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# THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS

Adaptation and original lyrics by Lee Breuer
Adapted lyrics by Bob Telson and Lee Breuer
Music by Bob Telson

---

Before the show begins, please turn *off* your cell phone and all other electronic devices.

---

<!-- SHOW START -->

---

[organ music]

---

[music stops]

---

## THESEUS:
Think no longer that you are in command here,

---

But, rather, think how when you were
You served your own destruction.

---

Welcome, brothers and sisters.
I take as my text this evening the Book of Oedipus.

---

Oedipus! Dammed in his birth, in his marriage damned,
Dammed by the blood he shed with his own hand!

---

Oedipus! A man so pitifully ensnared in the net of his own life’s destiny…

---

Net of incest, mingling wives, sisters, mothers, with fathers, sons, brothers.

---

You have all heard of the death of Jocasta. Jocasta.

---

Whose husband was by her husband, whose children were by her child.

---

You have heard how the wretched Oedipus found her body swaying from the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck.

---

How a great sob broke from him, heartbreaking to hear, as he loosed the rope and lowered her body to the ground.

---

I would blot out from my mind what happened next! For they say this King ripped from her gown the golden brooches that were her ornaments, 

---

and raised them on high, and plunged them down
straight into his own eyeballs, crying, 

---

“No more, no more shall you look on the misery about me, the horrors of my own doing!” 

---

“Too long you have known the faces of those whom I never should have seen, too long been blind to those for whom I was searching!”

---

“From this hour, go in darkness!”

---

And as he spoke, he struck at his eyes—
Not once, but many times; they say the blood burst from his ruined sockets like red hail.

---

Net of blood! His father’s blood, his own blood, shed by his own hand.

---

In Exodus where it speaks of his death in a place called Colonus… which was sacred... And his redemption there…

---

We direct you to lines 275 through 279, wherein he cries out to his daughters: 

---

“I could say much to you if you could understand me. But as it is, I have only this prayer for you:

---

Live where you can. Be as happy as you can –
Happier, please God, than God has made your father.” Amen.

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Don’t go…away…
Father…won’t you stay…

---

template: song

Don’t go…away…
Father…won’t you stay…
Ooh…Ooh…Ooh

---

template: song

## SOLOISTS:
Let every man consider his last day
When youthful pleasures have faded away
Can he look at his life without pain?

---

template: song

Let every child remember how to pray
For the lost of the Earth to find the way
And the Kingdom of Heaven reign.

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
Ooo
Happier than God has made your father

---

template: song

Live where you can
Be happy as you can
For he may not be here tomorrow
Ooo

---

template: song

## SOLOISTS:
O Father let the singer sing for thee
Let word and song and harmony

---

template: song

Be mightier than the sword
O vision holy vision come to me

---

template: song

Let word and song and harmony
Be a sound like the voice of the Lord

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
Ooo
Happier than God has made your father

---

template: song

Live where you can
Be happy as you can
For he may not be here tomorrow
Ooo

---

template: song

(vamping) Don’t go…away…O Father…won’t you stay?

---

template: song

Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.

---

## EVANGELIST:
(speaking over the music) Men and Women of Thebes: look upon Oedipus.

---

This is the king who solved the famous riddle and towered up, most powerful of men.

---

No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, yet in the end ruin swept over him.

---

Let every man in mankind’s frailty consider his last day; 

---

and let none presume on his good fortune until he find life, at his death, a memory without pain. Amen.

---

template: song

## SOLOISTS:
So don’t go…

---

[music ends]

---

## OEDIPUS:
Daughter! Sister!

---

[organ music under] 

## THESEUS:
Alas for the seed of men.

---

What measure shall we give these generations that breath on the void and are void and exist and do not exist?

---

Majestic Oedipus! O naked brow of wrath and tears, O change of Oedipus!

---

I who saw your days call no man blest — your great days — like ghosts are gone.

---

True King, giver of laws, majestic Oedipus!

---

No prince in Thebes had ever known such renown
No prince won such grace of power.

---

And now of all men ever known most pitiful is this man’s story: His fortunes are most changed, his state Fallen.

---

All eyes fail before time’s eye, all actions come to justice there.

---

Though never willed, though far down the deep past, your bed, your dread sirings, are brought to book at last.

---

Child by Laius doomed to die, then doomed to lose that fortunate little death —

---

Would God you never took breath in this air that with my wailing lips I take to cry: for I weep the world’s outcast.

---

I was blind! And now I can tell why: Asleep! For he had given ease of breath to Thebes, while the false years went by.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Daughter!

---

## THESEUS:
He speaks, saying: “Daughter! Daughter of a blind old man…”

---

## OEDIPUS:
Where have we come to…

---

## THESEUS:
“Where have we come to now, Antigone?”

---

## OEDIPUS:
Who will be kind to me?

---

## THESEUS:
Who will be kind to Oedipus this evening? And give alms…

---

## OEDIPUS:
Who will give alms?

## THESEUS:
“Who will give alms to the wanderer?”
Though he ask little and receive still less!

---

## OEDIPUS:
That’s all right.

## THESEUS:
It is sufficient.

---

## THESEUS:
“Suffering and time,” he says, suffering and time, vast time, have been his teachers in contentment. “But now, child…”

---

## OEDIPUS:
Now, child. If you can find a resting place…

## THESEUS:
“Child. If you can find a resting place…”

---

## ANTIGONE:
I see a man now, not far away. Father you must ask what place this is.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Friend…

## THESEUS:
“Friend, my daughter’s eyes serve for my own.”

---

## THESEUS:
“She tells me we are fortunate enough to meet you.”

---

## OEDIPUS:
Can you tell me, what ground is this? What God is honored here?

---

## THESEUS:
“What ground is this? What God is honored here?”

---

## THE FRIEND:
It must not be touched. Most dreadful are its divinities, most feared, daughters of darkness. Spirits. Furies.

