In your benevolence, hear the Child's plea for courage and a reprieve.
Starring Lizzie Waterworth as Jenjie, the Child (they/them)
With additional voices from the season 1 cast
Courage and a reprieve
I Need A Miracle, season 1, episode 5 of 12
Written and created by Matt Boothman
Directed by Robert Valentine
Music by Katharine Seaton
Sound design by Sarah Buchynski
Casting by Fiona Thraille
Recorded at Jukebox Studios
Broadcast assistance from Teresa Milewski
Cover art by Dionysis Livanis
Produced by Sarah Golding of Wireless Theatre for Foggy Outline
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Transcript
Delicate synth and violin music plays; mysterious, calm but slightly haunting.
ANNOUNCER 1:
Foggy Outline presents: I Need A Miracle. Produced by Wireless Theatre.
Courage, and a reprieve. Written by Matt Boothman. Performed by Lizzie Waterworth.
The music ends.
A murmur of many pleading voices, overlapping indistinguishably.
Out of the murmur, a single voice breaks through.
THE CHILD:
Are you there? I need some help being brave please.
The murmurs die away.
THE CHILD:
Is anybody there? Oh! Hello! I’m Jenjie. What’s your name?
THE CHILD fidgets. A mattress creaks. They’re tucked up in bed; it’s night-time, and everything else is quiet.
THE CHILD:
We’re in my room right now. You wanna see?
My friend Shya says their room is better.
(indignantly) But I think that’s wrong ‘cause my room is purple.
We have to stay here on the bed, so, I can’t show you any of my toys. But the toy box is down there, and my squidgy seat is in the corner, and you can see the purple – it doesn’t look like purple now, but that’s ‘cause it’s dark. I promise it’s the best purple, and that’s why my room is better than my friend Shya’s room.
(more quietly) I don’t think my friend Shya's room has a monster in it though.
(immediately rowing it back) I still like my room better! But I wish it didn’t have to have a monster in it.
The mattress creaks as THE CHILD fidgets some more.
THE CHILD:
Do you want to know about some of my toys? Or – are you really busy. I ‘spect you’re really busy.
Do you like listening to everybody in the whole world and all the things they need?
If I had to listen to everyone in the whole world all the time, then I wouldn’t have time to play with my toys. I wouldn’t like that very much. You must like it though, ‘cause you do it all the time without stopping ever. Mummy says it’s ‘cause you’re–
(mispronouncing “benevolent”) –benevenen.
She says that’s a big word for nice and kind. I want to be nice and kind but I want to play sometimes too.
It’s nice talking to you. You feel all benevenen! I ’spect you’re really busy though. I’m really sorry. It’s just ‘cause … ‘cause…
The mattress creaks as THE CHILD fidgets some more.
THE CHILD:
The monster. It’s – it’s under the bed. That’s why we have to stay up here.
(getting more and more distressed and worked up) The monster has eyes all round and all the eyes can see in the dark. And the monster has lots and lots of little tiny legs, and it can move really fast and go up the walls or the side of the toy box. And the monster has this mouth, with sort of like, hands round it, so it can pull you in and gobble you up. The monster is only little, but its mouth can open really really wide, and the monster sleeps all day, but after bedtime, it wakes up, and all its eyes stay open all night. And if you get out of bed after bedtime the monster sees you, and comes after you really fast, and puts you in its mouth with all those little hands, and you have to be all chewed up in its tummy forever.
I never get out of bed after bedtime – because I’m good! Even if there wasn’t a monster I wouldn’t get out of bed after bedtime.
The mattress creaks as THE CHILD fidgets some more.
THE CHILD:
(hushed) That means the monster is getting very very hungry.
Once, when I felt very very hungry, I got up on a chair, and then I got up on the side, and then I stood up on the side and opened the sweets cupboard. Mummy said I was very wrong.
(protesting) I’m good now though! I never get out of bed after bedtime, and if I feel hungry, I ask Mummy, and I don’t climb on the side! But the monster is bad. And the monster is very hungry, and it can’t ask Mummy. So the monster wants to go up the side of the toy box, and then up the end of the bed. And then it wants to gobble me up, and put me in its tummy, even though I’m good, and I never get out of bed after bedtime!
I told Mummy, and she said there’s a charm for making monsters go away. But I think that’s not right? Charms are to make the rain not touch your hair, or to make a little light, or things like that. I think monsters are different than rain. And Mummy made me practise the monster-go-away charm three times after dinner … but I forgot it now, I’m sorry.
Mummy says asking you is only for big things. And Mummy says if I ever want to, then we should do it together. But I can’t get Mummy now, ‘cause I mustn’t get out of bed, and ‘cause Mummy’s having fun with her friends. I’m sorry if this doesn’t count as a big thing. And I’m sorry I’m not asking you together with Mummy, like she said.
Is it okay if I ask you for a little bit of help?
THE CHILD pauses for a response.
THE CHILD:
Okay.
Takes a deep breath in and out.
THE CHILD:
Please can you make it so the monster isn’t hungry any more?
And please can you make it so I can be more brave? ‘Cause if the monster’s not hungry, then it won’t want to come up on the bed to get me. It’ll only get me if I get out of bed, like it’s supposed to. And if I’m a bit more brave, then I can go to sleep, even though there’s a monster under my bed and maybe it wants to gobble me up.
Is that okay?
Do you know the charm to make a little light go on? I didn’t forget that one, so I can do it if you want – for when you go under the bed to make the monster not be hungry – or are you not scared of monsters, or scared of the dark?
THE CHILD pauses for a response.
THE CHILD:
Okay! Thank you very much in your benevenen. I’m doing my best to be brave so you only need to do a bit more.
A murmur of indistinguishable voices begins to swell up over THE CHILD’s voice.
THE CHILD:
Good night.
Sleep tight.
All the voices fade away.
ANNOUNCER 2:
I Need A Miracle is a Foggy Outline podcast produced by Wireless Theatre. Directed by Robert Valentine. Produced by Sarah Golding. Casting by Fiona Thraille. Broadcast assistance by Teresa Milewski. Music by Katharine Seaton. Sound design by Sarah Buchynski. Recorded by Stephen H. at Jukebox Studios. Find more audio gold at wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk and foggyoutline.com.
Thank you for listening.