Peace Child / Alpha Script Book

edited byDavid Woollcombe

1.

P EACE C HILD – A LPHA O MEGA

– a conversation, with music, about the prospects for the global family –

INTRODUCTION: Every generation faces challenges. The challenges facing the generation currently passing through our schools are different, and maybe more daunting than those faced by any previous generation:

• fissures in the growth-based market systems that have sustained and expanded prosperity around the world;

• peak and decline in the fossil fuel resources that have powered the engines of that growth;

• expanding populations in the developing world;

• a widening gap between rich and poor;

• rising military expenditures preparing for wars which we cannot afford and which no one can win.

And over-arching it all, the spectre of global warming which threatens to change the geography of the planet and its weather systems, inundate coastal areas, melt the mountain ice-caps and put half the human family on the move in search of fresh drinking water.

What’s a global family to do? The answer of Peace Child – Alpha Omega is to start a conversation about it: at least, get people thinking about the challenges. Framed by David Gordon’s magisterial songs, Peace Child - Alpha Omega opens the door to introduce older people to the thoughts, the fears, the hopes and the solutions of young people who will be alive when the consequences of these challenges will have to be confronted. The 90-minute performance, followed by a Question Time, shines the spotlight on the young members of the global family and asks: what kind of world do you want to be living when you reach your 60s and 70s? Along the way, this conversation has to take in discussions about the meaning of life, love and the pursuit of happiness. And does faith – a belief in God – help at all?

Join the conversation – and let your voice be heard!

The Script Book: Peace Child – Alpha Omega was first produced by artists young and old from the UK, Estonia and Turkey in 2010. In this book, you can trace the development of the different story ideas from the original Discussion Outline – created in January 2009, through various drafts to the final performance scripts used in each country. They are very different – and give a taste of the kinds of conversations that you might get into with your cast should you choose to produce the musical. The Script Book is designed to be used in association with the Lesson Plans – which enable students of all ages to consider the larger questions raised by the songs. All the music, the scripts and the story are ideas are your’s to use to explore these large questions. The purpose of Peace Child International is empowerment: our goal in challenging you to start this conversation is to empower you to explore the innermost feelings of those around you. Good luck – and enjoy the journey!

Peace Child - Alpha Omega

Original Discussion Outline –

1. Intro – swirling mists – the big bang! Narrator reads the Creation story from the Bible and/or the Koran – into “I WHO AM I?”

• Narrator introduces the three young members of the cast – and sets the scene:

• 250 million years on from the Big Bang – how are we all doing? Have we managed to work out the meaning of life? “Who are we? Why are we here?” The young people are silent. What do the great faiths of the world have to tell us? They discuss the mundane processes of lifesurely there’s more to it than that? Small child lists things which are important in his life. Narrator reads a bit of scripture – something about love. (1 Corinthians XIII ??)

2. “Dreamer” The Narrator reads out of the song – more about life being about loving each other, only connect – the need to love and be loved: asks the audience – how many of you have been in love – had friends; spouses – partners! So - why are we so divided? Race vs. race; Haves vs. have-nots. Young vs. old People race through life, busy, busy, busy – abandoning the hopes and dreams of their youth as they concentrate on becoming ever-more successful humanhavings or human-doings than human-beings.

3. “Child for a Day” – Split it between the young kids singing “We are the children” – and the adults singing “We are the men ” The Narrator insists that there is no generation gap – inside I feel as young as you do! The teen-agers don’t agree. They talk about agism: what has faith got to say to youth? What has youth got to say to elders? But the youth get angry – through history, adults have controlled youth – sent them to school, sent them to the fields to work, to the street to beg – or, worst of all, to fight and die in their Wars. That silences him – images of War and child soldiers play on the screen as the choir sing –

4. “WAR” - discussion of ethics of war – can a person of faith ever be allowed by their faith to kill another person? Talk of religious wars of the past – and the terrorism of the present. Look at the violence in the bible – starting with the murder of Abel by Cain – and Abraham all set to kill Isaac. How can we prevent faith from further separating people and breeding violence? “Which is God’s favorite religion?” asks the child. This leads into a discussion that leads to the singing of the Lord’s Prayer, the Muslim Call to Prayer and a Jewish prayer – as a single song.

5. “Lord’s Prayers” – see! Our faiths are connected – our prophets teach the same things – faith can connect us, just as music can! Listen!

6. Music is the 7th Wonder of the World! - a medley of Islamic / Christian / Jewish / Hindi and Buddhist prayers – perhaps with Morning has broken being the Christian component)– all our traditions, all our cultures can be linked in a symphony of sound and love. A glorious Smörgåsbord of different sounds, sights, tastes, smells, fashions and traditions each of which has the power to excite and enrich us – if we let them! How boring it would be to liquidize them into a single mono-culture – with all the fizz of variety drained out of them.

• Narrator reads some of Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech or Barack Obama’s ‘Dreams of my Father’ - examples of one man’s vision of how ethnicities can be connected and celebrated;

7. “I have a vision!” – are we really over it? The youth think we are – but the Narrator might ask the audience if they think that prejudice is dead and buried in the 21st century? So what else divides us? Money – or the lack of it: Poverty! Greed! Power! – it is destroying the world with global warming and environmental destruction. It is likely to take us all down with it as the world ‘shakes off it’s fleas’. Teen-agers and the little kid discuss the mess the planet that their parents are passing on to them. They succeed in really depressing themselves:

8. “WORLD!” – given the desperate challenges we face – catastrophic climate change, overpopulation, resource depletion – the likelihood of mass famine, coastal flooding, huge displacement of peoples this century and massively increased poverty - what answers, if any, can faith provide? Narrator reads out some really good quotes from people of different faiths. The teenagers respond with some catchy limericks – ditties that relate to the statements of faith –leading back to the idea that: people created these problems. People must solve them!

9. “SUPERMAN!” – What if God doesn’t exist? Introduce a discussion of the humanist perspective: are there Supermen or Superwomen around who can persuade the rest of us to accept the solutions that science undoubtedly has to the problems we face? Should we put our faith in them, rather than an unseen God? Or is that exactly the kind of pride that got us into these problems in the first place? The Narrator explains the concept of free will: every religion encourages human creativity. Like the humanists, people of faith do not expect a Deus ex Machina to descend and solve the problems for us. We have to be inventive:

10. “INVENTIONS!” – discuss the techno-fixes; get excited about the different ways that we can invent our way out of our current climate change, food and energy crises. But – problems, snafus always raise their ugly heads short-circuiting the best ideas. It does all lead us back to Faith.

11. “Father in the Sky!” – If you have faith – if you have certainty, even if it is that there is no God –or whether your path is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or any other faith – you have a Father in the Sky to care for you – a framework of faith to help you navigate your way through life. You believe!

12. “I BELIEVE!” That – perhaps – is why humanity’s brief interlude on this planet is so interesting: unlike any other creature – we live our lives through faith – through values. But could this be our undoing?? The planet survived for millions of years without us and now, here we are doing our best to destroy us, is it any wonder that its environment will grow sour and polluted and eventually poison us, or flood us fresh out of living space and food? “Not if we stick to those values and really live by them,” says the boy – looking up from a pile of books he has around him. “Trouble is, most of us have forgotten those values – if we were ever taught them in the first place. So – I’ve listened to all you’ve said, all the scriptures and stuff you’ve read – and it seems to me that most of what the prophets and the world’s great thinkers have been saying throughout history is pretty similar… Listen: …. He sings -

13. “The LAWS” The audience are encouraged to join in with the Chorus. Final statements from each of the characters. The Narrator reads a final piece from Scripture.

14. “Alpha to Omega!” – and close

1. I WHO AM I

I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me Abandoned me to the unknown?

We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here?

We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me

Abandoned me to the unknown?

I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

II. Dreamer

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Soloist (1) – you are my friend

We’ll always be together

Though this world may end

Where-ever I go – I’ll watch over you Where-ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Man – you are my friend

I’ll always be beside you

Until the end

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

Woman my woman, lady my friend

We’ll be together until the end

III. Child for a Day

I was a child who ran full of laughter

I was a child who lived for a day

My eyes full of sunshine

My heart full of smiles

I was a child for a day.

We were the children who ran in the morning

We were the children who laughed at the sun

Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

We are the men who worry of nothing

We are the men who speak without aim

Who listen to no one yet speak of their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

IV. WAR

We'll fight our way to distant hills, A bloody battle have

We'll raise our sword and kill them all]

We'll raise our countries flag!

We'll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We'll kill our women, children too, Kill them all until we're through Kill them all until we're through.

God save our land, long live our flag, On to the war we go - praise to our dead

But who says we're right, who says we're wrong Honour and pride - to this we belong!

Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us from what we do!

Our world is through!

But who can save us! But who can save us?

But who can save us from what we do?

God - where are you?

V. The Lord’s Prayers

Our Father – which art in heaven

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewHallowed be thy name

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewThy Kingdom Come – Thy Will be done

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewOn Earth – as it is in Heaven

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewGive us our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewAs we forgive them, that trespass against us

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewAnd lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from all evil

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewFor thine is the Kingdom

The Power and the Glory

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in HebrewFor ever more –

- line from the Koran in Arabic and one from the Torah in Hebrew -

Yes - Thine is the Kingdom

The Power and the Glory

For ever and ever – AMEN!

VI. Music is the 7th Wonder of the World

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

And we are going to sing, sing, sing

We are going to sing, sing, sing

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

And we are going to sing, sing, sing

What do you say when you fall in love

Let’s strike a chord to the tune of love

Where do you go when you’re down and out

Just listen to the music play... ah!

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

And we are going to sing, sing

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Aah

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

VII. I have a vision

I have a vision, I have a dream I have the answer or so it seems.

Don't you see the truth, to fight is not right, We shall have our rainbow, we will have our sunlight If we unite!

There's a way you see, where no one gets hurt

There's a way with love if you try!

There is hope and faith to keep you alive In your darkest day, just pray!

Reach out with love, gather all your courage,

Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

Martin Luther King had a vision! He had a dream He had the answer, or so it seemed!

He knew the truth - to fight is not right We can have our rainbow, we can have the sunlight! We must unite!

A new world, A new light!

A new world, A new light!

A new hope! A new light -

Reach out with love, gather all your courage,

Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

I have a vision!

VIII. WORLD

World – look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the words we say Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the love we had

Look at the things we’ve made

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Can’t you see the tide is changing?

Don’t you know that truth is fading?

People coming out from under

Slowly rising to the thunder

Listen to the shouting people

Broken churches, broken steeple

There’s no one for them to follow Every one’s a God tomorrow

Can’t you see the world is dying?

Repentant people all are crying Law and order has been drowned Chaos rules and has been crowned!

World – look at the way we are Look at the things we do Look at the games we play Life! – look at the way we live Look at the things we build Look at the love we’ve killed

Gone, gone are all those lovely days Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey And our world is fading Our world is dying – today!

IX. SUPERMAN

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide, where will be your land?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

What have you done with this beautiful world?

Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this God-given Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide? Where will be your land?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

Where you gonna run to - Superman?!

X. INVENTIONS

Make a wheel, then spinning it round

It may carry the world

Make a fire – yes building it high till I burns to the ground

Make a blade and call it a spade

To dig through the earth

Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Nothing can stop us

We’ll make our own star dust

Nothing can stop us…

So spin that wheel, faster and faster

It will carry us far

Stoke up that fire, yes higher and higher

Till it burns to the sky

Make a bow, put in an arrow

Let it fly through the world

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Plenty of money, more milk and more honey

Who needs to work?

But what of the spade, digging so hard?

What’s left but soil and the earth?

We are Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

The wheels are all turning

The fires are all burning

We’re living for learning

Learning, learning, learning

XI. Father in the Sky

Father in the sky

Won’t you tell us who you are?

Won’t you say a word to me – that I can understand You have me in your hands

Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And I am so afraid

I never was so brave….

How can I carry on

And still believe in you

When every hope has vanished

Long ago - in spite of you

How can we carry on

How can we face you now?

When everything we tried so hard

To do was lost somehow

How can we face you now?

Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And we are so afraid

We never were so brave….

XII. I BELIEVE!

If the sun lost its shine

And the trees started to die

Yes – I’d still be full of hope

I guess I know the reason why

If the wind grew too old

And the seas started to dry

Yes I would still be full of love

Don’t ask – don’t ask me why!

Yes I still believe in God

I still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know I still believe in this His land.

We believe in God

We still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know We still believe in this His land.

So don’t turn your head away

Don’t give up on who you are

Just keep on loving more each day And the world will shine for you

I guess it’s all in the mind

What you feel is what you see

So within your heart just sing these words Come sing! – come sing with me!

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

We still believe in this His land.

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

I believe – yes I believe I believe – yes I believe I believe in this His land!

XIII. The LAWS

Where are the laws we must obey

Where are the rules to guide us through our day

Where are the words that will teach us how to live

Where are the signs to show us how to give

Where are the visions to help our failing souls

Where are the tools for rebuilding our new world

Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal

Thou shalt not hurt or force your will

Thou shalt beware of foolish pride

Thou shalt be fair and take no sides

Thou shalt despise all that is vain

Thou shalt not lie, or cheat for gain

Thou shalt keep holy your day for God

Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

Here are the laws we must obey

Here are the rules to guide us through our day

These are the words that will teach us how to live

These are the signs to show us how to give

Thou shalt not have a jealous heart

Shalt not desire your neighbour’s part

Thou shal be kind in every way

And though shalt keep a time to pray

Thou shalt not cause your parents shame

Thou shalt not curse, or take God’s name in vain

And thou shalt worship the one true God

Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

XIV. Alpha to Omega!

Alpha to Omega, the way the story goes People lost forever, into millions flow

Alpha to Omega, beginning to the end

This world is lost forever, so it is my friends

Life is calling we must follow Mountains to be climbed tomorrow

Drifting onwards, ever changing

Coloured spectrum, beauty raging

Alpha to Omega, the way the story goes People lost forever, into millions flow

Alpha to Omega, beginning to the end

This world is lost forever, so it is my friends

Life is calling we must follow Mountains to be climbed tomorrow

Drifting onwards, ever changing

Coloured spectrum, beauty raging

WORLD

Second Story Outline

The Story: Four people – an old man, two teen-agers and a child – find themselves alone – cut off from the rest of the world. This is the story of how, through faith, they bury their differences and plan a new life as a family!

The Cast: The older man’s part needs to be scripted very carefully – to be read, Edward Woodward-like, with enormous presence and stature. The Boy is an Asian muslim – bit like the kid in Slumdog Millionaire; the Girl is a nice, middle-class girl – very English, that the good people of Ely can relate to as ‘one of us.’ The Child is a young Jewish boy – very bright, frighteningly articulate who might, if we want, sing. The male singer is a Black singer – with the ability to sing rock/gospel – and straight, head-voice baritone. The female singer is likewise – rock / gospel with the ability to sing straight operative soprano. Probably also black.

The Setting: Ely is a very tall, very un-adaptable space. On 30th January, in the evening, we should be able to have good black-outs. I also think that, as in the Albert Hall, we could use Follow-spots to pick out the faces of the singers and the lead actors. Further, we would like to introduce sound re-inforcement – so that the dialogue, like the prayers, are heard word-for-word at the back of the Cathedral. Also – we want to have a 2-camera video set up with six screens down the nave, and two in each transcept – and that would allow the faces, and the words, of the actors to be heard clearly by every member of the audience.

The Songs: I see the following songs being included – sung in the following way. [Bear in mind, Andrew Parnell has requested that we have some songs that are done by the Ely Imps – the young people’s choir – alone. Richard liked this idea – so I have indicated where we should do this.]

1. I who am I? - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (Ely Choral Society (ECS) and Imps)

2. World - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

3. I believe - male soloist, orchestra + organ, + ECS Choir

4. Father in the Sky - female soloist, orchestra + organ, + ECS Choir

5. I have a Vision - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

6. Superman - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

7. Inventions - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

8. I see that face every day - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ

9. War - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

10. Alpha to Omega - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

11. Child for a day - male soloist + split Choir (ECS – singing ‘We are the men” and Imps singing “We are the children”) + orchestra + organ

12. Please listen to me - female soloist, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

13. Dreamer - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

14. Reach Out for a star - Imps Choir +organ

15. I Believe - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

The Story:

• Orchestral Opening to silence:

• The Narrator reads: “In the beginning was the Word – and the Word ” etc. St. John’s Gospel or Genesis – or A N Other creation story; Mankind, lost and apparently alone in the universe, wanders his lovely planet and ponders the meaning of his existence….

• ONE: I Who am I

• Child: Who am I? – I don’t know: I just got here. My parents are Jewish and they say that defines who I am. One of God’s chosen people. Not that it does me any good – people seem to hate the Jews – and my country, Israel, they seem to hate even more. I’m alone in the world – and a little bit scared.

• Girl: I’m a Christian – I live in England and, what can I tell you? – we’re rich! I live in a lovely house, lovely family, lovely food every day. I go to a good school – and my boyfriend’s the son of a duke! And yet – and yet: Daddy’s lost millions in the crash – he’s even saying we might have to sell our yacht and our house in France!! And I’m beginning to wonder if the system of capitalism that made us rich isn’t like a cancer – destroying the planet we live upon. The more I think about it, the more I’m really, really scared.

• Boy: I’m dirt poor. I live in any of the world’s big slums and, for what it’s worth – I’m a muslim. I was lucky: my parents loved me – sent me to school; they have organised a lovely girl to be my wife, and my father’s business – a shop – makes just enough to keep us from starving. But things have been bad recently – droughts have hit the farms and there’s not much food. Things are changing – it’s weird and really scary!

• Narrator: We are aware! We know that we face the end of days. The thunder of the hooves of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are yet distant – but, in our hearts, in our minds, we know that they are coming. Like guilty school-children lining up outside the headmaster’s office, we know we have been careless in our stewardship of this lovely planet that was entrusted to us. We hang our heads in shame because, more and more, we realise –there’s nothing we can do!

• TWO: World!

• Girl: our world’s not dying. Our world will get on perfectly fine – with or without human beings. Our world is evolving – once, dinosaurs tramped across the swamps here in East Anglia; woolly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers scared the living daylights out of our ancestors as they struggled to keep alive in the face of an advancing ice age. What kept them going was faith – faith in a divinity that shapes our ends – hope that, even if our own lives are tough – our children’s lives will be better. I still have that faith. It speaks to me through the life, the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. It is – unshakable.

• Boy: I know what you mean. I’m there too – my body may be sick, my belly empty, and my mind telling me: “There’s no hope, boy!” – but when I kneel to pray and I hear the words of the Prophet, praise be upon him, in the holy Qu’ran – my soul is full. I know about half the Qu’ran by heart – I’m getting there! I don’t speak Arabic – which makes it hard. But when I am on my knees in the Mosque, and reciting the words of Prophet – praise be upon Him – I feel the breath of God upon my lips. I know that all will be well – all manner of things will be well, either in this world, or the next.

• Narrator: (reads) old testament – the power of faith; fear of God – Job – Moses – parting of the Red Sea; Daniel in the Lion’s den – one of those biblical moments when the power of God is self-evident.

• THREE: I Believe!

• Child: [cutting off the music mid-song] - STOP! – stop right there! How can you believe? Look at the terrible things going on around us! Genocide in Rwanda and Dharfur – wars in Congo; starvation in South Asia – HIV-AIDs everywhere you look. How can you believe a loving God has any concern for us at all?

• Boy: it’s hard, Believe me: I know – when I’m hungry, and there’s no food; when I’m sick –and we can’t afford to see a doctor – when my mother died – her body wasting away as the HIV virus consumed her…. When my little sister, who worshipped, was stung by a mosquito and died of malaria – we put her in a little grave, and it was as much as I could do to stop myself jumping in beside her and burying myself with her. A man gave me a Kalashnykov the other day – and told me I would have three meals a day if I came to fight for him. My father told me to give it back and not be stupid – but my friend Ahmed went: I

saw him the other day – and he says, if he’s really lucky, he will be sent on a jihadi mission: to blow up a market full of infidels. He will not come back, of course – but his life will have meant something. Mine – it means nothing. I don’t know why you sent me here. God! –please speak to me!!

• Narrator: On 10th July 1759 – the Lisbon Earthquake; on 14th November – in Auschwitz, the Jewish prisoners put God on trial for breaking His covenant with them. On 10th December, in Copenhagen, the leaders of our world agreed a Climate Change bill which condemns the planet to a slow death through global warming. God – Help – US!!

• FOUR: Father in the sky

• Child: I don’t believe in God! I’ve decided

• Girl: Sssh! – you can’t say that!

• Boy: Specially not in here! It’s a Church!

• Girl: people have prayed in this place for over 900 years!

• Narrator: and for every minute of those years, I’m sure there have been people praying here who’ve felt exactly like you do. How can there be a God? – Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Bahai’aula, – they were just good teachers. The Indians have three million Gods! Worldwide, we probably have a billion! And, most likely, they’re all fairy-tales. There’s a lot to be said for secular humanism – for saying: “There probably isn’t a God – so relax and enjoy life!” Moses may have got the Ten Commandments from a voice in the clouds – but from Justinian onwards – the law has had a very human face. And it’s worked quite well, hasn’t it? Our secular prophets speak powerfully to us: Mahatma Gandhi: “”; Martin Luther King – Nelson Mandela. They speak truth, don’t they – truth linked to our lived experience and earthly aspirations. Why do we need the mumbo-jumbo of Faith or God??

• FIVE: I have a Vision!

• Boy: No – wait a minute! I went to school: I know what’s going on. You say that every generation believes its children will have a better life than they did – but now: that’s not true! It’s almost certain our lives will be even worse than our parents.

• Girl: Why?

• Boy: hundreds of millions of years ago, lush forests covered our planet: over the years, they were crushed and compacted – and became the coal, oil and gas our civilisation is built on. But – nature’s one-time gift of fossil fuels, hundreds of millions of years in the making, have been squandered by mankind in a little under 200 years. And we’ve caused catastrophic global warming by burning it all.

• Girl: it’s true, isn’t it: the ice-caps are melting. The sea-levels will rise – cities will disappear.

• Boy: it’s worse: the ice fields of the Himalayas and other mountain ranges will melt – the great rivers that keep half the population of the planet alive will dry up – and billions of people will be on the march looking for water to stay alive. Chaos – mayhem – War! The end of the world!

• Child: Your generation has done this: what have you got to say?

• Narrator: Guilty as charged. Democracy doesn’t embrace long-term futures: people vote on what’s needed in the next five years – not the next fifty. It’s true! We’re in a bind.

• SIX: SUPERMAN!

• Narrator: I don’t share your pessimism. I am confident we will find a way out. I have faith, not just in God, but in the inventiveness of people. No other animal captured and tamed fire; no other animal conjured electricity out of the air – invented radio, television, airplanes, the internet. The capacity of the human brain to invent is astonishing. The power of the global brain – infinite.

• Child: what’s the global brain?

• Narrator: in the beginning, there were atoms. They clustered together – and about ten billion of them formed the first molecule. Millions of years went by – and the molecules clustered

together and formed the first living cell: about ten billion of them! Ten billion living cells over millions of years combined to create the human brain. Now – in a few years, there will be ten billion human brains on the planet – ten billion super-computers churning over these problems we face: for me, it is a mathematical certainty that they will come up with a solution.

• SEVEN: INVENTIONS!

• Narrator: Learning, learning, learning: we will learn how to address these problems. Solar power plants in the deserts; solar-electric energy grids across all continents; planes fuelled by algae biofuels; food grown in hydro-ponic towers. We will survive! We will prosper!

• Child: I don’t think so!

• Narrator: Why?

• Child: because grown-ups are idiots.

• Boy: Right – if they can screw up, they will screw up!

• Child: My parents just got divorced – and it was crazy. Arguing, arguing – throwing the best china at each other! These people won’t save the planet! They’re only interested in who’s going to get the Mercedes!

• EIGHT: I see that face every day!

• Girl: It’s worse than that, isn’t it? What you’re saying is – when we get right down to it: when we’re looking starvation in the face, human beings won’t co-operate. They will fight. All down history – the greed of people, the power of men over women – has led to rape and plunder.

• Boy: Aren’t we the only animal that fights wars and kills our own species?

• Girl: probably. But that’s not the point: even today – instead of spending our money on schools and hospitals – and building that new solar-hydrogen energy infrastructure – we’re spending it on Trident – armies – ridiculous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which we know we can never win. And it’s us – the young people – who are getting killed fighting wars started by you, the older generation!

• Narrator: [Music under – the introduction to WAR] I’ve always been a man of peace. War is wrong – always. My generation was one of the first in history that was never forced to go to war. So I was lucky – but I believe that one of the reasons we avoided a world war was that we were prepared for it. As the Romans said: “If you want peace, prepare for war!”

• Boy: No – if you want peace – prepare for peace!

• Narrator: History would not agree with you. Wars almost always happened when people were not prepared for it. The first and second world wars are obvious examples: millions were killed. And the next war – if it happens – will destroy us all.

• Child: so we must avoid it.

• Girl: Men have a history of doing very, very stupid things when it comes to war!

• NINE: WAR!

• Narrator: In that scenario – God is nowhere. Mankind self-destructs on a nuclear addiction! Life! – obliterated from the planet in a few short minutes. But the planet survives – out of the rocks and crevices, new atoms, new molecules – new life forms emerge. The cycle of life continues. Millions of years hence – new human beings will emerge – they will live through their civilisation and they will probably self-destruct also – on and on – until the world flies too close to the sun and all life is incinerated for ever and our world becomes lifeless, like the other planets in our solar system…

• TEN: ALPHA to OMEGA!

• Boy: But where’s God in all this?? I believe in God – I believe there is some force driving this – directing it. The all-powerful! The All-loving. GOD!!

• Child: You crazy? How could a God who is so cruel be ‘all-loving’!? We had a woman round from a children’s charity the other day – and she was raising money to wipe out a

worm in Africa: this worm burrows its way into a child’s eyes, making it blind. But it doesn’t stop there, the worm burrows on into the child’s brain, sending it mad – then killing it. If there was a God – why would He make a worm like that??

• Boy: Only God knows – and we can never know the wisdom of God’s ways. It’s secret. But there is a plan – and if we get down on our knees, five times a day, and live our lives through God, with God, trusting God – we will find a way out. Don’t you agree?

• Girl: Five times a day – Gosh! It’s as much as I can do to go to church once a week on Sundays. But yes! I guess I do have that faith!

• Child: You’re mad! If you think that God is going to come crashing down from the heavens and say: “OK guys – relax! God’s here! I’ll sort all this out…” – it’s never going to happen. Never has happened – never will!

• Girl: But it did! Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem. Lived his life – taught us how to live – and then saved our sins by dying on the Cross and rising again. That was the Child of God among us! And He will come again –

• Narrator: The Christ Child. The Peace Child – Children are the hope! The future!

• ELEVEN: Child for a Day!

• Child: what happens when you die?

• Boy: You go to heaven – you meet the spirit of your ancestors. And I believe you will meet Allah – praise be upon him - face to face.

• Girl: No, no - St Peter meets you at the pearly gates and leads you to your heavenly home where Jesus and all the saints are waiting for you. Some say if you are evil, you go to hell –but I don’t believe in hell.

• Boy: me neither. But I believe your happiness in the afterlife depends a bit on what you have done here on earth: if you have been at one with Allah through your prayers in this world, you will be at one with Him in the next.

• Child: I don’t believe in any of that. I think when you’re dead – you’re dead. Six feet under. End of story. Anything else is a fairty-tale.

• Narrator: But what if you’re wrong? What if the teachers are right? What if there is a heaven you go to if you’re good – and everlasting damnation if you’re bad. It is worth being good just in case, don’t you think??

• Girl: The lessons of Jesus, my saviour, teach us how to live – whatever happens after we die! His lessons – and the teachings of all the great prophets are about life on this earth.

• TWELVE: Please Listen to me!

• Girl: How can we stop war?

• Narrator: Abraham Lincoln put it very simply: “You can never stop a war by killing people. That only makes you more enemies. No – the only way to stop a war is by making your enemy your friend.” Gandhi said: “If you really want peace – if you really want to put an end to war, you have to start with the children…” Which is rather like what Isaiah said: “The lion shall lie down with the lamb, and the baby with the snake – and there shall be Peace all over my Holy Mountain.” Reads Corinthians 1, Chapter 9: “ … and the greatest of these is Love!”

• THIRTEEN: Dreamer!

• Child: is that really true? Love is the answer?

• Boy: If only it were that simple.

• Narrator: it is that simple, isn’t it. Look – if we were the last four people left on this earth. You would marry this girl – fall in love with her, have a daughter, and this young man would marry her – and life would go on.

• Child: And you’d be the grand-father.

• Narrator: Yes – I’d be the grand-father. I’d like that.

• Child: and we’d be a family, loving and caring for each other.

• Narrator: Yes!

• Girl: But what if I didn’t fancy him? You can’t choose who you fall in love with.

• Boy: And I’m a muslim – she’s a Christian. That wouldn’t work!

• Narrator: If you were the last two people on the planet it would.

• Child: Do you think God has a favorite religion?

• Boy: Of course! Islam – because Mohammed, may his name be blessed, was His last prophet;

• Girl: I would say Christianity – because Jesus was His only son!

• Narrator: and you would argue about it, and in days gone by – you would have called each other infidels and killed each other. But today – I see you looking at each other in a new way. You do love each other – and you each care for this cheeky boy. So – God has won! There is room for all faiths to love each other on this planet – for we all see the good, the value of one another. And, as a family, we care for the youngest, weakest member. When we see the spark of God in one another – we are saved.

• FOURTEEN: Reach Out! (sung by the children)

• Child: so – it’s really that simple. Love each other, be the most loving you can be towards each other and all the problems go away.

• Girl: Not quite. We’ve still got the problems of the financial crash

• Boy: – and the melting ice-caps. None of that can be solved by love.

• Narrator: But they can be solved by faith. You may feel my faith in the creativity of mankind is misplaced – but you appear to agree my faith in God is not. Frankly – looking around at the politicians and the scientists – wouldn’t you doubt that they could ever sort this mess out? It’s asking a bit much of any group of human beings, don’t you think? But - I don’t believe our Father in the Sky means to destroy mankind. I think He loves us – and cares for us. That we are, in some way, made in his image. Think of the works of Mozart, Shakespeare, Michelangelo – think of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela – God has put a spirit into them that has made them shine! That same spirit is within you – that is God reflected through you. If we believe in that, surely we will be saved.

• Boy: I agree with that

• Girl: So do I

• Child: I guess I do too!

• Narrator: Magnificent. We agree. I think we should leave it there don’t you? Quit while we’re ahead

• FIFTEEN: I BELIEVE!

The Gospel singer gets the choir, ECS and the Imps, the soloists and the audience all singing –bringing the show to a fantastic climax of “I – BELIEVE – IN - THIS - HIS - LAND!

Cast:

W O R L D I I

FRAMEWORK TREATMENT

Name – Story-teller; Identity = multi-faith and no faith but raised a Buddhist

Name – Ahmed; Identity = Muslim teen-ager, Asian, bright, doesn’t like to talk about his faith

Name – Cynthia; Identity = Christian teen-ager, evangelical/proselytising, wealthy background

Name – Barbara(Singer); Identity = Lapsed Christian, atheist, not hopeful about the future

Name – Earl(Singer); Identity = Proud Muslim, loves to promote his faith and culture

Name – Aaron; Identity = young, bright, cheeky child, raised Jewish, doesn’t know who he is

Name – Jim(Singer); Identity = young child, Jewish and proud of it

Scene 1 – Opening

Song: I who am I

Goal = To establish a point of departure for the identity of each of the players

Journey – Irish: if you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you’re starting from Questions – How explicit to make the introductions?

Scene 2 – Establishing the state of the world

Song: World

Goal = to establish the state of the planet, today; areas of concern and why we’re worried; Journey – different perspectives on how bad it is – to the point where the child feels the world is beautiful. He’s pretty happy – he thinks the world, from the perspective of a child, is paradise Questions – What do we want to focus on – terrorism? Climate change? Abuse of human rights?

Scene 3 – Perfect world!

Song: Paradise

Goal = To establish that the natural world God gave us is – yes! Threatened, but still in pretty good shape. It should spur us to save it, not to give up.

Journey – From the idea that for a child the world is paradise – happy family picnics, lying the in grass or on the beach; endless summer days of happiness; Questions – Should it be just the little kids who sing Paradise – or can the older chorus join in?

Scene 4 – And a little child shall lead them

Song: Child for a Day

Goal = to promote the innocent wisdom of children

Journey – Everything we need to know we learn in kindergarden; if we could remember the simplicity of life of the child, perhaps we could solve the complexities we see around us. The solution is for us to remember the innocence of childhood. Readings from Isaiah and Wordsworth Questions – It would have to be Cynthia who supports the idea of a happy childhood – supported by the children’s chorus.

Scene 5 – Getting real

Song: Inventions

Goal = to explore the idea that technology can save us

Journey – Ahmed explodes the myth of a happy childhood; his wasn’t – his parents divorced when he was four and he had to live with his auntie who hated him; and the storyteller reminds them that

10m children die every year from preventable diseases. The journey has to take you to the fact that technology – inventions – human being’s own creativity – can make poverty history and save people’s lives.

Questions – Who is the sceptic here? Who is the realist? Do you have to be a realist to stay alive?

Scene 6 – We are not alone!

Song: Father in the Sky

Goal = to explore the reality of faith and no faith

Journey – from the conviction that there is a God – to the conviction that there is not – through the discussion that faith is a source of conflict and distractions to the question: “Which is God’s favorite religion?” Finishing up in the appeal to God – ‘Why won’t you show us who you are?”

Questions – Do we use the Dice story? Do we get into Sikhism, Buddhism, Other faiths? Or just the Abrahamic faiths and atheism?

Scene 7 – The Laws

Song: The Laws

Goal = To show that, whether they come from God or humankind, all faith traditions give us laws which, if we obey them, are the signposts to a better, richer life and a more peaceful, stable world.

Journey – From a place of doubt, to a place of certainty. From a place where faith, religion, God are optional extras in life, to a place where even the Atheists and agnostics agree; A discussion of fundamental values – human rights – human responsibilities: Conscience! To forgive and to love.

