The Death & Transfiguration
Of The New Frontier
Kid
by
Mordecai Goldberg
THE CAST
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS:
THE HERALD
ZEUS
APOLLO
EROS
THE WIFE
PRINCESS
O [Lee Harvey Oswald ]
J [John F. Kennedy ]
K [Joseph Kennedy Sr.]
M [Marina Oswald ]
ENSEMBLE CHARACTERS:
MARX
LENIN
ADOLF EICHMANN
OLD WIT
COCKNEYS
FACTORY FOREMAN
PERICLES
SOCRATES
OLD WIT'S WIFE
SHOPKEEPER
TOUR GUIDE
SS GUARD
JUDGE
COMRADE P
DOCTOR F
YOUNG WIT
YOUNG WIT'S WIFE
OLD WIT
OLD WIT'S WIFE
SONS 1 & 2
KEYSTONE KOPS
FARMER
ARMY OFFICER
ATHENIANS/YAHOOS
THE SCENE
The action occurs on a stage which permits us to travel freely in time and
space. ACT I is set in the Golden Age of Greece. ACT II shifts to the USSR
circa 1960. ACT III takes us to Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963.
PROLOGUE
Delivered by HERALD who, dressed in courtly style of the 18th century, ENTERS via curtain and taps his staff to gain attention.
HERALD: The play we are about to perform concerns the murder of our president. That is a delicate subject and we approach it with the gravity it deserves. We are aware of your sensitivity in such matters of state. You would rather forget. And we would rather be silent. But there is a price for too much discretion—and for silence. The price is ignorance—and the repetition of our all-too-recent history.
If we could, we would bring our dead president back to life. We would raise him from his premature grave, pluck away his worms, heal his wounds, brush the dust from his lips and eyes and beg him to show us that famous smile again. We would rouse him with applause and loud music. He used to love the playing of "Hail To The Chief." We would do anything to hear that sweet voice of his again; and that wit we found so refreshingly unpresidential. Oh, what wouldn't we do to erase the years of our grief!
But this is life, not a fairytale or soap opera. Camelot is no more, and at the end of all our wishful thinking we are left with a decaying corpse—which our author says we must make a meal of! It will do us good, he says, to have the fibers of dead Presidential flesh caught between our teeth; to have that Presidential body and blood pass through our digestive tracts! A transfiguration might occur, he says. Some eucharistic miracle might just happen if we do that.
The author has dedicated this play to our new President and has instructed us to bring into the auditorium at this juncture, an effigy of him—if, for some reason or other, he is unable to attend our play in person.
An effigy of current President is carried into auditorium and seated in first row as ‘Hail To The Chief’ is played.
Mr President, it is our hope you will not be offended by what we show you tonight. But we must be blunt. Your life is in danger, sir! We have heard lunatics discussing the taste of your blood and talking about your bones bleaching in the sun. We have heard stories of psychic punji sticks being planted in the White House gardens. Between your eyes and between your shoulder blades madmen are superimposing the crosshairs of ten thousand telescopic rifle sights.
It is a serious situation, sir; but our author believes there is still time to for you to save yourself—and save all of us too. For when you are assassinated a part of us is annihilated too. That is why we are so concerned for your safety. That’s why we are putting this play on tonight. Our author is hopeful that in his dramatization of your predecessor's death you will find the clue to your own salvation. Speaking for myself I would tell you only this: stop brutalizing us. Stop lying to us. [Taps staff.] Stop provoking our murderous instincts. [Taps staff.] We are tired of your Teapot Domes. [Taps staff.] Your Bays of Pigs. [Taps staff.] Your Vietnams and Chiles and Dominican Republics. [Taps staff.] We are sick of your Whitehouse scandals—the profound ones and the petty ones. We are fed up with being disappointed and just plain bamboozled! So please—no more New Deals or Fair Deals or Great Societies or Nouveau Frontiers or Watergates or Irangates! We must have something more than slogans about credibility! We want the truth! We demand the truth!
We are becoming a nation of desperadoes, Mr President! You must do something to relieve this pressure threatening to burst our skulls. We must have a sense of national purpose and dignity again or we will keep on assassinating you until no more Presidential targets exist!
These are not my words, Mr President, or the words of our author. They appear in the handwriting that can be seen traced on the very walls of that Whitehouse in which you think yourself so safely insulated from reality. [Taps staff.] Now we are ready to begin our play.
ACT ONE
Scene 1
At curtain’s rise PLACARD READS: ‘DALLAS, TEXAS 22 NOVEMBER 1963.’ APOLLO, ZEUS and EROS discovered in a celestial setting. They wear robes, and masks covering upper half of their faces, revealing fact that Eros is black.
HERALD: Our story will unfold
In the Greece of old!
Painted Grecian backdrop is lowered and, after several unsuccessful attempts, is properly positioned. GODS descend to stage.
In a time called
The Golden Age Of Men
For truly never did men live so good a life
As these ancient Athenians
To whom the gods gave so much!
GODS come downstage to look at and address audience.
APOLLO: And received back so much!
It’s delightful to see these mortals
Living with such godlike dignity, grace and beauty
EROS: They play like children
In our Olympian gardens
Never were gods so rewarded
For the trust they put in mortals
ZEUS: We pass our time
On Mount Olympus
Just sitting and watching
APOLLO: Quite frankly, we envy you!
You seem to be having so much fun!
EROS: Everything is in harmony
Gods with men
Men with nature
Father with son
Husband with wife
Brother with brother
ZEUS: With such children a father can feel
Truly exalted!
APOLLO: Listen:
The echo they make of my song
Is so much sweeter
Than its original singing!
ENTER CHORUS in the mixed-period costumes they will wear for their individual roles throughout the play. They bring with them flaming braziers and sacrifices.
CHORUS: Gentle Apollo
You have been kind
To shed your light upon us
The darkness of our ignorance is gone
The gloom has vanished
So we honor you with sacrifices
And keep your temple holy
APOLLO: I see how brightly
Burns the fire of reason
As long as it shall flame
I promise your lives
Will be illuminated and warmed by it
CHORUS: We are proud
To show our allegiance to Apollo
So all men might know the source of our good life
APOLLO: Athenians
You have given more than you received
That is the Golden Rule of your Golden Age!
ZEUS: We gave your poets language
And they gave us poetry!
EROS: Reason you were given
And your philosophers became wise!
SOCRATES emerges from Chorus.
SOCRATES: Law has become justice
Lust has become love
Pride become honor and work become art
When all things thusly attain the highest
Degree of perfection through reason and knowledge
Then Man transcends his very mortality
And dwells with the gods on earth
EROS: Everything flowers
In the Golden Age
APOLLO: Tell us, Athenians
Is there anything else we can offer you?
For truly we would give Greece more
If we could but think of what!
EROS: We are like lovers
For every kiss we give you
You give us back ten!
GODS laugh. K emerges from Chorus in formal clothes of an ambassador.
K: So generous is our bounty
Our gratitude never seems sufficient.
K is joined by WIFE.
WIFE: And yet there is one gift
That would really make
Our bliss complete
APOLLO: Please: tell us what it is!
WIFE: Take from us the specter of death!
ZEUS: Oh, dear—
WIFE: It’s so depressing to think
That these golden days of ours are numbered
Our very happiness today makes death
So much more dreaded tomorrow
K: Everything else a man earns
But death comes even to the most pious
Death is a criminal whose crime goes unpunished
He violates our sense of justice
WIFE: [Kneeling in supplication.]
