A Gray Play Book by Alasdair Gray sampler

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22 JONAH The GENERAL leaves. CHIEF and CHANCELLOR watch the KING who strolls out onto the balcony and stands leaning on it, looking downward with interest. KING [without turning] Anything to say, gentlemen? CHANCELLOR Your Majesty ... [clears his throat] ... The situation is surely not desperate if this preacher only wants people to weep and wail. They’ll soon tire of that. You agree, Chief Constable? CHIEF [gloomily] That depends on what happens forty days from now. Meanwhile, we have a general strike on our hands. CHANCELLOR A strike for what? What does this Jonah want? A change of government? A change in the laws? Power? Gold? An invitation to the palace? CHIEF He hasn’t asked for anything. CHANCELLOR Then he may have demoralised the people but is not a revolutionary. We have nothing to fear if this temporary suspension of business does not spread to the frontiers. I suggest that we – [he breaks off as the GENERAL enters]. GENERAL The prophet Jonah, sire, is downstairs requesting an audience with your Majesty. KING [without turning] I’m expecting him. GENERAL By your leave, I will bring him up. KING [turning his head] Yes. GENERAL leaves. CHANCELLOR stands. CHANCELLOR [eagerly] Sire! This dangerous man has put himself in your power! We have him trapped! KING [shaking his head and entering the chamber] I don’t think so. Look outside. He returns to his throne and sits with one leg thrown carelessly over the other and hands clasped behind head. CHANCELLOR goes to balcony, looks down and groans. CHANCELLOR O dear. KING What do you see? CHANCELLOR [still staring down] A vast silent mob filling the palace yard and streets beyond. Most are wearing sackcloth. And there are policemen and soldiers among them. KING [with a chuckle] You may also see many palace servants who have always been devoted to me. CHIEF Is the mob kneeling? CHANCELLOR [re-entering the room] No, they’re standing and looking up here as if expecting something. [He sits with elbows on table and head in hands]. CHIEF [gloomily] An announcement, I expect. KING I’m afraid the preacher has trapped us. GENERAL [entering] The prophet Jonah, sire. JONAH [advances into the room and announces] Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown! The KING sits up with hands on knees, leaning forward. KING Who will do it? JONAH God will do it. KING How? JONAH I do not know, King of Nineveh. God tells me to preach when, not how this city will be destroyed. God’s power is infinite. With rainwater He once drowned everyone for their wickedness except one man and his family. He wrecked the first city of Babylon by confusion of speech, blasted Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone out of heaven, and when a hard-hearted Egyptian Pharaoh angered him, killed all the first-born of Egypt and their cattle with the last of ten terrible plagues. KING My heart is not hard! I love my people! I will make any sacrifice to save them. Why does your God hate Nineveh? My government respects every god worshipped in my empire. CHIEF Synagogues here get as much police protection as other temples. JONAH Does that excuse your conquest of smaller nations? KING A generation ago Nineveh was a smaller nation – Babylon ruled us. Led by my father we fought free of Babylon and kept our freedom by conquering it back – there was no other way. GENERAL Right! Swallow or be swallowed. JONAH Your wars did not end with the conquest of Babylon. GENERAL Of course not. There are too many plains around here, no mountain ranges or natural frontiers to protect us, so the bigger our empire gets, the more enemies surround our borders. To prevent aggressive alliances we must whack them before they whack us! CHANCELLOR [eagerly] And an expanding economy needs constant supplies of new slaves. JONAH [looking upward] O God God God is there no limit to the selfish greed and stupidity and cruelty of people in power? Will great wealth always make them self-deluding and destructive? Must those whose work feeds, clothes and houses the rest always be poor and oppressed? KING [desperately] We are no worse than others in our position.
