On a Sunday morning,
like so many other Sunday mornings, when millions across the world
go to church, Allgood, an ordinary man, goes to HELL.
Terror grips hold of Allgood. A terror that
would take him into the realms of torments played over and over like a
broken record. Imagine a drug addict desperately searching for
another sniff, another injection, or another pill. Never going
cold turkey, never losing the urge, but never realizing that there are
absolutely no drugs in this Domain. Imagine Hell.
Even in the lighter moments of the play,
when Sister Fal.C.Fier questions why she is in hell for nothing more
than lying. The realization of her torment comes to surface.
Now she must finally admit that from a religious standpoint, lying is
SIN, and from a social standpoint, lying is CRIMINAL.
If for a moment one thinks that at some
point the torment that is hell will be over for these lost souls, it is
not. Satan clarifies that when he says: “Forever, do you know how
long forever is…and if your human intelligence could even fathom how
long forever is, you would not have imagined a fraction of a fraction of
a fraction of forever. Because just when you think FOREVER is
over, it starts all over again.” And for Allgood, FOREVER is too
timeless to spend in this place.
Even in this place of unspeakable
sorrow, Allgood’s faith in God is unwavering, and when asked by Satan,
to deny God, Allgood, boldly replies, “I don’t know why I am here, but I
know that God loves me with an everlasting love.” Allgood’s
steadfastness in holding onto that, which he has spent his life
believing in, connects the audience to Allgood’s pain and causes each to
draw their own conclusion thorough their own lives’ eye as to why he is
there.
Amidst the torment, there is a ray of hope that shines through the
story, that maybe, just maybe, Allgood needs to go through this.
If not for himself, then for that man, woman, or child, standing on
the threshold of good or evil, right or wrong, life or death.
Maybe Allgood’s story is a lesson in life, but more so a lesson in
Eternity.