The voices
Voice of the
universe
Voice of the star
Voice of the angels
Voice of the camels
Voice of the donkey
Voice of the star
Voice of the angels
Voice of the camels
Voice of the donkey
Actors
Star
Gabriel
Mary
Joseph
Donkey
Wise Men
Innkeeper
Camel(s)
Cows
Angels
Shepherds
The Setting
The Manger is set
throughout centre stage in front of the audience. A few empty chairs to the
right and left used as specified. NB The cows are sitting close to the Manger
throughout, and the Angels (except Gabriel) are sitting on the chairs at the
edge of the left side of the stage watching everything which goes on. The Shepherds are sitting on chairs at the
other side of the stage from the Angels. They too watch everything.
Props
Containers for the
gold, frankinsence and myrrh
Carrots for the
donkey
Baby Jesus
Effects
Intermittent
Powerpoint slides and music as specified.
VOICE OF THE UNIVERSE
[No
action during this. Powerpoint images of the world from space, human warfare,
picture of Abram and text of God’s promise to Abram; picture of the 2 tablets
of the commandments; image of the cosmos.]
On the edge of a
remote galaxy
A planet, full of
colour and beauty
And yet, to sensitive hearts, a
planet shrouded in darkness
This planet was home
to human beings
Whose choices and
actions
Spawned a black
night
Which overshadowed
everything
The One Who Made All
Things
Did not, however,
abandon the dark planet
Or write it off as a
failed experiment
But showed a
brooding interest in it
And in its people.
The One Who Made All
Things
Chose a nation,
encouraged them to turn to better ways
Hinted that somehow
the whole of humanity
Would through them be transformed.
Would through them be transformed.
Yet still the
darkness has scarcely begun to lift.
The whole universe
feels the pain
VOICE OF THE ANGELS
[During
this the Angels stand up, and Gabriel enters from the right, looking around him
for Mary. She enters from the left. They meet centre-stage. They are talking. Mary looks
astounded. Gabriel sits down on a seat stage right to await his next appearance. Mary
kneels, praying. Mary sits down beside Gabriel. The Angels sit down and continue
watcing.]
for Mary. She enters from the left. They meet centre-stage. They are talking. Mary looks
astounded. Gabriel sits down on a seat stage right to await his next appearance. Mary
kneels, praying. Mary sits down beside Gabriel. The Angels sit down and continue
watcing.]
One of our number was sent on a mission to earth
To a small dusty town
To a small dusty town
To Nazareth.
It was Gabriel
We did not know the nature of his mission
But we watched, fascinated
as
He spoke to a young
woman called Mary.
She was engaged to
be married to
An admirable young
man called Joseph.
Both belonged to the
chosen nation.
Gabriel told her she
would fall pregnant
That no man, but rather
the One Who Made All things
Would be the Father
Mary was stunned.
We too were stunned
Amazed that the One
Who Made All Things
Should Father a
child,
Send his child into the dark planet Entrust the child to a frail human mother
We did not
understand, then
Nor did Mary, but
she accepted the challenge
‘I will do as you
ask me to,’ she prayed.
That day heaven’s
joy and wonder swelled
In a crescendo of
amazement.
VOICE OF THE STAR
[The star enters from the right. The star stands at one side of the
stage, twinkling. The wise men enter from the left. They point, looking
heavenwards. They mime consulting dusty books or scrolls. They mime packing
their bags, they carefully hold the gold, and frankinsence and myrrh, and pack
it, reverently. They gesture with their hands to summon the camels, and they
enter from the right. The star remains, still twinkling.]
I am the voice of the star
The special star,
put in place
By the One Who Made All things
By the One Who Made All things
High above earth, my
trajectory
Will lead to
Bethlehem.
I looked down, and
saw them
The travellers from
the East
Long before they
began their journey
They observed my
brightness
Plotted my course on their chart of the heavens
Plotted my course on their chart of the heavens
They shook their
heads, and consulted the ancient wisdom
And grew
increasingly excited until
The moment came.
