Author’s note: This short re-telling was developed when I had the wonderful pleasure of being part of a Purim celebration at Brooklyn Bowl with the Phish cover band Uncle Ebenezer and a group of actors from The Rock and Roll Playhouse. A sold-out crowd of 300 plus folks (kudos to Mike and Wendi at Because Jewish!) danced along to the story and watched four costumed actors pantomiming the parts of the King, Vashti, Esther, Haman, and Mordecai.

In the city of Shushan in Ancient Persia long, long, ago…

There was a king who liked to party

He and his men would eat, drink, and dance all morning, all day, and especially all night!

His name was King Achasverosh.

One night he said:

“Bring Queen Vashti to my party! She should dance for us!”

And Queen Vashti said:

“I don’t want to dance for you and your men!”  

And the King said:

“you are no fun! I need a new queen”

And Queen Vashti was happy to go live somewhere far, far, away.

Everyone in the Kingdom heard about the contest to be the new Queen.

Esther was a young Jewish woman and she was very poor. She was an orphan. Her Uncle Mordecai said to her – Esther, you could enter the contest!

Esther went to the palace in Shushan. There were hundreds of young women from all over the Kingdom.  But the workers chose Esther to be one of the finalists.

They sprayed her with perfume and gave her beautiful clothes to wear and she lived with the other young women in the palace.

One day Uncle Mordecai was walking through the city. One of the King’s advisors, Haman, was also walking through the city. Haman walked around like he was very important. He was important, he worked for the King! When Haman saw Mordecai, he said:

“Bow down to me!”

But Mordecai did not bow down.

Again Haman said “Bow down to me!”

Mordecai said “I am a Jew – I don’t bow down to people – I only bow down to the Kadosh Baruch Hu! The Holy Blessed One!”

Meanwhile back at the palace, the King who liked to party was brought a different woman each night.

But when he met Esther, his heart was drawn to her. He took out a golden crown and placed it on her head! And then he said – we must have a special dinner for you! Let’s plan a banquet!

The King did not know that Esther was Jewish.

One day as King Achashverous was deciding what to order for the banquet, one of his advisors came in and he was angry. It was Haman!

“I don’t like them!” Haman said.

“They don’t belong here!”

The King said: “Why are you yelling?”

Haman said: “I will stop yelling if you sign this law!”

The King said “o.k.” and he signed the law. A law that said that there would be no more Jews allowed in the kingdom.

No more Jews? Mordecai and all the Jews of the Kingdom were afraid. Could they run away and find another kingdom to live in? This was terrible! Mordecai went to the gates of the palace so he could talk to Esther and tell her about Haman’s evil plan. Esther said – pray for me!

The night of Esther’s banquet had arrived!

The great hall was filled with beautifully dressed people! And guess who was also at the banquet?

Haman!

Esther was not happy.

King Achashverosh said:

“This is a banquet! You should be happy!”

But Esther was not happy.

The King said: “I will give you half of all my Kingdom to make you happy!”

And Esther said: “Give me my life! I am a Jewish woman, and there is a man who wants to get rid of me and my uncle, and my cousins, and all the Jewish people in the Kingdom!”

The King said – Who is this man? And Esther said – it is Haman!

The King was going to make a parade for Haman but now he had different plans. Instead, he said, we should have a parade for Mordecai! Let’s have a parade and have Mordecai ride on a horse!

And all was good for the Jewish people who lived in Persia and there was happiness and light!