A Gray Play Book by Alasdair Gray sampler

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14 JONAH nuclear war. (Historical note: Britain was then the only nation after Russia and the USA to possess hydrogen bombs. Trade unions and local Labour parties had called on the British government to set other nations a good example by doing without them. The Tory government and parliamentary Labour party replied that Britain would be an unimportant nation without them, and could survive a nuclear war with the help of normal civil defence precautions. Meanwhile the government was building nuclear bunkers for itself and the civil service, while forbidding the BBC and newspapers to make this fact public.) This poor play did not stop Miss Hamilton, head of the School’s small Puppetry Department, asking me to write plays for her students. After one or two sketches performed at children’s private parties I dramatized part of the Old Testament discovered through my love of William Blake. His engravings to The Book of Job inspired me to illustrate my own book of the Bible, and after searching through the shortest ones I had discovered The “JONAH” by Alasdair Gray. Incidental Music by Reid Moffat. Sets by Alasdair Gray. Scene I. An open space in a City. Scene II. Deck of a Ship. Scene III. An Interior! IV. The Council Chamber, Nineveh. V. A Desert near Nineveh. Characters. Carved By. Operated By. Spoken By. Jonah Monica Jamieson (Duncan Shanks & Atholl Hill. (Andrew Stewart Mrs. Jonah Carolle McLaren Robert Smyth Vivian Simmons Ship’s Captain George McCulloch Arch. Sinclair Grant, his Mate Arthur Speirs Arthur Speirs Alastair Taylor Customs Man Robert Smyth Robert Smyth Malcolm Hood King of Nineveh Oonagh Walsh Duncan Shanks James Simpson Chancellor (Mae Fotheringham Sandre Ogilvie Arthur Speirs (Frank Bowles Home Secretary John Harvey Vivia Barclay Malcolm Hood Chief of Police Joyce Drummond Gillian Macleod Alasdair Gray Sentry Alastair Taylor Alastair Taylor John Campbell Shepherd Duncan Shanks Duncan Shanks John Campbell Voice of God Alastair Taylor __________________________________________________________________ Management of Scenery & Properties: Gillian Macleod, Sandra Ogilvie and Vivia Barclay. Lighting: Gerard Quail. THE COMPANY WISH TO RECORD THEIR THANKS TO MR. LAURIE FOR USE OF HIS TAPE-RECORDER.
Book of Jonah. Only three chapters long, this book contains two miracles, one the most famous in the Bible because, after the creation of the world, it is the most unlikely. And unlike the Deluge, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Egyptian plagues and trumpets blowing down the walls of Jericho, both miracles save a life instead of killing thousands. The true hero of Jonah is a reforming God using his power to persuade enemies, instead of slaughtering them. Jonah had inspired several of my pictures and the first play I think you may enjoy. Directing it was good preparation for later productions of my plays. The puppeteers who carved and manipulated the little wooden actors listened carefully to my directions, seemed to accept them then ignored or forgot them. Scene 2 has Jonah in a cowardly state meeting the Captain and Customs Officer, so I wanted his sense of inferiority made evident by having the puppets playing them an inch or two taller. In scene 4 he is confident enough to dominate the rulers of Nineveh, so I wanted the four of them to be an inch or two shorter. Nearly all the characters are types so I suggested historical individuals whose faces could be prototypes – the Commander of the Armed Forces, for instance, should resemble Bismark. When we came to rehearse the play I saw that the Commander of the Armed Forces had an elfin face, tip-tilted nose and merry smile. When I complained to Miss Hamilton she explained that the carvers were artists who had to be allowed to express themselves. However, by giving the Commander’s head to the Sentry and swapping around some others, the speeches finally seemed spoken by faces that could utter them. I got the voices completely right by taping them on one of the early reel-to-reel recorders, a heavy Grundig machine housed in a big squat portable case and lent by a painting teacher. I chose the speakers from student friends with appropriate voices. Jonah was not Jewish but Mrs Jonah was. The Captain was from the main sea port of Scotland’s Western Isles. The Emperor of Nineveh had seemed pompous and insecure when I met him in our first year at Art School, but was now relaxed and confident, having started an art school choir which he conducted very well. Alas, a disease killed him after his happy marriage a few years later. The voices of the Home Secretary and God belonged to very close friends who died in 2005 and 2007. To interest carvers, manipulators and vocalists who still live, and perhaps the children or grandchildren of those who do not, see adjacent the programme of the one or two performances, presented in December 1956 before an audience containing students visiting us from Edinburgh College of Art. At that time Britain’s government was still encumbered with the large remains of an empire in the Caribbean, parts of Africa, Malaysia, Cyprus and Gibraltar. The Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had said “a wind of change” was blowing that would give all countries their own governments, but Britain was still fighting wars of occupation that, until 1961, enforced two years of compulsory military service on all healthy young males who did not conscientiously object. Being a Socialist who read his father’s New Statesman and also a disciple of William Blake I thought all empires were criminal and no nation was right to invade others, another reason for the Book of Jonah providing a congenial theme as it showed God’s politics and my own in harmony. JONAH A PUPPET PLAY IN FIVE SCENES 1956 CAST JONAH, A MINOR PROPHET every scene MRS JONAH scenes 1 and 5 THE VOICE OF GOD scenes 1, 3, 5 SHIP’S CAPTAIN ) CUSTOMS OFFICER ) scene 2 SHIP’S MATE ) THE VOICE OF A BIG FISH scene 3 A SENTRY ) GENERAL COMMANDING ASSYRIAN ARMY ) CHANCELLOR OF EXCHEQUER ) scene 4 KING OF NINEVEH ) CHIEF CONSTABLE ) AN ELDERLY GOATHERD scene 5 15 A PUPPET PLAY
Page 3: A GRAY PLAYBOOK
Page 6 and 7: First published in Great Britain 20
Page 8 and 9: 6 TABLE OF 9 HOW THIS BOOK GOT MADE
Page 10 and 11: 8
Page 12 and 13: 10 autobiography. When a radio or t
Page 14 and 15: 12 L IKE MOST BRITISH CHILDREN livi
Page 18 and 19: 16 JONAH SCENES 1) Outside Nazareth
Page 20 and 21: 18 JONAH CAPTAIN [scratching his ea
Page 22 and 23: 20 JONAH In the belly of Hell I rem
Page 24 and 25: 22 JONAH The GENERAL leaves. CHIEF

A Gray Play Book by Alasdair Gray sampler

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