Class: Sec 2-5

Facilitator: Noorlinah Mohamed

Related Threads: Version 1 of the Script

The script devised by Class 25 for NOMAD continues to evolve, please see below to the see the latest version:

Music begins and the stage is slowly lit with ambers sparkling in the distance. The ambers become brighter and sparks fly and a fire breaks out. Then we hear a voice reading a poem and then screams. The stage is bright with 4 images moving in slow motion. Then silence and actors come to centrestage.

VINCE: All my money, all my belongings, all my assets are gone!

MENDY: (CRIES) My mother is still in the house!

PAULINE: Where are my things? Everything, everything is gone!

JING JIE: Aiyo! Play with match sticks already bad enough! Still pour in

kerosene from the oil lamp!

BRYAN: My beloved brother . . . .

VIVIAN: I can’t bear to see her so sad (puts arm around Mendi)

WANGLING: I want my father back!

ZHENG JIE: What are the fire-fighters doing? How did the fire get so big?

BOON LIANG: Many lives are lost.

POH RONG: Where is my dog. Xiao Bai, where are you?

PEARLYN: All that is left are memories.

ELEANOR: Why didn’t God save us? Why is he so cruel?

JIA QUAN: Homeless, lost, pain.

DARYL: My memories burnt with the house.

YILIN: This is such a tragedy.

CLARA: Nothing could have saved it.

JETHRO: I am dead.

SHI HUI: Black smoke, red eyes.

WEIXIANG: What should I do now?

FRANCIS: Everything is gone . . . Time for Kopi O.

All: Kopi O? Francis! – odd and even group

Francis why can’t you concentrate? )

This is not funny. )

You are crazy. ) spoken by individuals in the

Hey I also want to some kopi. ) second group.

Music plays and radio news is heard

Jonatham Tham and Michelle Wong plays radio broadcasters stand by.

Boy: Standby you are on in 3, 2, 1.

(DONE BY SECOND CLASS TILL ADVERTIMENT)

Good morning welcome to radio Singapore

A 19-year-old Penang Free School student, Ahmad Fathil bin Dato Abdul Wahab, who was to leave on a Colombo Plan Scholarship to study medicine in Canada next week, was killed in a motor accident at Sungei Borak, near Bagan Serai, yesterday. Ahmad, with a couple Mr and Mrs Phillips, was returning to Penang when their car ran off the road. It hit into trees and a small wooden bridge before crashing into a roadside canal.

From his personal assessment of the situation, he felt it would be essential to impose curfews until Monday, at least. All post offices were open for business till 10am when the curfew was imposed. Banks too were open an hour from 9am – 10am. A Singapore Traction Company spokesman said that 80 per cent of the company’s fleet went out this morning, servicing as far as possible all the customary routes. Busses from the Chinese bus companies also plied their usual routes.

At Jalan Eunos itself, all that remained of a row of shophouses were upright charred pillars and all one villager could say was time for a kopi-o. What a tragedy.

As news is read, the first layer of the HDB is built

(Advertisement scene is segued into this portion after the news is read)

Girls: Boys!…What are fishes that come packed in a can?

Boys: Er…Piranhas? (Pronounces it wrongly)

Amanda: Piranhas?(Pronounces it wrongly )Is piranhas!(Pronounces it correctly)

Girls: What are sardines dipped in tomato sauce?

Boys: Tomato-ed sardines? (Pronounces it wrongly)

Yoke Fong: Tomato sardines? (Pronounces it wrongly) Its tomato sardines! (Pronounces it correctly)

Girls: No! Its Ayam Brand Sardines!

Girls: Let me ask you some more, what are needed when a meal has no fish?

Boys: Then we do not eat fish.

Girls: Of course get the ever ready Ayam brand sardines!

Girls: What is the animal on the Ayam brand packaging?

Boys: Err…Is it a chick?

Girls: I give up, it is a rooster.

Girls: A last chance for you! What is oval shaped, covered in red and contains

sardines in it?

Boys: I know this one! Red egg covering sardines! Correct right? I just knew it!

Girls: I give up on you…It is the Ayam brand sardines!

Together: Delicious and convenient, nothing taste better than this!

HDB scene

5 civil servants present the new building

CV1: Good morning uncles and aunties. We are the civil servants from HDB. We have a

proposal for you. We would like to invite the kampung dwellers to move into our new

building called FLATS. Look at them, they are high rise buildings and you will be

living in 4 – 10 storeys high.

