The Visit

Pre-nativity in Two Acts, written by well-known UK author James McNulty, is a wonderfully intense telling of Mary and Joseph, their trials and triumphs. Would be an excellent dinner theatre piece.

First produced at James Arnott Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, December 1998

Run-Time: 120 

Cast Number: 10+

View sample of the script.

Act 1: Autumn

Setting: Afternoon, Joseph and Maria’s dwelling. Joseph is working on a chair, fully absorbed in his task.

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(Maria's voice is heard from offstage, just as Joseph is about to hammer a nail.)

MARIA: (far offstage) Joseph?

JOSEPH: Hmm? (listens, then takes aim again)

MARIA: (offstage, nearer) Joseph?

JOSEPH: (trying not to be annoyed) I’m here. (pause) I’m here, my songbird! (takes aim again)

(Maria enters.)

MARIA: Joseph!

JOSEPH: (startled) Maria!

MARIA: You are still working on that chair?

JOSEPH: (wary) I cannot quite get it finished the way I want.

MARIA: You have spent too long indoors today. Again.

JOSEPH: I thought you were out.

MARIA: (cuddling up to him) Look, there was something happening in the village today. I know not what, but everyone is heading toward the temple this evening. Some with strange laughter, others with a grim aspect. It was a strange sight. I do not have the words for it. Joseph, have you heard what is happening?

JOSEPH: (returns to the chair) What would I know stuck in here? I could hear them on the road, but I know nothing. You went to market nevertheless?

MARIA: Me and Beth. Looking at cloth, Joseph. Looking at lots of wonderful white cloth.

JOSEPH: Maria, it is autumn! We are not married until next summer!

MARIA: These things must be arranged well in advance—and you never know when you will see such lovely white cloth again.

JOSEPH: Lots of white Roman cloth, no doubt.

MARIA: They make the best.

JOSEPH: Perhaps they also make good bandages. (indicates thumb)

MARIA: (taking his hand) Aw, are you hurt?

JOSEPH: (proudly) No, no. My hammer would not dare.

MARIA: You have been working hard, Joseph. You will finish it soon?

JOSEPH: That is my hope. It’s already taken me an age. I have not left our house in days, Maria, not even to attend to affairs at the temple. I hope your father likes it. That he thinks it a fair exchange for such a beauty.

(Maria examines the chair with a smirk.)

MARIA: (smirking) I am not sure. Is that line not curved?

JOSEPH: No.

MARIA: I think it is.

JOSEPH: I tell you, the line is perfect. Only I have touched it. I have hidden it from the apprentices and their meathooks, that their armpits do not defile the wood’s fragrance. Can you smell it? It is cedar—a blessed wood. And it is perfect, like you.

MARIA: Do not say such a thing.

JOSEPH: I mean what I say. Beyond rubies.

MARIA: Joseph, you have a tongue of silk.

JOSEPH: All the better for our wedding night, my dear.

MARIA: Joseph! My cousin would skin you for saying such a thing.

JOSEPH: In fact, it will be so perfect that I will take it and show it around Nazareth. (Picks up the chair and begins dancing with it.) Let everyone see its wonderful legs, its straight back… (pats her bottom) …its comfortable seat…

MARIA: Joseph!

JOSEPH: What? Can I not joke in my own house? Or will Beth skin me? Yes, her tongue could skin a cat. No wonder she is childless. When I delivered her some firewood last month, she—

MARIA: It is not funny.

JOSEPH: Forgive me. (Sits on the chair, absently rubbing it.) I forget myself sometimes.

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