shawl to search.
LARISSA BLITZEN
And Rubbadub the woolly dog plunged on ahead.
ROCKET CLAUS
Bonita plucked me from a drift, and I rode home on Rubbadub’s back, with Scooter clinging to his tail.
ELAINE CLAUS
Thank god the snow did not claim my babies.
BONITA RUDOLF
The fire is lit and burning brightly.
LARISSA BLITZEN
Children, your stockings! Do not forget!
ELAINE CLAUS
Once I had a stocking as long and thick as a python.
TEDDY CLAUS
Once my stocking fell into the fire and my toys turned to ashes.
SASKIA SNOMAN
Once my red sock bulged with goodness knows what.
LEOPOLD FROST
Once on Christmas morning, my stocking revealed a candy cane the size of a yule log.
HERMAN CLAUS
Once I looked upon my stocking at the stroke of midnight, and it was flat and empty.
JENNIFER FROST
“Here!” said Great Aunt Philomena, “this is your new Christmas stocking.” It was the size of a baby’s leg, and would hold no more than a boiled egg.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
Once my stocking had a hole in the toe and smelled like an old man’s sweaty pajamas.
TEDDY CLAUS
My stocking was lumpy with gifts, and rough to the touch, but what would a blind man do with a catapult?
MELANIE CLAUS
My naughty brother took the toys from my sock, and stuffed in a rigid fish with bulging eyes.
DEREK CLAUS
Tiptoe to the mantle, and push the toys into the socks.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Santa Derek Claus, you must move silently, like a deer through the deadfall in the snowy forest.
DEREK CLAUS
I shall, my dear, for my feet are clad in the softest leather known to man.
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 7:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Hyacinth and I gave up our lives on a Christmas evening long ago.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
The creek was frozen and our skates were new.
HERMAN CLAUS
Here, children, your Christmas skates, with blades as sharp as razors.
ROCKET CLAUS
Mummy, can we skate on the creek?
SCOOTER CLAUS
Our skates are so shiny and new.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Mummy and Daddy were in the house, and my orphan cousin Hyacinth skated with me along the winding creek.
TEDDY CLAUS
Father took me to the creek, put skates on my cold feet, and towed me over the ice. I could feel the bumps and cold wind on my face. The cold made the trees crack like rifles bringing down a deer.
MELANIE CLAUS
Dark water rushes in the creek and the deep holes have frozen over.
CAROL SNOMAN
I paint the creek in the cold dark colours of winter.
BILLI SNOMAN
I write a poem on a paper boat, and the dark creek hides it under the ice.
LEOPOLD FROST
How thin is the ice over which we trudge towards our weary end.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
The day gave way to dusk, and still we skated.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Far off, we heard the calling voice of Mother.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
But we raced so far from home, down the winding creek on our swift skates.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Hyacinth was first to plummet through the ice.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
The rush of cold water rose round me and the darkest cold touched my skin.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
I floundered helpless as the ice gave way and into the deep I sank.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
The creek is like a thread that winds through the valley to a place I’ve never seen.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
I felt the arms of Eliza grasping me and then we were under the ice and gone.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
At first there was nothing, and then we were floating through the halls of this house where
Mummy and Daddy were weeping.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
And still we float, though we drowned, the ice closing over us, a ceiling of death.
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 8:
CHANTAL CLAUS
Who has a song for Christmas?
LEOPOLD FROST
I’ve heard many voices singing in the many rooms of this mansion these long winter nights.
MELANIE CLAUS
Harriet?
HARRIET CLAUS I shall sing for you, Grandmother.
(singing)
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
(There is applause from all the family.)
CHANTAL CLAUS
Who has a riddle for Christmas?
LARISSA BLITZEN
Billi? Billi Snoman, remember the little riddle you learned?
BILLI SNOMAN
Very well, Miss Blitzen, I shall try to remember.
(earnestly remembering the riddle)
Why do we feel sad when we eat a plump young turkey on Christmas day?
CHANTAL CLAUS
Why do we feel sad when eating such a large bird, little Billi?
BILLI SNOMAN
Because the turkey’s mother must be crying for her dead child.
LARISSA BLITZEN
That’s not the answer to the riddle’s question, Billi.
