Title: Restart

Introduction
Restart deals with Retirement, more specifically with the awareness of retirement. Restart deals with this sensitive issue in a pro-active and positive way. It is designed to be performed to audiences of all sizes and all ages, making it cost- and time-effective. This production makes use of 2 actors to show the impact of a positive attitude and pro-active action on retirement. The scenarios portrayed make great use of humour to have the audience laughing while they are learning.

• Create an awareness of retirement as an opportunity to restart;
• Create an awareness of the impact of a positive, pro-active attitude towards retirement;
• Inform the audience of the areas in which they should prepared for retirement (social; psychological; work life; family life; and financial planning);
• Provide a humorous and fun-filled learning experience.

The Story
Characters
One male actor and one female actress will perform all the parts.

Scene 1 – Initiate Awareness
A bitter old man in an old age home meets up with a younger woman. After some discussion they realize that they went to his matric farewell dance together. She asks him how his life turned out. He tells (and performs) his story in short scenarios (back flashes). His life story resembles all the wrong actions, i.e. not being prepared for retirement; an unhealthy and unbalanced lifestyle; no financial preparation; no social life (hobbies, etc.); living for his career; etc.). During the course of the story he keeps blaming everything else (the external factors) for his ‘failure’ and the reason he has to stay in the old age home. He then turns to his old flame and asks her about her life. She tells (and performs) her story in short scenarios (back flashes). She, on the contrary, did everything that was needed to have a happy ‘restart’ retirement.

• Show two perspectives on retirement: Wrong way & Right way

Scene 2 – The importance of preparation
A husband and wife leave for a picnic. The husband has a total of 1 cooler box (containing 6 beers) for the picnic. He is frustrated with his wife who is taking her time to get ready. When she eventually appears, she is covered with ‘stock’ for the trip – an umbrella and rain coat; a basket with a variety of sandwiches and snacks; a blanket and camping chairs; sunscreen and a hat; a bottle of wine and a flask of coffee; and all the cutlery, crockery, serviettes, etc. that they might need. He is immediately annoyed with the excessiveness of it all and they have a light quarrel where she insists in taking everything with. They arrive at the picnic spot and after a brief moment of ‘settling in’, thunder is heard and it starts to rain. She puts on her coat and opens her umbrella and starts to nibble on a sandwich. He is standing with a small leaf, that he picked from a tree, in his hand and uses it to cover the top of his head and a tin can of beer in his other. She comments about this being part of his nature and he never learns. She mentions something about the lack of future investments. He says that he doesn’t need investments because he knows that he will inherit the piece of land from his mother – the plot just next to the grave yard. She draws parallels between his approach and attitude towards their investments and other preparations for the future and this picnic trip. Finally the penny drops.

• Reinforce previous scene perspectives
• Show consequences of being unprepared for retirement

Scene 3 – The importance of a positive attitude
The scene is an old age home where a man has lost everything. He did everything according to the book and was well prepared for his retirement, but with the current economic turmoil, everything collapsed. Yet he is still cheerful and excited about life. He bumps into a woman who is bitter about everything. She is complaining about the same things and notice that the man seems unaffected by the changes. She probes him about his cheerfulness (which is quite annoying if you want to feel sorry for yourself). He explains to her that if things happen that is not within your control, you only have your attitude to make it better.

• Reinforce previous scenes’ perspectives
• Focus on the importance of the RESTART attitude

Running Time: 30-40 minutes (flexible)
Language:       English (can facilitate more with prior arrangement and sufficient time)