What Are The Little Red Stars?

Belle calls out to Sweezus. Come and see Nobby!

Sweezus comes over.

Woah! says Sweezus. What are they? Prawns?

Futures, says Terence. I made them. And they don't look like prawns.

No they don't, says Belle. Not all of them. What do you think, Nobby?

They're my favourite flowers, says Nobby.

Fuschias, whispers Saint Roley.

Fuschias, says Belle. Oh yes I see it now. Do you see it, Sweezie?

Yeah, says Sweezus. But I reckon some of them need to be like, stuck in further.

Which ones? asks Belle. Point them out and I'll do it.

You know which ones, says Sweezus.

So Belle pulls out the ones that look that look flaccid penises, and pokes them in further.

Now they look more respectable. Like little red stars.

All good? asks Nobby.

All good, says Belle.

Gaius comes by, with his cushion.

Gaius, says Sweezus, we've rewritten scene one. You start off in the garden, with the others. So you fall into the sink hole with them. Can you ad lib that?

Gaius thinks that he can.

.........

It's ten to eight.

Darkness is gathering. The trees flicker with stray coloured lights. The sounds of the WOMAD crank up. Not far off a new band takes the stage.

Hiphop vibe and punk rock energy. BCUC, a band from Suweto.

What the devil? says Vello, inserting his earplugs.

The queue for Candide's Garden has formed in Plane Tree Drive. An arrow has directed them to the new venue. They must enter through a hole in the fence.

Their way is lit by candles.

They sit on the seats which are all at ground level. They face Nobby, in his role as the curtain.

Some of them debate as to which type of flowers have been used to decorate the curtain.

The Mexican shrimp plant, Justicia? suggests someone.

But what are the little red star ones?

Impatiens? says someone.

Poinsettia? says another.

I disagree, says a third. To me they look like Petunia exserta, a Brazilian hybrid.

Or possibly, says another, the Red Star Cluster, or Pentas lanceolata, from East Africa.

Or Flame of the Woods, the Ixora coccinea, from Southern India and Sri Lanka, suggests a fifth person.

No one seems to recognise them as fuschias.

Nevertheless, we can intuit from the above that they are mainly all here to see Costa.