Dramatis Personae
Angel
Vishnu
Joan of Arc
Voice of Sophia
voice of God
Eli and his two sons
Saul young and old
Samuel old and young
Joel and Abiah, sons of Samuel
Non-Hebrew kings, Priestesses, Priests, and generals
Jonathon
Michal – Jonathon’s sister
David
Jesse, David’s father
Elias – David’s older brother
Goliath
citizens of many nations, their soldiers, guards, servants and slaves
Agag – Amalehite king
Prologue
Hello friends and lovers, critics and others,
We will now try to discover
why Nations fail and citizens wail
while projecting their voices sky ward.
How a down-low, bully king
with dark magick tries anything,
by pointing a dirty finger at others
whose love was pure and sexually hot
and did not care if they were Queer or not.
Act 1 Scene 1
Several 50’s Herman Miller chairs sit in an empty room.
Enter a nude Angel more feminine than masculine with wings folded along her back, Vishnu in a Gobi’s clothing
Vishnu
Are we late?
Voice of Sophia
Deities are never late or early but arrive exactly when they should
Angel
You have watched Lord of the Rings too much
Sophia
Giggle, Oh, you, I didn’t think you would show up
Angel
Self imposed penance. Let’s start over. I didn’t mean that.
Sophia
Yes, you did
Vishnu
I love your lectures
Sophia
Thank you, knowledge is best when it is from the horse’s mouth
Angel, laughing
Or the cows?
Everyone laughs lightly
In unison
Watch and learn
Sophia
You know me too well
Enter Joan of Arc in 21st Century mens street clothes.
Joan
Am I late?
Angel
Here we go again.
Joan
I did miss something
Angel
Joan you should not have not missed the first class; humans are always playing catch up.
Sophia
Not that old bitch
angel
Look whose talking
Sophia
Go to Hell
everyone laughs
Angel
Sticks and stones…
Sophia
Tell it to your father
They all look at each other. It gets very quiet.
Joan
So…?
Angel
So what
Joan
What’s going on?
Sophia
Joan, being new here is a disadvantage, Vishnu will share notes with you later. You’ll figure it out.
I’d like to skip the begating, No one cares except some anal retentive Rabbis and dissatisfied political extremists looking for a name for their newest progeny that no one has heard of for a thousand years.
Angel
Thank God
Sophia
Your welcome
Act 1 Scene 2
Jerusalem in 3,000 BC. Two men stand in front of a temple. Their robes are partially opened. Women pass by and the men walk up to them touching their face and hands and sliding their hands beneath their clothes touching their breasts.
They walk up the steps and open the temple door. An old man stands off to the side unseen by them hiding behind baskets.
The men open the door, voices and music can be heard, naked people dance and half clothed musicians move about the crowd. Many transgendered prestress and priests are watching and participating.
A table is set up with a scale and piles of coin strewn about. At the altar a sow and a goat are tied.
The old man walks up the stairs behind them and shuts the door. His droops as he walks away, back down the steps
Eli
I am Eli your servant Lord, and I am ashamed. Damn kids. I have given them everything and they have stabbed me in the back as surely as they have you and Israel. What should I do? They’ll get other it. They will come back to you. They will.
He hurries off and puts his hands to his ears.
Eli
Perhaps Yah Weh is not listening, off busy somewhere else
God
Fool, I see everything and I warned you about backsliding, I warned them all.
Eli
Shit
God
And this shall be a sign to you, that will come upon your two sons, on Hoshni and Phineas, in one day they shall die, both of them and on that day, will be too your last
Eli
Damned kids
Sophia
So this is the beginning of the end of Eli’s house.
Fade. Lights up on class
Joan
I didn’t know.
Angel
Didn’t you ever read the Bible?
Joan
I was not taught to read or write
Angel
That figures. Stupid and happy, it’s how He likes them.
Joan
I didn’t mean that, I mean I didn’t know people then were allowed to express or live as a gender they were not born too.
Angel
Yeah, well, the Hebrews were the ones that nixed that, Joan.
Vishnu
Oh girlfriend, that’s so sad. I am so very sorry and it makes me so angry. You were their Messiah, you saved their language and culture and they killed you for wearing boys clothes. You look good in that polo shirt, dockers and deck shoes, by the way.
Angel
Amen, brother
Joan
I never felt free then, I had a real problem when I began develop breasts
Vishnu
As much as I did wanting them
everyone laughs
Joan
You’re beautiful
Vishnu
You are just as beautiful in all your butchiness
Sophia
I hate to interrupt
Angel
You can be as bad as Him
Sophia
I am Him, I was here before Him, I birthed Him and we joined together to create what is
Vishnu
I love it when you talk like that
everyone laughs
Joan
But about Eli, why set him up, why the punish him too?
Sophia
In religion, as far as deities go, there is no such thing as cause and affect, except in the mind of humans
Joan
The innocent and the corrupt and evil are all punished together? God
Angel
Amen brother
Act 1 Scene 3
the stage is dark
God
For I have told Him I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows of, because his sons made themselves vile and unclean, and he did not restrain them.
The sun rises and a boy lays, prostrate
God
Rise up Samuel, therefore I have sworn unto the House of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice or any offerings, forever.
Scene fades to black as Samuel sits up and stands
Samuel talks with Eli
Eli
Well
Samuel
Well what?
Eli
What did he say?
Samuel
I think you know
Eli
Tell me and let it begin
Sam
You have really pissed of God and his promise to you against your house still stands
Eli
Perhaps…?
Sam
Don’t waste your time
Eli
It is the Word of God given me by his newly chosen prophet. Let Him do what he thinks is right. I accept the judgement
Sam
So be it
Fade to black
ANGEL
I always felt sorry for Eli, for his judgement, and I never understood why God can’t help humans see their transgressions instead of always killing everyone and everything
Sophia
Sh-h-h-h
Joan
Yeah, why judge Eli? Why not just strike his sons dead in the temple. Is it for economic or political corruption or having sex in the temples or having sex with Transsexual clergy. We bloody don’t know if they were both even married. Why not state the sins I’m uncomfortable with this kind of judgement mostly because Eli did nothing
angel
It’s the only way He knows
Sophia
I agree and have argued with him about it since his beginning but Deities, like humans, have little or no control over there children or husbands
angel
That’s rich
Joan
Everyone is guilty, all the time, it still makes me squeamish
angel
Relax, it gets better, or worse, depending on your point of view
Vishnu, sighing
Kali would not have been so impersonal or secretive concerning the offing of the oppressors of her people
Sophia
Thank you, I thought that was my best performance
everyone laughs
Sophia
And it came to be that Israel again declared war on the Philistines but this time they were defeated and lost 4,000 men and retreating to Shiloh they brought the Ark of the Covenant to use it’s magick in a second battle against the Philistines. They will be lead by the sons Eli.
Joan
I thought my battles were bloody, I thought my troops were brave but these men, though they fight with shorter swords, do so with no real armor. It is hard to watch. I can almost taste the dust and smell their blood.
Angel
Man kills in the thousand and cries when the battle is over; God kills in the tens of thousands and feels righteous and knows he will do it again. It makes me cry, but I still love Him.
Sophia
Angels, like humans, cannot help how they were created
Joan
I lament for us all
Vishnu
You regret your victories and those who had to die to save your people?
Joan
Watching this, knowing it will never end but go on in ever increasing numbers, that all leaders are eventually corrupted, yes, here and Now I would say yes.
Vishnu
And that is how learn
Sophia
May I continue?
Act 1 Scene 4
Philistine scouts and signal man stand on a hill and watch the battle from beginning to end
first soldier
Their God comes to war with them
second soldier
Shit, this has never happened before, now what are going to do
third soldier
Who shall intercede on our behalf? This is the same god that ruined the Egyptians with plagues and then lead his people here to slaughter us for our land that he claimed for them.
Fourth soldier
Be strong, act like men. Fellow Philistines. Would you be slaves to the Hebrews? They have been your servants, would you be theirs? Come, let’s fight them, better dead, than serve their Lord.
The sun begins to set
second soldier
I don’t fucking believe it
first soldier
Ashtoreth was with us today
third soldier
They are all destroyed except that one scared coward over there
he points
fourth soldier
We have captured their God, the Ark of the Covenant is ours, we shall use their magick against them
First soldier
One should tread lightly when using magick one does not understand
third soldier
Ransom that bad boy back to them
fourth solider
Stop it on can never second guess a commander, let alone our goddess
the sun sets, it is dark
Act 1 Scene 5
an out or breath soldier with no sword or shield stands in front of Eli and a pregnant woman. Attendants and guards are around
soldier
They have ravished us, sire, our army is scattered and they have killed 30,000 today. The Ark of the Covenant has been taken and… both Phineas and Hophni are dead, there bodies taken by the Philistines along with the Ark of our Lord. Sire ..
Eli stands, aided by the pregnant woman, he falls, striking his head and dies in front of his own throne.
The pregnant woman, wife of Phineas, knells over him and grabbing her stomach sits down
Wife
It is time
she lays back and raises her legs, screaming in pain
wife
Call him Ichabod, for the glory of Israel has departed, God has been taken away with my husband, his father and his sons. The Ark has been taken.
She dies as the baby is born, crying.
Mid-wife attendant
The House of Eli has ended and Israel is in ruins. What will become of us?
Fade to black
lights up on classroom
Joan
Why does God take the innocent as well as the guilty? Phineas’s wife had been hurt enough, probably knowing she was cheated on. I wonder if she even knew?
Vishnu
That s the eternal question asked if all deities and certainly the eternal cycle of abused women
Angel
That’s the way the cookie crumbles
Joan
Fuck you
angel
God saw fit to make that not possible
Vishnu
That’s the way the nookie tumbles
Angel
Fuck you
Vishnu, one hand between her legs the other pushing her breast up
Anytime, anywhere. So, you know how to use your mouth for something other than yapping?
Sophia
Are we done yet?
Quiet
Act 1 Scene 6
The interior of a Philistine temple. Transsexual Priestess and Priest move and dance around the Ark. Musicians are playing the tempo increases and they begin have sex over and in front of the Ark. One by one they leave until only Priestess and Priest remain.
The Priestess is prostrate in front of the ark and the priest covers her with a blanket and leaves. Guards are posted at the doors. The sun goes down and it is dark
Sunrise and the Priest enters. The Priestess remains prostate having not moved the entire night. The priest calls in attendants to lift her and place her in a throne nearby. She is helped to drink water which runs down her face
the events of the previous day resume. The priestess remains seated not moving. The stage grows dark and one by one the temple is emptied. The suns sits with the Priestess still sitting in the throne. Guards are again posted at the doors. As the doors are closed
vapors begin filling the chamber. It is dark
The sunrises.
The Priest returns and unlocks the doors. He enters and finds the torso of the priestess. There is blood everywhere. Her head sits on the Ark and her limbs are scattered about the room. He cries and falls down upon his knees. The guards rush in.
The Ark as well as the body of the Priestess are removed and the front door is bricked in. There is much wailing and crying throughout the city and around the temple.
Generals have gathered at the temple while the doors are being bricked in they are talking with other Philistine clergy
High Priestess
The Ark of the god of Israel shall not abide with us here, our Priestess is slaughtered with their magick and a plague has invaded our cities. Their Lord’s hand is sore upon us and our Goddess.
Philistine General
What shall we do?
High Priestess
Let the Ark be carried to Gath
The ark is loaded onto a cart and carried to Gath. As they enter the city gates a earthquake begins, vapors descend on the caravan and the city and it is destroyed. People drop in their tracks and the others run away, stricken by the plague.
The Ark is carried away from the city.
People shout
Take the Ark to Ekron
Yes Now, do it now
the Ark is carted off
They arrive at Ekron but the gates are closed and a representative stands on the city wall and shouting
Ekronite King
You have brought the God of the Hebrews to slay us also. We mean to return their God to where he belongs that it might not slay us or our people for there has been a deadly destruction throughout our land since the Ark came to us, their God’s hand in upon us.
Ekronite general
Gather together all the Priestesses and Priests, the diviners and the seers in the land to this place so they may communicate with the God of Israel so we might learn how and where we are to return to them their Ark.
Act 1 Scene 7
A large group of religious people and generals are gathered under a tree. The Ark still sits on the cart nearby.
High Priestess
We must make trespass offerings
Philistine General
Why should we? They attacked us and like children, running away and leaving the abode of their God in our hands. We have shown no disrespect to it and have not tried to usurp It’s power for ourselves. Our land is laid to waste by the very thing we care for, that they abandoned. We kept their god holy
High Priestess
You asked. This is the answer, or would you rather us all crushed by our own homes and laid low and murdered by their god’s poisonous vapors breathe and rubbed out by the boils on your dicks?
You must create 5 golden mice, one for each Lord of our people and one for each city and village and you must cast in gold representations of the emerods upon the genitals of each of your men.
Philistine general
I have listened to enough from this woman. This is outrageous. Do you make fun of us bitch?
High Priestess
I am High Priestess of Ashtoreth and cannot lie when asked to divine. I answer openly and freely and without any fear of my Goddess. You cringe in fear of this God of the Hebrews and ask advise of my Goddess.
Would you harden your heart as did the Pharaoh of the Egyptians when he was told so peacefully and without prejudice how to act?
If so, you too, will lie in a fathoms of a oceans of death of your own making.
Philistine general
How dare you…
High Priestess, cutting him off, mid-sentence.
Therefore make a new cart and take two milk cows who have never known the yoke or plowed the fields ans tie their calves to the cart and then take their calves from them.
Lay the Ark upon the cart with the trespass offerings and send it back.
Let the calves go and let the milk cows follow them. Then you will know if the disasters which have befallen us is coincidence or the hand of the God of Israel.
Act 1 Scene 8
Sophia
This was done and the calves walked the road to Bethshemesh and the Philistines knew the mind of god.
When the people of Bethshemesh saw the Ark approaching they rejoiced and left the fields they were harvesting and gave thanks for the Arks arrival.
The Levites sacrificed the calves to the Lord in a fire made of the wood of the cart which brought the Ark to them, offering it in the field of Leah who birthed Joshua.
And under the cover of night the Lord killed 50,310 of them for they peeked inside the Ark.
They sent it them, with the trespass offerings to Kirjathjearim and mentioned not the deadly handwork of The Lord of the Hebrews but passed it on, poker faced.
Angel
Never look a gift Ark in the mouth
Vishnu
You are a card. Did you ever to stand up?
Angel
Yes, but Fox canceled my show
Vishnu
Nothing is sacred
Joan
Isn’t that the point? No one knows the rules, everyone is punished. Whether you piss on it or treat it with respect. There is never a true way when God is a dictator.
Angel
Did you meet Stalin? It sounds like it.
Sophia
We are running far afield, folks.
Angel
In Russia they say the huge numbers of unknown dead buried in the fields guaranteed a good crop of sunflowers.
Joan
Did they have a bumper crop of sunflowers in Bethshemesh?
Sophia
Shall we continue?
Angel
No, opium, have you ever seen the headdress of Ashtoreth?
Sophia
Shall we…
All in chorus
what’s the point?
Sophia
To survive
Angel
Yah Weh plays checkers with the soul of men and the lives of nations, playing one against the other, using them to murder His brother and sister deities so he may be the only One.
Vishnu
Surely He must know that nothing is destroyed that is created. That god run is seasons and that which is trimmed away grows back and that all matter bing energy returns to it’s beginnings and is reborn.
Angel
He hopes that humans forget. He counts on it. He leans on their acquiring this knowledge with the heavy hand of fear when they begin to comprehend it in any fashion.
Joan
I feel sick to my stomach
Sophia, in a German accent, making fun of Eienstein
God does not play dice
they all laugh
Vishnu, giggling
Energy can be neither destroyed nor created
Angel
That which is shall always be, that which was, still is.
Joan
I’m gonna be sick
Sophia
We’re almost done
Vishnu walks to Joan and wiggles into her seat and puts her hands around her shoulders.
Curl up here boyfriend.
Angel, with sarcasm
Well that’s cute
Sophia
I am sorry you don’t have a cock, dear heart. I always thought it was mistake, but God was and still is a very jealous and insecure God, I should know, I birthed him and became his lover. His own securities about the size of his cock doomed you all and resulted in all those sexually repressive rules that humans will never really understand or obey.
Jealousy is always a horrible monster.
Angel
Gee, Mom, thanks for the understanding
Sophia
You may not have one but you really are a huge prick sometimes… son.
Let’s finish this and knock off ‘till tomorrow.
Joan
I just want to say that in lieu of what’s going on it is insulting to read that the Hand of God will be lightened from on the Philistines and their Deities and their land for doing what was told them, That’s what’s making me sick to my stomach. There is no winning.
Joan begins to cry, Vishnu kissed her forehead.
Joan
Thank you. You smell goo. Patchouli and sandalwood?
Vishnu, touching Joan’s face
It will be alright, let’s listen
Joan
But 50,000 murdered in their sleep, I… it’s…
angel
Yes, it even affects me, it cheapens all Gods and lessens the meaning of righteousness
Sophia
The Ark rested in the temple at Kirjatharim for 20 years under the care of Eleaza.
Light fades on class
light up on Samuel as he stands in the temple the learned and the holy people and their armies generals are in attendance.
Samuel
If you return to Yah Weh with all your hearts and put away the Goddess Ashtoreth and Isis and the Gods Balim and Osiris and serve Him only He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. Make no sacrifices and hold no dance to the Deities of this land or of the Egyptian lands from which you were freed.
Shouts and cheers go up from those in attendance and they depart.