Questions – Does conscience make cowards of us all? Do we use the Law as a crutch to replace our own inner values? Is not the Law of Force always superior to the Force of Law?

Scene 8 – The pursuit of Happiness: thou shalt love!

Song: Dreamer

Goal = to establish that Love is the most powerful force for good in the world Journey – from the commandment at the end of the Laws – to the hope and aspiration expressed in the song, Dreamer: the journey takes us via ‘God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son to save our sins…’ – to the joy of human love; the imperative of love for peace, for procreation, for happiness and security;

Questions – Is God Love? What would a world without love look like? Do we talk about same sex love?

Scene 9 – The Vision: a world built on love!

Song: I have a vision

Goal = To move from the dream to the reality – from the insubstantial human love to the solid foundation of peace built on truth, unity, respect, the rule of law, unselfishness, caring – all the things that Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the others spoke about.

Journey – From the dream, the personal, to the reality of Peace in a global sense. To see how problems like climate change, building the post-carbon future, making poverty history – all require a united global answer from the global family. No time for separateness now: ‘We must Unite’

Questions – is faith a part of this vision, or can the Atheists share in it? Do we really need ‘Hope AND Faith’ to keep us alive? And do we have to pray?

Scene 10 – The disaster that is the human being

Song: Please listen to me!

Goal = To articulate the painful reality of the human condition, the fear that we will, again, inevitably, screw it all up – and to make one final appeal to our better nature.

Journey – From the realisation that human beings killed MLK, Gandhi and Jesus, that many of the greatest good men were killed by their peers – that religion and faith have caused more wars than

almost anything else; that terrorism stalks the earth because of our fears. That the great visions of King and Gandhi are distractions from the base greed, warlike, hateful reality of the human being. We recoil from it – and make the appeal to our better nature.

Questions – Which is the real human being? The good or the bad? Isn’t the only reason we are alive today the fact that we are more good than bad? Why do bad things happen to good people?

Scene 11 – The triumph of the bad!

Song: WAR

Goal = to show the consequence of men’s inbred deadly sins: greed, lust, slothfulness etc.

Journey – From the inherent weakness of the appeals for Peace to the reality of the destination militarization will take us to: all out war and annihilation. And in death – nothing matters. It is over – faith, prettiness, beauty, paradise – all is gone. And war brings out the best in people – it shows our strength, our courage – our readiness to die for our beliefs.

Questions – what do the teen-agers feel about war? After all, it is their age group that generally fight them. What does the child think – silently contemplating the madness unfolding before him? Where does the Story-teller stand on war? Does s/he think – inevitably wars will happen?

Scene 12 – The question of identity - revisited

Song: I who am I?

Goal = Is this who we are? Heading for destruction with our own hands? The goal is for all of them to answer with a visceral, globally unified “NO!!”

Journey – The answer to war’s final line, “God where are you?!” – is the child’s refrain: “I who am I – what is this world – why am I here?” The conversation comes after the reprise of the song –and it is a discussion about Fate: is humanity destined to destroy itself? Is this how the whole human experiment fated to end? Drowned by the fights generated by climate change – over diminishing resources – over nuclear weapons?

Questions – There are enough questions above.

Scene 13 – What about my little life?

Song: Reach out for a Star

Goal = To demonstrate the supremacy of the Child Journey – back to Paradise! To Wordsworth – to the child trailing clouds of glory…. Our identity is really only that we are all the child of two parents; we are brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, spouses – FAMILY! That is who we are! If we cling to the fact that families, generally, care for each other, have unconditional love for each other, than we can fight the Bad.

Questions – What is the proportion of families that break-up? What about orphans? What about the selfishness that breaks out in families – the lack of unconditional love, or caring?

Scene 14 – Faith

Song: I believe

Goal = To show that faith has a role – it is a big part of the solution.

Journey – From the doubts surrounding the cohesion of the global – or indeed any – family; from the loneliness of uncertainty, to the certainty – the rock-solid conviction that comes from Faith: God’s presence in Life – how ever you access Him/Her – through Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha – the flowers, the sun – any facet of Nature – God’s Presence gives you courage to believe we can haul ourselves out of this mess we find ourselves in. That is the certainty expressed in “I believe!”

Questions – If God helps, what is the reason NOT to believe? How does the Atheist position help us solve the problems of climate change, peace, war, making poverty history etc.?

PARADISE

- an Exploration of Faith1st Draft Ely Cathedral Treatment

The Story: The World is coming to an end – it is the end of days. A Story-teller explains to some of the young urchins who are struggling to stay alive how the world came to this sorry state – and how they might be able to escape it in their lifetimes!

The Cast: An older woman or man – The Sage, the Story-teller – a magical figure in a cloak, sitting, Siddhartha-like, under a Bodi Tree(DG has a preference for some one like Dame Judi Dench); 1 Child Soloist – singer/actor (if possible – or 2 x children) + 2 young singers (age 17-23) – one male, black; one female, white; + 11 x (if possible, multi-ethnic Black, Asian, Arabic & White) younger children; + Ely Choral Society + The Imps Chorus;

The Setting: Ely Cathedral – Chorus on risers behind orchestra – with Imps chorus in front of Orchestra; Stage in front of Orchestra with a Tree(4m high) – upstage Left; stage is 80cm high – so that performers can be seen; Triptych hung over screen entry to Chancel; Flat screens – 4 in nave; 2 in each transcept relay close-up pictures and images that support the action. Sound reinforcement via PA speakers spaced down the nave and into each transcept – reinforcing the words of the actors, and ensuring that the lines of the songs are heard. The words of each song – and the narration – are printed out in the programme;

The Songs:

1. World - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

2. I who am I? - child soloist, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (Ely Choral Society (ECS) and Imps)

3. Paradise - Imps Choir + orchestra + organ

4. Devil’s Song - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS)

5. Inventions - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

6. Child for a day - male soloist + split Choir (ECS – singing ‘We are the men” and Imps singing “We are the children”) + orchestra + organ

7. The Laws - child soloist, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (Ely Choral Society (ECS) and Imps)

8. Father in the Sky - female soloist, orchestra + organ, + ECS Choir

9. Dreamer - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

10. I see that face every day - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ

11. I who am I? - male soloist, orchestra + organ

12. Please listen to me - female soloist, orchestra + organ, + Choir (Imps)

13. War - Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

14. Superman – Start with Imps Choir then Full Choir (ECS and Imps) + orchestra + organ

15. I have a Vision - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

16. Reach Out for a star - Imps Choir +organ

17. I Believe - male & female soloists, orchestra + organ, + Full Choir (ECS and Imps)

• The Story:

• Orchestral Opening to silence – Visuals: images of the universe (Hubble Telescope) – closing in on the World in Space;

• Male singer moves forward to sing World (1) – Chorus joins; Visuals: All Black & White; devastation – bombed out cities; woods with no leaves; dried up lakes; deserts; droughts;

• As the song ends, the story-teller opens her book and reads to a group of 12 children gathered at her feet. Words to the effect: “It is the end of days” Biblical description of the Apocalypse: “Those that remain ask themselves: ‘Why has it come to this? What did we do? Why are we still here? Who am I in all of this??’”

• Song: I who am I (2) – a child soloist sings; joined by the rest of the choir. Visuals: Classical paintings through the ages – from cave paintings through to Picasso and Rothko;

• The children re-group around the Story-teller. Music ripples under as she explains: “It was not ever thus. In the beginning . Etc.” The Genesis story – as told in the bible and the Qu’ran. In Tallinn, there can be a whole balletic sequence – with fantastical green backdrops; in Ely, the members of the Imps Chorus come on stage, singing Paradise (3) – drawing the children around the Story-teller to their feet getting them to join their song. Visuals: the years flip back from 2050, faster and faster to 4012 - and then on to 100,000 years ago (or when ever science now says the first human life forms walked the earth). Then images of flowers, trees, rivers, waterfalls, indigenous peoples – dissolving in and out of each other – inter-cut with Live Action of the children’s faces singing;

• The Story-teller reads (Ecclesiastes) “Vanity of Vanities – all is Vanity. When I was a child, I thought as a child etc.” Transition back to Genesis – how God walked in the garden and finds the people that He had made eating of the tree that He had commanded them not to eat. And He cast them out – and tells the serpent, On they belly shalt thou go – etc. In Tallinn – there can be a whole mimed/dance sequence of the bodies smeared with blood – besmirched; sinfull; In Ely, the child soloist gives the young solo singers the Apple – all three of them munch into their apples – and blood drips down their faces. Music – the soloists sing: Devil’s Song (4) Visuals: Live Action of the Singers;

• The Child soloist questions the Story-teller about humanity’s expulsion from Paradise – and how humanity survived? The Story-teller explains the many creation stories – from the Big Bang and Darwin, through Genesis – through Classical Greek and Eastern Myths. But Humanity survived through his own ingenuity. The Chorus sing: Inventions (5); Again, the children at the feet of the Story-teller are drawn into the Song by the Imps Chorus, singing on stage; Visuals: Coal Mines, steel works, strip mining, bicycles, cars – from antiquity through to modern Ferraris and Bentleys – rows of houses covering the countryside; cities spreading out across the map; farming – big harvesters crossing the prairie; motorways and railways – the Forth Road Bridge to the Eurostart heading into the Channel Tunnel – to planes taking off – Superjumbos; to Rockets lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Intercut with Live Action of the children’s faces singing;

• Story-teller stands amongst the Children standing on the stage. She explains that people knew exactly what they were doing – they were destroying the earth to feed their greed. Destroying Paradise in their passion for consumption – they knew. And yet – as they remembered…. She reads from Isaiah “ … and a little child shall lead them!” Chorus sing: Child for a Day (6) – ‘We were the children who laughed in the morning…” – the children on stage watch them; Men only sing: “We are the men who worry of nothing….” – the song closes with the Male soloist singing, “I was a child…” – into Arnell’s full orchestral arrangement. Visuals: Live Action – the Chorus, then the children, then the Soloist singing;

• The Child asks: “What happened to God?” – and the Story-teller explains: “He didn’t go away – he sent his prophets to warn us! Great teachers, the Buddha, the Rabbis – his own Son, Jesus Christ, according to the Christians. Extraordinary, visionary teaching – and, in the teaching of the Last Prophet, a way of life that keeps you in the way of God five times a day, every day of your life. Child soloist starts: The Laws(7) – other children join; the chorus sing the Laws themselvesantiphonally: one side after the other; It is the way of Prayer. Humanity knows that God is with us –most of us pray to Him every day, wanting him close to us – feeling the need for his presence. Female Soloist sings: Father in the Sky (8) Visuals: Devotional paintings – from Christianity; from Islam – the mosques, the temples, the synagogues, the cathedrals – places of prayer around the world. The Great Buddhas of Bangkok and Bamyan; the Krishna temples – monks and nuns in their life of prayer; Jews at the Wailing wall; Muslims prostrating themselves; Intercut with Live Action, the girl singing;

• The Child is angry: how dare people become so careless of the world if they had the benefit of all this great teaching? How could they ignore it and be so selfish? The Story-teller explains that they found the joy of love – the earthly memory of paradise which most people experience and which they need no teacher to explain. The joining in love – one person with another. It was a dream – a memory of Paradise – and it produced children. People were consumed by it – it blotted out the memory of the teachers, the prophets. For everyone, love was Life renewing itself in a glimpse of paradise. Soloists(+Chorus??) sing: Dreamer (9) Visuals: Live Action + the Chorus (if there is a way they can join in at the end of the song??)

• Child and Story-teller explore this dilemma: “So – if love is the answer, and faith makes us strong, why didn’t we find our way back to Paradise?” Because, the Story-teller explains, after the fall, mankind found his dark side: his ability to Hate! And Hatred is an emotion every bit as strong as love – with terrible consequences. The soloists sing: I see that face every day (10) – they act it out on stage as a furious argument; the Chorus pick up the song – the soloists drop their microphones, and begin to fight with sauce-pans; its funny at first by the Child soloist doesn’t find it funny at all. He watches in horror – as they pick up knives – and start to really go for each other. The fight moves into slow motion as the ralentando begins. The child moves to separate them, crying “Stop!!” – and the male soloist swings round falling on the child, accidentally stabbing him through the heart. The female soloist screams. The chorus sings: “I won’t see that face every day ”

• The male soloist stands, consumed with grief. Sings reprise: I who am I (2 rpt.) - barely able to get the words out, as though begging forgiveness from his wife, the female soloist. She will have nothing to do with him. The Story-teller looks on sadly. The chorus picks up the song – softly, very softly: the soloist picks up the dead child in his arms and carries him off the stage. The female soloist, also overcome with grief, moves to the centre of the stage and sings: Please listen to me (11) – the children’s choir joining her plea at the end. Tableau – the female soloist and the children – on their knees, pleading: “Let all wars cease!”

• Story-teller reads: “But of course they didn’t. Humanity always found things to fight about – and they found ever better ways to fight.” Music starts – the piano introduction. The Story-teller reads: “It started with a stick, moved on to a stone – then an arrow and a spear…” David Gordon’s poem that follows the history of weapons leading up to the Nuclear Bomb. The chorus sing: WAR(12). Visuals: start with Black and white drawings of the wars of antiquity – Roman soldiers, Greeks, Masada – on through visuals of Henry V – black and white pictures of the First World War – then on to Vietnam; Iraq; Gaza – the terrible destruction; finally, the mushroom cloud rising above Hiroshima – the devastation of nuclear war – the images of human beings evaporating, the nuclear firestorm destroying homes, consuming everything in fire. The dates flip forward on the screens –back to 2050. The song ends: “God – where are you?” Still picture – one of the most striking black and white images of devastation from the opening ‘World’ Sequence.

• The Child soloist comes back on stage. Stands. Asks the Story-teller: “How did it start?” Story-teller responds: “Does it matter?! If the world is destroyed – does it matter where the blame lies? In the battle for supremacy, we destroyed ourselves. Millions died in a nano-second – and many of the survivors envied the dead, dying a long, slow death from starvation, disease, radiation sickness. And now the world can barely support the few million people who remain.” Child: “And the politicians –the world leaders who led us into this mess. They must have known it was wrong! They must have known they were mad! What happened to them??” S.T. “Most of them died – but those who remain – well, they’re doing their best!” Children: “Their best??!! Their best!!?? – they screwed up! They got us banished from paradise – learned to hate and kill – and ended up murdering our chance of a life – of a future for this world! You! – all of you who voted for them – all of you are guilty. It does matter who did this – it does matter what did this!! It was greed – a thirst for power – for more toys –more weapons – more, more, more, of everything! And it was you – our great leaders – who murdered our world. I hope you’re proud of yourselves! But what’s the plan now, eh?? What’s your next trick!!? ” The music starts – a long glissando launching the children’s choir and chorus into Superman (13) – challenging the audience, and the Story-teller, pointing the finger. Visuals: Live Action – the angry faces of the children singing – intercut with pictures of the trappings of power –the parades of weapons across Red Square; the motorcades; the great capitol buildings – the Parades. No individual leaders faces;

• Story-teller: “They were the wrong kind of leaders. They took the world in bad directions. The world was dying slowly – had been dying for centuries – from the pollution and the poisoning that humanity had inflicted on the natural world – what remained of our original paradise. Eventually climate change and global warming would probably have done for humanity in the same way that nuclear war did. But we had the good leaders – they were amongst us – and their examples had been with us from the time of the great prophets – the great teachers to whom and with whom we prayed for all those years. We had just forgotten about them ” Female Soloist comes forward, sings: I have a Vision (14) Male Soloist joins – then Chorus joins – maybe the whole audience stands to sing! “Reach out with Love! Gather all your courage, Reach out with Love – let us win this way!” Visuals: Live action of soloists and children singing. Perhaps one picture of MLK.

- Children: How are we going to get ourselves the leaders we need – How?? How?? How??

- Story-teller. “You have to find your way back to Paradise!”

- But how?? How?? How?? We’re in such a mess – nothing works, everything destroyed.

- Story-teller: “And God doesn’t exist any more – we all became atheist. Or most of us did. So here we are – the apocalypse upon us, and No one to call upon in our hour of need.”

- Child asks: “But God’s still there, isn’t He?”

- Story-teller: “I don’t know – what do you think?”

- Child: “It would be a whole lot less lonely if He were there, watching over us ”

- “But – if there was a God – why would he, or she, let us do this to ourselves?”

- S.T. “Why would he make snakes and scorpions that could kill you with a single bite?”

- “God was only ever a fairy-tale – all that stuff about heaven, babes in a manger, prophets leaping off a rock into heaven – it was all nonsense, wasn’t it? We brought this mess upon ourselves – we have to figure out how to haul ourselves out of it, don’t we?”

- “I don’t agree – I so don’t agree! There is a God! He created Paradise and, if we believe in Him – he will help us find our way back to Paradise.”

- “When we’re dead, perhaps!”

- “No – now, right now, when we’re alive. If we believe…”

- “How can it help us to believe in fairy stories?!”

- “God is NOT a fairy story! God is real – God is all around us – pleading with us to find our best side.”

- S. T.: “God is inside us – all of us. A little spark of God – a grain of gold – a star of diamond dust: that is what remains of Paradise. And it’s in all of us – and if we follow that – in Love and in Life – that will lead us back to Paradise. And you – you children – you are much closer to it than you think. Because that is where you came from when you were born. And that is where we will all return when we die.”

• Child soloist sings: Reach Out (15) – children’s chorus link arms and sing. Visuals: Live action of children singing

• Male Soloist comes forward: “I believe!” – Female Soloist: “So do I! – what about you?” The Storyteller looks thoughtful: “After all I’ve seen – after all I’ve witnessed humanity doing to itself and this beautiful planet, it’s pretty hard – but yes, most days, I find I believe. It is so cold, so lonely, so friendless, so meaningless with out faith. And the older I get, the more I find that Faith – all Faiths –are the staff of life. The feeling that our father in the sky is watching over us – shaking his head in sadness when we transgress – smiling and lighting up the heavens when we love – when we care for each other – when we respect and share our wealth with others. On balance, we must believe – we must keep great buildings like this one full and alive with our living faith. And when we die – we must feel that our spirits feed into that Great God Almighty, just as our bodies feed the earth.” Male Soloist starts: I Believe (16) – female soloist joins; Full Chorus joins – and then the whole audience joins. “I believe in this His Land!”

P EACE C HILD – A LPHA O

MEGA

- A J OURNEY IN F AITH -

IST DRAFT SCRIPT

Setting:

Chorus and Narrator, Upstage Left; band downstage (or offstage) left Acting Area – Centre stage and Downstage Right

Story:

An old man(circa 2050) considers his path through life by re-visiting the traumas of his life as a teen-ager (circa 2010)

Cast:

Older Woman = Narrator ( - who reads her part from a Story book)

Teen-ager (female youth = 16-25 years)

Older Man = Narrator ( - who reads his part from a Story book)

Teen-ager (male youth = 16-25 years)

6 x assorted youth chorus/actors/singers

2 x Solo singers (male and female) who come out of the Chorus

Orchestral opening – as per Alpha Omega – Male Narrator comes forward and reads:

Window: Introduction to the Piece - Narrators:

First Draft Guide Text:

Male Narrator: Why does God allows terrible things to happen on the earth? Because God is not a God in the sense that he controls human beings. Rather God is a spark in each of us from birth – passed from the parent to the child - which if it is not passed, allows ignorance of the spark to be passed from the parent to the child. Which means that the child never rises from the dark, and never finds the spark of God in him or herself.

Female Narrator: We on this planet must awaken to the spark of God that is in us and bring harmony and peace to its people. It is no use blaming God; we have the books of his prophets and they are united not divided. If you read them with a clear heart, they will unlock the spark of God in you!

Male Narrator: So don't sit around waiting for God to bring you a miracle. The Spark of God that is in you is the miracle. You are equipped to save the world and build the Garden of Paradise here on this earth. And that is what we’re doing here this evening – finding out who we are – how to find that spark to lighten the darkness within us.

(1) I who am I? – soloist comes forward to sing with chorus in background: Window: Report on the Massacre Dialogue – to be drawn from Youth Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Male Narrator(continues): My father told me we are all brought here to make the world a better place than we found it. That is the purpose of life. Which was fine – until the day, back in January 2010, when my world fell apart.

Female Narrator: it fell apart for all of us who were there that fine, crystal clear January day. Snow on the ground, stark trees, clear blue sky – and Sicko Aaron blazing away with his AK-47….

The Youth Chorus and teen-agers run on looking wild and scared.

ALL: God! – God! – God Jesus – God

Boy: Sam?! – did he get Sam!

Youth (5) – No – I’m here!

Boy – Oh Jesus, Sam! [hugs him fiercely!] – what are we going to do?!

Youth (1) – Did you see his face??

Youth (2) – He was grinning like a jackass all the time –

Youth (3) – laughing at us!

Girl – Janet – Janet’s not here!

Youth (6) – Oh God!! He got Janet!!

Youth (4) – He got a lot of people…

Youth (5) – Did you see him with the axe?

Youth (1) – He had an axe?

Girl – Oh – Jesus, did he have an axe! He chopped off Serena’s head before he came into the gym – and was waving it about in front of him. Licking the blood from her neck – and laughing, laughing – laughing. Then he saw the police coming – and he said, calm as a rat, “No – this is my gig!” And he pointed the gun at his head and fired fully twenty shots into his head before he fell

They stare at each other – silent. Shivering. Pairs cling to each other for safety.

Boy – What are we going to do?

Youth (5) – Survive!

Youth (2) – God – why?? WHY??

Youth (4) –’Cos he was a sicko!

Youth (3) – Why?

Youth (6) – What made him a sicko?

(2) WORLD – A singer comes forward to sing the song: the chorus act out the meaning of the words – expressing their anger, frustration, grief - horror! As the song ends, the youth sit – disconsolate –and lights come up on the Narrators.

Window: Linking back to Paradise Dialogue – Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from improvisations and David Gordon’s writings

First Draft Guide Text:

Female Narrator: 17 students – traces of blood on the snow, 3 classrooms and a gymnasium pockmarked with bullets…. As massacres go, it was small-time stuff. Pol Pot did 1.7 million in Cambodia; Hitler - 6m in the holocaust; Stalin and Mao killed untold millions – and going further back in History, Genghis Khan killed a million in a day at the battle of -??-. The Greeks, the Romans – the crusaders, the Inquisition – all sent tens of thousands of young, mostly innocent people to early graves.

Male Narrator: And a year before, we all stood by and watched as the Israelites massacred two thousand Palestinians in Gaza. But that little massacre, witnessed by we few – where we lost some friends – and saw a young man we had grown up with go berserk and end his own and the lives of 17 others – that changed us for ever.

Female Narrator: You never got over it, did you?

Girl: I still have the nightmare – that he’s in the room with me. That it is me he was in love with – that it was me whose headless body he wanted to rape! And he’s there in the room with me – his head a pulp, and blood streaming down his shirt – and I scream, but nothing comes out.

Male Narrator: You think that he committed a crime – he murdered 17 people. And yet the crime you are committing every day, getting in your cars, turning up the air conditioning, keeping your rooms at summer heat in mid-winter – all that will, by the end of your lives, murder far, far more people than Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao – all of them.

Boy: That’s crazy?!

Girl: You’re kidding, right?

Youth (1) – Climate change, isn’t it? You’re talking about climate change.

Youth (2) – melting the Arctic and Antarctic ice-caps – the snowfields of the Himalayas that feed the rivers that bring life to half the population of the planet. When that goes, 2-3 billion people will be on the move – or dying.

Male Narrator: Right. That’s inter-generational murder – by neglect. Murder none-the-less.

Female Narrator: So – what are you going to do about it?

Youth (3) – what can we do about it?

Youth (4) – we’re just kids!

Female Narrator – but the politicians in charge now will all be dead by the time the murders start to take place: you will be the guilty parties then. Unless you act now.

Boy: Help us!

Girl: I mean – we know about climate change, population growth, spreading poverty – all that stuff. But no one tells us what to do about it.

Male Narrator: Think back – think of your first memory of the world. Your first sight of a garden –flowers, butterflies. It was wonderful, wasn’t it? Remember – try to remember!

Female Narrator – Once upon a time a long time ago When our Universe was young Our world was a paradise made of love According to a heavenly plan

(3) Paradise A small chorus of children – beautiful, with pretty, childlike voices – come forward to sing the song. On the screen – their bright, shining faces meld with images of flowers, lakes, waterfalls, mountains, sunsets – the world as paradise.

Window: The link from Paradise to Love Dialogue - Narrators:

First Draft Guide Text:

Female Narrator: It is important to remember that, just because massacres are so shocking and the newspapers write about them, we have survived as a human race because we are better at love and caring than we are at hate and violence. The only reason you are here today is that your parents fell in love and produced you.

Male Narrator: Love will get you through this – real, caring love for each other! – you don’t believe me, do you? Watch -

(4) Dreamer – The Youth gather round the Story-teller as the two young singers come out and sing the love-song to each other. Images of families – happy couples – weddings.

Window: Love isn’t the answer Dialogue – Youth – drawn from improvisation;

First Draft Guide Text: – The Youth come back on stage, talking to each other:

Youth (2) – sappy bullshit!

Youth (3) – My parents split up when I was five: all they do is bitch and argue anytime they meet. About money mostly.

Girl: My parents are pretty happy. My Dad adores my Mum – does everything for her and drives her crazy. But she adores him all the same. They’re cute!

Youth (6) – But love doesn’t put bread on the table. Love doesn’t pay the bills.

Boy – and love had no place in what happened this afternoon. Sicko Aaron lusted after Serena who was in love with Bill. So Aaron kills them both. Where’s the LOVE in that. We’re sick, disgusting animals – evil!

Youth (1) – and remember, we were thrown out of Paradise. Adam ate the apple – and we all got screwed. “On thy belly shalt thou go – eat dust and die!”

Male Narrator: Ok – but in spite of all that, we haven’t done too bad, have we??

Female Narrator: Look at our gardens – not Eden perhaps, but close!

Girl: You’re right – people are endlessly creative –

Boy: But our creativity is dangerous: the hands that built this cathedral look much the same as the hands that made Aaron’s AK-4!

Male Narrator: That – that is the challenge we all face. To use your creativity creatively – not destructively.

(5) Inventions – the Chorus dance this number as they sing – powerfully illustrating the machinery of human invention – in a variety of different ways. Images of machines, computers, internet websites – show the ingenuity of mankind. They EXIT at end

Window: The inevitability of war Dialogue - Narrators:

First Draft Guide Text:

Female Narrator: Learning, learning, learning: what is the use of learning when it leads only to the grave? What is the use of wealth if it makes us less happy than we were without it?

Male Narrator: A pattern soon emerged of things to come And the problems Mankind faced Tribes of men – not quite the same –Competing for food and the best bit of land Starting off the game called ‘War’

Female Narrator: No! – stop – please….

(6) Please Listen to me – the youth remain offstage – as the solo female singer comes on and sings the appeal – on her knees.

Window: The inevitability of war Dialogue - Narrators:

First Draft Guide Text:

Female Narrator: But they didn’t listen - and wars did not cease. [Music starts – WAR!] Even in our generation – the first in Europe that was not forced to go to war – there have been hundreds of small wars, each killing more than 1000 people in our lifetimes.

Male Narrator: It began with a stone, then came a stick

Soon there was an arrow and a spear

Then came a club, then an arrow - then a gun

Soon bullets were flying through the air.

Conflict raged all over the world

Hatred and envy everywhere!

Tribe against Tribe, Man against Man!

Nobody seemed to care

With each generation passing by Men found new skills of war

Hydrogen and cluster bombs

Mercenaries and terrorists

Cold Wars and dirty wars

Underground – overground

In the air – out in Space

All of our wealth – all of our youth – All of our finest minds –

Conspiring to KILL the entire human race

(7) War – the youth come back on stage, miming the actions described in the poem. They start marching as the war song starts. In the second verse, the Chorus – en masse – come forward, leaning forward, singing with real menace until, at the climax of the song – there is the FLASH of light and SOUND of the nuclear explosion rattling through the theatre. The Chorus all drop to their knees to sing: “O come and save us!”

Window: The experience of Atheism Dialogue - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Female Narrator: God – where were you? We are told we are made in the image of God: we are the crowning jewel of creation and ‘creation’ is just another word for God as is ‘nature’ and ‘consciousness.’ God is not a mystery if we are not: we are a part of the mystery of the universe not separate from it. We are a part of the God we seek.

Youth (1) – It’s all nonsense. God doesn’t exist!

Youth (3) – all that stuff about babies in mangers, prophets leaping off rocks into heaven. Nonsense!

Youth (4) – Fairy stories!

Youth (2) – I don’t know how any one was ever fooled into believing any of that?

Male Narrator: Humanity’s need for God or gods has been pretty strong for centuries!

Youth (1) – Bah! It’s a laxative for the people. A clever trick to help us handle death and loss;

Youth (2) – Deal with it: we’re on our own.

Youth (5) – We screw up: there’s no one there to clear up the mess!

Youth (6) – We build cathedrals, write music or poetry, there’s no one there at the pearly gates to pat us on the back and say, “Good job! Well done!”

Youth (3) – There’s only us.

Youth (4) – Us and Aaron

Girl: OK – wise guy, so we’re on our own, right? What’ya gonna do –

Boy: So we’re screwing up the planet big time – with nuclear weapons and climate change, poverty and population growth – what you gonna do, eh?

(8) Superman – during the dialogue, the chorus watch. In the glissando at the start of the song, they rise to their feet and sing at the story-tellers. During the song, they move back to their seats, so that the stage is left to the Youth and the two lead singers. They sing out their impotence to each other. .

Window: The impotence of Atheism and Certainty of Islam Dialogue - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation and David Gordon’s writings

First Draft Guide Text:

Male Narrator: Face it! – you’re not Superman. Population rising – resources dropping. A civilisation based on oil – oil running out. The gap between rich and poor expanding – the poor getting angrier

Female Narrator: - and with that anger, comes violence. Killing! War! The end of times! How does denying God help with all that?

Youth (5) – how does having God help with any of that?

Youth (4) – it’s a distraction.

Boy: It’s absolutely NOT a distraction. It is the answer to all things – the beginning and the end of all things. Atheism doesn’t have any answers. But my faith has the answers – all the answers. For me – to live is to live through Islam. Through praying five times a day to the God – Allah – and his prophet, Mohammed, all praise be upon him – I need look no further for answers. My world is filled with His presence – my lips are filled with His breath every time I recite the words of the Holy Qu’ran. Today was horrible – really, really horrible: –but now, as I pray, I feel God’s comfort right here, inside me!

(9) I Believe – the boy joins the male singer as he starts to sing! Others – of faith – surround the singer, the others standing at a distance, disapproving. The chorus join in enthusiastically – and pictures of faith communities fill the screens.

Window: Girl link Dialogue - Youth:

First Draft Guide Text:

Girl: I admire your certainties. I am a Christian – and I draw comfort from my prayers and from loving God who sent his only son to suffer death on the cross for me and my sins. But I do not share your certainties. I wish I did, but I hope there exists more faith in honest doubt than any of your creeds. I know I am on my own on this earth. God gave us free will – and in many ways, I wish he hadn’t.

(10) Father in the Sky – the girl singer comes forward and the Girl joins her; the other ‘faith’ singers join her, and sing the choruses. It ends up with them on their knees singing the final appeal to their Father to show himself…. The Boy comes forward at the end, challenging her:

Window: Religions should connect, not divide us, Dialogue - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Boy: You cannot call God – Allah: “Father!” God does not have a face and hands. There is no Mrs God – no family, no children. “He is Allah, the One and the Only. Allah the Eternal, Allah the Absolute; he begets not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto him.”[Qu’ran 112: 1-4]

Girl: But that is the absolute opposite of Christianity – God becoming flesh and dwelling among us – feeling our pain, knowing our joys, experiencing our sorrows – then dying on the cross for us. God as Man – it’s fundamental!

Child: I grew up Jewish – my Mom telling me that we were God’s chosen people. But I didn’t feel much like God’s chosen people – it seemed to me that pretty much everyone hated Jews apart from other Jews. I tried to keep it secret.

Youth (1) – Which is God’s favorite religion?

Male Narrator: The 12th Century Afghan mystic, Rumi, said: “I go into the Muslim Mosque, the Jewish Synagogue and the Christian Church and I see one altar….” You throw a dice – and if you are sitting there – you see one dot; if there – 4 dots – if there – 5. But it is the same dice seen from different perspectives. God is above religion: people sell religions like merchants in a market place, telling everyone that they know the truth and if you don’t follow their way you are doomed to eternal hellfire. Then another comes along with similar claim, smiling and smirking, saying: “We have the truth! Our prophet got it straight from God; wrote it all down; All those who don’t believe this is the way, they will be the ones to die in hell’s inferno!” Yet another says: “No! Your’s is a false God! Our God became a man. Only he knows the truth!” And this one hates that one, and that one hates this one! And that one started off being part of this one and then became that one. And then they start killing each other because they are sure they will go to heaven if they die in defense of their religion; and they all believe, because they were brought up that way; taught that way. But Religion is not wrong; it is there to give us some relief from our fear of the unknown. We need it to control abuse of freedom - to inspire us to greater equality, caring and justice. All religion inspires in us a desire for compassion and a fair society. So let us go back to the great books of our Prophets and teachers and take out of them those things that encourage division and selfishness. Let’s create a New Bible from the best parts from all our great books - leaving in only those parts that inspire caring and altruism. Where each child is every one’s child.

Youth (2) – who is this guy?

Youth (1) – he is so bright!

Boy: I think we should write that book – right here, right now!

Girl: Together? – you mean you can forgive me for wanting a God who has a face and hands –and a Son?

Boy: If you will allow me to have Mohammed, praise be upon him, as the last prophet

Child: And you allow me to burn Hanukkah candles and live according to the Torah...

Female Narrator: It’s called tolerance – or more than that, it’s called respect.

Male Narrator: Perhaps deepest of all – it’s called Love. Love of differences. My wife likes the colour orange, God help us – and I like blue! And so throughout the house – we have this hideous clash of colours. But we respect our differences and love them!

Boy: I wonder what this book is going to be like

(11) The Laws – the Youth chorus come forward – singing a line each. The rest of the chorus join in at the refrain – then the younger children get involved, piping up with their lines. So the whole human family sings – and commits to – the Laws.

