Team Packhowl

Actor: Aud Andrews, Noelle Rose, Sivan Raz

Sound Design: H.M. Radcliff, Magnus Carlssen, Edward Calvey

Director: W. Keith Tims

Writer: W. Keith Tims, Noelle Rose, and Sivan Raz as translator and Jewish folklore consultant

Composer: Aud Andrews

Producer: H.M. Radcliff

Cover art: Laura Harmon

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SCENE 1

INT. TEMPLE ENTRANCE – DUSK

[An angry sea and circling crows, then wind through a rocky cave mouth leading outside. DUNCAN and ATARA clambering through, setting pebbles spilling. They’re struggling, she more than he. Coughing. Labored breathing. Their voices reverberate in the modest, old antechamber. Atara: ah-tah-RAH ]

DUNCAN
Careful, darling. Take my hand.

ATARA
Yes. Thank you, my lord.

DUNCAN
Are you well enough to continue, or shall we rest?

ATARA
No. Let’s keep moving. 

DUNCAN
… and the child?

[Pause.]

ATARA
Still with us, love.

DUNCAN
Then rest for the sake of the child, if not yourself.

[She sits, catches her breath. He walks further inside a few steps. Debris skitters.]

DUNCAN
Look at this place! These columns in the style of your people, the rough-hewn stone. A great door, set into the mountain. Just as it was written.

ATARA
(pausing, breathless)
Forgive me. It has been a long time since I have set eyes on these lands.

DUNCAN
You mean since I plucked you from the poor wretches you lived among? You could be more grateful.

ATARA
(pause)
… you have been very kind to me. (has a coughing fit)

DUNCAN
(tries to comfort her)
Easy, Atara. 

ATARA
If only you’d been able to save me from the plague, it seems. Or the countless others.

[Pause.]

DUNCAN
No. But that is why we are here. The Golem of this temple will give us the cure. A being of clay and stone animated by a spirit of life. What is it that is written on its forehead, Atara?

ATARA
Truth, in our language.

DUNCAN
Truth! The golem possesses the truth of the world. And it will tell us how to lift the plague from my lands.

ATARA
And if it will not?

DUNCAN
I can be very persuasive. Besides, our cause is just. People suffer. You suffer! Our unborn child suffers. A being devoted to truth would not turn us away.

[Pause.]

ATARA
If it turns against us, we will have to destroy it.

DUNCAN
How does one destroy a being of stone?

ATARA
Clay. Remove the first letter from its head. Rub it out. By doing so, the word turns from “Truth” to “Dead.” So the legends say.

DUNCAN
(pause)
I’m sure it won’t come to that. (pause) Let’s get this door open. Come, Atara.

ATARA
Yes, my king.

[They enter deeper into the antechamber, stand before the great stone door.]

DUNCAN
Alright. You remember the incantation?

ATARA
… I’d rather you said it.

DUNCAN
Nonsense. This is your language!

ATARA
I haven’t spoken this language in years.

DUNCAN

never forget. And I was never very good at languages.

ATARA
But…

DUNCAN
Think of your child. And of our people.

ATARA
What remains of them. (tense silence, then, cowed) Yes, my lord.

[ATARA walks a few steps closer to the door.]

ATARA
(chanting)
Vayifach be’afiv nishmat cha-yim, vayehee ha’adam lenefesh chaya

[Immediately after she finishes, there is no reaction for a couple of seconds. Then, as if there are cracks sounding deep in the earth, basso thrums getting closer. Debris and dust falling around them. Then the huge stone doors scrape open. Beyond is a yawning black void, characterized by an unnatural wind, maybe more like breathing than wind.]

DUNCAN
What do you see?

ATARA
I see hungry blackness. I feel the breath of the mountain as if it were alive. I am suddenly heavy inside. Heavy with dread. (pause) Are you not?

DUNCAN
(pause)
No. Let us go.

INT. TEMPLE HALL – CONTINUOUS

[ATARA and DUNCAN moving slowly through the dark.]

DUNCAN
I can hardly see.

ATARA
Stay close.

DUNCAN
I won’t leave you. You are the most important thing to me, beloved.

ATARA
Am I? So sweet to hear you say it.

[She coughs some, recovers. They keep walking.]

DUNCAN
Would it have killed your people to put a torch in here?

ATARA
(significant pause)
You would know more about that than I.

DUNCAN
What do you–

[GOLEM’s voice whispering out of the darkness.]

GOLEM
Emet. Truth.

DUNCAN
What was that? Who’s there? Show yourself!

