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"Gifts of Flame" was written as an entry for a competition organised some years back by The Sacred Earth Drama Trust. The aim was to write a play for young people, which had a concern with the environment, and which drew, for its inspiration, on the sacred stories of diverse cultures. My play won first prize, and was published, along with other prize-winning entries, in the book "Sacred Earth Dramas" published by Faber. The stories I drew on were mainly those of the native peoples of the Amazon rainforest. Among other things, it's about the nature of storytelling itself. I later had the opportunity to direct the play myself with a group of drama students in Birmingham, and re-wrote the play for that occasion.
This extract comes from near the beginning. A Boy, going into the forest to hunt, has come upon a Magic Rock, who offers him the gift of stories in exchange for the life of the deer he was about to kill. What follows is the first story the Rock tells the Boy | |
| ROCK: | Stories are what you are. They are where you came from and how you were made. Stories are why things are as they are, and how they came to be. They are the whole world, and everything in the world and beyond the world. And the time's come for you to know what they are. Sit down on the ground and I'll tell you. Listen, and I'll tell you all the stories I know. |
| STORYTELLER: | The boy put down his bow and arrows He sat on the ground And he listened As the rock began to tell him its stories. What stories did the rock tell the boy? First of all it told - |
| STORYTELLER: | The forests and the mountains - |
| ROCK: | The rivers and the lakes - |
| STORYTELLER: | The birds And insects And animals |
| ROCK: | Everything that lives and grows - |
| STORYTELLER: | Everything that jumps and creeps - |
| ROCK: | And crawls and runs - |
| STORYTELLER: | And flies and wriggles and swims - |
| ROCK: | Everything came out of her body at the beginning - |
| STORYTELLER: | And everything goes back to her in the end. |
| ROCK: | And finally, she gave birth to two children, Sume and Jurupari, twins who hated each other and were born fighting |
| SUME AND JURUPARI ENTER, FIGHTING | |
| SUME: | They tear up the forests! |
| JURUPARI: | They rip up the mountains! |
| SUME: | They empty the rivers! |
| JURUPARI: | They flatten the hills! |
| SUME: | They suck up the seas and spit them out! |
| JURUPARI: | They stamp great holes in the ground with their feet! |
| SUME: | They bite! |
| JURUPARI: | They kick! |
| SUME: | They claw! |
| JURUPARI: | They roar! |
| ROCK: | Each one trying to destroy each other. But they couldn't. So they just went on fighting. |
| SUME AND JURUPARI CONTINUE FIGHTING. THEIR MOTHER ENTERS | |
| MOTHER: | Stop it! Stop! Both of you! Look what you're doing! You can't go on like this! You'll destroy everything! |
| SUME: | I don't care! |
| JURUPARI: | Neither do I! |
| SUME: | I want to destroy everything! |
| JURUPARI: | So do I! |
| SUME: | And when I've done that, I'll destroy him! |
| JURUPARI: | And when I've done that, I'll destroy him! |
| MOTHER: | No, you will not! |
| SHE DRAGS THEM APART That's enough! No more! .If I'd known you were going to cause this much trouble, I'd never have given birth to you! Now, tell me. Which of you started this? |
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| SUME: | He did. |
| JURUPARI: | No I didn't! |
| SUME: | He did. It was him. |
| JURUPARI: | It wasn't! It was him! |
| SUME: | It wasn't me! |
| JURUPARI: | Yes, it was! |
| SUME: | You started it! |
| JURUPARI: | I didn't! |
| SUME: | It was you! |
| JURUPARI: | It was you! |
| THEY START FIGHTING AGAIN. ONCE MORE THEIR MOTHER SEPARATES THEM | |
| MOTHER: | No more, I said! I can see that you're both to blame! You're also both my children, and I love you both equally. So I want you to settle this quarrel. Make friends, and promise never to fight each other again. Go on! Make friends! Shake hands. Be brothers. |
| SUME: | All right. |
| HE HOLDS OUT HIS HAND TO JURUPARI | |
| No hard feelings? | |
| JURUPARI: | No hard feelings. |
| JURUPARI TAKES SUME'S HAND, CLASPS IT, THROWS HIM TO THE GROUND AND STAMPS ON HIM. SUME LIES STILL. JURUPARI GIVES A CRY OF TRIUMPH | |
| There! That's got rid of him! Now you have only one son, and you can give all your love to me! | |
| MOTHER STARES AT HIM IN HORROR | |
| MOTHER: | You'll get no love from me! For what you've done, I cast you out from my love forever! You'll never know love again! Go from here! Run! Fly! Hide yourself in the darkest places of the earth. From this day forward you shall know only hatred and fear, and the horror of your crime will torment you forever! |
| JURUPARI: | Mother - ! |
| MOTHER: | You are not my son! |
| SHE TURNS FROM HIM | |
| ROCK: | So Jurupari, the first murderer, ran and hid himself. His heart was filled with hatred and pain, longing and loss. |
| JURUPARI: | And he became hideous, a monster, dwelling in the dark places of the earth. |
| STORYTELLER: | And he dwells there still Sending his hatred out into the world Infecting us with his bad dreams And evil thoughts He lives in fear And we live in fear of him. |
| BOY: | What about the other one? Sume. Was he dead? |
| ROCK: | No. He couldn't die, because in those days death hadn't come into the world. In those days, life was so new and so strong, death just couldn't enter. But the blow Jurupari gave to Sume felled him, and he couldn't wake up again. So his mother, the earth, knelt beside him, and lifted his head, and whispered in his ear. |
| MOTHER: | Dream, my son. Dream, and let your dreams populate the world. Dream the world healing from the damage you've caused. Dream the earth shining, dream life returning. |
| BOY: | What was his dream? |
| ROCK: | An egg. |
| BOY: | An egg? |
| ROCK: | He dreamed of a giant egg. |
| SUME: | Perfectly smooth, perfectly white. |
| MOTHER: | Standing on the grass, shimmering in the light |
| ROCK: | And in his dream he reached out to touch it. |
| SUME: | Placed his fingers lightly on the shell. |
| MOTHER: | And he felt its warmth, felt the whole egg trembling, as if it was alive. |
| STORYTELLER: | And it was alive And the shell split Split and cracked wide open And what was alive stepped out onto the grass Stood on two legs Head raised up Eyes gazing unafraid into the world. |
| BOY: | Us! He dreamed us! |
| ROCK: | That's right. He dreamed us, and he's still dreaming us. |
| STORYTELLER: | And everything that's happened since And everything that's happening now And everything that ever will happen It's all part of his dream And as long as he keeps dreaming Things will keep happening And we'll go on living. So that story was finished. |
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As I think the book "Sacred Earth Dramas" is now out of print, | |
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All original material Copyright © 2002 David Calcutt.
Any reproduction in full or in part of any item or extract represented herein is forbidden
unless written permission has first been obtained from the originator.