Peace Child Time Travel Chat Show - 2024

Peace Child - 20-minute Assembly Presentation -

© Peace 2014 2024 Copyright © PeaceChild ChildInternational International– April – October

–Saving Life on Planet Earth –

UN Centenary Peace Child

T I M E -T R A V E L C H AT S H O W An Inter-active Theatre event designed to promote the UN’s Declaration on Future Generations

1ST DRAFT BASE SCRIPT by

David Woollcombe © Peace Child International September 26th 2024

Cast The Script requires 2 x lead cast members, the Host and the Guest(preferably 1 male / 1 female, 1 old / 1 young) + a crew of Floor Managers who have very small parts in the show but key roles in the Discussions afterwards with the Audience. You should have roughly 1 x Cast Member for every 10 x Audience members expected so, for an audience of 100, you should have a cast of 10 = 2 x Leads + 8 x Floor Managers;

Setting Bare black stage with large screen at the back on to which images and Titles are projected. The TV Chat show set is the bare minimum: 2 x chairs with a small coffee table in between. Some directors have given the Floor Manager crew TV Cameras to add reality – but small cameras look a bit naff on stage. The Floor Managers need only baseball caps, and “APPLAUSE” prompt boards;

Research & Re-Writing Like every Peace Child show, the cast are expected to re-write the dialogue, imagining that they, themselves, are the lead characters in the story. This 1st Draft Base Script is based on earlier versions of the Time Travel Chat Show which introduced school and community audiences to other UN Events like the Rio+20 Earth Summit. This Version is designed to promote the UN’s Declaration on Future Generations reform in schools and communities from the 2025 80th Anniversary of the UN up to its Centenary in 2045. Much will change in that time, so the cast performing it have to update the dialogue to ensure that they CHECK and VERIFY any data they use in their show, and that they get the best, most accurate, most current data on which to base their key messages.

Key Themes & Questions Though the premise of this play is that things can change fast as a result of the World’s Governments agreeing the 1st Draft of a Declaration on Future Generations, each cast is free to choose Peace Child themes they feel to be central to their generational challenge of Saving Life on Earth. These include: 1. The Unifying desire of all living things to LIVE, and to preserve a Biosphere that supports life; 2. The desire of all people for Order over chaos; peace and comfort over violence and brutality; 3. The need for Human Rights, Rule of Law + effective Global Institutions to deliver themes 1 & 2; The key questions to ask any cast setting out on their own, personal Peace Child journeys are: 1. What does the Future you Want look like – for you and for your descendants?

2. What can you do with your life to help, not hinder, the creation of that Future?

Scene ONE – Introduction The Chat Show Host, in shirt-sleeves, comes forward into a spotlight to welcome the audience: Chat Show Host: Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone – and WELCOME! – to this edition of the Time Travel Chat Show. It’s designed to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations this year: 2025 – by exploring what kind of future we’d like to create over the next 50 years and, as importantly, HOW we’re going to create it. (S/he comes down amongst the audience and talks to them conversationally.) What’s going to happen is this: with your help, we’re going to bring back one of you – we don’t know who – [points at individuals in the audience] – it could be you – could be you – or even you, right at the back! We’ll hear what kind of world you are living in 50 years hence, and what you did with your life to create it; then we’ll have a short break, and get a word from our Sponsors: Peace Child International! Then, because none of us know exactly how the future will turn out, we’re going to bring one of you back from an Alternative Future – and see how that might be. Then we’re going to discuss with you which future you’d all prefer – and figure out what steps we all need to take to create it!

Simple, right?! Right??!! (Repeat the Question until they say YES!) Then let’s BEGIN!

Scene TWO – The Set - up Music Starts, as the host puts on a jacket, checks the time, and picks up a clipboard in preparation for the interview. Meanwhile the Guest, a shadowy figure dressed in a cloak or gown with a hood, comes forward and sings to this instrumental track (with the sound turned up) – and this video (with the sound turned down): Guest (singing)

World – look at the way we are Look at the things we do Look at the words we say Life! – look at the way we live Look at the love we had Look at the things we’ve made Gone, gone are all those lovely days Gone are all the peaceful ways All that’s left is old and grey And our world is fading Our world is dying – today!

