Where drama turns into comedy and comedy de-dramatizes life.

Kane and Habil are not just literary/biblical characters enacting the first world drama; they are still present as models for our families and communities relationships.  We all are Kane and Habil, we all carry the stigmas of their actions and of their punishment, and we keep repeating their behaviors and their mistakes.

How could we escape this preordained scenario?

“Kane and Habil at the Pizza Parlor” depicts in its historical context the first family and its dynamics. It is an attempt to deconstruct the original story of the Legacy of Kane, and to reconstructs it through a narrative that allows different outcomes.

This work, by playwright Serge Ernandez, combines both absurd and realist situations with epic and naturalist acting. It revisits the original protagonists and rewrites them in a way that allows different outcomes.

Anthropologists affirm that civilization started in Africa; therefore, in “Kane and Habil at the Pizza Parlor” the First Family is an African black family. Mystics from different creeds maintain that Eve didn’t encounter a snake, but rather a white fallen Angel stricken by her beauty. They assert that from this union, Eve had 2 white children, Kane and his twin sister Lebuda, and from her union with the African Adam, she had 2 black children, Habil and his twin sister Quelmina.  Adam the absent father, is too busy naming the things of this world to raise his kids.  Eve populates the world, and enjoys doing so. Kane is jealous of his brother, incestuous with his sister and eager to own everything.  Lebuda’s clock is ticking and she is determined to have a child with Habil regardless of Kane’s resentment. Habil is a poet vain and naive. The Assistant to IT, the Creator, is a benevolent guide, but not a strong father figure. The Chorus clarifies the situation and brings wisdom to all, but the protagonists are left to their free will. 

With humor and tolerance “Kane and Habil” explores “The Original Family Sins” that are still impacting our civilization.   The Chorus sings with rhythms evolving from early African civilization to contemporary African-American music.   

“Kane and Habil at the Pizza Parlor” is a comedy. A comedy where we laugh often and easily, as we must laugh at ourselves time to time and self-reflect so we can evolve.  This may appear serious, but objects, and ourselves too, are easily distorted in the rear mirror, especially when the mirror is a text.

While Adam and Eve were “made” by an invisible hand, Kane and Habil were the first born human beings, and guess what?  Kane killed his brother Habil.  Right there, at the very foundation of humanity, our ancestor commits a fratricide crime.  This crime has since rolled over, gigantically magnified under the form of ideological, political, ethnic, racial or gender genocides. We are still mimicking the first narrative. We are still under the code of “The Legacy of Kane”.

The arts are contaminated by images perpetuating “The Legacy of Kane”. Its most representative speaker, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch,  passionately studied the six major attributes of “The Legacy of Kane”, "Love", "Property", "State", "War", "Work", and "Death" through a series of novels that includes “ Venus in fur” circa 1870.

The celebrated Living Theatre endorsed in 1970, for a decade, the exploration of the themes of “The Legacy of Kane” and staged “The Money Tower” , ”Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism”  and “Turning the Earth” a series of plays that denounced all forms of violence and provoked  the audience to look for solutions.

 I had the privilege to perform in these plays during the Living Theatre tour in Italy, and to experience firsthand the power of the theater at the service of collective and individual alchemical transformation.

 Today, I can see that the omnipresence of “The Legacy of Kane” in our environment has reached a saturation level that will ineluctably lead to a collective suicide or to world dictatorship. 

In order to survive, humanity needs to change its models and to enter “The Legacy of Habil”, where we take charge and free ourselves from oppressive myths by developing new stories presenting personal/collective compassion and forgiveness via non-violent ways of being.

My intention is to deconstruct the original story of Kane and to reconstruct it in a narrative that allows a different outcome. “Kane and Habil at the Pizza Parlor” aims at freeing humanity from guilt and aggression and enabling it instead to love.  It seeks to replace the Cycle of Kane - Hatred, Judgment and Separation - with the “Cycle of Habil” - Compassion, Forgiveness and Oneness.  It is a bold attempt.

 “Kane and Habil at the Pizza Parlor” stages “The Legacy of Kane” against “The Legacy of Habil”.  Compassion and Forgiveness replace Jealousy and Greed. The play presents a new model that could transform the world’s first drama into a world of peace.

“Kane & Habil” explores with humor and vision “The Original Family Sins” that are still impacting our civilization. 

Serge Ernandez, Playwright

Education:

Universite de Toulouse , Toulouse, France. M.A. in French Literature.

Institut des Sciences Politiques, Toulouse, France. B.A.

U.V.M, Burlington ,VT. Pre-med program.

N.E.S.A: Diplomat in Acupuncture

Acting

The Living Theater, acted in the “Money Tower” and in “Seven Meditation on Political Sado-Masochism” and contributed to the creative process as a member of the company, during the Italian tour.

Writing

Screenplays:  

• “Standing Together", is the story of a young promiscuous woman who marries a Latin man to settle down and built a family. When they learn that the baby has HIV, the cycle of blame, fear and rejection separate them from each other and from their community. To break her isolation, she decides to make the best of what is left in her life, to rekindle her marriage and regain her place in her town.

• “Angelica’s Planet” is the story of a young girl who saves the world from total destruction. The goddess Earth is angry at pollution, and at the anti-matter spill falling from space that will destroy the gods themselves. She sets a trial of Love, Wisdom and Courage.  Angelica wins, and saves also her father, General Dan, who fights for the same cause.  The planet is cleaned, the gods are appeased.

• “E-Love” is the story of John Doe a 26 year-old man, who looks for love in a world of fear, conceit and lust. Bobby, his friend from the NSA entices him to join his cynical vision of love and sex, while Mohi his Moroccan friend suggests him to make peace with his inner child to start loving himself. Once this is done, John is less needy; he stands for his opinions and finds love.

Treatment:

• “Marie Jeanne of Haiti”, happening in 1791 Haiti, is the story of a young mulatto woman who can pass for either white or black. Her first failed love with a French colonialist triggers her enrollment in the only successful slave revolution, and later on in the civil war for independence from France. She will claim her heritage by becoming a traditional Voodoo Priestess, and assist her country to victory.

Teleplay:

• ”Days Over”, is a teleplay adaptation of the screenplay “Standing Together” with more outdoors scenes and a happy ending.

Stage Plays: 

• “E-Love” is a stage play adaptation of the screenplay. It has more dramatic intensity, is less entertaining than its companion screenplay due to the stage limitations.

• “Kane & Habil at the Pizza Parlor” is a contemporary tragicomedy about Abel and Cain, where Eve borderlines onto a woman’s lib character and It (a modern version of God) is benevolent and non judgmental. Abel is black, and Cain white.  A Chorus of contemporary musicians and its leader are the liaison between the drama and the audience. The play is a pacifist resolution of a classical drama.