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The Little Mermaid

LOTTIE: You have not been talkative of l...

Overview

Show Type
Play
Age Guidance
Youth (Y)/General Audiences (G)
Genders
  • Female: 2
  • Male: 0
Playing Age
Child, Early Teen, Adult, Mature Adult
Style
Comedic
Length
Medium
Time Period
Contemporary
Time/Place
The backyard of an Irish washerwoman, present day
Act/Scene
Act 1

Context

Text

LOTTIE: You have not been talkative of late. Homesick, I suppose? Thinking about your mother and father? Thinking you have seen them forever when you've only been away three days? I can gather from that busy little brain of yours, that you're worried you'll be trapped in this island for all eternity, when in truth, you know as well as I that in five days' time, your mum will be running through that gate, swooping you up in her arms, and your da' will likely do the same but swooping up the both of you, and throwing his back out in exchange. He's not so young anymore, you know. And your mum isn't the wee spritely lass she used to be. Yet, I can close my eyes and it seems as though a mere moment ago she was standing beside me, helping me with the laundry, not a bit taller than you are now.
KID: You knew my mom when she was a kid?
LOTTIE: Of course I did. I am your great-aunt to you, which means to your mother I was her...not-so-great-aunt. She visited my cottage one summer, just as you are visiting me now.
KID: Was my mom as bored as I am now?
LOTTIE: I should say not! Your mother was up each dawn, helping me fix breakfast for your great uncle, then she was out skipping in the field, pulling up the potatoes from the garden, playing fetch with the sheepdogs, and skipping stones across the waves.
KID: (Bored, sarcastic) Wow, that sounds like fun.
LOTTIE: My ears aren't so old that I can't the sarcasm in your tone. But I would guess even a bothersome, boredom-stricken, homesick lass such as yourself can't resist the call of the ocean. Shall we go down to the seashore when we've finished with the laundry? We could go for a swim.
KID: Is the water cold?
LOTTIE: It's freezing! But doesn't it sound like a grand adventure?
KID: It sounds like hypothermia. Besides, I don't like to swim.
LOTTIE: Ah, you sound like someone I know from an old story, one so old I had almost forgotten it. So long ago it was...and yet it isn't too much struggle to stare off into the distance, and imagine it now...

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