THE TEMPLE

a play by Peter Oswald

Note - this play was written for the Ruskin Mill Educational Trust, and performed by students and staff at several of their

colleges in 2008.

The text is quite full - maybe the prologue could be removed for example. Up to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Characters

 

Angels

Adam and Eve

God

Sophia

Solomon, King of Israel

Silas, old minister of Israel

Minister (of Israel)

Balkis, Queen of Sheba

Lemuria, her friend

Hiram, an architect and metalworker

Ken, an apprentice

Mrs Molestrop, his mother

Grope, Stumble, metalworkers

Apprentices

Jubelo

Jubela,

Jubelum, craftsmen

Other ministers, guards etc in Jerusalem

And dancers in Sheba

 

 

The actor who plays Cain should also play Hiram and the actor who plays Abel should also play Solomon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE.CAIN AND ABEL.

 

ABEL: God has accepted my blood-offering!

On the stone table I laid down the lamb,

Firstborn of my own flock that on God’s mountain

Had fed, not shepherded by my attention,

But always wandering across God’s hands,

Sheltering in the moonlight of his mind,

And grazing in the daylight of his eyes;

With him and in him. As the blood ran down

Into the cracks of the old rock, God smiled

And raised me through the gashed throat of the sky,

Into the light! Did he accept yours, Cain?

Did God respond to your blood offering?

 

CAIN: No Abel, he did not. I offered him

Barley, not blood, and iron from which I’d forged

The plough that scooped its earth-wombs. God said nothing.

The sky stayed blank, and I remained unraised,

Inside my skull, a coffin made of bone.

 

ABEL: I have been chosen. We asked God to choose,

And he has chosen me. Accept this, Cain.

I am the leader, I must show the way,

And you must follow.

 

CAIN:                  But we need each other.  

The world is hard. Our mother and your father

Cry every day, remembering the garden.

Our acres are the opposite of Eden,

Nothing free-given, sky and soil bone-stubborn;

Neither of us should cancel out the other.

I need your sheep, you need my barley-flour

God brought us out of the same loving mother,

Who raised us equal. If you rule and I

Bow down, how will we learn from one another?

 

ABEL: It is not me you have to bow to, brother!

I bow to God who speaks to me. His Law

Must rule us both! But you must be as silent

As granite when I speak, if God speaks through me!

I am his voice on earth! I share his power!

Remember, you are not the son of Adam;

One of the Elohim, a spirit being,

Slept with our mother – maybe Lucifer –

And she gave birth to you. But God the father

Prefers the lawful child she had with Adam,

Me, Abel. I am not like you, I follow

My sheep into the quiet hills, to listen

To God; you, in a dark place, beat out iron,

With which you rip the earth. That is the reason

Why Abel is acceptable to heaven,

And Cain is not!

 

CAIN:             My wisdom is from heaven!

 

ABEL: Then why does God reject your offering?

 

CAIN: Abel, remember, when your wandering

Has worn you out, when you want bread, remember,

The hungry tribes that have been gathering

To me - come to the city we are building,

And live in peace!

 

ABEL:                No! I forbid this city!

It is against the will of God! I curse

Its shouting crowds! Cain! Listen! God is speaking!

Put back the iron into the rock! Tear down

Your houses and your towers that are pressing

Hard on the dear earth. Climb into the mountains,

And all alone cry out to God for cleansing!

 

CAIN: I cannot do that –

 

ABEL:                       Then I curse your people,

And by the power of God invested in me,

I damn you to eternal hell, your children,

Your wives, and all your wealth of jewels and cattle!

 

CAIN: You cannot do this!

 

ABEL:                    You will have no blessing

From me or any other prophet, brother,

And all your maps and plans will come to nothing

But tragedy and misery and horror,

Until you learn to follow the good shepherd!

I curse you! Cain is cursed! This proclamation

Shall be read out to all the tribes and nations –

Cain is rejected, Cain is the ungrateful

Child of a rebel spirit!

 

CAIN STRIKES HIM WITH AN IRON IMPLEMENT. ABEL FALLS DEAD.

 

CAIN:                       Ah! Now iron

Has killed! The fire of rage has forged a weapon!

 

EXIT.

 

 

TWO. THE DESERT IN ISRAEL.SOLOMON IN PRAYER, FRENZIED.

 

SOLOMON: O God! O God! Have mercy on your servant Solomon! Have mercy! Too much light! Pray, Solomon, sing, be calm! ‘I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!’ But where is his house? Too dark, too dark! ‘The heavens tell out the glory of God! One day speaks to another, night to night imparts knowledge!’ Be still, Solomon, and receive God’s vision! (SINGS.)‘Be still then and know that I am God! I will be exalted in the highest, and I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge!’

 

HE CRIES OUT AND FALLS TO THE GROUND. ENTER MINISTERS.

 

1st MINISTER: King Solomon! Lord! King Solomon! He has fainted again!

 

2ND MINISTER: He has fasted for three days! Fasted and prayed.

 

1ST MINISTER: Shall we carry him back into the palace?

 

2ND MINISTER: He won’t like it! He likes to be left where he is!

 

1ST MINISTER: It’s cold out here!

 

2ND MINISTER: But when he wakes up he likes to see the stars.

 

1ST MINISTER: Can we put a cloak over him at least?

 

2ND MINISTER: Yes I think we can do that.

 

THEY PUT A CLOAK OVER HIM. HE WAKES UP.

 

SOLOMON: Where is my – get me – I have to write down –

 

1ST MINISTER: Yes, Lord!

 

EXIT.

 

SOLOMON: My stick –

 

2ND MINISTER: Here it is, Lord!

 

GIVES SOLOMON HIS STICK. SOLOMON LEAPS UP AND STARTS DRAWING IN THE SAND WITH IT.

 

SOLOMON: Sixty – by forty – by thirty – the room in front of the sanctuary, twenty. Spanning the whole width – projecting by ten cubits. Against the wall, a terrace, surrounding both the sanctuary and the inner shrine. Cloisters, all around. The lowest, five deep – the highest seven. Rebatements, all around the outside of the wall, so that the bearer beams are not fixed into the wall –

 

ENTER 1ST MINISTER WITH PAPER.

 

SOLOMON: Copy this! What I have drawn in the sand – copy! Exactly! The inner shrine – to receive the Ark of the Covenant – twenty by twenty by

twenty. Right – there – in the centre!

 

1ST MINISTER: Yes, my Lord!

 

SOLOMON: Then God will dwell among us! He will leave

His house of clouds, that is both nowhere and

Everywhere, and he will come down, come down

To live among us! In a house constructed

By us, of cedar cut by human hands,

And blocks hewn out by us! A house to enter,

To see and touch forever and forever!

Heaven has burnt into my mind a vision

Which, if precisely followed – not one shiver

To left or right of God’s exact dimensions –

Will make our kingdom till the end of time

Immoveable. There are dense swarms of details –

They are all sacred – I could not forget them

If you chopped off my head! The decorations,

The types of stone. The temple is inside me,

It is inside me! Oh Jerusalem,

You are the home Almighty God has chosen!

 

1ST, 2ND MINISTER: Allelluiah!

 

SOLOMON: It is as if the river of my wisdom

Has stirred up all its sediment of volumes

At once! The inner and the outer chamber -

Carvings of cherubim and open flowers,

And palm trees! At the entrance of the shrine,

Doors of wild olive wood! And the pilasters

Pentagonal! No need to note it down,

It is all in me! God has made my mind

A sky-vault wide enough to hold all vision!

 

1ST, 2ND MINISTER: Allelluiah!

 

EXEUNT.

 

 

THREE. HIRAM, SOMEWHERE IN TYRE OVER THE BORDER, AT A FORGE, WORKING. ENTER MRS MOLESTROP WITH HER SON KEN.

 

MRS MOLESTOP: Er – hello!

 

HIRAM CARRIES ON WORKING.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Hello! Excuse me!

 

HIRAM CARRIES ON.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: (SHOUTS.) Hello!

HIRAM STOPS.

 

HIRAM: Oh! I’m sorry. I was just – I get a bit carried away once I get going. Mrs Molestrop isn’t it?

 

MRS MOLESTROP: That’s right.

 

HIRAM: Hiram.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: I know who you are! This is my son Kenneth.

 

HIRAM: Hello, Ken!

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Say hello, Kenneth.

 

KEN: Hello.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Kenneth’s extremely interested in metalwork.

 

KEN: No I’m not.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Haha! He’s got a wonderful sense of humour too, Hiram!

 

KEN: No I haven’t.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Hahaha! Oh I love his little jokes, don’t you? At home we never stop giggling –

 

HIRAM: That’s very interesting, Mrs Molestrop –

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Hiram, what I want to ask you is –

 

HIRAM: You want me to take Ken on as an apprentice.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: No! No! Well – actually, yes. Absolutely I do! Please!

 

HIRAM: Alright then.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: What?

 

HIRAM: If that’s what he wants.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Ah –

 

HIRAM: Mrs Molestrop, willingness is all I require. But I do require it. If I was hiring mothers, I’d take you on like a shot, you’re extremely keen, you’ve plucked up the courage to drag young Ken along to the greatest Master Craftsman on earth. The question is: has he inherited your zest? Look Ken, this here is a pair of tongs. That there is a fire. This is a bellows, right? The bellows puts air into the fire and makes it hot. This here is a piece of iron. That there is an anvil. This here is your mother, and I am Hiram. Make the fire hot.

 

KEN WORKS THE BELLOWS.

 

HIRAM: When you think the fire is hot enough, pick up the iron in the tongs and hold it in the fire. This is all pretty simple stuff.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Isn’t he doing well!

 

HIRAM: Hmmm. Now Ken, when you think the iron’s red hot enough, take it out and hold it on the anvil and bang it flat. This here is a hammer, alright? You will find it wonderfully convenient for hitting things with. Alright?

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Well done, Kenneth!

 

HIRAM SITS DOWN, HIS HEAD IN HIS HANDS, QUIETLY LAUGHING. MRS MOLESTROP IS ANGRY.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Very well Kenneth, I think we should go. Come on!

KEN IS STILL STARING INTO THE FIRE.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Come on, Kenneth, come on! Come on! This man has made it perfectly clear that –

 

HIRAM: He won’t go. You’ve lost him forever, Mrs Molestrop, you’ve lost him.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: What do you mean?

 

HIRAM: I mean I’ll take him! And gladly! Out of a thousand I’d take him!

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Why?

 

HIRAM: He’s so quiet!

 

MRS MOLESTROP: I’m not going to stay here a second longer for you to laugh at my son, you crimson idiot!

 

HIRAM: Mrs Molestrop, Mrs Molestrop! You went to the wrong school for insults! I’m serious, I’m not laughing. Am I laughing? I like him and I want to take him on. Look at him! He’s forgotten you and I exist. He’s forgotten everything except the bellows and the fire and the iron. Dip that in the water, there, Ken. See, he heard me though. Perfect. Some of them, you know, they stroll in here, they just blow in and blow out again, fire, iron, bang bang, thankyou very much, very interesting. Not Ken. Look at him. That’s what God looks like, planning his next planet! He will go far.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Thankyou!

 

HIRAM: Thankyou, Madam! I myself am envious of Ken.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Really?

 

HIRAM: Yes, Mrs Molestrop. It’s not often, these days, that I go where he has gone.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Oh I’m so happy! We couldn’t think what to do with him!

 

HIRAM: What did you want him to be?

 

MRS MOLESTROP: A priest like his father!

 

HIRAM: Oh! I see.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: He can’t even read!

 

HIRAM: So you swallowed your pride and came down to the bad part of town.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: You are not even in the town.

 

HIRAM: No, too dangerous, folk like us. We might burn down the church!

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Let me give you a few coins!

 

HIRAM: Give them to Ken. He might need them.

 

MRS MOLESTROP: But you’re the most famous craftsman on earth!

 

HIRAM: And architect. Earth’s a tricky place. At the moment it’s all military bases and sport stadiums, which involves a lot of demolition. Don’t like it. Prefer to work for myself at the moment. Goodbye Mrs Molestrop!

 

MRS MOLESTROP: Goodbye Hiram! Goodbye Ken, well done, see you soon, my darling!

 

HIRAM: He’s gone.

 

EXEUNT.

 

 

FOUR. SHEBA. BALKIS, DANCING, WITH OTHER DANCERS, ALL OR MOSTLY FEMALE. ALSO LEMURIA, WHO WATCHES THE DANCE. DANCE ENDS.

 

BALKIS: Now hide!

 

EVERYBODY HIDES EXCEPT BALKIS. SHE CLOSES HER EYES AND COUNTS TO TEN.

