Esther and Vashti by Carolyn Gage
ACT I
SCENE ONE
The courtyard of MORDECAI's home outside the walls of the palace of
Persia. Lights come up on a circle of JEWISH WOMEN performing a ritual
dance, with frame drums and tambourines. At the end of the dance,
SARAH steps forward. She is a woman in her sixties, a leader among the
women.
SARAH: (Calling out a ritual question.) Where is the girl who today
becomes a woman? (The sound of girls laughing from offstage.) Where is
the girl who today becomes a woman? (More laughter offstage. ESTHER
steps forward from the circle. She is a young, working-class, Jewish
woman in her early twenties. Deeply hurt by her lover VASHTI's
marriage to the king of Persia, she has embraced Jewish nationalism
with a vengeance. ESTHER is fierce in her loyalties and in her
idealism. There are no Agray areas@ in her world, and she takes pride
in her in her unwillingness to compromise her principles. She calls
out sternly:)
ESTHER: Where is the girl who today becomes a woman? (A group of
teenaged girls with timbrels emerge from the house. They enter the
circle of adult women. One of the girls, RACHEL, steps forward. RACHEL
is ESTHER's cousin. She has just turned thirteen, and this is a
party to celebrate her coming-of-age. RACHEL is a lively,
self-confident girl who has obviously been raised with love. Her best
friend DEBORAH is among the girls.)
RACHEL: (Looking at DEBORAH and giggling.) I am she.
SARAH: (A ritual question.) And what is the name of this girl?
RACHEL: (Catching ESTHER's eye, she becomes serious.) I am Rachel,
daughter of Mordecai and Leah.
SARAH: Rachel, daughter of Mordecai and Leah, have you begun to
bleed?
RACHEL: I have. (More giggling. RACHEL looks at DEBORAH again and
starts to laugh. ESTHER turns to look at DEBORAH, who immediately
looks at the ground. RACHEL, struggling to be serious, turns to SARAH.
SARAH strikes her drum and three women step forward. JAEL, DEBORAH's
mother, lays a mat in front of RACHEL and sets a chalice on it.
HANNAH, a woman in her 40's, sets a knife on the mat, and RUTH, a
woman in her 50's, places a timbrel decorated with ribbons. The three
women step back into the circle. SARAH lifts the chalice.)
SARAH: Will you drink the salt tears of the mother Hagar, whose
children's exile will be her exile, whose children's tears will be
her tears? Will you be willing to raise your children alone and in the
wilderness? Rachel, daughter of Leah, will you drink the tears of
Hagar?
RACHEL: I will. (She takes the chalice and drinks from it.)
SARAH: And will you take the sword of Judith, who slew Holofernes as
he slept in his own tent? Will you take up arms in defense of the
children, the mothers of Israel?
RACHEL: I will. (She takes the knife and tucks it into her sash.)
SARAH: And will you take this timbrel of Miriam to make your song in
the wilderness, in your passage from slavery to freedom, to sing your
song of triumph over your enemies wherever you go?
RACHEL: I will! (She raises the timbrel and shakes it. There is a
great ululation from the girls and the women.)
SARAH: Then, Rachel, daughter of Leah-I, Sarah, daughter of Dinah,
anoint you this day and celebrate your passage into womanhood! (The
WOMEN all crowd around RACHEL to kiss her and to congratulate her.
Suddenly a figure appears outside the circle. She is shrouded in a
burdah that completely covers her face. RACHEL catches sight of the
figure and calls out.)
RACHEL: Vashti! It's Vashti ! Look, Esther, it's Va-
ESTHER: (Cutting her off sharply.) Rachel! (RACHEL covers her mouth,
acknowledging her mistake.)
SARAH: (To ESTHER.) Aren't you going to speak to her?
ESTHER: (To SARAH, angry.) Why should I? I didn't invite her!
SARAH: Well, she's here, and I don't think she's going to go
away. (SARAH turns to the other WOMEN.) Esther and Rachel have a
visitor. It's time for us to go. (RACHEL and her young friends express
their disappointment.)
JAEL: (Gathering her daughter.) Come on, Deborah (The JEWISH WOMEN
and their daughters exit, the girls calling their good-byes to RACHEL.
The stage is empty except for ESTHER, RACHEL, and their visitor.
