A Hindu Creation Story
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Story 1.
(GAIA moves behind some foliage that she can look over and removes her dress, draping it over the foliage.)
GAIA
Once was a time, I could tell this story without hiding. (beat) Imagine then, if you will – a place….
(GAIA lifts a handful of lotus petals above her head and lets them spill over her, then lifts several more and lets them flow down her arms over her as she speaks.)
GAIA
(continuing)
...in full bloom of love; every kind of love: your love, my love, Rumi’s love, Gibran’s love, Buddha’s love, God’s love. (beat) And, there is a man and a woman.
(GAIA tosses a large quantity of lotus petals into the air and lets them flutter down. They are sparkles of silver in the green set. On the backdrop, appears a partial white line against black image of a man and a woman embracing with their chokra’s highlighted {Image 1})
GAIA
But, the story didn’t start with the man and the woman.
(On the backdrop, an image {Image 2} of a cobra coiled at rest on a dark ocean against a dark starless and moonless night. It is a study in darkness. At the same time comes a low hum and a deep sound of several voices humming a one syllable word as GAIA speaks)
SINGULAR VOICE OF SEVERAL PEOPLE (O.S.)
(speaking under GAIA, repeating)
Ommmmmmmmmm. Ommmmmmmmmmmm. Ommmmmmmmmmm
(Subtle sound of lovers. Murmurs, whispers; giggles, sudden and surprised, not garish sounds of arousal or lovemaking.)
GAIA
This man and this woman loved each other. He would listen to her every word and she would let him touch her – inwardly -- outwardly.
(Image of man and woman {Image 1} is superimposes over the image of the cobra {Image 2})
GAIA
(with awe)
She would tell him every and all things important and not important, for all were pertinent. (beat) And he would press himself against her with all of himself (beat) And they made…
(thinks for a moment)
…no – they created love, together for they were not burden with knowing where he or she ended and she or he began.
(GAIA lifts up a full lotus bloom with petals and green sash GAIA cradles the blossom of the flower as if it were a baby’s head and kisses the blossom. Then looks to the audience with demur eyes.)
GAIA
How will you respond to my kiss.
(pause)
This will not do. My nudity is a distraction; a map you may follow in the wrong directions.
(GAIA wraps the dress/sari around her again as she speaks and slowly moves out from behind the foliage)
GAIA
Back to the woman – and the man.
(Sounds of children’s guileless laughter interweaves with the laughter of adults. GAIA listens to the laughter then giggles.)
GAIA
{giggles}
As she speaks, GAIA moves in a slow sensuous dance, imitating the movements of a woman with lover)
GAIA
Days were spent in flirtatious idyll and nights were spent in rapturous intimacy. The man would chase the woman and she would deny him what she never really wanted to deny, for a time. They accepted me as the gift I am.
(GAIA gathers fruit, mangos, pineapples, pears and puts them into a basket, and continues her dance. Again, the sound of children giggling.)
GAIA
Like children, they ran barefoot though the forest on a path of sphagnum moss, until the man, nearly spent from his day of chase, would catch the woman about the waist and she would struggle, but only momentarily. He would draw up against her, breathing into her hair.
(To audience as if sharing a secret)
I could feel his heat.
(GAIA returns to her dance, holding the basket like a man carrying a lover)
GAIA
He would kiss her neck
(Reached to her neck and giggles)
She would soften and he would lift her and carry her to a great pine tree.
(As she speaks, GAIA carefully lifts large pine branches and slides the basket under, as if putting it in a tent.)
GAIA
(Tenderly)
On a bed of pine needles, under the a tree that was their own world; on a bed of rain softened needles as comfortable as a child’s mind, they would be – with each other they would Be..
(GAIA returns to her dance, cupping one breast and letting her hand slide down her front. Image of man and woman returns to backdrop {Image 1}.)
GAIA
(continuing – dancing)
He would cup her and she would entwine herself around him and souls would join, as would their bodies. And I would cradle them, bathing and cleansing myself in the sanguine wash of their love.
(GAIA suddenly stops her dance.)