Grant us eternal life and we will build
A thousand temples in Your honor—
ZEUS: Forget about death!
Your request is foolish!
We have carefully considered this question
It is a speck of corruption in your brain!
Rub it out before it consumes you!
EROS: The eternal life you seek
Is only a whore
Lusting in the shadows of your ignorance
Drag her out into the broad daylight
And her complexion will dismay you
She’s all spotted with the sores of decay
With each of her caresses
Pustules of plague explode
Spattering you with their lethal juice
K: But you’ve made life so precious
We don’t want to let go of it!
ZEUS: We have given you our answer!
APOLLO: Discuss this matter
With your philosophers
That’s what we gave them to you for!
WIFE: Them? They live such Spartan lives they have no qualms about dying. They’re not normal. They have nothing to lose.
K: It’s true! They argue on a level far above us—that we live on in our children—that to make bread the wheat must be cut; that’s alright in theory but when you’re face to face with a real corpse the chills run up and down your spine. The armor plating of their ideas is too thin to stop the chilly stare of a cadaver’s bulging eyes!
SOCRATES: Without the bitterness of death life loses its sweetness. The immortality you seek is that of the sheep and the stones and the sea. Would you trade that unintelligent state of eternity for a single day of your human being?
WIFE: Don’t listen to this idiot talk of Bread and sheep and the sea. If eternity is not to be given us we should waste no more time on the subject but concentrate on the business of living! We’ve got to cram each moment we have left full to the brim with Life!
EXIT K and WIFE.
ZEUS: Those two will bear watching.
EROS: It was she who put him up to it.
APOLLO: This distemper could spread like a plague.
CHORUS: Athens is righteous and strong
Have no fear Apollo
That pair of spoilsports will be swallowed up by us
And spat out for all their sourness!
EXIT CHORUS. Lights fade on GODS as they return to their ‘celestial’ vantage point.
Scene 2
PLACARD: ‘AS THE GODS FEARED, ATHENS’ CORRUPTION SPREADS LIKE A PLAGUE.’ ENTER K and WIFE stage right.
WIFE: Those damned gods. So bloody pious. Tempting us with trivial tokens, then holding out on us when it comes to what really counts!
K: It’s late. I’ve got to get downtown—
WIFE: Wait a minute—here’s a list of things I want you to get for the party tonight.
K: Party? Christ, I’m in no mood for parties! This business about death has really demoralized me.
WIFE: The party will cheer us all up. We’ll show those gods a thing or two! We’ll get drunk and stay drunk. This party is going to last for years!
K: [Looking at list.] Jesus! We can’t afford all this! Our credit’s nearly exhausted—
WIFE: It wouldn’t be if you collected some of the rent we’re owed.
K: How can I collect the rents when the farmers haven’t harvested their crops yet!
WIFE: Make them pay in cash then, like they used to before this stupid Golden Age got started! Then instead of being lumbered with flour, oil and wool we can buy cake, wine and silk! Go! Go! And bring me money!
K is pushed across the stage by WIFE, where he collides with FARMER.
FARMER: Greetings, K! What’s your hurry?
K: Be civil, farmer.
FARMER: Farmer? You’ve always called me by my given name.
K: I’ve come for the rent.
FARMER: But the wheat is only this high! The sheep haven’t foaled yet and my olives are no bigger than peas!
K: Then pay me with money, according to the lease drawn up by our ancestors.
FARMER: What are you saying? We haven’t used money in Athens since the dawning of our Golden Age—
K: Then give me gold or silver—[Brushes past FARMER to seize gold icon.] I’ll take this icon—
FARMER: But that’s sacred! It’s consecrated to Apollo!
K: [Crossing stage.] Apollo has more than he needs! He lives forever! Our lives are short! [Calling.] Shopkeeper!
ENTER SHOPKEEPER.
SHOPKEEPER: Good morning, K.
K: We’re having a party tonight. Here’s a list of what we need.
SHOPKEEPER: It’s a long list. Where are your wagons of wheat?
K: I’ve got something better than wheat. I have gold!
SHOPKEEPER: What need have I for gold? Wheat is what I trade. Human food. Not food for the gods.
K: Fool! With gold you can become rich! How much wheat can a man hoard? All the streets of Athens filled with it are not the equal of one chest of this stuff.
SHOPKEEPER: Go away K, you must be sick.
K: Take this gold in payment or I’ll see your son put in the army and sent to fight the Persians!
SHOPKEEPER: Don’t say anymore! I’ll give you the goods you want; take them! And take your gold too! Tomorrow, when your senses return, we can discuss the terms of payment reasonably.
K: [Takes sack of goods, pushes icon across counter.] The gold is fair payment; take it! I know your plan is to have me hauled into court for theft!
SHOPKEEPER: For madness, maybe!
K: I’ll show you madness! [Strikes SHOPKEEPER with icon, felling him.] That’s proper payment for your insolence!
Scene 3
WIFE ENTERS party scene to find OLD and YOUNG WITS with their WIVES. WIFE wears diaphanous evening gown of classical Greek design.
WIFE: What’s going on in these shadows? Is this a conspiracy to ruin my party by depriving the other guests of your distinguished presence?
OLD WIT: I was lured here by this treacherous young scamp who promised me the admiration of a mysterious and beautiful woman who turned out to be his wife playing a part he’d written for her.
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: But I do admire you! [Kisses OLD WIT’s bald head.] See? He’s autographed a copy of his newest play for me!
YOUNG WIT: I only meant to steal him from your party for a few minutes so I could read him something I had written. It’s a rare chance for me to stalk such noble prey.
OLD WIT: The boy has talent. He’s written some sonnets to Apollo I think should be read for your guests.
WIFE: Oh, give us something juicier! Why don’t you write something in praise of older women? [OLD and YOUNG WITS laugh.] Or better still, don’t praise us with words, but with deeds! I want this party to be gay!
OLD WIT: I thought Bacchus was dead—or at least outlawed!
WIFE: No! He’s here, among us tonight! This is my Bacchus! [Seizes YOUNG WIT.] Come, god of wine and love—descend on me from your Olympian heights! Bless me with heavenly kisses and caresses. Let me be your temple—
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: You can’t seduce my Bacchus! You’re too old for that! He’s unassailable!
WIFE: Don’t underestimate the powers of an older woman.
Watch, listen and learn!
When I was a young woman
My breasts were bulletshaped too
My belly flat as yours
And my thighs as hard as any runner’s
Men’s eyes flew to me like darts
Their fingers itched
Their teeth gnashed
They assaulted me with ramrods until
My defenses were battered down
For a young woman’s body is a bulwark
Guarding a treasure men can’t bear to resist
They knock gently enough at first
But soon they pound with fist and shoulder
Against the barricade of
Pointed breasts, flat bellies and alabaster thighs
So does love become a battle
And lovers become victor and vanquished
But as a woman ripens she understands
What sex is all about
And turns herself into a door
That opens to the gentlest pressure!
So while you wear your young body
Like a suit of armor
Mine is more like a cushion of velvet!
OLD WIT and OLD WIT’s WIFE applaud as WIFE vamps YOUNG WIT with seductive dance.
WIFE: Watch me, little one, for I’m a lioness now, stalking her prey. In a few minutes I will drag him back to my lair and make a slow feast of him that will last the whole night!
WIFE removes some of her veils, caresses YOUNG WIT and teases him so that now he begins to react and reach out for her. The game has become serious.
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: That’s enough! It’s not amusing any more!
