To Purge the House of Mammon

[Be Advised: This work contains depictions of physical violence, gore, and self-harm.]

To: Braydon.Overmeier@GFBD.com 8/09/25 10:27 AM

Hey Braydon,

just wanted to check in with you. You haven’t been returning my calls of late. I realize that it may have been hasty sending you to Dubai solo, but I really thought you were ready for this promotion.

I hope you reach out. I’m not saying this as a businessman; just as your friend.

I promise that I will make it up to you soon.

Sincerely,

Paul Duchard

To: Braydon.Overmeier@GFBD.com 8/15/25 1:43 PM

Dear Braydon,

I told you that I would make it up to you!

A short time ago, I was a part of the massive estate sale for recently deceased playwright Eliot Saunders (I know he’s your favorite!) in Rutherford, and came across something I knew you needed to have. I purchased it for you right away!

After combing through numerous playbills, props, and costumes from the playwright’s personal collection, I found it in a dilapidated hatbox: his unfinished production, previously mentioned in speculation only. As far as I am aware, this work as never been viewed by anyone other than Mr. Saunders himself!

Despite being in a protective jacket, the copy is severely damaged and has seemingly been burned. I am sending it to be restored and will deliver it to you as soon as it is finished. I have, however, sent you a scan of the more legible sections for you to peruse. I hope this makes up for things; whatever it is that’s upset you.

Now to put on my business hat. *groan*

From what our contact in Dubai has told me, you’re really killing it out there! I look forward to hearing good news about the upcoming acquisitions after I return from holiday next week. Keep up the good work.

Your business partner (and still your friend),

Paul Duchard

—-

**TO PURGE THE HOUSE OF MAMMON**

*by Eliot Saunders*

—-

**ACT I, SCENE 1 — THE GREED SUPPER**

*Setting: The precipice of the House of Mammon. The audience is already inside the “house,” looking up at VERONICA, who stands on a scaffold above stage right. A ladder descends from the scaffold to the stage. The ladder and scaffold represent a metaphorical point of no return.*

*At Rise: VERONICA is lit by a spotlight. The curtain is drawn.*

—-

**VERONICA**

Hello down there! My name is Veronica… (voice trails off, questioning) I got your call about a house cleaner… (voice trails off again)

**VERONICA**

My team and I are happy to take the job.

*(She walks along the scaffold toward the ladder, moving closer to the audience.)*

**VERONICA**

You see, I must inform you that this may take some time.

*(Tone changes to peppy.)*

**VERONICA**

But don’t fret! My team and I believe that purging a house can be both informative and fun!

*(She smiles, putting on white nylon gloves and plastic shoe covers.)*

**VERONICA**

Think of us as a mix between a church and a circus—our goal is to cleanse and amaze. We want to leave a lasting impression.

*(She begins descending the ladder.)*

**VERONICA**

Now, there are some steps to breaking this pattern to make way for a healthier routine.

**VERONICA**

The first one is showing you what we’re working with; to get a baseline and a point to work from. Let’s start our venture through your house—the House of Mammon.

*(The curtain opens. The stage is set with a large table reminiscent of *The Last Supper*. Members of the ensemble are seated facing downstage. Each has a place setting. The meal is family-style: large bowls of rancid food mixed with refuse, dividing the table in thirds.)*

**VERONICA**

Come on, come on; don’t be shy!

*(She beckons the audience forward with her hands as she walks downstage toward a set of stairs at the stage edge.)*

**VERONICA**

I need someone to volunteer to be part of a living art installation of sorts. Don’t worry—you’ll get a reward: your weight in freshly minted gold coins.

*(Hands raise all over the theater.)*

**VERONICA**

Wow! I had almost forgotten where we were visiting! Settle down, you little zealots.

*(She scans the audience, shading her eyes with her hand. She stops on one person and points.)*

**VERONICA**

YOU! You’re the winner of our little contest!

*(She descends the stairs into the house, takes the volunteer’s hand, and leads them to the stage. She seats them at an empty chair stage right.)*

**VERONICA**

Okay, now all you have to do is put this on.

*(She helps the volunteer into an apparatus—a straitjacket with “ALL MINE” painted in red haphazard letters on the front. Attached is a dental retractor holding the mouth open, connected to a cement-truck-like channel that runs offstage.)*

**VERONICA**

They did so well, didn’t they folks?

*(The audience claps.)*

**VERONICA**

The stage is set now. Look upon our scene and realize the horrors of greed—and of your house.

*(The ensemble begins chanting “Mine” repeatedly in a stable rhythm.)*

**VERONICA**

Oh, and here is your reward, dear.

*(Offstage, something is opened. A clamoring sound is heard. Gold coins begin to pour down the channel into the volunteer’s mouth. They struggle but cannot stop the flood, drowning in greed as the chanting grows louder and becomes a blood-curdling scream. Lights fade to black.)*

—-

**ACT II, SCENE 1 — THE BUTCHER’S DOMAIN**

*Setting: The workshop of THE BUTCHER. It resembles a meat-packing facility, but without proper equipment. The entire stage is a maze of tables and butcher blocks covered with implements. Center stage is a stainless-steel table with a roll of butcher paper. Meat hooks of assorted lengths hang from the fly. The effect is disturbing.*

*At Rise: The stage is dark. There is a metallic smell in the air. Slowly, the sound of wet compaction of flesh and shallow screams rises. A single spotlight fades up at low brightness, revealing THE BUTCHER at work. He faces away from the audience, bringing his cleaver down on a human arm.*

—-

**VERONICA**

My brother couldn’t escape it—not once he understood the truth behind it all.

