THE ROOSTER’S GOSPEL (IN PROGRESS)

BY THANOS TOKAKIS

1994.
Η συγκέντρωση γονέων στην αυλή ενός πανάκριβου ιδιωτικού σχολείου, όπου τα χαμόγελα ανταλλάσσονται με την αύρα του νεόπλουτου, καταστρέφεται από μια ξαφνική καταιγίδα.
Και όταν δεν υπάρχει αρκετός χώρος για όλους κάτω από το υπόστεγο, οι φιλοφρονήσεις δίνουν τη θέση τους στις βρισιές.
Ο ήλιος ξαναβγαίνει, και τότε όλα ξεχνιούνται πολύ γρήγορα.
Σαν να μη συνέβη ποτέ τίποτα.

Chapter 1. Of the Father.

In a classroom. The father praises his son once again, confirming his title of good boy. Because of a student who is not feeling well, 10-year-old John is about to take on the role of Jesus at the school’s Easter celebration – instead of the one of the rooster – which starts in a few minutes. The father, a teacher and coordinator of the celebration, secretly celebrates this development as he covets the recently vacant position of headmaster.

Chapter 2. Of the Son.

But when Ioannis takes off his sneakers and walks barefoot onto the stage, it seems that his well-hidden concern has finally paid off. Fungi is raging on his feet and the smell does not go unnoticed by the sensitive audience – quite the opposite. After some desperate attempts of over-zealousness to reverse the situation which ends in a fiasco, Ioannis embarrassingly locks himself in the toilet. As a confessor he listens to the father trying to get him out, he confesses in a skillfully paternalistic manner that he gave an expired cheese pie to the disciple Jesus, and when the astonished John timidly expresses his objection to this act, the curses begin to ring out all the way to the stage. The coup de grace is given by his beloved depressed mother who comes to tempt him with croissants when she fatalistically defends man’s weakness in the face of God’s will. To the stench of our feet. Ioannis realizes he has no choice.

Chapter 3. Of the Spirit.

The show is about to start again and the annoyed audience, munching on junk food, takes their seats for the final scene of the crucifixion. But at the time of their Savior’s death, instead of “Telestes”, they hear Ioannis cackling with all the strength of his soul. The crowd is now offended, showing itself ready to avenge the Son and the Father. All is interrupted when the new school superintendent, Mrs. Zacharopoulou, who, as an apostle of a new order of things, interjects with a fiery gospel discourse, praising the newly enlightened New Age of prosperity, dividing the world into believers and unbelievers. The excited crowd stands up and sings our national anthem. The fruits of which they will reap 20 years later.