(A play for A-2 or B-1 English Level)
Compiled by Elaine Gallagher
TEACHER: The NARRATORS can read their lines from a small card, if necessary.
PLAY TITLE: The Friendly Fox and the Rapid Rabbit
SPECIFIC VOCABULARY: choose, baseball, coin, insects, soccer, tennis track, volleyball. I think it’s fun. Which is the fastest? fox, rabbit , thought, caught, decided, slept, came, found, invited, missed, ran, went, ate, jumped, entered, city, country, characters, setting, fable, summary, laughed, sleeping, going to, sing.
SETTING: The countryside
CHARACTERS: Friendly Fox
Rapid Rabbit
Narrators: 12
Turtle
The CROWD …The rest of the class
THE PLAY
NARRATOR 1: Once upon a time there was a friendly fox, and a rapid rabbit. Usually, foxes eat rabbits, but this fox was friendly. He just wanted to be friends with the animals. He was happy eating the left-over food that the farmer left near the big garbage bucket.
NARRATOR 2: The rabbit could run very quickly and loved to have races with the other rabbits because Rapid Rabbit always won!
TURTLE: Will you race with me, Rapid Rabbit?
RAPID RABBIT: No…you are too slow. It would not be an exciting race.
TURTLE: Please, race with me. I always see only rabbits running the race. I want to try, too.
CROWD: Please race with the TURTLE, RAPID RABBIT.
RAPID RABBIT: O.K., if you insist. But it won’t be fair. I can run so much faster than you.
TURTLE: That’s OK”, said the Turtle. I just want to have the opportunity to race against you. I don’t expect to win.
NARRATOR 3: So the turtle and the rabbit lined up. The Friendly Fox said that he would be the judge. The rabbit and the turtle had to run all the way to the end of the field and back again to the Friendly Fox.
FRIENDLY FOX: Ready…..set…..almost time to go. One, two, three….GO!!!!
CROWD: One…two…three….GO! GO!
NARRATOR 4: The rabbit took off quickly. He turned around after a minute, and saw that the turtle had barely left the starting line. He kept running, and looked back again to see that the turtle was way behind him!
NARRATOR 5: A big, shady tree was ahead. The rabbit decided that it would take 30 minutes for the turtle to catch up with him. So Rapid Rabbit sat down under the tree to rest for a few minutes.
NARRATOR 6: Meanwhile, slowly but surely, the turtle kept on moving. The rabbit, so sure he was going to win, decided to take a tiny, short nap because the sun felt so nice and warm.
NARRATOR 7: The turtle just kept on moving toward the end of the field. Then he would have to turn back and return to the Friendly Fox who was the judge of the race.
FRIENDLY FOX: Wake up! Wake up! Hurry.
NARRATOR 8: But the rabbit was sound asleep and did not hear his friend shouting.
NARRATOR 9: The turtle had reached the end of the field and was turning back towards the finish line, and Rapid rabbit was still sound asleep in the tall grass under the tree. Now it was getting close! Forty minutes had gone by and the turtle was close to the finish line!
FRIENDLY FOX: Wake up! Wake up! YOU’LL LOSE THE RACE!!!
CROWD: Wake up! Wake up! YOU’LL LOSE THE RACE!!!
NARRATOR 10: The rabbit opened his eyes and saw the turtle close to the finish line. He got up from under the shade of the tree, and began to run very, very fast. The little turtle just kept on moving.
FRIENDLY FOX: Hurry! Hurry! Rabbit, hurry!
CROWD: Hurry! Hurry! Rabbit, HURRY!
NARRATOR 11: It was too late! The turtle reached the finish line a split second before the rabbit got there!
THE CROWD: Congratulations Turtle!!!! You won! You won!
NARRATOR 12: The people were glad to see that the turtle had won the race because Rapid Rabbit was too lazy about winning. Now the Turtle was the champion of the village!
FRIENDLY FOX: We all learned a good lesson today. Do you know what the lesson is Turtle and Rapid Rabbit?
TURTLE AND RABBIT: What is the lesson, Fox?
CHORUS: Yes, what’s the lesson, Friendly Fox???
FOX: The lesson is one we all need to know:
«SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE!”
CHORUS and ALL the actors in the play:
«SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE!”
THE END
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