Menetekel
A theatrical procession in the surroundings of Hergiswald near Lucerne
Based on La cena del Rey Baltasar [Beschazzar's Feast], an auto sacramental [Corpus Christi play] by Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1632)
Translated into dialect and combined with Hergiswald tales and modern hymns, reflecting the local church's symbolic ceiling
paintings by author Heinz Stalder.
Stage version and production: Louis Naef
Music: Reto Stadelmann
Performed from 7 June – 15 July 2006 in Hergiswald, Lucerne
Menetekel is about the never-ending fundamental conflict between belief and unbelief, sacrament and sacrilege, explained through the biblical story of King Belshazzar — ruler of the corrupt city of Babylon — and Prophet Daniel. At the story's climax the King misuses the sacred vessels that had been removed from the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, parodying the Last Supper and praising 'the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone'.
© Georg Anderhub
Instantly the disembodied fingers of a human hand appear and write the words mene mene tekel u-parsin
('Mene': God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; 'tekel': you have been weighed in the
balance and found wanting; 'parsin': your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Book of Daniel 5:26-28).
That very night King Belshazzar loses his life. Menetekel, known as the writing on the wall, has come to signify an omen of doom.
Forming part of a procession, the audience is led by the players from place to place, strolling through the story of Menetekel on an idyllic walk at the foot of mountain Pilatus.
Audio Sample
Menetekel
King Belshazzar's arrival with the wedding carriage
Belshazzar's enthronement