WIFE stops dancing. YOUNG WIT continues to embrace and kiss her.
WIFE: You sense defeat! That’s the trouble with youth; jealousy blinds you so that you can’t learn from your elders. See how your god quivers and throbs? I’d better take him away before he disgraces himself in public! [Laughs triumphantly.] Show me the poet—or the god—who can resist my seductive skills—[Having approached OLD WIT. ] Take these voluptuous thighs for instance—[Using OLD WIT’s fingers to trace contour of her thigh.] Or the curve of my belly!
OLD WIT’S WIFE: It’s not fair; you having two men and us with none! Throw one of them over here!
WIFE pushes OLD WIT toward YOUNG WIT’s WIFE.
WIFE: She’s the one who needs his fornicational expertise! As I can teach the young lion cub some tricks, so can your old bull educate this heifer on the nature of lovemaking! [To OLD WIT’s WIFE.] Come with me, you old hag! The two of us will be needed to quench the fires I’ve started in this brute!
WIFE and OLD WIT’s WIFE EXIT with YOUNG WIT. OLD WIT restrains YOUNG WIT’s WIFE.
OLD WIT: Don’t be frightened. I’m not planning to take advantage of you—
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: Oh, you’re all beasts! One minute you’re writing sonnets and the next your lecherous tongues are flopping out of your mouths like dogs gone mad at the scent of raw meat—
OLD WIT: You should pity us! It’s not easy playing Jekyll and Hyde!
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: She can do what she wants with the twofaced beast if that’s all I mean to him!
OLD WIT: He’ll come back to you.
YOUNG WIT’S WIFE: Who needs him. He’s just another stiff cock; of which there is no shortage in Athens! To him I was never more than just a gynecological punching bag; all flesh and nothing upstairs.
OLD WIT: And what’s wrong with that? Flesh such as yours is as noble as any poem or sculpture—as sweet as any song The contour of your arm for example—[Traces line of her arm with finger.] is infinitely more subtle than the fluted columns of the Parthenon. And what swan’s neck is more gracefully arched than yours? As for your breasts—they send shivers of ecstasy cascading deeply into my very soul!
OLD WIT takes YOUNG WIT’s WIFE in a passionate embrace, which she does not resist. BLACKOUT.
Scene 4
On the opposite side of stage K and GUESTS who have been drinking heavily are discovered. ENTER WIFE.
JUDGE: An interesting case in court today, K. One of your tenants was found guilty of murdering a shopkeeper with a golden icon. The first murder we’ve had in years, and it involves you!
K: Involves me? What are you saying!
JUDGE: The murderer was your tenant.
K: That hardly makes me responsible!
JUDGE: I’m not accusing you. As a matter of fact you stand to gain by the whole affair. The farmer, who was executed this afternoon, bequeathed you his murder weapon, the gold icon. It was his only real property.
K: [Aside.] He’s been executed! Then I have murdered twice!
JUDGE: You? Murdered twice? What is that supposed to mean?
WIFE: He’s murdered two jugs of wine—that’s what he meant by that remark!
K: No! It was men! Men I murdered!
JUDGE: My God!
WIFE: He made fair demands on them and they insulted him!
JUDGE: If you had a complaint you should have taken them to court—
WIFE: His justice was swifter. Besides, the courts are notorious for the mistakes they make. Didn’t you execute an innocent man this very afternoon?
JUDGE: I wasn’t given all the facts!
WIFE: You are as guilty in this thing as my stupid husband. The malfeasance of a judge is worse than murder!
JUDGE: Nonsense—now and then a judicial error is made of course—
WIFE: Yes, and forgotten too!
JUDGE: Are you suggesting I forget what K just told me?
WIFE: If you don’t I’ll see to it the papers get the story about how you railroaded an innocent man to the gallows.
JUDGE: But surely someone else heard your what K said—
WIFE: They’re all drunk—
COMRADE P: [Dressed as a bolshevik of the 1920’s.] I heard every word!
JUDGE: We’re doomed!
COMRADE P: You should be! It’s swine like you who are ruining this Golden Age of ours. But I’m a merciful man.
JUDGE: You won’t betray us?
COMRADE P: I’m willing to play ball with you if you extend the same courtesy to me.
JUDGE: I don’t understand.
COMRADE P: I’m involved with a case that’s coming to trial in your court—
Scene 5
Lighting shifts to O on opposite side of stage. He is wearing uniform of WW II British commando.
O: Gentlemen of the jury—while I’m in Persia fighting for my country this bastard is fucking my wife—
JUDGE and COMRADE P ENTER the scene.
JUDGE: Please, this is a Court of Law! Watch your language.
O: Sorry, your honor, but it’s difficult to be calm when you’re this close to the scumbag who sabotaged your marriage.
COMRADE P: She was willing! She nearly tore my clothes off!
O: I’ll tear your skin off, you damned draftdodger!
JUDGE: The court will settle this dispute!
O: I’m sure the court will protect the honor and domestic integrity of Athen’s fighting men, your honor.
JUDGE: The verdict will be delivered next Friday—
O: I can’t wait that long for justice! I’ve got to rejoin my unit by midnight! The facts of this case are clear! I want a verdict right now!
COMRADE P: Yes, he’s right. We don’t want to live with this hanging over our heads. Give us your verdict now. Tell this dogface his uniform doesn’t entitle him to any special privileges. His wife is the alleged victim in this case anyway. Why doesn’t he let her testify?
O: Come on, give us your decision!
JUDGE: The court decides—in favor of—the defendant! [Gavels proceeding closed.]
O: You rotten sonsofbitches! This was a put up job right from the start! [Seizes COMRADE P chokes him with forearm.] It was all a plot to humiliate me, wasn’t it? Confess!
JUDGE: [Gaveling.] Stop it! Stop it!
COMRADE P: Alright! It’s true! I bought the judge! [O jerks COMRADE P’s neck, lets him fall.] My neck’s broken! Christ almighty! He’s killed me! [Falls dead.]
JUDGE: You have committed murder in a court of law!
O: I thought it was a whorehouse by the looks of the people working here. I ought to kill you too! [Menaces JUDGE with commando knife.]
JUDGE: No, no—you were right to kill him. He was a blackmailing wifestealer. You report back to the army. I’ll dispose of his miserable corpse for you.
O: [Pause.] Alright. It’s a deal.
EXIT O. JUDGE drags COMRADE P off. GODS are illuminated.
ZEUS: The plague spreads
Already Apollo’s golden icon has been melted down
And minted into coins
The coins are hoarded to make the proud rich
And the meek poor
Poets seek the coins and become fools
Entertaining idiots at orgies
APOLLO: Still there is hope
The flames of piety are still burning in our temple
Perhaps their radiance will bring Athens
To its senses—
EROS: Look!
Even now the flames grow dim!
A flaming brazier provides only light on stage. Its flames flicker and finally leave the stage utterly dark.
APOLLO: It is ended!
All is dark in Athens now!
Scene 6
PLACARD: ‘IN THE MORNING ATHENS BEGINS TO APPRECIATE THE FULL EXTENT OF ITS MORAL DECAY.' Stage is slowly relit with a gloomy dawn or fog effect. PERICLES, wearing a Churchillian jump suit, ENTERS with GENERAL, PRIEST, OLD WIT and DOCTOR.
PERICLES: What bloody fools we’ve been!
In all Athens there is not one fire
To heat our forges
To cook our food
To give us light
Soon we must perish for this!
GENERAL: The Spartans have formed a league to annihilate Athens. They’re overruning our defenses. We need foundries for the making of weapons.