GAIA
Then, they divided each wanting names for themselves.
(GAIA moves to the edge of the stage, speaks to the audience.)
GAIA
What is it that makes people afraid to live without a name? What makes one want to differentiate themselves from another? In all of immortality, what difference would it make?
(BLACKOUT: Image of man and woman disappears. All sound stops. A wooden rod makes a single run around a Tibetan singing bowl, giving off its chime.
At the same time a single stroke of a bow across a violin playing a chord a suspended 4th off from the bowl, giving a discordant sound.)
GAIA
(speaking from the dark)
“Can there be more than just this?” The woman asked.
(A single dim spot comes up on GAIA)
GAIA
(to the audience)
Isn’t this enough?
(returns to storytelling)
“Yes,” said the man I suppose there could be -- more”.
(Again the sound of a singing bowl and a violin.
A single light points straight down on a clearing in the foliage where there is nothing. GAIA holds up a mango)
GAIA
(as the woman)
“Perhaps there is…”
(speaking as the man)
“…knowledge.”
(speaking as Gaia to audience)
They turned away from me.
(Backlit in dance, GAIA pulls in the mango and moves as if embracing someone, then herself. She suddenly stops and holds out the mango)
GAIA
(to the mango)
She asked “why?”
(Again the sound of the singing bowl and violin
GAIA steps close to the single shaft of light, so she is barely visible. She holds out the mango so it is in the light.)
GAIA
Ah, immortality. (beat) “Tonight,” said the woman, “when you make love to me, call me Manushi (mã-noo-shee).” The man smiled, adding. “When you cry for me, cry for Manusha (mã-noo-shah).” That night the once soft needles from the bed of pine needles stuck in them.
(GAIA reaches under the pine and quickly whisks the basket from under it. She pulls out the fruit and rolls each item along the stage
She picks out someone in the audience and holds the mango out to the person. If the person does not take the mango, GAIA drops it)
GAIA
The next morning Sha and Shi left, following a path of hard packed mud and rocks through the bramble and fruitless thorns.
(GAIA steps into the spotlight, taking a bramble bush branch and running it over her arms until they are laced with red scratches and tears as if she had been through a bramble patch. GAIA holds out her arms for show.)
GAIA
(continuing)
Why would anyone ever do this to themselves?
(GAIA raises her arms then runs one hand over the wounds of one arm and then the other, then down her body to indicate she is scratched and torn everywhere.)
GAIA
(sobbing)
I am torn and their journey has raked my body and left me ripped and marred
(stops sobbing)
Sha looked at himself and Shi, saying, “We are torn and bloody in such a way that I do not want to even create love. We can go back. See, we can see the path.” (beat) My heart rose. (beat) But, Shi saw the path they had carved, thin and jagged and said, “No I cannot go back through that. We must continue. We must learn more, so we can exist without this pain.”
(pause)
A deer appeared, viewing Sha and Shi with benign eyes.
(In graceful dance move, GAIA moves in a way that represents a deer)
GAIA
“We must learn to cover ourselves,” said Shi. The deer’s ears turned in several directions in that way that signals all creatures around that there is danger.
(Using her hands, GAIA mimes the movements of the deer’s ears)
GAIA
(continuing)
The berries and the fruit and had become bitter, but Sha and Shi wanted to survive. So they ate the bitterness.
(GAIA holds up and crushes a ripe plum in her hand, letting the juice flow down her arm.)
GAIA
(continuing)
They laced together grass and leaves in an attempt to cover themselves, but their clothing always shedded their as trees do.
(GAIA plucks a leaf or two from her own tattered leaf-dress)
GAIA
One day Shi came up Sha watching a herd of deer. Sha’s eyes had traded the azure of the sky for the dark tones of a cave. “I wish I could wear the animal’s fur,” said Sha. Shi looked at Sha in fear. Sha had never desired anything other than her love. Then she understood.
