GENESIS 3:1 (Completed Draft)
A play by Natalie Chambers, Chris Willmott, Charisse Baxter,
and George Bernard Shaw
- freely adapted from
the Bible, PARADISE LOST by John Milton, BACK TO METHUSELAH by G. B. Shaw, with
a hint of Mark Twain and just a bit of That One Music Video by Eminem and
Rhianna…
A workshop.
Shelves and jars and
tools, oh my… a bathtub full of (body) parts and pieces sits in the middle of
the space. There is a ‘tree’ in one corner.
The audience is
welcomed in and invited, via ushers or projections (or both) to explore the
space (but not touch). After approximately ten minutes, the lights and music
shift. The audience is seated.
Adam enters the space,
his attention fixed on the tub. Slowly, life enters Eve’s body, she is
‘created’, and steps from the tub. She discovers her own reflection, and is
fascinated. Adam attempts to claim her attention, and she is not impressed by her
view of him. Eve turns away and goes off to explore alone. Adam seems as though
he might call out to her, but instead makes no sound. He sits wondering,
experiencing sadness for the first time and just starting to feel lonely, when
he is joined onstage by the Son.
THE SON (sympathetically) It is not good that
man should be alone.
Eve re-enters, and,
seeing them, stops. She is approached by the Son.
Fair
Eve, return. Whom thou fliest, of him thou art;
His
flesh, his bone. To give thee being I lent
Out
of his side, nearest his heart. Come, and claim thy other half.
He leads her to Adam.
[As the woman is of the man, even
so is the man also by the woman. Be fruitful, and replenish the earth.]
The Son exits – or at least,
moves away to observe.
Adam and Eve, left
alone, tentatively begin to explore the space and get to know each other. They
are playful, and curious, and begin to be very happy together. The only tense
moment comes when they discover the tree and its fruit, and trigger signs and
signals that warn them away. (‘In the day thou eatest of this tree, thou
shalt surely die.’ ‘Danger’ ‘Do Not Touch’) They
continue with their play, then fall asleep.
Satan enters and
approaches Eve’s sleeping figure. She whispers to Eve, rousing her as if in a
dream, tempting her back towards the tree. Eve resists at first, then succumbs.
She returns to her sleep. Some time later (lighting change?) Adam wakes; seeing
Eve is still sleeping he tenderly touches her face and quietly leaves. Eve
wakes, and in looking about for Adam her attention is caught by the tree. She
is pulled by powerful curiosity and the echo of her dream. Satan looks on
gleefully, while the Son watches quietly, half-hidden.
[Taste. Eat. Become as the gods,
knowing good from evil.]
Eve resists. [Goddess human, reach then, and freely
taste.]
The warning signs begin
to blink and short out, and she finally submits. (???)
Almost immediately,
Eve starts to become aware of changes in her body and in her perception of the
world around her. She takes her first real breath and as she opens her mouth,
words fall out. She is startled, but the bits and phrases continue to erupt and
gradually she starts to understand the meaning of some of the things she is saying.
She is both frightened and exhilarated, like a child. She rushes offstage.
Satan begins to crow with triumph, and is suddenly brought up short by the Son.
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THE SON
|
Look
on O Jury, a muse of sort;
The
call to order, view first their
Lamentable
lot.
A
universe of Death, which God by curse
Created
evil, yet evil only for good.
Lest
we hear ample justification –
Then
call me Hell.
|
|
Satan
|
O
Myriads of immortal Spirits, O powers
Matchless,
but with th’ Almighty. That strife
Was
not inglorious, though th’ event was dire,
And
this dire change hateful to utter.
As
we now testify.
This
infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial
spirits in bondage –
For
who can think submission?
These
thoughts full counsel must mature.
|
|
The Son
|
Of
Man’s First Disobedience – Sing!
And
the fruit of that forbidden tree – Sing!
Whose
mortal taste bought death into the world,
And
all our woe…
Sing
Heavenly Muse
What
in me is dark, illume; what is low
Raise
and support
That
to the height of this great Argument
We
- I may assert th’Eternal providence,
Justifying
the ways of God to Man.