Suddenly, the visitor throws off the burdah. It's VASHTI, the Queen
of Persia, wearing a resplendent Persian gown. VASHTI, about ten years
older than ESTHER, is a Persian woman of privilege. Raised with the
understanding that she would be expected to marry into another
aristocratic family, VASHTI accepted the king's selection of her
without question. She is a powerful woman, nonetheless-powerful in
her exercise of her privilege and in her ability to manipulate the
systems that uphold it. RACHEL runs to embrace her.)
RACHEL: Vashti! Vashti! You came!
VASHTI: (Holding her.) Rachel! Look at you! A young woman! Today you
are a woman! Here… This is for you. (She produces an elegantly
wrapped bundle and gives it to RACHEL. She turns to ESTHER, who has
been watching her in stony silence.) She's grown so much.
ESTHER: What are you doing here?
VASHTI: Did you think I would miss the celebration for Rachel's
coming-of-age?
ESTHER: It's dangerous for you to come here.
VASHTI: No one saw me.
ESTHER: I mean it's dangerous for us! Did you ever think of that?
VASHTI: How is it dangerous for you?
ESTHER: (Exploding.) Because we're Jews! We're not Persians! This
isn't our country. These aren't our laws. Anything that
happens-they blame it on us. My friends who just left… Don't you
think they know who you are?
VASHTI: I hope they know who I am. I hope they know that just because
I have become a Queen, I still love and remember my best friend
Esther…
RACHEL: (Holding up a magnificent gown.) Is this for me?
VASHTI: You like it?
RACHEL: It's beautiful! Look, Esther-
ESTHER: (To VASHTI.) From the king's harem?
VASHTI: (Evenly.) I had it made.
RACHEL: (To VASHTI.) I'll put it on.
ESTHER: Rachel-(She's too late. RACHEL has run off. She turns to
VASHTI.) We don't allow anything Persian in our home.
VASHTI: It's a gift.
ESTHER: I don't want her to wear it.
VASHTI: She's not a child anymore. Today she is a woman.
ESTHER: Today she is a Jewish woman, and as long as she lives with me,
she's going to remember that.
VASHTI: Is this about me? Because if it is, let's leave Rachel
out of it.
ESTHER: It's about Persia. It's about exile. It's about enemies.
It's about remembering who we are when we have been taken captive to
a foreign land against our will. So let's not leave Rachel out of
it. And, yes, it is about you, because you are now the Queen of
Persia, the queen of our enemies.
VASHTI: Esther, what's happened-
ESTHER: Hadassah! My name is Hadassah!
VASHTI: I can't call you Esther?
ESTHER: "Esther" is a Persian name-the name of one of your
idols.
VASHTI: It's one of the names of the great goddess Ishtar!
ESTHER: It's a heathen name, an abomination!
VASHTI: I see.
ESTHER: I've been learning about my history. (VASHTI says nothing.)
The history of the Jews. (VASHTI says nothing.) We have been chosen by
God above all other people. He has made his covenant with us.
VASHTI: Is that why you're in exile?
ESTHER: We are in exile as a punishment for our sins! For forgetting
this covenant! For whoring after foreign gods and consorting with
heathen women. When we put away this uncleanliness and when we
sanctify ourselves and rededicate ourselves to Jahweh, the God of our
fathers, when we remember the covenant and are faithful, he will
deliver us, even as he delivered us from slavery in Egypt and led us
to the Promised Land.
VASHTI: I see.
ESTHER: We are lost because we don't remember our history.
VASHTI: And what about your own history, Hadassah? Do you remember
that?
ESTHER: I remember that my mother was murdered by the Persians.
VASHTI: No! No, you don't remember that! You were just a baby. But
I'll tell you what you do remember. You remember a Persian family
that took you in and raised you, that gave work to your uncle
Mordecai, so that he could feed you and his daughter Rachel. You
remember that family, my family, and you remember how we loved you and
how we protected you. And you remember a girl who took care of you
like you like a sister. You remember a girl who told stories to you,
and who sang to you, and who held you in her arms when you cried for
your mother. And you remember the nights we spent together, under the
stars… You remember the touch of her arm, you remember the scent of
her hair. You remember the kisses
ESTHER: I remember someone who left to marry the king.
VASHTI: That wasn't my choice, and you know it. And you know that if
it weren't for my being queen, your uncle would never have gotten
the appointment as gatekeeper of the harem, and he wouldn't have
this house, and you wouldn't have all this time to be studying the
famous history of your people!
