|
Jick's Journey
by Sally Drumm
in collaboration with John Blair and Dennis Adams
© 2007 Sally Drumm & Dennis Adams
Photos byJohn Blair and used with permission
 Jick's Journey, an original comedy-adventure, is set in a mythical forest inhabited by archetypal creatures and one little girl, Jick, who arrives by dream to Thomas Wood. Jick journeys through the wood on a quest to save the new day from Koubis, a fox, and Phisto, a serpent. Along the way, Jick meets several creatures, all of whom join forces to save the new day: Nerus, an otter who thinks himself a walrus; Aluna, an owl who must bargain with fools; Pheebes, an angry 'possum; Vlad, a depressed Romanian-speaking flea who lives on Pheebes; and, Seera, a firefly, who illuminates the night. The comical situations of this fascinating adventure overlay a deeper meaning. Jick begins her journey shortly after her dog dies. Each of the creatures she meets represents a phase of grief.
The play is written in the tradition of the fable, the less well-known medieval bestiary, and the beast poem. These traditional literary forms connected humans and animals in the medieval imagination by portraying animals behaving as humans while sublimely teaching a truth of the human condition. Beast poems were first written in monasteries during the eighth century. Bestiaries became popular during the twelfth century. The beast poems, usually in Latin, featured talking animals in fictional narratives, but they moved beyond the fables and bestiaries which offered an explicit moral. Beast poems were often composed to be read aloud, sung, and staged in monasteries or at court. Beast poems grew in popularity with the appearance in France of Marie de France's twelve laïs, or fables with animal characters. According to Naomi Lewis, translator of Marie de France, laïs in Marie's time were songs or tales that could be half verse or half prose. A musical instrument accompanied the storyteller. A court harpist or traveling minstrel often sang laïs. For Marie, laïs were narratives about specific events. She wrote in Anglo-Norman French, not Latin, and her laïs were composed in eight-syllable rhyming couplets. Neither Marie nor her sources are truly known, but her laïs influenced many writers including Geoffrey Chaucer. Long epics with animals as protagonists began to appear including the twelfth-century Ysengrimus, which introduced characters who later appeared in Renard the Fox.
CHARACTERS
- MOM — Jick's mother
- JICK — a little girl whose dog has died.
- NERUS — an otter who carries a horn and believes himself to be a walrus (Denial and Isolation)
- PHEEBES — a possum who has lost his position, his self-respect, and the fur of his beautiful tail. Ferocious outside; cuddly inside. (Anger)
- ALUNA — an owl who speaks in whos and riddles. (Bargaining)
- VLAD — a misunderstood Romanian philosopher flea responsible for the Black Death. He often appears as a biting red light. (Depression)
- SEERA — a short-lived firefly who regenerates, lives, and dies like the Phoenix. Often appears as a blue light. (Acceptance/Hope)
- KOUBIS — a fox) who wants otter's power and position. (Stealth, Thievery, Envy)
- PHISTO — a serpent who carries Caduceus staff and rules darkness. (Treachery/Duality/Eternity, Life and Death)
- THE ANCIENT (Tree/Aluna's Roost) — the Spirit of Thomas Wood portrayed as an offstage male and female voice speaking as one voice, while a stagehand appears onstage in blackface as the spirit of the Ancient in Act 3, Scene 2.
ACT 1, SCENE 1
Down Center, Curtains drawn to reveal only a child's bed/darkened room. JICK is asleep in her bed.
 JICK: MOMMMMMMMMM!
[MOM races in.]
MOM: Jick, Jick, it's just a dream —
JICK: Pearl's gone. Is she really gone forever, Mom? Will I really never see her again? Oh, Mom, tell me she'll be back tomorrow. Who will I play with? Who will help me eat my supper? Who will lick my face? Who will meet me after school? Oh, Pearl, you were the best dog in the world!
MOM: Well, I'll be there when the bus lets you off. And darling, Pearl stayed with us as long as she could — I miss her, too. Look, I just finished making this...
[ MOM hands JICK a large pearl strung on a red silk cord.]