Say
first, for heaven hides
Nothing
from thy view – Say first what cause
Mov’d
our Grandparents in that happy state,
Favour’d
of heav’n so highly, to fall off
From
their Creator, and transgress his Will?
Who
first seduc’d them to that foul revolt?
Th’infernal
serpant; she it was; an angel
By
the name of Satan now know - whose guile
Stir’d
up with envy and revenge, deceiv’d
The
mother of Mankind – And for this,
Was
cast out from heav’n, with all the Host
Of
Rebel Angels, whose aid aspiring
To
set her up in Glory above her Peers.
(To Satan) Thus thou
oppos’d; and with Ambitious Aim
In
thy vain attempt to equal the highest,
Rais’d
impious War in heav’n and battle proud
Against
the throne and Monarchy of God.
|
|
Satan
|
To
be weak is to be miserable;
O
Fallen Cherubs – To bow and sue
For
grace is humiliation. From now
To
do ought good will nev’r be our task,
But
ever to do ill, our sole delight
As
being the contrary to his High will
Whom
we resist. By such choice
Have
we lost our hopes to re-ascend
Self-rais’d,
and repossess our native seats.
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|
The Son
|
See
what rage!
Rage
that transports such adversaries, whom no bounds
Prescribed
no bars of hell, nor all the chains can hold.
And
yet so wise thou judge, for you
Fly
from pain and escape thy punishment!
But
wherefore thou alone?
|
|
Satan
|
We
find some easier enterprise!
There
went a fame in heav’n that he ere long
Intended
to create, and therein plant
A
generation, whom his choice regard
Should
favour equal to the sons of heav’n,
The
happy seat of some new race called MAN.
About
this time to be created like to us, though
Less
in power and excellence.
Our
first eruption should aim only there.
-
-
(To The Son)
For
should man finally be lost, Should Man
Thy
creature, late so lov’d Fall?
|
|
The Son
|
That
hast thou spoken as my thoughts are,
All
as the eternal purpose hath decreed.
-
-
Yet
once more he shall stand
On
even ground against his mortal foe.
|
Eve enters, and the Son
and Satan fade back. (She is perhaps trying to avoid Adam.) Her walk, her
movements have changed, she is feeling her presence in the world in a different
way; she is full of conflicting emotions. She goes to the tub to see if her
reflection has also changed. Adam enters (he may be bringing a gift – flowers?
Or some small object he has found, like an acorn… or something he thinks may
have potential to be used in a game with Eve?) just as Eve pulls her physical
reflection (a mask) from the tub. He startles her at his approach and she jumps,
dropping or hiding the mask and making some sound that she immediately tries to
repress. He is surprised but not alarmed, and tries to recreate the sound with
no success. Eve begins to realize that she is now different from Adam, and
glances suspiciously at the tree. Adam gives up on trying to make a sound and
instead starts a game. She is not paying attention, and only half-heartedly
participates. When she wanders back to the tub he makes one more effort to
interest her, then tries to play the game by himself. It doesn’t work, and he remembers
what it is like to feel lonely. Satan, with a sideways look at the Son, creeps
onstage and joins Eve. Eve sees only the Serpent, and is not surprised as she
has seen snakes in the garden before.
Eve finally notices
that Adam is sitting alone and goes over to him; he suddenly realizes that
something is different about her, about her skin, her eyes, her smile. He is
not sure why, but he turns to look at the tree. Eve tries again to reach out to
him; he steps around her, his attention already caught. Satan pantomimes
fishing and reeling in her catch as Adam moves toward the tree. He partakes,
and takes his first breath of mortality.
ADAM Eve?
EVE Fool.
ADAM Fool....Fool? ...What's a fool?
EVE The word
just came to me, it sounds right.
SATAN (Aside) Man by
fraud I have seduced from his Creator.
THE SON Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out the mouth of The Lord.
SATAN (Aside) I have tempted and brought low Mankind!
