Rainbow Heart
A short play about the touch of colour in Black and White lives
Mr Very Berang
Mrs Quite Berang
Ms Pretty Berang
The Rainbow Girls
Scene 1:
The Berangs are sitting in their living room in an apartment without colour. Everything is in Black and White and very neat. Mr Berang is reading a newspaper with a sullen expression on his face. Mrs Berang is sitting and flicking channels on the Black and White television set. She, too, looks as if she has swallowed something distasteful.
Pretty is a little girl, about 10 years old. She looks forlornly out of the window. From outside, children’s laughter and occasional shouts of “Holi Hai” can be heard. To Pretty, it sounds like everybody but her is having a lot of fun.
Voices are heard:
“Pretty! What are you still doing upstairs? Come down and play holi with us!”
“You’re so clean! Come on, Let’s make you red, blue and green!”
Pretty looks pleadingly at her parents:
“Please, can I go? They’re having so much fun.”
Mrs. Berang: “Oh, Pretty! All those colours—you know they’re not good for you. They’ll corrupt you. Haven’t we explained it to you before?”
Pretty: “But Ma, what harm can playing holi do? The colours will all wash off.”
Mr. Berang: “Baby, you don’t understand. Colours are very dangerous. You can’t just wash them off! Once you let them into your life, they’ll control you. They’ll make you feel and say and do all the things you shouldn’t do.”
Mrs. Berang: “Colours take over your mind. They leak into your logical brain. They rust your ability to think clearly. You become their slave—“
Mr. Berang: “Colours are like viruses in your head. They invade your gray cells and turn them into ‘sentiments.’ You lose your immunity to emotion. Then you can wave your rationality goodbye forever…”
Mrs. Berang: And then you’ll become just like the rest of humanity—controlled by feelings. Love, Hate, Hunger, Desire, Anger, Jealousy, Greed—they are all colours in disguise.
Mr. Berang: Behind everything wrong in the world, all the violence, every sin, there is a colour. Protect yourself, Pretty. Don’t let the colour epidemic get under your skin!
Pretty sighs and turns back to the window.
Scene 2:
Pretty is sad. She stands at the window looking down. From downstairs, she can hear more laughter and shouts of delight. Now the children are singing as they play holi with each other. Their song is interspersed with giggles and shouts of glee.
“We’re going to make a rainbow girl
On her head we’ll put a violet curl.
Her eyes will be bright and indigo
On her neck we’ll put a big, blue bow
We’ll paint her dress as green as grass
With gleaming yellow flowers of brass
Her socks and shoes will be orange and red
If we had our way, she’d never go to bed!”
Pretty smiles as she looks out of the window and begins humming the song with the children.
Mrs. Berang is horrified:
“Pretty! You’re exposed!! You’re getting infected! Shut the window. Now!”
Mr Berang:
“Look Pretty. Here’s a song for you—
The world is better in black and white
You know where you stand with wrong and right
You know what is what
And you know what is not
There’s nothing cloudy or confused
Your lightbulb’s never fused
Everything in its place
And a place for everything
That’s the song that you must sing!”
Suddenly, there’s a loud knocking on the door along with shouts of
“Pretty, Open the door! Come on, Pretty—Holi Hai!”
Mrs. Berang: “Pretty, ignore them. Go to your room and shut yourself in.”
The knocking continues.
“Pretty, Open up! Let us in! We’re the Rainbow girls. Don’t you want to be a Rainbow Girl too?”
Pretty: (quietly, almost to herself): “Yes. Yes I do.”
(more firmly, louder and happier) “Yes, I really do.”
Scene 3:
As her parents watch in horror, Pretty opens the door.
The Reds walk in. They walk to Pretty and take her hand.
Mr and Mrs Berang: “Oh, No, No, No, No, No!
Leave us alone! Please go!
You’re Anger and Hate
War and Bloodshed
You’re Madness.
Don’t touch us! “
Reds: “We’ve touched you, Pretty. Now you’re one of us. Why don’t you tell your parents how we make you feel?”
Pretty: “Oh, thank you Reds. Thank you for touching me.
I feel…like I’ve never felt before—
So much energy in every pore.
I feel vibrant and alive
Full of ambition and drive
But most of all, and over and above
I feel Love.
It’s wonderful! It’s cool! It’s pure
There’s no illness it can’t cure.
Reds, you’re the love that makes the whole world grow!
I love you so!
Mom, I love you also.
Dad, I love you more!
Oh, why didn’t I know
Love could be like this?
