MIDVINTERBLOT
by Richard Nathan
A room in the Intensive Care unit of a hospital.
DR. LEIBER observes his patient INGA.
As the play begins, Inga is stressed out and Leiber is reassuring.
As the play progresses, Inga gets calmer and Leiber becomes very stressed
out.
INGA
What….?
LEIBER
Shhh. Relax.
INGA
I… This…
I’m alive.
LEIBER
Yes. Relax.
INGA
I should be dead.
LEIBER
No. You’re all right.
INGA
I should be dead!
LEIBER
You had a heart attack. But
you’re all right.
You’re in the hospital.
We’re looking after
you.
INGA
My heart stopped. I was
dead.
LEIBER
Why don’t you leave the diagnosis to me?
INGA
I know my heart stopped! Are
you trying to
tell me it didn’t?
LEIBER
Well… All right.
Yes, it did stop. But we
started it again. I have to
leave now, and
visit some other patients.
But don’t worry.
The monitor shows you have a strong, steady
heartbeat. Merry Christmas.
INGA
I’m not a Christian.
LEIBER
Oh. Well,
actually…neither am I.
I‘m just a scientist. Happy
December 25th.
INGA
I’m a pagan. Blessed be.
LEIBER
That’s fine too. We don’t
discriminate.
I have to leave now.
INGA
I should be dead!
LEIBER
You’ve been through a great deal.
It’s to be
expected that you should feel stress.
INGA
I shouldn’t feel stress. I
shouldn’t feel
anything! I should be dead!
LEIBER
I can give you a mild sedative.
Then I
have to go. I have so many
other patients...
INGA
Doctor, have you ever heard of Midvinterblot?
LEIBER
No.
INGA
In ancient Sweden, the priests would
perform human sacrifices at the time
of the winter solstice, so that the
elder gods would bring back the light.
LEIBER
People did lots of terrible things before
they knew better.
INGA
It’s not terrible. The way
of the world is
that people die. Especially
old people. The
old die, and babies are born, and that’s how
the world is renewed. You’re
a doctor. You
know that.
DOCTOR
But that’s not human sacrifice.
That’s just
bodies running down . Look,
I’m sorry. I
really have to go. I can
send in a nurse to
talk to you… or give you a sedative. You’d
be amazed at how many patients….
INGA
Sometimes it‘s bodies running down.
Sometimes it‘s something else.
DOCTOR
People don’t commit human sacrifice anymore!
INGA
We do. Those of my creed.
At this time of year.
But we don’t use daggers. We
are not savages.
We use spells.
DOCTOR
I don’t have time…. Let me
get a nurse.
INGA
Over the course of my life, I have used
spells to take the lives of over a hundred
people. People who were old
and ready.
Now I am old. I’m ready.
It’s time for
me to give up my life, for the renewal of the
light. So I cast the spell
on myself.
DOCTOR
That’s nonsense! It isn’t
even the
solstice! That was three or
four days ago!
INGA
This is the day for the celebration of
the coming of the light.
DOCTOR
You mean Christmas?
INGA
That’s what the Christians call it.
We
call it Midvinterblot.
DOCTOR
I absolutely have to go. The
hospital is filled
with people who need my help.
INGA
Why? Why do so many elderly
people die
on December 25th ?
DOCTOR
I don’t know! Maybe it just seems
that way!
Or, … I don’t know… there’s a lot of excitement
… stress on this day. People
overeat…
INGA
They die to appease the elder gods, to
bring back the light.
LEIBER
That makes no sense! The
change in the
length of daylight is caused by the tilt of
the earth as it goes around the sun.
When
the days are short in the northern hemisphere,
they are long in the southern hemisphere.
That’s the way it’s always been and the way
it will always be!
INGA
As long as the old continue to die.
That is the way of the world.
LEIBER
No!!! That’s…
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t get
so
emotional. But what you are
saying is
against everything I believe in!
INGA
The elder gods need another death.
LEIBER
Well, it won’t be you!
You’re hooked up
to monitors! At any sign of
an irregular
heart beat…
INGA
There is a specific number that must die
today!
LEIBER
It doesn’t work that way!
INGA
How can you be so sure?
LEIBER
I’ve been practicing medicine for
forty-five years!
INGA
That long?
LEIBER
Yes! And in all that time…
INGA
You don’t look that old.
LEIBER
Thank you. As I said, I’ve
been
practicing medicine for forty-five
years, and in all that time, I have
never seen….
She stares at him. He feels a sudden horrible pain in his chest, as if a great
weight were crushing him. His knees
bed. He has a heart attack and
dies.
INGA
Blessed be.
THE END
© 2005 by Richard Nathan. All rights reserved
The author grants to all Internet users the right to print these scripts for their ow7, personal, non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the author's permission. Without limiting the foregoing, the plays may not be staged without the author's express permission.
Send e-mail to the author at Richard-Nathan@att.net.
Click here to go to other scripts by the same author