Keren. The Voyage of Keren to Ancient Egypt

A fictitious tale based on the symbols of Hebrew Passover

Moses: I feel as if I had been born again. As if I had opened my eyes. And for the first time, I can see! I see a people who are not free to chose what to do, A people who have to obey the order of the Pharaoh, which is an awful thing, Not what they want, but what the king desires. This has to change, there must be justice!
(excerpt)

by Razia Mizrahi

Synopsis: The pharaoh has been depriving his subjects of all their spare time, and this means that they cannot drink the nectar of life from the Golden Root that is in their hearts. Because they are not free, the Tree of Life is unhappy and does not sing the Symphony of Life, which is what makes the Princess of Colors dance. Color gradually disappears from the world.
Keren comes to the Tree’s rescue. She ends up awakening Moses, the hero, so that he can work on his own special voice as a leader of the people, and he liberates them. In this way, the people are able to drink from the roots of the heart, the Tree ends up singing, the Princess ends up dancing, and the colors return again.


SCENE I: The landing before the kids

The stage is divided into two levels: an upper floor and a lower one.
Behind both levels is a blank screen, onto which the various backgrounds are projected, along with a shadow theater into which scenes from Egypt are projected.
The initial background image shows scenery representing the present location, XXXX (for example in Berlin it might be a scene of rooftop TV antennas).

Keren enters the stage by landing with her flying suitcase.
She sees the kids and goes back into hiding. After a pause, she pokes her head out again and studies the audience.

Keren: Hi… (changes her voice) Hello, shalom… (changes her voice again) Hi there. This isn’t Jerusalem, is it?

Responses

Well, that’s because I didn’t want to be there anyway. Here I can talk in my own voice and I can also sing. Where am I?

Responses

Ahhh! XXXX! Well, my name is Keren and I’m from Jerusalem. Do you know where that is?

Responses

That’s right! In Israel. That’s at the far end of the Mediterranean if you’re traveling east. It’s not that far away… I think.
What a good thing I came, because you guys seem like nice people to me. All kids are nice, but some are not so nice. Like the older kids, in fifth grade. I’m in second grade. During recess I started singing.

The background image changes to Jerusalem. Keren sits on top of the suitcase and bursts into song.

Avadim hainu / ata beney chorin.

Enter fifth-graders with a device playing electronic music. When they see Keren, they turn up the volume and laugh at her. Exeunt fifth graders.

My legs started running as fast as they could. I ran out of the school grounds into this little forest we have there in Jerusalem, where I saw this suitcase. I climbed inside, and all of a sudden it started to shake, it lifted up into the air and began to fly through the skies, through the clouds. I flew through outer space, went twice round the world and landed back on Earth, here, in XXXX.

Sings
Saw a suitcase in the street,
And inside I did creep.
Then everything began to shake,
And we took off for outer space!
We were out in space with no spaceship…
Went twice round the world, round trip!
Then we flew back to where we’d been,
And my-oh-my what sights we’d seen!
Such beauty there I did behold,
Blue skies, white clouds, and things untold!
Saw tops of trees and city grids,
We were at [location] with all the kids!
Shalom! Shalom! And what God sends,
Do you guys want to be my friends? (3x)
Then let’s be friends!

(To the kids) Do you know that song, “Avadim Hainu”?

Responses (yes!)

Would you like to sing along with me?

Responses (yes!)

Background image: song lyrics
Everyone joins in singing.
Keren sees a stick, grabs it, and starts to use it as a conductor’s baton to direct the kids.
All of a sudden the stick “takes on a life of its own” and starts to direct Keren’s movements.

Well I never! What’s going on? Looks like I found a magic stick here in XXXX.

(Speaking to the stick): If you really are a magic stick, make it rain colors right now!

Multi-colored confetti falls to the stage.

You’re like Moses’s staff…
Where did you come from, magic stick?

The magic stick floats horizontally in front of Keren.

What do you want? (Speaking to the kids) I think it wants me to get on. What should I do? Should I get on?

Kids respond.

Keren: That’s right! If you don’t say “Yes!” there won’t be a story to tell. YEEESS!!!

She gets on the magic stick, it rises, they fly off, and exeunt.