---

The people here prefer to address them as Gentle All-Seeing ones.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Then may they be gentle to the suppliant. For I shall never leave this resting place.

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND:
Fair Colonus
Land of running horses
Where leaves and berries throng

---

template: song 

And wine-dark ivy climbs the bough
The sweet sojourning nightingale
Murmurs all night long

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND: 
Here with drops of Heaven’s dew

## OEDIPUS: 
(spoken) Heaven's dew

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND:
At daybreak all the year
The clusters of narcissus bloom

## OEDIPUS: 
(spoken) narcissus

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND:
Time-hallowed garlands for the brows
Of those great ladies whom we fear

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) great ladies

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND:
Fair Colonus
Land of the running horses

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) running horses

---

template: song 

## THE FRIEND:
Where leaves and berries throng
And wine-dark ivy climbs the bough

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) climbs the bough

---

template: song

## THE FRIEND:
The sweet sojourning nightingale
Murmurs all night long

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) all night long

---

## OEDIPUS:
Fair Colonus…

---

## THESEUS:
“Fair Colonus…”

---

## OEDIPUS:
And who is he whose word has power here?

---

## THE FRIEND:
This land is governed by King Theseus

---

## OEDIPUS:
Tell him a small favor will gain him much.

---

## THE FRIEND:
What service can a blind man render him?

---

## OEDIPUS:
All I shall say will be clear-sighted indeed.

---

It was ordained. I recognize it now. I shall never leave this resting place.

---

Daughter, lead me on. Lead me on.

---


---

template: song 

## CHORAGOS:
Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo

---

template: song 

Stop! Do not go on
You cannot walk this ground
Stop! Ooo ooo ooo

---

template: song 

Do not go on
Do not go on
Daughters of darkness bar the way

---

template: song 

Saying, “Stop!
Ooo ooo ooo
Do not go on
Do not go on

----

template: song 

Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo

---

template: song 

Stop! Do not go on
First you must kneel down and pray
Stop! Do not go on

---

template: song 

Till the Gods answer “Yes, yes you may!”
Saying, “Stop!
Ooo ooo ooo

---

template: song 

Do not go on
Do not go on.

---

template: song 

## OEDIPUS:
Here I stand a wanderer
On life’s journey
At the close of the day

---

template: song 

So hungry and so tired
Beaten by the rain
Oh

---

template: song 

Won’t you give me shelter
All I need is a resting place
Promised so long (promised so long) ago

---

template: song 

## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo

---

template: song 

Stop! Do not go on
You cannot walk this ground
Stop! Do not go on

---

template: song 

Til the Gods answer yes, yes you may
Saying, “Stop!
Do not go on
Do not go on.”

---

template: song 

(ad libbing, repeated) Don’t go on...

---

template: song 

[music changes]

## CHORAGOS:
Oh…?
Who is this man?

---

template: song 

What is his name?
Where does he come from?

---

## EVANGELIST:
(spoken) And when he heard that, he was afraid, and he turned to his daughter and said:

---

## OEDIPUS:
“God in Heaven help me, what will become of me now, child?”

---

## EVANGELIST:
And she said:

---

## ANTIGONE:
“Tell them, Father, you cannot hide.”

---

template: song 

## CHORAGOS:
Who is this man?
What is his name?
Where does he come from?

---

template: song 

What is his race?
Who was his father?
Who was his father?

---

## EVANGELIST:
And he answered, saying:

---

## OEDIPUS:
“My father was Laius of the race Labdacidae. Do not ask my name, my star was unspeakable.”

## CHORAGOS:
You oughta speak. Speak right now! Speak now! Speak!

---

## OEDIPUS:
I am the accursed. I am Oedipus.

---

## EVANGELIST:
And while he suffers, there comes a woman
Riding a pony and wearing a [wide hat/gold veil]… crying…

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
FATHER! SISTER

---

## EVANGELIST:
She is Ismene.
Princess of Thebes,
Sister and daughter to the accursed.

---

## ANTIGONE:
Sister to me.

---

template: song

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
Father, Sister, dearest voices,
I have found you and I don’t know how

---

template: song

Father, Sister – I hear your voices
But am I dreaming? Or are you here right now?
Won’t you tell me

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Please tell me

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) I want to know how

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears?