ESTHER: Did you have to trade the king sexual favors for the
appointment?
VASHTI: I'm the Queen!
ESTHER: You're his head harem girl, that's all. Did you have to
trade sexual favors for my uncle's job?
VASHTI: Well, I guess there's no point in my offering Rachel a
position at the palace
ESTHER: (Enraged.) You would expose Rachel to that whorehouse!
VASHTI: (Turning to go.) Well
ESTHER: No, wait! You think it's an honor for women to be penned up
in a harem like cattle? You think it's an honor to be tricked out in
these ridiculous clothes, as if that would make it-(Just then RACHEL
appears in an very expensive belly dance costume.) Rachel!
RACHEL: Look, Vashti! (She begins the sinuous movements of a belly
dance.)
ESTHER: (Stunned.) Where did you learn that?
RACHEL: All the girls do it.
ESTHER: Well, you're not going to do it here. It's a slave dance.
RACHEL: Vashti does it.
VASHTI: Rachel, I think you need to listen to your cousin.
ESTHER: And take those slave clothes off.
RACHEL: But Vashti gave them to me!
ESTHER: We don't wear Persian clothes in this house. This is a
Jewish home and we wear Jewish clothes.
RACHEL: What about Vashti?
ESTHER: Vashti is the Queen of Persia, and she has to wear slave
clothes, but we don't.
RACHEL: (Confused.) But slaves don't wear clothes like this
ESTHER: Sexual slaves do. When you're older, you'll understand.
RACHEL: I am older. Today I became a woman.
ESTHER: Take that off right now and give it back to Vashti.
RACHEL: No! She gave it to me!
ESTHER: Did you hear what I said?
RACHEL: No!
VASHTI: Rachel, it was my mistake. I'm sorry- Please (RACHEL,
frustrated, runs off.)
ESTHER: You have brought division to my house.
VASHTI: No, Esther. I brought love. You are the one with all the
hatred and division. The war is over. I'm sorry for what happened to
your people. So was my family. We have always tried to help the Jews.
But it's over, and nobody can bring back the dead, and most of your
people are settled in Persia now and don't want to go back. Life
moves on. You can't get stuck in the past. Rachel is two generations
away from the war. You don't even remember it. You were just a baby.
How many generations do you want to carry the grudge? How much blood
needs to be shed before you will be satisfied-?
ESTHER: (Interrupting.) Me? It's your people-it's your
king-who are the murderers!
VASHTI: (Angry.) You don't know anything about the king. You've
never met him. You've never even seen him. And yet you know all
about who he is and you're so sure I'm his slave, his whore! You
and your Jahweh-the great judges! I may be a pagan-I may not be
one of the special chosen ones-but the goddess I worship believes in
life and believes that we are all her children-Persian and Jew, men
and women-and believes in kindness and forgiveness and love. And
it's probably the most heathen thing about me-the thing you hate
most, of all the things you hate about me, which seems to be
everything-but I love you. And you can call me a slave and a whore
and accuse me of corrupting your uncle's child, but that isn't
going to stop me from loving you, because the pleasure I found in your
arms was the most sacred experience of my life.
ESTHER: You lie with the king.
VASHTI: That doesn't change my feelings for you.
ESTHER: Well, it's changed mine.
VASHTI: Esther
ESTHER: Hadassah!
VASHTI: (Drawing herself up.) I should go. Tell Rachel I had to leave.
(She exits. ESTHER watches her go in silence. She picks up one of the
frame drums and taps it a few times. MORDECAI enters. He is a Jewish
man in his 50's. Mild-mannered and humorous, he has experienced much
violence in his life.)
MORDECAI: Esther! Esther! Good news!
ESTHER: (Looking up.) Uncle.
MORDECAI: Esther! We are going to have a visitor-from the palace!
ESTHER: She was just here.
MORDECAI: (Confused.) "She?"
ESTHER: Vashti. She came to see Rachel.
MORDECAI: Vashti! Such an honor!
ESTHER: She's not coming anymore.
MORDECAI: Why?
ESTHER: This is no place for a queen.
MORDECAI: What? Are you ashamed?
ESTHER: Yes, I'm ashamed! I'm ashamed every time I see a Jew bow
down and take off his hat to a Persian! I'm ashamed when our Jewish
children speak the language of our enemies. I am ashamed when a man
who remembers the burning of Jerusalem speaks of honor in the same
breath with name of the king's whore!