ATARA
Duncan, I…

[Behind them, the stone door slams closed. Shaking of the earth. Rocks and debris. As it settles…]

DUNCAN
Atara are you all right? (pause) Atara? Where are you? Answer me! Atara?

[The floor gives way. DUNCAN cries as he falls, skittering over sand and pebbles. Rocks fall, crash around him.]

INT. TIGHT SPACE

[DUNCAN coughs, struggles. He’s trapped in a very confined space. Sound of sand trickling around him, sound of his struggles against rocks.]

[The stone around him groans ominously. Sand flows. He gasps in pain, as if getting squeezed.]

DUNCAN
Ah! No… no…

[The GOLEM’s voice whispers, behind him.]

GOLEM
Truth.

DUNCAN
Wh… what? Who’s… who’s there?! Can you hear me?

GOLEM
Hear you? I’m with you.

[Something shifts in the sand and debris. Something digging, getting closer. Rattle of old armor. Hissing sounds.]

DUNCAN
(struggling)
God of the Cross, help me!

[The stones settle, groan. DUNCAN cries in pain and fear.]

GOLEM
I am with you. And you are with me. You will always be with me. Were you not made of clay as I was?

[Digging getting closer.]

DUNCAN
What do you want?

GOLEM
The truth. Always, the truth.

DUNCAN
What truth?!

GOLEM
Your truth.

[A hand digs through the gravel. More digging and scratching from all directions.]

DUNCAN
I am an honest man!

GOLEM
An honest man does not need lies to deceive. You will become one with the earth, bones knit with rock, all your kingly might cannot save you now.

DUNCAN
(struggling)
Help!

[More scratching getting closer.]

GOLEM
Why are you here?

DUNCAN
My people… are sick with a plague! I’ve come seeking a cure for them.

GOLEM
A king with no power is like a soldier with no armor.

DUNCAN
No armor can stop a plague!

GOLEM
Why are you here?

DUNCAN
I told you! The plague! And my concubine has it, too. She bears my child. My only child.

GOLEM
What of it?

DUNCAN
My legacy. My family line. That is why I am here.

GOLEM
And your people?

DUNCAN
They… can be helped, too.

GOLEM
Then why did you wait so long to come here? Why did you only act when it was those in your own house facing death?

[hollow knocking and moaning of undead, who are digging closer and closer]

DUNCAN
… I… I… please. We’ve come for the cure. Will you help me?

[Crushing stones.]

GOLEM
I will mold your clay back into the mountain. I will return you to a pure state.

DUNCAN
But my people! I’m here to help my people!

GOLEM
Only yours? You fought a war some years back, here in these lands. You buried countless dead of those who lived here. Do you hear them? 

DUNCAN
That was- that is not my fault! I had to look out for my own people.

[Frantic struggling. Rocks creak. Knocking continues. Buried under the earth, a baby starts to cry.]

DUNCAN
Keep your corpses away from me! …What is that?

GOLEM
You may not recognize that child’s cry, but you knew his father.

FARMER
(Golem speaking)
Please, my lord. We’ve given all the food we have. Our fields are bare, the granary empty. All we have is just enough to feed ourselves.

DUNCAN
No… it was war.

GOLEM
What did you tell him, as his starving family looked on, his frail wife rocking their infant in her arms?

DUNCAN
No, it’s not…

[Rocks threaten to collapse.]

DUNCAN
I said… I said… He should take joy in giving all he had to feed the armies, who fight for him and our land.

FARMER
(Golem)
But my family will starve?

DUNCAN
Then they will join the soldiers who die in glory.  

[Pause.]

GOLEM
Perhaps your child should die in glory
just the same.

DUNCAN
He is of my line!

GOLEM
How much blood of others must you
spill to protect your own?

[Pause.]

GOLEM
You will find only truth here.

[The rocks give way, gently. Duncan falls out, wheezing, trying to get his breath. We hear him getting to his feet, staggering a few steps.]

DUNCAN
… Atara? Atara?

INT. TWISTY PASSAGES

[ATARA wandering through twisty passages. Her hand brushing against the wall from time to time.]

ATARA
Duncan? Duncan?!

[She breaks off into a nasty cough. After she recovers.]

ATARA
(to herself)
So much for staying right at my side. Where did he go? This way?

GOLEM
(distant, faint echo)
Truth.

ATARA
… what was that? Duncan?

[Echoing footsteps. She makes a mild grunt of pain.]

ATARA
(to her baby)  
Oof. Don’t kick so hard. Easy child, don’t be in a hurry to be born into this world.