A great fire is kindled and the statuary and scrolls and other ritual tools of all the religions not Hebrew are burned.
The Ark is brought out from the temple and sat at the place of sacrifice and Samuel knells and pours water onto it as a sacrifice to Yah Weh.
Sophia
And the Philistines were driven out and forced to return all the land which the Israelis claimed.
Fade to black
Scene 9
Samuel is old. He sits at a domestic table. Two men stand before him.
Samuel
Joel, Abiah, sit with me and share a meal. We must talk. I am tired and I know I am getting old
Joel
No father, you are not old, god is with you and you are still our prophet and judge.
Samuel
Thank you but I can no longer keep up. I would like to appoint you both, as my first and second born, to be additional judges over Israel. Eventually I will not be able to work and we need a smooth transition of power when that time comes.
Abiah
We will abide by your commands father
the brothers look at each with greedy corrupt smiles.
Fade to black
Many angry men stand before Samuel
Man 1
They are corrupt
Man 2
Joel demands money before and after each hearing
man 3
And we must give them both money whenever we yto rebuild or at on to or homes or work places or build new ones
Man 4
The pass judgement by whoever pays them the most money
Man 2
Listen Samuel, you are old and your sons, whom you have appointed as judges over us, are corrupt. They are no longer with god
Man 4
Give us a King like other nations. Give us a King to lead our armies and observe our Laws
they depart and Samuel bows his head prying
God
Listen to the voice of the people. They have forsaken you and hence me. They wish a secular ruler and violate the Covenant they made with me. The memory of man is short as their dicks. Your sons bleed them dry and they think a King will be different. They forget Egypt. They forget the Philistines. The love of man is so inconstant.
Gather them back and tell them how a King acts for that is what they shall have.
Fade to black
Lights up on class
Joan
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely
Angel
Lights, action!
Vishnu
You would give away a $50 bar question?
Angel
Why not, I am forbidden to drink.
Vishnu
Is that why you are always hanging out in opium dens and crack houses?
Joan
you’re pretty petty for an Angel
Vishnu
As above, so below
Joan
My point exactly. This god does not lead, he condemns to get what he wants like Spiritual Urban Renewal. Like fucking manifest destiny. This is no kind Deity but a greedy spoiled brat of a God.
Sophia
Like I said earlier, neither women nor Goddesses have much control over who they birth and you are right Vishnu, bully boys and bully Gods are but one in the same.
Angel
And the point is
Joan
there is no point
Angel
That is what I was going to say
Joan
But the point of a sword or the point of a bolt of lightening. This God likes them to bleed from both sides, it just does not matter.
Vishnu
I need a drink, what do you say we knock off for awhile?
Joan
Good idea, where to, when to?
Vishnu
Fillmore
Joan
East or west
Vishnu
Well… the west is the best…
Joan laughs
Vishnu
Late or early?
Joan
Early, I loved that decade
Angel, rejected and sad
I guess I’ll just stay here
Vishnu
No, No join us, we’ll pick you up a chunk of Afghani hash or maybe a temple ball
Angel, visibly touched and starting to cry
I have never been given a gift, I, I thank you and accept
Sophia
Before we break for the day let’s finish, shall we?
Scene 10
Samuel is standing on the temple steps. Many people stand around him
Samuel
This king you desire to raise above me and your pact with God will be less and more than your imaginations contain in a wine skin.
He will take away your sons and your horses and your chariots for his and place his own officers above them.
Your daughters will be cooks and bakers and candy makers and these he will use to sweeten his servants beds.
He will take your livestock and make you little more than they. You will be nothing but consumers and units to be consumed.
The crowd begins shouting back at him
Man 1
He will make us a powerful nation as others are powerful.
Man 2
He will give us the riches of our enemies
Man 3
He will lead our armies
Man 4
And protect out laws as his own
Man 5
He will fight our battles and us feared in this and all lands
Samuel
You will learn to fear this king ten time more than your enemies will have need to, but I have promised Yah Weh to heed the will of his people and I now seal your choice. So be it
The crowd shouts
So be it
Samuel
Go then, every man to his city and search for he who shall be your king over all of Israel.
Act 2
Scene 1
A gruesome battle is going on from the American Civil War
Joan and the Angel walk in with there arms around each other, wearing hippie clothes from the late/mid ’60’s.
angel
I’ve seen this show before. It’s another fight for truth and justice which becomes institutional oppression and lying about who and what actually won since the ‘good guys’ institute nearly identical restrictive laws as the ‘bad guys’ but was a saccharin pretty prose to hide it. Then it’s just a matter of teaching school children the rewrites and within less than a generation it becomes the truth. Same shit, different day
Joan
Shut up, I haven’t seen it
Angel
I just want to say that perhaps it’s all a set up. Eli, Samuel, Saul and the pretty boy David, they all do the same thing and act the same way.
Joan
Perhaps god’s judgement is really screw, e tells each one to look for a replacement just like themselves.
Angel
He’s telling the defective part to act and choose a mirror image, to duplicate the faulty part.
Joan
You’re right, when it comes to Humans, God is a stuck record.
Angel
I always thought he jerked off while you people fucked everything up.
Joan
You are as bad as the priests from my parish.
Angel
Don’t even get me started about that crap. The Holy roman empire stole every ritual it uses, condemned and murdered all other clergy for sexual offences against God and than incorporated the same rituals into their new church while at the same time allowing catholic renegade priests to rape children.
They breed humans like cattle and though they are the richest religious institution in the world and say they tend to the spiritual needs of the poorest they insist that their parishioners poverty is righteous
Joan
Too much money always corrupts and more quickly that the lust for power
Angel
Actually, lack of money corrupts much more quickly. Acquiring too much is just rancid icing on a stale cake
Vishnu enters also dressed in hippies clothing and hugs and kisses both the Angel and Joan
Joan
I had such a hot time last night
Angel, blushing
It was my first time
Vishnu
It was both our first time with an Angel
They all giggle
Angel
No one has had sex with an Angel in 2,000 years I needed that girlfriends. It’s the first time I have felt holy in eon’s, literally
Sophia, pointing to the on going battle, still raging across the stage
Oh, I must have let this run all night
War is war. They are all the same. Each one s the last war the great war the end whatever and establish the same. Nothing changes, everyone dies, all governments are or become evil, caring more for their own corrupt perpetuation than the citizens who pay good money to buy oppressed. I have really been amazed that humans can not figure that one out. They blame it evil Gods blah, blah, blah and yet they are all part of Him. They will never catch on.
Vishnu
It’s the use of religion to bolster and protect Nationalistic interests which always has to do with the theft of resources. All flags should be burnt, all borders abolished. Humans will destroy themselves for these two things alone. War, all war is started because of greed and it’s cousin power.
Joan
It is what the entire Old Testament is about
Vishnu
It’s the history of my people too, for 10,000 years since the original invasion of the patriarchy spear headed by the Kurgans. I think this God liked them the best. All history is based on their actions and deeds.
Sophia
We should get started. You are all correct. I have had this same argument with Him since He started doing solo work. I should have put my foot down then. It’s the reason for my work here. Hoping some are interested in justg showing up and listening. When three show up, it’s depressing
Joan
The mark of an educated mind is that it can entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle said that. I always liked that quote.
Angel
You crack me up girlfriend
Sophia
Listen and learn
Joan
That’s a good one too
angel
Christ
everyone laughs
Sophia
Did you all read what we will be covering today?
Joan
Oh yeah, we were just talking about it. It’s so redundant, Eli and his sons, Samuel and his sons. I think god made a real mistake keeping Samuel on as Judge.
And the ‘find a man like yourself’ thing seems to be used to just perpetuate all the same crap onto another generation.
And then Saul, ditto, and the intimation of betrayal by Jonathon for eating wild honey and his later falling in love with David, by the way, the only person tweeked by that was his father, Samuel didn’t care, that much is obvious. Are these things connected in some way? Or has the story just been revised to the point completely gibberish? Why, everyone knows wild honey is Kosher, and we all know that Yah Weh mentioned only the murder of humans and the destruction of domesticated animals.
So what the fuck? Again, the innocent are punished.
Angel
That’s the most I have heard you say at one time
Joan
Yeah, well I can use my mouth for something other than making Deities come.
Vishnu
You go girl!
Sophia
god covers his ass about all these things by disallowing any questions and making up the riles as he goes.
I think covers it well. Anyone know the verse?
Angel
15:23, For rebellion is as witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Sophia, giggling
I figured you would not have forgotten that one.
Angel
that one is old school, from before time and the basis for the whole ‘thrown out of heaven’ thing. Everyone who ever asked a question got booted out.
Joan
That makes more sense now and it is very inline with a God Plaines has spent his entire existence trying to kill other Deities and getting others to do his dirty work, subjugating anyone without a dick and actually instigating the whole racial skin color thing as a measure of holiness.
Vishnu
Amen, sister
stage darkens
Scene 2
Samuel is old, a young man knells before him. Samuel places oil on his forehead.
Samuel
The Lord anoints you, Saul, to be Captain over all His inheritance.
When you leave here you are to go to the Plaines of Tabor, there you shall meet three strangers and they will give you two loaves of bread.
Go then, to the Hill of God and there you shall met a company of prophets playing psaltery, tabret, pipe and harp.
Share the bread with them and you shall be another man.
Fear not for God is with you and through these deeds God shall be within you.
They leave the stage.
fade to black.
Music can be heard as Saul and musicians walk onto the stage from opposite direction. Saul follows them. Their music is slow at first. They stop and share bread and wine from a skin. They begin to play again, faster and faster. Saul disrobes and begins to talk to the sky dancing in a circle and then lays down in the dirt.
Vishnu
So the bread was soma?
Joan
Did he talk to god or Ashtoreth? Is the bread the vehicle for do so?
Angel
I think it was a rye ergot which produces hallucination much like mescalin. Haven’t you noticed that so much of the Old testament takes place during the harvesting of grain. Partly it is an attempt to pull the population away from the older Goddess symbolism of agriculture. Also, God often makes it rain during the harvest. Not could for the grain but it is the catalyst for the production of the ergot.
Joan
Drugs get you holy quicker than just dancing or singing
Vishnu
Drugs are what separate us from the animals
Drugs make evil men righteous
Drugs make good men into monsters
Drugs make the holy man mad
Drugs are a slippery slope, at best
Angel
Drugs are God an Goddess, Devils and worse, the souls mirror, the trickster come-a-calling, the hearts prism.
Joan
Man chases asses, God chases man’s soul. If asses ate drugs would they honor God? If God ate drugs would he follow his own advice?
Vishnu
Is Saul among the prophets?
Everyone laughs
fade to black
Saul sits on a throne.
Samuel stands next to him. A crowd of people stand around
Samuel
This day you have rejected your covenant with Yah Weh who saved you from the Pharaoh and the Babylonians and those who have tried to oppress you in this land.
This day you have set a man above you and your God.
The crowd
God save the king
Samuel
So be it
fade to black
Angel
Yawn. Another count down to destruction.
Joan
Sophia, does it make you sad, knowing you birthed this God and with Him this world and this way? What the fuck went wrong?
Sophia
Not even a Goddess can see everything. Sometimes the milk curdles and it makes bad cheese
Joan
Do we still have to eat it?
Sophia
Until it is all gone
Joan
It makes me sick
Sophia
Me too
Angel
But I love Him anyway, and his cheese
fade to black
Scene 3
Saul sits upon a throne wearing a crown. There are attendants around. A messenger comes and bows.
Saul
What news from the front?
Messenger
The Ammonites will not pledge you their allegiance unless you pluck out the right eyes of all your people as a trespass tribute.
Saul become enraged and picking up a sword walks into the streets, hollering to himself. He sees a oven yoked to a cart and approaches it and begins hacking it to death and does not stop until it is in many pieces all the while screaming about his greatness and what he intends to do about the Ammonites. He finally stops and turns to a gaurd standing by who is horrified and frightened.
Saul
Send a piece to each Ammonite city so they know the reply of Israel. Whoever comes fo me or Samuel of anyone of Israel this shall be done to them.
Fade to black.
The messenger has returned to the Ammonite camp and uncovers a penis and testicles on a silver platter.
War shouts from the Ammonite soldiers standing around as they begin to move out against the Israelis.
Fade to black
Saul is lifted onto the shoulders of a large crowd thanking him for the defeat of the Ammonites. He is carried off stage while people cheer
fade to black
Scene 4
Saul walks through the streets of a conquered ammonite town. There are fires remaining and the people back away from him. He is surrounded by generals and a Rabbi.
General
They say, my Lord, that your taxes are causing a great hardship at home.
Saul
they are traitors and spies who attack me from within. They are the emeny oif Israel and they can be destroyed as easily as I have done this town
general
They support the armies. Everyone who disagrees with state policy is not a traitor. Thgese are some of the bravest men of our nation, decorated veterns, politicaians.
Saul
We need no politicians, God is on my side, we need no aging war vet whose vision of grandeur is more in a flagon of wine then on the scribes pen and we need no little citizen who think they know more than me. They are all expendable and replaceable as there are lines and crowds of less mouthy and less thinking assholes to take their place. I have given them victory and they pick at me like vultures.
General
They say you direct but do not lead
Saul
And what do you say, General?
General
I say we are victorious, what matters how?
Saul
You will make a great politician if you live that long
General
How have I offended you?
Saul
Arrest this man for treason. I said Do It Now!
The general is drug off screaming. They are now standing before the temple of the Ammonites
It begins to rain, there is thunder in the distance
Saul
See, See? God threatens all Israelis with starvation by raining on the harvest. Wise God, good God. Let it be a warning to them all.
The group walks up the steps. Saul opens the doors there is loud music from within
Saul
No one is to enter these doors until I come out nor are they to leave before me.
He enters alone and closes the doors
Scene 5
Saul enters the pagan temple No one notices. The musicians keep playing. Several T-priestesses and T-priests are having ritual sexual worship. They look up but do not stop. Attendants light candles which gone out or need to be replaced. A semi clothed female attendant walks up to Saul who is still wearing his crown.
Attendant
your quest is in your heart as well as your soul,
attendant turns to the audience
or that which cares to lead
she puts her finger to her lips
sh-h-h-h, or the one you see in your dreams or your nightmares if such is the case.
Saul eats what is offered. The musicians gather around him in two circles each rotating I a different direction. G-girls and T-girls enter the double circle and begin disrobing the King of Israel.
They begin to make love in a pile as the musicians play and move faster and faster
Voice of God
I see you
No one hears or pays attention.
Fade to black
Out side the doors of the temple the guards slouch and sit around
Guard 1
He has been in there a long time
Guard 2
It does not bode well for us
Guard 3
I am glad this is my last tour
Guard 1
Yah Weh will not like this shit if I am right about what is going on behind those idolatrous doors
he spits at the doors
Scene 6
Samuel paces back and forth in front of a empty throne in Saul palace. He is mad and acts with paranoid. Looking in corners and ceilings as if someone is watching that he can not see.
Saul enters
Samuel
What the fuck have you done?! You have been most foolish. You have not kept the Covenant with God.
Saul
You did not show up for the offering. I prepare for battle and need to sacrifice to our Lord for victory over the Philistines
Samuel
You have so little faith, I am here, the battle has not yet begun
You did not arrive at the time the Lord and you agreed upon
Samuel
You have so little faith
Saul
That, you know, is not what is in question here, is it?
Samuel
You can not have your cake and eat it too. All of Israel knows what you have done. You have honored the God between your legs and the thighs of the heathen goddesses. Did you like the fish and fruit? Was it good? Did Yah Weh talk to you? Did you even pay attention?
Saul
I thought I heard Him cry with delight
Samuel
You are almost right but he only cried.
Now the Lord who established your kingdom over Israel forever takes it back. Your rule will not continue, the Lord has sought and found another man after his own heart and chosen him to be the Captain over his people because you have not honored your oath to him and made an offering of your self to the Goddess of Israel’s enemy.
You have also usurped my place as prophet and made our burnt offerings with the hands of a warrior and a secular ruler.
Dancing and drugs do not make a prophet, though they can make a king or general.
I cut myself off from you as you see this tear in my cloak.
Samuel shows Saul his torn garment and widens it by ripping it more. He turns and walks away.
Saul walks to his throne and sits down. He sits his crown on his lap and then replaces it on his head. There are a few attendants standing around who have backed into the shadows, trying to hide.
Saul
Guards, Guards!
Guards rush in
Saul
Arrest these servants for treason. I want their heads brought to me within the hour.
They are dragged off
Saul is alone. Standing, he begins to walk around waving his arms and talking to himself
Saul, growing louder and more agitated as he talks
I will trick this trickster God of my Fathers father. He admonishes me, outrageous, how dare he, fucking god, accuse me of unholiness, of not killing every fucking thing alive. What the fuck? Blame me for making burnt offerings to his whinny ass. I was fucking set up. Fucking god. Kill the fucking livestock. I am sick of this god and his kill everything shit. I will show him and that ass licking Samuel.
I will go him one better. I will ban and destroy all religions except the One Gods. Hebraism shall prevail. All soothsayers, diviners, card reads, stone casters they shall all be run out or die every queer one of them dress wearing boys who fuck for their Goddess, they will all be rubbed out. God will love me again and my rule will continue.
From now own we will this Gods’s game and I will order, by penalty of death is any disobey, killing every soldier, man woman child infant and suckling, every sheep and lamb cow and goat and rabbit and horse and camel. Nothing shall be left to live and I will become as God. Destroy it all make heavens waste land on this green earth.
