Twenty years of Rip Van Winkle

This is a short play we did for our American literature course when we were juniors back in college. Darrell gave us a piece of reading-Rip Van Winkle and then gave us four settings at different stages in Chinese history. The one my group got was 1930-1950, and we had Isabel, Camellia, Doughtery (this is a strange name, and i think she has changed it into something else) and Iris; of course there was me.

After the performance of four groups, Darrell seemed to be quite pleased (well, we could not really tell if he truly was). The theme he tried to convey in his teaching through the story was that 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. At least, it's true for Rip Van Winkle.

I had a great time in college. One of the very good things about it was that we got a lot of chances to work together doing interesting and silly stuff like this and we had a number of excellent foreign teachers. It was fun.

The acting was absolutely amateur-level and awkward (I wrote the script with Isabel and was kind of a director; I could never act), especially when we were acting out a play in English while the story was set in China, double awkward. But we lightened it up a little bit by using some familiar names to our fellow students, Josh and Chiansan. And it was hilarious.

As far as I can remember, the cast was like this:
Doughtery as Rip;
Lin as the crazy wife Lin;
Iris as the friend Josh;
Camellia as Josh's son Chiansan;

We did not have any male students in our group, so it was a all-female cast. And three of them had to play men.



Rip Van Winkle
Introduction of the main characters:



Rip: a blind man, who makes his living by playing the alto fiddle on the streets.
Lin: Rip’s wife.
Josh Colston: Rip’s old friend.
Chiansan: Josh’s son

Scene 1

1930 A.D. Music comes from the distance.

On a late autumn afternoon, the street was empty except for a few people hastily heading for their destination in the chilly wind.
Music stops.
Rip stood up, picked up his bowl and shook it (to see how much he has earned).

Rip: (sigh) Another day…

Then he collected his belongings and started his way home.
Suddenly, a strong wind brought heavy sands and fallen leaves, and a ghostly woman-like voice flew in to Rip’s ears.

Ghostly voice: Rip, Rip, come here, come with me…

Rip: Who, who, who’s that? Who?

Ghostly voice: come with me…

Rip: Who the hell is that? Who are you?

The wind becomes increasingly stronger.
Rip disappeared as the ghostly voice became unheard any more.


Scene 2

Aside: Since then, Rip had disappeared. All the people in the village took it as the fact that he was dead. In the following 20 years, Chinese people had gone through wars and sufferings, but at last in 1949 the PRC was set up under the leadership of Chairman Mao. Citizens are now creating their new life in a new social structure. They are full of hope and passion to build a strong and prosperous new China.

1950A.D. Twenty year later a hell-like summer afternoon, Rip turns up again, with long beard and unstable steps. In distance, a group of young people are working in the field, talking and laughing. One of them (Chiansan) catches the sight of Rip and runs towards him.

Chiansan(C): Hey, Uncle, may I help you? (holding Rip’s arm)

Rip: Hi, young man. Why are you calling me Uncle?

C: Of course! Uncle, where are you heading for? Why are you here alone?

Rip: It’s so kind of you, young man. Could you please take me back to my house? (start walking)
Oh, by the way, are you a new-comer here? It seems that I haven’t heard of your voice before.

C: Oh, how could that be, Uncle? I’ve been living here for more than 20 years, and I’ve never seen you before. I thought you were new here!

Rip: Oh, no. Isn’t it Zhou Zhuang?

C: Yeah, you are right, it’s Zhou Zhuang. But really, I don’t think I have seen you before.

Rip: (puzzled) Really…
(pause) Umm, what’s the smell? Is there a locust tree around?

C: Wow, yes, just 20 meters away.

Rip: (put down of Chiansan’s hand, stumbling) The tree, the tree.

C: Hey, Uncle! (runs after him)

Rip: (touches the tree, kneeles down) Oh, my tree, this is my tree. Papa let it be here and guide me home. (turns around) my house, I’m home, Lin, I’m home! Hey!

C: Hey, Uncle! I think you’ve got it wrong, this is my house!

Rip: No, no, no, I’m so familiar with the tree, the shape and the smell of it. How can I be wrong?

(a voice comes from the house)
Josh: Who’s outside? Why is so noisy?

C: Papa, come here. This Uncle, he is so strange, and he says this is his house.

Josh comes out from the door, stares at Rip for a couple of seconds, and moves a few steps forward, suddenly grabs his shoulders.

Josh: (excited) Rip! Are you Rip?

Rip: Yes, sure I am! And you are…

Josh: I’m Josh! Don’t you remember me?

Rip: Oh, Josh? Josh Colston, you are Josh Colston?! Your voice is so different, I didn’t even recognize you.

Josh: Rip, where have you been in all the 20 years? We all thought you were dead already!

Rip: Are you kidding me? 20 years? How could that be? I was just lost for one night, and now I’m back home.

