A Full-Cast Audio Drama of the Book of Esther
The script of a full-cast audio drama adapted from the whole Book of Esther (World English Bible, public domain), with Dale Tummins and his friend Phil written in. Esther's, Mordecai's, Haman's and the king's great lines are the Bible's own, trimmed for the ear; Dale and Phil are ours. There is no narrator. Scene, sound and music cues are as performed. Free, not for sale.
Music: esther theme.
Scene: palace feast.
AN OLD MAN A hundred and eighty days he showed us his treasury. A hundred and eighty. I've seen the same gold bowl four times.
A WOMAN Then eat out of it. It's the seventh day. Tomorrow we go home.
A MAN (laughing) More wine down here! The king's paying!
HARBONAH Wine, sir?
DALE How much do I have to drink?
HARBONAH None, sir. By the king's law the drinking is not compulsory. Every man according to his pleasure.
DALE So nobody can make me stop.
HARBONAH That isn't quite how the law...
DALE To the top, please. It's the most generous law in Persia. I'm putting it in the book.
Sound: cup pour.
DALE And send somebody to the gold couch by the third pillar. It rocks. I could shim it tonight. I do carpentry, nights.
HARBONAH You're the scribe.
DALE Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class. The carpentry keeps my hands honest.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sorry. It's the lilies. Or the purple dye. Dates, Dale? They needed extra hands for the trays.
DALE Leave the whole tray, Phil. I'm working.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE Seventh day of the feast of the king. The king is merry. The scribe is also merry, but only so the record is accurate. The dates are excellent. Writing this from the side table, which is a good table. The worse table is by the drain.
PHIL That's going in the official chronicles?
DALE Everything goes in, Phil. That's what makes them official.
Sound: cups clink.
THE KING Harbonah! Mehuman, Biztha, all seven of you. Go to the queen's house. Bring Queen Vashti before me, wearing the royal crown. Let the princes and the people see her beauty.
Sound: crowd murmur.
DALE Harbonah, wait. Take me with you. If she asks who's keeping the record, you can point at me.
HARBONAH Stay at your table, scribe.
DALE Shift your tray then, Phil. I want to get the crown right for the book.
PHIL She's giving her own feast, Dale. For the women. She has guests.
DALE Then she can bring them. Plenty of dates.
Scene: womens court.
A WOMAN (laughing) Another cup for the queen's table!
A WOMAN Hush. Hush, all of you.
Sound: door knock.
HARBONAH My queen. The king commands you to come before him, wearing the royal crown, so the princes and the people may see your beauty.
HARBONAH He has been merry with wine for seven days, my queen. Seven.
(A pause.)
QUEEN VASHTI (muffled) Tell the king I heard him. The queen will not come.
(A pause.)
Scene: palace feast.
HARBONAH My lord king. The queen will not come.
Sound: crowd gasp.
THE KING (angry) Will not?
(A pause.)
THE KING Memucan. Carshena. All of you who know the law and the times. What shall we do to Queen Vashti according to law, because she has not done the bidding of King Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?
DALE (whispering) I'd have gone. Nobody ever asks me anywhere in a crown.
PHIL Hush.
MEMUCAN Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but to all the princes, and to all the people in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
MEMUCAN This deed of the queen will become known to all women. They will say, King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn't come. And they will show contempt for their husbands.
A MAN It's true. Mine will hear by supper.
MEMUCAN If it pleases the king, let a royal commandment go out, written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered: that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus, and that the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.
MEMUCAN When the king's decree is published throughout all his kingdom, all the wives will give their husbands honor, both great and small.
DALE Both great and small, Phil. That's me. I'm small.
THE KING It pleases me. Let letters go into every province, each according to its writing, and to every people in their own language. Scribes!
DALE (excited) That's us. That's Second Class!
Scene: scribes room.
A MAN A hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Every one in its own script. Nobody sleeps till it's done.
DALE I'll take Persian. I already know the letters.
DALE How do you say rule in Elamite?
A MAN You don't. You're doing Persian.
DALE I'm doing Persian and helping.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE That every man should rule his own house. Phil, I've waited my whole life for that to be the law.
PHIL Who's in your house, Dale?
DALE Nobody yet. But when there is, they'll be ruled. It says so right here, in a hundred and twenty-seven languages.
PHIL I understand.
DALE I'm sending a copy to my mother. She won't follow it, but she should know.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: throne room.
THE KING (sighing) Vashti.
A MAN My lord?
