Entrance from the Underworld
A monologue with masks
by
Per Simon Edström
PERFORMER:
Mankind lives in the reality between birth and death.
In his own imagination and in the fantasies of other, he lives
both before his birth and after his death.
When the barriers between fantasy and reality are removed - such
as in rituals and the theatre - life is everywhere, and death
is but a small part of life.
When nature dies in the autumn, man starts to fantasize about
the spring. A long time ago, in order to help nature come back
to life, the dream of actually descending into the underworld
and fetching Spring was born.
For thousands of years, mankind has transformed this dream into
ritual and theatre.
Led by an actor elected to be King of the Underworld, a group
of people representing the dead have guided life and the spring
back to nature, which needs the spring in order to blossom and
bear the fruit that makes it possible for animals and mankind
to survive the winter.
The same rituals and theatre have existed throughout the world,
in all cultures, and continue today in the form of masquerades,
carnivals or religious ceremonies, though sometimes in a form
distorted beyond recognition by the powers-that-be of civilization
and of religion.
The actor entering from the Underworld, and playing the part of
its Lord, has always worn a mask to transform his human features
to the divine countenance.
I stand before you as an actor, holding masks from India, Babylon,
Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman empire, the Celtic isles, Ultima
Thule and central Europe in my hands. With you for my audience,
I wish to tell of these transformations, and of the people who
turned themselves into Gods with the help of these masks.
It is the tale of how the simple spring rituals of the sorcerers
and shamans in small villages became the mass-hysterical ceremonies
of religions upon which entire states were based, where magic
was turned to theatre with professional actors.
It is also the tale of how the role-figures of the ritual came
to be theatrical figures.
(Brings out the Arlequin mask)
Perhaps a non-chronological order can help you better understand
the way in which this theatre has risen up, time after time after
time after time, without the help of the chronology and the ordered
manner which historians are so fond of imposing on the goings-on
of our ancestors?
I have therefore chosen to begin the play dressed in this Arlequin
suit, a 400-year old theatrical costume from central Europe.
Belonging to the costume is this ancient mask.
By donning this mask together with this costume, I am transformed
to Arlequin!
ARLEQUIN:
Ladies and gentlemen, maids and courtesans, peasants and potentates!
Welcome to a theatrical performance, which I promise you will
be so funny that you will piss yourself laughing, and will make
you want to applaud so much that you will have to go to a surgeon
afterwards to get your clapped-out hands mended. (Removes mask)
MALE ACTOR:
Here I am, the man behind the mask, the male actor. Once you've
been type-cast, you never get out of it! I, who in normal life
and with my talent could have been anything at all - mayor, prime
minister or wine taster - have become an actor playing the role
of Arlequin, servant of all masters.
ARLEQUIN:
(Bows and abases himself)
MALE ACTOR:
I bow, humble myself, crawl on my knees, tear off my hat!
When my masters in the play have their backs turned is the only
time I can be as cheeky as I am supposed to be - and that I have
the right to be . For when I wear this mask, I am in fact the
Prince of Princes, Lord of the Underworld, Master of the Dead,
who can remove any King at all from his throne and hurl him all
the way to Hell!
Yes, I mean the Realm of the Dead, there is no Hell - that's just
an invention of the Christian church's priests - the same priests
who lured me into the theatre to play the person who threw everyone
except Jesus down the hole into the Underworld.
If I hadn't fallen for their simple offer, I would still be the
one elected by the people to be King of the Carnival, due to his
audacity and quick wit.
The one who, while the Carnival was on, had complete power, and
access to all the good things of life - cooked food, drink, and
women!
Instead, at the theatre, I have had to act, performance after
performance, just to be able to eat.
And it's the theatre that has changed my role from that of King
for a day over the whole world, to a servant, serving anyone at
all who wears finer clothes than I.
I've still got the old mask, but just look at my clothes! They
didn't use to look like this.
It is the fault of those damned fashion designers, who have decided
the way they should look!
The scissors of theatrical costume makers have cut out squares,
which have then been sewn into my costume in neat lines by seamstresses.
You can even play chess on me.
Me, who once could play chess with everyone else. (Tears off his
costume to reveal another costume which he has had on underneath).
