after Sophocles\' OEDIPUS AT COLONUS -- way after words and music by Robert Montgomery

1. Slash of music: Something Never
Seen Before.
Out of the dark:
OEDIPUS
I hate being blind!!
(lights up on ANTIGONE tending to OEDIPUS,
eyeless and old, who has fallen.)
ANTIGONE
Oedipus!
OEDIPUS
Antigone – I’m losing all my strength except the love
you give me.
ANTIGONE
Athens is near.
OEDIPUS
Tell me something I don’t know!
ANTIGONE
I will. The land we've been walking is parched, but
this place blooms as if a river ran underneath.
OEDIPUS
Is there some welcoming seat nearby?
ANTIGONE
How did you know? A nature-made throne.
(SHE guides HIM to it.)
OEDIPUS
You're very good at helping those not always pleasant.
ANTIGONE
Years of practice.
OEDIPUS
(seated at last; sighs) May this moment rest in me
always.
ANTIGONE
May it rest in ev'ryone.

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OEDIPUS
Suddenly I feel I could cry til I drown. But – no eyes.
ANTIGONE
Today was hard, too hard.
OEDIPUS
I'll die here, as sure as I live.
(silence)
ANTIGONE
I've never heard you lie.
OEDIPUS
I'm not afraid.
ANTIGONE
That's a lie.
OEDIPUS
When I put out my eyes –
ANTIGONE
Ages ago.
OEDIPUS
At first the darkness was quiet which gave me some
comfort. But then a kind of lightning came and painful
words: You won’t die. Not until you’re king of a land
where the sky will not weep! I have that same feeling
now.
ANTIGONE
I hate your pain.
OEDIPUS
It's like a star in my forehead ready to burst. (SHE
puts her hand on his forehead.) And my heart muscles –
deeply aching for their first-ever rest. (Her other
hand over his heart, she sings:)
ANTIGONE
SPIRIT OF THIS PLACE AND ALL BREATH!
SWEET UNITY,
SWALLOWER OF ALL DEATH!

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OEDIPUS
DEAR YOU-IN-ME,
AS YOU ARE LIKE WHAT STAYED WITH ME
WHEN SHAME AND FEAR TORE THE REST FROM ME,
CONVINCING ME THEN
WITH A WHISPER OF THUNDER
THAT ONE DAY IN A BARREN LAND
I WOULD RULE ON A THRONE
WHERE MY PAIN WOULD END
AND MY UNSHED TEARS
WOULD TURN TO BLESSED RAIN.
NOW YOUR THUNDER WHISPERS AGAIN…
(distant thunder)
AND I KNOW YOU INTEND TO BLESS WITH LIFE
THE PLACE WHERE YOU BLESS ME WITH DEATH.
I FEEL A STORM OF LIGHT
GATHERING OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF MY DARKNESS.
LOVING UNKNOWN, END MY UNHAPPINESS SOON.
TAKE THIS SHADOW HOME.
(Enter the MINISTERS, singing:)
MINISTERS
MUSIC TO THE GOD WHO MADE THE EAR TO HEAR OUR
MUSIC TO THE GOD WHO MADE THE EAR TO HEAR OUR
MUSIC TO THE GOD WHO MADE THE EAR TO HEAR OUR
MUSIC!
MOTHER
We are the minist’ring fam’ly here.
FATHER & SON
You are sitting on our holiest place!
OEDIPUS
All places on earth are holy – but not all places are
comfortable.
DAUGHTER
Remove yourself from God our Rock!
FATHER
Now, daughter – if God is a rock, we have pebbles for
brains.

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MOTHER
Who knows what our God is any more? Such knowledge has
dried up worse than our land!
OEDIPUS
What name do you invoke?
SON
The Unity.
ANTIGONE
Then your God is one with ours.
OEDIPUS
The You-In-Me.
DAUGHTER
The U-ni-ty.
FATHER
Same thing.
DAUGHTER
Extremely debatable, father!
SON
Same thing!
DAUGHTER
Is not!
MOTHER
Breathe!
(All do.)
We worship a spirit that breathes with us, but is always
more than what we know.
ANTIGONE
As hard to explain as this garden.
MOTHER
Yes! How does it grow in a drought? We don’t know, but
when we inhale, we can smell rain.
OEDIPUS
Your God sounds believable. By what miracle did that

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happen?
FATHER & SON
Colonus, our founder –
(FATHER gestures for SON to continue.)
SON
– long ago, sat on that very rock and all at once saw
ev'rything as energy pulsing with breath, fully
understanding him.
DAUGHTER
And no one but him has ever been worthy to sit on that
holy throne!
OEDIPUS
Is there any authority besides the power of breath you
people have elected to follow?
MOTHER
Our king is the king of Athens, Theseus.
DAUGHTER
Who sat on that rock a year ago and ever since: drought!
OEDIPUS
I want to see this king!
FATHER
Many do.
OEDIPUS
I see us laughing.
SON
What a blind man sees –
OEDIPUS
Then tell him I'm the drought and I am dying!
(distant rumble of thunder astounds
MINISTERS.)
FATHER
Calling you a good man ... I think understates things.

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MOTHER
Though your life, I think, has not been good.
SON & DAUGHTER
Still –
OEDIPUS
I must remain on this throne – for the good of us all!
MOTHER
... Colonus gave that throne a secret name.
FATHER
Only one who understands its riddle is worthy to sit
there.
MINISTERS
Where do you come from and all things go?
Where does the lover feel love and the knower know?
OEDIPUS
REST YOURSELF EASY AS I AM SITTING HERE ...
IN ATTENTION’S HOME.
DAUGHTER
HE NAMED THE THRONE!
MINISTERS
“ATTENTION’S HOME!”
OEDIPUS
WHERE YOU COME FROM
AND EV'RYTHING GOES.
ALL
ATTENTION'S HOME!
OEDIPUS
WHERE THE LOVER FEELS LOVE
AND THE KNOWER KNOWS.
MINISTERS
ATTENTION’S HOME!
OEDIPUS
WHERE WE TAKE IN

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AND GIVE OUT OUR GRACES
MOTHER & FATHER
THIS MAN HAS PLOWED
THE RICHEST OASIS!
MINISTERS
HE'S MADE WHAT TO DO NOW AN ALL NEW THING,
HE’S BROUGHT US AGAIN TO THE BREATHING
GOD OF GODS! FOREVER ALIVE
IN EV’RYONE AND EV’RYTHING
AND EV’RYTHING ELSE!
WE TURN TO SILENCE
SO YOU MAY FILL US
WITH THE SONG OF YOUR WILL FOR US ....
THIS IS WHAT YOU SING: ...
MINISTERS
ASK HIM HIS NAME
AND WHERE HE IS FROM
THEN HE MUST TELL YOU
WHAT HE HAS DONE.
OEDIPUS
MY NAME IS SOMEONE.
I COME FROM NO MATTER.
AND WHAT I HAVE DONE
... IS GET HERE.
FATHER & MOTHER
HOW CAN YOU REQUEST OUR HARBOR
IF YOUR PAST MAY BRING US DANGER?
FATHER
YOU AND I, WE BOTH ARE FATHERS –
FATHER & SON
WOULD YOU TRUST HER FUTURE TO A STRANGER
WHO GIVES YOUR HONEST QUESTIONS
FATHER, SON & MOTHER
HOLY BLATHER?
DAUGHTER

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WISDOM IS OUR MOTHER.
MOTHER & SON
CAN SHE CALL YOU SON?
DAUGHTER
FASTER FLIES SHE TRUTHWARD
FATHER & MOTHER
THAN AN EAGLE
MOTHER, DAUGHTER & SON
TO HER YOUNG.
OEDIPUS
(spoken) Wisdom was a crow when I was born!
(A crow is heard cawing as it flies away,
astonishing the MINISTERS as OEDIPUS confers
with ANTIGONE:)
ANTIGONE
Tell them your story.
FATHER & SON
Its title, your name!
DAUGHTER
Or we will hound you until you beg to leave!
OEDIPUS
Do you know the one about the traveling youth who killed
a king who attacked him?
MOTHER
Yes! ... But names fly from me these days as if they
find me hideous!
ANTIGONE
He was the son of that king he killed, though neither
knew this ill-fated truth.
FATHER & SON
Oh! That story!
FATHER
(trying to remember) Aaa – names for you, stories for me

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–
DAUGHTER & SON
Oedipus!
MOTHER
That's the name!
FATHER
You did something not so good.
MOTHER
Yes! And brought a plague to Thebes!
DAUGHTER & SON
For the love of our God, fly from here before you infect
our holy lives!
ANTIGONE
I'm confused. You serve a God you call "Unity," right,
not "Separation"?
FATHER & SON
We serve Colonus!
MOTHER
Our fears and flaws help us understand only those who
are local.
ANTIGONE
(goes to DAUGHTER) What fear? What flaw?
DAUGHTER
My flaw of wasting attention on terror I have suffered.
ANTIGONE
(to DAUGHTER) Memory of being raped freezes me and I
wait. Whatever thaws me out I worship. Don't you feel
that spirit moving here?
MOTHER
... I feel it in the helpless grief of both your fathers
over each of your traumas.
ANTIGONE
I feel it in your love! (to MOTHER) Woman! Mother I