And I will command my troops to eat no food. Cursed be the man that eats any food until this battle be won and the enemy of Israel completely wiped out. On that I give my word even if the transgressors be my own sons
and then quietly to himself, looking around, as though someone is listening. The guards enter the throne chamber carrying the servants heads.
Saul
Sit them down over there and leave me. Let no one in.
Saul, whispering now.
The people do not really know I stand in disfavor of Yah Weh and they will follow me as though I were a God too. I must finish preparing for the battle. From now on we destroy the very earth of our enemy walks on. Jonathon, lets us go. It gets late
Saul walks out of the throne room.
Fade to black.
Scene 7
Jonathon stands with his troops. It is dusty and hot and his army is tattered having just fought a large battle with the Philistines.
soldier 1, throws downs a flask
That’s it for the water
soldier 2, holding out a wineskin
some wine
soldier 1
No, I do not fight well on it, a drunk soldier is a dead soldier, you know.
Soldier 3
What’s Jonathon doing?
Jonathon is pointing a staff at the ground. He very slowly moves to the spot he is pointing at and bends over picking something up.
Jonathon, talking to himself
Ah, just what the troops ordered. Pure bliss, a gift from the earth and from heaven.
He lifts it to his mouth and tastes the honey dripping from the comb. It runs down his face. His troops stare with bewilderment as he begins swaying and trance like clam overtakes his face. He says nothing
The soldiers stand there dumbfounded and then begin to whisper amongst themselves
Soldier 1
He is enlightened
soldier 4
The ancient Goddess has embraced him
soldier 2
No, No, it’s okay, it’s Kosher
soldier 3
Jonathon, stop it, don’t you know that your father, the king, has cursed any who eat before the enemy is driven out with public death. Please, cease your feast.
Jonathon hears nothing and only laughs and eats more with closed eyes, dancing, sexually provocatively as with a partner to music only he can hear.
Battle sounds can be heard in the back ground.
Soldier 1
To arms, the enemy returns
soldier 4
Jonathon it is time to go, the enemy has returned and are at our backs.
Jonathon doesn’t move. The soldiers look at each other and leave him behind. One man stands guard over him in protection
The soldiers return. One is missing. They bring a goat with them.
Soldier 2
Jonathon’s crime will cover ours. I am starving.
Soldier 1
I agree, let’s eat, or at least drink it’s blood. No one will know and we can always blame it on the actions of the king’s son.
They kill the goat and drink it’s blood and then begin to eat it raw.
Saul appears with some men.
Saul
All of you have sinned against the Lord by eating with the blood. Every man of you must bring his Ox and every man must bring his sheep and slay them on a altar I will build for the Lord.
Soldier 2, whispering to soldier 3
I told you he would not kill his son. This king has no balls and talks like a flatulent old woman.
Saul
You people are fucking incredible. You can’t do anything right, let alone follow simple fucking directions. If I hear of anymore transgressions, even if it be my own blood, they must die. The Lord said so… yeah, that’s what God said and I always do what God wants.
Soldier 3
What did we bet? We are fucked as soon as he hears about Jonathon. He will condemn us to save his precious son
Fade to black
Saul paces back and forth in his throne room. He is talking to himself.
Saul
Two years of this shit. I have been here two years and by the ancient laws I am still not made king.
Cheers and shouts and battles and sacrifices no more make a king than the word of Gods or Prophets.
Men’s mouths are a slippery as ells and like wise will consume anything
All the Kings of my people had installation rites.
Can I kill my oldest son to secure this throne? Can I bury him alive or bind him in a wicker hamper and set him on fire, burn him alive? Will I become something more than a king or prophet?
No. I love my son and could not bear it, but… I could, yes, there are no rules concerning whether the son was born of my wife or another as long as he is made my son..
I will adopt a righteous and brave young man. He will be my sacrifice and he will make me immortal and my people will fall on their faces to honor me and entreat my privileges.
What shall I do, what shall I do!! Who shall I find?
Samuel enters startling the king
Saul
Oh, you scared me, I did not hear you coming
Samuel
I bring you the words of the Lord. I told you to rub out the Amalehites, to spare them not, to slay every man, woman child, infant, suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
Saul
the battle is over, their cities on fire, the king captured and imprisoned. Guards bring the Amaleh King to us.
The guard leaves and returns with the King
Saul
Chain this foul king and secure the best of his livestock for a burnt offering.
Samuel clears his throat.
Saul
Blessed be the Lord and the Prophet. I have preformed the commandments of the Lord.
Samuel
What is this bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen I hear coming through the city gates?
Saul
They are from Amaleh, the people saved the best from the city for a sacrifice to our Lord and I let them have some of the second rate livestock
Samuel
the Lord made you king over all his people and you still don’t get it.
Yah Weh sits higher stock on obedience that he does on burnt offerings.
IT IS NOT YOUR CHOICE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO THE LORD!
To obey is better than to sacrifice, to chose the fatted rams and dishes of gold.
Rebellion is the same as witchcraft and stubbornness is the same as idolatry.
You are guilty of all these things and because you rejected the word of God he also rejects you.
Saul
Forgive me, please, I tried to appease the wishes of the people. Pray with me Samuel.
Saul reaches for Samuel but he backs away and Saul grabs his shirt and it is torn.
Samuel
Again my shirt is ripped away as God and myself rip you from us.
Samuel walks toward Agag, the Amaleh king now chained to a pillar.
They are standing face to face
Agag
Surely the bitterness of death is past?
Samuel
As your sword has made Israeli women childless so shall your mother be childless among women.
Samuel turns away and takes a guards sword and returns to Agag who stands up straight. Samuel begins to chop and hack at him until he is in many pieces and Samuel is covered with blood.
He turns to Saul who has not moved since this began. His mouth is hanging open
Samuel
That is the difference between you and me. I do what I am told to do. You are less than shit.
Samuel throws the sword down and kick pieces of body parts out of his way and leaves the throne room.
He stops when out of sight and placing his arms onto the wall buries his face in them and begins to cry.
Fade to black
Light up on the classroom
Angel, talking to the audience.
I am the prototype of the abused child, the used woman. Though I see and feel, with retrospect, the hurt of all the ages, I must return because I love him, like the child must return for sustenance.
What’s wrong with this God, that I can not question the millenniums of abuse to those of my ilk or those of his favorites? That I can not ask, “Why Lord”, without being cast out and further abused?
Vishnu
God and his Prophets need anger management.
Joan
I have watched quietly all this outrageous carnage. In my own time I stood victorious on battlefields whose greatest harvest was the death of armies, with lost arms and legs and heads still twitching, still missing their owners and their other parts, with tongues still wagging and eyes still blinking in disbelief as hell and heaven carted off their souls and vomited in spilled blood that these hands drew from their owners life’s well.
None of that was true nor necessary. I have watched today, 100,000 humans butchered in rationalization of the theft of land not their own, urged on by a jealous, insane God. I feel forsaken.
Vishnu
Yan Weh needs celestial therapy or at the very least Cosmic Lithium or Prozac
Joan
Sophia, if all things stem from a single source why does it always come down to this?
Sophia
for every time there is a season
Angel
Jesus fucking Christ, I was starting to like you and then that shit.
Vishnu
I think all history is the chronicle of mans butchery of men who disagree with whoever is the strongest. The biggest bully hires the biggest whores to write gloriously of their deeds.
Moses invented genocide at the urging of Yah Weh. It is that result which we now watch.
Sophia
The God men find is the thing in their hearts. Haven’t you ever wondered why one human can go to talk with God and come away wanting to help humanity and another man, going to the same god for guidance comes away wishing to kill everyone and everything. The God humans find is the God they carry in themselves.
Eventually if enough people call up a cannibal in their God, that God will urge them to be cannibals. It really is quite simple. As far as deities go, you get what you are. It is why it all goes in such strangely repeated circles.
Joan
I feel cheapened and used by the voices I heard which told me to save France as a young girl when I was really just being spiritually turned out by an old pimp God, bent on securing his street corner in that part of the world.
Angel
If I had a heart it would be broken…
Sophia
Sometimes the truth is like stepping on a thorn.
Joan
I need a drink
Vishnu
Let’s go dancing
Angel
How about Studio 54, I always wanted to go there?
Vishnu
They would never let you in
Sophia
Remember dear hearts, even Deities are fooled by the love of those who conjure them.
Gods are truely only mirrors which reflect the soul, amplified by those who beseech them.
This is the most important thing to know; the repressed and angry humans find a God of Swords and Battle. The content human, satisfied with themselves and their life find a nurturing God, a caring Goddess. They only get what they are looking for
Joan
Then Gods, like drugs, are a slippery slope when you want a personal audience?
Everyone laughs
Angel
Let’s go to a hash bar in Amsterdam with a band and a dance floor
in unison
Done
Act 3
Scene 1
Joan, Angel and Vishnu are sitting in theirs chairs. They are dressed in black 21st Century clothing
Joan
This is still is really making me depressed. Like wet blankets in the winter.
I bled the English dry and soaked my countryside with it and thought it holy and righteous and now I feel answered one injustice with another.
Is this all history is? Blood letting and butchery with the victor gaining not only the spoils but the right to boast that their cause was righteous?
Something is very wrong here, what with two foes claiming the same God has given them permission to slaughter and rape the other.
I have come to think this One god, with One Way is only a God of war, not caring who is left standing on the field when the day ends as long as they bow down to him as the Celestial Master.
Angel
amen
Vishnu
I have watched this since the drunken Kurgans mouthed south out of their mountains to subjugate all women and with their copper edged sword and spears drive the temple priestess into their graves or an unwanted bed.
Men birthed these Gods of War and they are the same, answering to different nmaes and numbers like the six sides of a dice is but part of the whole
Sophia
this is all true, and much more
Joan
Did Moses pick up Aman’s sword and mix it with a Babylonian Thunder God’s wrath wrapping that it Set’s hatred of his brother?
Angel
You met Plato?
Joan
Well yes, he still likes the boys bent over an altar.
Vishnu
And so the Holy Roman Church was born.
Sophia
You’re jumping ahead
Joan
Today we will watch another 1000,000 die. I may need a baf bag.
Sophia
there are several in your handout pack.
Vishnu and the Angel laugh. Joan scowls at them and sticks out her tongue.
Vishnu
Thou appendage is so beautiful
they all laugh
scene 2
Saul paces about a room smashing things as we walks
Saul
Give me something to soothe my soul. Samuel has abandoned me like a dig, the old ways turn away from me and I can not sleep
Priestess of Ashtoreth and a Rabbi confer quietly in a corner of the room
Priestess
This king is a spoiled brat
Rabbi
The evil spirit of God is upon him. I have heard there is a Bethlehemite of the house of Jesse whose voice and harp playing can lull the lion to sleep and draw birds from the trees, he is fair to gaze upon and cunning in his playing
Priestess, with cynicism
Right
Rabbi
I will send for him for I feel his songs will soothe the king
fade to black
Lights up on Samuel. He is sitting with a group of men at a table eating. Samuel head is bowed down and he is praying or talking to himself
Samuel
Send me your youngest son
Jesse orders David to be brought in. Samuel looks upward.
God
Arise, Samuel, anoint him for he is with me and to him the inheritance of Israel is given.
No one hears but Samuel, who rises up when David is brought in. He walks up to David
Samuel
Knell before me and the Lord, you and your line has been chosen by god to lead all of Israel.
Samuel lifts a horn filled with oil and places some on David’s head
Samuel
Be at peace and do not worry. Honor Saul, who is still king, and know that the Lord prepares for you his path.
I must leave now and return to Ramah. The Lord is with you and will keep you.
Samuel departs.
Fade to black
David is in the presence of the king and is playing for him. Saul has fallen asleep and then wakes up.
He rubs his eyes and yawns . Looking at David he grins and thinks to himself, addressing the audience.
Saul
This boy is beautiful. I could take him now, he would like a little in him for awhile, I am sure. It would be delightful to share my seed with him.
He looks around the room suspiciously in case anyone is watching. He frowns then addresses David.
Saul
I give thanks to the Lord for sending you, son of Bethlehem. You shall be my armorbearer for I love you like a son. I have a son who is just about your age, you know. You must met him. But now there are more important matters to attend to.
The Philistines gather on our borders. Go to your fathers house so you may help him secure his flocks and fields.
Saul walks over and hugs David a little too long. He looks to the audience winking and then walks away.
David, to the audience
This down-low king thinks he will have his way with me as easily as I pluck the strings of this harp. I think he is not so talented.
David leaves for his fathers house
Fade to black
Scene 3
A great battle is raging between the Israelis and the philistines. David drives a cart filled with provisions for the Israeli army. He stops in front of his brothers tents and dismounts.
Soldiers, just returned from the front are standing around talking as he walks up to them.
Soldier 1
Goliath has arrived with his troops
soldier 2
What will do now, he has been undefeated all these years
soldier 3
Pray that the lord intervenes
Soldier 2
it is said that God has abandoned Saul. Shall he abandon us then?
David
What rewards shall be given to the man who kills this monster? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the One Living God?
Elias, David’s older brother
Who do you think you are, boy, so young and untested in battle, without even a beard?
David
I have killed the lion and the bear when they threatened our fathers flocks
Saul and Jonathon walk up.
David bows and continues.
David
And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of Israel.
Th Lord delivered me from the paws of the bear and the jaws of the lion, he will deliver me out of the hands of this monster as well
Saul
I feel God is with you, go, and the Lord keep you safe.
Saul turns to Jonathon,
Saul
Bring him armor
Jonathon leaves to fetch him the armor, starring at David and then speaks to the audience
Jonathon
I have compared you, oh my love, to a company of horses in the Pharaohs chariot
Jonathon walks off stage and David follows
fade to black
Jonathon helps David put on the armor. Jonathon speaks to himself facing the audience
Jonathon
He has brought me to the banquet-house, and his banner over me is love
he ties the armor on at the back and sits a helmet on his head, handing him a sword
Jonathon
Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
David hands back the sword and takes off the helmet.
David
I can not go with these for I have not been proven in their use.
David strips off the armor and Jonathon helps him redress. He picks up his staff and sling, placing some peebles in a pouch and ties it onto his belt
David
I will go into battle with what I know. It was good enough for the wild animals and it will be good enough for this Philistine.
They look at each other and embrace.
Jonathon
Keep yourself well
David
God will keep me, or not, it is in his hands now, as is all of Israel on this day.
Davis walks off, turning to look at Jonathon who waves and smiles at him
Jonathon, talking again to himself
Jonathon
Who is this that comes out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke?
Fade to black
Scene 4
David is on the battlefield. Goliath approaches.
Goliath
Am I a dog, that you come at me with a stave? I implore you by all that is holy to me. You carry a big stick; compensation for having cut off part of your dick? Has your God been cut likewise, or does he remain whole? Today your cut dick God shall be destroyed and I will eat your heart.
Come to me now, I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
David
You come at me with your sword and spear and I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel, who you have defied.
Today the Lord will deliver you onto my hands and I will take your head and the carcasses of the Philistines shall feed the birds and the beasts and all the world shall know there is a God in Israel and all shall know that the Lord needs not sword nor spear, for the battle in the Lords domain and he will give you to my hands.
They begin to move around each other. Goliath raises his spear and throws it. David does not move from his spot but turns to let the spear pass by him. He backs up and takes a pebble from his pouch and fits it into his sling. Twirling it above his head he launches the projectile at Goliath who is hit in the temple and falls to the ground.
A great clamor goes up from the Philistines.
David rushes toward the fallen Goliath and picking up his sword cuts off Goliaths head. David, still standing on the jerking body of Goliath lifts his head for all to see.
Cheers go up from the Israeli army and they rush into the Philistine army who retreat from the field of battle.
David strips the armor from Goliath and walks back to his tent, carrying the armor and the head of Goliath as the Israeli army rushes by.
Fade to black
Light up on the class.
Joan
So there we have it, from the horses mouth
Vishnu
A Pharaoh’s horse none the less
Angel
I guess you were paying attention
Joan
God, you are a bitch sometimes, I mean the ‘battle is the Lord’s domain’. This God is the God of War and Battles. It could be no other way. Since his birth in Hebrew campfires he has declared war on everyone, women, children, the innocent, as well as those guilty of minor offences against other humans. It is useless to follow him. I turn my back on the entire thing.
Angel
don’t wash your hands, it will really piss Him off.
Vishnu and Joan look at the Angel with mock scowls and then they begin laughing.
Sophia
As I said before I am amazed that humans never put two and two together before this
Angel
Too fucking afraid to think. The Shepard Lord wants only grazing sheep, not mountain goats willing to climb and search.
Joan
I would rather be the goat
Vishnu
That’s why we are all here
fade to black
Scene 5
Saul and Jonathon are in the palace
David enters carrying the head of Goliath by the hair.
Jonathon, to the audience
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine
David sits the head on a table and turns to Saul
David
I am the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, your servant.
Saul
This is my son, Jonathon, you are, from this day on, to stay in my house as my son. Your rooms shall be here in the palace and all should look upon you as my son.
Jonathon to the audience
My love for him is as a well which gives sweet water and can never be emptied.
Saul, to the audience
Now I have my sacrifice, a brave youth form my own house, and I shall finally become the true King of Israel, confirmed in the blood of my own kin, the Kings of old.
Jonathon and David standing looking at each smiling
Saul
Take him, Jonathon, and make him feel at home. Show him his rooms and what you think he will need to know to be comfortable here.
Jonathon and David walk off to another room
lights down on the palace room.
