Drama: Children of light or Be aware

You need:  a narrator, Alex (male or female), and two people to represent Alex’s ‘thoughts’.

Narrator: This is Alex.

Alex: Hello!

Narrator: Recently, Alex can’t help but notice that the world can be a bit of a dark and scary place. Her/his thoughts were a little bit like this…

Two ‘Thoughts’ enter, running. They do laps around Alex while screaming in mock terror. Alex looks very nervous as this is going on. After a couple of laps, the Thoughts run off, still screaming.

Narrator: Alex’s biggest worry at the moment is climate change. The list of problems seems endless.

Alex: (pulls out a list and reads from it) Less water, more pollution, sea levels rising, viruses multiplying, animals going extinct, crops failing. (to narrator) I’ve got loads more here; do you want me to go on?

Narrator: (to Alex) No, I think we’ve got the picture. (to audience) Now, sometimes Alex finds it all so overwhelming, that all she/he can think of doing is to hide.

The two Thoughts run on with a big cardboard box and tape. They are saying their lines (below) as they put Alex in the box.

Thought 1: (helping Alex into the box; Alex is not resisting - yet) Here are your thoughts, come to help you!

Thought 2: In you get. That’s it, you just help him/her get in that box, Thought Number 1.

Thought 1: Right you are, Thought Number 2.

Thought 2: There we go. You just can get away from it all in your box.

The Thoughts begin to tape the box closed, but suddenly Alex resists and bursts out.

Alex: Stop! I don’t think God wants me to hide away from big scary things.

Thoughts 1 & 2: Suit yourself.

The two Thoughts walk off, muttering.

Narrator: Yes, Alex decided he/she wasn’t going to hide away from life’s difficult problems.

Alex looks determined

Narrator: Although it was easy to be distracted and only think about things that didn’t really matter.

The two Thoughts rush in again, waving their hands, dancing around and generally looking silly. Alex is torn between being distracted and getting on with things. (The Thoughts could wear silly costumes.)

Thought 1: Look over here! No! Not over there, at all that serious stuff!

Thought 2: Over here! Look, we can juggle!

The two Thoughts try to juggle but drop all the balls.

Thought 1: Actually, we can’t.

Thought 2: Never mind.

Alex: Go away!

The two Thoughts go off stage.

Narrator: The problem was that so much of life seemed to be designed to make you simply think about yourself; to just make sure that you were comfortable.

The two Thoughts comes on again. They gently rock Alex from side to side.

Thought 1: Here’s some hot chocolate, Alex.

Thought 2: And a hot water bottle. You just fall asleep now.

As the two Thoughts sing, Alex begins to yawn and doze off.

Thoughts: (Singing gently) Rock-a-bye, Alex, on the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock…

Alex suddenly wakes up and pushes the two Thoughts away.

Alex: No! Stop! I’m not going to sleep through the world’s problems!

Thought 1: Why not?

Thought 2: It’s so much easier!

Thought 1: You don’t have to make any decisions.

Thought 2: Or take any responsibility.

Alex: It’s not what God wants! He wants us to be children of light. We’re not called to hide or distract ourselves or fall asleep. We’re called to be ready, ready to make a difference!

Thought 1: Okay, we’ll give it a go!

Thought 2: What can we do?

As Alex is talking, he/she and the two Thoughts walk off. Alex keeps speaking (as below) until they have gone off stage.

Alex: There’s loads of things we can do. We can recycle, we can think about where we buy our clothes – no more disposable fashion. Might have to make some sacrifices, travel by plane a little bit less…

Narrator: Making a difference, it’s not always the easy choice but it’s how followers of Jesus, children of light, are called to live. So, what’s your choice?