Great fun for special effect fans!
Graham and Deborah have bought a house in rural Suffolk for an excellent knocked down price only to discover that the price represented the fact that an horrific murder had been committed there several years ago. Tonight they have invited some friends around to a house warming party.
The friends, naturally enough, are inquisitive and demand to be told all the gory details. Graham gleefully fills them in leaving nothing to the imagination. They decide to consult a Ouija board. Two of their friends are strict Christians and an argument ensues as to whether they should be using the Devil’s tools.
They go ahead however, and the results are indecisive. Graham suggests a seance…then the troubles begin.
Read an extract here:
Joseph: Joseph please. I am surprised. I thought you were more open minded David.
David: I am, but the thought of an edifice consisting of bricks and mortar luring somebody in for its own nefarious purposes does stretch the limits of credibility
Jessica: Not at all. There are innumerable instances of demons luring gullible people to their death
Deborah: Demons? You’ve been reading too much Dennis Wheatley
Annabel: Dennis Wheatley?
Graham: Wrote fantasy stuff about good and evil
Deborah: The Devil Rides Out, and To the Devil a Daughter The Ka of Gifford Hilary, were three of his titles
Jessica: Not our sort of reading material
Graham: Pity, you would have gotten on well with him. He clearly had the same sort of bizarre thought processes that you have
Jessica: You should take this seriously Graham, it’s not a joke
Graham: It’s all one big joke as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bloody house for God’s sake not a portal into some fiendish hell hole
Joseph: Let’s hope not
(Pause)
David: I have a suggestion. Why don’t we ask Graham and Deborah to tell us exactly what happened in this room in all its gory detail. Then perhaps we can forget it
Annabel: Good idea, it’ll be quite cathartic for them and the rest of us can put the whole damned thing to bed and get on with the evening
Graham: We’d be very happy to tell you “all the gory details” if you think you can handle it. As far as it being cathartic I’m sure Deborah’s fig and prune surprise will do a much better job
Joseph: (To Jessica) do you want to listen to this darling?
Jessica: It will be a kind of exorcism in itself, a soul purging, as much for the house itself as for Graham, Deborah and the rest of us.
Deborah: We don’t need purging, neither physically nor spiritually, however if it makes you feel better ……
Annabel: So come on the Graham….what really happened here?
Graham: We did quite a bit of research, local papers, what the estate agent told us, internet chat rooms etc
Deborah: The family who lived here, John and Sandra Strang, had a nine year old daughter
Graham: He was something big in the theatre, a producer or director or something. Opera I think, loved Wagner, she was a teacher at a primary school in Saxmundham.
Deborah: The girl, Emma, came along late in life for the Strangs, she being over forty and him in his early fifties. By all accounts they had been trying for years with no success and had given up.
Graham: But as life is full of little twists turns and surprises she fell pregnant not long after her forty second birthday.
Deborah: Emma became their life. They absolutely doted on her.
Graham: Until Sandra met a handsome young teacher at the Primary School and started a passionate affair. A toy boy dalliance that became much more than a dalliance
Deborah: Usual thing by all accounts, everybody knew except her husband according to the local paper.
Graham: Until one day he got an anonymous phone call.
Deborah: He came home in the middle of the day and caught his wife, bags packed, about to leave with his daughter
Graham: There was a note on the mantelpiece telling him she had found somebody else and that she was leaving him and taking Emma. There was a huge row during which John grabbed his daughter and told Sandra that she wouldn’t be taking Emma anywhere and if he couldn’t keep her then nobody would.
Deborah: He took her up to this very room
Graham: His wife called the police of course and there was a standoff for several hours. It is said that onlookers heard the little girl pleading with her father. After a while there was silence and a short time after that John opened the door, ran through to the large bedroom on the landing and threw himself straight through the window.
Great play for Halloween, or simply to bring an audience to the edge of their seats
Not for the faint hearted!
Four Males, Three Females…about 90 minutes
Read the whole play and purchase here:
https://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Scripts/Results.aspx?iSc=1447