Lights up on new room where Jonathan and David are alone
Jonathon
These are your rooms. They connect to mine. I have seen you from afar and feel my soul is knit to yours. You stir me here,
Jonathon touches his heart
Jonathon
and here
Jonathon touches navel
and most deeply here
Jonathon slides his hand between his legs.
David, touching Jonathon’s face
Your cheeks are comely, with rows of jewels, your neck with chains of gold
Jonathon sits on the bed
Jonathon
As the apple tree among the forests trees, so is my beloved among the sun. I sit under your shadow with great delight
they kiss
Jonathon
… and your fruit is sweet to taste.
David, sliding his hand beneath Jonathon’s shirt
Your left hand is under my head…
they embrace
David
…your right hand now does embrace me
Jonathon, while disrobing
My beloved is mine and I am his, he feeds among my lilies
David kneels before Jonathon and drops his head between his legs. Jonathon lays back and sighs. The candles go out
fade to black
Scene 6
the sun rises. There is movement beneath the covers. Jonathon and David are in the same room as the night before.
David
Morning love.
Jonathon
The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
Jonathon rolls Davis over and raises his buttocks up, pressing his face to them
David
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart, behold, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice
Jonathon knells behind David and presses his groin against David’s ass
Jonathon
My beloved spoke, and said to me, rise up, my love, my fair one and come away.
They moan as Jonathon fucks him.
David
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
Jonathon fucks him faster and faster and orgasms loudly
Jonathon
the fig tree puts forth her green figs. And the vines with the tender grapes gives a good smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
Jonathon backs away from David, who sits up on the bed.
Jonathon
Oh my dove, you are in the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your face.
They embrace and kiss
Jonathon
let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your countenance comely.
Jonathan straddles David and puts his mouth to his nipple.
David enters Jonathon who begins riding his groin.
David
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains.
They finish fucking and kiss, falling into a sleepy morning nap
lights down, by one half
lights up outside chamber window where we see the king looking at them having sex.
Saul
My own son conspires against me, everyone is against. He steals my harpist boy, my greatest warrior. David should have been mine. What will I do?
Guards knock on David’s door
Guard
The king request your presence. Bring your harp and yoiur appetite if it not yet satiated.
David and Jonathon embrace
Jonathon
I do not like the way that sounded
David
How so?
The appetite thing. It has a double meaning
David
Perhaps the walls have ears
Jonathon, looking at the window
Or windows eyes
David
I will come to your room later. I would not like to make the king wait
Jonathon hands him his harp.
Jonathon
Wish I would that this was a dagger. I fear for you. My father is in madness as we are in love. Walk carefully around him and chose your words even more wisely.
David
It will be okay. Everything will work out.
Jonathon
I love you
David
and I you
Scene 7
The king sits in his room, drinking wine
David enters carrying his harp
Saul
Good morning my newest son. Did you sleep well? Were your dreams pleasant?
David
Better dreams I have never had
Saul
Play with….er, for me for a time. I am much distraught, I woke to a enemies in my palace and wish to send them back to the shadows.
David plays
Saul
Today I set you above my generals, My army is yours to lead. There is much work to do. I am beleaguered on all sides.
David, bowing
Thank you my king. I will do my best to make you as proud as nay father could be as powerful as any king under heaven. Our armies shall be victorious as long as I lead them.
Saul
Yes, it is written. Go now, arm yourself from the garrison and if you see my son Jonathon send him to me.
David
thank you again
David leaves the king and walks to Jonathon’s room. They embrace.
Jonathon
I have missed you for what feels like days, though it has been only a few hours.
David
your father has made me head of his armies and orders me into the field,
Jonathon
I knell before the High Commander of the Army of Israel, the army of the One True God and pay him homage
Jonathon knells and lifts David’s garment up and slides his hand over his cock, lifting it to his mouth and giving him a blow job.
David
I feel like an altar for love, like a Angel of God’s when I am with you.
David comes and Jonathon stands up.
Jonathon
Take my sword and this armor. You are now of the house of Saul and defender of the faithful.
David
I must go now, the king wants an immediate response as a follow up action to yesterday’s rout of the enemy.
Jonathon
I want an immediate response here.
He take the sword and armor from David and tosses them on the floor. He lifts David’s clothes off and bends him over the bed. They make love.
Fade to black
Scene 8
women are trilling a victory song. Crowds are shouting
David returns from battle. People dance around him. His generals, following, each carry a severed head of a high ranking Philistine.
Women, shouting repeatedly
Saul has slain a thousand and David has slain ten thousand.
Over and over
Saul stands at a balcony and hears the songs of David’s victory. He turns and walks into his room and screams.
Saul, to the audience
They ascribe to David ten thousand and to me merely one thousand; what can he have more than the kingdom?
This harp playing child comes to usurp me. He lays with my son and uses me two ways. I must watch for he is now doubly dangerous.
Saul does not greet David but turns away and walks off breaking things and talking to himself.
Saul
What shall I do with this harp play traitor who plucks the strings of my son’s heart and the banners of my kingdom?
He smile and stops walking.
Saul
I will make him unnatural and unclean. His love for my son is most real and natural and accepted by both Samuel and God. I shall offer him one of my daughters as wife and to conceal his love for my son he will accept.
Who could refuse to be the son-in-law of a king and when they are nothing more than the plaything of the king’s son, or even the sword of the kings armies?
In the mean time I will play the odds of combat and send him out on even more dangerous missions. What I can not destroy, perhaps my enemy will
I will make a most reviled bi-sexual and when he lays with my daughter ne will become unclean and God will frown on him and my house shall be renewed, despite that schmuk, Samuel.
Scene 9
Jonathon and David sit on a bed.
Jonathon
My beloved is ruddy, the chief of ten thousand.
David massages his neck
Jonathon
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven
David rubs his back. Jonathon sits up. They face each other knelling.
Jonathon
his eyes are the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set.
David lays down on his back.
Jonathon
His cheeks are s a bed of spices, as sweet as flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
David draws his legs to his chest. Jonathon kisses his knees and then his hands.
Jonathon
His hands are as gold rings set with beryl: his belly is as bright ivory over laid with sapphires.
Jonathon, still knelling, moves closer between David’s legs and kisses his breasts while lifting his one leg over his shoulder.
Jonathon
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
He lifts the other leg and enters David. They moan and move together.
Jonathon
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this if my friend.
They are intertwined.
Fade to black
A trumpet sounds and they sit up in bed.
Jonathon
Oh God, another war. My father, I think, is intent on killing everyone
David swings his legs to the floor and stands up.
Jonathon
don’t go yet. It will take hours to muster the men and the horses. Come, love, let’s amuse ourselves a bit longer.
David
No, the preparations are as much responsibility as will be the slaughter of the enemies of Israel. You know I must go and you know I do not want to.
Jonathon
I am sick of war. War on everything. War on the children and their pets. War on the pigeons in the coups. War on the grain and the orchards. There must be another way
David
That may be so, in another time, with another king, but we are here and now and we are called to defend the homeland. It has always been this way hasn’t it?
I have heard so but in my heart I think not. Go. I know you must, Take my sword again. I like watching how you use it.
They laugh and begin to dress each other.
Scene 10
In the palace
Saul
This upstart shepard who you play with nightly, will take the throne from me. He will cut off your divine inheritance. the Lord smile on him daily, more than you do by candle light.
Jonathon
David supports and honors you and gives you victories on the battlefield. He loves God and the people of Israel and has has no ambitions except to serve you.
Saul, under his breathe
Samuel says otherwise
Saul starts throwing things
David walks in
David
I bring you a victory, my lord.
Saul, with sarcasm
I heard the fanfare. Another 10,000 Philistines departed for hell?
David
More, my lord.
Jonathon
The king is full of kingly worries today. Play the harp for him, David, calm the frightened beast
Jonathon and the Saul exchange nasty looks
David
It is my pleasure, always
David takes off hiss sword and mail and pucks up a harp sitting nearby.
He plays, looking at Jonathon
The king sits down wringing his hands.
Saul to the audience
I will give him Michal, my youngest daughter, I have she is as much taken by him as he is with her brother. I will use him to ensnare him into the hands of the Philistines. I can still play the battles odds. Let the Philistines wash their hands in his blood so I m may wash mine of his presence.
Saul
David, today you shall become my son-in-law. What do you say? The promise of my eldest daughter was done in haste. She is a querulous and head strong girl and in any event , not hearing from you forced me to consent to making other arrangements with her which bought peace with the Meholathites.
I have a younger daughter, Michal, who is much enamored of you and today I make her yours.
David
It is not a light thing, to be a kings son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man of low esteem.
Saul
I require no bride dowry, but two hundred foreskins of our uncircumcised enemy, the Philistines.
David
This can be done easily enough. I must go now and muster my troops toi renew the attack against your enemies. I will return with the necessary dowry.
David and Jonathon leave together.
Saul
With any luck, only his headless body will return and I will have circumvented the will of Samuel.
Now I have him.
He throws a spear at the door they have exited
Scene 11
Jonathon
You will do this thing
David
I think I must. I think I can nor refuse the King’s offer again, even though it is given to separate us and defile me.
Jonathon
I love you like the apple trees love the clouds that bring them rain; like the mouth loves the taste of their apples
they embrace and kiss kiss
David
how fair and how pleasant is your love, O love, for delights
Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field; let us lodge in the villages.
David
The die is cast as surely as every sword retrieved from the blacksmiths stone. Our actions a sharpened on two sides. I can not turn away from the King of Israel.
Jonathon
I will sharpen this sword again, my captain
Jonathon leans over David and kisses his groin. He stops and looks at the floor
Jonathon
I fear this is the end of everything we know. I will loose you and the thought of that is making me sick.
David
Many waters cannot quench love, neither floods drown it, if a man would give aa the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
Jonathon
I love you and must stand aside for my fathers daughter? We have a little sister and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister the day when she shall be spoken for?
David, with anguish, louder than he normally talks
Set me as a seal upon your heart. As a seal upon your arm, for love is stronger that death and jealously is as cruel as the grave. Their coals are as of fire and has a most vehement flame.
I am torn in two, like warring armies, who shall win? Can a truce be found or will they both be annihilated? I loved you and cannot think beyond it. I love my king, my God, my nation and I cannot think beyond it.
Jonathon turns away and stands, walking to a window and stares out.
Jonathon
I opened to my beloved; my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone, my soul failed when he spoke, I sought him, but could not find him, I called him but he gave me no answer
David stand and buckling his belt attaches his sword and leaves without saying goodbye
Jonathon, with anger and tears, almost crying
Jonathon
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him, that I am sick with love.
Scene 12
Saul and Jonathon are in the throne room. Jonathon walks to the balcony door. The trilling of women can be heard along with many shouts and cheers
Women
David has slain 10,000 more, David has sent 10,000 to hell
Saul
God I hate that chorus
Jonathon laughs, slightly manically
David walks in carrying two brass rings in his hands upon which are strung one hundred foreskins each
He bows to the king.
David
My liege, we are today victorious and I bring you the bride price. Yiou shall have as your son-in-law.
David tosses the rings to the ground in front of him. His legs are covered with their blood, still dripping. They splatter when it hits the floor and some lands on the Kings robes. The king looks at the mess and then at David. Jonathon is still on the balcony.
Saul
Many Philistines have gone to their Gods today but death seems like a high price to pay for salvation and cleanliness in the eyes of our Lord.
One way or another we all travel that road; we all pay the same toll to travel that road. In death there seems to be mutual equality.
Saul
Whether with a woman’s hand and heart, or the strong arms of a soldiers shadow. Should I add scholar and wise man to your list of deeds?
Davis
It appears to me to be all the same, and I think it doers to God too.
Jonathon returns from the balcony
Jonathon
It’s all meat on the same bone
Saul
You speak from your own wisdom? My son is a scholar in the two roads he…
David
Do you still wish a union, my Lord?
Saul
I think there will be a union with my family regardless of my wishes or any magick which I may conjure.
Guards! Bring me my daughter, Michal.
Michal walks in
Saul
I have spoken with my daughter and she is enthusiastic about this union; not knowing she walks on roads once trod upon by only men.
Jonathon
Father, you are insulting and this is not the place, nor the time, nor should one ever exist.
Saul
Go, David, speak with her of things to come. I wonder if you can speak in both languages of love?
David
I am sorry, Michal. Your father is out of sorts and short of temper. He has disdain, where he have rejoicing. I have no time for harp and wife, so let us go. Perhaps he will sing to himself as well as he pleasures himself?
Michal, to Jonathon
Are you coming, brother?
Saul, to Jonathon
Stay Jonathon, I have much to discuss with you.
David and Michal leave
Saul
Jonathon…
Jonathon
Father…
Saul
I love you greatly and today you have shown yourself to be stronger and braver man than I.
Jonathon
Father, I…
Saul
David will take the crown me and deny you your inheritance… no, quiet, it does not matter whether it be through you or your sister. He walks with God on his shoulder. Samuel has said as much by removing himself from my presence.
I wish David to die and as I can not ask my servants to do sop I ask you. The kingdom shall be your prize.
Jonathon
Do not let the king sin against David because he has not sinned against you and because his works have been, to you, very good.
He has denied neither you nor God nor Israel with any tilt to one side action.
He has put his life in his hands, slew Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel, you witnessed it yourself and did rejoice. Why then, will you sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
Saul cries in his hands
Saul, lifting hie head
As the Lord lives, he shall not be slain.
Jonathon turns and leaves without saying anymore
Saul stands and shouts
I will ban all religions other than my Lord’s, all diviners, and witches and soothsayers shall be driven out of Israel. God will smile on me again and my own transgression will diminish into nothing and be but a shadow of this great gift I will give the One True god.
He stops as though listening to other voices. He cocks his head and shouts at the ceiling again.
Saul
David must die, he is my sacrifice and I will not let my greatness be denied, and if my daughter, or even my first born son gets in the way, so be it.
Fade to black
Scene 13
Angel
Their love is so beautiful and Saul so fucking evil. It makes me wish I had a dick and an ass.
Joan
Whine, whine, whine. Have you forgotten what to do with your mouth so soon? And why are you always trying to steal my lines. I never wanted to be female and died for being brave enough to live inside out.
Vishnu
I’ve had a cock, it’s no big deal not being as large as a horses or as small as a little finger. I will tell you, in most cases, size does not count.
Angel, to Joan
I changed your line enough to make it mine, Joan
Angel, to Vishnu
You’re a smart ass
Vishnu
I’ve had an ass in all my manifestations. An ass can serve a lover well.
Angel
You’re always bragging.
Vishnu
No, I’m trying to make you feel better. Tell you what, I know about a great bathhouse in Madrid, let’s go there, I’ll introduce you to the boys.
Vishnu, looking at Joan
Do you want to tag along?
Joan
Sure, watch and learn
they all laugh
Angel, to Vishnu
You’re not going like that are you?
Vishnu
You have a point. I’ll go as another personification of myself.
Joan
Aren’t you a lucky Deity
Vishnu
I am sorry Saint Joan, but this is field work and Angelic therapy.
Joan, looking at the Angel
You should not take your pants off and hide those things
She points at the angel’s wings
Angel
Whatever you say.
Vishnu puts his arm around the Angel
Let’s go boyfriend
Vishnu, turning to Joan
You coming?
Joan
No, I think I will stay here. I have many questions to resolve.
Angel
Catch you later.
Vishnu and Angel leave
Joan, sitting alone
Sophia?
Sophia
Yes, dear heart?
Joan
Do you have time for some questions?
Sophia
I am time, She who birthed Yah Weh and with him created the Universe. I am All Deities before and after their creation.
Joan
Why did you let it happen?
Sophia
What?
Joan
The genocide, the death and ruination of the diversity of community of people who honored you; the hatred of what I am and the hatred of all those like me for 2,000 years?
Sophia
What humans are can not be destroyed, though it can be subverted and dictated on a shallow social level.
It’s returning, you know. Humanity has grown up again and has begun to reevaluate the very diversity which you speak of, honoring it, and to address the individual hatred that almost destroyed them.
Joan
The destruction of those innocents, in anyway, because of false transgressions against this God because of genetic coincidence of birth saddens me to the core and overwhelms me.
Sophia
I know. I know. My husband/son was insane in those days and even now stalks the killing fields of fear and hatred in his followers hearts. It gives me much grief too.
Joan and Sophia begin to cry
Joan
Are all repressive rulers trying to hide their own similar transgressions? Are all kings and emperors and presidents the thing they chose to persecute and oppress? If so, this lesson has not been learned.
The angel and Vishnu walk in, wearing white terry cloth spa bath robes
Angel
Shame and guilt?
Vishnu
…of man’s rules, not any God’s. Those words are out into whatever God’s mouth by the hands of men trying to hide their own inner shame concerning quilt planted in them by other men.
Joan
the Holiness Code is a cloak of exclusion, those who advertise oppression are themselves the origins and creators of the very same deeds.
Sophia
Religious codes are the mantel beneath and above Nationalism which sucks at the teat of oppression. It is always exclusive and all Gods and governments should be weaned away from it.
Joan, turning to the Angel and Vishnu
I see you have come back, with a difference.
Angel
We felt horrible, just leaving you here alone.
Vishnu
Where do want to go? Let’s do something together.
Joan
A Gay Pride Parade
Angel and Vishnu, at the same time
Where?
Joan
Toronto, at least they understand the inclusiveness of democracy and are attempting to make everyone equal.