CV2: It is better to stay in high rise buildings. Kampungs are dangerous as there are always

snakes lurking around and fires can be reduced. Fires in kampungs can spread very

easily, take the Bukit Ho Swee incident for example.

CV3: Living in HDB flats will be much safer as the walls are made of bricks and concrete

not like the wooden planks and attap roofs of the kampungs.

CV4: Look, you have no choice but to do this. The population is increasing, if you don’t live

in high rise buildings, Singapore will soon have no space for other means.

CV5: Also, please sell your livestocks. No pets allowed. Please be considerate. It is a matter

of hygiene. If you don’t, we will force you to sell or slaughter the. Thank you.

NEXT SCENE: LIFE IN HDB

(MOVEMENT FROM SECOND CLASS WITH SHORT PHRASES)

I can see people playing Chinese chess If being pasted on by posters makes

me beautiful than I think I’m very

pretty right now.

I can see children running around. I feel so wet. Water is dripping on me.

Oh No! The baby is crying. People in the flats talk so loudly, everyday.

Its so high up here. I can’t understand why they like to gossip.

People who use me to go up to the 5th floor Cement is poured on me. I’m so hot.

is a waste of my energy.

I hate it when people stomp on me. Mr Soh is cursing and swearing again.

I am new, please treat me well. Sprayed paint by loan sharks every now

and then

Its clean and green with 4 new floors. Can you wash me, I feel dirty.

The staircase is over there! The lift is over

here! Check out my matching walls.

SUBSEQUENTLY DIALOGUE BETWEEN NEIGHBOURS (GO BACK TO THE FIRST CLASS)

Ah Ma and Granddaughter Siew Siew

Ah Ma is seen sitting quietly on a bench, alone. Granddaughter runs in.

Siew Siew: Ah Ma, Ah Ma, what are you doing out here?

Ah Ma: Huh? Huh?

Siew Siew: What are you doing here?

Ah Ma: Ah yo, so loud. I am not deaf! Nothing, Just sitting.

Siew Siew: Sitting. Why don’t you go back and sit at home.

Ah Ma: No . . . its too warm up there.

Siew Siew: But we can switch on the electric fan.

Ah Ma: No need to waste electricity. Come sit with Ah Ma.

Siew Siew sits down next to Ah Ma.

Siew Siew: What are we looking at?

Ah Ma: Nothing. Just look around. See people walking.

Siew Siew: Ah Ma, let’s go back.

Ah Ma: You go back first if you want. Ah Ma will sit here for a while more. Go, its ok.

Siew Siew: You will come back right?

Ah Ma: Yes, I will.

Siew Siew: Ah Ma, is everything alright?

Ah Ma: (Sigh) . . . yes. Its just so different, everything is so different. Many things have changed.

Shopkeeper with make-up

Ah Girl: Auntie, I want that sweet and that chocolate.

Auntie: Do I look like an auntie to you?

Ah Girl: Yes, you look like one to me.

Auntie: No. I use good facial products. Can’t you see how young I look?

Ah Girl: Are you sure? All I can see are white hair, wrinkles on your face and a big,

gigantic and humongous pimple on your face. Anyways, facial products are

used by aunties like you.

Auntie: Who says so? I use facial products because I can afford it.

Ah Girl: Auntie, everyone here knows you are rich. That is why you own this shop. So

why don’t you just give me some sweets and chocolates for free.

Auntie: Ah, you think everything is for free is it? No. Besides you have no manners.

Don’t your parents teach you how to speak to your elders? Apologise now!

Ah Girl: You give me my sweets first!

Auntie: I want my apology!

Ah Girl: You give me my sweets first, then I’ll say it.

Auntie: My apology!

Ah Girl: Sorrrryyyyy!

Auntie releases sweets.

Ah Girl: Auntie!

Auntie: Hey come back here! Children nowadays are so rude!

2 OLD MEN WITH PLANT

BOYS IN FLATS

Your armpit is so fragrant. Its stinking up the room.

I hope Ah Liang doesn’t fart.

Speak for yourself, your toe jam is horrendous

There is no air in here.

I hurt my back.

Is that my pillow.

No, that is my buttocks you fool.

Keep you hands to yourself!

I need the toilet, faster.

This is my space.

No my space

You are stepping on my foot.

We need more space.