Scene 3 Flashcards
OPENING LINES SCENE 3
Lennox: I don’t need them, any of them. I’ll show them who’s thick. All these years and they’ve never found it. But I will.
Beth: Hey!
Lennox jumps
Beth: What do you think you’re doing?
Lennox: Nothing.
Beth: Because it looked like you were kicking my pots.
Lennox: Wasn’t.
Beth: Well, it looked like it. This is my garden and my pots and plants and if I catch you kicking them again, you’ll be in trouble.
Lennox: It’s not much of a garden, though, is it? There’s no flowers. And the trees are dead. And it’s cold.
Beth: The trees are dead are they? Then what are those tiny buds on the branches?
Lennox: Where?
Beth: There.
Beth pulls some seeds out of a pocket. Lennox comes closer to look.
Lennox: What are they?
Beth: Carrots
Lennox: They’re not carrots.
Beth: They’re not carrots… yet. But they will be. And these [Beth pulls out more packets of seeds, laying them on the ground] will be beetroots, and lettuce and broad beans.
Lennox: Why don’t you just buy them? Or don’t you have supermarkets here?
Beth: Buy them? You don’t know what you’re missing. Nothing tastes as good as when you’ve grown it yourself.
Beth begins to carefully plant the seeds into the soil of one of the pots.
Lennox is looking around
Lennox: You spend a lot of time out here?
Beth: Every day
Lennox: So you really know it.
Beth: Uh-huh
Lennox: Which is your favourite bit?
Beth: (suspiciously) Hard to say. Why all the questions?
Lennox: I’m just, you know, taking an interest. You really like the garden, don’t you?
Beth: [Pointedly] I like the peace and quiet
Lennox: How long you been coming here?
Beth: It feels like forever. I can’t remember a time I didn’t have this place really. It was Mrs Craven’s idea.
Lennox: Mrs Craven? You knew her?
Beth: Everyone knew her. She had a way of knowing what people needed and bringing the best out of them. She knew I needed the garden before I even knew what gardening was. And that was that. You’re not the only one/ who
Lennox: /If you knew her and you know this garden you must know where their secret garden was? Martha said/ no-one uses it
Beth: /Leave it
Lennox: I wonder if /it’s
Beth: /Mr Craven wouldn’t want you poking around. Just leave it be. I’m in this garden every day, rain or shine. You don’t think I’d know about it?
Lennox: A bird!
Beth: A robin. Dylan’s robin.
Lennox: A pet?
Beth: Are you going to make yourself useful or what? Take this. [hands Lennox a trowel. Lennox takes it] You need each of them pots filled with compost up to about here [Indicates a height in the pot]
Lennox: What’s in this? [the compost]
Beth: Dead plants, kitchen scraps
Lennox: Like old food? [She wrinkles her nose]
Beth: Exactly. Stuff that people would just throw out, turned into something that helps the garden grow. We collect it all and put it in the composter, that big thing there, you see? Dylan loves spinning that/ and
Lennox: /Little Miss goodie two shoes.
Beth: You could take a leaf out of her book. Look at that (points)
Lennox: What?
Beth: That’s her wildlife garden, that patch over there. Doesn’t look like much does it? But she’s made it a safe haven for all sorts of creatures.
Lennox: She spends lots of time out here?
Martha: Well now, what have we here? Not a Lennox? Out in the wild? Are you lost?
Lennox: Very funny
Martha: It’s good to see you/ outside playing.
Lennox: /Don’t say playing.
Martha: Jinx! Ha!
Lennox: You’re obsessed!
Beth: You’re not the only one who didn’t get on with school. I couldn’t learn inside, sat at a desk all day. Everything was too loud, too busy, the words jumping around everywhere or disappearing
Lennox: You get that too?
Beth: It’s why I love the garden. It’s like an outside classroom all of my own, learning my way. I know every plant, shrub, flower. Better than any periodic table.
Lennox: I dunno about that. The outside bit. I’d rather be inside. In the warm.
Martha: You know, lots of people, me included, think that nature is healing, a force for good.
Lennox: Right…
Martha: And your soul. Turns your mood around. When there’s just you and nature there’s no need for anything else, to try to be anywhere else.
Lennox: What? Catching a cold cos it’s freezing, drowning in the rain, fighting off birds of prey/
Martha: /Birds of prey?!
Lennox: Well, a robin.
Martha: Ah, you met Mr Robin!
Lennox: Not you as well?
We’ll follow you round while you show off with pride
And when we have secrets, to you we’ll confide
ROBIN TRILLS
Lennox: [In a whisper] He’s singing!
Martha: Loud noises, sudden movement. People having a tantrum…
Lennox: Martha….?
Martha: Yes Lennox
Lennox: Do you think…
Beth: Spit it out.
Lennox: Can Dylan come over tomorrow? To… play?
Martha: I’m sure she’d love that.
Lennox: [Speaks/sings] Your voice when you sing is a beauty to hear
The world seems much brighter, when you are near
Do you know about the secret garden? I bet you do. You know everything. I bet you can see it when you fly over, can’t you? Well, I’ve got a plan to find it too.
ROBIN FLIES AWAY
Lennox: Hey come back! I was talking to you!