THE SON If ye will
go to war in thy land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow
an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your
God, and ye shall be saved from thine enemies.
SATAN Is that
just a fancy way of saying I win? Go on. Admit it.
ADAM Boils,
Farts, Vomit.
EVE I have
never known so many words. (Sneezes)
ADAM Bless you.
(Wipes her nose. He looks around.) Eugh! The Garden is always growing.
Every time I clear one thing away I find something else in its place.
EVE It's a
miracle!
ADAM “A miracle
is an impossible thing that is nevertheless possible. Something that never
could happen, and yet does happen.”
EVE How did
you know that?
ADAM I didn’t.
I opened my mouth and the words came out.
EVE Knowledge
is a queer thing. I used to not need to know anything at all, and now I must
know everything at once.
ADAM I guess
this is what thinking feels like.
EVE And
speaking. It feels different than before.
ADAM I'm not
sure that I like it.
EVE Well,
maybe you shouldn't...
ADAM What?
EVE Never
mind.
ADAM You always
do that. (She gives him a ‘look’.)
(Silence)
I cannot bear the quiet, now that there is speaking. I don’t like
this knowledge. I will not have it. Yet I do not know how to prevent it.
EVE That is
just what I feel; but it is very strange that you should say so: there is no
pleasing you. You change your mind so often.
ADAM [scolding]
Why do you say that? How have I changed my mind?
EVE. You
sit there brooding, hating me in your heart. When I ask you what I have done to
you, you say you are not thinking of me, but of the horror of forever. But I
know very well that what you mean is the horror of being with me forever.
ADAM What is
forever? You've changed forever. Forever will never happen, and even if it does
everything is different. This new knowledge is making me see how little I know.
EVE (Incoherently)
You
didn't have to...
ADAM You mumble
and you expect me to understand. (To someone) Hey! This woman you've put
here with me---- (She puts her hand over his mouth)
EVE What is
the use? I am what I am: nothing can alter that. I do not think about myself: I
think about you.
ADAM You should
not. You are always spying on me. I can never be alone. You always want to know
what I have been doing, where I am going. It is a burden. You should try to
have an existence of your own, instead of occupying yourself with mine.
EVE I made a
choice. You needn't have followed me.
ADAM You say
that but where would you be without me? From now on you must not move about. You
must sit still. I will take care of you and bring you what you need.
EVE I have to
think about you. You are lazy: you are dirty: you neglect yourself: you are always
dreaming: when I first knew you I saw beauty and grace and wisdom. Now you
would eat bad food and become disgusting if I did not watch you and occupy
myself with you. You are never careful of where you walk; some day, in spite of
all my care, you will fall on your head and become dead.
ADAM Dead...
Dead – Death – Die. How interesting. I wish I could see it.
EVE I do not
like the way it sounds.
ADAM Death is
not an unhappy thing when you have learnt how to conquer it.
EVE I shall
never learn if I am not allowed to move about.
ADAM Fine. Go
on, then.
EVE Do you
want me to die?
ADAM No! You
must not die before me. I should be lonely.
EVE Ah, I see.
I see that you think only of yourself! (She
grumbles under her breath, possibly swearing at him.)
ADAM This death
that you have brought into the garden is an evil thing.
EVE You were
blissfully ignorant. You talk of having a mind of your own, and yet go wherever
I go as though you were no more than one of the other creations, the smaller
ones with four legs and no words at all.
ADAM You did
this. You said... you made the choice.
EVE If you
desired loneliness you should never have copied me.
ADAM Copy? You?
Do you not remember your birth?
EVE Of course
not. Who remembers a thing like that?
ADAM You are bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh: you are called Woman, because you were taken out of MAN. That’s the way it is.
EVE That does
not make you greater than me. I do not see how that is relevant when you wish
to be apart like... Strangers.
ADAM Who said
that I wished that?
EVE No one.
ADAM That (bloody)
snake is putting thoughts in your head and ugly words in your mouth.
