This is a play that was written at MADD Camp in Oct 05.<\/p>\n
The idea of a wolf blowing down houses seemed absurd to us, so the best solution I could think of was a scenario where the houses are blown down in strong wind, but the pigs attribute it to a wolf who is visiting, and that the wolf says something that sounds to the pigs like \u201cI\u2019ll huff and I\u2019ll puff and I\u2019ll blow your house down\u201d.<\/p>\n
We began with three scenes (not written here) in which the pigs introduce their houses. After them comes the three scenes with the wolf. After working out how to write the key lines (written in bold) it seemed best to write the whole section in triple time with lines of 10-12 syllables. This is the metre used in most of Dr Seuss\u2019 stories.<\/p>\n
W standing outside P1\u2019s house.
\n<\/i>W: I work for the Council. I visit those fools
\nWho have trouble abiding by all of the rules.
\nTheir music\u2019s too loud or their rates are unpaid
\nOr we\u2019re unimpressed by the houses they\u2019ve made.
\nFirst on the list is a pig whose abode
\nIs all made of straw \u2013 that\u2019s a breach of the code.
\nW knocks on door.
\n<\/i>W: Good day. Are you there?
\nP1: Who is it?
\nW: I\u2019m from the Council. I\u2019m paying a visit.
\nSomebody back in the office has found
\nThat the structure of your lovely house is unsound.
\nYou need stuff that is tough when wind\u2019s blowing through town.
\n<\/b>Just one puff is enough, it could blow your house down!
\n<\/b>The house blows down. P1 runs away screaming.
\n<\/i>W: It collapsed just like that? What a nasty surprise.
\nI talk about wind and in front of my eyes
\nThe whole house turns into a pile of straw
\nWhich is fine, \u2018cause it\u2019s not my concern any more.
\nW flips to next page on clipboard
\n<\/i>My clip board now shows me the next thing to do.
\nThe next one\u2019s a breach of the building code too.<\/p>\n
P1 and P2 in P2\u2019s house.
\n<\/i>P1: You know my old dwelling, the one made of straw,
\nA wolf came along and she knocked on my door.
\nShe shouted to me, with a big angry frown,
\n\u201cI\u2019ll huff and I\u2019ll puff and I\u2019ll blow your house down!\u201d
\nThat\u2019s what she shouted, unless I\u2019m misled
\nWhich can\u2019t be the case, \u2018cause as soon as she said
\n\u201cI\u2019ll blow you house down\u201d, I felt straw on my head!
\nThe whole house collapsed as that wicked wolf blew.
\nThen I ran straight away, without stopping, to you.
\nThis wolf is a villain! She\u2019s out there to eat us
\nP2: Well if that\u2019s the case then we can\u2019t let her beat us.
\nShe may come knocking, but we will resist!
\nW has come to the house.
\n<\/i>W: This one looks like the next house on the list.
\nW knocks. The pigs are scared and ignore her.
\n<\/i>W: Good morning, there\u2019s things that we need to discuss.
\nI\u2019m from the Council, it won\u2019t be much fuss.
\nThe folks in the office have reason to hiss you.
\nYou house has a serious structural issue.
\nI saw a house fall in a heap just this morning
\nSo listen to me now and please heed my warning:
\nYou need stuff that is tough when wind\u2019s blowing through town.
\n<\/b>Just one puff is enough, it will blow your house down!
\n<\/b>P2: She\u2019ll blow this house down \u2013 that\u2019s a serious threat.
\nI reckon that she\u2019s the worst villain we\u2019ve met.
\nW: Please come and open the door, oh, you must.
\nP2: I will not let you in. You\u2019re not one I can trust.
\nThe house blows over and the pigs run away screaming.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
In P3\u2019s house, all the pigs are there.
\n<\/i>P2: We\u2019re now at a crisis! A wolf is in town.
\nShe came to our houses and blew them both down.
\nShe blows with such strength that no building can take it.
\nP3: No<\/i> building? Well that all depends how you make it.
\nUnder my roof you have nothing to fear.
\nMy house is..
\nP1: Aaah! Look!
\nP2: She\u2019s here!
\nW knocks on the door and the pigs ignore her again.
\n<\/i>W: Good morning, sir. Look, I have something to say
\nThat\u2019s important. Your rates. Are you going to pay?
\nAs far as I know you are seven months late.
\nFor my friends at the office, that\u2019s too long to wait.
\nIt\u2019s no bluff! I don\u2019t huff! There are laws in this town!
\n<\/b>P1 & P2: She\u2019ll huff and she\u2019ll puff and she\u2019ll blow the house down!
\nP3: As I was trying to tell you before,
\nMy house won\u2019t fall over like your house of straw.
\nIt would have been cheaper to use straw or sticks
\nBut I was much wiser and built it with bricks.
\nNo matter what strikes it, whatever the weather,
\nThe bricks of my house will stay safely together.
\nA concrete foundation is under the floor.
