Leopard - The story taken from Neil Duffield’s play.

In a time before there was time.  There were no trees, flowers, plants.  Only Leopard lived.  However, Leopard was lonely and Mother Earth, creator of all living things took pity on him.  She created lots of other animals, Impala’s, Hare’s and birds for Leopard to play with.

But all the animals were cold and this made them unhappy.  Leopard asked Mother Earth for her help.  She created the sun to keep them warm and a blanket of stars for the night.  However, still the animals were unhappy because they had nothing to eat. 

Again, Mother Earth took pity on them and gave the animals a drum which she asked them to play.  As the animals played, a cloud appeared and as the rain fell on the land, trees and plants grew everywhere.  Leopard and his friends worked hard in their new home and learnt how to hunt, herd cattle and farm the land.

But then one day, a newcomer arrived.  His name was Jackal.  Leopard invited Jackal to stay and enjoy their beautiful home.  That night Jackal told the animals lots of stories; stories of King Lion and King Baboon and how Baboon was banished from his land for being a thief and a cheat. 

The next morning, Jackal set off to work with the rest of the animals.  That night however, when Leopard returned home to eat the beans he had stored, he found his sack was empty.  Not a single bean was left.  Then Rat arrived home followed by Jackal. 

Jackal told Leopard, “This looks suspicious to me.  There’s only one thing that could have happened.  Your beans have been stolen.”  Leopard could not believe it.

The next night the same thing happened, but this time it was Rat’s millet that disappeared. 

Jackal told Leopard and Rat, “Like it or not, I’m afraid you’re going to have to face the fact that one of your friends is a thief.” 

Soon everyone became suspicious of each other and each day Jackal crept back early and stole the other animal’s food.

Then one day, as soon as everyone had gone to work, Leopard returned home and set a trap inside the bag of nuts, to catch the thief.  Not long after, Jackal returned.  Seeing the sack of nuts, Jackal put both paws inside and immediately got caught. 

Then Rat arrived home and saw Jackal, “What are you doing?” 

Jackal replied, “I’ve been here all day.  Leopard asked me to watch this sack of nuts in case anyone tries to seal it.” 

Rat asked, “Why are you paws caught in that trap?” 

Jackal then told Rat that Leopard had promised him the sack of nuts as a reward for keeping them safe.  Rat was very hungry and offered to take over from Jackal in return for Leopards reward. Jackal craftily accepted Rat’s offer.

When Leopard returned, he found Rat with his paws caught in the trap.  He was really angry.  Rat tried to explain what happened.  Jackal however, insisted he had no knowledge of how Rat got his paws in the sack.

Leopard was very disappointed in his friend Rat, “You’re the lowest of the low, Rat.  From now on you’ll live on your own.  You’re banished.” 

Rat was shunned by all the other animals and went to live in a hole in the ground, scratching in the rubbish for food.

However, still food continued to go missing. Quarrels broke out between the animals.  Even fights.  Finally Jackal called all the animals together and said to the others, “We need a king”.  Everyone agreed it should be Jackal because he was the richest.

However, once Jackal was made King, he insisted that all the other animals must do as he said.  Jackal got greedier and greedier while the other animals got poorer and poorer.  When the animals had no more to give, he began to steal from the land. Finally, Mother Earth’s patience ran out and she stopped the rain. 

Jackal blamed the trees for soaking up all the water and ordered the others to cut them down.  The animals forgot that Mother Earth had made them promise to look after the trees.  Still no rain came and the animals began to get very hungry and thirsty.  Leopard decided to ask Mother Earth to take pity on them.

Mother Earth placed a drum on the ground, “Play it.  Make music”, she instructed Leopard.  As he did, the animals joined in and began to dance and sing.  Then from high in the sky a cloud formed and the rain once again started to fall.  It ran into streams.  The streams flowed into rivers and once again the flowers and trees began to grow.

All was well until Jackal found out about Leopard’s drum.  He thought it must be magic. Jackal wanted it for himself, “You must give it to me!  I am the king” he said.

Leopard refused but Jackal was not so easily beaten.  He found a beautiful mango and placed it on the ground so that Leopard would find it.  When Leopard bent down and picked it up, Jackal accused him of stealing his property.  All the animals came over to find out what was happening.  Jackal said that Leopard, like Rat before must be banished.  However, Jackal then added that he may be able to consider a lesser punishment, if Leopard gave him the drum.  Reluctantly Leopard agreed. 

Jackal was delighted and started to play the drum.  However, he did it so badly that no one danced and no one sang and the rain did not fall.  After a while, the animals started to laugh at him.  As he got angrier, the animals started to realise their problems were caused by Jackal and that it had been Jackal, in fact, that had been the thief.  One by one they called for Jackal to leave them and not return.  They then asked Leopard and Rat for forgiveness.

After Jackal had gone, Leopard and the other animals were friends again. Once again, they started to live and work together happily, caring for the beautiful land that Mother Earth had entrusted to them.

Karen Simpson – Director of the Creative Development Programme at Sheffield Theatre’s and Director of Leopard.

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