Swallows and Amazons (11 page)

CAPTAIN FLINT. I say!

MOTHER
and
MR JACKSON
board the houseboat
.

JOHN. Your Majesty, your arrival is most timely.

MOTHER. What news of battle, my brave conquistadors?

SUSAN. We have captured the most evil and notorious pirate, Captain Flint.

MOTHER. Bring him before me!

They pull
CAPTAIN FLINT
to his feet and shove him to the rail so that he is facing
MOTHER.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Good day, Your Worshipful Majesty.

NANCY. Silence, dog!

TITTY. Bow! Make him bow!

He does so
.

MOTHER. What are his crimes?

NANCY. The worst is treachery – all summer he has been in league with the barbarians.

PEGGY. Desertion! He deserted us.

TITTY. Invasion! He came into our camp when we weren't there.

ROGER. Fist-shaking! He did – (
Shakes his fist
.) this to us.

FLINT. Did I really? I'm most awfully so–

PEGGY. Silence, swab!

SUSAN. Slander! He called John a liar.

JOHN. Yes, but we've made peace over that.

TITTY. It doesn't matter. His crimes are manifold.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Jolly good word.

TITTY. Thank you. Your Majesty, shall the prisoner be made to walk the plank?

CAPTAIN FLINT. Walk the plank! Oh, I say…

ALL. Yes! Yes! The plank! Make him walk the plank!

POLLY. Pretty Polly!

CAPTAIN FLINT. Treacherous bird!

JOHN. Your verdict, Your Majesty – yea or nay?

CAPTAIN FLINT. If I could just plead for…

PEGGY. Silence!

MOTHER. What do you say, everyone? Yea or nay?

ALL. Yea! Yea!

MOTHER. Then I say… Yea!

ALL. Hurrah! Hurrah! To the plank! To the plank!

They drag him to the plank
.

MOTHER. But it is Princess Vicky's will that the prisoner's hands be untied, that he might swim for it.

ROGER
and
TITTY (
disappointed
). Oh!

SUSAN. That's right. Do what Princess Vicky says.

ROGER. Princess Fat Vicky.

They untie his hands
.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Thank you, Your Majesty. Most grateful, Your Majesty.

NANCY. Now walk!

CAPTAIN FLINT. Oh, dear. Can't we…?

PEGGY. Walk!

He edges back a little way along the plank. After a moment his weight makes it tip a little
.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Aah!

They all laugh
.

NANCY. Walk, you son of a sea-calf!

He edges back until he is at the end
.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Mercy! Mercy!

MOTHER. No mercy!

CAPTAIN FLINT. But, I say, you aren't really going to make me do it, are you?

ALL. Yes! Walk!

CAPTAIN FLINT. But there are sharks in there – hundreds of them.

ROGER. Good!

ALL. Walk! Walk! Walk!

He steps back and tumbles into the water. There is an enormous splash. They all laugh. Then they rush to the side
.

ROGER. Where is he?

SUSAN. He can swim, can't he?

TITTY. Bubbles!

He comes up, spluttering and blowing water. More laughter
.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Sharks… nibbling… oh, no!

He goes under again. Then he comes up, shouting
.

Rope! Rope! Please! A rope!

SUSAN
throws him one
. CAPTAIN FLINT
struggles to get out of the water
.

JOHN. We present you with this captured vessel as your prize, Your Majesty.

MOTHER. I thank you most heartily, Captain John.

NANCY. Commodore John. He's Commodore for the battle.

MOTHER. And I thank you too, great
Amazon
pirates, whose daring deeds I have heard spoken of.

CAPTAIN FLINT
approaches, dripping wet, and makes a low bow to her
.

CAPTAIN FLINT. At your service, Your Majesty.

MOTHER. So, you have survived, Captain Flint.

CAPTAIN FLINT. To fight another day.

SUSAN. Would you like a towel?

CAPTAIN FLINT. Oh, thank you.

She hands him one
. ROGER
throws his arms around
MOTHER.

ROGER. Welcome aboard, Your Majesty!

MOTHER. Why, thank you, Ship's Boy.

TITTY. We missed you.

MOTHER. I missed you too.

TITTY
takes the
‘
pearl
'
from her pocket and gives it to
MOTHER.

