Presented in sequential order
N Narrator
And when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour... And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The Bible, Revelation 8:1 and 8:6
[cut to Crusader Antonius Block, resting near crashing waves on the beach; silence abruptly descends, and a black-robed man with an unnaturally white face appears]
Who are you?
Death I am Death.
Death I have walked at your side for a long time now.
Death Are you prepared?
My body is afraid, but I am not.
[Death approaches Block]
Wait a moment.
Death You all say that. But I give no respite.
You play chess, do you not?
Death How do you know that?
I've seen it in paintings, heard it in the songs.
Death I really am a rather skilful chess player.
Even so, you can't be more skilful than me.
Death Why do you want to play chess with me?
Death You are right about that.
My condition is that I may live as long as I resist you. If I checkmate you, you set me free.
[to decide who begins, Block hides a white and black piece in each hand, Death chooses the hand that has the black piece]
Black for you!
Death It becomes me well.
[Block goes to confess at a confessional alcove in a church]
I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is empty, and the emptiness a mirror facing me. I see myself and am filled with loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out from their company. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner of my dreams and fantasies.
P Priest
Yet you do not want to die.
Priest/Death [as Block looks away, we see now that the "priest" is actually Death]
What are you waiting for?
Priest/Death You want guarantees.
[Block kneels as if praying to the figure of Jesus]
Is it so awfully unthinkable to conceive of God with one's senses? Why should He conceal Himself in a fog of half-spoken promises and unseen miracles? How are we to believe the believers when we don't believe ourselves? What will become of us who want to believe but cannot? And what of those who neither will nor can believe? Why can I not kill God within me? Why does He go on living within me in a painful, humiliating way, though I curse Him and want to tear Him out of my heart? Why does He remain a treacherous reality of which I cannot rid myself? Do you hear me?
Priest/Death I hear you.
[Block turns to kneel before the priest behind the confessional screen]
I want knowledge. Not belief. Not supposition. But knowledge. I want God to reach out to me, unveil His face, speak to me.
Priest/Death But He is silent.
I cry to Him in the darkness, but sometimes it is as if there is no one there.
Priest/Death Perhaps there is no one there.
Then life is a senseless horror. No man can live with Death before his eyes and the knowledge that all is nothing.
Priest/Death Most people reflect neither upon Death nor nothingness.
Yet they must one day stand at the last shore of life and look into the Darkness.
Priest/Death Yes, that day.
[laughs bitterly]
I see what you mean. We must make an idol of our fear, and that idol we shall call God.
Priest/Death You are uneasy.
Death visited me this morning. We are playing chess. This respite enables me to perform a vital errand.
Priest/Death What errand?
My whole life has been coming and going and talking without point or consequence. It has been nothing. I say it without bitterness or self-reproach, for I know that almost all men's lives are made up just like that. But I want to use my respite for one meaningful deed.
Priest/Death Ah. So this is why you play chess with Death.
He is a dangerous and skillful tactician, [smiling] but I have not yet lost one piece.
Priest/Death How will you outwit Death?
[smiling]
I am playing a a combination of bishop and knight that he has not yet detected. On my next move, I'll shatter his flank.
Death [the "priest" turns to face Block through the screen]
I shall remember that.
[Block stands up, startled]
You are a traitor and you have tricked me! But we shall meet again, and I'll find a way out.
Death We shall meet at the inn and continue our game.
S Skat
[Errant troupe member Jonas Skat, after escaping his amour Lisa and her angry husband Plog, hides in a tree; Death appears and begins to saw the tree]
Hey, you scurvy knave, what are you up to?
S Skat
[Death continues to saw without responding]
You might at least answer. Who are you?
Death I'm felling your tree. Your time is up.
S Skat
You can't. I haven't time.
Death Huh. You haven't time?
S Skat
No. I have my performance!
Death Cancelled, owing to Death.
Death Annulled.
Death For shame, Skat!
S Skat
Yes, I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed. [pauses] Is there no exemption for actors?
Death Not in your case.
[as soldiers prepare a scaffold for an accused witch, Block talks with the pale, thin girl]
They say you've had commerce with the devil.
Not out of curiosity, but for very personal reasons. I, too, want to meet him.
I want to ask him about God. He must know, he if anyone.
W Witch
You can see him any time you want.
W Witch
You must do as I say. Look into my eyes.
W Witch
[Block does so]
Well, what do you see? Do you see him?
I see a stiff terror in your eyes. Nothing else.
W Witch
No one? Nothing? No one?
W Witch
Is he not standing behind your back either?
[Block quickly turns, but sees nothing]
No. There is nothing there.
W Witch
But he is with me everywhere. If I stretch out my hand, I feel him. He is with me even now. The fire won't hurt me.
W Witch
I know it! I know it! You must see him somewhere, you must! The priests had no difficulty seeing him, nor the soldiers either. They are so afraid of him that they dare not even touch me.
[Block advances on the soldiers working on the scaffold]
Why have you broken her hands?
S Soldier
Ask the monk there.
[Block turns to address the monk]
What have you done to the girl?
Death [the monk turns to reveal himself as Death, once again]
Will you never stop asking questions?
Death But you get no answer.
