RILLA-The Musical, Sneak preview 2
The curtain opens on the street in front of a building at Redmond. Men in khaki and various students are gathered around a group of women who are rallying for enlistment. Walter enters and blanches, he looks for a way to escape but a boy grabs his arm and steers him forcefully to the front of the stage.
WALTER: Good morning Dan
DAN: It is a good morning Walter
WALTER: It is?
DAN: Didn't you hear?
WALTER: Hear what?
DAN: I've joined up!
WALTER: unenthusiasticallyOh! That's great.
DAN: Yes, thank you. I'll be in khaki within a week and I'll be in Valcartier by the end of the month.
WALTER: That's nice.
DAN: Hard to believe isn't it? Just a few years ago we were playing soldier on the playground and now we're all playing soldier overseas.
He mimes jabbing a bayonet into Walter.
WALTER: Yes I suppose it is.
DAN: Remember we all used to make fun of you and call you a sissy because you wouldn't join in the fun?
WALTER: Yes. How could I forget?
DAN: And then you got so mad at me for teasing Faith Meredith and you tried to beat me up.
WALTER: Tried?
DAN: Well, anyways, I better be off. I'll see you before I go overseas though, wouldn't want to leave without saying goodbye.
WALTER: Yes, I'll see you later Dan.
DAN: Say, why haven't you enlisted yet Walt? I knew there was some trouble with the typhoid but surely you're better by now.
WALTER: Well, you know. I-
A crowd surrounds Dan and sweeps him away. Meanwhile Walter remains alienated in the front corner of the stage.
DAN: Goodbye Walter!
The people around the stage begin to join in a chorus of 'Dixie is Dixie Once More' which is started by a group of school children on the platform, and steadily the crowd joins in, several are waving Union Jacks.
CHORUS: "There'll be happy days in Dixie
Happy days and night
All our boys are back once more
Celebrating 'cause they won the war
Soon again you'll hear them singin'
'round that cabin door
Old Alexander's got his ragtime band
Where he belongs, in dear old Dixieland
There'll be happy days in Dixie
'cause Dixie is Dixie once more"
Walter watches them all singing and does not applaud when they are done like everyone else.
(song: "SOMETHINGS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR", featuring Townspeople chorus, Walter, Rilla and Una)
WALTER: What a cause for celebration
In blunt, an overseas mutilation
He makes to turn away but a woman grabs his shoulder
WOMAN 1: Yet it fills us all in such elation!
Walter looks at the children on stage and the cheering crowd.
WALTER: A hypnotized glory blind population
Another Woman from the crowd joins Woman 1.
WOMAN 2: And you son... what's the hesitation?
WOMAN 1: Why aren't you fulfilling your obligation?
WOMAN 2: What's your reservation?
A man steps out from the crowd and shakes his finger at Walter reproachfully
MAN 1: Procrastination
WOMAN 1: Relaxation
A few boys in Khaki gather around Walter as well, and point at him accusingly.
BOYS: Collaboration!
WOMAN 1: Here's some motivation!
Three more people from the crowd turn around and look at Water:
WOMAN 3, WOMAN 4, MAN 2 : The annihilation
Another three turn around and look at him.
WOMAN 5, MAN 3, MAN 4: The termination
BOYS: Of our nation
All the others simultaneously turn their heads and circle around him, he is shifted to center stage as they surround him.
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: Of your generation
WALTER: Again and again they say it
I've heard it so many times
Get in the army son
Fall into line
A hypnotized glory blind entire nation
Cause for celebration
And Conversation
I need an explanation for this fascination!
He breaks away from the crowd and walks down the street, the spotlight follows him and most of the crowd drifts off stage and the rest go about their business, occasionally glancing at him. Walter looks around furtively.
WALTER: Slacker
Sissy
Coward, they say
In every which way
They say
Just a yellow-bellied
Good for naught
They say
Dastardly
Disgrace
Able-bodied man they say
What's the big delay?
They say
Just another lazy
Don't do what he ought
They say...
Some of the crowd reappears and surrounds Walter again.
WOMAN 1,2,3 MAN 1,2: Obligation!
Take up your arms, and off to war!
Sail to Mother Britain, lads
Adventure waits on her shores
The merciless villain
Would slaughter us civilians
We implore!
'Cause some things are worth fighting for
Domination!
The lights fade except for one on Walter, and then one appears opposite on Rilla who is at home, and looking distraught. She puts aside a letter she is reading and takes the envelope. She shakes it and a single white feather falls out gracefully to the floor. Meanwhile Walter is bending over a patch of flowers.
