Torn Thread

Based on the book Eva’s Story

Lucas Grant, Madison Clinard, Demarcus Wall

Please note that is was originally for the screen and so there are some complications in changing from the present to the past. The best solution is to

have two groups of people playing the present characters, and the past characters, and to have the present characters stage right in the living room and have the

Barracks placed on stage left taking up most of the stage. The stage should not be split evenly, having the past setting the focus of the show.

Scene 1

We start off in a living room, Eva is telling her friends of what happened when she was in the work camp. She is in her new home in Canada.

Friend 1: so, what did happen when you were in that work camp Eva? I mean, how were you treated? I know that you told me that you worked. . .

Friend 2: Worked in a textile factory, cleaning and maintaining the spinning machine. Didn’t you say that your sister Rachel was taken to the camp and had no choice so then. . .

Friend 1: Your papa decided to send you to the same camp so you would be safer and be with your sister so what actually happened at the camp?

Eva: Ok ok, I’ll tell you, Here is what happened, when I were at the work camp there was this Czech girl named Frau Hawlik and for a while, every now and then she’d sneak me some cheese or an apple. That really helped me. I mean I was always starving, the rations were very small but they kept getting smaller.

Fade to next scene

Scene 2

In the Barracks, there are girls talking to one another. They talk about things that bring out the plot to the audience, Eva, appearance looks younger.

Eva: . . . If the rations get much worse all we are going to have is water, I mean, we are already down to cold stew with nothing in it and we hardly get any bread any more. I hope the Russians come soon.

Rachel: Hey Eva, at least people are paying you their rations for one of your pieces of knitting, you made Frau Hawlik a rug for an extra loaf of bread and you also made here candy.

Eva: yea but not any more, everything started to go down hill when I heard the rumor at work that papa was taken to Auschwitz. You, got sick from washing you hair in the bin that is used to wash the bobbins . . .

Rachel: yea, I am very glad I’m better now.

Eva: me too. Then the textile mill got closed down and now the tolets are clogged up and all of our friends are weak and sick and just lie in bed in their own filth. Ohh I hope the Russians come soon, life seems to keep getting worse. (A guard comes in)

Guard 1: Time for food rations. Quick! Move fast! Get in a line! Quick!

Quick fade.

Scene 3

Back in the living room in present time, Eva and her friends help move time along, she is in the older look.

Friend 1: Wow, so what happened next?

Friend 2: Yea, it sounds like the Russians are getting close by now. Let me tell you Eva, I feel your pain.

Eva: No you don’t. Only the girls that survived have felt my pain, ooh, it was unimaginably horrible. Especially what happened next. That was when I truly was scared and terrified.

Friend 2: Ok, go on tell us.

Quick fade.

Scene 4

Back in the barracks, the girls are talking amongst themselves, much later in time that before. Eva enters from returning from digging ditches. You can tell she is dirty and tired.

Girl: Eva!, your back from digging those ditches. I was so worried it was a trap. I’m glad you’re all right. Rachel is very sick she has Typhus; I picked all off the ticks

Eva: Rachel, I brought back some bread, please try to eat it, here is some water, (feeds Rachel and pours water down her throat, Rachel is lying down on the bed)Rachel, speak to me, say something.Girl 1: She hasn’t been talking. Oh, um Eva, Rosie, she, has, well, passed. I am so sorry such a lovely singing talent gone.

Eva: *gasps* oh! No! If only the Russians would have already come. Oh no no no.

The some of the girls run over to the window to see what the noise that just started of a burning building was.

Random shouts from girls: Ahh! Look! Oh no! One of the buildings is on fire! There going to burn us alive! (Eva and the Girl join the others)

Eva: I hope the Russians come soon. Eva is soo sick again. Oh look!, that looks like Frau Hauk running away. And there are the guards.

Girl 1: they are just going to abandoned us!

Slow fade, creepy music plays.

Scene 5

Back in the living room, Eva finishes the story. Every one is listening in very closely.

Eva: Well finally the Russians came, weeks after the fire. They fed us very well I recovered quickly. All of the Nazi’s were gone.

Friend 1: Did Rachel recover quickly? I know she survived of course because she lives down the street. But what did you do while she was recovering?

Eva: I roamed the town, once I regained all of my strength, I went to the meadow, I saw so straw berries and picked them then I fell asleep.

Friend 2: wow! Girl, you must have been really tired.

Eva: I was, from all that walking. Anyways, when I woke up I rushed back to where Rachel was and she looked much better and she ate a lot of the strawberries. Once she checked out we went back to bedizen for a while and when we got there, we discovered that papa was taken to Auschwitz. And now we live here in Canada.

Friend 1: Well were glad that you two survived.

Friend 2: yea, the holocaust sounded like a truly horrible thing. This is something that should never happen again.

Friend 1: yea.

Eva: yea.

BlackoutThe end.