 

BALKIS: Coming!

(ASIDE.) They are so noisy-naughty, the temptations

Of being Queen! A flock of parrots, perching

All over me and squawking, each in turn,

Do what you like, you are the Queen of Sheba,

Marry the moon, go mad! My ears are aching!

For instance now I could stop looking, simply

Wander away, and they, obediently,

Would hide forever, crouching till they died

Under whatever drape, inside whatever

Neck-crooking nook. Or I could suddenly

Shout that whoever I find first will be

Beheaded! Exiled! Boiled into a jelly!

See, the Queen’s mind is a big chestnut tree,

But the birds chatting and the chanting bees

Are not all angels. There are jackdaws roostin

Among the doves. But when I play these games,

I let the demons out, I watch them fly.

They have no power when they can be seen.

 

SHE EXPOSES A MINISTER HIDING WITH HIS BUM IN THE AIR, NEARLY KICKS IT AND THEN SAYS:

 

BALKIS: Found you!   

 

MINISTER:                   Oh no!

 

BALKIS:                                  Now we can have some tea!

Sweet mint tea! Sheba is a small glass kingdom

Full of hot sweet mint tea, which solves all problems

For a delicious instant! We are wise

To seek relief and laugh, from time to time!

Sheba is peace, a little herb garden

In the dry world, where the wolves dream of lambs,

Sniffing the wind. And we must hope that they,

Scenting our fragrance, think of sleep not prey.

Sleep, hunters, listen to our lullaby;

Kingdoms created from the shattering

Of kingdoms, nations in the hands of soldiers

Who drink from skulls: we have no gold to plunder,

Peace is our only produce and from Sheba

You can steal nothing but the end of war!

So now the tea is finished, Minister,

Tell us the worst!

 

MINISTER:       King Solomon of Israel,

Newly ascended to the throne his father

David made strong by means of endless conquest,

Has –

 

BALKIS: Caught a cold?

 

MINISTER:                 Queen, he has forty thousand

Chariot horses and at least twelve thousand

Cavalry horses –

 

BALKIS:           An impressive hoof-count.

How many have we got?

 

MINISTER:              About three hundred –

 

BALKIS: Why are we still alive?

 

MINISTER:                        Your Majesty

Wisely allied our Kingdom to the empire

Of Egypt.

 

BALKIS: Will that hold against the horses

Of Israel?

 

MINISTER: King Solomon has married

The Pharoah’s daughter. And six hundred other

Daughters of Lords from Kings to Emperors!

 

BALKIS: So the extended family of Israel

Takes up most of the map! I am not married

To anyone! It is a single Kingdom,

Sheba, poor maid!

 

MINISTER:        But not unloved, your Majesty.

 

BALKIS: Not by her people, no! But will our love

Keep us alive? Now speak to me Lemuria;

What do we know about King Solomon?

His father died old, Solomon has waited

A long time to be King, and he is almost

An old new King. We had got used to David,

And all his wars. Is his large-stabled offspring

A warrior as well? Say everything

You know, you are my best friend and my oldest,

Lemuria, you know me and I trust you

Like my own mind, which is a wicked thing,

But willing to be good.

 

LEMURIA:               Delicious Majesty

Of Sheba –

 

BALKIS:   Ha!

 

LEMURIA:       Is the son like the father?

Not in the slightest. David was a fighter,

Solomon is a man of God. However,

Israel is a damaged child.

 

BALKIS:                       Lemuria,

Should we adopt it?

 

LEMURIA:     No! It is too violent.

It was born poor and homeless, then in Egypt

Slaved for a living, then escaped and wandered

Homeless again to Canaan, where it slaughtered

The sweet inhabitants, and there it squatted,

Fighting its neighbours till the reign of David,

When it made peace by means of total conquest.

But will this last? The child is traumatised

And restless –

 

BALKIS:        But King Solomon –

 

LEMURIA:                              Queen Balkis,

Listen to this! There were two prostitutes

In Israel, and they both claimed one infant –

Both claimed to be the mother of this baby,

So it was taken to King Solomon

For him to judge who was the mother. ‘Ladies,’

The King exclaimed, when he had heard their stories,

‘I cannot tell which one of you is lying.

I do not think you both gave birth to him,

He looks a bit like both, or neither of you:

This is my verdict: that the child shall be

Shared equally between you! Let the baby

Be cut in two!

 

BALKIS:          What a ridiculous

And vicious King!

 

LEMURIA:          Well no! One of the women

Immediately screamed out – it isn’t mine!

Give it to her! Please do not hurt my baby,

I mean her baby!

 

BALKIS:           Wise King Solomon!

 

LEMURIA: That was the mother. And King Solomon

Gave her the baby that she would have given

Away to save its life!

 

BALKIS:                 Well Solomon

Is a wise King if he can make a woman

Show her true face.

 

LEMURIA:            My dear, God came to him

In a dream, asked him, which of these three things

Will you choose? Power, boundless wealth, or wisdom?

 

BALKIS: Why only one? Three wishes is the custom.

 

LEMURIA: Solomon said, great God, my choice is wisdom.

 

BALKIS: Wisdom and poverty and weakness?

 

LEMURIA:                                       King,

God said, Since you have chosen well, I give you

Power and wealth as well as wisdom!

 

BALKIS:                              Bargain!

Bravo, bravo, well done King Solomon!

Ten out of ten so far! But what will happen

When all the warlike Israelites start shouting

That they need exercise, their swords are aching

To stab, their bows about to snap with wishing

For moving targets that can speak? What happen

When fifty thousand horses all start kicking

Their stables down? How will King Solomon,

For all his wisdom, think of anything

To do with them except attack small Kingdoms

Like Sheba?

 

LEMURIA: Well my dear, we must befriend him,

So he will not do that.

 

BALKIS:                My dear Lemuria,

You are my mother. You are not my mother,

But you are like a mother to me, wiser

In worldly terms. You are a mother and

A widow and a wife. When you are here

I can be childish. For the Queen of Sheba,

That is a great gift! To be childish sometimes!

So I am slow to let you go, but listen –

Lemuria, I think you should go riding

North to King Solomon, and you should ask him

If he will be my friend.

 

LEMURIA:                Yes I will do this.

And if he is an idiot, this King,

If all the stories we have heard are wrong,

He will refuse you!

 

BALKIS:           Me he might refuse,

But he will not refuse you! Dance, Lemuria!

 

DANCE.

 

 

FIVE. JERUSALEM. SOLOMON, DEEPLY ANXIOUS. MINISTER.

 

1ST MINISTER: My monthly report, King Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: Yes.

 

1ST MINISTER: I am proud and happy to report, my King, that income now  exceeds outgoings! Tribute from all the Kingdoms between the Euphrates and Philistia and as far as the Egyptian border, pays for the building work in Gesher, Beth-horon, Baalath and Tamar, and here in Jerusalem and in the Lebanon. It’s all proceeding apace, and soon no one will be able to tell that there was ever a war in this region! Not one ruin left standing! I am pleased to report that the building of our battle-fleet at Ezion-Geber is proceeding well, also. So I am able to say, King Solomon, that thanks to your wise government and the victories of your father, in the Kingdom of Israel all is in order!

 

SOLOMON: No it is not in order!

 

1ST MINISTER: My Lord?

 

SOLOMON: Nothing is right! Nothing is whole or good or well in Israel! The Kingdom is sick! Oh God! Oh Lord, forgive thy servant!

 

1ST MINISTER: My King, I do not understand!

 

SOLOMON: You speak to me about ships and buildings! Have you forgotten God?

 

1ST MINISTER: No, not for a moment!

 

SOLOMON: If we forget him, my friend, all the warships on earth will be helpless to save us! He will never forget us! If we forget Him, He will never forgive us! All these new towns growing like roses – they are already rubble again in his mind!

 

1ST MINISTER: Amen!

 

SOLOMON: Oh Lord, do not take your spirit away from me! I am nothing, do not make me less than nothing!

 

1ST MINISTER: My King, God loves you!

 

SOLOMON: My father made a promise to God, when he was just a rebel in the desert. If you give me victory, oh God of great armies, if you give me peace, I will build you a temple! Oh what a temple! And King David was not able – strength left him before he could build the temple. He established the Kingdom – and that wore his body out, left him stick-thin shivering under ten blankets, a crowned skull! Not possible, not possible at all for him to do anymore than he did! But he had a son! I have inherited the Kingdom and the promise. A promise made to God! It must be done!

 

1ST MINISTER: It shall be done!

 

SOLOMON: But how? By what means? I have seen the temple! Seen it in a vision! To build that – to build that glorious glittering fallen fragment of the heavenly Jerusalem – would require the entire resources of this Kingdom! Well we have made a start but the workers we have got are the worst in the world, and we have no proper foreman or architect – we must abandon these defensive projects and this rebuilding of the towns! And withdraw the troops to our own borders! Stop building this absurd fleet!

 1ST MINISTER: My Lord – if you did that -

 

SOLOMON: Yes?

 

1ST MINISTER: The Kingdoms that pay tribute to us would cease to do so. All the achievements of your father would be wiped out. Our revenue would vanish and we would be invaded from three sides.

 

SOLOMON: I am more afraid of God than of man!

 

1ST MINISTER: Let God choose his own way to destroy us. We ought not to force his hand.

 

SOLOMON: Why are you torturing me, God? Why did you give me this vision but not the power to fulfil it? What is the use of this so-called wisdom, and this power and wealth, if they are not enough! Why do you fill us with gifts and then crush us with impossible tasks!

 

1ST MINISTER: We need help.

 

SOLOMON: Help? If God is against us, who can help us?

 

1ST MINISTER: I will get Silas. (ASIDE.) Never in the history of the world has a powerful and happy King with six hundred wives been so miserable. Now I really believe in God. Only God could make a man like this weep!

 

EXIT.

 

SOLOMON: So bring me Silas. He will make me choke

At least, stick pins in me, my old godfather,

Twisted oakroot left over from the fire

That burned the living tree! Soot-black survivor.

 

ENTER SILAS.

 

SILAS: Oh Solomon! Oh little Solomon!

What is the matter, little Solomon?

Too many wives? Too many subject Kingdoms?

Getting a headache from this blasted wisdom?

Well as I always said to old King David,

If you blow big into a small balloon,

It pops!

 

SOLOMON: Oh Silas, help me, I am dying!

 

SILAS: Dying is easy. Living is the problem.

If you said, Silas, help me, I am living,

Then I’d be worried.

 

SOLOMON:             How am I to raise

The revenue to build the temple promised

To God Almighty by my father David?

 

SILAS: Easy. Invade.

 

SOLOMON:              Where?

 

SILAS:                                 Egypt.

 

SOLOMON:                                 Don’t be stupid,

Silas, I’m married to the Pharoah’s daughter!

 

SILAS: Oh well. I only had one bright idea.

It wasn’t bright and so I disappear.

 

SOLOMON: Wait! Invade Egypt?

 

SILAS:                        Ever heard the word

Divorce? A husband with six hundred wives

Is bound at some point to upset, I fear,

One of his dear six hundred fathers-in-law!

So why not start with Egypt? Like your father,

Fight, fight and fight again! Heap up the plunder;

Pay for the temple out of that. It’s simple.

 

SOLOMON: You are a bloody-minded man.

 

SILAS:                          Oh sorry!

Aren’t I a bunch of daffodils!

 

(ASIDE.)                                   I’ve been

Walking around on skulls since I was young.

Heaps of them holding up Jerusalem!

Oh if I told a tenth of what I’ve seen,

You’d shrivel up and die, King Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: No I will not fight Egypt.

 

SILAS:                         Alright then,

Fight God instead, and may the best man win!

Or else – I know! Why not some tiddly Kingdom

Sheba perhaps!

 

SOLOMON:       Child-murder!

SILAS:                                      Stubborn King,

You are your own worst enemy. Well then –

Invade yourself!

 

SOLOMON:   Perhaps I will – my brain

Is caving in!

 

SILAS:        Or you could send for someone

Wiser than you. Let them sort out your problem!

 

SOLOMON: I gladly would, if there was anyone.

But since my wisdom is a gift from heaven,

Who in the world is there?

 

SILAS:                      What a conundrum!

To be the wisest person in creation,

And yet to be so foxed!

 

SOLOMON:                   There must be someone!

 

SILAS: There is.

 

SOLOMON:      Who?

 

SILAS:                      You might kill me, Solomon.

I hesitate to tell you.

 

SOLOMON:            I will kill you

If you do not!

 

SILAS:           One thing a King can’t stand

Is to be outshone.

