Hades+and+Persephone+2

Beware Pretty Flowers

 media type="file" key="hades.mp3" The Radio Play

SCENE 1 [MEADOW] 1. NARRATOR: In the reign of the Greek gods, the world wasn’t perfect. Crimes were still in it. The greatest crime of all, in fact, was the kidnapping of Persephone. It all started with Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and her daughter Persephone. 2. DEMETER: I am bringing you down to earth to play and have fun, Persephone. I hope you will have a good time there, I know I always do. 3. PERSEPHONE: (EXCITED). Thank you mother, I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see earth. __ 4. SFX: FLUTE PLAYING: MELODIOUS AND HAPPY __ 5. NARRATOR: On earth it was all fun and games until Hades, the lord of the dead, spotted Persephone __6. SFX: MUSIC: SCARY AND DRAMATIC__. 7. HADES: She is so beautiful; I wish she were my bride but she would never take me. What will I ever do? I must have her hand in marriage. 8. NARRATOR: Hades thought about this and this is what caused the story to begin. SCENE 2 [MEADOW] 9. PERSEPHONE: La, la, la, la, la. Look at those beautiful flowers! I just have to pick them to show mother. __ 10. SFX: WIND: TORNADOES AND LOUD WIND GUSTS. __ 11. NARRATOR: Suddenly, a huge black crack opened in the ground and out rode a chariot wreathed in shadow with Hades at the reins. 12. PERSEPHONE: look at that big black hole opening in the ground. Aaaaaaaaaah! What’s going on? What is happening? Why are you pulling me into this black pit? 13. HADES: Now all she needs to do is eat the pomegranate seeds, the food of the dead. Then she shall remain with me forever. (LAUGHS) 14. PERSEHONE: What did you say? 15. HADES: Nothing. You are coming with me Persephone. I have admired you from afar. 16. PERSEPHONE: What will my mother do? I will worry her. SCENE 3  [THE UNDERWORLD] 1. NARRATOR: Hades took Persephone to his home. 2. PERSPHONE: (SCARED/NERVOUS). Who are you? What is this dark and dreary place? 3. HADES: (PROUD) I am Hades, the lord of the dead. I have taken you to my realm of the underworld to be my bride. 4. PERSEPHONE: Take me back to my mother! __ 5. SFX: DARK AND FRIGHTENING MUSIC MIXED WITH A STEADY DRUM BEAT. __ 6. HADES: No… Those who enter the underworld never leave its dark caverns. I suggest that you grow familiar with it, for it shall be your home for a long time. 7. PERSEPHONE: If you refuse to take me back to the surface, my mother will come for me! __ 8. SFX: TRIUMPHANT LIKE A DUN DA DA NA SORT OF SOUND __ 9. HADES: I don’t think so. __10. SFX: AN AIRPLANE CRASHING DOWN OR SOUND OF A PLAN BEING THWARTED__. 11. HADES: I have covered up all clues that shall tell her where you are. She will have a hard time finding you here. I think you will in time grow to like it here though. Look, Persephone. The souls of the dead come to admire their new queen. (LAUGHS) 12. PERSEPHONE: They make me shiver, Hades. What is that murky spring under those poplar trees? 13. HADES: That is the spring of Lethe. Those who drink from its waters forget who they are or were and what they have done on earth. 14. PERSEPHONE: Why? 15. HADES: (CHUCKLES). You ask so many questions. Ah! Here is something you would like, Persephone. The garden of the dead! __ 16. SFX: TRUMPETING: FAMOUS PHRASE FROM BEETHOVEN’S 5th SYMPHONY. (DA, DA, DA, DAA.) __ 17. PERSEPHONE: A garden? This is no garden. There are no flowers and no fruit on the trees. 18. HADES: There is fruit on the pomegranate tree. Eat some if you like. 19. PERSEPHONE: No! I refuse to touch the fruit of the dead. 20.NARRATOR: So Hades took Persephone into his palace, seated her beside him on a throne of black marble, and decked her with gold and precious stones. The jewels brought her no joy. She wanted no cold jewels. She wanted warm sunshine, flowers and her golden-tressed mother. SCENE 4 MEADOW 1. NARRATOR: Back on earth, Demeter sought her kidnapped daughter. __ 2. SFX: HEARTBEATS, WILD BREATHS, AND RUNNING SOUNDS __ 3. DEMETER: Persephone! Persephone! Where are you! You were just here in these fields and now you are gone. I swear by the River Styx that I shall not let anything grow until I found you my dear daughter. 4. HELIOS: Excuse me my dear goddess I may be of some assistance to your quest to find your daughter. 