OLD WIT: Winter’s coming. We old people won’t survive without heat!
DOCTOR: We need flames to sanitize our wounds and purify the air. I’m afraid the plague is already on its way.
PRIEST: We’ve called on the gods but they don’t answer.
PERICLES: Athens has been sleeping
But now we are awake
Summon our best runners
We will send them out into the country
To see if anyone yet has fire
Surely somewhere in Greece there is one
Who kept the flame of reason burning!
COMMANDOS ENTER on double, form rank before Pericles. BLACKOUT.
Scene 7
Stage remains dark as HERALD speaks:
HERALD: So the Athenians sent their swiftest runners in every direction looking for fire. But far and wide they found the entire land in darkness. They sickened and wearied and in time they stopped searching. But one night, in a distant province, the last runner caught sight of something. From the mouth of a cave came the glow of fire!
SOCRATES is revealed by the light of torch mounted in sconce on cave wall. As RUNNER ENTERS cave SOCRATES is writing in large book.
RUNNER: Thank God, there is still one torch that burns in Greece!
SOCRATES: Who are you to be so excited over such a simple fact of life?
RUNNER: A runner from Athens—sent by the government.
SOCRATES: I thought they’d forgotten about old Socrates! So, I’m still on Athens’ most wanted list?
RUNNER: I don’t know about any of that ancient history. Whatever sins you may have committed against Athens aren’t important now. Nothing matters except the fact that Greece has grown dark and cold.
SOCRATES: I warned them about that!
RUNNER: I have an official requisition here and some coins to reimburse you for the torch.
SOCRATES: What could I buy with them here!. If the Athenians want my fire they can have it free of charge. It was from Apollo’s lamp I lit this torch many years ago when I fled my persecutors. It has served me well; warming my old bones and lighting the pages of my book so I might record what I have learned in this cave—
RUNNER: I haven’t got time for small talk. Take the money—
SOCRATES: No, you keep it. You’re young. Have some fun with it when you get back home. Without that torch I’ll die soon anyway. But do me a favor and take this book with you. It might be useful—or at least amusing—for Athens to know what really happened to Socrates after that hemlock-drinking trick I played on it. [The book’s size makes this request ludicrous.]
RUNNER: I have far to run. The book would be a burden.
SOCRATES: Of course it would! You’re right! It was foolish and vain of me to ask. Go now and remember the torch will burn brightly only so long as it is put to good use! As for the myth of Socrates’ demise, let it remain that he perished by his own hand in the ultimate act of civic obedience.
RUNNER: Nothing will deter me except death!
EXIT RUNNER with torch, leaving SOCRATES in darkness. 2ND RUNNER ENTERS from opposite side of stage with torch, which he gives to HERALD.
2ND RUNNER: Here, take it!
Though I am dead these past two days
My legs ran on ’til I found
A willing hand to take the burden!
2ND RUNNER surrenders torch, collapses.
HERALD: From hand to hand
The torch was passed
On its way to Athens
And while each runner narrowed the gap
Still the distance was great
And Athens sank deeper
Into the nightmare of conquest and corruption
Until one day the torch was passed
To the most gifted athlete in all of Greece—
ENTER J in tropical white uniform of U.S. Naval Officer.
J: I will carry that torch
The rest of the way to Athens
And rekindle the eternal flame
In Apollo’s temple
HERALD: That sounds heroic but it’s a long journey. Many have died on this mission. I detect a note of impetuosity in your speech!
J snatches torch from HERALD.
J: I’ll make it old timer. I’m one of the new generation of Athenians! [EXIT with torch leaving stage dark.]
Scene 8
Opposite side of stage is gradually lighted to reveal PRINCESS at well. PLACARD: ‘THE YOUNG RUNNER TARRIES IN THE LAND OF YAHOO FOR A DRINK OF WATER.' J ENTERS.
J: Which road leads to Athens?
PRINCESS: That one—but you’d better take a long drink from this well if you’re going across that arid stretch of wasteland on foot.
J: [Drinking.] This is nice country. What’s it called?
PRINCESS: It’s called Yahoo—[Begins massaging J’s legs.]
J: What are you doing?
PRINCESS: Your muscles are tight. This will make them supple.
ENTER K.
K: What have we got here?
PRINCESS: A runner father; on his way to Athens.
J: This torch will rekindle the sacred flame in Apollo’s temple.
K: By god, is that real fire!
J: It’s real alright. Soon Athens will regain its Golden aura!
K: That’s fine for Athens. But what about us out here in the sticks? We came here to Yahoo to escape from Athenian decadence and now because of Athens we are living in the dark. For their sins we are suffering. Surely you won’t begrudge us a light for our cold hearths?
J: This is sacred fire.
K: Just one lick of flame is all we need! We can prepare you a nice hot meal for your trip. You’ll never make it to Athens on an empty stomach.
J: Looking at it that way—I suppose I am entitled to some nourishment.
K, J and PRINCESS cross to K’s home where WIFE waits with NEIGHBORS. K lights hearth with torch. NEIGHBORS light candles from hearth.
1ST NEIGHBOR: You truly are a messenger from the gods!
2ND NEIGHBOR: He’s handsome enough to be a god himself!
3RD NEIGHBOR: Look how your daughter blushes, K!
WIFE: Come, sit down; you can start with a salad. The lamb will be done in a minute.
NEIGHBORS are seated.
K: You can rest the torch here while you eat.
J: No, I’d better keep it with me
PRINCESS: Then I’ll feed you like a baby!
NEIGHBORS laugh as PRINCESS feeds J and WIFE waits table.
K: This hot food is marvelous! In the morning we can light the furnaces at the foundry and get this country moving again! We owe it all to you, young fellow. Tell us, are you a mortal or a god?
J: I am my father’s son. What he is, I am.
K: By that answer I would judge your father to be a politician—and a damned shrewd one at that!
J: This meal has made me drowsy—I need some fresh air—
WIFE: Rest a while on this couch. Just for an hour. I’m sure Athens can wait that much longer for its salvation.
J: [Reclining on couch.] The torch—don’t let it fall from my hand!
PRINCESS: Don’t worry my brave Athenian! I’ll stay with you and guard your precious flame while you sleep. I will be your sentry!
J: No—I—[Falls fast asleep.]
Fade to BLACK.
Scene 9
PLACARD: ‘THE RUNNER DREAMS OF REACHING ATHENS.’ Musical fanfare. ENTER CHORUS OF ATHENIANS with PERICLES. J rises from couch.
CHORUS: The runner is coming! He has the torch! See the fire! Athens is saved! Hurrah! Hurrah!
PERICLES: Welcome messenger!
Sorely have we waited for this day
When the flame of Apollo’s temple
Could be reignited!
J: Noble Pericles, I—
J stumbles and falls. CHORUS gasps, gathers around him.
CHORUS: Is he dead? Get a doctor! Make room!
PERICLES: Take his torch to the temple while it still burns brightly!
[ENTER COMMANDO, takes torch and
EXITS.] Stand back! Give him air!
[CHORUS
parts.] Thank the
gods he’s alive—and long may he continue
to live! [CHORUS responds with
cheers.]
Yes, long may this hero live
For Athens needs him still!
As the gods have waited long for their fiery sign
So have I, your ancient leader, waited
For an omen that would reveal my successor—
CHORUS protests.
PERICLES: In him I see the future!
By this deed has he not proven his courage?
Haven’t the gods themselves smiled upon him?
