This is a little play for our English Drama Club (middle school).
Please read a bit slower than usual, try to make it lively for our kids who needs to learn the importance of intonation :-)
No need to read the name of the characters or the stage directions.
Thank you!
Benny: Once upon a time…
Jenny: (Enters) Benny, are you talking to yourself?
Benny: No, I was going to tell the kids a story, until my annoying sister came along.
Jenny: Can I listen?
Benny: Sure, Jenny, if you promise not to interrupt all the time.
Jenny: Who, me?
Benny: Jenny! Let me tell my story!
Jenny: Oh, sorry, kids. Go ahead, Benny. What story are you telling?
Benny: Little Blue Riding Hood.
Jenny: Don’t you mean “Little Red Riding Hood”?
Benny: I suppose so. So anyway, once upon a time there was a girl named Little Green Riding Hood.
Jenny: Red.
Benny: Don’t interrupt, please !
Jenny: That’s not what I meant. You called her Little Green Riding Hood, but her name was really Little Red Riding Hood.
Benny: Picky, picky. What’s the difference? I like green better than red anyway.
Jenny: So do I, but you should tell the story the way it really is.
Benny: Oh, all right. One day Little RED Riding Hood went to school with a basket of apples for her teacher.
Jenny: No! No! No!
Benny: What? I called her Little RED Riding Hood like you wanted.
Jenny: But you got everything else wrong. She was supposed to go to her grandmother’s house with a basket of cakes.
Benny: Oh, all right. Little RED Riding Hood went to her GRANDMOTHER’S house. And on the way she met a giraffe.
Jenny: A WHAT???
Benny: A giraffe. You know, an animal with the looooong neck.
Jenny: I know what a giraffe is. But that’s not what Little Red Riding Hood met.
Benny: Of course it wasn’t. It was a rhino.
Jenny: No. Not a giraffe or a rhinoceros.
Benny: A skunk?
Jenny: I thought you knew this story. She definitely did NOT meet a skunk.
Benny: Good. Because skunks stink! Peee-yoooo!
Jenny: (Sighing) Benny, Little Red Riding Hood met a wolf.
Benny: Oh, yeah. And the wolf says to Little Purple Riding Hood…
Jenny: Little RED Riding Hood!
Benny: Right. He says, “What’s up ?”
Jenny: No, he did NOT! The wolf said, “What do you have in your basket, little girl?”
Benny: Correct! I was just testing you
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She says “I have broccoli in my basket, want some?”
Jenny: (Groans) Oh, come on Benny, she did not!
Benny: Look, Jenny, are you telling this story or am I?
Jenny: You are, but just tell it right! She had cakes in her basket!! Cakes!!
Benny: Oh, all right. Cakes. So then the dragon says…
Jenny: Dragon? What dragon? It was a wolf.
Benny: Right. And the wolf started singing : “Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”
Jenny: “Happy Birthday”?
Benny: ‘Cause, you said her basket was full of birthday cakes.
Jenny: I did NOT say her basket was full of BIRTHDAY CAKES!!! I said they were cakes, just ordinary, everyday cakes!! You’re driving me crazy… Bye…
Benny: Alone at last,
Once upon a time…
