The Prodigal Son

<I>The Prodigal Son</I> is a trilogy of dramas ambitious as Sophocles' each of its own the first since Milton's Samson to attempt the scale and evocative power of ancient myth.</P>The Prodigal Son the first restates the Biblical parable in starkly contemporary fashion-the prodigal having dissipated seven years now diseased and the lone attendant in a house of prostitution attempts passage into his father's heart through a substitute Komos who possesses the youth and beauty he has squandered.</P>Esther the second enacts the Old Testament story with a geriatric Ahasuerus King of Persia and an Esther Queen heavy with child by Haman the very soul who has condemned her race to death.</P>Gethsemane the third captures the agony in the Garden an all too cynical eleven disciples and a Judas the Twelfth whose betrayal of his Master is couched in peculiar regret. The Guard in Command-These friends of yours are hardly bold./Strange as it might be/I'd trade your Judas for the pack of them./Woman that he was/he had the strength to betray you.</P>