The Freeloaders by Austin Mitchell-Scene One

THE FREELOADERS

A One Act Play

by

Austin Mitchell

                                                          

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

MAIN CHARACTERS:

MAISIE: Forty five year old bar operator

WILDEN: Sixty five year old retired man

COOCH: Sixty four year old retired man

JOHN TOM: Fifty nine year old returning resident

COUNCILLOR RAYMOND: Forty six year old parish councillor, later Member of Parliament

CORPORAL JOHNSON: Thirty three year old policeman

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:

WILFRED: MAISIE’S husband and businessman

FREDDIE: Thirty four year old taxi operator

BEVILLE: Forty four year old lottery winner

RAPLEY: Forty three year old farmer

STOKELY: Forty six year old builder

RAQUEL: Thirty six year old office worker

STANDARD: Thirty seven year old transport operator

CARVER: Twenty nine year old jerk chicken vendor

LULA: Thirty six year old soup vendor

MOXIE: Forty seven year old farmer

FIONA: Twenty six year old restaurant worker

MISS MILDRED: Fifty year old farmer

SELMA: Twenty eight year old teacher

________

1^ST MAN-STOKELY

1^ST WOMAN-RAQUEL

2^ND MAN-MOXIE

JERK CHICKEN VENDOR-CARVER

SOUP VENDOR-LULA

ISBN-13: 978- 1978369276

ISBN-10: 1978381611

All rights reserved by the playwright. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher and or playwright.        

Everybody in Happy Valley believed that they would have to make up a collection to ship John Tom out of the village like they had done to Beville after he foolishly lost all of his money. John Tom had come to Happpy Valley and bought Beville’s mansion and was spending his money as freely as the latter man. Only time will tell if the villager’s fears will be realized.

 

 

 

Other works by the same author:

Undercover Soldier(novel)

Uptown Lovers(novel)

Bring back the good old days**

Waiting to Cross the Bridge**

Going to the Bushes to cut Firewood**

Taking a Shortcut Home**

Days up the River**

The Fire by the Wayside**

Riding the milk truck to School**

Making grass mats to Sell**

Going into the Hills to Teach**

Glengoffe Days***

Life at 21 Lane(Play)

**Collection of short stories

***Collection of Poems

Dedicated to my grandmother: Ella Phipps (Miss Ella)
Table of Contents:

Act One:

Scene One                                           7-13

Scene Two                                           14-16

Scene Three                                         17-29

Scene Four                                          30-42

Scene Five                                           43-59

Scene Six                                             60-72

Footnotes                                            73                                             

ISBN-13:978-1978381612

ISBN-10:1978381611

SCENE ONE

(In a bar in Happy Valley. Music is playing inside, but music can also be heard from outside from a much larger sound system) Inside the bar the proprietor, Maisie, is serving drinks. Two old men are sitting to one side of the bar drinking rum and milk. At least a dozen men and women of varying ages and description are standing inside the bar drinking an assortment of liquors. One woman and a man are seated, eating jerk chicken and drinking beer. Outside people are eating soup and jerk chicken)

MAISIE: Wilfred, I think we should stop serving  these people anymore drinks because of what has happened to Beville. I don’t know when he’s going to crack and either leave Happy Valley for another district or migrate.

WILFRED: If Beville never came to Happy Valley I don’t know what people would have done to enjoy themselves.

WILDEN: It’s true what you are saying, Wilfred. He’s going to hold another cookout and buy out the bar session up in his hometown in St. Mary next week. That can’t miss me.

WILFRED: It’s about a dozen of them he has held so far. I’ve never seen so many people. I wonder how much of his lottery money he has left.

COOCH: That money can’t finish. (Enter Freddie)

FREDDIE: Miss Maisie, Wilfred, Wilden and Cooch, you don’t hear that Beville threw away the rest of his money up at Spring Mount. (Maisie runs from behind the bar and goes to bar the doorway)

MAISIE: What did you say, Freddie?

FREDDIE: I said that Beville drew out all of his money and put it in a crocus bag and emptied it out up at Spring Mount. I heard that people are celebrating over the amount of money they managed to grab. I am going up there right now. (Exits Freddie)

MAISIE: Come and hold the door for me, Wilfred. Nobody’s not leaving here tonight unless they pay me or make some arrangements to do so. I credited all of you food and drinks on Beville’s bill and since he threw away his money, you have to pay me. (Wilfred takes Maisie’s place at the door.)

