Preliminary Cast
Barnaby: St. Brendan the Navigator
Valentine Kurgus: St Martia
Cedric Weiland: St Plutarch
Jewel of Stonecroft: Sister Hecatatia
Matilda: St Demetia
Bodkin: St Herman
Festus: St. Hefestus (playing himself)
Lucif: St. Lucif (playing himself)
Scene 1, Act 1: a pillared hall. Long table at which gather the Powers. A feast is before them. Yet the Powers sit dejected, staring into cups.
Martia: Bored.
Hefestus: Drink up.
Martia: Drink bores me.
Hecatatia: Start another war.
Martia: War bores me more.
Apollonius: (stands, raising goblet)
This eternal bliss
Is nothing I would miss.
My revels through eternity
But sum to empty ennui.
(drinks, throws aside his cup)
Better a bad couplet out of me,
Than the eternal cup in front of me.
Enter Herman, messenger of the powers.
Herman: Arch Lords and Ladies, High Powers and Principalities, Virtues, Thrones and Dominations. A mortal man knocks upon the door.
Plutarch: Oh, feed him to the dog.
Hecatatia: Turn him to a monster that devours what he loves.
Martia: Drop him from the mountain.
Hefestia: Give him words of truth that bring only sorrow.
Plutarch: Set him to roll a stone uphill forever.
Martia: Let him starve before a feast, thirst in pools of wine.
Demetia: All these things have been done.
Apollonius: And are only shadows of our own sad condition. Fixed in bliss, perfected and purposeless. Set to eternal feasting, sitting, satiated, draining infinite cups...
Herman: I shall send him away, oh Powers.
Hecatatia: Wait. Bring him before us. Let us hear his plea. We shall listen to his mortal plaint, and weigh the cries of his heart. And then he shall with trembling knee and soaring spirit hear our judgment, the very wisdom of the Powers.
Martia: And then we grant his prayer?
Hecatatia: No, then we feed him to the dog.
(Company laughs)
Enter Brendan, stage left:
Brendon: Oh avatars of life and death, wind and wave, war and peace, wood and mountain, fire and light. Peace be with you.
YOU ARE READING
Barnaby the Wanderer
FantasyBeing the astonishing adventures of a widow's son journeying the Land of Saints, with a magic cat, a dark ghost and the map of a cursed tower; and what became thereof.
