I’ve just crashed landed in the largest desert in the world. The Sahara. And I only have enough water ….

HE IS INTERRUPTED BY THE APPEARANCE OF A SMALL BOY.

That’s right. It has picture of a large snake swallowing an animal. Grown ups always need to have things explained.

HE WALKS AWAY AND DISAPPEARS. ADULT ANTOINE RUBS HIS EYES. HE TAKES A BOOK OUT OF HIS POCKET AND READS:

“

Did I imagine him? The desert does funny things to people.

HE WALKS OFF AND DRAGS BACK A CUT-OUT OF A PLANE OR A STAGE HAND WILL BRING IT TO THE SIDE OF THE STAGE. IT WILL BE SOMETHING LIKE THIS PICTURE, BUT WITH PART OF THE ENGINE SHOWING. ANTOINE ALSO HAS A SPANNER. HE SETS TO WORK.

Something was broken in my engine. I had to repair it.
It was a question of life or death.
I had only enough drinking water to last a week.

HE PUTS DOWN HIS SPANNER.

That night I was exhausted.

HE LIES DOWN

I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation.
And slept till sunrise the next day.

HE GOES TO SLEEP.

THEN THE LITTLE PRINCE APPEARS.

What!

ANTOINE JUMPS TO HIS FEET

That doesn’t matter. Draw me a sheep.

ANTOINE TAKES A PAPER AND PENCIL FROM HIS PLANE, AND DOES A QUICK DRAWING. EITHER WE SEE THE FOLLOWING PICTURES IN BACKGROUND PROJECTION OR A STAGE HAND SHOWS LARGE COPIES OF THEM AT THE SIDE OF THE STAGE OR ANY OTHER STAGING IDEAS YOU HAVE.

I drew him the boa constrictor from the outside.

HE HANDS THE DRAWING TO THE LITTLE PRINCE.

I was astonished when the little fellow said:

So then I did my drawing over once more.

HE DRAWS AND HANDS OVER ANOTHER ONE

By this time my patience was exhausted. So I tossed off this drawing.

HE HANDS IT OVER AND SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO THE LITTLE PRINCE

This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.

There will surely be enough grass for him. It is a very small sheep .

THE LITTLE PRINCE BENDS HIS HEAD OVER THE DRAWING

Not so small that– Look! He has gone to sleep…

ANTOINE STARTS WORKING ON HIS AIRPLANE AGAIN.

What is that object?

Yes.

HE LAUGHS JOYFULLY

Do you come from another planet?

HE LOOKED AT MY AIRPLANE

(THINKS)You can imagine how my curiosity was aroused by this half-confidence about the “other planets.” I made an effort to find out more.

(ALOUD) My little man, where do you come from? What is this ‘where I live,’ of which you speak? Where do you want to take your sheep?

Thus I learnt that the planet the little prince came from was hardly any larger than a house!

THE TURKISH ASTRONOMER IN TURKISH CLOTHES WALKS ON WITH A BLACKBOARD. HE PUTS IT DOWN AND POINTS AT THE CALCULATIONS ON IT.

As well as the great planets– such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus– there are hundreds of others, so small that it’s hard to see them through a telescope.

A Turkish Astronomer discovered the Little Prince’s planet in 1909.
He called it “Asteroid B-12” But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody believed him.

THE ASTRONOMER TAKES OFF HIS TURKISH COSTUME TO REVEAL EUROPEAN CLOTHES UNDERNEATH. HE POINTS AT THE BLACKBOARD AGAIN

Later he changed into European costume and people did believe him.

HE PICKS UP HIS TURKISH COSTUME AND THE BLACKBOARD AND LEAVES

THE LITTLE PRINCE RETURNS

(LAUGHS)We would have to put them one on top of the other.

Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little.

That is correct. But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs?

THE LITTLE PRINCE DOESN’T ANSWER

(TO THE AUDIENCE)

Now there were some terrible seeds –
and plants – on Little Prince’s planet.
You can never get rid of the baobab
if you leave it too late.
It spreads over the entire planet.
It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces..

That’s a good idea.

THE LITTLE PRINCE TAKES A HOE AND DEMONSTRATES REMOVING SMALL PLANTS

One day, I saw the sun set forty-four times!

(PAUSE)

You know…when you are very sad, you love sunsets…

Then the day you saw the sun set forty-four times you were very sad?

But the little prince didn’t answer.

On the fifth day, again thanks to the sheep, this secret of the little prince’s life was revealed to me. He asked me abruptly:

The little prince never gave up on a question once he had asked it. I was irritated by my bolt and answered without thinking:

The thorns don’t serve any purpose, they are pure wickedness on the part of the flowers!

