The Devoted Friend

Description

The Devoted Friend – Cast of 6 – Readers Theatre/Guided Reading/Short Play. With synopsis, teaching input, discussion points and suggestions for further activities.

This script is one of a collection which includes:

1. 1. 1. The Happy Prince: Cast of 6 – around 10 minutes reading time
      2. The Nightingale and the Rose:  Cast of 6 – around 5 – 10 minutes reading time
      3. The Selfish Giant: Cast of 6 – around 5 minutes reading time
      4. The Devoted Friend: Cast of 6 – around 5 – 10 minutes reading time
      5. The Remarkable Rocket, made up of 3 parts:

• • • • Part I cast of 6, around 5 – 10 minutes reading time
      • Part II cast of 6, around 10 – 15 minutes reading time
      •  Part III cast of 6, around 10 – 15 minutes reading time

The same 6 speakers may be used for all 3 parts, or 3 different sets of speakers used, taking cast size to a possible 21 (with addition of ‘extras’/doubling up)

These scripts are all available separately off www.plays-r-ussell.com

Sample Text from The Devoted Friend

Green Linnet:     Well, I didn’t see you turn down any offerings. In fact you were the first to take what little Hans had.

Hugh the Miller:               Just doing what any good friend would do.

Water Rat:          Oh, I’m warming to this fellow already!

Green Linnet:     Hmm. Funny, that’s not what Hans’ other friends said. They couldn’t understand why it was all one-way traffic!

Hugh the Miller:               What do you mean?

Narrator:             Well, you were clearly very wealthy. Yet Hans here was very poor. So why did you take from him and give nothing back? Surely that’s the least you could have done?

Duck:                    That’s what decent folk do let alone friends. It’s not just take take take. Or it shouldn’t be.

Green Linnet:     What about those hundred sacks of flour you had stored in your mill? Could you not have spared one for your friend? You did, after all, also have six cows and a large flock of sheep.

Hans:                    Ah but friendship, as Hugh is always telling me, is totally unselfish.

Narrator:             Yes? So what’s unselfish about taking and giving nothing in return? I’m getting a very strange glimpse of friendship here. Seems to me its totally one-sided.

Green Linnet:     Oh just you wait til you hear about what Hans suffered in the winter months – when he went cold and hungry as he had nothing from his garden to sell to market. And where was his devoted friend then?

Narrator:             Tucked away in the warmth of his own comfortable castle, I’m guessing, without a thought for his poor friend.

Hugh the Miller:               Now, that is absolutely not the case. I spent many an evening talking to my wife about Hans.

Duck:                                   So why did the two of you not go round to his aid?

Hugh the Miller:               Oh no! That would never have done. Folk in trouble are best left alone. They don’t want to be bothered by visitors.

Water Rat:                         Well said. I’d have done the same in his place.