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C H A R L E S &nbsp;&nbsp;L . &nbsp;&nbsp;M E E</span><br> <br> <br> <img src="../pix/redLine.gif" width="28" height="1"><br> <br> <br> <span class="subhead">MORNING</span><br> <br> The morning lights reveals:<br /> <br /> 30 antique clocks<br /> a couple of pinball machines<br /> a free standing gas station pump<br /> a life size puppet on strings<br /> it could be pinocchio<br /> two or three old cash registers<br /> some gigantic old cookie tins<br /> <br /> a pile of fresh lavender <br /> some sunflowers <br /> a glass of rose wine in the dawn light<br /> a carousel with little ponies<br /> several toy cars<br /> cicadas<br /> olive trees<br /> <br /> A little colorful rocking horse on wheels<br /> a golf bag<br /> a collage statue: a life-size figure of a man or a woman <br /> made of a long-handled hoe<br /> and a clothing iron for a head<br /> and arms of clothes hangars<br /> and legs of chairs and stools<br /> and feet of bricks<br /> and a torso of a fan and godknows what else<br /> <br /> a toy bus with an open top where a kid can sit<br /> a plastic pig with a pink saddle<br /> a sewing machine<br /> a wooden doorway lintel from an old house in Szechuan<br /> sailing ship models <br /> a TV set<br /> the black wooden torso of a pregnant African woman <br /> a puppet theatre <br /> a carousel with a half-dozen little cars (not horses)<br /> Buddha's head atop a waist-high Corinthian column with gold leaf<br /> posters of Pluto and Donald Duck<br /> a 17th century French landscape painting<br /> a baby carriage or two.<br /> <br /> Two people come out<br /> carrying lawn chairs<br /> set them down in front of the garage<br /> don't speak for a while<br /> and then <br /> talk:<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> When you look up in the sky<br /> you see<br /> the cumulous clouds drifting overhead&#8212;<br /> <br /> over there: <br /> <br /> 2 dogs chasing a deer<br /> <br /> a ghost of a witch chasing a pig<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> an astronaut, <br /> with one arm raised, <br /> sailing sideways through the sky<br /> <br /> a guy with a unicorn horn on top of his cap<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> it may seem random to those who don't understand <br /> how it is for the sky and the clouds<br /> but <br /> the cloud drifting through the sky<br /> that, too, is a destiny<br /> because there are laws<br /> governing the movement of <br /> clusters of moisture through the sky<br /> so the clouds are governed,<br /> as we are,<br /> by the laws of nature<br /> <br /> by the possibilities of their existence<br /> <br /> by the beginnings and middles and ends <br /> of the times they are passing through<br /> <br /> and, if we understood their existence,<br /> we might see that their stories make far more sense than our own<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> that they have a purposeful existence<br /> <br /> where we have just a series of random events we live through<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> superficial lives of pure ephemeral happenstance <br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> without meaning <br /> without significance<br /> without a point or even a reason for being,<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> you might as well listen to what the clouds have to say<br /> to one another about their lives<br /> if you want to know anything of any significance whatever<br /> about life<br /> or about the universe<br /> about life within a lifetime within the universe<br /> because when the witch's ghost that is chasing the pig<br /> cries out<br /> stop pig! stop pig!<br /> it could be that Aristotle never said anything more meaningful<br /> or profound about life than that<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> and when the pig says<br /> stand back! I have my life!<br /> You have no right to chase me!<br /> who can contradict him?<br /> on what grounds?<br /> on what set of philososphical principles<br /> more entitled to respect than what he himself has said<br /> coming from his own understanding of his own existence?<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> what would the cloud with the unicorn on his head say?<br /> Stand aside! I have the privileged position here!<br /> I am educated! I have read Goethe!<br /> I will tell you who is entitled to space in this universe<br /> and which life is worth living?<br /> Which life is lived in vain?<br /> Which life is as well forgotten for all the rest of eternity?<br /> No, says the astronaut!<br /> No, bark the dogs chasing the deer!<br /> No, says the deer!<br /> I am entitled to fame and immortality!<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> even as a shift in the breeze <br /> transforms me into nothingness!<br /> <br /> [At one side of the stage is a garage,<br /> wide enough for two cars,<br /> with a white door that opens by rolling up into the ceiling of the garage.<br /> <br /> And now<br /> the garage door opens.<br /> <br /> There are people inside the garage.<br /> They are having a party.<br /> And, when they notice that we see them,<br /> they all turn toward us and sing a passage from an opera.