Script for Cicak and Kancil
Below is a scripted version of the Indonesian folktale Cicak and Kancil.
Characters: Narrator, Kancil, Cicak, Cicak Number Two, Cicak Number Three
Props: percussion instruments, cut-out palm trees and houses, camera flash bulb
In the play three asterisks (***) indicate a good place for music or sound effects.
Note: A bemo is a three-wheeled vehicle used for transporting people.
Narrator: This is the story of Cicak and Kancil. Cicak is a gecko. A gecko is a type of lizard with sticky pads on its toes. *** Cicak can walk or hang upside down on ceilings and walls.
Kancil is a smart and sly mouse deer.
One day Kancil was resting in his house. He was fast asleep when Cicak, the gecko, tried to catch a spider on the wall. Cicak jumped. *** Cicak missed the spider *** and knocked a picture down. The picture hit Kancil on the head. ***
Kancil: Ow! You stupid Cicak! Look what you have done!
Cicak: Oh, Kancil, I'm sorry to disturb you. If you hadn't been so big and slow you could have moved out of the way in time.
Kancil: Slow! Me! I'll have you know I'm much faster than you Cicak. Your silly legs couldn't run fast at all.
Cicak: I'm not slow! I'm sure I'm much faster than you could ever be.
Kancil: All right then. I challenge you to a race to prove who is the fastest. We will race to the big mango tree and back here at sunrise tomorrow. The winner will have the right to do anything he likes to the loser, even kill him!
*** (drumroll)
Kancil: Do you agree?
Cicak: Oh, Oh, Um. Yes, yes I do.
Narrator: Kancil went off to rub coconut oil into his legs and to rest for the night. But Cicak was in a state of panic. ***
Cicak: Oh dear. What have I done? Kancil is much faster than me. If he wins he will probably kill me. *** I must think.
(He walks up and down.)
Cicak: I've an idea! *** I'll get my friends to help me.
Narrator: First Cicak called one friend, *** then another. *** They decided to trick Kancil by hiding along the track of the race so that instead of one Cicak, three Cicaks would run parts of the race like a relay. But Kancil would think it was one gecko. ***
(Geckos leave.)
Narrator: The following morning when the sun rose, *** Kancil and Cicak lined up next to Kancil's house.
Kancil: Are you ready? Are you steady? Go.
Narrator: The both started running and Kancil sped off ahead. *** (Cicak and the house drop back.)
Kancil: Ha, ha. I'm going to beat Cicak easily. Then I might not kill him, but I'll make him my slave forever. ***
(During this time several coconut palms go past.)
Narrator: Kancil ran along and passed a tourist who wanted to take his picture. ***
(Kancil skids to a halt and there is the flash of a camera.)
Narrator: Then he saw Cicak run around a corner ahead of him. It was really Cicak Number Two.
Cicak Number Two: You'd better hurry if you want to beat me, Kancil. ***
Kancil: I'd better run faster. *** There goes Cicak.
(He runs faster – more coconut palms go past.)
Narrator: Kancil runs faster. *** He passed a bemo full of people going to the market. ***
Kancil: I'm going to beat Cicak now.
Narrator: But as Kancil sped onto the mango tree at the halfway point in the race he saw Cicak – Cicak Number Three – running back from the tree. ***
Cicak Number Three: You're pretty slow today, Kancil. *** (He runs off.)
Kancil: Cicak is really fast! I'd better speed up. ***
Narrator: So Kancil raced as fast as he could.
*** (Trees and buildings go past.)
Narrator: His little house was in sight!
Kancil: I will win now for sure! Puff! Puff!
Oh no! There is Cicak just running to my house. ***
Oh no! He has won.
Narrator: Cicak had decided not to be nasty to Kancil, because if anyone found out how the cicaks had tricked Kancil they would be in big trouble. So he said …
Cicak: Kancil, I don't want anybody to know that we cicaks can run so fast or all the animals would be challenging us to races all the time. So my reward for winning will be that you let us cicaks live inside your house to catch insects there, and you mustn't tell anyone about the race.
Narrator: So from that day to this, cicaks live inside the houses in Bali and catch insects, while kancils are very shy and don't like to talk to the animals.