GEGIEDES
A ten-minute play
by Nancy Fresco
Characters
Dr. Rachel Marbank, English professor and Shakespeare scholar (female, 30s-50s)
Emily Youngblood, Master’s student in English Literature (female, early 20s)
Gegiedes (male, 30-50s – approximately the same age as Rachel)
Setting
A faculty office in a college somewhere in the US, present day
Notes
The set can be minimal, with a desk or small table, office chair, and additional chair suggesting the office space.
Costuming is basic: slightly frumpy for Rachel and unobtrusive for Emily. Gegiedes should wear a tunic or toga in the style of ancient Greece, preferably with sandals.
Characters can be of any race or physical ability, and genders and names can be changed at the discretion of the director.
[LIGHTS UP. RACHEL is sitting at her desk, stage right, reading and marking a stack of paperwork as if grading papers. She looks tired and over-worked. GEGIEDES enters unseen by RACHEL, stage left. She does not hear him as he speaks.]
GEGIEDES
Two academics, both alike in dignity,
In ivory tower, where we lay our scene,
From ancient tryst find new-fledged amity,
Where civil rules kept civil minds too clean.
From forth the dusty tomes of academe
A pair of star-eyed lovers reappears
Whose new adventures soon will make it seem
The joy of youth’s untrammeled by the years
The sweat-marked passage of these scholars’ love,
Although they may be of your parents' age,
Will, thanks to tenure, soon have naught to prove.
‘Twill be but ten minutes traffic on our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
[GEGIEDES exits stage left as we hear the sound of someone knocking at the door stage right.]
RACHEL
[Looking up and sighing at the interruption] Come in.
[EMILY enters, tentatively. She is carrying a folder full of papers. RACHEL smiles and gestures her toward a chair.]
Good morning, Emily – it’s Emily, right? [EMILY nods] You said you wanted to discuss a potential Master’s thesis topic with me? I should warn you that I really can’t take on much right now, in terms of advising duties.
EMILY
Yes, I – well, thank you so much for taking the time, Dr. Marbank. I’ll be
brief. I know that your work includes an examination of the social context of the
humor in Shakespeare’s plays… so I thought…[trails off uncertainly]
RACHEL
[With a slight laugh] Oh, that goes back a good few years – but yes, I did co-author
a couple of papers with Nick when we were… [Pause, as if in happy nostalgic
memory] … that is, when I was a student.
EMILY
Yes, “The Role of the Clown: Iconoclastic Boundary-Crossing in Shakespearean
Histories” -- with [looks at the top paper in her folder] Nikolas Papadopoulos. But he’s not here anymore...
RACHEL
Ah. No, Nick left long ago. We… lost touch. He was… a foreign exchange student… brilliant,
quirky, so creative, always laughing… we were so very young... [Pause, clears
throat] There was also “The Comic Muse
as—”
EMILY
[Eagerly interrupting] “— as the Voice
of the Commoner in Shakespeare’s Works.”
Yes. I’ve read that, too.
RACHEL
[Pleased] Well, it’s nice to know that another generation is appreciating the
Bard.
EMILY
Yes! I’m particularly interested in how
his works were understood and interpreted by people in the Globe Theatre. The original audiences. And, um, how that’s different from now.
RACHEL
[Patiently] Which aspect of that difference?
EMILY
Like, specifically, we take the plays more seriously nowadays, because we don’t
include Gegiedes [pronounced guh GUY uh deez].
RACHEL
Wait… who?
[Gegiedes enters stage left, unseen by RACHEL and EMILY. He carries a lightweight chair. He strolls to a spot about 15 feet from them, slightly upstage, and seats himself in a posture imitating that of RACHEL. As she speaks and moves, he exaggeratedly mimics her mannerisms and motions.]
EMILY
Gegiedes.
RACHEL
[Perplexed] Nick and I never…. That is, I’ve read Shakespeare’s complete works
more than once, and I don’t recall and character by the name of…
EMILY
Gegiedes. Well… yeah, he’s not in the
Complete Works.
RACHEL
I’ve also read lesser known quartos.
Contested versions. I’m afraid I
still don’t...
EMILY
Yeah. Um. He’s not in those. [Pause. RACHEL checks her watch, and EMILY
shifts uncomfortably.] But I’ve found
references to him in primary sources! [Fumbles in her folder, pulls out a paper].