<br /> <br /> And, while they sing,<br /> someone toward the back of the garage,<br /> hidden from us by the crowd of singers,<br /> throws random stuff out the side window of the garage&#8212;<br /> cleaning up the garage for some reason.]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> [Part way through the singing,<br /> a solo dancer steps forward<br /> and begins to dance.]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> [And, then,<br /> a little further into the song,<br /> there is a parade of dresses&#8212;<br /> which is to say,<br /> three or four young women come out in beautiful dresses<br /> and show them off.]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> [And then,<br /> even a little further into the song,<br /> some young guys come out and strut their stuff, too.]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> And then, <br /> a hot young woman in a minidress&#8212;<br /> one of the women in the dress parade&#8212;<br /> opts out of the parade to sit at a table with a telephone,<br /> looking sexy and seductive,<br /> crossing one leg over the other and then switching crossed legs<br /> and switching again<br /> as the singing continues<br /> [or this whole performance could be done by one of the guys<br /> having a phone conversation]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> <br /> and finally she begins to speak into her cell phone:<br /> Hello<br /> Hello<br /> Hi<br /> Hello <br /> hi<br /> hello hello<br /> <br /> [she hangs up phone<br /> crosses her other leg<br /> then picks it up again]<br /> <br /> hello<br /> hello hello <br /> <br /> [hangs up<br /> crosses opposite leg]<br /> <br /> Hello<br /> Hello hello<br /> hello<br /> Hi<br /> hello hello<br /> <br /> [from time to time she says 'who is this?' or 'is this raimondo' <br /> or something of the sort <br /> but mostly she only says hello hello hello<br /> while the singing continues]<br /> <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera <br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> singing opera<br /> <br /> [And, finally,<br /> a pot of geraniums is brought out and set down on the table<br /> then a pot of plum flowers is brought out and set down on the table<br /> then another pot of flowers is brought out and set down on the table<br /> and another<br /> until the young woman on the phone has disappeared behind the flowers<br /> and the singing stops.<br /> <br /> A man is left standing awkwardly to one side.<br /> His name is Mandeville.<br /> He wears an extravagantly historical costume from the 14th century.<br /> Maybe he's been at a costume party?<br /> Does he have a beard?<br /> He speaks.]<br /> <br /> MANDEVILLE <br /> If you come from the west, <br /> from England or Ireland or Wales or Scotland or Norway, <br /> you may, <br /> if you choose, <br /> go through Almayne and through the kingdom of Hungary, <br /> and on to the land of Polayne, and Pannonia, <br /> and so to Silesia.<br /> <br /> And the King of Hungary is a great lord <br /> and rules a kingdom that stretches from Hungary to Sclavonia <br /> and Comania.<br /> And you pass through this kingdom<br /> to a city called Cypron, <br /> all the way at the end of Hungary. <br /> <br /> And then, in Greece there are a good many islands&#8212;<br /> as Calliste, Calcas, Oertige, Tesbria, Mynia, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, <br /> and Lemnos. <br /> And, toward the end of Macedonia, high hills<br /> the highest of all being the one called Olympus<br /> which is so high, it rises above the clouds.<br /> <br /> This is where the philosophers once spent some time.<br /> And they had to hold sponges to their noses<br /> because the air was so dry.<br /> And in the dust and powder of those hills, <br /> they wrote letters and figures with their fingers. <br /> And at the year's end they came again, <br /> and found the same letters and figures, <br /> that they had written in the dust the year before, <br /> undisturbed by wind or rain.<br /> <br /> From Greece<br /> one can go on to many different islands&#8212;<br /> and to the land of Lamary<br /> where it is the custom that men and women go all naked. <br /> And they scorn any strangers they see who are clothed. <br /> <br /> And in that country, too,<br /> there is a dreadful custom.<br /> They eat human flesh more happily than any other sort of flesh<br /> even though there is an abundance there<br /> of fish and corn and gold and silver.<br /> But merchants travel to that country<br /> and bring their children with them<br /> to sell them to the people there.<br /> And, if the children are fat,<br /> they are eaten right away.<br /> And if they are not fat,<br /> they are fed until they are fat,<br /> and then they're eaten.<br /> Because, they say, that's the best flesh<br /> and the sweetest in all the world.<br /> <br /> [HENRY is sitting at a caf&eacute; table.<br /> The waitress brings him an espresso.]<br /> <br /> BEATRICE (the waitress)<br /> How is it these days<br /> with everything going on&#8212;<br /> what we've gone through,<br /> where we've come from&#8212;<br /> how can people manage?<br /> <br /> HENRY <br /> Exactly.<br /> <br /> BEATRICE<br /> Such a landscape of chaos and confusion.<br /> Random stuff.<br /> Daily life.<br /> Things that happen you never planned on<br /> when you got up in the morning.