TITTY. This is for you. It's a precious pearl. It looked better when it was wet.

MOTHER. It's beautiful. Thank you.

ROGER (
suddenly
). I swam! I swam!

MOTHER. Did you? Without your foot on the bottom?

ROGER. Yes! Didn't I?

ALL. He did. We saw him.

JOHN. He swam faster than we ever thought he would.

MOTHER. Then in that case…

She brings out a penknife from her pocket
.

PEGGY. Ooh. That's a nice one! Pearly handled. Better than ours, Nancy.

MOTHER. Please kneel, Ship's Boy.

He does so
. MOTHER ‘
knights' him
.

I dub you Sir Roger of Jackson's Farm…

ROGER. No, Cormorant Island. Because that's where I did it.

MOTHER. I dub you Sir Roger of Cormorant Island. Arise, Sir Roger.

He does so. Everyone claps and cheers
.

ROGER. I'm a knight! Now you all have to do what I say!

SUSAN. Don't be silly, Roger.

CAPTAIN FLINT. And I have a little ceremony of my own to perform – if that's all right, Your Majesty?

MOTHER. By all means.

CAPTAIN FLINT. Well, it's more of a bestowal really. Able Seaman Titty, you were so brave in helping me to recover my treasure that I should like you to have a treasure of your own.

He holds out Polly to her
.

Here – take Polly.

TITTY. You don't mean…?

CAPTAIN FLINT. Yes. With your permission, Your Majesty, I'd like Titty to keep him. He's really taken a shine to her and vice versa.

ROGER. Crikey.

TITTY. Oh, Mother, can I?

MOTHER. Is he house-trained?

CAPTAIN FLINT. Oh, absolutely.

MOTHER. Then permission is granted. That's very kind.

TITTY. Oh, thank you! Thank you, Captain Flint. But won't you be lonely without him?

CAPTAIN FLINT. A little, I daresay. But he's a young bird and should have a young mistress. And I'm away on my travels again soon, and he'd be much better off with you.

TITTY. I'll take such good care of him.

POLLY. Pieces of eight!

They laugh
.

NANCY. That's the first time he's said that!

MOTHER. I declare the expedition of the
Swallow
a great triumph. All of you appear unscathed by your adventures and it seems I may tell your father, the King, that none of you are duffers after all.

JOHN
and
SUSAN
exchange a look
.

JOHN. No. None of us are.

MOTHER. But now the time has come for me to recall my brave explorers to the court.

TITTY. Oh, no!

MOTHER. Where a great feast is being prepared for you, and we all eagerly await the tales of your heroic adventures. Isn't that right, Signor Jackson?

MR JACKSON. Si.

JOHN. Three cheers for Queen Isabella!

ALL. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

Scene Eight

Back on Wildcat Island. Early evening. The
AMAZONS
have helped the
SWALLOWS
to pack up their camp, and it is now empty
. SUSAN
approaches from the landing beach
.

SUSAN. Everything's loaded and stored, Cap'n John.

JOHN. Good work, Mister Mate.

Pause
.

That's it then.

TITTY. I've just noticed something.

ROGER. What?

TITTY. The sign's gone.

ALL. Oh, yes.

NANCY. It'll make good firewood.

PEGGY. You will come again next summer, won't you?

SWALLOWS. Yes. Yes, of course we will.

ROGER. Try stopping us!

NANCY. We've got so much to do. We've got to explore the high ranges.

PEGGY. And prospect for gold.

JOHN. And sail to the Azores.

ROGER. And catch monkeys.

SUSAN. And take a canoe down the Amazon.

TITTY. And cross the Baltic Sea.

NANCY. Let's make an oath that we'll come back next year and the next year and the next, and that everything will be the same.

PEGGY. Except that we'll have new adventures.

TITTY (
looking at the parrot
). And a new crew member.

NANCY. Yes.

She puts her hand in the middle of the group
.

I swear.

They all follow suit
–
putting their hands on
NANCY
's
.

JOHN. I swear.

PEGGY. I swear.

TITTY. I swear.

ROGER. I swear.

SUSAN (
hesitating
). But Mother says that nothing can ever stay the… I swear.

Pause
. JOHN
looks about
.

JOHN. Goodbye, Wildcat Island.

ROGER. Goodbye, Wildcat Island.