RILLA: He sees the breezes blow through the trees
And he sees the moon beam across the seas
And he sees the beauty
And he sees the peace
Suddenly Woman 4 appears at her side.
WOMAN 4: But it's only his duty
RILLA: Oh when will this cease
Man 4 appears at her other.
MAN 4: Ten years in the least
Rilla tosses the letter to the ground and walks offstage. Some townspeople reappear and harass Walter by pushing him and pinning a white feather on him.
WOMAN 4,5, MAN 3,4: How can you abandon your comrades?
How can you ignore?
What would you tell your children?
When they ask for stories
About the war
You know son, some things are worth fighting for
Preservation!
They all run offstage together.
WALTER: Canada
Khaki
Com'on, they say
Keep them at bay
They say
Do your part
Overseas
Join up
Please
They say
Get up
Off your knees
They say
Be brave
Though you go to your grave
Be brave!
For the good of your country
For your families
Don't deprave
They say
All the members of the crowd in the beginning reappear, some from behind objects on the stage.
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: Annihilation!
Defend your country, like heroes of yore
Who's hands are missing?
Are they yours?
Get up out of bed
Avenge the dead
Make life go back to what it was before!
'Cause some things are worth fighting for
Rilla appears on the opposite side of the stage as before, off to the side. The townspeople go about harassing Walter with increasing violence.
RILLA: desperately and angrily He sees the unsteady grit of a newly born foal
The crimson of the poppy the black of the coal
He has a beautiful mind
A beautiful soul
And I'm afraid, I'm afraid he won't come back quite whole
And who will console us?
Man 3 and Woman 5 look up and everyone else except them and Rilla, are suspended in tableau.
MAN 3: At least the Germans won't control us!
WOMAN 5: And his valor will extol us!
Rilla walks off and the tableau unfreezes. The townspeople make a semicircle around Walter and they all point at him as he slowly rotates.
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: Show some courage
They need your help!
Don't mind the gore
You know some things are worth fighting for
Son, do your bit!
Bayoneting babies?
Don't permit!
Protect your family!
Protect our shores!
End the war!
Because don't you know that
Some things...
WALTER: I just can't-
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: FREELOADER!
WALTER: Let me be-
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: COWARD!
WALTER: It's not right!-
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: SLACKER!
WALTER: I-
WOMAN 1: Oh hear him talk!
Rilla appears on the opposite side of the stage to previously along with Una who she is confiding in.
RILLA: My dearest brother
WALTER: Can't-
MAN 1: And it's for naught
RILLA: Think of our mother
WALTER: Bear-
WOMAN 2: Thinks he's some big shot
RILLA: There are so many others
WALTER: To-
MAN 2: Freedom can be bought
RILLA: With lives...
WALTER: See-
WOMAN 3: If only he thought
RILLA: With guns and knives
And tears and lives...
WALTER: Such-
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: He can be taught!
Una stands up and starts wringing her hands. Except for her and Walter, everyone else is in tableau. Rilla's face is in her hands. And Una looks right at Walter as he starts to sing.
WALTER: We're all somebody's son
We're all somebody's son
Even the Huns
We're all somebody's son
A mother's heart breaks by a gun
Everytime, everytime a battle is won
He looks back at her for a moment, and then the spell of the tableau is broken. Everyone is unfrozen and Walter and Una look away.
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: Hesitation!
A young boy walks onto the side stage and everyone looks up when he speaks. Una and Rilla exit quietly.
NEWSPAPER BOY: Extra, extra. Read all about it. The Lusitania is sunk by German torpedo. Hundreds dead.
The newspaper boy exits. Walter blanches and looks at his feet. He seems to be weighing something carefully in his mind, with great difficulty. The townspeople are distracted momentarily and look about at eachother.
WOMAN 4: Oh indeed!
MAN 3: How terrible!
WOMAN 5: I do hope there weren't any children!
The boys look back at Walter
BOYS: And to think, some people can sleep at night
The townspeople look at him too
TOWNSPEOPLE: Without knowing, seeing, fighting the fight
They usher Walter to an enlistment booth and he stumbles, seeming lost somewhat.
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: You don't want this on your conscience
The suffering, the dead, the sick, the poor
Think of them
Think of us
Think of your family
Think of the children!
We implore!
You know...
A pen is pushed into his hand and he signs the shoved in his face.
BOYS + SEVERAL DISEMBODIED VOICES: The piper pipes and it's off to war
TOWNSPEOPLE + BOYS: Some things are worth fighting... killing... dying...For!
The song ends abruptly and the stage goes black.
Dixie is Dixie once more, written by Turner and Kard- recorded 1919 by Noble Sissle