SCENE II: The Tree of Life

A video is projected showing a stream of gold along which Keren flies on her magic stick. During the flight, a melody played on the viola is heard crescendo in the background until they land in the Land of Life.
Background image: “The Land of Life”; azure sky and phantasmagoric colors.
On the top level of the stage is the Tree of Life. Keren lands next to it and the stick reincorporates itself into the tree as one of its branches.

Keren: Once I had this dream; I dreamed that it was raining flowers and that I was happy. I remember it well. Wait a minute… I know this place… I come here every night in my dreams.

Tree: That’s right, Keren. At night you return to your home, the Land of Life.

Keren: No, that’s not right! My home is in Jerusalem, at number 30, Ahad Haam Street.

Tree: Your home is also in Jerusalem, at number 30, Ahad Haam Street, but it’s also here, in the Land of Life.

A little pinkish creature bounds towards Keren and climbs up on her.

Keren: Hi, Ginogli! (laughs) Now I know I’m home. What’s going on, Ginogli? Have you forgotten your color? I remember you being dazzling bright pink, your normally almost blinding to look at.

Ginogli speaks in a strange “creature” voice (only partly intelligible)

Keren: Princess? What princess? What are you talking about?

Ginogli tries to explain in her squeaky voice.

Keren: The Princess has disappeared? Colors? Ah, the roots! Eh? What are you saying?

Tree: Ginogli is upset at telling you the news, as is the whole Kingdom of Life. Something terrible has happened: Iris, the Princess of Colors, has disappeared and with her all the colors our lives are painted in.

Keren: Disappeared? People don’t just disappear like that; especially not someone in charge of all the colors of the world.

Tree: In this case it is understandable. Iris, the Princess of Colors, dances and paints the world with all the colors of the rainbow. Bu-ut… she only dances to the sound of the Symphony of Life, which I sing.

Keren: So then what’s the problem? Just sing, and Princess Iris will return.

Tree: I cannot sing.

Keren: And why not?

Tree: Because I am unhappy.

Keren: Daphna, my best friend, just told me joke that might make you laugh: Why did the centipede arrive late to his wedding? Because at the last minute he decided to shine his shoes!… Wha ha ha…

(Ginogli and Keren crack up laughing; the tree barely smiles)

Tree: You and Daphna, you are truly very funny. I wish your joke could make me happy. But what makes me truly happy us when people drink the sweet nectar of my roots.

To musical accompaniment:
I am a tree, a tree by birth;
The Tree of Life, I’ll have you know.
But my roots aren’t under the earth
It’s people’s hearts is where they go.
(An image illustrating this idea is projected)
My roots into wet soil don’t sink;
But they’re still juicy and sappy
With the nectar of life that people drink,
And when they do it makes me happy.
And when I’m happy, my song rings out;
With golden roots felt by the heart,
This is what each heart’s about,
Each heart is special, with its own art.
When they all sound in harmony,
Who could deny it’s a symphony!
It the symphony Princess Iris likes:
It’s the lovely Symphony of Life!

Keren: So… So if we all have a root somewhere that’s connected to our heart… Then I also have one!

Tree: Indeed, you do.

Keren: But I’ve never seen it, even though I often look at my heart.

Tree: Aaahhh, but the roots cannot be seen! They are felt!

Keren: How can you feel them? Are they rough or smooth? Do they tickle? Or are they sticky?

Tree: Sings
It a tickling feeling, hard and fast,
It wiggles and tickles until you laugh.
Sometimes it’s sad, and you will find,
That you can hardly keep from cryin’.
Other times it comes a nice surprise,
As a friend with a kind look in his eyes.
Other times it’s less like a friend,
More like a big long speech, that never ends.
At the best of times it’s a party thing:
It’ll make you laugh and dance and sing.
The Golden Root is like feeling swell,
It’s doing what you want and doing it well!

Keren: So I guess I must drink a lot from your roots, because I always do what I like to do. Well…, nearly always.

Tree: That is true, Keren. When you drink from my roots, I am happy. And when I am happy, I sing. Your tone, Keren, is smooth and pink, and the Princess Iris used to love to dance to its rhythm. But she needed more. Not one, not ten, not twenty roots. The Princess likes it when everybody drinks, and then my singing has a thousand tones and many, many harmonies that come together like wave after wave in the sea. And when that happens, the Princess dances her most marvellous choreography, the Dance of Life: She sprays the sun yellow; she makes the plants green; she makes the sky light up with azure and gives a purplish shade to the night.