5. DEMETER: Who are you? 6. HELIOS: (OFFENDED). I’m Helios, the sun, of course. Did you not recognize me? __ 7. SFX: LIGTH BULB TURNING ON (IDEA SOUND) __ 8. DEMETER: (EMBARRESED). Oh hello. So can you help me? 9. HELIOS: Yes I think so. 10. DEMETER: Thank you Helios; please tell me everything you know I can’t stand my dear Persephone away from me for such a long time. 11. HELIOS: Unfortunately, dark clouds blocked my forever gazing eyes but I peeked through shortly to see a swineherd with none of his herd leaving the same field your daughter disappeared from. If you can track this swine herd down you could possibly find out where your daughter is. 12. DEMETER: Thank you Helios you have been a great help to me. 13. HELIOS: It wasn’t a problem. Good day and farewell. __ 14. SFX: GALLOPING FADING IN THE DISTANCE __ 15. DEMETER: This doesn’t seem as reliable as I could have hoped for but it is a start. I shall find her but until then nothing shall grow and I shall become old and gray because without Persephone there is no beauty in my life. __16. SFX: RUSTLING IN BUSHES__ 17. TRIPTOLEMUS: Um, excuse me but I couldn’t help to overhear your conversation with the sun god. Are you really the great goddess Demeter? 18. DEMETER: Yes I am but I have decided to step down from that title until my dear Persephone is found and returned safely to me. Who are you young man? 19. TRIPTOLEMUS: I am Triptolemus and my brother was the swineherd Helios talked about. He said that the ground just opened and a man came out riding on a chariot pulled by black stallions. He took Persephone and the pigs and the ground closed again. 20. DEMETER: That means the man who kidnapped her must be Hades. He is the only one who could open a hole in the ground. Thank you Triptolemus you will be rewarded for your help, but meanwhile I must rescue my daughter from Hades. __21. SFX: BEETHOVEN’S FAMOUS PRHASE FROM__ 5TH SYMPHONY. (DA, DA, DA, DAA.) SCENE 5 [MOUNT OLYMPUS] 1. NARRATOR: Demeter went up to the gods’ home on Mount Olympus. 2. DEMETER: Oh Please help me get my daughter back. Zeus! You are the king of the gods! Help me get my daughter back again! I will let your human subjects starve. (CLEARS THROAT) __ 3. SFX: QUICK FOOTSTEPS __ 4. ZEUS: I have no choice, but to obey your command. I cannot let the humans starve. I will send Hermes down to get your daughter, but never threaten me again. 5. NARRATOR: Hermes traveled down to the underworld at Zeus’s bidding. 6. HERMES: You may now return to the surface, Persephone. 7. PERSEPHONE: (CRYS OUT IN JOY) Thank you I am so happy! 8. NARRATOR: She went up to meet her mother again. SCENE 6 [MEADOW] __ 1. SFX: POURING HEAVY. LIKE REALLY POURING __ 2. DEMETER: (ANXIOUS). Where is she? She was supposed to be here by now. This is Hades’s doing that she is late. He is going to disobey you Zeus and challenge your authority, then you’ll have to punish him and… 3. ZEUS: ENOUGH! Hades will not disobey me. He knows his place. Be patient. You have all of eternity, after all, my dear sister. 4. DEMETER: But I can’t wait that long to see my darling daughter. I can’t do anything with out her, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, and I surely can’t make things grow. I need her, brother. 5. ZEUS: (UNDERSTANDING). I know that, but you have to understand she isn’t a little girl anymore. She is a full goddess and it is time to let go a little. 6. DEMETER: I know that, but it’s hard. I mean, I have no other real children. __ 7. SFX: CRACKING NOISES, EARTH OPENING UP. __ 8. ZEUS: Well you won’t have to wait very long. Look over there the ground is beginning to open up. 9. DEMETER: Persephone, Persephone my darling daughter I missed you so much. 10. PERSEPHONE: Mother I missed you so much down there. It’s a terrible place down there with black cold stone everywhere and polluted waters and worst of all the dead, they are so frightening. I’m so glad I’m an immortal. 11. DEMETER: Well you will never have to go down there again. I promise. 12. HADES: Well I don’t think that’s a promise you’ll be able to keep. __ 13. SFX: THUNDER: THUNDER RUMBLING AND A DISTINCTIVE LARGE CRACK OF THUNDER __ 14. DEMETER: What are you doing here Hades? Don’t your dark caverns call for their pitiful king? 15. HADES: They can wait since when I return their king will come with their queen accompanying him. 16. DEMETER: What are you talking about Hades? 17. HADES: Well your hopes have not come true. Your daughter Persephone has eaten the food of the dead. 18. DEMETER: (GASPS). YOU ATE THE FOOD OF THE DEAD. PERSEPHONE?!! 19. PERSEHONE: Yes. (SAD VOICE) 20. DEMETER: Those who eat the fruit of the dead can never leave the underworld. CURSE YOU HADES! SCENE 7 [MOUNT OLYMPUS] 1. NARRATOR: Heartbroken and outraged that she could never see her daughter again, Demeter fled to Zeus on Mount Olympus. __ 2. SFX: FOOTSTEPS: FAST AND PANICKY __ 3. DEMETER: (SADLY). Oh Zeus! Persephone has eaten the food of the dead! Now she must stay in the underworld with Hades for all eternity! It is not fair! I will never see my cheerful daughter again! 4. ZEUS: (CONCERNED). Poor Demeter that does seem rather cruel that you should be separated from your daughter for so long. And any way, it would be very sad for Persephone having live there for eternity.

