This transcript is being provided for access purposes only. Please don’t download, copy or distribute this transcript. Copyright of the play’s text belongs to the playwright. The playwright asserts their moral rights.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER SMALL TALK:
EPISODE THREE: DOES THE SKY FALL ON EVERYONE? BY PYEMWA SAMANTHA DESHI
SUNNY: You’re listening to Climate Change & Other Small Talk. A worldwide theatrical journey for your ears - minus the carbon footprint and lost luggage. Nine creative teams from around the world share entertaining audio dramas to explore our climate mess. And what could get us out.
I’m Sunny Drake, your tour guide and series creator. Coming out of our first few destinations, it’s clear we need to step it up and take action. So what do we do when there are so many things to take action on? This is a big question for wealthy nations. It’s even bigger for the Global South who are fighting battles on so many fronts: extreme poverty, housing crises, food insecurity. A persistent argument in so many parts of the world is The Economy vs The Environment. Sound familiar? What are the risks of thinking these two important areas have to be in competition?
We’ll see this tension play out by getting back in our carbon-neutral solar-powered worker-owned balloon…
[HOT AIR BALLOON LIFTING OFF]
…and travelling all the way to a cluster of villages: Gilling and Takkas, near Jos, Nigeria. This episode is made by Thespian Muse and written by Pyemwa Deshi. Pyemwa manages to be equally at ease writing for TV, running schools, launching women-led social enterprises and dealing with international banking! Let’s just put Pyemwa in charge of the world, problem solved.
This is “Does The Sky Fall on Everyone” by Pyemwa Deshi.
[A CHAINSAW BUZZ MIXED WITH DISTANT SOUNDS OF MEN AT WORK. TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS CRUNCH THROUGH DRIED GRASS. A CAR DOOR SLAMS SHUT, AND ONE SET OF FOOTSTEPS HURRIES THEN STOPS.]
DELPHINE: So you refuse to stop them?
NANPET: Does it look like I am stopping them?
DELPHINE: I am disappointed in you. But let me warn you that nothing is going to stop me. I have a job to do here.
NANPET: What job?
DELPHINE: I am the Country Head of Save The Trees Foundation. This year our mission is to save…
NANPET: (laughing) Ah... a mission! I see. So you are a missionary of trees! I am getting you.
DELPHINE: I don't see what is funny.
NANPET: No, you don't, madam missionary. Please go and save your trees. Let me not stand in the way of your holy calling.
[CAR ENGINE STARTING. CAR DOOR OPENS THEN SLAMS SHUT. BIRDS CHIRP.]
NANPET: Wait! Why are you in my car?
DELPHINE: You are going to help me. I didn't come all this way for you to refuse to help me.
NANPET: Do I look like a priest? Or am I a potential convert? My friend, will you get out of my car before I change my mind?
DELPHINE: Not until you help me.
NANPET: You don't want to try me madam. You. Do. Not. Want. To. Try. Me! I will...
DELPHINE: You will what? Try it. Just try it. Who do you even think you are? Because you have some fancy title, don't think I can't tell that you are an ordinary community leader. You want to threaten me? This is my problem with Nigerians - small title and it goes into your head. Do you know who I am?
NANPET: Who are you, madam? The queen of Nigeria? Reel out your titles; let me hear.
DELPHINE: Hey! You don't want to find out. By the time I call the army, the police...
NANPET: DSS, Civil Defence, Airforce... which one do you want to call again? Oh, you will call the president himself, right?
NANPET: I don't know who you think you are, but you have some serious guts. You come to our village, and you want to harass our people?
DELPHINE: I am not harassing anyone; I am simply trying to protect the environment...
NANPET: Who asked you? Did the environment run to your office and beg you to rescue it from its people? Hhhm? Answer me. Tell me about this complaint that the environment brought to you.
DELPHINE: Okay, look, Mr...
NANPET: Nanpet.
DELPHINE: Mr. Nanpet, you are obviously an educated person who understands these issues. Talk to your people. Explain to them why they shouldn't just be cutting down trees anyhow.
NANPET: What is that your name again? Delilah?
DELPHINE: Delphine. I introduced myself when I called you.
