ESTHER
A Drama
Characters:
Narrator Servant
King Ahasuerus Mordecai
Queen Esther Haman
Sage 1 Attendant 1
Sage 2 Attendant 2
Scene 1: The Persian Festival (1:1-2:23)
Setting: King seated in middle. Sages on king’s right. Servant on left. Attendants off to the left side.
Narrator: This happened in the days of the King of Persia, who proclaimed a festival for all his officials and ministers to demonstrate the great wealth and splendor of his kingdom. The festival lasted for six months! At the end of the festival, the king gave a banquet in the garden of the palace. There were couches of gold and silver, drinks in golden goblets, and the royal wine was lavished upon all. On the seventh day, the king commanded the royal Attendants to bring before him Queen Vashti, in order to show her beauty to everyone. But the Queen refused to come and the king was enraged. So the king summoned all his sages and officials.
King: What is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not obeyed my command?
Sage 1: Not only has Queen Vashti done wrong to the king, but she also has done wrong to all the peoples who are in all the king’s provinces. For this deed will be made known to all women, and they will say, “The King commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him and she did not come.” And they will look with contempt on their husbands.
Sage 2: Why, this very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the Queen’s behavior will rebel, and there will be no end of contempt and wrath! If it pleases the king, let a royal order go out that Vashti is never again to come before the king. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.
King: Send forth letters to all the royal provinces, and to every people in their own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.
Servant: And let beautiful young women be sought out for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces to gather all the beautiful young women to the harem in the city of Susa; and let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. (Sages bow to king and exit. Servant stays on stage)
Narrator: All of this pleased the king, and so it was done.
Now there was a Jew in the city of Susa whose name was Mordecai. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. Mordecai had raised his cousin Esther, for Esther had neither mother nor father. Esther was beautiful, and Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. So when the king’s order was proclaimed, Mordecai brought Esther to the city.
(Moredecai brings Esther to servant. Servant takes her to the attendants who give her beauty treatments).
She won the favor of the king’s attendant, who gave her the best place in the harem. Yet Mordecai ordered Esther not to reveal that she was one of the Jewish people. And Esther did as he told her. Each of the young women was given beauty treatments for a whole year: 6 months of beauty treatments with oil and myrrh and 6 months of beauty treatments with perfumes and cosmetics. At the end of the year each young woman would go in to the king. (Servant takes Esther to the King) When Esther’s turn came, she was admired by all, and the king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won his favor and devotion, so the king made her queen instead of Vashti. He gave a great banquet for her and proclaimed a holiday in her honor. But Esther did not reveal that she was one of the Jewish people…. Meanwhile, Mordecai sat at the king’s gate.
Mordecai: (Seated, speaking to himself) All has gone well! Esther is queen, as I knew she would be. A young woman with such beauty and grace…
Attendant 1: (Interrupts Mordecai, speaking to Attendant 2) I tell you, I cannot stand it any more! The king is no longer fit to rule…
Attendant 2: I completely agree with you. But what can be done?
Attendant 1: We will get rid of him. I tell you, the two of us could easily kill the king.
Attendant 2: Yes…perhaps you are right. It would be easy…(they whisper together)
Narrator: And so Mordecai told Esther of the plot against the king,
(Mordecai goes to tell Esther) and Esther told the king. (Esther tells the king). When the affair was investigated and found to be true, the two men were hanged on the gallows. (Sages arrest attendants and take them off stage.) All this was recorded in the king’s book of records, but the king did not know that it was Mordecai who had saved him.
Scene 2: A Pogrom Planned (3:1-4:17)
Setting: Mordecai seated in front, servant beside him. Haman off to the side.
King seated in back.
Narrator: After these things, the king promoted Haman above all the officials, and commanded all his officials to bow down to Haman and to honor him. But Mordecai refused to do so.
Mordecai: I will not bow down to this Haman!
Servant: Why do you disobey the king’s command? We have spoken to you day after day and still you refuse.