Window: Dialogue on HOW you get the Laws obeyed? - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Youth (1) – Forgiveness and Love!?

Youth (2) – I guess everything does flow from that!

Girl – Do only unto others as you would have others do unto you. That’s the golden rule.

Youth (3) – Works fine unless you are a sado-masochist!

Youth (4) – Like Aaron!

Youth (5) – That’s where it all falls apart you see: force, violence – always defeats your cute, pretty little values.

Youth (6) – You mean the bad guy always wins!?

Youth (5) – Pretty much – he who kills the most, gains the most.

Female Narrator: Recent history would tend to dispute that. Gandhi’s principles of non-violence defeated the power of the British Empire’s big armies. The way of truth and love will succeed.

Boy: But How?

Girl: How would we get these values accepted and enforced everywhere?

Youth (2) – and even if we did, how would we crack the problems of climate change, population growth – and all that other stuff.

Male Narrator: we have to believe that there are the technologies out there to solve these problems. The ingenuity of mankind, properly directed, is immense as we have seen. But – too much of it is directed at finding better ways to kill each other and enrich ourselves, materially. We have to return to the values of childhood – the values of that distant Eden. The place we all came from at birth, and to which we shall return. Hard to imagine now – but I was once a child.

Boy(to the Male Narrator): Who are you?

Girl(to the Female Narrator): Who are you??

(12) Child for a day – sung very gently by the soloists, with the chorus softly in the background;

Window: Rediscovering the innocence of childhood Dialogue - Narrator and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Boy – Who are you?

Male Narrator: Who am I? – isn’t that the question that can never be answered? – Oh – there are so many easy answers: I am German, I am Christian, I am a businessman, father – lover, friend, billionaire! But who am I really – deep inside? Don’t you know?

Boy: Are you in my dream?

Youth (3) – You’re one of those bullshit counsellors sent to cheer us up after shit like Aaron happens!

Male Narrator: Haven’t you figured it out yet – haven’t you looked down the tunnel of the years –and seen me coming towards you in your future?

Boy: You’re me???? – as an old man?!!

Male Narrator: And you are me – as a teenager!

Youth (2) – Spooky!

Female Narrator: But it’s the only reality we’ll ever know – I’m everything you will become – you are everything I once was. And – take it further: look beyond me, and you will see all your ancestors working, loving, travailing down the years of history – and look the other way, see all the babies, your children, grand-children, great-grand-children lining up for their own brief moment on this paradise we call planet earth. That – that is the only reality. Ourselves, our family, our flesh and blood – and yet, within that, lurks that golden spark that –maybe, just maybe – links us to the creator. God!

Youth (5): I still say that’s bullshit.

Male Narrator: Maybe – but life’s an awful lonely place without it.

Youth (5): Perhaps – but better to be real, than lost amongst the god-botherers.

Youth (4) – Hard reality is the here and now. Things that you can touch and feel. Not fantasies.

Female Narrator: You’re forgetting your childhood – you had dreams then…

Youth (5): But when I became a man, I put away childish things, and right now – I’d trust an AK-47 any time against the likes of Aaron than the power of prayer to an unknown, unseen God!

Girl: What do you think?

Child: I think – I believe in Paradise! I’m a very lucky little boy – my parents love me, my sister is kind to me, takes me to school and to picnics by the river. I am surrounded by kind friends to play with - I cannot imagine a more perfect life….

Female Narrator: That’s – that’s Perfect! You have to put Aaron behind you. You will never forget, you can never forgive – but you can accept that bad things like Aaron happen. Believe me – they will continue to happen, God or No God! – but, if you reach back, reach out for that memory of the first flower you ever smelled, your first kiss – the first memory of your mother’s hug, her skin, you will survive.

(13) Reach Out – The children’s chorus come forward and sing to the audience. The Youth stand back and watch, reflecting:

Window: Faith or No Faith Dialogue - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Youth (5): Sap….

Male Narrator: I know what you’re going to say: “Sappy Bullshit!”

Youth (5): Too right!

Male Narrator: So fine! Don’t believe – by like CS Lewis before he became a Christian, fighting in the 1st World War. He said: “No matter how scared I get, I hope I never stoop so low as to pray ”

Female Narrator: An Indian cynic put it this way: “In the beginning we feared everything – animals, the weather, the trees, the night sky – everything except each other. Now we fear each other and almost nothing else. No-one knows why anyone does anything. No-one tells the truth. No-one is happy. No-one is safe. In the face of all that is so wrong with the world, the very worst thing you can do is to survive. And yet you must survive. It is this dilemma that makes us believe and cling to the fiction that we have a soul, and that there is a God that cares about its fate.”

Boy: But for me, it’s not a Fiction. It is the absolute Truth – and I feel it every day to be true. You mentioned Rumi. He also said:

We sleep in God’s unconsciousness

We wake in God’s open hand

We weep God’s rain

We laugh God’s lightening

Without God, we are nothing

We are emptiness…..

Girl: I think it’s cool if Sam is an atheist. At least he’s sorted out what he feels. I feel great about your faith – and I, as a Christian, feel inspired by it to raise my faith game! And I feel great about every one who has faith – because they have the vision – the leadership to find solutions.

Youth (1) – That – THAT! – to me is the bottom line. Look at the minnows we have as leaders right now! If we think that Angela Merkel, and Nicholas Sarkozy are going to chart the path to climate security, peace, and an end to poverty ON THEIR OWN – we’ve got to be crazy.

Boy: They need help – they need divine inspiration.

Youth (2) – Dear Lord, help us! If we have to leave it up to them, we’re toast!

Youth (5) – So – let’s lend them a hand: let’s study hard, seek out the solutions and, as they die out and we replace them, we’ll have better ideas. There’s no need for God!

Girl: There’s need for vision!

Youth (5) – Sure! I’m cool with vision.

Boy – So – let’s do it!

(14) I have a vision – The male and female singers come forward with the song – and all join the chorus, raising the vision of a future with love and peace at its heart. Images of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, St. Joan – and other heroic, saintly leaders fill the screens. The youth singers lead, the children and the older chorus members join.

Window: Vision Dialogue - Narrators and Youth: to be drawn from Improvisation

First Draft Guide Text:

Boy: I have a vision too – a world at peace! A world where there are no terrors – no climate change, no wars, no population bombs. I can see it – touch it. But we are not there yet – not anywhere close. Please – please tell me how I make it to your age: what do I have to do?

Male Narrator: You have your values – to forgive, to love, to do unto others as you would have others do unto you What more do you need??

Boy: The detail – who shall I marry? One kid or two? – do we trust the internet?? Who do we vote for?

Female Narrator: That’s banality: we’re not here to tell you stupid things – the basic things are what you should cling to. Remember Gandhi: “Before you take any action, think of the poorest, most desperate human being you have ever seen and ask yourself: will this action benefit that man?” If the answer is ‘Yes!’ – do it; if ‘No’ – don’t! It’s that simple!

Boy: It’s not that simple? Who am I? Who do I become?? Am I famous? Do I lose it and become an axe-murderer?! Help me out here.

Male Narrator: You have to answer those questions with your life. I am here to let you know that you solve them – not how you solve them. And I might be a chimera – a dream – a mirage. Like God Himself. It’s up to you if you choose to believe in me or not!

Boy: Oh! – how I hate you!

Male Narrator: Don’t hate me – I am you!

Youth (1): Give it a break here, will you! You get what the guy’s saying: he’s not your timelord, Dr Who – sort-it-all-out-for-you kind of a dude! He’s just a help along the way. When it comes down to it – we’re still back at the same question.

Youth (2): Yeah – and I guess it’s enough that we ask it?

Youth (1): Who are you?!

Youth (3): Who are you?!

Youth (4): Who are you??

Youth (5): Who are you???

Youth (6): Who – are – you????

Youth (- ALL - ): WHO ARE YOU?????

(15) I who am I? [reprise] – a child comes forward, solo treble, reprising the song – joined by the chorus, softly, questioning. The two narrators come forward on to the acting stage – reading the conclusion from their books.

Window: Wrap-up Conclusion/Dialogue – Narrators (and maybe Youth) -

First Draft Guide Text:

Male Narrator: It's what we do that counts. Not what we think or say – or pray for God to do. We cannot blame God when things go wrong, because we have been given this Freedom to solve the problems ourselves.

Female Narrator: God has called us the Stewards of all that lives and moves upon this earth: if it goes awry it is because we are making the mistakes.

Male Narrator: By prayer, we grow our spirit and find the common faith that unites all human kind.

Female Narrator: We bypass old traditions and voices that separate human from human on trivialities.

Male Narrator: We acquire wisdom that allows us to follow the spirit in the guidance of the great books that were never meant to be taken as rigid laws.

Female Narrator: In this day of darkness we need to find that great wisdom – and follow the guidance of that great spirit.

Music – Conclusion – End

P EACE C HILD – A LPHA O MEGA

- A J OURNEY IN F AITH -

I M E C E

– Introduction / Flow Pattern –

The dialogue pieces here are intended as guides – the dialogue between the youth and child to be reviewed, improvised around and re-written by the young people cast to play the roles.

O PENING :

Rippling intro – Visuals: slow zoom in to the earth from space. Enter the story-teller. The Chorus stand:

Storyteller: In the beginning – if you are Christian or Muslim – God created the heaven and the earth. In six days! If you are a Hindu – the great God Raa created the earth from a lotus blossom growing out of his navel. If you are a humanist, in the beginning was the Big Bang – hurling matter across the universe, one speck of which hardened and evolved to become our planet Earth. However it started, Humanity became the dominant species on the earth, dominating and consuming most of its resources, becoming rich and ever more numerous. Human beings became the Rulers of the Earth!

Drum roll - Chorus sing: “Aaaah – aah – ah –aaah – ah-ah – aaaaaaah!”

Storyteller: But are we happy?! After several thousand years of development, have we learned the art of being at peace with each other, with our earth, with our own bodies? I fear not. I want you to come back with me sixty years to the year 2010 when a young man calmly packed two bags full of explosives, walked to my school and, equally calmly, blew himself up in the school assembly – killing sixteen of his fellow pupils and injuring me and hundreds of others. I wonder if, as he walked to school that day, he asked himself the question that has haunted me for the rest of my life?

Boy soloist comes out of the choir – and sings.

2. I WHO AM I

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living?

And having a place of our own? What power conceived me?

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Chorus: We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here?

We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

The kids come on during the last verse – looking totally lost and all alone. The two girls cling to each other – weeping in terror. The boy stands apart, trying to look cool. The little child sits at the front of the stage – ashen. Traumatised.

Scene ONE: The suggested lines here are designed identify each character, their faith, their reaction to what happened at the school and – lead to the recognition that the world is dying.

1st Girl: (praying) Allah – Allah Akhbar!

2nd Girl: (praying) Oh God! – Christ Jesus, help us!!

Child: I don’t believe in God any more. I’ve decided

2nd Girl: Sshh! You can’t say that -

2nd Girl: Specially not in here! It’s a church!

Child: Why are they keeping us in a church?

1st Girl: It’s a safe place, I suppose. School, clearly, isn’t.

2nd Girl: I feel safe here – and the counsellor will be along in a minute

Child: I want to go home!

1st Girl: As soon as the counsellor has seen you, you’ll be free to go!

Boy: When they’ve ticked their stupid boxes! Bureaucrats! God help us! The world’s going to hell in a hand-basket, and the bureaucrats are holding up the rescue parties because they haven’t got the right paper-work….

2nd Girl: What was Ahmed’s problem?

1st Girl: I barely knew him!

Boy: He was weird! He was sick with western society – the consumption, the greed! He was lonely – and he got caught up in all that religion bullshit.

1st Girl: That’s what really hurts. So much! What he did is against everything Islam stands for – and yet, for you, for everyone – it will make you all hate Islam more.

Boy: All religion is dangerous – but Islam is the most dangerous. None of the other faiths produce suicide bombers as fast as Islam does. And – if I’d been born in Saudi Arabia, I’d have been one of them. And if I’d become the atheist I am now – I would have been killed for apostasy.

1st Girl: Not killed.

Boy: I would in Saudi Arabia. They chop off hands, lop people’s heads off, keep women behind bars – all in the name of religion. It’s a kind of fascism. Frightening! Ahmed’s violence is a natural extension of that

1st Girl: But just because there are some evil Mullahs who prey on kids like Ahmed and persuade them to do really evil things, doesn’t mean you should condemn the whole religion.

Boy: It’s a universal sickness: our western civilisation is dying: our’s is the first generation who will be worse off than our parents. Unless we change our ways, we will witness the start of the slow death of humanity.

1st Girl: Climate change – oil, food, water running out… Our world is dying through our greed –

2nd Girl: But killing yourself for that - ?

Boy: - is unbelievable! Is insane! I agree

Child: It must have hurt so much [FREEZE]

Storyteller: In truth – it must! Our world was hurting too! Humanity was becoming like a cancer, sucking the life-blood out of its host, the earth. Our population had grown so huge, we had moved from being the stewards of the earth to its rapacious plunderers. Objectively, it was easy to feel: there was no hope for us.

The singer comes forward – and sings.

2. WORLD

Soloist: World – look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the words we say

Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the love we had

Look at the things we’ve made

Chorus: Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Soloist: Can’t you see the tide is changing?

Don’t you know that truth is fading?

People coming out from under

Slowly rising to the thunder

Listen to the shouting people

Broken churches, broken steeple

There’s no one for them to follow

Every one’s a God tomorrow

Can’t you see the world is dying?

Repentant people all are crying

Law and order has been drowned

Chaos rules and has been crowned!

Chorus: World – look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the games we play

Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the things we build

Look at the love we’ve killed

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Scene TWO: The suggested lines here continue the identification of each character, the realisation that others have suffered evil, and that it is possible to replace bad memory with good.

1st Girl: For me, the world is dead already! There’s no future for Muslim people in this country. I don’t blame people for hating us.

Child: You’ll deal with it. My family’s Jewish – and we’ve dealt with it for years!

Boy: Islam is no more misguided than any other religion. Ahmed just got his brain washed by the wrong crowd – and now he’s paid for it. With his life!

2nd Girl: But he was a Muslim. Why are all suicide bombers Muslim?

1st Girl: Perhaps because our faith in heaven, faith in God is stronger. If you pray five times a day, you get to feel pretty close to God. It takes over your life!

Boy: I say it’s really dangerous! But Christianity’s dangerous too – from the Inquisition to George W. Bush – people do evil things in the name of religion.

1st Girl: And sometimes because they’re just plain crazy. Like Dunblane.

2nd Girl: Like Columbine.

Child: Like Auschwitz.

Storyteller: You have to replace recent memory with a happier one! Remember back to your earliest childhood – your mother’s smiling face; lying on the grass, feeling the sunshine on your back. The scent of flowers

Child: That’s silly!

Boy: Is that Counsellor-speak for “Get over it!”??

Storyteller: No! – I mean it. We came from Paradise – and to Paradise we will return if we allow our minds to pursue it. Think back – reach back to that place we all came from. Feel the beauty! [ALL FREEZE]

The children’s Chorus sing:

3. PARADISE

Children: Here is a world so beautiful and green Where the sun is shining and the waters run clean Here in this world where we all have to stay

A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear I have a mouth for speaking, tasting I have a nose to smell the air!

Chorus: We are a people so happy - we say: “We love this world and here we will stay” We hear that voice deep inside our soul say “Listen to the music of life’s sweet call!”

Children: I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear I have a hand for touching, feeling I have a mind to see that’s clear!

Chorus: Here in this world where we all have to stay

A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

Scene THREE: The suggested lines here remind us that we were thrown out of Paradise but that we have managed to invent a pretty good, if unsustainable, life on our own.

Boy: But we screwed up, didn’t we?! We got ourselves thrown out of Paradise! “On thy belly shalt thou go! Eat dust and die!”

2nd Girl: That was the serpent, stupid.

1st Girl: Could as well been us: we share a creation story, Christians, Jews and Muslims: we all agree that human beings disobeyed God’s will and were banned from Paradise in this world.

Child: But – we haven’t done so badly, have we! Cars, play stations – wide-screen TVs. We did pretty good on our own, didn’t we?

Boy: Sure – there is no limit to mankind’s inventions! Nuclear bombs, Hedge Funds, mega cities – our inventions are destroying us. That’s the problem. [ FREEZE ]

Storyteller: The civilisation we invented was based on a lie – the falsehood that every generation could live better than the last. That our small planet would support every human being in ever increasing luxury. In our generation, we were brought face-to-face with the ugly fact that Planet Earth simply did not possess enough resources – oil, minerals, water, food – to enable that to happen. Our inventions had signed humanity’s death warrant.

4. INVENTIONS

Chorus: Make a wheel, then spinning it round

It may carry the world

Make a fire – yes building it high till I burns to the ground

Make a blade and call it a spade

To dig through the earth

Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Nothing can stop us

We’ll make our own star dust

Nothing can stop us…

So spin that wheel, faster and faster

It will carry us far

Stoke up that fire, yes higher and higher

Till it burns to the sky

Make a bow, put in an arrow

Let it fly through the world

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Plenty of money, more milk and more honey

Who needs to work?

But what of the spade, digging so hard?

What’s left but soil and the earth?

We are Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

The wheels are all turning

The fires are all burning

We’re living for learning

Learning, learning, learning

Scene FOUR: The suggested lines here introduce the idea that Love can play a big part in resolving people’s problems – including Love of God.

Storyteller: Learning, learning, learning – what is the use of learning if it becomes a tool by which one man can dominate another? What use is the world of humankind if one is against another and the family is divided? What use is a world of material inventions if it brings only jealousy and separation?

2nd Girl: No use at all! But surely love remains? – the love of a man for a woman; the love of Jesus Christ, my saviour, who gave His life for our sins. God is Love!

1st Girl: Yes! “ If you love – Love Allah! For Allah will love you and forgive you – for Allah is oft - forgiving and Most Merciful! ” [Qu’ran, 3.31]

Boy: Love conquers all! Sure – if only we could love each other! Only connect – be friends! “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I would have the guts to betray my country ” Who said that?

2nd Girl: I don’t know – but it’s good, Love and friendship above everything. I like it!

Child: Did he have a girl-friend, that Ahmed??

1st Girl: No – and maybe that was the problem! [ FREEZE ]

Storyteller: Ah – the dream of love! It’s true, isn’t it? – God is Love!? Certainly, my happiest memories of life were the times I was in love! – And my Bible confirms it: “ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so I could move mountains – and have not love, I am nothing. Love never faileth. Prophecies – they shall fail; Tongues – they shall cease; Knowledge – it s hall vanish away; But now

abideth – Faith, Hope and Love – and the greatest of these is Love. ” [I Corinthians, 13]

The two singers come forward to sing:

5. Dreamer

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lover – you are my friend

We’ll always be together

Though this world may end

Where-ever I go – I’ll watch over you

Where-ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Man – you are my friend

I’ll always be beside you

Until the end

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

Woman my woman, lady my friend

We’ll be together until the end

Scene FIVE: The suggested lines here debunk the idea that love can solve anything. Hatred is the stronger emotion and war comes naturally to human beings who hate.

Child: My parents divorced when I was five.

2nd Girl: But stayed friends, I hope!

Child: Are you kidding?!! It was World War III in our house for as long as I remember! They can’t stand the sight of each other

Boy: My folks split up too. They got really good at hating each other!

1st Girl: Mine too! It was horrible – it split the family, top to bottom.

2nd Girl: Gosh – I’m sorry! Am I the only one who has happily married parents!

Boy: What does that tell you about Love conquering all!

Child: It almost killed me! Seriously! One day, my Mum and Dad were fighting, and Dad threw a plate at Mum – not realising there was still a knife on it. It missed my eye by inches!

Boy: That’s how wars start! [ FREEZE ]

Storyteller: –

Once upon a time a long time ago

When our Universe was young

Our world was a paradise made of love According to a heavenly plan

A pattern soon emerged of things to come And the problems Mankind faced Tribes of men – not quite the same –

Competing for food and the best bit of land

Starting off the game called ‘War’

It started with a stone, then came a stick

Soon there was an arrow and a spear

Then came a club, then an arrow - then a gun

Soon bullets were flying everywhere

Conflict raged all over the world

Hatred and envy choked the air!

Tribe against Tribe, Man against Man!

Nobody seemed to care

With each generation passing by Men found new skills of war

Hydrogen and cluster bombs

Mercenaries and terrorists

Cold Wars and dirty wars

Underground

Overground

Sea and air

Out in Space

All our wealth –

All our youth –

All our finest minds –

Conspire to KILL

The entire human race

6. WAR

Chorus: We'll fight our way to distant hills, A bloody battle have

We'll raise our sword and kill them all]

We'll raise our countries flag!

We'll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We'll kill our women, children too, Kill them all until we're through Kill them all until we're through.

God save our land, long live our flag, On to the war we go - praise to our dead

But who says we're right, who says we're wrong Honour and pride - to this we belong!

Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us from what we do!

Our world is through!

But who can save us! But who can save us?

But who can save us from what we do?

Soloist: God - where are you?

Scene SIX: The suggested lines here introduces a serious discussion of the nature of God, our different ways of worship, the convictions of atheism and the sanctity of doubt.

Storyteller: God? Nowhere. Humanity self-destructs on a nuclear addiction! Life! – obliterated in a few short minutes. But the planet survives! Out of the rocks and crevices, new atoms, new molecules emerge. New life forms are created. The cycle of life begins again. Millions of years pass – new human beings evolve. They build their own civilisation which probably

also self-destructs. On and on until the world flies too close to the sun and all life is incinerated for ever. Our world becomes lifeless, like all the other planets in our solar system.

1st Girl: But God must be somewhere in all this?? The all-powerful, all-loving God – driving and directing everything!

Boy: Are you crazy!? How could a God who allows suicide bombing or nuclear war be worth believing in?? The other day, I heard about this worm in Africa that burrows its way into a child’s eyeball, making it blind. But it doesn’t stop there, the worm burrows on into the child’s brain, sending it mad – then killing it.

Child: Why would anyone want to worship a God who makes a worm like that??

1st Girl: Only God knows. We can never know the wisdom of God’s ways. But there is a plan – and if we get down on our knees, five times a day, and live our lives through God, with God, trusting God – we will find a way out. Don’t you agree?

2nd Girl: Five times a day – Gosh! It’s as much as I can do to go to church once a week on Sundays.

Boy: You’re both mad! Do you think that God’s going to come crashing down from heaven and say: “OK guys – relax! God’s here! I’ll sort all this out ”?? He didn’t do that at Auschwitz! Didn’t do it on 9/11 either.

Child: It’s never going to happen. Never has happened – never will!

2nd Girl: But it did! Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem. Lived his life – taught us how to live – and then saved our sins by dying on the Cross and rising again. That was the Child of God among us! And He will come again –

Boy: You really believe that?

2nd Girl: Sure!

Boy: I’m impressed. No doubts?

2nd Girl: No doubt!

Child: Not even a little?!

2nd Girl: Well – maybe a little! [ FREEZE ]

Storyteller: “ There exists more faith in honest doubt than any of your creeds. ”

The female soloist comes forward and sings:

7. Father in the Sky

Father in the sky

Won’t you tell us who you are?

Won’t you say a word to me – that I can understand You have me in your hands

Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And I am so afraid I never was so brave

How can I carry on And still believe in you

When every hope has vanished Long ago - in spite of you

How can we carry on How can we face you now?

When everything we tried so hard To do was lost somehow

How can we face you now?

How can we face you now?

Scene SEVEN: The suggested lines here lead from the discussion of the nature of God to the failure of current leaders to achieve the changes necessary to secure future life.

Child: I really don’t understand why you guys are so obsessed with God? We’re on our own down here! No Father in the sky could prevent what happened this Morning.

Boy: He’s right! Metal detectors on the entrances might! Human beings have got to learn how to sort out their own mess.

2nd Girl: And – it is some mess, isn’t it? Glaciers melting – sea-level rise; London gone by the end of our lives. God’s got a big job on his hands.

Child: Not God! Us!! We should be much more angry!

1st Girl: Anger doesn’t get you anywhere! Faith that God’s there to help makes everything possible.

2nd Girl: Don’t you get that? Faith helps! Faith inspires! Un-faith is – ? – is depressing!

Child: I don’t find it depressing – what I find depressing is a lot of sad old people mumbling prayers in a Synagogue!

Boy: Or a church! Look at us! - the classic confrontation: girls on one side praying to a nonexistent God; boys on the other – trying to figure things out in a practical way.

Child: Full of energy and anger!

Boy: Anger’s good! Anger generates the will to do something. Do you know how long it took for Mother Nature to make the oil on which our civilisation depends?

1st Girl: No idea - a hundred million years?

Boy: Two hundred million! – and our parents, our grand-parents have burned it all up in about 200 years - flying around in their big jets, driving around in their big cars making wars –hating each other! They caused global warming and now - we’re really screwed –

2nd Girl: You’re sounding like Ahmed! So what do we do? Go round and blow something up?

Child: We should arrest them! For murdering our future

Boy: – and our children’s future. We get all worked up about Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung – for murdering a few million people. Even Ahmed – splashed over the papers for murdering 16. Terrible – but our leaders, by their inaction on climate change today – they are quietly and intentionally planning the murder of more than a billion people!

Child: How?

Boy: Sea level rise – coastal flooding – extreme weather. But the real killer will come when the ice fields melt in the Himalayas. They feed all the major rivers in South-East Asia and if they dry up – two billion people will go thirsty.

1st Girl: Ach, politicians! What can you do? They strut around like supermen, and pass their stupid laws, telling us what to do, how to do it – but do they really have a clue what they’re doing?

2nd Girl: Can you blame me for trusting an unseen God over a seen politician?

1st Girl: They’re hopeless but, if you’re an atheist, they’re all you’ve got!

Boy: So – we’ve got to challenge them more!

Child: I agree! [ FREEZE ]

8. SUPERMAN

Chorus: Where you gonna run to, Superman?! Where you gonna hide, where will be your land? What you gonna say now, Superman?! Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

What have you done with this beautiful world?

Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this God-given Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide? Where will be your land?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

Where you gonna run to - Superman?!

Scene EIGHT: The suggested lines here lead from doubts about the ability of earthly leaders to handle our problems to the absolute certainty that Faith in God can resolve them.

2nd Girl: OK – so we point the finger. But how do we know that we could do any better?

Boy: We couldn’t do much worse!

1st Girl: We absolutely KNOW – we couldn’t do any better.

2nd Girl: So why are we accusing them, then?

1st Girl: I’m not accusing them! I’m saying that we’re not going to get out of this mess without God’s help!

Child: So you do think God’s going to send down some one to sort it all out?

1st Girl: Yes – some how!

Child: Why would He do that?

2nd Girl: To save our world! To save His creation!

Boy: You know you don’t believe that?! It’s a fantasy! You’re hallucinating! All that stuff about babes in mangers, prophets leaping off a rock – dying and going to heaven, sitting on a cloud playing a harp with the angels! It’s all fairy stories, isn’t it?! And such a distraction.

1st Girl: It’s absolutely NOT a distraction. God is the answer to all things – the beginning and the end of all things. Atheism doesn’t have any answers. But my faith has the answers – all the answers. For me – to live is to live through Islam. Through praying five times a day to the God – Allah – and his prophet, Mohammed, all praise be upon him – I need look no further for answers. My world is filled with His presence – my lips are filled with His breath every time I recite the words of the Holy Qu’ran. Today was horrible – really horrible: – but now, as I pray, I feel God re-building my faith right here, inside me! [ FREEZE ]

9. I BELIEVE!

If the sun lost its shine And the trees started to die Yes – I’d still be full of hope

I guess I know the reason why

If the wind grew too old

And the seas started to dry

Yes I would still be full of love

Don’t ask – don’t ask me why!

Yes I still believe in God

I still believe in us – his people!

And if you really want to know I still believe in this His land.

We believe in God

We still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

We still believe in this His land.

So don’t turn your head away

Don’t give up on who you are

Just keep on loving more each day

And the world will shine for you

I guess it’s all in the mind

What you feel is what you see

So within your heart just sing these words

Come sing! – come sing with me!

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people!

And if you really want to know

We still believe in this His land.

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

I believe – yes I believe I believe – yes I believe I believe in this His Land!

Scene NINE: The suggested lines here introduces the idea that Faith in an unseen God helps create values, and hope, and the dream of a better world in temporal leaders.

2nd Girl: Don’t you feel it? – the power of faith?!

Boy: Of course I feel it. It’s impossible NOT to feel it. But I say it’s dangerous and irrational: that power led Ahmed to do what he did. It led George Bush to pursue his illegal war in Iraq against all rational common sense. The power of your irrational faith scares me.

Child: It’s crazy! We’ve got real problems to sort out – hoping a God you can’t even see is going to sort them out is just mad, isn’t it?

1st Girl: I may not see my God but I feel Him all the time. You don’t see the wind – but you can feel it!

Child: I don’t feel God anywhere!!

1st Girl: Perhaps because you haven’t opened your heart to Him? But I know you do feel Him. I saw you put out the Hanukah candles last year

2nd Girl: And my sister came to your Pass-over party!

Boy: Well – I do Christmas! And I like an Easter egg as much as the next man.

1st Girl: That’s silly! Christmas was a pagan festival long before it became Christ’s birthday!

2nd Girl: Right – and it’s not about random nods to faith. It’s about having a faith – a certainty that there is some spirit, greater than all of us, out there, supporting us – breathing life into us. All the greatest leaders had it! Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King –they were strong because of their faith!

1st Girl: It gives you a positive outlook! Faith gives you values. Faith is hope – and hope is what we need right now.

2nd Girl: Yeah – imagine if Martin Luther King had said, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: “I have a nightmare today…” – people would have been scared away. Faith feeds vision – faith feeds dreams – and we must dream a positive future if we are to live it. [Music begins]

Boy: I’m cool with that. I’m up for vision! I’m big on dreams [ FREEZE ]

Enter the two singers to sing:

10. I have a vision

I have a vision, I have a dream I have the answer or so it seems.

Don't you see the truth, to fight is not right, We shall have our rainbow, we will have our sunlight If we unite!

There's a way you see, where no one gets hurt

There's a way with love if you try!

There is hope and faith to keep you alive

In your darkest day, just pray!

Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

Martin Luther King had a vision! He had a dream He had the answer, or so it seemed!

He knew the truth - to fight is not right We can have our rainbow, we can have the sunlight! We must unite!

A new world, A new light!

A new world, A new light!

A new hope! A new light -

Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

I have a vision!

Scene TEN: The suggested lines here introduces the idea of Imece – the idea that differences should not just be tolerated but celebrated and that the laws of the different religions, far from dividing us, should unite us.

Boy: So that’s your vision: a world at peace; all differences dissolved. All the people, living as one family together, loving each other, caring for each other. Peace!

1st Girl: But the differences would remain – and that’s what makes it interesting, isn’t it? For example, Charlotte prays every day to ‘Our Father.’ I can’t get my head around that! ‘Father in the sky’ – Mr God with the wife and two kids, a Happy Family. How can you believe in a God that has sex with a virgin and produces a son?! “ He is Allah – the One and the Only. Allah the Eternal, Allah the Absolute; he begets not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto him. ” [ Qu’ran 112: 1 - 4 ]

2nd Girl: Jews have a problem with Christians: they don’t believe in our Messiah!

Child: And Christians have a problem with us: we killed you Messiah if I remember right?

Boy: And so all of us are going to keep on fighting and scrapping until one of us comes out on top? That’s insane! There’s got to be a better way?

Child: Which is God’s favorite religion?

2nd Girl: He doesn’t…

1st Girl: [Interrupting them] Imece!

Child / 2nd Girl/Boy: [together] Imece!?

1st Girl: You’ve not heard of it, then?

Boy: What does it mean, Imece?

1st Girl: It’s an ancient Turkish system of rural solidarity from practised in the Ottoman Empire. All over the Empire, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Arabs, Christians, Jews – everyone! – lived together in small villages. Imece was the system by which they all worked together on common tasks – fetching water, digging wells, gathering the crops, repairing houses, baking bread, making wine! - sharing, co-creating and interacting together for a happier and joyful life free from selfishness. It’s like the Pennsylvania barn-raising of the Amish people in America. And I’m sure God – Allah – approves. Today, as human beings get more lonely day by day, isolated in their separate silos of religion, ethnicity and nationality. Imece is God’s way of reminding us that we are one family and that we must work together.

Boy: But it’s not a religion? It doesn’t have prophets?

2nd Girl: God doesn’t really come into it?

1st Girl: No – but in the purest sense of the word ‘religion’ – which comes from the Latin religio –obligation and reverence, it is a perfect religion. It teaches us the obligation of being reverent and respectful towards each other.

2nd Girl: Like you would put up with my crazy ideas about Mr and Mrs God?

1st Girl: And you would respect absolutely my faith in Mohammed as the Last Prophet

2nd Girl: Of course!

Child: And you would all be happy to come over to my place for Passover Supper?!

All: Definitely!

Boy: One big happy family, eh?!

1st Girl: Not just here – all over the world! Global Imece would solve climate change, bring peace –and make sure that no one lived in poverty any more.

Boy: Global Imece! Is that the answer I’ve been looking for?

Child: One world religion! If we could agree on that, we could write a new bible or Torah or Qu’ran that we would have all the laws and teachings of all our great Prophets.

Boy: They all said basically the same things, didn’t they?

Child: So let’s do it!

FREEZE

Storyteller: See how we young ’uns got carried away. That single bible idea? - very foolish! Never happened: it would have pissed off everyone. But there was more than a grain of sanity in it! I hadn’t heard the word imece until that day – but every day since, I have tried to live my life by it. A life of selflessness and integrity – of caring and sharing – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s so much fun! Out there, with people, sharing their love, their laughter and, from time to time, their sadness. That’s what life’s all about, isn’t

it? Thank you, young ’uns – thank you for giving me the laws that show that religions, far from dividing us, should lead us back to those simple truths embedded in imece which unite us all in love and caring!