And then they packed
their things
And their precious
gifts
[The wise men and camels walk together to the left moving out of sight
of the audience towards the start of this speech. Powerpoint images of camels
travelling. Powerpoint image of star. Still the star stands, twinkling.]
I am the voice of the camels
The travellers
mounted our high backs
And we journeyed
across the desert
Step by step and
mile by mile
Day by day and night
by night
In mounting
anticipation.
Eyes fixed on the
star, high above
VOICE OF THE ANGELS
[Mary gets up off the chair. Joseph enters briskly, stage left. Mary
walks slowly, holding her tummy. She talks. They seem to be arguing. He shakes
his head, turns, storms to the left side of the stage, stretches out on seats
there, goes to sleep. Mary returns to her seat. The Angels watch with interest.
Gabriel gets up, goes across to Joseph, shakes him awake. Joseph sits up
sleepily. Gabriel and he are talking. Joseph looks gobsmacked. Gabriel sits
down beside Joseph. The star twinkles throughout.]
We took a particular
interest in Mary and Joseph
We saw Mary, pale
and pensive
Hand on her belly
We heard Joseph’s
hard words and her explanation
Her words alone did
not convince him
Sometimes humans are
slow to accept
That what they call
miracle can break into
The comfort of their
routines.
And so Gabriel had
another mission
In a dream-vision
Joseph saw him
And Gabriel said ‘It
is as Mary has told you.
The Father is the
One Who Made All Things.
Support her, be
there for her.
Accompany her’
VOICE OF THE DONKEY
with exaggerated gestures. On ‘My uncle…..’ Mary and Joseph approach the donkey
from their sseats at either side of the stage. Mary pets the donkey.
They feed the donkey
some carrots. They exit stage right. The star twinkles
throughout.]
I’m the voice of the
donkey
It’s ridiculous, if you ask me
Expecting a pregnant teenager to travel so far
Blame the Romans, I say
‘You’ve got to go to the place where you were born,’ they ruled
‘To be counted.’
It’s ridiculous, if you ask me
Expecting a pregnant teenager to travel so far
Blame the Romans, I say
‘You’ve got to go to the place where you were born,’ they ruled
‘To be counted.’
I was born in
Mathias’s stable just across the road
But they weren’t interested in counting donkeys
Thank goodness.
But they weren’t interested in counting donkeys
Thank goodness.
But I’d to go to
Bethlehem
Joseph’s home-town.
It’s ridiculous if
you ask me
Expecting a donkey
Not in the first
flush of youth
(If I may say so)
To bear such a load so
far.
My uncle, who is a
very old donkey indeed
Said it was a
privilege to carry Mary to Bethlehem,
But he didn’t tell
me why.
‘You’ll find out,’
he said
Early one morning,
we set out
Sometimes Mary
walked
But most of the way
I carried her
I listened as they
talked,
Mary and Joseph
About the baby
The child’s Father,
they said
Was One Who Made All
Things
Are not all of us
children of the One Who Made All Things,
The One whose
singing makes glad my old donkey heart
But this
soon-to-be-born, they seemed to say
Was His child in
some special sense
I did not understand
this
We donkeys too have
our routine
VOICE OF THE UNIVERSE
[During the first part of this speech, Mary, Joseph and donkey cross
the stage from right
to left and exit again, while the wise men and camel cross
the stage from left to right and
then exit again before ‘birth of the Child
approached.’ The star still twinkles.]
There were always
lights shining
Through the dark
planet’s night
But as the donkey
neared Bethlehem
And the camels
approached across the desert
And the star shone
And the angels
watched, mesmerised
And a girl and boy
embraced their destiny
And the birth of the
Child approached
More and more lights
shone
Brighter and
brighter lights than ever before
Piercing the
darkness.
And the darkness
shuddered
Pulling a foul cloak
more closely round its shoulders
VOICE OF THE CAMELS.
Powerpoint, a map showing
Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The star, still twinkling
moves away to the right.
Wise men stop mid-stage. The camel
kneels down and tosses
its head sleepily. The wise men approach Herod, and mime
the conversation recounted
by the Voice. Wise men and camel exit stage left. Star moves
closer to centre stage.]