<br /> Things you think have nothing to do with you<br /> and yet<br /> that's where you are<br /> that's where you live.<br /> that's the water you're swimming in.<br /> that's the woods you're wandering in.<br /> that's the conversation you're walking through.<br /> <br /> Sometimes in life<br /> you look for love<br /> but then<br /> with everything going on<br /> you think:<br /> How can anyone find their way? <br /> How do we get through our lives? <br /> Find our way to one another?<br /> <br /> HENRY<br /> Right.<br /> <br /> BEATRICE<br /> Right.<br /> <br /> HENRY<br /> Find our way to one another.<br /> <br /> [She turns and leaves.<br /> <br /> He drinks his coffee.]<br /> <br /> <span class="subhead">AFTERNOON</span><br /> <br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> Music.<br /> <br /> A guy rides in on a bike.<br /> He kicks his kickstand and parks the bike.<br /> Then he turns and leaves.<br /> In a moment he rides in on another bike,<br /> parks it,<br /> turns and leaves,<br /> carries in another bike,<br /> puts it down on the ground,<br /> goes off,<br /> comes back in carrying bike parts,<br /> goes off,<br /> comes back in carrying more parts,<br /> goes off,<br /> comes back in carrying a tool kit,<br /> goes off,<br /> comes back in carrying a sign that says:<br /> "going somewhere? <br /> we can fix it"<br /> and mounts his sign on the pile of ruined bikes.<br /> <br /> [Several people help drag in a wrecked car,<br /> a completely filthy, ruined car<br /> &#8212;maybe, to make it easier, a small car like a Chevrolet Aveo&#8212;<br /> with junk piled high on its roof and in its open trunk<br /> and under the raised front hood<br /> &#8212;thousands of pieces of household junk.<br /> <br /> a guy wanders in wearing a wet suit with suspenders holding a wash tub around his waist<br /> a shower over his head<br /> carrying a sandwich board saying: Don Quixote.]<br /> <br /> DON QUIXOTE<br /> Streets are one thing.<br /> That's simple enough.<br /> But they say that traffic circles<br /> were invented by this guy named Eugene Henard<br /> who was a French architect<br /> and he invented the traffic circle in 1877<br /> but, in fact, that's not true<br /> because if you read Dante's Divine Comedy<br /> you can see there<br /> like<br /> <br /> [as he speaks <br /> <br /> a clown comes in on his hands and knees barking like a dog<br /> <br /> a guy wearing a crown of flowers<br /> <br /> and a Comedie Francaise guy fencing by himself]<br /> <br /> DON QUIXOTE [continuing]<br /> a total design for traffic control<br /> including traffic circles<br /> and clover leafs, like the exits and entrances on superhighways<br /> because the circles of hell<br /> are like traffic circles<br /> but even more complicated<br /> because they are evaluating people's moral worth<br /> as well as their navigational abilities<br /> and driving skills<br /> and you can see people<br /> say, as they approach the seventh circle of hell<br /> they slow down<br /> just the way you do when you enter a traffic circle in Paris<br /> and then speed up<br /> and like veer around to the left and right<br /> and Dante knew all this<br /> like practically six hundred years before Eugene Henard<br /> and traffic circles will be with us probably forever<br /> because they really work<br /> and you can keep moving<br /> you don't have to stop<br /> and you don't even need to slow down always<br /> sometimes you can just keep going almost full speed<br /> and people know that they just have to get out of your way<br /> especially if you honk at them<br /> and flash your lights at the same time.<br /> <br /> [To one side, a guy juggles clubs and another guy juggles balls?<br /> <br /> an old guy in a superman costume slumped in a wheelchair<br /> accompanied by an old woman in a wonder woman costume with a walker<br /> <br /> someone hands out postcards for a fringe festival superman show<br /> <br /> while a guy sings a solo<br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings <br /> sings] <br /> <br /> MANDEVILLE <br /> Going by sea toward the south, <br /> is another great island called Dondun. <br /> In that island are folks of all kinds<br /> which is to say that the father eats the son, <br /> the son eats the father, <br /> the husband the wife, <br /> and the wife the husband. <br /> <br /> The king of this island is a great lord<br /> and has under his rule some fifty-four islands that give tribute to him. <br /> And in all the islands<br /> it might be said that there are folks of all kinds.<br /> <br /> In one of them are people of immense stature<br /> which is to say: giants.<br /> And they are, frankly, hideous in appearance.<br /> They have one eye in the middle of their foreheads<br /> and they eat nothing but raw fish and raw flesh.<br /> <br /> In another of the islands<br /> are people who go about on their hands and feet.<br /> They're all feathered<br /> and they will jump up lightly into the trees<br /> and from tree to tree, <br /> like squirrels or apes.<br /> <br /> In yet another of the islands are some people<br /> who have no heads.<br /> And their eyes are in their shoulders.<br /> <br /> Nearby, in another island,<br /> are some people who have upper lips that are so big<br /> that<br /> when they sleep in the sun<br /> they cover their faces with that lip.