11. The LAWS

Chorus: Where are the laws we must obey

Where are the rules to guide us through our day

Where are the words that will teach us how to live

Where are the signs to show us how to give

Where are the visions to help our failing souls

Where are the tools for rebuilding our new world

Soloist 1: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal

Soloist 2: Thou shalt not hurt or force your will

Soloist 3: Thou shalt beware of foolish pride

Soloist 4: Thou shalt be fair and take no sides

Soloist 5: Thou shalt despise all that is vain

Soloist 6: Thou shalt not lie, or cheat for gain

Soloist 7: Thou shalt keep holy your day for God

Soloist 8: Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

Chorus: Here are the laws we must obey

Here are the rules to guide us through our day

These are the words that will teach us how to live

These are the signs to show us how to give

Soloist 9: Thou shalt not have a jealous heart

Soloist 10: Shalt not desire your neighbour’s part

Soloist 11: Thou shalt be kind in every way

Soloist 12: And thou shalt keep a time to pray

Soloist 13: Thou shalt not cause your parents shame

Soloist 14: Thou shalt not curse, or take God’s name in vain

Chorus: And thou shalt worship the one true God Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

Storyteller: “If you want real peace, you have to begin with the Children!”

Through the eyes of a child – life is so simple!

The world is still beautiful – still good and still pure!

Through the eyes of a child – this world is a just playground

Exciting and daring – with nothing to fear

To the eyes of a child – our world is still heaven! Where everything is possible – a world so full of life

Where you can still believe in Miracles

If you open your eyes to the mind of a child

Through the eyes of a child – this world is a Paradise

12. Child for a Day

I was a child who ran full of laughter I was a child who lived for a day

My eyes full of sunshine

My heart full of smiles I was a child for a day.

We were the children who ran in the morning We were the children who laughed at the sun Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

We are the men who worry of nothing We are the men who speak without aim Who listen to no one yet speak of their wisdom We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

Scene ELEVEN: The suggested lines here discuss the nature of childhood, the imperative of children taking responsibility for their future and discovering the spark of God within them.

Boy: I think you’re idealising children. I’ve got friends who are really mean and violent.

1st Girl: Look at Ahmed!

Boy: And children can be unbelievably stupid.

Child: Speak for yourself! Some of us are incredibly bright -

2nd Girl: Quite right! Perceptive – brilliant. Beautiful!

Boy: Stop it! You know what I mean

1st Girl: Not sure I do, actually! – If we are going to build Global Imece, we have to start with the children, don’t we?? The older generation will never get it!

Boy: But if they don’t get it, why should we?

Child: ‘cos we’re brighter than them!

2nd Girl: More to the point, if we don’t get it, it’s us that’s going to get toasted on a stir-fried planet. They’ll all be dead!

FREEZE

Storyteller: That day – that moment – changed my life more completely than I could ever know. I found Imece – I found certainty and it gave a foundation to my life. What strange creatures we are – padding the path between birth and death across this wilderness we call Life! I realised that God is not a God in the sense that he controls us. Rather God is a spark in each of us from birth. That day awoke me to the spark of God in me. I realised, it’s no use blaming God; we have the books of his prophets and they are united not divided. If you read them with a clear heart, they enrich the spark of God in you and make it blaze more brightly! So don't sit around waiting for God to bring you a miracle. The Spark of God that is in you is the miracle. You are equipped to save the world and build the Garden of Paradise here on this earth.

13. Reach Out!

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are Show me what you can do

Believe in me, I believe in you!

Reach out for your dream It's not as hard as it may seem Together we can make it through Together - me and you!

Wake up -open our eyes, This is our world, our paradise.

Reach out, don't be afraid Come on now, we'' find a way There's a whole new world for us to see There's a universe in you and me.

Reach out, put your hand in mine! Oh see! - see how we shine!

Together - we'll make it through, Together me and you!

Don't be shy, just be yourself! You are your greatest wealth!

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are Show me what you can do

Believe in me, I believe in you!

Show me what you can do Believe in me, I believe in you!

Scene TWELVE: This concluding scene has suggested lines that reveal the Storyteller as the Boy’s older self and questions whether the concept of Imece requires any faith in God. It discusses the emptiness of life without Faith and explores some of the eternal questions about existence. At the end of this Journey in Faith, the Boy – and perhaps the Child – embrace Faith in God as part of their Human Identity.

Boy: So – let me get this right: if we embrace Imece, we can kind of forget about God?

1st Girl: What do you mean? God’s central to it?

Boy: I don’t see why? People coming to work unselfishly together sounds the essence of humanist common sense!

2nd Girl: But –

Boy: But nothing! Imece proves it! Atheism rules!

1st Girl: Bullshit!

Boy: Steady! Intemperate language…. Imams will talk!

2nd Girl: We need the Faith – the aura of the Almighty: Allah, God! Jahwe - the Hand that created all things, rules all things, understands all things.

1st Girl: The bright light shining into our darkness which is always there however hard we try to pull down the shutters and pretend it isn’t there. It IS there – I feel it every day of my waking life, every time I get on my knees. Like the wind!

Boy: Well I don’t feel it. I never felt it

2nd Girl: Perhaps you never tried –

Boy: You’re ganging up on me….

Storyteller: (reads – and for the first time in the show, the Company doesn’t freeze – instead, they turn to listen.) The author, CS Lewis, before he became a Christian, was a determined atheist. Even

fighting in the trenches in the 1st World War, he wrote: “No matter how scared I get, I hope I never stoop so low as to pray ” An Indian cynic who put it this way: “We humans are so fearful in matters of life and death that we have to cling to the fiction that we have a soul, and that there is a God that cares about its fate.” Is it a Fiction?? There are so many wonderful people down the centuries who answer “No!” to that question, you have to start to agree with them. Like Lewis did. The poems of Rumi were celebrated by Christians, Muslims and Jews. He said:

We sleep in God’s unconsciousness

We wake in God’s open hand

We weep God’s rain

We laugh God’s light’ning

Without God, we are nothing

We are emptiness

2nd Girl: That’s very cool! I totally agree with that! Face it – without faith of any kind, you’re kind of empty.

1st Girl: I heard a politician say once, “We don’t do God…” – and I thought, “How sad are you?!” –‘cos if you don’t do God, you are so empty.

Child: I don’t feel empty. Hungry, yes – but not empty!

Boy: I feel insulted by that. If I embrace Imece, you must allow that I don’t share your belief in the fairy stories of your faith. Respect that. Love that! Feel sorry for me if you must in your patronising way – but at least give me credit for my lack of faith.

2nd Girl: I do – I will! But don’t go all gloomy on us! I think that faith gives you hope – even if it is the sappy hope that we’re all going to live together in heaven, playing harps on our clouds under the loving eye of an old man with a long beard

Boy: Isn’t it more sensible to think about a vision of life before death? A world at peace! A world with no poverty, no climate change, no terrorism? I can see it – touch it. But, if we work together in joy and solidarity, we could just make it, couldn’t we?

Storyteller: You get that I’m here to let you know you will make it?!

Boy: And we didn’t need faith to get there, did we?

Storyteller: We did actually!

Child: Wait a minute! Who are you?

Boy: Yes – who are you??

2nd Girl: I thought he was the counsellor…

Storyteller: [to the Boy] Haven’t you figured it out yet – haven’t you looked down the long tunnel of the years – and seen me coming towards you in your future?

Boy: You’re me???? – as an old man?!!

Storyteller: Hallo! I remember you!

Boy: I don’t remember you.

Storyteller: How can you? For you, I don’t exist yet! But yet I’m out there in your future!

Child: Scary!

1st Girl: Unreal!

Storyteller: It’s the only reality you’ll ever know – I’m everything you will become – you are everything I once was. And – take it further: look beyond me, down the trail of history: you will see all our ancestors working, loving, toiling – and look the other way, see all the babies, your children, grand-children, great-grand-children lining up for their own brief moment on this paradise we call planet earth. That – that is the only reality. Ourselves, our family, our flesh and blood – and yet, within that, lurks that golden spark that –maybe, just maybe – links us to the creator. God!

Boy: I still say that’s bullshit.

Storyteller: Maybe – but my life would have been an awful lonely place without it.

Boy: Perhaps – but better to be real, than lost amongst the god-botherers

Storyteller: All I would beg is that you stay open to Faith – keep asking the questions. My certainties have helped me – just as her Christian doubts have helped her. Keep Questioning! Let me ask you this: what do you find when you get to the end of the Universe?

1st Girl: Nothing!

2nd Girl: God!

Boy: Infinity

Child: I don’t know

Storyteller: All right! What is the meaning of Life?

Boy: How can we possibly know?! What’s the reason for your life? – my life?

Storyteller: Who knows!? – to love each other, and to rub along as best you can with those you don’t care for. To leave the world a better place than you found it.

1st Girl: Fine! – but who are you? What makes you special?

Storyteller: Him!

Boy: Why?

Storyteller: You gave me the vision that I clung to for the rest of my life

Boy: Imece?! – she gave me that!

Storyteller: And I give you Faith! Hope!

Boy: Is that all?!

Storyteller: It was enough for me! –

Boy: So I’ve got to have faith now?

1st Girl: You’ll be a lot happier.

2nd Girl: And remember – with Imece – religions unite us!

Child: But which faith?

Boy: I don’t know – perhaps I could become a Chris-Jew-lim

Child: Or a Mus-Chris-Jew?! They are all the same!

1st Girl: No! They’re different – completely different! There would be no Imece without differences – different nationalities, ethnicities, faiths, everything. That’s what’s wonderful about our world – we’re a fruit salad of different tastes and sensations, not a liquidised mush of sameness.

Child: Who are you?

Storyteller: A man! A Christian – husband, father, son, uncle. Isn’t that enough?

Boy: No! I want to know why we’re here? Why this God you want me to believe in allows terrible things to happen.

Storyteller: I don’t know! I don’t think God does either -

Child: Are you God?

Storyteller: Maybe touched by God – that is what Faith does for you!

Boy: Is that enough?

Storyteller: It was enough for me!

Solo child comes out – sings!

14. I WHO AM I

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living?

And having a place of our own? What power conceived me?

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Chorus: We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here? We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

Story-teller: And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I saw the Holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. For all the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said. “Behold, I will make all things new! I am Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his God.”

P EACE C HILD – A LPHA O MEGA

- A J OURNEY TO F AITH -

ELY PERFORMANCE

General Lighting Principles:

ScripT

1. When any actor is singing, both follow-spots are on them

2. When the Storyteller is speaking, she has both follow-spots on her

3. When Chorus is singing on their own, the Follow-spots swing back to highlight them

O PENING : Lighting / Action: Black Out! The Storyteller enters carrying a candle; she reaches her chair – the follow spot comes up on her face, picking up on the light created by the candle. She then blows it out, puts it down. The Spot light grows to illuminate her head and shoulders She stands and opens her Story Book. She starts softly – her voice building a crescendo with the music Music: low build on the organ – rippling louder, louder – then subsides.

Storyteller: [Confidentially – gently, to the audience. Telling them a story – the oldest story in the world]

In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth

And the earth was without form and void; And darkness was upon the face of the deep

And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light

And God saw the light that it was good, - and divided the light from the darkness

And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night

And the evening and the morning were the first day

Out of darkness came light

Out of light came life.

Out of life was born the living world.

Unto the living world came humankind

Human beings stood between heaven and earth, alone and naked

Not knowing or understanding the world about them

For they were without knowledge of these things.

And they cried out to heaven from whence their spirit came

Lighting / Action: The lights come up for the Orchestra and chorus; The Chorus stand – the soloist comes forward walking into the spotlight vacated by the Storyteller. Music: Drum roll - Chorus sing: “Aaaah – aah – ah –aaah – ah-ah –aaaaaaah!” The song begins:

1. I WHO AM I

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living? And having a place of our own? What power conceived me? Abandoned me to the unknown?

Chorus: We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here? We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me Abandoned me to the unknown?

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

Storyteller: So – here I am, living in the relatively prosperous, relatively unpolluted world of 2056 – something that looked quite unlikely in the tortured times when I was a teen-ager. Do I have any clue of who I am, or why I’m here? Of course not! But I have faith now! - faith that I am here for a reason, and that, just by asking these questions, I get closer to that reason. T0night, I want you to come back forty years to meet my younger self – [Enter Charlotte – scared, searching] – to the night that changed my life forever. A train carrying toxic chemicals was derailed near my home town. They believed it was a terrorist plot and they evacuated the whole city. I got left behind and, though I was a non-believer, I felt safe taking refuge in this Cathedral. I was scared! Really scared! I knew I could be dead any minute – and those questions echoed in my mind….

Lighting / Action: The Storyteller crosses the stage past Charlotte; the follow spot follows with her – until she crosses Charlotte – when it stays with Charlotte and follows her as darts about the stage – looking angry and scared. The second Follow Spot picks up Christopher and Aaron as they run in down the aisle – swinging about, reflecting their panic! Charlotte calms down, watching them. She smiles as they fiddle with their mobile phones.

Aaron: It’s dead – there’s no signal!

Chris: They’ve switched off all the circuits.

Aaron: Why?!

Charlotte: Something to do with a guided missile’s homing device

Chris: So it is a terrorists attack?

Charlotte: Don’t know. Churches don’t have TV – in actual fact this place doesn’t have much of anything?

Aaron: Has anyone seen the vicar?

Chris: Bishop, idiot! – Cathedrals have Bishops, Deans, Canons – no vicars.

Aaron: Sorr-ree! I don’t believe in all this stuff – or God - remember!

Chris: Ssh! don’t say that - not in a cathedral.

Aaron: [Lighting / Action: The Follow spots swing about wildly, as he and Chris chase about – checking on doors] There must be a phone somewhere!! I have to call; my Mum will be going crazy looking for me! You’re sure there’s no one here!??

Chris: [trying in another direction] There must be some one! [Shouts] HELLO!! ANYBODY THERE??

Aaron: HELP!!!!

Charlotte: [quietly] Ssh . there’s no one here! Can’t you see everything’s locked up.

Aaron: So what happening outside?

Charlotte: All I heard was a sort of ‘woomph’ – could have been a bomb dropping out of a plane over at the Lakenheath air base. Happened before, remember?

Chris: But would they evacuate the whole town? Maybe its chemical warfare?

Aaron: - or a plot by muslim Terrorists!

Chris: In Ely??

Maryam: [Lighting / Action: Follow spot picks her up as she ENTERS down the aisle) Oh Yes! It’s always us, isn’t it? Always “Muslim Terrorists” – never anyone else! Only ‘Muslim terrorists’!

Aaron: I’m sorry –

Maryam: Don’t worry. I’m used to it. I’m Maryam.

Aaron: Aaron

Charlotte: Charlotte.

Chris: Chris. So – why did you come here?

Maryam: Like, maybe this is safer. It’s a ghost town out there.

Aaron: Do you know what happening outside?

Maryam: No idea! I was just taking a walk down by the river. Came back: the whole town was deserted!

Chris: I was by the canal fishing.

Aaron: I had a detention. They forgot about me.

Charlotte: I was waiting for my boyfriend.

Maryam: So – we all got left behind.

Aaron: Seems like it

Maryam: It’s fate!

Aaron: I want to go home

Maryam: Me too. This place gives me the creeps! [Lighting / Action: They head out; Spot follows]

Chris: Wait! [He follows them, grabbing Aaron] This cathedral could be the safest place to be! Let’s stay here; at least until they sound the ‘All Clear!’ [They start to walk back – the follow spot continues out with Maryam;]

Charlotte: - or until we all die!

Maryam: [Lighting / Action: She stops – follow spot still on her. She turns in the aisle, then starts walking back, thinking:] We’re dying anyway! Even if we survive, the way this world is going our generation will be the first generation to be worse off than our parents?! I’ve heard people say we’re the ‘Last Generation’!

Chris: [Pause] Is that true?

Aaron Come on! We’re much better off! My parents didn’t have I-pods!!

Maryam: Soon, we’ll be worse off – much worse off. Oils running out, Climate change - our world is dying–

Charlotte: A nuclear holocaust would just accelerate the process that’s happening anyway: world population is spiralling out of control – resources are depleted. [She indicates the process with her hands.] There’s just no way that this small planet can feed 8 – 10 billion people; Face it: it’s over! We’re toast!

Maryam: We deserve to be!

Aaron: [pause] I won’t believe that, I don’t believe it at all: I’m not going to die today! [FREEZE]

Storyteller: And we didn’t. We survived – but they were right about our world. Our fate was our own foolishness. Like a cancer, we destroy that which bears our existence. We tear down our trees, we kill our seas, we destroy life’s natural beauty. We level the earth to build monstrous habitats, and

factories to make useless products. We fill our minds with futile knowledge. We rob the earth to feed our vanity, depriving tomorrow’s child of its right to a future. [Music: she carries on over the music intro ] All this we do in the name of righteousness. But justice has its price, truth its fashion. Men may rule, but Gold is master.

2. WORLD

Chris: World – look at the way we are Look at the things we do Look at the words we say Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the love we had Look at the things we’ve made

Chorus: Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Chris: Can’t you see the tide is changing? Don’t you know that truth is fading? People coming out from under Slowly rising to the thunder

Charlotte Listen to the shouting people

Broken churches, broken steeple There’s no one for them to follow Every one’s a God tomorrow

Duet: Chris/Charlotte: Can’t you see the world is dying? Repentant people all are crying Law and order has been drowned Chaos rules and has been crowned!

Chorus: World – look at the way we are Look at the things we do Look at the games we play Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the things we build Look at the love we’ve killed

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Scene TWO:

Maryam: A big part of my world feels dead already! It’s hard to be a muslim in this country.

Aaron: Deal with it. My family’s Jewish: people have been hating us for centuries!

Chris: I don’t think we hate other religions. We’re just a bit uncomfortable with people of different faiths.

Charlotte: All religions are dangerous: look at - the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition! People have used religion as an excuse to kill people for thousands of years: Islam is no different.

Chris: So what does that make you?

Charlotte: [Firmly!] An atheist! My family’s supposed to be Catholic, but none of us went to church much – except at Christmas and weddings

Maryam: So – if that bomb goes off at Lakenheath, or the poison gas starts to seep under the doors, that’s it!? No here-after?

Charlotte No! No Heaven! No hell! Do you really believe that when you die you’ll go to heaven and meet – er – Allah?

Maryam I do. My whole family does!

Aaron: Can you guys please talk about something other than dying!!

Charlotte: It’s hard not to think about it when it could happen at any second.

Aaron: And she thinks I deserve it!

Chris: All the more reason to think about something else. Think back to your earliest childhood – your mother’s smiling face; you - lying on the grass, feeling the sunshine on your back. The scent of flowers

Aaron: Paradise?!

Chris: Yes!! Paradise: Think about it: if only we could find our way back to that?

[FREEZE]

Storyteller: Life, for me when I was a young child, was a paradise. Maybe that was just my innocence unfolding into the reality of the world I was living in. But I have come to understand that the world can still be Paradise – I still believe in its potential for beauty, for peace, for harmony.

Lighting / Action: Both spotlights swing back to pick out the Children’s Chorus. Music: they start to sing -

3. PARADISE

Children: Here is a world so beautiful and green Where the sun is shining and the waters run clean Here in this world where we all have to stay A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear I have a mouth for speaking, tasting I have a nose to smell the air!

Chorus: We are a people so happy - we say: “We love this world and here we will stay” We hear that voice deep inside our soul say “Listen to the music of life’s sweet call!”

Children: I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear I have a hand for touching, feeling I have a mind to see that’s clear!

Treble Here in this world where we all have to stay A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

Scene THREE:

Charlotte: But we screwed up, didn’t we?! We got ourselves thrown out of Paradise! “On thy belly shalt thou go! Eat dust and die!”

Chris: That was the serpent, stupid.

Maryam: Yes but she’s right: Christians, Jews and Muslims share the same creation story: we all agree that human beings disobeyed the will of Allah and so Paradise was taken away from us.

Aaron: But – we haven’t done so badly on our own, have we?

Chris: We could have done a lot better!

Aaron: I was thinking about cars, our play stations, mobile phones.

Charlotte: Nuclear bombs, Hedge Funds, mega-cities… There’s no limit to mankind’s inventions! That’s the problem! Our inventions are helping to destroy us and - [FREEZE]

Storyteller: - big business and advertising have tricked us into believing that every generation could live better than the last. But then, almost too late, we realised that our fragile planet could not support eight, ten – fifteen! –billion people demanding ever-increasing luxury and not run out of resources. Along with the wonderful benefits, our passion for inventions had also signed humanity’s death warrant.

Lighting / Action: Both spotlights swing back to pick out the Full Chorus. Music: they start to sing -

4. INVENTIONS

Chorus: Make a wheel, then spinning it round

It may carry the world

Make a fire – yes building it high till

It burns to the ground

Make a blade and call it a spade

To dig through the earth

Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Nothing can stop us

We’ll make our own star dust

Nothing can stop us…

So spin that wheel, faster and faster

It will carry us far

Stoke up that fire, yes higher and higher

Till it burns to the sky

Make a bow, put in an arrow

Let it fly through the world

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Plenty of money, more milk and more honey

Who needs to work?

But what of the spade, digging so hard?

What’s left but soil and the earth?

We are Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

The wheels are all turning

The fires are all burning

We’re living for learning

Learning, learning, learning….

Storyteller: Learning, learning…. What is the use of learning if it becomes a tool by which one person can dominate another? What use is the world of humankind if brother is against brother, sister against sister, and the family divided? What use is a world of material things if it brings only jealousy and separation? What use is wisdom………..

Lighting / Action: Spotlight swings across to Charlotte before fading as lights come up on stage;

Charlotte: - if we can’t even learn to love each other?

Chris: I like that! You’re right: love is the answer – the love of a man for a woman, a parent for a child: the love of one’s family. I have love like that.

Maryam The Holy Qu’ran says: “ If you love – Love Allah! For Allah will love you and forgive you – for Allah is oft - forgiving and Most Merciful! ”

Chris: Go for it! If only we could learn to love each other! Connect! Be friends! We’d have peace! We’d have time to work out the world’s other problems!

Charlotte: Dream on!

Aaron: My Dad loves me! He bought me an X-box.

Chris: Love is the only dream we have left. [Music - FREEZE ]

Lighting / Action: Both spotlights pick out Chris and Charlotte come forward to sing, hamming it up for Aaron

5. Dreamer

Chris Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Charlotte Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lover – you are my friend

We’ll always be together

Though this world may end

Chris Where-ever I go – I’ll watch over you

Charlotte Where-ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

Chris Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have

Charlotte Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Man – you are my friend

I’ll always be beside you

Until the end

Chris and Charlotte Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

Chris Woman my woman, lady my friend

Charlotte We’ll be together until the end

Scene FIVE:

Storyteller: Ah! – Love! Who does not dream of love! And who can truly feel fulfilled in their lives without it? To share your life with someone; to make a home; to have children. Love is a sanctuary. I know in my life, the times I have been happiest are the times when I was in love, and was loved in return.

Lighting / Action: Spotlight swings across to Aaron before fading as lights come up on stage;

Aaron: - my parents divorced when I was five.

Chris: But stayed friends, right.

Aaron: You’ve got to be joking! It was World War III in our house for as long as I remember! They can’t stand the sight of each other….

Charlotte: My folks split up too. They got really good at hating each other!

Maryam: Mine are still married. But I can’t say they love each other.

Chris: I’m sorry! Am I the only one here who has happily married parents! [Wanders off]

Aaron: What does that tell you about love? Mine almost killed me!

Chris: Seriously!

Aaron: Yes!! One day, my Mum and Dad were fighting, and Dad threw a plate at Mum – not realising there was still a knife on it. It missed her eye by inches!

Maryam: Love as a Muslim, tells you a lot about the power of family: OK – so my mum and dad aren’t passionately ‘in love’ with each other – but me and my brother, my gran and my granddad, my uncles, aunts, cousins – we all support each other. Pray for each other! We’re there for each other. It’s love of a kind. It works! My family is what keeps me alive

Aaron: So how do you feel about Christians and Jews then?

Maryam: I don’t think much about that.

Aaron Oh really until something goes wrong and then you can openly say you hate us. Right. Charlotte: This is how wars start?

Chris: I can’t believe we still have them! People killing each other because their governments tell them too?! I wouldn’t! I wouldn’t go – conscientious objector, that’s me!!

MUSIC starts – Trumpet. They all FREEZE Lighting / Action: The Storyteller stands both spots tight on her:

Storyteller: War! – the ultimate folly. After all these years so-called civilization and learning, why were we still engaged in the insanity of war? Hundreds of thousands of women, children and men, losing their lives through an almost infantile pursuit of power – a futile search to be God’s favoured ones! Religious fanatics, seeking to increase their own prestige by sowing hatred amongst the faithful – leading us directly to Armageddon.….

6. WAR

Storyteller: [over the music] And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity. The sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Chorus: We'll fight our way to distant hills,

A bloody battle have

We'll raise our sword and kill them all] We'll raise our countries flag! We'll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We'll kill our women, Children too, Kill them all until we're through Kill them all until we're through.

God save our land, long live our flag, On to the war we go - praise to our dead But who says we're right, who says we're wrong Honour and pride - to this we belong!

Storyteller: [over the music] When the heaven is split asunder and when the planets are dispersed And when the seas are poured forth and when the tombs are overturned. Each soul will know what it has sent before, and what it has left behind. Oh man! What has made thee careless concerning thy Lord the Bountiful?!

Chorus: Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us from what we do! Our world is through!

But who can save us! But who can save us? But who can save us from what we do?

Charlotte: God - where are you?

Scene SIX:

Storyteller: God? In that scenario? Nowhere. Humanity self-destructs on a nuclear addiction! Life! – obliterated in a few short minutes. But the planet survives! Out of the rocks and crevices, new atoms, new molecules emerge. New life forms are created. The cycle of life begins again. Millions of years pass – new human beings evolve. They build their own civilisation which probably also self-destructs. On and on until the world flies too close to the sun and all life is incinerated for ever. Our world becomes lifeless, like all the other planets in our solar system. But – how do you get out of bed in the morning if that’s all you think about….?

Lighting / Action: She turns – and crosses past Charlotte to her chair; The spot holds on Charlotte then fades;

Charlotte: How could anyone believe in a God who allows humanity to self-destruct like that??

Chris: You’re right. It’s hard! But then He hasn’t –

Charlotte: Yet!

Aaron I heard about this worm in Africa that eats its way into a Child’s eyeball, making it blind. But it doesn’t stop there: the worm burrows on into the Child’s brain, sending it mad –then killing it. Why would a God who loves us make a worm like that??

Maryam: Only Allah knows. We can never know the wisdom of Allah’s ways. But he is all -knowing and merciful and we just have to trust and have faith in his wisdom. In my family we pray together 5 times a day to remind ourselves that Allah is there.

Chris: Five times a day – most Christians barely manage once a week on Sundays!

Maryam: [to Aaron] Do you pray?

Aaron: We all prayed when my grandpa died. We all sat round and said Kaddish –it brought us close together.

Charlotte: [Alone with the other three lined up against her] You’re all mad! Do you think anyone hears your prayers? Do you really think there’s a God up there who’s listening to you and will come crashing down from heaven and say: “OK guys – relax! God’s here! I’ll sort all this out…”?? He didn’t do that on 9/11 did he??

Aaron: [Moving to Charlotte’s side] He didn’t do it at Auschwitz [‘ow-shvitts’] either.

Chris: [Stopping him] Hang about – it absolutely did happen! God on earth – His Son, Jesus Christ. Born in a manger. Dying on the cross to save us from our sins – then rising from the dead to live with us, in our hearts, for ever. It’s real! For me. OK – I’m a Christian! Sorry!

Maryam: No need to be sorry! – I’m impressed!

Chris: Really – as a Muslim, I thought you’d think me some damned infidel!

Maryam: That’s your word. For us! The prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) respected Christians - Jews too. He called them the people of the book!

Chris: I didn’t know that.

Aaron: Neither did I. [Maryam, Chris and Aaron all find themselves on the same side of stage, facing Charlotte]

Maryam: [to Charlotte] What would it take to restore your faith?

Charlotte: A miracle! I guess I always wanted to believe. I just wish -

Maryam: What? – that God would show himself to us sometimes?

Charlotte: Yes! With Him not being there – visible, tangible - reason steps in and tells me it’s all nonsense…. Do you know what I mean?

They all nod.

Chris: “There exists more faith in honest doubt than any of your creeds.”

Lighting / Action: Soloist comes forward, spotlight on her. Music: she starts to sing:

7. Father in the Sky

Charlotte Father in the sky

Won’t you tell us who you are?

Won’t you say a word to me – that I can understand You have me in your hands

Charlotte & Chorus: Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day And I am so afraid I never was so brave….

How can I carry on And still believe in you

When every hope has vanished

Long ago - in spite of you

How can we carry on How can we face you now?

When everything we tried so hard

To do was lost somehow

How can we face you now?

Charlotte How can I face you now? Scene SEVEN:

Maryam: [Going to her, putting her hand on her shoulder. Aaron is really nervous)

Aaron: There’s still no signal!

Chris: No internet, no wi-fi. Nothing!

Maryam: God doesn’t need wi-fi!

Aaron: Why are you guys are so obsessed with God? Do you really think some Father in the Sky is going to come down to help us out? Can’t we start talking about how we’re going to get out of here? There must be something we can we do?

Chris: We just wait, I guess – until some one sounds the all clear?!

Aaron: And you think we’ll hear that in here?

Chris: I reckon.

Charlotte: You know – it’d be embarrassing: If I died now and went to Heaven, how would I explain to God missed the evacuation ‘cos I was waiting for my boyfriend!

Maryam: I don’t get the sense that God embarrasses easily. He’s seen human beings make such a mess of things so many times, none of this will phase Him!

Chris: It’s some mess now, isn’t it?

Charlotte: Sure is! Thinking about environmental issues like Glaciers melting – sea-level rise – billions of environmental refugees – big cities like London underwater all in our lifetime. God’s got a big job on his hands.

Aaron: Not God! Us!! We should be much more angry!

Maryam: Anger doesn’t get you anywhere! Faith that Allah is there to guide us makes everything possible.

Chris: Don’t you get that? Faith helps! Faith inspires! Un-faith is – ? – is depressing!

Aaron: I don’t find it depressing – what I find depressing is a lot of sad old people mumbling prayers in a Synagogue every Shabbat.

Chris: I thought you said you liked saying Kaddish?

Aaron: That was different! I like the Jewish festivals– Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah. I’m even studying for my Bar Mitzvah

Charlotte: For the money, right?

Aaron: No! Not just for the money! It’s tradition. It makes my Mom and Granma really happy to see me studying the Torah.

Charlotte: But a few cheques and a Hanukkah Menora is not going to save the world from Global Warming.

Chris: She’s right! That’s not really God’s problem: it’s our’s – we have to sort it out.

Charlotte: Do you know it took two hundred million years for Mother Nature to make the oil on which our civilisation depends. And our parents and grand-parents have burned it all up in a couple of centuries. I hope God has an answer – ‘cos I know I don’t!

Chris: You’re sounding like an Eco-terrorist! So what do we do? Go and blow something up?

Charlotte: If your God doesn’t have an obvious answer, doesn’t make you just a little bit angry?

Maryam: Yes! Ach! - Politicians! They strut around like supermen, passing their funny little laws, telling us what to do, how to do it – but their main concern is how to get voted in and stay in power – not what kind of a world they are leaving to future generations.

Charlotte: [To Maryam, building on what she has just said!] We should arrest them! For murdering our future – and our Children’s future. By their inaction on climate change today, they are planning the murder of several BILLION people in cold blood!

Aaron: How’s that?

Chris: The ice fields in the Himalayas: they feed all the major rivers in South-East Asia. When they melt, all those rivers will dry up and two billion people will need to move or die!

Aaron: Two Billion People!? Wow!

Chris: (Jumps in - to Charlotte] Can you blame us for trusting an unseen God over a seen politician?

Maryam: You’ve got your Supermen politicians but, without Allah – God - they’re all you’ve got!

Aaron: So – Get Angry!! (they all start shouting – need to ensure there is a build up to song.)

They FREEZE. Lighting / Action: The Spotlights swing back on to the Chorus. Music: they start to sing -

8. SUPERMAN

Chorus: Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide, where will be your land?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

What have you done with this beautiful world?

Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this God-given Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide? Where will be your land?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away

And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

Where you gonna run to… - Superman?!

Scene EIGHT:

Chris: OK – so we point the finger. But how do we know that we would do any better?

Charlotte: We couldn’t do much worse!

Maryam: I absolutely KNOW that I couldn’t do any better. No one can without the help of Allah! They think they can. That’s the difference between us.

Aaron: You think God’s going to send down some one to sort it all out??!

Maryam: Some how, Yes! Mahatma Gandhi said: “The way of truth always triumphs in the end!” And it does: Hitler was defeated. The British left India – Nelson Mandela was released . God always sorts it out eventually

Aaron: How?

Chris: He just does!

Charlotte: You know you don’t believe that?!

Chris: I absolutely DO believe that!

Charlotte: [To Maryam and Chris – and then to the audience!] But it’s a fantasy! You’re hallucinating! All that stuff about babes in mangers, prophets leaping off a rock – dying and going to heaven, sitting on a cloud playing a harp with the angels! It’s all fairy stories! It’s such a distraction.

Maryam: It’s NOT a distraction! For me, Allah is the answer to all things. To truly live –is to live the five pillars of Islam: Shahada – the testimony: “There is no true god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger.”; Salat – Pray five times a day in Arabic; Zakat - Give Charity; Ramadan – fast; and the Hajj – make pilgrimage to Mecca. That is my world! My

Certainty! My Faith – My Life! I cannot think – without it, because without this I am nothing Nothing! Whatever happens to me, nothing will diminish my faith.

Lighting / Action: Spotlights up on Christopher as he moves to her, touches her shoulder. Music: he starts to sing: 9. I BELIEVE!

Chris: If the sun lost its shine And the trees started to die Yes – I’d still be full of hope I guess I know the reason why

If the wind grew too old And the seas started to dry Yes I would still be full of love

Don’t ask – don’t ask me why!

Yes I still believe in God I still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know I still believe in this His land.

Chorus + Chris: We believe in God We still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know We still believe in this His land.

Chris: So don’t turn your head away Don’t give up on who you are Just keep on loving more each day And the world will shine for you

I guess it’s all in the mind What you feel is what you see So within your heart just sing these words Come sing! – come sing with me!

