“The scene is the kitchen of that Inn in Bethlehem... On a low stool before the fire sits a small, coarse woman...”
It turns out that not everyone is pleased with the birth of a child in a manger in Bethlehem, and the more wondrous the events around the birth, the more skeptical the reaction. A cynical shepherd is angry when a servant girl brings news of the birth of a mystical child in the stable, now filled with people coming to pay homage.
This short play is included in the collection Thornton Wilder's Playlets: Short, Short Plays for 3-5 Persons.
Wilder's two Christmas Interludes were composed in 1916. Interlude I was published for the first time in 2009. Interlude II appeared in the Oberlin Literary Magazine in December 1916, and was reprinted soon after in an anthology of Oberlin Verse, Wilder’s first appearance in an anthology.