Fanfare for a New Theatre

SOPHIA (spoken)

Down a hot and dusty road

Tramps a man without his load

Someone trudging on and on

Many, many miles he's gone

Over hill and dale he goes

Where's he heading? No one knows

He doesn't know himself

He only knows he must get out

Go somewhere else

Because he can't go on the way he was

Nothing remains of all his fine belongings

He's thrown them out without a word to say to anyone

He's run away

And things are just the way they were

Except, of course, he has no pack to bear

Is he taking the homeward road?

The road he took before?

Home? No, it's not his any more

Now he goes the other way

Cannot stay

On his way

On his way

Marches all the day

Now he comes to another land

A village on the frontier and an inn

He thinks, shall I cross over?

He thinks, why not?

He goes to the inn

Orders a tot

Drinks it down

Yes, and now what?

Then he begins to look around

He gazes at the muslin curtains

Bound with silk cord

Fine white muslin

Scarlet cord

Such fine white muslin curtains

Pinned around the leaded window panes

Where leaves stir in the wind

But what's this?

Suddenly the world outside comes crashing in again

Somebody starts to beat a drum

And someone beats a drum because the princess of the realm

The only daughter of the king

Lies ill in bed

She neither sleeps nor speaks nor eats nor anything

And the king proclaims to the sound of the drum

That whatsoever man shall come and raise his daughter from her bed

That man the fair princess shall wed

Just at that moment a man comes up and says to Joseph

JOSEPH

Hello, chum

We've not been introduced, it's true