Sarah and Abraham

Sarah and Abraham was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville. It was first presented as a workshop production at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the 1988 Humana Festival of New American Plays. It was directed by Jon Jory with the following cast:

Abraham	Michael Zaslow
Tom	Edward James Hyland
Jack	William Verderber
Sarah	Beth Dixon
Hagar	Valarie Pettiford
Virginia	Alma Cuervo
Isaac	Jonathan Davidson
Voice of the Narrator	Frederic Major

Originally produced by the George Street Playhouse in 1992. This production was directed by Jack Hofsiss. The cast was as follows:

Abraham	William Katt
Tom	John Hickok
Jack	Steven Keats
Sarah	Tovah Feldshuh
Hagar	Christine Andreas
Virginia	Lee Chamberlin
Isaac	Carlo Alban

INTRODUCTION

When I was in high school, I won a state writing competition with an essay which I titled, “Why Do Good Men Suffer.” Someday, some scholar will say that that was the real title of every play I ever wrote. And that will be right.

This particular bit of suffering was something I wondered about for years, as I sat at church five times a week, reading the Bible because it was there. I couldn’t figure it out. How, or why, or how exactly did Sarah give her maid to her husband?

I don’t claim to have found the answer in this play. But I looked for it anyway.

CHARACTERS

SARAH: the leading actress of an improvisational theatre company.

ABRAHAM: Sarah’s husband, an actor in the company.

HAGAR: a younger actress, formerly a member of this company, now a movie star.

JACK: the artistic director of this company.

WILLIAM: a young actor.

VIRGINIA: a Bible scholar turned playwright.

TOM: the stage manager.

THE ACTION

Takes place during the six-week rehearsal of a small improvisational theatre company.

THE SET

A shabby rehearsal hall, seemingly empty except for beat-up rehearsal furniture and tables for the stage manager, and director. In the corners of the room, however, stand dusty costume trunks or wardrobes, frayed upholstered chairs and chaises, old carpets, worn cushions, and tattered banners—which the actors will use to create the Bronze Age desert kingdom of Sarah and Abraham as they work.

Nothing in the way of set dressing should be brought onstage between scenes until the play reaches the technical rehearsal. Until that time, the stage manager and the actors should manage the props and set pieces themselves.

Sarah, Abraham, Hagar, and Isaac are the actors’ character names, but I have used them throughout the script to indicate both the actor, and the character the actor is playing.

As the written script evolves from the improvisations, it is indicated by quotation marks. Direct quotes from the Bible are indicated by dashes.

 

Sarah and Abraham

ACT I

SCENE I

Tom, the stage manager, wearing jeans, boots and a down vest, is putting down some strips of masking tape on the floor. He works in silence, as Abraham enters. He is quite handsome and fit. You would not for one moment, think that this man was anything on earth but an actor.

ABRAHAM: Hey there.

TOM: Cold enough for you?

ABRAHAM: Tell me about it. Anything I can do there?

TOM: I’m fine. Where’s Kitty?

(Abraham takes off his coat and muffler.)

ABRAHAM: Giving an interview at the Journal. I think. Or maybe it’s one of the TV stations. Why?

TOM: People magazine called.

ABRAHAM: That’s fantastic.

TOM: They want to do a whole story on her! One of their stringers saw the show in previews, told them Kitty was the next Meryl Streep and they should get their ass out here.

ABRAHAM: That’s fabulous. When are they coming?

TOM: Friday. This could really be it for her, you know. Would you go with her, if she got a job?

ABRAHAM: Of course I would. But Kitty’s not going anywhere. She loves this town, and she practically founded this theatre. What does she need New York for? (A moment.) And I don’t totally hate it here. I mean, I like going out to the lake in the summer. And I love Kitty, and believe in what she’s doing. And Jack keeps using me, you know, (A gesture.) Hamlet’s valet’s friend, Romeo’s florist. So, what the hell. I’ll be famous in my next life. (And Jack enters coughing.)

JACK: Cliff. Great. You’re here. I wanted to talk to you. Where’s Kitty?

ABRAHAM: Doing an interview.

(Jack greets the stage manager.)

JACK: Tomashevsky. (And notices the lights are dim.) What? We couldn’t pay the light bill?

(And as Tom turns the lights up, the house lights go down, and we are aware the play has begun.)

ABRAHAM: Now is this true about Monica Mars coming back for this show?

JACK: Sure is. She flew in from L.A. last night.

ABRAHAM: What did you say to her, “Hey, Monica, why don’t you give up your fabulous film deal and come back to your old company and work for nothing?”

JACK: Just about. She doesn’t start shooting again til summer. Why shouldn’t she come?

ABRAHAM: Is she getting top billing or Kitty?

JACK: Kitty will, of course, but that’s what I… (Sees that Tom is listening.) wanted to talk to you about.

ABRAHAM: Me?

JACK: (He draws him aside somewhat.) I mean, I think your work has been real interesting lately. And I feel like we’ve kind of gotten into a rut here, you know, show after show, Kitty Wells was brilliant, Kitty Wells was profound…

ABRAHAM: She is profound.

JACK: I know. So yes, Kitty’s going to get the billing, and Monica’s gonna help us sell some tickets, but (A moment.) this is going to be your show, Cliff. You’re the real star. Or you will be when it’s over. I want you to play Abraham.

ABRAHAM: You’re kidding.

JACK: I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t think you could do it, Cliff. But you’re gonna have to do whatever I say, O.K.?

ABRAHAM: Oh, man. And Kitty’s playing Sarah?

JACK: That’s right. And Monica will play your mistress, but you’ll be the one we’re watching. I mean, who do we remember from this story. Sarah? No. Hagar? No. Abraham. Yes. Abraham the Patriarch. That’s you, guy. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a role like this could do for your career.

ABRAHAM: No. You don’t.

JACK: So are you in?

ABRAHAM: I can’t believe it. This is great. Does Kitty know about this?

JACK: Not yet.

(And now the others enter.)

JACK: But she’s about to. (Brightly.) Good morning.

(Sarah enters, stamping the snow off her boots. She is a handsome midwestern woman in her mid to late thirties.)

SARAH: Hi guys. Jesus, it’s cold.

TOM: Kitty, People magazine called. They’re sending a photographer on Friday.

SARAH: What time?

(Tom is stunned by her lack of excitement. He looks at Abraham, who has an I-told-you-so look.)

TOM: Ten.

SARAH: Thanks, Tom.

(Abraham goes to her, gives her a kiss and takes her bag.)

ABRAHAM: How’d the interview go, hon?

SARAH: O.K., I guess. You know, how do I prepare for a role, what’s it like working with the same people all the time, things like that. But I got the feeling that all she really wanted to know was why was it me on the stage instead of her.

ABRAHAM: Because you’re prettier, that’s why.

SARAH: You didn’t even see her.

ABRAHAM: I didn’t have to.

SARAH: (Kissing him.) Thanks, hon. I’m sorry about that coffee this morning. I must have lost count while I was measuring.

ABRAHAM: I thought it was great, actually. A real stand up cup of Joe.

(Sarah turns to Jack.)

SARAH: So, Jack. Why are we doing a Bible story? People hate the Bible.

JACK: Not if you’re in it, they won’t.

SARAH: Who am I playing?

JACK: Sarah, of course, and Cliff is your Abraham,

(Kitty looks at Cliff, but before she can say anything, Monica enters.)

JACK: —and our own Monica Mars is the pagan princess from Hell. (He goes to her.) Good morning, darling lost one.

(Hagar wears layers and layers of thin cottons. She is exotic and sexy in a completely unselfconscious way, and looks like the movie star she is now. Her hair is out of control, her body is perfect. There is a chorus of Hellos, etc. Hagar has changed from being in Hollywood, but she tries to put them all at ease and get back into the life she used to know here.)

HAGAR: (Looking around.) Oh man, I’ve been so busy missing this (She goes to hug Abraham.) I forgot what a dump it is. Hi Cliff. (She hugs Sarah.) Sarah. That was a great review you got this morning.

SARAH: I’m sleeping with them is how I do it.

HAGAR: Whatever works, hon.

(Jack looks up as Virginia enters. She is a little nervous, and doesn’t seem to know where she is. But she has a natural competence and grace that helps her cover it.)

JACK: There you are. (He goes to her and takes her arm.) And now, I’d like all of you to meet Virginia Mason, world famous Bible scholar and soon-to-be playwright from the University of Wisconsin.

(The others are all somewhat surprised by this. If they didn’t know it before, they know now. Jack is up to something. There is another chorus of Hellos.)

JACK: This is Cliff and Kitty, and Monica Mars, of course, and Tom, over there is our stage manager. (He sees they are waiting for an explanation.) I thought since none of us know jack shit about the Bible, we should have Virginia do the writing on this one. (A moment.) And I heard her speak a few weeks ago and couldn’t get her out of my mind…so, here she is.

(Clearly, Jack has more than a professional interest in Virginia.)

VIRGINIA: I’m so happy to be here. I’ve been a big fan of this company for so long. But I don’t really know very much about the theatre.

JACK: It’s easy. You’ll see. We pick a subject, then we improvise until we get to know the characters and how the story goes. Then you pull the whole thing together and write the scenes. So… (Taking her over to it.) this is our table…

(Sarah sees Abraham staring at Hagar.)

ABRAHAM: (Taking Sarah’s arm.) Our little Monica looks pretty good, doesn’t she?

SARAH: She certainly does.

HAGAR: It’s the money.

JACK: (Holding Virginia’s chair.) And until the costume designer gets here, we just pull our rehearsal clothes out of wardrobe, you know, sandals, black hair.

(Sarah wants Jack’s attention now. She comes up to him.)

SARAH: Jack, maybe it would be fun if I played the maid this time, and Monica played Sarah.

JACK: You’re perfect for Sarah. You’re just exactly who she must have been. Or so Virginia tells me. And if you hate being Sarah, well, then, (A moment.) we’ll know she hated it too.

(Hagar comes to the table.)

SARAH: But Jack…

JACK: (Friendly but a little weary.) Oh for Christ’s sake, Kitty? What do you want? It’s the lead.

SARAH: It’s the wife. I’m always the wife.

HAGAR: And I’m always the one with no clothes on.

JACK: So can we we get started here?

(Sarah watches as Abraham holds Hagar’s chair for her.)

SARAH: (Turning to Virginia.) O.K. Virginia. Tell me quick. Do I die?

VIRGINIA: Night after night.

JACK: (Handing out some papers.) Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our humble hall. Where some night in the early spring we will pounce upon the unwitting audience with the opening of Who was Sarah, Who was Abraham, and (Kissing Virginia on the forehead.) What the Hell Happened to Them.

(And the lights dim or change to indicate a change of scene.)

SCENE II

As the lights come back up, Virginia opens a large map and spreads it out in front of them on the table.

VIRGINIA: (Finishing her sentence.) …so Abraham came down to Iraq to marry Sarah, but he took her home to Turkey to live.

ABRAHAM: Abraham was an Arab?

VIRGINIA: Think of Omar Sharif.

(Abraham leaves the table, and wanders over toward the trunks and discarded furniture.)

SARAH: And what did Sarah do all day?

VIRGINIA: (Looks at Jack, then answers.) She was a High Priest.

HAGAR: A High Priest of what?

JACK: Let’s just call it the old Mesopotamian Moon Worship.

(Abraham has found a couple of old blankets, which he has draped over an upholstered chair, to create a mound that looks like a hillside knoll.)

SARAH: I didn’t know that. How do we know this? Does everybody know this?

VIRGINIA: Just academics, mainly, but word is leaking out. There’s a whole canon of Sarah stories, and hundreds of thousands of coins from the time with her picture on them, and several huge statues found in the temple at…

JACK: (Shaking his head.) Kitty, who Sarah really was is not part of our story here. It’s the Bible version we’re after. How marriage used to be. You loved this man. (Indicating Cliff.) You stood behind him, all the way. When God told him to move, you started packing.

(Sarah nods but doesn’t answer.)

ABRAHAM: (Climbing up his hillside.) Now when God talks to me, particularly the first time, who do I think it is?

(Jack takes some pieces of paper from Virginia.)

SARAH: (Amused.) What are you doing?

ABRAHAM: (Enjoying himself.) Watching my sheep.

JACK: Tom, can we get some copies of this?

(Jack walks out into the playing area, looking for something to use as a prop.)

ABRAHAM: And how old is Abraham now?

JACK: Virginia?

ABRAHAM: (Stretching out.) Have I had my lunch?

VIRGINIA: In Bible years?

ABRAHAM: I’m eating some figs, I think. But where did I get them? Does my robe have pockets?

SARAH: Just rest, Cliff. It’s the first time you’ve been in the shade all day.

(Jack sees what he was looking for, a piece of driftwood, which he hands to Abraham for use as a shepherd’s crook.)

JACK: Here you go.

HAGAR: Jack, I have a little costume fitting at four.

SARAH: How little?

