The Seduction of Almighty God

Howard Barker

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781849433167
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Set at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the English Reformation, The Seduction of Almighty God describes the spiritual ascendancy of an adolescent priest and the apalling discovery that he possesses the power of life and death over others, both religious and secular. Victimised by his brethren and eventually murdered by his female followers, the youth Loftus argues himself into the belief that God, weary of his own impotence, has devolved His powers upon him... Barker's interest in the Christian faith and the phenomenon of prayer finds expression in a number of his works, from The Last Supper and Two Skulls to the mass of parables that constitutes The Ecstatic Bible.

The Exordium

A vast stone floor. A youth waits.

Scene 1

A figure holding an umbrella emerges from the obscurity. He observes the youth from a distance. A massive bell tolls, its sonority filling the stage. It ceases.

RAGMAN: Still here?

How utterly contemptible to wait so patiently when it must have been perfectly obvious you had been forgotten perhaps you have no self-esteem some don’t some crawl over the earth not daring to lift their eyes to meet the withering regard of others Still here?

There comes a point surely when patience ceases to be experienced as virtue even by him who possesses it in such abundance and is revealed instead as weakness a stain on the character you are perhaps not patient at all but burdened with a servile disposition possibly so craven you entertain the sordid hope we will admire you Still here?

Admire you for what I watched you as I ate my breakfast masticating slowly each mouthful forty times before I swallowed swirling my drink in the glass scratching yawning idly manoeuvring the cutlery and I thought I uttered I said out loud the youth is bullock-brained the youth is trough-intelligent ordure not blood travels down his veins and it was raining you looked absurd a sheep’s abortion washed into a drain Still here?

(RAGMAN lowers his umbrella. He observes the youth intently. The youth half-smiles, biting his lip.)

LOFTUS: This testing of me

RAGMAN: Testing?

LOFTUS: This ordeal by abuse

RAGMAN: Abuse?

I am describing you

You repudiate the description it does not follow the description is abuse

Oh

Oh

I’m tired

Tired of my own brain

GO AWAY THERE’S NOTHING FOR YOU HERE

(He turns to go.)

LOFTUS: SHELTER MY FAITH

(RAGMAN stops.)

Or does it embarrass you?

(RAGMAN ponders.)

Don’t be embarrassed by my faith

(Pause. RAGMAN turns at last.)

RAGMAN: You are a prig

And a poseur

And all you want’s a room

(Pause. LOFTUS is unflinching.)

LOFTUS: The same was said of Christ

And yes I want a room

RAGMAN: A room for what?

LOFTUS: To argue with the angels in

RAGMAN: ARGUE WITH THE ANGELS IN YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE

LOFTUS: This is my father’s house

RAGMAN: YOUR DAD’S

YOUR DAD’S I MEAN

LOFTUS: He has too many children

RAGMAN: Is that so?

LOFTUS: And the noise inhibits contemplation

RAGMAN: Too bad

LOFTUS: Not only the noise

The noise I think I might reach an accommodation with

But they mock my faith

(Pause. LOFTUS looks intently at RAGMAN... A monk on a bicycle makes a leisurely, circuitous journey over the stage. He disappears into the obscurity...)

RAGMAN: Originally we slept in dormitories

Twenty

Thirty to a room

(Pause.)

If sleep’s the word

And every other hour prayers

Cold floor

The winter reaching underneath the door

And knees Imagine it

Knees are not made to crouch so

Bone’s not stone

Four in the morning

February

Damp

Oh

(RAGMAN shakes his head. His eyes remain fixed on LOFTUS.)

LOFTUS: What are knees made for, then?

(Pause.)

RAGMAN: You’re ill

(Pause.)

LOFTUS: I don’t feel ill

RAGMAN: You don’t feel it

No

It’s not that sort of illness

(Pause.)

LOFTUS: It’s an illness I can’t feel?

(Pause.)

RAGMAN: Par...