Slowly EXIT

Chat Show Host: So – is our world really dying? Wouldn’t you like to know if it did survive? (Repeat the Question until you get a robust YES!) OK – so that’s what we’re going to find out from our Time Traveller. But the machine we have at the back here is PEOPLE-Powered – so you’re going to have to help me: please would you stand up, beat the air and shout: Host and AUDIENCE: A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

Louder!! – Louder!! Try swaying side-to-side with your hands in the air – locked together, tight! That’s right – go for it!

Host and AUDIENCE: A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

Louder!!!!

AUDIENCE:

A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

I think you did it!! (Listens on the earpiece…) Yes! – my producer says that the experiment has worked. We’ve managed to track down one of you who’s agreed to come back to their past and tell you what COULD lie in your future. Will you please give a very warm welcome to our Time-Traveller!!

The Floor Managers urge the audience to applaud with their applause cards. The Sound Track plays an Entrance Fanfare and the Guest walks on dressed in a very smart suit looking extremely fit and elegant.

Scene THREE – Conversation ONE Chat Show Host:

Welcome to the show! – And my! – How young you look for sixty! How do you do it?

Guest (1)

Well, we all eat very healthily. There’s no more smoke - no more pollution and the health care is amazing! I feel as fit as a teenager!

Chat Show Host:

So - how did that happen??

Guest (1)

The big turning point came in 2024 when the world’s governments signed a Pact for the Future and a Declaration for Future Generations. As soon as people started to “act with responsibility towards the needs and interests of future generations…”

EVERYTHING changed.

Chat Show Host:

Why?

Guest (1)

Because it stopped being about ME-ME-ME! and started being about the people who would come AFTER me! Our priority became to leave the planet a better place than we found it – something previous generations never seemed to even think about, let alone get around to doing!

Chat Show Host:

Well we talked about it, but there were so many other immediate problems: how did your generation deal with them?

Guest (1)

What problems??

Chat Show Host:

Oh! – wars, terrorism, climate change, over-consumption, health- educationnutrition and shelter for all; Human Rights, inequality, digital divides… soooo many!?

Guest (1)

What baffles us is that it took you so long to clock that all those problems was the result of one HUGE over-riding problem.

Chat Show Host:

Which was - ?

Guest (1)

A global governance problem!

Chat Show Host:

A global governance problem - ?

Guest (1)

Yes! In 2024 – you had the most blindingly obvious evidence of that problem the world has ever seen: 5 Imperial Nations holding the other 188 to ransome with their 80-year old vetos – prosecuting genocidal wars and runaway climate change with no effective system of global governance to restrain them.

Chat Show Host:

But we had no power to restrain them!

Guest (1)

You had a massive democratic majority in the UN General Assembly!!

Chat Show Host:

But that didn’t count for anything against the size and economic might of the superpowers, all of whom had… -

Guest (1)

Nuclear weapons! A concern – obviously, and again it baffles my generation why your generation spent hundreds of Billions of dollars every year preparing to kill

yourselves – when you should have been spending it on restoring the Biosphere so that you and Future Generations could have a chance to live better!

Chat Show Host:

We were crazy, I guess!?

Guest (1)

Yes – yes! I think you were: until the Declaration came along, you were incapable of Future thinking! You see, where I come from, in Wales, there are hundreds of Castles which, in ancient times, allowed towns and cities to protect themselves. In your time, every nation had armies but – as the world became more globalised – why did you never think that you might need some kind of Global castle or army to protect yourselves?

Chat Show Host:

You mean – like the United Nations?

Guest (1)

Well yes… but No: the UN was never set up to play that role. Saving Life on Earth didn’t need another talking shop: it needed a Global Castle to protect the interests of We the Peoples, not We the Governments or We the Rich People….

Chat Show Host:

But the UN tried to do just that but it had 193 government bosses – all of whom had sovereign rights to protect themselves and to kill people if they felt those sovereign rights were threatened! How did you succeed?

Guest (1)

You’re right, they were powerful – but not stupid: they knew their sovereign rights and powers would be as nothing if the planet’s support systems died beneath them.

And, apart from a few lunatics, most leaders recognised that war is an incredibly messy and expensive way to solve disagreements. So we made some headway with the COPs and Common Security campaigns like “Law not War” “STOP ECOCIDE” – “Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation” and Divestment and so on. But it was nothing like enough….

Chat Show Host:

Why?

Guest (1)

Because – nobody likes to give up power – particularly not governments.

