Anton Chekhov, I was delighted to learn, had outlined a play based on Ecclesiastes in a notebook (c. 1892). Would that it had been written. A fragment, packed with allusions to the book, concentrates on the theme of darkness:

Solomon (alone) ‘Oh, how dark life is. No night during the days of my childhood has ever terrified me so much with its darkness, as has my incomprehensible existence. My God, you gave my father David only the gift to combine words and sounds, to sing and to praise you on a harp, to weep sweetly, to make others weep and to enjoy beauty, but why have you given me also a pining spirit and hungry thoughts which cannot sleep [5:12; 8:16]. Like an insect, born from dust [3:20–1; 12:7], I hide in darkness, in despair, trembling all over and growing cold with terror [12:3, 5]. I see an incomprehensible mystery in everything [3:10–11, passim]. Why does this morning exist? Why does the sun rise from behind the temple and gild the palm? Why are my wives so beautiful? [cf. 2:8, 11] Where does this bird hurry, what is the purpose of its flight, if it itself, its nestlings, and that place where it is hurrying must turn into dust, as I must? Oh, better not to have been born or to be a stone, to which God gave neither eyes nor thoughts [6:3–5; cf. 4:2–3]. To exhaust my body for the night, I spent all day yesterday like a simple worker, carrying marble to the temple, but now night has come and I cannot sleep [5:12; 8:16] … I will lie down once more. Forzes told me that if you imagine a running flock of sheep and think of it incessantly, your mind will get confused and fall asleep. I will do this …’ (He goes away.)

Then again, I can see why Chekhov never took the concept further. It is interesting that some biblical scholars recommend thinking of Ecclesiastes as a one-man play, though.

The citation comes from a 1968 study of the fragment by Peter Rossbacher. I copy it as cited in Eric Christianson’s Ecclesiastes Through the Ages, p. 68. Christianson highlights the biblical references in brackets.