This is the life

TITLE: This is the life.  (title of a song by Amy MacDonald’s)

This story is a modern adaptation of Cinderella, focusing on the mother’s point of view.

RECOMMENDED AGE GROUP: Adults level 3; Ampliación

CHARACTERS:

Annabella: beautiful, self-centred, selfish, poor student, only interested in her “i-objects” and having a good time at weekends. She is always using her mobile, sending tweets and always has her headphones on.  At home she is quite “monosyllabic”.

Step-mother Barbara : a kind woman, not very confident, long-time divorced. She recently married Annabella’s father and sometimes she wonders… why. She tries to run her new  household, but she doesn’t get any help from her husband (always working) or her daughters (students) or Annabella (spoilt and lazy).

Lyndsay (Lyn): Barbara’s eldest daughter; she is a very good student; very sensible, she wants to be a scientist and become a researcher. She doesn’t go out much because she doesn’t like discos or noisy places.  She doesn’t do much at home because she is always studying.

Kathryn (Kath): Barbara’s youngest. She is not very bright or beautiful. She really tries to befriend Annabella and go out with her. Annabella accepts her when she is interested in her company.

Annabella’s father,  Bill: widower, he hardly appears or talks in the play. He doesn’t want to know much about the problems at home. He never expresses his opinions openly and finds it difficult to say “no” to her daughter.

Jimmy: very attractive young man, in his early twenties, he doesn’t study or work.

SYNOPSIS 

The script is based on the fairy tale “Cinderella”. A long-divorced woman with two daughters has recently married a widower. He has a beautiful daughter, Annabella, who is always using her “i-objects”.

One day, Annabella gets an invitation to a party. She promises she’ll take the midnight train and she goes to the party with one of her step-sisters.  They don’t watch the time and when they want to go they realize it is very late. Without money for a taxi, and having lost a shoe, they phone the other sister to come to  their rescue. At home they are told off, but Annabella  carries on using her iphone and gets a message saying her shoe has been found.

SCENES

Scene 1.  

Dining room, everybody is having dinner. Barbara complaints that she wants some help from her daughters. They live in a residential area in the outskirts of a big city. The daughters are very untidy. Nobody pays any attention to anybody. Annabella keeps sending text-messages or twittering and only gives monosyllabic answers. Lyn is self-absorbed in one of her projects, and Kath is trying to get Bella’s attention talking about parties and boyfriends. Bill watches the news and comments  on the stock market and the crisis.

Bella gets an invitation to a party on Saturday in the city centre. Barbara doesn’t want her to go, but finally agrees because her husband grants Bella’s wish. Kath persuades everybody to accompany Bella. They promise they will take the 12.00 o’clock train and will be back home by 12.50.

Scene 2.

Bella, Kath and many people at a party. Bella is having a conversation/dancing/flirting with a young man she likes. The party is finishing. The last song is Amy MacDonald’s This is the life. Both Bella and Kath are dancing and singing. They realize now that Jimmy has disappeared with nearly everybody else. And they worry a lot. It is 3.00 o’clock in the morning. They didn’t hear the 12 o’clock chimes.

Scene 3.

In the street both girls worry about how to get home. They haven’t got money for a taxi and Bella has lost one shoe when she was dancing. Now it is raining. So they decide to phone Lyndsay and get her help. She drives to the city to pick up their sisters. She is furious and swears she will never do it again.

Scene 4. 
Same dining room and having dinner. Looks like Bella has apologized. She is listening to her mother and father telling her off. But then she pretends she is looking for something under the table and plugs her headphones in and sends a tweet. She gets a text message from Jimmy. He’s found Bella’s shoe.

End