This is what it used to look like!
Full of real patches covering real holes!
And that's the back of the costume.
(Turns the costume around)
This is what the front looked like!
Every single moth hole, every hole in the worn-out fabric, every
knife and bullet hole, that I, and my forefathers who wore this
costume before me, have caused it to suffer, through life and
death, have all been repaired properly with patches on the back.
Look at this neat front!
(Turns the coat round for the public)
And look at the patched back!
And at the Carnival, my people's procession and I all wear our
costumes inside out, as a sign that we come from the other world,
the opposite world, the world of the dead!
The Underworld, where all things come after dying, people, animals,
all of nature!
And when I put on this mask, I was Arlequin, King of the abyss,
Lord over life and death, who once a year rises from the dark
regions to give the sun and the spring life again, for mankind
and nature.
(Puts on Arlequin mask).
ARLEQUIN:
Here I am, Arlequin!
With my divine wand, I can make anyone I want to pregnant!
Each time the sun returns after winter, it's me that penetrates
time with my divine organ and causes her to give birth to a new
year.
MALE ACTOR:
(Removes his Arlequin mask, resigned)
When I put this mask on nowadays, the audience don't even know
who I am.
That's why they dare to laugh at me now!
PERFORMER:
But let us wind back the wheel of time, together.
Two thousand two hundred years ago, Mégastène, a
Greek, described a spring sacrifice in India, a carnival that
even to this day is revived every year in order to wake Spring
to life.
Nowadays, this carnival is called Holi.
A naked, white-powdered man would bear the mask and staff of Shiva
and ride on a donkey, while his phallus-bearing followers shot
paint over everyone from out of their long, upright syringes.
Nowadays, we just throw confetti!
The participants in the procession were Shudras, that is, slaves,
workmen and servants, who on this day have chosen an own representative
of the God Shiva from among their ranks and who, for this one
day, hold all power in the community.
SHUDRA:
The lowest of the low I am, today, elevated to the highest heights.
The lust for all beautiful women that I have always been forced
to hide in my loincloth can be shown openly today.
And on this festive day, I can change everything to the better
for us everyday slaves.
When my voice issues from the mouth on God's mask, everyone must
obey.
(Puts on Shiva mask).
SHIVA:
Listen to the voice of the God Shiva, and tremble as does the
tiniest particle of matter when His dance wakes existence to life.
On this day, the world is turned upside down and those who have
enjoyed life's choicest fruits shall no longer enjoy them alone!
On this day, shall inebriating liquids made from grapes, honey
and herbs no longer be reserved for the holy castes. All may drink
their way to happiness and insight.
On this day, the lowest shall be the highest, the hungry shall
be sated, the beaten will hold the whip and the servants will
be waited upon.
On this day, the landowner's sacrificial animals will be offered
to me, Shiva, and the offered meat prepared for those who are
starving and have no possessions.
On this day, the rich man's money shall be sown in the wind, to
the very people whose work has made him rich.
On this day, man's power shall be shared by so many that the parts
thereof will be too minute for any human power to exist.
SHUDRA:
(Looks out from behind the Shiva mask)
Behind the mask I see, in the spring weather, the festive results
of my divine commands:
The rich give their sumptuous clothes to the poor, and female
beggars dance, laughing, like Maharajahs.
Skinny beggar boys stuff grass in their borrowed clothes and are
transformed into fat, upper-class ladies.
Everyone changes clothes, shape and form to that of their opposites.
Women become men with large, paint-ejecting rods, while men lie
around with their skirts pulled up, giving birth and laughing.
Masters crawl in the dust before their servants, and carry dishes
dripping with butter to the hungry hordes.
The guards at the gates of the wealthy palaces have put aside
their weapons and now stand with musical instruments in their
hands, inviting everyone in to the celebrations.
Everything is changed around, all is festivity and happiness,
all is a dream of how life should be, all is the very dream the
poor have dreamt all the other days of the year...
SHUDRA:
Suddenly, behind the divine mask, I understand the purpose of
the absent weapons and the open doors of the rich men's limitless
food cupboards. At dawn, when the gates are closed by men who
once more bear arms, we must again content ourselves with our
dreams until the next spring festival. And this dream will grow
far stronger than a dream of a real change for the better.