Governments like to grow their power by building alliances. Back in your day, you had two particularly big and aggressive ones: the G7 / NATO alliance led by the United States, and the BRICS+5 led by Russia and China. And they were at each others’ throats on absolutely everything! They were building up to World War III!

Chat Show Host:

I think we knew that: but there was nothing we could do: so what did you do?

Guest (1)

Focussed on Future Generations, of course! As you should have been doing. The BRICS and NATO might not agree on Ukraine or Taiwan, but neither of them wanted to destroy the world through nuclear war or climate change or draining the planet so fast of its natural resources that future generations would be left with nothing but the hollowed-out husk of a dying planet to survive on! We all want to live, don’t we? (asking the audience) Don’t we? (repeats until gets the loud answer: YES!)

Chat Show Host:

So what did you actually do?

Guest (1)

You know that Time Travel rules forbid me from telling you facts of future history: I can only tell you in general terms. But you know about the 3 x UN reform baskets?

Chat Show Host:

No - Baskets?!

Guest (1)

Yes – Baskets! I guess that was one of the many things that grew out of the Declaration on Future Generations: it was a way of thinking about how to change the future. So - Basket ONE was the easy stuff – things that we can get done with a bit of targeted lobbying of Member Governments.

Chat Show Host:

Like?

Guest (1)

Sharing science and technology; getting the internet to everyone; getting Education and health-care for All. Cost-free, easy stuff!

Chat Show Host:

Not that easy! But what was Basket TWO? -

Guest (1)

Stuff that governments have promised to do in things in UN Treaties past and present but never actually did, and always hoped would be quietly forgotten about.

Chat Show Host:

Like?

Guest (1)

Ending poverty; Nuclear Disarmament; outlawing fossil fuels; leaving no one behind…

Chat Show Host:

All pretty much impossible, right? (The guest nods) And Basket THREE - ?

Guest (1)

- is Blue Sky Thinking! Stuff that we know is impossible but that HAS to be done if we’re going to save live on earth for future generations. Stuff like eliminating the Superpowers’ Veto; establishing democracies in every UN Member State;

Chat Show Host:

Absolutely impossible! So which Basket did you choose?

Guest (1)

All three, of course. We encouraged every youth on the Planet under 25 to sign up to be Ambassadors for the Declaration on future generations so that they could start filling their baskets with everything they had to do in their lifetimes to ensure that their children and grand-children had a planet left that could meet their needs.

Chat Show Host:

And did they?

Guest (1)

Eventually! Schools were fixated on young people learning Maths and science and engineering – which made very little sense unless they also learned what it would take to save the planet on which they could practise those skills.

Chat Show Host:

So – what did they do?

Guest (1)

The children taught themselves and each other – with help from websites and NGOs like Peace Child International…..

Chat Show Host:

Do you have children?

Guest (1)

I do, actually: and grand-children – and they’re very comfortable because we, their grand-parents, were some of the earliest Ambassadors as they themselves are now!

Chat Show Host:

So – you have these smart, incredibly brave Ambassadors, like you and your children: but HOW did they persuade the rich and powerful governments to even listen to them – let alone agree to their demands.

Guest (1)

Well – you saw it before: a School Strike! It was incredibly effective in 2019 – but it was more effective later, when the situation had gotten really bad. Kids everywhere realised: what was the point of studying hard and passing their exams if all they were going to inherit from their parents was a dead planet.

Chat Show Host:

So – thousands came out on Strike?

Guest (1)

Millions!! Tens of millions – their parents and grand-parents joined their Strike for the Future! Eventually, the Security Council was forced to listen to their demands!

Chat Show Host:

Which were … ?

Guest (1)

Three Baskets choc-full of ideas: Eliminate the Veto; Destroy all nuclear weapons; outlaw fossil fuels, leave no one behind – all the things we’ve been talking about!

Chat Show Host:

And they accepted all that?

Guest (1)

Goodness no!! They threw us out dozens of times – didn’t want to hear. But the more they threw us out, the more the public heard our appeals, the more they realised that we were right and they were wrong. So they joined our Global Strike!

And things were going from bad to worse, and the old leaders started dying so new guys came in who’d been involved in our strikes, so now – fifty years on – we’re finally beginning to see the results we’ve fought all our lives for….

Chat Show Host:

And meanwhile – did you have a career?