He is untainted by our corruption
He is another generation
Athens’ future belongs to the young and beautiful
To the best and the brightestAnd I say, let them have it!
CHORUS agrees.
PERICLES: My fellow Athenians! We have withstood the Persians and the Spartans, the darkness and the plague; and most difficult of all we have withstood ourselves. But now Athens surrenders! Yes! Old Athens surrenders to New Athens! I tell you this: Pericles has no reservations whatsoever about passing this scepter on to the next generation.
CHORUS: Long live Pericles! Long live Athens! Long live the new King!
J is carried by CHORUS to couch. The torch has been put in a sconce on the wall. EXIT CHORUS.
PERICLES: Rest my son—my king—my hope. You have earned this sleep! [EXIT.]
J: [Waking.] Pericles!
ENTER PRINCESS in nightgown.
PRINCESS: What is it?
J: Nothing—a dream. I dreamt of entering Athens. They welcomed me as a hero. They made me their king—where is the torch!
PRINCESS: There, on the wall. It still burns. You bade me to lie in your bed so I put it over there.
J: We have lain together?
PRINCESS: [Hugging him.] Oh, yes, my darling—it was so sweet!
J: I remember—nothing!
PRINCESS: It doesn’t matter. I’m not ashamed of what I did. I stole your seed like a thief in the night and now I hope it grows into a son so that if you never return to Yahoo I’ll have something tangible to remember you by!
J: But I will come back. Of course I will! You didn’t steal from me—I gave. I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you. It was my true desires that sleep freed. Just as I will be freed when my duty to Athens is done. Then you will sit by my side as Queen of that great city and never will man and woman know the joy we will find as King and Queen, man and wife—and lovers always! [kisses her.]
PRINCESS: [Pulling away from embrace.] I must tell you of a dream I had—but it’s a difficult and terrible thing for me to do!
J: I’m not afraid of dreams. Tell me!
PRINCESS: Last night I saw you—dead! On the road to Athens.
J: How could that be? I’m fit enough for the trip now. Well rested and well fed—
PRINCESS: The deed was treacherously done by a band of Spartan hitmen. They fell upon you and cut you down—[Sobs.]
ENTER K with newspaper.
K: It could be as she says, lad. Athens is encircled by Spartan forces. It would take a true god to pierce their curtain of iron.
J: I must try! Otherwise Athens is sure to perish. By cunning or disguise or by the strength of my will alone, I must prevail!
K: Your sacrifice would be futile. Athens is doomed. Sparta is only digging the grave for a corpse. Stay here in Yahoo with us.
J: I will have no other fate but an Athenian’s!
K: Don’t take this risk simply to give that tart a fancy funeral. She isn’t worth it. She’s old, senile and desperate. She’s lost whatever dignity she might have once had and will drag every she can down to the grave with her. Sparta and Athens are brawling in the mud of their own corruption. Here, in Yahoo, we can build a new civilization untainted by their decadence. That’s your destiny as I see it. Not as the mock monarch of a ghost town; but the true kingpin of a new and vital city with its own future!
J: Throw Athens to the Spartan wolves? I could never do that!
K: [Referring to newspaper.] The Spartan wolves won’t live long enough to celebrate their victory. A plague has broken out in Athens and made it a graveyard—and a trap. When the Spartans reach into the Athenian treasure chest, a viper’s bite is all they’ll get! The gods have arranged it so that a single plague will destroy the houses of both Athens and Sparta!
J: If Athens dies all Greece is doomed!
K: Nonsense. Athens and Sparta are just a another pair of dinosaurs sinking into the tar pits of history. The future belongs to Yahoo. We are the new breed of men who will lead Greece into the next age; not a golden age but an age of steel! Consider what I say!
J comes downstage to address audience.
J: How painful all this news is—
Athens, your fate is in my hands
As mine was in yours
Though my heart tells me to go your way
My mind says stay here
Where already I have acquired the
Responsibility of fatherhood
What the Yahoos say is right
Even if their reasons are wrong
The smart thing for me to do is
Stay here and build a new Athens
As a living memorial to the old!
EXIT J with K and PRINCESS.
Scene 10
HERALD: So the runner who stopped only for a drink of water stayed. His winged feet became rooted in the soil of his adopted homeland—and the Yahoos prospered because of the fire he had given them. While Athens and Sparta struggled on to their bitter ends, Yahoo flourished in peaceful neutrality. Yahoo became both arsenal and granary for all of Greece.
HERALD curtsies to APOLLO as he descends from his celestial vantage point.
APOLLO: So this is Yahoo! (I don’t even like the sound
of its name!) And here is a temple its
"new breed" of Greeks has erected in my
name—[Approaches an altar.] What blasphemy! What arrogance!
[Puts hand into altar’s eternal flame.]
How cool these fake flames are! [Finds pump concealed by slab of
marble.] This device feeds fuel to their
artificial fire
Creating the illusion of eternal light.
How ingenious they are!
How superb their vanity
To think they can fool the gods with such tricks!
HERALD: They call their tricks "technology."
APOLLO: And these sacrifices! They’re made of some waxy substance!
HERALD: Plastic, my Lord
APOLLO dashes plastic sacrifices to floor.
APOLLO: I wonder if you, too, are
made of plastic, people of Yahoo; and within your breasts
instead of human hearts machines pump alcohol through your veins to kindle
the cold fires of your intellects where the fiercest fires should burn! I
see no passion here! Everything is a fraud.
Even your celebrated prosperity flits
from boom to bust like a flea—or a vulture searching
for its next corpse to make a meal of!
But I will let this sham run its course
Your Athenian legacy will be squandered overnight
In an orgy of mindless creature comforts
And when the sun rises
Other vultures will come to pick the bones
of your civilization clean
That is your fate, Yahoo!
Child of Athens!
Heir to the riches of Greece!
You shall have your Age of Steel!
Your one brief fling at empire building!
Enjoy it while you can!
Escorted by HERALD, APOLLO rejoins EROS and ZEUS. MARX, LENIN and GENERAL ENTER wearing black uniforms adorned with swastikas and hammer-and-sickle insignias. They view a field of battle with binoculars.
Scene 11
MARX: Athens is all but decimated. There’s no reason why we can’t just march in and take it.
GENERAL: It’s not that easy. There, on the high ground, is a rock fortress. We’ve bombarded it for months and still there is hardly a crack in the walls.
LENIN: [Hysterical throughout.] It’s imperative that we take Athens immediately! This delay is creating all kinds of propaganda difficulties with our allies. They are beginning to doubt our Spartan invincibility!
GENERAL: No army is invincible. That’s just an idea you advertising geniuses cooked up. Surely you don’t believe it yourselves. Our army is made of flesh and blood, and it’s damned vulnerable flesh and blood at that. We’ve got to have supplies and rest. We’ve been fighting nonstop for nearly 2 years. These men are as grey as their uniforms. The smart thing would be to bypass Athens and sweep to the North. We can forage there in the spring and rebuild our strength. And, in the meantime, Athens will grow even weaker.
LENIN: Impossible! Such a strategy is out of the question, general. The occupation of Athens is an absolute must, even if it costs us half of Sparta’s army!
GENERAL: I don’t like having Yahoo in my rear with just half an army, gentlemen! Intelligence reports they are massing troops on their eastern front. There are rumors about an alliance with Athens if we enter the city.
LENIN: We will worry about the politics!!
MARX: Yahoo will be neutralized. We’re on our way there right now to negotiate a nonaggression pact that will protect your rear.