NANPET: Ehen. Delphine. Are you the owner of the forest?
DELPHINE: No but…
NANPET: And are you from this community? Does your father come from this place? Did your ancestors pay dues in this community?
DELPHINE: Ah ah! I tire for you bros.
NANPET: Listen, my people need the wood; they come from this community, therefore any tree here belongs to them, and they can do whatever they like with their property. What is your problem?
DELPHINE: Do you see that tree there?
NANPET: The large one. Ehen?
DELPHINE: That is a black olive tree. It is over 500 years old.
NANPET: So what? Old people die. Aren't old trees supposed to die too?
DELPHINE: Ohhh, so will you kill your grandmother just because she is old?
NANPET: Leave my family out of this your crazy talk.
DELPHINE: I was just trying to make a point. That tree has served your community. You should care about the trees. Look around you. This place used to be a forest. Now the villagers are just cutting trees and creating all kinds of disaster.
NANPET: What disaster? There is no disaster here.
DELPHINE: But there is. See how the rains flood everywhere? There are no trees to hold the water up anymore because we are cutting and cutting...
NANPET: Trees don't soak water. Are you now accusing us of cutting and cutting and cutting the land and selling it?
DELPHINE: I know you are just being silly. OK. What about the fertility of the soil?
NANPET: What about it? Of course, we need fertilizers, there are more people to farm for than there ever were before.
DELPHINE: What about...I could show you a lot of things that will change your mind. Disaster is here already, even if you can't see it.
NANPET: What kind of missionary makes no sense at all? Do the trees understand you when you talk like this?
DELPHINE: Leave the trees out of this. You know about climate change and the causes.
NANPET: The only thing I dislike more than Oyibo people is coconut people like you. Brown on the outside, white on the inside. With coconut heads that want to tell us what to do. Pure madness.
DELPHINE: What is madness about the climate changing? Those men are making a catastrophe worse.
NANPET: Climate change, bla bla bla. When they cut this one tree down, the world is going to end. Hmm? Isn't it your same white people that have cleared the entire Amazon forest? Burned coal? Dug up crude oil?
DELPHINE: That is why we can't afford to make things worse.
NANPET: Aha! So we save one tree in Africa while they cut down hundreds? Listen to yourself... tell me if you make any sense.
DELPHINE: I'm serious. We can't change them, but we can change us.
NANPET: And save the melting snow caps. If their snow melts, does it trickle into my village?
DELPHINE: Eventually, it does. When the sky falls, it falls on everyone.
NANPET: That is a lie. Our sky is just fine.
DELPHINE: You are harming your village people. I was told you were sensible. That if anyone was going to make the villagers see sense, it would be you.
NANPET: I don't see the sense in your argument. So why would they?
DELPHINE: Fine. I will do it myself.
NANPET: Go ahead. Let me see how you will stop them.
[CAR DOOR OPENS AND SLAMS SHUT. FOOTSTEPS IN GRASS. CAR DOOR OPENING.]
NANPET: Ah ah! Back so soon?
DELPHINE: I know they won't listen to me.
NANPET: At least, you have small common sense.
DELPHINE: Please talk to them.
NANPET: Why would I do that?
DELPHINE: Seriously. You know this is damaging earth.
NANPET: Earth is damaged already. And not by us. By the same oyibos who sent you on this...Mission. They created the problem.
DELPHINE: Are you saying we are innocent? Are there any oyibos cutting a tree right now in this village?
NANPET: Abeg, save your speech for someone willing to listen. You want to save the earth right? What about the people living on earth? Are you saving them too? From hunger or lack of employment?
DELPHINE: I didn't say I was here to solve all the world's problems. I just want to do my bit and save the environment. This earth is our home...
NANPET: So you can love earth without loving the people in it. It is okay to save a tree and kill the grandmother? And I am the hypocrite.
DELPHINE: That's not fair. I love people.
NANPET: Prove it then. Pay them
DELPHINE: Pay them what?
NANPET: Compensate them. The value of the timber. Just put your money where your sharp mouth has been.
DELPHINE: Come on. That's ridiculous.
