Big Wolf by Harald Mueller
Big Wolf
A searing piece, written by a man who knows exactly what effects he wants
Irving Wardle, The Times
Originally produced by The Royal Court Theatre and subsequently in several regional productions. Published by Davis Poynter. A group of five boys, each injured in his different way by an unnamed war, scavenge a wartorn landscape, imitating the behaviour of grown-ups in a desperate effort to stay alive. Inspired by accounts of the Vietnam War and informed by Mueller’s own experience in end-of-WW2 Berlin.
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Script Excerpt
(Knife is standing on Bando’s shoulders, looking over a wall.)
(Bando wears a filthy face dressing. Andsome is cutting his nails.)
(He is better dressed than the others. A shot is heard.)
Andsome: Bloody soldiers.
Knife: War’s war.
Bando: Any sign of Cubby?
Knife: Not yet.
(A shot.)
Bando: I’m past caring.
Knife: Something wrong, Bando?
Bando: Not half. Your daisies.
Knife: What about ’em?
Bando: Got nails out the bottom by any chance? Rotten filthy an’ all.
Andsome: Yours aren’t, I suppose?
Bando: Who’s on whose back here anyway?
Knife: Stop whining.
Bando: Just when my kisser’s starting to run again too.
(He pulls at his face bandage. Knife loses balance.)
Knife: Do that again, and I’ll kick your arse.
(Short pause.)
Knife: Cubby! (Throws a rope over the wall) Over here, Cubby, over here!
(Wild shooting.)
Andsome: Reckon he’ll make it?
Knife: No idea. Running like the clappers though. Zig-zag, Cubby, run zig-zag!
(Silence. He pulls the rope in.)
Knife: If you don’t listen, you learn the hard way.
Andsome: What you mean?
Knife: Got it in the leg. Stone me. I told him to zig-zag, didn’t I?
(He jumps down from Bando’s shoulders)
Knife: Let’s do him a Big Wolf.
(They howl like wolves. Cubby howls his answer. A shot.)
(Knife opens Cubby’s bundle.)
Andsome: Any valuables?
Bando: Bloody vulture.
Knife: Not a whisker.