<br /> <br /> And then, in yet another island,<br /> are people who have feet the size of parasols<br /> so that, in the afternoon, <br /> when the sun is hot, <br /> they can lift one foot above their heads and so they can sit in the shade.<br /> <br /> And beyond these islands there is another island called Pytan. <br /> The people of that country do no work of any kind at all<br /> because they eat nothing.<br /> And so they don't need to work.<br /> They are very small.<br /> And they live by the smell of wild apples.<br /> And if they travel to some other place,<br /> they take the apples with them<br /> because if they lost the scent of the apples<br /> they would die.<br /> <br /> And then,<br /> beyond Pytan,<br /> you come to California,<br /> where some of the inhabitants have their heads in their stomachs<br /> so that they have intestines for brains.<br /> And in the streets<br /> they all go naked <br /> and the businessmen have their heads up their asses.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> You say they have intestines for brains.<br /> I've heard, too,<br /> that their entire diet is made up of tarte tatins.<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> Of what?<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> That they only eat tarte tatins<br /> for breakfast, lunch and dinner.<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> I'd do that, too, if I could.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> You could.<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> My doctor wouldn't let me.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> Your doctor!<br /> What does he have to do with it?<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> I would eat tarte tatins<br /> and drink Chateau Neuf du Pape<br /> and sometimes a glass of rose<br /> sitting in the garden in the afternoon<br /> and, if it wouldn't hurt too much<br /> or become a habit leading down the path to hell<br /> I'd like to have just one cigarette every day<br /> or even one every other day<br /> with an espresso, in the caf&eacute;<br /> one of the cafes<br /> and then I'd drive out to the hospital<br /> where Van Gogh spent that year<br /> painting the cypresses and the olive trees<br /> and you think:<br /> he was crazy<br /> and pathetic<br /> what a tragedy<br /> how he suffered<br /> but you know<br /> he turned out a hundred a thirty paintings<br /> or a hundred and forty paintings<br /> or, like a hundred and forty three paintings<br /> like he turned out a painting every two and a half days<br /> for a year!<br /> that's where he turned out The Starry Night!<br /> I don't even mention the olive grove<br /> or the field with the red poppies<br /> and that's what I would do<br /> I would be a painter if I could even just hold a brush right<br /> if I just had enough talent to dip a brush into some paint<br /> and slather it on the canvas<br /> because that is a perfect life<br /> you just get up in the morning<br /> and you get your cup of coffee<br /> and you wander into your studio<br /> and whatever catches your eye is what you do<br /> you think<br /> oh, that painting I was working on yesterday<br /> that could use a little splash of red up there near the top<br /> and so you dip your brush into the paint<br /> and you splash some red<br /> and then a little yellow<br /> some green here over on the right<br /> you think<br /> okay<br /> I could put a sailboat up there in the sky<br /> and then you have another sip of your coffee<br /> and you notice the little ceramic vase<br /> you had been working on the day before yesterday<br /> and you think<br /> I could put some kind of flat, muted purple<br /> right there where its stomach bulges out a little bit<br /> and then you see that drawing<br /> that fell on the floor<br /> off that table down near the other end of your studio<br /> and you go to pick it up<br /> and you just can't resist<br /> doing a little something to it<br /> adding a little picnic table to the landscape<br /> and by the time you finish that<br /> you find yourself down at the other end of your studio<br /> near the door out onto the terrace<br /> so you go out onto the terrace<br /> and sit at the little table there overlooking the vineyard<br /> because by then it's time for lunch<br /> and your wife brings you a sandwich<br /> and maybe a little glass of beaume de venise<br /> and after lunch<br /> you make love for the rest of the afternoon.<br /> That's the life I have in mind.<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> That's the life I have in mind, too.<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> I would live it with you.<br /> <br /> [While these conversations go on,<br /> Henry and Beatrice<br /> stand in the midst of the goings on,<br /> dumbfounded by the conversations.]<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> In the mental hospital?<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> No, we could get a little house just on the edge of St. Remy<br /> with a little swimming pool<br /> it wouldn't have to be so big, so expensive<br /> because we'd have the whole town for themselves<br /> all the cafes<br /> the little streets to wander down<br /> the craft fair on the weekends<br /> with little things to buy for not much money<br /> and that restaurant tucked into that little street<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> I wouldn't mind<br /> going back to that caf&eacute; in St. Remy<br /> where I had lunch<br /> sitting outdoors<br /> where I first saw you.