\nA reliable lock is built into the door.
\nThe walls and the roof will no doubt pass the test.
\nYou may stay here with me, for my house is the best.
\nW: They won\u2019t let me in, but I\u2019ve got a good plan.
\nI\u2019ll climb up on top of the roof if I can.
\nAnd slide down the chimney and talk to him straight.
\nNo excuses for paying your council rates late.
\nW starts climbing up the roof.
\n<\/i>P1: She\u2019s climbing the roof.
\nP2: That looks rather daring.
\nP3: But I can foresee the bold move she\u2019s preparing.
\nLet\u2019s crank up the heat! Though she now wants to eat us
\nThat won\u2019t be the first thing on her mind when she\u2019ll meet us.
\nW: It can\u2019t be hard if Father Christmas can do it
\nHe\u2019s fatter than I, so there can\u2019t be much to it.
\nP3 has turned the fire on. W comes down the chimney and gets burnt in the fireplace.
\n<\/i>W: Aah! The fire! I\u2019m burnt to the core!
\nP1: She\u2019ll learn not to chase after us any more.
\nW: You\u2019ll hear from our lawyer! I\u2019m going to sue!
\nP2: You\u2019re crooked, the court will not listen to you.
\nW: Oh, the pain, I\u2019m going in search of cold water.
\nW runs away.
\n<\/i>P3: It\u2019s over. We\u2019re safe now. I knew we could thwart her.
\nP2: I\u2019m going to ring up my publisher friend.
\nHe\u2019ll write up our tale from beginning to end.
\nP2 talks on the phone.
\n<\/i>P2: How\u2019s it going? Have I got a story for you!
\nSo crazy you\u2019d never believe it was true.<\/p>\n
For each house we had 2-3 strips of paper, 50cm wide and 3m high. The straw and stick houses has straw and sticks stuck on the paper, while the brick house had bricks drawn in. On the back wall was drawn a fireplace \u2013 one picture of an empty fireplace, and one with a fire in it. When P3 turns the fire on, he folded a flap down so we go from the former to the latter. Stagehands held each strip up and dropped it (along with me throwing down some wooden blocks offstage) to signify the houses collapsing.<\/p>\n
Publisher:
\nI\u2019ve just written quite a story
\nGiven to me by my friend
\nCould have turned out rather gory
\nBut it came right in the end<\/p>\n
Lawyer:
\nI\u2019m the local council\u2019s lawyer
\nTitled with an L. L. B.
\nI\u2019ve got quite a story for ya
\nListen closely and you\u2019ll see<\/p>\n
Publisher:
\nStories this good take some telling
\nThree good pigs, who I won\u2019t name
\nEach one had their own new dwelling
\nTill a hungry wolfie came<\/p>\n
Lawyer:
\nMy good friend I\u2019m representing
\nShe\u2019s a wolf, she\u2019s short and thin
\nHear the charges I\u2019m presenting
\nIt\u2019s assault! I think we\u2019ll win<\/p>\n
Publisher:
\nHow she did it I still wonder
\nBut with an almighty puff
\nBlew two pigs\u2019 new homes asunder
\nStraw and sticks weren\u2019t good enough<\/p>\n
Both:
\nThe big bad wolf \/ The small thin wolf
\nCame by the house of straw
\nThe wolf she blew \/ A strong wind blew
\nThe straw house was no more
\nThe big bad wolf \/ My friend the wolf
\nCame by the house of sticks
\nAnd then the wolf \/ A gust of wind
\nMade things too hard to fix<\/p>\n
Like a man without his trousers
\nWere the pigs without their houses
\nAnd they ran away in terror
\nWe can now point out their error
\nTo make a house that\u2019s lasting
\nThat withstands the strong wind\u2019s blasting
\nUse material that\u2019s stronger
\nIt will last a whole lot longer<\/p>\n
The pigs were all \/ holed up inside
\nThe dwelling made of brick
\nThey didn\u2019t let \/ her in so she
\nTried out a daring trick
\nTo eat the pigs \/ Collecting rates
\nThat was the wolf\u2019s main aim
\nShe didn\u2019t see \/ a pig inside
\nWas turning up the flame<\/p>\n
Lawyer:
\nThe defendant lit a fire up
\nSo my client would get burnt
\nWhen she came inside from higher up
\nThat\u2019s what happened, as I\u2019ve learnt<\/p>\n
Publisher:
\nBuy the book, this thrilling story
\nWolf breaks houses, pigs unnerved
\nPigs hit back and get the glory
\nWolf gets just what she deserved<\/p>\n
Lawyer:
\nFrom this case that I will lay out
\nTo the district magistrate
\nI expect she’ll get a payout
\nThat will serve to compensate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a play that was written at MADD Camp in Oct 05. The idea of a wolf blowing down houses seemed absurd to us, so the best solution I could think of was a scenario where the houses are blown down in strong wind, but the pigs attribute it to a wolf who is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions\/67"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eric.mappage.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}