I REMEMBER YOU By Eileen Gibbons #TinyPlayChallenge

Keep your creativity flowing with Fishamble's #TinyPlayChallenge
In these challenging times, Fishamble - along with many of our colleagues in the wider Irish artistic community - is working hard to keep imaginations lively, communities engaged - and most of all offer people the opportunity of creative expression. We asked our audiences: Would you welcome the challenge of exploring your thoughts and feelings through drama? Do you have a dramatic story that you feel the urge to work out for yourself, and maybe share with your fellow citizens?
​Below is one of the chosen plays from our weekly submissions.

​I Remember You
​By Eileen Gibbons


​Ellen, aged 11, sits on a high stool on one side of the stage.
Her Grandfather, aged 76, sits on a chair on the other side of the stage.
They both face the audience.
Ellen is peering through a pair of binoculars.
She leans forward and dials a number on a phone that we do not see.
The phone rings.
Grandad answers the call.

GRANDAD
Ellen.

ELLEN
Hi Grandad.

GRANDAD
Any sign?

ELLEN
(Scanning the horizon)
No. Nothing.

GRANDAD
We’ll have to be patient. How are you?

ELLEN
Good. How are you Grandad?

GRANDAD
Good. Doing what I’m told. Keeping out of trouble. Did you talk to your Dad?

ELLEN
I did. I told him the weed killer was dangerous. I asked him to stop using it.

GRANDAD
Did he listen?

ELLEN
Yes. He said he’d look for another way to kill the weeds. His friend is using vinegar and
bread soda and something else. So he’s going to ask him.

GRANDAD
Good man.

Ellen continues to scan the horizon.

ELLEN
I’ve been sitting here for ages, Grandad.

GRANDAD
When I was young, on a Sunday afternoon, I’d sit out on the wall in the front of the
house. Now and again a car would pass. I’d watch it coming and I’d watch it going. Then
I’d wander up as far as the garden and steal some sweet fresh peas, all the time watching
for my mother. And then I’d head into the orchard for a feed of apples. I’d sit in under a
tree and listen to the sounds all round me. And I’d watch the bumble bees. They were like
little fat flying cows, buzzing and bumbling around the wild flowers gathering nectar. All I
have to do is close my eyes and I’m back there. And whenever I hear the slow steady
drone of a bumble bee I remember again what it was like to be young, free from all the
worries and cares of the world.

Ellen stands up, she has spotted something.

ELLEN
Oh!

GRANDAD
What is it?

ELLEN
Butterflies, Grandad.

GRANDAD
That’s the business. Did you talk to your mother.

ELLEN
I did Grandad. She said if you and me keep doing what we’re told then she’ll leave a circle
of grass uncut in the middle of the lawn. I’m looking at it now. That’s where the
butterflies are.

GRANDAD
Lovely hurling. We’ll keep doing as we’re told, Ellen.

ELLEN
We will. I miss you.

GRANDAD
I know. I miss you too.

We hear the sound of a bumble bee buzzing around.

ELLEN
I see one! I see one, Grandad!

Grandad stands up.

GRANDAD
When I was young, on a Sunday afternoon, I’d sit out on the wall in the front of the
house. Now and again a car might pass. I’d watch it coming and I’d watch it going. Then
I’d wander up as far as the garden and steal some sweet fresh peas, all the time watching
for my mother. And then I’d head into the orchard for a feed of apples.......
Ellen stands up and takes up the story.
​
ELLEN
..........I’d sit in under a tree and listen to the sounds all round me. And I’d watch the
bumble bees. They were like little fat flying cows, buzzing and bumbling around the wild
flowers gathering nectar. All I have to do is close my eyes and I’m back there. And
whenever I hear the slow steady drone of a bumble bee I remember again what it was like
to be young, free from all the worries and cares of the world.



Eileen Gibbons is a theatre practitioner from Galway. She is currently an associate artist with axis, Ballymun working on her new play 'The Common Good' after developing it as part of the Irish Theatre Institute's Age and Opportunity 'Prime' programme.
​@Gibletti

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