Vishnu
Good idea, let’s party
They walk out arm in arm
Fade to black
David Loves Jonathon
by Audrey Ross
Dramatis Personae
Angel
Vishnu
Joan of Arc
Voice of Sophia
voice of God
Eli and his two sons
Saul young and old
Samuel old and young
Joel and Abiah, sons of Samuel
Non-Hebrew kings, Priestesses, Priests, and generals
Jonathon
Michal – Jonathon’s sister
David
Jesse, David’s father
Elias – David’s older brother
Goliath
citizens of many nations, their soldiers, guards, servants and slaves
Agag – Amalehite king
Prologue
Hello friends and lovers, critics and others,
We will now try to discover
why Nations fail and citizens wail
while projecting their voices sky ward.
How a down-low, bully king
with dark magick tries anything,
by pointing a dirty finger at others
whose love was pure and sexually hot
and did not care if they were Queer or not.
Act 1 Scene 1
Several 50’s Herman Miller chairs sit in an empty room.
Enter a nude Angel more feminine than masculine with wings folded along her back, Vishnu in a Gobi’s clothing
Vishnu
Are we late?
Voice of Sophia
Deities are never late or early but arrive exactly when they should
Angel
You have watched Lord of the Rings too much
Sophia
Giggle, Oh, you, I didn’t think you would show up
Angel
Self imposed penance. Let’s start over. I didn’t mean that.
Sophia
Yes, you did
Vishnu
I love your lectures
Sophia
Thank you, knowledge is best when it is from the horse’s mouth
Angel, laughing
Or the cows?
Everyone laughs lightly
In unison
Watch and learn
Sophia
You know me too well
Enter Joan of Arc in 21st Century mens street clothes.
Joan
Am I late?
Angel
Here we go again.
Joan
I did miss something
Angel
Joan you should not have not missed the first class; humans are always playing catch up.
Sophia
Not that old bitch
angel
Look whose talking
Sophia
Go to Hell
everyone laughs
Angel
Sticks and stones…
Sophia
Tell it to your father
They all look at each other. It gets very quiet.
Joan
So…?
Angel
So what
Joan
What’s going on?
Sophia
Joan, being new here is a disadvantage, Vishnu will share notes with you later. You’ll figure it out.
I’d like to skip the begating, No one cares except some anal retentive Rabbis and dissatisfied political extremists looking for a name for their newest progeny that no one has heard of for a thousand years.
Angel
Thank God
Sophia
Your welcome
Scene 2
Jerusalem in 3,000 BC. Two men stand in front of a temple. Their robes are partially opened. Women pass by and the men walk up to them touching their face and hands and sliding their hands beneath their clothes touching their breasts.
They walk up the steps and open the temple door. An old man stands off to the side unseen by them hiding behind baskets.
The men open the door, voices and music can be heard, naked people dance and half clothed musicians move about the crowd. Many transgendered prestress and priests are watching and participating.
A table is set up with a scale and piles of coin strewn about. At the altar a sow and a goat are tied.
The old man walks up the stairs behind them and shuts the door. His droops as he walks away, back down the steps
Eli
I am Eli your servant Lord, and I am ashamed. Damn kids. I have given them everything and they have stabbed me in the back as surely as they have you and Israel. What should I do? They’ll get other it. They will come back to you. They will.
He hurries off and puts his hands to his ears.
Eli
Perhaps Yah Weh is not listening, off busy somewhere else
God
Fool, I see everything and I warned you about backsliding, I warned them all.
Eli
Shit
God
And this shall be a sign to you, that will come upon your two sons, on Hoshni and Phineas, in one day they shall die, both of them and on that day, will be too your last
Eli
Damned kids
Sophia
So this is the beginning of the end of Eli’s house.
Fade. Lights up on class
Joan
I didn’t know.
Angel
Didn’t you ever read the Bible?
Joan
I was not taught to read or write
Angel
That figures. Stupid and happy, it’s how He likes them.
Joan
I didn’t mean that, I mean I didn’t know people then were allowed to express or live as a gender they were not born too.
Angel
Yeah, well, the Hebrews were the ones that nixed that, Joan.
Vishnu
Oh girlfriend, that’s so sad. I am so very sorry and it makes me so angry. You were their Messiah, you saved their language and culture and they killed you for wearing boys clothes. You look good in that polo shirt, dockers and deck shoes, by the way.
Angel
Amen, brother
Joan
I never felt free then, I had a real problem when I began develop breasts
Vishnu
As much as I did wanting them
everyone laughs
Joan
You’re beautiful
Vishnu
You are just as beautiful in all your butchiness
Sophia
I hate to interrupt
Angel
You can be as bad as Him
Sophia
I am Him, I was here before Him, I birthed Him and we joined together to create what is
Vishnu
I love it when you talk like that
everyone laughs
Joan
But about Eli, why set him up, why the punish him too?
Sophia
In religion, as far as deities go, there is no such thing as cause and affect, except in the mind of humans
Joan
The innocent and the corrupt and evil are all punished together? God
Angel
Amen brother
Scene 3
the stage is dark
God
For I have told Him I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows of, because his sons made themselves vile and unclean, and he did not restrain them.
The sun rises and a boy lays, prostrate
God
Rise up Samuel, therefore I have sworn unto the House of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice or any offerings, forever.
Scene fades to black as Samuel sits up and stands
Samuel talks with Eli
Eli
Well
Samuel
Well what?
Eli
What did he say?
Samuel
I think you know
Eli
Tell me and let it begin
Sam
You have really pissed of God and his promise to you against your house still stands
Eli
Perhaps…?
Sam
Don’t waste your time
Eli
It is the Word of God given me by his newly chosen prophet. Let Him do what he thinks is right. I accept the judgement
Sam
So be it
Fade to black
ANGEL
I always felt sorry for Eli, for his judgement, and I never understood why God can’t help humans see their transgressions instead of always killing everyone and everything
Sophia
Sh-h-h-h
Joan
Yeah, why judge Eli? Why not just strike his sons dead in the temple. Is it for economic or political corruption or having sex in the temples or having sex with Transsexual clergy. We bloody don’t know if they were both even married. Why not state the sins I’m uncomfortable with this kind of judgement mostly because Eli did nothing
angel
It’s the only way He knows
Sophia
I agree and have argued with him about it since his beginning but Deities, like humans, have little or no control over there children or husbands
angel
That’s rich
Joan
Everyone is guilty, all the time, it still makes me squeamish
angel
Relax, it gets better, or worse, depending on your point of view
Vishnu, sighing
Kali would not have been so impersonal or secretive concerning the offing of the oppressors of her people
Sophia
Thank you, I thought that was my best performance
everyone laughs
Sophia
And it came to be that Israel again declared war on the Philistines but this time they were defeated and lost 4,000 men and retreating to Shiloh they brought the Ark of the Covenant to use it’s magick in a second battle against the Philistines. They will be lead by the sons Eli.
Joan
I thought my battles were bloody, I thought my troops were brave but these men, though they fight with shorter swords, do so with no real armor. It is hard to watch. I can almost taste the dust and smell their blood.
Angel
Man kills in the thousand and cries when the battle is over; God kills in the tens of thousands and feels righteous and knows he will do it again. It makes me cry, but I still love Him.
Sophia
Angels, like humans, cannot help how they were created
Joan
I lament for us all
Vishnu
You regret your victories and those who had to die to save your people?
Joan
Watching this, knowing it will never end but go on in ever increasing numbers, that all leaders are eventually corrupted, yes, here and Now I would say yes.
Vishnu
And that is how learn
Sophia
May I continue?
Scene 4
Philistine scouts and signal man stand on a hill and watch the battle from beginning to end
first soldier
Their God comes to war with them
second soldier
Shit, this has never happened before, now what are going to do
third soldier
Who shall intercede on our behalf? This is the same god that ruined the Egyptians with plagues and then lead his people here to slaughter us for our land that he claimed for them.
Fourth soldier
Be strong, act like men. Fellow Philistines. Would you be slaves to the Hebrews? They have been your servants, would you be theirs? Come, let’s fight them, better dead, than serve their Lord.
The sun begins to set
second soldier
I don’t fucking believe it
first soldier
Ashtoreth was with us today
third soldier
They are all destroyed except that one scared coward over there
he points
fourth soldier
We have captured their God, the Ark of the Covenant is ours, we shall use their magick against them
First soldier
One should tread lightly when using magick one does not understand
third soldier
Ransom that bad boy back to them
fourth solider
Stop it on can never second guess a commander, let alone our goddess
the sun sets, it is dark
scene 5
an out or breath soldier with no sword or shield stands in front of Eli and a pregnant woman. Attendants and guards are around
soldier
They have ravished us, sire, our army is scattered and they have killed 30,000 today. The Ark of the Covenant has been taken and… both Phineas and Hophni are dead, there bodies taken by the Philistines along with the Ark of our Lord. Sire ..
Eli stands, aided by the pregnant woman, he falls, striking his head and dies in front of his own throne.
The pregnant woman, wife of Phineas, knells over him and grabbing her stomach sits down
Wife
It is time
she lays back and raises her legs, screaming in pain
wife
Call him Ichabod, for the glory of Israel has departed, God has been taken away with my husband, his father and his sons. The Ark has been taken.
She dies as the baby is born, crying.
Mid-wife attendant
The House of Eli has ended and Israel is in ruins. What will become of us?
Fade to black
lights up on classroom
Joan
Why does God take the innocent as well as the guilty? Phineas’s wife had been hurt enough, probably knowing she was cheated on. I wonder if she even knew?
Vishnu
That s the eternal question asked if all deities and certainly the eternal cycle of abused women
Angel
That’s the way the cookie crumbles
Joan
Fuck you
angel
God saw fit to make that not possible
Vishnu
That’s the way the nookie tumbles
Angel
Fuck you
Vishnu, one hand between her legs the other pushing her breast up
Anytime, anywhere. So, you know how to use your mouth for something other than yapping?
Sophia
Are we done yet?
Quiet
Scene 6
The interior of a Philistine temple. Transsexual Priestess and Priest move and dance around the Ark. Musicians are playing the tempo increases and they begin have sex over and in front of the Ark. One by one they leave until only Priestess and Priest remain.
The Priestess is prostrate in front of the ark and the priest covers her with a blanket and leaves. Guards are posted at the doors. The sun goes down and it is dark
Sunrise and the Priest enters. The Priestess remains prostate having not moved the entire night. The priest calls in attendants to lift her and place her in a throne nearby. She is helped to drink water which runs down her face
the events of the previous day resume. The priestess remains seated not moving. The stage grows dark and one by one the temple is emptied. The suns sits with the Priestess still sitting in the throne. Guards are again posted at the doors. As the doors are closed
vapors begin filling the chamber. It is dark
The sunrises.
The Priest returns and unlocks the doors. He enters and finds the torso of the priestess. There is blood everywhere. Her head sits on the Ark and her limbs are scattered about the room. He cries and falls down upon his knees. The guards rush in.
The Ark as well as the body of the Priestess are removed and the front door is bricked in. There is much wailing and crying throughout the city and around the temple.
Generals have gathered at the temple while the doors are being bricked in they are talking with other Philistine clergy
High Priestess
The Ark of the god of Israel shall not abide with us here, our Priestess is slaughtered with their magick and a plague has invaded our cities. Their Lord’s hand is sore upon us and our Goddess.
Philistine General
What shall we do?
High Priestess
Let the Ark be carried to Gath
The ark is loaded onto a cart and carried to Gath. As they enter the city gates a earthquake begins, vapors descend on the caravan and the city and it is destroyed. People drop in their tracks and the others run away, stricken by the plague.
The Ark is carried away from the city.
People shout
Take the Ark to Ekron
Yes Now, do it now
the Ark is carted off
They arrive at Ekron but the gates are closed and a representative stands on the city wall and shouting
Ekronite King
You have brought the God of the Hebrews to slay us also. We mean to return their God to where he belongs that it might not slay us or our people for there has been a deadly destruction throughout our land since the Ark came to us, their God’s hand in upon us.
Ekronite general
Gather together all the Priestesses and Priests, the diviners and the seers in the land to this place so they may communicate with the God of Israel so we might learn how and where we are to return to them their Ark.
Scene 7
A large group of religious people and generals are gathered under a tree. The Ark still sits on the cart nearby.
High Priestess
We must make trespass offerings
Philistine General
Why should we? They attacked us and like children, running away and leaving the abode of their God in our hands. We have shown no disrespect to it and have not tried to usurp It’s power for ourselves. Our land is laid to waste by the very thing we care for, that they abandoned. We kept their god holy
High Priestess
You asked. This is the answer, or would you rather us all crushed by our own homes and laid low and murdered by their god’s poisonous vapors breathe and rubbed out by the boils on your dicks?
You must create 5 golden mice, one for each Lord of our people and one for each city and village and you must cast in gold representations of the emerods upon the genitals of each of your men.
Philistine general
I have listened to enough from this woman. This is outrageous. Do you make fun of us bitch?
High Priestess
I am High Priestess of Ashtoreth and cannot lie when asked to divine. I answer openly and freely and without any fear of my Goddess. You cringe in fear of this God of the Hebrews and ask advise of my Goddess.
Would you harden your heart as did the Pharaoh of the Egyptians when he was told so peacefully and without prejudice how to act?
If so, you too, will lie in a fathoms of a oceans of death of your own making.
Philistine general
How dare you…
High Priestess, cutting him off, mid-sentence.
Therefore make a new cart and take two milk cows who have never known the yoke or plowed the fields ans tie their calves to the cart and then take their calves from them.
Lay the Ark upon the cart with the trespass offerings and send it back.
Let the calves go and let the milk cows follow them. Then you will know if the disasters which have befallen us is coincidence or the hand of the God of Israel.
Scene 8
Sophia
This was done and the calves walked the road to Bethshemesh and the Philistines knew the mind of god.
When the people of Bethshemesh saw the Ark approaching they rejoiced and left the fields they were harvesting and gave thanks for the Arks arrival.
The Levites sacrificed the calves to the Lord in a fire made of the wood of the cart which brought the Ark to them, offering it in the field of Leah who birthed Joshua.
And under the cover of night the Lord killed 50,310 of them for they peeked inside the Ark.
They sent it them, with the trespass offerings to Kirjathjearim and mentioned not the deadly handwork of The Lord of the Hebrews but passed it on, poker faced.
Angel
Never look a gift Ark in the mouth
Vishnu
You are a card. Did you ever to stand up?
Angel
Yes, but Fox canceled my show
Vishnu
Nothing is sacred
Joan
Isn’t that the point? No one knows the rules, everyone is punished. Whether you piss on it or treat it with respect. There is never a true way when God is a dictator.
Angel
Did you meet Stalin? It sounds like it.
Sophia
We are running far afield, folks.
Angel
In Russia they say the huge numbers of unknown dead buried in the fields guaranteed a good crop of sunflowers.
Joan
Did they have a bumper crop of sunflowers in Bethshemesh?
Sophia
Shall we continue?
Angel
No, opium, have you ever seen the headdress of Ashtoreth?
Sophia
Shall we…
All in chorus
what’s the point?
Sophia
To survive
Angel
Yah Weh plays checkers with the soul of men and the lives of nations, playing one against the other, using them to murder His brother and sister deities so he may be the only One.
Vishnu
Surely He must know that nothing is destroyed that is created. That god run is seasons and that which is trimmed away grows back and that all matter bing energy returns to it’s beginnings and is reborn.
Angel
He hopes that humans forget. He counts on it. He leans on their acquiring this knowledge with the heavy hand of fear when they begin to comprehend it in any fashion.
Joan
I feel sick to my stomach
Sophia, in a German accent, making fun of Eienstein
God does not play dice
they all laugh
Vishnu, giggling
Energy can be neither destroyed nor created
Angel
That which is shall always be, that which was, still is.
Joan
I’m gonna be sick
Sophia
We’re almost done
Vishnu walks to Joan and wiggles into her seat and puts her hands around her shoulders.
Curl up here boyfriend.
Angel, with sarcasm
Well that’s cute
Sophia
I am sorry you don’t have a cock, dear heart. I always thought it was mistake, but God was and still is a very jealous and insecure God, I should know, I birthed him and became his lover. His own securities about the size of his cock doomed you all and resulted in all those sexually repressive rules that humans will never really understand or obey.
Jealousy is always a horrible monster.
Angel
Gee, Mom, thanks for the understanding
Sophia
You may not have one but you really are a huge prick sometimes… son.
Let’s finish this and knock off ‘till tomorrow.
Joan
I just want to say that in lieu of what’s going on it is insulting to read that the Hand of God will be lightened from on the Philistines and their Deities and their land for doing what was told them, That’s what’s making me sick to my stomach. There is no winning.
Joan begins to cry, Vishnu kissed her forehead.
Joan
Thank you. You smell goo. Patchouli and sandalwood?
Vishnu, touching Joan’s face
It will be alright, let’s listen
Joan
But 50,000 murdered in their sleep, I… it’s…
angel
Yes, it even affects me, it cheapens all Gods and lessens the meaning of righteousness
Scene 8
Sophia
The Ark rested in the temple at Kirjatharim for 20 years under the care of Eleaza.
Light fades on class
light up on Samuel as he stands in the temple the learned and the holy people and their armies generals are in attendance.
Samuel
If you return to Yah Weh with all your hearts and put away the Goddess Ashtoreth and Isis and the Gods Balim and Osiris and serve Him only He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. Make no sacrifices and hold no dance to the Deities of this land or of the Egyptian lands from which you were freed.
Shouts and cheers go up from those in attendance and they depart.
