RENATI THE KING

A Play

by Gian DiDonna

Page V

RENATI: (cont’d)

     (To Ambassador)
She’s sleeping. The little darling child. And I’m certain once you have returned her leg, she will be even more content. You do promise to have her leg returned to us, don’t you?

THE AMBASSADOR:

Oh, absolutely.

RENATI:

Good. Oh, yes, and the next time you find yourself in the vicinity of the costume store-house at the Royal Theatre, would you mind selecting a few articles of clothing on my behalf, so that I have something new to wear when I meet her ladyship? Perhaps an orange blouse-shirt. And a purple pantaloon.

Ambassador nods again.

RENATI: (cont’d)

Very well. And now for the moment of deliverance, Ambassador.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Is there more?

RENATI:

In fact there is.

Renati goes to a corner and brings an object wrapped in burlap to the table.

RENATI: (cont’d)

Ambassador, I present it to you!

THE AMBASSADOR:

And what is it that you are presenting me now, Monsieur?

RENATI:

The solution to Sweden’s melancholia. And the vehicle to your official Ambassadorship.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Have you really discovered a cure?

RENATI:

Do you really imagine I would have let myself endure this much depravity in vain, Ambassador?

Renati unravels the burlap.

THE AMBASSADOR:

But this looks like a jar of capers?

RENATI:

Hardly. Though I must say a jar of capers would be delectable at this moment.

THE AMBASSADOR:

     (The jar)
May I?

RENATI:

You’re too hasty, Ambassador. Before I can place these hosts in your possession, I must first require that you go to the Queen and explain to her that what she has ordered me to do, I have accomplished. You will tell her, however, that unless she summons me to her court immediately, her reputation, her “virgin” reputation, that rests so dearly in my hands, is about to slip between my fingers into this puddle of urine wherein I presently stand.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Monsieur, you’re not thinking to . . .

RENATI:

I will out the strumpet if she doesn’t bring me ashore!

THE AMBASSADOR:

Monsieur, I cannot threaten the Queen of Sweden.

RENATI:

In this jar I possess the cure to Sweden’s melancholia.
     (Cordially)
Tell her I said she should forget the theater. Tell her I have devised a stage greater than any she could have imagined. Her stage shall be History itself, Ambassador, and she shall be deemed its second virgin. The Host of The New Immaculate Conception. And as the child’s father it only seems fitting that I should be named King!

Renati opens the jar.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Oh, come now, Monsieur. How could you ever be named King when you know you weren’t born of royal blood? The most you could ever hope for is to be named her majesty’s Royal Consort.

RENATI:

Would that give me the same rights as a King?

THE AMBASSADOR:

Well, yes, but—

RENATI:

And would I be permitted to wear a crown?

THE AMBASSADOR:

Monsieur—

RENATI:

Would I be permitted to sit on the throne beside her?

THE AMBASSADOR:

Many of history’s consorts have.

RENATI:

Then I accept the role of consort. Offer that as my compromise. I have kept my end of the bargain, Ambassador, now you must deliver yours.

Renati reaches into the jar and takes a “caper.” He holds it up to the light as he speaks.

RENATI: (cont’d)

     (Pure Pomp)
As Sovereign, no one will ever be able to accuse me of heresy again. I would stand as close to God as any Pope. He would have no advantage over me. My army would be as great as his. My title as great. My moral standing equally as great. Yes, the more I think back on my life, the more certain I feel that I am destined for a kind of secular sainthood. As Saint Renati of Sweden, Amsterdam, and Bohemia combined, I will relieve Saint Peter of his station as the guardian to the gates of heaven. From my position, I will raise a Pantheon of Saints in the name of Reason. And lastly, you will no longer be a mere liaison, for I will surely make you a full-fledged Ambassador, Ambassador.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Oh!

Renati holds the “caper” up to Ambassador.

RENATI:

Ambassador, behold the remedy to Sweden’s melancholia. No, not a caper, but something of much greater alchemical potential.

THE AMBASSADOR:

What is it?

RENATI:

The pineal gland.

THE AMBASSADOR:

The pineal gland?

RENATI:

It’s an organ located deep in the center of the brain. About the size of a green pea.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Brain! But who’s brain?

Renati points at the many hanging dog heads.

THE AMBASSADOR: (cont’d)

Are each of these—

RENATI:

Every one of them.

Renati tosses a pineal gland into his mouth.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Good heavens! Are you sure you can do that, Monsieur?

RENATI:

Of course. How do you think I manage to keep my wits under such desperate conditions? Alchemy, my friend. Alchemy!

Renati produces another.

RENATI: (cont’d)

In this organ, my dear Ambassador, I have ventured upon the greatest miracle ever known to scientific inquiry. For this is the vessel Galen coined “the seat of the soul.” Or, if I may venture to say so. . . the juncture where the two worlds meet.

THE AMBASSADOR:

The “two worlds,” Monsieur? What two worlds are you speaking of?

RENATI:

The only worlds of any consequence, Ambassador.

Renati raises the jar in the air as if it were a communion host.

RENATI: (cont’d)

The divine world and the material world. The mind . . . and the body!

A footlight bathes Renati in red. He holds the jar up as high as he can, then brings it down to the level of his heart. Ambassador kneels.

RENATI: (cont’d)

     (Chanting)
In the beginning . . . in the beginning . . . and somewhere near the middle . . . God sent his only son our savior in carnal form . . . to save us from that form. And in his flesh was housed a soul. A soul that was purified of all things material, a soul that could not be blemished by anything sentient. In order for God to do that, a transmutation had to occur. A transmutation of the soul into the body. And so we say “Amen.”

THE AMBASSADOR:

Amen.

RENATI:

We say “Amen” because in the blessed sacrament of Communion, the savior’s soul is transmuted into the wafer of bread and when we eat it, we eat from the savior and we eat from the soul of the savior which is God’s eternal soul. And as the soul is materialized in the sacrament, so the soul becomes flesh in the body, embraced intimately within the organ I hold before me.

The sound of a clock bell begins to chime, marking time.

RENATI: (cont’d)

And through this organ, the soul is able to flood the body with fluids of rational purification. Through the body the fluids found in this little morsel cleanse us, purify us, and lift us, lift us, lift us into the joy of everlasting happiness. Lift us, lift us, lift us, in the name of the Father-mind, and of the Son-the body, and in the name of the Spirit-Soul.

Renati takes another pineal gland, tosses it in his mouth, chews it, swallows it, wipes his mouth and waits.

The Ambassador says nothing. Renati looks at him. The Ambassador acknowledges him.

THE AMBASSADOR:

Oh. Amen, Monsieur. Amen.

RENATI:

Aaaameeeen!

SLOW FADE TO:

BLACK OUT.

END OF ACT ONE

© Gian DiDonna

(published in Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics, a web publication of The Nietzsche Circle: www.nietzschecircle.com, December 2007)

To download the entire first act of the play, Open PDF: | Renati the King

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