 

SOLOMON:      If a better man

Than me exists, I want to be his friend,

To listen to him and to learn from him!

But for the sake of Israel alone,

Tell me the great man’s name!

 

SILAS:                His name is Hiram.

 

 

SIX. HIRAM AND KEN AT THE FORGE. KEN IS CURLING A PIECE OF IRON. HIRAM IS WATCHING HIM.

 

HIRAM: Woah there, Ken, woah! Something happened there, didn’t it? Gone a bit skewy. Never mind, never mind. Put it back into the fire. Back into the fire! Ha! God wishes sometimes he could put the whole world back into the fire! Well I suppose he does put us back in! Heats us red then hits us with the hammer again! We’ll be a wonderful piece of work – one day!

 

KEN: Where does the iron come from?

 

HIRAM: Out of these rocks, Ken. We smelt it. That means, we heat it till the iron runs out of it.

 

KEN: How did it get into the rocks?

 

HIRAM: How did the sun get up into the sky?

 

KEN: Well God was playing football one day –

 

HIRAM: He must have got a hot foot! Is that what they told you at home? Was that what you were thinking about when you forgot what you were doing just then? Religion? All those words they tried to cram into your brain? Eh? Well you’re a smith now, Ken. I know your dad hoped you’d be the pope but you can let all that run back out of your brain. Smelt the scriptures out of your head and we’ll forge them into something useful like a coal shovel. Or an ornamental railing.

 

KEN: Ok Hiram.

 

HIRAM: Give it another go now, Ken. Hot enough now I reckon.

 

KEN CARRIES ON WORKING.

 

HIRAM: (ASIDE.) Meanwhile you and I could do with a contract. Come on! Aren’t I the greatest smith ever born? Hello! What’s happening? Not the Assyrians!

 

NOISE OFF.

 

STUMBLE: Hey, Grope, watch it!

 

GROPE: What do you mean watch it, I’m blind!

 

STUMBLE: I mean listen!

 

GROPE: I am listening!

 

STUMBLE: Well while you’re listening, stop moving!

 

GROPE: I can’t listen and stop at the same time!

 

STUMBLE: Then we’re going to crash! Aggghhhh! Help!

 

ENTER GROPE AND STUMBLE. STUMBLE IS CRIPPLED AND CAN’T WALK, GROPE IS BLIND AND CARRIES STUMBLE ON HIS BACK. BUT NOW GROPE FALLS OVER AND THEY BOTH ROLL ONTO THE STAGE IN DISARRAY.

 

STUMBLE: You stupid blind git!

 

GROPE: You bloody cripple!

 

HIRAM: Hello my old friends!

 

STUMBLE, GROPE: Aaaaghhh! Help! There’s someone here!

 

HIRAM: It’s only me, your old friend Hiram.

 

STUMBLE: I thought we were in the middle of the wilderness!

 

HIRAM: Well you have come to the edge of it.

 

STUMBLE: Hiram? Is it you, Hiram?

 

HIRAM: Yes, Reuben, it’s me!

 

STUMBLE: I am no longer called Reuben.

 

HIRAM: Oh.

 

GROPE: Hiram! Oh Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Simeon, my old friend!

 

GROPE: I am no longer called Simeon. He is called Stumble and I am called Grope. We’re a double act. We wander about.

 

HIRAM: What happened?

 

GROPE: We got injured. In the war.

 

HIRAM: What war was that?

 

GROPE: What war was that, Stumble?

 

STUMBLE: Was that the First World War?

 

GROPE: No, I don’t think so –

 

STUMBLE: I think it was the Fifth World War –

 

GROPE: No, no it was double figures! World War Twelve. Also we went mad. But that’s another story.

 

STUMBLE: That’s a long story, that is. Endless.

 

HIRAM: This is Ken, my apprentice.

 

GROPE, STUMBLE: Hello, Ken!

 

KEN MAKES NO REPLY, WORKING.

 

GROPE: You’ve got a good one there, Hiram!

 

HIRAM: One day he might be half as good as you two were! Do you still work?

 

STUMBLE: No.

 

GROPE: We lost the knack.

 

HIRAM: You must find it again! Remember the things we built! There are palaces all over Mesopotamia that are beautiful because of you two!

 

GROPE: They are our memorials.

 

STUMBLE: We loved working with you, Hiram! Those were the days!

 

GROPE: Now he’ll start sobbing.

 

STUMBLE: Got to keep on stumbling along. Up, up, up, up!

 

GROPE LIFTS HIM ONTO HIS SHOULDERS.

 

STUMBLE: Goodbye, Hiram!

 

GROPE: Goodbye, Hiram!

 

STUMBLE: Unless you could offer us some work –

 

HIRAM: Oh – boys – just at the moment –

 

STUMBLE: No! Nothing!

 

GROPE: No! Nothing!

 

STUMBLE: On! On!

 

THEY ARE ABOUT TO LEAVE. SOUND OF TRUMPET. ENTER SOLOMON’S 1ST MINISTER.

 

1ST MINISTER: Hiram?

 

HIRAM:                      I am.

 

1ST MINISTER:                   My Lord King Solomon

Requests your presence in Jerusalem.

 

HIRAM: For what?

 

1ST MINISTER:   To help him to resolve a problem.

 

HIRAM: What problem?

 

1ST MINISTER:             How to build the finest temple

The world has ever seen!

 

HIRAM:                       Oh well, alright then!

 

HE BECKONS TO GROPE AND STUMBLE AND KEN AND THEY EXIT TOGETHER WITH SOLOMON’S MINISTER.

 

 

SEVEN. ENTER SOLOMON ALONE TO JERUSALEM.

 

SOLOMON: Lonely among so many loving wives.

Why did I not ask God for love? Are wisdom

And love the same? How can the house of wisdom

Be such an empty nest? But the companion

Of God should not need any mortal woman:

My wife is heaven and my love is vision!

And my thoughts walk with angels in the gardens

That are above the sky. My thoughts are floating

Like butterflies where Mich-a-el is sitting;

They settle on his hands, mistaking them

For roses! Now he rises, and my thinking

Flutters away, descends inevitably,

Raggedly through the ripped-up clouds. I’m under

A roof supported by six hundred women;

I walk among them, cold among cold columns,

A wife-plantation! If just one of them

Was not the daughter of a useful King,

Our marriage a political decision –

If there was one, just one, who was my friend,

My love! Imagine! But there is no reason

To dream like this! I am a child of heaven,

Crowned with a gift that cuts me with its diamond!

 

ENTER 2ND MINISTER.

 

2ND MINISTER: My Lord, the ambassador of the Queen of Sheba is here.

SOLOMON: Thankyou, my good friend, I will speak with her

Immediately.

 

ENTER LEMURIA. SHE FALLS TO HER KNEES.

 

LEMURIA:   Great King, have mercy on me!

 

SOLOMON: Of course! Stand up!

 

LEMURIA:                      I am Lemuria,

Friend and advisor of the Queen of Sheba,

Who sends across the yellow desert nothing

But love.

 

SOLOMON: Well that is all I want.

 

LEMURIA:                             Our Kingdom

Lacks treasure, horses, castles, men in armour,

Rare animals, exotic delicacies;

The hill of what we have not got is higher

Than the small heap of what we have.

 

SOLOMON:                          But tell me

What is in that.

 

LEMURIA:   Just love. It does not glitter,

It does not take up space. It is not famous,

It will not fight. It dies if you invade it,

Or if you buy it. To a conqueror

It offers nothing but the passing pleasure

Of trampling it to death.

 

SOLOMON:            Lemuria,

You say your Queen has sent across the desert

Some of this love. Where is it? Can I see it?  

 

LEMURIA: It is invisible.

 

SOLOMON:              Then how do people

Find it?

 

LEMURIA: It finds them.

 

SOLOMON:                Is it rare?

 

LEMURIA:                             No, common.

 

SOLOMON: It is not precious then, like gold or diamonds?

 

LEMURIA: You cannot live without it.

 

SOLOMON:                                Ah! Like water

Or bread!

 

LEMURIA: No, not quite. I should not have said

You cannot live without it. You can live

Without a crumb of love and grow enormous,

Like a vast snake devouring trees and mountains.

 

SOLOMON: A terrifying thought. But I quite like it.

 

LEMURIA: Or you might shrivel to a greenfly-tiny

Minotaur raging at the ants parading!

 

SOLOMON: Strange dream! But love will keep me as I am –

Love will enable me to stay the same?

 

LEMURIA: Not in the slightest. No, King Solomon,

With love you will be stronger than the mountains,

You will look back from that great height, astonished,

At what you were – what you are now – exclaiming,

O King, o little King, shrewd and unloving,

How did you live? At first you have to shrink,

To creep in through the needle’s eye of love

Into the hearts of others. Then you feel

Their suffering and suddenly you see

Not through your own eyes only, but all eyes,

And you are standing in the world-wide circle

Of what the whole world feels, and it increases,

Wider and wider till its outer borders

Break like a bubble, and the barriers

Between yourself and life have changed to ether!

SOLOMON: Sounds dangerous.

 

LEMURIA:                          It is.

 

SOLOMON:                              And you say Balkis,

The Queen of Sheba, is the Queen of Love?

She has the secret?

 

LEMURIA:          Yes indeed she does.

 

SOLOMON: Beautiful, is she?

 

LEMURIA:                          To the eyes of love.

 

SOLOMON: Clever?

 

LEMURIA:            Not to the ones who do not love her.

 

SOLOMON: I understand. But you must understand

I have a lot of wives. I cannot even

Remember all their names. Why take another?

LEMURIA: King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba sent me

Not to ask you if she can marry you,

But to ask you, since it appeals to her,

To marry her.

 

SOLOMON: And be the King of Sheba!

 

LEMURIA: And be the King of Love.

 

SOLOMON:                  I’d like to meet her!

 

LEMURIA: She will be passing through your Kingdom soon.

 

SOLOMON: Will she indeed!

 

LEMURIA:                    And she could meet you then.

 

SOLOMON: Alright. Arrange it with my Minister.

 

LEMURIA: Goodbye, sublime King!

 

SOLOMON:                            Give the Queen of Love

My love!

 

LEMURIA: I will.

 

EXIT.

 

SOLOMON:         So happy suddenly,

Like a child’s memory of an April shower.

Then suddenly my duty shouts like thunder,

The air turns black and floods my head! Oh help me!

Oh God forgive me, how can I be happy,

When I have not yet built – I am too heavy,

The temple is my heart, all cedarwood

And brass, I cannot stand – oh help me, help me!

HE COLLAPSES. ENTER 1ST MINISTER, RUNNING, FOLLOWED BY HIRAM.

 

1ST MINISTER: Go back! Out! Your audience is postponed! The King is not well! Get out, get out, Hiram!

 

HIRAM IGNORES HIM AND GOES OVER TO SOLOMON, PUTS HIS HAND ON HIS BROW.

 

HIRAM: It’s alright, it’s alright, your Majesty. We’ll get the temple up in no time. No problem.

 

SOLOMON IS CARRIED OUT, HOLDING HIRAM’S HAND.

 

 

EIGHT. BUILDING SITE. CRAFTSMEN AND WOMEN, AND APPRENTICES, MUCKING ABOUT, WITH TOOLS AND MATERIALS. THEY PLAY CRICKET WITH A

SPADE AND BLOCKS OF STONE.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: So when’s this work going to start? Ever?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Am I bovvered? Do I look bovvered?

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Hopefully never. I like doing nothing.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: What do you mean? You’ve never done nothing in your life.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Haha!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: What are you laughing at?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: I’m not laughing. Do I look like I’m laughing?

 

3rd APPRENTICE: I’m going to brain you with a spade.

 

2nd APPRENTICE: Do I look bovvered?

 

3RD APPRENTICE BRAINS 2ND APPRENTICE WITH A SPADE.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: You look like you’re bovvered.

 

2nd APPRENTICE: I am bovvered.

 

3rd APPRENTICE: Haha!

 

2ND APPRENTICE BRAINS 3RD APPRENTICE WITH SPADE.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Haha!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: You look like you’re laughing!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: I am laughing! Haha!

 

3RD  APPRENTICE BRAINS 1ST APPRENTICE WITH SPADE. ALL THREE SIT HOLDING THEIR HEADS.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: So, how are we doing?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Well we’ve got no plans!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: What a waste!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Of what?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Time.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Oh that’s toxic, get rid of it, pour it down the drain!

 

ENTER KEN.

 

1ST, 2ND, 3RD APPRENTICES: Hello! Who are you?

 

KEN: I’m Ken.

