Bouke Oldenhof (The Netherlands)
Frost damage
De moeder, de vader en de rest
…
HANSEL AND THE WITCH
ERIK
Eric’s mother went to town, and looked after him. But she wanted to live herself as well and she loved theatre. That’s not coincidance. Because we’re actors, a lot of the people we know are working in the theatre. Such as Eric.
LIES
He got it from his mother.
ERIK
Eric was only a couple of months old when his mother started acting. Just as she used to do in the village in the girl’s club.
LIES
Eric was lying in a cradle in the back of the theatre. His mother was rehearsing a fairytale, a Christmas pantomime. Let’s say the witch of Hansel en Gretel.
Hi Hansel. Hi Gretel. Nice of you to visit me. Do you like my little house? Did you see the cakes and the sweets on the walls?
[Eric starts crying.]
LIES
I’m sorry. Eric is hungry. I’m back in ten minutes.
ERIK
When Eric was a couple of years older, he had to sit and be quiet, in the backrows of the theater, a big red chair and lots of big red chairs in front of him, and lots of big children sitting everywhere, so high en hudge Eric couldn’t see anything. Just hear.
LIES
Hi Hansel. Hi Gretel. Nice of you to visit me. Do you like my little house? Did you see the cakes and the sweets on the walls?
ERIC
Mum.
LIES
Did you see the cakes and the sweets on the wall?
ERIC
Mum.
Mum, I have to go to the loo.
LIES
Hi Hansel and Gretel, if you have to go to the toilet, please go to the toilet.
ERIC
I have to pee.
LIES
Go to the toilet, and come back when you’re finished. [Laughing witch-like]
ERIC
I really have to piss.
LIES
How can I act this way. Is there nobody to bring the boy to the toilet?
ERIC
I only want you to bring me to the toilet, Mummy.
LIES
How old are you?
ERIC
Four, Mummy.
LIES
Hansel and Gretel, take a look at my house. I have to go, I’ll be back in a minute.
There are sitting of hundreds of children and adults watching the play. I do not want to disappoint the audience. I’ll show you once where the toilet is, and please go there alone the next time.
ERIC
Yes Mum.
And when he was older, he was acting himself. Everybody had rehearsels, and Eric joined in.
LIES
Hi Hansel. Hi Gretel. Nice of you to visit me. Do you like my little house? Did you see the cakes and the sweets on the walls?
ERIC
Yes Mummy!
LIES
Stupid boy, you can’t say that in the performance. Yes Mummy! That’s is not your text.
ERIC
Yes Mummy.
LIES
I’m not your mother anymore. I’m the witch. You don’t know me. I’ll lock you in. I’ll feed you, to eat you. Don’t forget, I don’t know you, I’m the witch. I’m a stranger to you.
ERIC
Yes Mummy.
LIES
Hi Hansel. Hi Gretel. Nice of you to visit me. Do you like my little house? Did you see the cakes and the sweets on the walls?
ERIC
Yes, my lady.
LIES [puts up her thumb to approve]
When you’re that old, you can’t say what makes you happy. But it sure made him happy, this, Eric, then.
ERIK
He never forgot.
Frost damage
is a play for children of about 12 years old, to be played by two actors in classrooms. It is based on biographical data of the youth of a man who is now about 60-years old, living in the north of The Netherlands.
The play is situated around an old-fashioned coalfired stove, in the back of the classroom somewhere up North in the ‘60’s. Associations of warmth, a family life, possibilities of warmth people can give to each other. Some scenes are located in the classroom, other scenes in a cowhouse, a factory and so on.
`Mother and I’ is a story of not being wanted and of neglect.
Eric is born to a mother who didn’t tell anybody that she was pregnant. The boy is born in a cowhouse. When the farmer finds his housekeeper he doesn’t know whether the bucket with water she took with her, was meant to wash or to drown the baby.
The mother is sent to town. Her hobby is acting. She always takes Eric to rehearsals. When he is 7 years old, he plays Hansel in the Christmas pantomime Hansel and Gretel. His mothers corrects him if he calls him mother, because she is playing the witch: I’m a stranger to you.
Eric tries to win the attention and love of a female teacher by buying her flowers, but she doesn’t see the signs of a neglected boy. Eric is becoming a nasty pupil, often punished.
Eric is very often alone at home. He makes up stories being a popular train driver who is bringing everybody home safely. He imagines being a hero: a knight, or a detective, or a rich boy giving presents to everybody. Eric finds the key of the blanket factory in which his mother has started to work, and finds the wage money of several people.
His mother is suspected, being one of three persons having a key for the factory. She denies it of course. Although there is no evidence, she punishes Eric when the police is gone, locking him up in a coal bunker, and beating him. She doesn’t notice that the boy wants her attention.
An actor and a actress are acting scenes from this life. Not a funny story, not a nice life. They discuss the possibilities of solving the problem of the boy. Is there no end to children being unhappy?
Rightholder:
© Theater De Citadel info@citadeltheater.nl
Performances:
1st Opening Theater De Citadel, Groningen (NL) February 19, 2010
Cast:
M: 1
F: 1