Guest (1)

Of course – I founded an energy company to combat climate change by making renewable fuels that were much cheaper than fossil fuels. I did very well…

Chat Show Host:

What was that? – Micro-Algae, photo-voltaics or Off Shore Wind and wave…?

Guest (1)

You know I can’t tell you that: when you get used to this time travel technology – you will understand that it is not about finding out which horse will win the 2.30 at Uttoxeter tomorrow: it’s all about thinking about how the your actions today will impact on the people of tomorrow – and adjusting your actions today accordingly.

Chat Show Host:

So – that 2024 Declaration convinced you to prioritise leaving the planet in a better state than you found it?

Guest (1)

Exactly – but you left us a pretty low bar by leaving us the planet in such a terrible state when we born! Almost anything we did was going to make it better!

But it wasn’t just the Declaration: (illustrations come up on the screen of each thing) your generation did several things that focused our minds on the long-term – like Manfred Leber’s “Zeitpyramide” near Munich – which will take 1200 years to build; or Danny Hillis’ “Clock of the Long Now” which will tick only once a year for the next 10,000 years – or the Letters of Utrecht project, where they lay one letter of a poem every week for the next 500 years! All these things bear witness to our desire to help our world to survive forever: the Declaration, and these other things, help us change the way we think about time in the same way that the photographs of Earth from space changed the way we think about the environment.

Chat Show Host:

So you really think the world can survive for ever?

Guest (1)

I do – yes! I mean, of course, several hundred million years from now, the gravitational pull of the sun will make it too hot for Life on Earth to survive – but, until that point, it is our duty to conserve and enrich all living things.

Chat Show Host:

Well – your generation certainly did a better job of doing that than our’s!

Guest (1)

We tried – as your’s did: but we’ve all got to get a whole lot better at doing it!

Chat Show Host:

Armed with your guidance, we can certainly try! Thanks so much for coming back to talk to us!

Guest (1)

My Pleasure! (Exit – waving at the audience as they applaud. The Floor Managers hold up their APPLAUSE Prompt Boards until the host calls for silence)

Scene FOUR – Commercial Break Chat Show Host:

So – now we’ll take that short break to get a word from our Sponsor.

Show the Animation: GRAB THE WHEEL on the screen at the Back. It conveys the message that young people need to empower themselves to save the Planet. When governments around the world drive recklessly through global agreements and hurtle carelessly towards the cliff edge, someone has to Grab the Wheel and return the Planet to a road that leads to Peace, Sustainability – and LIFE! Peace Child International has always believed that the best people to do that are young people.

Scene FIVE – Conversation TWO The Floor Manager comes forward as the Animation Video ends, and announces: Floor Manager

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back your host!”

Floor Manager holds up the APPLAUSE board, and the audience duly applauds as the Chat Show Host walks back and sits down: Chat Show Host:

Thank you! Welcome back to the second half of our show, where Time Travel rules demand that we welcome a guest from a different Future! You see – right now – there could be any number of futures waiting for us – you! So it’s important to review at least one of the alternatives – which is what we’re going to do now if…. (Listening on the Ear-piece) – IF – we can get the technology to work! Bear with us! Yes? You’re going to have to help me again! People power is needed! Stand up and beat the air again:

Host and AUDIENCE: A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

Louder!! Sway side-to-side – hands locked together! That’s right – go for it!

Host and AUDIENCE: A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

Louder!!!!

AUDIENCE:

A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!! A-woompah – woompah!!

Chat Show Host:

It’s working!! (Bangs and crashes, honks and whirrs) You did it!! THANK YOU!! – Will you welcome please, our guest from the alternative future of 2075!

Guest (2) enters to loud applause as the Floor Managers wave their Prompt Boards. It is the same actor as in Conversation ONE, but this time, the actor is dressed in rags, covered in plastic, wearing a gas-mask, hair all over the place – looking dreadful.

Guest (2)

We-Heh!! What just happened?!! Where am I? Why is the air so clean here? You must have one of those fancy Oxygen Ventilators.

Chat Show Host:

Oxygen Ventilators?

Guest (2)

[Removing the mask; taking deep breaths.] Nice kit if you can get it. Is this one of your Billionaire Meetings who want to know what happened to us normal people?!

Chat Show Host:

No – but yes?! What did happen!? You look terrible!

