Rats!

By John Summons

Gasp, eek, shock and horror! Warning – dramatic rats at large! See, as Daddy Rat, Mummy Rat and Sonny Rat have their very agreeable lives upset by Rebel Rat, Mauler the Cat and the sinister new Science Teacher. Set in a rat’s cage in a school science laboratory “Rats!” is a satirical look at male chauvinism as revealed through the situation of a family of rats.

A funny, energetic and thought provoking play. Suitable for performance by children / students aged 9 and upwards. Also suitable for performance by adults for children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Summons
• Release date: Jan 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310326257

John Summons

JOHN SUMMONS has been writing stories and plays for adults and children for over thirty years. His children’s novels include Adventure at Whaler’s Bay, My Dad the Duck and The Shadow Boy. As a playwright he has had plays produced by a number of Sydney's leading theatres and was playwright-in-residence at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre. He has been a high school teacher of English, ESL, history and drama and a lecturer in a course for playwrights at Sydney's Institute of Technology. His publishers include Cambridge University Press (UK), The Dramatic Publishing Company (USA) and Currency Press (Australia). He also has an interest in e-learning and software development. In 2000 he authored and programmed an interactive CD "Teacher's P.E.T." for the Australian Commonwealth and New South Wales governments to help students with literacy problems.

Book preview

RATS!

Copyright 2014 John Summons

Published by John Summons at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people or printed in multiple copies in ebook formats that are printable. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Performance Rights

The purchase of this script does not permit the purchaser to perform the play in public. Any performance or public reading of the play must first receive a licence from the author. All applications for public performance of the play should be addressed to Bright Star Productions below.

Email: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Production Notes

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

Scene Five

Scene Six

Scene Seven

Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Finale

About the Author

Other ebooks by the author

Connect with John Summons

Acknowledgements

Rats! was first performed by Sydney's Iron Cove Theatre Company on July 4, 1992 with the following cast:

DADDY RAT Andrew Marshall

MUMMY RAT Heather Simpson

SONNY RAT Jasmin Forbes-Watson

REBEL RAT Bernadette Pryde

Cover: 2012 Production photo (courtesy Tiyatro Yeni Çizg - Turkey)

Introduction

Strange things can happen when you sit down to write a play. When I began Rats! a family of said rodents took up residence in the roof above my desk, thumping about loudly and making rude editorial comments.

The play and the rat family above my head made me think a lot about our relationship with this other species. The relationship has been rocky to say the least, bordering at times on open warfare. We have certainly persecuted the rat; vilifying it, torturing it in laboratories, exterminating it whenever we can. And the rat for its part has on occasions struck back, blighting us with the odd bout of bubonic plague. (Although as Rebel Rat says in the play it wasn't the rat's fault - it was the fleas!) On deaf ears, I'm afraid. Rats have copped the blame and suffered constant bad press as a result.

Despite our abhorrence of these creatures though, we humans have also been fascinated by them and given them a special place, if not in our hearts, then in our minds. Who else do we choose to represent us when it comes to studying our brains or our behaviour? The rat, of course! We have decided that in all the animal kingdom the rat is most like us.

So, it was to the rat I turned for help in writing my play. With due apologies, they are the vehicle for my satire on some objectionable human traits – particularly sexism or male chauvinism. But the play is not only about that, it is also about something which perhaps humans and rats in cages have in common - fear of changing, fear of freedom. Like animals held in a cage we hide behind invisible bars, afraid to step out into greater possibilities, into freer ways of life - socially, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

So, thanks to the rats above my head and to whom I dedicate this play - you have taught me a lot.

Rats of the world unite!

John Summons

Production Notes

Characters

DADDY RAT, a fat, male, white rat. Ratriarch of the white rat family.

MUMMY RAT,