Mordecai: Indeed I refuse. I will not bow down to this Haman, for I am a Benjaminite, and he is an Amalekite, and thus my enemy. I will not bow down to him!
(Mordecai exits. Servant goes to Haman)
Narrator: So the servants reported Mordecai’s behavior to Haman, and Haman became enraged.
Haman: Why will this man not obey the king’s command?
Servant: He says he is a Benjaminite, sir, and refused to bow down. He is indeed a stubborn man.
Haman: A Benjaminite? A Jew? This one refuses to bow down to to me? He will pay. All the Jewish people will pay. The king shall know of this.
(Haman goes to the king)
Haman: There is a certain people scattered among your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people. They do not keep the king’s laws, and they should not be tolerated! If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction. I have cast a lot to determine the day of their destruction: the 13th day of the 12th month. I myself will put 100 million dollars into the king’s treasuries in return for this small favor.
King: The money is yours, for I do not want it; but the Jewish people are given to you, to do with them as you wish. I will give you my signet ring, and you may send a decree for their destruction in my name.
Haman: My thanks to you, your majesty. I will send the decree for the destruction of all Jews, both young and old, including women and children. Let them be destroyed on the 13th day of the 12th month. After this, there shall be none of them left at all! (Haman and king exit)
Narrator: The city was thrown into confusion by the king’s decree. In every province, wherever the order came to kill the Jews, a great cry went up, and great mourning among the Jews. There was fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth an ashes. And Mordecai, too, learned of the decree…
(Outside the palace)
Mordecai: (Seated. speaking loudly) What shall become of my people? What shall I do? I must wear sackcloth and ashes, and grieve, for my people will be destroyed.
(Esther enters)
Esther: Mordecai? Why do you sit in sackcloth? What is happening? Why is there such confusion and weeping in the city?
Mordecai: Do you not know of this plot? Haman has promised to pay the king 100 million dollars so that all the Jews may be destroyed. On the 13th day of the 12th month, all the Jews will be killed. Here is a copy of the decree!
(Gives Esther a piece of paper.)
You must go to the king and plead for our people. Go, hurry, go!
Esther: But everyone knows that no man or woman may go in to the king’s inner court without being summoned. To do so would mean death! I myself have not been called to the king for thirty days. What can I do?
Mordecai: (stands up) Don’t be fooled, Esther. Don’t think that in the king’s palace you will escape death any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence and refuse to intercede, our people will surely be saved by someone else; but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.
Esther: Then go. Gather all the Jews in the city, and hold a fast on my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days and three nights. My maids and I will fast as you do. And after that I will go to the king, although it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.
(Esther goes to king. Mordecai exits offstage.)
Scene 3: The Plot to Kill Mordecai (5:1-14)
Setting: King and Haman inside the palace. Esther enters from offstage.
Narrator: Mordecai went away and did everything that Esther had asked him to do. On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and went to the inner court of the king’s palace. (Esther approaches the King.)
As soon as the king saw her, she won his favor and he beckoned her to enter.
King: What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.
Esther: If I have won the king’s favor, and if it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to a banquet that I have prepared for them, and then I will make my request of the king.
King: Indeed, we shall come.
Haman: Indeed, my queen.
(Aside) How I am honored! For I am rich and have many sons, and I alone have been advanced above all the king’s officials. Even Queen Esther has invited no one but me to come with the king to the banquet that she prepared. Yet all this does me no good so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate… But I know what I will do! I will have a gallows made, 75 feet high, and in the morning I shall tell the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Now I shall go to the banquet in good spirits! (Haman exits)
Scene 4: Haman Seeks Honor and Mordecai is Honored (6:1-14)
Setting: King lying down. Servant beside him. Haman enters from offstage.
Narrator: Late that same night, the king could not sleep. So he gave an order to bring the book of records, in which the notable deeds that had been done in the kingdom were written down. The records were read to the king.
(Servant appears to read from a large book).
And it was found written that Mordecai had discovered a plot against the king, and had saved the king from certain assassination; for he had reported the behavior of the king’s attendants, and how they planned to kill the king.
