Passion Play (TCG Edition)

Sarah Ruhl

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781559363488
• eBook ISBN: 9781559366649
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

Named one of the "Ten Best Plays of 2008" by The New Yorker

“Sarah Ruhl’s bold, inventive, and ironic triptych [is] a meditation on devotion and its appropriation by the state. . . . Ruhl is an original; a storyteller with a fine mind evolving her own theatrical idiom.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker

“It’s a different kind of morality play . . . an often wondrous work . . . with [Ruhl’s] own special lyrical blend of poetry, humor and grace.”—Frank Rizzo, Variety

Passion Play is Sarah Ruhl’s “biggest, most ambitious effort yet” (The New York Times), a three-and-a-half hour intimate epic, plunging the depths of the timely intersection of politics and religion. Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergua, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagan’s presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background, as Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, and Reagan each appear, played by a single commanding actor.

Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Eurydice, and The Clean House, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been widely produced both throughout the country and internationally, and she is the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

ACT TWO

ONE: PILATE COMES HOME

P hesitates outside a door.
Mary 1 enters.

MARY 1

You ready to come in?

P

Almost.
Can’t believe it’s you.
Let me just—

He traces her cheek.

Is it you?

MARY 1

It’s me, honey.

She traces his cheek.
He winces.

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P

Oh—

MARY 1

What did I—?

P

Don’t touch me yet, okay.

MARY 1

Okay. Why don’t you touch me?

He touches her hands.

P

(To the audience) She is a deer wrapped in brown velvet. She is the air breathing inside the body of a violin.

MARY 1

What?

P

Nothing.
Sorry.
I’m not being myself, am I?

You know that funny phrase—what is it—remember me to your mother. I need you to remember me—to myself. Can you—?

MARY 1

Think so.

Here we go—I’m remembering you to yourself.

She touches his forehead.
He winces.
Violet enters.

VIOLET

Daddy!

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P

Violet!
The pictures of you were pretty.
But not half so pretty as you.

VIOLET

I drew you a picture of a bird.

She hands it to him.

P

Wow! How is it you can draw such a good bird, only three years old?

VIOLET

I’m good at drawing birds.

P

That’s the best bird I ever saw. It’s so good I bet it even flies.

He flies the bird picture around the room.
He picks up Violet and flies her around the room.

VIOLET

(Laughing) Put me down!

P flies crazier.

Put me down! I’m scared!

MARY 1

You’re scaring her, honey.

P puts her down.

P

I didn’t scare you, honey, did I? We ’re just playing bird.

VIOLET

I know.

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MARY 1

Why don’t we all go to sleep. It ’s been a long day.

P

I’ll sleep right here, just outside the door. You two call me if you need anything.

MARY 1

What? Why, honey?

P

So I can hear.

MARY 1

Hear what?

P

If anyone’s coming.

MARY 1

No one’s coming.

P

Not right now. But when we ’re sleeping. When you sleep outside you can hear the leaves if anyone’s coming. I want to protect you. And Violet.

MARY 1

I know, honey. But it’s safe here. It’s South Dakota. Remember?

VIOLET

Why is Daddy sleeping outside?

P

To protect you from bad people.

VIOLET

Are there bad people tonight?

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P

There are always bad people.

Mary 1 gives P a blanket.

Good night.
Sleep with the angels, Violet.

VIOLET

What’s that mean?

P

Sweet dreams.

Mary 1 and Violet exit.

P curls up in his blanket.
He looks at the sky.
The sky is red.
He sits up.

(To himself )
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

The chorus enters with wind machines
and Elizabethan boats.

They’re coming through the fog to the shore, the tall ships, and I’m making sure they get here safe . . . real safe . . . I feel a gale of wind coming from the north but I counter it with a gale from the south . . . I pour wind into their sails, and it’s important they get here by morning . . .

P steers the boats through the wind, conducting.
Violet enters.

You should be sleeping.

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VIOLET

You should be sleeping.
Why are there boats in the sky?

P

You can see them?

VIOLET

Ye...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• CHARACTERS
• NOTES ON CASTING
• ACT ONE
• ACT TWO
• APPENDIX
• SONGS
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright Page