(An image of eyes with one dark and the other blue appears on the back drop {Image 3}From offstage comes the cry of an animal in pain as GAIA turns from the audience, speaking as she pulls the leaves from her. She moves out of the light, keeping her back to the audience an puts on a smock of fur that leaves her torn arms still exposed.
From an upside down deer skull, GAIA pour more blood on her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Bent over the carcass of a dead deer, hands covered in blood, Sha wept, violently. Shi went to him and put her hand on his head, smoothing his hair.
(GAIA moves downstage toward the audience, picking up an urn or a gourd, seating herself close to the edge of the stage as she speaks, picking up a pristine white piece of fabric)
GAIA
(continuing)
And so through Shi’s emotional will and Sha’s physical strength, they created a new world for themselves; flawed and apart from the world given to them.
(pause)
One day, Sha looked at Shi and said, “we have not created love in a long time.”
(GAIA runs her hands over her fur smock, over her breast down the front as if seeking some sexual response)
GAIA
Shi, could not find the stirrings she’d not had in a long time. She parted her fur smock and let if fall as Sha swept his tunic over his head. They looked at each other then turned away, each breaking down into their own sadness, for neither wanted to create love with what the other had become.
(Still speaking, GAIA dips the white fabric into the gourd wetting it and uses it to wash the blood streaks from her arms.)
GAIA
Shi said, “I want to -- return to The Place,”
(GAIA turns her back on the audience, moves upstage as if looking for an entrance to the foliage)
Without looking at each other they dressed and begin their journey back to where they had come from, but they couldn’t find it.
(GAIA looks over her shoulder at audience)
GAIA
(continuing)
It’s there if only you could remember why, not where.
(GAIA turns away from the audience again and holds out her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Shi cried, “I am alone.”
(GAIA pulls her arms to her chest)
GAIA
“We,” corrected Sha, “are alone.”
(GAIA returns downstage and finishes washing off her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Shi pushed away her tears and kissed Shah as she hadn’t in a long time and said, “we need to overcome our ugliness so we will not always be alone.”
(GAIA moves to the edge of the stage, holding out the now red-stained fabric as an offering.)
GAIA
Who wants this?
(GAIA moves behind some foliage that she can look over and removes her dress, draping it over the foliage.)
GAIA
Once was a time, I could tell this story without hiding. (beat) Imagine then, if you will – a place….
(GAIA lifts a handful of lotus petals above her head and lets them spill over her, then lifts several more and lets them flow down her arms over her as she speaks.)
GAIA
(continuing)
...in full bloom of love; every kind of love: your love, my love, Rumi’s love, Gibran’s love, Buddha’s love, God’s love. (beat) And, there is a man and a woman.
(GAIA tosses a large quantity of lotus petals into the air and lets them flutter down. They are sparkles of silver in the green set. On the backdrop, appears a partial white line against black image of a man and a woman embracing with their chokra’s highlighted {Image 1})
GAIA
But, the story didn’t start with the man and the woman.
(On the backdrop, an image {Image 2} of a cobra coiled at rest on a dark ocean against a dark starless and moonless night. It is a study in darkness. At the same time comes a low hum and a deep sound of several voices humming a one syllable word as GAIA speaks)
SINGULAR VOICE OF SEVERAL PEOPLE (O.S.)
(speaking under GAIA, repeating)
Ommmmmmmmmm. Ommmmmmmmmmmm. Ommmmmmmmmmm
(Subtle sound of lovers. Murmurs, whispers; giggles, sudden and surprised, not garish sounds of arousal or lovemaking.)
GAIA
This man and this woman loved each other. He would listen to her every word and she would let him touch her – inwardly -- outwardly.
(Image of man and woman {Image 1} is superimposes over the image of the cobra {Image 2})
GAIA
(with awe)
She would tell him every and all things important and not important, for all were pertinent. (beat) And he would press himself against her with all of himself (beat) And they made…
(thinks for a moment)
…no – they created love, together for they were not burden with knowing where he or she ended and she or he began.
(GAIA lifts up a full lotus bloom with petals and green sash GAIA cradles the blossom of the flower as if it were a baby’s head and kisses the blossom. Then looks to the audience with demur eyes.)