THE KING I remember what she did. And what was decreed against her. It cannot be altered. I made sure of that.
A MAN Then let beautiful young maidens be sought for the king. Let the king appoint officers in every province, to gather them to the citadel of Susa, to the women's house, to the keeping of Hegai.
AN OLD MAN And let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.
THE KING Yes. Do so.
Scene: kings gate.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sorry. First day. It's the donkeys, I think. Or the straw on the donkeys.
MORDECAI Sit on this side. The wind takes the dust the other way.
PHIL Thank you. I'm Phil. They told me I'm to help keep the gate.
MORDECAI Mordecai. Then help me keep it. Bread?
Sound: bread break.
DALE Phil! You got a stool? Second Class doesn't get a stool. We stand. For alertness.
PHIL Dale, this is Mordecai. He sits at the gate.
DALE Dale Tummins. Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting.
MORDECAI Acting?
DALE I added that. It sounds busier. What's your title?
MORDECAI Mordecai, son of Jair.
DALE That's a name, not a title. If you ever get in the book I'll give you one. Keeper of the Left Bench.
MORDECAI If I'm ever in your book, put me in as Mordecai.
DALE Suit yourself. Save me the end of that bench, Mordecai. Second Class stands, but nobody said where. I can't stop now, though. They're bringing them in from all hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and somebody has to write down the carts.
Sound: hooves stone.
A MAN (shouting) By order of the king! The maiden Hadassah, of the household of Mordecai, to the house of Hegai!
ESTHER I'm here.
MORDECAI Esther.
ESTHER They're waiting for me.
MORDECAI Listen. Don't make known your people. Not your kindred, not your father's house. To no one.
ESTHER Not even if they ask?
MORDECAI Not even then.
ESTHER You raised me. I'll do as you say. I always have.
(A pause.)
PHIL Your daughter?
MORDECAI My uncle's daughter. Her father and mother died when she was small. I took her for my own.
PHIL You'll want to know how she is.
MORDECAI Every day.
PHIL Then I'll walk with you. The women's court has fountains. Less dust.
Scene: womens court.
HEGAI You're the only one today who's asked my name. Hegai. I keep the women's house.
ESTHER Then I'm in your keeping.
HEGAI You'll have the best rooms. Seven maidens from the king's house to wait on you. Your portions from my own table, and every ointment you need.
ESTHER That's too much.
HEGAI It's twelve months. Six with oil of myrrh, six with sweet spices. You'll want the good rooms for twelve months.
ESTHER And at the end?
HEGAI You go in to the king. Whatever you desire from this house, you may take with you. Gold, silk, anything.
ESTHER What would you take, Hegai?
HEGAI Nothing. The king sees gold every day.
ESTHER Then I'll take what you advise. Nothing else.
HEGAI (gentle) You'll do well here.
Scene: palace garden night.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Day forty at the gate. Mordecai walked past the women's court again. A maid at the lattice says she's well.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Day two hundred. Same walk. Same maid. Still well. He walks home faster than he came.
MORDECAI She used to bring me water at the end of the day. Since she was six. She'd spill half of it on the way.
MORDECAI You don't have to come every day, Phil.
PHIL I know.
Scene: throne room.
Sound: trumpets fanfare.
THE KING Of all the maidens in all my provinces. You, Esther. Bring the crown.
Sound: crowd cheer.
THE KING Let this be Esther's feast. Proclaim a holiday in every province, and give gifts by the king's bounty.
A HERALD (shouting) A holiday in all the provinces! The feast of Queen Esther!
Sound: crowd cheer.
Scene: palace feast.
A WOMAN Where's she from, the new queen? Whose daughter?
A MAN Nobody's said.
AN OLD MAN Then she's from Susa. Everybody's from Susa tonight.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Excuse me. Roses.
DALE You know what tipped it, Phil? The chronicles.
PHIL How?
DALE Last month I wrote, the king seems lonely, and the soup was cold. He reads that, he thinks, he's right, I am lonely. Next thing, a queen.
PHIL Does the king read the chronicles?
DALE Not yet. But he could. That's the power of it.
PHIL Did you fix the soup?
DALE One thing at a time. I'm adding a word to my title for this. Senior.
PHIL Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting, Senior.
DALE It hits the ear better.
Music: sting comic.
Scene: kings gate night.
BIGTHAN (whispering) Again. He walked past us again like we were part of the door.
TERESH We are the door, Bigthan. That's the job.
BIGTHAN Ten years I've kept his threshold. Not a word. Not a ring. Not a cup.
