The Race

there’s a man going around taking names
and he decides who to free and who to blame
everybody won’t be treated quite the same
there will be a golden ladder reaching down

when the man comes around

the hairs on your arm will stand up
at the terror in each sip
in each sup
will you partake the last offered cup?
or disappear into the potter’s ground

when the man comes around


(the light is gradually focused on the stage, three men are ready to run a race, and the faces are not visible)

Xy: who are you?
XY: I AM XY. I KNOW THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST AND THE NUMBER
IS HUGE NUMBER AND THE NUMBER IS SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY
SIX. Beware of him… He is everywhere. He is here too.
XY: WHO ARE YOU?
Xy: I am XY. Do you know what I do for a living? You
better not know. But in the process I learned to
survive.
XY and XY: Who are you?
xy: I am xy. Life is melancholy and unfair. The only thing
in life you know for sure is that life is unfair.

All of them repeat xy. We are xy. They hold each other’s hand and run, but do not move.

Anonymous: you will all reach together …..ha ha ha ha
(they all turn back…..)
Anonymous: you will all reach together….ha ha ha ha…
(they all ask together ‘So what Moron?” )
Anonymous: So what? What else the golden ladder….
The golden ladder that leads down

(they look at each other)
Anonymous: Don’t you know of the golden ladder? that’s
there at the end of it ….
(they all answer ‘no’…they ask “what is the this golden ladder?”)
Anonymous : the golden ladder takes you down, you get what
you want and you loose nothing. Everything is
for you and you are for everything. You will
want no more as there will be no want. you
will be you.
( they all ask : but who is you? We know only we…where did this you come form? What is it? What does it do? What does ‘You’ not do?
Anonymous: ‘You’ is ‘You’. (points at each one of them)
And when each one of you see ‘what is in it for
me? you will find you……
Anonymous: do you want the golden ladder?
to each of them, all of them say “yes”.-
( the anonymous disappears )
Anonymous: Believe me the answer is blowin in the wind
The answer my friend is blowin in the wind

xy: I do not want the golden ladder…. I do not want to
leave, and get the golden ladder. He could be the
beast. He is the beast do not believe him…
XY: WHY ARE YOU SCARED WE WILL ALSO COME WITH YOU… WE WILL
FIND THE GOLDEN LADDER. I CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING
Xy: we will see who will get the golden ladder first.
Life is unjust and you never know what to expect at
Any moment
xy: I don’t want the golden ladder….i am not going
anywhere. I will wait here. And why should we go to
get the golden ladder. We are happy ourselves. We do
not want anything. We have everything.
XY: I AM GOING FOR THE GOLDEN LADDER. I AM POSITIVE.
Xy: if I reach the golden ladder before you, I may get
more of ‘everything’. Remember he said, ‘everything is
for you and you are for everything’.
xy: but before you both go, can go there get me some
water… I am going nowhere. It never made any sense to
me. If everything is what everybody is going to get,
then we all can get it together. We can have
everything together. We All get the same wont we?
Will you get me some water.
(Both of them turn back to get water …)


xy: I found what is in it for me. I know who is ‘You’. Take
care you evil ones. I will reach the golden ladder
before you.
(xy starts running, leaving both of them behind, they also start running behind them. )
XY: THE RACE HAS BEGUN. THE RACE HAS BEGUN. INDEED THE
RACE HAS BEGUN.
XY: I will overtake him and you. I know where the ladder
is and I will not tell you.
XY: HEY PEOPLE JUST A MINUTE. YOU ARE ALL MORONS. YOU HAD
NO SENSE BEFORE AND YOU STILL SEEM TO HAVE NOTHING AT
ALL. WHO SAID THE GOLDEN LADDER IS THERE.….IT IS HERE.
NOW I WILL GET THE LADDER FIRST. HA HA HA HA
(xy and xy start running after him. They are all running)
XY: who said he is right we were running from the
Beginning there. We will get the ladder there
itself. I don’t want to run this way. I am sure you
will not get the ladder there.
He starts running in the original direction. Rest of then feel he is right and they start running behind him. he lets them overtake him. once they are ahead, he runs back in the previous direction. The other two still run in the original direction. Now there only two of them are on the stage and are running.
xy: can’t we stop for sometime, I am tired and I don’t see
any ladder
XY: even I am tired but we will not stop.
(they see a woman running along with them.)
they both stop and go to her…
xy: are you xy, whom we met in the beginning? Why do you
look different.
YY: no I am YY. And what are you?
(both of them together say we are ‘xy’)
XY: HEY DO YOU KNOW WHAT? I FEEL SOMETHING IN ME WHEN IS
SEE HER
xy: even I feel something when I see her. What is yy. Yy
is good.
XY: ARE YOU COMING FROM THE GOLDEN LADDER?
YY: what is the golden ladder?
xy: the golden ladder there at the end. There everything
is for and you are for everything. There is nothing
You want as there will be no want.
Yy: will you take me to the golden ladder?
XY: I WILL TAKE HER TO THE GOLDEN LADDER.
Xy: I told her about the golden ladder I will take her.
XY: I WILL TAKE HER.
xy: I will take her.
They both see that yy has already started running for the ladder…. They also start running behind her

(all of the characters now slowly appear on the screen….
All of them are running in a circle….)
xy: no way out. No way out. we are trapped
XY: IT IS A STATE OF TRANCE. ILLUSIONS EVERYWHERE. WHAT IS
THE REALITY. WHERE IS THE LIGHT.
XY: WE HAVE LOST EVERYTHING. NOTHING WAS OURS. NOTHING DID
WE GAIN. WHY DID WE DO THIS. WHY ARE WE STILL DOING
IT. CANT WE STOP?
(Anonymous is in the center and laughing…Ha ha ha ha ha)

xy: can’t we stop the race ? (to the audience)
XY: CAN’T WE STOP THIS FOR ONCE AND ALL?
(to the audience )
XY: Do we need to wait for someone to tell us? Can’t we
stop ourselves? (to the audience)


there’s a man going around taking names
and he decides who to free and who to blame
everybody won’t be treated quite the same
there will be a golden ladder reaching down

when the man comes around

the hairs on your arm will stand up
at the terror in each sip
in each sup
will you partake the last offered cup?
or disappear into the potter’s ground

when the man comes around

( “the man comes around" written and performed by johnny cash, under license from universal music enterprise )



(November 2, 2004)