 

1ST, 2ND, 3RD APPRENTICES: Hello Ken!

 

KEN: I’m your new foreman.

 

1ST, 2ND, 3RD APPRENTICES: Oh! Hurray! What shall we do, Ken?

 

KEN: Move those planks.

 

1st, 2nd, 3rd APPRENTICES: Wonderful! Good idea! Thankyou Ken!

 

THEY LIFT PLANKS CHAOTICALLY, BRAIN EACH OTHER, COLLAPSE IN A HEAP, SCATTERING PLANKS EVERYWHERE.

 

1ST, 2ND, 3RD APPRENTICES: Where shall we move them to, Ken?

 

KEN: Oh. Er –

 

EXIT KEN.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Things have not improved much.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: I think they’ve improved a little bit.

 

1ST APRENTICE: Yes but not much.

 

ENTER GROPE AND STUMBLE.

 

STUMBLE: Aha! Brave workers! Apprentices! Tell me, what can you do?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Well I’m a joiner.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: I’m a splitter.

 

3rd APPRENTICE: And I’m just waiting for the Number Sixteen Bus.

 

GROPE: It won’t come for about three thousand years, mate.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: D’oh! Might as well walk!

 

STUMBLE: Friends, we have a great task ahead of us!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: What’s that?

 

STUMBLE: To build the Temple of Solomon!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Oh.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Gosh.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Then what, after that?

 

GROPE: You will be remembered forever!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: By the police.

 

GROPE: All the greatest artisans in the world are gathering together!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Where?

 

GROPE: Here!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Well we’d better shove off then.

 

STUMBLE: No! It’s time to start work on the foundations! Grope, give me the line! We are going to measure out! Come on, men!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Shall we bring our spades?

 

GROPE: Yes, of course!

 

EXEUNT. ENTER HIRAM AND SOLOMON.

 

SOLOMON: And in the inner shrine, two cherubim,

Made of wild olive wood, ten cubits high,

Wingtip to wingtip also measuring

Ten cubits. Do you see? The inner wings

Touch one another and the outer wings

Touch the two walls on either side of them.

They shall be overlaid with gold. All round

There must be carved figures of cherubim,

Palm trees and flowers open to the sun.

And at the entrance of the inner shrine –

 

HIRAM: King Solomon –

 

SOLOMON: What do you want, my friend?

 

HIRAM: Can I ask you a request?

 

SOLOMON: Hiram, speak on, speak on. My ears are open.

 

HIRAM: Would it be possible you could speak in prose to me? I find the verse terribly difficult. It’s just not my idiom.

 

SOLOMON: Ok.

 

HIRAM: You know, I’m always half listening out for if it’s scanning, and then I miss the meaning.

 

SOLOMON: Fine. Absolutely fine.

 

HIRAM: Not that you ever miss a syllable – but you know, there’s always the next line –

 

SOLOMON: Haha! That’s fine. I’m rather proud of it, but if prose is your thing, no problem!

 

HIRAM: It’s more practical!

 

SOLOMON: Right! I don’t care, for me, Hiram, just to speak all this to you that’s been heaped up in my mind like a Pharoah’s tomb – is heaven!

 

HIRAM: Your Majesty, it’s all going right in! I’ve got the basic picture now and it’s a fabulous design and really I’m just itching to get started.

 

SOLOMON: I like you, Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Your Majesty, we’re a great team. God beams down his plans straight to your brain. But you’re a King, you’re not a craftsman, you can’t do anything with them. Me, on the other hand, my head’s a block of wood as far as God is concerned. He can’t make any impression with his visions. But tell me what to do, pass on the revelations, and I’m lightning. I know the best craftsmen, I can source the materials and hack out a workplan, that’s what I do and what I’ve always done.

 

SOLOMON: But you’ve got no idea what a mountain you’ve lifted off my back, Hiram!

HIRAM: Your Majesty, I saw you sprawling on the ground. Forgive me. I saw what God did to you. I know what’s been going on.

 

SOLOMON: But God never gives any man a task that’s too much for him. Or if he does – he sends help!

 

HIRAM: I’ve always thought of myself as God’s gift.

 

SOLOMON: So confident!

 

HIRAM: Of course! I make things! The pride of soldiers is arrogance – they smash things. The pride of builders is confidence – they build them. You and me, we work together, a King and a craftsman.

 

SOLOMON: It was not like this in the beginning. Cain was a craftsman. He worked the land with tools he made with his hands. Abel was a shepherd, he wandered in the hills with his sheep, having visions. God accepted Abel and rejected Cain. They could not work together. Cain killed Abel, then. But you and I will put that right! I know that tonight I will sleep for the first time since God sent me this vision.

 

HIRAM: Of course it’s going to be expensive.

 

SOLOMON: Yes, there is that nightmare.

 

HIRAM: More expensive than you probably imagine. But that’s not going to be a problem. Believe me, King Solomon. I can handle this so no matter how much you spend on the temple, you’ll end up richer in the end.

 

SOLOMON: What?

 

HIRAM: Oh yes. You’ll find it surprising.

 

SOLOMON: How are you going to do it?

 

HIRAM: Well, first thing. The expensive bit. I want you to pay your workmen.

 

SOLOMON: What? They are slaves!

 

HIRAM: Yes. Who are they, exactly?

 

SOLOMON: Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites –

 

HIRAM: From?

 

SOLOMON: Here. When God gave this land to the Israelites, he commanded us to slaughter all of the inhabitants. But some of them escaped, of course, and they bred – and now it’s too late. We let them live, but we make them work for us.

 

HIRAM: Got to pay them, King Solomon, or they won’t put their hearts into it. Look at that –

 

APPRENTICES ENTER, KNOCKING EACH OTHER OVER WITH PLANKS, ETC.

 

HIRAM: They can do better than that. Hey, you lot!

 

WORKERS GATHER ROUND, WITH KEN AND STUMBLE AND GROPE.

 

KEN: It’s impossible, Hiram!

 

GROPE: These people are cripples and idiots!

 

HIRAM: I know, I know. Now look, you lot, if you don’t shape up I’ll cut a pound of flesh out of your wages!

 

SILENCE.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Wages?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Wages?

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Wages?

 

THEY FALL TO THEIR KNEES AND START WEEPING AND CRYING HALLELLUIAH!

 

HIRAM: Stop that! Get on with it or cuts is all you’ll get!

 

EXEUNT WORKMEN DOUBLE QUICK.

 

HIRAM: Don’t worry, your Majesty. Slaves can’t buy anything, see? License a load of shops round here and then tax the traders. Get it? And entertainments and stuff. You’ll make a fortune. Now – materials. All the best cedarwood is in Tyre over the border. No worries. Food is short there but you’ve got plenty here, so offer the King of Tyre food in return for materials. Ok? Now, you’ve got ten thousand men here. We need thirty thousand. Send them to Tyre in shifts – two months there, one month home, in a rota, three divisions of ten thousand. Any problems?

 

SOLOMON: None, Hiram.

 

HIRAM: So. Have I got a full picture of your plans, King Solomon? No last minute surprises like a second storey or an extra tower here or there –

 

SOLOMON: I must tell you about the Brazen Sea.

 

HIRAM: The Brazen Sea?

 

SOLOMON: In the sanctuary. It must be liquid and solid at the same time.

 

HIRAM: Holy Moses, glad you told me about that one.

 

EXEUNT. ENTER SILAS TO A SECRET PLACE.

 

SILAS I am a servant of the Earth. I hang

Among the roots that dangle from the ceiling

Of death’s black lakes. The bitterness of dying

Has soaked into the Earth, where light has hardened

Into black strata. There I am confined.

Thinking of death has killed my mind.

I am a Jebusite. Before King David

Captured the city called Jerusalem,

It was our city! But I was a traitor,

I let his soldiers in and helped them slaughter

My people! So King David gave me honour,

Gave me his son to teach, made me godfather

Of the young prince! Now that my limbs are creaking

Like the old thorn, I hear my people raging

In the dim ground! I will go down to them,

Soon, to their vengeance! But they will forgive me,

If I can bring God’s curse, before I die,

Down on this Kingdom! I have turned again,

And I will do it! Hate is in my hands,

Hate is the substance of the Earth, its fire

And its solidity! And so I sigh

Out of the earth, creatures of hate! Arise!

 

JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM RISE, SUMMONED UP OUT OF THE GROUND.

 

SILAS: Jubelo! Jubela! Jubelum! Good! You have come, you wonderful and excellent craftsmen!

 

 

NINE. THE PALACE. SOLOMON.

 

SOLOMON: I am already half in love with her,

Because the temple that was in my mind

Is creeping out into the light! Foundations

Grow walls! And brick by brick, doorframe by doorframe,

Pillar by pillar, my once-crowded mind

Is being cleared out. Space is pouring in!

All round the building site smoke towers are rising

From where the smiths crouch under their stretched awnings;

Surrounded by an alphabet of instruments,

They frown into the fire, these smoky creatures,

Hammering! And the music of the hammers,

Steel notes flung up to strike the gong of heaven

And clatter back into the rocky valleys

Down a descending scale! The air is swirling

With swooping iron swifts! And a thousand chisels -

A sound like rainfall loosening the strata

Of a vast slope! And all these burning workers

They are like surgeons cutting out the nightmare

That has been pressing on my brain! Their hammers

Heal me! Each cut they strike, each blow they slam,

Performs my duty to the Lord! Ah heaven,

This is the way to live – to work with Hiram!

And so at last my heart forgives my mind,

And leaves me space for love. And she is coming.

 

ENTER MINISTER.

 

1ST MINISTER: My Lord, the Queen of Sheba has arrived.

 

SOLOMON: Already? Amazing! Clearly she came over the desert on a gazelle, not on a camel. Am I to imagine a caravan of antelopes? What slows us speeds her, perhaps she changed the sand into water and turned into a dolphin!  

 

1ST MINISTER: Will you see her now, my King?

 

SOLOMON: I can already see her. There was a temple in my head, now there is a woman.

 

1ST MINISTER: Perhaps later?

 

SOLOMON: It is pointless to talk about later. Love is the opposite of time. She and I have already been talking for two thousand years in the future! I have always loved, will always love her!

 

1ST MINISTER: I do not know what to do, my Lord.

 

SOLOMON: Show her in, show her in! Show in the small fragment of matter that is visible on the pinpoint of the present.

 

1ST MINISTER: Show in the Queen?

 

SOLOMON: Yes. Now. Precisely.

 

EXIT MINISTER. SOLOMON QUICKLY PUTS ON A PRIESTLY ROBE WOVEN WITH ANIMALS AND STARSIGNS AND ASSUMES A PRIESTLY POSITION. ENTER BALKIS. SHE FALLS TO HER KNEES.

 

BALKIS: What happiness is here! Inside the sun

They are not happier, the spirit beings

Who weave the golden wires of our bright future!

It is too bright! I cannot see the King!

To much perfection pouring out of him

Blots out my eyesight! I will look around

At the walls dancing, passionate atoms whirling

In one another’s arms! No particle

Of anything but laughter in this room!

 

SOLOMON: Balkis –

 

BALKIS:                      The Temple of Jerusalem

Is going up! Not going up in flames,

But going up in stone as quick as flames,

And God has given to King Solomon

Glorious happiness, and satisfaction!

 

SOLOMON: You see right into me.

 

BALKIS:                        I would be stoneblind

If I could not see how a house of stone

Has leapt out of the eyes of Solomon.

But there the eyes of my imagination

Close in amazement. What lies further on

For humankind, arising from this building - !

 

SOLOMON: Look at me then.

 

HE MOVES CLOSER TO HER.

 

BALKIS:                      Oh, you are just a man!

Thank God for that! Though what man will become

Will make men question what the word man means!

 

SOLOMON: I love you.

 

BALKIS:                   I love you.

 

SOLOMON:                           Our time has come.

 

BALKIS: I am old suddenly. The daisy chain

Of childhood has been broken by your hand;

My dancing days have stopped their circling and

Stand staring at me in the centre, fallen

Out of a rose’s heart, a wrinkled worm,

Solomon, till you make me new again!

 

SOLOMON: My love.

 

THEY KISS.

 

SOLOMON:           Now you have looked into my mind,

And seen the empty space left by God’s vision.

Come and see where it’s coming true, my darling!

 

 

TEN. BUILDING SITE. THE SHAPE OF THE TEMPLE IS NOW VISIBLE AND RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT IS HIRAM’S FORGE. SILAS WITH JUBELO, JUBELA

AND JUBELUM.