<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> The one on the corner<br /> with the carousel across the street?<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> Oh, right! <br /> Sure!<br /> That one, too!<br /> I was thinking of the one<br /> a little further around the circle<br /> next to the store where they have postcards<br /> with the pictures of the lavender fields.<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> Or the one right next to it<br /> with the canopy over the sidewalk.<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> Or even the one further down<br /> set back from the sidewalk, behind the stone wall <br /> with the little garden.<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> Or the one<br /> all the way back around the circle <br /> the one with the carousel inside.<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> The one with the carousel inside.<br /> Right.<br /> Sure.<br /> Well,<br /> that's my favorite.<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> And then you sit there<br /> and see the other people passing by<br /> and you hear them talk<br /> and you think:<br /> they have lives, too.<br /> Your life is not the only life.<br /> There are a lot of lives.<br /> We could just go to all of the cafes.<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> In one afternoon?<br /> <br /> WONDER WOMAN<br /> Well, in a few afternoons,<br /> if we just keep going around the circle.<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> Okay.<br /> I'd like that.<br /> That's my idea of a perfect life.<br /> <br /> [The garage door opens.<br /> A big partying group inside the garage sings<br /> while stuff is thrown out the side window of the garage.<br /> <br /> And some guys dance.] <br /> <br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> <br /> A whole chamber orchestra enters, <br /> and we expect they will play, <br /> but they quickly put down their tubas and trumpets and violins and cellos<br /> and put together two cafe tables <br /> and start getting out their lunch.<br /> <br /> They are all dressed in their underwear.<br /> <br /> As they set up the tables,<br /> an elegantly dressed woman could sing a solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> solo<br /> <br /> while<br /> the people in undies<br /> take their places around the tables.<br /> <br /> And then, while the woman still sings,<br /> a rack of clothes is brought on,<br /> and everyone gets up from the tables<br /> and takes their time choosing just the right outfit<br /> and getting dressed in dinner clothes.<br /> <br /> And, while everyone is getting dressed,<br /> Raymond speaks,<br /> although no one is paying attention to him.<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> I always think they say<br /> clothes make the man<br /> and I guess that's true<br /> and then<br /> if you take off all your clothes<br /> you're not a man?<br /> because you're "desocialized"?<br /> or you could say stripped down to your essentials<br /> but really, too,<br /> desocialized at the same time<br /> and then,<br /> when you choose this item of clothing<br /> or that<br /> and put it on<br /> then you are "re-socializing" yourself?<br /> if that's the right word?<br /> I think that's not an exaggeration<br /> and then<br /> when you sit down with others at the dinner table<br /> and break bread<br /> the most basic social ritual of all<br /> I think then you see:<br /> society is reconstituted.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> Right.<br /> <br /> MANDEVILLE<br /> And that,<br /> I think,<br /> is essential.<br /> <br /> [Don Quixote clinks his spoon on a glass<br /> to get everyone's attention for his dinner speech.]<br /> <br /> DON QUIXOTE<br /> Because,<br /> in Sophocles' play Philoctetes,<br /> the soldier Philoctetes was injured on his way to Troy.<br /> According to one version of the story<br /> he had been bitten in the heel by a snake<br /> and he had developed an open loathsome stinking sore.<br /> And so, of course, he began to moan about it.<br /> And so his companions dumped him on a deserted island <br /> abandoned him there<br /> while they went on to Troy.<br /> <br /> Ten years passed.<br /> The Greeks weren't able to win the war.<br /> Finally they learned from Helenus, the son of the King of Troy,<br /> that the Greeks would never be able to win the war<br /> without the bow and arrows of Philoctetes.<br /> <br /> So the Greeks went back to get Philoctetes.<br /> To beg him to join them after all.<br /> And, astonishingly enough,<br /> he did.<br /> He went with the soldiers back to Troy<br /> after they had dumped him on that island,<br /> after they had left him there for ten years<br /> after they had left him to die.<br /> <br /> Now they wanted him back<br /> not because they valued him personally in any way.<br /> They only valued his bow and arrows.<br /> They valued his skill at killing.<br /> And he went with them.<br /> Why?<br /> Because he understood,<br /> as all the Greeks understood, <br /> a man alone on an island<br /> is not entirely a human being.<br /> A person can not be a real human being<br /> unless he lives in human society,<br /> however dreadful that society may be.