JACK: Hey. It’s hot in the desert, O.K.? (Then to Hagar.) Thanks, Monica. We’ll see you tomorrow.

(Hagar gathers up her things and leaves.)

ABRAHAM: (To Jack.) And what’s going on between Abraham and Sarah right now?

JACK: What do you mean?

ABRAHAM: Well don’t you think they’re having some money trouble? Or maybe things have gotten real routine in the bed or something.

JACK: Sure. That sounds right. (Backs away.) O.K., Tom, you read God. And Abraham, you’re not written yet, so just see how it feels to hear it.

(Sarah and Virginia are whispering about something, and studying the map.)

ABRAHAM: No problem.

TOM: (Reading.) “Abraham.”

ABRAHAM: (As though answering roll call.) Here.

TOM: (Reading.) “Get thee out of thy country,…away from thy kindred…and unto a land that I will show you.”

ABRAHAM: Who is this?

TOM: “Where I will make of you a great nation. Where I will bless you and make your name great. Where I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you. For in your name, Abraham, will all families of the earth be blessed.”

ABRAHAM: (Startled at the impact of it.) Wow.

JACK: Good. You got it. He matters for a change.

ABRAHAM: I know. So is he really going to tell his wife, that some voice told him to move to…California? I mean, if it was me…

JACK: It is you.

ABRAHAM: I’d just say I was tired of being broke and how about if we go to the coast for pilot season and see how we make out. You know, give her a business reason.

JACK: O.K. Now Sarah, darling. There he is. The love of your life.

(She nods and approaches him.)

SARAH: Abraham.

ABRAHAM: (Gestures.) Come on up.

(Sarah, not really in character yet, walks up to his hillside, stops, then sweeps her hair off her neck in a very contemporary gesture of exhaustion.)

SARAH: God it’s hot out here.

(Abraham wipes his forehead with his shirtsleeve.)

ABRAHAM: Yeah. It is. (A grin.) Let’s move.

JACK: (A burst of laughter.) I love it.

ABRAHAM: Thanks.

SARAH: Tom, can you get me a skirt? I can’t do this in pants.

JACK: (Walks up to them.) Now they don’t talk very often, these two. Abraham probably doesn’t even sleep up there most nights. And Sarah’s gone a lot. Sacrificing things, working with the virgins, whatever. So it’s a fairly formal relationship. (A moment.) Tom, what can we use for some shade?

TOM: I’ll see what I can do.

(Jack and Tom search for some kind of shade as Sarah and Abraham talk.)

SARAH: (Playing with the formality.) Greetings, husband. How are your sheep?

ABRAHAM: Not ba-a-ad.

(Sarah has to laugh and punches him affectionately.)

JACK: (To Abraham.) Now this is a really old marriage. Maybe twenty years.

VIRGINIA: Forty.

JACK: And everything is in her name. So Abraham owes this lady.

SARAH: (Getting a cup from the table.) Oh God, don’t tell him that.

JACK: Why not?

SARAH: Then he’ll really hate me.

JACK: He doesn’t hate you.

SARAH: If he owes me, he hates me.

JACK: O.K. now. One more time. Only let’s have it the end of the day, so Abraham’s had time to think about what to say.

(Jack walks over to the table and sits down with Virginia, leaving Sarah and Abraham alone in the playing area.)

SARAH: (The first hint of the Sarah voice.) Good evening, husband.

(Abraham jumps down from his rock.)

ABRAHAM: I can’t do it. The guy may be a jerk, but he’s not stupid. A voice? Come on. He’s not going to tell her…

SARAH: (Calmly.) Maybe Abraham doesn’t have to tell her. Maybe she knows he’s been thinking about something.

ABRAHAM: Good.

SARAH: It could only be two or three things.

ABRAHAM: Right. He’s just got to get out of there.

SARAH: That’s what she thought.

ABRAHAM: Well what choice does he have? I mean, if Abraham doesn’t make his move pretty quick, he might be stuck out here forever, middle of nowhere, trading what… (He looks at Virginia.) his sheep for their sheep? But if he goes to the coast, he can get rich.

SARAH: Rich enough to buy another wife? A wife that won’t be so routine in the bed?

ABRAHAM: I’ll buy you some slaves.

SARAH: I don’t want any slaves.

ABRAHAM: Anything you want then. I always wanted to buy you things, it’s just I didn’t…

SARAH: I want our life to stay the way it is.

ABRAHAM: It’s already changed. As soon as I started wanting something else, it was over, wasn’t it?

SARAH: No. It’s not over til you leave me.

ABRAHAM: I’m not leaving you. All Abraham wants to do is move to the coast.

SARAH: Where everybody leaves everybody and nobody gives a shit.

JACK: Wonderful! Right on the money. God, I had no idea this was so rich. Five minutes everybody. Virginia, are you getting all this, or should we start taping everything? Nice work, Sarah. Really hot.

(Abraham follows Jack out the door to the hallway.)

ABRAHAM: What do you think? Will they see why God picked me?

(Sarah takes a deep breath and walks over to Virginia.)

SARAH: What did Sarah look like?

(Virginia opens a book on the table.)

VIRGINIA: There. Six feet tall and drop-dead gorgeous.

SARAH: What’s that?

VIRGINIA: A divine cloud over her tent. One of the Sarah stories says it was there all the time, like a sign, and her doors were always open, and a light, not a candle, but a mysterious light shone day and night.

SARAH: So, how much does Sarah know about this coast Abraham wants to go to?

VIRGINIA: She’s heard of it, I’m sure, from the traders. But probably the only thing she knows for sure is that they’re heathen. They’re sun-worshippers.

SARAH: Then why would she go with him?

VIRGINIA: Mission work, maybe. Priests like Sarah were always traveling around setting up new centers of moon worship.

SARAH: Actually, I can see worshipping the moon.

VIRGINIA: I know. I can too. Fertility, crops…

SARAH: Mystery, romance…

(And the lights dim to indicate end of scene.)

SCENE III

The actors now have xeroxed pages in their hands. Sarah ties on a rehearsal skirt as Tom sets up a tent-frame to one side, and drapes it with sheets of frayed canvas. Hagar stands at a wardrobe, putting on eye makeup.

JACK: All right, now. Virginia has finished a new scene for us, so we’ll just read through it. Real easy. Just like we did yesterday. Scene One is Abraham hears from God. Scene Two is a trader comes into the camp and describes this terrible famine creeping toward them, giving Abraham just the business reason he was looking for, and this is Scene Three. Abraham talks to Sarah. (He motions toward the set.) O.K. Now, Sarah’s tent will be here on a hill. (Indicating the poles now in the set.) Looking something like this. Poles or something. And it’s one of those long desert twilights. Plain. Campfires glowing,

SARAH: Children playing after supper…

ABRAHAM: Camels and goats tied up for the night…

JACK: It’s your standard desert tribe getting ready for bed. Abraham has finished his rounds, and he climbs the hill to find Sarah.

ABRAHAM: And what is she doing?

JACK: Looking out at the tents.

ABRAHAM: To see if I arranged them right?

SARAH: She likes the way they look.

JACK: Tom, cue Sarah’s music. It’s your line, Abraham.

(Tom punches a tape recorder on his desk, which plays a sacred Mesopotamian melody on a primitive stringed instrument.)

ABRAHAM: (Reading from the script.) “Sarah, my love. I have had some disturbing news from the south. A famine lies upon the land of Canaan.”

SARAH: “I too have heard this news.”

(Jack leans over to Virginia and whispers something we can’t hear. Virginia makes a note in her book.)

ABRAHAM: “We must leave this place. If the famine sweeps north, it could destroy us.”

SARAH: “There is no need to move, Abraham. Our God is pleased with us. Our wells are full. Our prayers will keep them full.”

ABRAHAM: “I would take all who dwell with us, and travel south toward the coastal trading center of… (He checks the pronunciation.) Byblos? Byblos?

VIRGINIA: (Saying it correctly.) Byblos.

ABRAHAM: “For by entering into trade we will not have to depend on our crops and herds to feed us.”

SARAH: “You would leave this land of peace and prosperity, where our storehouses are full, where we have served our God’s purpose, and wander into the land of the Philistines?”

ABRAHAM: “I would stand and greet the Pharaohs when they float their barges to my shore.”

SARAH: “I have seen your thoughts in my dreams, Abraham. You would grow rich in the service of false gods.”

ABRAHAM: “I was born to the desert. But I would end my life in sight of the great sea.”

JACK: O.K. Good.

ABRAHAM: This is great, Virginia. “In sight of the great sea.”

JACK: Let’s go on.

ABRAHAM: O.K., but can I paraphrase some of this, Virginia? It feels a little stilted.

JACK: It is a little stiff, love.

SARAH: I like it stiff.

ABRAHAM: You would.

SARAH: What’s that supposed to mean?

ABRAHAM: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean “you.” That’s what Abraham is feeling. Sarah’s a prude. This is her town and he knows it. That’s why he wants to get away. They worship her here.

SARAH: He knew that when he married her.

ABRAHAM: Well, maybe he didn’t know how tired he’d get, walking up the hill to talk to her.

SARAH: She’ll meet him wherever he says. It’s not her fault she’s a priestess. But they’re depending on her now. The whole tribe.

ABRAHAM: If she doesn’t want to be a Priestess, why doesn’t she quit?

SARAH: Would that make him happy?

ABRAHAM: She’s not interested in making him happy.

SARAH: Yes, she is too.

ABRAHAM: They why won’t she go with him to the coast?

SARAH: She does go with him to the coast, didn’t you read what Virginia gave us?

ABRAHAM: No, not yet. I wanted to…

SARAH: They run smack into this famine, just like Sarah said they would. But when they get to the border, there’s a problem. The Pharaoh needs a priest, they say, and he likes them pretty. So I have to hide in a basket. Then when they find me in the basket, I have to say I’m not your wife, I’m your sister, so they won’t kill you.

ABRAHAM: O.K. Thanks.

SARAH: Only now that I’m your sister, they tie me up, set me on a camel and I spend the next month in the harem.

JACK: The Bible doesn’t say a month.

SARAH: A night, a month, what difference does it make? (To Abraham.) So I ask my Gods and they make it rain. But when the Pharaoh finally finds out I am your wife, not your sister, he’s so mad at what his Gods will do to him for taking me, that he gives me back to you as fast as he can, and heaps all these presents on you and gives me one of his daughters for a maid.

HAGAR: Yes, Ma’am?

SARAH: Only by then, you’re so mad at me, for being right about we never should have come here, that you fuck this maid, and you keep fucking this maid til she gets pregnant.

HAGAR: And whose fault is that?

(Sarah is so upset, she runs out of the room.)

SARAH: It’s not mine, I can tell you that.

JACK: (Calling after her.) Sarah, wait. Where are you going?

SARAH: I don’t know. (She slams out the door.)

(Jack follows her as fast as he can, as Abraham turns to Hagar and shrugs.)

ABRAHAM: What did I say?

HAGAR: (Taking off her sweater.) Is that how the story goes, really?

ABRAHAM: I don’t think so. I mean… (Enjoying this look at her body.) That’s not why I sleep with you, because I’m mad at her.

HAGAR: I don’t care if it is. She never talks to me anyway. She never did. What does she think, it’s some kind of sin to go work in the movies?

ABRAHAM: Maybe she does.

HAGAR: It’s not just her, either. Everybody around here feels that way. As far as I can tell, you’re the only one who’s looking at me and seeing a real person.

ABRAHAM: You’re a beautiful woman.

HAGAR: So if it’s comfort you’re offering me, Abraham, I’m not going to turn you down.

ABRAHAM: I had no idea you were so unhappy.

HAGAR: In Hollywood, we believe in treating people nice.

ABRAHAM: Even men?

HAGAR: Especially men.

(Abraham, slightly uncomfortable, turns to Virginia.)

ABRAHAM: What’s going on? Is Jack coming back?

VIRGINIA: I don’t know.

ABRAHAM: Well, look, it’s almost five o’clock, anyway. I’m leaving.

HAGAR: Yeah. Me too. (To Abraham.) Can you drop me off at the Oyster?

ABRAHAM: Sure.

(Hagar and Abraham put on their coats and prepare to leave as the lights dim.)

HAGAR: Did you ever think about doing a movie?

ABRAHAM: Well, sure I thought about it.

HAGAR: You’d be great.

ABRAHAM: I’d love to do a movie.

(They go out the door. Jack enters from another door.)

JACK: Where’d everybody go?

VIRGINIA: They went to the Oyster. They said rehearsal was over.

JACK: Goddamn him.

VIRGINIA: Who, Cliff?

JACK: Do you find him attractive? (Then quickly.) No. Don’t answer that.

VIRGINIA: Of course he’s attractive. Isn’t that why you cast him?

JACK: Let’s get you back to the hotel, what do you say?

(Lights change or dim for the end of the scene.)

SCENE IV

Sarah and Jack are alone in the room.

SARAH: Are you mad at me?

JACK: Of course not. Why should I be mad at you?