---

template: song

## ISMENE:
Father, Sister, the Gods have spoken
I bring a promise, a holy vow

---

template: song

## ISEMENE:
A world that cast you down forgives you
And those who blamed you sing your praises now
Won’t you tell me

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Please tell me
 
 ---
 
 template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) I need to know

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
How shall I see you through my tears

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Yeah

---

template: song

## CHORUS 
Destiny brings you back to
me

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Child, I’m so glad you’re here”
There’s hope for me, there’s a prophecy

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Destiny brings you back to me

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Child I’m so glad you’re here
There’s hope for me, there’s a prophecy

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Destiny brings you back to me

---

template: song

## ISMENE ANTIGONE:
A world that cast you out
They forgive you now

---

template: song

## CHORUS
Destiny brings you back to me

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Hey, hey

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
I’ve been waiting for a sign
To ease my troubled mind
(vamping) Oooh

---

## EVANGELIST:
(over the music) Why have you come, child? What news from Thebes did you bring your father? Where are your brothers?

---

## EVANGELIST and ISMENE:
She tells of his sons Polyneices and Eteocles. First it was their desire that the throne should pass to Lord Creon; 

---

that thus the city of Thebes should be defiled no longer by their/our family’s ancient curse. 

---

But then the sons began to itch for power, how they fought till Eteocles, the younger son, threw the elder out, and took the throne. 

---

How Polyneices then went to Argos, committed treason for an army; sold out his city of Thebes for the promise of his father’s throne.

---

How he marches on Thebes now. Brother, the traitor, marches on brother, the usurper now, and, trembling at his coming, Thebes calls for you.

---

## OEDIPUS:
For me?

---

## EVANGELIST and ISMENE:
Thebes call for you to be a shield against your son. The oracles declare their strength in you. 

---

The proof of it is that Creon is coming for you for that same reason.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Will my soul rest satisfied? Will Thebes bury me in Theban ground?

---

## ANTIGONE:
Ah, Father!

---

## EVANGELIST:
No, your father’s blood forbids it.

---

## OEDIPUS:
They will never hold me! Gods! May their fires of ambition never be quenched. Let the last word be mine on this battle.

---

Let them that would be the kings of Thebes before sons of Oedipus — Let them kill each other!

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) Please tell me

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) I need to know

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
How shall I see you through my tears?

## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) Thru my tears

---

template: song

## ISMENE:
Well, I’m crying tears of sadness
Father, won’t you turn them into tears of gladness?

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Through my tears, through my tears
Tears…
Tears…
Tears…

---

## EVANGELIST:
It will be bitter for them when they stand where you are buried and feel your anger there.

---

## OEDIPUS:
So let Creon be sent to find me. Creon or any other of influence in the state. 

---

If you here consent – as do the powers holy and awful, the spirits of this place — to give me refuge. 

---

Then shall Colonus have a great savior; and woe to mine enemies.

---

## ANTIGONE:
But for now, Father, pray to the Gods whose ground you violated here. Ask their forgiveness.

---

## OEDIPUS:
What shall I do?

---

## ANTIGONE:
You must first bring libations from the spring that runs forever.

---

## OEDIPUS:
And when I have the holy water?

---

## ANTIGONE:
Take this bowl. Put chaplets round the rim.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Of myrtle springs, or wool?

---

## ANTIGONE:
Of fleece cropped from a young lamb.

---

## OEDIPUS:
How shall I perform this rite?

---

## ANTIGONE:
You must face the quarter of the morning light and pour out your libation.

---

## OEDIPUS:
From this bowl?

---

## ANTIGONE:
In one clear stream. Empty and fill it again with water and honey. But without wine.

---

## OEDIPUS:
And when this earth receives it?

---

## ANTIGONE:
Cover the place with olive… And then pray, Father, saying:

---

“Daughters. Spirits. Be gentle of heart. Accept with gentleness the suppliant and his wish.”

---

## OEDIPUS (CHORUS responding):
“Daughters. Spirits. Be gentle of heart. Accept with gentleness the suppliant and his wish.”

[music stops]

---

---

## CHORAGOS:
What evil things have slept since long ago?

---

## OEDIPUS:
Do not open my old wound and my shame.

---

## CHORAGOS:
It is told everywhere and never dies.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Thebes married me to evil, fate and I were joined there.

---

## CHORAGOS:
It was your mother with whom the thing was done?

---

## OEDIPUS:
Yes: and those two girls of mine were given birth by her who gave birth to me.

---

## CHORAGOS:
Then they are your daughters; they are also…

---

## OEDIPUS:
Sisters. Yes… their father’s sisters.

---

template: song
## CHORAGOS:
Ah… Pity. Pity yeah! Pity yeah! Pity. You suffered –

---

## OEDIPUS:
Yes…

---

template: song

## CHORAGOS:
And Colonus, he sinned.

---

## OEDIPUS:
No!

---

templateL song

## CHORAGOS:
You killed…

---

## OEDIPUS:
No!

---

template: song

## CHORAGOS:
You killed your father!

---

## OEDIPUS:
God in Heaven!

---

template: song

## CHORAGOS:
You killed him!

---

## OEDIPUS and THESEUS:
“No! I shall not be judged so. In me, myself, you could not find such evi as would have made me sin against my own. 

---

Perhaps our ancestors angered God long ago.” 

---

He said, “If there were prophecies repeated by the oracles of the gods that the father’s death would come from his own son...

---

... how could you justly blame it upon me? On me, who was yet unborn, yet unconceived? He wished to murder me, I did not know him.

---

Before the law – before God – I am innocent.”

---

## THESEUS:
Antigone pleads with the people of Colonus.

---

## ANTIGONE:
Reverent men! Blessed women!

---

Since you will not suffer my father, old man that he is, take pity on me and let me intercede.

