Four teenagers get together to play tapes and generally hang out.
JENNIFER: Did you hear the Bible Club's supposed to be doing the Nativity in the church this year ?
DAVID : What ? Why can't the wee ones do it ? They make better angels than we do! Can you really see me as an angel ? (SMILES SICKLY SWEET)
CHRISTOPHER : Now you mention it ...NO !
EMMA: It's supposed to be an up-to-date version.
DAVID : You mean the wise men arrive on motor-bikes , wearing crash helmets
instead of crowns ? Great! (He's really quite disgusted ! )
JENNIFER: Well , at that rate , Mary must have been sitting on a mountain- bike
(LAUGHS)
CHRISTOPHER: But how could you update shepherds? They don't stay out on the hills with the sheep nowadays.
JENNIFER: They might at lambing, if they had already lost a few lambs at birth.
EMMA: Chris is right. Who ever heard of a poor shepherd now?
DAVID: Have you met anyone who's seen an angel recently - unless they've seen John Travolta as Michael ?
CHRISTOPHER: I like the old version. Even if it does seem out of date. In those days, shepherds would have been out on the hills. Even Kings would travel by camel train., and folk like Mary and Joseph would have thought themselves lucky to have a donkey.
JENNIFER: I know what you mean . It doesn't seem odd to have an angel or a crowd of angels appearing then...but it would nowadays.
EMMA : Why don't we write our own nativity, the way we would do it ? We could take it to Bible Club. If it's good enough, perhaps the group could do our play instead.?
DAVID: Are you nuts ? Who wants to do a Nativity in the first place?
JENNIFER: Well, I think it's a good idea!
CHRISTOPHER: If we write our own script we won't end up saying stupid things like "All hail, most blessed of women " like Stuart had to last year.. He was dead embarrassed.
DAVID: O.K. just make sure, I ' m no angel !
EMMA: Don't worry. There's no danger of that !
THEY FIND PAPER & PENCILS AND START WRITING...............................
JENNIFER: How does this sound.? This is the angel speaking.....
Don't be afraid ,Mary ,for I have good news for you. You are going to have a son. He will be very special......The King , Israel has been waiting for. His Kingdom will last for ever.
EMMA: Can you change that last bit to ..'He will be very special. The King, Israel has been waiting for."
DAVID: And then Mary says " How can that happen to me ? I ' m not even married.".
CHRISTOPHER: "God's Holy Spirit will come to you. Your child will be God's own Son. Nothing is too difficult for God."
JENNIFER: That's good. You know if God could give Mary' s cousin , Elizabeth a son in her old age, then maybe it was just as easy for him to give Mary a son while she was still a virgin.
EMMA: But you can understand how Mary would be puzzled about how God could manage it Besides, it's bad enough being a single mum today. Think how awful it would have been then.
DAVID: Well, Joseph wanted rid of her at first, didn't he?
CHRISTOPHER: And yet she still said, "I am ready to do anything God asks."
She must have realised what people's reaction would be.
JENNIFER: O.K. Now she goes off to visit Elizabeth her cousin.
EMMA: Elizabeth comes to meet her." God has really blessed you. You are going to be the mother of the King who is coming to save us "
JENNIFER: Mary probably didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I wouldn't have after that; Maybe that was why she started to praise God. Let's see ...."What wonderful things God has done, he has chosen ordinary folk to make his plans happen".
DAVID: Then she goes back to Nazareth. Meanwhile,.....Joseph has been doing a lot of thinking....
CHRISTOPHER: I feel sorry for him. His girlfriend comes in ,says she's pregnant and by the way, an angel had told her this baby was God's son. No wonder he wanted to break off the engagement. Give him his due though, he wasn't going to shame her by making a big fuss.
DAVID: So there he is tossing and turning in the night and an angel says, "Don't worry," Who was he trying to kid?
CHRISTOPHER: Then he says, "Mary's baby will be born through God's power and Holy Spirit. You will name him Jesus - for he is God's promised King. Marry Mary and bring the child up as your own and part of the royal line.