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never had! We come to you as all of us come to God:
needing kindness, knowing we die. (embraces MOTHER)
DAUGHTER
Scriptures says: "Whoever carries evil to you, steals
the One who gives you birth!"
ANTIGONE
(to DAUGHTER) Does the One your writings praise, who
gives bodies such attraction to touch, who creates life
in explosions of ecstacy, prefer a cold love of judgment
– or a judgment of love?
(eye to eye) I see myself in your eyes. Look plainly
with them now into my soul. ... We really are one
there. There is here. ... Yes, my loneliness is yours.
And don’t we share a love for our fathers? Of course
you see yourself as a daughter in me. And how right it
is to be here with father as he dies with the least
pain.
MOTHER
I have no spine, no steel! Ev'ry problem endlessly
unfolds with opposites – my judgment is like mash you
feed the pigs!
FATHER & SON
Our breathing God tells us the air now has turned ...
FATHER
– fearful –
SON
– fearful!
FATHER
– exhaling you away.
OEDIPUS
Then inhaling us back.
WHAT IS BREATHING HERE? WHAT WE DON'T KNOW.
MINISTERS & ANTIGONE: WHAT WE DON'T KNOW.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: WHAT DO WE TEND TO FEAR?
MINISTERS: OH! (with OED & ANT:) WHAT WE DON'T KNOW.
OEDIPUS: LIKE NOW. AND NOW: WHAT DOES WISDOM LIKE?
ALL: WHEN WE DON'T KNOW!
OEDIPUS: Why?

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ALL: THAT'S WHEN WE NEED HER LIGHT --
MOTHER AND FATHER: RIGHT?
ALL: WHEN WE DON'T KNOW.
OEDIPUS: SHE'S THE PRANKSTER!
MOTHER: WISDOM?
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS WANTS TO
PLAY.
MINISTERS: AH-HAH.
OEDIPUS: WHY'S SHE HIDE AND SAY COME LOOK FOR HER?
ALL: BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS WANTS TO PLAY.
MINISTERS: WISDOM LIVES TO PLAY.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: SO WE'RE LOOKING FOR HER NOW –
MINISTERS: YES, WE'RE LOOKING FOR HER NOW –
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: WHICH IS ALWAYS WISE OF US.
MINISTERS: WISE OF ANYONE.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: (echoed by MINISTERS:)
AFTER ALL:
SHE IS WITH HE WHO IS
ALL: FOREVER! – SO IT'S ALWAYS WISE OF US.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: LIKE A BLIND MAN (MINISTERS:
OOO) LEAVING THE SHADE,
MINISTERS: LEAVING THE SHADE.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: FEEL THE SUN (MINISTERS: AHH!)
TOUCH YOUR HEAD.
MINISTERS: TOUCH YOUR HEAD!
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: WITHOUT FEAR –
MINISTERS: WITHOUT FEAR
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: HER GAME IS PLAYED –
MINISTERS: HER GAME IS PLAYED.
ALL: FEEL THE SUN TOUCH YOUR HEAD.
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: HOW CAN HER LOVE –
MINISTERS: HOW CAN HER LOVE –
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: (echoed by MINISTERS:)
PLEASURIZE YOUR PATIENCE
PLEASURIZE YOUR PATIENCE
HOW CAN HER LOVE PLEASURIZE YOUR PATIENCE
IF YOUR FEAR
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: OVERSHADOWS YOUR MIND?
MINISTERS: WE BELIEVE IN THE COURAGE THAT YOU FIND IN
FEAR!
ALL: LET THE COURAGE THAT YOU FIND IN FEAR,
LET IT PLEASURIZE OUR PATIENCE
MINISTERS: AND WE'LL FIND?
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: AND YOU WILL FIND –
MINISTERS: WE'LL FIND?
OEDIPUS: THE ANSWER –

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MINISTERS: THE ANSWER –
OEDIPUS: YOU'RE LONG - ING TO HEAR.
ANTIGONE: YOU'RE LONGING TO HEAR.
MINISTERS: WE'RE LONGING TO HEAR.
OEDIPUS
My fear of seeing what was unknown in me exiled the
comfort of color from my life. What will your fear do?
Lose the blessing my death in the God of this place
would plant here forever?
FATHER
(conferring with MOTHER & DAUGHTER:) He knows the
meaning of words. That alone makes him mystic.
MOTHER
I don't know.
ANTIGONE
More than theology, father, plain emotion proves the
truth.
OEDIPUS
(to MOTHER) The monster you see before you is loose of
tooth, and blind!
MOTHER
(to FATHER & DAUGHTER) He sits there like the heart in
my chest. (DAUGHTER is still skeptical.)
ANTIGONE (to DAUGHTER)
We pray your kindness bravely holds, as the clear lack
of danger here builds.
OEDIPUS
The more settled we get in this calm, the more clearly
we can counteract real threats.
DAUGHTER
... Welcome, new citizens. Our land is yours.
OEDIPUS
Bless you!
(sound of hoofbeats)

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ANTIGONE
God – my heart leaps! A woman on a horse, thrilling me
but I don't know why. This is like being in a good
dream!
MINISTERS
ALL THAT WE'VE LOST,
ANTIGONE
Waving –
MINISTERS
ALL THOSE WHO'VE LEFT
ANTIGONE
– smiling –
MINISTERS
TOUCH US LIKE THE SUN –
ANTIGONE
Sister! Ismene!
MINISTERS
WHEN A LOVED ONE RETURNS.
ISMENE (off)
Father!
OEDIPUS
Ismene!
ISMENE
(entering)
And Antigone!
ANTIGONE
A full family embrace – the three of us!
(THEY embrace.)
OEDIPUS
Flesh of my flesh of my flesh!
ISMENE
I missed you.

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OEDIPUS
You did?
ISMENE
Yes.
OEDIPUS
Ah.
MINISTERS
BUT RARE IS THE ONE
WHO IS PARADISE FOR LONG.
ISMENE
I love you as dear as Poseidon, god of the water now in
my eyes, that seeking you grew dry as Aeoleus’s breath
in Aphrodite's ear.
ANTIGONE
Why are you oversalting your speech with gods?
ISMENE
Good news! I've become a reborn polytheist, and can
help you all be the same!
OEDIPUS
Oh God.
ISMENE
Godzzz! (to MINISTERS) Athens so near, you priests
must read entrails for the flashing-eyed Athena here!
DAUGHTER
Well, entrails are not really –
ISMENE
Blessed be Athena, goddess of hand-crafted headwear,
such as this small totem. (indicating her headwear) As
I wove it, I prayed, "Athena, weave my mind the same as
these colors!"
ANTIGONE
Apparently she heard you.
OEDIPUS
What other news? Your two brothers?

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ISMENE
Oh Nemesis! I of course must first ask Mnemosyne –
[nee-mah'-zih-nee]
ANTIGONE
Ismene!
ISMENE
– who, if you remember, is memory – to help you remember
that when Melpomene [mel-pom'-inny], the muse of tragedy
–
OEDIPUS
More matter, less myth!
ISMENE
– first spun your tragic fate – and you were exiled?
Your sons acted like your crown had lice! "Uncle Creon,
you be king! We'll just live in the palace eating
ev’rything." But! Their take on things didn't take in
Alecto –
OEDIPUS
Alecto?
ISMENE
– the most famous and furious fury, who gnawed at them
til they too furiously craved the fame of being king.
So! Polynices butchered his way to the throne –
ANTIGONE
No!
ISMENE
– so of course his dear little brother –
OEDIPUS
Eteocles!
ISMENE
– blood-bonded with Creon and spurted Poly from the open
wound of our festering country!
OEDIPUS
And now?

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ISMENE
The god Rumor says it is more than a rumor that Poly
has gathered armies from Argos.
MINISTERS
Meaning?
ANTIGONE
He’s planning to be a hero of heroes –
OEDIPUS
– in a war of wars –
ISMENE
– against our land of lands! Sing with me, dear family
– our country’s anthem!
ISMENE, ANTIGONE & OEDIPUS
GLITTERING THEBES OF HARP AND SMILE!
OLYMPUS IN A LOCKET ON THE NECK OF THE NILE.
ISMENE
Well, now it’s: defecating Ares, the stinking god of war
– squatting over our land as our noble brothers cup
their hands below. Aidos!
MINISTERS
AIDOS?
ISMENE
GODDESS THAT THE GOOD FOLK WITH GOOD LUCK FEEL
FOR THE POOR FOLK FACING BAD –
MINISTERS
AIDOS!
ISMENE
THANK YOU FOR BEARING GOOD NEWS OF MY FATHER
TO THE PRIESTS OF APOLLO THAT BEARS ON THIS WAR!
(MUSIC continues as:)

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DTR & ANT FATHER & MTHR & OED ISMENE
Who? What? SON Who? Good Thank you
Good news of What good news (of for bearing
our/your news from Oedipus/ good news of
father? the priests about me)? my father to
From the of Apollo From the the priests
priests of priests of of Apollo
Apollo Apollo
ALL
that bears on this war?/!
(MUSIC ends)
FATHER
Your words and your gods breed incestuously, child!
SON
What news do you have? Speak plainly!
ISMENE
The famous Delphi oracle, plainly not known for its
plainspeaking ways –
ANTIGONE
Ismene! How much wine did you have on your horse?
ISMENE
The journey was endless.
ANTIGONE
Our patience is not!
ISMENE
The oracle said – I was just going to tell you – the
oracle said – you're always so rude – it said: "Whoever
takes in Oedipus, just as he is, will survive ev'ry
war."
MINISTERS
“IF YOU TAKE IN ALL OF OEDIPUS
YOU’LL SURVIVE EV’RY WAR.”
ANTIGONE
(to OEDIPUS) To survive his war with Poly, Creon’ll
come to get you. How will he find you? (turns to
ISMENE) By following babbling brook here.