Guest (2)

What happened? I’ll tell you what happened: Everything!!! – Our Darling Governments and the poor, benighted United Nations did everything WRONG! I mean – how many of you lot want to die soon?! Anyone here got an absolute Deathwish!?! [the audience – hopefully – remain silent) Thought not. But – the governments and their UN did! They must have done to do what they did to us!

Chat Show Host:

I’m sorry – you’re not making any sense: we’ve brought you back to help us celebrate the UN’s 80th Anniversary….

Guest (2)

Hah! Hah!! Celebrate?!!! You have to be kidding me?!

Chat Show Host:

No…

Guest (2)

What’s to celebrate? NOTHING!! – even where you’re coming from? 2025 is it? You didn’t have much to celebrate back then, did you…?

Chat Show Host:

We’d just had the Declaration on Future Generations?! The Pact for the Future!

Guest (2)

Never heard of them!! How many of you heard of them before today??

The audience will – we think – remain silent.

Guest (2)

There you are! Told you! Another big success for your beloved UN – NOT! Nobody cared about the UN even then! Not even the governments who paid for it. And that stupid pact for the future and the soppy declarations just went back into a drawer to gather dust along with the rest of them. You don’t think that your governments really believed what they put in those papers do you?!

Chat Show Host:

We did actually! What happened to the UN?

Guest (2)

It died of course: replaced by the Dictator’s Council: it started with about 7 of them.

There are over 100 now… They call themselves a “force for stability”!

Chat Show Host:

What happened to Democracy and the Rule of Law?!

Guest (2)

Nobody cares about that any more: the dictators and their rich friends are having too much fun in their gated communities, with their fast cars, private jets spinning around the world on long holidays - while the rest of us just struggle to survive!

Chat Show Host:

Why hasn’t there been a revolution? Why haven’t the people risen up?

Guest (2)

We tried that, didn’t we?! Some lunatic in South-East Asia got hold of nuclear missile and made the mistake of firing it: everyone went into a panic and, because they all had a “use-them-or-lose-them” policy and most of them used them, didn’t they?!

Which resulted in the obliteration of most of India, China and everything in between.

Chat Show Host:

Millions dead?

Guest (2)

Billions! Half the land area of the planet lost for ever! That’s nuclear war for you!

Everyone saw then that it would have been smart to have some global agreement to abolish them completely….

Chat Show Host:

- but by then it was too late?!

Guest (2)

Exactly! But it halved the human population in under 4 hours – so it wasn’t all bad.

Chat Show Host:

What happened then?

Guest (2)

Actually – it was pretty much all bad. Because – as you know - … or maybe you don’t: I didn’t! Nuclear war kicks so much dust up into the atmosphere, it blocks out the sunlight, causing a Nuclear Winter. This one lasted five years during which there was almost total global crop failure causing mass starvation! Global famine! We had hand-to-hand fighting over grain stores: total societal breakdown… Mayhem!! We could have all used a UN Global Peace Force back then, I tell you! The only reason any of us survived was that we learned to grow mushrooms and potatoes – things that can grow in the dark!

Chat Show Host:

So now – what are you all doing?

Guest (2)

Surviving! Small farms – living off the land; serving the very rich – joining their private farms or their vast security details.

Chat Show Host:

What do you do for fun? – the arts, sports – football? The Olympics?

Guest (2)

Fun?!! – we haven’t had fun in ages! Some rich enclaves still have their golf – and some people have TV to watch old movies but most of us are too busy surviving to have any fun! And the rich don’t care! They just enjoy their hunting, their horseriding, their swimming pools and their Oxygen-ventilated palaces. And each other!

Chat Show Host:

Well – perhaps you’ll become one of them?

Guest (2)

Me? Oh no! I’m not going back…

Chat Show Host:

I’m afraid you have to…

Guest (2)

No way! Now you’ve brought me back here, I can make sure that you don’t make the same mistakes that we did. I’ll read that UN Pact and Declaration and make sure we all follow them to the letter….

Chat Show Host:

You know you can’t do that - ?

Guest (2)

Why?

Chat Show Host:

Time Travel rules: “You make your bed: you sleep in it!” They’re very strict!

Guest (2)

Well I’m not going!! (folding his/her arms firmly!)