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> Although<br /> when you drive through the countryside<br /> and you see the fields of sunflowers<br /> you can understand how a painter would come<br /> from the gray skies of Holland<br /> and arrive here on a sunny day<br /> and his mind would just explode.<br /> And then,<br /> driving along the roads<br /> with the trees on both sides<br /> the story is Napoleon had all the trees planted<br /> so his soldiers could march long distances in the shade.<br /> And you hear the cicadas:<br /> you think<br /> is this a love song<br /> they sing and sing and sing<br /> they can't stop crying out for love?<br /> So after that<br /> all you can think anymore<br /> is that you wish you would both be naked <br /> the way everyone always used to be naked all the time<br /> lying under the olive trees<br /> in the afternoon<br /> listening to the cicadas<br /> making love.<br /> <br /> [Henry and Beatrice are apart from the others.]<br /> <br /> HENRY<br /> I see you<br /> and then I don't see you again<br /> and then whatever I've been thinking<br /> or wherever I've been looking for you<br /> gets interrupted<br /> and a person loses track<br /> of where he is<br /> or where he was going<br /> or what he even had in mind<br /> and then our lives<br /> it's like everyone says <br /> the lives we live are as incoherent<br /> as the clouds in the sky<br /> and we don't understand them<br /> even as well as we understand the weather<br /> <br /> BEATRICE<br /> I know what you mean.<br /> <br /> [If it just seems a waste for the chamber orchestra<br /> to have brought in all their instruments,<br /> they can play now. <br /> But they don't really play these instruments,<br /> they're only able to make amazing sounds with them&#8212;<br /> just a great big horrible noise.<br /> And then they can all just leave.<br /> <br /> But maybe it's best now<br /> not to have the orchestra<br /> but just to go straight to the old rasping Italian singer.]<br /> <br /> <span class="subhead">EVENING AND NIGHT</span><br /> <br /> the rough, rasping voice of an old, 'amateur' village singer, very old Italian song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> song of loss and mourning and love<br /> <br /> A guy breaks a dozen wine bottles on the cobblestones, <br /> puts his face into the pile of broken glass, <br /> has another guy stand on his neck to press his face down into the glass&#8212;<br /> and, while we were all expecting some miraculous trick to avoid being cut, he stands up with a lacerated forehead&#8212;<br /> while a teen age girl hands out fliers for some other show.<br /> <br /> The sleek old Mafioso in the chair puts on dark sunglasses.<br /> <br /> A woman in a beautiful black dress enters<br /> and paces while she smokes<br /> she is angry, hostile<br /> as though challenging anyone's right to challenge her smoking<br /> or her being there<br /> and, in the end, she just turns upstage and rushes out.<br /> <br /> She returns, dragging a guy by the hand.<br /> He is naked from the waist up.<br /> She shoves him to the ground roughly over and over<br /> as she rips the nipple ring out of the naked guy's chest<br /> and leaves him bleeding from the wound.<br /> <br /> 3 girls in lingerie on leashes<br /> and a guy with a whip.<br /> <br /> A woman comes downstage<br /> and close to the audience<br /> sits at a dinner table<br /> is given two finger bowls, one for each hand<br /> by tall serving men,<br /> <br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> BIG MUSIC and she begins to wail and wail<br /> <br /> She continues to wail as she eats&#8212;<br /> an elegant, rich, spoiled woman<br /> in anguish over life itself.<br /> Even she does not escape the pain of life.<br /> <br /> And then a guy with a horses head<br /> and front legs that end in hooves<br /> comes in and falls over to the side<br /> and struggles to get up again.<br /> <br /> The garage door opens.<br /> The whole group sings<br /> while stuff is thrown out the sides of the garage]<br /> <br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> song and movement<br /> <br /> An extremely tall skinny naked guy with caked blood on his head<br /> and his entire body charcoal black&#8212;burned from head to toe<br /> does butoh walking<br /> but seems genuinely to have mobility issues<br /> wallks, stumbles, shuffles, lurches on his tiptoes,<br /> falls over to the side,<br /> goes into a crouch,<br /> goes to the ground,<br /> writhing.<br /> This, too, just seems intensely real.<br /> <br /> A guy stands to one side with bloody hands<br /> showing them to the audience.<br /> <br /> The black burned cripple writhes.]<br /> <br /> SUPERMAN<br /> At the baths, my cabin neighbors:<br /> A little Spaniard, a Russian general.<br /> Thin bodies, feverish looks, narrow shoulders.<br /> Invalids' wheel chairs pulled about.<br /> Steam cabinets.<br /> Mr. B., sometimes in the wheeled chair,<br /> Plump, white skin, healthy appearance;<br /> At other times, he has to be carried, held up, shuffling along.<br /> Noises from the showers, deep-sounding voices....<br /> What sadness all this gives me,<br /> This physical life that I can no longer lead.<br /> Poor birds of the night,<br /> Beating their wings against the walls,<br /> With open eyes that cannot see....