Chorus + Chris & Maryam: We believe in God We believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know We still believe in this His land.

We believe in God We believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

I believe – yes I believe I believe – yes I believe I believe in this His Land!

Scene NINE:

Awkward silence . Charlotte and Aaron have stood through the song, not singing. Maryam: You do get it, don’t you?

Charlotte: Of course I get it. [Slowly and firmly, very deliberate] But I still say it’s dangerous and irrational: that power of religion led George W. Bush to pursue his illegal war in Iraq; the Pope to say that condoms spread HIV-AIDS, Mullahs to send young suicide bombers to their deaths… It’s against all rational common sense.

Aaron: I agree! When you’ve got all these problems, hoping a God you can’t even see is going to sort them out – it’s just mad, isn’t it?

Maryam: I might not see Allah but I know that he is there. I don’t see the wind – but I can feel it!

Aaron: I don’t feel God anywhere! Can’t we go home now?! This place spooks me out!

Chris: (puts an arm round Aaron ) We’re safer here. Trust me. Your Mum will send some one back to look for us, won’t she?!

Aaron: But we don’t know where she is. She doesn’t know where we are!

Charlotte: No – but we’ll hear the car

Chris: - or a helicopter.

Maryam: You’re right! I’m sure we’re going to be saved!

Chris: Now – or in general?

Maryam: Both. In every big crisis humanity has ever faced, God has sent us the leader we need.

Chris: Yes like Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King – they were strong because of their faith!

Charlotte: I don’t see many of them around right now!

Chris: We need to find them – have them inspire us with hope!! Like Martin Luther King! Imagine if he’d stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and, instead of saying: “I have a dream!” - said: “I have a nightmare!” No one would have listened

Charlotte: Whatever it was, it worked! People listened. I’m inspired by him!

Lighting / Action: Spotlights up on Chris and Charlotte. Music: they start to sing -

10. I have a vision

Chris I have a vision, I have a dream I have the answer or so it seems.

Don't you see the truth, to fight is not right, We shall have our rainbow, we will have our sunlight If we unite!

Charlotte There's a way you see, where no one gets hurt

There's a way with love if you try!

There is hope and faith to keep you alive

In your darkest day, just pray!

Chorus Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

Chris Martin Luther King had a vision! He had a dream He had the answer, or so it seemed!

He knew the truth - to fight is not right

Charlotte & Chris We can have our rainbow, we can have the sunlight! We must unite!

A new world, A new light!

A new world, A new light!

A new hope! A new light -

Chorus Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

Charlotte & Chris I have a vision!

Scene TEN:

Charlotte: So that’s the vision: people learning to live together in peace and finding another way than war to solve their differences.

Maryam: But the differences would remain – and that’s what makes life interesting, isn’t it? Not just differences between religions but within religions too. Shias and Sunnis, Suffis and Wahabis. They are all Muslims, but very different. But, for all of us, Christians praying every day to ‘Our Father!’ – is very strange. In the Qu’ran it says: “ God is Allah – the One and the Only ; ” he begets not, nor is he begotten.

Chris: So - muslims have a problem with “Our Father”. Jews have a problem with our Messiah! -

Aaron: And everyone has a problem with us.

Charlotte: And so all of us are going to keep on fighting and scrapping until one of us comes out on top or we’re all dead? That’s insane! There’s got to be a better way?

Aaron: What is God’s favourite religion?

All turn and look at Aaron – awkward silence.

Maryam: Do you guys know about Imece? [imm-may-cjhay]

Aaron / Christopher/Charlotte: [together] Imece!?

Charlotte What’s that?

Maryam: It’s the ancient Turkish system of solidarity. Everyone working together on common tasks joyfully! – fetching water, gathering the harvest, repairing houses, baking bread. Imece is a way of reminding us that we are one family and that we must work together.

Aaron: How does God come into it?

Maryam: It’s not a faith as such – but it is founded on all faiths. Shared values. In the Ottoman Empire, Jews, Christians and muslims all lived peacefully together in the same village.

Charlotte: Like the Ba’hais?!

Chris: Sounds like the Charter for Compassion! That calls on people of all religions and faith traditions to ‘feel’ together – to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Maryam: “Do as you would be done by”?

Chris: Right!

Maryam: That works !

Charlotte: Global Compassion and Imece! – I see another cult coming on

Chris: Save your cynicism! It’s a great concept! If I honour and respect the Muslim conviction that Muhammed, all praise be upon him, was indeed Allah’s last prophet!

Maryam: - I would honour your right to worship God as your Father!

Aaron: And you’d all come over to my Bar Mitzvah next year!

All: Sure!

Chris: Religions United!!

Aaron: - in a single world religion! If we could agree on that, we could write a new Torah or bible or Qu’ran so we would have the laws and teachings of all the great Prophets.

Charlotte: They all said pretty much the same things, didn’t they?

Aaron: So let’s do it! FREEZE

Lighting / Action: The spotlights pick up the Storyteller as she stands and starts to read:

Storyteller: Perhaps we should have done. That Single Bible idea: a single set of laws – I have thought about it all my life! The idea that religion, far from dividing people, should unite us. But how?!!

Lighting / Action: The spotlights swing back on to the whole chorus. Music: they start to sing -

11. The LAWS

Chorus: Where are the laws we must obey?

Where are the rules to guide us through our day?

Where are the words that will teach us how to live?

Where are the signs to show us how to give?

Where are the visions to help our failing souls?

Where are the tools for rebuilding our new world?

Soloist: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal

Thou shalt not hurt or force your will

Thou shalt beware of foolish pride

Thou shalt be fair and take no sides

Thou shalt despise all that is vain

Thou shalt not lie, or cheat for gain

Thou shalt keep holy your day for God

Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

Chorus: Here are the laws we must obey

Here are the rules to guide us through our day

These are the words that will teach us how to live

These are the signs to show us how to give

Soloist: Thou shalt not have a jealous heart

Shalt not desire your neighbour’s part

Thou shalt be kind in thought and way

And thou shalt keep a time to pray

Thou shalt not cause your parents shame

Thou shalt not curse, or take God’s name in vain

Chorus: And thou shalt worship the one true God

Thou shalt forgive and thou shalt love

Storyteller: Gandhi said: “If you want real Peace, you have to begin with the Children!” Children have dreams. They lie awake at night, imagining. They believe in fairytales and miracles. They can even make them come true! We must give them hope, for in their hope lies our inspiration to work for a better future. We must give them the freedom to choose, to come out from behind us and find their own path - their own way to grow - to discover their own dawn; their own horizons.

Lighting / Action: The spotlights swing back on to the whole chorus. Music: they start to sing -

12. Child for a Day

Chris: I was a child who ran full of laughter

I was a child who lived for a day

My eyes full of sunshine

My heart full of smiles

I was a child for a day.

Chorus: We were the children who ran in the morning

We were the children who laughed at the sun

Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by

A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

We are the men who worry of nothing

We are the men who speak without aim

Who listen to no one yet speak of their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We're getting older as time goes by

A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

Scene ELEVEN:

Charlotte: Fine – the children of yesterday had a fine time: what about the children of tomorrow?

Chris: It’s not - easy is it? I’m not sure I’d be happy bringing children into a world that you said you thought was having the Last Generation…

Maryam: Why not?! You’ve got to have hope!

Aaron: Hope’s has got us through tonight – that and thinking about Imece….

Charlotte: But children are so vulnerable – why should have to live in this messed up world we’ve left for them!

Maryam: You mean you would just give up on the planet – let every one be childless and have humanity die out?

Chris: It’d certainly solve the population problem.

Maryam: Now who’s crazy! Children are our only hope.

Charlotte: It’s easy to idealise Children. I’ve had friends who are really obnoxious

Aaron: Me too.

Charlotte: And Children can be unbelievably stupid.

Chris: Speak for yourself. My friends were all brilliant, charming, talented, attractive! -

Charlotte: Stop it! You know what I mean

Chris: I do – and NOT you’re right! I trust my friends! I trust young people!! And if we’re going to tear down the barriers between us, and repair the damage we have done to the earth, we have to start with us and the Children. Older people are just too set in their ways to be able to change anything.

Aaron: And most of them don’t care what happens to our world in 50 years: they’ll all be dead! FREEZE

Story-teller: Thanks for that…. What strange creatures we are – padding the path between birth and death across this wilderness we call Life! Yet God is not a God in the sense that he controls us. Rather God is a spark embedded in each of us at birth – should we choose to recognise it. Why put the blame on God? We have the books of his prophets and they are united not divided. So don't sit around waiting for God to bring you a miracle. The Spark of God that is in you is the miracle. You are equipped to save the world and build the Garden of Paradise here on this earth. And yes! – we have to start with the Children!

Lighting / Action: the Spotlights swing back off the storyteller to the Children’s choir. Music: they start to sing –

13. Reach Out!

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are Show me what you can do Believe in me, I believe in you!

Reach out for your dream It's not as hard as it may seem Together we can make it through Together - me and you!

Wake up -open our eyes, This is our world, our paradise.

Reach out, don't be afraid

Come on now, we'' find a way

There's a whole new world for us to see There's a universe in you and me.

Reach out, put your hand in mine! Oh see! - see how we shine! Together - we'll make it through, Together me and you!

Don't be shy, just be yourself! You are your greatest wealth!

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are Show me what you can do Believe in me, I believe in you!

Show me what you can do Believe in me, I believe in you!

Scene TWELVE:

Story-teller: I have no idea how long we all stayed in the cathedral – scared, arguing, comforting each other, changing our lives for ever. What I do know is that this cathedral is for me a shrine. Coming back here tonight, reconnecting with my young self and those friends – I am reliving a journey – a journey whose final destination I am still seeking.

Aaron: Listen. (they all stop and react) I swear I heard something. Please let’s go and look.

Chris: (they all stop still) Really Aaron. There is nothing out there. We can’t go out till it’s safe

Charlotte: – or at least until we finish this conversation! Let me get this right: if we embrace Imece, we can kind of forget about God?

Maryam: What do you mean? Belief is central to it.

Charlotte I don’t see why? People working together sounds like perfect humanist sense to me.

Chris: But –

Charlotte: But nothing! Imece proves it! Atheism rules!

Chris: Rubbish!

Maryam: We need the Faith – the aura of the Almighty: Allah, God! Jahwe - the Hand that created all things, rules all things, understands all things who blasts through the shutters of our minds however hard we struggle to keep Him out.

Charlotte: But why?! However much you tell me about your light – or the wind I cannot see – I don’t buy it. I’m not even window-shopping

Maryam: I once heard a politician say, “We don’t do God…” – and I thought, “How sad are you?!” –‘cos if you don’t do God, you are so empty.

Aaron: I don’t feel empty. Hungry, yes – but not empty!

Charlotte: And I feel insulted! If I decide to embrace Imece, you must allow that I don’t share your belief in the fairy stories of your faith. Respect that. Love that! Feel sorry for me if you must – in your patronising way – but at least give me credit for my lack of faith.

Chris: I do – I will! But don’t go all gloomy on us!

Charlotte: I’m not gloomy! I’m the sensible one! Think about a vision of life before death – a life we might be able to create together! A world at peace! I can see it – touch it. And, if we work together in joy – in Global Imece! – with real Compassion, we could just make it, couldn’t we?

Maryam: No! You’re missing the point completely! [SOUND: Faint siren – an organ note]

Aaron: [listening] That’s a siren! There’s definitely a police car out there!?

Chris: [listening] Could be. Let’s go and find out!

Charlotte: I’ll come with you!

They all run out down the nave. The Storyteller comes forward. Charlotte stops:

Charlotte: Oh – my mobile! I’ll catch you up!! Wait for me!

Lighting / Action: Charlotte turns and runs back to the stage and gets her back. As she picks up her bag, the Storyteller starts to speak. Charlotte turns to listen

Story-teller: When he was a young man, the author, CS Lewis was, like me, a determined atheist. Fighting in the trenches in the 1st World War, he wrote: “No matter how scared I get, I hope I never stoop so low as to pray…” Later, of course, he changed his mind and embraced Christianity. And who would doubt that his life, and his writing – was infinitely the richer because of that change.

Charlotte: [To herself, but conscious of the Story-teller standing by her – moving into her pool of light] I read CS Lewis, but when it comes down to it, all he says is just words. Empty phrases, pretty stories –

Story-teller: – echoing down long dark corridors of unrealised dreams. We have all these beautiful words, the wonderful teachings, and what do we do with them? We put them to stirring music, we sing them, chant them, make cult movies out of them –

Charlotte: – we do everything but actually live them! Today – today! – I learned about Imece, about tolerance, about Compassion. And I shall start to explore, seriously, the Faith, the Hope, the Love that lies at the heart of all religions –

Story-teller: – which, far from dividing people, can and does unite them! And that’s stayed with me, shaping and moulding my life. So, thank you, my young self!! I feel such gratitude towards you. Everything I am was shaped by you – your questions. It’s fine, now, to know that I will never, ever find the answers. But, for me, life begins and ends right there: Questioning! Questioning – searching! – right up to the last breath!

Lighting / Action: Charlotte runs out. Storyteller sits. Soloist enters. Music: She sings firmly with a hint of triumph:

14. I WHO AM I

Soloist: I, who am I? What is this world?

Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living?

And having a place of our own? What power conceived me?

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Chorus with Charlotte, Chris, Aaron and Maryam (returning):

We, who are we? What is this place?

Why are we here?

We, who are we to be so lost

And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own?

What power conceived me

Abandoned me to the unknown?

Charlotte: I, who am I? What is this world?

Why am I here?

- The End –

P EACE C HILD – A LPHA O MEGA

- A J OURNEY TO F AITH -

ESTONIA PERFORMANCE ScripT

INTRODUCTION – The Peace Child Alpha Omega concert performance within the Estonian context centres on the concept of childhood and how all of us have once been children. The script for this concert performance was built around the childhood stories of different real people from different backgrounds who have lived in Estonia between 1920 and 2010. Among the source materials for the script are 1."Estonian life story" I, II, III part – comprised by Rutt Hinrikus 2. Pärnu Ühisgümnaasium - almanac "The Seagull" 3. The President of the Republic Thought Chamber, magazine "Akadeemia" and Tartu University’s ethic’s centre collection. "What kind of Estonia do I want to live in? The President of the Republic essay-competition 2007" 4. UNESCO’s day of philosophy speech contest honours " Is happiness universal, dependant on cultural factors or personal". From them the stories most appropriate for our purposes were chosen by our script writer.

There were many questions that the script aimed to raise. What is the real difference between childhood and adulthood? Is there any? How does our childhood relate to who we are and what do we want from life? The generation gap, that exists today, can sometimes feel overbearing. The children who live in the materialistic westernized environment do not understand their parents who couldn’t travel abroad and didn’t have anything in the shops and waited four hours in line for milk and vice versa. So therefore the script found it important to re-emphasize how small many of these differences really are and how we all share the experience of a human life cycle, along with the hopes and dreams and fears that come with it. In spite of our very different backgrounds we are all human. And not less importantly, we are also all Estonians, even if we do not so identify when asked directly. We are all Estonians because we are all tied to this country and its fate. We have lived with its triumphs and disasters, struggled through difficult times and rejoiced at the victories. We may all have different roots, but we live here and share a common environment as well as a common future. The script aimed to emphasize our unity and not the differences through the eyes of children, who are often the ones who have to carry the burden of life.

Performance Script:

Times will change, but someone is always the child. Someone is having a childhood. What kind are the childhood stories of Estonian people?

We look through "Estonian life stories" the childhoods of different people in different decades from 1920-2010.

Who are we?

What kind of childhood have we had? What kind of happiness do we wait for?

The cast includes a narrator and 5 actors, who embody different roles for the different stories.

(Estonian language song) WAKE UP, MY HEART ( C.Kreek and A.Saluveer)

Wake up my heart

And thank the lord with song, He who gives all that’s good And still carries worry.

My Lord, as in the night I was held by your hand, So carry me through the day, Give angels as my shadows

Help me in my work as well, Show me what is right! I give everything to you, In whatever I do.

May your kindness be mine, My heart as your temple: May your word feed me here, Show me the way to heaven.

THE NARRATOR I was born – to what? My parents I guess. But I soon found out the entire world as well was expecting me. Or to be more precise I was expecting it. And it took a while to understand what it was all about. And once I did I rebelled. Come on, why would it have to be like this. And these people, what are they doing? Everything. And at the same time. But since there is no another world to take, I figured I should make the best of what I’ve got. So I started down my path. And everything I am, my beliefs, fears and truths are from the picture that I saw from my window and from rebelling against them. Although, of course, I think that all that is from my own heart and head, but it is my childhood where all this truly is from. (asks the audience) Were you also born in Estonia? Yes? When? 15 years ago? 20? 50? 60 years ago? But what rules and regulations did your childhood set for your life? The childhoods of the people of Estonia. The history of childhood in the republic of Estonia –almost a hundred years soon. (asks the audience) Do you know these children? Do you understand them?

I, WHO AM I

I, who am I? What is this world?

Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause?

What must I be?

Is there a reason for living?

And having a place of our own?

What power conceived me?

Abandoned me to the unknown?

We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here?

We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living

And having a place of our own?

What power conceived me

Abandoned me to the unknown?

I, who am I? What is this world?

Why am I here?

HELMI SOOVERE

Hi, my name is Helmi Soovere and I was born in 1909 and my childhood was around the First World War and the creation of the Republic. I had started going to school in Loksa, but then we moved to Pärispea. My father had a lot of money that he had saved during his lifetime, 7 and a half thousand Russian rubles of which 1 thousand was in my name (for when I get married), but all of it went to Russia along with the bank during the beginning of the war and we were poor. Because we had good nets, rods and our own boat, dad fished in Pärsipea. We had a cow, sheep, rabbits and fish.

During the summers, the neighbours’ girl and I went to herd the cows. They had bells on them so they would not disappear into the bushes. We played, made fire, cooked potatoes and fish. That girl had many talents and I can still make a fence if I have all necessary materials. The village boys tried to scare the girls, by telling them that they had seen black people in the woods. We were very frightened.

Then we moved back to Loksa, where I studied in 4th, 5th. and 6th grade. Out of my teachers I remember mrs.Veidebergi who was good at teaching history and making it interesting. Then mrs.Kivimäed, who was a good music teacher and put all children singing. And the principal mr.Mikiver who gave science and physical education, who always when he came to class sat at the end of first table, was quiet for a long time, stared at our faces and eventually asked: “So what it was we had today?” We were good at gymnastics and the boys made wonderful pyramids. In our senior year we met our teacher mrs.Tõnuris. She never smiled, and on the last day of school saying goodbye, she said that she wishes for us a difficult life and a troubled path.

I fell in love for the first time in the sixth grade. I liked this very pretty boy in my class. I had to always think of him, but he could not understand it. Heaven forbid! When once he wrote in my notebook:

Once a year the flowers bloom One true love in life –

I was so happy that I must have read it a hundred times. But I was severely disappointed when I found in my classmate’s desk an overflowing love letter by the same boy. I was jealous, but my love waned. The world has changed so much.

WORLD

World – look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the words we say

Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the love we had

Look at the things we’ve made

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

Can’t you see the tide is changing?

Don’t you know that truth is fading?

People coming out from under

Slowly rising to the thunder

Listen to the shouting people

Broken churches, broken steeple

There’s no one for them to follow

Every one’s a God tomorrow

Can’t you see the world is dying?

Repentant people all are crying

Law and order has been drowned

Chaos rules and has been crowned!

World – look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the games we play

Life! – look at the way we live

Look at the things we build

Look at the love we’ve killed

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Gone are all the peaceful ways

All that’s left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying – today!

TAMARA MILJUTINA

My name is Tamara Miljutina and my childhood was around the First World War and the creation of the Republic. I was born in 1911 in Tartu, my grandfather Nikolai Bezanitski’s cohesive family. The retreating reds executed him with other hostages in 1919 and he was burried into Tartu’s Uspenski church.

My mother studied in Tartu University’s medical department.

During the First World War my mother was invited to the Caucasian front and she decided to take me along with my grandmother. I was five.

After the revolution, life changed. Foreigners had to leave Russia and my mother happily agreed to be the accompanying doctor to a returning Swedish group as the road went through Estonia. But my mother as a doctor was not allowed out of Caucasia. Fearing that we might starve to death, she decided that we should leave by ourselves with the last departing group. I was ten, my grandmother had lost her memory as a result of typhus. Only ten. By some miracle we made across crazed Russia to Moscow, where the money my aunt who lived in Tartu had sent us waited in the Estonian embassy. She had also announced to our Moscow acquaintances that we were coming and we were well received. I will remember forever how they lived those days, feeding the furnace with pieces of furniture.

Estonia provided a stunning contrast.

Aunt Zina came for us and took us to Tartu. Everything was new: the train with red seat covers, aunt Zina’s apartment full of wonderful books, art and otherwise, and my cousin, who was my age, Tanja’s library. I was immediately dressed well, because I was given many of Tanja’s clothes. Mom came during the summer. We lived near Tartu in aunt Zina’s rented summer house. There were so many berries and mushrooms and milk! I ate so much that I went from being a scrawny kid to a normal, podgy 11-year old. In the fall, I enrolled into a Russian secondary school. Oh look at the time. Time stands still.

PARADISE

Here is a world so beautiful and green

Where the sun is shining and the waters run clean

Here in this world where we all have to stay

A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

We are so smiling – eyes are seeing

We are so happy – ears that hear

We have a mouth for speaking, tasting

We have a nose to smell the air!

We are a people so happy - we say:

“We love this world and here we will stay”

We hear that voice deep inside our soul say

“Listen to the music of life’s sweet call!”

We are so smiling – eyes are seeing

We are so happy – ears that hear

We have a hand for touching, feeling

We have a mind to see that’s clear!

Here in this world where we all have to stay

A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

EA JANSEN

Hi, I am Ea Jansen and I was born in 1921 and I was a child during the first years of the republic. My childhood passed in Kadriorg. Our family lived pretty modestly; the house was large enough, but we did not have fancy furniture or clothes. My aunt made simple traditional meals and always stated that sausage and cheese should not be eaten by themselves, but with bread and from a covered table one should always take so that there is enough for others.

My upbringing however was very wrong. In spite of our simple lifestyle I was not trained for housework although work was valued in our household. I grew up, but my aunt kept trying to do everything for me. In the end of the 1930s we even had a maid. I hated the practical lessons at school. My teacher called me the biggest loser in the kitchen. To her surprise I wrote the class best essay on how to decorate an apartment putting extra emphasis on the kitchen.

I was never very confident, but very dependent on others and easily swayed. During schoolyears, I relied a lot on friends. In elementary school I was timid and clumsy, like an outcast child, but at the same time I wanted to communicate a lot and prove myself. I wanted to resemble others, but aside from being physically clumsy I was also different, because I had never been christened: my parents were atheists.

Over time I became very active: I wrote plays, directed, sang as a hobby. We wrote poems together. I’d like to read you one:

Far, far I wish to go

Far far,

Go and disappear there

Far

Far I want to shed a tear

Far far

Far aquire something good of me

Far far

Far no one will find me

Far far

Far I like it just like this

Far far

Far there is no you

Far far

Far far you wont bother me

Far far

Far far to go and disappear there

Far

What else?

During the summer of 41 we drove from Tallinn to Rõuge. But the warfront came between us and Tallinn. Then the front passed, there was a vacuum of power for a while and Estonian flags were flown. Then the Germans on motorcycles came. I didn’t get back to Tallinn before the fall. It turned out that our house in Kadriorg had gotten hit with a bomb and burned down with all our valuables and stuff. I was very unhappy about that, but still all the people were still there so that was the main thing.

I knew that, in spite of the war, I had to continue studying. So I resolved to become an educated person.

INVENTIONS

Make a wheel, then spinning it round It may carry the world

Make a fire – yes building it high till

It burns to the ground

Make a blade and call it a spade

To dig through the earth

Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Nothing can stop us

We’ll make our own star dust

Nothing can stop us

So spin that wheel, faster and faster

It will carry us far

Stoke up that fire, yes higher and higher

Till it burns to the sky

Make a bow, put in an arrow

Let it fly through the world

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Plenty of money, more milk and more honey

Who needs to work?

But what of the spade, digging so hard?

What’s left but soil and the earth?

We are Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

The wheels are all turning

The fires are all burning

We’re living for learning

Learning, learning, learning

THE NARRATOR Before inventing the wheel and God, I must invent myself. That takes a while. Most of one’s childhood at least. Because, if you cannot find yourself or invent yourself, it is very difficult to move on from childhood. And sometimes we don’t want to move on. The life of Pipi Longstockings may be fun, but up to old age? Maybe not.

So – how do I do it? Maybe I can write an essay.

Two actors and the narrator begin to write essays, whoever is finished stands up and reads theirs;

First actor: There are many human beings in the world, but many many more things. What life could things have? I think a very interesting and adventurous one. Do they have a better life than we do? Someone might think, for example, that a pencil’s life is boring. It sits in a pencil case for half a day and is written with the other half. But a pencil’s life can also be interesting. Maybe they see things that we don’t. Sometimes the pencil is under the cupboard, in the sink, under the floor, behind the bookcase and so on. I think that a thing’s life is not as boring as you might think. They see things that are much more interesting than we do.

THE NARRATOR: I am like an old striped camera in the middle of a black terrace table. My 1987, black and white movie has been ripped out and is flowing in the summer’s pink wind. All those pictures of elephants, my great aunt’s cow, the evening’s minced meat sauce and my domesticated dust bunny, Tina. The pictures fade too fast, burn to non-existence in the blazing sun. And I have no more thoughts left. I am an empty box, waiting for a new tape to remember and then forget again. My legs are like a butterfly’s wings. They fly and take me wherever I want. Should I worry that butterflies live only a day?

Second actor: I am like a sour cranberry pudding with extra sugar, so eating would be sweet. I am covered with a sheet like the pudding that one can dissolve with a spoon.

My thoughts are like those small red berries that initially seem so appetizing, but taste surprisingly when you crack them open. Some berries are bigger, some are smaller and cranberries always stay on top, unless they are rotten, then they sink. Sometimes that happens with my thoughts as well. My eyes are the black dots connected to the cranberries. I have a lot of them, so I can see the wide world well. Because of the red color, I see my surroundings with pink glasses.

I taste the best with some bread.

DREAMER

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed

I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lover – you are my friend

We’ll always be together

Though this world may end

Where-ever I go – I’ll watch over you

Where-ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed

I’d have

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Man – you are my friend

I’ll always be beside you

Until the end

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

Love is the answer – Faith makes us strong

Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

Woman my woman, lady my friend

We’ll be together until the end

INGRID RÜÜTEL

I am Ingrid Rüütel. I was born in 1935 and I was a child during the loss of the republic, invasions and war. The men of our family have been drawn into politics for many generations and they have perished young. I was raised with my mother, grandmother and great grandmother. I was born in Tallinn and we lived there till the war started. Then we evacuated to Russia with my mother and grandmother. My father had to stay behind and he was shortly executed. In the beginning we stayed in the countryside in Tšeljabinski County. One simple Russian woman took us in even though she was not obliged to. There was hunger. Everything that was produced went to the front. Our huts were made of clay, manure and limestone: we scratched it and ate it with garlick. It was pretty good. Then we moved to the city of Tšeljabinski, where there were other Estonians.

We were taken in by Mrs Aino, who had been deported. We lived in her only room - she and her mother, me, my mother, my grandmother and one little girl who had travelled with us to Russia,... In the countryside, life had been calm. But in the city people had become wild. I have many horrible memories of the children from there. Herds of homeless bagboys travelled the road and cleaned out every child they could get their hands on. Among the children of our street, the hatred was unimaginable. Children of one house clobbered one from another. You couldn’t go anywhere alone. Once, a small four-year old boy from our house climbed on top of a shed for some reason. Within 5-10 minutes thirty to fifty kids from neighbouring houses gathered around and started throwing rocks at him. I went and told the boy’s mother, she came and, with the power of her matriarchal spirit, managed to disperse the crowd.

What they did to animals I don’t even wish to recall. I saw a farmer beat his horse to death, because he couldn’t get up an icy slope. It’s still one of my worst memories.

The brightest moments in life are when a new person is born into this world. These are very happy moments. Yet, later they can be all kinds of trouble and worry. But, at the beginning, they bring a lot of joy to every one.

WAR

We’ll fight our way to distant hills, A bloody battle have

We’ll raise our sword and kill them all

We’ll raise our countries flag!

We’ll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We’ll kill our women, Children too, Kill them all until we’re through Kill them all until we’re through.

God save our land, long live our flag, On to the war we go - praise to our dead

But who says we’re right, who says we’re wrong Honour and pride - to this we belong!

Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us!

Oh come and save us from what we do!

Our world is through!

But who can save us! But who can save us?

But who can save us from what we do?

God - where are you?

THE NARRATOR: What is happiness?

First Actor: What is happiness? What is happiness? To answer the question: “What is happiness?” I must find a dictionary definition of happiness. Looking the definition up in the dictionary it turns out there is none. But what we do have are many example sentences. For example, the saying goes: “Thank your good fortune that even that happened.” So I should thank fortune, because nothing’s wrong? - happiness is the absence of unhappiness?

One of the study’s showed that an Estonian is already happy. When asked the question, “How are you doing?” – he answers: “OK!” OK is for us a positive definition. So we can take the earlier sentence, ”Thank your good fortune that even that happened” and see that it is an universal state of happiness for all Estonians.

FATHER

IN THE SKY

Father in the sky

Won’t you tell us who you are?

Won’t you say a word to me – that I can understand You have me in your hands

Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And I am so afraid

I never was so brave….

How can I carry on

And still believe in you

When every hope has vanished

Long ago - in spite of you

How can we carry on

How can we face you now?

When everything we tried so hard

To do was lost somehow

How can we face you now?

How can I face you now

PEETER MURUSALU

I am Peeter Murusal and I was born in 1946, after the war. 25th March, 1949. The day the deporters rang our doorbell. When the train was driving across the bridge I woke up. I remember that. They told me I had immediately asked for food. That I don’t remember, but I suppose it might have been so.

The railway carriage was an ordinary one in which they carry animals. The ride I remember in pieces, but for a three year old boy there was a lot of excitement.

Eventually we arrived at a settlement near a big gold mine and stayed there for years. Long, long years – the adults would correct me. Siberian nature was an adventurous playground for a young boy. The climate was continental: summers hot, winters rough, both beautiful. We went swimming in the mountain lakes. The water was cold, but that wasn’t an obstacle for the boys. Fire was made before going into the water. When hungry, there were many large berries to eat. On the way home we swung from the trees, because Tarzan was showing in the cinema.

Winters were heavy on snow. You could ski and sledge your heart’s desire. The main thing however was jumping into the snow. For that you had to climb to the roof and jump down. The snow reached the edge of the roof. Sometimes you would fall in twice your size and then had to dig yourself out. After many tries the digging routes were united with each other and it made a stunning cave. Only one entrance was left and hidden carefully. It became a real refuge and when conditions allowed it could last till early spring.

The adults were initially in a state of shock. Some more, some less. Aside from the emotional trauma, there was also the fact that their entire environment was suddenly changed.

Of course they also noticed the beauty of Siberian nature. Already on the following day we started taking joint walks into the mountain. It helped to initate a strong community sense and mood improved.

Once, a fly woke up during the winter in the heat of the stove. It was clumsy and helpless. Aunt started to revive it with a worm towel. I wondered, saying that during the summers they are so annoying. My aunt looked deep into my eyes, I remember it precicely and said that right now is not summer and the fly is all alone and added that she hopes that one they we will be helped home..

Year after the death of our great leader I finally saw my father who came to us and started to dig for gold. Our Superman, Stalin, was dead.

SUPERMAN

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide, where will beyour land?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

What have you done with this beautiful world?

Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this Godgiven Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide? Where will be your land?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone

With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away

And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause

How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your masterplan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

Where you gonna run to…- Superman?!

THE NARRATOR Is there much difference if a man was created in the face of god or vice versa? Both god and I are mirror images of each other no matter what. But which way is easier – to find god and seeing him understand who am I and what I need. Or to find my face, see myself, and understand what god had to have been like to make me as his image. What was his plan, when I was created? Or what is my plan creating Him? Sometimes I feel that there are different me’s. Like the world is full of twister mirrors, whisch keep changing what I look like. When we chase ourselves, will we lose ourselves instead?

I BELIEVE

If the sun lost its shine

And the trees started to die

Yes – I’d still be full of hope I guess I know the reason why If the wind grew too old And the seas started to dry

Yes I would still be full of love

Don’t ask – don’t ask me why!

Yes I still believe in God I still believe in us – his people! And if you really want to know

I still believe in this His land. We believe in God

We still believe in us – his people!

And if you really want to know

We still believe in this His land.

So don’t turn your head away

Don’t give up on who you are

Just keep on loving more each day

And the world will shine for you

I guess it’s all in the mind

What you feel is what you see

So within your heart just sing these words

Come sing! – come sing with me!

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people!

And if you really want to know

We still believe in this His land.

We believe in God

We believe in us – his people!

And if you really want to know I believe – yes I believe I believe – yes I believe I believe in this His Land!

I HAVE A VISION

I have a vision, I have a dream I have the answer or so it seems.

Don’t you see the truth, to fight is not right, We shall have our rainbow, we will have our sunlight If we unite!

There’s a way you see, where no one gets hurt

There’s a way with love if you try!

There is hope and faith to keep you alive

In your darkest day, just pray!

Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love!

Let us win this way!

Martin Luther King had a vision! He had a dream

He had the answer, or so it seemed!

He knew the truth - to fight is not right

We can have our rainbow, we can have the sunlight!

We must unite!

A new world, A new light!

A new world, A new light!

A new hope! A new light -

Reach out with love, gather all your courage, Reach out with love, seek a brighter day!

Love as our sword, peace as our weapon

Reach out with love! Let us win this way!

I have a vision!

JAAN TSADURJAN

My name is Jaan Tsadurjan and I was born in 1972 and I was a child during the final years of Breznev. They have often asked me, what nationality am I. I speak Estonian, live in Tallinn, but by my last name I somehow can’t be Estonian. I was born in 1972 in Russia the city of Adler. My Armenian mother married by Caucasian Estonian mother. Our family had ended up in Caucasia at the end of the 19th Century. Estonia had bought a piece of land for gold in Caucasia where Estonian families relocated. Technically the territory belongs to Estonia. There were Estonian schools, the cultural facilities operated in Estonian.

