Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Write in the HISTORICAL genre (05/03/07)
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TITLE: Act VI, Scene IV: The Fall from Eden | Previous Challenge Entry
By TJ Nickel
05/08/07 -
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Act VI, Scene IV
The Fall from Eden
* * * * * * * * * *
Adam stands gazing off stage into the audience with a soft breeze on him. The stage is full of natural paths, shrubs, and smaller trees bearing fruit (apple, coconut, etc.). Two giant trees of gold (trunk, leaves, and fruit) stand behind the stage, towering their presence over the action – only their tops can be seen as the smaller trees in bulk set the back curtain. A woman SCREAMS, the wind kicks up a dust storm towards Adam, forcing him to reverse his stance in protection. The woman, Eve, races through the backdrop of trees towards him, still screaming with a serpent wrapped around her forearm. Eve approaches him, staggering in agony and losing her senses.
* * * * * * * * * *
EVE: Adam! Take this from me!
She falls into Adam. Catching her, he lays her onto her back and begins prying the serpent from her arm. He tosses the serpent into a bush. The dust storm stops. In her hand is revealed a golden fruit, half eaten.
ADAM: Oh, Eve.
EVE: Adam… (deep breath of agony) …save me.
Eve gasps her last breath and dies before him. Dropping his head in prayer, as tears swell, the serpent comes from behind him.
SERPENT: She hath died. ‘It is finished.’*
ADAM: (turning to face his foe) What is this you have done to my bride? Do you not know I am to multiply with her? God will curse you.
SERPENT: It is thou who art cursed. Thy bride dead, thy kind a failure, surely God will not make thee another partner – for she was from thee, made perfect in image, and it shall be realized all a mistake.
ADAM: You do not know me, serpent.
SERPENT: I know thee well. (slithers closer) I know thee now as a prisoner in isolation, a defeated species, corrupted and destined for loneliness. (hissing, he is now upright before Adam, eye to eye) Yet, take heart, dear Adam, I have plans for thee.
ADAM: What plans shall be greater than our God’s?
SERPENT: Plans that do not fail, plans of undoing. Thou see’est my success in Eve. ‘Come, follow me.’*
ADAM: Blasphemer! You do not know me. I know the things you speak.
The serpent domestically slithers onto Adam’s arms; shyly, keeping his head low, then begins coiling around him without constricting.
SERPENT: Who art thou to know these things?
ADAM: You speak my words, and not your own!
The serpent unconsciously restricts, but quickly relents and calms. Adam winces momentarily.
SERPENT: Thou art he. (He comes eye to eye, still wrapped upon Adam as he surely was wrapped around Eve earlier.) All the more reason. Thou hath now seen my success. This cannot be undone. ‘It is finished.’*
ADAM: (Grabbing the serpent by the neck) You speak truth as lies, serpent. It is not yet the end of this day, and I will speak the plan’s completeness at its end.
With his free hand, Adam picks the fruit from Eve’s dead hand and holds it by the serpent.
ADAM: ‘Behold, I make all things new.’*
After a tearful look to his dead bride, Adam returns his intentions to the serpent around him. He places the fruit into his mouth and eats of it.
ADAM: Here your reign begins. In your greatest hour, it shall end.
The serpent leaps at Adam to rip the fruit from his hand, biting into him. He coils his body around Adam’s neck and constricts, attempting to prevent the digestion. Adam overcomes, swallows the poisonous bite, and falls atop of Eve with the serpent still attached.
ADAM: (Choking, and dying as Eve had) I’m coming for you, my Bride.
Adam’s eyes close, the serpent releases his bite and constriction, and slithers over their bodies. He stands tall, hissing.
BLACK CURTAIN.
Author’s note: The syntax of “ ‘verse’.* “ is for exact Scriptural references to words spoken by Jesus in the New Testament: John 19:30 (NIV), Matthew 4:19 (NIV), and Revelation 21:5 (KJV).
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