TERESH So?
BIGTHAN So tonight, when he passes to his chamber, the door is ours. Two of us. One king. We lay hands on him, and it's done.
TERESH And if it fails?
BIGTHAN It won't fail. I know every bolt on that door. I oiled them.
TERESH And if someone hears?
BIGTHAN At this hour? The whole gate's asleep.
(A pause.)
PHIL (sleepy) Mordecai? Was that the watch?
MORDECAI (whispering) Phil. Say nothing. Not tonight, not tomorrow. Not to anyone.
PHIL Where are you going?
MORDECAI To get word to the queen.
PHIL I'll keep the gate.
Scene: royal bedchamber.
ESTHER My lord king. Two of your doorkeepers, Bigthan and Teresh, mean to lay hands on you. Tonight.
THE KING My own doorkeepers. Who told you this?
ESTHER Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate. I tell it to you in Mordecai's name.
THE KING (shouting) Guards! Search it out. Now.
THE KING Stay with me, Esther. Until they come back.
ESTHER I'll stay, my lord.
Sound: door slam.
(A pause.)
A MAN My lord. It was searched out, and found to be so. Both of them.
THE KING Then both of them hang.
Sound: drum solemn.
(A pause.)
Scene: kings gate.
DALE Phil. Nobody at the palace slept, and nobody tells the chronicles anything. What happened? I need it for the book.
PHIL You'll hear at court.
DALE You know something. You're doing the quiet face.
PHIL I'm always doing this face.
DALE Then do a different one, so I can tell. I'll be late. If it's good, save it for me.
(A pause.)
PHIL Anyone come by? From the palace?
MORDECAI No.
PHIL Not even a fig?
MORDECAI I didn't do it for a fig.
PHIL I know. I'd still have sent one.
MORDECAI What did you put in your little book last night?
PHIL Slept at the gate. Nothing happened.
MORDECAI Good.
Scene: throne room.
THE KING Let it be written in the book of the chronicles. Here, before me.
HARBONAH Scribe.
DALE Present. Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal...
HARBONAH Write. Every word, in the king's presence.
DALE (whispering) I've never been in the king's presence. Do I use my good hand?
HARBONAH Use any hand. Quickly.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE In the seventh year of King Ahasuerus. Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers of the king, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the king. The thing became known to Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate. Queen Esther told it to the king in Mordecai's name. It was searched out, and found to be so.
DALE Mordecai. Just Mordecai. He didn't want a title.
DALE The weather that day was warm, with a wind from the west, and then from nowhere. The scribe on duty was the Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting, Senior, who slept very well that night, on his left side, after lentils.
THE KING (sleepy) Is he still writing?
HARBONAH The lentils, my lord.
THE KING Come, Harbonah.
(A pause.)
DALE The king then left, for reasons of state. The lentils were good.
Sound: ink blow.
DALE There. Nobody's ever going to need that one.
(A pause.)
Scene: throne room.
Sound: trumpets fanfare.
THE KING Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Your seat is above every prince in this hall.
Sound: crowd murmur.
THE KING And at my gate, let every servant bow down to you as they would to me. It is commanded.
HAMAN The king is generous beyond my deserving.
Sound: crowd bowing.
HAMAN You. Scribe.
DALE (nervous) Me? Dale Tummins, my lord. Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting.
HAMAN I read your page on my way in. Your hand is good.
DALE Thank you. My mother always said it was damp.
HAMAN A good hand is rarer than a good prince. Remember who told you so.
DALE I'll write it down, my lord. I also build things, evenings. Stools, shelves, a gate once. Anything you need, tall or short.
HAMAN I'll remember that.
Scene: kings gate.
Sound: crowd bowing.
A MAN Up, he's past. Mordecai. Why do you disobey the king's commandment?
(A pause.)
AN OLD MAN Every day we ask him. Every day he sits there like a post.
A MAN Then let him explain it to Haman.
(A pause.)
PHIL (gentle) I bow, Mordecai. I'd bow to a goat if the king said to. I'd just rather they left you alone.
MORDECAI You're a kind man, Phil. I won't bow to him. I am a Jew.
PHIL Then I'll keep sitting on your side of the bench.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. Haman read my page. On purpose. He wasn't even lost.
PHIL That's nice, Dale.
DALE He's going to be the best boss this palace ever had. You can tell from the bowing. Nobody bows that low for a bad boss.
PHIL Mordecai doesn't bow.
DALE Mordecai, you should try it. It's a good bow. It's like a nod, but with your whole back.
