Name: THE LONG DAY'S DYING
SKU: ASC-1460
Price: 5.40 AUD
Availability: InStock

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THE LONG DAY’S DYING

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It is 2006 and Corporal Ash and three other Australian SAS soldiers are trapped inside an Afghan village. The rest of their team has just been killed by an IED. Their communications have been destroyed and they have no idea as to the strength of their enemy lurking outside. Nerves are stretched beyond breaking point as the possibility that this could be the end looms large. Into this mix a Taliban fighter appears from a concealed hiding spot and is quickly disarmed. His only defence against a summary execution is the claim that he intended to give himself up and knows a way out of this predicament.

Thus begins a cat and mouse between the four as each man decides on whether their prisoner, formerly a student from LSE, is worth more to them dead or alive. He paints a dire picture of the situation and promotes himself as their only hope of escape against the soon to be reinforced Taliban. As their numbers dwindle, Ash and the Taliban fighter come to a sort of understanding of each other's position and the realization that they face a common foe in the light of the Taliban fighter's final revelation. Completely unmasked, there is nothing left but to fight for their own as well as each other's survival.

Form/Style: drama
Length in minutes: 85
Cast: 4 total
Roles: 4 male identifying
Themes: history, culturally and linguistically diverse
Cast age groups: 18+
Audience age: teen, young adult, adult
Publisher: Australian Script Centre

MONOLOGUES
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PRODUCTION HISTORY

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Ash

Male | 30s | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 79

EXTRACT: An SAS soldier is trained to move as quietly as a...ghost. Step by step. Noiseless. Not a sound or a breath can be heard. Or so the manual states. We spend months...years perfecting the technique...toe down first, pressing gently on terra firma, listening for any sound that might result from the pressure, looking for a patch of earth free of debris of any kind, natural or human, before allowing the front of the foot to make contact and then the heel would follow.

Adult themes

Ash

Male | 30s | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 54

EXTRACT: I've never actually killed someone...not like this. Blown people up, shot them from a distance or in a blur of excitement, ambushed them on numerous occasions...but this is the first time up close. I know a man in the regiment whose killed several...mostly with his bare hands or blade. Came home one night from the pub and beat up his pregnant girlfriend. Boots'n all. Almost took a knife to her before the police arrived. Not a good look. Now's he in a psych ward...

Adult themes, Adult language

REVIEW: THE LONG DAY'S DYING

NATHAN SLEVIN, THEATRE PEOPLE, 12 APRIL 2011

"The many themes explored and questions raised -- what makes a killer, actions and consequences, the right to kill, morality when in a war zone, and being a victim of circumstance -- intersect well throughout and make for a tense but compelling final scene."

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