A POLYNESIAN SAGA - A SNAPDRAGON CHILDREN'S THEATRE PRODUCTION

For over twenty years we wrote and produced children's plays in Carroll County, New Hampshire, USA. Casting children as animals as well as creatures of the imagination enabled us to help them explore the natural world more widely than their immediate environment. The following introductory scene explores the various levels of the ocean and the sky above.

This was one of our most ambitious and large-scale productions, set in a culture alien to our local population in New England. Fish, many other sea creatures and dragons, not to mention voices of the gods, complemented a large cast of Polynesian people. We felt that our play was important, in that it enabled us to introduce and honor a relatively neglected and under-appreciated very large part of the world.

The script has some unusual features. Because there are groups of fish, an albatross etc.,who speak recurring lines or poetry, there is considerable leeway as to how their appearances are dispersed through the scenes. This play would suit a cast with many very young members.

FISH POETRY

The fish have their own style of poetry/group chant. They can speak in sequence or in unison. Their movements can be coordinated according to their words, or be independent of them. The whale may be just one whale, but the poem is a group poem anyway. The school and the flying fish need to be choreographed to move together.)

THE SLOW CHANT OF THE DEEP SEA FISH:

Down here in the darkest deeps

On the floor we crawls and creeps

Here the mystery comes and sleeps

Falling down the endless steeps

Living here where no light peeps

Barren desert where we reaps

Softer creatures fails and  weeps

On the floor we crawls and creeps

We can live where no light peeps

Endless space and falling food !

Diverse species to the good !

Pluripotent plenitude !

 

IN THE MIDDLE ZONES

We are whales at play in the seas of forever

We know no nothing  and no never

The  bonds between us never sever

We know wisdom's more than clever

Our delight will never waver

Harmony's our sole endeavor

THE SONGS OF THE CREATURES OF THE SURFACE

The ocean is our glorious home

Over it we're free to roam

Under Heaven's starry dome

(The school of fish)

We're schooling

We're pooling

We are DNA unspooling

We are pliant

We're defiant 

We are one colossal giant !

Together we ride

From side to side

And as we glide

We cannot hide

It is our pride

Here to reside

Our lives flow onward with the tide

As we roam we twist and dash

As we swim our bodies flash

Shining scales and tail-fins clash

We are many we are one

We are here till Kingdom Come

We are here till life is done

(The Flying Fish)

By speed alone we cannot save 

Our lives in water that we crave

So we fly above the wave

Do not pity us our plight

We're majestic in our flight

We are glorious in our might

Over waves so glistening bright

We are such a wondrous sight

Air and sunlight is our right

The ocean is our splendid home

And over it we're free to roam

Under heaven's starry dome.

THE ALBATROSS (Played by three actors working together. It appears from time to time flying across the stage above the ships. It has its own poem:)

I am the mighty albatross

I am never at a loss

The ocean wide I ever cross

A roving bird, I grow no moss

And I can tell true gold from dross

My beak is sharp, I do not floss

I never count a day as loss

As over latitudes I toss 

My heaviness, my mournfulness

So do not think of me the less

I am the mightiest bird of all

I heed the ocean's restless call.