A Question for the Ages

Imagine (or maybe you don’t have to imagine) that you’re doing your job. A job that you’ve done well for years. A job that you went to school to learn and have toiled at until you are at the pinnacle of your profession. You take pride in your work, in the little details that raise your work from the mundane to the sublime. Sure, the boss might not appreciate those details, but they make you happy. Happy, that is, until you’re told that you’re being replaced by new technology and by someone younger who’s familiar with said new technology. How far would you go to keep your job?

photo credit: Evan Michael Woods

It’s a question as old as time. Or at least as old as 728 BCE. (Remember this. It’s important.)

Every summer, Fort Worth’s Amphibian Stage hosts SparkFest, a festival of staged readings, acting competitions, workshops, lectures, and performances of new plays. It’s a celebration of all things theater, and it’s fantastic if you haven’t been.

Stay with me. I know this seems like article whiplash, but I promise it will all make sense soon.

Last summer, New York-based playwright Harley Elias debuted a staged reading of his play The Handless King at SparkFest ’23. (Staged readings are a way for playwrights to see how an audience reacts to their in-development play.) The Handless King tells the story of an Assyrian eunuch scribe whose job is to record the events of a battle for his king in cuneiform on clay tablets.

An Assyrian eunuch scribe?? I know, I know. Stay with me.

This scribe has worked his whole life to perfect his cuneiform. It’s the writing of the gods, after all. And while he works, counting up bodies on the battlefield, he dreams of writing his beautiful cuneiform for something else, something without purpose — something like… poetry. Yes, in between cross-referencing hacked-off body parts, our scribe invents poetry.

And then, one day, our scribe learns his beloved cuneiform is being replaced by something called Aramaic, and he is being replaced by a younger scribe who knows Aramaic.

Sound familiar now?

photo credit: Evan Michael Woods

After its staged reading at SparkFest, Elias’ The Handless King is now on stage at Amphibian Stage through August 18. The dark (and I mean DARK) comedy explores technological advancements, workplace ethics, the nature of the ruling and the ruled, and ultimately, friendship. I was fortunate enough to see it on Friday night.

Patrick Bynane plays the world-weary Ubru, who writes his poems (without purpose!) as he sifts through arms and legs on a Mesopotamian battlefield. Parker Gray is Dilgan, the young scribe who revels in the technological shift from cuneiform tablets to Aramaic on leather and dreams of revolution. (Bynane and Gray reprise their roles from the SparkFest staged reading.) Ahmad Kamal is the Administrator who, like all administrators, never lets you know exactly where his sympathies lie.

The play is perfectly paced, with Bynane and Gray handling both the comedic and tragic elements of the script with ease. Gray, in particular, is a gifted comedic actor, while Bynane can evoke a host of emotions with a simple lift of an eyebrow and twist of the mouth. And Kamal is just greasy enough that you never quite believe what his bureaucrat is saying.

Image © Trustees of the British Museum

Elias was inspired to write The Handless King after he saw a relief carving on an Assyrian stele from 728 BCE. (I told you to remember it!) The carving depicts two scribes, one writing in cuneiform on a clay tablet while the other writes in Aramaic on a piece of leather or papyrus. A chance viewing of an ancient carving led to a play with very modern overtones. “Having The Handless King in SparkFest was a utopic theater moment for me and is the reason this play exists,” Elias said. “The incredible direction of Jay Duffer, the artistic vision of Kathleen Culebro, and the cast and crew lifted this play up and made it what it is now. It’s a dream come true to bring it to life in a production at Amphibian and get to continue the work with Jay. It feels like the play is coming home.”

The Handless King runs through August 18 at Amphibian Stage. Please note that the play contains cursing, references to violence, stage blood, and brief partial nudity. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://amphibianstage.com/shows/the-handless-king/