Cast
Storyteller 1
Storyteller 2
Gregory
Ivan
Peasant Man
Peasant Woman
Gregory's Wife

(The Storytellers remain seated or standing throughout the performance, as the director chooses. The other actors sit until they make their "entrances," then they stand)

Storyteller 1: Once in Russia there lived two men who had decided to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of them was a well-to-do farmer named Ivan Petroff, who was short and had curly hair.

Storyteller 2: The other, Gregory Radinsky, was not so well off. He was tall and quite bald. The two men had taken a vow years before to go to the holy places together. Gregory longed especially to go to Bethlehem to see the site of Jesus' birth.

Storyteller 1: Ivan, however, could never spare the time. He always had some important business …