an adaptation of Wilhem Grimm by Jacob Rakovan
tempore plaga
Dramatis Personae
GOD: wearing a hieratic mask that expresses the Trinity,
and surrounded by cherubim/chorus that keep him lit by handheld spotlights/flashlights at all times
DEVIL. Also masked
DEATH. Either masked as a skull, faceless, or a lifesize marionette controlled by GOD
MAN a working class man of any era
DOCTOR the adult godchild of death. It is recommended that he have the modern signifiers of the medical profession, scrubs, stethoscope, etc. Barring this, he can be masked as a plague doctor, in a black suit and carrying an anachronistic doctor’s bag
KING; masked figure, most likely evokingor doubling GOD but without cherubim or illumination and wearing an exaggerated crown. He can have a throne on stage, or enter in a carried chair, by the CHORUS
WOMAN: wheeled in on hospital bed and wrapped in white sheets
PRINCESS; a dancer
CHORUS/CHERUBIM/PRINCESSES a group of dancers in black. As cherubim, they wear wings, as princesses, they are veiled.
SKELETONS Dancers
NARRATOR: masked simply, and with a pulpit to the right of the stage
BABY: an antique doll.
ACT I
Scene: a hospital bed. It is possible that this bed is surrounded by screens, and dramatically backlit, so as to create a shadow puppet effect. Barring this, the bed should be metal, and accompanied by a drip bag and tube. WOMAN is atop the bed, and miming labor.
NARRATOR Long ago, when wishing still helped, a poor man had been delivered of twelve children. He worked day and night to feed them. Then came a thirteenth.
CHORUS (in unison) Thirteen! The zodiac and the wheel of the sun! Christ and the apostles! The months of the year, and the dark without time! Unlucky, lucky, Thirteen!
ENTRANCE MUSIC & DRUMS, escalating
DOCTOR and WOMAN mime birth.
DEATH enters and stands at foot of bed, is unseen by characters
during delivery, the bed is spun around several times and DEATH left at foot and head of bed
blood should soak sheets, or red spotlights illuminate
WOMAN gived BABY to MAN who takes BABY
if there is a screen, man steps outside of it with BABY in arms
WOMAN is spun a final time so DEATH is at her head.
CHORUS covers WOMAN with sheet, and backlight is dimmed.
DEATH and WOMAN exit stage right
hospital bed is removed from center stage
MAN faces audience with BABY
NARRATOR Not knowing what to do, in his need, the man ran out into the road, seeking someone to be godfather to his unlucky thirteenth child, passed through blood and delivered to hunger.
CHORUS Moses in the bulrushes! The orphan babe! Black cats and rabbits feet! Unlucky thirteen!
Music: Fiddle, or other faster paced dance music
Chorus dance with man, he offers them each BABY, but they refuse
as they are identical, he may offer each the BABY more than once. Some may take and inspect the baby, or feign interest, all refuse.
Enter GOD stage left, illuminated by CHORUS/CHERUBIM
Dance music ends. GOD music plays
MAN ( offering BABY) who will be godfather to my child, my bale fire, my widdershins, my broken clock of thirteen?
CHORUS ( whispering around feet of GOD like a hive of bees) hosannah hosannah hosannah hosannah
GOD ( thru megaphone) Be not afraid!I will stand as godfather!
MAN and who are you?
GOD I am that I am, the first and the last. I am he that reaps the whirlwind! That rouses Leviathan from the deep! I am the unmoved mover that the stars wheel around like clockwork gears, the maker of all that is seen and unseen, architect of heaven and of earth. I am the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, The throne before the sea of glass and the four living creatures, I am the fire that spoke to Moses and the column of smoke by day that led the Israelites through the waste. I am the firmament and the waters beyond it, the solace of kings and destroyer of empires. I am the LORD.
Chorus (more insistently) hosannah hosannah hosannah hosannah hosannah)
MAN kneels, begins to offer up baby, and then refuses.
MAN: No! I will not let you stand as godfather to my child.
You make one man rich, and another man poor.
You gave this child’s mother over to death
and you, who knew all, and foresaw all,
saw a life of back breaking labor
and blamed sin for our suffering
though you designed all, beginning and end,
every cunning trap was laid with bait by you
apples and snakes, belief and unbelief
you know the secrets of every heart. You are unjust, God.
And children suffer under your care, and innocents.
You are drunk on offering smoke and the songs of priests
while the world careens merrily to hell and you do nothing!
I would have someone just care for my thirteenth child.
Look how you took care of your own.
CHORUS: (dejectedly) hosannah? Hossanah?
GOD so be it. I will renounce my claim.
Illumination is extinguished and GOD and CHERUBIM exit stage right
Dance Music resumes
The baby is offered and rejected to the CHORUS again
dance music ends. DEVIL music, or GOD music backwards is played
Enter DEVIL stage left with his angels
MAN Who will stand as godfather to my orphan child?
DEVIL I, who would not bend the knee to that old imposter who just left, I will stand as godfather to the child.
MAN and what can you give him, you old billygoat?
DEVIL(invitingly) I will stand as godfather to the babe, and see he has every earthly pleasure, and all wealth, the embraces of beautiful women and men, the praise of nations. I will hold back from him no delight this world offers. I will shower him with power and authority and he will be my hand among men.
