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It's 1850, and a marvellous international exhibition is being planned in Paris.
The publicity agents claim that this exhibition will be so fascinating that a whale has swum all the way up the Seine to see it. Not likely? Well, Sylvie, from a small country village, decides to go and see for herself. Along the way, she tumbles through a series of crazy adventures, because everyone, but everyone , has some sort of interest in this exhibition. Especially a notorious gang of crooks that wants to steal one of the prize exhibits, the fabulous crown jewels of an Indian Raja. A lot of people end up looking for Sylvie : the gang, the cops, two fanatically comical detectives, and an assortment of larger-than-life characters. Also looking for Sylvie is her admirer, Emile, who flatly doesn't believe there is a whale, but has a very good reason to hope that there is one. Can the twinkle-eyed Captain Duval supply the necessary whale, all in the name of love?
This material is free of any royalty obligation for use by schools and amateur dramatic groups. It may be produced on stage, used for play-reading, or simply read for fun.
About the author
Gregory Pastoll has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and a PhD in Higher Education from the University of Cape Town. After a short stint in industry, he spent altogether 14 years as a lecturer in basic mechanical engineering, and for much of that time was course co-ordinator for Mechanics 1 and Mechanics 2 at the Cape Technikon, and at the Peninsula University of Technology. He ran mechanics labs and design-and-build projects as part of his courses in mechanics.
He also spent 14 years as a consultant on university teaching methods at the Teaching Methods Unit at the University of Cape Town.