MORDECAI Thank you, Dale. No.
DALE Then I'll do one for you, and it evens out.
PHIL Dale.
DALE Two, then. I'm good for two.
(A pause.)
A MAN My lord Haman. The one by the post. He says he's a Jew. He says it like it's a reason.
HAMAN Mordecai.
(A pause.)
HAMAN No. One old man isn't worth the dirt on my hands. Who are his people? Where do they live?
A MAN Everywhere, my lord. Every province.
HAMAN Good.
Scene: haman house.
Music: haman theme.
Sound: lots cast.
A MAN Nisan, my lord. The lot won't settle on it.
HAMAN Again.
Sound: lots cast.
A MAN The second month. No.
HAMAN Again tomorrow. And the day after. Cast it until it answers.
(A pause.)
Sound: lots cast.
Sound: lots cast.
A MAN It fell, my lord. The twelfth month, Adar. The thirteenth day.
HAMAN Adar. Eleven months from now.
ZERESH That's a long time to wait for one old man at a gate.
HAMAN It isn't for one old man. It's long enough for every province to read it.
Scene: throne room.
HAMAN There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people's. They don't keep the king's laws.
HAMAN Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain. If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the king's treasuries.
(A pause.)
Sound: signet ring.
THE KING The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.
HAMAN The king is wise.
THE KING Call the scribes.
Scene: scribes room.
Sound: seal press.
DALE Two hundred and six. Feel the edge on that. That's Haman's own seal, out of the king's own hand.
A MAN Read it, Tummins.
DALE I don't read them, I copy them. Reading slows the hand, and my hand is good. Ask Haman.
A MAN I heard what he called you.
DALE Scribe. Just scribe. No deputy, no under, no second class. That's three promotions in one word.
A MAN (sad) Read the one you're sealing.
DALE After the wax. The wax is the best part.
Sound: seal press.
Sound: horses gallop.
Scene: banquet wine.
Sound: cup pour.
THE KING Sit, Haman. Drink with me.
HAMAN To the king's treasuries.
Sound: cups clink.
Scene: kings gate.
Sound: crowd murmur.
A HERALD (shouting) By order of King Ahasuerus, sealed with the king's ring, to every province and every people in its own language.
A HERALD On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, in one day, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, and to plunder their possessions. Let all peoples be ready against that day.
Sound: crowd gasp.
A WOMAN Children? It says children.
AN OLD MAN What did they do? Somebody tell me what they did.
A MAN Nothing. My wife's sister married one. They didn't do anything.
(A pause.)
DALE (excited) Phil! I saved you one. Run your thumb round the seal. I did the wax on two hundred and twelve of these.
(A pause.)
PHIL Did you read it, Dale?
DALE I copy them, Phil. Reading slows the hand.
PHIL The herald read it. You missed him. It says kill the Jews. All of them, on one day. The children too.
PHIL Hannah the weaver lives three doors down from me. Her boys bring me eggs. The baker on the corner. The old man with the bad knee who sings on the roof.
PHIL And Mordecai. He sits next to me every day, Dale. You've eaten his figs.
(A pause.)
DALE I'll go get the wax back. All two hundred and twelve. I'll run after the horses.
PHIL (gentle) They're gone, Dale.
(A pause.)
Scene: susa street mourning.
Sound: cloth tear.
(A pause.)
Sound: ashes scatter.
(A pause.)
A MAN Not through the gate in sackcloth, old man. You know the law.
MORDECAI I know it. I'll stay out here.
Scene: womens court.
A WOMAN My queen. The old man who asks after you every day. He's at the king's gate in sackcloth and ashes, crying out.
(A pause.)
ESTHER Take him clothes. Now. The good linen, and a cloak.
Scene: kings gate.
Sound: crowd murmur.
A WOMAN My sister's word came from Babylon. They're fasting there too. Everybody.
AN OLD MAN Everywhere the riders went. Everywhere.
PHIL Mordecai. Water. You haven't had any since the herald.
MORDECAI Sit with me instead, Phil.
PHIL All right. I'll hold the cup, in case.
AN OLD MAN My grandson asked me tonight if Adar comes before his birthday. I told him I'd have to think about it.
(A pause.)
HATHACH Mordecai, son of Jair? I'm Hathach. I attend the queen.
HATHACH She sends you clothes, fresh ones. She asks you to take off the sackcloth.
MORDECAI Take them back to her.
HATHACH Then she asks what this is. And why.