TITTY. Goodbye, camp. When we've gone, someone else may discover it.

NANCY. If anybody tries to take it, we'll barbecue them, don't worry about that.

PEGGY. We'll see off any invaders.

SUSAN. But you thought we were invaders once – and look how it all turned out.

They all smile
.

JOHN. Cap'n Nancy?

NANCY. What orders, Cap'n John?

JOHN. The fleet sets sail, and steers north.

NANCY. Aye, aye. All aboard, shipmates!

The
SWALLOWS
and
AMAZONS
climb aboard their boats and set sail. They sing ‘
Swallow
' and ‘The
Amazon
Pirates', which weave together and build until…

The End
.

ARTHUR RANSOME

Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds in 1884 and educated in Windermere and Rugby. His family spent their summers at Nibthwaite, to the south of Coniston Water. It was these early visits that gave Ransome his lifelong love for the Lake District, angling, natural history and the outdoors.

In 1902, Ransome abandoned a chemistry degree to become a publisher's office boy in London. He used this precarious existence to practise writing, producing several minor works before
Bohemia in London
(1907), a study of London's artistic scene and his first significant book. Others followed, including
Oscar Wilde
(1912) which led to Ransome being unsuccessfully but traumatically sued for libel by Lord Alfred Douglas.

During this period Ransome returned each year to Coniston, where he was befriended and mentored by W.G. Collingwood, John Ruskin's secretary. It was whilst staying with the Collingwoods that Ransome first learnt to sail.

An interest in folklore, together with a desire to escape unwelcome post-trial publicity and an unhappy first marriage, led Ransome to St Petersburg. There he researched
Old Peter's Russian Tales
(1916), before becoming a war reporter for the
Daily News
. He was thus ideally placed to observe and report on the Russian Revolution. He knew many of the leading Bolsheviks, including Lenin, Radek, Trotsky and the latter's secretary, Evgenia Shelepina. These contacts led to persistent but unproven accusations that he ‘spied' for both the Bolsheviks and Britain. Unhappy about the Allied intervention in Russia, Ransome escaped with Evgenia to the Baltic States, carrying messages that helped to secure Estonian independence. Ransome married Evgenia and returned to England in 1924. Settling in the Lake District, he spent the late 1920s as a foreign correspondent and highly respected angling columnist for the
Manchester Guardian
. In 1928 he got to know W.G. Collingwood's grandchildren, whilst they were staying at Coniston. It was a combination of this friendship and Ransome's own childhood memories that inspired
Swallows and Amazons
.

Arthur Ransome went on to write eleven more
Swallows and Amazons
novels between 1930 and 1947. The sixth,
Pigeon Post
, was awarded the first Carnegie Medal for Children's Literature in 1937. All remain in print and have been widely translated.

He died in June 1967 and is buried at Rusland in the Lake District.

 

HELEN EDMUNDSON

Helen Edmundson's first play,
Flying
, was presented at the National Theatre Studio in 1990. In 1992, she adapted Tolstoy's
Anna Karenina
for Shared Experience, for whom she also adapted
The Mill on the Floss
in 1994. Both won awards – the TMA and the Time Out Awards respectively – and both productions were twice revived and extensively toured.

Shared Experience also staged her original adaptation of
War and Peace
at the National Theatre in 1996, and toured her adaptations of Mary Webb's
Gone to Earth
in 2004, Euripides'
Orestes
in 2006, the new two-part version of
War and Peace
in 2008, and the original play
Mary Shelley
in 2012.

Her original play
The Clearing
was first staged at the Bush Theatre in 1993, winning the John Whiting and Time Out Awards,
Mother Teresa is Dead
was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2002 and
The Heresy of Love
was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre in 2012.

Her adaptation of Jamila Gavin's
Coram Boy
premiered at the National Theatre to critical acclaim in 2005, receiving a Time Out Award. It was subsequently revived in 2006, and produced on Broadway in 2007. She adapted Calderón's
Life is a Dream
for the Donmar Warehouse in 2009, and Arthur Ransome's
Swallows and Amazons
for the Bristol Old Vic in 2010, which subsequently transferred to the West End before embarking on a national tour in 2012.

Her adaptation of Émile Zola's
Thérèse Raquin
was premiered by the Theatre Royal, Bath, in 2014.