Cloud 945B follows Lucy and Ariel, two imaginative children who enjoy describing what they see in the clouds. When they are suddenly confronted by an officer of the Cloud-Police, he tells them that clouds should only be described with their official, scientific names, and any more imaginative interpretations are forbidden! It’s up to Lucy and Ariel to teach the officer how fun playing and imagining can be! This clever play encourages children’s problem-solving skills and creativity!
AUTHOR BIO:
Sarah Thewlis is a writer-performer and Oxford University graduate in English Literature. Her work as a playwright includes various shorts, a dinosaur-themed show for the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and an upcoming musical, Markheim. She has recently worked with the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, both performing her one-woman show and helping young people with disabilities devise their own pieces. She is currently creating a play for GRAEAE theatre to raise awareness on the topic of chronic pain.
Excerpt from the play:
CHARACTERS
LUCY
ARIEL
OFFICER BLUE
Act I: Scene 1
Scene opens on a grassy clearing. The sounds of birdsong and running water hint at an idyllic, natural setting. Two children, LUCY, who is eleven, and ARIEL, who is nine, are centre-stage, sitting alongside each other, facing the audience, their hands clasped around their knees and their heads inclined towards the sky.
LUCY
(Pointing upwards and speaking in a manner that suggests the audience has joined them mid-conversation) What do you think about that cloud over there? See, the big fat one with lots of little bobbly bits?
ARIEL
Umm..wait, let me think. (pauses and strokes his chin with a serious, pensive expression on his face) Got it! It’s a hippo on roller-skates – see how all the bobbly bits look like tiny wheels? Or…or if you look at it the other way, it’s my granny in a tiara!
LUCY
Your granny in a tiara?! (giggles) What would she be doing up there?
ARIEL
Well… she could be having a holiday!
LUCY
A sky-holiday! Where she gets to play with all the other cloud-creatures, and go to cloud-castles and cloud-palaces, and eat loads of cloud-candyfloss!
ARIEL
Exactly. (Pauses and then points up at a cloud) What do you think that skinny one is?
LUCY
A string-bean! (points at another cloud) A submarine!
ARIEL
(points) Bears in a bunk-bed! (points) Pears with puffin-heads!
LUCY
(points) A plate of chips!
ARIEL
(gets up and runs excitedly stage left to point at the next cloud) Flip-flops doing back-flips!
(points) Crabs with their claws going clippy-clap-clip!
LUCY
(also gets up, runs stage right to point) A pocketful of parakeets! (points) A snail having dinner at an all-you-can-eat! A mongoose!
ARIEL
A mooooose!
LUCY
A sausage-dog! A –
The children are interrupted by OFFICER SKY BLUE entering stage-left and moving to the centre of the stage. He runs in blowing a whistle furiously, before flipping out his ’Cloud Police’ badge, which has a blue background with a white cloud at its centre. He is a small man with long, white hair, dressed in a sky-blue uniform, with a sky-blue cape.
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