Behind the godly mask, I cry over my foolishness, at participating
in this fun and games, all fashioned according to the shrewd calculations
of power and wealth. (hides his disconsolate face behind the Shiva
mask).
SHIVA:
(cries out the actor's impotent rage)
PERFORMER:
In Babylon of old, a huge tower was erected, built by the Gods'
hordes of human slaves, on the order of the High Priest of Babylon
and the High Priest's King of Babylon.
From the darkness of the Earth, a path to the Sun wound its way
up the walls of the tower. It led to the Sun Temple at the very
top of the tower, twisting like a spiral, forever to the right,
in the manner of the Sun and of Life itself.
Around this Ziggurath, fashioned by the hands of countless generations
of workers, was celebrated a spring festival lasting eleven days,
after the old year had come to a close and before the beginning
of the new one. It was a gathering of the living to celebrate
the God Marduk.
This God Marduk was represented by a prisoner, sentenced to death
and who now awaited execution.
THE CONDEMNED MAN:
Ugh!
I was condemned to death earlier than other people, just for mocking
authority. Sentenced by the people's Royal court, which is called
Divine and is blessed by the High Priest.
A curse on it!
A curse on those who steal the gods of the people to impose their
own will upon us!
Condemned to death just for saying that we should do like in the
old days, and sacrifice the elected King to the Gods, what with
the drought, and the crops failing and famine in the land.
But for a few, miserable hours, I have slipped out of death's
jaws and in the short time I've got left, I have to live the whole
of the life I've always dreamt of having:
Kill all my enemies, reward all my friends and embrace all the
women I haven't gotten round to yet. And now I can do all that
as the God Marduk himself!
(Puts the Marduk mask on)
MARDUK:
On your knees and tremble before my might.
It is I, Marduk, who stands closest the sun and atop the pyramid.
On my journey across the sea from the Kingdom of the Underworld,
my court and I have defeated Tiamat, the dragon and sea serpent,
by capturing her in a net made of light and have created heaven
and earth.
Leading my court, I have wandered, round and round, up the spiral
to the Sun Temple, where the king himself was boxed around the
ears by the High Priest for not bowing to me fast enough. But
this game played by the High priest and the King, trying to persuade
me of their humility, it's not enough.
During my stay in the Underworld, these two have committed crimes
against my divine laws, and have caused drought, bad harvests
and famine! Death is the only punishment.
Arrest them, and have their eldest sons go to them and tear out
their hearts.
THE CONDEMNED MAN:
(Looks from behind the Marduk mask)
Behind the Divine mask I see, to my surprise and delight, how
the two old goats who sentenced me to death are now being killed
by their own sons, accompanied by the cheers of the crowd. On
their bended knees, they lay the hearts at my feet.
But what's happening?
The son of the High priest smiles at the King's son who is also
grinning. He slips in beneath the god's costume, the knife in
his hand.
I feel something cold against my heart.
I feel a hand take the Godly mask from me.
I should have understood that possessing power is something that
passes quickly, and is shorter than...
PERFORMER:
After what happened that time at the top of the tower of Babel,
a new custom was introduced, so that the King could also be represented
by a condemned prisoner. If the country was on the brink of war,
or was threatened by famine, the King would quickly be exchanged,
like castling in chess, and a condemned man would be sacrificed
as a royal offering to the gods.
(takes out the OSIRIS MASK)
In Babylon, further inland, lay the realm of the underworld and
of the dead, far from the great ocean of the Legend. In seafaring
Egypt, the kingdom of the dead was much closer, on the other side
of the river.
But boats were needed for the journey to both kingdoms, and boats
have been used for tens of thousands of years, all over the world,
at the masquerade parties at Springtime. In the land of the Nile,
Osiris, ruler of death's kingdom, came across the river with the
new year. And when a man from the people was chosen to represent
Osiris, what could be more fitting than to have a sailor play
the part?
THE SAILOR:
(With the Osiris mask in his hand)
If I hadn't gone to the cheapest pub in the harbour, I would never
have had to enlist on this cargo ship.