We do not know why we are heading this
way
Clearly the star is
following a different course
But wise though they
may be
These learned men at
times
See what they expect
to see
Rather than what is
And interpret what
they see
According to their
expectations.
And so we trudged
towards Jerusalem,
And stopped outside
the palace.
They will not find
what they are looking for here.
This Prince will not
be found in a palace
(At any rate, not
yet.)
We listened and
watched through the window
The travellers greeted
King Herold, bowing low
His eyes were narrow
and suspicious
‘We’ve come to greet
the new Prince!’ they said.
‘You must be
mistaken,’ he replied suavely.
‘There is no new
Prince here.’
‘Then we must travel
on,
And once more
orientate our course to the Star.’
‘But come and tell
me when you have found the child,’`
Herod said, with a
hint of menace.
‘Come and tell me.’
We dragged ourselves
to our feet once again
And the journey
continued.
But this time we
were comfortable
That the learned men
were on the right course.
VOICE OF THE STAR
[As these words are being spoken the star moves for the first time to
the very centre of the
stage, behind the waiting manger.]
It is hard to be a
sign
Which is
misinterpreted.
I was glad to look
down
And see, once again,
Wise men and camels
following my course.
VOICE OF THE DONKEY
[Mary, Joseph and Donkey enter stage left; Innkeeper sits on a seat
stage right. Mary,
Joseph and Donkey
walk round the edge of the stage, Joseph miming knocking on the
various guest
house doors. Joseph Mary and Donkey
approach the Innkeeper. Joseph
and Innkeeper mime their conversation. The four
walk across to the Manger. The cows
look suspicious. The Innkeeper returns to
his seat stage right. Mary and Joseph sit down,
his arms around her. The donkey
stomps around, and then sits down too. The star still
twinkles.]
Was the whole world
born here?
Narrow streets
crowded with people,
Shouting and smells
and strangeness.
And rude,
bad-tempered animals.
Why did it have to
be me?
I bear her soft,
warm body
Her gentle hand
strokes my neck.
Sometimes she groans
I think her time is
nearly come.
Joseph knocks on
door after door.
His distant
relatives, the hotels and guest houses.
‘Sorry, no room. No
room.’
‘No room, sorry.’
‘Sorry. Not for
tonight.’
Silent tears fall on
my head.
And then a different
response.
‘We’re desperate,’
says Joseph.
‘We’re tired, and my
wife
Is just about to
give birth.’
He didn’t mention
his footsore, patient, thirsty donkey.
He wouldn’t would
he?
‘There’s a stable
round the back,
You could have that.
It’s warm and dry.’
‘Thank you, sir,
Joseph said. ‘Thank you!’
We went round the
back.
And saw the stable.
It was warm-ish
And dry-ish
The cows eyed me
with deep suspicion.
And Joseph found a
quiet corner for me?
Not him!
He sank down on the
straw with Mary in his arms
I had to find my own
space.
And it was hard to
find something to eat
They’d covered up
the food in the manger with a cloth!
VOICE OF THE STAR
[Pause after ‘Above the stable.’ Thereafter, as the speech continues.
Mary holds up Baby
Jesus, cradles him in her arms, kisses him, passes him
gently to Joseph. The Innkeeper and
the animals, except the donkey crowd round
to have a look, and show their wonder.
The
donkey is cross because he is trying to get to sleep and can’t. He
covers his ears and stomps
around. Then the animals return to their positions.
The Innkeeper kneels down behind
them.]
Stars do not
normally stop
The laws of physics
forbid it.
But that day
I stopped, or
appeared to stop
As the One Who Made
All Things had determined
I hung like a pearl
Above the town,
Above the stable.
There was moonlight
too,
But I like to think
that
Some faint ray of my
feeble glory
Shone in her face
and her heart
As the Child was
born.
I saw them coming
down the road from Jerusalem
The travellers from
the East
Slowly and stately
on their camels.
And I saw the
Shepherds in the foothills
Astounded by the
brightness
As wave after wave
of radiant angels
Broke over the
horizon.
I was not close
enough to the earth
To hear the Child’s first
cry.