NANPET: What is ridiculous about this? If you want to save the tree, what is it worth to you? Or is it only you getting a fat salary? How much are you willing to give to the villagers to save your trees?
DELPHINE: I am giving them a lot by saving their trees. And - before you accuse me of having a fat salary, let me tell you that my organization employs over one hundred indigent mem...
[CHAINSAW REVS UP]
DELPHINE: Your men are climbing this old olive tree!
NANPET: Yes. They will start cutting from the branches.
DELPHINE: Oh, please stop them! That tree cannot go down. I beg you.
NANPET: Because this tree is stopping the sky from falling ba?
DELPHINE: Oh... Oya nau... Okay bye.
[CAR DOOR OPENS AND SLAMS SHUT]
NANPET: Where are you going again?
DELPHINE: Maybe I can't talk to them but I can do something.
[FOOT STEPS IN GRASS]
NANPET: DELPHINE! DELPHINE, STOP!! Where are you going?
DELPHINE: To save the tree - this is my mission.
NANPET: (shouting) Don't be silly; tree hugging doesn't work here o. You will get hurt.
DELPHINE: And if I do, it is because you didn't help me. My blood will be on your head.
NANPET: (shouting) They have started cutting, please move.
DELPHINE: Leave me alone.
NANPET: (shouting) I get it. You are a missionary. Don't become a martyr too!!
DELPHINE: It's none of your business! Shebi I'm the one earning fat salary!
NANPET: (shouting) Don't die in my village I beg you. I can't leave you here.
[CHAINSHAW REVS. BRANCH BREAKING]
DELPHINE: (Terrified) Nanpet! Watch out!
NANPET: Delphine! Watch out!
[JOYFUL MUSIC]
[HEAVY THUD]
DELPHINE: What is that?
NANPET: I wonder…
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
DELPHINE: Ehen?
NANPET: Ehen?
DELPHINE: Shouldn't you check?
NANPET: Why can't you check?
DELPHINE: Is it my car?
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[CAR DOOR OPENING]
NANPET: What is it with people entering my car without permission?
OLIVE TREE: You. Did you ask for my own permission?
NANPET: Your permission for what? Who are you?
OLIVE TREE: Who are you too?
NANPET: Why are my village people throwing strange women in my direction? Who did I offend today abeg?
OLIVE TREE: You offended me gravely and I am vexed.
NANPET: Are you from the village? I have never seen you before in my life!
OLIVE TREE: So why did you cut off my hands? Why?
DELPHINE: What are you talking about?
OLIVE TREE: I am not talking to you. At least, not yet. I am talking to him. You seem like a good woman even if you are useless.
DELPHINE: What? Me! Useless?!
OLIVE TREE: Ehen?! Was your mission successful?
DELPHINE: What are you talking about?
[LOUD THUD]
NANPET: What exactly is...?
OLIVE TREE: You don't know what that is? The sky is falling.
NANPET: And the sky is made up of thick material that thumps on roofs? Abeg!
OLIVE TREE: You must not have heard the news then.
[RADIO STATIC]
NEWSCASTER 1: Country people, we disrupt this transmission because of news we just learned. All over the world reports say the sky is falling.
NEWSCASTER 2: Our reporter arrived on the scene confirming that the sky is falling in multiple locations all over the country.
NEWSCASTER 3: News is reaching us from confirmed eye witness accounts that the sky is falling.
NEWSCASTER 2: ... from confirmed eyewitness accounts that the sky is falling…
[JUMBLE OF NEWSCASTS IN MANY LANGUAGES]
NEWSCASTER 3: ...Our reporter arrived on the scene confirming that the sky is falling in multiple locations all over the...
NANPET: Impossible.
[LOUD SWISHING]
DELPHINE: What is that??
OLIVE TREE: I told you the sky is falling
NANPET: Madness! Just madness! Is this your sky thick and soft or stringy?
OLIVE TREE: Oh it is all that and so much more and now, it’s falling…
[SOUND LIKE GLASS SHATTERING ON A CAR ROOF]
DELPHINE: Is that a glassy sky then?
OLIVE TREE: Don't you see it when the sky is clear as glass?
NANPET: Kambala'i! (Wonders shall never end!)