Luckily, it's on its way from the land of the dead, and not the
other way around.
I'm sure they picked me because I had drunk too much tongue-loosener,
and let my mouth do the talking instead of my brains.
Chosen to be God and King because I couldn't keep my mouth shut!
Here I am, sitting here going across the river backwards, all
dressed up as a God and I can't even see where I'm going.
And what happens when I get there?
Ah, who cares.
I've never worried about the future before, so why start to worry
about it now?
When I put the mask on, I'm a god, ordering more to drink.
(Puts on the Osiris mask).
OSIRIS:
Give God the Divine liquid!
THE SAILOR:
(looks out from behind the Osiris mask)
Ahh...That's better!
I see that man sitting over there at the rudder watching me, and
the envious look on his face.
When we have gone half way over the river, I have orders to turn
back again. That's probably because we are no longer in the land
of the dead then. That's when I have to pick up my staff in the
proper hand, the right one, and stand up.
We're halfway now, it's time!
(Gets up rather unsteadily)
THE SAILOR:
What was in this drink? I can hardly get up!
And when I put the mask on, I can feel how God's thoughts take
over my own, and how I am turned into someone else...
(The Osiris mask slides down over his face of its own accord)
OSIRIS:
After the death of vegetation and of myself in the autumn, I have
ruled over the other world, under the ground, during the winter
months, where all and everything that dies must surely end.
But now I return across the river to you living people, with life,
spring and growth, and everything I touch with my staff will be
fertile during the new year that starts now!
To celebrate, no one is to work for eleven days, the slaves are
to release the ropes they use to pull stone blocks to the pyramids,
the ploughmen their reins, the water carriers put down
their jars, and together with all the other slaves, they shall
dance and celebrate like free men, and partake of the food and
drink that is to be freely served to them by the people who usually
do most of the eating and drinking themselves!
And just as I use my staff to make everything fertile, all males
shall put their rods to the service of women and fertility, so
that the new year can be one of the better, fatter years.
PERFORMER:
There are more portraits of actors in the world's museums than
you can imagine.
When dug-out statues of the gods of the old religions portray
human bodies with animal heads, heads with several faces or unnaturally
large heads, you can assume they represent people in masks who
represent gods.
All around the world, religions grew into powerful bureaucracies
with government-employed priests who no longer received shaman
training. Professional actors were employed to play the part of
the images of the gods, who would suddenly come to life in the
middle of a ceremony.
That's the way things were in ancient Greece, on the theatre days
of the Dionysus cult. They started off with the God in the parade
being taken to Eleuthèrai where, amongst other things,
a bull was sacrificed in his honour. That same night, after the
sacrificial celebrations, the procession went to the Dionysus
theatre, where an actor represented the God Dionysus. Accompanied
by the Phallus dance of the Bacchanals, he let the new year be
born before the very eyes of the audience.
THE ACTOR:
Those Dionysus priest are insane.
Forcing an artist to repeat himself time after time, when he still
hasn't gotten over his hangover from the last time.
And to demand a full erection at every entrance! A cut in wages
if he goes limp!
The Dionysus priests should try playing theatre themselves: They
would soon find out how difficult it is to be on stage.
But then no one would come and watch it!
It's hard enough as it is. The theatre's half full, and the ones
there are old women. They've either been forced to come or else
some politician has given them free tickets.
If there was just one good-looker in the audience, I could probably
get it to stand by itself.
Now I have to rub in Tiger Balm before each entrance.
(Massages)
It's lucky the priests aren't allowed to touch the mask.
It means I can hide my pre-entrance hip flask in it.
That official rubbish the priests give you is much too weak for
an artist!
(Takes a big swig)
Is the procession lined up, all the Gods masked?
The boys from Athens with their purple-coloured women's clothes
and saffron underskirts?
Ahh, now I feel like a God, ready to mount this rolling swan float
with its pig's head.
Enter!
(Puts on Dionysus mask).
DIONYSUS:
Ahh hum..
THE ACTOR:
(looks out from behind the Dionysus mask)
Come on, prompt!
DIONYSUS:
Ahh humm..
THE ACTOR:
(Lets Dionysus mask fall)
That bloody prompter has fallen off the wagon.
