Mind the Gap –
A Short One Act Play based on the July 7th tragic event of London blasts
Written and Directed by .Manojshiv.

Introduction
Director’s View

The Drama Begins, the first bell rings following which the below announcement echoes:
“This is Mile End. This is Central Line service to Ealing Broadway. Please. Keep all your belongings with you at all times. Any unattended articles will be immediately removed and destroyed. This train is ready to depart. Please mind the closing doors.”

The second bell rings, reverberates the following announcement:
This is a special announcement from ----- Please switch off the mobile phone. Do not leave the hall for half an hour. All these rules and regulations for public safety

Act One.


Scene 1

The Curtain rises…..

(The setting of a fast moving tube train’s internal seating room. (The number of actors as passengers is left to the choice of the director)
(Comes up the back voice of sounds indicating the journey’s proceeding.
Stops the train at a station and a man (hero) with a bag enters the train while others in the train look gaze at him.)
(The authorities proclaim another security announcement…..Police Siren)
(The passengers in panic get confused.)
Suddenly goes off the power.
All the actors in unison
Actors:” Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light”, “and Bring some Light”
(The train halts with a huge troubled noise. Subsequently the roar of police alarms, security alerts and the passengers’ yell.)

Scene 2

From the middle of the spectators, the hero rushes to the stage in a terrible fright...
A gunman follows him shouting “Catch him. He is a terrorist. He is a devil in human form, catch him, Catch him….”

The security announcement again

Panting heavily he faces the audience with these words.

Victim:
” You are helpless to save me”. , isn’t true? Tell me
“He is following me, with the mask of death, yes! He is following me”
“The white man”
“But he, you and me……., all are birds of the same feather in the eyes of god”
“You can’t, you can’t rescue me”
“I f I stay here he will end my life”
“I will, I will tell you, this quest for a dramatic escape”
“Its fire, yes my heart is on fire”
“Will I ever come back?………………………………..”
From behind the stage
“He is Brutal, he is a terrorist, catch him, catch him……….”
(The Victim in perplex argues)
“I am innocent like you”
“The secrets behind anyone’s fate is unknown”
“You don’t know…”
“My dreams, my hopes, my whims, my pains…………”
“Give me”
“For me to act”
“Yes! To become a good actor of a unique drama in fullness”
“Acting, hmmmm, acting………….”
21Silence encircles, again echoes the security alert
Falls down the tired hero :( Light Off)
In dark hears the sound of a gun fire
Resonates the police alarm
All the actors in one crash thunders (Very Loud voice)
“Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light”

Scene 3
Lights are on
On the stage hears the tune of a lullaby
Enters a loving couple, pampering the baby
The mother says: “He is my treasure, he is my all”

The father says: “I will educate him in Oxford”

Mother: “Don’t plan idiotically, let’s us accept what the time presents
Many things happened and vanished unexpectedly, so……..”
Father: “But you became a mother, our kid…..! He is an evidence for god mapping out the future, God, he is also anxious as us……kids; they are the future world’s hope

Mother: “I always dream my boy growing. His studies, music, ………..ah! It’s nice”

Father: “If there are no dreams on earth”

Mother:” There will be no pain and sufferings. Isn’t?

Father: “have you started to think a lot”

Mother: “Unknowingly uttered words touches the heart more, yes they are all synonyms of love

Father: “Look at his eyes in deep. It reflects this earth’s innocence”

(Both pampers the kid again)
Pops in the security alert again and go off the light
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light” “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light

Scene 4

(In a tired and injured way, the victim gets up and speaks to the audience)

“It’s not me alone the aim of that devil”
“My mom, dad and their dreams too”
“Oh! The cruel world, you have lost the game of gambling at the hands of fate”
“I am scared, really scared”
“When I close my eyes, fright surrounds me……..yes! I am scared”

(Strikes him a daffodils at his feet on his way)

“Oh! Daffodil, you too, with me in this awful way of my fate”
“Oh! My beauty! How pretty you are! “
(Remembered by his love he thinks)
“Oh! My darling, my love………..”

In dark hears the sound of a gun fire again and the hero runs.
(Pops in the security alert again and go off the light
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light” “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light)




Scene 5
An actor: “Why this garden is sorrowfully silent?”
Actress: “Why you didn’t email me? Why you didn’t phone me? You didn’t even come on online, why? Don’t you miss me? You are not like me…”
Actor: “Shall I ask you one thing”
Actress: hmm..
Actor: My sweet heart, tell me why you like me?
Actress: Your beauty for truth
Actor: “But my friend is more beautiful than me”
Actress: “Who? But he can’t sing like you”
Actor: “No! I am an ordinary singer of no value. But he is a music critic”
Actress: “But still he can’t write like you” mmmmmmmmm who is he?
Actor: “What he writes is true, but mine is low-priced”
Actress: “But he can’t love me like you”
Actor: “But I am his comrade”
Actress: Who is he (Very confused Manner) “He can ever be philosophical like you”
Actor: Looking at her blue eyes murmurs in love “I see the oceanic silence of thousands of oceans in your eyes”
Actress: “No one can be like you “You are a poet
Actor: “I am in a hurry”
“I understand you, I understand everything……..”
“I am in a bid to go abroad”
“Pardon me and you, please don’t get worried”
Actress: “You are my faith, you are my heart, and you are my love…….”
Actor: “See, like butterflies and lilies our lives are also too short”