 

SILAS: Well isn’t this a wonderful sight, my friends? The building site of the Temple of Solomon! Perfect combination of workmen, instant understanding between architect and overseer, like they were two halves of the same football match, Hiram and Solomon! Looks like heaven’s coming down to earth at last, it’s all going to happen! Well, no. Some of us remember the dead, don’t we? Some of us remember those little infant skulls shattered, the blubbering mothers, right back to the beginning, Cain and Abel! I was here when King David captured Jerusalem. I saw him chucking the little Jebusite children off  that cliff! I helped him!

 

JUBELO: What do you want us to do, Silas?

 

SILAS: You’re the best craftsmen the world has ever seen. That’s why I called you up. I want to help Hiram! It was me who told Solomon about him. But all three of you are better than him. Believe me. He’s much less impressive than report. It’s all just a question of fame. You three should be much better known than him! Much better known! And you will be! You’ve just got to slowly take over from him. You’ll outclass him in five minutes – Solomon’ll see, and then it’ll be goodbye Hiram! So on you go, friends – sort out this mess. You can. Don’t send for me if you have any problems. You won’t have any problems!

 

EXIT SILAS. ENTER HIRAM, WITH APPRENTICES, KEN, GROPE, STUMBLE.

 

HIRAM: Liquid and solid at the same time! Iron

Is liquid when it flows out of the stone,

Chased by the flames! And what is flame? Is flame

Liquid or solid? Or the inbetween

Of matter shifting to the spirit realm

And back as quick as water flickering

Over cold stone? When we anneal the iron,

We take it almost to its liquid form,

By tempering it. We change it in the flame,

And then the memory of that change remains;

Iron heated very hot, when cooled remains

More flexible than cooler-heated iron.

Metal remembers its experience,

Its temper echoing the temperature

That it attained. Is that what Solomon

Means when he says the Brazen Sea must be

Liquid and solid? Is that what he means?

 

STUMBLE: Er – Hiram –

 

HIRAM: Yes, my friend?

 

STUMBLE: You’re speaking in verse.

 

HIRAM: Oh God! Not again! I blame Solomon! Our minds are getting mixed up into some kind of alloy! Well we shall see if it cracks under pressure!

 

JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM STEP FORWARD.

 

JUBELO: Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Oh, hello!

 

JUBELO: I am the famous Jubelo!

 

HIRAM: The famous who?

 

JUBELO: The famous Jubelo!

 

HIRAM: Oh.

 

JUBELUM: I am the famous Jubelum!

 

HIRAM: Oh! Another one!

 

JUBELA: I am the famous Jubela!

 

JUBELO: We have come to work for you! We are highly skilled craftsmen!

 

HIRAM: Perfect. Well this is the completely unknown Ken. He’ll tell you what to do.

 

JUBELO: I am sorry. We are unable to work under the supervision of anyone less famous than ourselves.

 

HIRAM: Alright Ken, go and murder a popstar. Actually don’t. Now listen, my fine feathered friends, we’ve got a system here that works well. When you start, no matter what you’ve done or where you’re from, this job’s different, there’s loads of new stuff to learn. Ok? So you start off as an apprentice. Might only be for one day – might be for two years. Till you prove yourself. Then you become a journeyman. Work away at that really well and if you’re lucky, nice Mister Hiram will make you a Master Craftsman.

 

JUBELO: But we are Master Craftsmen!

 

HIRAM: Not here you’re not. Anyway it’s not up for discussion. If you want to work here, those are the terms, otherwise nice meeting you.

 

JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM CONFER AMONG THEMSELVES.

 

JUBELO: We accept!

 

HIRAM: Hooray! Take ‘em away, Ken!

 

EXEUNT JUBELO, JUBELUM AND JUBELA WITH KEN.

 

HIRAM: Now you lot have got to help me with the brassiest problem ever. I may say brassy, though it’s bronze we’re dealing with, because brass is the old name for bronze. I don’t like working with moulds! I like my hammer! But we don’t shrink from a challenge, do we, boys? We take it on, we take it on! Back when we were cavemen we didn’t sit shivering, did we? We were amazed, all day and all night, we were fascinated! We lit a fire and stared into it and look – out of the rocks around it, something was oozing. Not water, no, something even more magic than that! Water cools hard, yes, in shapes, but this stuff cools harder and stronger! Oh God, what a place! It completely changes according to how hot it is! Oh God, you have got me, I will give my life to this! But with this, this Brazen Sea, that has to be liquid and solid at the same time – what is required of us? We are cavemen all over again, my friends, we have just got to spy on the atom and experiment. We may be working on the temple, but it’s working on us, showing us loads of new stuff! Come over here, you two, and help me set the moulds up.     

 

STUMBLE: I can’t.

 

HIRAM: Why not?

 

GROPE: The war.

 

HIRAM: Are you still stuck?

 

STUMBLE: I see stuff.

 

HIRAM: Does Grope?

 

STUMBLE: No, he’s blind.

 

HIRAM: Well put this on.

 

HE BLINDFOLDS STUMBLE.

 

STUMBLE: How will I work?

 

HIRAM: Grope works alright! You’ll get used to it. He’ll teach you. Better?

 

STUMBLE: Much better, thanks!

 

GROPE: Here, I’ll guide your hands -

 

HIRAM: Right – the moulds – and the brass – and the flames – oh my God here’s the boss and some foreign tart.

 

ENTER SOLOMON AND SHEBA WITH LEMURIA, SILAS AND OTHERS.

 

SOLOMON: Hiram!

 

HIRAM:                 O Solomon! King Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: The doors are up! That’s good! So Lebanon

Sent the wood quick?

 

HIRAM:                  They had the wind behind them.

 

SOLOMON: (TO BALKIS.) The King of Tyre supplies us with our timber.

Cedar of course. They lash the trunks together

And float them down the coast as rafts. They beach them

In Israel – and then we break them up

And carry them inland. We say our timber

Comes from the sea! All this was planned by Hiram,

The overseer of thirty thousand workmen,

My right hand man! My left hand man! God help me,

Both of my hands! This is the Queen of Sheba,

Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Your Majesty, I love your country.

I used to go there on my holidays.

Wonderful fudge!

 

BALKIS:              I have a question, Hiram.

If I may ask – what are those blind men doing?

 

HIRAM: These are my old friends Grope and Stumble, ma’am.

 

BALKIS: Do you have total confidence in them?

 

HIRAM: In Grope I do. But Stumble is just starting,

You understand. He’s an apprentice blindman.

 

BALKIS: Can the blind work with fire? Will it not burn them?

 

HIRAM: We are all blind here, to be honest, ma’am.

Solomon is our eyes, we are just fingers

And thumbs, we hang on his imagination

Like piglets on a sow’s teats, blindly sucking

The most inspiring milk, that also fattens

Our bank accounts a bit. And we get burned

From time to time, from time to time we fail him,

But it’s not easy living up to heaven!

 

SOLOMON: You have not failed me yet! Be honest, Hiram!

 

HIRAM: There is a problem with the Brazen Sea.

Did God not give you any indications,

Solomon?

 

SOLOMON: You will work it out!

 

BALKIS:                         The blind men

Will see a way through! What amazes me

Most is the town that has grown up around

The building site. Inside Jerusalem,

An infant city bright with shops supplying

The workers – and the music halls and theatres,

To keep their spirits up! A circus, even!

The temple could have killed Jerusalem,

Instead of which, Jerusalem is thriving!

 

SOLOMON: Hiram’s idea.

 

HIRAM:                   Which Solomon agreed on.

 

BALKIS: Are you afraid of praise, you two? Like ping pong

You bat the credit back and forwards! I am

Eager to see how much is due to Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Oh no!

 

BALKIS:            Could you assemble all your workers

At once? How many are there? Thirty thousand

You said.

 

HIRAM: Ten thousand are in Lebanon.

Can they stay there?

 

SOLOMON:           This is impossible,

Balkis, look how spread out they are, all working

Separately, all in their fenced-off sections,

The metal-workers and the stonemasons;

The radiating streams of carriers

Coming and going, and the muleteers,

The camel-keepers and the canteen workers!

Anyway, clearly it cannot be done!

 

HIRAM: Why not?

 

HE STANDS ON A BOX AND HOLDS UP THE TRIANGLE.

 

BALKIS:     I see a diamond shattering

Into a million stars that are now streaming

Towards us! How can this be happening?

They are all forming up in perfect lines,

Without the shouting of a single captain!

 

HIRAM: Can they go back to work now?

 

BALKIS:                        Yes they can.

 

HIRAM LOWERS THE TRIANGLE.

 

SOLOMON: And they turn round, quick as a weathervane

When the wind changes. Not a moment wasted.

 

BALKIS: How did you do that?

 

GROPE: Well they love him you see, madam!

 

STUMBLE: Ooh how they love him!

 

HIRAM: That’s got nothing to do with it. All these workers, ma’am, are working towards two things: the perfection of the temple and their own promotion to Master Craftsman. This triangle has been handed down from Cain, the first craftsman, the first ploughman, to me. It’s used in the initiation of a journeyman into a Master Craftsman. So you see, when I hold this up I am reminding them: friends, you are working for yourselves, pay attention.

 

BALKIS: What a lesson for a King and a Queen!

 

SOLOMON: Thankyou Hiram! Now please will you show us what you yourself are working on?

 

HIRAM: Well this is the experimental end. The – er – Brazen Sea – which myself

 

BALKIS: And your two blind friends –

 

HIRAM: Are working on. Where have they got to? Grope?

 

GROPE: Ready to go, Hiram!

 

HIRAM: Alright then. We’re trying to find the right mixture to – er –

 

STUMBLE: I have lit the flame!

 

HIRAM: That’s the wrong end, isn’t it, Stumble?

 

STUMBLE: Eh?

 

A FLASH AND CLOUD OF SMOKE. HIRAM PULLS AWAY BALKIS AND SHIELDS HER.

 

GROPE: It’s working! It’s working!

 

HIRAM: How do you know?

 

GROPE: Isn’t it?

 

HIRAM: No. Are you alright, Ma’am?

 

BALKIS: Fine. Thankyou.

 

SOLOMON: It will come, it will come!

 

HIRAM: Thankyou for your kingly confidence, King!

 

SOLOMON: Now we must go back to the Palace, Queen Balkis.

 

HIRAM: Break time, boys, break time!

 

BALKIS: I need to have a moment alone with Lemuria, Solomon, to talk about things concerning our kingdom.

 

SOLOMON: Of course! I will wait for you there.

 

EXEUNT ALL BUT BALKIS AND LEMURIA.

 

BALKIS: Trouble! Oh God, help me, Lemuria!

 

LEMURIA: Why? What has happened?

 

BALKIS:                               I love Solomon.

 

LEMURIA: Good. Does he love you?

 

BALKIS:                                         Yes.

 

LEMURIA:                                          Congratulations!

Well I am not surprised. Is it a problem?

 

BALKIS: No of course not! I am just panicking!

 

LEMURIA: You are the Queen of Love, remember, and

Love’s Priestess also. Your initiation

Is now beginning. Though you have been crowned,

Ordained, these were no more than forms, or doorways

Into the light, they were more licences

To learn, than titles; you must earn the crown

You are already wearing, and the name

Of Priestess - you must study love, my darling!

Study the subject with King Solomon!

 

BALKIS: I feel completely baffled.

 

LEMURIA:                            It is complex.

 

BALKIS: That is a terrifying understatement.

  

 

ELEVEN. SILAS.

 

SILAS: She loves Hiram. Anyone could see that. Instant eclipse of Solomon! I saw her grow eyes inside, as big as oceans! A girl impressed by the bigness of bulls, glimpsing a bull elephant for the first time! Beautiful and pregnant catastrophe, parting of the ways for these three so newly met, or rather, collision of objects propelled at lovespeed, collapsing triangle or imploding pyramid! Good of God that you were there, Silas, at that place, at that time, vulture-eyed for dead love. Solomon did not notice! This will be the way, this will be the route into the King’s heart, past all false doors, blocked passages, to the very chamber where he will be weighed, where he will be weighed! Through this I will call down God’s curse on Israel.

 

EXIT. ENTER BALKIS AND SOLOMON, MEETING.

 

SOLOMON: My love! Nothing too dreadful at home? I can’t imagine they are happy there without their Queen.

 

BALKIS: No, Solomon, it’s nothing. It’s something, but nothing worth bothering you with!

 

SOLOMON: If there’s anything at all I can do! My entire army is at your command. What do I mean, my army? Every single living Israelite, man woman and child, ox, ass or dragonfly will spring to your defence, because you are me and I am their King!

 

BALKIS: Thankyou! But Sheba is safe, I promise you!