SARAH: I thought we were doing something last night.

JACK: Jesus. I’m sorry. I got talking with Virginia and…

SARAH: I just feel so…I mean, when the only time I see you is in rehearsal, I…I miss you.

JACK: I’m sorry, sweetheart. Can we do it tonight? We’ll drive out to Harry’s and drink them all under the bar, what do you think?

SARAH: I think they’re probably all still under the bar from the last time we were at Harry’s.

JACK: Damn right they are.

SARAH: It’s all right. I think I’ll just go home tonight. I’ve been really beat lately. But what I wanted to say was…I feel like you’re not on my side. You’re making Sarah this imperious bitch who lords it over everybody.

JACK: No, you’re just feeling like an imperious bitch because that’s who Sarah was.

SARAH: She was not. Everything she did was for somebody else.

JACK: I’m sorry about our date. Can we do it tonight?

SARAH: No, that’s all right. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. Maybe it’s Monica.

(Virginia enters.)

JACK: It always was Monica, as I remember. (He kisses her.) Virginia, Kitty thinks we’re making Sarah too pushy.

SARAH: What if we had a scene between Sarah and the Pharaoh in the harem? Where Sarah gets to dance or something.

JACK: The audience doesn’t care about the Pharaoh. And she didn’t sleep with him. Right, Virginia?

VIRGINIA: No, all they did was perform the Sacred Marriage.

SARAH: And that’s not sleeping with him?

VIRGINIA: No, that’s him sleeping with your virgins while you watch.

SARAH: For what?

VIRGINIA: Rain.

JACK: She was celibate, O.K.? Priests could have households and husbands, but no sex.

SARAH: She was in the harem for a month, Jack. Who knows what happened? Are you afraid the audience won’t like me if I’ve had a lover? I mean, I know Abraham didn’t want her. But the Pharaoh was a different kind of man. He wasn’t afraid of her power. Maybe he even got off on it. Sarah would’ve liked that.

JACK: I’m sure she would.

SARAH: So what if she risked herself for once? Would that be so terrible? Sarah spends an evening with an elegant stranger? Someone with some charm? Talking about something other than sheep? Lifting a glass, forgetting who she was, sinking backward, her robe slipping off her shoulders? (Turns to Virginia.) Would it?

VIRGINIA: No.

JACK: No, what?

VIRGINIA: That wouldn’t be so bad.

JACK: It would be horrible. How could we believe in her after that? What is the problem here?

SARAH: My problem is, Abraham falls in love with that little whore and it’s not fair.

JACK: Go on.

SARAH: This girl’s not like all the others. Couldn’t Sarah just have one happy scene before she loses her husband to this Hagar?

JACK: All what others?

SARAH: Darling director, my husband has had every virgin in the valley.

JACK: Physically. Yes. He has wives and children in the village. But that doesn’t mean Abraham loved these women. He probably just didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

SARAH: Keep up the morale, you mean.

JACK: It’s you he loves. You and you alone.

SARAH: It’s O.K., Jack.

JACK: It’s not O.K. You’re a beautiful woman. The most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. From the first moment he saw you…

SARAH: Please.

JACK: …when you interpreted his dream, he has known that he was not free, that his passion for you was …

SARAH: (Amused.) All right. We get the idea.

JACK: It’s more than an idea. He loves who you are and what you can do. There’s not a woman in the world who could compare to you.

SARAH: He has said that.

JACK: All he wants is to spend the rest of his life with you. Protect you, care for you, give you everything you need.

SARAH: O.K. Yes. I mean, he does still live with me, so that’s something.

JACK: He is yours, Kitty. Yours alone.

SARAH: (Carefully.) I think he’s already sleeping with her.

JACK: Absolutely not. I would know it if he was.

(Abraham and Hagar walk in laughing.)

HAGAR: Well, it seemed kind of silly to ask them to close the set for the nude scene, when everybody who sees the movie’s gonna see me nude anyway.

SARAH: All right. But he wants to.

JACK: (To Abraham.) Where’s my sandwich?

ABRAHAM: Right here. Tomatoes and lettuce.

JACK: He hasn’t slept with her. He hasn’t even seen her. She’s your property. You made rain, and the Pharaoh gave you his little girl to say thanks. (He takes the sandwich.) O.K.? (He takes a bite.) And Abraham got some gifts too, some camels, some…(Struggling to think of them.) camel blankets, some camel saddles, some drivers, some food for the camels, a couple of camels’ hair coats, and the weight of twelve big camels in solid gold bars. (Jack looks around at the group.) All right?

SARAH: He gets the money, and I get the maid.

JACK: And then…

SARAH: And then he gets the maid.

ABRAHAM: (Taking off his coat.) You said you didn’t want a maid.

(And the lights change to indicate a change of scene.)

SCENE V

Lights come up on Hagar, humming a melody we haven’t heard before, brushing Sarah’s hair. The actors carry their scripts, but don’t read from them. Sarah is in a foul mood.

JACK: Any time, Sarah.

SARAH: She’s hurting me.

HAGAR: She is not.

SARAH: And why can’t I talk to her? The audience isn’t going to know we didn’t speak the same language.

JACK: What would you say?

SARAH: It wouldn’t matter what I said. It would just give us some way to…

HAGAR: Get to know each other? Borrow each other’s clothes?

SARAH: It doesn’t have to be so ugly.

HAGAR: It’s not ugly. I’m a slave, for God’s sake. Let me be one.

JACK: Tom, read the narrator again, please.

SARAH: Are we actually having a narrator or not?

JACK: Maybe. Go Tom.

(As Tom reads, Abraham walks into the playing area, wearing a calf-length robe, tying a rope around his waist.)

TOM: (Reading from the Bible.) —And when the famine had ended, Abraham took his wife Sarah and the slave girl and all who had been with him in Egypt, and his nephew Lot, and dwelt in Bethel, in Canaan.— (Abraham comes to stand beside Tom.)

TOM: —And Abraham walked with Lot to the top of a hill from which they beheld the plain of Jordan.—

ABRAHAM: “Choose which lands thou wouldst have, for thy family.”

TOM: —And Lot saw (Tom notices Abraham’s coat.) Nice coat.

ABRAHAM: Thanks.

TOM: —And Lot saw that the plain of Jordan was well supplied with water and so chose him that part, setting his tents toward Sodom.—

(Tom keeps reading, but goes back to his table and sits down.)

TOM: —And when Lot had departed, the Lord spoke to Abraham saying—

ABRAHAM: —Lift up your eyes, to the north, the south, to the east and the west. For all the land that you can see I give to you and to your seed forever.—

(Sarah stops Hagar from brushing and speaks to Abraham. He turns around, as though he had been relating this incident to her.)

SARAH: “And who was this God, my husband? By what name did he call himself?”

ABRAHAM: (Quoting the Lord.) —I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.—

SARAH: (Indicates to Hagar to kneel back down.) “And how did he appear unto you?”

ABRAHAM: “As a smoking furnace with a burning lamp passing through it.” (Abraham is transfixed by Hagar.) “He said he would make me a covenant.” (Hagar blushes.)

ABRAHAM: “‘Unto thy seed,’ he said, ‘have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.’”

SARAH: “Go on, my husband.”

ABRAHAM: “He said he would give me as many descendants as there were stars in the sky.”

SARAH: “And what response did you make to this God.”

ABRAHAM: “I said, ‘Behold, my Lord, to me thou has given no seed.’”

(Sarah opens a trunk, making a loud noise, gets something out and closes the trunk.)

SARAH: (Very strong.) “Seed your Lord has given you in abundance, Abraham. But yet no heirs.”

JACK: You can’t help it, Abraham. You have to ask who this chick is.

ABRAHAM: “Sarah. Good wife, this chick is new to your household.”

SARAH: “She is called Hagar, my husband. The daughter of the Pharaoh, whom he has given me as a servant. But she speaks not our language.”

ABRAHAM: “I see that she is lonely.”

SARAH: “She has been trained only in art of giving pleasure. But she is young yet. We will find other occupations for her.”

(Tom rings a soft gong, a signal to Sarah. But something is stopping her from speaking.)

JACK: You have another line, Sarah.

SARAH: “Remain here for a moment, husband. I have sent for my scribe, and would take counsel with her.”

(Sarah walks away, leaving Abraham and Hagar alone.)

JACK: Thanks.

SARAH: Would I really leave them alone?

JACK: You’re not afraid of a slave girl. And even if you are, you’re certainly not going to show it, O.K.?

(The melody Hagar was humming before, now returns played on a flute or other primitive stringed instrument. Sarah stands near Virginia just outside of the playing area, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest.)

SARAH: It’s all over, isn’t it. From the first moment he sees her.

VIRGINIA: Pretty much.

(Sarah watches intently as Jack talks Hagar and Abraham through their blocking.)

JACK: All right, Hagar. Back up, then bow, then kneel. And that’s still not enough, and so prostrate yourself. Now Abraham. Show us you’re tickled by this bowing and scraping, but don’t move toward her yet. Now. Bend slightly, from the waist.

ABRAHAM: “Oh poor child, does your mistress never speak to you?”

(Hagar runs across the space and clings to his feet.)

HAGAR: “Master! You speak as one of my own family.”

ABRAHAM: (Has to laugh.) “Yes, Princess. I learned your language from the traders. (Helping her up.) It is a beautiful tongue, and pleasing easy in my mouth. But I am afraid I yet know only the words for buying and selling.” (She sinks back to her knees and rests her head against his thigh.)

HAGAR: “Say those words then, Master, that I may love thee for speaking them.”

ABRAHAM: (Lifting her up again.) “Your price is too high, sir. I will offer you half.”

HAGAR: “Kind sir, I would accept half from such a man as you.”

ABRAHAM: “But I would pay four times.”

(She stops and he catches her in his arms.)

HAGAR: “Then what is it I may sell you, my Lord?”

(Abraham laughs easily, and sweeps her up in his arms.)

ABRAHAM: “Wonderful girl. Wonderful.”

JACK: That’s great, Virginia. Perfect. Only I think we can do without her tongue and his mouth, or whatever that…

VIRGINIA: (Has to laugh.) Right.

(Suddenly, Hagar bursts into a mocking improv of the scene, pulling Abraham down to the floor with her.)

HAGAR: Take me master, Kill me. Take as long as you like!

ABRAHAM: But what would my wife say?

HAGAR: Nothing I could understand, my darling.

(Abraham sweeps Hagar up lightly now, and before he realizes what he is doing, he kisses her happily and comfortably, with what everybody recognizes immediately as easy intimacy.)

ABRAHAM: Wild about you.

HAGAR: (Embarrassed.) Why didn’t anybody warn me about these Turks?

(But it’s no good to try and hide it. She and Cliff are lovers. And Sarah knows it.)

JACK: (Nervously.) O.K. Let’s go back to…

SARAH: No. Let’s go on.

JACK: Let’s take a break, sweetheart.

SARAH: I have sent for my scribe and would take counsel with her. (Looks around.) Come on, Virginia.

VIRGINIA: I can’t.

SARAH: Yes, you can.

JACK: (Realizes the seriousness.) Try it, Virginia. Tom, you take notes. Abraham and Hagar, off to the side please.

(Virginia walks uneasily into the playing area, feeling completely out of place. She is not an actor and that is apparent, at the beginning.)

VIRGINIA: (Nervously.) Yes, my Lord.

SARAH: They’re lovers.

VIRGINIA: Not yet, Your Highness.

SARAH: Oh for Christ’s sake, Virginia.

VIRGINIA: I’m sorry, Mistress.

SARAH: (Furious, her thoughts running together.) She cries a few fake tears about being lonely and he’s takes her right to bed. Does everybody know about this?

VIRGINIA: This is the first I’ve heard, Madam.

SARAH: (Has to laugh.) I like “my Lord” better.

VIRGINIA: I do too.

SARAH: O.K. (To Jack.) Get ready, you guys. I’m going straight to the giveaway if I can. Let’s go back, Virginia.

(Sarah and Virginia take their original positions.)

VIRGINIA: Yes, my Lord. You sent for me.

SARAH: My husband, Abraham, would take the Egyptian girl, Hagar to his bed.

VIRGINIA: (Looks up from her writing.) Send her away, my Lord. She is not respectful of our ways.

SARAH: I cannot. I fear that Abraham would follow her.

VIRGINIA: Then you must let him go.

SARAH: (Pacing, working hard to find this.) I cannot. He has served me well.

VIRGINIA: (Disagrees.) He has lived well for serving you.

SARAH: He has not had a wife as other men.

VIRGINIA: He has children in the valley. And women to serve him.

SARAH: He would have his own child in his own house.

VIRGINIA: And where is it written that a man shall have his own child in his own house?

SARAH: (Holds up her hand for Virginia to stop.) Such a law does not have to be written.

VIRGINIA: But as a High Priest, you cannot bear his child.

SARAH: No. But I could take their child as my own, could I not?

VIRGINIA: Yes, that is your right.