My first language was Estonian. Grandma always spoke to me in Estonian and so I learned. My dad spoke to me in Russian. The boys in the yard of the army camp also spoke Russian. The first word I learned was „durak (moron)“. I came inside and my mother asked me how I was playing with those boys, because at that time I could not speak Russian. I looked my mother in the eyes and said „durak“. My father’s mother tongue I have never learned, but I understand Armenian very well. On a practical level, I can handle the language basically like an average Estonian can handle Finnish. I finished high school in Caucasia.

After that I thought of studying in Estonia. I had been to Estonia once, when my grandmother performed with her choir at the Song Festival.

The first strange experience in Estonia fro me was the wind. Our village back home was surrounded by mountains. When the Caucasia Mountains have wind, it rips out trees and roofs off buildings. They don’t know cool breezes.

I was fascinated by the lifestyle and manners of Estonians, but also the people’s level of sophistication.

During the summers I went home to Caucasia. The last time I was home the Georgian-Abkhasian war started, when some men on the border shot at Russian inspection patrol. The border was closed. It was a disaster to the locals who were use to going to work or to shop across the border; some schools were across the border. Life was cut with a knife. People lived in fear and were forced to choose a side. Roads were blocked and army men stood with weapons ready. Estonians tried to remain impartial. But it didn’t work.

Brother was taken into the Abkhasian army. An Estonian-Armenian man fighting on the Abkhasian side, against the Georgians. It didn’t fit in his head. It was especially difficult for families of mixed nationalities who now fought each other.

I have lived among many nationalities and don’t care about anyone’s origins. The important thing is to be a human being. In all situations and towards everyone. Although there might be things you don’t understand. Like the Song Festival. My taste in music at the time was very different, typical teenager stuff, synth rock. I follow music very closely otherwise. Choir music just didn’t do it for me.

CANAKELE – sung in the Turkish language by Abdurahman Temelli from Peace Child Alpha Omega Turkey

In Canakkale, there is mirrored bazaar, Mother I'm heading to confront enemy, Oh, my adolescence...

In Canakkale, there is a tall cypress, Some of us are engaged, some are married, Oh, my adolescence...

Above Canakkale, there is a cloud of smoke,

Thirteenth division marched to battle

Oh, my adolescence...

In Canakkale, cannons are settled

Oh, my friends are shot there

Oh, my adolescence...

In Canakkale, there is a full pot, Mothers and fathers have given up hope, Oh, my adolescence...

(Estonian language song)

HE FLIES TOWARD THE HONEY TREE Peep Sarapik and Juhan Liiv

He flies from flower o flower And flies toward the honey tree; And the thundercloud rises –He flies toward the honey tree. Thousands fall on the road as well, And thousands reach home And take away troubles and worries And fly towards the honey tree.

My soul, oh my soul, at this tough time –When you yearn for father’s land; Whether home, or in a strange land –How you yearn for fathers land! And may the death winds blow against you; And the mortal bullet fly: You forget death and worry And race towards father’s land!

Actor:

None of us thinks whether the feeling of happiness is right of wrong. Happiness just is and makes me happy, like the Turk in Ankara and Argetinian in Mendoza. Because if I myself endu up in Mendoza, the April grape harvest doesn’t move me, but the locals are extatic. And the Turk sitting next to me at our Song and Dance Festival didn’t feel the joy of freedom that filled me. Is that all consuming feeling set in our childhoods when our values develop and we understand what makes us rejoice, what makes us weep? I don’t believe that. I refuse to believe that.

CHILD FOR A DAY

I was a child who ran full of laughter

I was a child who lived for a day

My eyes full of sunshine

My heart full of smiles

I was a child for a day.

We were the children who ran in the morning

We were the children who laughed at the sun

Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We’re getting older as time goes by

A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

We are the men who worry of nothing

We are the men who speak without aim

Who listen to no one yet speak of their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We’re getting older as time goes by

A little older every day

We are the children of yesterday.

LIIS SÕEL

I am Liis Sõel and I was born in 1988, which means I was a child very long time ago, like 7 years. My mother reads magazines every free moment. She likes jeans and country music and ABBA also. She can piss me off at times, when I hear a great song and she says they played that already 25 years ago. Like all good things had existed before me.

When she was my age she had a super miniskirt and platform shues. She liked Indian clothes, but Soviet people didn’t dress like that on the street. There weren’t any hippies either and jeans were only available through contacts and very expensive.

The Soviet times must have been boring and weird. There was nothing at the shops, newspapers were thin and boring and they didn’t allow you to travel abroad and the TV showed very few movies. My mother gave me a mobile phone for my birthday. I am the only one of the girls in my class to have one.

Sometimes with our class we go to the theatre in Viljandi. I like Pärnu the best and would like to go there more. I think it is the most beautiful city in the world.

I don’t want to move to the city to go to school there. I would like my own computer though. We have computer classes in school. But I suppose we don’t have that much money.

Speaking of money. Once my mother decided to go to a TV-game, where you can win money. Accidently she won a car. We didn’t get it immediately, but only in winter when the show aired. All through summer and fall we were worried, that the end of the world might come, like it was predicted at the time or the TV-building will burn down.

We got the car and then we sold it. My mother wanted to keep it for my school money. What kind of Estonia do I want? For the future I wish that there would be no more thieves, everyone could have a job and people would be happy with their lives.

REACH OUT

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are

Show me what you can do

Believe in me, I believe in you!

Reach out for your dream

It’s not as hard as it may seem Together we can make it through Together - me and you!

Wake up -open our eyes, This is our world, our paradise.

Reach out, don’t be afraid

Come on now, we’ll find a way

There’s a whole new world for us to see There’s a universe in you and me. Reach out, put your hand in mine! Oh see! - see how we shine!

Together - we’ll make it through, Together me and you!

Don’t be shy, just be yourself! You are your greatest wealth!

Reach out for a star!

Come out from where you are Show me what you can do Believe in me, I believe in you! Show me what you can do

Believe in me, I believe in you!

ANDRES NAMM

My name is Andres Namm and I was born in 1998. I live in Mäeküla near Rakvere. In our previous home in Rakvere we had three rooms, a large Lego that assembled into a spaceship. New home is even bigger and I have my own room. I get along very well with my Mom and Dad. In addition, I also have a big sister and a big brother. I have friends too: Indrek, Marja, Katariina, Kairi. Sometime we visit each other. Like on birthdays. Eat cake and play computer games. My favorite one is the one where you can visit planets. When I grow up, I will stay right here, to my mother-father home. I think I could invent a machine that could make sure the electricity would never leave. Then I want to invent a car that would drive itself. I would also like to invent a robot that would do everything. I would just speep and eat. And everything could be free. Estonian republic will remain. It could have more skyscrapers, spacehouses. In fact, I would like to build the largest tower to Estonia. Then we could have something that is the world’s biggest as well.

THE NARRATOR As a child many things were much clearer. I understood that most of what the grown-ups do and say is rubbish. I still think so. Except sometimes I forget and do and say rubbish myself. But I understand later. My child wakes up and then I understand. Everybody understands they just won’t admit it. But the child can’t be up forever and has to sleep sometimes, so I still do stupid things. Sometimes.

I, WHO AM I?

I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living? And having a place of our own? What power conceived me? Abandoned me to the unknown?

We, who are we? What is this place? Why are we here?

We, who are we to be so lost And all alone?

Is there a reason for living And having a place of our own? What power conceived me Abandoned me to the unknown? I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

- The End -

PEACE CHILD – ALPHA OMEGA

– ISTANBUL PERFORMANCE SCRIPT –

By Deniz T ü rer

– Story by Bengi Ç ift ç i & Deniz T ü rer –

Script Editor: David Woollcombe

Characters : Chris – (Awareness, courage )

Kivanc – (Courage, faith )

Elif – (Faith, awareness )

Mr. Bilgin (Assistant Principal, History Teacher)

Mr. Edge (American Biology Teacher)

Miss. Akkan (Music Teacher)

Miss. Koc (Mathematics Teacher)

Loser Guy

SCENE 1: Opening

(Dark stage. Opening song begins. Dancers come in and make a choreography, creating an atmosphere on stage. Chris stands and sings a son g alone, questioning, reflective.)

CHRIS: I, who am I? What is this place? Why am I here?

I, what am I? What is my cause? What must I be?

Is there a reason for living? And having a place of my own? What power conceived me?

Abandoned me to the unknown?

I, who am I? What is this world? Why am I here?

As the song ends, spotlight narrows and describes a pool of light around Chris. Blackout

SCENE 2: Classroom

(The cast enter and Lights come up to reveal a classroom. The history teacher Mr. Bilgin is lecturing about Ottoman history. Chris remains standing, as if he’s been expected to answer a question. He is silent, lost in thought. Mr. Bilgin and the rest of th e class, students, including his best friends Elif and Chris are looking at him, waiting)

MR. BILGIN: Silence? Did you understand the question Chris?

CHRIS: Yes Sir, it’s just I don’t know the answer.

MR. BILGIN: You should listen to me more carefully, t hen. Sit down! (Chris sits down.)

MR. BILGIN: Trade routes. Trade routes were affected most. The primary effect of discovery of America on Ottoman Empire’s economy was that alternative trade routes were established, leaving the current ones mostly deserte d. The trading ships used for carrying Silk and Spice from the Orient were made for shallow coastal waters. With the discovery of the Americas, shipbuilders were challenged to build ships able to sail across deep oceans - strong enough for long - distance t rade. Those ships were then started to be used by Spain, France, England and Portugal and other European kingdoms as battleships. Sadly, like most other

inventions, stronger ships made stronger tools for destruction.

(As he lectures, Kivanc and Elif start to whisper to each other)

KIVANC: What happened to Chris? He knows all this! I thought Mr B was going to start yelling at him...

ELIF: Yeah, Chris got lucky for once, I guess. (Listens for a while) Oh, I can’t take i t anymore God, isn’t it time for a break yet?

KIVANC: (Under his breath - Imitating the voice of a GSM operator) I’m sorry: God is not available to take your call. Please try later.

ELIF: Kivanc! Sometimes, you don’t know where to stop

KIVANC: What? I di dn’t say anything!

ELIF: I heard it!

(Mr. Bilgin notices them, talking. He moves closer to them as he speaks)

KIVANC: You heard wh -

MR. BILGIN: (interrupting) Kivanc!

KIVANC: (Scared) Yes sir!

MR. BILGIN: Chris being inattentive is something I can, let’s s ay, tolerate – History of “ Ottoman Empire ” is perhaps not so interesting for an “ American ” – But you I’m disappointed! What was I talking about, Kivanc?

KIVANC: Sir, you were talking about ships, err, big ships, used for Used in (with a fake enthusiasm) T he Ottoman Empire’s glorious naval victories!

MR. BILGIN: No! – Well, it’s true that the Ottoman Empire’s navy was magnificent, and for hundreds of years (He stops – Realizing Kivanc is manipulating him.) No! No, that’s not what I was saying: I was expla ining that inventions which seemed useful in the beginning, sooner or later, end up as tools of destruction in the hands of oppressors. (Threatening) Sit down and Listen! I warn you two – Kivanc and Elif: if I catch you talking one more time in my lecture without permission, you will get a penalty on your final grades. Am I clear? Am I clear??

KIVANC / ELIF: (despondently) Yes Sir

MR BILGIN: (to the class) Did we hear that? I didn’t hear that! Again please!

KIVANC / ELIF: (Loudly) Yes Sir!

MR BILGIN: Loude r!

KIVANC / ELIF: (Shouting) Yes Sir!

MR BILGIN: Louder!!!

KIVANC / ELIF: (Screaming) Yes Sir!

MR BILGIN: Thank you. Now listen – (music starts – he returns to the podium and turns, singing:)

MR. BILGIN: Make a wheel, then spinning it round It may carry the world

Make a fire – yes building it high till It burns to the ground

Make a blade and call it a spade

To dig through the earth

Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

CLASS/CHOIR ( softly ) : Nothing can stop us

We’ll make our own star dust

Nothing can stop us …

MR. BILGIN: So spin that wheel, faster and faster

It will carry us far

Stoke up that fire, yes higher and higher

Till it burns to the sky

Make a bow, put in an arrow

Let it fly through the world

Heading for destruction with our own hands

Plenty of money, more milk and more honey

Who needs to work?

But what of the spade, digging so hard?

What’s left but soil and the earth?

We are Creatures of Invention – yes we are Man!

Heading for destruction with our own hands

The wheels are all turning

The fires are all burning

We’re living for learning

CLASS/CHOIR ( softly ) : Learning, learning, learning … .

KIVANC: (To Elif) That’s ridiculous!

ELIF: Totally! Insane!

KIVANC: (smiling – to Mr Bilgin) Sir! Do you really believe that?! I mean – I mean – That all the inventions are “ evil ” ?

CHRIS: that all scientific inventions are harmful to humankind? (Murmurings of agreement from the others in the class)

MR. BILGIN: (trying to get control) Silence! Silence! Who’s in charge here?! Me – or Kivanc? Me? – who has studied the history of humankind for several decades. Or Kivanc – a mere child. I am the teacher. You are the students. Remember that! How can you children poss ibly know more than I do? Don’t oppose, just learn.

(Chris raises his hand. Mr. Bilgin nods - meaning “ yes ” )

CHRIS: You mean we cannot even question your perspectives? That’s not teaching: that’s dictatorship!

KIVANC: Yeah, what if another history teacher – just as old and wise as you – told us the opposite: that inventions are good?

ELIF: Yes sir! what about mobile phones? I - Pods? Or – washing machines?

CHRIS: Male deoderant?

ELIF: How can they be destructive?

KIVANC: Hey! I just thought of a title for a new blockbuster movie: Doomsday: The War of the Washing Machines

(Laughing in class)

MR. BILGIN: (angry) Silence!

ELIF: And the Internet? Its transformed our world for the bett...

MR. BILGIN: (interrupting) SILENCE!!! May I remind you all – that to talk without my permission in my class will result in LOW grades! (Bell for break rings)

MR. BILGIN: 10 minute break! BLACK - OUT

SCENE 3: Canteen

(Lights come up in the canteen – Kivanc, Chris and Elif are sitting – talking about Mr. Bilgin. Rest of the students are hanging around, chatting and relaxing – except the loser guy.)

ELIF: How dare he threaten us with lowering our grades just for questioning his insane point - of - view?!

KIVANC: “ Mr. Wise ” doesn’t allow opposition. I think he’s afraid we might be right …

CHRIS: He’s just weird! He gives me the creeps – like he crawled out from some swamp in a horror movie! Maybe we shouldn’t argue with him – maybe he’ll slime us!

ELIF: He’s a teacher, Chris! A terrible one, yes! – which is why we shouldn’t remain silent when he’s totally wrong!

CHRIS: But we can’t change him? So should we even try? Is he worth this much effort? (Kivanc brings out an apple from his pocket and bites it – loudly)

KIVANC: Well, anyway, let’ s forget about him! Hey! What are we going to do after school?

CHRIS: Elif and I are going to Taksim.

KIVANC: Aaaah! The two love - birds. Of course – You vant to be alone! Well – if you are going without me, (smiling) alone I’ll come to my secret, sacred p lace

CHRIS: No – you can come with us. Why - ?

ELIF: (Interrupting) Wait! – Your “ secret, sacred place ” ? What’s that?

KIVANC: Ach, nothing You two go have fun!

CHRIS: Kivanc! Come clean with us!? You have a place of your own? Why didn’t you tell us?

KIVA NC: Well, since you two got together, I’m spending my time alone. I found a beautiful place – (smiling) my personal paradise! – in which I’m God, of course.

ELIF: (stares at Kivanc) You’re kidding us, right?

CHRIS: Where is it?

KIVANC : Oh! – about half an hour by bus from Taksim!

ELIF : How long since you found it?

KIVANC : A couple of months!

ELIF : A couple of months!! Why didn’t you tell us??

KIVANC: – Because it’s “ Secret ” – private.

CHRIS: Why did you tell us now, then?!

KIVANC: Because I was thinki ng of taking you – but if you’re too busy snogging in Taksim – no worries! Another time! (he makes to leave)

ELIF : No – wait! We’d love to come – (to Chris) wouldn’t we?

CHRIS : Definitely! First to Taksim – then to the Sacred Place!

KIVANC : You would be the first people I have ever taken there... It would be a secret no more!? It’s magic would be compromised... (An awkward silence for a second or two. Chris and Elif leave him pondering – he thinks a moment, then walks after them) No! – It’s O K! Come! Violate my privacy! I always share my secrets with you guys, right? Right?

ELIF : Eventually! – (All Exit) FADE TO BLACK

SCENE 4: Classroom

(Empty Classroom. Mr. Bilgin is sitting in front of his desk. Everyone except the loser guy is at the canteen so the class is empty. The loser guy is trying to talk with Mr. Bilgin – but he’s too afraid to do. He tries for a while.)

LOSER GUY: Umm S - Sir?

(Mr. Bilgin does not respond)

I agree with you – about the – about the inventions …

(M r. Bilgin looks up at him, with interest.)

MR. BILGIN: You do?

LOSER GUY: (Respectful) Yes, sir.

MR. BILGIN: It’s good to see there are still students like you – who listen to their teachers.

LOSER GUY: I do listen to you, sir – every word you say! (Hesitates) I can’t believe how they – how they don’t.

(Mr. Bilgin is pleased for what he heard. He, then, is lost in thought.)

MR. BILGIN: (quietly) That American boy, Chris is a nuisance! Just who is he to question me? (Loser Guy shakes his head with ap proval)

LOSER GUY: He’s a Christian, Sir. What do you expect!?

MR BILGIN: (continuing with anger) They eat pork, they drink wine, they don’t fast – they don’t even pray to Allah! (Desperately) They’ll all go to hell, I’ll tell you, boy!

LOSER GUY: He is poisoning Elif and Kivanc with his “ western ” ideas. (hesitant) S - Sir …

MR BILGIN: What, child?

LOSER GUY: (with suppressed pangs of conscience) I – I’ve heard that – that Kivanc is –He’s become (Cannot finish)

MR. BILGIN: (intrigued) Become what?

LOSE R GUY: He’s become – umm, he might be an – (quietly) an Atheist! Maybe …

MR. BILGIN: (With rage) What!?

LOSER GUY: (Scared to death) Sir I – I don’t know – I’ve just heard it that -

MR. BILGIN: (interrupting) Infidels! Both of them!! Poisoning Elif’s mind!

(He stands up, enraged! – and paces back and forth across the classroom, trying to calm himself. He turns – serene – a thought occurring to him) Chris has converted Kivanc Made him an apostate! He is the Devil! Poor Kivanc! Poor Elif! (He

goes back to his desk and sits again) Thank you, boy.

(Elif, Kivanc, Chris and the rest of the students come in to class. They see Loser Guy talking with Mr. Bilgin. Elif and Chris don’t pay any attention – but Kivanc stares at him having heard his final words)

LOSE R GUY: (relieved) You’re welcome, sir. (He notices Kivanc staring at him, panics, and directly moves to his desk – sitting down swiftly, without talking to anyone.)

(Mr. Bilgin starts staring at Kivanc first – then his looks shift to Chris. He seems frust rated, but remains silent. Kivanc sits, looks at Chris as if asking “ What the hell? ” Mr. Bilgin wants to provoke Chris! He stares at him, making no attempt to conceal his contempt for him...)

MR. BILGIN: (Tense, angry) Silence! I warn you one last time – Don’t talk without my permission or your grades will be lowered. Let’s start from where we left off -

(Elif raise her hand, but Mr. Bilgin ignores her. He continues.)

MR. BILGIN: Nearly all of the inventions I’ve been talking abo ut are western in origin. Christian societies support scientific improvements, especially in the last few centuries. That’s mainly because being technologically superior brings economic, political and finally military superiority. That’s why the superpower s of today’s world are Christians. And what do those superpowers do with their technological superiority? Do they work for the peace and prosperity of all? No! They rape and plunder the world’s poorest countries. They wage illegal wars on countries they do n’t like. They support criminal states like Israel in their wars against our fellow muslims – and generally wreak chaos and destruction on those less powerful than themselves!

(Chris raises his hand)

Yes, Chris.

CHRIS: (trying to control himself) Sir why are you staring at me? Is it because I’m American?

MR. BILGIN: Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls! Chris is an American – and America is a super - power. Western Europe – the European Union! – is also a super - power – economically. And what do both t hese regions have in common?

LOSER GUY: They are both Christian societies.

MR. BILGIN: Exactly!

KIVANC: (defending) Sir -

MR. BILGIN: Shut up! (to Chris) Chris?

CHRIS: Are you suggesting that Christian societies are some how evil – and Muslim societies ar e some how good?! Now, I’m not a politician - I’m a student, a Christian, yes, and an American! – but before all that, I’m a human! And I really don’t want to get into it because I’ve been in Turkey for three years and most of my best friends now are Mus lim – BUT – I have to point out: 9/11?! – 7/7 in London – Madrid, Casablanca – all the suicide bombings in Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan. Not Christians brutally murdering their fellow human beings. Muslims!! How dare you suggest that my Christian valu es are destructive to our world. It’s outrageous!!

KIVANC: Mr Bilgin, sir! Can you show me where these topics appear in the official History curriculum? (Mr. Bilgin walks to his desk, sits and starts writing as Kivanc talks)

ELIF: ‘Cos they seem more like part of a Contemporary Politics or Comparative Religions curriculum.

KIVANC: – and a pretty divisive – ‘Keep - the - hell - out - of - my - backyard’ one, too!

MR. BILGIN: I’m disappointed once again, Kivanc … Your first participation grade is … zero.

KIVANC: (What th e ?) But sir – I asked you for a simple piece of information! Isn’t that what teachers are supposed to deliver to their students? Information?!

MR. BILGIN: Enough. I hope this grade makes you change your attitude towards me as your teacher, and towards you r education in general! (Continues to lecture again while sitting.) Where were we? (Thinks for a while) Ah, yes, Christian states. (With an increasing anger) Not only Christians are using their technological superiority against developing states – Muslim ones, in general – but the Jews also are. You mention Palestine! Look at the Middle - East - Israel crushing her neighbor states with her superior military fire - power generously donated to her by the United States of America! Israel has killed thousands of innocent Muslims where she has lost a tiny number of her own citizens. It’s obvious that if you give a Christian – or a Jew – a chance to kill a Muslim, they leap at the opportunity. Now, let’s -

CHRIS: (standing up, furious) Sir!! This is NOT history!! T his is outrageous propaganda! Just because Israel killed a few Turks who were trying to break what I agree is an illegal and outrageous blockade of Palestine – does NOT give you the right to bundle together all Christians and Jews in the same breath as th e war criminals in the Israeli cabinet. Yes! I am a Christian – and our values are, like the fundamental Jewish values – all to do with love, respect and peace! Elif and

Kivanc are my close friends. Everyone in this class knows me. Ask them if they think my Christian values are anything but IDENTICAL to their Muslim ones!?

MR. BILGIN: A good speech, Chris, but I warned you: don’t say I didn’t. You are required to raise your hand before you start talking in my class! (Starts writing, once more) I warned yo u – All of you! So – another grade zero. Two in one lecture. What a pity! I hope I won’t have to do it again. (To Chris) You may be an excellent teacher in the future, Chris – but right now, that’s my job. Your job is to listen, take notes –and get go od grades: a job you are signalling failing in in my opinion. (Stands up) Now – Let’s get back to topic. (Music starts – softly. Lights change – the stage becomes darker...)

MR BILGIN: Who would like to answer the following question? (Elif raises her ha nd) But I didn’t ask the question yet..?

ELIF: (frosty) It’s not a question. It’s a request! It’s a request that you see us as human beings – not tupperware boxes into which you seek to pack and seal your opinions and your version of history. Ataturk tau ght women to think critically about their husbands: I’m sure that, as in America, he would have wanted young people to think critically about what their teachers tell them.

(Chris and Kivanc lead the class in loud, spontaneous applause!)

MR. BILGIN: Shut up! Shut up!! SILENCE!! (Elif stands up, staring at him with anger!)

ELIF: Please listen to me! – hear the words that I say

We live in one world so our home is the same,

Say not that he's Christian, or that I am Jew

Say not that you are “ red ” , nor th at I am “ blue ”

Say only we are friends! - and we want to live in peace

In this here our world, let all wars cease!

(As the finishes, there is silence. The class watch Mr. Bilgin intently. He is stunned by her words. He thinks a moment, then sits quietly and deliberately at his desk, as though she didn’t say anything. He is touched but continues his lecture as though nothing has happened.)

MR. BILGIN: Bring out your notebooks, write down. “ Shift of Trade routes – outcomes. ”

FADE TO BLACK OUT

SCE NE 5: After School

(It’s the end of the school day. Elif, Chris and Kivanc are alone at the classroom gathering their personal belongings. They’re pissed!)

CHRIS: He’s just a complete idiot!

KIVANC: Today, if you asked me, I would say that oak tree out there has the bigger brain!

ELIF: It’s not a joke, Kivanc! I think we should report what we just heard to higher authorities!

CHRIS: (To Elif) What higher authorities?! He’s the deputy Head! – and you k now the Head’s scared to death of him. They all are!

KIVANC: It’s the sympathy angle: ‘He lost his wife – and his son! – so we have to be nice to him.’

ELIF: Look! – I know what happened to him was horrible, and no one has more sympathy for his loss than m e. But that does not allow him to become a racist bigot!

CHRIS: And smug with it. That scowling smirk! I want to punch him in the face some times. And yet, when I first came to this school, he was incredibly kind to me. What did I do wrong?!

KIVANC: You dared to challenge his ridiculous prejudices! You invaded his secret inferiority complex! He’s a Historian! He lives the glory of the Ottoman Era! You still have your empire! He’s lost his!

ELIF: Kivanc has a point, Chris. Your mere presence in the c lassroom is a constant reminder of what he perceives to be our failure...

CHRIS: Well – it’s his problem, not mine! Some day’s he’s just going to have to grow up and get over it.... ‘cos I – (He’s interrupted as Mr Bilgin storms in to classroom)

(A BEAT)

MR. BILGIN: Elif! It disappoints me to find you still consorting with these two young men. I like you Elif and you are one of my best students. However, you should take more care in the company and friends you keep! You saw how their behaviour in the class forced me to lower their grades. I would hate to have to do the same to you. I hope you understand me. (He exits)

ELIF: Wha t was that all about?

CHRIS: As well as trying to mess with our minds with his mis - reading of history – he’s now trying to mess with your emotions by telling you which friends you should have – and who you are allowed to fall in love with....

ELIF: How dar e he? (furious) How bloody dare he?! You want to punch his smug face in, Chris! I want to smash it to a bloody pulp!!

ELIF: I see that face everyday

CHRIS:

Mocking and taunting away

He says he likes me

Smiling and true

But inside he really hate s me...

I see his face everyday

Singing then shouting away

Why can't he be nice

Like he was before

To have what we had then more?

Elif & CHRIS: So what must we do?

Must we hope?

Must we pray

That one day

He'll cha nge his ways?

KIVANC:

I see his face everyday

Screaming and shouting away I try to like him,

Honest and true...

What more for this guy can I do?

KIVANC, ELIF & CHRIS: So - what must we do?

Must we hope?

Must we pray!?

(An awkward silence)

...that one day

He’ll change his ways..?

CHRIS:

I don’t know I’m in two minds I can’t forget the troubled times I think it’s best for us to go away

ELIF: I see his face everyday

Singing then shouting away

W hy can't he be nice

Like he was before

To have what we had and more?

KIVANC, ELIF & CHRIS: So - what must we do?

Must we hope?

Must we pray!?

That one day He’ll change his ways..?

KIVANC: I don’t know I’m in two minds I can’t forget these troubled times

ELIF & KIVANC: I think it’s best for us to go away

ELIF: Then - I won’t see that face everyday No, I won’t see that face everyday No, I won’t see that face everyday

KIVANC: Just a semester left to our gra duation. After that, no more Mr Bilgin!

(Silence)

ELIF: Oh my God! A couple of months! Graduation! Then what?!

KIVANC: (smiles) Well, I’ll talk to him tonight. He likes me, you know. I’ll try to make some arrangements.

CHRIS: With who?

KIVANC: God, of c ourse

ELIF: Hah! – listen to him! The Atheist!

CHRIS: Kivanc I always try to ignore you but sometimes it’s really hard to do it

ELIF: If you keep joking about God, I swear I won’t talk to you again.

KIVANC: Hey, hey! Easy, guys. I was just kidding.

ELIF: Yeah – well don’t joke about religion. It offends me!

CHRIS: Me too!

KIVANC: Sorry! I don’t mean to – I just think your blind faith in some unseen puppetmaster pulling all our strings... Well - it’s just a little funny to me!

CHRIS: I don’t mind y ou questioning it – that’s fine! But just show us a little respect.

KIVANC: Of course. Sorry. Forget about it, OK?! I’ll see you on the bus. (exits)

ELIF: (sighs) What a hard day …

CHRIS: Yeah! - I’m looking forward to Kivanc’s sacred place. It sounds tr anquil

ELIF: (gets closer to Chris) But we won’t be alone! We’re hardly ever alone

CHRIS: You know your parents don’t like it when we’re alone! They always want your aunt or your sister to go out with us! Don’t they do dating in Turkey!?

ELIF: I know, Chris, but that’s our culture. My father would kill you if he knew how much time I spent with you.

CHRIS: So – should I leave now?!

ELIF: Come back here! You know I want to spend more time with you. Soon we’re going to graduate and I’ll goin g to go to college here and you’ll go back to America. Did they call, by the way?

CHRIS: No. I got a letter. They invited me for interview. It’s a very good sign.

ELIF: (distressed, interrupting) When?

CHRIS: A week after the end of the semester – assumin g I graduate which – if Mr Bilgin carries on as he did today, I might not!

ELIF : I’ll work on him! You know he likes me – even fancies me a little! I’ll get him to fail you just for me! Then you’ll have to stay!

CHRIS : Part of me wants to stay – but it ’s true what he says: America is the super - power – and it’s also my home. My culture! You can come and see me there – you’ll love it. And my parents are staying on here! I’ll come and see them. And you – of course!

ELIF: I know, but But you’re going, Chris! And I can’t think of being without you here. It will be like a desert – a wasteland. Empty -

CHRIS: Then let’s fill it with our dreams – dreams of our life together – the things we’ll do – the places we’ll see! The adventures we will have. I’m muc h too young to be making commitments – I mean, I can barely keep my life together let alone your’s – or a baby’s! But I see a future – a great future for us, for our friends, for our planet! Don’t you?

ELIF: (smiles) It’s what I love about you, Chris!! Even after the shittiest day – with the stupid, shitty, bigotted Mr Bilgin – you always bounce back – full of hope, full of dreams! I will wait for you, Chris – for as long as it takes. As long as you need!

CHRIS: I’m not sure what I need – or who I am – or what I want – or who I will become. I do know that I want more – more than I’m seeing at the moment....

ELIF: More money – more power – more women!!??

CHRIS: No! – No, - nothing like that. A bigger dream, I guess!

ELIF: Dreamer – you are my dreamer! Man – you are my love! You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lover – you are my friend We’ll always be together Though this world may end

CHRIS: Where - ever I go – I’ll watch over you

Where - ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my love!

You are everything I ever dreamed I’d have Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lady – you are my friend I’ll always be beside you

Until the end

CHRIS & ELIF: Where - ever I go – I’ll watch over you Where - ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

ELIF: No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

CHRIS: Love is the answer – Faith make s us strong Heaven our reason – tomorrow we’re gone

ELIF: Dreamer – you are my dreamer!

Lover – you are my friend

We’ll always be together So just stay as you are

CHRIS: Dreamer – you are my dreamer! (Lady) – you are my love

Live for the moment

Give all you have

ELIF & CHRIS: No plans to make – nowhere to run

Never stop trying – reach for the sun

Where - ever I go – I’ll watch over you

Where - ever life takes us, I’ll be with you!

(The y kiss)

CHRIS: Kivanc will be furious! He’s waiting for ages

ELIF: Oh God! He will have missed two busses. Let’s go.

(They exit, talking as they move out of the stage)

ELIF: Kivanc is so strange. But I like him.

CHRIS: He’ s my room - mate! I have to like him – and he’s a good guy - well. Always crazy, Sometimes unbearable, but always a good guy.

ELIF: Totally! I’m gonna give him a hug.

CHRIS: Well, I won’t. I know when he last had a shower! Last week! FADE to BLACK - OUT

SCENE 6 : Teachers’ Room

Teacher’s room. History teacher Mr. Bilgin, music teacher Miss Akkan, math teacher Miss Koc and other teachers are talking. They’ re going to leave in a few minutes - final chatter of the day. Mr. Bilgin complains about Kivanc, Chris and Elif to Miss Akkan.

MR BILGIN: Anyway – I was forced to lower their grades

MISS AKKAN: Elif, Chris and Kivanc?!

MR. BILGIN: Not Elif – not yet!

MIS S AKKAN: Oh I’m surprised. They’re such active students. They participate in every cultural activity – lead most of them

MR. BILGIN: I don’t care about their social activities: it’s grades that matter

MISS AKKAN: Why were you forced to lower them?

MR. BILGIN: I warned them several times but they kept interrupting my lecture. So - I had no choice!

MISS KOC: (Joining the Conversation) Of course you had a choice, you stupid man! You can’t bring Mehmet back, you know – nor Tuba, your wife! You beat up on your students to beat up on yourself – especially Chris and Kivanc because they remind you of Mehmet. Headstrong, proud – self - confident. We’ve tried to help you, Ahmed – but you’ve got to get a life – not take their’s!

(Mr. Bilgin stares at her – amazed at her intrusion – but strangely comforted. She comes to him – and folds him in her arms, hugging him. Miss Akkan backs away, embarrassed.)

MISS KOC: You’re such a tense bundle of pent - up anger and bitterness. Let it go! Ahmed – Let it go! You’ll kill yo urself if you don’t – unless you kill a student first!