ATARA
(singing, breathlessly and terrified)  
Pay ye no heed to the hue and cry, hue and cry.
Cloud not your heart with the bye and bye, bye and bye.
Sanguine it seems, so if only in dreams,
Lie with me, angel, lie. 

GOLEM
(a little closer, but a different direction)
Truth.

ATARA
… what? Who’s down there?

[More footsteps. Fade in sounds of a refugee camp. Cracking fire. Moans of sick and suffering. Gradually her steps on stone turn to steps on bones, cracking and rolling and skittering.]

ATARA
… what… what is this? This isn’t… the plague has gone to my brain.

GOLEM
(much closer)
Is it not familiar to you?

ATARA
I… I…

GOLEM
You were here. You were here when your king found you.

ATARA
Yes. Yes. The war he brought to my people, that left those that survived in desolation, like this. I knew this hunger, this loss, this misery. I was made within it. (pause – to her unborn child) Don’t look at it, my child. This isn’t real.

GOLEM
You were born into it. It was real for you then. Why did you leave them?

[The moans, rattle of bones, and gore become louder as she walks.]

ATARA
To help them! I could do more good at the court! To help the children–

GOLEM
Like the child in your womb?

ATARA
… yes!

[The GOLEM’s voice around her turn to children’s voices, coming at her from all sides.]

GOLEM
(child)
Mother, am I going to get to go outside again soon?

ATARA
Wh…

GOLEM
(child)
I’m so hot, mama. So hot.

ATARA
What… what are you doing?

GOLEM
(child)
So hungry… so hungry…

ATARA
Stop it. Don’t touch me.

GOLEM
(child)
I’m … (coughing) sick. (Wet coughing.)

ATARA
Aagh! Is… that blood I…

GOLEM
(child)
She won’t wake up! My father won’t wake up! Please help me!

ATARA
I couldn’t help those children!

GOLEM
But you could help yourself!

ATARA
I had plans…

GOLEM
You wanted purple drapes in the nursery.

[Moans around her interspersed with GOLEM whispering “help us” “help us”…]

ATARA
(pause)
What was I supposed to do?!

GOLEM
What did you say to him?

ATARA
Who?!

[She is being pulled at by skeletal hands. Chattering of teeth, scraping of bones, please for help.]

GOLEM
The tailor who came to sew your drapes. The tailor who reminded you of your own father. Who still practiced the faith you left behind for your King’s. The tailor who’s hands shook with plague as he begged you for more time, promising on his own daughter’s life to finish the job?

ATARA
I… I said…

GOLEM
Truth.

ATARA
(sobbing)
I told him he should have had the courtesy to die before I paid him.

[The voices and bones fade. ATARA weeps in shame.]

ATARA
I meant to help them.

GOLEM
Do you think the dead are thankful for your intentions?

[She weeps a moment more, then we hear DUNCAN’s voice calling ahead in the distance. “Atara! Atara!”]

INT. GOLEM’S CHAMBER

[ATARA limps into the room. Both she and DUNCAN are subdued from their experiences.]

DUNCAN
There you are! I lost you.

ATARA
Yes. Lost.

DUNCAN
Are you…

ATARA
Yes. Are you…

DUNCAN
Yes.

[Pause.]

DUNCAN
We… we just have to see this through.

ATARA
Must we?

DUNCAN
Yes. (pause) Look, more of your people’s architecture. Those pillars there. And mirrors. Mirrors everywhere. We must be close. What can you tell me about this room?

ATARA
What can I…?

DUNCAN
They’re your people. You must know something?

ATARA
I did not grow up in temples and cities, my king. Your armies saw to that. 

DUNCAN
You didn’t seem so resentful of me and my armies when you fell into my bed as a slave in my palace.

[Pause. She coughs, ill.]

DUNCAN
It must be here…

[Whispering sounds from mirrors.]

ATARA
Duncan… do you see my reflection in these mirrors?

DUNCAN
Yes… I … yes… But… that is how you looked when I found you.

ATARA
Yes. Look how pale and thin. Sad. But… not as sad as the last time I saw myself in the palace. I see your reflection too, Duncan.

DUNCAN
I… It’s … It’s another trick.

ATARA
There you are in your kingly raiments. But they look shabby, don’t they? And your face? Marked with pox. You look so old. And so alone.

DUNCAN
(pushing past.)
Where is this thing? Do you hear me, Truth-Teller? Show yourself!

[The ground shakes. The Golem assembles, sturdy and massive.]

