Dog Barking in the Distance

Six young hikers are lost in the forest. What do they hear in the distance? Will they make it out alive? This scary and suspenseful play for teens features equal roles for any gender. Middle and high school students will love this script for scene study or performance. Sound effects make it a fun choice for radio drama or readers’ theatre, too.

About the Author…

Trevor Suthers has had over seventy plays produced, ranging from monologues to musicals, full-length plays, one-act plays, and sketch shows. He has written for British ‘TV Soaps,’ ‘Coronation Street,’ and ‘Eastenders.’ A number of his plays have been both staged and broadcast in the US, and many have been published online. He is the founder of award-winning JB Shorts, Manchester’s most popular fringe theatre event, presenting, bi-annually, six short plays by TV writers, and it is now in its tenth year. He has written and published a number of plays for Youth Theatre and recently won the audience-voted British Theatre Challenge 2018.

Excerpt from the play…

CHARACTERS:
6 roles, any gender.

AT RISE: Six teens in hiking gear, carrying backpacks, arrive in a forest clearing. They are tired and drop their backpacks to rest. Sfx=Sound Effects

1: That’s it. I’ve had it. We’re lost.

2: No, we can’t be lost. We can’t be lost.

3: (checking) No signal, nothing.

5: (checking) There hasn’t been a signal for miles.

4: I’m so tired. So tired.

1: We’re all tired.

4: We’ve been walking for miles.

2: This isn’t a hike. It’s an endurance test.

5: I hate tests.

2: I hate hiking.

6: Where are we?

3: Absolutely no idea. We lost the trail… miles back.

2: I don’t get it. It’s a circular trail. We should have been back at camp hours ago.

5: It’s this mist. Ever since this mist came down, that’s when we lost the trail. You can’t hardly see a thing.

2: You’re right. (checking) This mist must be affecting the signal. Must be blocking the signal.

6: So where the heck are we?

3: Are you not listening? We’re lost. No GPS. No signal.

4: Be dark soon.

1: Don’t say that.

4: But it will.

1: Don’t say it like that.

4: Like what?

1: ‘Be dark soon’. All creepy and ominous.

4: How do you want me to say it?

1: You don’t need to say it at all; we all know it’ll be dark soon.

5: We’ll find a way back, back to the trail. We have to.

2: There’s no point in going on now.

6: What do you mean?

2: No point in moving on. We can’t see a thing in this mist anyway. May as well stay here, at least till this mist clears.

4: It’ll be dark by then. Anyway, we haven’t got any tents.

5: We could build a shelter.

2: Our folks will come looking for us. Sooner or later. We just have to wait.

1: They’ll know we’re missing by now. We should have been back at camp hours ago.

3: They will have sent search parties. (to 2) You’re right. We just have to wait. Sit it out. Sit tight.

6: Yeah, they know we’re missing by now. They’ll have formed a search party. Just have to wait.

4: But for how long? How long does it take to form a search party?

1: Who knows? I guess you have to inform the park rangers. I guess they form the search party.

4: But how long will it all take?

5: If we had a flare, we could use a flare. Attract attention.

1: We’re not lost at sea.

4: We may as well be.

5: Has anybody brought a map?

3: What’s the use of a map when we can’t even see fifty yards in front of us?

4: I brought a chess set.

2: What’s the good of that?

4: It’s something to do while we’re waiting.

6: Yeah, great, a chess tournament. Just what we hiked all the way out here for.

2: How are we for water? I’ve still got half a bottle.

3: I’ve still got a sandwich.

1: Check your packs, everybody. Get out all your food and drink. See what we’ve got.

Pause. They start rummaging in their backpacks.

4: It’s all very quiet. Has anybody noticed it’s all very quiet?

3: It’s always quiet when you’re in the middle of nowhere.

4: I didn’t think it was going to be as quiet as this. There’s not even birdsong. You’d think there’d be birdsong.

2: It’s the wilderness. The wilderness is quiet by nature. It’s nature.

6: I tell you, it’s this mist. Birds don’t sing if they can’t see each other.

Sfx: dog barking in the distance

1: What was that? Did you hear that?

5: Hear what?

1: A dog. A dog barking.

3: Where?

1: I don’t know, somewhere in the distance.

2: I didn’t hear no dog. Sure it was a dog?

1: Sounded like a dog.

6: I didn’t hear anything either.

1: I’m sure I heard something.

3: I can’t hear anything.

5: Well, whatever it was, it’s gone now.

Sfx: Dog barking in the distance.

1: There it is again. Did you hear it, you must have heard it.

2: Yes, I heard it.

3: Yes, I heard it too. Did you hear it?

6: I heard something. Don’t know if it was a dog or anything.

1: It was definitely a dog.

2: For sure that was a dog. No question.

6: What’s a dog doing way out here?

4: Dogs can be anywhere.

6: Not way out here. Not on their own.

5: Who says it’s on its own? It might have an owner.

4: It might have a house. There might be a house nearby.

2: Who knows what’s nearby? You can’t see nothing in this mist.

1: It sounded like it came from over this way.

3: You can’t tell. You can’t tell what direction it was.

2: It sounded like a long way away.

4: What kind of dog do you think it is?

5: What difference does that make?

4: I don’t know, just wondered.

1: I think it was a big dog.

6: How do you know?

1: The bark. Sounded like a big dog. Little dogs yap. That was like a proper dog’s bark.

4: What, like a Rottweiler or an Alsatian?

1: Or a Husky.

3: Or a Great Dane.

6: What difference does it make what kind of dog it is?

3: It might be able to help us.

4: Does it know we’re here? Does it know we’re lost?

3: Of course, it knows. It can smell us.

6: It can smell you, probably.

4: It could lead us to safety.

2: What if it’s not a dog? What if it’s a wolf? Thought of that?

1: Wolves don’t bark. Wolves howl.

6: But what’s a dog doing way out here?

2: More likely a wolf then, like I said.

3: Whatever it is, looks like it’s stopped barking.

4: Maybe it’s gone indoors. Maybe its owners have taken it indoors. Or maybe it was fastened up and that’s why it was barking. To be let in. And that’s why it’s stopped barking; because it’s been let in.

Sfx: Dog barking in the distance. Closer now. They are all standing by now.