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ISMENE
Father, she's calling me things I am not!
OEDIPUS
(to the MINISTERS) Creon – this now is a real threat.
ISMENE
Polynices is too! He knows the prophecy!
OEDIPUS
How?
ISMENE
From his allies. They call themselves "Soldiers of the
Oracle."
OEDIPUS
Why “Soldiers”?
ISMENE
They use Delphi scriptures to avoid the problems logic
gives them in justifying slaughter.
ANTIGONE
So here comes Poly again, with his clouded eyes and scar
of a smile.
ISMENE
(to OEDIPUS) Creon or Polynices – who will you choose?
OEDIPUS
Neither, Ismene. The Oracle promises a blessing to
those who take me in. Everyone here has extended peace
to me. My gratitude extends that blessing beyond me
into this place.
ISMENE
Then Thebes will be cursed.
OEDIPUS
The war will eat the same raw meal, no matter how my
bones would dish out the portions. My sons and Creon
are worms on hooks and we are fish! This ocean has
better things to taste.

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FATHER
Still, Oedipus, you have not made full peace with
yourself.
SON
That remaining conflict is our most imminent threat.
MOTHER
We have a cleansing ritual for you that –
OEDIPUS
I am defiled, not cleansed if I do what I don't need or
want! What mud do you people see clogging my spirit?
FATHER & SON
A slough of resistance.
DAUGHTER
Hurry down the hill to the spring, take fleece from the
lambs, wrap it on a cup, fill it with water and sage,
then put three drops on each leaf of nine olive sprigs!
OEDIPUS
How in the name of what clayheaded god do you think a
blind man who barely has strength to sit can race down a
hill, chase after sheep, and aim drops of water at
foliage!?
ANTIGONE
In ritual–doing, Ismene far exceeds us in rankness.
ISMENE
It’s true. Much as I shy from bringing attention to
myself. I did win third prize in last year’s Vestal
Virgin Contest (doing a Nubian prostration) with this
humble Nubian prostration.
FATHER
Humility one can be proud of!
DAUGHTER
Father! She's a polytheist!
OEDIPUS
But sincere as sunlight!

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ISMENE
Hill, spring, fleece, cup, water, sage, olive – then?
DAUGHTER
Sing: "GOD OF GODS."
ISMENE
GOD OF GODS? ZEUS, YOU MEAN?
THOUGH SOME SAY THE FATES RULE THE EMPYREAN.
DIONYSUS! NO! DEMETER! OH!
YOU MEAN HEAVEN AND EARTH WHO GAVE BIRTH TO THE GODS!
FATHER & SON
OUR GOD IS HOW YOU ARE HONEST.
ISMENE
HONESTLY? I LIKE THIS! WHAT NAME?
MOTHER
A MILLION NAMES.
ISMENE
NAME ONE.
FATHER & SON
ATTENTION-GIVER.
ISMENE
ATTENTION TO ME? OR ATTENTION I GIVE?
MINISTERS
ATTENTION I GET OR ATTENTION I GIVE ...
DAUGHTER
ASK THE ATTENTIVE ATTENDANT BY THE RIVER.
ISMENE
HOW YOU TALK! HOW YOU SING!
FATHER! SISTER! I'LL BE BY THE SPRING! (running off:)
I'll miss you!
OEDIPUS
Stronger than ritual – bring your King here with his
body-guarding force!

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FATHER
The majesty you seek and usurpers you fear all lie
within you.
OEDIPUS
(with mounting fury) Now is no time to play out-is-in!
One day, maybe, we'll open meekly enough to fill with
the Almighty and fear no more those who live by might.
But since that time has not yet come–
MOTHER & SON
If it doesn't come now, it never will.
DAUGHTER
Where does your great anger snake its roots!?
OEDIPUS
In your blind stupidity!
MINISTERS (spoken)
WHY DID YOU STUPIDLY BLIND YOURSELF?
OEDIPUS
Who doesn't!!
(pause)
ANTIGONE
Father! Your fury must die before you do or who knows
what beast will haunt any dream skills you have that
survive.
MOTHER
(to OEDIPUS) Kill clutter. Distill your story.
OEDIPUS
My song is a dirge, sung by a clown, an absurd plague of
coincidence!
I came to Thebes as a cold young man, and met a woman
with a smile so warm, such a way with words, I wanted to
tell her ev'rything. No wine was better than how we
talked. So often would one of us say what the other was
thinking, there was no chance of hiding our love.
She was a tent that smelled of incense. Her philosophy:
truth is a fruit picked when it's ripe. My only desire

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was to treat her more royally each day. We were king
and queen of Thebes – and then came the plague.
Rosy sores on lily skin. Children piled like logs in
the street. Wailing parents, dead-eyed lovers, and
helpless king and queen, trying to reason why their
world had ripened so far beyond reason. Then we
discovered my wife was my mother. She kills herself, I
poke out my eyes with her brooch, and the plague ends.
Time stopped being time, and swallowed me.
Next thing I knew: a cool hand here (his forehead):
Antigone. Then pain-shot lightning: insights. My
plunge into darkness, and Jocasta's, wasn't what ended
the plague. Ending our infection of the natural law –
that's what stopped its reflection in our realm. My
tragic fault was blinding myself, bequeathing darkness
to my nation. There lies the guilt I have to purge
here, not in my blindness to who my parents were.
SON
You killed your father and married your mother!
OEDIPUS
As my sweet-talking mother, I mean wife once said: "It's
only something ev'ry boy dreams of."
FATHER
So Antigone and Ismene are your daughters, and also –
OEDIPUS
All people are always more than any people say they are!
FATHER & SON
Also your sisters!
MOTHER
This reeks – this blood-tie! Family life – it’s
domestic! This wildness –
DAUGHTER
My father as my brother – I can't – it's too –
ANTIGONE
He’s my world!

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DAUGHTER
They save me from the world.
ANTIGONE & DAUGHTER: FAMILY!
THE REST (OED, FR-SON-MTHR:)WHERE WE’RE FROM.
WOMEN: RARE UNDERSTANDING
ALL: BUT A TOO COMMON TONGUE
MEN: PEOPLE YOU'D DIE FOR
ALL: WHO MAKE YOU CRY
WOMEN: PEOPLE YOU TIRE OF
ALL: WHO DRIVE YOU MAD!
ANTIGONE: WHO KNOW YOU TOO WELL
DAUGHTER: BUT DON'T KNOW YOU AT ALL.
REST: TOO MUCH LIKE YOU:
ALL: WHY DON'T THEY IMPROVE?
FAMILY!
THE HEART OF ME.
THE STALEST, PALEST PART OF ME.
REST: MORE THAN FRIENDS
ANTIGONE & DAUGHTER: LESS THAN FRIENDS
ALL: TINIEST COSMOS OF WONDER AND PAIN
HUNGER AND GAIN, LOVE AND THE INANE.
(a capella) FAMILY. YOU AND ME. HUMANITY.
STEALING, SHARING, KILLING, CARING: FAM'LY!
MOTHER & FATHER: STARTED BY TWO, UNRELATED
USUALLY,
DTR. & SON: (to OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE) BUT NOT YOU
MINISTERS: AND YOUR FAMILY. FAMILY. FAMILYFAMILYFAMILY
FAM'LY FAM'LY FAM'LY FAM'LY FAM'LY FAM'LY
FAM'LY
OUR FAM'LY VALUES
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: LOYALTY, HONESTY?
MINISTERS: OUR FOULLY VAMUES –
OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE: ACCEPTANCE, ASSISTANCE?
MINISTERS OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE
OUR FUMELY VALLEES ARE OUR FAMILY VALUES ARE YOURS!
NOT YOURS! FAMILY VALUES! FAMILY
FAMILYFAMILYFAMILY! VALUES!
FATHER & SON
The law is clear.