MISS AKKAN: (backing away to Exit) I’m leaving you the list of musical activities for our spring festival, on the table - Mr. Bilgin. (EXIT)

MR. BILGIN: Good, good Thank you, Miss Akkan . Am I a good teacher, Miss Koc?

MISS KOC: You were! You were top of your graduating class at Middle East Technical, remember! Since Tuba and Mehmet died – I sense your heart is not in it any more.

MR BILGIN: What should I do, Rengin? I need the money – I’m too old to get another job.

MISS KOC: I told you what you should do many times – but you never listen! Marry that stupid Miss Akkan – you know she adores you! And re - build your life from the ground up. Or, if you can’t do that, quit teaching and g o and be a bureaucrat somewhere – as far from Istanbul as you can get! Baku would be good!!

MR BILGIN: I can’t do that. I don’t deserve happiness – not after what’s happened.

MISS KOC: Of course you deserve happiness. Everyone deserves happiness! Tuba an d Mehmet would want you to be happy. It would be their dearest wish, you stupid man! If you don’t go out and get a bit of happiness into your life – you’ll just keep on digging your grave, losing yourself in a swamp of bitterness and hatred until you lose all your friends, your job, your students – and in the end, your life! Is that what you want?!

MR BILGIN: It’s not what I want – but I think it’s what I deserve!

SCENE 7 : Taksim Square

(Kivanc, Elif and Chris is walking through Istik lal Street, Taksim, going to bus stop.)

KIVANC: Best part of the school is when it’s over - walking through Istiklal Street to Taksim square!

CHRIS: I agree, brother.

ELIF: Guys, I’m starving. Can we eat something?

KIVANC: I’m broke.

CHRIS: Me too …

ELIF: No worries – this one’s on me! Wet Burger’s OK for you?

(They head to a Wet Burger shop nearby)

ELIF: (to shopkeeper) Three burgers please? (Starts to talk with shopkeeper – silently. Paying, taking burgers etc.)

CHRIS: (To Kivanc) So, where’ s this secret place?

KIVANC: You’ll see.

CHRIS: You mysterious old bugger! Why do you keep it secret from me? What do you do there – serious drugs!?

KIVANC: The most serious!! Thinking...

CHRIS: About what?

KIVANC: About everything. Family, friends, re lations, myself, school, life, faith, God In three years, I had a lot of time to think

CHRIS: Three years?!! – you said a couple of months!!

KIVANC: I lied. I needed my space. I feel peaceful there. I can’t believe you haven’t noticed: every day after s chool, for three years, I went and spent at least half an hour there. What did you think I was doing?

CHRIS: You said you were doing your home work!

KIVANC: In a sense, I was – the deep, important homework. The home work you never get around to – about you rself – about the planet – about what we’re doing to it –and our chances for having any kind of life left in the future.

ELIF: Here’s your burgers! Take them, take them, they’re hot. (Kivanc and Chris quickly relieve Elif of their burgers)

KIVANC: Thank s, Elif – you’re a star! (She walks away to dump her waste - paper)

CHRIS: (secretly to Kivanc) You know we’ve decided: We’re in love! It’s official!

KIVANC: (insensitive, while eating) Oh my God! You’re serious. Now I know why you’re so keen to find my ‘Se cret place.’ Well – No Way! Right – nothing like that can pollute the beauty of my paradise. You can keep right out of it....

CHRIS: Did I say a word? Did the mildest inflection of my tongue indicate that I had any thoughts of besmirching the integrity of your sacred place with my carnal desires?

(They laugh – and high five each other. Then a drum beat distracts their attention – Elif comes back over to them to look.)

ELIF: What’s that?

CHRIS: Some kind of demonstration, I guess.

(At the back of the theatre – the drum gets louder – the doors open and some Demonstrators stream down the aisles waving banners and beating drums.)

KIVANC: (Reading the banners of the demonstrators.) “ Stop Global warming. ” / “ PREVENT CATASTROPHIC CLIMA TE CHANGE! ” Hey, it’s against global warming.

CHRIS: Cool!

ELIF: Please Kivanc, not today. Don’t join them.

KIVANC: (Can’t take his eyes from the demonstrators) But …

CHRIS: (interrupting, holding his arm) No Kivanc, we’re going to your paradise.

KIVANC: (still looking at the demonstrators) But look! I’m just about done thinking! I want to do something.

CHRIS: OK - Let’s watch - and listen. (to Elif) No harm in that!

ELIF: Agh! – you guys!

KIVANC: (excited) Listen up, folks! They’re about to begin!

(The demonstrators gather on stage around their leader.)

LEADER GUY: (shouting) What do we want?

DEMONSTRATORS: Power!

LEADER GUY: (shouting) What Kind of Power?

DEMONSTRATORS: Clean Power!

LEADER GUY: (shouting) What do we want?

DEMONSTRATORS: Power!

LEADER GUY: (shouting) What Kind of Power?

DEMONSTRATORS: Green Power!

KIVANC: (searching his bag) Quick! Give me a paper and a pen!

LEADER GUY: (shouting) Clean Power! Green Power!

DEMONSTRATORS: (joining in – shouting) Green Power! Clean Power – Green Power –Clean Power!

LEADER GUY: (shouting) No to Climate Change!

DEMONSTRATORS: (joining in – shouting) NO!! - to Climate Change

LEADER GUY: (shouting) Climate Justice - NOW!

DEMONSTRATORS: (joining in – shouting) Climate Justice - NOW! (Kivanc s cribbles it all down)

DEMONSTRATORS: (led by the Leader Guy – but gathering their own momentum – their own movements / choreography – building, building, building) Climate Justice - NOW! NOW! NOW! Clean Power – Green Power – Clean Power – Green Power! NO to climate change!! Climate Justice NOW – NOW – NOW!!!

(Music begins – ascending crescendo – and the Chorus all sing!)

DEMONSTRATORS: Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide, where will be your land?

What you gonna say now, Superman?! Who’ll be the fool in your master plan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

What have you done with this beautiful world?

Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this God - given Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide? Where will be your land?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away

And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause

How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

(Demonstrators exit the stage through the auditorium - as they sing the last verse)

What you gonna say now, Superman?!

Who’ll be the fool in your master plan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land?

Where you gonna run to - Superman?!

(Kivanc finishes writing, quickly reads it and puts the paper in his pocket, hands the pen to Elif - abstracted)

KIVANC: Oh my

CHRIS: It was great!

KIVANC: Great? Great? They were awesome!

ELIF: Wow! Using music as a tool of protesting … A brilliant idea!

KIVANC: Isn’t it? We should do that in school!

ELIF: No!

CHRIS: ( simultaneously) No!

ELIF: Kivanc, Mr. Bilgin would kill you!

CHRIS: Or – worse! – expel you! It’s against the rules, Kivanc.

KIVANC: Who cares about the rules! Global warming is our generatio nal challenge – the most important thing we have to deal with in our lifetimes. Far more important than any stupid school rules! Bilgin wouldn’t care if do a demonstration at school.

CHRIS: Are you nuts? He’d go crazy!

ELIF: Kivanc don’t even think of doin g it!

KIVANC: (not listening to them, dreaming) It would be awesome.

CHRIS: No! No It wouldn’t!

ELIF: You’ll get yourself in deep trouble, Kivanc! Don’t do it, please!

KIVANC: (abstracted) Hey, cowards, we’re gonna miss the bus. Let’s go.

CHRIS: We are not cowards.

(Kivanc’s not listening to them anymore. He starts to walk)

ELIF: Oh my god, he’s going to do it

CHRIS: He won’t – he’s crazy, but he’s not that crazy!

ELIF: Don’t you believe it!

(They walk after him)

SCENE 8 : Sacred Place

FADE to BLACK - OUT

(MUSIC – dancers enter – evoking the spirit of the place in choreography, just as they did at the Opening of the Show. Lilli sings:

Here is a world so beautiful and green

Where the sun is shining and the waters run clean Here is my world where we all gonna stay

A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear

I have a mouth for tasting, speaking! I have a nose to smell the air!

Here I’ m a man feeling so happy - I say: “ Let’s love this world ‘cause here we will stay ” I hear that voice deep inside my soul say “ Listen to the music of life’s sweet call! ”

I am so smiling – eyes that seeing I am so happy – ears that hear

I have a hand for t ouching, feeling I have a mind to see that’s clear! Here is a world where we’re all gonna to stay A paradise, a heaven, where our heads we will lay

Kivanc enters - Chris and Elif follow him.)

CHRIS: You really enjoy life here, don’t you?

ELIF: Again, I’v e never seen you like this before.

KIVANC: I’m at peace. I leave a hard day behind here.

(He bites the apple, enjoys it for a while. Elif and Chris watch him confused)

CHRIS: The scenery looks amazing!

ELIF: And it smells great. I didn’t know that there’ s a place like this in Istanbul.

KIVANC: Istanbul is a miraculous city. It gives you anything you wish. You just have to know what you are looking for!

CHRIS: Do you have a clue what you’re looking for, Kivanc?

KIVANC: No clue! Do you?!

CHRIS: A bit – I mean, I was impressed by that demonstration. You don’t see much of that in Istanbul. It’s mostly against the French – or the British! Or the Football!

ELIF: You’re such a mixture, Kivanc. Here you are – thinking and meditating in this beautiful place – and yet you want to be out on the barricades! In politics.

KIVANC: You should not go into politics without thinking very hard about it first. Action without reflection is foolish; reflection without action is nothing.

CHRIS: Reflection – then Action – mak es sense!

KIVANC: Absolutely.

ELIF: And that’s where we got to today!?

KIVANC: Yes – we need to take action. It’s obvious to me that teachers like Mr Bilgin are much too fucked up as people to be able to teach us what we need to know. Oil’s going to run o ut in our lifetimes: what’s going to keep the lights on Istanbul when that happens? What’s going to keep the trains running, the cars and trucks on the road, the factories turning over – all of that takes energy: “ Clean Power – Green Power! ” – we’ve got to figure out how to make it –

CHRIS: ‘Cos if we carry on burning that fossil fuel – and allow global warming – that there Bosphorus is going to be lapping at our ankles!

ELIF: Noses more like: 7 meters of sea level rise when the Greenland ice fields melt.

KIVANC: I can’t believe you guys know this stuff? We never talk about it.

CHRIS: We never learn about it in class – but we read the newspapers.

ELIF: We know what’s going on

CHRIS: It’s just – what the hell can we do about it?

KIVANC: I don’t know: I ju st think that we should draw the attention of our friends to it.

ELIF: I bet they know already?

KIVANC: You reckon! I should think we’re the only three people in the school who know the consequences of the Greenland Ice Sheet melt.

CHRIS: You under - estimate our school mates. I bet about half are aware of the problem

ELIF: More than that.

KIVANC: So – all we’ve got to do is to light a fire under them – and we’ve got ourselves a revolution.

ELIF: Don’t talk about revolution in this place. It’s s o peaceful.

KIVANC: Genuine revolutions lead to peace. Real peace. Peace of mind.

CHRIS: Go for it!

FADE to BLACK - OUT

SCENE 9 : Schoolyard

(Lights come up – Schoolyard. Kivanc is bringing the protest to the school.)

KIVANC: (talking about global warming, excited and inspired!) My Friends! Thank you for coming! Thank you for coming to learn about the greatest challenge we – or indeed any generation of young people have ever faced. I called you here today because our school is failing! – Failing totally to teach us about the challenge we face. The twin challenge of avoiding catastrophic global warming – which already is costing the lives of 300 MILLION people every year; AND – dealing with the challenge of how we keep the light s on in our countries when oil, coal and gas run out in the middle of the century. In fact – as you may have read – it is likely to run out long before that: the American Defense Department and the Lloyds Insurers Group are laying plans for it to start to run out in 2015! Five years from now!! (Murmurings)

KIVANC: Yeah – it’s worrying! What’s even more worrying is that our Governmentsespecially the Superpowers are doing NOTHING – NOTHING!!!! – about it. This catastrophic twin disaster is coming hurtlin g towards us and they’ve shut their eyes – buried their heads in the sand – and deny its really happening!! Why –because they don’t care. They’ll probably get by until the next election! – and by the time things really start to hurt – they’ll probably be dead! So – why should they care! But we should care – we would care a whole lot more if our schools ever bothered to tell us of all the things we CAN do – and all the bad things that will happen if we don’t do them. But they don’t. And they won’t! They went to teacher training college thirty years ago and learned how to teach us a certain curriculum – and heaven forbid it will ever change!

DEMONSTRATOR / STUDENT: So – fire the teachers!

(More Murmurings. This time, some of the students are agreeing with Kivanc)

KIVANC: Right!! That’s one solution. Another would be to transform our school into a model solar / zero carbon facility. A poet once described our situation as like a thirsty person going into a forest – and cutting down trees to drink the sap – when all the time, there was a fresh, flowing stream just a few yards away. We have all these torrents of energy coming from the sun – 1000 times more than we use to power our civilisation. And yet we destroy our seas, our forests, our pristine arctic en vironments to dig expensive oil out of the ground! We have to change. We have to tell those superpower governments to get behind that change. And that’s what we’re doing here today!! So – let’s learn this song – and let’s see if we can raise a little awar eness around here today!

(Cheers. Everyone agrees with Kivanc)

KIVANC: Repeat after me: “ Where you gonna run to Superman? ”

(Kivanc begins to teach students the song.)

(A spotlight reveals Elif and Chris, sitting on a bench. They’re watching Kivanc teac hing students the song)

CHRIS: He’s good

ELIF: Really good! I didn’t realise he was into those … issues.

CHRIS: He’s into much more than he really wants to let. He’s been spending at least an hour every single day, in that secret place, reading, thinking, questioning... That’s a heck of a commitment over three years. That! – that’s the result of all that!

ELIF: What a great speech?! It blew me away

CHRIS: Me too! But - don’t you think that, perhaps, he’s a little over confident?

ELIF: No - ? Why do y ou say that?

CHRIS: Because he shouldn’t be doing this in school. He’s not thinking ahead. You KNOW he’ll get in trouble for this. And – didn’t you detect just a touch of “ I know what I’m talking about here...! ” No humility – no acceptance that he’s stil l got a lot to learn?

ELIF: He knows enough – look: he’s got most of the school fired up. That’s an incredible achievement....

CHRIS: But to do what?! He’s got them in the palm of his hand right now – but, when their little demonstration is crushed – and nothing happens: what’s he going to do

then, Elif?? He’s not thinking ahead! He’s not being strategic....

ELIF: Well - maybe he is; maybe he isn’t. All I know is that he’s doing something – and we’re sitting here on the fence doing nothing! I say: “ We should go and join himstand with him! But you say, “ No! ” – so we don’t. And I’m not happy with that.

CHRIS: Why!?

ELIF: I think we should support him – even if he is wrong! Even if he’s not being sufficiently ‘Strategic’ -

CHRIS: OK – go ahead! Go and get expelled with him! Fail your finals! Get low grades. Me – I happen to want to go to university – and learn a little more about these issues before I get out there and make a fool of myself doing demonstrations! I don’t believe he should be doing this in high school! He should be doing it when he has the power to change something. He has no power against the authorities at school now. He can’t make a change.

ELIF: You could be wrong. (she laughs) You’re sounding a bit like Mr Bilgin!

CHRIS: That ’s not fair. Go and join him! Go on! I dare you!

ELIF: OK – I will. But only when I persuade you to join too!

CHRIS: You won’t! Not because I don’t love you – and deeply respect you. But – I think he’s wasting his time. And I think you would be too. So – I want to persuade you not to!

ELIF: Well, Mr. Mature, I say you’re a coward – youv’e lost hope! Where’s your faith?

CHRIS: It’s NOTHING to do with faith, Elif. It’s raw political reality! I think you are -

(Their conversation is interrupted by the be ginning protest)

KIVANC: Let’s sing! Sing for Humanity! Sing for the planet! One - two - three - four!

KIVANC& DEMONSTRATORS :

Where you gonna run to, Superman?!

Where you gonna hide, where will be your land? What you gonna say now, Superman?!

W ho’ll be the fool in your master plan?

What you gonna do now, Superman?!

What have you done to God’s promised land? What have you done with this beautiful world? Where is your guiding star?

What have you done with this God - given Grace?

Who do you think you are?

Yes – who do you think you are?

We’ll wake up one morning and the world will be gone With all of our beautiful dreams

We had so many chances but we threw them away And now we’ve sold our souls to the Devil’s cause How did we lose control?

And how we gonna pay the toll?

Where you gonna run to -

(Mr. Bilgin appears on stage. He stops the song with a strong whistle)

(All the demonstrator students run away with fear, in a second. Only Kivanc does not run - He stands upright, disappointed by the behaviour of the rest of the demonstrators.)

MR. BILGIN: As I thought Kivanc. Who else could it be? To my office! Now! Exit

(Kivanc looks at Chris and Elif, then follows Mr. Bilgin.) Exit

SCENE 10 : Deputy Headmaster's Office

FADE to BLACK - OUT

(The Deputy Head master, Mr Bilgin, is sitting – fuming! Kivanc knocks on the door.)

MR. BILGIN: Come in! (Kivanc comes in)

KIVANC: Sir

MR. BILGIN: (furious) What the hell were you doing there?

KIVANC: (confident) I was -

MR. BILGIN: (interrupting) Are you aware that you acted against the regulations?

KIVANC: Peak Oil and climate change are our Generational Challenge. They are above any arbitrary rules set by bureaucratic school boards! You have to see that!

MR. BILGIN: Nothing is above the Regulations? You must understand that? Society depends on people obeying the rules – paying taxes – obeying authorities. You don’t seem to have learned that lesson – and the penalty for your action is expulsion from school!

KIVANC: Come on, Sir! The education I gave the school this afternoon is more relevant to their futures than anything they’ve learned in your classroom these last thre e years!

MR. BILGIN: (stands up - more furious) How dare you say that? How could you even THINK that??!! I’m the assistant principal of this school and we set the curriculum according to the rules laid down by the Government. How dare you think that some idiot CHILD can come along and think they know better?! Creating chaos into the bargain!?

KIVANC: (Taking on a hurt tone) You surprise me, Mr Bilgin: in your lectures, you taught us that our clever inventions are destroying the planet. That’s exactly what I was telling them down in the schoolyard!! Our fossil - fuelled civilisation is like a cancer – eating away at the planet which gives us all life. I was sure that this would be a message you would appreciate.

MR. BILGIN: Appreciate? Child! Do you take me f or a complete fool? You were fomenting a revolution down there – don’t try to pretend you weren’t!! Telling them that our curriculum was rubbish – and that we don’t teach you anything relevant. You said the same thing to me just now. I should be sending a ll the participants to disciplinary hearing. Instead, I will send only you! (Sits down again, bring out a paper, takes his pen. Rather serene.)

KIVANC: (surprised – not expecting that kind of an outcome) What? Well Okay, sir. (scared, but proud) It was m y protest – not their’s. But they won’t forget sir – the seeds are sown. You had better take up this issue with your bureaucratic superiors or else your school curriculum will become increasingly irrelevant to the lives of the people it is trying to educ ate

MR. BILGIN: You are a fool! I don’t like your attitude, child.

KIVANC: (Angrily!) I’m not a child!

MR. BILGIN: What?

KIVANC: I am NOT a child! You cannot dismiss me in this way. I’m a young adult – a person. A human being. You need to learn to treat your students with some respect. We have our human rights too

MR. BILGIN: (stares at him) I cannot believe I am hearing this!! In thirty years of teaching, I have never been so insulted by a student!!

KIVANC: In thirty years of teaching, you have probably never met a student who forces you to listen. I have so much more to teach you than you could possibly teach me! I’m sorry – but it’s true!! You’re on the wrong side of history in every topic you ar e trying to teach – and the subjects that we really need to be taught about – you are not even aware of the issues that need teaching. You’re hopeless!

MR. BILGIN: I like you, Kivanc! I’ve bent over backwards to be nice to you over the years – laughing at your jokes, letting you get away with murder in the classroom. But now – you go too far. You cannot expect me to lie down under such rudeness.

KIVANC: No sir! I expect you to rise to the challenge I am laying before you: our world is dying – and people are killing it. People – especially young people – could save it if we teach them NOW how to do it. I want to sit down with you and plan that curriculum.

MR. BILGIN: (shocked) You – a student – a Child! A mere BOY! – writing a curriculum?! Yo u are completely insane

KIVANC: (interrupting) Look at our situation sir. (Music begins – low, threatening) –we’re dying! By the time I am your age, God knows what kind of problems we’ll be dealing with. You don’t care ‘cos you’ll be dead – but my gene ration: we’ll be dealing with it – you owe it to us to teach us what’s happening! Listen -

KIVANC: (sings)

World, look at the way we are Look at the things we do

Look at the things we say

Life, look at the way we live, Look at the love we had,

Look at the things we've made

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Done are all the peaceful days

All that's left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying today

Can't you see the tide is changing?

Don't you know the truth is fading? People coming out from under Slowly rising to the thunder

Listen to the shouting people

Broken churces, broken steeple

There's no - one for them to follow Everyone's a god tomorrow

Can't you see the world is dying?

Peaceless people all are crying

Law and order has been drowned

Chaos rules and has been crowned

World, look at the way we are

Look at the things we do

Look at the games we play

Life, look at the way we live

Look at the things we build

Look at the love we've killed

Gone, gone are all those lovely days

Done are all the peaceful days

All that's left is old and grey

And our world is fading

Our world is dying tod ay

MR. BILGIN: (calm – unmoved by Kivanc’s passion that has been exploding around him)

Kivanc – you are a child. You do not know about life. You think you know, but trust me, you do not. I understand how you feel – where you’re coming from But young people your age do not make change! You cannot!

KIVANC: Ach – there’s no point! You choose not listen to me. You just fall back on your stupid prejudices: ‘Teacher knows best’ ‘Young people should be seen and not heard!’

MR. BILGIN: (not list ening) You believe in yourself! You are headstrong – arrogant. Just like my Mehmet. I failed to stop him – I can stop you, and I will.

KIVANC: You won’t sir. You’re a mere school teacher – not a judge and jury. You can make things difficult for me – you c an even expel me if you’re really stupid. But you cannot stop me: for long after you’re in your grave – I will be active!

MR. BILGIN: (staring at him, angry but smiling) You’re bloody rude! And yet – and yet – if I was your age again, I would prefer to be you than the mild, obedient child I was:

(Lights change – music starts; Lilli and the dancers come forward. Lilli sings – and the dancers evoke a memory of childhood … .)

I was a child who ran full of laughter

I was a child who lived for a day

My eyes full of sunshine

My heart full of smiles

I was a child for a day.

We were the children who ran in the morning

We were the children who laughed at the sun

Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom

We were the ones we would say.

We're gett ing older as time goes by

A little older every day

We were the “ children ” of yesterday.

KIVANC: Yesterday – Right! You don’t understand how it feels to be young today!

MR. BILGIN: I do, child. I worry about global warming, too. I’ m not sending you to the discipline committee directly. I’m talking to you. Why do you think I’m doing that? I’m trying to make you understand - to share my wisdom with you!

KIVANC: I appreciate that – but I don’t want your wisdom! I want to find my own!

(He sings) You are the men who worry of nothing You are the men who speak without aim Who listen to no one yet speak of your wisdom You were the one you would say. You're getting older as time goes by A little older every day

You were the children of “ yesterday ”

MR. BILGIN: Child yesterday – Deputy Headmaster today. You are the child today – and I have the authority over you. So - I’ve heard enough! I don’t have to talk to you, and I won’t! You’re a lost cause, Kivanc. You deserve to fail – and you will. There’s nothing I can do for you. I’m sending you to the committee right now. Let them expel you!

KIVANC: Sir – I thought we were getting somewhere. Don’t chuck me out with the garbage!

MR. BILGIN: You are just that: GARBAGE! Now, get out!

SCENE 11: School Corridors

(Outside the Headmaster’s office, music starts:)

KIVANC: I’m not garbage, you bastard! – I am more!

Kivanc: (sings)

My Life is mine to live

Free to choose what comforts me

The road’s a road - I’ll walk alone

I won’t look back with fear

For I will be just who I am And that will do for me

I'm a young and capable

I’ll solve the problems we all face I’ll shape the future of our world. I know I can – given the chance, I’ll do it all If only I had find the courage in me Then what is truly me will be plain to see that -

I - I am more than this I, have my life to live

There are no rules I must obey If I am true to who I am Then in Life I’ll find my way And I will be much more then I am today

(Elif comes on from the wings – joining Kivanc and Singing)

Elif: (sings)

Successful as a lecturer – he may be But wars still rage the world around Maybe we can stop it all. Put an end to poverty. create a better world, and you will see that

(Chris comes on from the wings – joining Elif and Kivanc and Singing)

Elif & Kivanc: (sings)

We - we are more than this, We, have our lives to live And whatever hardship comes our way We will be prepared to meet it and say If we are truthful to who we are We will

All sing:

We have our chance to be the change whatever they may think of us, To make our world a better place. Because we know deep in our soul, that

Chris: (sings)

Christian American is what I am A no hope student so they believe But I will prove them wrong you’ll see I have the power inside of me. Yes -

I, I am more than this From truth, I will never part Harken to life’s sweet call You will see you'll never fall And I will know just where to go A bright and beautiful star, There for me to follow

(The Loser Guy comes on from the wings – and picks up the Song)

The Loser Guy: (sings)

I'm a loser, but then who cares My grades are low, my teacher says I don't have friends. so, f*ck them all! Given the chance I’ll make it for sure, ‘cos -

I - I am, more than this A shadow of what I come to be In time my light will shine And I will rise to heaven sublime Then they’ll truly see me For who I am – that -

(Chris and Kivanc bring together all the young people (including the Loser Guy) – forming

a falanx across the strage to sing the final chorus.)

We - we are more than this, We, have our lives to live

And whatever hardship comes our way We will be prepared to meet it and say If we are truthful to who we are

(BLACK OUT)

End of Act ON E

INTERMISSION

ACT II

SCENE 1: Sacred Place and SCENE 2: Kivanc’s Dream

(Kivanc listens to a sound - track of war sounds – and the screen behind him fills with images of war down the ages. Most images are from the Gaza War of 2009 – Israeli rockets blowing up Palestinian schools and homes. It ends with the images of Israeli soldiers landing on the Turkish mercy ship carrying aid to Pa lestine. Throughout – the music builds – the dancers come on and the choreography reflects the violence on the screen. The choir stands on one side of stage – Kivanc on the other. Kivanc wears a beret. Together, they sing:)

CHOIR: You fight a war to end all wars, Tho' many men have died

Destroy the land the cities too 'til homes in ruin lie!

You kill your brothers, kill your friends, Kill each other till the end!

You kill the women, Children too, Kill them all until you're through

We'll fight our way to distant hills, A bloody battle have

We'll raise our sword and kill them all We'll raise our countries flag

We'll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We'll kill our women, Children too, Kill them all until we're through

( Instrumental Part : Kivanc and the choir turn and mime painting a peace mural – which appears on the screen behind the stage, replacing the dark, violent images of war –with lovely images of peace and colour – reflecting the colours and the scenery of the Sacred Place.)

We'll kill our brothers, kill our friends, Kill each other till the end!

We'll kill our women, Children too,

Kill them all until we're through

God save our land, long live our flag,

KIVAN C: Where is your God? (shouting to the painters over the song)

On to the war we go - praise to our dead

KIVANC: Who will stop this bloodshed? (shouting over the song)

But who says we're right, who says we're wrong

KIVANC: Who says you're right, who says you're wrong?

Honour and pride - to this we belong!

KIVANC: Love and peace - to this we belong!

(The graffiti is finished. The painters turn and come forward through the dancers, singing:)

Oh come and save us! Oh come and save us!

Oh come and save us from what we do!

Our world is through!

But who can save us! But who can save us?

But who can save us from what we do?

God! – where are you?

SCENE 3: Headmaster’s Office

( Mr. Bilgin is sitting – frustrated. Loser Guy comes in)

LOSER GUY: (With haste) Sir! Sir! The wall! Did you see the wall?

BLACK OUT

MR. BILGIN: Of course I saw it, you idiot! I walk the same way to my office, as you do!

LOSER GUY: Sorry sir, I just thought...

MR. BILGIN: You think too much. You know who did it, don't you?

LOSER GUY: Sir how could I know?

MR. BILGIN: You must know! The one who did it is one of your friends.

LOSER GUY: (talking to himself) They're not my friends...

MR. BILGIN: Of course they are! You are al l students. (thinks for a while) I'm sure it's Kivanc... But I need proof. You will get me proof!

LOSER GUY: But sir – How?

MR. BILGIN: Go ask your friends! Don't come back to my office until you can give me

proof who is responsible for defacing school pro perty with that graffitti!

LOSER GUY: Sir - ?

MR. BILGIN: Get out!

( EXIT Mr Bilgin. Loser Guy is left alone on stage furious that he has been put in a position where he is expected to be the snitch.)

LOSER GUY:

SCENE 4: Classroom

I see his face everyday Mocking and taunting away He says he likes me Smiling and true But inside he really hates me...

What must I do?

Must I hope?

Must I pray!?

That one day

He’ll change his ways..?

FADE TO BLACK - OUT

(The students are at the Math class. Miss Koc is lecturing, students are taking notes.)

MISS KOC: Taking the integral will give us the area using the equation: f(x)=y=x2+6x+5. Write it down.

(She writes the equation up on the board and starts to turn it in to a graph.)

ELIF: Did you see the graffiti on the school wall? Everybody’s talking about it!

KIVANC: Yeah! It looks amazing.

ELIF: Totally! Mr. Bilgin was furious apparently!

KIVANC: (smiles) I wish I’d seen his face when he first saw it

ELIF: (smiles) Me too. I wonder who did it

MISS KOC: Now, let’s turn the whole graph 180 degrees, around the y - axis. Limit the function between the vertical lines x=0 and x=10 to give us a 3 - dimensional shape of the function, allowing us to calculate the volume of the i maginary object we created by turning the graph. (to the class) Are you getting all this?

ELIF: Why are we learning this?

KIVANC: So you can become an engineer and build the 3rd Bosphorus Bridge! They should teach graffiti - painting techniques! Then young artists wouldn’t have to spend hours on the internet to learn how to do it. It’s like re - discovering America!

CHRIS: (looks up hearing the word “ America ” ) What are you talking about?

ELIF: Yeah?! What are you saying? It was you, wasn’t it?

CHRIS: He said America right?

KIVANC: Nothing Chris. Take the notes – we’ll copy off you in the final exam.

(Mr. Bilgin storms in to the classroom – he is furious.)

MISS KOC: Mr. Bilgin! Whatever is the matter?!

MR. BILGIN: Excuse me, Miss Koc: I need to know if any o f your students can tell me anything about the graffiti?

MISS KOC: I can tell you it’s very beautiful – very well done! Brightens up a dark end of the school yard, don’t you think?

MR. BILGIN: (ignoring her) Did any of you see or hear who did it?

MISS KOC: Isn’t it signed? A master - piece like that should be signed by the artist!

MR. BILGIN: (glares at her – furious at her for taking the piss out of him in front of the students) I promise you: I will find out who did this. And when I do, I will ta ke the appropriate action. (stares at the students for a while – but mostly at Kivanc) If any of you knows anything about this graffiti - this despoliation of school property! – they must come to my office at the break and tell me. If any of you have this information and keep it from me, I will consider them (looks at the Loser Guy) – an accomplice. Am I clear?

(Silence. Loser Guy is confused and scared.)

MR. BILGIN: Thank you Miss Koc. (He exits)

MISS KOC: Well, okay, let’ s get back to integers. Where was I?

CHRIS: You were trying to sketch the 3 - D version of the function.

MISS KOC: (smiling at her poorly sketched object on the blackboard) Yes: I should have hired those graffiti artists. They’d have done a better job than me, right? Anyway, if we write down the equation, it should look something like this.

(She continues - writing on the blackboard. Loser Guy starts listening to Elif and Kivanc more carefully)

ELIF: You did it, didn’t you!

KIVANC: (smiles at her) Why, th ank you! I never thought you’d recognise the artist

me – struggling to get out!

ELIF: You idiot! I’m not congratulating you...

KIVANC: You said it looks amazing!

ELIF: You got away with the Demo by the skin of your teeth. He’ll never let you get aw ay with this!

KIVANC: A little respect, please! At least for my artistic talents!! Do you know how many hours it took me to perfect my graffiti skills?

ELIF: I don’t care! We’re in high school, Kivanc, not High School Musical !

CHRIS: What the hell are you guys talking about?

ELIF / KIVANC: Nothing!

MISS KOC: Kivanc and Elif, please be silent. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to ask you to write the equations down. Especially you, Kivanc – your midterm math grades were very poor compared to your other subjec ts. They will pull you down unless you pay more attention to my lectures.

KIVANC: Sorry, Miss Koc. Math really isn’t my bag! Elif was just helping me understand it all. Its really hard.

MISS KOC: You find this hard?! Well, let’s complicate it a bit more b y adding a second function which intersects with the first one. How would the shape of our object change?

(Kivanc looks completely baffled. Elif smiles at him. Chris takes down everything in his notebook.)

SCENE 5 : Canteen

(Students are at the canteen. Kivanc is reading the newspapers. Chris is shocked as Elif told him the story, on the way to the canteen.)

ELIF: What were you thinking?

KIVANC: I was thinking it’s about time students here started thinking about the way this government is taking us. Cyprus, Israel, Greece, Iraq, Iran, Armenia – we’re not exactly at peace with any of them. And before we have any more Cannakale style wars, I feel that we – the youth! – should state clearly that, if we are to have a chance of s olving the problems created for us by our parents’ generation – we have to have PEACE! Isn’t that quite logical?!

CHRIS: (Reading a newspaper) Well! – the Press seem to think so: check out this headline: ’Peace Mural unveiled at High School ” You’re a medi a star!

KIVANC: At last!! I’m a hero!

ELIF: No you’re not! You’re a fucking idiot. You know what will happen!

KIVANC: What’s your problem, Elif? Enjoy my moment in the media spotlight!

CHRIS: She’s just jealous because she’s not the one who did the graffiti.

KIVANC: You wish you had my talents to create such a masterpiece.

CHRIS: And the courage to get up in the middle of the night to use them! Now who’s the coward?

ELIF: Get real, you fools!! Kivanc has just tossed away his entire sch ool career!