Keren: I don’t understand people, Mr. Tree. If drinking from your roots makes you feel so great… How come everybody doesn’t just drink and do what makes them happy? If they did, then you could sing, Princess Iris would be able to dance, and the sun would be able to shine a bright yellow in the heavenly background.

SCENE III: Pharaoh enslaves the people

Tree: That is how things were – until that fateful day.

Ginogli sighs.

Tree: The day the Pharaoh came and started robbing the people of their time.

Keren: The Pharaoh? I know him; I read about him in the story of the Exodus/Haggadah.

Tree: All day long he makes people do only what he wants them to do.

Keren: To build pyramids, day and night.

Tree: And people have no time to do what they like to do, and they do not drink of my roots. They forget that they have something called “feeling” and that it is a wonderful thing. The Princess is not likely to return to us; the world will keep losing more and more colors until it turns completely black.

A shadow theater appears on the screen. Keren watches. Enter a man loaded with huge block of stone on his back.

Man: (singing)
From the early, early morning, from the crack of dawn,
All I am is Pharaoh’s pawn,
Gottta work in the morning, work in the afternoon.
Gotta work in the evening, and by the light of the moon!
I never get to rest, never even take it slow
No one ever gets a break from Pharaoh.
Come rain, come hail, come wind, come snow,
No one ever gets a break from Pharaoh.

(Puts down block of stone and sits on top of it)

Will I ever enjoy the birds’ tweeting sounds?
Will I ever enjoy rain falling on the ground?
Will I ever get to laugh with my family?
Will I ever get to sing in good company?

It’s so long ago now… I too once loved life.

Enter Pharaoh

Pharaoh: Get up, you lazy dog!

Men: Your Highness, I am thirsty, hungry and tired. Please allow me to rest just for a moment.

Pharaoh: Rest? (laughs) There’s no time for rest! There’s work to be done!
(Sings)
Faster! Faster! More elbow grease!
Build that thing higher! I won’t say “please!”
I need more pyramids, more monuments,
To my greatness more testaments.
I want all to know and know right now,
Whether rich man poor man boy or girl,
There’s none more mighty in all the world,
But me, King of Egypt, Pharaoh.
(to man)

And you there, you lazy dog! Get back to work!

Men: I have no strength left, your Highness.

Pharaoh: In that case we have no more need of you. Guards!

Exit Pharaoh. Man hangs his head while sitting on the block of stone. Shadow theater light goes out.

SCENE IV: The story of Moses

Keren: Where is Moses, the hero of this story? He has to come along and save this man.

Tree: Moses does not yet know that he himself is one of those men. He thinks he’s an Egyptian prince, for he has grown up as one.

Shadow theater: Jochebed bends down by the Nile, holding a basket.

Pharaoh voiceover: “All Hebrew newborns that are boys shall be cast into the river; all girls shall be let live.”

Jochebed Sings
Close your eyes my child to this lullaby,
Your mother sings with a heavier heart,
Than her mother sang in days gone by,
For now sweet child it is time to part.

She lowers the basket into the water, and it drifts off with the baby inside. At the other side of the screen the image of Batya appears; she picks up the basket.

Batya: (Sings)
Child with dimples, child of the Nile,
Between the reeds you appeared.
A gift of the gods that made us smile,
As our own son you’ll now be reared,
As a prince, son of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

The shadow theater light goes out.

Keren: Where is Moses’s root?

Tree: Here, in the center.

Keren: If you can’t sing, let me sing for you.

She goes up to the hole in the trunk and starts singing into it.
Child with dimples, child of the Nile,
Between the reeds you appeared.
A gift of the gods that made us smile,
As our own son you’ll now be reared,
As a prince, son of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

(The melody continues to be heard until the guards enter in the following scene)

SCENE V: Moses’s “awakening”

Shadow theater light goes on.

Moses and the man sat with his head hung on the block of stone.

Moses: (speaking to the audience) Very strange… I hear a familiar voice. It’s like the sound I hear at night, in my dreams.

Enter two guards, who haul the man off.

Moses: Where are you taking this man?

The guards laugh with malice and continue on their way.

Moses: Halt! In the name of Moses, prince of Egypt, I order you to halt immediately.

The guards: We only take orders from the Pharaoh, King of Egypt!

Moses goes up to them and beats them up. When they fall to the ground, the man escapes.