I know a planet where there is a ruddy-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved anyone.

He has never done anything other than numbers. And all during the day he repeats like you: ‘I am a serious man! I am a serious man!’ and that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man, he is a mushroom!

Flowers have been making thorns for millions of years. For a million years sheep have been eating flowers. And it’s not more serious to seek to understand, why they go to so much trouble to make thorns that never serve any purpose? It’s not important, the war between the sheep and the flowers? It’s not more serious and more important than the numbers of a fat ruddy-faced gentleman?

And me—if I know a flower that is unique in all the world, that exists nowhere except on my planet, and that a small sheep might wipe it out in a single stroke, like that, one morning, without realizing what he’s doing, that’s not important!

If someone loves a flower that exists only in a single example among the millions and millions of stars, that’s enough to make him happy when he looks at them. He tells himself: ‘My flower is there somewhere…’ But if the sheep eats the flower, it’s for him as if, all at once, all the stars died! And this is not important!

(HE BURSTS INTO TEARS)

He couldn’t say anything more. He suddenly burst into tears. Night had fallen. I left my tools. I didn’t care about my hammer, my bolt, the thirst and death. There was on a star, a planet, mine, the Earth, a little prince to console!

(ANTOINE TAKES THE LITTLE PRINCE IN HIS ARMS AND ROCKS HIM)

The flower that you love isn’t in any danger…I will draw a muzzle for your sheep…I will draw you armour for your flower…I…

I didn’t know what else to say. I felt very clumsy. I didn’t know how to reach him, where to join him. It’s so mysterious, the country of tears! I quickly got to know that flower better.
On the little prince’s planet there had always been some very simple flowers, adorned with a single row of petals, and which didn’t take up any space or disturb anyone. They appeared in the morning in the grass, and then they disappeared in the evening.

But that one had grown one day from a
seed carried from who knows where, and
the little prince had examined very closely this little sprig that didn’t look like any of
the other sprigs. It might have been a new type of baobab. But the shrub quickly stopped growing, and began to create a flower. The little prince, who was present as a huge button formed, sensed that something miraculous was beginning to come out from it, but the flower had not yet finished preparing herself to be beautiful in the shelter of her green chamber. She chose her colors with care. She dressed herself slowly, she adjusted her petals one by one. She didn’t want to come out all wrinkled like the poppies. She wanted to appear only in the full glory of her beauty. Ah! yes. She was very coquettish! Her mysterious toilette had lasted days and days. And then, all at once one morning, just as the sun rose, she revealed herself. And, having worked with such precision, she said, yawning:

On the morning of his departure the Prince put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. He possessed two active volcanoes. They were very convenient for heating his breakfast. And he had one that was extinct. But to be safe he cleaned out that one too.

He prepared to put the flower under the shelter of her glass globe. He realised that he was very close to tears.

Goodbye

(SHE COUGHS)

I have been silly. I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy. (PAUSE) Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all a while. But you have been just as foolish as I. Let the glass globe be. I don’t want it anymore

Well I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars. If I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems to me they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies and the caterpillars. who will call upon me? You will be far away.

As for the large animals. I’m not at all afraid of any of them I have my claws.

For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower….

BRING UP MUSIC FOR ABOUT TWENTY SECONDS TO INDICATE FLIGHT TO ANOTHER PLANET

I order you to do so.

(THE PRINCE SITS DOWN)

Hum … hum…. That will be this evening about twenty to eight ……And you will see how well I am obeyed.

(THE LITTLE PRINCE YAWNS)

During the fifty-four years that I have inhabited this planet, I have been disturbed only three times. The first time was twenty-two years ago when some giddy goose fell from goodness knows where. He made the most frightful noise and I made four mistakes in my addition. The second time, eleven years ago, I was disturbed by an attack of rheumatism. I don’t get enough exercise. I have no time for loafing!

The third time – well this is it ! I was saying, then, five-hundred-and-one millions –

Nothing. I own them

And he put out his lamp. As the little prince continued on his journey, he said to himself:

INTRODUCE MUSIC AND TAKE UNDER THE FOLLOWING

Exactly but I am not an explorer. I haven’t a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans and the desert.

The geographer is much too important to go loafing about! He does not leave his desk. But he receives the explorers in his study. He asked them questions. He notes down what they recall of their travels. And if the recollections of any one oamong them seem interesting to him, the geography orders an inquiry into that explorer’s moral character.