Again the security alert and the sounds of confusion
Goes off the lights again
(Pops in the security alert again and go off the light
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light” “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light)



Scene 6
Rushes in the injured hero and speaks to him in pain
“Oh! God! How cruel and bad my fate is……!”
“I am tired”
“I can’t step a foot anymore”
(Remembering his heartthrob he asks...)
“My darling! Where are you?”
“Don’t you have the honey of rebirth?”
(Security alerts and police alarms echoes)
(Facing towards the audience and saying)
“Where is my life leading to?”…. (Crying)
“You guess that I am dead”
“Parted are my dreams, my love…”
“Where is my stage?
“Where are my spectators?”
“Where are my friends?”
“I need to act”
“My pals and my dreams about drama……….”
Drama,………………….
In dark hears the sound of a gun fire once more

(Pops in the security alert again and go off the light
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light” “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light)


Scene 7
The stage reflects the atmosphere of a drama rehearsal camp
Actor 1(The hero): “My favourite is Shakespeare’s Hamlet………………..
Oh! God! Let my weighing body transform into a dew drop…………
Should I kill him or not..
It is that easy for me to kill him now…
I will not, I will not
If I kill him, he will be given abode in the kingdom of heaven so I will not
My father, he allowed not even the gentle breeze from heaven to coddle my
mom’s face
But he was killed at his rest in the garden by pouring boiling alloy in his ears
Why then should I send him to heaven? Never
I won’t allow him to heaven
Frailty thy name is women”
All the others appreciate him
Actor 2: “My favourite character is Mark Antony”
He acts like Mark Antony and others applaud him
Actor 1: “I will materialize your dreams”
“My salary for a week at abroad is enough to have stage here”
“I will find a stage for you my friends and lets us act together”
All the actors in one tune says “Life is a drama”
Actor 2: “My friend you lilts our hope”
Actor 3: My pal, you are our hero
Actor 4: My dear, you are our dream of drama
Actor 5: My loving pal, your are our life
In dark hears the sound of a gun fire
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light

Scene 8
The wounded hero on stage speaks
“Am I a cunning fellow?”
“If then I should have predicted this before”
“Now its loss alone for me”
“Don’t you have sight?”
“I have already received four bullets”
“My parents, my love, my friends, our dreams….”
“Oh! God! I can’t see them any more”
“I am a witness for the silent you”
“But remember I am one among you”
“Which law is my bona fide force?”
“I am tried, I can’t run any more”
“Our descendants will revenge this for sure”
(In dark hears the sound of a gun fire)
Scene 9
The stage explains the ambience of friends having a poetic discussion
Actor 1: “Keats is my favourite, and he sings a poem by John Keats”
Actor 2: “I like Daffodils of Wordsworth”
Actor 3: “I just love Shelly”
And the discussion continues…….
Actor 4 (The hero): “Stop the discussion and argument”
“I can give you the world of poems you dream about”
All the other actors together ask “Which is that world?” and out of happiness
Actor 1: “dear, you are great”
Actor 2: “Let your lifespan be a century”
Actor 3: “My friend, you don’t have death”, “Long live my dear, long live”
Actor 4: “Truth is poem, which are you my friends”
“Truth is poem and they are clouds, rain, pouring rain, the rain those showers even after long time”
“Let us row together with powerful poems………….”
All sings in united
Goes off the lights again
All the actors in one crash thunders “Bring some Light” “Bring some Light”, “Bring some Light

At the back echoes the below
“You death is our need. If you are dead we are safe “
“Your absurd conversations spoiled our drama”
“You can’t act anymore”
The hero in low breath yells in his maximum sound
“No, I shall die in the hands of time”
“But you can’t win me, of course can ruin me but can’t win me”
“You can’t defeat me”
“The audience is not at all an issue for me………”
“Come on, come on…..”
“Anybody loyal to this stage, come on………………”
In dark hears the sound of a gun fire
The hero falls down and dies
Hears a ………at the back
The stage light goes off again
Scene 11
At stage apologies the PM of UK
Actor 1: “I pity him”
Actor 2: “Oh! God! He is dead”
On the other side
Actor 3: we have won, yes we have won
Actor 4: He is defeated
Scene 12
(The hero speaks again on the stage)
“You won’t identify me”
“I am the one who died in the mid of acting”
“I am the dupe of the dead actor ……..”
“The person assigned to tell the rest of the tale……….”
“Bring me some light………..and let the drama continues…”
“Let the doves of peace fly all over the earth………”





Scene 10
The hero on stage roars
“Where are my actor friends?”
“Where are my poems?”
“Is it likely for you to save me?”
“No”
“Just look and keep silence”
“You are helpless”
“You have everything but still you are void”
“Dear spectators…”
“The story is about to finish”
“But then no force can obstruct”
“The game of fate is beyond human hands”
In louder voice…
“I have no death”
“Dead are my dreams”
“I will live again”
“I will live here and there as well”
“I will live now and ever”
“Forgive me, I am not god”
In dark hears the sound of a gun fire