See, here, from Abraham Wright’s Notebook, he called Hamlet [reads] “An
indifferent play, but for the wit of Gegiedes.”
RACHEL
[Obviously startled] That’s not what I remember from Wright. [Takes paper from
EMILY, peers at it.] But who – who is
this Gegiedes?”
EMILY
Well… Wright didn’t say. Just that he
was funny and smart, I guess? But I was
curious, so I started looking. And… see,
here. [Pulls out another paper]. Gabriel
Harvey scribbled in a margin of one of his books, [reads] “The younger sort
take much delight in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis; but his Lucrece and his
tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, have it in them to please the wiser sort”.
RACHEL
Oh, yes, I remember how amused Nick was by Harvey’s –
EMILY
[Interrupting] Then under that, he wrote, “Gegiedes”.
RACHEL
What?
EMILY
And underlined it. Twice.
RACHEL
[Thoroughly engaged now, pushing aside her previous stack of papers and taking
another paper from EMILY.] How did I
never notice… But this one [waving a paper], this is one of Simon Forman’s well-known
accounts. And I don’t see…
EMILY
[Leaning over the document and pointing] There, see that?
RACHEL
I don’t… Oh! It’s… a gamma? A Greek gamma! I… don’t speak much Greek. I learned a little, from Nick. I wish I’d learned more.
EMILY
Gamma. Like, an initial.
RACHEL
Gamma for Gegiedes.
EMILY
Yeah. And, see, it’s all over his notes,
if you look. But sometimes it’s uppercase and sometimes lowercase, and either
one could pass for just an extra squiggle, you know? Because… Greek letters? And the spelling was weird – I mean,
non-standard -- back then, anyhow.
RACHEL
[Eagerly rifling through pages] Yes, I see!
[RACHEL and EMILY lean together over EMILY’s papers, immersed in reading. GEGIEDES stands and strolls a few steps forward, still unseen by them.]
GEGIEDES
Once old desire did in its death-bed lie,
And new affection gaped to be its heir;
That fleeting “fair” that caught a wand’ring eye
With Rachel matched again -- seems now not fair.
So once beguiled, returning, loves again,
Bewitched now not by shallow charms and looks,
But to his love drawn nigh by wit and brain
To steal love's sweets amid a stack of books.
Being thought unreal, he lacks clear schemes
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she perhaps still loves, yet has no dreams
To meet her once-beloved anywhere:
But passion lends them power, time, means, to meet
Thus tempering reality with heat.
[Gegiedes strolls back to his seat. He watches Rachel with great interest, no longer mocking her movements, but listening intently and reacting –nodding, smiling, seeming to cheer her on.]
EMILY
So… I wondered if maybe Gegiedes was an unnamed clown? And you wrote about the clowns…
RACHEL
Almost all the Bard’s plays have some kind of fool, of course, but he’s usually
named – Dogberry, Costard... All the
characters Nick and I loved so much…
EMILY
But none of them are named Gegiedes.
RACHEL
He’s just “clown” in Othello, though.
Oh, and in Titus Andronicus, too.
Ugh, humor doesn’t work well in that one. And he’s just “Fool” in King Lear.
EMILY
What about the character called Chorus?
RACHEL
Hmm… that’s an idea. That was a concept borrowed
from the Greek tradition… although the chorus wasn’t comic. Shakespeare used a chorus in five of his
plays: Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, and Henry IV, parts 1
and 2.
EMILY
I always felt like that Chorus character was weird in Romeo and Juliet. I mean, when I first saw it, when I was a
kid. Like, who is he? And where does he go for the whole play? He gives a summary of the story at the beginning,
then he shows up for one more sonnet and then…
RACHEL
Yes, and then buggers off and never reappears again. Gone. Chorus abandonment. No
Greek closure. Very unsatisfying…
[Gegiedes looks guilty and stricken. He sinks his head into his hands, as if berating himself.]
…but then, Romeo and Juliet is hugely overrated as a romance, in my opinion.
EMILY
That’s what I’ve always thought! But it
seemed kind of unsophisticated to admit that I like the comedies better…
RACHEL
Maybe sophistication is overrated. [She
smiles] Nick and I had a hell of a lot of fun, exploring the comedies.
