CHARACTERS ACT ONE NARRATOR, the older Lewis LEWIS, 14 years old DULCIE, 14 years old NORMA, Lewis’ mother SCENE ONE ERIC, Lewis’ father UNCLE RICHARD, Lewis’ uncle It is late morning in a gully near a shooting range, where men BEV, Lewis’ sister are shooting at clay pigeons. Lewis crouches in the gully as he GRANDMA, Lewis’ Grandma buttons up his shirt. DULCIE sits on the ground, grimacing as if in MR IRVIN, Dulcie’s step father agony. MRS IRVIN, Dulcie’s mother BEATRICE, a Dutch gi DULCIE: Please. Please. MR PISANO, the postman [Lems pays no attention to her and peers up over the BRIAN, Lewis” friend gully.) Lewis. Please. I did yours. JAPANESE WOMAN ps ‘ [He reluctantly kneels behind her and lifts up the back of her blouse.] It’s so itchy. [He begins to peel her back.) Careful. I want it off in one st SETTING A Housing Commission Estate in the paddocks of northern Melbourne in the early sixties. Lewis: Why? : } DULCTE: So we can make a Nazi lamp out of it. ‘Summer of the Aliens was first performed by the Melbourne [The NARRATOR, in his late thirties, enters, wearing a suit, a smart country and western shirt and rattleskin boots, looking like a hybrid American/ Australi n.] NARRATOR: This is the end of the road. A Housing Commission Estate, north of Melbourne. The houses were built of concrete slabs and plonked down on these paddocks that stretch all the way to Sydney. DULCIE: {to Lewis] Slowly. } LEWIS: You know, this gully would make a good trench. DULCIE: What for? LEWIS: When the communists come. Mum said we'll have to live five to a room then. Theatre Company at the Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne on 17 March 1992. At the time of printing the cast had not been finalised. The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs: pxi Bruce Howard, Herald and Weekly Times Ltd; p.25 Herald and Weekly Times Ltd; p. Trina Parker, p.77 Hills Hoist courtesy Hills Industries Ltd.DULCIE: Don’t talk. Just concentrate on my skin. NARRATOR: It’s just paddocks. Flat all the way to the horizon, There are no trees or flowers, just dry grass and scotch thistles. In summer the earth cracks, in winter it becomes like black clag. Some people have got soil from the Merri Creek to put on their lawns. You can : flowers and bushes actually grow. DULCIE: I put tons of butter on it. LEWIS: Never helps. Cold tea. Vinegar. [Noticing a red mark around her waist,] What’s that mark? DULCTE: Mum said if I tied a rope around my waist that every time I thought impure thoughts I'd tie it tighter so I'd only have the pain to think about. LEWIS: I thought it was because you were practising the hula hoop a lot. [Referring to her skin.] Almost there. NARRATOR: That’s me: Lewis. And that’s Dulcie, my friend from a few doors up. We live in Singapore Street. All the streets in our estate are named after famous battles: Gallipoli Tobruk, Somme, Kokoda, Singapore. [More shots ting out.] Behind the estate is the shooting range. I went there to collect the brass casings from the spent cartridges, I'm waiting in the gully for the shooters to fini LEWIS: Do you think there’s life on other planets? Daman! DULCIE: [referring to skin] Ob, no. You broke NARRATOR: The Time. 1962, Summer. A time when people feared that there was going to be a war between Russia and America. A time when we had beaten the West Indian cricket team. It was the year I developed an obsession with flying saucers, LEWIS: [peering over gully} Hey, he got one. Blind luck. [Recognising one of the shooters] It’s Brian’s dad. [OULCIE stands to take a look. He pulls her down.] Get down! They’ blow your head off. I don’t know why I bothered to take you along. DULCIE: Get lost. LEWIS: He must be out of jail 1 DULCIE: He owes Stan money. They had some scheme going with a cop, stripping cars. LEWIS: Maybe he’s practising to kill your father. DULCIE: I'd pay him if he did. Lewis: When they passed the dark side of the moon they gave him apples to eat. DULCIE: Who? Lewis: The one I was telling you about. Aliens kidnapped him. DULCIE: Aliens? LEWIS: He was