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MOTHER & DAUGHTER
You have to go.
OEDIPUS
If I have to go, who can stay?! In everyone's past
there are stories harder than a blade in the chest to
forgive. God of breath! (Inhales deeply) I smell a
kingly air!
(THESEUS enters.)
Theseus! It’s about time! We need a ruler here, not a
slew of laws!
THESEUS
Oedipus. I say your name and my heart starts pounding.
There’s a spell your story casts. Somehow it makes me
feel I’ve just escaped an odious family function. I
don’t know why. Just me I suppose.
I too was the death of my father. Told him, “I’ll come
home with a white sail if I’m alive.” Came home with
the black, forgot to change it – dreaming of my mother,
I swear, handing me a new-washed robe. Making my father
Aegeus, high on his lookout hill, fly like a wounded
gull into the sea below that now bears his name.
OEDIPUS
The good Aegean.
THESEUS
A sea of sorrow. God, the grief we carry. And I'm also
a king whose people are plagued by a wrong I did without
knowing.
OEDIPUS
Peace to your heart, good King. Who knows why your land
went dry? Maybe just so some long-suff'ring fool can
come here and get rained on some more.
THESEUS
May that seed be planted in our most fertile nature.
OEDIPUS
Theseus – I'd embrace you, but – waves of revulsion at
over-ripe actions this body remembers –

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THESEUS
I welcome you here.
(THESEUS embraces OEDIPUS. Then
opens his arms toward ANTIGONE)
And you, Antigone.
ANTIGONE
The waves that make me hesitate are diff'rent from his.
THESEUS
I embrace you, then, invisibly. (silence)
OEDIPUS
She thanks you, I’m sure, silently.
THESEUS
(to ANTIGONE) It is our belief that what most makes us
who we are is what we pay attention to. Your face makes
that view most welcome.
OEDIPUS
Fully welcome at last! Forgiven sufficiently! Theseus,
my monstrous sons and brother-in-law are coming! They
will tie me to a board as a talisman for troops. And
worse! Worse!
ANTIGONE
Murder in this holy place, splattering war on Athens!
THESEUS
Thebes won't fight us – we’re their biggest market.
Troops won’t attack their paysource! That’s (HOW THINGS
ARE)
OEDIPUS
HOW THINGS ARE
AND HOW THEY HAVE BEEN
ARE NOT HOW THEY WILL BE!
THESEUS
YES, THEY WILL IN HEALTHY TRADE!
OEDIPUS
EVEN THE BEST HEALTH
ONE DAY VEERS SHARPLY TO DEATH.

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THESEUS
BETWEEN OUR COUNTRIES, THE CLIMATE'S CONSTANT.
OEDIPUS
RAIN DOESN'T ALWAYS COME, DOES IT,
AS OFTEN
THESEUS
MAYBE RAIN DOESN’T –
OEDIPUS
AS ALWAYS.
THESEUS
BUT GOOD NEIGHBORS DO.
OEDIPUS
FRIENDS COMMONLY STOP –
THESEUS & FATHER
... COMMONLY STOP?
OEDIPUS
TALKING TO YOU.
DAUGHTER & SON
THEY DO?
FATHER & MOTHER
THEY DO. EVEN GOOD FRIENDS, TOO.
MINISTERS & OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE
(to DAUGHTER) ONE DAY THEY STOP TALKING TO YOU.
OEDIPUS
AND A ONCE-FRIENDLY CITY PREPARES TO ATTACK.
(spoken as music continues:)
You think now the sky between Athens and Thebes has no
cloud the color of shield and sword?
(Distant thunder. All look up and see what
might be darkening clouds on the horizon.)
Antigone! Lead me away! I infect even the place of
forgiveness!
THESEUS
Remain!

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(OEDIPUS screams in agony.)
ANTIGONE
Father!
(OEDIPUS screams again in long agony, and is
reseated.)
THESEUS
FRIEND, CAN YOU SPEAK?
OEDIPUS
IF I SAY NO – ?
THESEUS
I THINK I'D HAVE A PROBLEM BELIEVING YOU.
OEDIPUS & THESEUS
THIS FRIENDSHIP HAS A CHANCE TO LAST
TILL DEATH DO US PART.
MAYBE EVEN LONGER AS A SMILE IN MY HEART.
OEDIPUS
Friend, the source of all movement commands me: "Go
nowhere!” I must try with all my might to obey.
THESEUS
I see my people in you: a good man in distress. All
power I have to help you is yours, God help me.
OEDIPUS
All I can do to help you is die.
(Murmurs of dissent from MINISTERS, silenced
by a rumble of thunder.)
THESEUS
We do need rain.
MOTHER & SON
It will or will not rain no matter where he dies.
FATHER & DAUGHTER
But war is something we still can prevent.

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THESEUS
AND ALL THAT WE DO SHOULD HAVE THAT INTENT,
A NEAR-MAD RESPONSIVENESS
THAT SPARKS MORE INT'REST THAN CONFLICT.
MILITANT MEN WILL CONFRONT YOU.
CATCH FIRE FROM THE SPARKS IN THEIR FLINTY EYES.
YOUR REFLECTIVE SURPRISE IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SURVIVE!
THAT'S WHERE WAR IS REWORDED
AND IF WAR IS NOT REWORDED,
WAR IS NOT AVERTED.
EQUALIZE THE SAME WAY YOU WIN
THE CONSTANT WAR YOU FIND WITHIN.
MINISTERS
EQUALIZE BY HOW WE WIN
THE CONSTANT WAR WE FIND WITHIN.
THESEUS
THESE WARRIORS THAT COME NOW
I SWEAR TO YOU WITH ALL THEIR FIERCENESS:
NONE HAS MORE POWER TO TAKE YOUR LIFE
THAN SOME SERPENTINE DISPIRITER
SNARLED IN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS.
SPY THAT VIPER,
MILK ITS VENOM,
PAINT YOUR ARROW TIPS
AND STAND LIKE ARCHERS AROUND THIS MAN. (meaning
OEDIPUS) HE'S THE KING OF THIS DREAM. (MIN: WHY?)
DYING IS SACRED. (MIN: WHY?)
IT ASKS THE WARRIOR QUESTION: (MIN: WHICH IS?)
WHAT ARE WE LIVING FOR?
(MIN: WHAT ARE WE LIVING FOR? continuing:)
WE'RE ALL IN THE MIDDLE OF A WITHERING ASSAULT
ON THE PASSION WE KNOW WE WERE BORN TO PURSUE
– ALL THE WHILE SEARCHING FOR WHICH WAY TO FACE
SO THE RAY THAT GIVES LIFE
KEEPS LIGHTING OUR EYES THROUGH DEATH.
WE NEED HIS BLESSING.
IT'S OUR OWN LIFE WE'RE SAVING
BY HELPING HIM SLING HIMSELF INTO A JOURNEY
THAT'S FASTER THAN LIGHT!
MINISTERS
UNTIL THEN?

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THESEUS
UNTIL THEN, WE MOVE WITH GRAVITY.
EACH OF YOU TO SET FREE
THE TRUTH OF YOUR WRATH;
AND I TO MY DEMOCRACY
FOR THE FREE VOTE OF ALL ATHENS
TO GRANT THIS MAN (gestures to OEDIPUS) SANCTUARY
AND TO MAKE A LAW
TO HOLD AS SACRED THE INDIVIDUAL PATH.
(with MINISTERS:)
TO GUARD WITH OUR LIFE
AND HOLD AS SACRED THE INDIVIDUAL PATH!
(THESEUS exits)
MINISTERS
(spoken in unison to the audience:)
Like Oedipus
each of you
came here from a world of troubles
to the center seat in the Theater of Where You Are.
You rest there in harmless pause
a state we might wish on the world.
You've decided to stay and have blessing to do so.
So then ...
what now?
(sung:)
SECURE IN THE CENTER OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
WE'VE READIED OUR NATURE TO TAKE IN WHAT SHOWS UP.
ROUGHLY PREPARED FOR WHAT CAN'T BE PREPARED FOR,
NOT REALLY SCARED THOUGH WE'RE TOLD THAT BEFORE LONG
SOME TERROR WILL RAM US HEAD ON.
HERE COMES THE WORLD
HERE COMES THE WORLD
HERE COMES THE SUFF'RING THEY SAY
IS THE PRICE THAT YOU PAY
FOR THE WISDOM YOU GAIN IN TIME,
HERE COMES THE OCCASION I'M MEANT TO RISE TO;
HERE COMES THE ACCIDENT, THE INCIDENT, THE SAD EVENT;
THE VIOLENT PAIN; THE SOLDIERS, THE DOCTORS –
HERE COMES THE WORLD!
HERE COMES THE WORLD!
WE'RE IN OUR OWN WORLD.
WE STRUGGLE HARD
LEARNING TO STOP THE WHIRLING WAR INSIDE

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SO WE CAN BE CLEAR:
HERE COMES THE WORLD.
HERE COMES THE FEAR.
HERE COMES THE MIRROR.
HERE COMES WHAT'S HERE.
(CREON and his GUARD have arrived.)
CREON
No love between us.
OEDIPUS
You’re part of me. My heart has a numb spot where you
reign.
CREON
I interest you.
OEDIPUS
I make you smile.
CREON
Brother-in-law, or nephew-in-law, whatever law or un-law
you are –
OEDIPUS
You're more tired than I am.
CREON
I do more than sit.
OEDIPUS
I do less than oppress.
CREON
I need your guidance! Thebes has turned into a sinkhole
without us! Like it or not, the time of Oedipus comes
round again. Ride back with me and we can hack out how
to get another gold age going.
OEDIPUS
Why ask advice from someone you threw out like broken
pottery?
CREON
Everyone knows you’ve grown, wisdom-wise. Songs about
you ev'rywhere.

