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Passing it On

A simple sketch that I wrote some time ago and have used in a variety of settings. It looks at our responsibility to pass on the good news that has been passed on to us...
2 actors in track bottoms, running shoes and sweat shirts stand on stage looking at an 8 inch aluminium baton.
A: What is it?
B: I’m telling you I don’t know... I can’t even remember where I got it from...
A: Maybe its for looking through... a telescope that’s lost its lenses..?
B: Or how about a hi-tech truncheon... for keeping the peasants in order?
A: Or an objet d’art... an artistic curiosity...
B: Yes... A nominee for the Turner Prize
A: Just look at the clean lines,
B: The unpretentious unity of form
A: Summing up the three-dimensional linearity of life
A & B: No....
B: A reject from a boomerang factory... (throws baton off stage)
Sorry Missus... (A goes to get it & comes back pretending to be a dog holding the baton in mouth)
A: (Taking it out of his mouth) A stick for a higher class of dog to fetch...
B: A dog from Cherryvalley you mean?
A: You’ve got the idea...
B: Or how about Paul Rankin’s rolling pin...
A: Brushed aluminium is hot in the kitchen this year...
B: Or the inside of an industrial strength toilet roll...
A: For really big jobs...
B: No let’s not go there...
A: Well what are you going to do with it?
B: I don’t know... probably throw it in a corner and forget about it...
Meanwhile two other actors enter, one from each side dressed in running shoes, shorts and vests, one with a number-like sign saying “The Saints of Ages Past” and the other saying the “Those of Years to Come”
C: What are you two doing?
A & B: Pardon?
D: I’ve been waiting for that for ages...
A & B: What?
C: And here we find you playing with it...
A: We were trying to work out what its for...
B: Where it came from...
D: I’ll tell you what it’s for... Its made for passing on...
C: (to A) I gave it to you to pass on...
A: Oh... Sorry. I forgot...
D: You were supposed to give it to him/her... (pointing to B)
C: (to B) And you were supposed to give it to him/her... (pointing to D)
A: Oh, its a game...
B: I like games...
D: Its not just a game...
C: Its life and death...
D: Come on, get ready, there’s still time to get back on track
C: Yes... the race isn’t over yet...
A & B: OK then...
A & B take off their track bottoms and sweat shirts while a disembodied voice reads this paraphrase of Hebrews 12: 1
We are surrounded by a huge crowd cheering us on, so let us take off anything that hinders us, any sin that might trip us up, and let us run the leg of the race marked out us.
Copyright © David A. Campton 28/10/99
ps. Paul Rankin is a Northern Irish "celebrity chef" and Cherryvalley is an affluent area of East Belfast. Feel free to substitute appropriate local references if you choose to use this sketch.
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