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Dr. McGrath-A Play
- Abstract
Dr. Charles McGrath’s study. At stage right is the Doctor’s desk, which looks like that of a business executive. An easy chair for visitors faces it at an angle to the audience, so that anybody sitting in it can be seen three-quarters face. Very far to stage left is a closed door. The back wall is lined with bookcases, containing, on the right, darkly bound theological works and, to the left, contemporary books, mostly with their dust jackets on. On top of these bookcases leaning against the wall, are photographs of energetic modern divines whom Dr. McGrath admires and old prints of leaders of the Reformation. The wall on the left is bare, but has a window toward the front of the stage. The glass of this window is broken, as if a stone had been thrown through it.
Dr. McGrath is sitting at his desk, with an open Bible before him. He is a powerful-looking man in his forties, but nervous and evidently suffering from some severe tension.
McGrath (to himself, reading from Matthew XXIV). “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
“But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come (he looks up toward the door) he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. (He looks toward the window.)
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh”—
A knock at the door. McGrath looks up startled.
McGrath. Yes?
A Servant enters. He is a slim, pale young man with a pointed beard.
The Servant. There’s a Mr. Duquesne to see you, Doctor.
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