LENIN: Meanwhile our scientists are close to perfecting the artificial fire in which we will soon fry Yahoo’s hash!
MARX: They are being fattened by fate as the cattle who will be slaughtered for our victory feast!
ENTER K. MARX and LENIN cross to meet him, shake his hand. They stroll to and fro as they talk.
MARX: This garden reminds me of my boyhood home. Soon I will be going back there and smelling the hollyhocks.
K: Is that supposed to mean the war is nearly over?
LENIN: The war goes very well for us! Athens will fall by the end of the week!
MARX: We’ve just come from the front. It’s only a mopping up operation.
K: You said that the last time you were here. That was in the spring. Now it’s autumn. Winter is almost here.
MARX: Just a slight delay caused by incompetence in the general staff. You know the military mentality. But we have taken over complete control of the army now.
LENIN: That’s why you must sign this nonaggression pact now!
MARX: What comrade Lenin is saying is that it would be to your advantage to do so before Athens falls. In that case there would be factions in Sparta who would argue the pie was won by us alone and should not be shared with Yahoo.
K: What the hell are you guys talking about? Greece is already our pie! You’re trying to give us something we’ve already got!
LENIN: [Shaking fist.] But can you keep it!
MARX: You’re right, K. We appreciate the realities of your imperial status. We’re even prepared to let you extend that status to a radius of 300 miles.
K: Did you say 800 miles?
MARX: No. I said 500 miles.
K: [Producing document.] I have a treaty here specifying 650 miles.
MARX: [Signing.] It’s a shame you weren’t born a Spartan. Now for a few trivial details; as long as we’re here we thought we would order another shipment of wheat.
K: You haven’t paid for the last one yet.
LENIN: That wheat was infested!
K: Nevertheless, you made bread from it and fed it to your troops. This sounds like a typical Spartan scheme to avoid payment. There are rumors you are bankrupt.
MARX: You must be joking! We’re the most solvent nation in Greece!
K: Except for Yahoo Greece is bankrupt. From now on it has to be cash in advance. Your credit’s too shaky.
LENIN: Suppose we march right in here and take your goddamm wheat!
K: If you were strong enough to do that, you would have done it a long time ago. We are too powerful now. We’ve built an unbeatable army and navy with the profits we made off you Spartans!
LENIN: Treacherous bastards! You’re in cahoots with Athens!
K: We treat them the same as we treat you.
MARX: Be careful, K. You may have underestimated us!
EXIT MARX and LENIN.
K: [Calling after them:]Remember: cash in advance!
ENTER J dressed as Yahoo king.
J: What’s all the shouting about? Were those Spartans you were talking with?
K: Incredible people! And they think they are the master race!
PLACARD: ‘THE PRESIDENT SUFFERS AN ATTACK OF MORAL INDIGESTION.’
J: What did they want with us?
K: They’re customers of ours—we sell them some of our infested wheat now and then. They’re dumb enough and desperate enough to pay top prices for the worthless stuff.
J: Still, they can nourish their troops with it! In the final analysis we’re helping to feed Athens’ enemies! Why wasn’t I told about these transactions?
K: There wasn’t any need to tell you! You shouldn’t be burdened with such petty details. Besides, we sell arms to the Athenians to even up the score by slaughtering those wellfed Spartans.
J: The result of which is that we are prolonging a war it is in our power to end. And that is what we will do. Henceforth we sell only to the Athenians!
K: But it is Spartan money that has filled our treasury. With Athens it’s this damned lendlease arrangement. The people won’t stand still for such a loss of revenue. We produce more than we can use. The farmers will be unemployed; the factories will shut down. You’ll have a rebellion on your hands within a month.
J: Then let it come! I’m tired of sucking the blood of our fellow Greeks.
K: What would life be like if we pitied the pigs we make into sausages? They’d turn into wild boars again and have us for their breakfast! We’ve got to bleed our potential enemies dry. The weaker they become the stronger we get, until all of Greece is ours.
J: And how does Greece benefit from that? We’re not fit to lead! From our Athenian heritage we should have taken the best; instead, we took the worst and glorified it as a way of life! It makes me sick. [Actually sickened, sits on throne.]
K: Being a monarch takes a strong stomach. That’s why I’ve kept the uglier facts of political life from you.
J: I was never fit to be a king; not king of this place, anyway. I wanted the people of Yahoo to explore new frontiers of human knowledge. I wanted their spirits to soar! I dreamed of art and literature flourishing in a renaissance of Athenian proportions—but everywhere I look I see only ignorance, vice and cupidity—
K: You’ve got to be more realistic, son. Athens wasn’t built in a day. Like a lion tamer, the successful politician makes his constituents jump through hoops of fire armed with just a chair and a whip. These "adoring" subjects of yours are only homicidal maniacs restrained by the straightjacket of prosperity. Take away their creature comforts and we’d all be back in the stone age murdering each other with clubs. Those New Frontiers of yours will be explored someday, but first you have got to consolidate your power. Then you can turn every man into a poet or a painter, if that’s what you want. Remember, the end justifies the methodology. Be patient; you’re young. There is plenty of time. Think of me as a butcher, getting my hands bloody so you can nourish your dreams of a Great Society—
ENTER PRINCESS.
PRINCESS: Come darling, everyone’s waiting for you on the east lawn. You haven’t forgotten my charity bazaar for the war orphans have you?
J: The war orphans—yes, I had forgotten them—
PRINCESS: They’re so cute! We’re feeding them ice cream and cookies. The magicians and clowns are giving them a show. Leave these matters of state to father; he seems to enjoy them! [Leads J off.]
K: I have conquered the Greece that conquered the world!
BLACKOUT.
Scene 12
PLACARD: ‘THE EPIC WAR BETWEEN SPARTA AND ATHENS AS SEEN FROM THE TRENCHES.' 1ST & 2ND COCKNEYS, wearing combat uniforms of British Commandos, resting. 1ST COCKNEY is obviously ill. 2ND COCKNEY mops his brow.
1ST COCKNEY: Christ, I’m on fire! It must be the goddamm plague, Charlie!
2ND COCKNEY: No, mate; the plague’s not going to get us. Remember we made a pact to stick together?
1ST COCKNEY: Oh, Jesus, I’ve got it I tell you!
2ND COCKNEY: We won’t let you down, old man. Wilson’s gone out to scrounge some medicine.
1ST COCKNEY: They only give medicine to the officers—
2ND COCKNEY: Fuck the officers! Wilson’ll get the stuff for you if he’s got to kill a bloody general or two. How’s this wet towel feel?
1ST COCKNEY: It helps. Thanks. Charlie?
2ND COCKNEY: Yeah, mate.
1ST COCKNEY: How in god’s name did we get into this mess?
2ND COCKNEY: Christ only knows—
1ST COCKNEY: Remember those good old days—out on the football pitch with the smell of grass so sweet in your nostrils—we’ll never see those days again—
2ND COCKNEY: This war can’t last forever. The three of us have just got to hold on until it’s over—like the passengers on a stormy channel crossing. You don’t want to get yourself washed overboard and miss those hot times in Paris or on the Costa Brava.
1ST COCKNEY: We got any paper about? I’d like to write a letter to Mary.
2ND COCKNEY: Mary? Mary’s dead, pal. She died 6 months ago in the blitz—
1ST COCKNEY: If I wrote a letter you think you could somehow get it to her?