King: What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? He has saved my life!
Servant: Why, nothing has been done for him.
King: Wait…what was that noise? Who is in the court?
Servant: I believe it is Haman…
King: Let him come in.
(Haman enters)
Haman: Your majesty, I wish to speak to you about hanging a certain man…
King: Wait, Haman; I seek your advice. What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?
Haman: (Aside) Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?
(To the king) For the man whom the king wishes to honor, let royal robes be brought, robes that the king himself has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. Let one of the king’s most noble officials robe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!”
King: Yes, indeed! You are truly wise, Haman. Quickly then, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do all this for Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.
Narrator: So Haman did as the king commanded. He had Mordecai dressed in the royal robes, and he had Mordecai ride on one of the royal horses through the streets, and he proclaimed before Mordecai that “thus it shall be done for him whom the king wishes to honor!”
(Haman goes to Mordecai. Haman puts robes and crown on Mordecai. Haman and Mordecai roam through the room with Mordecai galloping, as on a horse.)
But afterward Haman returned to his house in a foul mood.
Haman: If Mordecai, before whom my downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, certainly I will not prevail against him, but I will fall before him!
Scene 5: The Plot to Kill Mordecai Foiled (7:1-10)
Setting: King seated. Haman on one side, Esther on the other.
Narrator: When Esther had prepared the banquet, Haman hurried off to feast with Queen Esther and the king.
King: Now what is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.
Esther: If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases you, let my life and the lives of my people be given me. This is my request. My people and I are doomed to destruction. We are to be killed and annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.
King: Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?
Esther: A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!
Haman: My queen, surely you are mistaken! Please do not take my life, I beg of you…
(throws himself at Esther’s feet)
King: Will you assault the queen in my presence, in my own house? You have prepared a gallows for Mordecai, whose word saved me; a gallows which stands at your own house, 75 feet high. And you will be hung on that!
(Sages arrest Haman and take him offstage)
Narrator: And so Haman was executed by the order of the King, and Mordecai’s life was spared, as he had spared the life of the king.
Scene 6: The Pogrom Foiled (8:1-9:19)
Narrator: Queen Esther, however, had yet one more request for the king.
Esther: Please, if it pleases the king, if I have won his favor, do not allow my people to suffer destruction. Let an order be written to revoke Haman’s order. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming upon my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?
(Mordecai enters)
King (to Mordecai): Haman has been hung on the gallows because he plotted to lay hands on the Jews. Therefore, now you may write as you wish with regard to the Jews. Write it in the king’s name and seal it with the king’s ring, and it shall not be revoked.
Mordecai: Then I will write this: “All the Jews in all the kingdom shall be allowed to assemble and defend themselves from all who might attack them on the 13th day of the 12th month.” That day shall not be the day of my people’s destruction.
Narrator: And the Jews rejoiced in every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict came.
Scene 7: The Jewish Festival (9:20-10:3)
Narrator: Now on the 13th day of the 12th month, the Jews assembled and defended themselves from all who tried to attack them.
(Optional: attendants engage Mordecai in a mock battle. Mordecai wins.)
Whenever anyone attacked them they successfully fought them off. Then, on the 14th and 15th days of the month, the Jews rested and celebrated those days in feasting and gladness.
Mordecai: (alone on stage) As a remembrance of these days of salvation, and because this month has been turned from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into joy, I command that these days be kept as holidays. They shall be days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. Haman cast a lot, that is, a “pur” against us; yet we were not destroyed. Therefore these days shall be called “Purim,” and we will remember them as days of gladness and rejoicing!
Narrator: And so Mordecai sent a letter throughout the kingdom calling Jews everywhere to celebrate in honor of the days of their salvation. The king advanced Mordecai to a position of great power, and his fame grew throughout the land. Mordecai was next in rank to the King, and he was powerful among the Jews and popular with his family, for he sought the good of his people and interceded for the welfare of all this descendants.