MORDECAI: Esther, she is the queen.
ESTHER: She is nothing! She is more of a slave, more of a captive than
we are!
MORDECAI: (Smiling.) You had a little fight with Vashti?
ESTHER: No! No, I didn't "have a little fight" with Vashti. She
represents everything the Jews hate-she's a pagan, she's a
Persian-
MORDECAI: Enough! Now I am ashamed! (ESTHER looks at him.) I am
ashamed to have a niece of mine speak with such ingratitude about a
friend who has done so much for her. Ingratitude is a sin-like
pride.
ESTHER: Ingratitude! The Persians have taken us away from our homes!
They have stolen everything-
MORDECAI: (Cutting her off with a rare burst of anger.) What do you
know about that? Were you there? Hmm? Were you there? Do you remember?
What do you know about the war?
ESTHER: (Taken aback by his vehemence.) I've heard the stories.
MORDECAI: The stories! (His anger disappears as quickly as it came.)
Listen to me, Esther. You don't know. May you and Rachel never know.
It is a time of peace now. We must all work to make it a time of
peace. You say you want to remember, but I, I Mordecai, I do remember,
and I tell you, it is my prayer every day to forget. (Confused, ESTHER
walks away from him.)
But… I did not come here to fight with my lovely niece! I came to
give her the good news! (She turns to look at him.) You are going to
have a visitor-not Vashti, but someone else.
ESTHER: Who is it?
MORDECAI: It is a friend. And you will be nice to a friend, won't
you? You will be nice to a friend who has been nice to your uncle and
who only wishes well for our family?
ESTHER: Who is this friend?
MORDECAI: He is a captain in the army. A very brave man-not an
enemy! He has never fought our people. During the war, he was a
child-like you! Just think of that! He was a child like you-your
same age-like a friend… like a companion
ESTHER: Mordecai
MORDECAI: Listen! And this man-listen to this!-he speaks Aramaic!
Just think of that! A captain in the Persian army who speaks our
language! He was raised by a Jewish nurse, and he has the greatest
interest in our customs and our people.
ESTHER: How do you know this man?
MORDECAI: I see him in the gate. He speaks to me-in Aramaic! Esther,
the man speaks to me in our language! And he asks me about my job, and
he asks me what I remember about my home before the exile, and he asks
me about my family-Just think-
ESTHER: (Nodding.) he asks you about your family
MORDECAI: And what do you think I tell him?
ESTHER: (Pretending to think hard.) You tell him about your little
daughter Rachel and you tell him about your little house outside the
palace-and you tell him about your goats-oh, and you tell him
about your beautiful niece Hadassah, who happens to be old enough to
marry-Just think! She happens to be old enough to marry-
MORDECAI: Esther where's the harm? You meet the man. You talk to
him a little. Maybe-God forbid-you should actually like a man who
speaks our language, who has an interest in our people, who is nice to
your uncle- Where is the harm?
ESTHER: I'm not going to marry.
MORDECAI: Who said "marry?" I said, "Talk to the man." Just
talk. Where's the harm?
ESTHER: If I were to marry anyone-and I'm not-it would never be
a Persian, a captain in the Persian army!
MORDECAI: EstherWe are a captive people. Now Vashti has gotten me a
good job at the palace, and, it's true I take my hat off. I smile. I
speak Persian, too-why? Because nobody speaks Aramaic. If I am too
proud to speak Persian, then nobody will talk to me. I will not hear
about trouble before it reaches my family. I will not hear about new
laws, new policies. I will not follow who is in favor at the palace
and who is not-and, in short, I will not keep my job long. My pride
or my job? I keep my pride, I lose both. Where is the pride for a Jew
who cannot feed his family? So, I keep my job, and maybe my pride gets
a little bump on the head, but I have a hard head.
ESTHER: But-
MORDECAI: No, wait! Even a gatekeeper with his hat off cannot protect
his family if there is trouble. But father-in-law to a captain in the
army? That is not something to toss away. When one's family includes
a captain in the army, one can be sure that nothing bad is going to
happen-
ESTHER: Not to us, maybe, but it's going to happen to the rest of
our people.
MORDECAI: And if they could have a captain in the army, they would.
[End of Extract]