---

Not with lost eyes, but looking in your eyes as if I were a child of yours, I beg mercy for him, a beaten man! Hear me!

---

We are thrown upon your mercy as on God’s; be kinder than you seem! Gods, I pray you! Be compassionate!

---

For you will never see in all the world a man whom God has let escape his destiny!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
A voice foretold
Where I shall die
Where my soul shall rest

## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Where my soul shall rest

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
And my body lie
Where pain unending
Ends for me

## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Ends for me

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
Where I shall find
Sanctuary

## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Sanctuary

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
A voice foretold
That at my grave
Down my God shall come

## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Down my God shall come

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
My soul he surely will save
And I shall be
Endowed with grace

## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Endowed with grace

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS: 
And I shall find
My resting place

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Hear me
Hear me
Hear me

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
O Lord, hear my prayer

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Hear me

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
O Lord, hear my prayer

---

## OEDIPUS:
(over the music) Ladies whose eyes are terrible: Spirits: upon your sacred ground I have first bent my knees in this new land; 

---

therefore, you be mindful of me and of Apollo, for when he gave me oracles of evil, he also spoke of this: a resting place,

---

That after long years in the last country, where I should find a home among the powers of justice: that I might round out there my bitter life.

---

Conferring benefits on those who received me, and a curse on those who have driven me away.

---

Portents, he said, would make me sure of this: earthquakes, thunder, or God’s smiling lightening; 

---

but I am sure of it now, sure that you guided me and led me here into your hallowed wood.

---

How otherwise could I have found this chair of stone?

---

Grant me then, Goddesses, passage from life at last, and consummation, as the unearthly voice foretold; 

---

unless indeed I seem not worthy of your grace — bound as I am to such ending pain as no man had before.

---

O hear my prayer, sweet children of original Darkness hear me, pity a poor man’s carcass and his ghost, for Oedipus is not the strength he was.

---

Therefore, in the name of God, give me shelter! Give me sanctuary! Through my face be dreadful in its look, yet honor me!

---

For I come as one endowed with grace by those who are over Nature; and I bring advantage. I bring advantage.

---

I bring advantage to this place.

---

template: song

Where pain unending
Ends for me

---

template: song

And I shall find
Oh let me find
Please let me find

---

template: song

I got to find
Hey
Sanctuary

---

## ANTIGONE:
Father, Theseus has come.

---

## THESEUS:
In the old time I often heard men tell of the bloody extinction of his eyes. 

---

Even if on my way I were not informed, I’d recognize him, son of Laius. I am sorry for him.

---

I too was an exile. Therefore no wanderer shall come to me, as she has done and be denied.

---

[ALTERNATIVE
In the old time I often heard men tell
Of the bloody extinction of your eyes.
Even if on my way I were not informed,
I’d recognize you, son of Laius.
The garments and the tortured face
Make plain your identity. I am sorry for you.
And I should like to know what favor here
You hope for from the city and from me:
Both you and your unfortunate companion.
Tell me. It would be something dire indeed
To make me leave you comfortless; for I
To was an exile. I grew up abroad,
And in strange lands I fought as few men have
With danger and with death.
Therefore, no wanderer shall come, as you do
And be denied my audience or aid.
I know I am only a man; I have no more
To hope for in the end than you have.]

---

He has asked for grace! And offers no small favor in return. As I value this, I shall not, I cannot, I will not refuse this man’s desire.

---

template: song 

## THESEUS and CHORUS:
We will never
We will never

---

template: song

No no never
No never
Drive you away

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no

---

template: song

## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
We will never
We will never

---

template: song

No no never
No never
Drive you away

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no

---

template: song

We will never
We will never

---

template: song

No no never
No never
Drive you away

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
I stood a wanderer
On life’s journey
At the close of the day

---

template: song

Hungry and tired
I was beaten by the rain

---

template: song

Why don’t you give me shelter
All I need is a resting place

---

template: song

Promised so long
Promised so long
Promised so long ago

---

template: song

## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
We will never
No no never
Drive you away

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
From peace in this land

---

template: song

No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
From peace in this land

---

## OEDIPUS:
(ad libbing) I am happy here. There is peace here. There is contentment here. I want everybody to know — I feel good.

---

template: song

## FULL COMPANY:
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never

---

template: song

We will never drive you away
We will never drive you away
We will never drive you away

---

template: song

From peace in this land…

---

---

## CREON:
Greetings! 

---

Citizens of this land, I bring your greetings! I can see my arrival has been a cause of considerable fear to you.

---

Don’t’ be afraid and don’t be hostile! I am an old man; I don’t want hostilities.

---

## THESEUS:
Four eleven, page 121 in your text – Creon, King of Thebes, comes to Colonus.

---

## CREON:
I come for this man here. Yes, I am sent to bring him to the land of Thebes.

---

It was ordered by the whole Theban people. I am the emissary because it fell to me as his relative.

---

Poor Oedipus. Come home. Your people summon you. Your people are right to summon you. Come home.

---

I grieve for your unhappiness, old man. I see you ravaged. A stranger everywhere, never at rest, leading a beggar’s life, with only a girl to help you.

---

Does this not shame our people? 

