James and the Giant Peach Page #2

(Suddenly AUNT SPONGE shoves YOUNG JAMES away, and he falls on his

bum on the ground. AUNT SPONGE AND AUNT SPIKER cackle and

laugh.)

Aunt Spiker:
Well at least we’ve got a little servant! We’ve always wanted

help around the house!

Aunt Sponge:
Come on you disgusting little beast, let’s go home.

Aunt Spiker:
Such a miserable creature he is.

(Both AUNTS exit, and YOUNG JAMES is left to sit bewildered on the floor.

Now enters a taller, older familiar looking fellow. Though he still has

kindness in his eyes, he is tired and broken down by life. No longer the happy

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young boy we first met, we now see who James has become. JAMES holds out

a hand to YOUNG JAMES and helps him up.)

Narrator #2:
Now who’s this?

Narrator #1:
This is James Hentry Trotter after he had been living with his

aunts for eight whole years.

Narrator #2:
But he doesn’t look the same at all! What happened to the

happy little kid!

Young James:
(To Narrator #2) You’re telling me.

James:
I’ll tell you what happened. Those aunts of mine are what happened.

They’re horrible people. Selfish, lazy and cruel. And right from the

beginning they treated me like a filthy nuisance. They certainly never gave

me any toys to play with or picture books to look at. My room is as bare as a

prison cell.

Young James:
You’re really giving me hope for the future.

James:
Well, I think actually that’s what these two (points at the narrators)

are for.

Young James:
You do?

James:
I think that they wouldn’t be here unless something really

spectacular was about to happen and our luck was about to change.

Narrator #1:
And finally there came a morning when something rather

peculiar happened to him. And this thing, which as I say was only rather

peculiar, soon caused a chain of events until a really fantastically peculiar

thing happened!

(YOUNG JAMES faces JAMES, they make eye contact, nod their heads at

each other, shake hands, and then YOUNG JAMES exits. Immediately,

JAMES gets to work miming chopping wood. AUNT SPONGE and AUNT

SPIKER wander by lazily, inspecting his work. Each are now wearing

sunglasses and sipping tall, cool glasses of lemonade. They wander past

JAMES, and sit down as if sunbathing.)

Narrator #2:
Ah I see, his Aunts have put him to work chopping wood in the

blazing heat of the day!

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Narrator #1:
That’s because Aunt Sponge who is enormously fat with small

piggy eyes doesn’t care if James faints in the heat. And Aunt Spiker who is

lean and tall and bony, doesn’t care if the insects ate his body while he

fainted in the garden.

Narrator #2:
How gruesome!

Narrator #1:
Well that’s the kind of family James is left with now. The kind

that doesn’t care about him. In fact while, James is slaving away in the

terrible heat, sweating all over, they aren’t watching him when all the

sadness of his life finally consumes him and he begins to cry!

(JAMES sits down and burries his head in his arms.)

Aunt Spiker:
(Screeching and angry)What’s the matter with you?

Aunt Sponge:
Stop that immediately and get on with your work you nasty

little beast!

James:
Oh Aunt Sponge! And Aunt Spiker! Couldn’t we all – please – just for

once, go down to the seaside on the bus? It isn’t very far, and I feel so hot and

awful and lonely…

Aunt Spiker:
Why you good for nothing lazy brute!

Aunt Sponge:
Punish him!

Aunt Spiker:
I certainly will! I shall punish you later on in the day when I

don’t feel so hot. And now Sponge, it’s time for our afternoon stories on the

telly.

Aunt Sponge:
Oh goody! Shall we watch Days of Our Lives? Or One Life to

Live?

(Gossiping, the two ladies exit. Defeated, JAMES sinks to the ground and

begins to cry and cry. THE MAGIC MAN suddenly appears.)

Narrator #1:
It was at this point that the first of many peculiar things

happened to him.

Magic Man:
Hello little boy.

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(JAMES, seeing the Magic Man for the first time is startled and a bit afraid.

But he shouldn’t be, because the Magic Man is perfectly harmless and quite

magical.)

James:
Who are you?

Magic Man:
I’ve got a magical surprise to show you my boy.

(The MAGIC MAN holds out a paper bag that he is gripping to keep closed.)

James:
A paper bag?

Magic Man:
You know what this is my dear? You know what’s inside this

little bag?

James:
Gummy candies?

Magic Man:
(Laughs delightedly) No my boy! Oh my sweet precious boy.

Something much much much better than candy is in this bag. Take a look!

(The MAGIC MAN holds open the bag for JAMES to see.)

James:
Why they’re tiny green stones and crystals! Each one the size of a

grain of rice! They sparkle and glow in the most wonderful way!

Magic Man:
Listen to them! Listen to them move!

(JAMES puts his ear to the bag and listens.)

Magic Man:
There’s more power and magic in those things than in all the rest

of the world put together.

James:
But what are they? Where do they come from?

Magic Man:
Ah ha! You’d never guess that. Crocodile tongues! One

thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch

for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a

young monkey, the beak of a greed parrot and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew

for another week and then let the moon do the rest!

James:
And you made them?

Magic Man:
Here! You take it. They’re yours.

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(JAMES takes the bag, and holds it like it is the most amazing treasure in the

world…probably because it IS the most amazing treasure in the world.)

James:
For me?

Magic Man:
And now all you’ve got to do is this. Take a large jug of water,

and pour all the little green things into it. Then, very slowly one by one add

ten hairs from your own head. That sets them off! In a couple of minutes the

water will begin to froth and bubble, and that’s when you must quickly drink

it down. All of it! The whole jug!

James:
I have to drink them!

Magic Man:
You’ll feel it churning and boiling in your stomach, and steam

will start coming out of your mouth and immediately after that, marvelous

things will start happening to you.

James:
Fantastic things?

Magic Man:
Unbelievable things!

James:
Truly fabulous things?

Magic Man:
Because you are miserable aren’t you? You needn’t tell me, I

know all about it. Now off you go and do exactly as I say! And don’t whisper

a word of this to those two horrible aunts of yours.

James:
Thank you so much!

(The MAGIC MAN turns to leave, he takes a few steps, and then turns back to

JAMES. Meanwhile in the back of the gym, the CHORUS OF GREEN

MAGIC has gathered. THE CHORUS OF GREEN MAGIC are all dressed in

green, with as many feathers, boas and magical elements as possible, each one

clutching a glowstick.)

Magic Man:
A word of warning James. Don’t let those green things in there

get away from you. If they do escape, then they will be working their magic

upon somebody else instead of you. And that isn’t what you want at all is it

my dear.

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