The Cay

Phillip is awakened on a February day in 1942 to learn that German submarines have attacked the neighboring island of Aruba

The whole world is at war! And now it has come to his island of Curacao in the warm, blue Caribbean

Phillip is excited but his mother, who never wanted to leave her home in Virginia, is very nervous about the war. She does not like Curacao and she certainly does not like the black people who inhabit it

"They are different from us," she explains to Phillip

In spite of the danger of sea travel she insists that Phillip return with her to Virginia. Near Panama their ship is torpedoed, and Phillip is separated from his mother in the wreckage of the ship

He is rescued by a West Indian named Timothy and pulled onto a crude raft occupied by the man and an old cat

Timothy is different. He is huge, very old and black. Even though Phillip is quite frightened and has a terrible headache from being hit in the head, he feels certain that they will soon be rescued

Help does not come, and conditions seem almost hopeless when Phillip's head injury causes him to lose his sight

Finally, they are cast up on a small barren island where Timothy helps the boy learn the skills he will need to survive even with his blindness. He teaches Phillip to fish, to weave palm fibers into sleeping mats, to climb the palm tree for coconuts and to know the geography of the island

During his ordeal, the boy also discovers that his companion is a wise and dignified man and that the color of one's skin does not determine a person's worth in the world

A thoughtful family play which speaks to all ages about survival, about compassion, about slowly growing older and also growing wiser

One-act - area staging