A Short Dialogue Play in One Act
(Dedicated to the spirit of the martyrs)
Scene:
A man stands alone in the village square. He looks at the scene of destruction around him. A woman approaches him, wearing a colorful shawl on her shoulders.
Woman:
You are alone here amidst this destruction!
(He looks at her strangely!) Who are you?
Woman:
It doesn’t matter who I am, but I am from here!
Man:
How do I know you’re from here?
Woman:
Look at my face carefully. Doesn’t it look like the color of the earth?
Man:
The earth has no color left but the color of destruction!
Woman:
Where has hope gone?
Man:
Hope? I don’t know its fate! Some say it was fatally wounded, some say it was kidnapped, some say it was killed. . . Some say it left with the departed. (He stops suddenly and thinks for a moment!) I am leaving too! (And he starts walking)
Woman:
Where are you going?
Man: (And he doesn’t stop walking) Where? I don’t know! The important thing is to get away from this destruction!
(The music gets louder and louder!)
Woman:
(In a loud voice!)
Stop!
Man (The music gets louder) I won’t stop!
Woman:
Stop for a moment!
Man:
Why?
Woman:
So that we can sing this hymn
Man:
What hymn?
Woman:
The hymn of hope!
Man:
But it no longer exists!
Woman:
No, its pulse is still beating!
Man:
Do you hear the sound of hope?
Woman:
Yes!
Man:
Where does the sound come from?
Woman:
I don’t know! Perhaps it comes from somewhere in the destruction itself!
Man:
What is there in the destruction but destruction?
Woman:
In the heart of this destruction are the spirits of our ancestors!
Man:
Destruction does not produce hope!
Woman:
Destruction produces rejection!
Man:
And what is the use of rejection?
Woman:
Rejection produces defiance!
Man:
And what is the use of defiance?
Woman:
Defiance produces love of life!
Man:
And what does love of life produce?
Woman:
It produces resistance
Man:
And what does resistance produce?
Woman:
Resistance produces hope!
(He thinks for a moment, then stops walking and approaches her. The music begins to play loudly through the space and they begin to sing)
O hope, dwelling in a distant place
In the sad East
We are following you
We come to you carrying our sins
From the spark of your light we renew our souls
A rainbow dripping with water
For the time of the swallow of joy has come
To sing in our fields!
(They embrace!)
The End
Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian Norwegian researcher, lecturer playwright and poet, wrote more than 17 books such as Perspectives on thought, culture and political sociology, in thought, culture and ideology, the road to Baghdad
