The Council
Tragedy, the besieged city
- Drama
- Scene for 4
- 3 min
- Female role
- Young adult
- Advanced
Casting
9 lines- LE ROI Male role, Senior
- CASSANDRE Female role, Young adult your role
- ÉTÉOCLE Male role, Young adult
- LA REINE Female role, Adult
Full text
(The council chamber. Far off, the murmur of a crowd.)
LE ROI
The gates will hold. The city held for ten years; it will hold one more day.
CASSANDRE
It will not last the night. I saw it burn, Father. While you were speaking.
ÉTÉOCLE
You always see something burning, sister. It’s your only prophecy.
CASSANDRE
And it has come true every time. That is exactly what you cannot forgive me.
LA REINE
Enough. You don’t bury a city with words. What do you propose, you who see everything?
CASSANDRE
To open the gates ourselves. What is offered is not plundered. What is torn away is burned.
LE ROI
Open the gates! You ask a king to surrender to his own fear.
CASSANDRE
I ask a father to save what can still be saved. The city is not what remains. You remain. They remain.
(A long silence. The king does not answer.)
CASSANDRE
Your silence, I know it too. It’s the one that comes before every ash.
What you can do with it
Original text written for Acto. Read it, print it, work on it in class, perform it at an audition or on a self-tape: that is what it is for, and you need no permission. For a public performance or any commercial use, write to us at contact@acto.re.