A great fire is kindled and the statuary and scrolls and other ritual tools of all the religions not Hebrew are burned.
The Ark is brought out from the temple and sat at the place of sacrifice and Samuel knells and pours water onto it as a sacrifice to Yah Weh.
Sophia
And the Philistines were driven out and forced to return all the land which the Israelis claimed.
Fade to black
Scene 9
Samuel is old. He sits at a domestic table. Two men stand before him.
Samuel
Joel, Abiah, sit with me and share a meal. We must talk. I am tired and I know I am getting old
Joel
No father, you are not old, god is with you and you are still our prophet and judge.
Samuel
Thank you but I can no longer keep up. I would like to appoint you both, as my first and second born, to be additional judges over Israel. Eventually I will not be able to work and we need a smooth transition of power when that time comes.
Abiah
We will abide by your commands father
the brothers look at each with greedy corrupt smiles.
Fade to black
Many angry men stand before Samuel
Man 1
They are corrupt
Man 2
Joel demands money before and after each hearing
man 3
And we must give them both money whenever we yto rebuild or at on to or homes or work places or build new ones
Man 4
The pass judgement by whoever pays them the most money
Man 2
Listen Samuel, you are old and your sons, whom you have appointed as judges over us, are corrupt. They are no longer with god
Man 4
Give us a King like other nations. Give us a King to lead our armies and observe our Laws
they depart and Samuel bows his head prying
God
Listen to the voice of the people. They have forsaken you and hence me. They wish a secular ruler and violate the Covenant they made with me. The memory of man is short as their dicks. Your sons bleed them dry and they think a King will be different. They forget Egypt. They forget the Philistines. The love of man is so inconstant.
Gather them back and tell them how a King acts for that is what they shall have.
Fade to black
Lights up on class
Joan
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely
Angel
Lights, action!
Vishnu
You would give away a $50 bar question?
Angel
Why not, I am forbidden to drink.
Vishnu
Is that why you are always hanging out in opium dens and crack houses?
Joan
you’re pretty petty for an Angel
Vishnu
As above, so below
Joan
My point exactly. This god does not lead, he condemns to get what he wants like Spiritual Urban Renewal. Like fucking manifest destiny. This is no kind Deity but a greedy spoiled brat of a God.
Sophia
Like I said earlier, neither women nor Goddesses have much control over who they birth and you are right Vishnu, bully boys and bully Gods are but one in the same.
Angel
And the point is
Joan
there is no point
Angel
That is what I was going to say
Joan
But the point of a sword or the point of a bolt of lightening. This God likes them to bleed from both sides, it just does not matter.
Vishnu
I need a drink, what do you say we knock off for awhile?
Joan
Good idea, where to, when to?
Vishnu
Fillmore
Joan
East or west
Vishnu
Well… the west is the best…
Joan laughs
Vishnu
Late or early?
Joan
Early, I loved that decade
Angel, rejected and sad
I guess I’ll just stay here
Vishnu
No, No join us, we’ll pick you up a chunk of Afghani hash or maybe a temple ball
Angel, visibly touched and starting to cry
I have never been given a gift, I, I thank you and accept
Sophia
Before we break for the day let’s finish, shall we?
Scene 10
Samuel is standing on the temple steps. Many people stand around him
Samuel
This king you desire to raise above me and your pact with God will be less and more than your imaginations contain in a wine skin.
He will take away your sons and your horses and your chariots for his and place his own officers above them.
Your daughters will be cooks and bakers and candy makers and these he will use to sweeten his servants beds.
He will take your livestock and make you little more than they. You will be nothing but consumers and units to be consumed.
The crowd begins shouting back at him
Man 1
He will make us a powerful nation as others are powerful.
Man 2
He will give us the riches of our enemies
Man 3
He will lead our armies
Man 4
And protect out laws as his own
Man 5
He will fight our battles and us feared in this and all lands
Samuel
You will learn to fear this king ten time more than your enemies will have need to, but I have promised Yah Weh to heed the will of his people and I now seal your choice. So be it
The crowd shouts
So be it
Samuel
Go then, every man to his city and search for he who shall be your king over all of Israel.
Act 2
Scene 1
A gruesome battle is going on from the American Civil War
Joan and the Angel walk in with there arms around each other, wearing hippie clothes from the late/mid ’60’s.
angel
I’ve seen this show before. It’s another fight for truth and justice which becomes institutional oppression and lying about who and what actually won since the ‘good guys’ institute nearly identical restrictive laws as the ‘bad guys’ but was a saccharin pretty prose to hide it. Then it’s just a matter of teaching school children the rewrites and within less than a generation it becomes the truth. Same shit, different day
Joan
Shut up, I haven’t seen it
Angel
I just want to say that perhaps it’s all a set up. Eli, Samuel, Saul and the pretty boy David, they all do the same thing and act the same way.
Joan
Perhaps god’s judgement is really screw, e tells each one to look for a replacement just like themselves.
Angel
He’s telling the defective part to act and choose a mirror image, to duplicate the faulty part.
Joan
You’re right, when it comes to Humans, God is a stuck record.
Angel
I always thought he jerked off while you people fucked everything up.
Joan
You are as bad as the priests from my parish.
Angel
Don’t even get me started about that crap. The Holy roman empire stole every ritual it uses, condemned and murdered all other clergy for sexual offences against God and than incorporated the same rituals into their new church while at the same time allowing catholic renegade priests to rape children.
They breed humans like cattle and though they are the richest religious institution in the world and say they tend to the spiritual needs of the poorest they insist that their parishioners poverty is righteous
Joan
Too much money always corrupts and more quickly that the lust for power
Angel
Actually, lack of money corrupts much more quickly. Acquiring too much is just rancid icing on a stale cake
Vishnu enters also dressed in hippies clothing and hugs and kisses both the Angel and Joan
Joan
I had such a hot time last night
Angel, blushing
It was my first time
Vishnu
It was both our first time with an Angel
They all giggle
Angel
No one has had sex with an Angel in 2,000 years I needed that girlfriends. It’s the first time I have felt holy in eon’s, literally
Sophia, pointing to the on going battle, still raging across the stage
Oh, I must have let this run all night
War is war. They are all the same. Each one s the last war the great war the end whatever and establish the same. Nothing changes, everyone dies, all governments are or become evil, caring more for their own corrupt perpetuation than the citizens who pay good money to buy oppressed. I have really been amazed that humans can not figure that one out. They blame it evil Gods blah, blah, blah and yet they are all part of Him. They will never catch on.
Vishnu
It’s the use of religion to bolster and protect Nationalistic interests which always has to do with the theft of resources. All flags should be burnt, all borders abolished. Humans will destroy themselves for these two things alone. War, all war is started because of greed and it’s cousin power.
Joan
It is what the entire Old Testament is about
Vishnu
It’s the history of my people too, for 10,000 years since the original invasion of the patriarchy spear headed by the Kurgans. I think this God liked them the best. All history is based on their actions and deeds.
Sophia
We should get started. You are all correct. I have had this same argument with Him since He started doing solo work. I should have put my foot down then. It’s the reason for my work here. Hoping some are interested in justg showing up and listening. When three show up, it’s depressing
Joan
The mark of an educated mind is that it can entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle said that. I always liked that quote.
Angel
You crack me up girlfriend
Sophia
Listen and learn
Joan
That’s a good one too
angel
Christ
everyone laughs
Sophia
Did you all read what we will be covering today?
Joan
Oh yeah, we were just talking about it. It’s so redundant, Eli and his sons, Samuel and his sons. I think god made a real mistake keeping Samuel on as Judge.
And the ‘find a man like yourself’ thing seems to be used to just perpetuate all the same crap onto another generation.
And then Saul, ditto, and the intimation of betrayal by Jonathon for eating wild honey and his later falling in love with David, by the way, the only person tweeked by that was his father, Samuel didn’t care, that much is obvious. Are these things connected in some way? Or has the story just been revised to the point completely gibberish? Why, everyone knows wild honey is Kosher, and we all know that Yah Weh mentioned only the murder of humans and the destruction of domesticated animals.
So what the fuck? Again, the innocent are punished.
Angel
That’s the most I have heard you say at one time
Joan
Yeah, well I can use my mouth for something other than making Deities come.
Vishnu
You go girl!
Sophia
god covers his ass about all these things by disallowing any questions and making up the riles as he goes.
I think covers it well. Anyone know the verse?
Angel
15:23, For rebellion is as witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Sophia, giggling
I figured you would not have forgotten that one.
Angel
that one is old school, from before time and the basis for the whole ‘thrown out of heaven’ thing. Everyone who ever asked a question got booted out.
Joan
That makes more sense now and it is very inline with a God Plaines has spent his entire existence trying to kill other Deities and getting others to do his dirty work, subjugating anyone without a dick and actually instigating the whole racial skin color thing as a measure of holiness.
Vishnu
Amen, sister
stage darkens
Scene 2
Samuel is old, a young man knells before him. Samuel places oil on his forehead.
Samuel
The Lord anoints you, Saul, to be Captain over all His inheritance.
When you leave here you are to go to the Plaines of Tabor, there you shall meet three strangers and they will give you two loaves of bread.
Go then, to the Hill of God and there you shall met a company of prophets playing psaltery, tabret, pipe and harp.
Share the bread with them and you shall be another man.
Fear not for God is with you and through these deeds God shall be within you.
They leave the stage.
fade to black.
Music can be heard as Saul and musicians walk onto the stage from opposite direction. Saul follows them. Their music is slow at first. They stop and share bread and wine from a skin. They begin to play again, faster and faster. Saul disrobes and begins to talk to the sky dancing in a circle and then lays down in the dirt.
Vishnu
So the bread was soma?
Joan
Did he talk to god or Ashtoreth? Is the bread the vehicle for do so?
Angel
I think it was a rye ergot which produces hallucination much like mescalin. Haven’t you noticed that so much of the Old testament takes place during the harvesting of grain. Partly it is an attempt to pull the population away from the older Goddess symbolism of agriculture. Also, God often makes it rain during the harvest. Not could for the grain but it is the catalyst for the production of the ergot.
Joan
Drugs get you holy quicker than just dancing or singing
Vishnu
Drugs are what separate us from the animals
Drugs make evil men righteous
Drugs make good men into monsters
Drugs make the holy man mad
Drugs are a slippery slope, at best
Angel
Drugs are God an Goddess, Devils and worse, the souls mirror, the trickster come-a-calling, the hearts prism.
Joan
Man chases asses, God chases man’s soul. If asses ate drugs would they honor God? If God ate drugs would he follow his own advice?
Vishnu
Is Saul among the prophets?
Everyone laughs
fade to black
Saul sits on a throne.
Samuel stands next to him. A crowd of people stand around
Samuel
This day you have rejected your covenant with Yah Weh who saved you from the Pharaoh and the Babylonians and those who have tried to oppress you in this land.
This day you have set a man above you and your God.
The crowd
God save the king
Samuel
So be it
fade to black
Angel
Yawn. Another count down to destruction.
Joan
Sophia, does it make you sad, knowing you birthed this God and with Him this world and this way? What the fuck went wrong?
Sophia
Not even a Goddess can see everything. Sometimes the milk curdles and it makes bad cheese
Joan
Do we still have to eat it?
Sophia
Until it is all gone
Joan
It makes me sick
Sophia
Me too
Angel
But I love Him anyway, and his cheese
fade to black
Scene 3
Saul sits upon a throne wearing a crown. There are attendants around. A messenger comes and bows.
Saul
What news from the front?
Messenger
The Ammonites will not pledge you their allegiance unless you pluck out the right eyes of all your people as a trespass tribute.
Saul become enraged and picking up a sword walks into the streets, hollering to himself. He sees a oven yoked to a cart and approaches it and begins hacking it to death and does not stop until it is in many pieces all the while screaming about his greatness and what he intends to do about the Ammonites. He finally stops and turns to a gaurd standing by who is horrified and frightened.
Saul
Send a piece to each Ammonite city so they know the reply of Israel. Whoever comes fo me or Samuel of anyone of Israel this shall be done to them.
Fade to black.
The messenger has returned to the Ammonite camp and uncovers a penis and testicles on a silver platter.
War shouts from the Ammonite soldiers standing around as they begin to move out against the Israelis.
Fade to black
Saul is lifted onto the shoulders of a large crowd thanking him for the defeat of the Ammonites. He is carried off stage while people cheer
fade to black
Scene 4
Saul walks through the streets of a conquered ammonite town. There are fires remaining and the people back away from him. He is surrounded by generals and a Rabbi.
General
They say, my Lord, that your taxes are causing a great hardship at home.
Saul
they are traitors and spies who attack me from within. They are the emeny oif Israel and they can be destroyed as easily as I have done this town
general
They support the armies. Everyone who disagrees with state policy is not a traitor. Thgese are some of the bravest men of our nation, decorated veterns, politicaians.
Saul
We need no politicians, God is on my side, we need no aging war vet whose vision of grandeur is more in a flagon of wine then on the scribes pen and we need no little citizen who think they know more than me. They are all expendable and replaceable as there are lines and crowds of less mouthy and less thinking assholes to take their place. I have given them victory and they pick at me like vultures.
General
They say you direct but do not lead
Saul
And what do you say, General?
General
I say we are victorious, what matters how?
Saul
You will make a great politician if you live that long
General
How have I offended you?
Saul
Arrest this man for treason. I said Do It Now!
The general is drug off screaming. They are now standing before the temple of the Ammonites
It begins to rain, there is thunder in the distance
Saul
See, See? God threatens all Israelis with starvation by raining on the harvest. Wise God, good God. Let it be a warning to them all.
The group walks up the steps. Saul opens the doors there is loud music from within
Saul
No one is to enter these doors until I come out nor are they to leave before me.
He enters alone and closes the doors
Scene 5
Saul enters the pagan temple No one notices. The musicians keep playing. Several T-priestesses and T-priests are having ritual sexual worship. They look up but do not stop. Attendants light candles which gone out or need to be replaced. A semi clothed female attendant walks up to Saul who is still wearing his crown.
Attendant
your quest is in your heart as well as your soul,
attendant turns to the audience
or that which cares to lead
she puts her finger to her lips
sh-h-h-h, or the one you see in your dreams or your nightmares if such is the case.
Saul eats what is offered. The musicians gather around him in two circles each rotating I a different direction. G-girls and T-girls enter the double circle and begin disrobing the King of Israel.
They begin to make love in a pile as the musicians play and move faster and faster
Voice of God
I see you
No one hears or pays attention.
Fade to black
Out side the doors of the temple the guards slouch and sit around
Guard 1
He has been in there a long time
Guard 2
It does not bode well for us
Guard 3
I am glad this is my last tour
Guard 1
Yah Weh will not like this shit if I am right about what is going on behind those idolatrous doors
he spits at the doors
Scene 6
Samuel paces back and forth in front of a empty throne in Saul palace. He is mad and acts with paranoid. Looking in corners and ceilings as if someone is watching that he can not see.
Saul enters
Samuel
What the fuck have you done?! You have been most foolish. You have not kept the Covenant with God.
Saul
You did not show up for the offering. I prepare for battle and need to sacrifice to our Lord for victory over the Philistines
Samuel
You have so little faith, I am here, the battle has not yet begun
You did not arrive at the time the Lord and you agreed upon
Samuel
You have so little faith
Saul
That, you know, is not what is in question here, is it?
Samuel
You can not have your cake and eat it too. All of Israel knows what you have done. You have honored the God between your legs and the thighs of the heathen goddesses. Did you like the fish and fruit? Was it good? Did Yah Weh talk to you? Did you even pay attention?
Saul
I thought I heard Him cry with delight
Samuel
You are almost right but he only cried.
Now the Lord who established your kingdom over Israel forever takes it back. Your rule will not continue, the Lord has sought and found another man after his own heart and chosen him to be the Captain over his people because you have not honored your oath to him and made an offering of your self to the Goddess of Israel’s enemy.
You have also usurped my place as prophet and made our burnt offerings with the hands of a warrior and a secular ruler.
Dancing and drugs do not make a prophet, though they can make a king or general.
I cut myself off from you as you see this tear in my cloak.
Samuel shows Saul his torn garment and widens it by ripping it more. He turns and walks away.
Saul walks to his throne and sits down. He sits his crown on his lap and then replaces it on his head. There are a few attendants standing around who have backed into the shadows, trying to hide.
Saul
Guards, Guards!
Guards rush in
Saul
Arrest these servants for treason. I want their heads brought to me within the hour.
They are dragged off
Saul is alone. Standing, he begins to walk around waving his arms and talking to himself
Saul, growing louder and more agitated as he talks
I will trick this trickster God of my Fathers father. He admonishes me, outrageous, how dare he, fucking god, accuse me of unholiness, of not killing every fucking thing alive. What the fuck? Blame me for making burnt offerings to his whinny ass. I was fucking set up. Fucking god. Kill the fucking livestock. I am sick of this god and his kill everything shit. I will show him and that ass licking Samuel.
I will go him one better. I will ban and destroy all religions except the One Gods. Hebraism shall prevail. All soothsayers, diviners, card reads, stone casters they shall all be run out or die every queer one of them dress wearing boys who fuck for their Goddess, they will all be rubbed out. God will love me again and my rule will continue.
From now own we will this Gods’s game and I will order, by penalty of death is any disobey, killing every soldier, man woman child infant and suckling, every sheep and lamb cow and goat and rabbit and horse and camel. Nothing shall be left to live and I will become as God. Destroy it all make heavens waste land on this green earth.