HERMAN CLAUS
The child has a wayward imagination.
BONITA RUDOLF
You make me feel shame for baking the bird, Billi.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Wait! Do not chastise the child! What do you mean by your answer, Billi?
BILLI SNOMAN
Only that the death of anything means that the creature’s mother will be sad. That’s why I’m never going to die.
SASKIA SNOMAN
My child, I must warn you, even on Christmas Eve, that the day will come when your life must end.
DEREK CLAUS
This is not a night for talk of death.
BONITA RUDOLF
Let’s talk of the food that I am preparing, and of feasts from Christmas past.
HERMAN CLAUS
Such feasts! The mountains of steaming vegetables and cranberries chilled and tart!
TEDDY CLAUS
The taste of cranberry is unlike any other. I find it as shocking as a plunge in the creek on a frosty morning.
BONITA RUDOLF
The cranberries grow on the bushes in the forest, and the children pick them and place them in pots.
JENNIFER FROST
The cranberries are like the red eyes of albino rabbits watching the children searching in the snow.
LARISSA BLITZEN
I recall as a child having cranberries strung on strings on the holy Christmas tree.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
The strands of berries go up and around the holy tree, the red and green of Christmas.
MANDY FROST
I will open the window so a flock of birds can fly to the tree and pick the berries with their sharp little beaks.
CHANTAL CLAUS
We must be careful when talking of birds, for Billi is saddened by the turkey.
BILLI SNOMAN
I have already forgotten, Grandmother. Now I am thinking of pudding.
DEREK CLAUS
I will pour rum on the pudding, and light it on fire.
CLAUDETTE FROST
The blue flame will lick the pudding like a dog’s tongue!
MELANIE CLAUS
We will sit beside each other around the groaning table, heavy with the ponderous piles of edible bounty.
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 9:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
No food may pass through the lips of a ghost such as I.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
I cannot smell the good things, nor anything else for that matter.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
I cannot touch the forks and spoons, nor pour the gravy from the boat.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
We can only float. And somehow we can watch.
HERMAN CLAUS
Do you remember, Mother, the tasty jug of Christmas cheer you would make?
CHANTAL CLAUS
Of course! The steaming jug of sweet red juice with plump raisins, orange peel and cloves!
DEREK CLAUS
My dear, you no longer make this treat!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Not since the day I dreamed of the dying girls.
SASKIA SNOMAN
Mother, we must not dwell on your dream, on this Christmas Eve.
HERMAN CLAUS
The children will become afraid.
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Tell us, Grandmama! Tell us what you dreamed!
HARRIET CLAUS
Oh, tell us, Grandmama! I will not cry!
MANDY and CLAUDETTE FROST
(together)
A ghost story for Christmas! Oh, yes, Grandma, you must tell us!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Very well. I dreamed two children fell through the ice while skating on the creek.
ROCKET and SCOOTER
(together)
Then what happened, Grandmama?
CHANTAL CLAUS
They came into my bedroom, and stood there frozen and dead.
MANDY and CLAUDETTE FROST
(together)
Frozen and dead!
CHANTAL CLAUS
“We are cold, so cold and dead!” they said.
HARRIET CLAUS
Cold and dead!
CHANTAL CLAUS
And so I gave them each a cup of my hot Christmas drink.
TEDDY CLAUS
Hot comfort for frozen children.
CHANTAL CLAUS
And they melted and vanished.
DEREK CLAUS
And your granny has never again made the drink.
CHANTAL CLAUS
I do not want you all to disappear.
TEDDY CLAUS
I cannot see any of you!
MELANIE CLAUS
My dear, we are all around you.
LEOPOLD FROST
There is something wrong.
JENNIFER FROST
Yes. I feel something is amiss. I seem to be floating about in a current of some sort.
SASKIA SNOMAN
How curious! I too feel buoyant, like a cork on the ocean.
BONITA RUDOLF
Oh dear, my dinner is swirling in my belly and my eyes bob like fishing floats.
LARISSA BLITZEN
I rise! I rise!
HERMAN CLAUS
And yet you remain seated.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
My arms want to lift, as though I were floating in a pool of water.
MELANIE CLAUS
Everything is slowly swirling around me.
ELAINE CLAUS
The air is like water, dark and swirling, cold and deep.
