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A Company of Players Cometh Nigh
I wrote this at a time when many people in America were debating the limits of free speech during a time of war. The idea of writing it as a bogus Elizabethan verse play was simply to take the audience out of 21st-Century America so a larger, more universal issue could be addressed. I will always be indebted to Joel Helms, Mike Hicks, and Mark Wells for tackling this challenging script the first time.
The play has been performed several times in my home town since, with some intriguing responses. Many people feel strongly that it advocates one point of view, while others think it argues successful for the opposing view. I couldn't be happier with this result! Engaging people's interest and intellect is much more interesting to me than bombarding them with my opinions.
This script, along with a few other short scripts of mine, is in the collection PUSHED TO THE LIMIT.
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ANTONIO
I hear some rumour of a knavish thing /
wherein there's mirthful mocking of the king.
BALTHASAR
That same is this. And I am told of how /
this author's text doth send upon the stage /
complaints against his gen'rals too - oh, God! /
it makes my breast to burn with righteous rage.
ANTONIO
And are these players not always harangued? /
How can they play this piece and not be hanged?
BALTHASAR
An ancient law they claim yet giveth still /
each man the right to speak whate'er he will.
ANTONIO
If ancient law to them this freedom gives--
BALTHASAR
It gives no such to any man that lives. /
There is no law or statute made whereby /
a man may safely write a treas'nous lie.
ANTONIO
Is treason meant whene'er a man may say /
some king is not the best in ev'ry way?
BALTHASAR
Is treason meant? What call it you, when /
subjects of the crown can make a play wherein /
the king doth plunder foreign riches while /
his soldiers die in wars they cannot win?
ANTONIO
`Tis treason, Balthasar, to plot to kill /
the king or help our foes to work their will -
BALTHASAR
-- and so these actors do, for in the play /
this king invents a tale about his foes -- /
--concocting claims of all their weapons fierce /
when all such weapons long had been disposed.
ANTONIO
If what these players say of him is true /
shall those who love their land not him beshrew?
BALTHASAR
Then you would wish upon our king a curse?
ANTONIO
If he's unfit to rule I wish him worse.
Balthasar draweth his blade.
BALTHASAR
I'll hear such scornful talk from thee no more. /
Complaints are treason during time of war...
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