ENGELTEUFEL

This is a one-act, two scenes pseudoplay (meant to be read, not seen on stage or screen) about a reluctant Antichrist who must die to save the world from thermonuclear annihilation. The act takes place in the jury room of the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Nine senior judges constitute the jury. A death sentence is required to avoid World War III. However, no matter how much the defendant's life story is scrutinized, they cannot find him guilty, there is no proper evidence. Yet they must reach a unanimous verdict because of the unbearable international pressure especially from the superpowers. They manipulate the accused to make him plead guilty and they actually offer him permission to choose his mode of execution. He finally chooses public crucifixion. The sentence is carried out yet the play ends on a true note of hope. This is an original literary work written in 1985, first published in 2007, republished in 2018.