the long way

play by Ruth Salles

This small plaything shows the path of humanity, from Adam to Christ, through the passage through various characters of the Old Testament. If, after some speech, the scene takes a while to pass, it can be played on the flute, in the meantime, the theme of the music.

CHARACTERS:
choir 1
choir 2
Archangel Michael
Archangel Raphael
1st Angel (who puts the mark on Cain's forehead)
2nd Angel (who speaks to Shem)
Adam
Eve
Cain
abel
set
Enoch
Noah
Without.

CHORUS 1 (sings, as the scene goes on):
“The Archangel Michael
came down from the sky
and took Adam and Eve too
down to earth.
For the good and heavenly Paradise
– sad fate –
to them it was already lost.”

CHORUS 1 and MICHAEL (to Adam and Eve):
— May your comfort be your children:
Cain, the strong, fiery and animated,
and Abel, the enlightened.

CHORUS 2 (while the scene goes on):
– Cain lights a fire
where the fruits of the earth burn,
in praise of the supreme Lord.
Abel lights another fire
where sacrifice
a little white lamb
to the Lord of the whole earth.

CHORUS 2 and CAIN:
– Oh! why my fire
spreads across the earth,
instead of ascending to heaven?

CHORUS 1 and ABEL:
- Mine doesn't spread around
I don't know why, but it lets go
and goes straight up to the sky.
Did it please God?

CHORUS 2 and CAIN:
- Mine doesn't like it then?

CHORUS 1 (while the scene goes on):
- Cain, jealous,
hit your brother
and then despair,
because your strength is so much,
that Abel falls to the ground
and never gets up again.

CHORUS 1 and CAIN:
– Wake up, Abel, my brother!
Oh, what a heartache...

CHORUS 2:
- Cain is rebuked
but it is also protected
for God. Receive on forehead
a sign, secret mark (given here by the 1st angel)
of your future,
and will roam the world.

CHORUS 1 and ADAM (showing Set a cave and a book):
– Set, my new son, my boy,
this is the cave
where an angel brought me as a guide.
It is stored in it
the divine book.
Thou shalt be servant of this wisdom,
but do not show the book to anyone.
When you get old,
hand it over to a man of pure spirit.
If you can't find it,
close the cave entrance
until the time of the future.
Now, dear son,
still want to say
that you go to paradise
take from the tree of life
three seeds.
When I die,
keep them with me in my coffin.

CHORUS 2 and SET:
- My father,
I will put them close to your heart.

CHORUS 1 AND ADAM:
- Then go!

CHORUS (singing, as the scene goes on):
“The Archangel Michael
shone,
protecting Set's task.
And after this,
Adam's coffin, in that cave,
it was well kept
and later the entrance was closed.”

CHORUS 1:
- Time ran,
and the world went dark.
and saw the Lord
that the man did not remember
what was love.
Enoch was then sent.
He was an enlightened being,
and his light sowed. (Enoc passes by like a sower sowing seeds.)
Enoch
did the will of God,
and say he didn't die.
mounted a white horse,
of resplendent wings,
and said to the men:

CHORUS 1 and ENOC:
- Goodbye!
Through the clouds I'm disappearing,
I'm going up to the sky!

CHORUS 2 (while the scene goes on):
– God also sends Noah.
The Archangel Raphael
leads Noah,
and to the grotto he guides you,
and shows the holy book,
that gives you wisdom.
Noah obeys God
and his ark he makes,
thus saving from the flood
many men and animals.

CHORUS 1 (while the scene goes on):
- Without,
son of Noah, saw around him
one day an angel
who ordered him to take Adam's coffin
to a distant hill,
later called "Golgotha".
The earth opened there in the form of a cross,
closing again
after closing Adam.
And Shem saw a great light.

CHORUS 2:
- Said the angel to Shem:

CHORUS 2 and the 2nd ANGEL:
– When the evil grows again,
a new Adam will be born,
the Son of God, the Saviour,
the source of true love
It is really,
the Redeemer of all mankind.

CHORUS 1 and WITHOUT:
- I will be the keeper
this secret of the Lord.

CHORUS 1:
- When will be? When will be
that this Messiah will be born?
After Abraham,
who guided his people;
after isaac
and Jacob, with his twelve sons;
after Jose,
who was sold by the brothers to Egypt
and who gave them food and forgiveness…

CHORUS 2:
- It will be after Moses,
who freed his people from slavery
and crossed the Red Sea on foot;
and Joshua, who at the blast of the trumpets,
he broke down the walls of Jericho;
after David, who played the harp
and sang his psalms to King Saul,
and defeated the giant Goliath;
after your children
loving Nathan and wise Solomon…

ALL:
- One day, one day will come
the Son of God, our Brother!”

END