Moses: Oh, no! What have I done?
Was it my hands did this?
Or was it the hands of another?
It was my own hands that punched, it was I.
Who am I? I am Moses, prince of Egypt.
No, I hear a familiar melody inside me;
I am Moses, the leader of this people.

Sings a duet with the tree.
It a tickling feeling, hard and fast,
It wiggles and tickles until you laugh.
Sometimes it’s sad, and you will find,
That you can hardly keep from cryin’.
Other times it comes a nice surprise,
As a friend with a kind look in his eyes.
Other times it’s less like a friend,
More like a big long speech, that never ends.
At the best of times it’s a party thing:
It’ll make you laugh and dance and sing.
The Golden Root is like feeling swell,
It’s doing what you want and doing it well!

Moses exits the shadow theater and turns into a tree-dimensional puppet on the lower stage.

Moses: I feel as if I had been born again.
As if I had opened my eyes. And for the first time, I can see!
I see a people who are not free to chose what to do,
A people who have to obey the order of the Pharaoh, which is an awful thing,
Not what they want, but what the king desires.
This has to change, there must be justice!

SCENE VI: Keren gives Moses the magic staff

Keren takes the wooden stick and flies over to Moses. She puts a flame on her head, disguising herself as “the Burning Bush” and lands in front of Moses.

Keren: Moses, Moses!

Moses: Her I am.

Keren: Go no further! Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground.

Moses takes off his shoes.

Moses: Who are you?

Keren: I am what I am; and you, son of the people, must free your people from the slavery the Pharaoh has imposed on them.

Moses: Well, I was just thinking that somebody ought to do something, but… me?? How could I do such a thing?

Keren: Do you see the stick?

Moses: Yes.

Keren: Take it. It is a magic stick.

Moses holds the stick and it pulls him along until it stops. Thunder is heard. They go forward a little more and stop to the sound of cymbals.

Keren: Should the Pharaoh not agree to free the people, we shall perform some magic for him.

Moses: I had a dream about this once….

Keren: And your dream is now about to become reality.

SCENE VII: The plagues of Egypt

Shadow theater. The figures of Pharaoh, Moses and each of the plagues. Keren is outside of the shadow projections.

Keren: And Moses went to Pharaoh and said:
Moses: Let my people go, shlach et ami!
Keren: Pharaoh answered in a flash:
Pharaoh: The answer es no, if you’re asking me.
Keren: And the waters of the Nile turned red with blood.
Moses: Let my people go, God demands it!
Pharaoh: No and no again!
Keren: Frogs and more frogs started jumping out from everywhere.
Moses: Let my people go!
Pharaoh: No way!
Keren: Lice, poisonous insects, pestilence.
Moses: Let my people go!
Pharaoh: The more you keep asking, the more I say no!
Keren: Boils, hailstorms, locusts, and darkness.
Moses: Pharaoh, you have been like a brother to me.
I beg you, I beseech you: Let my people go!
If you do not, the next plague will be something inhumane.
Shlach et ami, let my people go, please!
Pharaoh: “N,” “O,” spells “NO!” They are my slaves and I will not let them go!
Keren: The death of every first-born. And the eldest of every household in Egypt shall lose his life, including the son of the Pharaoh.
Pharaoh: Rise up, and get out from among my people! Get out of Egypt! Who needs all these pyramids, anyway? It isn’t necessary for everyone to know that there is one terrible and powerful King, Pharaoh. All this misfortune, all this harm you have caused my people. Get out! Get out of Egypt!

Pharaoh weeps and his weeping transforms into the sound of a violin. The shadow theater light goes out. Enter Moses as a puppet.

Moses: My people, we are free!

Voices are heard celebrating the victory and the sounds of different musical instruments are heard. After a short while they meld together into the Symphony of Life.

Background image: Egypt and a huge rainbow in the sky.

Keren, Moses and the Tree of Life al sing:
Everybody has a Golden Root,
Everybody has a sound to toot.
Every root is like a string,
That rings with the others in harmony.
And all who drink from this fine tree,
Play the most lovely symphony:
The Symphony of Life!
To which Iris, the Princess of Colors, dances her loveliest choreography.
Can you hear it?

Keren: And you, kids, whenever you feel like singing, or dancing, or anything else that’s nice and that you like to do, feel free to do so. It’s the only way to fill your lives with bright colors.

THE END

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