Well, as an experienced actor, it's best to exit the same way!
(falls off the wagon deliberately)
PERFORMER:
In the Roman Empire, the rich had so many slaves that you didn't
just have them for manual labour, cooking and serving.
There were so many slaves that you could have them just for the
sake of pleasure.
And for that, you chose suitable slaves of both sexes, to take
care of the pleasure part!
But come the Saturnalia celebrations, at the end of the working
year, it was the turn of the slaves to take over from their masters
and be served by them.
PLEASURE SLAVE:
The year is over!
The party has begun - and will go on day and night until the new
year begins in the month of Janu!
I am Satan himself, the God of the party and King. At my command,
the real life will now begin and everything will be different
from the way it usually is.
The slaves shall be the masters and the masters slaves. Men shall
be women and women men. The sober shall be drunk and the drunk
even drunker still, so that the dance spirals backwards towards
chaos.
Before me, those who have been masters shall bow down to the earth
and show their bare behinds, so that I can chose which one can
best satisfy my divine lust for pleasure.
And in the dancing carnival, the women that have gone without
men will ride backwards on Satan's oiled broomstick so that they
fly all the way up to heaven.
Satan's own days and nights have begun, and time stands so still
as to not exist - so that everything that is done will be forever
undone anyway!
That means that you can do whatever you like!
Get on with it!
PERFORMER:
(Takes out a LUG MASK)
While the Romans were dancing on the very edge of the precipice,
close to the complete collapse of civilisation and its religions,
other cultures were on the rise in other parts of the world.
The contemporary Celtic religions were close to the nature religions
and the journeys of the Shamans to other worlds.
In the case of the Celts, priests lived closer to death in a different
way.
A porridge made of beans was served to the priests, and the person
who received the burnt bean was sacrificed to God.
And it was the priest himself who was the performer behind the
divine mask.
THE PRIEST:
All this talk about what happens to me being theatre when I put
the mask on is just irreligious and sacrilegious propaganda. As
a priest, when I turn my flesh and blood into a God, what happens
is a miracle, and whoever doesn't believe that is a heathen who
deserves nothing less than death.
(Puts on the Lug mask)
LUG:
Humans in the ring of holy stones that surrounds me, it is God's
voice that speaks to you.
Fall down on your knees and clasp your hands.
God himself will now nominate the worthiest one among you to be
sacrificed like the Old Year.
This sacrifice must be made so that the new year can be born.
He whose shadow matches the shadow of the stone when the sun is
at its lowest ebb will be the bearer of all the old year's misfortune
and must die.
Clasp your hands so tightly that they cannot be taken apart.
There is the one chosen of God!
Kill him before he can release his fingers and defend himself!
Cleave open his skull so that I can drink to the new year with
his blood!
Skull!
Happy New Year!
PERFORMER:
In the ancient Nordic sagas of the Gods, aspects of the religions
of many Indo-European immigrants were woven together with the
nature religions and shamanism of the Laplanders.
The Shamans were succeeded by priests and Kings, who altered religion
for the sake of power and to better suit their purposes. The religion
of the immigrant farm workers was mixed with the myths of the
hunters to form a new teaching which applied to everyone.
However, there are still literary accounts of the way in which
the God Odin sacrificed himself, hanging from a tree, which was
the Shaman's method of entering into the Land of the Dead and
the Underworld, to then return with the drink which would give
life to all things.
Perhaps it's the final remnants of a theatrical play, meant for
the priest who played the part of God at the midwinter blood sacrifice.
Then the Christian Jesus entered into the old theatrical proceedings
about going down to the Underworld. The tree became a cross, and
the resurrection became a promise, by Kings and priests, that
made people willing to offer their lives in servitude and war.
The Land of the Dead became the fearful Hell, and the Lord of
the Underworld was no longer the God who came bearing life and
the Spring.
Odin and the other heathen gods of the Underworld were transformed
into the Devil and Satan, who were evoked merely by uttering a
simple, everyday swear word.
Heathen celebrations and carnivals ended up as quiet festivals
and processions in the christian calender.
With the help of the Christian church, the Star singer's play
replaced Odin's wild hunt at the the death of the old year and
the birth of the new one. But Judas still wore Odin's black mask
and inside-out fur coat.
