The Jeweler's Shop
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The Jeweler's Shop (subtitled "A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama")(Polish:Przed sklepem jubilera) is a three-act play, written by the late Pope John Paul II in 1960, that looks at three couples as their lives become intertwined and mingled with one another.
The play looks at humanity's ideas and expectations of romantic love and marriage. It is a truthful and animated look at the way people are when in love and their motivations for entering into couplehood.
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[edit] The play
[edit] Act 1 - Signals
Andrew and Teresa are a young couple that have been friends for many years. Recently they have become closer and finally find themselves at the jeweler's shop looking for, and finally buying, wedding rings which unite and bind them in marriage.
[edit] Act 2 - The Bridegroom
Stefan and Anna are a couple in a troubled marriage where love does not seem to exist. Their lives are filled with emptiness and disillusionment. Anna meets a stranger at the jeweler's shop, as she tries to sell her wedding ring, and opens her heart to him. However, the stranger reminds her of the Parable of the Ten Virgins and tells her to keep her lamp burning for the bridegroom.
[edit] Act 3 - The Children
Christopher (son of Andrew and Teresa) and Monica (daughter of Stefan and Anna) fall deeply in love and both reflect on the lives of their parents and how this has skewed their personal views of love and marriage.
Andrew has died in the war, leaving Christopher to fear the pain of losing love. Monica is afraid that marriage will not last because of her parents' troubled marriage.
