act Join the waitlist

Fallen Words

A tale in five scenes

  • Tale
  • Supernatural
  • 12-character play
  • 4 women, 3 men, 5 either
  • 22 min
  • Beginner
  • Ages 10+
PDF Word Free, no sign-up

Synopsis

In Clairval, every night, a word vanishes from the big book kept at the town hall, and from the mouths of the people who live there. This morning, it is the village’s own name that has started to fade on the cover. The eleven students of the last class decide to spend the night in the town hall to catch whoever is taking the words, before it is too late.

Clairval, a small mountain village whose town hall is also the school: the classroom, the attic, the bell tower. One autumn night, today.

Casting

293 lines
  • ZOÉ Female role, Teen 12, class representative.
  • INÈS Female role, Child 11, the baker’s daughter, up before everyone else.
  • ELENA Female role, Teen 13, the eldest, starting secondary school in town next year.
  • MILA Female role, Child 10, the youngest, the last baby born in the village.
  • LÉO Male role, Teen 12, tore Marco’s kite a year ago.
  • MARCO Male role, Teen 12, hasn’t spoken to Léo since that day.
  • JONAS Male role, Child 11, grandson of the former mayor, who has moved to town.
  • SAM No gender marker, Teen 12, mother is the town hall secretary; has the key.
  • NOA No gender marker, Child 10, collects insects in boxes.
  • CHARLIE No gender marker, Child 11, keeps the class notebook.
  • ALEX No gender marker, Teen 13, grandfather used to ring the village bell.
  • L'ARCHIVISTE No gender marker, Adult has lived in the town hall attic since the village’s very first word.

Contents

  1. Scene 1: The Pale Page
  2. Scene 2: The Watch
  3. Scene 3: The Attic of Jars
  4. Scene 4: A Jar Each
  5. Scene 5: The Bell Tower

Excerpt

Scene 1: The Pale Page

(The classroom in the town hall. At the back, on a lectern, a very big book, closed. The students come in with their school bags.)

CHARLIE

In Clairval, there’s a town hall, a bakery, a bell tower and a school.

ALEX

The school is us.

ZOÉ

Eleven students. The last class.

MILA

And in the town hall, there’s the book.

NOA

The big book of the village’s words.

288 more lines, 5 scenes

The rest is waiting in the file.

Download the PDF Word

Free, no sign-up · 24 A4 pages

What you can do with it

Original text written for Acto. Read it, print it, work on it in class, perform it at an audition or on a self-tape: that is what it is for, and you need no permission. For a public performance or any commercial use, write to us at contact@acto.re.

Everything about these texts →

The same text, elsewhere

Close to this one