Chat Show Host:

Sorry! All any of us have is that one chance – and, though your world may not care much about it, our’s still works by the Rule of Law. (The Host nods to the Floor Managers, two of whom come forward with handcuffs)

Guest (2)

(getting down on his/her knees and screaming!) No-oh-ooooo! Don’t send me back… I’ll do anything – ANYTHING!!! – for you! PLEEEE-EASE!!! (The two Floor Managers grapple him/her to the ground and put the handcuffs on him/her)

Chat Show Host:

I’m very sorry – but that’s the Law! It was all made clear to you before you came.

Guest (2)

I was so keen to leave, I don’t remember. (To the Floor Managers) I can’t go back!

(The Floor Managers shake their heads, sadly) OK – OK all ready. I’ll come quietly – just get your hands off me. May I just lay one last message on you guys?

Chat Show Host:

Of course.

Guest (2) (speaks / shouts / pleads / sings Listen to Me – a capella or with piano/guitar accompaniment) Please - listen to me! Heed the words that I say We live in one world so our home is the same The same sun is our fire, the same clouds give us rain So whatever you desire our future’s the same Say not that you’re righteous - nor that you are true!

Say not that I’m red – nor that you are blue Say only we are Friends! – and we want to live in peace In this here our world, Let all wars cease!

So open your eyes, take the truth as it stands We have but one earth so we must share the land The same moon is our lantern, the same sky is our roof So whatever your reasons, come follow the truth Say not that you’re Christian, nor Muslim nor Jew Say not that you’re Buddhist, nor that you’re Hindu

Say only we are Friends! – and we want to live in peace In this here our world, let all wars cease!

For where would we go if this world we destroy?

We have but one home, this world, to enjoy!

The same earth fills our hunger, and we all breathe the air So change your desires, this world we must share.

Say not that you’re rich, nor that you are poor Say not that you’re less, nor that you are more!

Say only we are friends – and we want to live in Peace In this here our world, let all wars cease!

In this here our world, let all wars cease!

The Floor Managers urge the audience to applaud.

Guest (1)

Remember me guys?! I’m your worst nightmare! Live your lives in Peace – because war is No Life at all! Treasure that United Nations thing – if you still have one! And – in your lifetimes – make sure it really does “Save succeeding generations from the scourge of war!” You must make it happen! We didn’t! We killed our world! You – all of you together! – can save it. Do it! I beg you – DO IT!!! EXIT

More applause as s/he leaves.

Scene SIX – Conclusion Chat Show Host:

Thank you! New parents are often told that they either have to be an inspiration to their children or an awful warning. Well today, we’ve tried to give you both. How you heed the warning or follow the road to Inspiration is up to you but, for us, that about wraps it up our show for today. Thank you for watching and Goodbye!

EXIT

The Floor Managers flap their Prompt Boards and the audience applaud as the Host leaves the stage – or there is a Black out.

Scene SEVEN – Discussion Afterwards The Guest appears almost immediately, silencing the applause. S/he is wearing the same cloak as s/he wore at the beginning to sing “WORLD” and she comes off stage to engage the audience in discussion.

Guest

That’s the end of our show – but your show is just beginning! And we’d like to take a moment with you now to discuss YOUR show: what are you going to do you’re your lives to sort out the problems we’ve talked about today? How many of you are worried about Global Warming / Climate change and all that? (Hopefully a few put up their hands) – Do any of you worry about having to fight a war in your lifetimes?

(Hopefully a few more put up their hands.) Well as I told you, they are both Global Governance problems: we do not have the institutions of government to handle these crises. We have the UN – yes! – so our thought is to reform it – make it more effective. Do you agree? (Hopefully the Guest can get a few to say YES! Or put up their hands – or both!) Great – so let’s talk about that. The Host, the Floor Managers and I will come amongst you to note down your ideas and discuss them with you. Then we’ll all come back on stage at the end and see if there’s anything we can all agree on. OK?! Let’s go….

The host and floor managers join the Guest in amongst the audience. They all hold note pads and pens/pencils and note down the best ideas / answers they hear. They start with simple questions:

• • • • •

Which future did you prefer – the first or the second?

Do you think it’s important to think about the children who will be born in the future?

Do you want to make sure that we leave them a planet that they can live happily on?

What ideas do you remember from the Show that could help us do that?

Make a list of any ideas that you feel people would understand and support. These could include:         

Giving every child on the planet a good Education; Bridging the digital divides to give everyone access to the Internet; Banning all fossil fuels – especially coal and oil; Stopping China, France, Russia, UK & the USA having the right to Veto UN resolutions; Removing every nuclear weapon from the face of the planet; Establishing democracies in every UN Member State; Sharing scientific and technology breakthroughs at minimal cost with poor countries; Ensure everyone has health, education, food and shelter: leave no one behind!