2ND COCKNEY: It’s too late to write letters; the sun’s gone down. In the morning you can write one and I’ll take it to her. Jesus, it’s getting hot in here! [Tears at collar.] It’s November but it feels like July—
ENTER 3RD COCKNEY with bottles of beer and cartons of cigarettes.
3RD COCKNEY: Here I am mates! Sergeant Wilson never fails!
1ST COCKNEY: Where’s the bloody medicine; I think I’ve caught the plague myself!
3RD COCKNEY: There’s none to be had; not even by Pericles himself. The best I could do was liberate some beer and fags—
2ND COCKNEY: Beer and cigarettes—by morning we’ll all be dead!
3RD COCKNEY: I had to kill a couple of our own sentries to get these goodies, so don’t complain. Athens is a madhouse. It’s all been picked clean by looters and now it’s looter against looter. We’re being squeezed between them and the plague; not to mention our Spartan friends—[Offers beer and cigarettes to others.] It’s party time; but remember, too much tobacco and alcohol could be dangerous to your health!
2ND COCKNEY: Poor Smittie’s delirious. He thinks his Mary is still alive!
3RD COCKNEY: Well, we’ll all have a nice reunion in heaven pretty soon.
1ST COCKNEY: Did you give my letter to Mary?
3RD COCKNEY: Sure I did! She was baking a batch of your favorite biscuits. When the war’s over she told me to tell you she’s got tickets for a second honeymoon trip down the Nile on a luxury liner.
1ST COCKNEY: Mary always had a thing about Egypt—
3RD COCKNEY: What woman doesn’t identify with Cleopatra and fantasize about seducing a Marc Antony or sheik of Araby?
ENTER O in commando uniform wearing gauze face mask.
O: Any stiffs in here?
3RD COCKNEY: Jesus—it’s Death himself! [Draws a knife.]
O: Just the burial detail, lads—is that a stiff over there?
3RD COCKNEY: Nix. That’s our mate Smittie; he’s not dead! You can’t have him!
2ND and 3RD COCKNEYS are too weak to resist as O drags 1ST COCKNEY’s body off.
3RD COCKNEY: Jesus, they’ll be doing that us in the not-too distant future—
2ND COCKNEY: [Singing.] It’s a long way to Tipperary—
OFFICER [Off.]: Sentry! [ENTERS.] Who’s on duty here?
3RD COCKNEY: Sergeant Wilson on duty, sir. [Salutes from sitting position.] The password or I’ll blow your fucking brains out—sir!
OFFICER: Snap out of it, soldier! I could have you shot for this! The enemy is out there! You are guarding the gateway to the city! Athens is depending on you!
3RD COCKNEY: No disrespect intended sir—but you’re a horse’s ass. You blokes got us into this lousy war; now it’s up to you to get us out—me and my chums here have run completely out of gas—right, Charlie?
OFFICER: [Grabs 3RD COCKNEY by collar.] I’ve got to find Pericles; where have they moved his headquarters?
3RD COCKNEY: Pericles? Last I heard he took a boat trip down the Nile to see Cleopatra—[Falls asleep.]
BLACKOUT.
Scene 13
Pericles’ underground headquarters. PERICLES in bed, stricken with plague. An AIDE attends him. OFFICER ENTERS.
AIDE: Shhh—Pericles must not be disturbed. I’m afraid the plague has claimed him too.
OFFICER: I have important news. I’ve just come from Yahoo—
PERICLES: What is it?
OFFICER: The Yahoos demand money before they will ship any more arms to us.
PERICLES falls back on his pillow, laughs.
AIDE: He’s delirious.
PERICLES: No—yes, I am. But it seems funny—how the plague has solved our armament problem by killing off our soldiers. We no longer need the arms Yahoo will not send us! What other news is there?
OFFICER: None—except that while I was in Yahoo I learned what became of the torch that was being borne back to us years ago.
PERICLES: Ah, you’re delirious too. That hijacking scenario was just a malicious rumor authored by the Spartans—
OFFICER: Not so. The runner who was carrying it to Athens is king there now. It was our fire that lit the furnaces of their foundries.
PERICLES rises from bed with help of AIDE.
AIDE: Pericles, you are too ill!
PERICLES: Were I dead and buried I would rise from my grave to avenge this kind of treason!
OFFICER: How can we avenge it? The Yahoos are powerful now. And we have no troops to spare.
PERICLES: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. As we have been undone by one man’s betrayal, so shall Yahoo’s fate be sealed by a single assassin. Find me such a marksman; some nonentity they would never suspect. A lowly soldier from the ranks with an appetite for revenge!
AIDE: The plague has taken its toll. All we have left are those with a natural immunity, the men of the burial detail—mostly criminals and social misfits—
PERICLES: [Returning to bed.] Then use one of them! A gravedigger! Yes! Let him bury Yahoo’s imperial aspirations!
OFFICER: I’ll find someone—
PERICLES: Wait. One more thing. Tell whoever it is—to bring the torch back—though it be only to light my funeral pyre—at least we will have made our peace—with Apollo—
EXIT OFFICER. Scene darkens as GODS are illuminated. ENTER O, wearing commando uniform, runs in place.
ZEUS: These marvelous Athenians!
It’s a shame they must perish
In the midst of their darkest hour
They show qualities of character
As bright as any they manifested
At the height of their Golden Age
EROS: Down to their last man nearly
But still they fight the good fight
And look at this "avenger" of theirs!
The most unlikely of heroes!
A gravedigger smelling of corpses!
See how with such an awkward gait he travels to Yahoo.
The Athenians have reached deeply into their barrel to find him!
ZEUS: Like some hound sent by Pericles
To fetch the prey he has condemned
With the pointing of his wrathful finger
APOLLO: Let’s not judge this unorthodox hit man too hastily
The talents needed for such a job
Are not the conventional ones
His task is espionage, cunning, theft and murder
And in these he has been well trained
In the school of hard knocks
A social misfit they call him
But what does that say about the society
Into which he fails to fit?
From a bleak past he comes
And to a bleaker future he goes
Yet he seems to sense some magic in this moment
The chance to make history, even as a villain?
At least he has courage
We have seen too much sophistication in Greece lately
Something less refined is needed now!
EXIT O, running.
Scene 14
Lights rise on royal dining chamber in the Palace of Yahoo. J and PRINCESS wait for dinner to be served. J reads paper while his gout-afflicted foot is propped on ottoman.
J: There’s a story in here about a young fellow who murdered his wife and mother; stabbed them to death. How can any man do a thing like that?
PRINCESS: Obviously a lunatic.
J: According to the police report he was a normal citizen. Respected in the neighborhood and at the college where he was an above average student. But the really disturbing thing about it is they found some personal papers of his mentioning me—
PRINCESS: Well, you are a celebrity, after all. Where has Tom got to? I’m starving to death! [Pulls bell chord.]
J: Seems he wrote some poems for me but never sent them. In some he praised me like a god, in others condemned me as the devil and threatened to assassinate me!
PRINCESS: I wish you’d do something about all those newspapers; they’re so depressing!
ENTER TOM with food.
TOM: Sorry for the delay ma’am.
PRINCESS: Dinner is at 6 sharp! 6 sharp! Can you get that through your woolly head! When the big hand is on 12 and the little hand is on 6!
TOM: Yes’m, six sharp!
J: [Recoiling from food set in front of him.] Oh God, I can’t eat this! It’s bloody!
PRINCESS: Damn it! We’ve told you a thousand times the king must have his steak well done. Well done! Do you understand! The sight of blood makes him ill!
EXIT TOM with plate.