---

In the name of your father’s Gods, bury the whole thing now; agree to go back to your city and your home! Come on back home.

---

## THESEUS:
And Oedipus answered Creon thusly:

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
When I was sick with my own life’s evil
When I would –

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
— gladly have left this earth
you had no mind

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
You had no mind to –

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
— give me what I wanted!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
But when at last I had my full
Of rage and grief, and in my –

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
— quiet house.
I’d made my peace
That was the time

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
That was the time
You chose to –

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
— rout me out.

---

## THESEUS:
(speaking over the music) He said, “Suppose you beg for something and no man will grant it or even sympathize.

---

But later when you were glutted with all your heart’s desire…”

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
All my –

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Heart’s desire!

---

## THESEUS:
“When charity’s no charity at all? Then he gives it to you.”

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
You see this city and all its people
Being kind to me, so you would
Take me away!

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Evil kindness!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Evil kindness!
That’s the kind of kindness you –

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
— offer me!
You’d take him away
But you would not take him home

---

template: song

You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
You’d take me away
To a prison outside the walls
You’d take me away
To a prison outside the walls

---

(spoken) You think that way the city of Thebes may escape my curse. You think you’ll get reprieved from punishment!

---

No! No! You’ll not get reprieved! What you’ll get is all my vengeance rampant in that land forever!

---

And what my sons will get of my old kingdom is just so much room as they need to die in! 

---

template: song

Just the room they need to die in!

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
You’d take him away
But you would not take him home

---

template: song

You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls – You!

---

template: song

You’d take him away
But you would not take him home

---

template: song

You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls – You!

---

## CREON:
Oedipus! Time brings you no wisdom! While you were ranting I have seized your daughters.

---

---

## OEDIPUS:
You have my children? God help me now.

---

## THESEUS:
God help him now. For don’t you see in taking his children, Creon has effectively taken his eyes, rendering him helpless,

---

As if “standing in the wind of death.” Ode 1, strophe 2, line 6: As if “standing in the late wind of death”.

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Creon! Creon!

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
You who have taken them

## OEDIPUS: 
You who have taken them
Who have served my naked eyepits as eyes

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
On you and yours forever

## OEDIPUS: 
On you and yours forever
May God, watcher of all the world

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
Confer

## OEDIPUS: 
Confer
On you such days I have had
My God!

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
My God!

## OEDIPUS: 
My God!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
My God!

---

template: song

## CHORUS: 
My God!

## OEDIPUS: 
My God!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
And such an age
And such an age
And such an age
And such an age as mine.

---

---

template: song

## THESEUS, OEDIPUS, CHORUS:
Numberless are the world’s wonders
But none more wonderful than man
The storm-gray sea yields to his prows

---

template: song

Huge crests bear him high
Earth, holy and inexhaustible,
Is graven with shining furrows where his
Plows have gone

---

template: song

Numberless are the world’s wonders
But none more wonderful than man
Words and thought rapid as air

---

template: song

He fashions for his use
And his the skill that deflects
The arrows of snow
The spears of winter rain

---

template: song

From every wind he has made himself secure
From every wind he has made himself secure
From all but one… all but one

---

template: song

In the late wind of death he
He cannot stand.

---

## THESEUS:
Stay here and rest assured. I will not draw breath until I have put your children in your hands again.

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
I wish the wind would lift me
I wish the wind would lift me

---

template: song

Like a dove
Like a dove

---

template: song

I wish the wind would lift me
So I could look with the eyes of angels
For the child that I love

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS and CHORUS:
I wish the Lord would hide me
I wish the Lord would hide me

---

template: song

In a cloud
In a cloud

---

template: song

I wish the Lord would hide me
I’d fall like a rain of fire

---

template: song

And I’d lie, lie, lie, lie…
Like a shroud

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Like a dove – (think I can go higher)

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up

---

template: song

Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Like a dove – (think I can go higher)

---

## POLYNEICES:
Father!

---

## THESEUS:
Polyneices, eldest son of Oedipus, comes to Colonus. 

---

Fortunate is the man who has never tasted God’s vengeance! Where once the anger of Heaven has struck, that house is shaken forever:

---

Damnation rises behind each child like a black wave cresting.

---

template: song 

## THESEUS:
He sees his father – an old man
He’s just an outcast in a strange land
He says:

---

## POLYNEICES:
(speaking over the music) I have been evil!

---

template: song

## THESEUS:
Evil – everybody’s talking about me.

---

## POLYNEICES:
I don’t support my father.

---

template: song

## THESEUS:
Son didn’t stand by his father.

---

## POLYNEICES:
In his hour of need.

---

template: song

## THESEUS:
In his hour of need.

---

## POLYNEICES:
Father, shall I weep first for my own misfortunes or for yours?

---

Father, God himself seats mercy by his throne. So may mercy restrain you now as well. Wrongs, wrongs can still be healed. 

---

Speak to me! 

[music stops]

---

Why are you silent?

---

template: song

[music starts]

## THESEUS:
(vamping) ‘Cause you’re evil! You’re so evil!

---

## ANTIGONE:
Father, I wish some God would give you eyes to see. We have been brought back to you.

---

## OEDIPUS:
My children, where are you? Come quickly to my hands. 

---

They are your brother’s – hands that have brought your father’s once clear eyes to this way of seeing.