Any ideas we’ve missed out?

Build up to the key question: “HOW are we going to do any of this?” Get their ideas on this - including the Greta Thunberg idea of a Schools Strike: why didn’t that work? Is there a better way?

It’s great if the audience are sitting at tables and the cast members can join them. But they can also stand in the aisles and take notes from people in two or three rows. Also when a good idea comes up, the Cast Scribe can write it up on the Screen and trigger a whole-audience discussion.

Scene EIGHT – Winding Up & Next Steps After 10-15 minutes of discussion, the Cast Members go back to the stage, and figure out – say - the top 5-10 priority actions raised by the Audience – which are projected on the screen. The audience then have 3 x votes each: give them a moment to choose the 3 that they want to vote for – and then go through each of their proposals, asking the audience to raise their hands for the three that they support. Do a count if you want to be accurate. Or you can judge the loudness of applause and stamping of feet for each priority. End by asking the question: “What exactly are you going to do now?” – to get some ideas for Next Steps and write up the ones that make the most sense and are the most do-able. Wrap up with Pavel’s Song – of which the words of the Chorus come up on the Screen. The Guest introduces it thus: Guest

Guest (Singing)

Thank you for that. You’ve been a great audience, but now let’s see if you can sing!?

We’re going to close with a song written by a 16-year old Polish boy , writing in his third language. Listen – and if you agree with what he is saying, please sing along with us: Music Starts All the time through the day and through the night I think about my life in this world.

So many times I've tried to find A way to live my life - A way to ease my mind I know this world could die forever And people are the reason why Children and parents, lovers and poets We just can't hear our planet cry!

Whole Cast (encouraging the audience to sing along) We want this world to survive forever And all the people join their hands together In a bond of love, kindness and friendship We can make peace with the earth

Guest

So many people have died in wars And we want that no one else should suffer - not again We mustn't forget that many are poor And half of our children lack even food!

We know this world is a wonderful place It's our home - where we live and where we grow!

I want to believe that this world can be Peaceful, free - and happy home for all

Whole Cast (& audience)

We want this world to survive forever And all the people join their hands together In a bond of love kindness and friendship We can make peace with the earth.

Let's join our hands together Let's make Peace throughout our World!

THE

END

Scene NINE – E P I L O G U E [Author’s Note: at the end of one performance, many years ago, a young audience member challenged the cast about the whole premise of the Time Travel Chat Show and they had a fascinating discussion about this – both in the theatre, and in the school canteen afterwards. Given that Peace Child is all about empowering young people to come up with their own script ideas, we append this summary script of the key points of that discussion, updated to this new script. We encourage producers to discuss their casts whether they would like to include it as an epilogue in their show. Let it be their decision!]

Host

(Shaking hands with the Guest) – Well done! Another great show…

Guest

It’s amazing the way they lap up this rubbish, isn’t it?

Host

What do you mean?

Guest

The way they totally buy into the Time Travel nonsense!

Host

It’s a fantasy! Everyone loves a fantasy! What’s “amazing” about that?

Guest

It trivialises the whole thing: you surely don’t think that global warming is a fairy tale? It’s serious – we shouldn’t be peddling fairy tales to audiences about it.

Host

But your solution was dead right: it’s not a climate or a peace problem – it’s a global governance problem.

Guest

- and it’s true that if we do nothing, like our Second Guest, we shall probably destroy all life on earth.

Host

And we don’t have a second chance: we have to get it right first time!

Guest

All that’s good stuff – which is why I want to keep doing the show! But I worry that we’re just promoting a fantasy and not getting down to the real stuff that people like this can actually do about it. No one here is actually going to reform the UN?!

Host

They could if they go on strike!

Guest

Yes – but they’re going to need a whole lot more than a short one-act play to persuade them to come out on strike…

Host

So – what else do you suggest they do? Recycle more, turn down the thermostat?

Turn off the tap while they’re brushing their teeth….?

Guest

I would hope they’re doing that already. That’s the basics – we’ve got to get them beyond that.

Host

To the Revolution?!

Guest

Yes – to the Revolution!

Host

(putting an arm around him/her and walking off) How are going to do that?

Guest

Do a longer show, I guess… *

EXIT *

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