A Particle of Dread by Sam Shepard

Author:Sam Shepard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Scene 17

(OEDIPUS comes charging onto extreme down center. Ferocious—direct to audience. His eyes are the same red gashes. JOCASTA follows him and watches.)

OEDIPUS: (Direct to audience.) Until now I was a stranger to this tale. A stranger to the crime. How could this be? All this time lurking among us like the slinking dogs, from corpse to corpse. Any common day I could have brushed up against him in the marketplace. Seen him eye to eye. Not knowing. Even now he could have the audacity to be sitting right here amongst us. Inwardly sneering in our midst. Licking his chops like the green-eyed hyena. Let me tell you that if anyone here has the slightest suspicion who might have been the killer—or worse, may be harboring this demon—let him come forward and surrender with the promise that no further tribulation will come to him. Banishment will occur in utter safety. Know also that I solemnly forbid anyone to receive this man or speak to him, no matter who he pretends to be in the community. He must be driven from every house, every nesting place; shunned as you’ve shunned the plague bearers akin to you. I pray that this man’s life be consumed in evil and wretchedness. And I vouch that this curse applies no less to me, should it turn out that somehow he has conned his way into my company, sharing my family and hearth. I now take the son’s part in this revenge as though the king were my own blood father. I will see this thing through to the naked end.

(JOCASTA and OEDIPUS exit.)

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