<br /> <br /> The to and fro of patients.<br /> Eyes either feverish or lifeless.<br /> The fellow <br /> asleep in the sun<br /> infested with flies.<br /> Mr. C.&#8212;<br /> who lives with a noise perpetually in his head<br /> like the whistle of a locomotive<br /> or rather<br /> like steam escaping.<br /> <br /> And to see my neighbors eat is appalling;<br /> Mouths without teeth,<br /> Affected gums,<br /> The toothpicks in the decayed molars,<br /> And those who eat on only one side <br /> and roll about what they have in their mouths,<br /> And those who chew their cuds,<br /> And the gnawers.<br /> All those jaws functioning,<br /> Those gluttonous and haggard eyes <br /> never raised from their plates,<br /> Those furious glances at the dish slow in coming.<br /> And the painful digestions,<br /> The two toilets at the end of the corridor,<br /> Side by side,<br /> So that one can hear all the groans of constipation<br /> Or the rich splash and the rustling of the paper.<br /> Horror, oh, the horror of living.<br /> <br /> The striving to walk straight,<br /> The fear of being taken with one of those shooting pains<br /> that glue me to the spot<br /> Or wrench me and make me lift my leg like a knife grinder.<br /> <br /> In the courtyard<br /> The coming and going of the patients.<br /> A procession of diverse maladies,<br /> Each more sinister than the rest.<br /> Burning or expressionless glances.<br /> And the sparkling light of the blue sky.<br /> <br /> The little Spanish woman with hair combed flat and well oiled<br /> Looking anywhere from twelve to sixty years old.<br /> A red dress, long earrings, <br /> a long yellow head resting on the knucklebone of a hand,<br /> On her little chair.<br /> At night she sleeps sitting up.<br /> Is afraid of the rats.<br /> <br /> Silhouettes of old men on crutches <br /> along the country roads between the high hedges.<br /> The mathematics professor who has the same illness as I.<br /> I think of him,<br /> I can see him pushing his feet along,<br /> One after the other,<br /> Pretty well done in and staggering;<br /> Like walking on ice.<br /> I pity him.<br /> The maids say he urinates in bed.<br /> <br /> Clever <br /> the way death reaps and gathers its harvests.<br /> <br /> But what somber harvests.<br /> Whole generations don't fall at once;<br /> That would be too sad, too visible.<br /> But bit by bit.<br /> The meadow is attacked on several sides at the same time.<br /> One day, one will go;<br /> The other, some time after;<br /> <br /> One must reflect, glance about oneself,<br /> to notice the empty spaces,<br /> the vast contemporary killing.<br /> <br /> MANDEVILLE <br /> There is also an island called Motanka<br /> where all the women who are married have a thing on their heads<br /> that looks like a man's foot<br /> all decorated with great pearls<br /> and above the foot are peacocks' feathers<br /> and that thing stands atop their heads like a crest<br /> in token of the fact that they are under man's foot<br /> and under the subjection of man.<br /> And only the women who are not married<br /> don't have a foot on their heads.<br /> <br /> And from Caffolos<br /> you can sail to an island called Tracoda,<br /> where the people are all beasts<br /> and unreasonable<br /> and they live in caves<br /> and they eat the flesh of serpents<br /> and they don't speak words<br /> but they hiss as serpents do.<br /> <br /> And then, on the next island, called Caffolos,<br /> the men of that country,<br /> when their friends are sick,<br /> they hang them from the trees&#8212;<br /> because they say that it is better that the birds eat them,<br /> because the birds are the angels of God,<br /> and otherwise they would be eaten by the foul worms of the earth.<br /> <br /> And, of the people who live there, <br /> those who are abortive and stillborn number 335.<br /> Those who die of old age number 916.<br /> Apoplex, and sodainly 68<br /> Blasted 4<br /> Bleeding 3<br /> Burnt, and Scalded 3<br /> Cancer, Gangrene, and Fistula 26<br /> Childbed 161<br /> Cold, and Cough 41<br /> Consumption, and Cough 2423<br /> Convulsion 684<br /> Cut of the Stone 2<br /> Dropsy, and Tympany 185<br /> Drowned 47<br /> Executed 8<br /> Fainted in Bath 1<br /> Falling-Sickness 3<br /> Flox, and small Pox 139<br /> Found dead in the Streets 6<br /> French-Pox 18<br /> Frighted 4<br /> Gout 9<br /> Grief 12<br /> Hanged, <br /> and made-away with themselves 11<br /> <br /> [if this list is too tedious for someone to speak,<br /> it can be projected on the wall]<br /> <br /> Jaundice 57<br /> Itch 1<br /> Killed by several Accidents 27<br /> Lethargy 3<br /> Leprosy 1<br /> Lunatic 12<br /> Measles 5<br /> Murdered 3<br /> Palsy 27<br /> Plague 3597<br /> Poysoned 3<br /> Purples, and spotted Fever 145<br /> Rickets 150<br /> Rupture 16<br /> Scurvy 32<br /> Smothered,and stifled 2<br /> Sores, Ulcers, <br /> broken and bruised limbs 15<br /> Shot 7<br /> Sodainly 63<br /> Starved 4<br /> Stopping of the Stomach 29<br /> Swine-Pox 4<br /> Teeth, and Worms 767<br /> Thrush 57<br /> Vomiting 6<br /> Wolf 8<br /> Worms 147<br /> <br /> [While this list of the causes of death goes on,<br /> Beatrice enters,<br /> looks around,<br /> leaves.<br /> <br /> Enters again a little later,<br /> looks around,<br /> leaves.