Description

Dr. David Livingstone, monumental missionary to Africa is on trial.

In the courtroom scene Livingstone’s faith, courage and missionary heart is debated.

Cast:    10

• Dr Livingstone
• Clerk
• Judge Benjamin Bryant
• Defender Barrington
• Prosecutor
• Dr Bart
• Stanley, reporter newsman
• Persons 1, 2 & 3

Bible Reference:    Matthew 28:16

Set:      courtroom

Lighting:        standard

  Sound:     wireless mics if available

Song:     none

SFX: none

Costumes:      time approrpriate

Props:      none

Special Instructions:   none

  Time:     30

Sample of script:

Clerk: All rise. May the court come to order? Fifth District Court, Judge Benjamin Bryant presiding. You may be seated. It is the case of History versus David Livingstone.

Judge: Who will represent the defendant?

Defense: Counsel Barrington, sir, I will be pleased to represent my client. And may I open by asking that all charges against my client be quashed, your Honor?

Prosecutor: I object your Honor! The charges stand. The defendant is clearly guilty of crimes against both his own and his adopted countries and guilty of crimes against humanity itself.

Judge: Will you two leave your wrangling and posturing aside at least until the case is officially underway. Now then, counsel for the defense, I see no rationale for quashing the charges, the trial will begin. Dr. Livingstone, I presume? I must say, I always wanted to say that.

Livingstone: I can think of no reason why. Never did Stanley actually utter those words, they were manufactured by overzealous media types.

Judge: So you say. Regardless, let us move on. Prosecutor, state the charges you will bring against the defendant.

Prosecutor: Improperly conducting your duties as an official of the Court of England.

Livingstone: I beg your pardon, in March 1858 I was officially appointed Her Majesty’s Consul for the East Coast of Africa.

Prosecutor: True, and in 1864 you were ordered home by a British government disappointed by the results of your explorations.

Livingstone: They did not understand! They looked simply at the results of finding the source of the Nile, they relegated to unimportant the knowledge we were gaining of the greater African continent and, more than all else, the fact that our primary reason for existence was in spreading the knowledge of the salvation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prosecutor: Your Honor, Dr. Livingstone used his popularity with the Royal Geographical Society and with the British public for his own ends, did you not sir? This was not your only political appointment was it Dr. Livingstone?

Defender: Your Honor, we object! The reference which the Prosecution appears to be making is to my client’s appointment as British Consul to Central Africa in 1865. May it please the court to note that this appointment was made to my client without salary or benefit?

Judge: It is so noted. I would ask that the prosecution proceed, but with caution.

Prosecution: We will show, your Honor, how this man has displayed great failings throughout his life. The prosecution calls Dr. Henry Barts to the witness stand.

Clerk: Dr. Henry Barts to the witness stand. (comes to the front) State your name please.

Bart: Dr. Henry Theodore Bart.

Prosecutor: Dr. Bart, tell the court, what was your position in 1840?

Bart: I was the Chief Examiner at the University of Glasgow.

Prosecutor: Do you know the defendant?

Bart: I certainly do. Young David Livingstone was one of the many candidates whom I examined for compatibility for medical certification.

Prosecutor: And was there anything of note in David Livingstone’s examination before you?

Bart: Indeed there was. I nearly recommended that Mr. Livingstone not be granted his medical degree.

Prosecutor: Interesting! And, Dr. Bart, tell the court if you will, on what basis did you consider withholding Mr. Livingstone’s degree?

Bart: As I recall, at issue was the use of unacceptable technology.

Prosecutor: No further questions of the witness, you may step down Dr. Bart.

Defense: Not so fast. Would you tell the court what was the source of this, . . unacceptable technology?

Bart: New, untested technology.

Defense: Specifically what new technology?

Bart: Well, it was an instrument which was theoretically able to detect symptoms within the patients body.

Defense: Was it not a stethoscope which Dr. Livingstone was using, and to which you took exception?

Bart: We must be careful not to . . .

Judge: The witness will answer the question.

Bart: Yes. Yes, it was a stethoscope. And later in Africa this man used a new contraption, unapproved and untested, a thermometer to measure his own body temperature.

Judge: You may step down. (Bart leaves the stand) May I ask the prosecution if they have further witnesses of this . . .this, caliber, and if so does the prosecution realize that this court has more to do than listen to this form of rubbish?

Prosecutor: Your Honor, I had no idea that it was a stethoscope . . . . I will be quick in bringing the further charges against the defendant Your Honor.

Judge: That would be more than appreciated.

Prosecutor: The people will illustrate the unfitness of the defendant in numerous instances. In training to be a missionary the defendant stood up to preach his first sermon, took fright and bolted out of the church. In Africa, Dr. Livingstone, I shudder at the thought, put live maggots into a wound in his arm.

Livingstone: I had been mauled by a lion, the injury eventually resulting in the permanent loss of use of my right arm. But, out in the middle of the desert, I had no other options, and to do nothing was to sound my death knell.

Prosecutor: Your Honor, this man put his own wife and family in peril while taking them across the Kalahari desert, not securing their water supply which drained out in the parched desert sand. All accounts tell of his total lack of leadership skills, resulting in discord and quarrels among those under his leadership. On several occasions this man was actually assisted by the very slave traders whom he states he abhors. As a British consul he was seen as an embarrassment to his country. Why he even tackled a 2,500 mile journey to Bombay in a river boat with a crew of three white men, (two of whom became sick and the third mutinous), and seven Africans who prior to volunteering had never seen the sea. Is it a wonder, your Honor that this man, who made riches untold from his writings and lectures, died a pauper? Your Honor, the prosecution rests it’s case. The man is incompetent!

Defender: Your Honor, may we respond to the charges leveled against this man by saying that neither Dr. Livingstone, nor most human beings, are without failings. The Judge of all takes issues such as that into account, we are convinced. But here before us is a man who, as a missionary and physician, spent half his life exploring southern and central Africa. Those who knew him would now wish to speak on his behalf.