OLIVE TREE: You know, I always enjoyed the children playing The Ship is Sinking. The leader sings, and the others echo.
DELPHINE: I remember that game!
OLIVE TREE: Good! Let's play it. (Chanting)
The sky is falling...
DELPHINE: (singing) Falling, falling.
OLIVE TREE: (singing) The very, very blue sky.
DELPHINE: (singing) Falling, falling.
OLIVE TREE: (singing) The thick sky falling.
DELPHINE: (singing) Falling, falling...
NANPET: Will you keep kwayet! If you want to play, go outside. My car is not a school yard for your nonsense.
OLIVE TREE: Schoolyard for nonsense... Hmmm. If you knew who I was...
NANPET: Another one asking me who she is... Who are you going to report me to this time around?
DELPHINE: Nanpet, I think you should take her seriously. Please ma, who are you?
OLIVE TREE: He should know me. After all, he just allowed those men to cut my hands off.
DELPHINE: You are….
DELPHINE & NANPET: The olive tree!
OLIVE TREE: Good children. So, why did you do it?
NANPET: But you are 500 years old?
OLIVE TREE: So you can kill your grandmother just because she is old.
DELPHINE: Tell him!
NANPET: Shut up! I didn't say so. But 500 years... Wetin you wan see for dis life again?
OLIVE TREE: I want to see the children I cradled in my branches tell tales by the moonlight to their grandchildren. I want to hear lovers make promises and sing love songs in the cool of the evening…I want tired hunters to take shade beneath my all flourishing leaves and for the mothers of the land to squeeze my full breasts for oil traded to raise children and my fruit to nourish their bodies. I have always given… did I give you any trouble?
DELPHINE: No! Mama Tree. He is just very ungrateful.
NANPET: Don't pin it on me. It wasn't my decision you know.
OLIVE TREE: He cannot accept responsibility for his actions.
DELPHINE: And he will now say he is a leader.
NANPET: Delphine! I am warning you....If you must blame anyone, blame the people in the community. They asked for this. They need the timber. They make money to sustain their homes.
[SEVERAL KNUCKLES WRAPPING ON THE WINDOW]
NANPET: Ah ah... Who is knocking on my windows again?
OLIVE TREE: Oh, just the other trees who wanted to come with me on this conversation. Will you let them in and tell them that you are demanding for their timber?
NANPET: Why me? I'm not the chief? Am I the Local Government chairman or the governor?? If you must blame anyone, why don't you blame the big boys? Me, I'm just a local influencer.
OLIVE TREE: Why didn't you ask the women?
NANPET: Which women?
OLIVE TREE: The women in your community. You didn't ask those who benefit from the living tree. Those who need the old and shade? You asked those who want me dead instead. Those who benefit one time instead of those who benefit every year.
NANPET: Mama, don't be dramatic. Besides, whoever you are, you cannot be a tree.
OLIVE TREE: How do you know?
NANPET: Trees don't talk. Or walk.
OLIVE TREE: Just as the sky in America cannot fall here abi? What do you know sef?
NANPET: Only that this is not real.
OLIVE TREE: And yet...
[THUDS. SWOOSHES. SPLINTERING SOUNDS.]
DELPHINE: And yet, the sky is crashing down!
OLIVE TREE: Exactly. And it is his fault.
NANPET: It is not!
OLIVE TREE: Of course it is! You cut off my hands; my hands hold the sky up high. Just as my roots intertwine beneath and hold the ground together. And here you are, casually killing me. Cutting yourself off from centuries of wisdom. It is a grave sin.
DELPHINE: A very grave sin indeed. Is he to be punished?
OLIVE TREE: Surely! Since you caused the sky to fall, you must eat the sky.
NANPET: Wait. Wait lemme... My punishment is to eat a piece of sky?
OLIVE TREE: You will not be laughing when you have finished. Take this.
[LOUD CHEWING]
NANPET: Mmm. Not bad. It tastes like...
OLIVE TREE: Like olives and sunshine and green. Here.
NANPET: (chewing) Ye! Is this ice? Or...
OLIVE TREE: The sky in the Arctic.
NANPET: How is this fair? Even if your accusations are correct, I only fell the sky here.
