Diana Durham, Writer & Poet
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Perceval and the Grail/Out of Stock

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A CD audio-book. 

Perceval, a young and impulsive knight, travels through a wasteland kingdom of strange warriors and damsels.  On his way he meets the great King Arthur and the wise wizard Merlin and enters the mysterious Grail Castle.  Befriended by the sorceress Morgana he unravels the meaning of the Grail. 


Set in ancient Britain, this play about the world’s greatest myth will excite and inspire listeners young and old.  Up until now the Grail Quest has been consistently misunderstood but, in this fresh new re-telling, we shed the shroud of mystery and begin to discover that its theme is as important today as it was when first told many centuries ago.

INCLUDES AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR.

WRITTEN & PERFORMED Diana Durham

FEATURING Joel Colodner and Scott Reiner

DIRECTOR Donald Tirabassi

PRODUCTION & SOUND DESIGN Jonathan Guilbert 

COVER DESIGN Trev Stair

Based on Chrétien de Troyes' poem 'Perceval: the Story of the Grail.'
Translated by D D R Owens in the 1991 Everyman edition of ‘Arthurian Romances’.

Note: 'Perceval and the Grail' is also available as a download and a CD from CD Baby






www.DianaDurham.net                www.gandydancerproductions.com







story   ©   Diana Durham 2011    sound ©   Gandy Dancer Productions 2011

all rights reserved                         cover art: Trev Stair



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Excerpt from Act 3  In the Grail Castle

Perceval:    [Distracted from looking at the grail by arrival of food.  He is starving, tucks in ravenously.]  Indeed good sir, this food is fit for a king!

WFK:    [watching Perceval gulp down food and wine] No doubt your travels have given you a good appetite!

Stage d:  Perceval nods agreement, but then the grail draws nearer, as the maiden carries it
between the fire and the couch where they are sitting.  He stops eating and gazes at it, and then at the Wounded King.


Perc:     [to himself]  My host doesn’t seem to notice -  how can that be?  Does he not see the light, and feel ... what I feel, as if my heart is  filled up, overflowing ...    

Stage d: Perceval gazes, mesmerized by the sight of the grail, which is carried around again, but the WFK shifts uneasily, and  leans back in the pillows as if in pain.   

Morg:     [psycotherapist again] That's right, try to get comfortable, lie back down if it helps.  How are you feeling?

WFK:     Much the same, empty, futile - no matter what I do, I find no satisfaction, nothing I eat fills me, the only time I find any relief is when I go fishing....

Morg:    Yes, yes, I know about that - but fishing only ameliorates the symptom, it cannot cure the cause.  In fact, often it entrenches it -

WFK:     But its all I have -

Morg:    What do you think about those dying cattle?  And the crops that fail?
    
WFK:     That is not my fault - I cannot help the turning of fickle fortune's wheel.   [turning back to Perceval, leaning up on his arm]   Have another helping, my friend.

Morg:     He eats and drinks, and well he may - the food is fit for a king - but he remains silent.

Perc:     (to himself)   I want to be worthy of the honor my host has shown me.  Should I say anything?  The grail is so beautiful!, I see  sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and the gold is of the finest, and yet, that is not why it is  beautiful, it is the light it brings, and the sense that.. that anything is possible, is good, is full, is -- Maybe I should ask - but I don't want to spoil things ...

music    Stage d:  WFK sinks back into consulting couch     sound  music   visuals

Morg:    How do you feel about the wars that are waged across your lands?  All those who die in the fields of battle?

WFK:    What choice do I have?   Destiny is at work, and people have to learn the hard way...

Morg:    What about the millions who perish in the purges, the prisons ..

WFK:     The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic...

music plus .. sound effects/visuals

Perc:    .... she's taking the grail into another room, on the other side of the hall.  I wonder who is in there?  Oh, and with it goes the light, and that sense of  -  I know,  I will wait and ask one of the serving lads in the morning.  That way I won't seem rude to my host,  but I'll still find out.

Morg:    Why do you think all those people lost their homes,  their safety,  their money ...

WFK:      A hedgefund is .. is a maze around a bet ...    

Morg:    Do you know why you did all these things?  Do you know what you wanted?

WFK:    [confused] Yes, no - did I do all that?  Well, I had to, didn't I?  I had to hold on to power...  The power to force a shape onto the world, to achieve utopia, the master race, to .....I had to make a lot of money,  I had to keep it all going ....

Morg:    What do you think power is?

WFK:    Its, its all that, its control -  control of the masses, of the media, of  the very thoughts people have - its your word goes, its how to tell the biggest lie, its making it, ...

Morg:    Does it feel good?

WFK:     Oh yes, oh yes,  it feels great! - in the beginning ..  but then, later on well, its the only thing that brings me any relief from this pain...

Stage d:  Perceval has eaten his fill and is starting to feel sleepy and nod off.

Perc:    [Loud yawn , sleepily,  still talking to himself]  Yes, tomorrow, in the morning, I'll ask then, I'll find out whom the grail serves ...

©   Diana Durham  August 2013

decoding myth and archetype - our psychic DNA