JICK: This is pretty...but Mom, but it's not my little Pearl-girl, no, not at all. Mom, why did she have to die? Will you die, too?
MOM: Now's not the time for all that; now's the time for sleep. Here let me help you with this [MOM slips the necklace over JICK's head and around her neck.]. As long as you wear this, Pearl is always with you, near your heart. Lie down... [MOM adjusts the necklace, tucks JICK in.]. There now, close your eyes and try to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning. A new day, a new way, tomorrow is Sunday, and maybe we'll bake some cookies...and we'll get out the pictures...yes! We'll make a scrapbook all about your adventures with Pearl. Just you and Pearl. How does that sound?
JICK: Well...maybe...okay.
MOM: Goodnight, then, love. [ MOM kisses JICK.] I'll see you in the morning with orange juice and cinnamon buns.
[ MOM leaves the room. JICK rolls and tosses, cries herself to sleep.]
[Lights down. Curtains close.]
ACT 1, SCENE 2
Dream music. JICK moves to floor. Bed taken offstage. From this point on the curtain will not close until the end of Act 3.2. Stagehands wearing black are part of the play and they complete scene changes as "shades" moving to music. Lights up on Thomas Wood. Jick lies sleeping where her bed once stood. Many animal eyes flicker in the dark. The moon rises, and in its light is revealed a waterfall, before which is NERUS' pool with a boulder at its center. Nearby stands ALUNA's Roost, where Aluna is sitting. JICK awakens in Thomas Wood, alone with no one to comfort her. SEERA flickers by...ALUNA Who-who's...SEERA flickers through the scene, but doesn't speak, as she often does throughout the play. JICK awakens, and no longer wearing the pearl necklace, she rises from the ground and drifts about the scene before stopping at the edge of the pool.
JICK: What is this place? Where am I? When am I? Mommmmmmmmm—
 [NERUS, blowing his horn, emerges from the waterfall and leaps onto the boulder. JICK jumps back, but stands her ground.]
NERUS: [A Romeo, Love at first sight.] What kind of creature, this, with two legs? What kind of creature, this, with running river face? I don't like the smell of you—
JICK: I'm Jick—
NERUS: Jick, Pick, Snick, Tick — What do you want and what do you do, you Pearl-eater, you? [Closes in on JICK to sniff her and to touch her dress, then speaks aside:] I might be falling in love!
JICK: Pearl-eater? I'm no pearl-eater — I'm a girl and my Pearl is dead. Do you know what that means, you silly thing? I'm lost, I guess, lost and my Pearl is dead. Oh, how I loved her, and she loved me!
NERUS: A girl? A girl: pears and wild roses, juicy sweet with thorns — that's a silly thing with no place in Thomas Wood! A Walrus, on the other flipper, is no silly creature, Silly Thing. Dead? Why, only yesterday's dead. Go back where you belong, Silly Girl.
[He blows his horn.]
JICK: [Falls down crying.] I would go back, I really would, if I knew where back might be or where this might be — Thomas Wood, this place is Thomas Wood? Tell me the way to Ash Street, please!
NERUS: I know ashes to ashes and dust to dust, but your street must lie in a different wood. Get up, now, be gone, candy and spice and everything sad! I have work to do and no time for nice. There's icebergs to melt and ices to chip, fishes to catch, and —
 ALUNA: Who-who always plays the oaf? Leave the Two-Legs be!
[SEERA flutters near JICK, but JICK doesn't see her.]
JICK: [In the direction of ALUNA's voice.] Who is that? [In SEERA's direction.] And what's that light buzzing by my face?
ALUNA: Who is he, you might better ask — he certainly doesn't know. Who thinks he's a walrus? Who swims like an otter? Who blows on a horn? Who sees nothing of ice but in dreams? Who-who?
JICK: [In ALUNA's direction.] Who are you? [In NERUS's direction.] What does she mean?
NERUS: She's nothing, a feathered thing who marks the hours, who sleeps all day and cackles all night — she's the Marker of Hours and I am Nerus, Keeper of Time, master of ice floe and ice pack, a sea horse am I!