SARAH: (Carefully.) Then that is what I will do.

VIRGINIA: Why, my Lord?

(Sarah struggles to find the answer, looking at Abraham, who has turned his back on her, pretending not to pay attention.)

SARAH: (Finally.) My Abraham is a comfort to me.

JACK: Great. And…wait a beat and…Hagar. Scream.

(Hagar screams, but it is hard to tell whether it is extreme pain or pleasure.)

JACK: O.K., Sarah. Go get the little bitch. Just remember, neither of you understands a word the other says.

(Sarah stalks over to Hagar, who screams again at the sight of her.)

HAGAR: No, Lady! God save me. Help me! She’s going to kill me!

SARAH: (Pulls Hagar up from the floor.) Get up, you.

HAGAR: Where are you taking me? Please! Abraham!

JACK: Abraham, get into Sarah’s tent!

ABRAHAM: Uh-uh. I don’t go in there unless she invites me.

JACK: She sent for you.

ABRAHAM: (Actually worried.) O.K. O.K.

(Sarah jerks Hagar to her feet outside the tent.)

HAGAR: You’re hurting me!

(Sarah holds the girl firmly.)

SARAH: You are the daughter of the Pharaoh.

HAGAR: (Pleading.) What did I do?

SARAH: (Rearranging Hagar’s dress.) Stand up straight.

HAGAR: Please, Mistress…

SARAH: And don’t beg.

JACK: Fabulous. Right on in, now. And your cheating ass when they get there. (Sarah and Hagar walk in upright and regal, both of them, and stop about six feet from Abraham. He bows.)

SARAH: Feed it to me, Virginia. Right from the Bible.

VIRGINIA: (Quietly.) Behold Abraham, my God has restrained me from bearing. I pray thee…—

SARAH: O.K. I know the rest of it. (To the still bowed Abraham.) Behold, Abraham.

(Abraham eases himself up, but he is not at all comfortable with the two of them standing in front of him.)

SARAH: My God has restrained me from bearing.

(He nods.)

SARAH: I pray thee…— (Sarah picks up Hagar’s hand and looks straight at Abraham.) Go in unto my maid.—

(Abraham backs up. Sarah takes one step toward him, with Hagar.)

SARAH: For it may be that I obtain children by her.—

(Hagar looks at Sarah, but Sarah will not return her glance, but instead keeps her eyes focused on Abraham. Jack picks the Bible off the table and reads.)

JACK: And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah.

ABRAHAM: I am yours to command.

JACK: (Continuing to read.) —And in the tenth year that Abraham had dwelt in the land of Canaan, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian…

(Sarah lifts Hagar’s hand to Abraham. He hesitates, Sarah takes another step toward him, and places the girl’s hand in his, and steps back.)

JACK: …and gave to her husband Abraham to be his wife—

(Hagar kneels before Abraham and kisses the hem of his robe. Abraham bows to Sarah, then straightens up and tries to compose himself, as Hagar strokes his feet. Sarah nods to him to get Hagar up. He reaches his hand down to the girl and lifts her to her feet.)

SARAH: (Quietly.) So be it.

(There is silence onstage. Abraham looks up at Sarah. Then Jack can’t help himself.)

JACK: Jesus Christ. When you held out your hand like that, my heart was…

SARAH: Thanks.

JACK: There’s not another actress in this whole country with that kind of power, Kitty.

(Hagar brushes by Sarah and gives her a good-natured hug.)

HAGAR: I’m impressed.

ABRAHAM: (Finally come up to Sarah.) I’m sorry. I can’t just stand here and not grab you.

SARAH: (Seems especially moved.) Thanks, sweetheart. I love you too.

JACK: O.K. team. Everybody that’s not involved in that hug, can go home. But Abraham…

(Abraham breaks out of the embrace with Sarah.)

JACK: Could I see you for a minute?

(Abraham looks quickly over to Hagar.)

ABRAHAM: Can’t do it now, Jack.

(Abraham realizes everybody is looking at him. Sarah has seen this glance at Hagar, and so has Jack.)

ABRAHAM: I promised Paul I’d go with him to pick up the tents.

(But they all know this is a lie.)

JACK: How about after the show tonight?

ABRAHAM: Can’t do that either. How about Friday before rehearsal?

JACK: Good. Ten-thirty, then. Coupla things I want to talk to you about.

(Lights dim or change for end of scene.)

SCENE VI

Jack is pacing. Cliff is waiting. Virginia sits quietly.

JACK: Old Sarah’s a smart girl.

ABRAHAM: No kidding.

JACK: So what does she see in you?

ABRAHAM: I never thought about it.

JACK: She should dump you so fast.

ABRAHAM: Because of Hagar, you mean.

JACK: You’re not even trying to hide it!

ABRAHAM: This is not like other marriages, Jack. It’s more like a little corporation. We’re business partners, Sarah and me. What I do on my time is my business.

JACK: I see that, I do, it’s just this problem with the audience.

ABRAHAM: What do you mean?

JACK: They’re going to hate you.

ABRAHAM: Hate me?

JACK: Yeah. It looks like you used Sarah’s influence to get rich, and then you dumped her for a piece of Egyptian tail.

ABRAHAM: Not on purpose I didn’t. It’s in the script.

JACK: I give up.

ABRAHAM: What? If it’s about my work, just tell me. Maybe you’d like a little more nobility.

JACK: What I’d like is a little more respect for your wife.

ABRAHAM: (Getting out his notebook.) O.K.

JACK: I mean, Sarah is funny and smart, so you wouldn’t be making it all up, right?

ABRAHAM: Abraham loves Sarah, Jack. He always has. It’s just time for her to lose one.

JACK: It’s more than one she’s losing.

ABRAHAM: O.K. She’s losing the whole thing. But nobody gets to stay on top forever.

JACK: That’s as wrong as it can be. Abraham does not have attitude, Cliff. Now please. The audience wants to love you. All we have to do is stay out of their way.

ABRAHAM: (Taking a note.) No attitude.

VIRGINIA: I need to make a call.

(He nods to her and she leaves.)

JACK: Good. Now. Let’s go on to Hagar. What do you want from her?

ABRAHAM: Sex.

JACK: Just sex?

ABRAHAM: No it’s not just sex. It’s sex the way I like it. Right?

JACK: No. That’s not enough.

ABRAHAM: O.K., then. How about how much money I could make in Egypt as Hagar’s husband?

JACK: Can’t you have some passion for the girl?

ABRAHAM: Passion.

JACK: I want you obsessed with her. You can’t think of anything else. Night and day, you smell her perfume, you hear her sigh, you feel her fresh young limbs wrapped around you.

ABRAHAM: (Making a note.) Sure.

JACK: Because the audience see, the audience can forgive you passion.

ABRAHAM: Yeah, this is great.

JACK: And Abraham is a passionate man. He loves his God and follows his orders, and he loves these two women, one a priest, and the other a slave. Now that’s a story we can sell.

ABRAHAM: You’re doing a helluva job on this. Does that about take care of it?

JACK: Unless you have some idea what this God sees in you.

ABRAHAM: I do what he says, that’s what it is. God’s going to make me the father of millions, and I’m going to give him all the credit.

JACK: O.K., then. Be nice to Sarah.

ABRAHAM: I miss talking to her.

JACK: What a great idea.

ABRAHAM: Thanks.

JACK: Try to find a moment to show us that. Where are you off to?

ABRAHAM: Monica gave me this agent’s name to call. You ever thought about films?

JACK: From time to time.

(Abraham goes out the door, as Sarah is coming in.)

ABRAHAM: Hi.

SARAH: Cliff, could you come out to the house sometime and…nevermind.

ABRAHAM: O.K.

(Cliff leaves and Kitty walks on into the room.)

JACK: What was all that about?

SARAH: Cliff has moved out. I guess. He hasn’t been home for a week.

JACK: Is that so bad?

SARAH: I don’t know. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.

JACK: What do you mean?

SARAH: I’m pregnant.

(Jack is stunned. But he knows enough to be enthusiastic.)

JACK: Kitty. That’s wonderful. A baby!

SARAH: I know. It’s the strangest feeling.

JACK: Uh. Have you and Cliff…

SARAH: Do I know whether it’s his baby or yours? No. I don’t.

JACK: Kitty, we only had that one… (He stops.) And that’s all it takes. Jesus. (He stops.) What are you going to do?

SARAH: Well, I think we can pretty much tell what your response is.

JACK: Kitty, please…

(Virginia walks back in with Hagar. Tom approaches from backstage.)

HAGAR: Virginia. Great scarf.

VIRGINIA: Thanks.

TOM: Jack, do you want me to schedule those auditions for this afternoon?

JACK: So, what do you think, folks? Should we cast somebody as God and have him walk around like he was really there, or what?

SARAH: What do we need God for if we’ve got you?

(And as Virginia laughs, the lights change for the end of the scene.)

SCENE VII

Abraham and Sarah are pacing, going over their lines. Hagar is standing in the center of the playing area, as Tom helps her adjust the pregnant padding under her sweater. She is cranky and uncooperative.

TOM: How’s that?

HAGAR: God, I forgot how repulsive this pregnant get-up was.

ABRAHAM: (With a wink in his voice.) There are some of us who find it very attractive.

JACK: (Furious at him.) Oh for God’s sake, Abraham. Can we just do the scene?

SARAH: The scene is well underway, it seems to me.

(Hagar, kneels down in the center of the playing area, picks up her script from the floor.)

HAGAR: The scene is bullshit.

JACK: Some time has gone by. Hagar is pregnant, but one night, Sarah yelled at her, and she freaked out and ran away from camp. So this is what happens when the men bring her back. Abraham, you start.

(Abraham clears his throat, then goes to stand by the kneeling Hagar.)

ABRAHAM: (Reading.) “Hagar begs your forgiveness, my love, for running away, and for cursing you in public. She asks that you punish her in front of the entire household, so they may learn from the error of her ways.”

(Sarah comes a step closer.)

SARAH: “And she promises to behave toward me with respect?”

ABRAHAM: “She does.”

SARAH: “I would hear this promise from her lips.”

ABRAHAM: “Say to the lady,”

HAGAR: (Standing up.) Didn’t anybody hear me before? This scene is bullshit! I am not some whining little slut who’d run off into the desert just because Sarah yelled at me.

JACK: Actually, darling, I’m afraid you are right now. But by the end of the play…

HAGAR: And Virginia hasn’t got a clue how hard it is to be a slut.

VIRGINIA: That’s true.

HAGAR: How can Sarah be mad at me for getting pregnant? Isn’t that why she gave me to him?

SARAH: I’m doing everything I can to make you comfortable.

HAGAR: I’m pregnant, darling. I’m not going to be comfortable.

SARAH: I’ve even given you your own tent.

HAGAR: With a fucking guard outside it night and day.

SARAH: In case you need anything.

HAGAR: Great. Tell him to bring me three weeks worth of food and water and a camel.

JACK: Virginia, can Sarah let Hagar go?

VIRGINIA: No, she can’t. It would be a major diplomatic embarrassment to the Pharaoh.

SARAH: And you can’t go out in the desert, because you might lose the baby.

HAGAR: And once I have the baby, there’ll be some other reason I can’t leave, won’t there? Like the slave traders will swoop down on me and steal him.

SARAH: Isn’t this what the script says, you despise me?

HAGAR: I’m a prisoner here! You’re using me to hold onto your husband.

SARAH: If you would make an effort to learn our language, you might have something to do other than wait for my husband’s visits.

HAGAR: Abraham is eighty-six years old. Do you think we have a good time in my tent?

SARAH: Well, you should’ve thought of that before you went after him.

HAGAR: I’m sorry, Ma’am. But your husband didn’t take going after, he only took holding still for.

SARAH: Of all the goddamn…

ABRAHAM: (To Hagar.) Please, darling, maybe you should…

JACK: Don’t call her darling!

ABRAHAM: (Turning to Jack.) Maybe we should start again from the top.

JACK: Hagar.

HAGAR: My name is Monica.

JACK: Abraham loves you. But you can’t leave the camp before the baby is born.

HAGAR: Why not?

JACK: Because if Sarah doesn’t adopt the boy, then he won’t be legitimate.

HAGAR: I don’t care whether he’s legitimate or not!

JACK: Well, Abraham does. This is the baby the voice told him he would have. This baby will grow up to be Ishmael, the ancestor of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.

HAGAR: I don’t care who he grows up to be. I can’t say these lines.

ABRAHAM: Are there particular lines you’re…

JACK: Abraham, shut up.

HAGAR: Don’t you know what’s going to happen to this baby when I have it? Sarah is going to take him away! Here she stands, everybody treating her like some kind of goddess, and all the time, she’s planning to steal my child. (Tearing off her pregnant padding.) Now when in this goddamn play do I get anything except screwed?

SARAH: (Wearily.) Would you rather I just kill you?

HAGAR: Why don’t you just do this play without me.

JACK: We can’t.

SARAH: If you won’t say the lines, we’ll have to. This is the theatre.