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OEDIPUS
They must be awful.
CREON
Actually – I mean, I'm no musician, but – this one tune
keeps going through my head when I wash:
POOR WAND'RING MAN SOMETHING SOMETHING WISE.
HE ONCE WAS KING BUT NOW HE HAS NO EYES.
HE ONCE WAS KING BUT NOW HE HAS NO EYES,
POOR WAND'RING WISE MAN
SOMETHING SOMETHING ... something –
(waves the wine sack under Oedipus's nose)
Thirsty?
OEDIPUS
I never drink on the throne.
CREON
See, that’s wise! I remember getting really drunk once,
trampling guards with my horse. A lot of people with
money though, thought it made me more human. (takes a
long quaff) God, being king. Such a stupid job.
Wearing fifty masks a day, breaking your brain trying to
figure out out how to phrase things so throngs’ll cough
up all they can to friends of mine who only like me for
the cough-ups. (drinks another long quaff)
OEDIPUS
You call that ruling? Backclapping the few, at the
expense of the many?
CREON
In the real light of day, my friend, something you’ve
maybe forgotten, that’s how the strongest kingdom gets
the strength it needs to help the most!
FATHER
In the real light of day, that's how a kingdom dines on
its own heart!
CREON
... (to OEDIPUS) Is this what you want? Sitting around
with hypocrites who live by a stream in a land of
drought? Who mistake their airy criticism for how
things are on earth?

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ANTIGONE
We were walking this earth on foot while you were on a
horse trampling guards!
CREON
Niece! You speak!
ANTIGONE
And Delphi spoke to me.
CREON
Of what?
ANTIGONE
Your son.
CREON
How much I love him?
ANTIGONE
How he and I will marry.
CREON
How I give him a sword to kill you with?
ANTIGONE
So goes the prophecy.
CREON
It does?
ANTIGONE
Pure silver, the color of his soul–
CREON
I wasn’t serious.
ANTIGONE
– which pierces and chases me into the moonlit forest.
CREON
Wait! (HE can't break from her trembling clutch)
ANTIGONE
He runs himself through to run after me.

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CREON
You’re making this up!
ANTIGONE
Before your widening eyes his life bleeds from yours
into mine, and trembling as we are here you remember my
face now as truth. (Staring pause. CREON breaks away.
Silence.)
OEDIPUS
I hear twitching. Your slug antennae?
CREON
Let’s be honest. Delphi is idiocy. Double talk. But
people like believing more than thinking so we have to
use it. I swear on the grave of your mother, we’ll use
Delphi to help our people despite themselves. Already I
have men in place at the oracle to heat up the rhetoric.
Fiery Godtalk! To scare fat Thebes off its pillows!
Enough of “Peace. Dignity.” Frenzy with Dionysus!
Fountains of holy blood! Get ‘em addicted to diction
like that and they’ll fight wherever you point!
OEDIPUS
You have the imagination of a hyena. The god you
worship is the smell of blood.
CREON
See the light, man! Never a war without god!
OEDIPUS
Or a lie without language.
CREON
Enough. Delphi's the language today, and you are its
most recent war cry.
OEDIPUS
Grab me, Creon, you grab Theseus.
CREON
Hap'ly there are more pleasurable things around to grab.
OEDIPUS
Ismene!

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CREON
And – (gestures for GUARD to take ANTIGONE)
ANTIGONE
Father!
OEDIPUS
What is happening?
ANTIGONE
He's dragging me away!
(GUARD and ANTIGONE are gone.)
OEDIPUS
Antigone!!
CREON
Save your voice.
OEDIPUS
What do I have left but my voice? If I don't speak, I'm
dead already!
CREON
What would kill you is never seeing your daughters
again. Come to Thebes with us.
OEDIPUS
I would die on the way, Creon. Look at me. I'm hardly
here any more. Bring back my daughters, and I promise –
my corpse will be very quiet!
DAUGHTER
Our king will be here soon!
CREON
Not soon. He has so many votes to get first from people
whose opinions don’t matter. (gasps) Apollo the
Compassionate in my ear: "Cripple this man and drag him
with you as if you were me!" Yes, Lord!
(HE raises his staff and goes for OEDIPUS.
THE MINISTERS get between them.)
MINISTERS: GOD –

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CREON (drunkenly amused): Yes?
MINISTERS: HELP!
CREON: How?
MINISTERS: HELP US FEEL YOU WILL HELP!
CREON: I promise!
MINISTERS: HELP US FEEL THAT SO STRONGLY
THAT WE WILL ACT AS IF YOU'VE
HELPED US ALREADY.
CREON: That'll help how?
MINISTERS: THE STRENGTH OF OUR ACTING YOUR PROMISE
INSPIRES
CREON: "Strength"! HA!
MINISTERS: WILL PROMPT YOU TO GIVE US A HAND –
CREON: I'll give you a hand!
MINISTERS: WHICH IS ALL THAT ANYONE ACTING FOR YOU
DESIRES.
CREON: (mock applauding) – for your delusion!
MINISTERS: (kneeling, praying)
THANK YOU, GOD – YOU SAVED US IN TIME!
CREON: NOW WHAT'RE YOU DOING?
MINISTERS: WHAT A RELIEF!
CREON: YOU'RE ACTING ON THE BLIND BELIEF
THAT THE MORE YOU ACT AS IF YOUR WISH IS FACT
THE MORE YOU HELP IT COME TO THAT?!
MINISTERS: WHEW! I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER!
CREON: (laughing, raising his staff)
HAH, TELL THAT TO YOUR BONESETTER!
MINISTERS: I WAS REALLY SCARED.
CREON: (to FATHER) YOU ALMOST AMUSE ME TOO MUCH TO
BREAK YOUR LEG –
MINISTERS: AHH! THANK YOU, GOD!
CREON: BUT I THINK I CAN STILL TAKE A WHACK AT IT!
(readies to strike FATHER; THESEUS enters.)
THESEUS: PEACE!
CREON: (turning toward THESEUS)
Peace?
(FATHER grabs CREON's staff away, tosses it
to THESEUS)
MINISTERS, OEDIPUS & THESEUS
PEACE!
CREON
Who's this merchant?

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THESEUS
Where is Antigone?
OEDIPUS
His soldiers have taken my daughters!
THESEUS
(to DAUGHTER & SON)
My guards in the temple – post them to the river!
(DAUGHTER & SON exit.)
OEDIPUS
Thank you, Theseus.
CREON
Theseus! Of course! The democracy man! King of "Let
them do it!" Nice robes. (drinking) Nice war, too,
you're starting. Legend'ry. You've made my life.
THESEUS
The only war I see from here is your struggle to stay
calm. I'm on your side for that.
CREON
Make no mistake, Athens: the price of those peahens is
one monstrous butcher called Thebes.
THESEUS
As if you’re Thebes. The real king of Thebes – we all
know this – is its market. I love my meals with your
merchants. I report your actions to them, and your
soldiers – just like that (claps hands) – will be broke.
CREON
Your small talk with merchants has small effect. It’s
the big stories bankers hear that (claps hands) change
geography. You haven’t heard the news? Two Delphi
prophets, just this morning – dismissed. The charge?
Basically, favoring ashes over fire. Two of my bastards
take their place, making a quorum of Creon concerns.
Woooo – I see the future! The oracle speaks: "Theseus
and Athens are thugs against Thebes, befouled by incest
and patricide!"

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37
OEDIPUS
No patricide! A stranger attacks you with sword drawn,
do you raise your hand and shout, "Wait! First – are
you my father"?!
CREON
Fight a man, your souls rut. Kill him, and you’re
pregnant with his ghost. You knew your father all the
way, brother. As you also knew your mother – don't
tell me her taste was not familiar!
OEDIPUS
I did not know she was my mother! She did not know I
was her son! Hissing about your sister like that:
"Incessst! Incessst!"
CREON
That strange excitement when she smoothed your robe
against your thigh the first time? Mmm, feels
forbidden, makes you want it more! Being a bad boy’s so
good, right? Means you don’t have to be a man!
OEDIPUS
Your reverie only betrays a hunger for your mother kin
to mine.
CREON
But I didn't make my daughters into sisters, did I?
OEDIPUS
Where are they?!
CREON
On their way to serve their country, as you taught them
to do from birth! Whatever our differences, Oedipus,
our honor is bound up with Thebes! There are real
people there who need our help, who will give back twice
what we give them. Unlike these human clouds
(indicating MINISTERS & THESEUS) with nothing for their
land!
THESEUS
You cockroach. You're like so many so-called leaders
these days – you open your mouth and out come the
flowers and flies. Words are meant to help, not fool!
Problems get uglier the prettier you paint them!

