This piece is an Easter drama, slightly lighter in tone than the others. It can do pretty well, though, if you get actors who are willing to get into their roles and be dramatic. It won't play well at all as a "skit", with people reading their lines from a print-out, so please, be kind to me and only put this on if you have people who can act.

But their words seemed to them like nonsense

an Easter drama

Mary Magdalene: Peter, John, let me in, you won't believe what I've seen!

Peter: Come in—quick—shut the door—they could be watching—did you come home by a different way like I said, Mary—

Mary: Peter, it's all right, everything's all right, he's ALIVE!

Peter (in pure astonishment): WHAT??

John: What's this about, Mary? Tell me exactly what you saw.

M (catching her breath): The tomb was open, it was empty, there were men—two men—at the tomb—dressed in white—they knew who we were looking for—they said he was gone—they said we mustn't look for the living among the dead—they said—

J: Mary, calm down. Who were these men? Did they tell you who they were, where they came from...

M: Don't you understand? They were ANGELS!

P (rounds on her, suspicious) : Angels? Angels? Mary! How do you know?

M (upset): He's alive, alive, don't you people understand what I'm telling you?

J (calmly, soothing): It's all right, Mary, it's all right. We just need a minute, all right? Will you excuse us a moment? (in a slightly lower voice, as if to Peter privately) What do you think, Peter? I think it's the stress.

P (with feverish certainty): No. No. It's not. She really saw something.

J: What?

P: Men in white... Like she said... Tell me John—who can open a tomb? The people who closed it, that's who. It's a trap. They're using the women to flush us out of hiding—

J: Like that? Aren't there—easier ways?

P (almost shouting): John, it's not FUNNY!

J: I'm serious, Peter. They've got people everywhere. If all they were waiting for was to know where we are, they'd have arrested us yesterday. This is Rome we're talking about.

P (with a shudder): I know.

M : What are you two talking about in there?

P: We—

M (calm now, and quietly angry): Do you really think I don't know an angel when I see one? After all this time with—him? Do you really think the other women and I—got drunk, or—hysterical? And all saw the same thing? I know what I have seen. Listen to me: the stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. The soldiers are gone. There were two men in white who shone like the sun. They said he had risen from the dead—like he said he would. They said we should go tell his disciples and Peter that he was alive and going ahead of us all into Galilee, and we should all go join him there...

P (in shock; looked up sharply at the mention of his name): Me? They said to tell me? His disciples—and—me? (He says the last words slowly, puzzled and worried, trying to figure out if this phrasing implies he's not a disciple anymore.)

M: Yes.

P: Are you sure? Are you sure he—I mean, they said—he—wants to see me?

M: They said all of us, Peter, we should all go.

P: Did they say where he is now? Are they still there, Mary?

J: Peter—

P: If there's even a chance—even a chance—

M (joy beginning to rise in her voice again): They said Galilee, Peter—but they were still there when we left—they might be—

Peter rises and runs out of the room, slamming the door behind him. There is a moment (about 3 sec.) of silence.

J: Mary—

M (with dignity and pain): John, I saw them. I am telling the truth.

J: Mary, he's dead. You were there—I was there—they put a spear through him at the end...

M: Don't you remember what he said? That the Son of Man would suffer—and be put to death—and rise again... We had no idea what he was talking about. We thought it was a—metaphor...

J: That? You think that—meant—but Mary, how can it...

M: He did it for Lazarus, didn't he?

J: But—when he did that—he was—alive...

M (quietly): And God, John? Is God alive?

John rises slowly, and stands silent for a long moment, his face motionless. He turns slowly toward the door and begins to walk toward it as though in his sleep. He opens it, and breaks into a run.

Mary takes a long, deep breath and lets out a shuddering sigh (in a deeply moved, joyful way) and finally smiles. (Or use whatever way of expressing joy you like best.) She says, or shouts, or whispers: He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. Then she follows John out the door.