NERUS: [Aside: Surely this rose is for me to pluck!]
ALUNA: [Aside: Sea Dog, more like.]
JICK: Marker of Hours? . . .But — that blue light, what's that?
NERUS: [Aside: And I shall do the plucking, oh sweet Worm!] ...Stuck in this pool, am I, poor me. That pesky light is our little Seera, who keeps the night aflame by some mysterious means. [Showing off/trying to get JICK's attention.] And this —
ALUNA: Who-who?
NERUS: Jick, you call yourself, Jick? — if I might have your attention, please, Jick. This is the Bag of Days, which I must keep and I must guard. Would you like to see inside?
JICK: Yes, yes, let me see!
NERUS: [Aside: Swans drunk with kisses, soon you'll be mine!] Show you? Shall I? I could if I would! But should I? In this, the Land of Darkness, where day creatures never show their faces, I gather pearls, pluck them from shell, eat the sweet meat, brush away the old day and bring in the new. But only you, of all creatures, walk in lands both dark and light. And so I suppose you are meant to be here, and so I suppose — [Aside: Heh, heh, heh—]
JICK: I've never been afraid of the dark and I do play all day long. Unless I'm in school, of course!
NERUS: Yes, yes, a school of fish, a basket of pearls, a necklace like mine takes years to refine.
[NERUS opens his bag and JICK looks inside, examines the contents.]
NERUS: [Aside: Hmmmm...a Two-Legs child whom Midnight knows — is this the She arrived as ancient tale foretold? If so...this bud is not for me to pluck!]
JICK: Ohhhh — where do they come from, these pearls and shells?
NERUS: [Snatches bag from JICK.] Each day old Phisto the serpent cries tears of longing for night to fall, for he is Keeper of Darkness, whose tears from slitted eyes do fall as dew upon a flower. And in the light of each new day, into this pool one tear shall fall. A shell swims up and opens wide, the drop of dew to fall inside. And so a pearl begins anew, that seed of seeds begins to grow, and when the gleaming goal is reached, I choose and pluck the perfect sphere. Then in my Bag I drop that planet, lifted from a clumsy shell, which neither time nor space contain but worlds alight with each new day. The pearl I choose must on the spot of midnight be returned — if not, tomorrow shall fail and the Wood grow frail [SEERA flickers by, unnoticed by JICK.]. Each day upon each creature's life depends! Each creature upon each day descends! Carbuncles bright, light of the moon, born of the water, back to the water each one is doomed!
JICK: Why, they're all so pretty! The shells, too. But what happens to the old ones, the used ones, the lost ones?
[KOUBIS, observed only by ALUNA, slinks into a hiding place to watch.]
ALUNA: Who trots with stealth? Who slyly plans? Who rubs his paws with good and bad?
NERUS: Not me, you flea-bit fowl! I am the Walrus, Shaman of Thomas Wood! No paws have I! I am he and I am me and we are all together, but I alone must choose and pluck the pearl from these shadowy depths that birds might sing and grass might grow.
[NERUS dives into the waterfall.]
JICK: So pearls are days, and days are pearls, and days are made of serpent's tears...but what happens to the old pearls?
[NERUS emerges, holding a freshly plucked pearl, places it in the bag, closes it, reclines, sets the bag beside him, then carefully hides it beside his pool while JICK isn't looking.]
JICK: Tell me, tell me, please, what happens to the old pearls? Maybe if you do, I'll find my own lost Pearl!
NERUS: Yesterday's pearl, shined and gleaming, is strung upon a spider's web, day-by-day, woven tight, til on Night's creatures — this finely woven thing is found!
JICK: Your necklace! A string of days!
 [KOUBIS, observed only by ALUNA, slides in, grabs the Bag of Days from its hiding place, and then zips away.]
ALUNA: Who plays his tricky trick? Who steals tomorrow? Who's swift as lies and cold as truth? Whose skin is cracked and gnarled oak — not the thief, oh no. Whose walrus pride and finny feet have sapped him of his otter-sight?
