31 Plays in 31 Days: #13 - "Not Yet"

Mmmkay, this one is kind of weird. And not written by me so much as arranged by me from some famous quotes of C.S. Lewis. I always loved the story of how he came to faith-- from a kind of furious atheism until he found himself pulled to it in a manner he could not deny. And here I wanted to explore an idea of Lewis's that faith is easier when you are whole than when you are suffering. But still, even when pain and disillusionment pull at you, that doesn't mean you have no chance of someday finding the thing that will give you solace and fulfillment. For you it may not be faith, but there's usually something like that for everyone.

Yeah, I know the staging's weird. It's an experiment.

Day #13 - "Not Yet"

C.S. LEWIS, an early 20th Century writer and Christian apologist, slight Irish accent
ROWAN CLIFFORD, a modern-day forensic scientist, English accent
SARIEL, a guardian angel, American accent
~~~

(ROWAN CLIFFORD in his lab coat works at his station on a table upstage. Downstage, C.S. LEWIS stands beside a desk in his professor’s tweeds.)

LEWIS: I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing.

(He sits down at his desk, picks up his pen.)

LEWIS: You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.

(Enter SARIEL, swathed in a black cloak with a low hood. LEWIS tries desperately to focus on his work. His attention keeps straying, though, and he is visibly distressed.)

(ROWAN stands at his table in the lab, also trying to work, but it becomes harder and harder to contain his upset.)

(SARIEL approaches and stands at LEWIS’s shoulder just behind him.)

LEWIS: That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in… perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

(Lewis puts his pen down, then clasps his hands in front of him. He shakes his head, then gives in with a nod, exhaling hard. He slides out of his chair to get down on his knees. He lifts his clasped hands to hold before him. SARIEL lets down his hood, revealing a kind human face, and touches him on the shoulder.)

(Finally Rowan breaks down, crying quietly, and covers his eyes with his hands. SARIEL leaves LEWIS and goes to stand behind ROWAN in the same manner. SARIEL stands silently, waits patiently.)

(At last Rowan collects himself a little, and lifts up his head. He roughly wipes his eyes and exhales.)

ROWAN: Not yet. All right? I’m not ready. Not yet.

SARIEL: It’s all right. We have all the time in the world.

LEWIS: I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing.