The Journey of the Magi
Drama based upon T S Eliot’s: The Journey of the Magi
Characters: Kings 1, 2 & 3
Kings 1 & 3 are ‘very Shakespearean’ and also ‘longsuffering’ with regard to King 2, who needs to have things ‘explained to him’. This character will help children in a congregation to have an understanding of the more difficult parts of this poem.
Part I
1 A cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of the year for a journey
2 . . . and such a VERY LONG journey.
3 If I remember the way was deep and the weather sharp, the very dead of winter
2 Very much like the weather we’ve been having here in the North-East of England recently!!!
1 And the camels galled!
2 Galled?
3 You know sore; irritated!
2 Oh AND SORE FOOTED just like us!
1 and refractory,
2 Refractory?
3 Hard to control! (glares at 2) lying down in the melted snow! There were times we regretted the summer palaces on slopes, the terraces. . .
2 and the silken girls bringing sherbet. (eyes are lit up and excited)
1 Then the camel men cursing and grumbling, and running away,
2 and wanting THEIR liquor and THEIR women
3And the night fires going out, and the lack of shelters, and the cities hostile and the towns
2 Hostile?
1 Unfriendly! (GLARES AT 2)And the villages dirty, and charging high prices;
2 A HARD TIME WE HAD OF IT!
3 At the end we preferred to travel all night, sleeping in snatches…
2 In snatches?
1&3 (together) Ssh! (whispers) With the voices singing in our ears, saying
2 (sings) Turn back, turn back, this is foolish!
3 saying that this was all . . .
12&3 FOLLY.
Here follows a short talk on the Christian journey.
The Journey of the Magi
Characters: Kings 1, 2 & 3
Part II
1 Then at dawn we came to a temperate valley
2 Temperate?
3 Mild! (exasperated) And wet below the snow line, smelling of vegetation
2 Phew! (holds nose, whiffing hand movement)
1 With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness and THREE TREES ON THE LOW SKY
2 Don’t say it like that you’re scaring me!
3 And an old white horse galloped away in a meadow.
2 No warrior’s horse for the baby king then
1 Precisely! Then we came to (looks around to see if the coat is clear, they do too) . . . a tavern
with vine- leaves over the lintel! (all listen in)
2 (Wide eyed and mysteriously) and six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver!
3 And feet kicking the empty wine skins . . .
2 But what does all this mean?
1 Read your New Testament and you’ll find out! But there was no information and so we continued, and arrived at evening.
2 Not a moment too soon!
3 Finding the place!
2 It was . . .
1 You may say
12&3 SATISFACTORY!
Here follows a short talk on symbolism concerning the Messiah as found in the bible
Drama Poem; T S Eliot: The Journey of the Magi (cont'd)
Characters: Kings 1, 2 & 3
Part III
1 All this was a long time ago, I remember, and I would do it again . . .
2 OOOh I don’t know about that!
3 Yes I would do it again, but set this down; were we led all that way for Birth or Death?
2 I don’t know about that either!
1 There was a birth certainly. We had evidence, and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
but had thought they were different
2 (Looks puzzled)
3 This Birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death . . .
2 (looks even more puzzled)
1 We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation.
2 Dispensation?
3 The way our world was run!
2 (puzzles over this too)
1 With an alien people clutching their gods.
2 Come again?
3 EXACTLY! Lord come again!
12&3 We should be glad of another death!
Here follows a short talk on 'dying to self' and being made new in Christ.