Play #21

Dancing the Voice Silent

__________________________

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
 The figure of a young woman in shadow. This
is Salome.

Salome dances, slow, somewhat sensual, but not

over the top. Music is understated.

A woman, Herodias appears to the side of the

stage.

HERODIAS
The dance of a young woman, meant to please and older man. To relax him. To comfort
him. To lure him. A young woman dances at the court of a king, the king her step-father.
The occasion, a public proceeding, where, upon completion of the dance, the king would
most likely seek to prove his power by promising a gift to the young woman, not for her
benefit, but to show everyone in attendance his own might and majesty. But she, she
dances not for him. Not for him.

Music stops, lights shift. Herodias and Salome

are gone.

A man, John, stands far away.

JOHN
You know me. You know that I am John. The same John who has lived in these woods
since I left my father’s house. Some have called me a madman, and by my life I have
done nothing to prove them wrong, save to speak only the truth. I am the voice in the
wilderness who has spoken nothing but the truth. I spoke to you of heaven and earth and
of the time when the God of Heaven made earth his home. With these hands I baptized
believers and saints, and yes the son of God. You can see that I have nothing on this
earth, and so have nothing to lose when I speak the truth to you now.
(beat)
This kingdom shall not prosper, as long as the wife of the king’s brother, still living, is
treated as the king’s own wife. Herodias, wife of Philip, shares the bed of the king,
Herod, Philip’s brother. Man and wife are one flesh, as are brother and brother. The
king takes his own flesh into his chamber, calls his brother’s flesh his wife, and so
poison’s his own kingdom, his own land, and it’s people. And his people say nothing?
Are we to accept this curse as our queen - the glory of our land?

Salome enters toward the front of the stage, she

sits on the floor. Perhaps she plays a childish
game - with a beaded necklace.
 2.

Herodias enters again, far from John, but

noticing him.

JOHN
It is this woman, Herodias, who lives in the palace as our queen, who brings upon us all
the judgment of the heavens, and the wrath of the Lord. She has forsaken the house of
her husband Philip, and left it to stand as queen, and, fool that Herod is, he has allowed it.
Herod! Send away Herodias! And save our nation from the anger of the most high!

Lights go down on John.

HERODIAS
Salome.
(Salome doesn’t notice)
Daughter.

SALOME
Mother.

HERODIAS
What are you doing?

SALOME
I am admiring this necklace.

HERODIAS
What necklace is that?

SALOME
You don’t remember?

HERODIAS
I have many necklaces. Too many to recall each one. Is that one of mine?

SALOME
No, mother. It is mine.

HERODIAS
Yours? Where did you get it?

SALOME
It was a gift.

HERODIAS
Some young man, looking to court the daughter of the queen.
 3.

SALOME
No. It was your husband.

HERODIAS
Your father.

SALOME
He is not my father.

HERODIAS
He is.

SALOME
He told me he wasn’t. My father is Philip.

HERODIAS
When did he tell you this?

SALOME
When he gave me this necklace. At the winter celebration.

HERODIAS
That evening, when you interrupted the musicians.

SALOME
I didn’t interrupt them. I was just dancing along with them.

HERODIAS
And Herod was... so taken.

SALOME
I don’t know. I was just dancing.

HERODIAS
He liked it enough to give you that necklace.

SALOME
I suppose.

A moment.

HERODIAS
Have you heard...

SALOME
Heard what?
 4.

HERODIAS
The... voice in the wilderness?

SALOME
What do you mean?

HERODIAS
There’s a man named John, who lives in the wilderness. He’s said things. Bad things.
About your mother and fath-- and her husband, the king.

SALOME
I never leave the palace.

HERODIAS
Has anyone told you about what he’s said?

SALOME
No one has told me.

HERODIAS
Ah.

SALOME
But I hear the servants talk about him.
(beat)
They say...

HERODIAS
What?

SALOME
That the reason our kingdom suffers, is because of you.

HERODIAS
That is what he says.

SALOME
Is it true?

HERODIAS
My dear... the clear stream is high in the mountains, running over clean stones. It has not
yet passed the turns, the depths, the dirt, the obstructions. The longer the river, the darker
the water.

SALOME
What?
 5.

HERODIAS
I mean, my dear, that the world for the young, the innocent, the ones who do not yet
understand the complexities of the world, of love, and nations, and how one must live
with others... when one doesn’t understand these things, the world is simple.

SALOME
Am I... simple?

HERODIAS
In the best ways, my love. You. And the man in the wilderness. You are both simple.
In the ways that I wish I could be simple.

Herodias is behind Salome.

HERODIAS
Come, my daughter. Will you dance again? For the king?

SALOME
If I like the music.

HERODIAS
Any music you like.

Music begins. Salome smiles.

Herodias helps her up.

HERODIAS
Dance my daughter. Dance for your king.

Salome dances. Slightly different from before.

But still in shadow.

HERODIAS
Her body sways in time. Sliding through the room, thick with sound, cutting waves of
rich scented air, as she makes manifest the abstract emotion of song. The king, a man,
intoxicated by rhythm, drunk with sight, watches and dreams of his own youth, and lives
again the days of desire, and passion, long since lost to long sore days of aching. And he
imagines. He imagines he is still that young buck, capable of leaping. Fooling himself,
that he is still the same.

Salome freezes.
 6.

HERODIAS
Then he wakes. And its startled to find he is laid bare. Conned and ridiculous. And
scrambling, to cover his naked foolishness, he unwisely wields his only remaining
strength. His power. As if it were his own, and not granted him by god and nature over
time. He speaks with the voice of years, that he will grant to this young girl, anything she
wants. Anything she wants up to half his kingdom. A fee far greater than the vapor
granted him. And that’s when I have it. I tell Salome what she should ask.

Salome is still frozen in the pose, now drops it.

SALOME
Give me the head of John, that voice in the wilderness. And bring it on a silver serving
tray.

A serving tray appears.

HERODIAS
And that is how a voice in the wilderness... is silenced.

Herodias goes and takes off the lid.

John’s head is there.

Herodias exits with the lid.

Music rises.

Salome dances.

Until the lights fade to black.