---

## POLYNEICES:
Antigone, Ismene, my sisters. 

---

Make him reply. I come on a pilgrimage.

---

template: song 

## EVANGELIST: 
He sees his sisters
Running to their father’s side
He says, “Talk to him.” 

## POLYNEICES:
(spoken) Talk to him.

---

template: song

## EVANGELIST:
“Can't you make him reply?” 

## POLYNEICES: 
(spoken) Can’t you make him reply?

---

template: song

## EVANGELIST:
He says, “Sisters,
Won't you take my part?”

## POLYNEICES: 
(spoken) Sisters,
Won’t you take my part?

---

template: song

## EVANGELIST:
And they say, they say

---

template: song

## ANTIGONE ISMENE:
Brother…

---

## ANTIGONE and EVANGELIST:
You yourself must touch his heart. Be rooted in your father’s arms and rest.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Ah my dears, be rooted in your father’s arms, and rest.

---

## POLYNEICES:
I will speak out then!

[music stops]

---

Father. I will tell you why I came.

---

I am a fugitive, driven from my country because as the eldest son born I thought fit to take my seat upon your sovereign throne.

---

And for this my younger brother banished me. Of this I believe the Furies that pursue him were indeed the cause – 

---

-- or so I hear from clairvoyants whom I afterwards consulted. Then why, why should I come here now?

---

template: song

[music starts] 

## THESEUS and EVANGELIST:
He’s so slick.

---

## POLYNEICES:
Father! These same oracles... They say that those you bless and only those that you bless… shall come to power.

---

My prayers and those of all who fight with me must then be made to you. Great captains follow me.

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Stand… stand by me
Stand… stand by me
Stand… stand by me

---

[Chorus continues to sing under Polyneices]

## POLYNEICES:
Now in the name of these brave men and for your own soul’s sake, we your children all implore and beg you to give up your heavy wrath against me! 

---

Listen to me. We are beggars, are we not?

---

Both of us are exiles, he and I. We live by paying court to other men, and the same fate follows us.

---


But as for my brother, he lords it in our house, luxuriates there, and he laughs, he laughs at both of us, Father.

---

I go forth to punish him who robbed me of my kingdom. If you will stand by me in my resolve,
I’ll waste no time or trouble whipping him.

---

And then I will re-establish you in our house, and settle there myself, and throw him out.

[music stops]

---

If your will is the same as mine, it is possible to promise this. 

---

If not, I will die.

---

---

## OEDIPUS:
LIAR!

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Once you held the power
And when you did you drove me out
Made me a homeless man

---

template: song

You are no son of mine
You are no son of mine

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
O you break my heart
You break my heart

---

template: song

O you break my heart
Don’t do it – don’t do it

---

## THESEUS:
Weeping is no good now! For we have placed a curse on you that we now invoke!

---

## OEDIPUS and THESEUS:
You shall never see your native land again. You shall never see your native land again.

---

You will go down all bloody and your brother too. Yes, you shall die by your own brother’s hand. And you shall kill the man who banished you.

---

For this I pray and cry out to the hated underworld that it may take you home.

---

## POLYNEICES:
Father!

---

## OEDIPUS THESEUS:
Wretched son! We cry out to the hated underworld that it may take you home!

---

## POLYNEICES:
Father! Father! Father!

---

## EVANGELIST:
Love, unconquerable waster of men. Surely you swerve upon ruin here. You have made bright and anger strike

---

template: song

## EVANGELIST: 
(spoken) Between father 

## ISMENE:
father

---

template: song

## EVANGELIST: 
(spoken) and son.

## ISMENE:
son

---

## EVANGELIST:
Even immortals cannot escape you; And mortal man, in his one day’s dusk, trembles before your glory.

---

template: song

## ISMENE:
Trembles.

---

---

## THESEUS:
Though he has watched a decent age pass by, a man will sometimes still desire the world.

## OEDDIPUS:
desire the world.

---

## THESEUS:
I swear I see no wisdom in that man.

## OEDIPUS:
in that man.

---

## THESEUS:
The endless hours pile up a drift of pain more unrelieved each day; 

## OEDIPUS:
each day;

---

## THESEUS:
and as for pleasure, when he is sunken in excessive age.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Well, that means, he’s gotten to be an old man.

---

## THESEUS:
You will not see his pleasure anywhere.

## OEDIPUS:
anywhere.

---

## THESEUS:
The last attendant is the same for all - old men and young alike, there being then no music and no dance. 

---

## THESEUS:
Death is the finish. Not to be born surpasses all philosophy.

## OEDIPUS:
all philosophy.

---

## THESEUS:
The second best is to have seen the light

## OEDIPUS:
seen the light

---

## THESEUS:
And then to go back quickly from whence we came.

## OEDIPUS:
whence we came.

---

## THESEUS:
The feathery follies of his youth once over, what trouble is beyond the rage of man?

## OEDIPUS:
rage of man?

---

## THESEUS:
What heavy burden will he not endure?

## OEDIPUS:
not endure?

---

## THESEUS:
Jealousy, faction, quarrelling, and battle, the bloodiness of war, the grief of war.

## OEDIPUS:
Jealousy, faction, quarrelling, and battle, the bloodiness of war, the grief of war.

---

## THESEUS:
And in the end he comes to strengthless age: abhorred by all men, unfriended,

## OEDIPUS:
abhorred by all men, unfriended,

---

## THESEUS:
Without company, in that uttermost twilight

## OEDIPUS:
Without company,

---

## THESEUS:
Where he must live with every, every, every bitter thing.

## OEDIPUS:
every, every, every bitter thing.

---

## THESEUS:
This is the truth, my friend,

## OEDIPUS:
truth, my friend,

---

## THESEUS:
Not just for you only, a blind and ruined man.

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Maybe not for you. But maybe for me.