[Gegiedes perks up and looks hopeful.]
RACHEL
The name Gegiedes… I wonder… [She pulls out her phone and taps the screen as
she talks]. I really don’t remember much
of the Greek Nick taught me, but Google Translate… Huh. [She pauses, taps the screen, looks
surprised, taps the screen again.] Well,
depending on the spelling and accents or lack thereof, it seems like Gegiedes
means “sir” or “priest”. Or possibly “old
man…”
[Gegiedes
looks mock-offended]
Or even “old woman” or “grandmother”
[Gegiedes shrugs and throws up his hands, as if saying sure, whatever.]
… but, no, that accent would change the pronunciation. So… maybe “sir” is closest. Just… some guy. Maybe it’s more a generic title than a name. A placeholder.
EMILY
So… Gegiedes could be the clown, the chorus, the priest… just some kind of
narrator person? But… why is he never
listed directly, or named in any of the scripts?
RACHEL
[Pondering as she talks] Well… maybe Gegiedes was a running joke between Shakespeare,
his Players, and the audiences in the Globe?
Maybe he was understood to be whichever character spoke directly to the
audience, and wasn’t afraid to mock the other characters, the narrative, the playwright
himself…
EMILY
A hilariously snarky commentator?
RACHEL
Reminding everyone not to take life too seriously all the time. [Smiling] Nick was so good at that.
EMILY
Right! In your paper – the one about
being iconoclastic – you and Nick, I mean Professor Papadopoulos…
RACHEL
I have no idea whether he ever became a professor.
[Gegiedes straightens up proudly, mimes putting a mortarboard on his head.]
EMILY
The two of you wrote about how the clown’s role is to tell subversive
truths. To speak truth to power.
RACHEL
This is why Shakespeare is timeless.
EMILY
To laugh at all the rich pompous idiots who think they’re right because
everyone else is too afraid to say they’re not.
RACHEL
See? Timeless. It’s like Shakespeare knew about the tenure
review process.
EMILY
[Laughing] To mock tradition-for-the-sake-of-tradition?
RACHEL
And formality that undermines humanity, and ego that wrecks spontaneity, and middle-aged
staidness that forgets the joyous frivolity of youth. All of that, in a sexy Greek
toga.
EMILY
[Laughing harder] Shakespeare thought togas were sexy?
RACHEL
Who knows? Hell, why not? Shakespeare made sexual jokes out of
everything – swords, cups, you name it. But
maybe… well, as far as we can tell, Shakespeare wasn’t fully in control of Gegiedes. He wasn’t named. He wasn’t written in. And… maybe that was the point.
EMILY
What do you mean?
RACHEL
Well… all these audience members who loved Gegiedes [she gestures to EMILY’s
folder of papers] …maybe they weren’t all seeing the same Gegiedes. Or, not seeing him in quite the same way.
EMILY
Like… he was ad-libbing?
RACHEL
The funniest people tend to do that a lot.
EMILY
One of the Players?
RACHEL
Sure. Or several of them. Or all of them. Who doesn’t have an inner Gegiedes, just
waiting to come out?
EMILY
We all have an inner snarky voice?
RACHEL
Providing cogent, witty, iconoclastic commentary on everything that is
ridiculous in life, and everything that is charming, and everything that we are
afraid to say, and afraid to see, and afraid to admit.
EMILY
And our inner voice is personified by a Greek dude wandering around in a toga?
RACHEL
Indubitably. [Laughs] No, really, I
guess the point might be that our inner voice could be anyone – like that vague
translation of “Gegiedes”. The sage, the
elder, the holy man, the fool. It can be
personified in a character, or ad-libbed by an actor who wants to goad and
tweak the playwright when he’s taking himself too seriously. Maybe even an audience member can be
Gegiedes.
EMILY
Shakespeare, Rocky Horror style?
RACHEL
People yelled and threw vegetables. So,
sure, it’s possible they also jumped up and joined the show. But… maybe once audiences have accepted all
those permutations of Gegiedes, then he’s always there, even when he’s not. The eternal and ever-present Gegiedes.
EMILY
Like, just in people’s heads?