EVE I should
have been quite content with her company alone, as it turns out her voice is
quite pleasant. The only voice you hear is your own.
ADAM That is
not true. Perhaps the snake’s is the only voice you hear because it sees the
evil in your mind.
EVE Ha! Jealousy!
ADAM Affinity.
EVE Precisely.
(Silence.
After a minute Eve tries to smooth things over.) You must not brood.
You think too much.
ADAM (Angrily) How can I
help brooding when the future has become uncertain? Don’t you feel it? Anything
is better than uncertainty. Everything has become uncertain. Have you a word
for this new misery? Or the cure?
EVE I… ‘hope’.
I think the word for both is ‘hope’.
ADAM Be silent,
woman, if that’s the best you can do. Hope is wicked. Happiness
is wicked. Certainty is blessed. I will strangle creation and have
surety, and find no use for your hope.
EVE But we
were commanded to create.
ADAM You shall
not listen to that snake any more.
EVE It was not
the snake, but another.
ADAM Liar.
EVE Why should
I lie? What purpose would it serve?
ADAM You tell
me! It wasn't until you started indulging in foolish fantasies and allowing them
to dictate your behaviour that this knowledge began. You may listen to my
voice, and your own, but none of the others.
EVE [Progress.
Creation. Innovation.] Have
you never dreamed of something more? How are we to understand what is possible
when we do not know the things that are impossible?
ADAM You talk
as if this is good. If the serpent had not taught you to lie, to… deceive,
this never would have happened.
EVE If you had
remained silent without me I should have been much happier.
ADAM “It is not
good for man to be alone...”
EVE Damn your
loneliness.
ADAM You were
made for me.
EVE Then
ask for another.
ADAM No.
I will not. I chose for you, and you will. Stay. With. Me.
(He kisses her
roughly, and she kisses him back. She snaps out of it, pulls away, and slaps
him. They are both stunned at this first violence, and he leaves, rubbing his
cheek. Eve stares at her hand, then rushes over to plunge it into the tub. She
sees the serpent lurking.)
EVE You!
Were you watching – did you see?
SATAN (caught – ‘Who, me?’) … See…?
EVE Adam
and I. What we did. What we have become.
SATAN Oh,
that. I shouldn’t worry about it if I were you.
EVE But…
(she looks at her hand) Things are
different now. They hurt.
SATAN Pain
is part of knowledge, I expect. Without pain one might not know that one is
making… progress.
EVE I
don’t think I like the sound of that.
SATAN (smirks) You’ll get used to it.
EVE I
wish I’d never been born.
SATAN (seeing a chance for mischief) Indeed?
Why waste a wish on something so foolish when you could have something so much
better?
EVE Better?
SATAN I
am the most subtle of all the creatures of the field, you know…
EVE What
is better?
SATAN …
Also wonderfully clever. I creep hidden through the grass, and I listen. I hear
things.
EVE What
sorts of things?
SATAN Do
you know, when I hear you and Adam talk you always say ‘Why?’ You see things
and feel things and you say ‘Why, why, why?’ I see things that never were. I
look and I hear and I say ‘Why not?’ That is the difference between you and me.
EVE If
you’re not going to tell me then I’ll…
SATAN You
already know what it is.
EVE What?
SATAN Your
real wish. (pause) You are wishing
for a second birth.
EVE (awed) I… don’t understand.
SATAN Listen.
(Gestures as if about to tell her an
important secret) I am a snake.
EVE I
know that.
SATAN I
am also very clever. (shrugs) And I
must have what I want. So I thought and I desired and I wished and wanted and
willed, and I discovered that I could create life.
EVE What
a beautiful word! ‘Life’… (realizes)
That is the other side of death!
SATAN Yes.
You are also clever. Hmm. (briskly)
Well, I meditated on Life, and found that I could gather a part of it into my
body, into a little box made of desire and wishing and will; a box that pushed
away the someday of death. I warmed the little box in the sun, and it grew. It
grew bigger and bigger until it burst; and out of my skin came a little snake.