ALL THE CHILDREN
Floating! We are floating! Our home is the deep, deep water covered with ice!
CHANTAL CLAUS
Things are moving in the cold, cold water that once was air!
DEREK CLAUS
I cannot breathe!
(All freeze, except TEDDY and ELIZA and HYACINTH.)
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 10:
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
I can smell oranges and cloves!
HYACINTH TEEKUP
I can feel the floor beneath my feet and the air on my face!
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
I can hear the wind outside the house!
HYACINTH TEEKUP
I am made alive!
TEDDY CLAUS
What is happening? Who speaks?
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Blind Teddy Claus is the only one who knows we are here.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
Eliza, one hundred years have passed. Something is changing.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Perhaps he can set us free from endless floating.
TEDDY CLAUS
I am going mad.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
No, no. We have been here all your life.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
And never have we harmed you.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
Do not be afraid.
TEDDY CLAUS
What do you want from me?
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Let us lead you to the dark waters of the creek.
TEDDY CLAUS
I am blind. I cannot see the creek.
HYACINTH TEEKUP
No matter.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
We will take you down to the water and the ice, and there you will set us free.
TEDDY CLAUS
How?
HYACINTH TEEKUP
By falling through the ice into the deep, deep watery hole where we vanished.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Our souls will rise to the heavens as yours sinks in the deep, deep water.
TEDDY CLAUS
Is this my death?
HYACINTH TEEKUP
Perhaps. It is not for us to know why this must happen.
ELIZA FIZZIPOT
Come, there is not much time now.
(ELIZA and HYACINTH lead TEDDY offstage. The remaining family become unfrozen.)
Orphans Under Ice by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 11:
MELANIE CLAUS
Teddy! Where’s Teddy?
HARRIET CLAUS
Daddy’s gone, Mummy.
DEREK CLAUS
Teddy! He has vanished!
CHANTAL CLAUS
My son! What could have happened?
(TEDDY re-enters. All the family stare at him.)
TEDDY CLAUS
I wandered away into the dark, down to the creek.
MELANIE CLAUS
But how? There wasn’t time, Teddy.
TEDDY CLAUS
I fell through the ice. The water was cold, so cold.
HERMAN CLAUS
But your clothes are dry.
TEDDY CLAUS
And then I was standing outside the house, and so I walked in and here I am.
SASKIA SNOMAN
We have all been dreaming.
JENNIFER FROST
A long winter dream, a Christmas spell, a journey through the winter night.
LEOPOLD FROST
We were floating somehow, and now we are once again rooted to the moment.
ELAINE CLAUS
The children are quiet. Look at them. Their eyes are staring into something we cannot see.
HERMAN CLAUS
They are in a trance and far away from us.
LARISSA BLITZEN
(calling)
Children. Children.
(resigned in wonder)
They cannot hear us!
BONITA RUDOLF
They are so quiet, so still.
CHANTAL CLAUS
The children can see but we are blind.
(The CHILDREN rise.)
HARRIET CLAUS
Mother, two girls are wandering through the snowy fields.
SCOOTER CLAUS
They are two orphans in the night.
ROCKET CLAUS
The moonlight shines upon their frozen hair.
CAROL SNOMAN
They are drifting like snow towards the dark forest.
BILLI SNOMAN
Their skin is pale blue and their eyes shine like ice.
MANDY FROST
Their lips are cold and smiling.
CLAUDETTE FROST
The dark forest takes them.
ALL THE CHILDREN
(in unison)
They are gone.
(The CHILDREN sit.)
TEDDY CLAUS
When I walked to the creek, I could see. My eyes were windows and all the world came rushing in. But now the shutters have closed and I am blind again, though my head no longer hurts.
CHANTAL CLAUS
Why does it seem as though someone is gone?
BILLI SNOMAN
Grandmother, do not cry. It’s Christmas.
ALL THE CHILDREN
(in unison)
Do not cry. It’s Christmas.
CLAUDE SNOMAN
Christmas.
DEREK CLAUS
My family, we are together, all together.
ALL ON STAGE
(in unison)
Christmas.
(The lights fade. The cast may sing the first verse of “The Holly and the Ivy” if they wish.)
END OF THE PLAY.