on the news. They interviewed him. He said they had apples like ours. Except crispier. DULCIE: [amused] Kidnapped by aliens. Lewis: He was. [They duck as shots ring uncomfortably close. ] Brian’s dad isn’t a good shot. [A beat.] He was taken to Venus. To a gigantic city. He said it was a bit li York. Only men and women were of the same sex. DULCIE: How do you tell them apart? LEWIS: [flummoxed] Don’t know. I guess they do, DULCIE: How do they breed? Lewis: Didn’t say. [A beat.] It was only a quick trip. Maybe they'll tell him next time. DULCIE: Why did they kidnap him? Lewis: To show him. They said they might come to earth and live with us. They’d run out of water. DULCIE: Why would they come here, we’ve got a drought? LemIs: [irritated] I don’t know. [Peering over the edge] They're going. Let’s get the shells. [They ctawi out of the gully, tewis, in his eagerness, tushing ahead. DULCIE stops.] DULCIE: Lewis! [He turns around.] Geronimo! Lew!s: {knowing what is about to happen. No! [She rushes at him and wrestles him to the ground. He es in and she sits on him.] DULCIE: You give in too quickly. Fight ine.LEWIS: I don’t want to DULCIE: Wrestl LEWIS: Get off. DULCIE: Fight me. LEWIS: The scrap merchants close at noon. If I don’t get to them 1@ we won’t have the money to go to the pictures. DULCE: [reluctantly] All right. [A beat.] Does it feel good? LEWIS: What? DULCIE: Me sitting on you. LEWIS: You’re heavy. DULCIE: Thanks a lot. [She gets off him and he jumps up. They start to collect brass casings. Lewis finds a clay pigeon. ] LEWIS: I bet the flying saucers look like these clay pigeons. DULCIE: Black? LEWIs: No, they'd be shinier, like the colour of brass. [DULCIE throws the brass she has collected at Lewis.] What’s that for? DULCIE: I’m not a cripple or something, you don’t have to take me to the pictures. [un Pisano, the postman, appears.] PISANO: Morning, Lewis. Dulcie. Lewis: You coming to shoot, Mr Pisano? PISANO: Taking a short cut through the rifle range. It takes minutes off my round. DULCIE: Where’s your bike? PISANO: Someone nicked it. Which is typical of this neighbourhood. Anyway, my feet are more reliable, they don’t get punctures. [Remembering something before setting off] I told your dad, Lewis, before he pissed off, to paint your number bigger. You do it, you’re the man of the house. [To butcie] And make your letter box number bigger too. DULCIE: But you already know it. PISANO: Listen, girlie, no cheek. Just get the number bigger. [He hurries off.] LEWIS: Mum says he’s got wife problems or something. ia ale ree DULCIE: It’s because he lives in Singapore Street. ‘There’s something wrong with the water supply. LEWIS: It tastes all right. DULCIE: How do you explain the fact that every family in the street has had girls and you’re the only boy? You have to be careful not to grow up to be a sissy, so Stan says. LEWIS: Your Dad doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You Jaugh at me about UFOs, but this thing with water is just as strange. [Picking up brass casings] Come on, we don’t have much time. [DULCIE helps him.] SCENE TWO ————— EE ee Back veranda. Evening. There is the sound of crickets. NARRATOR: Maybe Dulcie was right. Maybe there was something wrong with the water. I was the only boy in the street, Practically all my playmates were girls. Even at home it was all girls. My mother. My sister. My grandmother: she had come to stay when dad left us. [Lights come up on Lewis combing his grandmother's very long grey hair. He recites what she teaches him.] GRANDMA: Bonnie Prince Charlie was bom December 31 1720 and died January 31 1788 Lewis: Bonnie Prince Charlie was born December 31 1720 and died January 31 1788. GRANDMA: [half to herself] Died. [Getting carried away, | Died in ignominy because of the English. Reached as far as Derby. He could have easily taken London, if it wasn’t for the French. The Frogs always let you down. Their support evaporated like rain on a hot tin roof. [NoRMA, Lewis’ mother, enters.] What were the dates of the rebellion? LEWIS: 1745. °