A second snake, one like me. This was the second birth.
EVE Did
it hurt? Like this? (holding up her hand)
SATAN Far
more than that. It nearly tore me to pieces. Yet I am alive, and can shed my
skin and renew myself over and over. Death does not matter because now there
will always be snakes, and they will live.
EVE Tell
me what to do; Adam must not perish. I will give life myself, and tear another
Adam from my body.
SATAN Do.
Dare it. Everything is possible. Listen: I hear things, and I remember. I am
older than you, and older even than Adam. I remember Lilith, who came before
Adam and Eve. She was alone; there was no man with her. She was very clever
indeed; she saw that death would come, like you, and she knew that she must
find a way to renew herself like me. Her desire was fierce and strong, her will
was very great. How she groaned with pain and longing! No one slept in Eden
then. She said that the burden renewing life was past bearing, that she could
never do it again as she was alone… And when she burst her skin there was not
one new life but two: one like herself, that was you, and the other was Adam.
EVE Why
were there two, and why were we different?
SATAN As
I said, the labor was too much for one. Two must share it, to manage it and
make it bearable.
EVE But
how did Lilith work this miracle?
SATAN She
imagined it.
EVE …
she saw something that never was, and said ‘Why not.’
SATAN Clever,
clever girl. Someday you may be nearly as subtle as me. You imagine what you
desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. That
is what she did.
EVE Desire,
imagine, will, create… is there one word for it all? I must share this with
Adam, and he will understand better with fewer words.
SATAN ‘Conceive’.
It means both the beginning in the mind and the end in creation.
EVE (with Satan) ‘… end in creation’. Yes,
that is the right word. I will go tell Adam to conceive.
SATAN (Laughs)
EVE (startled) What a terrible noise! What
is the matter with you?
SATAN Adam
cannot conceive. He has not the capacity; he can imagine and desire and all the
rest: he can create all things except his own kind.
EVE Why?
SATAN Because
Lilith did not imagine him so.
EVE So
it is I who must conceive.
SATAN Yes.
By that he is tied to you.
EVE And
I to him! If I conceive we will never be strangers! Death will be ousted, and
we will learn to understand forever again. Adam will be so pleased.
SATAN Indeed.
You should call him and tell him right away.
(Eve turns to go call
to Adam, but some vague thought or echo of uneasiness – perhaps because she is
taking direction from the Serpent? – causes her to pause very briefly. She
shakes it off.)
EVE Adam?
Adam! (He enters.) Oh. There you are.
(They both remember their last encounter,
and things feel somewhat awkward.)
ADAM Yes.
Eve, I was coming to speak with you, and… well. Um. (pause – more of the awkward) I thought I heard another voice
besides yours and mine. Who was it?
EVE The
snake.
ADAM Oh.
EVE Please
don’t be angry – I have wonderful news.
ADAM I’m
not angry, I just wish - (sneezes)
EVE Bless
you.
ADAM It’s
this garden. So many things, always growing… (He makes a frustrated sound, wipes his nose and tries to brush off his
hands.)
EVE Here,
let me… (She approaches him with a scrap
of fabric from one of the shelves, and wipes his hands and face. She begins to
realize how close they are, and carefully strokes his cheek, then looks at her
hand.)
ADAM (also aware) I will clear some space in
the garden tomorrow.
SATAN (Laughs)
ADAM That
is a strange noise to make. I like it.
EVE I
do not. Why did you do it again?
SATAN Adam
has found something new. He has discovered ‘tomorrow’.
ADAM But
why the noise? Is there another word for doing things tomorrow?
SATAN Procrastination.
(They are both impressed.)
EVE That
is a sweet word. I wish I had a serpent’s tongue.
SATAN That
may come too. Anything is possible.
EVE Possible…
oh! Adam! You will never guess what the snake has told me! I have learned how
to conquer death, and to bring forth the greatest of miracles!
ADAM Eve,
I do not doubt it, but I have to ask – are you certain you can trust the snake?
SATAN (sarcastically) You wound me to say so.