MORDECAI Haman has bought us. Ten thousand talents of silver into the king's treasuries, for the destruction of the Jews. That is the exact sum.
Sound: scroll unroll.
MORDECAI This is the copy they gave out in Susa. Show it to her. Tell her to go in to the king, and plead with him for her people.
HATHACH Her people?
MORDECAI She'll understand. Go.
(A pause.)
PHIL (whispering) The queen, Mordecai?
MORDECAI Say nothing, Phil.
Scene: womens court.
Sound: scroll unroll.
(A pause.)
ESTHER The thirteenth of Adar.
HATHACH He says to go in to the king, my queen. He said, for her people. I didn't understand him.
ESTHER You don't need to, Hathach.
ESTHER Go back to him. Tell him all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that whoever, man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law: that he be put to death.
ESTHER Except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.
Scene: kings gate.
HATHACH Thirty days, she says. And the law. She's frightened, Mordecai. I've never seen her frightened.
MORDECAI Then tell her this. Don't think to yourself that you will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews.
Music: such a time.
MORDECAI For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.
MORDECAI Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Scene: womens court.
(A pause.)
ESTHER Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day.
ESTHER I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law.
ESTHER And if I perish, I perish.
(A pause.)
Scene: kings gate.
MORDECAI Help me up, Phil. Every Jew in Susa, she said.
PHIL Which door first?
MORDECAI All of them.
Scene: susa street mourning.
Sound: door knock.
A WOMAN Mordecai? At this hour?
MORDECAI The queen asks us to fast for her. Three days, night and day. No bread, no water. Tell the next house.
A WOMAN The queen? Why would the queen...
MORDECAI Tell the next house, Miriam.
Sound: door knock.
(A pause.)
Scene: kings gate night.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Second night. Mordecai is out knocking on doors. I haven't eaten. Dale hasn't eaten either, loudly.
Sound: stomach rumble.
DALE I heard that, Phil.
PHIL It was your stomach.
DALE I fasted once before, you know. Between breakfast and lunch. This is a lot longer than that.
DALE I know nobody asked me. I'm not one of them. But I did the wax.
PHIL I know.
(A pause.)
DALE Somebody's baking bread. At night. Who bakes bread at night?
PHIL The baker's not fasting, Dale.
DALE Then swap with me. You sit on the side the wind comes from.
PHIL It comes from every side. It's a gate.
DALE Then I'll breathe through my mouth. Bread can't get you through the mouth. Everybody knows that.
DALE Write it down, Phil. Write down I didn't eat the bread.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Dale didn't eat the bread.
(A pause.)
DALE When she goes in, Phil. Is she going to be this hungry?
PHIL Hungrier. She isn't drinking either.
(A pause.)
DALE Then I'll stop drinking too. She shouldn't be the only one.
Sound: stomach rumble.
Scene: inner court.
Sound: royal footsteps.
A MAN (whispering) Nobody called her.
AN OLD MAN Thirty days, nobody's called her. Eyes on your feet.
(A pause.)
THE KING Queen Esther.
(A pause.)
Sound: scepter chime.
AN OLD MAN (whispering) Breathe, boy. She lives.
(A pause.)
THE KING What would you like, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.
ESTHER If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.
THE KING Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said.
Scene: banquet wine.
Sound: cup pour.
THE KING What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
ESTHER My petition and my request is this.
(A pause.)
ESTHER If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.
THE KING Tomorrow, then. You hear that, Haman? Twice.
THE KING You've eaten nothing, Queen Esther. Not a fig.
ESTHER Tomorrow, my king.
HAMAN The queen honors me beyond any man in Persia.
Scene: kings gate.
HAMAN (laughing) Make way. Make way for a guest of the queen.
A MAN He's been at the queen's own table. Bow lower.
Sound: crowd bowing.
(A pause.)
HAMAN Mordecai the Jew. Still sitting.
(A pause.)
HAMAN Sit, then.
(A pause.)
PHIL (whispering) Mordecai. Please. Just stand up, once, while he can see you.
MORDECAI No, Phil.
PHIL He'll remember it.
MORDECAI He remembers it already. Three days I fasted for her, Phil. I'm not going to stand up for him now.
Scene: haman house.
Music: haman theme.
HAMAN Sit, all of you. Zeresh, pour. I want you to hear it from me.
HAMAN My silver, more than any house in Susa. My sons, ten of them, every one healthy. The king raised me above every prince and every servant he has.
HAMAN Yes, and Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself. And tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.
A MAN Tomorrow too, my lord. Nobody else in Susa can say that.