WILDEN: Maisie, since Cooch and I never credited anything from you, we are going up there to find out  what’s going on. (Exit Cooch and Wilden.)

1ST MAN: Miss Maisie, you don’t think that we want to get some of the money that Beville threw away? So why is Wilfred barring the door?

MAISIE: Pay me or write down what you owe me.

1^ST WOMAN: Miss Maisie, we don’t owe you anything. It was Beville who told us to take the food and drinks and put it on his bill.

WILFRED: So who was in here eating and drinking? If you can’t pay, Maisie can have you arrested for shoplifting.

2^ND MAN: I know that Beville signed an agreement with you for us to come here and get liquor and food and put it on his bill. Maisie is trying to trick us. It’s you who must stand the losses since Beville’s bankrupt or sue him for your money.

MAISIE: I never signed any agreement with Beville and it’s you who were in here eating and drinking, it wasn’t Beville.

WILFRED: I think I’d better bolt this door. (Bolts the door)

1^ST MAN: While we are talking, time is going. Maybe by the time we reach up there, people will have gone with all of the money already. What do you want from us, Miss Maisie?

MAISIE: (Takes out some strips of paper) I wrote down the amount of money each of you owe me so just sign the paper. (Passes around the paper and a pen.)

2^ND MAN: I took four hundred dollars worth of food and drinks already. This looks like prison because I am not working. (Everybody signs the paper and runs out of the bar)

1^ST WOMAN: You padded our bills, but if I don’t find some of Beville’s money you might have to put me in jail because like Moxey I’m not working. (Exits)

MAISIE: All of you love the freeness too much. As I told you already, I never signed any agreement with Beville so anybody who can’t pay me or refuse to pay me,  I am going to sue them. (Enter, Wilden, Cooch and Freddie)

WILFRED: We were just going to lock up the bar and come up there.

WILDEN: They scraped up every piece of paper. See him there, see Beville there. (Everybody turns to look as a lonely figure saunters by)(Maisie runs to the bar door)

MAISIE: Beville! Beville! (Beville does not answer her. She returns behind her bar counter)

MAISIE: This is the first time since he came to Happy Valley that he has ever passed by my bar and didn’t come inside.

FREDDIE: By my count it’s about a million dollars he threw away. (Enter Corporal Johnson and Councillor Raymond. The Corporal is dressed in his uniform)

WILDEN: Councillor and Corporal did both of you hear the big news? Beville went up to Spring Mount and threw away the rest of his money.

CORPORAL JOHNSON: What did you say, Wilden? Beville threw away his money. Is he mad or something?

MAISIE: He just passed by the bar and didn’t come inside.

CORPORAL JOHNSON: Maisie, I am warning you not to let anybody spend any of Beville’s money in here. You  should know the people who would have found his money so if you see any of them coming in here to spend it tell me so that I can arrest them.

WILFRED: What if they come to pay what they owe us, Corporal?

CORPORAL JOHNSON: Ask them where they got the money from? Come, Councillor, we have to find him tonight. (Exit Councillor Raymond and Corporal Johnson)

WILFRED: A guilty conscience needs no accuser. It’s those two men who are responsible for what happened to Beville.

WILDEN: You can say that again. You know that we are going to have to take up a collection to send him back to America. (Enter Jerk Chicken and Soup vendor)

JERK CHICKEN VENDOR: Miss Maisie, I’m mashed up. I always knew how much chicken I brought out here.  I would just give Beville my bill and he would pay me but after what happen to him how am I going to get paid?

SOUP VENDOR: It’s the same thing happen to me. I know how much soup I brought out here, but I don’t know how I’m going to get paid.

MAISIE: Just do like what I did. Write down their names and the amount of food they took and go to them for the money. If they don’t want to pay you, threaten to lock them up.

JERK CHICKEN VENDOR: Thank you Miss Maisie, that’s what we are going to do.(Exits both vendors)

MAISIE: I feel tired. It’s early, Wilfred, but we might as well lock up and all of us can go and see if we can find Beville for although he did what he did, he is still our friend.

WILDEN: Well said, Maisie, I’ve never heard you say anything better. Freddie and Cooch, are you coming  with us?

FREDDIE: I will go too.

COOCH: Same here. (They begin to help Wilfred and Maisie lock up)(The lights fade)