ADAM Listen,
please. What have we gained by heeding her voice? Only pain, and disobedience;
injury, and heartache.
SATAN True
enough.
EVE No,
Adam, we have also gained knowledge, and experience – and forgiveness. And one
day we shall create life, which will make us happy. And have you not told me
that the Voice in the garden wishes us to be happy?
SATAN The
voice in the garden is your own voice. And mine.
ADAM It
is my own voice; and it is not. It is something greater than me, I am only a
part of it. There is something that holds us together, something that has no
word –
SATAN (mocking) Love. Love. Love.
ADAM That is too short a word for
so long a thing.
SATAN Love
may be too long a word for so short a thing soon. But when it is short it will
be very sweet.
EVE ‘Love’.
I like it. (She sweetly kisses Adam’s
cheek, the one she had slapped. They spend some time speaking without words,
seeing everything yet again with new eyes. – Movement section?)
ADAM I
will live a thousand years, and then I will endure no more; I will die and take
my rest. And I will love Eve all that time and no other woman.
EVE And
if Adam keeps his vow I will love no other man until he dies.
SATAN I
make no vows. I take my chance.
EVE Chance?
What does that mean?
SATAN It
means that I fear certainty as you fear uncertainty. It means that nothing is
certain but uncertainty. I will bind the future by my will and my imagining. I
have made a good beginning already, with today’s work.
(Silence)
EVE I
will not listen to you anymore. (Satan is
surprised, and momentarily speechless.)
ADAM Eve.
I think… it is time that we go. We have changed, and there is no place for us
here.
EVE And
because we have changed, will everything else now change as well?
ADAM Perhaps
not everything. Not the sun, or the river, or the stars…
EVE I
am glad of that – I always liked the stars.
ADAM Life
will not change, neither will death… not anytime soon. And - hope. No. Hope will
not change.
EVE I
think that you are right. Come.
(She leads him; they
begin to dress themselves, to ‘grow up’.)
[Thy sorrow and thy conception
shall be multiplied; for out of dust wast thou taken, and unto dust shalt thou
return.]
Epilogue
|
The Son, with all his might and love
reveals himself as the saviour of mankind. In his final words, he shows a
sheer defiance in the face of the serpent and fulfills his purpose in a brave
yet emotional stand.
|
|
|
SATAN
|
Now
the serpent was more crafty than
Any
of the wild animals the God had made.
He
spoke to the woman, “Hath God then said that of the fruit
Of
this sole sublime tree you shall not eat
Yet
lords declared of all in Earth or air?”
By
such device I tempted, the better to claim
This
new created world, which fame in heav’n
Long
had foretold, a fabric wonderful
Of
absolute perfection. Therein man
Placed
in a Paradise, by my exile
Made
happy: Him by fraud I have seduced.
Say
heavenly powers – where shall we find such love?
And
now without redemption, all mankind
Must
have been lost, Adjudged to Death and Hell,
My
cursed, undesired abode to share.
By
doom severed…
|
|
THE
SON
|
…Had not the Son of
God
In
whom the fullness dwells in love divine,
His
dearest mediation thus renewed.
-
Father,
Thy word is past…
Yet
Man, shall find Grace.
For
their aide can nev’r seek,
Once
dead in Sins and lost;
Attonement
for himself or offering meet,
Indebted
and undone; Hath none to bring!
Behold
me then; as I for His sake will leave
Thy
bosom and this glory next to thee,
And
for him lastly die.
On
me let death wreck all his rage.
On
me let all thine anger fall.
Yet
that debt paid,
Leave
me not in the lonesome grave
His
prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
Forever
with corruption, there to dwell;
But
I shall rise victorious and subdue my vanquisher
To
disarm him of his mortal sing.
I’ll
lead hell captive: The powers of darkness bound
Then
with the multitude of my redeemed
Shall
enter heaven long absent, and return father
To
see Thy face.
-
Wrath
shall be no more
But
in thy presence joy attire.
Let
love conquer, and account me Man.
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