CHORUS/ ANGELS ( whisperingly, seductively) he will win at cards, and recover lost objects, and the arts of rhetoric and no knowledge of any thing will be hidden from him, he will know good, and evil, and the difference between,he will charm men and women and have any he desires, he will know all science and speak all human language, he will fly through the air and bring forth riches, and know all the secrets of the earth.
MAN no!
You too, are unjust.
And in cahoots with he who just left, whose name you dare not speak
though you do his bidding, up and down the earth and in it
luring this one to damnation, that one to a broken promise that he forgives
for you are all sweetness and honey and cake in the mouth
and fire and poison and serpents in the belly
you old fraud. You lawyer. You seducer.
You warden of the prison he built
you are all accusation and destruction
and without mercy or grace
and you revel in the inequities of men, the golden crowned hypocrites
the whiskey priests and harlots of the church
the suffering of the poor. You are merely god’s other face
and a bootlicker and lackey to boot
you shall not have the child.
DEVIL ( first beautiful, then angry, then humbled)
I withdraw my offer, but not my claim
He shall have no favor beyond any other
and I will not stand as godfather.
For anything else, the usual penalties and contracts will apply
Exit Devil and his angels
Dance music, CHORUS dances, again refusing children
Music Stops.
Enter Death, alone, stage left
MAN and will you stand as godfather to the child?
DEATH. Nods assent
MAN You alone, are just, for you treat all men equally, high and low, rich and poor, man and woman
You alone receive no petition or pact, offer no indulgence. You are the only justice in the world
DEATH takes BABY. Exit stage right
ACT 2.
Enter DOCTOR, without signs of office,
NARRATOR: and so the child grew to manhood, and his godfather came, to give him gifts
Enter DEATH with signs of office placing them on DOCTOR
placing his head close to DOCTOR’s ears as though whispering
NARRATOR and Death explained that he would make the child the greatest physician in the world
and that as Death had touched his eyes, he should always see him in the sick room, and if Death was at the head of the bed, then nothing could be done, but if Death was at the foot of the bed, he must give a secret herb to the patient, and he would surely recover. And the boy, lucky thirteen, the godchild of death went out to seek his fortune in the wide wide world.
Chorus place hospital bed center stage.
Doctor and chorus dance, spinning bed with dancers
doctor mimes curing those with death at the foot,
these dancers place bags of money at his feet
shakes head no when they are at the head,
GOD and DEVIL stand upstage, and receive the dead, alternately
When all the CHORUS have died, exit GOD, DEVIL and CHORUS
ENTER KING STAGE LEFT
KING: I have sought you, greatest physician because death haunts my steps.
Though I am a virtuous man, a great man,I am riddled with sickness
and a wound that never heals
Heal me, and I will give you half a kingdom,
and power, and authority, and wealth beyond your dreams.
DOCTOR helps KING into the bed.
He listens to his heart, he checks his pulse, etc
DEATH comes and stands at the head
ENTER DEVIL< WHISPERING TO DOCTOR
DOCTOR spins bed so DEATH is at feet, cures KING
EXIT DEATH.
KING It is true. You have healed that which cannot be healed, Heal my daughter of her melancholy and you may take her to wife. And if wealth can do what god could not, take all of my kingdom.
EXIT KING
ENTER PRINCESS, and HANDMAIDENS
they move slowly, and heavily.
Collapse in a heap, with Princess in bed.
FIDDLE MUSIC and enter SKELETONS
they take handmaidens and PRINCESS in hand and dance frenzied reels
handmaidens collapse, PRINCESS in the bed again
Enter DEATH who stands at head of bed
DOCTOR Spins bed so Death is at feet
Wedding Music
Princess stands, takes hand of DOCTOR
Handmaidens and Skeletons form rows
crown DOCTOR and PRINCESS with Garlands
DEATH comes and takes DOCTOR
ACT 3
Scene: a massive amount of white candles of varying lengths. It is possible this is on a table, or a flat piece of plywood placed on the bed. Some of the candles may be artificial, and individual candles can be placed around the room by SKELETONS/CHORUS
Narrator: Because the thirteenth child had twice defied him, and corrupted the perfect indifference of his justice, Death took his godchild to his house to show him how things go in that other kingdom, below that other king.
Enter DEATH followed by DOCTOR, stage left
DEATH. Here then is every light, and every light is a life.
And some are allotted more than others and I do not measure nor cut
but only collect those when they are allotted, and I am neither living nor dead, but only the little place between, and that is where I make my house. I send each one to where your Punch and Judy god and devil have arranged and here only, in the taking are we equal, and here only is justice and even in speaking now, I break my silence not.
DOCTOR, removing mask Godfather? Where is my candle, how much time was I given, born hungry and godless and thirteenth in the house
DEATH shows DOCTOR a short candle
DOCTOR how can this be just, this small amount of time… I know I have defied you, and used your gifts against you, but you are my godfather. Surely you could light another, and set it in my place, or set my candle atop another like so…
(he gestures to do so, and a wind ( fan) extinguishes all the candles.
DOCTOR drops to the floor. DEATH remains standing
Stagelights to black
Enter All Characters, who dance.
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