---

template: song

You see, here I am. I’m a blind man. But here I am.
I’m a messed-up man. But here I am.

---

template: song

I’m a ruined man. Here I am. Here I am.
Aaaah!

---

## THESEUS:
You know, I think some shore in the north concussive waves make stream this way and that in the gales of winter.

---

It is like that with me sometimes – The wild wrack breaking over me, all the way from my head to my foot, and coming on forever.

---

Now from the plunging down of the sun. Now from the sunrise quarter. Now from where the noonday gleams. Now from the night and from the north.

---

[thunder]

[Chorus sings under Theseus]

I hear it this evening, children.

---

I hear it cascading down in the air! I’m talking about the God-thrown, I’m talking about the gigantic, holy sound!

---

I want you to know that terror crawls all the way to the tips of my hair!

---

I want you to know this evening that my heart shakes! My soul is salvation bound.

---

And where my body will repair, I know that
Great God Almighty’s smiling lightning opens up the ground. 

---

[thunderclap]

Bless his name!

---

## EVANGELIST:
Theseus, the lord of Athens, addresses Oedipus, the accursed of Thebes.

---

[rolling thunder continues] 

## THESEUS:
Oedipus! Heaven’s height has cracked!

---

## OEDIPUS:
Theseus!

---

## THESEUS:
Your hour has come.

---

## OEDIPUS:
This is God’s work! My lord, I longed for you to come. My soul sinks in the scale.

---

## THESEUS:
I believe you. I have seen you prophecy many a thing, none falsely.

---

## OEDIPUS:
I would not die without fulfilling what I promised.

---

I shall disclose to you what is appointed for you and your city. A thing that age will never wear away.

---

For every nation that lives peaceably, another will grow hard and push it’s arrogance, put off God and turn into madness. 

---

Fear not. God attends to these things slowly; but he attends. You know this; you know all that I teach.

---

template: song

## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
O sunlight of no light
Once you were mine
This is the last my flesh will feel of you

---

template: song

## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
For now I go to shade my ending days
In the dark underworld.

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) Most cherished friend, you alone may see the place I am to die.

## CHORUS:
This is the last my flesh
Will feel of you

---

template: song

## THESEUS:
(spoken) And he said unto me... 

## CHORUS:
For now

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) You must never tell it to any man. 

## CHORUS:
I go to shade

---

template: song

## THESEUS:
(spoken) “You must never tell it to any man.”

## CHORUS:
My ending days

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) For these things are mysteries, not to be explained.

## CHORUS: 
In the dark underworld

---

## THESEUS:
“For these things are mysteries.”

---

## OEDIPUS:
You will understand when you alone will come on it. 

---

Alone, because I cannot reveal it to anyone, not even my children, much as I love them.

---

## THESEUS:
And he could not reveal these mysteries even to his children.

---

template: song

## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
O sunlight of no light
Once you were mine
Now in the shadow of the vale I pray

---

template: song

You warmed my flesh above, now bless my soul
In the cold underworld…

---

## THESEUS:
(speaking over the music) He told me to keep it secret always. 

---

This way God will preserve us from our enemies. And hold us and our city safe forever.

---

We must be mindful of his suffering, his death and his redemption. And this our land and all our people will be blessed.

---

## OEDIPUS:
Remember me. Be mindful of my death. And be fortunate in all the time to come.

---

## THESEUS:
Remember him. Be mindful of his death. And be fortunate for all the time to come.

---

template: song

## ANTIGONE, ISMENE, CHORUS:
O sunlight of no light
O sunlight of no light

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Once you were mine

---

template: song

## SOLOISTS:
Let not our friend go down
In grief and weariness
Let some just God spare him
From any more distress

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well

---

template: song

## SOLOISTS:
We pray to almighty ones
Let his descent be clear
On those dim fields of underground
That all men living fear

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Down, down, down he goes 

## SOLOISTS:
To a house that has no light

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
He goes among the ghosts

## SOLOISTS:
Spirits plunged through the night

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Down, down, down below —

## SOLOISTS:
He goes among the ghosts

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep 

## SOLOISTS:
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Let him sleep well
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well

---

---

## EVANGELIST:
He has gone. It was not war, nor the deep sea, that overtook him, but something invisible and strange caught him up… or down… into a place unseen.

---

Listen, as sisters mourn their brother and daughters mourn their father.

---

## ANTIGONE:
O Father! My dear… now you are shrouded in eternal darkness. Even in that absence you shall not lack our love.

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
(continuous) Down, down, down he goes
Down, down, down below –

---

## THESEUS:
He lived his life.

---

## ANTIGONE:
In this land among strangers, he dies where he chose to die. His eternal bed is well shaded. And in his death he is not un-mourned.