VOICE OF THE ANGELS
[The
Angels, including Gabriel, stand up. They walk over to the manger, and watch as
Mary and Joseph take it in turns to nurse Baby Jesus. They then walk across to
the
Shepherds and mime the conversation with them as it is described. The
Shepherds are, we
can see, amazed by what they hear.]
A mission for all of us this time, and not just
Gabriel.
We watched as the
child was born
And the mother gazed
on his sweet eyes
And washed him, and
hugged and held him
And laid him down to
sleep.
We were silent in wonder
As we watched the
child
Of the One Who Made
All Things
Entrusted to a dark
unpredictable world
With only a mother’s
arms and a mother’s courage
And a father’s care
to protect him.
A child so unlike
all other children in his begetting
Yet utterly like all
other children in his birth,
And cradling.
‘Go tell the
shepherds,’ we were told.
Not the kings and
politicians and the rich
And those too
preoccupied with success
To have an eye for
glory.
Go to the shepherds,
the riff-raff
Tell them the Prince
is born.
Over the hills we
swept
Our glory sweeping
away the shadows before us
Our song shattering
the silence
A new song
A song we have not
stopped singing since.
‘Don’t be afraid!
A king is born
tonight.
A king for the
outcasts, the riff raff, the stranger
A king for the
learned
Who will be
recognised only by the wise among them.
A king who will
bring peace
To
the universe.
Leave your sheep!
Go to Bethlehem
Find the stable.
Kneel and worship.
VOICE OF THE STAR
[The shepherds get up and cross to the Manger where they kneel down in
front of the Baby
Jesus.]
I saw the shepherds
Dishevelled and half
asleep some of them
Hurrying from the
hill-foots
[The wise men and camel enter from the left and take up position at the
Manger.]
We reached the
outskirts of Bethlehem
And still the star
gave us direction
VOICE OF THE DONKEY
[Donkey sits up and still looks cross and frustrated. He mimes as the
voice speaks, showing
increasingly more interest in the Baby Jesus until he is
silent before the child.]
Can an old donkey not get a good night’s sleep?
Tomorrow, you’ll
want me to be up and off somewhere
But how can you
expect me to have any energy
After a night like
this.
Who is this Child
Whose tears have
pierced my dreams
Is this Child truly
The Son of the One Who
Made All Things
I understand now
what my uncle meant
When he spoke of
privilege
And I brought the
Child here!
What a story to
carry back with me to Nazareth!
VOICE OF THE ANGELS
[All the characters remain around the Manger.]
The Shepherds and
the learned travellers came
[All the characters remain around the Manger]
And the Camels. We were here too.
VOICE OF THE DONKEY
[The donkey mimes saying this indignantly.]
And the donkey
VOICE OF THE ANGES
[The
wise men bring out their gifts on cue. Mary holds the Baby Jesus thoughtfully,
and
smiles.]
And the shepherds worshipped the Child
And donkey and cows worshipped
the Child
And the learned
travellers worshipped the Child
And left their gifts
The gold,
The frankincense,
The myrrh
And we sang the new
song of hope and joy
We did not know what
lay ahead
We wondered how much
Mary knew
As she watched and
wondered and reflected
And smiled a
mother’s smile.
VOICE OF THE UNIVERSE
And the whole universe worshipped the Child
His coming was a new
beginning
His coming a sign
that the dark planet
Would one day be
altogether free of the shadow
His coming a promise that
The One Who made all
things would not abandon the world
His coming a
challenge
To all who loved
light and peace
To be light and to seek peace.
And though there
were some
Who howled with rage
as dawn broke over Bethlehem
And the night’s work
was revealed,
The time will come
The time will come
ALL THE VOICES
[The characters remain around the Manger]
When all creatures
will praise the One Who Made All Things
And praise King
Jesus.
Hosanna in the
highest
The King is among us
A new age is
beginning.
VOICE OF THE DONKEY
[Donkey stands up, looks at the audience, and shakes his head indignantly.]
What??
I don’t believe my
ears.
Egypt?
You want me to take
you to Egypt next?
THE END
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