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The Queen’s Knickers Visual Story

A visual resource for children and young adults with Autism and Aspergers Syndromes.

This resource is designed for you to use as much or as little as you like

in order to prepare for your visit to see The Queen’s Knickers

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The Show The show will last for 50 minutes. There is no interval. There are two actresses in the show and some puppet dogs. They pretend to be The Queen and the Queen’s maid, along with a few other parts as well. The show has recorded music and some singing in it and the characters talk directly to the audience. You might be asked for help finding the Queen’s Knickers which have gone missing. You can join in as much or as little as you like. Some bits of the play may be a little bit sad but it is a made up story so there is no need to feel worried. What Happens The Queen likes to dress smartly, she has lots of pretty dresses each with a special pair of knickers. She has an enormous wardrobe for her dress and a smaller chest of drawers for all her knickers. The Queen’s knickers are looked after by her maid Dilys. When the Queen travels, Dilys packs the Queen’s knickers into a trunk. But one day the trunk gets mixed up with the Queen’s picnic trunk and the Queen’s knickers go missing. The Queen and Dilys are sad that the knickers have gone missing, and start to look for them, but they can’t find them, so they phone the police and ask them to help but the police can’t find them either. To make the Queen feel happy Dilys brings the Queen a new pair of plain white knickers. But the Queen says she can’t wear them because they are not her special knickers, but then she realises that no one can see her knickers anyway and it doesn’t matter what you wear!

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The Stage The set for The Queen’s Knickers is colourful and looks a little bit like a book illustration. It is the Queen’s bedroom, with a blue chest of drawers, a window and a bed. During the show the chest of drawers opens up and lots of things come out of the drawers, including the Queen’s Knickers. Play Notes These play notes tell you what happens in each part of the show. We will tell you if there are any unusal and sudden sounds or actions by using this symbol !!

At the start of the show you may meet Dilys in the theatre. Dilys is the Queen’s maid and looks after the royal knickers. When the show is ready to start Dilys will tell you that the Queen is coming, and the National Anthem will play over the speakers.

!! At this point Dilys will teach you how to curtsey. Dilys may make you practise this 3 times. You can join in if you want to, but if you would rather sit and watch instead, that’s fine too.

As the National Anthem ends a puppet of The Queen will parachute onto the stage.

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The actress playing The Queen will then walk onto the stage carrying a parachute. Dilys will help the Queen get out of her parachute and the Queen will say ‘hello’. The Queen will then come down a little ladder into the auditorium. She will say ‘hello’ and may ask to shake your hand. !! At this point you can say ‘hello’ to the Queen if you want to, but if you would rather sit and watch instead, that’s fine too. The Queen and Dilys will get back onto the stagethe stage, waving at the audience.

They will then be in the Queen’s Bedroom. Dilys brings two puppet dogs on stage. The Queen strokes the dogs.

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Dilys will then start to unpack the Queen’s Knickers from their box. The Queen has lots of knickers. Dilys and The Queen will show you all the different types of knickers. The knickers in this picture are the ‘disguise knickers’. The doorbell rings and Dilys brings on a gift for the queen. The Queen is very excited and opens the box.

Inside are her new Christmas Knickers which she will wear to record her Christmas speech. They are prickly so she says ‘Ouch!!’ !! Loud Noise She throws them up in the air.

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The Queen doesn’t want to put the knickers on because they are uncomfortable. Dilys chases the Queen around the room.

Eventually Dilys persuades her to put them on and she records the Christmas speech very quickly so that she can take them off again.

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Dilys and the Queen get over excited and start to play with all the knickers, making them into different objects, such as an elephant, a snake, a boat, and musical instruments.

The Queen starts to feel tired; it’s time for her to go to bed. She has a big day tomorrow visiting a school. Dilys and the Queen sing a lullaby.

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The Queen is woken up by her National Anthem alarm clock. !! Loud Noise The Queen is going to be late for her school visit. Dilys and the queen start to panic and run around throwing knickers into the Queen’s trunk. Dilys takes the trunk and puts it in the van but the Queen has forgotten one pair and needs the trunk back so that she can put the last pair away. Then The Queen realises she is not wearing any knickers so Dilys goes to get the trunk again.

They open the trunk but this time there are no knickers inside, just sandwiches, cake and jelly. Dilys and the Queen don’t realise the knickers are missing and eat the sandwiches and jelly.

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They then realise that the knickers are missing. Dilys tries to remember how the knicker trunk and the picnic trunks got mixed up. She doesn’t know. The Queen and Dilys start to panic and start searching for the Queen’s knickers. The Queen gets upset but Dilys calms her down. !! Dilys will ask you to help by looking under your seat. There will be a pair of knickers u underneath someone in the audience’s seat. You can join in if you want to, but if you would rather sit and watch instead, that’s fine too. They realise that the knickers found in the auditorium don’t belong to the Queen anyway, they belong to Dilys.

Dilys rings the police, but the police are busy.

So Dilys and the Queen decide to dress up as policemen and look for the knickers themselves.

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!! Dilys and the Queen search for the Queens Knickers, asking the audience to shout out ‘knickers!’ You can join in if you want to, but if you would rather sit and watch instead, that’s fine too.

Dilys and the Queen take the Queen’s dogs into the auditorium to be sniffer dogs. The search is joined by some puppet helicopters flying above your heads. !! Dilys and the Queen may come and search under your seat. There will be the sound of helicopters flying overhead. There will be two puppet models of helicopters. You can join in if you want to, but if you would rather sit and watch instead, that’s fine too. !! Doorbell rings Dilys thinks someone has found the knickers and answers the door. Dilys speaks to someone we can’t see but returns without the knickers. Dilys and The Queen have a row and the Queen tells Dilys to leave. !! The Queen and Dillys argue and both get sad.

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When the queen is left on her own she gets lonely and cannot do all the jobs that Dilys usually does for her.

Dilys comes back. She has been to the shops. She has some plain white knickers for the Queen. The Queen says “ I can’t wear these, I need special royal knickers” . But then the Queen and Dilys realise that no one can see the Queen’s knickers and that it doesn’t matter what they look like.

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The Queen puts on her new white knickers. The Queen and Dilys sing a song to celebrate.

They show you their knickers which have the words The End written on them. This is the end of the play. The actors will take a bow, you can clap if you like, to show that you have had a nice time watching them on the stage. Then it will be time to go home. Thank you for coming to see the play.