GAIA
How will you respond to my kiss.
(pause)
This will not do. My nudity is a distraction; a map you may follow in the wrong directions.
(GAIA wraps the dress/sari around her again as she speaks and slowly moves out from behind the foliage)
GAIA
Back to the woman – and the man.
(Sounds of children’s guileless laughter interweaves with the laughter of adults. GAIA listens to the laughter then giggles.)
GAIA
{giggles}
As she speaks, GAIA moves in a slow sensuous dance, imitating the movements of a woman with lover)
GAIA
Days were spent in flirtatious idyll and nights were spent in rapturous intimacy. The man would chase the woman and she would deny him what she never really wanted to deny, for a time. They accepted me as the gift I am.
(GAIA gathers fruit, mangos, pineapples, pears and puts them into a basket, and continues her dance. Again, the sound of children giggling.)
GAIA
Like children, they ran barefoot though the forest on a path of sphagnum moss, until the man, nearly spent from his day of chase, would catch the woman about the waist and she would struggle, but only momentarily. He would draw up against her, breathing into her hair.
(To audience as if sharing a secret)
I could feel his heat.
(GAIA returns to her dance, holding the basket like a man carrying a lover)
GAIA
He would kiss her neck
(Reached to her neck and giggles)
She would soften and he would lift her and carry her to a great pine tree.
(As she speaks, GAIA carefully lifts large pine branches and slides the basket under, as if putting it in a tent.)
GAIA
(Tenderly)
On a bed of pine needles, under the a tree that was their own world; on a bed of rain softened needles as comfortable as a child’s mind, they would be – with each other they would Be..
(GAIA returns to her dance, cupping one breast and letting her hand slide down her front. Image of man and woman returns to backdrop {Image 1}.)
GAIA
(continuing – dancing)
He would cup her and she would entwine herself around him and souls would join, as would their bodies. And I would cradle them, bathing and cleansing myself in the sanguine wash of their love.
(GAIA suddenly stops her dance.)
GAIA
Then, they divided each wanting names for themselves.
(GAIA moves to the edge of the stage, speaks to the audience.)
GAIA
What is it that makes people afraid to live without a name? What makes one want to differentiate themselves from another? In all of immortality, what difference would it make?
(BLACKOUT: Image of man and woman disappears. All sound stops. A wooden rod makes a single run around a Tibetan singing bowl, giving off its chime.
At the same time a single stroke of a bow across a violin playing a chord a suspended 4th off from the bowl, giving a discordant sound.)
GAIA
(speaking from the dark)
“Can there be more than just this?” The woman asked.
(A single dim spot comes up on GAIA)
GAIA
(to the audience)
Isn’t this enough?
(returns to storytelling)
“Yes,” said the man I suppose there could be -- more”.
(Again the sound of a singing bowl and a violin.
A single light points straight down on a clearing in the foliage where there is nothing. GAIA holds up a mango)
GAIA
(as the woman)
“Perhaps there is…”
(speaking as the man)
“…knowledge.”
(speaking as Gaia to audience)
They turned away from me.
(Backlit in dance, GAIA pulls in the mango and moves as if embracing someone, then herself. She suddenly stops and holds out the mango)
GAIA
(to the mango)
She asked “why?”
(Again the sound of the singing bowl and violin
GAIA steps close to the single shaft of light, so she is barely visible. She holds out the mango so it is in the light.)
GAIA
Ah, immortality. (beat) “Tonight,” said the woman, “when you make love to me, call me Manushi (mã-noo-shee).” The man smiled, adding. “When you cry for me, cry for Manusha (mã-noo-shah).” That night the once soft needles from the bed of pine needles stuck in them.
(GAIA reaches under the pine and quickly whisks the basket from under it. She pulls out the fruit and rolls each item along the stage
She picks out someone in the audience and holds the mango out to the person. If the person does not take the mango, GAIA drops it)
GAIA
The next morning Sha and Shi left, following a path of hard packed mud and rocks through the bramble and fruitless thorns.
