12+  Your William Shakespeare crafted clever lines with hidden meanings, like, "All the world's a stage." It's as if he had insight into my five-act play on my pet subject, humanity.

Act One (The Exposition): Earth is a Garden of Eden. An unremarkable troop of apes descends from the trees and totters about on two legs, foraging on the African savannah. 

They squabble over berries, carrion and water holes, and many are maimed and killed by predators with sharper claws and teeth than the primitive, weaponless apes. 

I could intervene, like the black monolith "dawn of man" moment in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I let them evolve naturally. 

Over time, small bands of proto-humans exit the savannah stage, followed eventually by Homo sapiens, migrating north, east and west to populate the planet. It's a long, dangerous journey, but at least they don't have to worry about razor-topped walls, armed border guards and detention centres.

Act Two (Rising Action): Fast-forward to the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient civilisations. Humanity is beyond tottering and foraging, building vast empires and structures for succeeding generations to marvel at and replicate. 

I take fatherly pride in your progress. But I'm displeased by the worship of multiple gods and vent my anger by unleashing earthquakes, floods, fires, famines, and plagues. And by favouring one side over the other in your never-ending conflicts.

I hear shouting from the stalls, "YOU SHOULDN'T INTERFERE!" But I want humanity to pray and believe, as Bob Dylan will one day sing, "If God's on our side, he'll stop the next war."

Act Three (The Climax): In my less-than-humble opinion, the Renaissance and Enlightenment are humanity's high points after your descent into the Dark Ages. Art, science, technology, engineering, and culture flourish in enquiring minds. Best of all, monotheistic religion is now centre stage, with peasants and kings worshipping Yahweh, God, or Allah. (Surprise, we're the same supreme entity!)

Given humanity's record for backsliding, it's tempting to cut the last acts and enact the End Times. However, I share the stubbornness of all great artists and writers. Imagine Leo Tolstoy's reaction to an editor's suggestion he should cut a few chapters from War and Peace! 

Act Four (Falling Action): I expected more from humanity after the Enlightenment. More what? Devotion, creativity, humanity? Not more wars, with ideological zealots and strong men claiming to be my "chosen ones". Or philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche asserting, "God is dead." Or worse still, secular hipsters declaring, "There is no God!"

Omnipotence and humility are mutually exclusive, so I shrink from admitting this, but I was wrong. I should have written a three-act play and dealt with humanity earlier, like the dimwit dinosaurs.

Act Five (The Denouement): Being omniscient, I knew the outcome from the opening act. I am benevolent and could intercede and jolt humanity into action. However, you're destroying what's left of the Garden of Eden without my help. 

So, I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable. But the stage is yours.

© 2024 Robert Fairhead

Thanks to Siggy Nowak for sharing the image of the amphitheatre on Pixabay.

I wrote A Five-Act Play on Humanity for the October 2024 Furious Fiction, run by the Australian Writers' Centre. The brief was your story must:

• Take place in some kind of THEATRE.
• Include somebody SHOUTING.
• Contain the words UNCOMFORTABLE, RECORD and SHRINK.

Under the heading "All the World's a Stage", the Writers' Centre further explained:

This month, we're asking you to set your story in a specific location — a theatre! The word literally means a "place for viewing" — making it ideal for telling a visual story for your reader. 

As soon as I read "All the World's a Stage", I thought of Shakespeare's immortal line and how the world could be the literal theatre or "place for viewing" in my story. In that case, I needed an omnipotent playwright and director and a structure for the play/story. 

A traditional three-act play with a beginning, middle and end seemed too short, even for a 500-word Furious Fiction story. Then I read about five-act plays on the MasterClass website and knew I had my stage, narrator, characters, structure and story!

I enjoyed spending the weekend writing A Five-Act Play on Humanity and was pleased to learn the Furious Fiction judges longlisted it for October. 

I tried expanding it for another writing competition, where the stories could be between 1500 and 3000 words. However, partway into the rewrite, I realised that the extra words diluted the story and its message. So, instead, I made a few post-Furious Fiction edits (as I always do with my stories), respecting the original brief and word count limit, before sharing it on Tall And True.

I hope you like A Five-Act Play on Humanity. Remember, if it makes you feel uncomfortable, the stage is ours!

N.B. You might like to read another of my recently longlisted Furious Fiction stories, The Good Sport from July 2024.