DAVID: And what's poor Joseph supposed to say to that? ........No?
EMMA: If he really loved Mary, he's be glad she was innocent of all he'd been thinking about her. She HAD seen the angel and the child WAS God's son .He'd want to marry her as soon as possible.
JENNIFER: Right. It's the time of the census, Mary's baby is almost due, and Mary and Joseph have got to go to Bethlehem to register.
CHRISTOPHER: That's almost a week 's journey away. Eventually they get to Bethlehem. Do we have to do all that "Sorry, we've no room" bit till they find somewhere?
DAVID: And I don't want to be a silly innkeeper either !
EMMA: QUIET! Can we not have Joseph saying to the Innkeeper, "You're our last hope, there's nowhere else for my wife and I to spend the night."
JENNIFER: That would work. Then the innkeeper notices the bump and realises the baby is nearly due. Poor man probably didn't think it would be that night !
DAVID: So he says. 'I know it 's not much ,but you could sleep in the cave for the animals. You'll be sheltered at least, and the animals will keep it warm for you.
CHRISTOPHER: I wonder if Joseph hung around outside till the baby arrived. I don't suppose men went to ante-natal classes then.
EMMA: How come you know so much?
CHRISTOPHER: My dad went once with my mum before my sister was born.
DAVID: Joseph says " His name will be Jesus, just as the angel said. Just think he is the One God has sent to save us."
JENNIFER: Mary wraps the baby in strips of cloth. Imagine, she wouldn't have known what a Babygro was? And they put him in the manger.
CHRISTOPHER: Out beyond Bethlehem, sitting round the fire - some shepherds. They were telling stories to pass the time and keep them awake too. How can we get a flash of light?
DAVID: Aren't there lights around the arch. They could be left off and switched on now.
CHRISTOPHER: Great ! So there's the angel and he says, "Don't be afraid." Do you realise how many times that poor angel says. "Don't be afraid." He's bound to have a complex by this time. Anyway, "I have good news for you .Today, in Bethlehem a baby was born. He is Christ the Lord ! Go , see for yourselves. When you find him , he will be wrapped up and lying in a manger."
EMMA: Then the whole crowd of angels start singing , "Glory, glory in the Highest."
DAVID: I hope you're not expecting us to sing as well.?
JENNIFER: Well, you don't have to if you don't want to.
EMMA: The shepherds say. "Come on, let's go and find out if it 's true!"
CHRISTOPHER: You can't knock at a cave. They must have walked in unannounced.
JENNIFER: I think they would have seen the manger right away and gone straight to it ,and knelt down without saying a word. There would be time to tell their story later.
DAVID: What about the wise men? Someone said to me they wouldn't have arrived till a few days later Mary and Joseph couldn't stay in the cave that length of time with a baby.
EMMA: O.K. Joseph finds work, at least until the baby is old enough to travel. They manage to find a place to stay. Then the wise men arrive.
CHRISTOPHER: They come into the house and as soon as they see the baby, they kneel.
One says, "I have brought Gold for a King."
The next one says,"I have brought Frankincense for an offering."
The last one says,"I have brought Myrrh for an ending."
DAVID: That's a good point . How are we going to end this?
EMMA: Mary could be standing at the door with Jesus in her arms, waving goodbye to the Wise Men.
JENNIFER: We could take it as far as the Wise Men returning home by a different route.
CHRISTOPHER: No, that might make it too long.
DAVID: Why don't the Wise Men give the gifts, then bow and leave. Then Mary and Joseph are left sitting with the baby, like in a picture.
EMMA: Then if we sing a carol they can leave during one of the verses.
JENNIFER: This is going to be brilliant. Emma ,you're the neatest writer. Will you write it out properly? We'll take it with us on Sunday.
CHRISTOPHER: They'd be crazy not to do this.
DAVID: Well, I think it's dead brilliant.
EMMA: You think everything is dead brilliant.
DAVID : Everything but angels !
