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The Land of Day’s EndNARRATOR. Once there was a king named Dario, in a place on the Isles of the Sea, where the Sun rests upon the Horizon—the Land of Day’s End. Now King Dario was the richest man in the Land, because his subjects paid him much tribute. His palace was heavily guarded, and he built up huge armies and navies to protect his kingdom. So it came to pass that Dario was not only the richest man in the Land of Day’s End, but also the most powerful, and any who dared to oppose him were thrown in prison. All his subjects lived in fear of his terrible wrath. And yet King Dario was not happy. He called forth his court, brought in his generals, and consulted his doctors and soothsayers. (Enter courtiers, generals, doctors and soothsayers, stand in group before the king. ) DOCTOR. I have examined you thoroughly, Your Excellency. Your heart is rather hard, perhaps, but. . . DARIO. What do you mean? DOCTOR. Huh? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all to worry about, sire. Most people with your condition live very long lives. Very long. I pronounce your health in perfect order. I do not know why you are not happy. What is troubling you? DARIO. I am afraid. GENERAL. Our armies are the strongest in the world, Your Excellency. You need not be afraid. We can conquer all the king’s enemies. DARIO. But not this enemy, General. This enemy is an idea. SOOTHSAYER. We can censor any idea, sire. DARIO. But this idea is within myself. It’s literally a nightmare, gentlemen. I’ve had the same dream every night for months now. It will not leave me in peace. In this dream, a man hands me a book with a blue cover. Suddenly I find myself on a straight and narrow path, alongside a huge river of filthy water. The path is crowded with people of all kinds— rich and poor, bond and free, kings and paupers. To keep from slipping off the path and falling into the filthy waters, we all had to hold on to a rod made out of iron, alongside the path. Some people lost their grip, and perished in the water. Others let go deliberately and wandered onto broad roads that led elsewhere. DOCTOR. Does this path lead to any certain place? DARIO. Yes, there is an exquisite tree on a hill at the end of the path. Everyone who holds onto that rod and stays on that path, arrives at the tree, and becomes very happy. SOOTHSAYER. That sounds like a dream with a happy ending. DARIO. But not for me! I always let go of that rod, and every night in that dream, I always perish in that filthy water. DOCTOR. The answer is quite simple. Just hold onto that iron rod. DARIO. (Wailing.) But Doctor, every night I tell myself: This time I will not let go! This time I will surely hold on. But every night I still let go and perish! DOCTOR. But why do you keep letting go of that iron rod? DARIO. In the dream, there is also a great and spacious building, much like my palace. (Spotlight on great spacious building.) In it are crowds of people, who are laughing at all the rest of us. Since that building looks so much like my house, I keep trying to get there. Every night I think I will be safer in that house, so every night I let go of the rod of iron, and try to get to that house, but I always fall in the river instead. DOCTOR: You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over, and expect different results. DARIO. Oh, this is so terrible. (Wrings his hands.) I think I am going crazy! (Smiles and nudgings among the group.) I’m afraid! DOCTOR. Tell me again, Excellency. How does all this start? DARIO. When a man gives me a book. COURTIER. This is a complex problem, Excellency. Truly one for the experts. So I have the answer. Naturally, you must get rid of the book. DARIO. But I do not know the name of the book! How do I know which book to get rid of? COURTIER. You don’t know. So get rid of all the books in the kingdom. (Other courtiers chant.) Burn the book. Burn the book. NARRATOR. So King Dario burned all books, and word spread throughout the surrounding lands that any visitors to the Land of Day’s End would be thrown into prison, so all the tourists stayed away. Tourism was the biggest industry in the Land of Day’s End, so the king’s subjects became very poor indeed. In fact the people were so poor they could not pay tribute, so the king lost money. And the rains stopped, so a great famine came upon the land, and everyone was miserable. Yet every night the same dream came to King Dario, and every night he suffered the same outcome. And it came to pass, after some years, the prisons were full, and a man came, bearing a book with a blue cover. He was promptly thrown into prison, but the authorities could not find the book to destroy it. Every night in prison, the man would take the book from its hiding place and read it to his fellow inmates. The jailer noticed that as the people listened to the stories, their lives changed and they became happy. So the jailer listened to the stories, and he was convinced that the book was good. So one day the jailer brought the man before the king. (A young man is brought to stand before the king, front left stage.) JAILER. Here is the young man I was telling you about, Your Excellency. His name is Benjamin. DARIO. So, Benjamin. You are the cause of all my trouble. From the day I started dreaming about you, I have lost money. And now there is a famine, and there is no food. BENJAMIN. A famine of truth is even worse, sir. DARIO. Give me that book this instant, so I may destroy it. BENJAMIN. Your Excellency, how can you pass judgment on something when you don’t even know what it is about? And how do you know that destroying this book will save you from your troubles? Your ignorance will not save you. DARIO. Hmm. I must admit that you have a point there, young man. What is this book about? BENJAMIN. It is an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and of their ancestors. It is the story of my people, the Remnant. The “remnant” are descendants of a branch of ancient Israel who journeyed to America six hundred years before Christ. DARIO. Have you heard about my dream? BENJAMIN. Yes, it is quite like the dream of an ancient prophet, described in this book. DARIO. So what does it mean? BENJAMIN. The dream represents our journey through life. DARIO. What is the rod of iron? BENJAMIN. It is the Word of God. DARIO. And what does the exquisite tree signify? (1) BENJAMIN. It is the Love of God. DARIO. Ha! I do not believe in God. I do not believe in anything I cannot see. BENJAMIN. Believing is seeing.(2) DARIO. Exactly! Seeing is believing, I always say. What you see is what you get! That’s my philosophy. BENJAMIN. Then, sir, are you willing to take a look at this book? DARIO. Yes, I would certainly like to see what has caused me so much affliction all these years. BENJAMIN. God has a message for you, sir.(3) (Brothers Brave, the musical. Act 1, scene 1. copyright by Epicworld Productions, 2001) Table Talk. 1. According to Benjamin’s interpretation of the king’s dream, life is a journey. If that exquisite tree represented the end of the day, or your destination in life, what would that tree mean to you personally? 2. “A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it; an [eye doctor] tries to [help] us to see the world as it really is.”(Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, p.132) Which role does Benjamin play in his dialogue with the king? How does this relate to your experience with faith? 3. “One should not seek an abstract meaning in life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.” Others cannot answer for you the meaning of your life. “Each man is questioned by life,” and he is responsible for “answering for his own life.” Thus we see “in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.” “We can discover meaning in our life in three different ways: (1) an achievement or creating a work (2) an experience (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (Frankl, pp.131,133) |