---

## ANTIGONE:
My eyes are blind with tears from crying for you, Father. The terror and the loss cannot be quieted.

## ISMENE:
(sings) crying

---

## ANTIGONE:
I know you wished to die in a strange country. Yet your death was so lonely!

## ISMENE:
(sings) lonely!

---

## ANTIGONE:
Why could I not be with you? Why?

---

## THESEUS:
That is not permitted. He has no tomb.

---

## ANTIGONE:
Where shall I go? 

## ISMENE:
(sings) Where

---

## ANTIGONE:
How shall I live?

## ISMENE:
(sings) How

---

## ANTIGONE:
O take me there and kill me too. 

---

## ANTIGONE:
Great God! What way is left me? What way?

## ISMENE:
(sings) What way? What way?

---

## THESEUS:
Mourn no more. Those to whom the night of earth gives benediction should not be mourned. Retribution comes.

---

## ANTIGONE:
Mourn no more. Mourn no more. Those to whom the night of earth gives benediction should not be mourned. Retribution comes.

---

template: song

## ISMENE:
Retribution comes.

## ANTIGONE:
Retribution comes.

---

template: song

(repeated)

## ISMENE:
Retribution comes.

## ANTIGONE:
Retribution comes.

---

## THESEUS:
Rejoice, sisters. He has left this world.

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
Well I’m crying hallelujah
Yes I’m crying hallelujah
I was blind, he made me see

---

template: song

Yes I’m crying hallelujah
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices so heavenly

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher

---

template: song

## SOLOIST and CHORUS:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind, so blind, and he made me see
Crying hallelujah

---

template: song

Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly

---

template: song

## CHORUS:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
Set him free Lord, set him free

---

template: song

## CHORUS and SOLOIST:
Crying hallelujah
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly

---

template: song

Lift him up – lift him up
O lift him up – lift him up
Lift him up – lift him up
O lift him up – lift him up

---

template: song

Lift him high high high high high high – higher
Lift him high high high high high high – higher
Lift him high high high high high high – higher

---

template: song

## OEDIPUS:
Lift me up – lift me up

---

template: song

## ALL:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind! He made me see
Crying hallelujah

---

template: song

## ALL:
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly

## KELVIN:
(ad libbing)

---

template: song

## ALL:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind! He made me see
Crying hallelujah

---

template: song

Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly

---

---

## KELVIN:
By God’s mercy, was his death a painless one?

---

(ad libbing) Yes, you may wonder, “Was his death a painless one?” 

---

That is the thing that seems so marvelous. You know, for you were witnesses, how he left this place with no friend leading him,

---

Acting, himself, as a guide for all of us.

---

Well, when he came to a steep place in the road, the embankment there, secured with steps of brass,

---

He stopped in one of the many branching paths. 

---

Halfway between that place of stone, with its hollow pear tree, and the marble tomb, he sat down and undid his filthy garments.

---

Then he called to his daughters and commanded that they should bring him water from a fountain for bathing and libation to the dead.

---

From there they could see the hillcrest of Demeter, freshener of all things. 

---

They ascended the hills and soon came back with water for their father; they helped him properly to bathe and dress.

---

When everything was completed to his satisfaction, and no command of his remained undone, the earth groaned with thunder from God below.

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And as they heard the sound, the children were so afraid, and dropped to their fathers knees, 

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and began shuttering, beating their breasts, and began to weep as if heartbroken.

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And hearing them cry out so bitterly, he put his arms around them and said to them:

---

“My Children, my Children, this day your father is gone from you. All that was mine is gone. 

---

You no longer have to bear the burden of taking care of me.

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I know it was hard, my children, and yet one word, one word frees us of all the pain and burdens of this life;

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That word is love. Love. Never shall you have more from any man than you have had from me.

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But now you must spend the rest of your life without me.”

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They huddled there together, the three of them and wept.

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And there was silence, and in the silence suddenly a voice cried out to him of such a kind it made our hair stand in panic and fear.

---

Again and again the call came from his God:

---

“Oedipus! Oedipus! Why do you wait? You delay too long; you delay too long to go.”

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This much everyone of us heard God say. 

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And after a while as we withdrew, we turned around – and nowhere saw that man. 

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In what manner Oedipus perished, no one of mortal men could tell. 

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It was not lightning, bearing its fire, that took him off. Ah, no hurricane was blowing.

---

But some attendant from the train of Heaven came for him; or else the underworld opened up with love the unlit door of the earth.

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For he was taken without lamentation, suffering, or pain. Yes —

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He was taken without lamentation, suffering, or pain. 

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Indeed his end was wonderful if mortal’s ever was.

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Now let the weeping cease. Let no one mourn again. The love of God will bring you peace. There is no end.

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
Now let the weeping cease

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
Let no one mourn again

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
The love of God will bring you peace

---

template: song

## SOLOIST:
There is no end

---

template: song

## ALL:
Now let the weeping cease

---

template: song

Let no one mourn again

---

template: song

The love of God will bring you peace

---

template: song

There is no end

---

template: song

Now let the weeping cease

---

template: song

Let no one mourn again

---

template: song

The love of God will bring you peace

---

template: song

There is no end

---

## ALL:
(ad libbing) 
There is no end.
There is no end.

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## KELVIN:
(speaking over the music) Now let the weeping cease. Let no one mourn again. These things are in the hands of God.

---

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