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DAUGHTER
(entering with SON) We've stopped his troops by the
river.
(as THESEUS and CREON exit:)
THESEUS
(to OEDIPUS) We'll get your daughters.
CREON
(to OEDIPUS) Never! I'll be back for your bones!
OEDIPUS
FRIENDS!
WE KNOW WE NOW ARE SAFE THESE VERY FEW SECONDS HERE
SURROUNDED BY A VIOLENT AGONIZED WORLD
WHERE ALL OUR FAMILY SUFFERS OUTSIDE OF OUR REACH.
WHAT CAN WE DO IF WE TRULY ARE ONE –
MINISTERS
WE TRULY ARE ONE.
OEDIPUS
TO SEND THEM –
MINISTERS
SEND THEM?
OEDIPUS
OUR SAFETY
OEDIPUS & MINISTERS
RIGHT NOW?
(OEDIPUS silently prays with all his heart,
as the MINISTERS sing:)
MINISTERS
RISE, GOD –
YOUR PART OF US CRYING: "JUSTICE BE DONE!"
MURDER IN US
WHATEVER DESPAIRS OF A FAIR SHARE FOR EV'RYONE!
MOTHER FATHER & SON DAUGHTER
CALM EVERY TURN DOWN EV'RY CALM EV'RY
STATE OF
NATION DOWN HATE TO CREATION'S SOUND

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MINISTERS
AROUND YOU.
INSPIRE US WITH OPTIONS TO WAR ALL APPROVE!
AND MAY THERE BE AN ENDING TO WAR!
PANIC IN OUR STREETS NO MORE!
(as ANTIGONE & ISMENE reunite with OEDIPUS:)
HAPPY THE NATION FOR WHOM THIS IS TRUE.
HAPPY THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS REALLY YOU,
TURN EV’RY BURNING HATE INTO FIRE
FOR WHAT’S FOUND AROUND YOU
REALLY YOU.
(THESEUS enters, all wet.)
THESEUS
I fell off my horse as we crossed the river. There was
this huge bug – unbelievably persistent! And so elusive
– I believe it was a god. I swatted and flailed and –
(gesture) into the drink. Creon’s troops thought this
was funny. But when I climbed back up my royal steed
and fell off the other side – they were mine. Writhing
on the ground, howling. I could still hear their
helpless moans and dying gasps as I traded Creon for
Ismene, who was sober but smelled of wine; and you (to
ANTIGONE), drunk only on gratitude, tasting of grapes
and salt.
ANTIGONE
I'll thank you again.
OEDIPUS
No! Don't slacken your hold on me yet, neither of you!
Spirit of union and reunion! This is the best time to
die! Inhale me now! Ah, God ....
ISMENE
(afraid HE's dead) Father!
ANTIGONE
(knowing HE's alive) Oedipus.
OEDIPUS
... Still here? Heaven, stay with us then.

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MINISTERS & THESEUS
THE WIND IS STRONG
THE SEASONS FLY
SOMETHING WRONG
ALWAYS NEARBY.
NOW IS THE TIME,
IT'S ALL NOW.
STAY HERE, STAY –
OR LEARN HOW.
GOOD FOR NOW
HOW LONG CAN IT LAST?
DON'T TRUST THE FUTURE,
WATCH OUT FOR THE PAST.
ANTIGONE
Polynices has come.
OEDIPUS
Polynices! That name is like ice in my ear!
ANTIGONE
I haven't seen him for as long as you haven't seen!
ISMENE
What do you think you’ve missed?!
OEDIPUS
I cannot speak with him!
THESEUS
His voice is not a sword – it can pass through you
without spilling blood.
ANTIGONE
Agree with agreeable Theseus, father. Perhaps he's come
to repent.
OEDIPUS & ISMENE
Polynices has not come to repent!
THESEUS
He was kneeling in the temple, humbly requesting
audience with you.

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DAUGHTER
What is he like?
ISMENE
A statue! Pus!
OEDIPUS
He stabbed the heart of my life! I will not let him
kill my death!
THESEUS
Oedipus, hate makes the hated too much with us. Will he
be your dying thought? Anger will not stop him haunting
you.
OEDIPUS
I know that!
MOTHER
It's rare to find a father and son at ease with each
other.
FATHER
Even more rarely is this the fault of the son.
ANTIGONE
Father, you are my day, but Poly is my night. When I
shut my eyes to sleep, it's his face that rises in my
blindness, smiling to see me. There’s a curl on his
forehead, down on his lip, gold flecks in his iris!
ISMENE
Sister, your dreams are homesick. He's nothing now, his
eyes are cold, dead!
ANTIGONE
My tears for him are warm! When he looks on someone who
loves him his eyes will find life! Hear him, father –
brother! If for no other reason than he's my brother,
too! I have to see him. And so do you.
(OEDIPUS finally nods in consent.)
THESEUS
I will send him here. (exits)

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42
MINISTERS
OUR FRIENDS AND OUR FAMILY END LIKE A DREAM.
WE WAKE ON OUR DEATHBED, CRYING,
WHERE WE MOST LIVE:
WHO THAT WE LOVE HAVE WE HARMED?
WHO ARE WE DYING TO FORGIVE?
(Enter POLYNICES.)
ANTIGONE
Poly!
(He gives Oedipus the onceover.)
POLYNICES
(aside to ANTIGONE) Sad. Age is no friend. Life is not
meant for the old. My own problems compound ev'ry
second, but at least I have muscled youth, dark hair –
eyes. And some comfort from food and clothes that
aren't repellant. But him – besides hope of losing his
memory – what else does that sickening body have?
ANTIGONE
Extra-acute hearing.
POLYNICES
... Father? I apologize – from alpha to omega – for not
protesting more when they exiled you. What can I say –
the blindness of youth! But who understands that better
than you? I know now how you care for me – always have,
always will. To know you forgive me makes me so happy!
Thank you! ... Could anything be more wonderful, father,
than being together again?
(Silence.)
Has he gouged out his tongue as well?
ANTIGONE
Will you be staying long?
POLYNICES
For what – silence?
ANTIGONE
(furious) How long since he's heard from you?! ...
Sorry, I must be hungry. You mentioned food?

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POLYNICES
With my men.
ISMENE
I'll get it. Dionysus at an orgy couldn't be gladder
than I am to leave your pseudo-presence. (exits)
ANTIGONE
You see? Already you've heard Ismene's voice, and she
hates the very air you breathe. Maybe in time your
father will heal enough to speak from the heart you ran
the spear of exile through.
POLYNICES
I do not have time to flatter and pet him! Let him be a
man and honor the man I've become!
ANTIGONE
You're still so handsome.
POLYNICES
At least I know you'll be fair to me.
ANTIGONE
Give you what you deserve? I'd never do that. To you I
can only be kind.
POLYNICES
You are the best in our family.
ANTIGONE
Hierarchies change every moment. You're right, you're
no longer a boy. So tell him as a man why you're here.
POLYNICES
Father – I work hard. Command battalions, visit the
wounded. There's need for me in the eyes of my men,
which I'm told doesn't leave when I do. That need is
Thebes. Thebes beloved as it was under you! And was
when the crown fell to me off your head.
Something happened, father, when I put that crown on. I
felt my bones turn to gold. I can't say it any
diff'rently. Apollo or whatever gives meaning to stuff
sent down this obvious sign that I'm the true king.

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Theseus told me you both share a faith in something
called "the Unity." I did feel a unity with you when my
brother stole my crown and exiled me! I cried! Men can
cry for their fathers, I believe, and also when watching
the Olympics.
Praise Delphi for prophesying our union! It’s inspired
six of the holiest Soldiers of the Oracle to ally with
me, each with invincible scripture on his shield. The
famous orator, Flapadopolous, whose speech on dying for
your country would work in any land! His shield reads:
“Spill my word upon the world like blood from the tender
young sacrifice.”
And Stygios the Dark, Head of Enforcement – his shield:
“Make yourselves poor that our temples may prosper.” A
truth that commands respect, no? His soldiers give him
half their loot within an hour of rape and pillage.
High Priest Makino – his shield reads, “No one wants
your death – except the God we serve!” A real morale
booster. He does this harlot dance with a severed head –
you can’t help but laugh.
Who else. Tyrocles, our strategist. Big letters on his
shield: “Obey your leaders lest you stray unto the
beast!” No mutiny with him around – damn well knows how
to siphon hope from any protest group.
And our money men. Prespis – richer than Croesus but
never acts above us. His shield: “Seek not what is
not.” So down to earth, he sleeps with a new slave
every night. And Kacocian, the “King of Ships”! A true
visionary! His shield: “All people shall worship me.”
His vision: our Theban way of life spread so far across
the earth, never again will it be confusing to be in a
foreign country!
And who leads the leaders? Their Olympic torch!
Polynices, Son of Oedipus! On my shield: “One with the
Father!”
Do you see? The light you lost you can find again
shining for us! Return with me now to these thrilling
champions! Be one with we seven against Thebes! For
the glory of Delphi, the health of our homeland and,