NERUS: What do you mean, Thunder-eater? What do you know, you who bargain with light and dark, who sleeps all day and plays all night?
ALUNA: Who opens otter-eyes upon a walrus? Who talks of himself until with stealth the thief takes the prize? Who swims in a pool and acts the fool?
NERUS: [Searching his hiding place for the bag.] Gone! Water! Moon! Girl! I've been tricked!
[JICK follows NERUS's look toward the Bag, and discovers that it is gone.]
JICK: Oh no! This is awful!
[JICK turns her back on NERUS. NERUS, thinking JICK has stolen the bag, lifts the back of JICK's dress to search for it.]
NERUS: No bag and no tail!
JICK: [JICK slaps NERUS.] I don't have it!
[NERUS, disbelieving, roars and slaps JICK. SEERA flies madly, interceding, her light bouncing off their heads and bodies.]
NERUS: Ohhhhh...this is triply awful. What thief, what jokester, what fisher, this?
[JICK and NERUS search in confusion. SEERA's light dims.]
ALUNA: [Who-ing ferociously.] Who-Who do you think? Who covets the Bag of Days of Thomas Wood in Darkland! Who fails to find that one? Who will die? Who will live? Who, Keeper of Time? Who, Marker of Hours? Who, Light of the Night? I tell you, less than two hours shall pass before Midnight chills this grave. The players all in place, the ceremony must convene by then! Without the pearl, tomorrow's lost!
[NERUS collapses on boulder.]
JICK: Owl, help us, help us, please!
ALUNA: [Uncertain about revealing the thief's identity.] Who marks the hour? Who guards the leaves upon this tree on which the names of all be writ? Who calls day's dawn when twilight thrills? Who-who wants spark when dark will do? Who awakes, who hunts, who of heart of darkness eats? Who never has to bargain with another fool should night rule? -Who-who? I, Aluna, who loves the Night! Who-who? Aluna!
[Four dead pigeons drop from the sky onto the stage, thrown like grenades or a mortar barrage by stagehands. SEERA's light fades as she weakly flutters in the background. JICK picks up a dead pigeon.]
 JICK: This pigeon is dead—
[JICK throws down the dead bird and begins poking it with a stick.]
NERUS: Thomas Wood shall pass away, pass away, pass away soon, should the culprit keep his secret boon! Death of wing and fin will follow close upon those paws unhallowed. [Sits up.] Death be nimble, death be quick, death will come — a thunderstick! [Kneels.] Son of Night, brother of Sleep, Gate of Grief, before you we weep, if some creature knows the where of that precious purse, reveal now, so we creatures might return the curse. [Stands.] All shall die in tomorrow's hearse!
ALUNA: Who puts his case so eloquently must sup his just feast. Who of red-fur, of pointy ears and snout, of whiskers long as spidey legs, of covetry and spite? Who wishes to be Keeper of Time?
[SEERA's light returns to full strength as ALUNA tells the truth.]
JICK: A fox?
NERUS: Of course, that foul-mouthed kitten, Koubis! That rat-eater, that, that, that...
JICK: What will we do?
NERUS: Go after him of course!
ALUNA: Who, but, who? Who leaves the pool? Who flies? Who brightens the night? Who-who?
NERUS: She's right for once, that old snake-eater. This pool can't be abandoned — the days to come must be tended. Aluna could deafen Koubis, but that won't do. Seera could blind him, but what hope belies, fools despise—
JICK: I'll go. I'll help. And then will you help me find my way home?
[Another dead bird drops from the sky; an anguished cry is heard in the distance.]
NERUS: [Leaping to land from boulder.] Oh, rotten iceberg, oh, melted time — the Wood dies! Yes, yes, you will do! Seera will light your way — follow the path beyond Aluna's Roost, the path to the West and Koubis' lair! Now off with you, go! On with the march! To the savage path! And you, Aluna, fly ahead; spy out the traps Koubis will lay!
[Lights dim, fewer animal eyes appear as the forest begins to fade from existence.]
ACT 2
ACT 3
Return to Mythic Passages Menu
Subscribe to the Mythic Passages e-magazine
|