DUNCAN
God in heaven. Look at it.

ATARA
The way we came in… where is the exit? I don’t see it.

GOLEM
Emet. Truth.

DUNCAN
What truth?! What truth?! What is it you want to hear? Why won’t you help us?

ATARA
Please.

GOLEM
Tell her why you are here.

DUNCAN
Because of the plague! It’s for all of us! And for my child! The child must live!

ATARA
YOUR child. Your child?

DUNCAN
Yes, my child. My child must live to carry on my line. Without an heir, the throne goes to my rivals. The child must live.

ATARA
And … me? Must I live?

DUNCAN
What… of … of course, I want you to live.

ATARA
… why?

DUNCAN
Because… I…

ATARA
Yes? (pause) Do you love me?

[He is silent.]

ATARA
You could have at least lied to me.
I suppose love was too much to ask.
A concubine, taken from a conquered
people? Why would you love me? 

DUNCAN
I needed you. I needed an heir! What do you care why? You found what you were after!

ATARA
But it cost me everything. My people. My faith.

DUNCAN
As if that was such a loss. Remember where I took you from?

ATARA
Your war made it that way!

DUNCAN
That’s not… I didn’t… I didn’t do that. The generals… your people rebelled against my cause! And… I am a kind person! I am a GOOD king. The people love me.

GOLEM
The people starve. They suffer.

DUNCAN
Because of the plague.

GOLEM
Because of their king.

DUNCAN
To hell with your truth! What are you, thing of clay, to judge me? I will bring my armies and raze this heathen temple to the ground.

GOLEM
Your armies lie dead of plague. Your swords rust, your spears are broken. Your threats mean nothing. All you are is your own vessel, and you carry with you what you have done.

ATARA
So it’s judgment, is it? I thought that when it came, and the Lord rolled out all my misdeeds, He would come bearing all the prayers I’d sent to Him, and every cross I ever bore to keep my faith. His faith. Please, this isn’t where I’m supposed to be. 

DUNCAN
Don’t beg, Atara.

ATARA
(to the Golem)
My King has done more evil than I can bear upon my tongue, surely his soul would more than right my redemption?

DUNCAN
What? How dare…

GOLEM
There is no redemption, here, lost child of these lands. What redemption is there? Will your guilt bring comfort to anyone but yourself? In this place, there is only truth. Your truth.

ATARA
No! What… what about… My… My child! …Take it from me! If you’re looking to take souls forged in evil, then… take it from me! I don’t even want it anymore! I no longer know what was the greater punishment; falling ill with this plague, or being bloated with his bastard! Is this the truth you seek?

DUNCAN
No! No the child must live.

ATARA
Why? So you can live? So your line can live?

DUNCAN
It is your child too!

ATARA
It was never my child. Everything is yours. Always yours. I was yours. This country is yours. And this plague… this plague is yours. (pause) O how broken I have become.

[She breaks a mirror. Scrape of broken glass.]

DUNCAN
Atara! Wait.

ATARA
(to Golem)
Forgive me, Truth-teller. At least I die on my home soil.

[She slashes her own throat. He runs to her, grieving. She gurgles and dies.]

DUNCAN
(to GOLEM)
You. You did this. Why? Why?

GOLEM
I only showed you what you carry with you.

DUNCAN
To hell with you!

GOLEM
Where is it that you believe you are, o King of Empty Lands? This is no place of revelation or redemption. No savior am I and no cure is there to give. Only truth lies within these walls and within my words. Your truth, your judgment, your sentence. You will never leave these halls.

DUNCAN
Truth. It’s marked on your forehead. But if I rub out one letter, you will be dead.

GOLEM
My clay is firm. Unyielding. You believe you can erase even this little letter?

DUNCAN
I… I will… Here. HERE! Here’s truth, written in Atara’s blood. Sweet concubine, one last use for you. Now, her blood mixed with your crude earth… there! Who made you the judge of me?

GOLEM
And so, I die. But you… King Duncan… you… will live your long days alone with your truth.

[Huge rockfall. The GOLEM goes still. DUNCAN falls to the ground. Heavy breathing. The cave is quiet, save for distant wind.]

GOLEM
(singing to the tune of Atara’s lullaby)
נום בני בשקט ואל תירא
אל תירא
חושך תמיד
נגן שירה
אין שירה
כך זה נכתב, על מי שאוהב
הבל הוא הגזרה

Translation:
Sleep quietly my son and fear not
Fear not
The darkness always plays a song
So it’s been written, on the one who I’ll love
A Lie/grief is the verdict