ACT I

In Canaan around 65 CE, fisherman Alchazai awakens from a disturbing prophetic dream involving his friend Barabbas, a knife, and a swaddled body. When the bundle is opened, it contains a codfish. Alchazai explains that he caught the fish in the Sea of Galilee and believes it to be Jesus Christ returned to Earth.

Alchazai has assembled an unlikely company to carry the supposed Messiah to Jerusalem: his skeptical wife Ishtariah; their very young son, Shem; Rahab, a prostitute who claims to converse with the Cod; Barabbas, Alchazai’s sailor friend and former member of a criminal band; Hachamorai, an elderly Samaritan scribe whose memory is failing; and Gechal, the boat’s preternaturally capable captain.

As the voyage begins, the group debates its route and the dangers ahead. Alchazai insists that their mission is divinely appointed, while Ishtariah fears that her husband has mistaken obsession for revelation. Their son Shem understands the journey as a “work trip” and imagines himself as a little tiger bound for Jerusalem.

ACT II

Days into the voyage, the travelers settle into an uneasy domestic rhythm. Rahab cheats Shem at cards, flirts with Barabbas, and privately confides in the Cod. Barabbas reveals fragments of his violent past, while Rahab wonders whether his tenderness can be trusted.

Ishtariah admits that she initially believed Alchazai’s story, but increasingly fears he has built an entire mission around a lie. Rahab, meanwhile, believes the Cod speaks to her and asks Ishtariah whether she is truly free.

Above deck, Alchazai and Barabbas discuss faith, change, and their shared history. Their theological reflections are interrupted by Hachamorai and Gechal performing an old song beneath the moon. The play’s biblical world continues to collide with contemporary language, objects, and cultural references, creating a universe where sacred history, memory, and theatrical invention coexist.

ACT III

Hachamorai’s failing memory deepens. In conversation with his daughter Ishtariah, he reveals that he believes himself to have inspired the parable of the Good Samaritan and recalls the persecution that followed his marriage to her Jewish mother. His stories are comic, painful, and increasingly uncertain.

At a communal dinner, the travelers praise Alchazai for returning their Savior. Celebration erupts into music and dancing, but the revelry ends when Rahab accidentally knocks over the Cod’s bucket. The fish is exposed, flopping helplessly on deck.

Ishtariah finally explodes. She condemns the company for praising her husband while ignoring her, and accuses Alchazai of using faith to justify his failures as a husband and father.

A pirate then boards the ship, seeking the “king” rumored to be aboard. When the intruder threatens Rahab, Hachamorai attacks and brutally kills him. Soon afterward, a storm rises, and a mysterious man appears walking on the water. Alchazai believes him to be Christ and steps onto the sea to follow him, only for the figure to disappear beneath the waves.

Unable to retrieve the vanished man, Alchazai concludes that God requires a sacrifice. In an echo of Abraham and Isaac, he throws Shem overboard as living bait. Beneath the water, the Cod finds the child, and their contact releases a vast, visionary tableau of suffering, history, memory, and atonement. The fish returns Shem safely to the surface.

ACT IV

The following morning, Ishtariah learns what Alchazai has done and is horrified. Alchazai insists that his faith was rewarded because Shem survived, but the others struggle to reconcile the miracle with the recklessness that produced it.

Convinced that enemies are waiting for them near Nazareth, Alchazai changes course. The company sails down the Jordan toward Jericho, guarding the Cod at all times. Relationships continue to shift: Rahab and Barabbas finally act on their attraction, Shem finds surrogate parents among the crew, and Alchazai becomes increasingly controlling in his determination to complete the mission.

ACT V

The voyage down the Jordan becomes an ordeal of heat, hunger, thirst, and collective delirium. Miraculous loaves fall from the sky, the Cod’s water appears to turn to wine, and the travelers hallucinate a land of milk and honey.

During a dreamlike night beneath the stars, Shem encounters the Man on the Water. Rather than giving the boy a grand theological answer, the Man speaks to him gently about courage, love, the North Star, and the responsibility of the young to protect those they love. The encounter affirms Shem’s innocence while complicating the adults’ conviction that revelation belongs primarily to them.

The company awakens in Jericho, where they are met by an aggressively cheerful guide named Byron. They abandon the boat and begin the final journey through the desert toward Jerusalem.

ACT VI

On their last night together, Alchazai transforms bread and the Cod’s water into a sacred communal meal, interpreting their journey as the foundation of a new covenant and a “New Canaan.” That night, Barabbas appears to stab the sleeping Cod, but it is revealed that he has instead killed Byron, having discovered that their supposed guide intended to betray them and sell the fish.

The travelers finally arrive in Jerusalem expecting triumph, clarity, and recognition. Instead, they encounter a labyrinth of gates, clerks, schedules, officials, repeated names, and maddening bureaucracy. After surviving the sea, the river, pirates, starvation, betrayal, and their own collapsing certainty, they reach a temple representative and present the Messiah.

The official assumes that Shem is the promised figure. Alchazai corrects him: the Messiah is the fish.

The man laughs—until he realizes that no one else is laughing. He looks at the Cod, at the pilgrims who have sacrificed everything to bring it there, and finally out at the audience.

The play ends suspended between revelation and absurdity: perhaps the travelers have delivered God to Jerusalem, perhaps they have constructed a religion around an ordinary fish, or perhaps faith has never depended upon anyone being able to tell the difference.

CASTING

Cod is written for an ensemble of eight performers:

• Three male performers

• Three female performers

• One performer of any gender

• One child performer

The performer playing Ha’ish al Ha-Mayim portrays the Man on the Water and the many additional characters encountered throughout the pilgrimage, including pirates, contacts, gatekeepers, officials, and other manifestations.

The role of Shem is written as a very young child but may be played by a child performer, an adult performer, or through another intentionally theatrical convention. The production should prioritize the character’s innocence and clarity rather than strict realism.

HISTORY

Cod began development in 2024 at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT under the supervision of dramaturg, Shelley Graham. The play is available for developmental readings, workshops, dramaturgical collaboration, and future production consideration.

NATHAN HOLLEY (PLAYWRIGHT)