HAMAN Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.
(A pause.)
ZERESH Then stop seeing him. Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it.
ZERESH Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.
A MAN Fifty cubits. They'd see it from the gate.
HAMAN They would. Who builds fifty cubits in one night?
ZERESH Anyone you frighten enough. And let the old man at the gate hear the hammering.
HAMAN I know a man. He offered.
Scene: dale lodging.
Sound: door knock.
DALE If you're bread, I don't want you. I'm on day three. Go away, bread.
Sound: door creak.
HAMAN You, scribe.
DALE (scared) Lord Haman.
HAMAN You told me you build things. Tall or short.
DALE I did say that. I say it to everybody.
HAMAN Fifty cubits. Tonight, in my yard. Finished by morning.
DALE Fifty? Nobody's ever asked me for more than a stool. Yes. Yes, my lord, I'll do it. What is it, a platform? For speeches? I could put a little roof on it.
HAMAN It doesn't need a roof.
DALE I'll need cedar. And pitch. And a ladder taller than the thing, which is always the hard part of tall things. For somebody important, then?
HAMAN It's for the Jew at the gate. Mordecai. I'll ask the king for him at sunrise.
(A pause.)
HAMAN You said yes, scribe.
(A pause.)
DALE Yes, my lord.
HAMAN You're thin, scribe. Eat something tonight. You'll need your arms. And bring your own nails.
Sound: footsteps away.
(A pause.)
DALE I said yes twice. I didn't mean either one.
DALE Phil's going to ask me what I did tonight. I'll have to tell him. He'll say I understand. He always says I understand.
DALE I'll build it slow. I'll build it so slow.
(A pause.)
Sound: hammer stroke.
Music: sting danger.
Scene: royal bedchamber.
Sound: hammering night.
THE KING Again. Somewhere in this city a man is hammering in the middle of the night, and I'm the one who can't sleep.
A MAN Shall I send the guard to stop him, my lord?
THE KING No. Let him build. Bring me the book of records of the chronicles, and whoever wrote them. If anything in this palace can put me to sleep, it's that.
(A pause.)
Sound: door creak.
DALE (out of breath) Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting, Senior, Night Division. Sorry, my lord. I was at my other job.
THE KING Why does my scribe smell of pitch?
DALE Carpentry, my lord. Nights. A private client. Very particular about height. I'd rather not say any more, if that's all right with you.
THE KING Read.
Sound: scroll unroll.
DALE The seventh year of the reign, the month Tebeth. Esther was made queen. Very moving. I wore my good sash, which I'd like noted, so I'm noting it.
THE KING Is the whole page about the sash?
DALE Two pages, my lord. It's a good sash. Then a short bit on the soup.
THE KING Skip the soup.
DALE Skipping the soup. Twelfth of Shebat. A fly got into the scribes' room. I've written down everywhere it landed, in order.
THE KING Why?
DALE In case it does something later, my lord. Then we'll have it all.
THE KING Does anything happen in this book to anyone besides you?
DALE Not much, my lord. I'm on most of the pages. I try to keep it lively.
(A pause.)
A MAN (whispering) Keep going. He's nearly under.
DALE Same year. Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers of the king, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the king. The thing became known to Mordecai, who sits at the king's gate. Queen Esther told it to the king in Mordecai's name. It was searched out, and found to be so.
DALE The weather that day was warm, with a wind from the west, and then from nowhere. The scribe on duty slept very well that night, on his left side, after lentils, which I'll now go into.
THE KING Stop.
(A pause.)
THE KING Go back. The man at the gate.
DALE Mordecai, my lord. Mordecai, who sits at the King's Gate.
THE KING What honor and dignity has been given to Mordecai for this?
(A pause.)
A MAN Nothing has been done for him, my lord.
DALE I'd do it soon, my lord, if you're going to do it. First thing. Before anybody else gets in to see you.
Sound: footsteps stone.
THE KING Who is in the court?
A MAN Haman stands in the court, my lord. He's come early.
THE KING Let him come in.
Music: haman theme.
HAMAN (whispering) You, scribe. Why aren't you in my yard?
DALE The king sent for me, sir. Your men are finishing the top without me. I don't love it.
THE KING Haman. What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?
(A pause.)
HAMAN (whispering) Did you hear him, scribe? Whom would the king delight to honor more than myself?
DALE Go big, sir. Really big.
HAMAN For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, with a royal crown set on its head.
HAMAN Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!
THE KING Good. Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate.