KIVANC: That’s Chris’s line! Chris should say that

CHRIS: No – what I’m actually wondering is: who’s mind do you think you are changing by doing this, Kivanc? Isn’t it a bit of an empty gesture?!

ELIF: Exactly! Can’t you foresee the conseq uences?

KIVANC: What consequences? No one will ever learn who did this – As long as you keep it secret

ANNOUNCEMENT: Kivanc Fos. Kivanc Fos. To Headmaster’s Office. Kivanc Fos. To Headmaster’s office.

(Kivanc looks at Elif and Chris, as if asking “ What th e hell? ” )

ELIF: We didn’t tell anyone, anything!

(Kivanc sees the Loser Guy running across stage away from the Headmaster’s office)

KIVANC: You little shit!

FADE TO BLACK - OUT

SCENE 6 : Headmaster’s Office

(Mr. Bilgin is sitting, rather relaxed and confident. Sound of Knocking on the door)

MR. BILGIN: Come in! (Kivanc comes in, confident)

KIVANC: You wanted to see me, sir?

MR. BILGIN: Yes I did. Please sit down. (Kivanc sits. Silence – Mr. Bilgin stares at him) However did you think you could keep it secret?

KIVANC: What?

MR. BILGIN: Not in my school! Not even for a day!

KIVANC: I'm sorry but I have no clue what you're talking about.

MR. BILGIN: Of course you do. We’re talking about your g raffiti on the wall. Or, should I say – your Masterpiece?

KIVANC: Sir – I

MR. BILGIN: I know everything. I just want to hear you own up to it!

KIVANC: Sir I still don't know what you're talking about.

MR. BILGIN: (Boom - ANGRY!) Of course you know! YOU a re responsible for the graffiti! People heard you boasting about it to Elif in the math class. (Kivanc slumps in his chair. Mr. Bilgin takes off his glasses, becomes very calm)

MR. BILGIN: Look, Kivanc, I cannot tolerate your actions anymore. That paintin g out there – that’s the last straw! (pauses) You will be expelled from this school –effective immediately. You will be enrolled in a military school.

KIVANC: (Shocked) You can’t do that?

MR. BILGIN: I can – and I just did. You won’t have the chance to go and charm the disciplinary committee again, because I won’t let it go that far. But before you go, I want to talk to you one last time. Why, Kivanc? Why did you do that? (Kivanc remains silent) Child! I know you did it. But why? Did Chris made you do it? (Kivanc remains silent) It was Chris, right?

KIVANC: It has nothing to do with Chris. Chris tried to stop me...

MR. BILGIN: I don’t believe you? It’s clear to me that Chris manipulates you with his “ Western ” ideas. (No response) I never wanted to punish y ou. Tell me that Chris wanted you to do it – or at least that he gave you the idea. (No response) If you say it was Chris’s idea, I won't expel you.

KIVANC: You really are a very sick man, aren’t you?! You need treatment, sir! How could you possibly thin k I’d snitch on a friend – like that shitty little Loser Guy.

MR. BILGIN: So you confess that you did the painting.

KIVANC: OK – yes! Yes sir, I did it! Did you read it?

MR. BILGIN: Of course

KIVANC: It says “ Peace ” . I wrote it for you – to draw attentio n to the wonderful spirit of peace and mutual understanding you have created in your school!

MR. BILGIN: Are you making fun of me?!

KIVANC: No sir! I want you to listen – and understand. The painting expresses three kinds of peace. The three harmonies som e call them: peace between peopleyou and me, for example. That peace stops wars. Peace between people and the environment – the peace that will save humanity. And third: peace within –peace between mind, body, spirit. That peace is essential to achiev e the other two. And – since the tragic loss of your wife and son – I fear that is the peace you have found rather hard to find?

MR. BILGIN: Don’t you dare bring up my wife and son!

KIVANC: OK – I won’t. Let’s talk about Peace with Chris and his “ western ” ways? Why can't you be at peace with them?

MR. BILGIN: Because western ways – with their greed, their technology - bring war!

KIVANC: Nonsense! Vietnam – Iraq – Afghanistan: they are aberrations!

MR. BILGIN: Israel?

KIVANC: Israel is a complete aberratio n. But you can’t blame that on ‘Western Ideas’: blame it on Jewish history, their clinging to the ‘victim status’ – not ‘Western Ideas.’ Christianity has been as much a force for good in the world as Islam –and Judaism. Israel’s aggression in Gaza and Leb anon has nothing to do with the Torah! Just as the Crusades had very little to do with the Bible – and suicide bombings have nothing to do with the Koran. Peace – those three harmonies – are the common thread that run through all of them. And I think you s hould be teaching that. But you don’t: all you do is to try to weave antiChristian, anti - western messages into your history lessons. And I want you to stop. It’s offensive! That’s why I did the mural. And – far from expelling me – I think you should give me a prize!

MR. BILGIN: I don't care about peace! All I care is that you – the students of this school – get good grades and graduate successfully.

KIVANC: Is that it? Is that really what you’re about? Getting grades – ticking boxes for the government. Is that all the MoNE asks you to do? You’re not a fool, Mr Bilgin: I hear you were quite a good teacher, once! You must know you’ve made your school a place of containment of young minds – not a place of education.

MR. BILGIN: Then you will be very happy I am expelling you from it?

KIVANC: I am glad. (music – vamp under the dialogue) Yes – in a way, I’m very glad. I shall miss my friends – but I’ve learned Nothing in this hell - hole. NOTHING! You peddle old ideas – useless knowledge – mediaeval values of u nquestioning obedience and discipline. All the important learning happens outside schools these days. Most teachers are dinosaurs – but you’re worse: you’re a bigot – a racist. A fascist authoritarian. So – Yes! I am delighted to be leaving....

KIVANC: (si ngs) I see fire! - this must be hell

I see this evil everywhere

Your “ devil's ” smell is in the air.

You've made a hell from heaven on earth

You've killed the love in God's good work!

MR. BILGIN: (sings) This evil thing that’s inside of you

It's bloody mind has poisoned your souls

It's in Chris! Now it's in you

You're sinners all

The world is too

MR. BILGIN: Get out! And never, ever darken the doors of this school again! Out!

( EXIT Kivanc, smiling. ENTER Miss Koc and Miss Akk an.)

MISS KOC: Ahmed? What have you done?

MR. BILGIN: I have expelled Kivanc! He confessed to doing the Graffiti....

MISS AKKAN: (surprised) That was Kivanc?! I’d no idea he had such talent... (Miss Koc glares at Miss Akkan. Lights shift to Kivanc alone in the corridor)

KIVANC: Where have all the wise men gone?

(Lights shift back to the Headmaster's office again.)

MISS KOC: I see... (pauses) You decided to ignore the Disciplinary Committee and expel him immediately. He can appeal that.

MR. BILGIN: I know – but he won’t. He’s ‘delighted’ to be leaving what he calls this hell - hole!

MISS AKKAN: I’m surprised. And disappointed. Kivanc is one of the best students I’ve ever taught at this school. He’s got good friends here – and if he goes to another sch ool, he will have to do this whole final year all over again...

MISS KOC: Yes – It’s a disaster for him. But he was never much good at obeying the rules. And Mr Bilgin here – he’s a stickler for rules, aren’t you, Ahmed, dear?!

MR. BILGIN: It’s my job, Re ngin: administering the rules. If I fail in my job – my duty –the authorities would compel me to resign. And I would do so – as I would have failed in my duty.

MISS KOC: Duty! – Duty! You’re duty is to your students – to the future they are going to crea te.

MISS AKKAN: I agree! I see my duty as encouraging their creativity – their love of music, of art, of culture! They are this country’s future – and the world’s. And our first duty is to inspire them to feel proud to be here, isn’t it!?

MR BILGIN: (si ngs) What in the world is happening to me?

What in the world does he want me to see?

Oh no, I just don't know. No, I can't get it right.

I shout and scream for him to hear

What's in his soul is so hard to bear...

Oh no, I just don't know

No I can't get it right

(Lights shift to the school corridors)

KIVANC: Where have all the good men gone?

(Lights shift back to the Headmaster's office again.)

MR. BILGIN: It's all because of Chris! He poisoned Kivanc's mind – and soul.

MISS KOC: Ahmed: calm down. Chris was not the one who -

MR. BILGIN: Who covered up my son's death? No – but it was the bloody Americans!!

MISS AKKAN: You can’t blame every American for the weakness of a small group of them.

MR. BILGIN: It was the bloody Ambass ador!

MISS KOC: I know – I know. And he was wrong. We all know he was wrong – but he was doing the politically expedient thing – and avoiding more violence – and a possible revolution. Ahmed – I don’t know how you came through that tragedy in one piece, e specially without your dear wife at your side. It showed superhuman strength and courage – but you cannot take it out on every American who comes to this school!! We are an English - medium Academy. We will always have many Americans and English - speaking fo reigners. You have to embrace that.

MR. BILGIN: I don't know how they treat me so, no I don't know

Don't they know I love them so? No, they don't know I love them all. I could give them anything... I would give them all that I have, and more And still go and love them all...

MISS AKKAN: I love America! I hitch - hiked all the way from New England to the Pacific one summer. They are the friendliest people on earth.... (Mr Bilgin glares at her)

(Lights shift to the school corridor s)

KIVANC: I see fire, this must be hell

But I don't feel this evil in myself

SCENE 7 : Canteen

They are all evil, you are too It's in them, it's in you, it's in them, it's in you...

FADE TO BLACK - OUT

(Scene quickly changes to canteen, Ki vanc is telling what has happened in the headmaster’s office.)

KIVANC: “ Get out! ” he said, “ OUT! ” So, here I am On my way out!

(Everyone is stunned)

ELIF: So – what about your graduation?

KIVANC: Postponed. I’ll have to take it at the Military Academy. N ext year.

CHRIS: That’s a whole year out of your life! How can you be so calm about it?

ELIF: He can’t do that to you!

KIVANC: Obviously, he can – and he did.

CHRIS: There must be something we can do!

KIVANC: (as if he’s talking to himself) Don’t worry gu ys, I will be fine.

CHRIS: How? Where?

KIVANC: At my new school, I guess.

ELIF: If you go – (looks at Chris, he shakes his head “ yes ” ) – we’ll come with you too!

CHRIS: Yeah, we will not you go alone – At least, not now.

KIVANC: Don’t be ridiculous guys. I’m the one who created that masterpiece – (To Elif) I’m the one who should bear the consequences. Alone! And I’m fine with it – I’m getting the hell out of this hell hole. And you’re going to stay and graduate! This conversation is over.

ELIF: For God’ s sake, Kivanc! We can just let the bastard get away with it....

KIVANC: Your God doesn’t appear take much interest in my plight.

CHRIS: That’s not fair!

ELIF: What’s not fair is you being expelled for advocating peace!

KIVANC: (taking his bag) Well, si nce when was anything in this world ‘Fair’? Maybe that’s the justice of your “ God ” ... Farewell, guys. Exit

(Music starts – very soft. Transition to a different time and to a different part of the

canteen. Time has passed since Kivanc left school. Elif a nd Chris are sitting alone, missing him – and reflecting on the injustice allowed by their God.)

CHRIS: Father in the sky

Won’t you tell us who you are?

Won’t you say a word to me – that I can understand You have me in your hands

ELIF: Father in the s ky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And I am so afraid

I never was so brave (Singing together)

CHRIS & ELIF: How can we carry on

And still believe in you

When every hope has vanished

Long ago - in spite of you

CHRIS & ELIF: Father in the sky

Have you forgotten where we are?

The clouds grow darker every day

And I am so afraid

But I never was so brave

ELIF: I can’t believe he’s gone!

CHRIS: (Lost in thought) It’s not fair... Clearly he was rude to Mr Bilg in – but what he was trying to say was heroic! And he was punished for it.

ELIF: (hesitates) Do you think he’s waiting for us to pick up the fight and get him back?

CHRIS: I would think that’s the last thing on his mind. I should think he’s relaxing in h is Sacred Place – plotting his next move.

ELIF: Of course! The sacred place! Do you remember how to get there?? We could go and see him.

CHRIS: I’m not sure that he’d want that. He’ll contact us when he’s ready.

ELIF: Do you think Allah – God – is determined to punish Kivanc?

CHRIS: Absolutely NOT! Any God I believe in would be on the side of Kivanc. “ Blessed are the Peace - makers. For they shall be called the Children of God! ” Perhaps you’re right! Perhaps God would expect us to try to help hi m

ELIF: (smiles) I think it’s our sacred duty!

CHRIS: But how?! He’s burned just about every bridge he had at this place

SCENE 8 : Classroom

(History Class – Mr. Bilgin is lecturing. He's still angry towards Chris, but he is focuse d on teaching history to the students – not provoking Chris. Everyone's listening to him silently. Chris looks sleepy.)

MR. BILGIN: Even after the failed campaign in Egypt, Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East. An alliance with Middle - Eastern powers would have the strategic advantage of pressuring Russia on its southern borde r. From 1803, Napoleon went to considerable lengths to try to convince the Ottoman Empire to fight against Russia in the Balkans and join his anti - Russian coalition – promising to help the Ottoman Empire recover lost territories. In February 1806, followin g Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz and the ensuing dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Emperor, Selim III, finally recognised Napoleon as Emperor and formally opted for an alliance with France – "our sincere and natural ally"

(As he lectures , Chris fells asleep. His voice starts to make echoes in his mind, and he wakes up in his past – His former Biology teacher is lecturing on how genetics affect racial differences.)

MR. EDGE: Why did homo - sapiens survive ahead of Neanderthal Man – who was s tronger? Who wants to tell? I want you to attend to the lecture. I want to hear your thoughts. Chris? Maybe you want to tell us?

CHRIS: No sir.

MR. EDGE: As I thought... Because, homo - sapiens was smarter! Not the stronger survives – but the smarter does! The smartest rules them all – always. We can apply the same assumption in today's world. Who are the core states of today's global world? Western ones! Who are the non - developed countries? Asian and African ones. Do you know why? (wa its for an answer, stares at the students) No one knows? Because people originated in Europe is smarter than the rest of the world. Is there anyone who wants to object? (No one in the class raise hands. Chris raises his hand) Yes.

CHRIS: It's a false comp arison sir. Historically – China was way ahead of Europe in the mediaeval era. And today, several Asian countries have much higher standards of manufacturing and design than Europeans. The South Asian tiger economies are not thought of as developing countr ies any more.

MR. EDGE: False! You're not correct because statistical values does not reflect the

truth! There are still people living in those countries who are starving. Anybody here starving? I didn’t think so. There's your proof!

CHRIS: But sir -

MR. E DGE: (Interrupting) Listen: why do you think some African countries are still governed by European politicians? It's genetics – The smartest rule the rest!

CHRIS: Name ONE African country that’s ruled by a European? Those are racist words.

MR. EDGE: No! T his is pure science! Facts! I don't see any black or Asian students in this class – so you don't have to worry about offending any one.

CHRIS: That’s not the point! You’re supposed to be teaching us Biology – not brainwashing us with racism!

MR. EDGE: (smi ling) I do not brainwash! I'm always asking for your ideas – your questions!?

CHRIS: You don’t answer our questions. There are no African countries ruled by European politicians any more! But you gloss over inconvenient facts

MR. EDGE: (smiling harder) European - educated politicians – that’s what I meant!

CHRIS: But it’s not what you said! And you never, ever, ever allow any of us to win an argument with you. You never admit you might be wrong....

MR. EDGE: Chris. Chris.

CHRIS: What?

MR. EDGE: Chris. Ch ris. Chris.

(Voice of Mr. Edge starts to echo. Lights get darker as Chris puts his head on to his desk to ignore him. Finally, the stage is dark – except Chris sitting under a spotlight.)

MR EDGE & ELIF: Chris. Chris.

ELIF: Chris. Chris.

CHRIS: (shouting) What!? (confused) What? Elif?

ELIF: I think you were dreaming, my love!

CHRIS: Was I? Where's Mr. Bilgin?

ELIF: We're almost at the end of the break.

CHRIS: So I slept? Oh my... (lost in thoughts) Elif, I was in America in my dream! In my biology class arguing with Mr. Edge, my teacher – just like Mr Bilgin!

ELIF: It seems Mr. Bilgin is giving us all nightmares.

CHRIS: (He realizes) Elif, you don't understand – I’m remembering: I’ve had several teachers like Mr. Bilgin! The racist biology teacher who told me Europeans were the master race; I had a religious studies teacher in primary school who told me the Bible creation story was a scientific fact. I had a paedophiliac scout master who told me that sex with children was fine because they enjoy it! There are

terrible, terrible adults out there – ready and willing to mess up young people!

ELIF: (Teasing) Oh, you’ve upset me now. I thought Mr Bilgin was uniqe to our school!

CHRIS: It’s not a joke, Elif! It’ s why Kivanc got himself expelled: he’s a victim. We’re all victims – because they are not teaching us about peace and climate change –the things we absolutely have to learn about. We have to continue the protest that Kivanc started.

ELIF: How are we goin g to do that?

CHRIS: We have to corner Mr Bilgin with an offer he can’t refuse! (pauses) But what?

(Miss Akkan and the other students come in. She’s full of the joys of spring!)

MISS AKKAN: (daffy!) Hello, good afternoon. Please sit down! Isn’t it a love ly day?! I hope you’re all enjoying it! Everybody settle down please. (Waits for students to sit. With excitement) Now: tomorrow is a very important day. I'm sure you know why? (waits for someone to tell why – then cannot wait anymore) Because it's our Spring Festival! The best day of the whole school year! (laughs) I'm so excited! And you know the best part? Music! There will be music in every corner of the schoolyard! I love music! That's why I am a music teacher. So if any of you loves music as I do, prepare to play or sing some songs tomorrow. (waits for a response for a while) Anyway, for today's lesson, I’m going to teach you a song which I wrote to express my excitement about the spring festival. It's called “ Music is the seventh wonder of the w orld ” . It goes like this. (Brings out a recorder flute and plays the melody) Now we sing it, together! Like this:

(She conducts them, as they sing through the song with “ Na ” s)

MISS AKKAN: Perfect! Now, let's add the lyrics. Like this:

CHOIR: Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

And we're going to sing, sing, sing We're going to sing, sing, sing

(Sings with lyrics – makes them a gesture to make them sing after her)

MISS AKKAN: Amazing! Now I want you to improvise some harmonies! Go for it...

CHOIR: Music is the seventh wonder of the world

Music is the seventh wonder of the world

And we're going to sing, sing, sing We're going to sing, sing, sing

ELIF: I love Miss Akkan, but she's lunatic! This song is rubbish!

CHRIS: (thinking) If music is the seventh wonder of the world... (Excited) How can it help Kivanc??

ELIF: It can’t, Chris: there are plenty of good singers! We couldn’t argue a place for him.

CHRI S: What about the demonstrators in Taksim Square, Elif!?

ELIF: What about them?

CHRIS: Protest! Sit ins! “ We will not move until you re - instate Kivanc! ”

ELIF: Oh – my - God! Are you SERIOUS?!

CHRIS: You bet! – are you with me?

ELIF: Of course – but let ’s do it subtly, not in a Kivanc ‘bang - ‘em - over - the - head’ way!

CHRIS: Agreed! Subtle like an owl! Cunning like a fox!

ELIF: Come on – smile, and smile – and sing along. And let’s figure this thing out!

CHOIR: Music is the seventh wonder of the world Music is the seventh wonder of the world And we're going to sing, sing, sing Uuu

CHRIS: We need a new song: something to make Mr. Bilgin sit up and listen;

ELIF: What about that song I started? Please listen to me!?

CHRIS: Perfect – we build everything out of that: innocently, fearlessly! Bilgin won’t know what’s hit him. Do you think Miss Akkan would support us?

ELIF: Yes – if you keep smiling and singing!

(They start to write the lyrics of the song, together)

CHOIR: Music is the seventh wonder of the world Music is the seventh wonder of the world And we're going to sing, sing, sing

ELIF & CHRIS: And we're going to sing. FADE TO BLACK - OUT

(Next Day. Elif is in front of a microphone, Chris is setting his guitar and the amps + a small table beside the stage where students can sign the petition. The Peace Mural fills the screen behind the stage )

CHRIS: Look – they’ve put the stage right in front of Kivanc’s mural. Mr Bilgin is going to have a cow!

ELIF: It's perfect for our song! I’m so excited... I think it’s going to work!

CHRIS: It has to. (smiles at her) For Kivanc.

ELIF: (Smiles back) For Kivanc. (seriously) For us! (She gives him a kiss of encouragement!)

CHRIS: Our first show together ! It has to work! Look – here comes Miss Akkan. (Miss AKKAN comes on stage – full of the joys of spring! She is followed by the choir of students and dancers who are talking excitedly together. At the very back, out of sight, Kivanc watches all that goes on – pleased and excited.)

ELIF: Miss Akkan – we are so thrilled that you have decided to put the Spring Festival stage in front of the mural by Kivanc. I want you to be the first one to sign the petition we are circulating to get the School Authorities t o re - instate this great artist in time for his graduation next week!

MISS AKKAN: I thought you wanted to sing a song? Did you decide which one?

CHRIS: We just wrote it. It's for Kivanc.

MISS AKKAN: May I look at the lyrics? (She checks the lyrics) Very goo d! – well done! It does go rather well with the back drop, doesn’t it? Let’s open the Festival with it. And you point is to convince Mr. Bilgin to accept Kivanc back to school? (Elif and Chris nod enthusiastically) So you’re going to give this petition to Mr. Bilgin – a petition signed by all the students of this school...

CHRIS: And the staff!!

MISS AKKAN: (daffy – but determined!) Oh – you’re going to get me into terrible trouble. But – inshallah – it will work. Of course I’ll sign! We artists have to s tick together, don’t we!?

ELIF: Oh! - Miss Akkan, I love you! (she gives her a massive hug!)

MISS AKKAN: I love you too, Elif! And your courage, both of you! - doing this is worthy of . Worthy of? – Kivanc!

(Chris and Elif sign it – and other students a re lining up to sign it too.)

MISS AKKAN: (to Elif and Chris) Are we ready?

ELIF: As ready as we’ll ever be!

MISS AKKAN: Okay then. (to microphone) Welcome – everyone! to our Spring Festival! Isn't it a wonderful day? To open our Festival, Elif and Chris will sing a song which they wrote together – and Chris will accompany her with his guitar. (to Elif) Good luck!

ELIF: Friends. We wrote this song for Kivanc. We think he’s not just a great artist – as you can all see from his mural here. He is also a great hero – and a great credit to this school with his fight for peace and to stop catastrophic climate change. We feel our school needs more bright, visionary students like Kivanc, not less!

So we want you all to sign our petition to Mr. Bilgin to re - instate him. Please sign up at this table as we sing you our song. Our song for our friend, Kivanc!

Please listen to me, heed the words that I say

We live in one world, so our home is the same

The same sun is our fire - the same clouds give us rain

S o whatever you may desire, our future's the same

Say not that you're rich, or that you are poor

Say not that you're less, or that you are more

Say that only I am man, and I want to live in peace

In this here our home, let all wars cease

(Inst rumental part – students start to sign the petition. And they keep signing it till the end of the song. Loser guy lines up to sign – but then he sees Mr. Bilgin appear on stage so he runs away, practically into the arms of Kivanc, who is still hiding. Mr B ilgin stares at Elif and Chris with ill - concealed contempt. Elif notices him and sings the rest of the song directly at him)

For where would we go, if this world we destroy

There's only one home, this world to enjoy

The same earth fills our hunger - and we all breathe the air

So change your desires, this world we must share

Say not that he's Christian, or they're Jew

Say not that you are “ red ” , or that I'm “ blue ”

Say only I am man, and I want to live in peace

In this here our home, let all wars cease

In this here our home, let all wars cease

(Chris comes in front of the microphone, and sings the last line with Elif)

In this here our world, let all wars cease

(Enormous applause – including, reluctantly , from Mr Bilgin. Miss Akkan hugs them –hugs Mr Bilgin – and any one else she can find. Mr Bilgin has had enough and walks off one side of the stage. Kivanc slinks away on the other. Both – EXIT Chris and Elif lap up the love of the crowd.)

ELIF: Thank you! Thank you!

CHRIS: Thank you for signing our petition. Get all your friends to sign!

ELIF: Thank you! Thank you, Miss Akkan... Peace and Love – Forever, Right!

(The crowd roars! And the Loser Guy comes to the table)

LOSER GUY: Um... Excuse me. Can I sign it too?

CHRIS: ‘course! We want everyone to sign.

LOSER GUY: Thank you. Thank you for what you’re doing! I support you 100%

(He signs, then EXITS - without looking at them. Elif and Chris look at each other –what the hell was that?)

FADE TO BLACK - OUT

SCENE 1 0 : Headmaster's Office

(Lights fade up on the door of Mr. Bilgin's office. Elif and Chr is wait, clutching the Petition for Miss Akkan.)

CHRIS: I can hear your heartbeat dear. Relax.

ELIF: How can I relax? We’ re talking high stake stuff here?! What if the students let us down?!

CHRIS: They won’t. Trust me! We have Miss Akkan ... (Miss Koc and Miss Akkan come in – over - hearing their conversation.)

MISS KOC: I think you’ll find you have the whole staff - room beh ind you. Look – Miss Akkan and I collected some other signatures to add to your petition!

ELIF : (Looking at the paper) I don’t believe it! Thank you Miss Koc. (She gives her a big hug too.)

(Miss Koc appears on stage.)

MISS AKKAN: So... How many signa tures total?

CHRIS: Over a hundred and fifty.

MISS AKKAN: Well done!

MISS KOC: Shall we go in, then?

(Knocks an imaginary door – Mr. Bilgin’s voice says: Come in. And the lights shift to his office as he comes in and sits at his desk. Elif and Chris come in ahead of Miss Koc and Miss Akkan.)

ELIF: Good afternoon, sir.

MR. BILGIN: Good afternoon. (confused) Miss Akkan and Miss Koc? I wasn’t expecting you!

MISS AKKAN: (daffy!) Surprise!

ELIF: Sir, we want to give you out petition. (She tries to give it to him but he ignores it)

MR. BILGIN: (pauses – he knows about the petition but doesn't know what it is for. He is nervous.) Thank you. Put it on the table. (She puts it on the table) I’ll look at it later.

MISS KOC: (firmly) I think you should look at it now, Mr Deputy Headmaster!

(Mr. Bilgin glowers at Miss Koc. He picks up the petition and gives it a cursory glance)

MR. BILGIN: So, the students want me to accept Kivanc back to school? I'm sorry but I'm not going to do that.

MISS AKKAN: Not just the student body, sir. Most of the staff too!

MR. BILGIN: (angry) This is gross insubordination. I will not have my decisions undermined by my staff.

MISS KOC: (coldly) Even if you’re wrong?!

MR. BILGIN: Excuse me? Look – the decisio n was made. The boy has left – he’s enrolled in another school. There’s nothing I can do now – even if I wanted to which I don’t.

ELIF: (trying to cool Mr. Bilgin down) There must be something you can do.

MR. BILGIN: There’s not! Please leave! I have a lo t to do. Good afternoon to you all.

(He puts on his glasses, tosses the petition in the trash and starts writing some documents. Miss Koc looks at Chris. She nods. He steels himself.)

CHRIS: I’m afraid we’re not leaving sir. And neither will the student b ody. We are occupying the school until you see reason – and re - instate Kivanc.

MR. BILGIN: I said “ Leave ” !

CHRIS: And I told you, we’re not. This is an occupation, sir! You have to see reason!

MR. BILGIN: Boy: I don’t know which country you think you are living in but in this country, students obey the orders of their teachers. I tell you – get out! Out!!

(Chris calmly sits down on the stage, Elif sits beside him. Miss Koc and Miss Akkan stand their ground, smiling at Mr Bilgin’s discomfort.)

MR. BILGIN: Oh I see. This is some kind of ridiculous sit - in! I’ll call the police – and have you removed from my property. And have you both expelled as well.

MISS KOC: And the entire student body; and your staff. Look outside: they’re occupying the playground – and most of the staffroom with them. You can’t win this one, Ahmed! Give in gracefully. Let Kivanc graduate with the rest of them. He deserves it – and he is a bit of a hero too. You know that.

MR. BILGIN: I will not be pushed around like this. Bloody Am ericans – foisting themselves on innocent young girls like Elif – and polluting the mind and spirit of the whole school. Chris – you have to go. I’ll take Kivanc back on one condition. You leave!

CHRIS: That’s what this whole thing was all about, wasn’t it sir? It was never really about Kivanc at all. You wanted me out of here! You want America out of your country. Your Country out of Nato – kick the crusading bastards in the teeth and let’s have Islamic solidarity all round. Well – you’re living in the past, Mr Dinosaur man! And yet – and yet, it’s the past that gives us the best lesson for the future. In that Ottoman Empire you so love, there was the spirit of Imece –people of different nationalities, cultures and religions living at peace in joy with each other. That’s what we need to get back to. Listen! I’m the first to admit the many failures and atrocities committed by my country. But – you have to admit –we are a pretty free and generous country. And we love your country – and hope that most of you love us back. And if getting me to leave is the price we have to pay to get that result, so be it. I’m outta here!

MISS KOC: Not so fast, Chris. You need your graduation papers to get into that fine College you’ve applied for, just as much as Kivanc a nd the rest of them. And you’ve worked hard: you deserve it. We cannot let this Neanderthal headmaster deprive you of what is rightfully your’s. Give it up, Ahmed!! Embrace Imece –embrace Chris. Thank him for the good – the spirit – the love he has brough t to this school. And put your petty thoughts of revenge in the trash with that Petition. They are beneath you.

MISS AKKAN: So – we’re all agreed! Yes?! Let’s get back to the Festival – and plan a wonderful Graduation ceremony next week – with everyone t here. Go on, Mr Bilgin – just say yes!

MISS KOC: You know you don’t have a choice!

MR. BILGIN: I do have a choice. I absolutely do have a choice. I can fire the staff –expel the student body – and close down the school and hand it back to the authoritie s. I face gross insubordination and I will be completely exonerated. Just because a few of the female staff have decided to support an attractive young American student in his rebellion is no reason for me to capitulate to your absurd petition.

MISS KOC: You now add the charge of sexist dinosaur to your previous achievement of

‘agist dinosaur.’ Stop digging your grave, Ahmed and give in!

CHRIS: I never thought there was a generation gap or a culture gap until I met you, Mr Bilgin: yet you see m more adept at opening wars and hostility between different groups of people than any one I have ever met. People like you are terrible for the planet: you are murdering our future with your prejudices, your inflexibility, and your petty hatreds. Get over it. Say YES to our Petition! YES to friendship – YES to tolerance – YES to Life – and YES to love!

MISS AKKAN: - and YES to me! (She kisses him hard on the lips!)

MR. BILGIN: God help me. Too many yesses. I’m overwhelmed – and just too exhausted to kee p on saying “ No! ” All right – have your way. But – please! Spare me the hugs and adulation.

MISS KOC: As if we would, Ahmed! You deserve all the love that’s coming to you!

ELIF: Thank you sir.

(They gather round him in a huge group hug.)

SCENE 11 : Graduation

(Students are gathering in the schoolyard. Kivanc comes in – everyone cheers and pats him on the back. He goes up to Chris and Elif – hugging them one by one. He high - fives a few other students, then turns and spea ks:)

K İ VANC : There aren’t many different ways of saying “ Thank you! ” – so let it be. Just thank you guys for what you did. I can never repay you – but I’ve learned that no one really ever gets paid for doing the right thing. It just piles up in here – in your hearts. Like Love – at compound interest! There are, however, a million different ways of saying “ I love you! ” – and I say it to each and every one of you, in different ways. Even to You (looking at the loser guy) . I mean it – I love you too. I saw you sign that petition. And Mr Bilgin? Our great headmaster: I was more rude to him than I have ever been to any man on this planet – even Chris! (they laugh) And I was rude because I respect him. He is smart enough to change. And I hope he will – because this is a great school – with some great staff and, of course, absolutely fucking brilliant students. And, in the best schools, teachers know that they learn as much from the students as we learn from them. And that’s the way I hope it will be here in this school now! IMECE for ever, YEAH!!

Mr. Bilgin steps up to the podium, Miss Akkan on his right; Miss Koc on his left.

MR. BILGIN: Thank you, Kivanc. Thank you Chris – thank you all of you. You have been

a great year group. You wo rked hard, sang hard, played hard – and protested hard! And I hope you are all really proud as you now graduate and head off to some of the best universities around the world. It’s been a difficult year for me personally – and you know that. And I apologiz e – and hope that none of you ever have to go through the trials and tragedies I have endured in this year. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And Kivanc didn’t kill me. So I am stronger – and I wish you all great lives, great fun, and great hap piness!

(The Students all cheer and throw their caps in the air!)

SCENE 12 : Epilogue & Finale

(They’re back in the Sacred Place – relaxed, happy. At peace.)

CHRIS: Now what?

KIVANC: Good bye, I guess!

ELIF: Is that it? Frien dship over!

FADE TO BLACK - OUT

KIVANC: Never – after what you guys did for me, you’re my friends for life;

ELIF: For ever, and ever!

CHRIS: Amen! We must do a reunion every year!

ELIF: I want to see you more than once a year.

CHRIS: We’ll see – I’m a total commitment - phobe but I can’t see getting through a single day without you being a big part of every one of them. (They kiss)

KIVANC: Get over it, guys!

ELIF: I don’t want to get over it!

CHRIS: Me neither!

KIVANC: OK – OK! I give up! As you wish! But that question you asked at the beginning. Are we any closer to an answer?

CHRIS: What question? Remind me!

KIVANC: Who are we? Why are we here? That think drug – the strongest drug in the world! Remember it! Remember friendship – remember courage – what you did for me! – and whatever shitty hell - hold you find yourselves in, remember my sacred place. And ask yourself:

I who am I?

What is this world?

Why am I here?

I what am I? What is my cause? What will I be?

Is there a reason for living? And having this place of our own? What power, concieved me? Abandoned me to the unknown?

We who are we?

What is this place? Why are we here?

We who are we?

To be so lost, And all alone?

Is there a reason for living? And having this place of our own? What power, concieved me?

Abandoned me to the unkown?

I who am I?

What is this world? Why am I here?