HAGAR: (And she turns to leave.) This is your theatre, Sarah. And every show is your show. Well, I say, the hell with you.

JACK: No! Monica!

HAGAR: What!

SARAH: Jack…

JACK: Monica, I’ve got an idea.

HAGAR: (Getting her coat from the piles.) Tell it to my manager. I’m leaving.

JACK: (An offering.) How about a new scene where…

(She stops.)

JACK: …if you’ll go back and apologize to Sarah, God will give you whatever you want.

SARAH: I thought we weren’t having a God.

JACK: Virginia, can Abraham…

VIRGINIA: (Thinking quickly.) Yes, he could. The Bible says an angel of God came to see Hagar in the desert.

JACK: Great. Abraham will come find you.

HAGAR: And say what?

JACK: And say whatever you want.

HAGAR: I want to go home.

JACK: I know we can work this out.

SARAH: But why should we? Is she the last whore in the world?

ABRAHAM: She’s the last one whose father is King of Egypt.

SARAH: What does that mean?

ABRAHAM: It means she’s good for business.

(Sarah turns away in contempt.)

ABRAHAM: You remember business.

JACK: Virginia. What does Hagar want?

VIRGINIA: It’s something for Ishmael.

HAGAR: What for Ishmael?

VIRGINIA: You want a promise that Ishmael won’t have to worship the moon.

HAGAR: Yeah. It’s weird to worship the moon.

VIRGINIA: You want him to follow your religion, not Sarah’s.

HAGAR: Keep talking.

VIRGINIA: When Abraham learns you ran away, he goes out into the desert and finds you, and promises you that Ishmael can worship the sun instead of the moon. And to prove it, he promises to have the boy circumcised, like your brothers and your father in Egypt.

HAGAR: And what else.

VIRGINIA: And himself too. Abraham has to circumcise himself too.

HAGAR: And what else.

VIRGINIA: (Can’t think of anything else.) And all the men in the tribe.

HAGAR: Okay. That’s good. It means I stand for something.

ABRAHAM: It’s great. It’s exactly what we were missing.

JACK: And you’ll come back?

VIRGINIA: (Quietly.) Amazing.

HAGAR: I’ll come back.

VIRGINIA: I bet that’s exactly the way it happened.

JACK: O.K., then. That’s what we’ll do.

HAGAR: (Putting her coat back on the hook.) And I can apologize real good to Sarah. Wash her feet or something.

SARAH: (Frosty.) That won’t be necessary.

(There is complete silence. Sarah puts on her coat.)

JACK: O.K., everybody. I guess that’s all, until Virginia gets this written.

VIRGINIA: Jack, how is Abraham going to explain this circumcision business?

JACK: I don’t know.

SARAH: It’s easy. Abraham just climbs up to my tent one day and says, “I’m living with Hagar now and she’s got this thing about my dick.” (And with that, she heads for the door.)

(Jack motions behind her back for Hagar to say something to Sarah.)

HAGAR: (Walks over to Sarah.) Look, I’m sorry I made such a scene. My real problem is…you’re so damn good. It’s why I left the company in the first place. I mean, you’re a real actor. I’m just an entertainer. You’ve got all this wisdom and power, and all I’ve got is good legs.

SARAH: (Seems disoriented.) It’s just a difference in the way we work. I’m real technical, and you’re…

HAGAR: Hollywood trash.

SARAH: No, that’s not what I was going to say. You’re O.K. You’re better than you know. You’re what everybody wants. Even me. I would give just about anything for a little entertainment right now. (To Jack.) You’re through with me for today, right?

JACK: Sure.

SARAH: See you at half-hour.

(And there is a half-hearted chorus of Yeah, Bye, etc., and Sarah leaves the room.)

HAGAR: (To Virginia.) I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings.

VIRGINIA: You had to. I hadn’t been paying much attention to you.

HAGAR: To Hagar, you mean.

VIRGINIA: Hagar is the only woman in the Bible that God ever talked to directly, you know.

HAGAR: Well, maybe you’ll put that in somewhere.

(Jack jerks Abraham aside.)

JACK: Are you a complete fool? Don’t you see what you’ve done?

ABRAHAM: What?

JACK: You treated Sarah like shit. So she treated Hagar like shit, and now we all have to get circumcised. (A moment.) You promised me you would be nice to Sarah.

ABRAHAM: Well, I guess it didn’t work for me.

JACK: It didn’t work for you? All right, Cliff. Fine.

(Abraham takes Hagar’s arm, completely unruffled by his conversation with Jack.)

ABRAHAM: Ready, love?

HAGAR: (Taking his arm.) Yes, sir.

VIRGINIA: (Trying to help.) Jack. How about some lunch?

JACK: What?

VIRGINIA: You know. What God did in the middle of the day.

JACK: Sure.

(After Abraham and Hagar leave, Jack turns to Virginia.)

JACK: Do you see what’s happening? He’s forgotten who gave him this fucking part. He thinks it’s all him, he thinks this whole thing is working because of him. (Slowly and bitterly.) Well, I know how to fix that.

(Virginia says nothing and the lights go to black.)

END OF ACT I

 

ACT II

SCENE VIII

A single light comes up on Abraham. Sarah sits at the table. Jack calls out from the shadows.

JACK: Cliff, have you got anything to eat?

ABRAHAM: There’s a ham sandwich in my bag. I ordered meatloaf, they gave me ham.

JACK: You don’t want it?

ABRAHAM: I hate ham. It’s bad for you. There oughta be a law against it.

(Jack gets the sandwich from Abraham’s bag.)

JACK: Thanks. O.K., guys. Scene Eight.

(Abraham looks at Sarah, then speaks to Jack.)

ABRAHAM: I talk to you outside a minute?

JACK: What about?

ABRAHAM: Kitty, do you mind? Jack and I need to…

JACK: What?

ABRAHAM: You want to talk about it with her here?

JACK: Talk about what?

(Abraham looks at them, then can’t restrain himself.)

ABRAHAM: My wife is pregnant, right?

JACK: Yes, she is.

ABRAHAM: Then why doesn’t she say anything to me about it?

(Jack takes a moment to have a drink of his coffee, and purposefully puts his response in Bible terms.)

JACK: It’s God who tells Abraham about the baby. He comes up to your tent one day…

ABRAHAM: Yeah, I know, I looked it up. I made him some lunch and he told me Sarah was going to have a baby.

JACK: Yes.

ABRAHAM: But don’t you think she would say something to me about this? My wife is having a baby. I’m her husband and she’s having a baby.

JACK: Yes, I do. I think you should talk about it.

ABRAHAM: Thank you.

JACK: Would you like her to start?

ABRAHAM: Yes, I would. Abraham, I’m having a…

SARAH: Abraham, I’m having a baby.

ABRAHAM: O.K.

SARAH: Fine.

ABRAHAM: So who is the father of this baby? And don’t say it’s me, because Abraham is a hundred years old.

SARAH: It’s God.

ABRAHAM: It is not. God can’t have any children. He’s in heaven.

SARAH: God does what he feels like, Abraham. One day he’s with you, the next day he’s not. Unless, of course, you believe that he’s with you all the time only you don’t get how.

(Abraham can’t stay in the story.)

ABRAHAM: Is it my baby?

SARAH: I don’t know, Abraham. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. You’re living with a slave girl anyway. What do you care?

ABRAHAM: You’re my wife!

SARAH: Oh please. After all the women you’ve had over the years, where do you get off telling me I can’t have an affair and have a baby.

ABRAHAM: All right.

SARAH: (Thinks that’s the end of it.) O.K., then.

ABRAHAM: So whose baby is it?

JACK: —And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken, and Sarah conceived.—

(Tom enters. Abraham goes back to talking in Bible terms.)

ABRAHAM: No. God is my friend. Now what about that Abimelech character? That’s the father of this baby. He’s one of those kings Sarah goes around performing all these religious rituals with. Only now we find out there’s nothing religious about it. She’s just fucking them.

JACK: Cliff…

ABRAHAM: Only this time she got caught. Didn’t she.

SARAH: No, that wasn’t it at all.

ABRAHAM: (But he can’t stay in Bible terms.) Goddamn you. And I trusted you too. I thought you loved me.

SARAH: I do love you.

JACK: She raises this child as your son.

ABRAHAM: You don’t want a child.

SARAH: I always wanted a child.

ABRAHAM: Then why didn’t you say that?

SARAH: I wanted to tell you, but you weren’t home.

(Virginia enters. Abraham goes back to speaking in Bible terms.)

ABRAHAM: So what am I supposed to do now? Go back and live with Sarah and raise God’s child?

JACK: Maybe you are. I don’t know.

ABRAHAM: Does Sarah want a divorce?

SARAH: No. She doesn’t.

ABRAHAM: Because God can’t marry her, I guess.

JACK: No. She can’t marry God.

SARAH: She doesn’t want to.

VIRGINIA: She’d never see him.

JACK: We have to get started. Where’s Monica?

HAGAR: (As she enters.) Waiting in the hall.

JACK: All right, then. Abraham and Hagar center stage for Scene Eight. God tells Abraham that Sarah is having a child. Read please, Tom.

(Abraham meets Hagar at the center of the stage and puts his arm around her.)

TOM: And Hagar bore Abraham a son, and Abraham called his son’s name, Ishmael. And when Ishmael was thirteen years old…

(Abraham addresses Sarah directly. And this time, he doesn’t care who hears what.)

ABRAHAM: This is a joke, right? You’re not really pregnant.

SARAH: Cliff, it is perfectly obvious that you are capable of meeting somebody and changing your life. I can do the same damn thing. (Pause.) Or did you think I was blind. Or too old. Did you think I would just reach for a Kleenex and watch you leave me?

(Jack tries to get them back to the story.)

JACK: Sarah will be the mother of nations.

ABRAHAM: (Turning to Jack.) No, no. God said Hagar would be the mother of nations.

JACK: He changed his mind. Maybe he didn’t like how Ishmael turned out. Hear the word of the Lord. (He opens a Bible.) —Sarah shall bear thee a son. And I will establish my covenant with him and with his seed after him.—

HAGAR: Ask him, Abraham. What about my son.

JACK: What’s his name again?

ABRAHAM: Ishmael.

JACK: (Looking at the Bible.) I will multiply him exceedingly.

ABRAHAM: (To Jack.) You’re mad at me.

JACK: Am I?

ABRAHAM: God is mad at me because I waited so long to do those circumcisions.

JACK: Could be.

ABRAHAM: O.K., O.K. I’ll get all the men together and do it. I’ll say we’re all getting infected, living out here in the desert, never taking a bath. I’ll give a feast.

JACK: Sure, Abraham. Have a feast if you want.

ABRAHAM: I want to know when we’re having something written down for this act. Are we doing Sodom and Gomorrah?

JACK: I don’t think so.

ABRAHAM: But those are big scenes for me. Walking around with God, looking for ten good men, saving my brother’s life?

JACK: We’re not doing Sodom and Gomorrah because it doesn’t have Sarah in it. Sodom and Gomorrah is just you and Lot and a bunch of whores and drunks.

ABRAHAM: So?

JACK: You can do Sodom when you do the movie.

ABRAHAM: I don’t get it.

JACK: (Turning to Sarah.) What shall we name the boy? Isaac?

SARAH: It’s a beautiful name.

ABRAHAM: What about your work?

SARAH: What about it?

ABRAHAM: You’d never let anything interfere with your work.

SARAH: (Very silly.) I heard a voice, Abraham. A voice told me to have a child.

HAGAR: She’s jealous.

ABRAHAM: Of what?

HAGAR: Of the whole thing. Of you and me. She did this to get even.

SARAH: She did this…

VIRGINIA: God did this, Abraham.

ABRAHAM: God got my hundred year old wife pregnant?

JACK: I love this. I absolutely love it. (Pause.) Virginia, this is exactly how we start the second act.

SCENE IX

Sarah appears to be alone onstage. She wears a loose linen dress, padded to appear in the late weeks of pregnancy. She mutters to herself, as she works on her attitude for the scene. As she works, she experiments with the feel of the costume, seeing what it will do.

SARAH: Laughter. Sarah laughs. (Pause.) The Lord has brought me laughter. Let all who will laugh, laugh with me.—Ha Ha.

(Tom emerges from the shadows to dress her bed, which is made from one of the tables we used earlier. He adds pillows, spreads, and bedclothes for a new baby.)

TOM: You look wonderful. You look so happy.

SARAH: I am happy. Finally, I’m doing something that has to do with me.

TOM: I’m putting your slippers right down here.

SARAH: I went over to Mom’s last night and asked her how… (Patting her stomach.) Isaac would know I was his mother. She said he’d recognize my voice.

TOM: How long do you think you’ll keep working?

SARAH: I’m not working after he’s born, I can tell you that.

(Jack enters.)

JACK: Kitty, darling. You look fabulous. You feel so human here.

SARAH: I like this lady. Whenever she has a choice to make, she does the right thing.

