Monday Rewrite Two monologues delivered side by side. David stands on one side of the stage, Michal on the other. They address the audience, never looking at each other. This could be learnt and acted, or scripts used and read in an animated fashion.
David – I was so happy that day, so alive.
Michal – I was so unhappy, so broken.
David – It felt as if my life’s ambitions were being realised, right there.
Michal – It felt as if my life lay in ruins, after promising so much.
David – I couldn’t understand her, what was the problem?
Michal – I loved him the moment I first saw him.
David – I loved her too. She made my heart miss a beat.
Michal – Now my heart feels so wounded by him.
David – I don’t understand why she couldn’t just be happy for me.
Michal – We were just getting going, just starting out. It was my father, he was so jealous of David. So I helped him escape, covered for him. I’d have done anything for him. Then I waited. And I waited. And I waited.
David – She saved my life, I’ll admit that. She got me away from Saul when he was determined to destroy me. Then I had to stay away. I thought she’d see that. I couldn’t go back to her. Not while her father was waiting to kill me.
Michal – I waited. And I waited. Nothing. No messages. No signals. Nothing. And then my father married me off to another man. I couldn’t believe it. It felt as if the world was collapsing in on me, some days I could barely breathe.
David – It was such a great day when we brought the Ark to the new city. I was doing the thing I was born to do! And I’d been reunited with her! Brought her back into my life. What was the problem?
Michal – When he did come home, finally – just as I was putting the pieces of my life back together, settling for another kind of life – he grabbed me, as if I was something he’d forgotten to take with him to work. Tore me away from the husband I was beginning to love. Put me in his new city, like a trophy in a glass case.
David – Everyone was singing and clapping and dancing. This was the moment! So I danced too.
Michal – He looked a fool! Oh everybody else might have seen a great king but I knew, I saw the man who promised me the world and left me with nothing but a handful of broken bits and pieces. Threw me away all those years ago. Then, when it suited him, pulled me out of the rubbish and stuck me on a shelf. Do you see now? Do you see why I looked down from that window and saw nothing but a hard-hearted fool down there?
David – I just wanted her to celebrate with me, with everyone. We were all rejoicing. It was a new day, a new start for us all.
Michal – It felt like the end. So much had been promised, and so little came true. I hardly see him now. He has time for everyone else, but he avoids me.
David – It’s a busy life being a king. So much to do, so much to achieve, so much is important.
Michal – He made me feel important. Once upon a time.
(They both walk off, in opposite directions.)
2 Samuel 6 vv 16-23; 1 Samuel 19 vv 11-18
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