(A pause.)
THE KING Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.
Scene: susa square.
Sound: hooves stone.
HAMAN (shouting) Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!
A WOMAN Is that Mordecai? Mordecai from the gate?
A MAN In the king's own robe.
AN OLD MAN With Haman holding his bridle. I've lived too long, or else not long enough.
PHIL (shouting) Mordecai!
DALE Phil. Phil, take this end of the robe. My arms are finished. I was up all night.
PHIL Doing what?
DALE I did something last night, Phil. I'll tell you after.
PHIL Is it bad?
DALE Tall. Mostly it's tall.
HAMAN (sad) Thus it shall be done to the man... whom the king delights to honor.
Sound: crowd cheer.
Scene: kings gate.
PHIL You came back. They'd have let you ride all day.
MORDECAI The horse goes back to the king. The robe goes back to the king. And I sit here.
PHIL Then I'll sit here too.
Scene: haman house.
ZERESH Take that cloth off your head. Tell me.
HAMAN I led his horse. Through the square, with all of Susa watching. I called out his honor before him with my own mouth. Twice.
A MAN Did he look at you?
HAMAN He didn't need to.
ZERESH If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him.
A MAN You will surely fall before him.
HAMAN Be quiet. All of you. The thing in my yard is finished. In the morning I'll speak to the king.
Sound: door knock.
HARBONAH My lord Haman. The queen's banquet is ready, and the king is waiting. Now, my lord.
Music: sting danger.
Scene: inner court.
Sound: cups clink.
DALE He went straight past me. Haman. Didn't even slow down. I've been standing here since the parade, and I'm not leaving till somebody pays me.
HARBONAH Then stand quietly. The queen has guests, and the king's chamberlain doesn't carry a scribe's papers in to the queen's banquet.
DALE It's not papers. It's an invoice. One platform, fifty cubits high. Timber, pitch, rope, one night's work, and a splinter, which I'm charging for, because it's still in there.
HARBONAH Fifty cubits.
DALE In his own yard. You'll see it over the rooftops from the river.
HARBONAH You sound proud of it.
DALE Of the joints. Not of the rest of it. He had me build it for Mordecai.
HARBONAH Mordecai.
DALE The man from the King's Gate. He spoke up for the king once and saved his life. I know, because I'm the one who wrote it down.
HARBONAH The same Mordecai who rode the king's horse this morning.
DALE The same one. I tried to lose the timber twice on the way over. You can't lose a tree. People keep bringing it back to you.
HARBONAH Who else knows about this?
DALE Everybody I've talked to today. You're about the eleventh. I want it on the record that I built it straight, and I didn't want to build it at all. Can you give him this?
HARBONAH Wait here, scribe.
Sound: door creak.
DALE Deputy Under-Scribe, Second Class, Acting, Senior, Night Division, Platforms. Sir?
Scene: banquet wine.
Sound: cup pour.
THE KING Haman. You're not drinking.
HAMAN A long morning, my lord.
THE KING You walked a long way. Drink. The queen has something to ask me today, and I mean to give it to her.
Sound: cups clink.
THE KING What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
Music: such a time.
ESTHER If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
ESTHER For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. If we had only been sold as slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could never have made up for the king's loss.
(A pause.)
THE KING Who is he, and where is he, who dared presume in his heart to do so?
ESTHER An adversary and an enemy. Even this wicked Haman!
Sound: goblet drop.
HAMAN (scared) My lord. My queen.
Sound: door slam.
Scene: palace garden night.
THE KING My ring. I gave him my ring, and a people, and I never once asked him which people.
THE KING He offered me ten thousand talents of silver for them. And I told him to keep it.
(A pause.)
Scene: banquet wine.
HAMAN (crying) My queen. I didn't know they were your people. I didn't know.
HAMAN Speak for my life. He'll listen to you. You're the only one he listens to. Please, my queen.
Sound: couch fall.
Sound: footsteps stone.
THE KING Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?
Sound: cloth cover.
(A pause.)
HARBONAH My lord. Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman's house.
(A pause.)
THE KING Hang him on it!
(A pause.)
(A pause.)
Scene: banquet wine.
THE KING Sit, my queen. Drink something. Harbonah, the lamps.
Scene: kings gate night.
DALE Phil. Can I sit?
PHIL Sit.
(A pause.)
DALE I measured it three times. I always measure three times. I just wanted it to stand up straight, Phil. I didn't want it to be for anybody.
PHIL I know.
(A pause.)
PHIL Mordecai's alive, Dale.
