The Mysterious Disappearance

of Mr Winchlever

Key Stage 1

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The Mysterious Disappearance of Mr Winchlever is a musical comedy on the theme of Forces and is based on Attainment Target 4 of the National Curriculum for Science.

FORCES AND WHAT THEY DO

The story begins at St. Trolleywheels High School where we encounter Fatima Chipsnburger, an American exchange student attending the school. Fatima is up for the school prize for her essay on Forces and how to build an Antigravity Machine, and having accepted the prize, she introduces to the audience the notion of forces and what they do.

Initially Fatima explains that a force can make something move or change its shape. She demonstrates, using the PE teacher Morris Clampstand, that a force can pull, push twist or turn.

Fatima then talks about the force of Gravity and explains that it is the pulling force of the Earth and demonstrates Gravity by dropping an apple and showing how it falls.

The audience is then taught a simple song to help them remember all about forces and what they do:

Forces push and forces pull,

They cause a change of speed.

To speed things up or slow them down

A force is what you need.

Forces twist and forces turn.

They move things round and round.

The force that's due to Gravity

Pulls things to the ground.

There are actions to go with the song which Fatima also teaches the audience.

Later in the play we reiterate what forces do through a discussion with the audience about how we use forces in everyday life and by reprising the song twice with the actions.

The Headmistress, Mrs Block, cannot help herself singing the song. With the audience she discovers how we use the different forces every day and the audience furnishes her with examples of when we might use a pushing force, a pulling force or a twisting and turning force. A good example is a door, which we push to go into a room, pull to close and use a turning force to turn the handle.

She then decides that they must sing the song again and she leads the audience in the reprise.

DIFFERENT POWER SOURCES

The action moves to the spooky castle of the evil Baron Von Frictionhaulter, who with his assistant Cogwheel is busy creating an Antigravity machine. Cogwheel is somewhat perplexed as he cannot see how the Baron can make a force stronger than gravity, after all ‘what goes up must come down’.

The Baron tells Cogwheel that there are other ways of making a force: through electricity, wind clockwork etc.

With the help of the audience Cogwheel has to categorise a radio, a sailing boat, a pull along toy, a computer game and a car into whether they are powered by electricity, wind, petrol or human power.

The items are sorted into columns with the appropriate headings.

FRICTION

Fatima needs to move a heavy boulder. She realises that the way to do this is to overcome friction. The audience are asked to rub their hands together to feel the heat given off by the force of friction. Fatima discusses the fact that friction can be a good or a bad thing: if you are riding a bike you need friction to keep the wheels from sliding on the road but need to reduce friction in order to help the chain go round.

Fatima can now discover what was hidden under the boulder. But more strange goings-on are afoot and she is captured by Cogwheel and taken to the castle.

THE END OF THE STORY

All seems lost when Fatima is put in the machine which is then set to go off. But help is at hand in the shape of the Headmistress of St Trolleywheels, Mrs Block, who is alerted of the danger by Pip and rushes to the castle. There she encounters Cogwheel and unmasks him to reveal Mr Winchlever.

Mr Winchlever refuses to tell Mrs Block how to stop the machine but the audience know the pass code: ‘push, pull, turn around, drop the lever to the ground’ and using the code Mrs Block saves Fatima from the machine. Everyone returns to school where the end of term school party is about to begin.

AT THE END OF THE PLAY

At the end of the play the actors will hold a short (5-10 minutes) question and answer session with the children which relates to the information on forces discussed in the play. The audience is then invited to ask any other questions they may have regarding any aspect of the production.

Show Requirements

The actors will be arriving approximately forty minutes prior to the start time in order to set up and will need to have access to the school hall from then. They bring the set, lighting and sound equipment with them so only need access to a plug socket. They’ll need a space approximately 15’ wide by 10’ deep with the children sitting in front, either seated or on the floor. The show works well ‘on the flat’ but if it’s more convenient for the actors to use your stage, please let them know on arrival. This show lasts one hour with a two minute ‘q & a’ session at the end.