the drama of the kingdom
DESCRIPTION
The Drama of the Kingdom is a poetic expression of a play created and outlined by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1913.TRANSCRIPT
THE DRAMA OF THE KINGDOM
The Drama of the Kingdom is a poetic expression
of a play created and outlined by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Dr. Gregory T. Lawton
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The Drama of the Kingdom, Copyright 2013 Dr. Gregory T. Lawton All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from Dr. Gregory T. Lawton. Cover Photograph – Copied from www.bahaullah.org Illustration and Design – Dr. Gregory T. Lawton
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'Abdu'l-Bahá
On December 5th, 1912, the day of his departure from
New York and North America, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, gave his
departure speech on board the steamship Celtic. On
December 13th, 1912 the White Star Liner S.S. Celtic
docked at Liverpool, Great Britain.
It was during 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s second visit to Great Britain that he attended his first theatre, Alice Buckton’s mystery play Eager Heart, and saw its performance at Church House, Westminster on December 22nd, 1912. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was very moved by this play and after its performance he visited with the actors and shared with them the events which accompany the appearance of a Manifestation of God. On January 17th, 1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá told Gabrielle Enthoven that, “I will give you a play. It shall be called the Drama of the Kingdom.” 'Abdu'l-Bahá later provided Mrs. Enthoven with an outline of the play that included some of the dialogue, but Mrs. Enthoven did not write the play. Instead she gave the outline to Mary (Blomfield) Basil Hall who wrote the play and had it published by Weardale Press Unlimited in 1933. In the intervening years dating from the creation of this play there have been several theatrical presentations of the play. This book is a poetic expression whose influence was taken directly from the outline provided by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and cited in the appendix of H.M. Balyuzi’s Book entitled, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Centre of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh published by George Ronald in 1971.
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Foreword
While recently re-reading H.M. Balyuzi’s majestic book
entitled, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Centre of the Covenant of
Bahá’u’lláh I ‘discovered’ the story of, and the outline for
'Abdu'l-Bahá’s play, The Drama of the Kingdom, and I was
moved to write some lines of poetry around the central
scenes and dialog as dictated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 1913.
I purposely did not read the play as it was later written and
completed by Mary (Blomfield) Basil Hall nor have I ever
seen an enactment of the play.
I have preferred instead to investigate the poetic
opportunities created by 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s original outline
without any influence from other writers or sources.
Since first writing the rough draft version of this poem I
have heard from Baha’i friends that the play that was
written and enacted was quite elaborate and extensive. In
my poetic expression of 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s I wanted to
embrace the concept of “fewness of words” and to allow
the poem and the rhyme to speak for themselves.
Additionally, as I wrote the various lines of the poem I
heard different voices speaking the lines out loud and so I
used different meter and tempo for the different stanzas.
I hope that the reader enjoys this humble effort.
Dr. Gregory T. Lawton, 2013
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Dedication
I dedicate this work to my dear daughter Jaime
Manfra and to her sincere efforts as a herald of the
Faith to champion the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and to my
new Bahá’i friend Randi Aniaz, who wanted more…
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“In that day shall the LORD of hosts
be for a crown of glory,
and for a diadem of beauty,
unto the residue of his people…”
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About the author -
Dr. Gregory T. Lawton is an author of
many books, most of them in the area
of health science, but also in the genre
of Asian martial arts, philosophy,
poetry, and prose. Dr. Lawton is a
passionate award winning artist and
photographer who finds his artistic and
creative inspiration in nature, and who
frequently attributes the source of his
images and writing to the 19th century
Persian Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, the
founder of the Baha’i Faith, and the
13th century Persian poet and Sufi
Mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī.
Dr. Lawton has been a member of the
Baha’i Faith since 1970 and embraces
the Faith’s principles related to the
promotion of world unity and peace.