*(THE BUTCHER turns to face the audience, stacking severed limbs on the table beside him. He plucks a human finger from the pile, cut at the knuckle, and slurps the meat from the digit like crab legs.)*

**VERONICA**

Evil isn’t born or made; it is released when the need is greatest.

*(THE BUTCHER wipes his hands with a cloth and tosses it onto the bare table.)*

**VERONICA**

When starvation—true hunger—strikes, these people who call themselves civilized will murder each other and gorge on the meat.

*(THE BUTCHER places a severed head on the table downstage in full view, embeds the cleaver into the skull, and exits stage left.)*

**VERONICA**

Evil can arise as the mind breaks and survival is on the line.

*(Screams are heard offstage. THE BUTCHER re-enters, dragging a bloodied man who is alive and struggling. He cries for help and pleads for mercy. THE BUTCHER lifts him onto a meat hook, catching at the shoulder. The man screams in agony as the hook rips deeper.)*

**VERONICA**

Here hangs a man to test his capacity for evil.

**VERONICA**

A man left alone to raise a young child, waiting for her father’s call to say he’s on the way home. How much evil is he willing to commit if it means he returns to his little one?

*(Audience members react. Devices embedded in the theater seats activate when someone leaves. This triggers a “culling” equal to the number who stood up.)*

**VERONICA**

Ahhh… (reacts to the sound of devices activating, looking at a screen showing the number to be culled.)

**VERONICA**

How many of YOU are willing to commit evil to survive?

*(THE BUTCHER dons a propane rig and flamethrower face cage. The audience performs their culling. Survivors return to their seats.)*

**VERONICA**

The need was great, and evil was given the opportunity to surface once again.

*(She raises her hands above her head.)*

**VERONICA**

New butchers are born from the instinct to survive.

*(She nods to THE BUTCHER.)*

**VERONICA**

Those unwilling to dirty their hands should be burned away like the chaff they are.

*(THE BUTCHER ignites the man on the hook. Silence, except for the crackling of flames and the man’s screams. Lights fade to black, leaving only firelight.)*

—-

**ACT II, SCENE 6 — THE COMING OF ANGELS**

*Setting: The stage remains as in the previous scene. The pool is at center stage, surrounded by chalk symbols drawn by the audience. Candles burn around the pool, wax dripping in ribbons and pooling on the floor.*

*At Rise: Dim lights come up. VERONICA stands in the center of the pool. Hanging from the fly are the volunteers from the previous scene, their blood draining through grafted tubes into the pool. SAUNDERS stands on the lowest step in front of the stage, clothed in a maroon robe.*

—-

**SAUNDERS**

The preparations are complete—the process in its final stages.

*(VERONICA submerges herself in the pool.)*

**SAUNDERS**

Art is the soul, and the souls are required.

*(He removes an onyx object from his robe pocket—a diamond-shaped rhombus covered in glowing runes, identical to the ones drawn on the stage.)*

**SAUNDERS**

The mind is required, and shattered they are offered.

**SAUNDERS**

The blood has been shed, bodies broken to do so. We do this in remembrance of Him… (voice trails off)

**SAUNDERS**

By baptism, the sins are laid taut to the surface. The vessel is made anew.

*(VERONICA rises slowly from the blood pool. Her eyes are entirely white, without iris or pupil. She begins to levitate, arms outstretched perpendicular to her body.)*

**SAUNDERS**

May this offering bring about The Purification and The Arrival.

*(The black diamond floats from SAUNDERS’ hands.)*

**SAUNDERS**

Do not forgive them, Father; they know what they have done. They have laid with Mammon, with the spirit of greed, and reveled in his perversion. Make clean your stage. Send the Dark Angel, The Bloodied One, as your absolution.

*(The rhombus flies into VERONICA’s chest with a wet, gurgling sound. Blood from the pool rises in thin streams, tendrils feeding into the diamond until the pool is emptied.)*

*(House lights turn blood-red. Hidden wall screens project flashing symbols in a strobe-like rhythm.)*

**SAUNDERS**

Claim your offering and open the way.

*(VERONICA’s joints pop and crack as her bones break, twisting unnaturally. She claws at her chest around the diamond, tearing herself open. The blood inside the rhombus spills outward, forming an 8’ x 8’ circle of writhing, pulsing blood. VERONICA hangs limp but alive, moaning in pleasure and pain. Voices whisper from the blood in an incomprehensible chant.)*

**SAUNDERS**

From art comes beauty, and beauty is pain.

*(He begins to chant these words. One by one, the cast joins in, forming a semicircle on stage. The audience joins in, becoming part of the cast.)*

—-

*(The seated cast rises, hands raised in supplication as the chanting continues into darkness.)*

```

ALL

The angel is coming. The door is open.

ALL

The angel is coming. The door is open.

ALL

The angel is coming. The door is open.

ALL

Our Lord is coming. Hear his wingbeats.

ALL

Kal’brau z’ey’k is here. Prepare for purity.

```

—-