Josh: Rip, can’t you feel the change of your voice, your beard?
Rip: (touches his chin) Oh, my God, what’s this?!

Josh: That’s your beard. Tell me, Rip, where you have been for all these twenty years. I thought you’ve lost you life in the war or something.

Rip: The war? What war?

C: Oh, Uncle Rip, don’t you know the war? Don’t you know all the great success we’ve got through all the difficulties? Don’t you even know Chairman Mao?

Josh: Wow, anyway, it’s really a miracle that you can survive. My God, 20 years! Thank goodness!

Rip: Twenty years! No, how could that happen? I can’t believe it! The wind, the strong wind, the voice, the ghostly voice. GHOST, it must be ghost!

C: (whispering to his father) Papa, I think Uncle Rip is so abnormal, he must have suffered a lot during the past 20 years’ wandering around.

Josh: Maybe what he said is true. He was taken by some evil spirit…(interrupted by Chiansan)

C: Come on, Papa, the Party tells us that there is no such evil spirit in the world, we should believe in Marxism, there is no ghost, there is NO ghost!

Rip: (suddenly raises up) Where is my family? My wife, and my son? Why are you living in my house?

Josh: Rip, listen to me, your house was destroyed in the war, and we built a new one after the war on the spot. And your son, little Rip, he…

Rip: What happen? Tell me!

Josh: He, he was killed by the Japanese. He was dead, several years ago.

Rip: Dead? My son is dead? No, no, no…

Josh: (sigh) Calm down, Rip. Everybody lost someone during the anti-Japanese war. Little Rip was not the only victim of the damn war.

Rip: Dead, dead, my son is dead. Where is Lin? Where is my wife?

Josh: I’m so sorry that Lin was terribly struck by the reality, and she went mad at the news of young Rip’s death, you know, it’s a great knock on her to lose two people in the family.

Rip: Mad? Mad, mad, mad…

C: Don’t worry, Uncle Rip, she is attended by the People’s commune in our village.

Rip: (cries out and grabs Chiansan’s hand) Take me there, take me to see her!

Scene 3

The small hospital of the commune. A woman in her forties is sitting on a desk, inexpressive.

Rip, Josh and Chiansan walked in.

Josh: Lin, look, Rip is back here, look, he is back alive. (turns around to Rip) Here she is.

Rip: Lin? Lin!
(No response from Lin.)

Rip: (approaching Lin, attempting to touch her face) Lin, look, I’m back.

(Lin looks at him, still no response.)

Rip: Lin, I’m Rip, don’t you remember me any more?

(Lin looks at him again, laughing, playing Rip’s glasses and beards)

Rip: (grabs her shoulders) I’m Rip, Rip Van Winkle, don’t you remember me?

(Lin looks away from him, and sets her eyes upon Chiansan, she stands up and walks towards Chiansan)

Lin: Oh, Rip, Rip, where have you been, Mom misses you so much.

C: Oh, no, no, Aunt Lin, I’m not your son Rip. There is your husband, Rip.

Lin: Where have you been? The wind was so strong, there were so many people, I was so scared.
My son, our son! (pointing at Josh), it’s him, he killed him, he robbed our house. (rushes to Josh) you killed my son, you robbed my house, you buster, give my son back, out of my house! … …

C: (cried out) Help, somebody help!

(people rush in, use rope to confine Lin)

Lin: Give back my son and my house. Rip, Rip, take me out of here, they are ghosts, they are ghosts.

(Lin comes down. Rip kneels on the ground)

Rip: (shout aloud) My heaven, why don’t you let me sleep forever? Thus I don’t have to suffer all of this. You let me sleep for 20 years, why don’t you let me sleep forever?!

Josh: Rip, Rip, let’s go. It would be of no use to stay here. No one would believe in what you’ve said. Come, come with me. Lin will be fine here, and you need a normal and new life. Come, come to our house.

Rip: No, no, I’m not going anywhere. That’s not my house any more. Nothing is left for me. That’s YOUR new life, not mine. I’ve got nothing left… nothing, nothing…

(Rip takes Lin out of the hospital and the two of them walk away)

Scene 4

A late autumn afternoon, the wind is blowing, mixed with the sound of alto fiddle. Rip and Lin are sitting on the street, as if they had nothing to do with the world.

Aside: Rip Van Winkle. Twenty years ago, he was blind, and nothing seems to matter to him. Now, he is still blind, nothing is important. His whole life is like a dream, he doesn’t know what he has dreamed of and what he has done in the dream. For him, his only clear time is the magical 20 year, which appears to him as a sleep. However, he does not even know what has happened to him in the 20 years, during which he has disappeared from the village, from the world. In his life, there is 20-year memory missing. And now, when the entire world surrounding him is busy building a new nation, he is drowned in his dream, as always, in his own world.