OLIVE TREE: Don't you wish? The same sky holds us all. Here. Eat up!
[NANPET COUGHS]
NANPET: (cough)Who…Eats…(cough) Smoke?
OLIVE TREE: He who causes polluted skies to fall. And here's another!
[VOMITTING]
NANPET: (gagging) Okay, this is enough. This feels like...
OLIVE TREE: Industrial fumes warmed over pollution and all the bad things. Welcome to a piece of the oyibo sky.
NANPET: It's not fair! I must protest. I have never enjoyed their civilization; why am I eating their skies.
OLIVE TREE: Because you caused the sky to fall. Now eat up!
NANPET: Please stop.
OLIVE TREE: But the sky is falling.
DELPHINE: Falling falling.
OLIVE TREE: Eat up! The sky in China…
NANPET: No no not China!
DELPHINE: Falling falling.
NANPET: Please stop!
OLIVE TREE: Keep eating... The sky is falling...
DELPHINE: Nanpet! Nanpet! Nanpet wake up!
THE END
SUNNY: That was the third episode of Climate Change and Other Small Talk, “Does The Sky Fall on Everyone”, Written by Pyemwa Deshi and Directed by Omoye Uzamere.
If you’re worried about the sky falling on you, we’ve got ideas for how to get active on our Take Action page at climate change and other small talk dot com. That’s climate change A-N-D other small talk dot com. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for a deeper dive into the themes of each episode and the teams behind them - with cool pics, fun facts, action ideas, you name it.
Rating us 5 stars is a great way to help spread the word about this podcast. Plus following us on social media: Sunny Drake Productions on Facebook and sunny underscore drake on Instagram. Sunny is spelt like the day: s-U-n-n-y.
Or you could go old-school and directly tell your friends and family about it. In fact, remember the art of gathering in person? You could host your own listening club with friends, a school class or your community. We’ve got a hosting and discussion guide on our website.
In the next episode, we’ll be traveling to the Lands of the Larrakia People at the Top End of Australia. Nanna and Pop have just learned from their grand daughter that a big source of greenhouse emissions is cow farts. Now they’re wondering if they’re part of the problem too.
POP: So, what about us then? There are a lot of us too and we do it. Fart I mean.
NANNA: Speak for yourself.
POP: You don’t need to get defensive Maisie. I know when you’re asleep at night you can’t hear yourself but I tell you, sometimes its just Chronic.
NANNA: Oh you can talk! If they could hook you up to the grid you’d light up half of Australia.
Join us to find out what happens
Today’s episode, “Does The Sky Fall on Everyone”, starred:
TAIWO AJAI-LYCETT as the olive tree,
DEYEMI OKANLAWON as Nanpet
And OMOYE UZAMERE as Delphine Omoye
Sound Design, music and recording engineer CHUBB OKOBAH
Additional Voices by
CHIOMA B.B.B. OKPALA, OSAYI UZAMERE, AITUARI OGIAMIEN, Victoria WAYA
TONI THOMAS, CHUBB OKOBAH AND Pyemwa Deshi
Episode Produced by THESPIAN MUSE PRODUCTION COMPANY with support from Sunny Drake Productions
Episode Producer OMOYE UZAMERE
Episode Production Manager ADAOHA NJEMANZE
Episode Production Assistant: GIFT OKPA FRANCIS
Special thanks to NOVVA MEDIA, NUUGAME ENTERTAINMENT, HOMEGROWN OZONE, OREDO ENTERTAINMENT.
And the series Climate Change & Other Small Talk is:
Created by me, Sunny Drake
Produced by Sunny Drake Productions in association with Why Not Theatre
Lead Producers: Fanny Martin and Najla Nubyanluv
Concept Dramaturg: Kevin Matthew Wong
Impact Producer & Climate Dramaturg: Chaprece Henry
Communications Producer: Daniela Gerstmann
Central Audio Producers: Heather Brown & Richard Feren
Special thanks to our series funding bodies: Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council. And to so many others who you can check out on the website. It truly does take a village to raise a podcast.
See you at our website and newsletter, climate change and other small talk dot com. Thanks for listening everyone - I already can’t wait to share the next one.