Mom, Dad, you don’t want to miss
This feeling—“
The Oranges walk in and hold Pretty’s hand
Mr. And Mrs Berang: “Orange! Heat and Acidity
Poison and rancidity—“
Oranges: “No! We are Purity
Of mind and deed and spirit
We stand for sacrifice
And spiritual mentality”
In come the Yellows and touch Pretty’s face
Mr. And Mrs Berang: “Leave her alone, you colours vile!
Yellow, you’re the colour of bile
Cowardice, jaundice,
Fear and Malice
Pretty, keep them away by a mile!”
Pretty: “Yellow? You mean the colour of sunlight?
--The colour that makes life fun and bright
The colour that soothes all troubled hearts
--The colour of gold and lemon tarts!”
Now it is time for the Greens to come and kiss Pretty’s cheeks:
Mr. and Mrs Berang: “Ugh! Now comes the colour of hell
Envy, evil, slime and smell
Monsters, devils and men from Mars
Poisons in mad scientists’ experimental jars
Mould and fungus and smelly cheese
Spinach, beans, gourds and peas—“
Pretty: “Dad, think of the colour of our natural friends
Grassy fields and mossy river bends
Paddy fields and new tendrils in Spring
Green is as fragile as a butterfly’s wing”
The Greens: “Turtles, parrots, frisky frogs and fireflies
Merry grasshoppers and bewitching cats’ eyes”
Pretty: “Trees and plants and leaves of all shapes
Pears, coconuts, limes, kiwis and grapes”
The Greens: “Pistachio nuts, Mango chutney and mint ice-cream
All the goodies in children’s dreams
For some odd reason, they are all Green!”
Pretty: “Green is youth and innocence,
Simplicity, truth and tenderness.”
Blues, Indigos and Purples run in together and hug Pretty:
Mr. And Mrs Berang (alternatively):
“I can’t bear this onslaught of hue!
It’s the murder of all we hold true
Blue! Cold, shivery depression
Indigo! The colour of bruises when you’re beaten
Violet! The purple of arrogance and suppression
Stay Away! You weapons of destruction!”
Blues: “Blue! Our planet’s beauty mirrored in the oceans”
Indigos: “Indigo! The midnight sky deep in reflection”
Purple: “Violet! The purple of royalty, passion and determination”
All the colours get into rainbow formation:
“Together we make the rainbow that’s you
So varied and glorious, so colourful and new
We make your character, your spirit, your body and soul
We mix in different parts to make you whole
Because of us you’re uniquely you!
It’s true—so you have to give us our due”
Pretty goes to her parents and reaches out her hand.
“Mom, dad, do you love me like I love you?”
Scene 4:
Mr and Mrs Berang are puzzled:
Mrs. Berang: “Love? What’s that? You’re our offspring, Pretty. We take good care of you just like we’re supposed to. You’re acting very strange, Pretty—
Mr. Berang: “Now what do you think you’re doing? Pretty—stop! Don’t touch us! “
Pretty reaches out and takes both her parents’ hands
Mrs. Berang: “I’m feeling faint!”
Mr. Berang: “Now, you’ve done it, Pretty. You’ve made us sick.
I feel the prick
Of strange emotions all over my duodenum”
Mrs. Berang: “We’ll have to be quarantined in Black and White for a millennium!”
The Rainbow Girls including Pretty make a rainbow and encircle the Berangs:
“Don’t you know, can’t you see?
The colours are within you—set them free!
Black absorbs every colour mixed together
White reflects them and you can’t see the mixture
What you think is the absence of colour
Is really the presence of all colours within you and me!”
Mr. Berang: “TRULY?”
Mrs. Berang: “I feel better already.”
Mr. Berang: “I’m free!”
Mrs. Berang: “And, I think—no, I KNOW, I love you Pretty!
I love you very much—so much it hurts me”
Mr. Berang: “It feels so wonderful, so painful, so—healthy!
I feel Red with energy, Purple with pride”
Mrs. Berang: “I feel Orangely pure and Yellowy bright!”
Mr. Berang: “I feel Indigo deep and Bluely clean”
Mrs. Berang: “And most of all, I feel Greenely serene”
Pretty Berang: “Thank you colours. Thank you for bringing such joy into our lives.”
Mrs. Berang: “And thank you for making my darling Pretty a beautiful Rainbow Girl!”
Mr. Berang: “Let us celebrate the wonderful festival of colours!“
Everybody together: “HOLI HAI!!”
Comments