Renata and the wooden cradle
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1st laborer:
I am one of the laborers in the vineyard. The directors voice told me to be the narrator of the story of the saint of May 23rd. The saint's name is Renata, herself a mother of 10 children, always finds time to care for the poor, the sick and the lonely, spending almost all of her private fortune on social institutions and indulging only in the bare necessities of life.
Related to the story of the saint, these relics are needed as objects of interaction on stage: Cradle, body with perfect measurements.
1st monologue of Renata, derived from the infinitive sequence of the left half of the stage: swing, go, drift, find, stood, say
Renata, wearing the mask of Ilse, standing between wooden cradles.
You can call me Renata or Sophie, Petronilla, Rita or Ilse: How young I was at the "Operation Carnival" and with the werewolves and when we eliminated Oppenhoff as ordered by the Führer.
Nevertheless, I am what I am; a woman who is forced to swing her hips, to stay, although I would much rather go! I would like to drift away, to surrender to the pure movement of the lips that speak, to make the realm of the mouth-body come true. There, in the body of our mouth, we will find ourselves as the kingdom of heaven, the vineyard and the words made flesh in one subject. I have stood here, and you may think that I will stand here forever to secure our oh so precious sitting life. But now listen very carefully to what I have to say to you:
Her 2nd monologue, derived from the infinitive sequence of the right half of the stage: make, answer, done, reach back, spoke, giving
Renata, bending over the empty cradle, shakes her head, then takes four steps forward and stands directly at the front edge of the stage, facing the audience:
Let me be honest: I do not care if I am a mother of one, ten or a hundred children. And the fact that I spent all my money - it wasn't that much, by the way! - was because I wanted to be free!
Let's make it real, and right now I'll give you the answer to the question: compared to what: to my body! Whatever I have done so far, I reach back to what you spoke to me again and again and say: Now I'm giving you the only true answer:
I am the kingdom of heaven!
My body is the vineyard!
I am the owner of this kingdom.
My name is empty and filled a thousand times.
I am the female as such.
My body is perfect.
…..
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Renata:
„The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.“
1st laborer:
This is strange, how is it possible that someone could be the landowner and the vineyard called kingdom of heaven at the same time – a person and a space?
2nd laborer:
Yes, you’re right: If the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, then there must be a close relationship between the kingdom and the vineyard that's owned by the landowner.
3rd laborer:
Let’s mention Bocaccio, who in a novel of the Decamerone used the expression "plowing the field" for the physical performance of intercourse.
We think it is quite clear who is the plow and who is the field.
Renata:
„And when he had agreed with the laborers on a small daily wage, one silver denar, he sent them into his vineyard. And when he went out about the third hour, he saw others standing by the road, and he said to them: “Go also into the vineyard, and I will give you what is right.” And they went. About the sixth and ninth hour he went out and did the same thing.
And about the eighth hour he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them: What have you been doing here all day?
And they said to him, “They have done nothing to us. And he said to them: Go and work in the vineyard, and you will get your due.”
1st, 2nd and 3rd laborer:
We where asked to work in the vineyard: In the morning, three of us, in the third hour, three again, in the sixth hour, once again the same number, and in the ninth hour, for the last time three. We did what we took for granted: uproot the weeds and plow the furrows between the vines.
Overseer:
No, my dear audience, it’s not as you may assume at the first gaze. They do not work in the vineyard like you may know it from the Demeter cult, within which sexuality is connected with agriculture, which was still very much alive in the Middle Ages and which Bocaccio also refers to; the earth is regarded as a lying woman, who must also be ritually mated in order to make her fertile: Performing the sexual act on the earth, digging in seeds by men lying naked on the furrows. In the Demeter cult also the ritual intercourse on the furrows occurs, the plow can be represented as phallus.
Nevertheless, the vineyard and so the landowner as well as the kingdom of heaven is based on the female as such. The female as such is to be seen as a grammatical structure, the male as such as the volume of a sound, a color and so one. Normally we think it the other way round. But is not the way that the female as such belongs to the women and the male as such to the men. Both belongs to every living being — in the same way as we carrying God in our souls.
Renata:
And when evening came, the lord of the vineyard said to his overseer, “Call the laborers, and give them their wages; and take the last to the last.”
So they came about the eleventh hour and took every man his part.
But when the first came, they thought they would get more, and they also took every man his part.
1st laborer:
We should be paid equally for what we have for what we have done, for the sweat and the tears which over the day where getting more and more, for all the rejections we have experienced, how the dry land spurned our tears and the wind frustrated our efforts.
2nd laborer:
The land, so dry and dusty, did not absorb the water, and the furrows we had plowed with the greatest effort were immediately filled in by the grains of sand that had followed them.
3rd laborer:
The land has rejected us, no matter how hard we try to curry its favour. We plowed and watered the land all day. Sweat ran down our faces, chests, and the insides of our thighs.
Renata:
And when they had taken, they murmured against the father of the house, saying “These last have worked but an hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, because we have endured the labor of the day and the heat.”
And he answered and said unto one “My friend, I have done thee no wrong: art thou not of one mind with me in many things?
Take what is yours and go. But I will give you the rest as I have given you.
Or have I not power to do with mine what I will? Thinkest thou that I am so good?
The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Pause
Overseer:
Pause, a strange sound that we could identify as plowing is heard.
1st laborer:
The dialogue between Renata and the overseer derived from the infinitive sequence of the parable of the vineyard. As told by Poor Child Jesus:
went out, hire, had agreed, sent, saw, standing, said, go, give, doing, work, get, call, came, took, thought, murmured, made, endured, answered, done, take, thinkest, called.
Overseer:
Whoever wants to measure the universe from the grammatical center of her body must strictly follow the rules.
The whole problem is best illustrated by the example of those who think they can work according to their own ideas.
Renata:
Although they went out late at night into the unknown, leaving their familiar place of birth to find me, they are back now, without any result, remembering that they went to school, started their studies full of hope, thinking that one day someone will come and say, You are the one I have been looking for: “You are the one I have been looking for! I will hire you!”
But hired for what? They shrug their shoulders. Do you think I had agreed if they had known what for? Would I have sent them out to measure the universe? Certainly not!
You saw me standing on the stage, right at the edge of the orchestra pit. You remember I said: I am the female as such. My body is perfect. I said, "Go! Go! Go! Give everything you have! Leave everything and follow me! If you are doing so, your work will be blessed!
They raised their hands and shouted as loud as they could to get my attention. I can still hear the sound of their call. They came closer and closer.
Overseer:
One took what he thought he had the right to take by paying so much money. That the voice of the director couldn't say no! The director's voice, when he agreed, his "yes," was murmured almost soundlessly, but it made no difference: A „yes", though spoken almost without a sound, does not become a „no".
Renata:
You have no idea what I endured; a senseless poking that lasted little more than a minute and a half, then a spilling that hit nowhere but did nothing. I asked him: What are you doing? He answered with a shrug. I asked him: Do you know what you have done? I said to him: Take your useless preparations and go home to your mom!
Do you really thinkest the play is going to run on your ridiculous ideas of healing and salvation? I called you to measure the universe, not to work in the vineyard according to the stupid rules you have chosen.
Play on Stage / The Kingdom of Heaven