J: Go ahead and eat. I’m not hungry anyway.
PRINCESS: Tomorrow I’m letting all those darkies go.
J: Old Tom and his crew aren’t a bad lot. They’re just children. You have to keep after them, that’s all.
PRINCESS: I’ve heard there’s a terrific cook at the Phrygian Palace we could have with just the slightest bit of pressure from daddy. It’s really a scandal we didn’t get him a long time ago. After all, we are entitled to the best, aren’t we?
J: [Reading from newspaper.] He said he wanted to show Yahoo what a monster it had created in its midst. That’s why he killed them, his mother and wife—to call attention to his own monstrosity!
RE-ENTER TOM with new steak.
TOM: The cook say please to forgive him massa, it never happen again with the raw meat.
J: It’s alright, Tom. Tell him it’s all right.
PRINCESS: It is not alright! This is a royal household, not a roadside barbecue stand. I want to see the entire staff in the kitchen directly after my dinner.
TOM: [On knees.] Please massa, don’ be angry with us poor niggers. We is like chilluns, das all, like chilluns. We dasn’t mean no disrespec.' We all loves you like da sweet lord above—so please; don’ send us back to pharaoh’s land again!
J: Don’t worry, Tom, we won’t send you away.
TOM: [Backing out, bowing and scraping.] Thank you massa, thank you lord! [EXIT.]
PRINCESS: You can’t treat these pickaninnies with kid gloves. I don’t like being contradicted in public either!
J: Yes—I know—I’m sorry dear—
PRINCESS: We’re both on edge. We should take a holiday. What about Egypt? We could cruise the Nile. The weather’s divine this time of year and I’ve heard they have the most marvelous fashions in Cairo.
J: I want to talk to this young man—
PRINCESS: What are you talking about?
J: The fellow who killed his mother and his wife and wrote those poems about me.
PRINCESS: Are you out of your mind? He’s a killer!
J: I’ve got to find out shy he did what he did. I keep thinking he murdered those women to send me some kind of message.
PRINCESS: And I think it’s about time you stopped worrying about murderers and niggers and wars and started to worry about me! I want to go to Egypt!!
ENTER O as if leaping through open window.
PRINCESS: What’s the meaning of this!
O: The doors are all guarded. I had to come through the window.
PRINCESS: These are the king’s private chambers, you simpleton!
O: Don’t call the guards! I’m from Athens. Pericles sent me to you.
J: He chose a strange emissary.
PRINCESS: What’s that awful smell!
O: It’s the stench of Athens. The plague has pinned this badge of citizenship on us.
PRINCESS: You’ve brought the plague to Yahoo!
O: If I did it was not my purpose. I have a simple mind. But if the gods made me a messenger of those tidings as well, I do their work cheerfully!
J: Damn this insolence! How dare Athens send us someone as unmannerly as you!
O: They sent me because I was still alive. I was on the burial detail digging graves but I was willing to carry out orders.
J: Orders to do what?
O: To fetch the torch you stole from us. Here, read it yourself! [Hands note to J.]
PRINCESS: What does it say? Not that it matters. Pericles has no authority here! Yahoo is a sovereign state. [J is visibly shaken by contents of note.] Well?
J: I’ve been condemned to death in absentia. They have given me 10 days to appeal the sentence—but only if I do so in person.
PRINCESS: [Laughs haughtily.] The plague has affected their brains! [To O.] Go dog, and tell your master we reject his impertinence!
J: No! What Pericles has ordered will be done!
PRINCESS: You would go obediently to your certain death?
J: Such an offer cannot be refused by any who call themselves Athenian.
PRINCESS: You are a Yahooite now.
J: No more. I would rather be an Athenian under sentence of death for treason than be hailed as monarch of this land! Somehow my treachery to that city seems nobler than my loyalty to this place. [To O.] Eat something while I pack. You will need strength for the trip home.
O: None of those tricks! I’ve got my army rations. They’re good enough for me.
J: Oh, had I the purpose of this gravedigger
When first I came here!
The armor of my virtue
Was unzipped with just a drink of water
You are right, soldier!
We mustn’t delay a moment longer—
I will carry the torch through the battered gates of Athens!
PRINCESS: I don’t think that kind of grandstand play was what Pericles had in mind—
J: Let me light the pyres of my victims
Let me smell the stench of my own evil
And choke on the fumes of my regrets
For clemency let them burn me
With those I used to call comrade!
I will honor Pericles’ condemnation
As I failed to appreciate his praise!
O: You couldn’t make it back to Athens in 10 weeks with that gout. Not to mention the middleaged spread you’ve acquired. This is just a trick! You’re trying to buy some time. I was warned about your cunning. But my purpose is as sharp as this blade! [Produces knife.] Your treachery is ended!
O stabs J, who falls into PRINCESS’ arms. ENTER SENTRY with lance. He wounds O. O stabs SENTRY, snatches torch from sconce, comes downstage to address audience. Blood seeps from wound in his side.
O: I’ve done the deed!
The runner has fallen!
But the torch was snatched from him!
Some other will carry it!
The beacon must be lighted!
Each of you must do your part now!
Mine is done!
These are the words of a dead man!
EXIT O. GODS descend as PRINCESS weeps over J’s corpse.
ZEUS: So it is ended
Sparta and Athens locked in a deadly embrace
Yahoo’s light extinguished
All Greece is dark and quiet
EROS: The Golden Age is over
Replaced by an odd tranquility
Without the noise of humanity
The sound of waves
The sound of wind only
Are the sounds of Hellas
APOLLO: The wounded assassin limps along the road
Bearing the torch of reason
Barely does it light his way in a night
Of such total despair
The last slim thread of hope
For our human experiment
Has been sorely pinched
But we will let it end there
Not completely finished
We will leave it to you, out there
If any be out there and hear this—
For the torch still burns
No matter how faintly
As long as there are any men
Who still call themselves men!
Even now it can rekindle the glory
Of that race we gods call human!
CURTAINS CLOSE. ENTER HERALD through closed curtains.
HERALD: Ladies and gentlemen; there will be a brief intermission before we resume with our play.
ENTER ZEUS through curtains.
ZEUS: What are you telling them? This play is finished.
ENTER EROS and APOLLO through curtains.
EROS: [To audience.] There really is no more!
HERALD: We can discuss this behind the curtains—
APOLLO: There is nothing to discuss!
HERALD: We’ve got to give the audience their money’s worth, and that means at least two full acts.
ZEUS: It’s not our fault if they confuse quantity with quality. If they have come here to spend the whole evening, let them sit and ponder what they’ve just seen!
HERALD: Please! They’ll run us out of town! The critics will roast us! We’ll be blackballed! Besides, the kind of medicine you are handing out has got to be sugarcoated.
APOLLO: What do you propose we do? There is no more play!
HERALD: I just happen to have a script here for 2 more acts—[Takes scripts from coat, distributes them to GODS.]
ZEUS: This night is drenched in blasphemy!
APOLLO: [Leafing through script.] This is impossible! The language is so base, so vulgar!
ZEUS: Look at this! He’s got Eros cast as a pickpocket!
EROS: And you as a bloodyminded bolshevik! Who knows? It might be fun!
APOLLO: I refuse to play the part of a cuckold!
EROS and ZEUS laugh as HERALD ushers GODS through curtains, pausing before EXIT to tell audience:
HERALD: Smoking is permitted in the lobby only. Cocktails are available in the saloon. The lavatories are located in the mezzanine.
EXIT HERALD through curtains.
End Act One