Monsters of the Forest
One-act play about the teenage assassins of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, commissioned by Net Curtains Theatre Company for Tales of the Black Hand, four plays on the theme of assassination, performed at the Tricycle Theatre.
The play was inspired by the folk tales of Serbia, which are full of forest-dwelling monsters, from one-eyed witches to the mysterious screaming "drekavac" – along with the twentieth-century terrors unleashed by fanatical boys with guns, learning to shoot in the woods outside Belgrade.
Extract from Monsters of the Forest:
A distant shriek rings out from offstage.
Pause. Ned, Gavro and Trifko look at each other.
NED: Just a fox.
GAVRO: Or drekavac…
Pause.
GAVRO: That’s what my gran would say.
TRIFKO: Drekavac. God, you really are a yokel.
GAVRO: I didn’t say I believed in it.
TRIFKO: Yeah.
GAVRO: I’m just telling you. We used to hear that all the time when we stayed with her.
They all listen.
GAVRO: And some of the sheep were always dead in the morning…
NED: What the hell is drekavac?
TRIFKO: ‘The screamer’. ARRGH! (he screams in NED’s face)
NED pushes TRIFKO away.
TRIFKO: The old peasant ladies frighten their kids with it. Don’t they, Gavro? (assumes old peasant lady voice) ‘Gavvy dear, if you don’t eat up all your weasel stew, drekavac will come and TEAR YOUR THROAT OUT!’
The scream rings out again and they all jump. Ned and Trifko quickly try to recover their cool.
TRIFKO: (to NED) You know, I heard Ferdinand was out hunting and he shot a white stag. It screamed like a woman.
NED: (pointing the gun) He deserves to die then.
NED and TRIFKO laugh.
They all sit down to rest.
GAVRO: I’m not making it up. They’d have their throats all chewed out.
TRIFKO: Is that why you’re so jumpy today?
GAVRO: No!
TRIFKO: Come on. You’ve been looking over your shoulder ever since we got here.
GAVRO: I’m just keeping an eye out. If you’d ever been in the countryside you’d know. That’s what you do in the forest.
TRIFKO: Oh-h. Right. The forest code. ‘Be alert. Always be ready for the unexpected.’
Suddenly he gasps and points over Gavro’s shoulder.
TRIFKO: OhmyGod!
GAVRO: (wheeling round) What!
TRIFKO: SQUIRRRRREL!
He clutches his head in mock terror and pretends to run away.
NED: He’s joking.
GAVRO: I know! (Pause). It’s not drekavac you want to worry about in this forest anyway.
Pause.
NED: (trying to seem casual) What is it, then?
GAVRO: Oh… you don’t want to know.
TRIFKO: You know, you’re right. We don’t.
He starts to fiddle with fake nonchalance with the gun, turning his back on Gavro.
GAVRO: It’s Likho you want to worry about.
NED: (to TRIFKO) What’s Likho?
TRIFKO: Never heard of it.
GAVRO: Haven’t you ever heard that saying? “When Likho sleeps awake it not”?
TRIFKO: This another of your gran’s inventions? She knows how to keep the troops in line doesn’t she.
GAVRO: Oh no. Everyone round here knows about Likho.
Pause.
NED: Well, go on then. You might as well tell us about it.
GAVRO: Not it. Her…
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