 

SOLOMON: Sheba is Israel. If one little ant in your kingdom is unhappy I have failed in my duty! God gave me the temple as a task, that is now underway, but heaven has not left me empty, it has sent me a wife, and her life is my life!

 

BALKIS: I hope I won’t be such a difficulty!

         

SOLOMON: Or that I will need Hiram to help me with you! 

 

BALKIS: Haha!

 

SOLOMON: Well you have seen my temple, well on its way. I want you to be angel-strict with me, Balkis, tear me to pieces, tell me if there is anything in what you have seen that you do not like or that seems wrong or out of tune with God’s plan! Anything, small or big, that could in any way be better! Is the temple in the wrong place? I will tear it down and start all over again, if you say so, I trust in your wisdom utterly. I have seen into your mind, and I know it is a temple in itself!

 

BALKIS: Solomon, there is not the tiniest thing that could be improved in any way, as far as I am concerned. How could there be? God has communicated his wishes to you directly and you have received them without the slightest blur or error, complete and perfect, into your perfect heart and mind. And the work has proceeded as if you had done it all with your own hands. There is no gap between you and the workers and craftsmen.

 

SOLOMON: Well I am so absolutely happy to hear you say that! I swear if you hadn’t liked it I would have smashed the whole thing down. But if you like it then it is good. Of course I have been lucky in my foreman!

 

BALKIS: Yes!

 

SOLOMON: What did you think of him?

 

BALKIS:He was certainly sent to you by God.

 

SOLOMON: My darling, I think our wedding should happen soon. Partly because I want it to and partly because, there are considerations. Your visit is already the mother of wedding rumours. We must confirm as swiftly as possible so people can get used to it. Suddenly your kingdom will be part of a great power. There must be a whole year of celebrations, because this is the wedding not just of two people but of two nations!        

 

BALKIS: Oh my dear Solomon, I wish it could be straightaway! But listen, the thing I was discussing with Lemuria –

 

SOLOMON: Yes?

 

BALKIS: As I said it is not a big thing –

 

SOLOMON: It is big if it delays our wedding!

 

BALKIS: It’s a formality. Solomon – as Queen of Sheba and High Priestess I have to ask permission from a certain oracle we have, before I can be married.

 

SOLOMON: If it says no, I must accept its ruling?

 

BALKIS: It will not say no! Ha! It is not a question of heavenly judgement: the oracle merely looks into the heart of the High Priestess and tells her what she really wants. So – in this case, there will not be a problem! But it is something my people insist on.

 

SOLOMON: I understand.

 

BALKIS: Of course you do, you are Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: I understand why you are distant suddenly. You are obedient to the will of your people, and though you know what you want, you won’t allow yourself to feel it till it’s been confirmed. And you are right! Love is not a race, it isnot a rush! The suddenness of its stillness is always a shock. It’s circus chess, whose pieces are acrobats, it’s a clown’s clock, that walks on its hands!This delay in my stay of execution is just like love! Do you have to go home in person?

 

BALKIS: No! My messengers are at this very moment galloping back across the sand!

 

SOLOMON: Too long till they gallop back again!

 

BALKIS: I do love you Solomon.

 

SOLOMON: With that answer!

 

EXIT SOLOMON.

 

BALKIS: If love is truth, why does it make me lie?

What is this oracle I have imagined?

Merely a cow from which to milk delay.

But if it gives me time, I will untie

This knot that all my struggling only tightens!

But it does seem that time has lost its mind,

Seconds are years and I am suddenly

Old in experience and young in judgement.

I did not lie. I do love Solomon,

With all my heart. But if the oracle

That I invented, was to speak my mind,

It would not say that I should marry him.   

 

 

TWELVE. TEMPLE SITE. APPRENTICES.

 

1st APPRENTICE: Oh look, here comes her Majesty!

 

2nd APPRENTICE: Who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheba?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Well she is the Queen of Sheba.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Yes, but I mean, who does she think she is?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: The Queen of Sheba.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Well she’s right about that, anyway.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: She knows who she is, that woman.

 

ENTER BALKIS.

 

BALKIS: Morning boys!

 

APPRENTICES: Morning your Majesty!

 

BALKIS: I better not stop you working.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Oh no, you always provide us with inspiration!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: It’s not every worker in the world who gets visited by a Queen every morning!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: You’re better than a mug of strong tea to us, your Majesty!

 

BALKIS: What a compliment!

 

2nd APPRENTICE: Are you fond of building sites, your Majesty?

 

BALKIS: I am fond of this one.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: You ought to get yourself apprenticed, your Majesty, then you could be here all day like us!

 

BALKIS: I’ve got too many jobs as it is.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: What? Well how come you’ve got time to chat to us, then?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: She’s waiting for the answer from the oracle!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Eh?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: So she can marry King Solomon!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: But waiting’s not a job, is it?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: I was a waiter once.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: How long did you wait for?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: About twenty-five minutes.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: That took a lot of patience.

 

1ST APPRENTICE: My uncle was a GP. He took a lot of patients.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Irritating man, was he?

 

BALKIS: (LAUGHING.) Stop it!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: So tell us, your Majesty, what are your jobs?

 

BALKIS: I’m a Queen and a Priestess and a bride to be.

 

2ND APPRENTICE: If the oracle says so!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Yes, your Majesty, how long have they been gone, the messengers?

 

BALKIS: Six weeks.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: When are you expecting them back?

 

BALKIS: I don’t know.

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Isn’t the King getting impatient?

 

BALKIS: He is a bit. That’s why I come down here partly. To spare him the sight of me!

 

1ST APPRENTICE: Why don’t you help us, to pass the time, your Majesty?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: We’ll teach you!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Yeah! We’re experts!

 

BALKIS: No! Hiram will be furious!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: He won’t! He loves your visits! He’s always saying, ‘Anyone seen her Majesty this morning? Has she been yet?’

 

BALKIS: You’re joking!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Us? Now, Majesty, seize hold of this implement. This is called a stick, and we use it for stirring the molten copper. We’re extremely responsible young men and women and have been given the task of making the basin for the Brazen Sea! Not a sea of brass as some think, but a sea of bronze! It’s got to be big! You’ve got to get to know the bronze really well. It’s a mixture, you see, of copper and tin! And sometimes a bit of zinc and a bit of lead, you know what I mean. Depending on how you’re feeling. Isn’t it lovely? Now when you reckon it’s ready you pour it into the mould. Not too late, not too soon.

 

BALKIS: How will I know it’s ready?

 

2ND APPRENTICE: Well you just have to sort of  - know –

 

BALKIS: How? Is it ready now?

 

1ST APPRENTICE: No!

 

3RD APPRENTICE: Yes! Quick! Pour!

 

2ND APPRENTICE: No! Stop!

 

BALKIS: Which?

 

1ST, 2ND, 3RD APPRENTICES: Whatever!

 

ENTER HIRAM.

 

HIRAM: Ah, your Majesty! No – I don’t think it’s ready yet. I mean the mould’s not ready, look there’s cracks in it. Put it on hold, the bronze. Less heat. Get onto those cracks, you fellows. So you want to join my workteam, your Majesty? You’re welcome anytime.

 

BALKIS: Thankyou! I like it here. Even the workers in Sheba are not as happy as your workers. I’m amazed, really. Till recently they were slaves, and slaves do not normally have the habit of happiness, even when they’re set free they’re sad, still dragging invisible chains. But your workers are like children. What is your secret?

 

HIRAM: Ah well, that’s a deep mystery!

 

BALKIS: Tell me!

 

HIRAM: Oh alright. Since you ask me so nicely. That fact is, I’m not really building a temple at all, I am training up an army to take over Israel.

 

BALKIS: Oh. I see.

 

GROPE AND STUMBLE PASS ACROSS THE STAGE.

 

HIRAM: These are my crack troops.

 

BALKIS: Well at least you’ll have the element of surprise.

 

HIRAM: That’s all we’ll have.

 

BALKIS: But tell me the truth, Hiram. Please! Something is happening here, but it’s not military.

 

HIRAM: I can’t hide anything from you, your Majesty. Lsten, come here, sit down and listen to Hiram. First, tell me what you think of the Kingdom of Israel.

 

BALKIS: It’s strong!

 

HIRAM: Yes. It’s a military state. Like the rest of them. Everyone’s a soldier, except the slaves. They’re the workers. I pay mine but they’re still slaves. Well I’m going to turn them all into Master Craftsmen and set them free and they will change the kingdom of Israel.

 

BALKIS: Hiram!

 

HIRAM: This is where I take my stand. I am not building a temple, Ma’am! Now go and tell Solomon.

 

BALKIS: Hiram! I wish you were the King of Sheba!

 

HE STANDS LOOKING AT HER FOR A MOMENT, REALISING WHAT SHE MEANS, DROPS HIS EYES, EXITS IN EMBARRASMENT. ENTER LEMURIA.

 

LEMURIA: What are you doing here, your Majesty?

 

BALKIS: Working.

 

LEMURIA:            The King is in the watergarden,

Waiting for you! Sweetheart, there is a party –

Have you forgotten?

 

BALKIS:           Yes I have forgotten.

 

LEMURIA: Remember then. Eleven Kings are coming,

And seven Emperors. King Solomon

Is shining like a birthday child and dancing,

Drunk as the Captain of the Ark, because

His spies have seen your messengers returning.

 

BALKIS: My messengers?

 

LEMURIA:                         Of course! The oracle

Has spoken and your messengers are racing

Over the sand, transporting the true saying

Of that mysterious voice!

 

BALKIS:                      His spies have seen them?

 

LEMURIA:  

Eager to please their King, their eyes have seen

Messengers who were never sent, returning

From a non-oracle. They have perceived

A mirage from the King’s imagination.

 

BALKIS: Lemuria, forgive me for this lie!

My first, and therefore, not a clever one.

 

LEMURIA: Priestess and Queen of Love! I have to trust

Your zigzag steps more than my own straight walking;

I would have said, Give me a little time

To think, beloved King – but you invented

An entire oracle and messengers,

Floating a fiction sure to be uncovered!

 

BALKIS: I will sink with it! I am idiotic!

 

LEMURIA: What have you done?

 

BALKIS:                        Lemuria, I panicked!

Listen – we never should have come to Israel!

 

LEMURIA: I see I have to try to work this out,

So I can help you. I am in the dark

Because you are. Plain words cannot be said,

So plainly what they cannot say is bad –

Bad beyond words. What could it be, my love?

What would the worst be? If the wedding happened –

And then he left you for another woman,

Or you left him. It hasn’t happened yet,

But it must be that you love or he loves

Somebody else. Which turns the wedding ring

Into a copper wire to stick your neck in!

But it is not him! I just left him shouting,

Delirious with bliss, for you, my darling!

It is not him, for sure. It must be you then!

 

BALKIS: It is.

 

LEMURIA:         Who?

 

BALKIS:                        Hiram.

 

LEMURIA:                                Sweetheart!

 

BALKIS:                                                     I love Hiram.

 

LEMURIA: Can you pretend?

BALKIS:                                    No.

 

LEMURIA:                                        Then you must tell Solomon!

 

 

THIRTEEN. THE PALACE. SOLOMON DRUNK, SILAS, GUARDS, MUSICIANS.

 

 

SOLOMON: She is the day! She is the light I see by!

God has not led us through the desert, unchained,

For nothing, desert after desert rising

Under our feet! No, always there was water,

Always! Right at the edge of death, the rockface,

Struck, it gushed life! And from the sheer air, manna,

Delicate breakfast for the twelve tribes starvin

Together! And Jerusalem was waiting,

Always, the white rose drawing us towards her,

Steadily, beautiful Jerusalem

Lilywhite on the moonwhite of her mountain!

When all our enemies were dead, oh garden

Sweeter than Eden!

 

SILAS:                    Ah, King Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: And people, listen, she is all these things!

She is the water and the manna and

The promise and the end of wandering!

 

SILAS: Solomon, you have found the one true woman!

 

SOLOMON: I love her, Silas! And I sing to God,

On my own head I stand and cry to heaven -

Lord, you have turned me into water pouring

Through the cracked rock of my own heart, and fed me!

Great God! I gave you what your heart desired,

The temple! In return you gave, you gave me

What I could not have dreamed or dared to wish for!

 

SILAS: Jerusalem! Rejoice for Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: Everyone! Tell me, what do you desire

Most in the world?

 

GUARD:                To serve you, Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: Apart from that! You have that! Ask for something

You do not have!

 

GUARD:              I can’t think –

 

SOLOMON:                          Jewels? Wine?

