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GABRIEL’S
NATIVITY
Gabby and Rose are teenage brother and sister living in the present day.
It is Christmas Eve and Gabby has received a ‘mysterious’ reality
computer game disk which he unloads into his computer, starts to play and
immediately passes out. Rose does the same when she ‘plays’ the game.
When they wake up they are in a foreign country surrounded by Arabic
looking people.
ROSE: (Seeing
GABBY) Gabby. Are you alright? You passed out. I think I must have
done, too. I have such a headache.
GABBY:
I’m O.K. The last thing I remember was putting that disk into the
computer. Then I put the headphones on and then there was a terrible pain
inside my head. (He notices the people.) What the...? Where am I? Who are these
people? And why are they dressed like that? Am I dreaming?
ROSE:
Oh my goodness. I put on those headphones too and I passed out with pain
in my head, too. But just before I did the computer screen came alight
with the words “Jerusalem, about 2,000 years ago.” (Slowly.)
I have a feeling that this is where we are.
GABBY:
Don’t be ridiculous. Nonsense. This isn’t happening. I’m going to
wake up in a minute. (He shuts his
eyes and then opens them again. He looks around at the people. JOSEPH
cautiously approaches him.)
JOSEPH:
Excuse me. You look like strangers to this place. Please will you tell me
where you are from?
GABBY:
Look man. I don’t know what game this is but it’s not cool.
ROSE:
We’re from England. The United Kingdom. Part of Europe. (JOSEPH
looks blank.) You’ve never heard of England or any of those places
have you? (JOSEPH shakes his head.)
London? (Still puzzlement from
JOSEPH.) New York? (Inspiration.)
That’s in the USA? United States of America? You’ve never heard of
them either? (JOSEPH shakes his
head.) Well no, of course not. If I am right in what I am thinking,
America hasn’t been discovered yet and these people would never have
heard of England.
GABBY:
What are you talking about?
ROSE:
The words on the computer. “Jerusalem, about 2,000 years ago.” This is
where we are. We have somehow been transported back in time and to a
different place.
GABBY:
You’ve really lost it. I began to think you were a weirdo and
abnormal... now you’ve confirmed it. Time travel. I suppose the computer
sucked us in and blew us out here. If so, where is the computer? (To
JOSEPH.) Say, man, have you seen a computer lying around here? It
looks like a television with a keyboard. (JOSEPH
has an urgent conversation with INNKEEPER and MARY.)
ROSE:
You are the one playing computer games. You explain it. Perhaps this is
this one of your reality programmes?
GABBY:
Yea. You could be right, Rose. Yes. The disk was a reality programme. None
of this is real. It just seems so. The question is how do we get out of
this programme? (He gets excited.)
This is cool. The best ever. It’s so real. But I don’t understand how
you’re part of it. Pity you had to come along for the ride. I suspect
you’re a virus.
A new retelling of the traditional
Nativity Story that can be adapted to accommodate small and large casts
with or without carols.
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