JACK: I’ll say. Your childbed, Madam. Here, let me… (As Tom exits, Jack helps Sarah up into her bed.)

JACK: I adore you.

SARAH: (Dreamily.) If you’d have told me five years ago that I’d be having a baby…

JACK: No, I know. When you first told me about it, I…

SARAH: You freaked out.

JACK: I just hadn’t ever thought about it, you know. But now that I see how happy it makes you…

SARAH: It’s a miracle. I know.

JACK: I only wish everyone were doing as well. I’m afraid we’re going to have to replace Cliff.

SARAH: Replace him? It’s only a week til previews.

JACK: Not for here. For New York.

SARAH: For New York?

JACK: Yes, New York. Those people who saw the run-through yesterday are from the summer series at the Joyce. And they loved it, of course, and they want it for the first show of their season. They’re sending me a contract today. We’re going to New York, my love.

SARAH: Jack. Have you talked to Cliff about this? (She leans back on the bed.)

JACK: Not yet. I really thought he was right when I cast him, but he’s really resisting me now.

SARAH: No, I know.

JACK: So all you have to do is tell me who you want your Abraham to be. Somebody like Bill Hurt would be great. Wouldn’t hurt to have a star.

SARAH: Bill Hurt would be wonderful.

JACK: We can go a long, long way with this show, Kitty. No more of this regional life for us, sweetheart. We’re going to the big time. You and me. (He takes her face in his hands.) God, I love you. (Then leaves.) Gotta go.

(Sarah lies back on her bed and arranges her covers, as Tom comes on again, and Virginia enters, dressed as a handmaiden, or in this case a midwife.)

VIRGINIA: My Lord, your midwife is ready.

SARAH: Virginia! Are you really going to play this?

VIRGINIA: I am. I’m taking a leave of absence. My assistants can handle the classes and I…want to see this through.

SARAH: (Reaching out for her hand.) Good, I’m glad. I’m going to need you.

VIRGINIA: Do you think Hagar should come to Isaac’s birth or not? Historically, she would be there, as a member of your household, but we don’t have to have her if you don’t…

SARAH: No. (Appearing more uncomfortable.) No Hagar.

VIRGINIA: Just the nurses then. We’ll keep Hagar outside with the rest of the tribe.

(Abraham stalks up to the edge of the stage.)

ABRAHAM: Jack, I think I should be in this scene.

(Jack responds from his side of the stage.)

JACK: I’m not surprised.

ABRAHAM: She’s my wife.

JACK: Well, then. Send a card, why don’t you. Or some flowers.

ABRAHAM: Watch it.

JACK: I’m hoping to, Abraham, if we can ever get to work here.

ABRAHAM: So talk to me.

JACK: All right. Now. God called you up last night, with some bad news. He likes Sarah’s boy much better than Hagar’s boy. Much more his type. You know, obedient. All that. So he’s cutting your Egyptian brat out of his will, and giving everything to Isaac. O.K.?

ABRAHAM: I want to be there.

JACK: At the birth? No. (Comes round the stage and calls to the stage manager.) Tomashevsky. It’s showtime. The birth of Isaac. Go Sarah.

SARAH: (Breathing heavily, in labor.) “Call for Lord Abraham. My time is near.”

ABRAHAM: I’m right here.

VIRGINIA: (In character.) “He cannot be found, my Lord.”

SARAH: (More insistent.) “Find Lord Abraham.”

JACK: Louder, Sarah.

SARAH: “Find Lord Abraham.”

ABRAHAM: If she’s really giving birth, I could hear her all over the camp. I’d be there in a second.

SARAH: (Not screaming.) “The child is coming!”

VIRGINIA: “Yes, my Lord.”

ABRAHAM: Why can’t I go to her?

JACK: You’re working.

(Sarah sits up on the bed, as Virginia comforts her.)

SARAH: “Where is he?”

VIRGINIA: “I don’t know, my Lord.”

SARAH: “If I die…”

VIRGINIA: “You will not die, my Lord.”

(Sarah grabs Virginia to hold onto her, but there is no attempt to imitate a birth here. Rather than pain, Sarah conveys something like surprise, or shock that this is actually happening.)

SARAH: “The child is coming! Help me. Help me. Abraham!”

JACK: And…blackout!

(Jack signals for the blackout, but there is none.)

JACK: (With a real gleam in his voice.) And…who’s got the baby?

TOM: (Pitching it onstage to Virginia.) Right here.

JACK: O.K. Abraham. Go see the pretty baby.

(Sarah composes herself in the bed now, attended by Virginia, as Abraham enters. He is furious with Jack, and determined, somehow, to take control here.)

VIRGINIA: And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.—

SARAH: (Brightly, happily.) “How do you like this child, husband?”

ABRAHAM: “I know not what to say to a child. Perhaps when he is…”

(Abraham actually sees the baby now, and the effect on him is immediate. He extends his arms and Sarah gives him the child to hold. He clasps the child to him, overcome with emotion.)

ABRAHAM: “He is a beautiful boy.” (Abraham takes a moment, then speaks, his voice filled with love.) “My Lord has said to me that this boy Isaac that, my son, Isaac, will be a king of my people, that my Lord’s everlasting covenant shall be with him, not with me. That all that I have done and dreamed shall be for Isaac. That God’s purpose shall be accomplished not in my life, but in his.” (Now, reverent and very happy, he puts the baby back in Sarah’s arms and kisses her.)

SARAH: “When he is weaned, we will give a feast, to prove to all who would doubt that such a thing could happen, that this child of our old age lives and loves us.”

JACK: O.K. Virginia. Take the baby away now. It’s time for his nap.

(Virginia carries the swaddled bundle offstage, as directed.)

JACK: Isaac?

(Isaac enters, wearing jeans and a T-shirt.)

ISAAC: Right here.

JACK: Well, come on in here Isaac. What are you, three now? (Jack pushes the boy down and he duckwalks over to Sarah.)

SARAH: You don’t have to do that, honeybun. Just stand there and love your sweet Mom.

JACK: Ready?

(Sarah strokes Isaac’s hair.)

SARAH: “Hagar.”

HAGAR: (Comes up to Sarah.) “Yes, Mistress.”

SARAH: “I’m giving a feast for my son.”

HAGAR: “Yes, Mistress.”

SARAH: “I would enjoy it if you would come and dance for us.”

HAGAR: “I would be happy to, Mistress.”

SARAH: (Proceeding.) “But Hagar. Your son, Ishmael, though he is not required to attend this feast, must not interfere with it in any way. For this is my son’s first feast and I would not have him confused by foreign beliefs.”

HAGAR: Yes, Mistress.

JACK: Kitty, do you have that welcome speech?

SARAH: Brothers of Nanna?

TOM: Do you want this with the music, Jack?

JACK: If you’ve got it. Let’s just run through this little feast and see what happens.

(There is a blast of a ram’s horn and Sarah steps up on a platform, in full ceremonial attitude.)

SARAH: (Joyous and ceremonial.) “Brothers of Nanna, Sisters of Nikkal, the Lord has given to us a child, born these three years ago, whose name is Isaac, whose weaning feast I now proclaim for two weeks hence, when all shall cease their travail and shall eat and drink from the fullness of the land, and shall make offerings to the Gods on high for holy be their name. Amen.”

(Abraham steps up onto the playing area, as if into the center of the feast.)

ABRAHAM: “Good wife. I don’t see the boy, Ishmael.”

SARAH: “I have forbidden him to attend, husband. He is preaching the religion of Egypt and committing idolatry in the camp.”

ABRAHAM: “I was not aware of this. I will speak with the boy.”

SARAH: “I have spoken with him, husband. He will not listen. Hagar herself cannot control him.”

ABRAHAM: “She has neither the skill, nor an interest in controlling other people.” (Sarah walks away from him and up to the position from which she will view the dance. And now the music begins, and Hagar steps out of her dress, and is wearing only a slip, but it must look like something a maid might have danced in thousands of years ago. This is eroticism at its easiest and best. She picks up a tambourine and begins to dance. They are all amazed. It is directly pagan, in that everybody understands it immediately. At some point in the dance, Sarah cannot watch any longer. She turns away, as Hagar makes it perfectly clear what Abraham sees in her. When the dance is over, Abraham lifts Hagar to her feet.)

SARAH: “Husband.”

ABRAHAM: “I will speak with the boy, Ishmael. And if he does not obey my orders, then I will send him away with the herdsmen where he…

SARAH: “…where he will corrupt their minds and harden their hearts as well. No, husband. The boy must go.”

ABRAHAM: “But his mother could never remain in the camp without him. She is…devoted to him.”

SARAH: “Then she must go.”

ABRAHAM: “But Ishmael is my son, too.”

SARAH: “Hagar.”

HAGAR: “Yes, Mistress.”

SARAH: “I can no longer abide the presence of your son in my camp. For your faithful service to me and my house, I grant you your freedom and that of the boy.”

HAGAR: “Thank you, mistress.”

ABRAHAM: “I will send five of my men with her to…”

SARAH: “No. They must go alone.”

ABRAHAM: “Sarah. If you send them alone into the desert, they will die.”

SARAH: (Ignoring him.) “You will take your clothes, and the presents others have given you, and leave the camp at once.”

HAGAR: “Yes, Mistress.”

ABRAHAM: (Stepping out of character.) So she’s sending me away too. Is that it?

JACK: She is making you choose, but that’s fair.

SARAH: “Stay with me, Abraham. The boy is our enemy.”

ABRAHAM: I don’t know that.

JACK: Big mistake.

(Abraham looks over at Jack.)

ABRAHAM: Passion, right?

(And Abraham walks over to Hagar, takes her face in his hands, and kisses her, with the most convincing display of passion we have ever seen, puts his arm around her and walks her offstage. The music ends and Sarah picks up the skirt of her dress so it will be easier for her to move.)

SARAH: And my husband leaves with his whore and for all I know, I never see him again.

VIRGINIA: Yes.

SARAH: But I have Isaac, is that it?

JACK: That’s the idea. Make you a big star. Mother of the Father of the Jews.

SARAH: But is the audience going to understand why I did this?

JACK: Sure they will. Religious purity. All that.

(Sarah, Jack, and Virginia leave the stage and then downstage, in a dark corner, our attention is drawn to Abraham and Hagar embracing. She holds a large limp doll in one hand. Her dance music returns, slower, and sadder. The shadows of trees are projected behind them, so that it seems like an outdoor night scene.)

ABRAHAM: “I cannot bear to lose you.”

HAGAR: “Please let me go. She will kill me if she finds we are still here.”

ABRAHAM: “Take this loaf of bread and this jug of water and go to Beersheba. The wells there are mine, and I join you as soon as I can.” (He gathers her up in his arms again.) “And take this ring, (And he hands her a ring.) that anyone who questions you will know you are my wife. Don’t ride the camel, but walk beside him. In the shade. (A moment.) And remember there are wild dogs in the night (He can’t go on.) Hagar. Hagar.”

(The music swells as she breaks away from him and wanders toward an upstage area which is empty except for a large rock. Abraham goes offstage, as a brilliant light comes up on Hagar, and some kind of rattle starts to shake.)

VIRGINIA: (Reading offstage.) —But when Hagar arrived in Beersheba, she found no well from which to drink, for the servants of Abimelech had taken it violently away.—

(Hagar slumps down against a rock, and cradles the doll in her arms.)

VIRGINIA: (Continuing.) —And as the water was spent in her bottle, Hagar laid down her child, Ishmael, under one of the shrubs, and said, —

HAGAR: Lord, let me not see the death of my child.

VIRGINIA: (Continuing to read.) And Hagar lifted up her voice and wept.—

HAGAR: (Calling out.) “Abraham!”

(Abraham strides across the stage, looking even more wealthy than before, and sees Hagar.)

VIRGINIA: “And the angel of the God called to Hagar and said…”

ABRAHAM: “Fear not, Hagar, for I have come. I have driven our enemies from the well. Come drink.”

(Abraham crosses over to Hagar, lifts her up, then gives her water from his pouch.)

VIRGINIA: —And the lad grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. And Hagar took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. And Abraham sojourned there, in the land of the Philistines, for many years.—

(There is a moment of silence, and then Abraham takes a step toward Jack, still holding Hagar’s hand.)

ABRAHAM: Doing what? What am I doing with the Philistines for many years.

JACK: Getting rich. Isn’t that what you wanted?

ABRAHAM: Yes, I did, but…

JACK: You made your choice. What are you so upset about?

ABRAHAM: I didn’t have any choice and you know it. Hagar would’ve died out there.

JACK: You don’t get it, do you?

ABRAHAM: (To Hagar.) Excuse me, darling. (He drops to his knees.) Could I speak to God, please.

JACK: (Laughing.) Very funny. (But Abraham is serious.)

ABRAHAM: Lord who spoke to me in the wilderness, hear me now.

(Jack walks over to Sarah, who has been watching with interest.)

JACK: Are you hungry?

SARAH: I’m always hungry.