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most of all, new life for our father-son unity!
ANTIGONE
... Echoing his silence would have served you better.
FATHER
You have nothing to fear, Oedipus, not even your own
voice.
OEDIPUS
If I speak to him, who would hear? The soldier shrunk in
his horror, or the child he is maiming? For he is both,
and both are beyond the reach of utterance. Look at him!
Only posed as a listener, is he not? Hearing no more now
than he did from my silence, so anxious is he to get back
to his severed-head frenzy, and the great cause of
shattering jaws, hacking flesh to the bone, unimaginable
gore, imagination itself whoring in hell – all to put our
Thebes in the hands of a nervous, two-legged mask, whose
empty eyes don't even notice his own father dying before
him.
Son! Do you want me to be your father again? Stay then
with the family here in this place, and hold my hand as I
die.... But I do not think you will. You've joined that
hideous family of those who claim family only when they
want help. You're buried already in your grand plan to
father your childish idea of yourself into a pantheon
bust. Spectacularly hollow spectacle, a cold hole in the
air. You lost the last of your majesty to the greedy
rich men who made you their slave-king. King of the ant
hill! Oldest son of the latest ideas! I am your father,
Polynices!! The first time you walked, it was toward me!
I held out my arms, and you staggered over and fell into
my hands. You let them drive your father, blind and
lost, into torturous hardship and wilderness! How could
you do that and still call yourself human? Polynices!
Polynices: his name will never cross my lips again. He
broke my heart, condemned my ev’ry bone, but now I am
pulling free of him at last. He is an abortion that
refused to die! May God save the world from him and the
fiends he calls friends – for I surely cannot.
POLYNICES
... (to ANTIGONE) Two years planning this campaign! (To
OEDIPUS) You’re letting ancient history hold back a

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dawning age! (silence) Silence again. Criticism or
silence – the two horns of the father! Damn this
journey! What will I tell them? We're all going to die!
ANTIGONE
Live, Poly. Stay and watch this man find out what light
is again. That’s your new dawn. It’s Antigone! Your
truth teller!
POLYNICES
Truth from the narrow world of caretakers. But in the
wide world, sister, where history's made, truth is
political health; and wavering, the main disease. What
you decide – fair, unfair; stay, go – doesn't matter.
Deciding is what gives you power. I can't change my mind
now.
ANTIGONE
You want power– (points to OEDIPUS) he's where it's
gathering! Your problem's not where you find yourself,
but where you aim your eyes.
(Rumbling thunder)
OEDIPUS
Help!
MOTHER
What do you need?
OEDIPUS
More time!
ANTIGONE
You have it.
OEDIPUS
Less pride!
FATHER & SON
That takes more time.
OEDIPUS
(sings:)
YOU DIE WITH EVERY MOMENT. (MINISTERS echo)
YOU DIE WHEN YOU FIND HUMILITY. (MINISTERS echo)

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OEDIPUS & ANTIGONE
AND YOU DIE WHEN YOU SAY GOOD-BYE
OEDIPUS & MINISTERS
TO YOUR BODY.
POLYNICES
AND I WILL DIE ON A BATTLEFIELD LIT BY THE MOON –
I SEE IT CLEAR AS DAY.
THAT'S NOT THE WIND HOWLING – IT'S ME.
FATHER!
I’M HEARING THE SOUND ALREADY
OF THE LAST SONG I SING!
I’M SCREAMING WITH BARELY A VOICE LEFT
IN THE SAME PAIN I’M NOW FEELING
WONDERING WHAT I WAS BORN TO DO
AND WHY I WAS BORN OF YOU
MY BLOOD POURS OUT LIKE THESE UNHEARD WORDS
AND ALL MY BROTHERS-IN-ARMS TURN
BUT THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES ME
HAS A SPEAR IN HIS EYE
AND I DIE.
THIS IS SOON, FATHER.
SO LET US MEET SOON
IN THE RED FAM’LY ROOM IN THE AFTERPLACE.
THERE INTRODUCE ME TO
YOUR FATHER WHO
YOU WERE FAR MEANER TO
THAN I EVER WAS TO YOU.
THEN IF WE BLOODSTAIN EACH OTHER
IN A GLORIOUS THREE-WAY EMBRACE.
WILL WE FIND PEACE THERE, FATHER?
OR STILL THE WAR
OF WHAT WE WERE
WITH WHO WE ARE?
ANTIGONE
One more hour!
POLYNICES
Fate, Antigone. All of us have it.
(starts to leave; ANTIGONE tackles him.)
ANTIGONE
Fate's what comes at you, not something rushing your

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will to death! Right now I’m your fate! Poly! You
haven't even kissed me. Ev'ry night you would, mother'd
make you, you'd say No! she'd say, "Yes!" and you'd hate
it. Until that one night –
POLYNICES
That was once!
ANTIGONE
It was just a kiss. Not so wrong, just like this –
(kisses him)
POLYNICES
What has he taught you? You are obscene!
ANTIGONE
You're obscene!
POLYNICES
You are!
ANTIGONE
You are! Gored flesh! Spilled blood! You love that
more than your own flesh and blood!
POLYNICES
When you hear of my death – say my name out loud. If I
can listen –
ANTIGONE
Your death is my death!
(ISMENE returns with food.)
ISMENE
Rushing off again, I see! May the red eyes of the
Furies fill your brain, and may you and your idiot
brother stick swords in each other at the same exact
time.
(POLYNICES exits.)
(SUDDEN, TRULY STARTLING THUNDERCLAP)
OEDIPUS
That sound – in me? Or around?! (hand over heart)

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49
(EVEN LOUDER THUNDERCLAP!)
PLEASE WASH THE DUST FROM MY FACE
AND MY FEET AND MY HANDS.
(ANTIGONE & ISMENE set about washing OEDIPUS.
Lightning and thunder.)
ANTIGONE
IF THIS THUNDER MEANS NOTHING
NO SOUND MAKES SENSE. (thunder)
BUT IF ALL THE MEN I KNOW ARE LEAVING –
WHAT SENSE IS PRESENCE?
OEDIPUS
MY CHILDREN, I WILL BE DEAD
BEFORE YOU HEAR THE FIRST DROP OF RAIN
LAND ON THIS HOLY GROUND.
ANTIGONE & ISMENE
HOW CAN YOU KNOW THAT?
OEDIPUS
MY LIFE HAS SERVED
TO TEACH ME ONE THING FOREVER:
HOW TO RECOGNIZE
THE TRUTH WHEN IT APPEARS.
I'M SHAKING INSIDE TO KNOW THIS,
BUT I KNOW THIS SURE AS MUSIC.
(loud marching volley of thunder;
enter the SPHINX:)
SPHINX
YOU CANNOT COME INTO THE KINGDOM
BECAUSE YOU NEVER ROSE ABOVE THINGDOM
IN YOUR DARK STUMBLINGS AS A HUMAN,
IN YOUR DARK STUMBLING TO BE A TRUE MAN.
SPHINX & OFFSTAGE CHORUS
YOU CANNOT COME INTO THE KINGDOM
NO NO NO NO
BECAUSE YOU NEVER ROSE ABOVE THINGDOM
UNH-UH!
IN YOUR DARK STUMBLINGS AS A HUMAN,
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
IN YOUR DARK STUMBLING TO BE A TRUE MAN.
(repeated, whisper-sung under:)

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OEDIPUS
(on all fours, like a baby:) Help! Please! Mama! Mama
(still crawling, “sees” father:) Father! King! Mother
– what is he – ?! (standing) Leave her alone!! ... Yes,
I killed him. Bastard deserved it. Now who’s king!
Have you ever seen such majesty as youth? (weakening,
getting a cane) Time – time – time... “Wake up,” says
Time. The king is dead.
SPHINX
(mortally threatening) No kingdom for you.
OEDIPUS
But I know a king!
SPHINX
No kingdom of light.
OEDIPUS
I know a king in darkness!
(Thunder and sudden darkness.)
OEDIPUS’s VOICE
Theseus!
(Lightning reveals in a flash THESEUS
entering, somewhat electrified.)
THESEUS
Oedipus!
(Darkness and rumbling thunder. The cover of
darkness in this scene will give the audience
a sense of the dark waking life of OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS is in a dream state, not on the rock,
but the others address his body still there.)
OEDIPUS
Are we sleeping?

