Roar
1988
Roar is a short comedic stage sketch by Ken Bradbury — a single-scene retelling of Daniel in the lions' den. Four lions — Roary, Tab, Fang, and Mortimer — lounge in their den, well-fed and bored from gorging on the prisoners the king keeps throwing them. When Daniel is dropped in, he refuses to panic and instead argues his way out, challenging the lions to reclaim their pride and independence rather than living on "room service." Won over, the lions resolve to spare him so the king will find a healthy, "completely undigested" young man the next morning — until the dim-witted Mortimer wakes and lunges for "lunch."
Cast
- Roary (lion) — the discontented leader who longs for a real hunting challenge
- Tab (lion)
- Fang (lion)
- Mortimer (lion) — a not-too-bright lion who keeps falling asleep and snoring
- Daniel
Production Notes
The sketch turns the familiar Bible story into comedy: rather than escaping by force or by prayer, Daniel talks his way out by appealing to the lions' lost pride and independence. Staging notes call for Daniel to "drop" into the den and crash through, with the lions stalking him; the piece closes with Mortimer pouncing on Daniel as the others pull him off. It is a spoken comedy sketch, not a musical — there are no songs or musical cues; the script's only nod to singing is a comic throwaway line, "If he starts singing, I may get sick."
The same script survives both as a standalone Ken Bradbury sketch and embedded in his faith-drama collections ("Faith Collection" and "Nathan scripts"), confirming it as an original Ken Bradbury religious-comedy retelling. The script carries no actor names, performance dates, venue, or production credits; the 1988 dating comes from the archive record for this page rather than from the script file itself.