(lifts up Odin's mask)
But to this very day, there are still people living in the North
who have witnessed the god Odin, the phantom king, at the head
of a noisy band of followers clad in inside-out fur coats, enter
out into the midwinter night between the old and the new year
to bear with him the newborn year, the sun and the Spring.
HEATHEN SON:
(with Odin's mask in his hand)
What I do is forbidden. I am damned by the priest and my soul
forever lost, but I am still going to do it in exactly the same
way as my father and my forefathers:
I turn my fur coat inside-out, put on the old one-eyed mask, and
am transformed!
I get up on my horse, which in turn mounts the mare who is on
heat, so that it turns into one single horse with eight legs,
Odin's horse! And I ride the horse in the direction of the sun,
around the burial place, and wake the dead!
(does as he has said, puts on Odin's mask and is transformed)
ODIN:
Prepare the finest spread in the cottages! Here I come, with the
phantom guests!
Offer your food and your drink to he who reigns over death and
life, or I'll ride around the cottage against the sun and take
you all down to the Underworld!
HEATHEN SON:
(looks out from behind the Odin mask)
Now what?
The cottage is full of christian star boy, who are eating my sacrificial
food and drinking my schnaps.
But if they believe in God and the good Christ, then the priests
will also have taught them to fear the Devil.
I'll put on my mask and frighten them so that they'll never bear
a star again!
(puts on the Odin mask with determination)
ODIN:
(roars and makes noises)
PERFORMER:
With that scene from a recent but vanished reality, we have almost
arrived at the present day.
But before we finish, this mask and this costume would like to
say something.
(puts on Arlequin mask and Arlequin costume)
ARLEQUIN:
I must confess that after having lay on the floor like an empty
costume and mask and watched what has happened in this rhapsodic
exposition of the passing of time, I realise that I was wrong
when last I stood here before you, the audience, as Arlequin,
and claimed that Arlequin was the King of the Land of the Dead
and Prince of the Abyss!
Arlequin is just a little name that humans have given me as the
Prince of the Abyss I am.
For I am also Odin, Lug, Satan, Dionysos, Osiris, Marduk and Shiva.
(puts on mask after mask)
As a matter of fact, I have as many names and masks, as there
are religions among people.
And everywhere, in all religions, the priests and Kings have stolen
my mask, so that they can use my name when they steal the food,
the drink and the riches that the people have sacrificed to me!
But the day will come when I shall rise up from the Underworld,
and force my way into reality, by stealing a mask from the humans,
and I will take everything back, and more besides!
(puts on the electronic mask)
PRINCE OF DARKNESS:
(comes forwards in the skull mask from within the electronic mask)
Returned from the virtual cyberspace that is now man's universe,
after a long journey beyond the frontiers in the hitch hiker's
guide to the galaxy, I lift the electronic mask from my burnt-out
eyes and tell of what I saw while I could still see.
Over the Internet, I can reach the largest audience an actor has
ever had.
And what I have seen and what I have learned during my journey
to the other world gives me the power to destroy those who do
not listen to me and obey me. Their brains will wither along with
their computers, when my virus programme infiltrates and wipes
out the reality that is experienced as being their own!
It is I who am the ruler of the Land of the Dead, and when I now
enter the Net, at hyperspeed, like a horde of all the ancient,
power-hungry Gods, there are no codes and no fire walls that can
keep me out.
Both the known and the secret computer riches of all national
and international trusts are automatically transferred in a nanosecond,
several seconds ago, to a world far beyond the understanding of
mortals.
Death's hand takes power in its grasp, and wherever dominion's
henchmen discover what they have lost, they die by their own hands.
The most well-informed and the most intelligent died a long time
ago. The idiots remain seated before their empty screens, where
I now tell them how best to find the Land of the Dead, to which
all their money and power have disappeared.
They are all there now, looking.
Dead people aren't good at looking for things they have lost.
They will never find life.
I am the only living thing left.
Ruler over an eternal death and a little life.
THE END
© PER SIMON EDSTRÖM, September 10th, 1995
Translated from Swedish by Andrew Bowden