DALE Yeah.
(A pause.)
DALE I told Harbonah, Phil. At the door. I told him everything. I only wanted somebody to know.
PHIL I know. Mordecai knows too.
DALE Is he angry with me?
PHIL He asked if you'd eaten.
(A pause.)
PHIL The letters are still out, though. Every province. The thirteenth of Adar.
DALE So the king writes different ones. He's got the ring back.
PHIL Once a law's sealed with the king's ring, nobody can undo it. You copied the one about Queen Vashti. It said so at the bottom.
DALE I didn't read the bottom.
PHIL I understand.
Music: tender.
Scene: throne room.
THE KING So this is Mordecai. The queen tells me what you are to her.
ESTHER My cousin, my lord. When my father and mother died, he took me for his own daughter.
THE KING This was on Haman's hand. It belongs on yours.
Sound: ring give.
MORDECAI My lord.
ESTHER And the house of Haman, which the king has given me, I set in your hands, Mordecai.
(A pause.)
ESTHER (crying) My lord. His letters are still riding to every province. I beg you, put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and the plan he planned against the Jews.
Sound: scepter chime.
ESTHER If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.
ESTHER For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?
THE KING Write to the Jews as it pleases you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring. For what is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring may not be reversed by any man.
Scene: scribes room.
MORDECAI To every province in its own script, and to every people in its own language. And to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.
Sound: quill scratch.
MORDECAI In the name of King Ahasuerus. The king grants the Jews in every city to gather themselves together and to defend their lives, on one day in all the provinces, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar.
DALE Sorry, sir. Could you say that again, slower? I'm reading this one before I copy it.
MORDECAI Gather themselves together. And defend their lives.
DALE Gather together. Defend their lives. I'm reading every word this time. Even the bottom.
DALE I didn't read the last one, sir. I was admiring the seal. I'd like you to know that before I copy yours.
MORDECAI The king tells me it was you who wrote my name in the chronicles. And read it to him in the night.
DALE I also wrote about my lentils, sir.
MORDECAI He mentioned the lentils.
Sound: seal press.
Sound: horses gallop.
Scene: susa square.
Sound: crowd cheer.
A CHILD Is the crown real gold?
AN OLD MAN Real gold, child. On the man from the gate.
A WOMAN Light and gladness. Joy and honor. I never thought I'd say those four together again.
PHIL (shouting) Mordecai!
MORDECAI Phil. You brought me water when I sat in ashes. Come and sit beside me now.
Scene: kings gate.
(A pause.)
A HERALD Hear, citadel of Susa. On the thirteenth day of Adar the Jews gathered in their cities and stood for their lives, and no one could withstand them.
AN OLD MAN And on the fourteenth, we rested.
Sound: quill scratch.
PHIL Fourteenth of Adar. Everyone on my street is still here.
Scene: purim feast.
Music: purim dance.
MORDECAI Keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month that was turned from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a holiday.
MORDECAI Make them days of feasting and gladness, of sending portions to one another, and gifts to the needy.
Sound: crowd cheer.
A CHILD Why is it called Purim?
AN OLD MAN From pur, the lot. He cast lots to destroy us, and his wicked plan returned on his own head.
Sound: bread break.
A WOMAN Bread for anyone who needs it! Don't be shy, there's plenty. Take two.
Sound: cake plate.
DALE Phil. Your portion. I baked it myself. Start at the edges. The middle's still making up its mind.
PHIL Is there almond in it?
DALE There was. I picked most of it back out.
Sound: munch.
(A pause.)
PHIL Thank you, Dale. Really. My lips always do that. It'll go down by tomorrow.
Sound: cake plate.
PHIL Yours.
Sound: munch.
DALE Phil. What is this? I want to live inside it.
PHIL Dates and honey and sesame. I baked them twice so they'd keep.
DALE Keep for what? I already ate it.
HATHACH Which of you is the scribe? From Mordecai. For the man who wrote his name in the book.
Sound: cake plate.
DALE A portion. From the man next to the king. Phil, I've been portioned. Royally.
PHIL Are you going to eat it?
DALE Eat it? It's going in the chronicles.
Scene: scribes room.
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE All the acts of the king's power and might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia.
DALE For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his descendants.
DALE Also on this day, a royal portion was sent to the Deputy Under-Scribe of the Royal Chronicles, Second Class, Acting, Senior, Night Division, Portions, who...
Sound: quill scratch.
DALE No. That's his page.
Music: end credits esther.