Bone-China Staircase

From Urban Press

Contents 1 Slugs Snails and Puppy dog tails, growing up and other delusions 2 Production History 3 Cast of Characters 3.1 Incidental characters 4 Original Cast

Slugs Snails and Puppy dog tails, growing up and other delusions

Three year old Anwen Duffy becomes separated from her mother in a busy department store on the last shopping day before Christmas. She is shortly discovered by Reynard Wells, the stores lonely, mentally unbalanced Janitor, who takes the worried little girl home with him, thinking that when he does eventually reunite her with her mother he will be applauded as a hero. However, when he hears news reports that Anwen's abductor is wanted by the police, Reynard panics and decides that, rather than face imprisonment, he will keep the little girl hidden and raise her as his own.

Consequently Anwen grows up in a world largely of her own making, populated with characters from books he gives her to read…witches, goblins and giants. He warns her of dire consequences should she climb the bone-china stairs and open the door to the outside world… and for the longest time she believes him.

Production History

Cast of Characters

This is a play for four actors, two female (referred to in the text as One and Two) and two male (referred to as Three and Four). The two female actors are required to be physically very similar. Below are the character outlines plus suggested role divisions.