Seán Walsh: Final Exit
Final Exit?
LIGHT SMALL AREA TO ONE SIDE.
SADOC, THE HIGH PRIEST’S BURSAR,
AT A SMALL TABLE, COUNTING OUT COINS.
JUDAS STANDS A LTTLE WAY OFF, OBSERVING.
SADOC
… twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine… Correct?
JUDAS
Yes.
SADOC
Take it.
JUDAS STEPS FORWARD, SCOOPS UP THE COINS.
Now go…
JUDAS
Eh-hh…
SADOC
Yes?
JUDAS
Must I go through the Courtyard?
SADOC
What?
JUDAS
Is, is there another way out?
SADOC
Why do you ask?
JUDAS
I have no wish to see – or be seen – further.
SADOC
He is down there… fettered… under oil lamps…
HUDAS
No!
SADOC
‘Set eyes on him a final time?
JUDAS
No!!!
SADOC
Huh… There is a side entrance. ‘Left along the corridor as you go out, then left again. You’ll see the door…
JUDAS MUMBLES, MAKES TO TURN AWAY… STOPS AS:
Your final exit, Iscariot.
We never saw you, heard of you.
We do not even know you exist.
You understand?..
You were never here.
EXIT JUDAS.
DARKEN SET.
No, not the final exit of Judas Iscariot. He would return a last time to ask the Sanhedrin to take back the bribe they had given him. And when they refused… Well, that’s another scene from my drama CONCLAVE, set against the backdrop of the First Good Friday… subtitle: Inside the Sanhedrin… the Passion viewed from a Jewish perspective… Published on Amazon, in paperback and Kindle. All all-male cast.
(Some years before the present Conclave was screened in cinemas…)