"The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heaven." (John Milton – “Paradise Lost” 1667)
This site is for year two students of the Bachelor of Creative Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology. It is a collection of material, links etc relating to themes of the play.
Morningstar is the story of the first War in Heaven leading to the split of the angelic host and the eventual appearance of Lucifer as “The Morningstar”.
Morningstar begins one year (four seasons) exactly after the creation of Earth (Eden). Lucifer has not been in Heaven since the first day of creation and has now returned to the other arch-angels as they celebrate the anniversary of their master’s greatest deed a year ago.
Lucifer questions why none of the angels are allowed to walk upon Eden? Why does man have the power to pro-create? Why does God seemingly love Man more than he does the Host? The fact that he’s questioning ‘at all’ causes distance between he and some of his brothers and sisters.
Michael and Uriel insist that Lucifer stop with his questions especially when they discover that Lucifer has bought fruit from Eden into Heaven and even worse he is having sexual relations with one of the lesser angels Jophiel.
So begins their rift with Raphael, Jophiel and Gabriel siding with Lucifer. Eventually Michael and Uriel are forced to make an example of Lucifer tearing his wings from his body before casting him into Eden where he seems to 'want' to belong.
Lucifer survives being cast from Heaven and returns to inform Jophiel and Gabriel of his survival; however Jophiel is about to be imprisoned by Michael. Lucifer comes to her aid, but Jophiel is accidently killed by Uriel. Michael allows Lucifer to leave but assures him they are now at war. Raphael the healer refuses to choose sides and stays neutral to both his brother's war-mongering.
Lucifer and Michael gather their armies to them, till eventually they meet on the Elysium fields. Though Michael's army is vastly superior in numbers to Lucifer's, it is completely routed and forced to withdraw behind the walls of Heaven.
Lucifer and Gabriel are celebrating their victory when Gabriel discovers that Lucifer is torturing Raphael and forcing him to choose sides. Gabriel falls out with Lucifer and entreaties Michael to end this wasteful war. But Michael and Uriel are not interested. They kill her hoping that it will draw Lucifer into making the rash decision of attacking the walls where they are sure his army will be defeated.
Meanwhile a guilt-ridden Lucifer confesses the real motivation behind his deeds to the tortured and imprisoned Raphael. He reveals how God asked him to split the host in the hopes that he would force Michael to leave Heaven and create Hell. This way Man could have free-will and those who chose chaos above law would spend eternity in Hell.
Lucifer is horrified when he discovers Gabriel's death. He attacks Uriel and kills him. Michael tries to come to Uriel's aid but is defeated by Lucifer. Lucifer however chooses to go against their father's word and not cast Michael from Heaven. Instead he takes his followers from Heaven to appear in the skies above Eden before the dawn where Lucifer assesses all that he has lost and calls to his lost love Gabriel...
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