A fickering of light comes from ahead (p47)
The trench foods with light (p47)
A fare goes up (p48)
The fare dies (p48)
Another fare goes up (p48)
The school bell rings (p2)
There is the sound of the tree falling – like a roar of thunder (p5)
Hymn music tells us we’re in church (p6)
Off: the noise of six strokes of the cane (p10)
Off: the noise of six more strokes of the cane (p10)
A knock at the door (p12)
A knock at the door (p16)
There is a sound of splashing (p18)
Molly and Charlie continue to splash and giggle off (p18)
More splashing and giggling (p19)
Hear the distant drone of an engine (p19)
Noise of cows scattering, ducks quacking and the plane landing (p20)
Hear the plane taking off (p20)
Silence, then the sound of a skylark (p20)
A loud and incessant knocking at the door (p25)
Knocks (on the front door) (p28)
The sound of wind and rain roaring violently in the trees (p29)
Bustle. A military band plays God Save the King (p34)
The bustle of supper (p36)
The blast of a ship’s horn (p42)
The sound of two aeroplanes buzzing overhead (p42)
They can hear the Germans: talking, laughter, a gramophone (p47)
Voice and music (p47)
Gunfre, then Nipper throws a grenade and there is a blast that throws the English soldiers against the trench wall (p47)
German machine guns and rifes open fre (p48)
More intense gunfre and shelling starts (p48)
The bombardment starts (p52)
It does stop (p52)
The fring starts all along the line (p52)
The cry is echoed all along the trench (p57)
A shell whistles over and explodes, the blast throwing them all to the ground, the world above erupts (p63)
The shelling stops and the whistle goes for them all to go out over the top (p63)
Then the biggest explosion of all brings them to the ground (p63)
The muffed sound of machine gun fre (p65)
Death rattle of machine guns (p67)
A volley of shots (p72)
Birdsong (p72)
Copyright © 2015 Simon Reade and Michael Morpurgo
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PRIVATE PEACEFUL is fully protected under the copyright laws of the British Commonwealth, including Canada, the United States of America, and all other countries of the Copyright Union. All rights, including professional and amateur stage productions, recitation, lecturing, public reading, motion picture, radio broadcasting, television and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved.
ISBN 978-0-573-11095-5
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For Guy de Beaujeu
DEVON:
TOMMO – Thomas Peaceful
CHARLIE – his older brother
BIG JOE – their older brother
JAMES PEACEFUL – their father
MOTHER – their mother
GRANDMA WOLF – Mother’s aunt
MR MUNNINGS – the school master
MISS MCALLISTER – Tommo’s school teacher
MOLLY – Charlie and Tommo’s friend
NIPPER – a Biggun at school, later on the Front Line
PETER – a Biggun at school, later on the Front Line
LES – a Tiddler at school, son of a rat catcher, later on the Front Line
JIMMY PARSONS – Charlie’s and Tommo’s school enemy, later on the
Front Line
COLONEL – squire of Iddesleigh
DOCTOR
PILOT
SERGEANT MAJOR
TOOTHLESS OLD LADY
RECRUITING SERGEANT
TIDDLERS
BIGGUNS
HATHERLEIGH MARKET CROWD
WAR:
ARMY CHAPLAIN
SERGEANT ‘HORRIBLE’ HANLEY
BRIGADIER
WOUNDED SOLDIER
ORDERLY
CAPTAIN WILKES
ESTAMINET OWNER
ANNA – Estaminet owner’s daughter
INJURED GERMAN SOLDIER
LIEUTENANT BUCKLAND
GERMAN SOLDIER IN GAS MASK
HAIG
GUARD – to Charlie
OFFICER – fring squad
SOLDIERS – from both sides
ESTAMINET STAFF
From fve past ten on the night of June 24th 1916, to six o’clock on the morning of the 25th, Tommo looks back on his life as a young boy growing up in rural Devon and on his more recent experiences fghting in the trenches in Flanders.
Scenes are given separate numbers for ease of rehearsing and should not necessarily be observed for moments of scene change. The Tommo scenes in Flanders, in the time-ticking-away present, can snap into the following scene in the past without pause – and follow on without hesitation from the preceding scenes set in the past. No set is required and only the bare minimum of props should be used, if at all. It may be that one single versatile item is useful for everything, such as Tommo’s bed. Inventiveness, imagination and what is conjured in our mind’s eye is what is essential to the story-telling.
Simon Reade
Thanks to Paul Hart and Rose Reade