In the Valley of the Shadow of Death: A One-Act Play

 

By OPOVV
ThePostEmail.com

Gustave Doré, “Crossing the Styx,” 1861, public domain

As the house lights dim, the curtain rises to the music of “Irish Lament” (3:12) revealing an empty stage; background is a large screen with an aerial view of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. As the music draws to its conclusion, an actor resembling Joe Biden dressed in prison garb enters the stage from the right and, as he stops in center stage, a naked 60-watt bulb above his head is lit. The actor faces the audience and asks:

“What am I doing here?”

An omnidirectional voice responds:

“You are reaping what you have sown.”

“But I haven’t done anything.”

“Now ain’t that the truth? You had the chance to help people; to do good, but you squandered your opportunities year after year, and for what?”

“To become rich; what else?”

“But you had enough and you wanted more, too much in fact. Greed took over your soul.”

“Maybe I did skim a little along the way; what of it?”

“Just look at you: alone center stage; the focus of derision by millions of your fellow citizens and billions worldwide.”

“Well, so was Trump.”

“Where’ve you been, hiding in your basement? Trump was admired for who he was: honest, hard-working, intelligent, all the things that you never were and never could be. The word, Trump, and the man are synonymous with integrity and honesty while your name, Joe Biden, means selling-out, underhanded and a traitor.”

“Well, big deal; so what? I’m the president.”

“So? Are you a man of his word? Do people respect you? Do you garner followers? No, I’m afraid not. As a human being you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, a place shared with thieves and pedophiles.”

“So what is this place?”

“You are about to be rowed across the River Styx to your new digs, there to reflect where you went wrong. You will thirst for righteousness for all eternity on a quest that can never be quenched.”

“But why?”

“Because you earned it, that’s why: you and you alone. ‘Joe Biden: the champion of abortions and infanticide.’ Now turn around and look at the screen as the curtain lowers.”

The music of “Beginning to End” (2:50) is heard as the stage light is extinguished and images of children, alive and dead, from the Death Camp flicker from one gruesome photo to another as the curtain slowly lowers, and only when the curtain touches the stage do the house lights brighten as the music ends.

FINI