 

GUARD: Well – yes –

 

SOLOMON:           Bring me a cellarful of wine,

And as much jewels as an ox could drag!

Somebody has to be as glad as I am,

Today! I can’t bear all this bliss alone!

Light may be weightless – but a sky of it!

For the meantime this man is Solomon!

Tonight you have to call him that and crown him

In your imagination! Bow to him!

 

HE PUTS HIS OWN ROBES, JEWELS ETC ON THE GUARD.

 

SOLOMON: You see! Tonight there are two Solomons!

Which halves the burden of this heap of joy!

King Solomon! You excellent reflection!

 

SILAS: King, she is here!

 

SOLOMON:                      Balkis?

 

SILAS:                                        I sent for her,

And she has come, the one who loves you, Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: (TO GUARD.) Get ready to be changed into a rainbow.

 

ENTER BALKIS AND LEMURIA.

 

SOLOMON: My love, I have to introduce you to myself. Balkis, this is Solomon. He stepped out of my mirror just a moment ago, to help me – your love is too much for me to bear on my own. I have shifted half of it into his heart. He is the happiest man on earth, and the strange thing is that I am exactly as happy as him!

 

BALKIS: My dear friend, I must speak to you alone.

 

SOLOMON: It is impossible to speak to me alone, there are two of me.

 

BALKIS: Please!

 

SOLOMON: Everybody cover your ears and eyes! There, we are alone.

 

BALKIS: Alright then. Solomon. I am the Queen of Love and the High Priestess of Love’s religion but –

 

SOLOMON: And. Don’t you mean and?

 

BALKIS: I am only a subject of Love!

 

SOLOMON: Not a love object?

 

BALKIS: I am not the Queen of Love, Love is my Queen! I am not the Priestess of Love, I am bewildered by this religion!

 

SOLOMON: Does that matter?

 

BALKIS: The story is not what I thought and my part in it is not what I wanted! The Queen of Love is the Queen of Hell!

 

SOLOMON: What has happened?

 

BALKIS: I am not in love with you, Solomon.

 

SOLOMON: Is there another Balkis? This one is saying strange things.

 

BALKIS: There is only one Balkis and there is only one Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: Tell that to my friend!

 

BALKIS: Solomon! Solomon!

 

SOLOMON: If you have bad things to say, say them to him! They smash me like glass but he doesn’t give a damn!

 

BALKIS: Please listen to me, Solomon.

 

SOLOMON: Very well. I see. The messengers have returned and the answer from the oracle is not good. Well, we will ask it again. And again and again and again.

 

BALKIS: There never was an oracle! There never were any messengers!

 

SOLOMON: What? Someone lied to you?

 

BALKIS: I lied to you!

 

SOLOMON: Why?

 

BALKIS: To gain time. Because I did not know what to do.

 

SOLOMON: You lied to me? In the beginning?

 

BALKIS: Not when I said I loved you.

 

SOLOMON: Good!

 

BALKIS: It was true then!

 

SOLOMON: What has happened? What has happened? (TO GUARD.) You will have to carry all of this, my friend. I never told you, but that was the deal. Half the joy for all of the pain. I am sorry, I drive a hard bargain.  (TO BALKIS.) What is his name?

 

BALKIS: Hiram.

 

SOLOMON: Ah.

 

BALKIS: I am sorry. I will go back to my country.

 

SOLOMON: No! Not at all! You are very welcome here! God will make me strong! God’s will be done! His mystery is infinite! There is no one on earth I honour more than Hiram and Balkis. God burn my soul to ash if I ever harm either of them!

 

BALKIS: Amen. Amen.

 

EXIT BALKIS.

 

SOLOMON: Leave, everybody. Silas, stay.

 

EXEUNT ALL BUT SILAS AND SOLOMON.

 

SILAS: (ASIDE.) This is the instant. Now the soul of Israel

Stands in the balance. Ancient desert phantoms,

Haunters of ruins, miscalled gods, winds wailing

Over unmarked graves, come, Jerusalem

Lies sleeping, fly in through her mouth, drag down

Her righteous pride into the roaring tomb.

 

ENTER MESSENGER.

 

MESSENGER: King Solomon, a message from Hiram. He is about to activate the Brazen Sea, and asks you to come if you wish, to witness it, with the Queen of Sheba.

 

SOLOMON: Thankyou. Thankyou very much. Thankyou.

 

EXIT MESSENGER.

 

SILAS: Solomon –

 

SOLOMON: Yes. What is it? I am trying to – I am trying.

 

SILAS: You must engross your wounded mind in something

Outside itself! The business of your kingdom!

 

SOLOMON: Yes, Silas, of course I must. Thankyou, yes. Is there anything pressing?

 

SILAS: Yes! A big something! I have information

Vital for you to know about your best friend.

 

SOLOMON: Who’s that?

 

SILAS:                              The temple! Envy, Solomon,

Is glaring from its cave at that construction,

With tiger eyes! And they are fixed on Hiram,

Without whose help the temple will not happen!

He is the weak point! Walls can rise again

When wreckers break them down, but can a human

Be reconstructed when his bones lie ruined?

 

SOLOMON: Hiram?

 

SILAS:                    My spies have overheard three craftsmen

Plotting to sabotage his work, and kill him

At the same time if possible! Their names

Are in this letter. So, King Solomon,

We will resolve the question of this woman -

But save your temple first. That is the main thing!

 

EXIT SILAS.

 

SOLOMON: Hiram?

 

HE LOOKS AT THE ENVELOPE.

 

SOLOMON: God help me! God help me!

 

HE RIPS THE LETTER INTO PIECES WITHOUT READING IT, AND SCATTERS THE SHREDS.

 

 

FOURTEEN. THE TEMPLE. JUBELO, JUBELUM AND JUBELA.THE MOULD FOR THE BRAZEN SEA.

 

JUBELO: A single hole is all it needs.

 

JUBELUM: To make a bomb out of the Brazen Sea!

 

THEY SABOTAGE THE MOULD AND EXEUNT. ENTER HIRAM AND BALKIS.

 

HIRAM: So is Solomon coming?

 

BALKIS: I hope so.

 

HIRAM: We can only wait a minute for him. Bronze cares not for the King’s convenience.

 

BALKIS: Are you nervous, Hiram?

 

HIRAM: Of course I am! Everything about this temple’s been difficult – but the Brazen Sea –

 

BALKIS: Impossible?

 

HIRAM: So far! Like space travel. And it’s not as if the world’s not watching. You know what I mean? This temple’s famous already!

 

BALKIS: Of course.

 

HIRAM: It’s this mould-work I don’t like. You know, I’m a hammer man! Moulds are like women.

 

BALKIS: Oh, women are difficult!

 

HIRAM: Impossible! Like space travel!

 

BALKIS: So far!

 

HIRAM: Hold that file would you, your Majesty –

 

BALKIS: Ok –

 

HE CARRIES ON PREPARING THE MOULD.

 

HIRAM: So, are you going to marry the King, then?

 

BALKIS: No.

 

HIRAM: Why not?

 

BALKIS: Because I am in love with you, Hiram.

 

HIRAM: What? What did you say? Pass me that –

 

BALKIS: Ok.

 

HIRAM: Now look here, your Majesty, we need all the help we can get with this Brazen Sea. I don’t usually pray, but even I am muttering to my ancestors, Cain and Tubal-Cain, the first ironworkers! And anyone else who’ll listen! Now, where are my boys?

 

ENTER KEN.

 

HIRAM: Ah, Ken! Grab hold of that! You know what to do. He’s a wonderful lad, Ken is, your Majesty. Almost nothing he can’t do. Aha!

 

BALKIS: The blind men!

 

ENTER GROPE AND STUMBLE.

 

GROPE, STUMBLE: Here we are, Hiram!

 

STUMBLE: Where are we?

 

GROPE: Here. 

 

HIRAM: Into positions, everyone! Action stations! Brazen Sea take two. When I say Adonijah! Got that? Everybody ready? Stand back your Majesty – Adonijah!

 

EXPLOSION AND FLASH OF FIRE. 

 

HIRAM: What happened? What happened? Where is everybody?

 

ENTER TUBAL-CAIN.

 

TUBAL-CAIN: Jump! Hiram! Jump into the fire!

 

HIRAM: What?

 

HE JUMPS INTO THE FIRE.

 

 

FIFTEEN. THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH. CAIN, BEATING OUT IRON AT A FORGE. ENTER HIRAM WITH TUBAL-CAIN.

 

HIRAM: Bad-tempered mould exploded like a woman,

Molten brass everywhere, volcano streaming

Outrageous loveliness just like a woman!

Where am I? Am I dead? The Queen of Sheba –

What about her? Did she survive the fire?

And Ken and Grope and Stumble? Are they here?

Can they see now? Where are you? Where am I?

 

CAIN: This is the centre of the earth, the fire,

The womb of iron. I am your ancestor,

Cain. This is Tubal-Cain, your ancestor

Also, and my descendant. It was him

Who called you down.

 

HIRAM:                 Why have you brought me here?

 

CAIN: Hiram, you have been here before. Whenever

You stand among the elements, the fire

Bright in the forge, the air, pumped from the bellows,

The earth, that is the red iron, and the water

That cools it black – whenever, at the centre

Of these four elements you stand, transported

Out of yourself, and your wild thoughts, the windblown

Leaves of your mind, fall still, and for a moment

You are your work, then you are at the centre

Of the metallic planet, where we are,

Forever changing spirit into matter.

 

HIRAM: I have gone deeper this time!

 

CAIN:                                    Hiram, listen.

The Brazen Sea is your last work, your final

And brightest masterpiece! When that is finished,

Then you are finished.

 

HIRAM:                 No more wandering

Around the world!

 

CAIN:                Your life is being sharpened

To a precise point! Your remaining labour

Is difficult!

 

HIRAM:  I cannot finish it!

 

CAIN: We will help you. The temple will be perfect.

And it will vanish back into the sand,

But something will be changed by what has happened,

And one day Hiram will not have to labour

Under the jealousy of Solomon.

 

HIRAM: What? I refused her!

CAIN:             You must not refuse her!

Did you refuse to leap into the fire?

Or to attempt the Brazen Sea? You love her

And you must not refuse!

 

HIRAM:                    Yes I do love her.

 

CAIN: Hiram and Solomon are always fighting,

Bad blood between the craftsman and the dreamer,

As I killed Abel so will you be murdered,

But this will change, by what you leave behind you.

Give him the hammer.

 

TUBAL-CAIN GIVES HIRAM THE HAMMER, AND CAIN AND TUBAL-CAIN EXEUNT. HIRAM FALLS TO THE GROUND, HOLDING THE HAMMER.

 

 

SIXTEEN. HIRAM LIES, HOLDING THE HAMMER, NEAR THE MOULD OF THE BRAZEN SEA, WITH THE FIRE STILL BLAZING. BALKIS LIES A LITTLE WAY AWAY, UNCONSCIOUS. HIRAM GETS UP.

 

HIRAM: Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Oh God, she’s dead! Wake up, wake up!

 

HE BLOWS ON HER WITH THE BELLOWS AND SPLASHES HER WITH WATER. SHE SITS UP, SPLUTTERING.

 

BALKIS: What’s this?

 

HIRAM: Are you alright?

 

BALKIS: What happened?

 

HIRAM: Look, I’ve got this now!

 

HE STOPS AND STANDS LOOKING AT THE GROUND.

 

BALKIS: What’s the matter? Are you in shock, Hiram? I think you should put off the next attempt till tomorrow – go and lie down!

 

HIRAM: No. Plenty of time for that. I was just overwhelmed suddenly by – the world is not what I thought it was. Sad to leave it, really. But proud!

 

BALKIS: You aren’t going to leave it yet!

 

HIRAM: This is a dangerous business, you’ll notice.

 

BALKIS: I think you are in shock.

 

HIRAM: Just hold my hand for a moment.

 

SHE HOLDS HIS HAND.

 

HIRAM: You said something strange to me.

 

BALKIS: I told you that I love you. I will say it again if you like.

 

HIRAM: No need, no need.

 

BALKIS: Do you love me?

 

HIRAM: I do. I will love you for the rest of my life.

 

THEY KISS.

 

HIRAM: I was frightened of the King before. Now I’m not. I couldn’t see you properly – now I see you. You are a craftswoman of the highest order! The Queen of a peaceful Kingdom!

 

BALKIS: They call me the Queen of Love but till now I have never loved anyone.

 

HIRAM: I am going to raise you, my dear, to the level of Master Craftswoman. Mistress Craftswoman would be better but it’s a bit newfangled. I am going to initiate you. Are you ready?

