The Family Time

Time ~8 minutes

Characters:

A boy  – seven to twelve years old

His father – a middle-aged man

His mother – a middle-aged woman

His brother – a  boy, about twenty years old

His sister – a girl, about fifteen years old.

The Play

The curtain rises.

(The father is sitting on a study table checking some table on the right side. The sister and brother are sitting on the opposite end of a sofa in the center, their eyes on their mobile, their fingers constantly making swift typing movements on the mobile screen. On the left side, the mother is working in a kitchen (a table can be used to represent a kitchen shelf.),

1.

(The boy, enter from the right and stop near the father)

Boy: Papa!

(Father doesn’t respond.)

Boy (louder, as he grabs father’s hand to get his attention): Papa!!

Father (not taking his eyes off his papers, removes his hand from child’s hands): Yes.

Boy: Papa, a boy at school beat me today.

Father(not paying attention): Did he? …..  Look, I’m busy, go tell it to your mom. (resumes work)

(The boy is disappointed, moves across the stage to his mom, then, looks at his mother, smiles brightly in hope, moves towards her.)

2.

Boy: Mama!

(Mother doesn’t respond.)

Boy (louder, as he pokes on her elbow to get her attention): Mama!!

Mother (not taking her eyes off her work): Yes.

Boy: Mama, a boy at school beat me today.

Mother(still not paying attention, still busy with her work): My genius boy. Good, keep it up!

(Boy looks stunned, looks at her for a moment in disappointment then, looks at brother, smiles brightly in hope, moves towards him.)

3.

Boy: bro!

(Brother doesn’t respond.)

Boy(louder, as pokes his head in between bother’s face and mobile screen to draw attention): bro!!

Brother (pushing him  away and resuming his work, with some irritation): Yes

Boy: Bro, a boy at school beat me today.

Brother(not paying attention and with an irritating smirk): Whatever!

(Boy assumes a sad, looks at him in dismay for a moment, then looks at his sister, smiles but not as brightly as before as he moves towards her)

4.

Boy: sis!

(Sister doesn’t respond.)

Boy(in a very loud and stressed voice): Sis!! Please!

Sister (puts her mobile away and pays full attention to the boy): Yes, what happened?

Boy (showing excitement at having finally found a listener): Sis, a boy beat at school me today.

Sister(puts mobile aside, moves her face closer to show her attention): ohh! did he really hurt you?

(The boy nods and shows an injury mark on his elbow.)

Sister(a frown on her face, as she shows concern):  My poor brother! Did you tell your teacher?

Boy: Yes, I did but the teacher said that I was the who was always creating problems. Even though I was being a good …

(at this point, his sister’s phone rings; she picks it up, her face expression changes to a smile as she looks at the screen)

(the boy shows anxiety as she is picking her call)

Sister: (on phone)Hello, yes, just one minute …..

(runs a hand through her brother’s hair) Later, child, I have to go now ( she starts to walk away)

(The boy has a sad expression on his face as he watches her leave.  He finds an empty spot on the floor somewhere in center front of the stage and sits down, gets a toy car out of his bag and starts playing with it.)

The curtain falls.

Copyright – Sidharth Vardhan