JACK: Then let’s go get something to eat.

(Abraham jumps up.)

ABRAHAM: You took my wife, you threw me out of the camp, and now you try to kill the only family I’ve got left. What the fuck do you want from me?

JACK: Don’t forget everybody. We move into the theatre tomorrow.

(Jack leaves and Abraham is left sitting downstage with Hagar. Virginia walks through.)

ABRAHAM: I need some help, Virginia.

VIRGINIA: O.K.

(Hagar kisses Abraham lightly and leaves.)

ABRAHAM: Does the Bible say what Abraham did when he was confused?

VIRGINIA: No, it doesn’t.

JACK: I mean, once I see what this God’s up to, how can I still love him?

VIRGINIA: Well. I think…what Abraham does right now, is solve the problems he, Abraham, can solve, and not try too hard to understand what God is doing. He makes his own decisions, I mean. He protects the ones he loves and keeps working to provide for his people. (A moment.) Abraham has the courage to let God…be weird or cruel or do whatever He feels like doing for a while, and simply trusts that God will wake up, which God has been known to do, and reward his faith and his patience.

(Abraham thinks a moment.)

VIRGINIA: Can you do that?

ABRAHAM: I think so. That helps a lot. (He kisses her.) Thanks.

VIRGINIA: You’re welcome.

(Lights dim to indicate the change of scene.)

SCENE X

Sarah is in full costume. Jack holds a clipboard.

JACK: I talked to the casting agent this morning. Bill Hurt is doing a movie. Dustin Hoffman might be available, but has to have an offer before he’ll read it…

SARAH: I think you should take Cliff. I think there should be somebody in the show that knows where it came from.

JACK: And you don’t?

SARAH: I don’t want to go, Jack. I want to stay here and have my baby. I’m sure you can find…

JACK: But the baby isn’t coming til November.

SARAH: I know, but I want to get ready. Buy a crib, hang some wallpaper, you know. Make a nest.

JACK: Fuck the nest. This show could transfer and run for a solid year.

SARAH: I don’t want to wake up in New York Hospital the morning after the baby’s born and wonder who I can get to take care of him so I can work. I don’t want to work. I want to take care of the baby.

JACK: Kitty, you are a world-class actress. I can’t let you sacrifice your one shot at the big time.

SARAH: Who says this is my one shot at the big time? Who says I can’t go to New York later if I need to. If this is my one shot at anything it’s being a mother, and I’m going to take it.

JACK: There’s lots of mothers. Millions of mothers.

SARAH: And I bet they all feel just like I do.

JACK: Which is why nobody wants to hire them.

SARAH: I can’t believe you said that.

JACK: I want you with me.

SARAH: I can’t.

JACK: But you’ve got so much to do in the world, so much to give.

SARAH: Well, maybe I want to keep some of it.

JACK: (Turning away.) Great.

SARAH: They’re going to love you. You’ll be the talk of the town, you and Cliff.

JACK: You bet your ass we will.

SARAH: And I will be right here cheering for you.

JACK: You will be nowhere, Sarah. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.

SARAH: And what about what you did to me?

JACK: You were who I wanted, not some baby. And you were supposed to love me. Not some baby.

SARAH: And you weren’t supposed to make me choose between you and “some” baby, Jack.

JACK: It’s a goddamn hormone is what it is. I’m fucked by a hormone.

SARAH: It’s a baby!

JACK: Don’t you want to be a star?

SARAH: Cliff wants to be the star. He’ll do whatever you say.

JACK: You’re damn right he will, and I’ll make him the biggest star anybody ever saw, and you’ll have your baby.

SARAH: Yes.

JACK: And the baby will grow up and leave you. And resent all the sacrifices you made for him.

SARAH: I know that.

JACK: So what is the point?

SARAH: The point is that everybody leaves me anyway, Jack. So I want to be with the baby while I can.

JACK: You’ll be sorry about this. This really pisses me off. (He turns around to walk out.)

(Abraham enters.)

ABRAHAM: Oh hi there. I was just looking for you.

JACK: Do you want this fucking part or not?

ABRAHAM: Yes, I do.

JACK: Then I don’t want any more bullshit. Either you play this thing today or I’m going to find somebody who can. You got that?

ABRAHAM: O.K. (Watches Jack leave then turns to Sarah.) I need to come by the house sometime and pick up some things.

SARAH: Not the cat.

ABRAHAM: Ten years together and all you want is the cat?

JACK’S VOICE: Abraham!

SARAH: Do you want the cat?

ABRAHAM: I never did like that cat.

SARAH: O.K., then.

(Abraham turns and leaves.)

SCENE XI

Hagar and Abraham stand with their backs to us, facing the sunset, his arms around her waist. Flute music plays in the background. This is a technical rehearsal on the actual stage, so we have full lights, costumes, and props. Abraham’s costume is positively regal.

JACK’S VOICE: Can we brighten up the sunset a little?

VOICE FROM THE BOOTH: Like that?

JACK: Thanks. O.K. Whenever you’re ready.

VIRGINIA’S VOICE ON TAPE: “And the lad grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. And Abraham sojourned there, in the land of the Philistines for many years.”

ABRAHAM: “May the pleasure of these days never end.”

(Hagar strokes Abraham’s face.)

ABRAHAM: “May you live many years after I am dead, blessed by the joy you have given me.”

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —But it came to pass that after these things, God appeared unto Abraham and said—

(Jack steps onstage, dressed in a dark business suit, looking very much like a banker. There is something new in his manner. Something dark and insistent.)

JACK: “Behold, Abraham. Here I am.”

(Abraham turns around, kneels, and bows his head.)

ABRAHAM: (Whispers reverently.) “Yes, Lord. I am your humble servant. What would you have of me?”

JACK: (Daring him.) Take now thy son, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will show to thee.—

(Abraham looks stunned. As Jack walks to the edge of the stage and puts on a headset, Hagar turns to Abraham.)

HAGAR: “What troubles you, husband?”

ABRAHAM: “My Lord has commanded me to go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice Sarah’s son Isaac.”

HAGAR: “He means for you to kill the boy?”

JACK: (Quietly over his headset.) I can’t see Hagar’s face, Bill.

(The light on her face changes.)

JACK: That’s better. Go back, Hagar.

HAGAR: “He means for you to kill the boy?”

ABRAHAM: “I know not what he means by this, but only what he asks.”

HAGAR: “But husband, surely you cannot…”

ABRAHAM: “My God has commanded me thus. I cannot refuse.”

HAGAR: “And if he asked you to kill our son, would you refuse him?”

(Abraham looks offstage.)

ABRAHAM: Jack?

JACK: I warned you Abraham.

ABRAHAM: (To Hagar.) Would you go back please, darling?

HAGAR: “And if your God asked you to sacrifice our son, would you do it?”

(Abraham answers quickly now.)

ABRAHAM: “Yes.”

HAGAR: (Bitterly.) “This is a jealous God.”

ABRAHAM: “I must go. This time I must obey Him with haste. But when I return in three days, I will tell thee all I know of this God who has blessed me so richly.”

(Hagar turns and walks downstage. Abraham looks after her, takes a step as if to follow her, then stops.)

ABRAHAM: “Yes, Lord. I am ready.”

JACK: That’s better, Abraham. Much better. (Giving light cues.) And on three to black,

(Lights dim to near black.)

JACK: Then on six for the desert at dawn.

(And the lights gradually pull back up into dawn as Virginia enters dressed as a scribe.)

VIRGINIA: And Abraham rose up early in the morning to prepare for his journey, taking two of his young men with him.—

(Abraham walks to meet Sarah, who appears from the other side of the stage, Abraham is very much the noble lord.)

SARAH: “Abraham.”

ABRAHAM: “Good evening, Sarah. I trust you are well.”

JACK: More blue, Bill. Go on Sarah.

SARAH: “I am, thank you, husband. And I can see that your God has blessed you exceedingly.”

ABRAHAM: “He has granted me wisdom in matters of trade and counseled me so that I may conduct myself in a seemly manner among foreigners.”

SARAH: “I have seen you often in my dreams.”

ABRAHAM: “Good wife, I have come to see the boy Isaac.”

SARAH: “I am glad. He too, has missed you.”

ABRAHAM: “I am journeying to Moriah, and thought to take him with me. It will benefit him greatly to see how a man can survive in such a harsh land.”

SARAH: “But what is the purpose of your journey, my husband?”

(Abraham takes a moment.)

ABRAHAM: “A small village there produces saddlebags and bridles of exceptional quality. They have agreed that I shall sell their wares at the market in Byblos.” (Then altering his tone.) “Perhaps you would agree to accept a new saddle as a gift from me.”

HAGAR: Is Sarah really going to fall for that?

JACK: Quiet!

(But something about that warning has affected Sarah.)

SARAH: “And go you also to give thanks to your God for the riches he has bestowed upon you?”

ABRAHAM: “As in all things, I will heed his word. If he bids me build an altar, I will do so.”

HAGAR: Don’t listen to him, Sarah.

JACK: We’re not improvising any more, darling. We’ve got to get through this tech, now please…

HAGAR: She’s smarter than this. And she loves her boy. Can’t she see he’s lying?

JACK: Her boy needs a father and she knows it. Go on, Sarah.

(Sarah looks over at Hagar.)

SARAH: “Take the boy, then, for I would have him see his father in the exercise of his trade. But see that he worships not at this altar, for your faith is not his.”

ABRAHAM: “This I will do.”

(Sarah holds out her arm to Isaac, who enters now, carrying a sheepskin pouch over his shoulder.)

SARAH: “Isaac, my sweet child.” (She takes his hand, but turns to Jack.) I think Hagar is right. Shouldn’t I have a moment of doubt here?

JACK: No.

SARAH: What if he doesn’t bring him back?

JACK: Say the line.

SARAH: “Go with your father.”

ISAAC: “Yes, mother.”

(Isaac gives Sarah a kiss, then Abraham takes his hand and leads him off a little way.)

VIRGINIA: “And Abraham rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.”

SARAH: (To Hagar.) Thanks.

HAGAR: I tried.

(Jack comes onstage, carrying a knife and some rope.)

JACK: It just hit me what’s the matter with this scene. Abraham.

SARAH: What’s that for?

JACK: You really hate that little rat, don’t you.

ABRAHAM: Whatever you say.

JACK: (To the light booth.) We have to hold for a minute, Bill. I want to change some of this blocking…

SARAH: To what?

JACK: Something else.

(As Jack rearranges Abraham and Isaac, Sarah walks over to stand with Virginia.)

SARAH: Do you know what this is about?

VIRGINIA: No.

JACK: O.K. Virginia. Where were we?

VIRGINIA: —Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off, and said to his young men…—

(Jack watches as Isaac stands beside Abraham.)

ABRAHAM: —Abide ye here below while the lad and I go yonder and worship.—

JACK: Give Isaac the knife.

(Abraham picks up the wood and gives Isaac the knife.)

VIRGINIA: —And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and the fire in his hand, and a knife and they went both of them together.—

ABRAHAM: Can I have a real knife?

SARAH: Not if Isaac is carrying it.

JACK: Tomorrow, Abraham. (Taking off his headset.) Now just stand there. I want to move this altar a little… (Calling to the stage manager.) Tom?

(Tom enters and helps Jack push the stone altar into place.)

SARAH: (Approaching Jack as he works.) What are you doing?

JACK: My job, darling. Say your lines, Isaac.

ISAAC: (Looking up at Abraham.) “Father?”

ABRAHAM: “Yes, my son.”

ISAAC: “I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

ABRAHAM: “God will provide a lamb, my son.”

JACK: Now, Abraham. Grab the kid.

SARAH: No. You’ll scare him!

(Isaac yelps as Abraham sets him on the altar.)

JACK: Now tie his wrists.

(Abraham pins the boy down and ties his wrists.)

SARAH: We don’t need that!

ISAAC: “Father!”

ABRAHAM: “Quiet, son.”

SARAH: (To Jack.) Jack, stop this.

ISAAC: (Really scared.) “But father…”

SARAH: The scene was good.

JACK: It wasn’t scary. (Moving around toward the altar.) Pull his hood back. I want to see that neck.

SARAH: No!

JACK: Get your knife, Abraham.

ABRAHAM: (Raising it over his head.) Like this?

SARAH: Willie, this is just acting. Are you all right?

JACK: (To Abraham.) That’s good.

SARAH: Cliff…

ABRAHAM: What is it with you? Can’t I have one scene in this play?

SARAH: He’s a child. You’re not mad at him.

JACK: Hold him, Abraham.

SARAH: You’re mad at me.

ABRAHAM: Get her out of here.

JACK: Higher, Abraham.

SARAH: No!

JACK: Now kill him!

(Sarah sees the vengeance in their eyes and runs offstage screaming. And as Abraham plunges the cardboard knife down, as if to kill the boy, Virginia screams, runs up and catches Abraham’s arm.)

VIRGINIA: Abraham! Stop! Jack! You can’t kill the boy! That’s not what happens.