RACHEL
Say you’re watching Romeo and Juliet. It’s
the party scene near the beginning. What
is Gegiedes saying?
EMILY
“Wow, Romeo, you little twit, you absolutely don’t know the difference between
love and hormones.”
RACHEL
Exactly! And what does Gegiedes have to
say to Lord and Lady Capulet?
EMILY
“Okay, so you obviously ducked out of all responsibility and let your kid be
raised by this kind-hearted but slightly crazy nurse. That might work out okay if you weren’t also
obsessive egotists wrapped up in politics and petty feuds.”
RACHEL
Ha, great. And what would you say to the
Friar, later on?
EMILY
“Really, you think this is a good idea?
Marrying these kids? Has celibacy
addled you? This whole scenario isn’t a romance, it’s a treatise on bad parenting.”
RACHEL
[Impressed] Wow, you have quite the inner Gegiedes.
EMILY
[Modest] Well, I got a lot of that from the papers that you and Dr. Papadopoulos
wrote.
RACHEL
As I said, I have no idea whether Nick’s a…
EMILY
[Interrupting] About that… I maybe haven’t
been totally honest about all this.
[There is a pause. Emily is gathering her thoughts. Rachel looks at her in confusion. Meanwhile, Gegiedes jumps up, grabbing his chair, and hurries offstage.]
EMILY
I mean, all the part about hoping to work with you as an advisor for my Master’s
thesis, that’s all true. I was
desperately digging around for a topic, reading all the publications from all
the faculty members in the English department, and I loved those papers you
wrote. I emailed you right away, last
month, but I didn’t hear back…
RACHEL
Ugh, so sorry. Email gets away from me…
EMILY
Oh, it’s okay. I kept going anyhow,
taking a deep dive into original sources, like I said. And I found Gegiedes, and was really
excited. I hadn’t heard from you, and was
going to email again, but then I saw that your co-author had a Greek name, and
I thought, well, Greek, gamma, Gegiedes – maybe he’d be interested? Maybe he’d know something? Maybe I could try emailing him. So I did.
RACHEL
Nick?! But… how?
EMILY
[Shrugging] Google?
RACHEL
But Papadopoulos is literally the most common name in Greece…
EMILY
I just assumed he’d be Dr. Papadopoulos, and that he’d still be working on Shakespearean
stuff in some way. It… wasn’t hard.
RACHEL
[Chagrinned] No. No, I guess it wouldn’t
have been hard.
EMILY
Anyhow, he wrote back right away. He was
really excited about Gegiedes, and had a lot of the same ideas as the ones you
just came up with. He… asked a lot about
you, too. I didn’t have much to tell
him, of course.
RACHEL
Of course. [Pause] But, you have his
email address… I wonder if…
[There is a knock at the office door.]
RACHEL
[Perplexed and slightly irritated to be interrupted] Yes? Come in?
[Gegiedes enters. He is now dressed in ordinary casual clothes, e.g. jeans and a T-shirt, but he is still wearing his classic Greek sandals. He pauses, uncertain and hesitant. He and Rachel look at one another for a long beat.]
RACHEL
Nick?!
EMILY
[Performing introductions with mock formality] Dr. Marbank, Dr.
Papadopoulos. Dr. Papadopoulos, Dr.
Marbank.
RACHEL
Nick.
[RACHEL slowly rises from her chair. She and GEGIEDES continue to gaze at one another. He moves forward toward her slowly, still uncertain, and stops about a dozen feet away.]
GEGIEDES
“If we shadows have offended…”
RACHEL
[Laughing, joyful] “…say but this, and all is mended!”
[RACHEL and GEGIEDES run to one another and embrace warmly. Then then fall back to arms’ length, holding both of each others’ hands. They slowly spin one another, laughing. They each let go of one hand, keeping the others clasped, and start toward the exit together, holding hands, heads close, whispering and laughing together.]
RACHEL
[Over her shoulder, to Emily] Have you considered expanding your thesis ideas
into a PhD? I think you’ve got a lot of
great material.
[Still murmuring and laughing, RACHEL and GEGIEDES exit. Emily moves from her chair to the seat at the desk previously occupied by Rachel. She puts her feet up on the desk, leaning back comfortably, stretching. Smiling, she picks up her folder of materials and gets to work.]
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