And I will command my troops to eat no food. Cursed be the man that eats any food until this battle be won and the enemy of Israel completely wiped out. On that I give my word even if the transgressors be my own sons
and then quietly to himself, looking around, as though someone is listening. The guards enter the throne chamber carrying the servants heads.
Saul
Sit them down over there and leave me. Let no one in.
Saul, whispering now.
The people do not really know I stand in disfavor of Yah Weh and they will follow me as though I were a God too. I must finish preparing for the battle. From now on we destroy the very earth of our enemy walks on. Jonathon, lets us go. It gets late
Saul walks out of the throne room.
Fade to black.
Scene 7
Jonathon stands with his troops. It is dusty and hot and his army is tattered having just fought a large battle with the Philistines.
soldier 1, throws downs a flask
That’s it for the water
soldier 2, holding out a wineskin
some wine
soldier 1
No, I do not fight well on it, a drunk soldier is a dead soldier, you know.
Soldier 3
What’s Jonathon doing?
Jonathon is pointing a staff at the ground. He very slowly moves to the spot he is pointing at and bends over picking something up.
Jonathon, talking to himself
Ah, just what the troops ordered. Pure bliss, a gift from the earth and from heaven.
He lifts it to his mouth and tastes the honey dripping from the comb. It runs down his face. His troops stare with bewilderment as he begins swaying and trance like clam overtakes his face. He says nothing
The soldiers stand there dumbfounded and then begin to whisper amongst themselves
Soldier 1
He is enlightened
soldier 4
The ancient Goddess has embraced him
soldier 2
No, No, it’s okay, it’s Kosher
soldier 3
Jonathon, stop it, don’t you know that your father, the king, has cursed any who eat before the enemy is driven out with public death. Please, cease your feast.
Jonathon hears nothing and only laughs and eats more with closed eyes, dancing, sexually provocatively as with a partner to music only he can hear.
Battle sounds can be heard in the back ground.
Soldier 1
To arms, the enemy returns
soldier 4
Jonathon it is time to go, the enemy has returned and are at our backs.
Jonathon doesn’t move. The soldiers look at each other and leave him behind. One man stands guard over him in protection
The soldiers return. One is missing. They bring a goat with them.
Soldier 2
Jonathon’s crime will cover ours. I am starving.
Soldier 1
I agree, let’s eat, or at least drink it’s blood. No one will know and we can always blame it on the actions of the king’s son.
They kill the goat and drink it’s blood and then begin to eat it raw.
Saul appears with some men.
Saul
All of you have sinned against the Lord by eating with the blood. Every man of you must bring his Ox and every man must bring his sheep and slay them on a altar I will build for the Lord.
Soldier 2, whispering to soldier 3
I told you he would not kill his son. This king has no balls and talks like a flatulent old woman.
Saul
You people are fucking incredible. You can’t do anything right, let alone follow simple fucking directions. If I hear of anymore transgressions, even if it be my own blood, they must die. The Lord said so… yeah, that’s what God said and I always do what God wants.
Soldier 3
What did we bet? We are fucked as soon as he hears about Jonathon. He will condemn us to save his precious son
Fade to black
Saul paces back and forth in his throne room. He is talking to himself.
Saul
Two years of this shit. I have been here two years and by the ancient laws I am still not made king.
Cheers and shouts and battles and sacrifices no more make a king than the word of Gods or Prophets.
Men’s mouths are a slippery as ells and like wise will consume anything
All the Kings of my people had installation rites.
Can I kill my oldest son to secure this throne? Can I bury him alive or bind him in a wicker hamper and set him on fire, burn him alive? Will I become something more than a king or prophet?
No. I love my son and could not bear it, but… I could, yes, there are no rules concerning whether the son was born of my wife or another as long as he is made my son..
I will adopt a righteous and brave young man. He will be my sacrifice and he will make me immortal and my people will fall on their faces to honor me and entreat my privileges.
What shall I do, what shall I do!! Who shall I find?
Samuel enters startling the king
Saul
Oh, you scared me, I did not hear you coming
Samuel
I bring you the words of the Lord. I told you to rub out the Amalehites, to spare them not, to slay every man, woman child, infant, suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
Saul
the battle is over, their cities on fire, the king captured and imprisoned. Guards bring the Amaleh King to us.
The guard leaves and returns with the King
Saul
Chain this foul king and secure the best of his livestock for a burnt offering.
Samuel clears his throat.
Saul
Blessed be the Lord and the Prophet. I have preformed the commandments of the Lord.
Samuel
What is this bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen I hear coming through the city gates?
Saul
They are from Amaleh, the people saved the best from the city for a sacrifice to our Lord and I let them have some of the second rate livestock
Samuel
the Lord made you king over all his people and you still don’t get it.
Yah Weh sits higher stock on obedience that he does on burnt offerings.
IT IS NOT YOUR CHOICE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO THE LORD!
To obey is better than to sacrifice, to chose the fatted rams and dishes of gold.
Rebellion is the same as witchcraft and stubbornness is the same as idolatry.
You are guilty of all these things and because you rejected the word of God he also rejects you.
Saul
Forgive me, please, I tried to appease the wishes of the people. Pray with me Samuel.
Saul reaches for Samuel but he backs away and Saul grabs his shirt and it is torn.
Samuel
Again my shirt is ripped away as God and myself rip you from us.
Samuel walks toward Agag, the Amaleh king now chained to a pillar.
They are standing face to face
Agag
Surely the bitterness of death is past?
Samuel
As your sword has made Israeli women childless so shall your mother be childless among women.
Samuel turns away and takes a guards sword and returns to Agag who stands up straight. Samuel begins to chop and hack at him until he is in many pieces and Samuel is covered with blood.
He turns to Saul who has not moved since this began. His mouth is hanging open
Samuel
That is the difference between you and me. I do what I am told to do. You are less than shit.
Samuel throws the sword down and kick pieces of body parts out of his way and leaves the throne room.
He stops when out of sight and placing his arms onto the wall buries his face in them and begins to cry.
Fade to black
Light up on the classroom
Angel, talking to the audience.
I am the prototype of the abused child, the used woman. Though I see and feel, with retrospect, the hurt of all the ages, I must return because I love him, like the child must return for sustenance.
What’s wrong with this God, that I can not question the millenniums of abuse to those of my ilk or those of his favorites? That I can not ask, “Why Lord”, without being cast out and further abused?
Vishnu
God and his Prophets need anger management.
Joan
I have watched quietly all this outrageous carnage. In my own time I stood victorious on battlefields whose greatest harvest was the death of armies, with lost arms and legs and heads still twitching, still missing their owners and their other parts, with tongues still wagging and eyes still blinking in disbelief as hell and heaven carted off their souls and vomited in spilled blood that these hands drew from their owners life’s well.
None of that was true nor necessary. I have watched today, 100,000 humans butchered in rationalization of the theft of land not their own, urged on by a jealous, insane God. I feel forsaken.
Vishnu
Yan Weh needs celestial therapy or at the very least Cosmic Lithium or Prozac
Joan
Sophia, if all things stem from a single source why does it always come down to this?
Sophia
for every time there is a season
Angel
Jesus fucking Christ, I was starting to like you and then that shit.
Vishnu
I think all history is the chronicle of mans butchery of men who disagree with whoever is the strongest. The biggest bully hires the biggest whores to write gloriously of their deeds.
Moses invented genocide at the urging of Yah Weh. It is that result which we now watch.
Sophia
The God men find is the thing in their hearts. Haven’t you ever wondered why one human can go to talk with God and come away wanting to help humanity and another man, going to the same god for guidance comes away wishing to kill everyone and everything. The God humans find is the God they carry in themselves.
Eventually if enough people call up a cannibal in their God, that God will urge them to be cannibals. It really is quite simple. As far as deities go, you get what you are. It is why it all goes in such strangely repeated circles.
Joan
I feel cheapened and used by the voices I heard which told me to save France as a young girl when I was really just being spiritually turned out by an old pimp God, bent on securing his street corner in that part of the world.
Angel
If I had a heart it would be broken…
Sophia
Sometimes the truth is like stepping on a thorn.
Joan
I need a drink
Vishnu
Let’s go dancing
Angel
How about Studio 54, I always wanted to go there?
Vishnu
They would never let you in
Sophia
Remember dear hearts, even Deities are fooled by the love of those who conjure them.
Gods are truely only mirrors which reflect the soul, amplified by those who beseech them.
This is the most important thing to know; the repressed and angry humans find a God of Swords and Battle. The content human, satisfied with themselves and their life find a nurturing God, a caring Goddess. They only get what they are looking for
Joan
Then Gods, like drugs, are a slippery slope when you want a personal audience?
Everyone laughs
Angel
Let’s go to a hash bar in Amsterdam with a band and a dance floor
in unison
Done
Act 3
Scene 1
Joan, Angel and Vishnu are sitting in theirs chairs. They are dressed in black 21st Century clothing
Joan
This is still is really making me depressed. Like wet blankets in the winter.
I bled the English dry and soaked my countryside with it and thought it holy and righteous and now I feel answered one injustice with another.
Is this all history is? Blood letting and butchery with the victor gaining not only the spoils but the right to boast that their cause was righteous?
Something is very wrong here, what with two foes claiming the same God has given them permission to slaughter and rape the other.
I have come to think this One god, with One Way is only a God of war, not caring who is left standing on the field when the day ends as long as they bow down to him as the Celestial Master.
Angel
amen
Vishnu
I have watched this since the drunken Kurgans mouthed south out of their mountains to subjugate all women and with their copper edged sword and spears drive the temple priestess into their graves or an unwanted bed.
Men birthed these Gods of War and they are the same, answering to different nmaes and numbers like the six sides of a dice is but part of the whole
Sophia
this is all true, and much more
Joan
Did Moses pick up Aman’s sword and mix it with a Babylonian Thunder God’s wrath wrapping that it Set’s hatred of his brother?
Angel
You met Plato?
Joan
Well yes, he still likes the boys bent over an altar.
Vishnu
And so the Holy Roman Church was born.
Sophia
You’re jumping ahead
Joan
Today we will watch another 1000,000 die. I may need a baf bag.
Sophia
there are several in your handout pack.
Vishnu and the Angel laugh. Joan scowls at them and sticks out her tongue.
Vishnu
Thou appendage is so beautiful
they all laugh
scene 2
Saul paces about a room smashing things as we walks
Saul
Give me something to soothe my soul. Samuel has abandoned me like a dig, the old ways turn away from me and I can not sleep
Priestess of Ashtoreth and a Rabbi confer quietly in a corner of the room
Priestess
This king is a spoiled brat
Rabbi
The evil spirit of God is upon him. I have heard there is a Bethlehemite of the house of Jesse whose voice and harp playing can lull the lion to sleep and draw birds from the trees, he is fair to gaze upon and cunning in his playing
Priestess, with cynicism
Right
Rabbi
I will send for him for I feel his songs will soothe the king
fade to black
Lights up on Samuel. He is sitting with a group of men at a table eating. Samuel head is bowed down and he is praying or talking to himself
Samuel
Send me your youngest son
Jesse orders David to be brought in. Samuel looks upward.
God
Arise, Samuel, anoint him for he is with me and to him the inheritance of Israel is given.
No one hears but Samuel, who rises up when David is brought in. He walks up to David
Samuel
Knell before me and the Lord, you and your line has been chosen by god to lead all of Israel.
Samuel lifts a horn filled with oil and places some on David’s head
Samuel
Be at peace and do not worry. Honor Saul, who is still king, and know that the Lord prepares for you his path.
I must leave now and return to Ramah. The Lord is with you and will keep you.
Samuel departs.
Fade to black
David is in the presence of the king and is playing for him. Saul has fallen asleep and then wakes up.
He rubs his eyes and yawns . Looking at David he grins and thinks to himself, addressing the audience.
Saul
This boy is beautiful. I could take him now, he would like a little in him for awhile, I am sure. It would be delightful to share my seed with him.
He looks around the room suspiciously in case anyone is watching. He frowns then addresses David.
Saul
I give thanks to the Lord for sending you, son of Bethlehem. You shall be my armorbearer for I love you like a son. I have a son who is just about your age, you know. You must met him. But now there are more important matters to attend to.
The Philistines gather on our borders. Go to your fathers house so you may help him secure his flocks and fields.
Saul walks over and hugs David a little too long. He looks to the audience winking and then walks away.
David, to the audience
This down-low king thinks he will have his way with me as easily as I pluck the strings of this harp. I think he is not so talented.
David leaves for his fathers house
Fade to black
Scene 3
A great battle is raging between the Israelis and the philistines. David drives a cart filled with provisions for the Israeli army. He stops in front of his brothers tents and dismounts.
Soldiers, just returned from the front are standing around talking as he walks up to them.
Soldier 1
Goliath has arrived with his troops
soldier 2
What will do now, he has been undefeated all these years
soldier 3
Pray that the lord intervenes
Soldier 2
it is said that God has abandoned Saul. Shall he abandon us then?
David
What rewards shall be given to the man who kills this monster? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the One Living God?
Elias, David’s older brother
Who do you think you are, boy, so young and untested in battle, without even a beard?
David
I have killed the lion and the bear when they threatened our fathers flocks
Saul and Jonathon walk up.
David bows and continues.
David
And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of Israel.
Th Lord delivered me from the paws of the bear and the jaws of the lion, he will deliver me out of the hands of this monster as well
Saul
I feel God is with you, go, and the Lord keep you safe.
Saul turns to Jonathon,
Saul
Bring him armor
Jonathon leaves to fetch him the armor, starring at David and then speaks to the audience
Jonathon
I have compared you, oh my love, to a company of horses in the Pharaohs chariot
Jonathon walks off stage and David follows
fade to black
Jonathon helps David put on the armor. Jonathon speaks to himself facing the audience
Jonathon
He has brought me to the banquet-house, and his banner over me is love
he ties the armor on at the back and sits a helmet on his head, handing him a sword
Jonathon
Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
David hands back the sword and takes off the helmet.
David
I can not go with these for I have not been proven in their use.
David strips off the armor and Jonathon helps him redress. He picks up his staff and sling, placing some peebles in a pouch and ties it onto his belt
David
I will go into battle with what I know. It was good enough for the wild animals and it will be good enough for this Philistine.
They look at each other and embrace.
Jonathon
Keep yourself well
David
God will keep me, or not, it is in his hands now, as is all of Israel on this day.
Davis walks off, turning to look at Jonathon who waves and smiles at him
Jonathon, talking again to himself
Jonathon
Who is this that comes out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke?
Fade to black
Scene 4
David is on the battlefield. Goliath approaches.
Goliath
Am I a dog, that you come at me with a stave? I implore you by all that is holy to me. You carry a big stick; compensation for having cut off part of your dick? Has your God been cut likewise, or does he remain whole? Today your cut dick God shall be destroyed and I will eat your heart.
Come to me now, I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
David
You come at me with your sword and spear and I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the Armies of Israel, who you have defied.
Today the Lord will deliver you onto my hands and I will take your head and the carcasses of the Philistines shall feed the birds and the beasts and all the world shall know there is a God in Israel and all shall know that the Lord needs not sword nor spear, for the battle in the Lords domain and he will give you to my hands.
They begin to move around each other. Goliath raises his spear and throws it. David does not move from his spot but turns to let the spear pass by him. He backs up and takes a pebble from his pouch and fits it into his sling. Twirling it above his head he launches the projectile at Goliath who is hit in the temple and falls to the ground.
A great clamor goes up from the Philistines.
David rushes toward the fallen Goliath and picking up his sword cuts off Goliaths head. David, still standing on the jerking body of Goliath lifts his head for all to see.
Cheers go up from the Israeli army and they rush into the Philistine army who retreat from the field of battle.
David strips the armor from Goliath and walks back to his tent, carrying the armor and the head of Goliath as the Israeli army rushes by.
Fade to black
Light up on the class.
Joan
So there we have it, from the horses mouth
Vishnu
A Pharaoh’s horse none the less
Angel
I guess you were paying attention
Joan
God, you are a bitch sometimes, I mean the ‘battle is the Lord’s domain’. This God is the God of War and Battles. It could be no other way. Since his birth in Hebrew campfires he has declared war on everyone, women, children, the innocent, as well as those guilty of minor offences against other humans. It is useless to follow him. I turn my back on the entire thing.
Angel
don’t wash your hands, it will really piss Him off.
Vishnu and Joan look at the Angel with mock scowls and then they begin laughing.
Sophia
As I said before I am amazed that humans never put two and two together before this
Angel
Too fucking afraid to think. The Shepard Lord wants only grazing sheep, not mountain goats willing to climb and search.
Joan
I would rather be the goat
Vishnu
That’s why we are all here
fade to black
Scene 5
Saul and Jonathon are in the palace
David enters carrying the head of Goliath by the hair.
Jonathon, to the audience
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is better than wine
David sits the head on a table and turns to Saul
David
I am the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, your servant.
Saul
This is my son, Jonathon, you are, from this day on, to stay in my house as my son. Your rooms shall be here in the palace and all should look upon you as my son.
Jonathon to the audience
My love for him is as a well which gives sweet water and can never be emptied.
Saul, to the audience
Now I have my sacrifice, a brave youth form my own house, and I shall finally become the true King of Israel, confirmed in the blood of my own kin, the Kings of old.
Jonathon and David standing looking at each smiling
Saul
Take him, Jonathon, and make him feel at home. Show him his rooms and what you think he will need to know to be comfortable here.
Jonathon and David walk off to another room
lights down on the palace room.
