Play #7

Innocents

__________________________

A short play written for

the 2018
31 Plays in 31 Days
Challenge

By Joseph Frost

Contact:
Joseph Frost
4550 Normandy Dr
Jackson, MS 39206
FrostJosephD@gmail.com
 A man, Herod.

The stage is dimly lit.

HEROD
Innocents.
(beat)
I don’t believe anyone knows what it means to be an innocent.

A woman enters.

WOMAN
Tell me.

HEROD
Tell you?

WOMAN
What does being an innocent mean?

HEROD
It’s supposed to mean... a child.

WOMAN
A child?

HEROD
One who is too young to know... To understand... what it means to be... guilty.

WOMAN
Innocent until guilty.

HEROD
But I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t know if anyone knows.

WOMAN
Do you believe it isn’t?

HEROD
I know... I know that I was not born innocent.

Another woman, Mother, appears with a baby.

 2.

MOTHER
Shhh.. Shhh, now.

HEROD
I was not a son of this land. A child descended from a line borne by a bastard son,
banished from his own father’s household. But in the land of that father, I was raised to
behave as a true descendant.

The Mother is firm.

MOTHER
Hush, I said. HUSH!

WOMAN
But you weren’t.

HEROD
I was not.

WOMAN
Your birth made you a liar.

Mother exits with the baby.

HEROD
Yes.
(beat)
My father raised me strictly.

Father enters, with a whipping rod. He whips

the chair.

WOMAN
Strictly.

HEROD
Preparing me for my future.

Father leaves.

WOMAN
Your future. Leadership.

HEROD
Leadership.
 3.

Roman enters.

WOMAN
Appointed to governorship by an invading power.

Roman hands Herod a scepter.

HEROD
Yes. Rome.
(beat)
I was appointed as King over the region. Far from the seat of power, and expected to
keep strict order, as if the Emperor sat above my shoulder.

WOMAN
But the region would not be so easy to rule.

HEROD
I took the daughter of a local ruler as a bride. To strengthen my claim as King.

Wife enters.

WOMAN
You were already married.

HEROD
I was. But I banished her, and her son.

WOMAN
Your son.

HEROD
Ours. Yes. I banished them both. To keep the peace.

Wife leaves.

WOMAN
It didn’t.

HEROD
No. It led to a series of tactics to consolidate power and keep enemies at bay.

WOMAN
Including your own family.
(beat)
You executed members of your own family. Your wife.
 4.

(beat)
What had she done, again?

HEROD
She was a beautiful woman.

WOMAN
You had her executed for beauty?

HEROD
Her beauty attracted my enemies.

WOMAN
But she loved you.

HEROD
She could not be trusted.

WOMAN
She betrayed you.

HEROD
She would have. Eventually.

WOMAN
Your brothers?

HEROD
Jealous of my authority.

WOMAN
Their sons.

HEROD
Eyes filled with revenge.

WOMAN
So they were all...

HEROD
Removed.

WOMAN
Was there word of rebellion?
 5.

HEROD
There were warnings. Signs. Rumors. Of a coming king.

WOMAN
The men from the east.

HEROD
Arrived on my doorstep. Expecting to find a newborn destined to carry the weight of the
crown. An anointed one. Whose birth was signified by a star in the sky.

WOMAN
You executed them?

HEROD
No. I let them go.

WOMAN
Go where.

HEROD
They went on to a village. Small village in the desert.
(beat)
I asked them to come back and tell me if they found him.

WOMAN
Why?

HEROD
So... so I could go and worship this new king...

WOMAN
Did they? Return?

HEROD
No. They did not.
(beat)
That’s when it happened.

Upstage, the shadows of a series of people,

carrying babies.

WOMAN
You demanded the boys rounded up.

HEROD
Under the age of two.
 6.

WOMAN
And what was to happen to them.

HEROD
I was threatened. A child born, anointed as king. In my kingdom.

WOMAN
What was to happen to them.

HEROD
The threat had to be removed.

WOMAN
What was to happen.

In the shadows, the adult figures begin to slowly

throw down the babies.

HEROD
They called it...
(beat)
The Massacre of the Innocents.
(beat)
Innocents.

The backlight goes away.

WOMAN
And were they. Innocent.

HEROD
Innocent.
(beat)
I don’t believe anyone knows what it means... to be an innocent.

The woman exits.

Herod is alone.

The lights go down.

End.