Paul E-Book

Howard Brenton

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 85

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

An irreverent and provocative drama questioning the basis of Christianity, by the author of TheRomans in Britain. The most famous conversion in history - when Saul became Paul on the road to Damascus - was a trick. It was actually Jesus appearing to him. Jesus did not die on the cross but was rescued and sheltered by his brother James, by Peter and by Peter's wife, Mary Magdalene. But they prefer to keep Paul in the dark because, although he is mistakenly preaching that Christ rose again, at least it keeps him busy and gets the Christian message out there... Now imprisoned by Nero, Peter finally tells Paul the truth before they go to their deaths as the first Christian Martyrs. Howard Brenton's play Paul was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2005.

Leseprobe

Howard Brenton

PAUL

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Original Production

Characters

Paul

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Paul was first performed in the Cottesloe auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 6 October 2005 (previews from 30 September). The cast, in order of speaking, was as follows:

PAUL (at first SAUL)Paul RhysBARNABASColin TierneyYESHUA (Jesus)Pearce QuigleyARAB TRADERHoward SaddlerPETERLloyd OwenROMAN GAOLERDermot KerriganMARY MAGDALENEKellie BrightJAMESPaul HigginsNERORichard DillaneENSEMBLETas Emiabata Eugene Washington

Other parts played by members of the company

DirectorHoward DaviesDesignerVicki MortimerLighting DesignerPaule ConstableMusicDominic MuldowneySound DesignerJohn LeonardCompany Voice WorkPatsy Rodenburg

Characters

PAUL (at first SAUL)

BARNABAS

YESHUA (JESUS)

ARAB TRADER

ROMAN GAOLER

PETER

JAMES

MARY MAGDALENE

NERO

TEMPLE GUARDS, ROMAN GAOLERS, CHRISTIANS AT CORINTH

AD 36 to AD 65 in a Roman gaol, on the Damascus Road, in Arabia, in James’s house in Jerusalem, in Corinth.

Scene One

Rome, AD 65. Prison. PAUL, aged 54, is in chains. He prays.

PAUL.  Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen Jesus . . .

A beat.

No! I must not! Must not! No! In Rome, here in this prison? What do I want, my God to come through the wall and rescue me? No, no!

A beat.

Christ is risen. Christ is risen Jesus show me your face again. No no no no, out of the question to pray for that! Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen Jesus, oh my risen Lord, now, tonight, before I die for you, let me see your face once more . . . no, no.

A beat.

Be content with the memory. Yes. I had the revelation of my life. I saw you, thirty years ago, on the road to Damascus.

He stands, free of his chains. He turns and walks into . . .

Scene Two

The road to Damascus, AD 36. Night beneath moon and stars. SAUL, aged 25, is camped with BARNABAS – a captain of the Jerusalem Temple Guards – and four of his MEN. A fire.

SAUL.  Eat, sleep. We’ll wake and move on before dawn. I want us at the city gates by sunrise.

The four GUARDS slope off, not looking at him.

(To BARNABAS.) What’s the matter with them?

BARNABAS.  They don’t want to go to Damascus.

SAUL.  Why not? They’ve arrested heretics in the past.

BARNABAS.  But this time it’s out of Judea.

SAUL smiles.

SAUL.  When have we Jews been frightened of a raid into a foreign country?

BARNABAS.  That’s not it.

SAUL.  No? So what . . .

BARNABAS.  The work begins to sicken them.

SAUL.  But it’s God’s work!

BARNABAS.  They’re not brutes! They’re Temple Guards, simple religious men. Sometimes you’re just too . . .

SAUL.  Too what?

BARNABAS.  Too . . . fierce.

SAUL.  We are doing this to save our religion and our country. Surely they . . .

SAUL stops, turns, as if startled by something.

BARNABAS starts, concerned.

BARNABAS.  Saul?

SAUL (sharp). Yes?

BARNABAS.  What is it?

A beat.

SAUL.  Nothing. I’ll speak to them.

SAUL goes to the GUARDS. They are uneasy. BARNABAS follows.

Listen.

A beat.

Listen, I know how you struggle with this work. I know how hard it is for you to arrest men and women at night, drag them from their houses to the religious court, stand by when they are stoned to death in the execution pits, with a crowd screaming as if it were sport, not a terrible necessity sanctioned by God’s law. I stood by, holding men’s coats. They were stoning a young man called Stephen. With his last breath he shouted that he would be in Paradise. His fanaticism shocked me to the marrow of my bones. Belief that strong could destroy the Temple itself. So I decided I must do this thing. But I know it’s not easy. It can eat into the heart, bring bad dreams, yes?

He has touched them. They shift uneasily, hanging on every word.

1ST GUARD.  What gets to you, is the atrocities. What the Yeshua people do. Eat the flesh . . .

2ND GUARD.  Drink the blood . . .

3RD GUARD.  Drink the blood, eat the flesh of helpless little children.

1ST GUARD.  You’re right, Rabbi. The bad dreams are from having to be anywhere near these people.

4TH GUARD.  They’re Jews like us, but what they do, it’s obscene!

BARNABAS.  On the other hand, every new cult that appears is accused of eating babies.