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51
THESEUS
(lit by intermittent lightning flashes) I was, just now.
The length of this day conspired with the length of my
life, and I closed my eyes under a tree, and saw as you
do: bright sounds in the dark. Then –
(lightning and thunder)
– lightning split the tree. My hair stood up like a
field of little arms beseeching the sky.
ANTIGONE
It's not all down yet! (lightning reveals her smoothing
his hair down)
OEDIPUS
Who gives you orders!? (silence) Who gives the king
orders!!?
THESEUS
All I have is the power of reason given me at birth.
OEDIPUS
Who gave it to you?! Where is that vaunted giver! I
need him now!!
(LOUDEST THUNDER YET, THE SPHINX POUNDING A
HUGE DRUM CRAZILY. STILL DARKNESS LIT BY
LIGHTNING.)
MINISTERS
TOO MUCH THUNDER!
THE CRACKING HEAVENS WILL BREAK THE EARTH
WE WILL DIE!
WE WILL ALL DIE!
THE END IS HERE, THE END OF THE WORLD!
THE END IS HERE, THE END OF THE WORLD!
SPHINX
(seen only by OEDIPUS:) My riddle has evolved! Solve it
or be swallowed!
(LOUDEST THUNDER YET)
OEDIPUS
(back on the rock)
Why is there still so much shit all around me!?
ISMENE

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He's not himself any more!
OEDIPUS
What sphincter is trying to expel me from life!?
(DREAMLIGHT dawns again. The caretakers mime
actions of those on a deathwatch when the
dying person drifts into sleep. They share
water, massage, look at him sleeping.
OEDIPUS is in two worlds, the visible and
invisible – it’s hard to tell which is
which.)
SPHINX
WHAT IS BIGGER THAN A COUNTRY,
HAS MORE TERROR THAN WAR
AND CAN'T BE PRECISELY LOCATED?
OEDIPUS
BIGGER THAN A COUNTRY,
MORE TERROR THAN WAR
AND CAN'T BE PRECISELY LOCATED....
SPHINX
You have three counts. Morning!
OEDIPUS
Please, Reason! Where have you gone?
THESEUS
Where have you gone, King Oedipus?
SPHINX
Noon!
(LOUDEST THUNDER YET)
MINISTERS (comfort for OEDIPUS)
Peace, Oedipus –
How can inspiration
leave the day
which God makes up
as we go along?
SPHINX
Nnnn–

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OEDIPUS
(screams) NOOO!
ANTIGONE
Father!
(SHE puts her hand on his forehead. HE wakes
and takes her hand reverently.)
OEDIPUS
All my treasure here is in this hand.
ISMENE
My hand too!
OEDIPUS
Ismene!
ISMENE
This is too hard! (moves away)
OEDIPUS
Oh Antigone! I gave you too hard a road!
ANTIGONE
I loved our road.
OEDIPUS
ONLY YOUR LOVE MADE MY COMPANY GOOD.
YOUR BEAUTIFUL EYES (drifts off) ...
SPHINX
I smell dessert!
ANTIGONE
(waking him up)
MY BEAUTIFUL EYES?
OEDIPUS
– FILLED ME WITH TRUTH.
YOUR COURAGE, BEYOND ANY SOLDIER'S.
IF GOD ACCEPTS MY PRAYER –
MINISTERS : MAY GOD ACCEPT YOUR PRAYER.
OEDIPUS: IF GOD ACCEPTS MY PRAYER
YOU'LL FEEL FOR SOMEONE, TOO,

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THE GREATNESS OF HOW MUCH I CARE FOR YOU!
ANTIGONE: FATHER!
OEDIPUS: DAUGHTER! SWEET LOVE!
ANTIGONE: LEAVING ALREADY?
OEDIPUS: I'VE LEARNED WHAT I CAME FOR:
TO ACCESS YOUR PRESENCE.
ANTIGONE & OEDIPUS: I'VE LEARNED WHAT I CAME FOR:
TO ACCESS YOUR PRESENCE.
ANTIGONE
I WILL MISS YOU MORE THAN YOU MISS LIGHT!
WHO WILL UNDERSTAND ME AS CLEARLY, AS TRULY?
WHO WILL TURN MY TALKING ENJOYABLE?
WHO WILL COMFORT ME
WHEN THE ONLY ONE WHO COMFORTS ME IS GONE?
ANTIGONE & OEDIPUS
OUR TWO HEARTS, BREAKING INTO ONE:
EMPTYING YOURS, FILLING MINE.
CALL IT AWFUL, CALL IT AWESOME, HUMAN, DIVINE –
ALL IT IS IS LOVE FOR YOU CRASHING NOW INTO TIME.
TIME – OUR TIME.
OEDIPUS: SWEET SHORES!
ANTIGONE: DEADLY SHOALS!
ANTIGONE & OEDIPUS
YOU ARE MY EV'RYONE – NEVER BEEN ANYONE
LIKE YOU AND NEVER WILL BE.
(OEDIPUS begins breathing as if he’s in
labor.)
DAUGHTER
Oedipus!
ANTIGONE
His lungs are in labor.
MOTHER
He’s giving birth to a new self.
(OEDIPUS groans in labor pain.
ANTIGONE calms him; HE sleeps on, moaning
occasionally. Comforting embraces and
gestures among his caretakers, as:)

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F: BETTER NOT TO’VE BEEN BORN,
S: OR BETTER TO’VE DIED AS A CHILD
F&S: THAN TO SUFFER AS MUCH AS MOST PEOPLE DO.
D: ARE YOU THESE DAYS ONE OF THE LUCKY FEW
WHOSE DAYS DO NOT GO HAND IN HAND WITH
SORROW?
M: YOU DON'T LOSE HEART
AT HOW MUCH WORK THERE SEEMS TO BE
FOR SUCH LITTLE REWARD?
F&S: STILL, YOU KNOW, WE'RE JUST A STONE'S THROW
FROM POVERTY OR AGONY OR WAR.
AND WHO'S SURE OF A FAR-OFF OR EASY DEATH?
YOUNG OR OLD, WE'LL LOSE CONTROL
OVER BODY AND BREATH – WHAT WILL WE HAVE
LEFT?
F, S &D: NO MORE WAR, AT LEAST.
M: NO MORE BEING POOR,
MINISTERS: AND NO MORE WISHING YOU HAD NEVER BEEN BORN.
AND SUDDENLY THOSE YOU LOVE DISAPPEAR
S: AND YOU ARE HERE WITHOUT THEM.
MINISTERS: OEDIPUS IS IN THE BONES OF ALL OF US.
HE CALLS TO US:
OED: (revelation:)
I TOO AM AN ISLAND FORMING IN THE OCEAN,
CARVED ON ALL SIDES BY ENDLESS COMMOTION
OF WAVE AND WIND AND NUMBING ISOLATION!
MINISTERS: BE WARM WITH YOUR FRIENDS
AS LONG AS YOU CAN,
F&S: AND IN TIMES OF DARKNESS, TELL YOURSELF
LIGHTLY:
THESE DAYS OF PAIN AND COMPLAINING
AND STRUGGLE AND BARRENNESS
MAY END UP ONE DAY THE HAPPIEST
YOU CAN REMEMBER.
MINISTERS: FROM ONE END OF LIFE TO THE OTHER:
MINISTERS & SPHINX
MORNING, NOON, AND – NNN–
MIN & SPH: NIGHT –
OEDIPUS: NO! I KNOW THE ANSWER!
MINISTERS & SPHINX
DEATH!

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OEDIPUS
NO!
DEATH IS NOT THE ANSWER!
THOUGH IT IS BIGGER THAN ANY COUNTRY
AND HAS MORE TERROR THAN WAR,
DEATH
CAN BE LOCATED
DEEP IN THE ANSWER.
OEDIPUS & MINISTERS
WHAT THEN IS MORE VAST THAN EV'RY LAST COUNTRY,
WHAT HAS MORE TERROR AND HORROR THAN WAR,
AND CANNOT BE PRECISELY MAPPED OR MEASURED?
OEDIPUS
THE INDIVIDUAL!
EACH AND EV'RY SOUL,
EACH PERSON,
EV'RY HUMAN.
WHO ELSE CAN SUFFER MORE ALONE
OR BE ENDLESSLY GRATEFUL
FOR LOVE?
SPHINX
You are the luckiest man in the world.
OEDIPUS
If I am, who isn't?
MINISTERS: FROM ONE END OF LIFE TO THE OTHER:
MINISTERS & SPHINX (SPHINX fading away)
MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT!
F&S: DEATH IS OUR SISTER AND BROTHER!
MINISTERS: DO YOU WANT MORE LIFE –
F: OR LESS?
MINISTERS: WHAT IS THIS YOU WANT MORE OR LESS OF?
S: OR IS YOUR AMEN CONTINUOUS?
DO YOU FINALLY WANT ONLY WHAT IS COMING TO
YOU?
(It starts to rain, which
crescendos with the following:)

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OEDIPUS: (rising, dancing) I see!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: – through eyes that see in dreams!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: The stars! Our senses!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: Stop trembling, little lights!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: My spine branches to eternity!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: Drowning now!
MINISTERS: AMEN!
OEDIPUS: Ocean of light!
MINISTERS: A – A –
OEDIPUS: (sings:) RADIANT MOTHER!
MINISTERS: – MEN!
(Blinding lightning.
BLACKOUT.
The sound of rain, fading to silence.)
END