5. DEMETER: Of course it is! I must be able to live with my daughter! I will die if I can not see her. 6. ZEUS: You’re immortal. 7. DEMETER: You know what I mean! 8. ZEUS: Sorry Demeter, but Hades does need a wife to brighten up his gloomy existence. He lives all alone in the dark underworld with nobody, but dead souls and other un-tasteful things. It can’t be fun for him in the underworld. I also think that he must love Persephone as much as you do. Why else would he attempt something so shameful and evil? And anyway shouldn’t have favorites between siblings. 9. DEMETER: Even so, I must have my daughter back! She hates the underworld! __ 10. SFX: BOOM. A CRACK RIPPING UP THROUGH THE GROUND __

11. ZEUS: You are right Demeter; Persephone should remain with you for at least part of the year. 12. DEMETER: Thank you Zeus! 13. ZEUS: How many seeds of the pomegranate of the dead did Persephone eat? 14. DEMETER: She ate three seeds. 15. ZEUS: Then so it shall be that Persephone shall stay with Hades for three months of the year. One month for each seed she ate! SCENE 8 [MEADOW] 1. NARRATOR: Demeter now made the world barren and cold during the months that Persephone was kept from her, but she did not want the earth to suffer the consequences of her sadness, so she talked to Triptolemus. 2. DEMETER: Triptolemus, I want to give you this wheat. 3. TRIPTOLEMUS: If you don’t mind me asking, why? 4. DEMETER: My plan is that before winter, the 3 months without Persephone, you will spread the wheat around. 5. TRIPTOLEMUS: Again, why?

6. DEMETER: (EXASPERATED). Well, Triptolemus, because you can’t see the obvious I will tell you. You will spread the wheat so that the human race will know that when all has died they have to save up food to stay alive.

__ 7. SFX: LIGHTBLUB TURNING ON (IDEA SOUND) __