 

BALKIS: Yes I am.

 

HIRAM: There you are.

 

HE TOUCHES HER ON THE FOREHEAD.

 

HIRAM: Good. Now you can do the same for others, when you recognise them. Listen – I want to tell you about this temple. There is a split in humans, I’ve discovered – those who have visions, like Solomon, they need us and we need them, us working men – but – we can’t get on with them – and they can’t get on with us – so everything falls to pieces!

 

BALKIS: You built the temple together!

 

HIRAM: Yes we did that. And even when it’s crumbled to dust it will still be there, the fact that it happened, that he and I worked together well for a little time – like something liquid and solid at the same time - that is an example, so the split will heal in the end, but for the moment, things are not good.

 

BALKIS: You will come back to Sheba with me and be my King.

 

HIRAM: It does seem sad, though.

 

BALKIS: What’s sad?

 

HIRAM: Crown me now.

 

BALKIS: I will! Husband! What shall we use as a crown?

 

HIRAM: This old tin pot will do! The tin pot dictator Hiram! My Queen!

 

SHE CROWNS HIM WITH THE TIN POT. IT HAS BARBED WIRE TWISTED ROUND IT.

 

BALKIS: My King! There, we are married. That’s the law in Sheba! That’s all you need to do.

 

HIRAM: Actually married?

 

BALKIS: You will be a great King! That is what I saw when I first saw you –  Hiram the King of Sheba! I can see you have been a great King from the beginning and will be till the end! King Hiram! King Hiram!

HIRAM: Let’s get this work finished and get away! If it’s possible to get away from here!

 

BALKIS: What do you mean?

 

HIRAM: Where’s Ken? Where’s Grope and Stumble? Scarpered? Never mind! This hammer’ll sort out everything!

 

HE STRIKES THE MOULD WITH THE HAMMER.

 

HIRAM: See, whatever I strike immediately mends and rings sound! It’s going to work this time!

 

BALKIS: What shall I do?

 

HIRAM: When I say Go, pull that lever!

 

BALKIS: Ready!

 

HIRAM: Go!

 

BALKIS: Oh!

 

HIRAM: Oh! It’s working – it’s working  - the Brazen Sea! How is that possible? Moving but not moving! Like solid light! Like the centre of the sun!

 

BALKIS: Or of the earth! I have got to tell Solomon!

 

HIRAM: No, leave him!

 

BALKIS: I will bring him here and show him this and then we will say goodbye to him! This for me! A fair exchange!

 

HIRAM: The temple is finished! It is finished!

 

THEY KISS AND SHE EXITS. ENTER JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM.

 

JUBELO: The time has come to make us Master Craftsmen!

 

JUBELA: How has she earned it?

 

JUBELUM:                          Hiram, you have raised

Someone to Master Craftsman. We were watching.

 

JUBELA: How has she earned it?!

 

JUBELO:                                  Is she a Craftswoman?

She isn’t even an Apprentice! Show us

One single thing that she has made, no matter

How flimsy!

 

JUBELUM:  Frankly this is just insulting!

 

JUBELA: This is an outrage! This is laughable!

 

JUBELO: If Balkis is a Master Craftswoman,

Then we deserve at least that recognition!

 

JUBELUM: And we demand it!

 

JUBELA:                        We are better Craftsmen

Than she is! If she is a Master, then,

We must be more than Masters! We demand

To have the title of Grand Mastercraftsmen!

 

HIRAM: Your Majesties. There are one or two things you fail to understand. And that is why I am reluctant to confer on you the title of Master Craftsmen. You see, the thing is you have to start off small. That’s what an Apprentice is – a small kind of listening person, who does what he’s told. Or she. You’ve got to make yourself small, haven’t you, to get into this world in the first place – tiny, microscopic, inside your mum. That’s what an Apprentice is. Ok? Then if he grows too big too fast, he can’t get out. Right? He’ll be stuck in there forever. He can grow a bit, sure, but he’s got to stay fairly small, got to be an Apprentice for quite a long time. Then just at the right moment, out he pops into the world, and that’s what we call a Journeyman. Got to be a Journeyman for quite a long time – then one day you grow up into a Master Craftsman! Not that you stop growing then! That’s still just the beginning, but you’re well started then. Now, your Majesties, if you don’t mind me saying so, you three are all so enormously vast, you can’t even get into the womb. And though you think you’re mightily grown up I have to tell you that you haven’t even been born!

JUBELUM: Outrageous!

 

JUBELA: What about the Queen? Isn’t she proud?

 

HIRAM: Your Excellency, maybe she was once. But just recently she’s given her heart away to a working man. Now you three Kings – that’s what you think you are – go away and shrivel up and come back to me humble.

 

JUBELO: We are Masters! That is the fact of the matter! Our work speaks for itself! 

 

JUBELUM: We have sworn not to leave you today until you have made us Master Craftsmen!

 

JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM TAKE UP POSITIONS BLOCKING THE EXITS.

 

JUBELO: You shall not leave this temple, Hiram,

Till you have made us Master Craftsmen!

 

HIRAM: I don’t respond well to threats.

 

JUBELA: Recognise me!

 

HIRAM: No!

 

JUBELA HITS HIRAM WITH A CHISEL. HIRAM DROPS TO ONE KNEE.

 

HIRAM: This is it, is it? First sacrifice in the temple. Ah! Christ! Oh my beautiful building! Look at it!

 

JUBELO: Recognise me!

 

HIRAM: You? No!

 

JUBELO HITS HIRAM WITH A TROWEL. HE FALLS AGAIN, GETS UP.

 

HIRAM: It is the temple you are demolishing! But it will build itself again! Oh my Balkis, oh my Queen, sweetheart, love of my life! Oh what a beautiful building!

 

JUBELUM: Recognise me!

 

HIRAM: Who do you think you are?

 

JUBELUM STRIKES HIM WITH A HAMMER. HE FALLS DOWN DEAD.

 

JUBELO: We have done it!

 

JUBELUM: He deserved this!

 

JUBELA: Now we will never be Master Craftsmen!

 

JUBELO: No! But we are the men who killed Hiram!

 

JUBELUM: We must hide him! We must hide him!

 

 

SEVENTEEN. SOLOMON’S THRONEROOM. ENTER BALKIS TO SOLOMON. ALSO LEMURIA AND SILAS.

 

BALKIS: Has he been found?

 

SOLOMON:                   No, he has not been found.

 

LEMURIA: You must not worry, sweetest, we will find him!

 

BALKIS: What can have happened?

 

SOLOMON:                            Maybe his intention

From the beginning was to disappear

From Israel the instant that his temple

Was finally completed.

 

SILAS:                                   He has always

Been a fast-moving man, not lingering

To let his shadow peg him to the ground.

Maybe he has just left.

 

BALKIS:                   I know for certain

That he has not.

 

SOLOMON:        If you are sure of that,

Why are you so unsure of where he is?

 

SILAS: Why are we all uncertain?

 

BALKIS:                     What we know

Is like a daisy on the mountain of

What we do not. The world is made like that.

But here comes someone!

 

ENTER KEN.

 

BALKIS:                      Ken! What have you found?

 

KEN: (FIGHTING BACK TEARS.) Um – your Majesties – we have found nothing – certainly not Hiram – I am afraid – to tell you – that unfortunately – due to a planning oversight – or flawed materials – I cannot say quite – there’s been some kind of breakdown – overflow – um –

 

BALKIS: Ken! What has happened? What has happened?

 

KEN: Well – look –

 

SLOW BEATING OF A DRUM. ENTER GROPE AND STUMBLE CARRYING HIRAM’S BODY.

 

BALKIS: The blind men bring him! Oh my love! My darling!

 

GROPE: Hiram is dead. The end of everything.

No more exciting projects, no big buildings

In far away exotic realms, commissioned

By Kings. And we will not be Master Craftsmen.

The word has died. It will go down with him

Into the mouthless ground from which it came.

Forget your towering ambitions, Kings,

And your ambitious towers, scale them down,

Noone on earth can build them. From now on

There will be nothing but disgusting slums,

And pigsties crammed with little pigfaced children.

 

STUMBLE: And most of all we have lost our best friend!

 

SILAS: Earth is a savage planet, made of iron.

 

SOLOMON: We must thank God that in his life this man,

Against the forces of decay, was able

To do so much! Whenever anyone

Shines like he did, the rest of humankind,

Suffering its own dullness, envies him,

And murders him! But we will find the ones

Who stamped him out, and justice will be done!

 

BALKIS IS KNEELING BESIDE HIRAM’S BODY WITH HER HEAD ON HIS CHEST. SHE GETS UP.

 

BALKIS: Wait! I have seen it! Too much light! Too much! I cannot say – I cannot say what I am seeing!

 

LEMURIA: Oh my darling!

 

SOLOMON: Pity Queen Balkis! She has lost her mind!

This is too much for her! Remember, Queen,

His masterpiece, the crown he left behind –

The temple! Oh, what a memorial!

 

BALKIS: This was the diamond – Hiram and Solomon! Together you created the temple! Then you were smashed apart! But you will come together

again!

 

SOLOMON: Not in this world.

 

BALKIS:                               Not in this life, you mean,

But in another life you will be one!

 

SOLOMON: One life, one life, sweet broken-hearted Queen,

Is all God gives us. When we lose a friend,

We ask for more! When we ourselves are dying,

We want to live again and then again!

But God knows best, and gives us what we need,

And we must be content with that!

 

BALKIS:                              Oh Hiram,

When you come back, when you are you again,

Let me be there!

 

SOLOMON:         We must not contradict her.

She is beyond thought, she is in a story.

 

APPRENTICES: (OFF.) We have them! We have them! The murderers!

 

ENTER APPRENTICES WITH JUBELO, JUBELA AND JUBELUM.

 

SOLOMON: Are these the murderers?

 

APPRENTICE:                     We heard them crying,

As we were searching – they were in a cave,

Hiding – but they were crying helplessly,

‘Heaven forgive us! Hiram, if you can,

Forgive us!’ So they gave themselves away.

 

SOLOMON: Did you kill Hiram?

 

JUBELO: Yes we did.

 

SOLOMON: Why did you do it?

 

JUBELA: Because we were proud!

 

SOLOMON: Are you sorry for your crime?

 

JUBELUM: No! We are glad! It has destroyed our pride!

 

SILAS: Put them to death!

 

SOLOMON: Yes. Do as he says.

 

EXEUNT JUBELO, JUBELA, JUBELUM WITH GUARDS.

 

SOLOMON: Now we must plan the funeral of Hiram!

He must be buried in a mausoleum

Of the most splendid and immense proportions!

 

GROPE: But who will build it?

 

SOLOMON:             We will do our best!

As for you, Queen, I feel the King’s protection

Must be extended to your sorrowful

And broken soul. Therefore I humbly ask you

To be my wife! We understand each other.

Our friend is dead, but he loved both of us;

It would have made him glad, that his death joined us.

 

LEMURIA: Accept the offer of King Solomon!

 

BALKIS: Something is not right. In your voice a crack,

In the crack, death. It is the voice of death!

But death will save you, Solomon, from death!

Death will release you from the grip of death!

 

SOLOMON: Poor Queen. But I will not withdraw my offer!

It absolutely stands! Stay here, consider.

I must go now, my place is at the centre,

The sacred centre of the temple, the

Holy of Holies! There I must thank God

With all my heart, that when he sent the vision

That almost broke my soul, he sent me Hiram

To give it shape! The promise of King David

Has been fulfilled! Now God will dwell among us,

Heaven is here! And in the house of God

I will stand face to face with God!

 

EXIT WITH SILAS, MINISTERS, GUARDS ETC.

 

BALKIS: Quick! We must escape! To Sheba, the Kingdom of Love! This Kingdom is finished! It will be swept away!

 

APPRENTICES: Take us with you!

 

LEMURIA: Oh my dear -

 

BALKIS: My friends! Every one of us here has been crushed by the death of our friend! You are all Master Craftsmen and Craftswomen – because you loved him! That was my qualification! It has made me a Priestess and a Queen. There! Now you can teach the rest!

 

SHE TOUCHES THEM.

 

BALKIS: Come with me to Sheba, my friends, come away from this place! The temple is useless, a husk! But we must remember this death – it breaks our hearts, and only what is broken can be made good! Solomon’s heart will be hard to break. His temple will become a prison, it will destroy him! Lift up his body then, and we will take it with us, and bury it in a sacred place!   

 

 

EIGHTEEN. SOLOMON IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES, PRAYING. AFTER A MOMENT OR SO HE BREAKS DOWN CRYING.