JACK: We didn’t kill him!

ABRAHAM: I could though.

JACK: Thanks. That’s all I wanted to know. Great work.

HAGAR: This is sick. (Leaves the stage.)

VIRGINIA: (To the boy.) Are you all right?

ISAAC: Yeah. (Gets down from the altar and takes the bindings off his hands.)

VIRGINIA: You’ve gone way too far here.

JACK: I have not. This is exactly what it would have felt like.

VIRGINIA: What it looks like is ritual murder. Is that what you want?

JACK: We didn’t kill him. Now back off.

VIRGINIA: Where’s Sarah?

JACK: (Most condescending.) Try the bathroom.

VIRGINIA: (Running offstage.) Kitty!

JACK: (Disgusted.) O.K. Play the tape, Tom.

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —Then Abraham beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.—

(Abraham looks out toward Jack.)

ABRAHAM: Better?

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: And the Lord said unto Abraham—

(Abraham, turns slowly, kneels, facing upstage and listens to the voice of the Lord.)

JACK’S VOICE ON TAPE: —because thou has done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, I will bless thee. I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.—

(Abraham stands, as Jack rushes onstage to hug him.)

JACK: All right. Finally.

(Abraham sits down on the altar. The feeling of camaraderie with Jack is so strong, he is reluctant to speak, but the weight of what has just happened is too much for him.)

ABRAHAM: But when I get back to Beersheba, Hagar has left me.

JACK: Yes. That’s right.

ABRAHAM: And Sarah is dead?

JACK: Sarah is dead. Right. She saw it. In a dream or something. She didn’t know you let the boy go. She thought you killed him.

ABRAHAM: And she died.

JACK: And she died.

(Abraham nods, but in spite of himself, a desperate cry escapes him.)

ABRAHAM: “Sarah!”

JACK: Perfect. One perfect little moment of regret. I knew you could do this.

ABRAHAM: Thanks, Jack.

(Jack looks up to the booth.)

JACK: Any problems up there?

VOICE FROM THE BOOTH: Done and done.

JACK: O.K., then, let’s lock the board til after the preview. (Turning to Abraham.) Cliff, the press people in New York want some photos of you on the set. Can you give Tom a few minutes?

ABRAHAM: Sure.

(Tom enters, replacing some props. He speaks on his headset.)

TOM: Thanks, folks. Half-hour is at seven-thirty. And Hagar, I’ve got those tickets for your agent.

ABRAHAM: How does the house look, Tom?

TOM: Sold out. Oh, and the Journal wants to talk with you after the show.

ABRAHAM: What about?

TOM: I’ll find out who it is, if you want me to.

ABRAHAM: No, that’s O.K.

TOM: And your agent called.

(Hagar enters.)

ABRAHAM: He’s my agent now? I’ve never met the man.

TOM: He said he was bringing two guys from Tri-Star and he’d meet you before the show.

ABRAHAM: (Puts his arm around Hagar.) O.K. You hungry?

(Tom hauls out his camera gear now.)

TOM: Jack said I have to get these photos, Cliff. It won’t take a minute.

ABRAHAM: Oh right. Sure. Where do you want me?

HAGAR: I’ll just meet you at Sammy’s, how’s that?

ABRAHAM: (Kissing her.) That’s fine.

TOM: (Taking a photo.) That’s good. Could you kiss her again, please. (Abraham laughs, as though this is a silly request. And then complies.)

ABRAHAM: Here it comes.

HAGAR: I’m ready.

(They kiss and Tom snaps a few more shots, as they improvise a few more poses. And then Hagar leaves.)

HAGAR: O.K. See you later.

(Abraham continues to stand, as Tom takes his pictures. And it seems to us, that with each picture Tom takes, Abraham grows more noble, more memorable, more grand.)

ABRAHAM: What do you think they’ll ask me? The reporter, I mean.

TOM: Oh, you know, how you prepare for a role, what it’s like, working with a company this way. (A moment.) What you’re doing next. (A moment.) What do the Tri-Star guys want?

ABRAHAM: I forget what he said on the phone. Something with Glenn Close, I think.

TOM: (Finished now.) Well, that should do it. I’ll get you the contacts so you can pick the ones you want them to use. (Tom exits.)

(Sarah walks through to pick up something she has left on the stage. She makes no attempt to contact him visually.)

ABRAHAM: You’re really not going with us to New York?

SARAH: No. I’m not.

ABRAHAM: Why not?

SARAH: Because Jack is a tyrannical bastard and you are his blind slave, and…I don’t want to work right now.

ABRAHAM: But this is the best show we ever did.

SARAH: I know that.

ABRAHAM: You have to come with us, Kitty. It’s what we worked our whole lives for in this rat hole, to take some show to New York!

SARAH: I worked my whole life in this rat hole because I loved it, because I loved you, because we were making something out of all that work, but no. You had to go and…

ABRAHAM: Me? You’re the one having the baby.

SARAH: Oh, are you the victim now? You the wounded one? You the one with the broken heart?

ABRAHAM: You’re leaving me for some baby you don’t even know!

SARAH: Yes I am. As fast as I can.

ABRAHAM: You’ll be sorry.

SARAH: Why does everybody keep saying that to me? Is that supposed to scare me, “I’m going to be sorry?” Because if it is you can save your breath. I’m going to be sorry either way, more or less, every day about something so it might as well be that you thought you were free to hurt me. You thought I would always be there. I am sorry. But you were wrong.

ABRAHAM: Why didn’t you tell me?

SARAH: Tell you not to hurt me? I thought you knew it. I thought people knew it. I thought it was basic human knowledge. Don’t hurt me.

(A moment.)

ABRAHAM: I don’t know how this happened.

SARAH: What did you think would happen?

ABRAHAM: I thought we would get through it.

SARAH: Like all the other times?

ABRAHAM: Yes, like all the other times. What’s so special about this time?

SARAH: Nothing, really. Except, I guess that if you really don’t want something to break, you have to force yourself to stop dropping it.

ABRAHAM: But I miss you so much. I miss talking to you. I miss going home with you. I miss talking about the show.

SARAH: I liked that too.

ABRAHAM: (Demanding.) What do you want me to say? Whatever you want me to say I’ll say it. (He puts his hands on her shoulders, now, trying to get through to her.)

SARAH: (She throws his hands off.) You’re going to be a big star.

ABRAHAM: Yes, I am.

SARAH: Say thank you. (And she turns angrily and storms offstage.)

(Lights dim to indicate change of scene.)

SCENE XII

Onstage, lights come up on The Tomb. This is the real performance. A throne is in place far upstage. A strange blue light shines on the altar, which has become Sarah’s bier.

VIRGINIA’S VOICE ON TAPE: —And Sarah died in Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham laid aside his labors in Beersheba, and came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.—

(Abraham walks onstage, looks at the tomb, then turns upstage.)

SARAH: “Abraham.”

(At the sound of her voice, Abraham whirls around.)

ABRAHAM: “Sarah. I did not think to hear your voice again.”

SARAH: “My spirit is permitted this moment.”

ABRAHAM: “I have chosen a tomb for you. It is the cave of Machpelah, which the children of Heth have sold me for a burying place.”

SARAH: “It is good. I would remain in this land. And when you die, husband, where shall you rest?”

ABRAHAM: “I do not know.”

SARAH: “I would welcome your company at Machpelah if there is room enough.”

ABRAHAM: “You would have me with you?”

SARAH: “Should I wake, my husband, it would comfort me greatly to have your company on my journey.”

(He goes to her and takes her hand.)

ABRAHAM: “I have not loved you as you deserved.”

SARAH: “Nor was I made to love a husband, but rather my people and my God.”

ABRAHAM: “Still I have loved you.”

(Sarah nods, unable to speak.)

ABRAHAM: “Your son Isaac is well. When it is time for him to marry, I will send one of my servants to that land from whence we came, to take him a wife from our family there.”

SARAH: “That would please me.”

ABRAHAM: “It is my God who has commanded me thus.”

SARAH: “Then farewell. And grace be unto you, husband, and to your son Isaac. I can speak no more.”

(She sinks into his arms, and he lays her gently back on the stone slab.)

ABRAHAM: Sarah.

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old; and these were the years of the life of Sarah.—

(Abraham stands and looks away a moment.)

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.—

(Abraham takes off his beautiful robe and lays it over Sarah’s body.)

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —But Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.—

(Abraham leads Isaac onstage, who kneels and kisses Sarah.)

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —And when Abraham died, his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah with his wife, Sarah.—

(Abraham makes his way back to the throne and sits down on it and closes his eyes. Isaac then drapes a robe over him.)

VIRGINIA’S VOICE: —And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred and three score and fifteen years.—

(Virginia enters, wearing white robes, kneels briefly before Abraham, then kisses Sarah’s forehead and strokes her hair, then takes Isaac’s hand and moves to center stage.)

VIRGINIA: —And it came to pass after the burial of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and said, “Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of; and I will bless thee; for unto thee and unto thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father. I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because Abraham heard my voice and obeyed.—

(Virginia kneels with Isaac and we hear the sound of the audience clapping. And the lights dim to indicate a change of scene.)

SCENE XIII

Lights come up as we hear the sound of applause and Sarah sits up from her bier. Neither of them has any idea what to say after playing that scene. They begin taking off parts of their costumes. Tom enters immediately.

TOM: Good show, everybody. Half-hour tomorrow night is seven-thirty.

SARAH: Thanks.

(Now Isaac comes in in street clothes and kisses Sarah.)

SARAH: Willie, sweetheart. You were great. You want to go get a hamburger?

ISAAC: I can’t. My parents are here.

SARAH: O.K. I’ll see you tomorrow.

(Isaac kisses her, then waves to Abraham.)

ISAAC: Goodnight, Cliff.

ABRAHAM: Take it easy.

(Hagar comes on in her street clothes.)

HAGAR: Good work out there, Sarah.

SARAH: Thanks.

HAGAR: (To Cliff, though somewhat indirectly.) I’ll be at the Oyster, if anybody needs me.

ABRAHAM: How about if I just bring the Tri-Star guys over?

HAGAR: I like Tri-Star.

(Hagar exits and Virginia enters from another dressing room.)

VIRGINIA: Good night, everybody.

ABRAHAM: You ought to be real proud of yourself, Virginia. How does it feel?

VIRGINIA: I’m scared about the critics.

ABRAHAM: (He hugs her.) Don’t worry. They’ll love your work, I know they will. You think you’ll do this again?

VIRGINIA: Maybe.

ABRAHAM: (He kisses her.) You have to. There’s not a lot of good writers around. O.K. Gotta get dressed.

(Abraham ducks behind a screen to get dressed.

SARAH: So what do you think, Virginia? Are the conservatives at the seminaries going to freak out over this?

VIRGINIA: I don’t think so. I mean, it is what happened. If anybody says anything to you, get their name and I’ll send them some books. (Virginia kisses her.)

SARAH: Are you hungry?

VIRGINIA: I could use a burger. See you at Timmy’s?

(Sarah gives her a hug now. A real moment of solidarity. Jack enters, and Virginia exits without saying anything to him.)

JACK: Cliff, what kind of housing do you want in New York? Hotel or apartment.

ABRAHAM: (From behind the screen.) Hotel. Near the park if they can swing it. So I can run.

JACK: Will do. And we made an offer to that…actress we talked about the other day. And it looks like it’s a done deal.

(Cliff, looking very elegant in his jeans and gold-rimmed glasses, comes out from behind the screen, putting on his watch and rings.)

ABRAHAM: Great.

(Jack’s cellular phone rings.)

JACK: Yeah. (He listens.) O.K. guys. It’s my spy at the Journal. (He listens.) Fabulous. Read it to me. (He listens, then quotes.) “Cliff Well’s transformation from tribal househusband to noble patriarch is nothing short of miraculous. Before our very eyes, the pagan age of mystery and moon worship ends, and the sun rises on the world as we know it.” (To the caller.) Thanks, Marge. (He turns off his phone.) We did it. You did it, Cliff. You got them. I knew you could.

ABRAHAM: (Coming out from behind the screen.) It was you, Jack. All you. Did they say anything about you?

JACK: About the director? They don’t have a clue what we do. Thanks, though.

(He turns to Kitty.) Well, well. What do you know.

SARAH: It worked.

JACK: You better believe it worked. Cliff, you coming?

ABRAHAM: Yeah. Give me a minute.

(Jack exits.)

SARAH: Congratulations.

ABRAHAM: Thanks. (A moment.) Are you going to be all right here?

SARAH: I’m not dying, Cliff. I’m just…

ABRAHAM: I know. You’re just…

SARAH: Staying home.

ABRAHAM: O.K. Well. I’ve got to go. (He leans over to kiss the top of her head. He is as tender as he knows how, trying to say everything he doesn’t know how to say.) Thanks. (He leaves.)

(A single light holds on Sarah, as she watches him go. She turns, her face composed, a slight smile…)

SARAH: That’s all right. It’s O.K.

THE END