Lights up on new room where Jonathan and David are alone
Jonathon
These are your rooms. They connect to mine. I have seen you from afar and feel my soul is knit to yours. You stir me here,
Jonathon touches his heart
Jonathon
and here
Jonathon touches navel
and most deeply here
Jonathon slides his hand between his legs.
David, touching Jonathon’s face
Your cheeks are comely, with rows of jewels, your neck with chains of gold
Jonathon sits on the bed
Jonathon
As the apple tree among the forests trees, so is my beloved among the sun. I sit under your shadow with great delight
they kiss
Jonathon
… and your fruit is sweet to taste.
David, sliding his hand beneath Jonathon’s shirt
Your left hand is under my head…
they embrace
David
…your right hand now does embrace me
Jonathon, while disrobing
My beloved is mine and I am his, he feeds among my lilies
David kneels before Jonathon and drops his head between his legs. Jonathon lays back and sighs. The candles go out
fade to black
Scene 6
the sun rises. There is movement beneath the covers. Jonathon and David are in the same room as the night before.
David
Morning love.
Jonathon
The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
Jonathon rolls Davis over and raises his buttocks up, pressing his face to them
David
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart, behold, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice
Jonathon knells behind David and presses his groin against David’s ass
Jonathon
My beloved spoke, and said to me, rise up, my love, my fair one and come away.
They moan as Jonathon fucks him.
David
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
Jonathon fucks him faster and faster and orgasms loudly
Jonathon
the fig tree puts forth her green figs. And the vines with the tender grapes gives a good smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
Jonathon backs away from David, who sits up on the bed.
Jonathon
Oh my dove, you are in the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your face.
They embrace and kiss
Jonathon
let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your countenance comely.
Jonathan straddles David and puts his mouth to his nipple.
David enters Jonathon who begins riding his groin.
David
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains.
They finish fucking and kiss, falling into a sleepy morning nap
lights down, by one half
lights up outside chamber window where we see the king looking at them having sex.
Saul
My own son conspires against me, everyone is against. He steals my harpist boy, my greatest warrior. David should have been mine. What will I do?
Guards knock on David’s door
Guard
The king request your presence. Bring your harp and yoiur appetite if it not yet satiated.
David and Jonathon embrace
Jonathon
I do not like the way that sounded
David
How so?
The appetite thing. It has a double meaning
David
Perhaps the walls have ears
Jonathon, looking at the window
Or windows eyes
David
I will come to your room later. I would not like to make the king wait
Jonathon hands him his harp.
Jonathon
Wish I would that this was a dagger. I fear for you. My father is in madness as we are in love. Walk carefully around him and chose your words even more wisely.
David
It will be okay. Everything will work out.
Jonathon
I love you
David
and I you
Scene 7
The king sits in his room, drinking wine
David enters carrying his harp
Saul
Good morning my newest son. Did you sleep well? Were your dreams pleasant?
David
Better dreams I have never had
Saul
Play with….er, for me for a time. I am much distraught, I woke to a enemies in my palace and wish to send them back to the shadows.
David plays
Saul
Today I set you above my generals, My army is yours to lead. There is much work to do. I am beleaguered on all sides.
David, bowing
Thank you my king. I will do my best to make you as proud as nay father could be as powerful as any king under heaven. Our armies shall be victorious as long as I lead them.
Saul
Yes, it is written. Go now, arm yourself from the garrison and if you see my son Jonathon send him to me.
David
thank you again
David leaves the king and walks to Jonathon’s room. They embrace.
Jonathon
I have missed you for what feels like days, though it has been only a few hours.
David
your father has made me head of his armies and orders me into the field,
Jonathon
I knell before the High Commander of the Army of Israel, the army of the One True God and pay him homage
Jonathon knells and lifts David’s garment up and slides his hand over his cock, lifting it to his mouth and giving him a blow job.
David
I feel like an altar for love, like a Angel of God’s when I am with you.
David comes and Jonathon stands up.
Jonathon
Take my sword and this armor. You are now of the house of Saul and defender of the faithful.
David
I must go now, the king wants an immediate response as a follow up action to yesterday’s rout of the enemy.
Jonathon
I want an immediate response here.
He take the sword and armor from David and tosses them on the floor. He lifts David’s clothes off and bends him over the bed. They make love.
Fade to black
Scene 8
women are trilling a victory song. Crowds are shouting
David returns from battle. People dance around him. His generals, following, each carry a severed head of a high ranking Philistine.
Women, shouting repeatedly
Saul has slain a thousand and David has slain ten thousand.
Over and over
Saul stands at a balcony and hears the songs of David’s victory. He turns and walks into his room and screams.
Saul, to the audience
They ascribe to David ten thousand and to me merely one thousand; what can he have more than the kingdom?
This harp playing child comes to usurp me. He lays with my son and uses me two ways. I must watch for he is now doubly dangerous.
Saul does not greet David but turns away and walks off breaking things and talking to himself.
Saul
What shall I do with this harp play traitor who plucks the strings of my son’s heart and the banners of my kingdom?
He smile and stops walking.
Saul
I will make him unnatural and unclean. His love for my son is most real and natural and accepted by both Samuel and God. I shall offer him one of my daughters as wife and to conceal his love for my son he will accept.
Who could refuse to be the son-in-law of a king and when they are nothing more than the plaything of the king’s son, or even the sword of the kings armies?
In the mean time I will play the odds of combat and send him out on even more dangerous missions. What I can not destroy, perhaps my enemy will
I will make a most reviled bi-sexual and when he lays with my daughter ne will become unclean and God will frown on him and my house shall be renewed, despite that schmuk, Samuel.
Scene 9
Jonathon and David sit on a bed.
Jonathon
My beloved is ruddy, the chief of ten thousand.
David massages his neck
Jonathon
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven
David rubs his back. Jonathon sits up. They face each other knelling.
Jonathon
his eyes are the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set.
David lays down on his back.
Jonathon
His cheeks are s a bed of spices, as sweet as flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
David draws his legs to his chest. Jonathon kisses his knees and then his hands.
Jonathon
His hands are as gold rings set with beryl: his belly is as bright ivory over laid with sapphires.
Jonathon, still knelling, moves closer between David’s legs and kisses his breasts while lifting his one leg over his shoulder.
Jonathon
His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
He lifts the other leg and enters David. They moan and move together.
Jonathon
His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this if my friend.
They are intertwined.
Fade to black
A trumpet sounds and they sit up in bed.
Jonathon
Oh God, another war. My father, I think, is intent on killing everyone
David swings his legs to the floor and stands up.
Jonathon
don’t go yet. It will take hours to muster the men and the horses. Come, love, let’s amuse ourselves a bit longer.
David
No, the preparations are as much responsibility as will be the slaughter of the enemies of Israel. You know I must go and you know I do not want to.
Jonathon
I am sick of war. War on everything. War on the children and their pets. War on the pigeons in the coups. War on the grain and the orchards. There must be another way
David
That may be so, in another time, with another king, but we are here and now and we are called to defend the homeland. It has always been this way hasn’t it?
I have heard so but in my heart I think not. Go. I know you must, Take my sword again. I like watching how you use it.
They laugh and begin to dress each other.
Scene 10
In the palace
Saul
This upstart shepard who you play with nightly, will take the throne from me. He will cut off your divine inheritance. the Lord smile on him daily, more than you do by candle light.
Jonathon
David supports and honors you and gives you victories on the battlefield. He loves God and the people of Israel and has has no ambitions except to serve you.
Saul, under his breathe
Samuel says otherwise
Saul starts throwing things
David walks in
David
I bring you a victory, my lord.
Saul, with sarcasm
I heard the fanfare. Another 10,000 Philistines departed for hell?
David
More, my lord.
Jonathon
The king is full of kingly worries today. Play the harp for him, David, calm the frightened beast
Jonathon and the Saul exchange nasty looks
David
It is my pleasure, always
David takes off hiss sword and mail and pucks up a harp sitting nearby.
He plays, looking at Jonathon
The king sits down wringing his hands.
Saul to the audience
I will give him Michal, my youngest daughter, I have she is as much taken by him as he is with her brother. I will use him to ensnare him into the hands of the Philistines. I can still play the battles odds. Let the Philistines wash their hands in his blood so I m may wash mine of his presence.
Saul
David, today you shall become my son-in-law. What do you say? The promise of my eldest daughter was done in haste. She is a querulous and head strong girl and in any event , not hearing from you forced me to consent to making other arrangements with her which bought peace with the Meholathites.
I have a younger daughter, Michal, who is much enamored of you and today I make her yours.
David
It is not a light thing, to be a kings son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man of low esteem.
Saul
I require no bride dowry, but two hundred foreskins of our uncircumcised enemy, the Philistines.
David
This can be done easily enough. I must go now and muster my troops toi renew the attack against your enemies. I will return with the necessary dowry.
David and Jonathon leave together.
Saul
With any luck, only his headless body will return and I will have circumvented the will of Samuel.
Now I have him.
He throws a spear at the door they have exited
Scene 11
Jonathon
You will do this thing
David
I think I must. I think I can nor refuse the King’s offer again, even though it is given to separate us and defile me.
Jonathon
I love you like the apple trees love the clouds that bring them rain; like the mouth loves the taste of their apples
they embrace and kiss kiss
David
how fair and how pleasant is your love, O love, for delights
Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field; let us lodge in the villages.
David
The die is cast as surely as every sword retrieved from the blacksmiths stone. Our actions a sharpened on two sides. I can not turn away from the King of Israel.
Jonathon
I will sharpen this sword again, my captain
Jonathon leans over David and kisses his groin. He stops and looks at the floor
Jonathon
I fear this is the end of everything we know. I will loose you and the thought of that is making me sick.
David
Many waters cannot quench love, neither floods drown it, if a man would give aa the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
Jonathon
I love you and must stand aside for my fathers daughter? We have a little sister and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister the day when she shall be spoken for?
David, with anguish, louder than he normally talks
Set me as a seal upon your heart. As a seal upon your arm, for love is stronger that death and jealously is as cruel as the grave. Their coals are as of fire and has a most vehement flame.
I am torn in two, like warring armies, who shall win? Can a truce be found or will they both be annihilated? I loved you and cannot think beyond it. I love my king, my God, my nation and I cannot think beyond it.
Jonathon turns away and stands, walking to a window and stares out.
Jonathon
I opened to my beloved; my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone, my soul failed when he spoke, I sought him, but could not find him, I called him but he gave me no answer
David stand and buckling his belt attaches his sword and leaves without saying goodbye
Jonathon, with anger and tears, almost crying
Jonathon
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him, that I am sick with love.
Scene 12
Saul and Jonathon are in the throne room. Jonathon walks to the balcony door. The trilling of women can be heard along with many shouts and cheers
Women
David has slain 10,000 more, David has sent 10,000 to hell
Saul
God I hate that chorus
Jonathon laughs, slightly manically
David walks in carrying two brass rings in his hands upon which are strung one hundred foreskins each
He bows to the king.
David
My liege, we are today victorious and I bring you the bride price. Yiou shall have as your son-in-law.
David tosses the rings to the ground in front of him. His legs are covered with their blood, still dripping. They splatter when it hits the floor and some lands on the Kings robes. The king looks at the mess and then at David. Jonathon is still on the balcony.
Saul
Many Philistines have gone to their Gods today but death seems like a high price to pay for salvation and cleanliness in the eyes of our Lord.
One way or another we all travel that road; we all pay the same toll to travel that road. In death there seems to be mutual equality.
Saul
Whether with a woman’s hand and heart, or the strong arms of a soldiers shadow. Should I add scholar and wise man to your list of deeds?
Davis
It appears to me to be all the same, and I think it doers to God too.
Jonathon returns from the balcony
Jonathon
It’s all meat on the same bone
Saul
You speak from your own wisdom? My son is a scholar in the two roads he…
David
Do you still wish a union, my Lord?
Saul
I think there will be a union with my family regardless of my wishes or any magick which I may conjure.
Guards! Bring me my daughter, Michal.
Michal walks in
Saul
I have spoken with my daughter and she is enthusiastic about this union; not knowing she walks on roads once trod upon by only men.
Jonathon
Father, you are insulting and this is not the place, nor the time, nor should one ever exist.
Saul
Go, David, speak with her of things to come. I wonder if you can speak in both languages of love?
David
I am sorry, Michal. Your father is out of sorts and short of temper. He has disdain, where he have rejoicing. I have no time for harp and wife, so let us go. Perhaps he will sing to himself as well as he pleasures himself?
Michal, to Jonathon
Are you coming, brother?
Saul, to Jonathon
Stay Jonathon, I have much to discuss with you.
David and Michal leave
Saul
Jonathon…
Jonathon
Father…
Saul
I love you greatly and today you have shown yourself to be stronger and braver man than I.
Jonathon
Father, I…
Saul
David will take the crown me and deny you your inheritance… no, quiet, it does not matter whether it be through you or your sister. He walks with God on his shoulder. Samuel has said as much by removing himself from my presence.
I wish David to die and as I can not ask my servants to do sop I ask you. The kingdom shall be your prize.
Jonathon
Do not let the king sin against David because he has not sinned against you and because his works have been, to you, very good.
He has denied neither you nor God nor Israel with any tilt to one side action.
He has put his life in his hands, slew Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel, you witnessed it yourself and did rejoice. Why then, will you sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
Saul cries in his hands
Saul, lifting hie head
As the Lord lives, he shall not be slain.
Jonathon turns and leaves without saying anymore
Saul stands and shouts
I will ban all religions other than my Lord’s, all diviners, and witches and soothsayers shall be driven out of Israel. God will smile on me again and my own transgression will diminish into nothing and be but a shadow of this great gift I will give the One True god.
He stops as though listening to other voices. He cocks his head and shouts at the ceiling again.
Saul
David must die, he is my sacrifice and I will not let my greatness be denied, and if my daughter, or even my first born son gets in the way, so be it.
Fade to black
Scene 13
Angel
Their love is so beautiful and Saul so fucking evil. It makes me wish I had a dick and an ass.
Joan
Whine, whine, whine. Have you forgotten what to do with your mouth so soon? And why are you always trying to steal my lines. I never wanted to be female and died for being brave enough to live inside out.
Vishnu
I’ve had a cock, it’s no big deal not being as large as a horses or as small as a little finger. I will tell you, in most cases, size does not count.
Angel, to Joan
I changed your line enough to make it mine, Joan
Angel, to Vishnu
You’re a smart ass
Vishnu
I’ve had an ass in all my manifestations. An ass can serve a lover well.
Angel
You’re always bragging.
Vishnu
No, I’m trying to make you feel better. Tell you what, I know about a great bathhouse in Madrid, let’s go there, I’ll introduce you to the boys.
Vishnu, looking at Joan
Do you want to tag along?
Joan
Sure, watch and learn
they all laugh
Angel, to Vishnu
You’re not going like that are you?
Vishnu
You have a point. I’ll go as another personification of myself.
Joan
Aren’t you a lucky Deity
Vishnu
I am sorry Saint Joan, but this is field work and Angelic therapy.
Joan, looking at the Angel
You should not take your pants off and hide those things
She points at the angel’s wings
Angel
Whatever you say.
Vishnu puts his arm around the Angel
Let’s go boyfriend
Vishnu, turning to Joan
You coming?
Joan
No, I think I will stay here. I have many questions to resolve.
Angel
Catch you later.
Vishnu and Angel leave
Joan, sitting alone
Sophia?
Sophia
Yes, dear heart?
Joan
Do you have time for some questions?
Sophia
I am time, She who birthed Yah Weh and with him created the Universe. I am All Deities before and after their creation.
Joan
Why did you let it happen?
Sophia
What?
Joan
The genocide, the death and ruination of the diversity of community of people who honored you; the hatred of what I am and the hatred of all those like me for 2,000 years?
Sophia
What humans are can not be destroyed, though it can be subverted and dictated on a shallow social level.
It’s returning, you know. Humanity has grown up again and has begun to reevaluate the very diversity which you speak of, honoring it, and to address the individual hatred that almost destroyed them.
Joan
The destruction of those innocents, in anyway, because of false transgressions against this God because of genetic coincidence of birth saddens me to the core and overwhelms me.
Sophia
I know. I know. My husband/son was insane in those days and even now stalks the killing fields of fear and hatred in his followers hearts. It gives me much grief too.
Joan and Sophia begin to cry
Joan
Are all repressive rulers trying to hide their own similar transgressions? Are all kings and emperors and presidents the thing they chose to persecute and oppress? If so, this lesson has not been learned.
The angel and Vishnu walk in, wearing white terry cloth spa bath robes
Angel
Shame and guilt?
Vishnu
…of man’s rules, not any God’s. Those words are out into whatever God’s mouth by the hands of men trying to hide their own inner shame concerning quilt planted in them by other men.
Joan
the Holiness Code is a cloak of exclusion, those who advertise oppression are themselves the origins and creators of the very same deeds.
Sophia
Religious codes are the mantel beneath and above Nationalism which sucks at the teat of oppression. It is always exclusive and all Gods and governments should be weaned away from it.
Joan, turning to the Angel and Vishnu
I see you have come back, with a difference.
Angel
We felt horrible, just leaving you here alone.
Vishnu
Where do want to go? Let’s do something together.
Joan
A Gay Pride Parade
Angel and Vishnu, at the same time
Where?
Joan
Toronto, at least they understand the inclusiveness of democracy and are attempting to make everyone equal.
Vishnu
Good idea, let’s party
They walk out arm in arm
Fade to black