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Author's Foreword
This play has been adapted from the four ‘Sleezy the Fox’ stories, which were recorded in the early 1990s for the original purpose of radio transmission.
The author and copyright holder gives permission to have this play performed without the need to pay any royalty fee, on the strict proviso that any profits made from all such performances are given to any registered charitable causes for the benefit of children.
The prominent theme of the story is one of ‘second chances’, something that all of us require from time to time in our lives.
In my earlier years of development, I needed ‘second chances’ on many occasions and was lucky enough to have received ‘second chances’ at crucial periods of my life. ‘Second chances’ not only redeemed my character, but it also reformed my behaviour from that of thief to one of honest citizen.
In later life, as a Probation Officer and the founder of ‘Anger Management’ courses in Great Britain in the early 70s, I was able to afford the opportunity of receiving a ‘second chance’ to many people who displayed aggressive impulses that they were initially unable to control and manage.
When Princes William and Harry were 9 and 7 years old respectively, their mother came across these stories, contacted me and requested that I send her a copy of my 'Douglas the Dragon' and 'Sleezy the Fox' stories that she wanted to read to her sons at their bedtime. It is a nice thought to know that the next King of England was read the stories of ‘Sleezy the Fox’ as a child by his mother, the late Princess Diana.
The play has been written in a manner that makes it ideally suitable to be performed by schools and is arranged in such a way as to make the inclusion of a number of selected and suitable songs at appropriately spaced junctures possible to turn it into a Musical Play.
‘Sleezy the Fox’
(A play about ‘Second chances’ by William Forde)
Cast
The Narrator
Farmer Hans
Gretta
Sleezy the Fox
Noah Junior: The younger twin
Noah Senior: The older twin
Josh
Oola Loo
Frieda
Becky
Lucy
Farmer Brown
The Mayor
Gilbert Grim
Voice from the crowd
Card Carrier
Sheep One
Sheep Two
Sheep Three
Sheep Four
Sheep Five
Sheep Six
Sheep Seven
Sheep Eight
Tillie Tyler
Gimme More
Joe Evans
Beezy Body
Justin Case
Jane Butter
Harem Scarem
Tom the Tanner
Molly Gates
Bert the Butcher
Bessie Cox
Crowd of Villagers
As the audience awaits the opening of the show, ‘The Ballad of Sleezy the Fox’ is played. With regard to any other songs to be sung within the play, all of the appropriate places for a song have been identified, along with the general theme of any song the producer chooses to use or composes specifically to turn this play into a musical.
Act One: Scene One
The play opens with the Narrator, who is dressed in the black robes of a Magistrate, standing before curtain at the side of the stage to address the audience. He uses an open book that is resting on the podium he occupies to disguise his speech prompts.
The Narrator: (Authoritative voice) “To lose one’s home and friends and to be forced to move far away from their support and affection is not recommended for the faint hearted. Believe me; I know. I’ve been there. I’ve done that and got the t-shirt. I wouldn’t wish the experience on my worst enemy... (Pause)... not that I’ve got any enemies these days.”
“And yet, though such experiences are rare for the native, newcomers to our land find them all too common an occurrence to contend with.”
“Immigrants who speak our language, those who know our ways and look like us are indeed blessed; especially if they are of single status, strong in body and are rich enough in resources to survive unaided.”
“These newcomers are the lucky ones. Some will have family and friends to greet them ashore upon arrival to this land and also accommodation and work to go to.”
(Melancholy Voice) “Then, there are the others................ those less fortunate foreigners who are cursed with the mark of ‘difference’, in the way they look, say and do. Foreigners saddled with the responsibility of too many dependants and too few prospects............ economic migrants who have been driven from their homeland by poverty, starvation and no work. I speak of those who have been forced to ‘up sticks’ and travel to strange shores.”
“The story that will unfold before your very eyes happened many years ago when all our circumstances were different. I speak of the time when a newcomer called Farmer Hans, his wife Gretta and their seven children first set foot in this village of Marfield.”
“Being strangers to Transylvania, all the family wanted was to survive along with the opportunity of a ‘second chance’ to start anew.”
“Farmer Hans was the most unusual man I’d ever met, and to tell the truth; the deep fondness and mutual respect that we now share for each other began, for my part, with my intense dislike of him.”
“I now know the gentle farmer to be a man who’d give another everything he possessed and expect nothing in return. He is a good neighbour who’d never turn away a stranger in need and he goes out of his way to make every stranger his friend. I know him to be the most generous among all men. He always gives more than is either asked for or is needed and grants a person respect at the start of their relationship with him; long before they have earned it. He is a man with the capacity to turn enemy into friend and though he speaks ever so sparingly, he thinks much and always behaves appropriately as the occasion demands. In all the years I have known Farmer Hans, he has never promised what he couldn’t deliver and has made his word his bond!”
“I well recall that day when Farmer Hans and his family arrived in Transylvania. What little money they possessed at the start of their travels, they’d spent the bulk of on their passage to get here. They were left with little stake to survive on, save their first month’s rent for their small homestead and enough money to buy a few hens and four sheep.”
“As the family prepared to settle down to their first night in Transylvania, Farmer Hans and his wife, Gretta, must have been worried about their immediate future.”
The curtain is raised to reveal the inside of a sparsely furnished farmhouse. A small fire burns in the hearth. Farmer Hans is repairing the sole of one of their children’s shoes while his wife sews some clothing. Nearby; four girls and three boys are sharing two mattresses on the bare floor. The three boys are squabbling while the four girls are giggling childishly. The two boys on the outside of their bed mattress are trying to pull more of the covering blanket to their side.
Gretta: (Bursts into tears as she looks across at their seven children) “What are we to do, dear husband? What’s to become of us in this strange land where we know nobody and have no family to turn to for support? We possess no seed to sow new crop or food to feed the livestock. What shall I put out on the
table for the children to eat tomorrow? We have neither cheese nor bread, and unless one of the hens lays an egg while we sleep, we’ll all start tomorrow hungrier than we left today!”
Farmer Hans: (Places a hand of comfort around his wife’s shoulders and replies to her reassuringly) “There now. There my love! Dry your eyes and don’t let the children see your tears. Have no fear for the future, my love. The future shall take care of itself as it always has. Have faith in the Lord and he’ll not see us wanting. He’ll not let us starve without good purpose. Besides, He didn’t bring us all the way here across the sea to watch us fall at the first hurdle or fail to prosper. Trust me, my love. Transylvania shall prove to be our salvation, not our downfall. Trust me, for I have a good feeling about this land.”
Gretta: “Forgive me, dear husband. Forgive a frightened woman in a moment of doubt and weakness. I know that you will not fail us. You never have! The first moment I set eyes on you 12 years ago; even then, your goodness was plain for all to see and your generosity open to the touch.”
(Pause)
“Even then I saw in you the best of men and the ideal father to my children, yet to be born. Not once in all the years we’ve been together have your eyes wandered or your love strayed. Not once since I’ve known you have you failed to keep faith with all that is good and honest in this life; God, family, neighbour and self. You have been no less than a light in the darkest of corners to all around, a constant reassurance by your mere presence and a covenant of goodness!”
“Nay (rubbing the tears from her eyes), whatever hardship or poverty