(GAIA steps into the spotlight, taking a bramble bush branch and running it over her arms until they are laced with red scratches and tears as if she had been through a bramble patch. GAIA holds out her arms for show.)
GAIA
(continuing)
Why would anyone ever do this to themselves?
(GAIA raises her arms then runs one hand over the wounds of one arm and then the other, then down her body to indicate she is scratched and torn everywhere.)
GAIA
(sobbing)
I am torn and their journey has raked my body and left me ripped and marred
(stops sobbing)
Sha looked at himself and Shi, saying, “We are torn and bloody in such a way that I do not want to even create love. We can go back. See, we can see the path.” (beat) My heart rose. (beat) But, Shi saw the path they had carved, thin and jagged and said, “No I cannot go back through that. We must continue. We must learn more, so we can exist without this pain.”
(pause)
A deer appeared, viewing Sha and Shi with benign eyes.
(In graceful dance move, GAIA moves in a way that represents a deer)
GAIA
“We must learn to cover ourselves,” said Shi. The deer’s ears turned in several directions in that way that signals all creatures around that there is danger.
(Using her hands, GAIA mimes the movements of the deer’s ears)
GAIA
(continuing)
The berries and the fruit and had become bitter, but Sha and Shi wanted to survive. So they ate the bitterness.
(GAIA holds up and crushes a ripe plum in her hand, letting the juice flow down her arm.)
GAIA
(continuing)
They laced together grass and leaves in an attempt to cover themselves, but their clothing always shedded their as trees do.
(GAIA plucks a leaf or two from her own tattered leaf-dress)
GAIA
One day Shi came up Sha watching a herd of deer. Sha’s eyes had traded the azure of the sky for the dark tones of a cave. “I wish I could wear the animal’s fur,” said Sha. Shi looked at Sha in fear. Sha had never desired anything other than her love. Then she understood.
(An image of eyes with one dark and the other blue appears on the back drop {Image 3}From offstage comes the cry of an animal in pain as GAIA turns from the audience, speaking as she pulls the leaves from her. She moves out of the light, keeping her back to the audience an puts on a smock of fur that leaves her torn arms still exposed.
From an upside down deer skull, GAIA pour more blood on her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Bent over the carcass of a dead deer, hands covered in blood, Sha wept, violently. Shi went to him and put her hand on his head, smoothing his hair.
(GAIA moves downstage toward the audience, picking up an urn or a gourd, seating herself close to the edge of the stage as she speaks, picking up a pristine white piece of fabric)
GAIA
(continuing)
And so through Shi’s emotional will and Sha’s physical strength, they created a new world for themselves; flawed and apart from the world given to them.
(pause)
One day, Sha looked at Shi and said, “we have not created love in a long time.”
(GAIA runs her hands over her fur smock, over her breast down the front as if seeking some sexual response)
GAIA
Shi, could not find the stirrings she’d not had in a long time. She parted her fur smock and let if fall as Sha swept his tunic over his head. They looked at each other then turned away, each breaking down into their own sadness, for neither wanted to create love with what the other had become.
(Still speaking, GAIA dips the white fabric into the gourd wetting it and uses it to wash the blood streaks from her arms.)
GAIA
Shi said, “I want to -- return to The Place,”
(GAIA turns her back on the audience, moves upstage as if looking for an entrance to the foliage)
Without looking at each other they dressed and begin their journey back to where they had come from, but they couldn’t find it.
(GAIA looks over her shoulder at audience)
GAIA
(continuing)
It’s there if only you could remember why, not where.
(GAIA turns away from the audience again and holds out her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Shi cried, “I am alone.”
(GAIA pulls her arms to her chest)
GAIA
“We,” corrected Sha, “are alone.”
(GAIA returns downstage and finishes washing off her arms)
GAIA
(continuing)
Shi pushed away her tears and kissed Shah as she hadn’t in a long time and said, “we need to overcome our ugliness so we will not always be alone.”
(GAIA moves to the edge of the stage, holding out the now red-stained fabric as an offering.)
GAIA
Who wants this?