SAUL.  Yes, Barnabas. These atrocities are useful stories to the Temple, but not true. But listen, listen, we must do this work: these are dangerous times. We Jews have lived under empires over the centuries: Egypt, Babylon, Syria, Greece, now Rome . . . and we have endured. But under this occupation, under Rome, our religion itself is under attack. But where does the attack come from? Not from pagan, kiddam priests from Rome. From ourselves. Our country is torn apart by fanatics. In the cities different sects at each others throats, in the countryside whole villages gone heretical, ragged preachers on the roads with their begging bowls; Judea seethes with religious revolt. And Yeshua’s not the first fanatic from Nazareth the kiddam have crucified. That particular rural slum does seem to be overrun with religious madmen.

2ND GUARD.  They grow Messiahs in the fields.

3RD GUARD.  The only crop: religious lunatics.

SAUL.  Or it’s just something in the water.

Amusement.

4TH GUARD.  The back-from-the-dead magic is new, though.

2ND GUARD.  Walking down off a cross? Yeah, some magic trick.

The 1ST GUARD is not amused.

1ST GUARD.  But blasphemous. The dead will not rise.

SAUL.  Oh I believe they will.

1ST GUARD.  Rabbi Saul, with respect, that’s because your family are Pharisees. Mine are Sadducees, for us we were made of mud and to mud we will return. The religion of Moses is for the living.

SAUL.  You’re wrong, you’re wrong, but that doesn’t divide us. Yes, we Pharisees do believe that when God ends the world, the dead will rise again. But not just one man! Who is, magically, the son of God! That is chaff, the flimflam of overheated minds. And it’s not that insane doctrine that makes the Yeshua cult so dangerous to us and to our country.

1ST GUARD.  The Kingdom of God is the danger.

SAUL.  Yes yes, you understand: the Yeshua people call for ‘the Kingdom of God’. Now. In Judea. And they find an eager audience! The people are feverish for signs and prophecies, anything to end the Roman occupation. They look for a chariot of fire to appear amongst us, they’ll listen to any beautiful young man out of the desert, dressed in rags, his eyes shining with the light of a new Israel. And here we have this Yeshua sect, with its filthy blasphemy, preaching a Kingdom of God? To kiddam ears that sounds like one thing: insurrection! We must . . .

A beat. They stare at him. BARNABAS is about to move to him . . .

. . . be perfect! And the Lord God looked on Moses . . . and saw . . .

1ST GUARD.  Perfect.

2ND GUARD.  Saw he was perfect.

3RD GUARD.  And the Lord looked on Moses and he was perfect.

SAUL.  That is what we must be in this work. We must struggle to keep the religion of Moses pure. Or Judea will be drowned, not with the sea, but with Jewish blood. And that is why we are on the Damascus Road, tonight, under the stars. Be pure and we will save Judea.

They all stand.

ALL (sing).

Protect me, O God, in you is my refuge.

I bless Yahweh who is my counsellor,

Even at night my heart instructs me.

I keep Yahweh before me always,

For with him at my right hand, nothing can shake me.

So my heart rejoices, my soul delights,

For you will not abandon me

You will teach me the path of life,

Unbound joy in your presence,

At your right hand delight for ever.

Amen.

SAUL.  Barnabas and I will take the night watch. Goodnight, God go with you.

GUARDS (variously). Goodnight Saul of Tarsus. / Goodnight Captain. / God go with you.

They go a distance away and prepare to sleep.

BARNABAS.  Saul, I have to speak to you so don’t be angry.

SAUL.  Oh! I already am.

He laughs.

BARNABAS.  You remember when I saw you fall? By the Temple wall?

SAUL stops laughing. They look at each other.

SAUL.  Go on.

BARNABAS.  Before it happened . . . there was a look about you. You . . .

SAUL is an interrupter.

SAUL.  No cause to think that now. None at all. Would God let me be sick? When, come the morning, we’ll be in Damascus, doing his work?

BARNABAS.  Saul, you had it tonight. While you were talking to the men.

A beat.

Then SAUL smiles.

SAUL.  Barnabas, you’re a great worrier.

BARNABAS.  Don’t smarm me, what a smarmer you can be . . .

SAUL.  No no, please, you’re right to speak to me. I love you for it, worry in a soldier is a great gift . . . Look, when this thing, whatever it is, comes on me, I smell flowers. Madness, eh?

BARNABAS.  A holy madness.

SAUL.  No no no no! It’s a flaw. A thorn in the flesh. There’s a wrongness, cut deep inside me. God hasn’t made me whole.

BARNABAS.  Have you talked to the Temple priests about this?

SAUL.  Our priests are more primitive than you think, they’ll rave about casting out devils.

BARNABAS.  Then consult a Greek doctor. Your family’s got the money.

SAUL laughs.

SAUL.  Do you know what goes on in a Greek hospital? You’re given drugged wine to make you sleep. So that, while you sleep, the god Asclepius, son of Apollo, can appear in a dream and whisper your cure to you. There is a limit to my love of things Greek.

BARNABAS.  Do you . . .

SAUL.  At this moment all I can smell is soldiers’ feet and soldiers’ farts. If it does come on me, you’ll know. All . . . all that I ask is that you don’t let the men see.

BARNABAS.  Oh they’d love it. Prophets are meant to foam at the mouth.