Eleven Vests 1997
Performed by: Bobby Colvill, Chris Cooper, Amanda Finney
(The voices of the prisoners were recorded)
Director: Geoff Gillham
Design/Stage Manager: Richard Watson
Administrator: Maria Gee
Fund Raiser: Jane Woddis
Eleven Vests 1999
Performed by: Bobby Colvill, Chris Cooper, Amanda Finney, Richard Holmes
Director: Chris Cooper
Design/Assistant Stage Manager: Ceri Townsend
Stage Manager: Imamul Ameem
Outreach and Development Worker: Maria Gee
Fund Raiser: Jane Woddis
A short description of the play:
Book: A student summoned before the Head stands staring at the ground. The Head asks "Why?" The Student does not speak. The Head produces a book, its pages are slashed. The Student remains silent, neither denying nor admitting damaging the book. The Head gives the student a final warning before dismissing him.
Jacket: Another student enters crying, she is holding a school blazer. The Head appears. He takes the jacket. It has been badly slashed like the book. The head forces the Other Student into the tattered blazer and tells her to wait there. The Head leaves and reappears shortly after with the Student. Once more the Student refuses to cooperate as the Head accuses him of slashing the blazer. The Head instructs the Student to help the Other Student take the jacket off. The Student tears another strip off it. The Head tells the Student that he is expelled and that he has called the police. The Other Student is sent back to class. The Head begins to speak to the Student who walks out of the room.
Gate: The Student who has been living rough returns to the school gates. He meets the Other Student. The Other Student tries to persuade him to walk with her by the canal. He is about to go with the Other Student when the Head appears. The Head tells the Student he will not be allowed to enter the premises. The police are on their way. The Student pulls a knife. The Head stands firm in the gateway. The rest of the children are watching from inside the school. The Student stabs the Head, the Head staggers away to die. The Student walks to the gate, place one foot over the threshold, the children watching from inside the school building scream in fear. The Student throws the knife into the school yard before fleeing.
Lesson: Some years later, the Student is in the army. The Instructor is giving him a lesson explaining that all of human history, scientific development, is in the rifle, as a prelude to learning how to fire it. The lesson shifts to bayonet practice. The Student is unable to carry this out until a sack is provided for him to practice on. The Instructor harangues his charge incessantly and demands that the Student scream as he charges. The scream is primal. It is the first form of articulation from the Student who ends up in a heap having caught the sack on the end of the bayonet. The Instructor tells the Student to clear up the mess before departing.
Reccy: The Student is in combat on reconnaissance with a fellow Soldier. They are watching a hunting lodge that is quartering enemy soldiers. The Student observes through binoculars while the Soldier reports what he sees back to HQ down the intercom. There is nothing to report. Then, the Student sees movement. The enemy is surrendering by hanging out their white vests from a window. They count the vests, 10. HQ, unsure whether it is a trick or not, instructs them to take the surrender. They are unhappy to be so put at risk but proceed as ordered.
Roof: Inside the roof of the tower where the soldiers are surrendering an Enemy Soldier sits alone. The Enemy talks to a wooden toy train that has been left there by the previous occupants who fled. The Enemy's mate was shot the day before. The captain has run and the rest of the unit thinks he has too. There is a shout from below. He ignores it and starts to play with the train. The Enemy decides to go further up into the roof to sleep.
Tower: The Student and the Other Soldier approach the tower. Ten vests are hanging from the window. They take the surrender and instruct the prisoners to come out of the tower and gather down in the dip in front of the tower where they can be easily watched.
They sit down to watch until the arrival of their own platoon. A single shot from the top of the tower kills the Other Soldier. The Student scrambles away. The Enemy appears with his gun. The prisoners in the dip call to him in their language, he realises that they have surrendered. He lowers his gun. The Student reappears aiming his gun at the Enemy. The Enemy drops the gun and puts his hands up. The Student interrogates him, but they cannot speak the same language. When he is satisfied that the Enemy is the last person in the tower the Student radios the platoon, explains that a sniper has killed his mate, Carter and says that it is all clear now as he has killed the sniper. He prepares to bayonet the terrified Enemy who calls out to his comrades for help. A Prisoner who can speak English runs up from the dip. The Prisoner pleads on the Enemy's behalf. The Student is distracted by the constant crackle of the IC, his superiors trying to contact him. He turns the IC off and asks the Prisoner to tell him what the Enemy is saying. The Enemy tells the Student through the Prisoner that he was asleep in the roof and was unaware that the others had surrendered, which was why when he woke and saw the Student and the Other Soldier below he shot at them. As proof the Enemy shows that he still has his vest on. At the Student tries to fix the bayonet the Enemy takes his vest off and holds it out to the Student pleading with him. The Enemy buries his face in it crying. The Student bayonets the Enemy, and cleans the blood off it with the Enemy's vest. The other Prisoners in the dip call out in horror. The Student radios in on the IC confirming the sniper is dead. He sends the Prisoner back down into he dip. The Enemy sits up again. The Enemy starts to talk to him, picks up the vest and begins to clean the bayonet with it. The Student tells the Enemy "don't do that". The Enemy continues to talk and clean. The Student takes the vest and throws it away. The Enemy continues to stare into space talking. The Student tells him to stop. The Student bayonets the Enemy dead. He instructs the Prisoner to take the body away. The Prisoner comes to take the body. The Student tries to repeat what the Enemy was saying to him. He asks the Prisoner what the words mean. The Prisoner replies that it "was nothing". The Student presses him. The Prisoner tells him "Is nothing sir. Is buffalo…is table. Water. Buffalo." The Prisoner goes. The Student looks at the other Prisoners and tries to call out in their language. The Student picks up the rifles and the Enemy’s vest he tugs down the vests that were hung from the window in surrender and leaves carrying them.