GENERAL, CHANCELLOR, CHIEF [simultaneously] Not worse at all! CHANCELLOR In fact we are better! Only Nineveh has a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Slaves! Those too old and sick to work [his voice begins to falter] are given their freedom ... without even asking ... for it ... JONAH Liars! Other lords enlarge their lands by grabbing fields from neighbours but none have grabbed more than Assyrian lords. Other employers get rich by destroying the work of others, but Assyria’s destructions are endless. Other big nations crushed right with might in a race for empire but Assyria won that race. God now declares your success is finally unforgivable. Nineveh hangs like a fat rotten fruit, ripe for the hand of God to pluck and cast down into its proper dirt! SOUND: [silence in the room but from outside many voices chanting] Jonah! Jonah! Jonah! [are heard, faintly at first but growing louder behind the next speeches]. KING General! GENERAL Sir! KING As Commander of the Armed Forces you will withdraw our troops from Israel and Judea and – GENERAL Forgive me interrupting sire but that is enough at first! With your permission, I will proclaim in your name that Israel and Judea are raised from colonial to dominion status and then withdraw our troops. More cannot be done at once without provoking widespread revolt and total anarchy. By your leave I will go and implement your initial order. KING Do it. The GENERAL leaves. KING Lord Chancellor! CHANCELLOR Before Your Majesty says anything may I suggest – KING You may not. As Minister for the Interior you have records of those enslaved in our last three campaigns? CHANCELLOR Of course but – KING Buy them back from their present owners at half their market value and – CHANCELLOR Our Exchequer cannot afford that! KING Then buy them at a third of the market value or a quarter or whatever the Exchequer can afford. CHANCELLOR The upper classes won’t stand that! We’ll provoke a right-wing revolution! KING Not if the police are on our side. Can I depend on them, Chief Constable? CHIEF [nodding] I promise you can, sire. KING Then see to it, Chancellor. And Chief Constable, see that he sees to it. The CHANCELLOR sighs and leaves, shaking his head, followed by the CHIEF. The KING stands. KING Come with me Jonah. He goes out onto the balcony, JONAH following. They stand together looking down and the SOUND of chanting stops. KING [loudly] People of Nineveh, Jonah stands beside me! Hear him! JONAH Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown! KING I declare this to be a day of fasting. Let neither men nor women nor their beasts feed or drink! Let us clothe ourselves with sackcloth and cry mightily to God for forgiveness! Let each of us turn from our evil ways and the violence that is in our hands. Who can tell if God will repent of the evil he says he will do! Go home now, all of you, and pray to the supreme God there or in your temples, but not in the open streets. SOUND of a wailing multitude, fading as KING returns to the room followed by JONAH. KING What more can I do? What more does God want? JONAH [smiling and shaking his head] God has not told me what He wants. He only tells me that in forty days Nineveh will be overthrown. 5: OUTSIDE NINEVEH A bare hilltop where JONAH sits cross-legged staring grimly at Nineveh in the distance, a walled city with many towers and domes. The sky is blue and cloudless. SOUND: A distant cry of Billy! ... Billy! ... Billy! draws nearer Enter GOATHERD with crook, wearing broad-brimmed straw hat GOATHERD Excuse me sir, but have you seen a goat with a silly lost look on its face? JONAH No. GOATHERD He must be somewhere near. If you don’t mind I’ll just rest to get my breath back. Yes indeed. He sits down beside JONAH, who ignores him. GOATHERD Excuse me for mentioning it, but you should cover your head to stave off sunstroke – ye ken? A handkerchief would do it. JONAH does not move. 23 A PUPPET PLAY
Page 3: A GRAY PLAYBOOK
Page 6 and 7: First published in Great Britain 20
Page 8 and 9: 6 TABLE OF 9 HOW THIS BOOK GOT MADE
Page 10 and 11: 8
Page 12 and 13: 10 autobiography. When a radio or t
Page 14 and 15: 12 L IKE MOST BRITISH CHILDREN livi
Page 16 and 17: 14 JONAH nuclear war. (Historical n
Page 18 and 19: 16 JONAH SCENES 1) Outside Nazareth
Page 20 and 21: 18 JONAH CAPTAIN [scratching his ea
Page 22 and 23: 20 JONAH In the belly of Hell I rem

A Gray Play Book by Alasdair Gray sampler

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