Deus Comedieta
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Page: 10 Deus: Noted. Your regard for time is nil. Blicken: Pardon me. Deus: Time is unforgiving. Mark me, as you slack, so shall you lack. What charge did you bring? Pages 16-17 Legallo: (Stands and bows) Now, proceed and speak on the edicts of religion. Witiniko: Your Excellency, what did you desire therein? Legallo: Who edited them? Witiniko: I edited them? Legallo: Why the endeavour? Witiniko : For the purpose of power. Legallo: How did you discover it? Witiniko: By the work of my intellect via inspiration. Legallo: How did you use it? Witiniko: It becomes a weapon. Legallo: What fashion of weapon? Witiniko: Weapon to dominate and subjugate. Weapon to impose spirituality over humanity. Legallo: Dominate? Subjugate? What words are they? Witiniko: (Unruffled) To enslave. To rule. Page :19 Dues: (Waving his forefinger and shaking his head in objection) Nay. Nay. Nay. Humanity is not to serve spirituality. Spirituality is to serve and preserve humanity. No Spirituality is above humanity. Behold, without humanity, no spirituality. Spirituality that negates humanity negates itself…. Page: 23 Quotenco: (Reads from the text) “Knowledge is a glowing light, but the simpleminded comprehend it not. Knowledge is free, he who seeks it finds it. Indeed, Knowledge is freedom, to be pursued with sweat. Knowledge is priceless, to be purchased with the purest of gold” (Closes the book sits down) Deus: Alas! Knowledge is a two-edged sword! A side draws life, the other draws blood. The heart of the wielder determines what it draws. Lack of knowledge is a one-sided hatchet, drawing ignorance, the father of poverty, disease, and death! Oh man, Knowledge denied is life denied! Page: 37 Prosseto: Please do. Ratiola: The choice to use the intellect rightly or wrongly. To discover the good and the bad. The choice to exercise the intellect either to bring peace or war. Do I proceed? Prosseto: Yeah. Why did you pause? Ratiola: (Continues) The choice to discover one’s weakness so improvement can be sought. But your Joyness taketh away perfection. Dues: (Breathed deeply and interrupts) Yea. For I am a jealous one. And lo! Can a perfect being create a perfect being? And would he? And should he? (Prosseto sits down) Page 40 Witiniko: (Interjects forcefully) Falsehood, My Excellency. Blicken: (Now shouts) In sooth, Mi Lord. Just as you vetoed perfection, Witiniko did veto equality. Witiniko: (responds violently) Veto works for peace! Blicken: (forcefully) Nay but……. Arch Demi: (cuts in) Halt.! Why the din? No deaf lives here. (Blicken and Witiniko are silent) And what does veto mean? Blicken: (Quickly with scorn) Absolute power to pause or stop a cause permanently by an individual for personal influence or interest, Such power is not shared. Only Witiniko has it. Arch Demi: Who invented it? Blicken: Witiniko, Mi Lord. Arch Demi: (To Witiniko) Witiniko, tell me more Witiniko: Bless you My Excellency. Veto is a security and peaceful measure in Diplomacy Arch Demi: (Completely at sea) Diplomacy?! What kind of word? Witiniko: Coming together of the political entities of the Ethnika for realization of peace and development. Arch Demi: Have you achieved peace in full therefore? Witiniko: Nay, but I am striving hard at that. Ceteris paribus, I shall find peace….. Deus: (Smiles wanly and interrupts) But can ceteris be paribus.? Can all things be equal? Page :41 Witiniko: I...I (nodding) shall endeavour…….. Deus: (Genuinely amused) Peace eludes Ethinika for you cometh together for the benefit of part and not whole. You congregate to segregate. And such endeavour will ever remain wanting. Every soul wants to reap at the negative expense of the other….. But can the eyes gain when the head loses…… Page: 44 Deus: (Aback) Blicken! Witiniko! Dare you fight in my presence? Witiniko: No. I dare not fight in your court My Excellency. (releases a shot that hit a window pane) but I have the right to protect my right and life; and this right is a right that is inalienably right. Blicken: Mi lord (He points the musket towards Witiniko) Let me stop this suppression and abuse of my rights. A holy war Pages: 43/44 Deus: Why allow them access with weapons? Arch Demi: You reminded us not to search their habiliments for they have freedom and freewill at their disposal as they desire. Deus: (Worried) Methinks Freedom is thus misapplied. Arc Demi: But Freedom is freedom! Deus: Aye! Aye! But should freedom not be moderated with rationality? Arch Demi: Conditional freedom is no freedom. Deus: This is no freedom. This is freedoom. But do something. Arch Demi: I dare not put forth my hands against the anointed. Page: 47 Lady Witiniko: (Raises her pestle and charges at Witiniko and sarcastically says) Yea! You always have an argument! Argument to steal, argument to kill; and argument to destroy! Arguments devoid of rationality; and arguments in lieu of humanity
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Deus Comedietta: Even as the world is in poverty and turmoil, man claims he is blameless. He always has someone to blame. If it is not nature, it must be his neighbour. Blicken says to Deus, ‘You share nothing fair’. But is Deus not right to say, ‘As you slack, so shall you lack’? Even as man makes unbalanced policies as Blicken observes, ‘Witiniko vetoed equality’. Witiniko says, ‘Veto works for peace’. But is Deus not right when he says, ‘…peace eludes … for you … congregate to segregate’? Even as man depraves his value, there is an excuse. Witiniko says, ‘I have an argument’. But is it not true that man, as Lady Witiniko claims, always has an argument ‘… argument to steal … argument to kill … argument to destroy’? Perhaps it is this claim to individual argument that has turned a beautiful world into a wasteland. This short play, in a peculiar way, manoeuvres through a labyrinth of issues; asking bold questions regarding concepts of time, corruption, freedom, inequality, religion, humanity, and many more.
About the Author
Olutade Omobolade is an internationally trained administrator and project manager. He has a background in philosophy, diplomacy, and development, which has provided him with a deep and broad perception about life. He hails from a lineage of traditional bards in Ipe-Akoko, Nigeria. He loves satire as a way of reflecting societal contradictions. He currently lives in Canada.