<br /> <br /> And then, when the list comes to an end,<br /> Henry enters,<br /> looks around.]<br /> <br /> HENRY<br /> Beatrice?<br /> Beatrice?<br /> <br /> [Now a church choir sings gregorian chant dirge.]<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> <br /> [Henry, after looking around a little more,<br /> leaves.]<br /> <br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> gregorian chant dirge<br /> <br /> [As another woman in a black dress and also a black veil<br /> enters up center and comes all the way slowly down center<br /> holding a bouquet of flowers in front of her<br /> motionless in every way except her walking very slowly<br /> to lay the bouquet flowers on the ground<br /> her eyes are streaming tears of blood.<br /> <br /> A guy with downs syndrome<br /> enters wearing a crimson prom dress.<br /> <br /> A guy on a leash.<br /> <br /> Guys dancing.<br /> <br /> Old mafia don with sunglasses returns.<br /> <br /> We might see on film, if not live,<br /> a grand piano in flames.<br /> As it burns, its strings pop,<br /> making music.]<br /> <br /> RAYMOND<br /> No man was ever born<br /> but he must suffer.<br /> He buries his children and gets others in their place;<br /> then dies himself.<br /> And yet men bear it hard,<br /> that only give dust to dust!<br /> Life is a harvest that man must reap like ears of corn;<br /> one grows, another falls.<br /> Why should we moan at this,<br /> the path of Nature that we must tread?<br /> <br /> Heaven and earth were once a single form;<br /> but when they were separated from each other into two,<br /> they bore and delivered into the light all things:<br /> trees, winged creatures, <br /> beasts reared by the briny sea&#8212;<br /> and the human race.<br /> <br /> Let any man get hold of as much pleasure as he can <br /> as he lives his daily life;<br /> the future will always be unknown.<br /> <br /> The best thing is a life free from sickness,<br /> the power each day <br /> to take hold of what one desires.<br /> <br /> The time of life is short, <br /> and once a person is hidden beneath the earth <br /> he lies there for all time.<br /> <br /> A man is nothing but breath and shadow.<br /> <br /> Time makes all things dark <br /> and brings them to oblivion.<br /> <br /> A cup without a bottom is not put on the table.<br /> <br /> First you will see a crop in flower, <br /> all white; <br /> then a round mulberry <br /> that has turned red; <br /> lastly <br /> old age <br /> of Egyptian blackness <br /> takes over.<br /> <br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> deafening classical music (Mozart?)<br /> <br /> Another woman in an elegant black dress<br /> with a blood red face<br /> does a wild wild dance<br /> and smears red lipstick all over her face<br /> in time with the crashing Mozart music<br /> and then throws herself to the ground on her back over and over and over<br /> she becomes covered with dust<br /> as she kicks and writhes wildly on the ground on her back<br /> like a cockroach frantic on its back.<br /> <br /> Beatrice is standing there<br /> dressed as a bride<br /> in a white wedding dress<br /> holding a bouquet of flowers<br /> <br /> Henry joins her.<br /> He, too, is dressed for the wedding.<br /> <br /> They have their photo taken<br /> looking confused and disoriented.<br /> <br /> And then they leave,<br /> still looking confused about just where they are going.<br /> They look back at the wedding guests&#8212;<br /> looking for their parents in the midst of the party?<br /> And they are escorted off.<br /> <br /> And then,<br /> when the music ends,<br /> Tilly speaks.<br /> <br /> TILLY<br /> I would eat tarte tatins<br /> and drink Chateau Neuf du Pape<br /> and sometimes a glass of rose<br /> sitting in the garden in the afternoon<br /> and, if it wouldn't hurt too much<br /> or become a habit leading down the path to hell<br /> I'd like to have just one cigarette every day<br /> or even one every other day<br /> with an espresso, in the caf&eacute;<br /> one of the cafes<br /> and then I'd drive out to the hospital<br /> where Van Gogh spent that year<br /> painting the cypresses and the olive trees<br /> and you think:<br /> he was crazy<br /> and pathetic<br /> what a tragedy<br /> how he suffered<br /> but you know<br /> he turned out a hundred a thirty paintings<br /> or a hundred and forty paintings<br /> or, like a hundred and forty three paintings<br /> like he turned out a painting every two and a half days<br /> for a year!<br /> that's where he turned out The Starry Night!<br /> I don't even mention the olive grove<br /> or the field with the red poppies<br /> and that's what I would do<br /> I would be a painter if I could even just hold a brush right<br /> if I just had enough talent to dip a brush into some paint<br /> and slather it on the canvas<br /> because that is a perfect life<br /> you just get up in the morning<br /> and you get your cup of coffee<br /> and you wander into your studio<br /> and whatever catches your eye is what you do<br /> you think<br /> oh, that painting I was working on yesterday<br /> that could use a little splash of red up there near the top<br /> and so you dip your brush into the paint<br /> and you splash some red<br /> and then a little yellow<br /> some green here over on the right<br /> you think<br /> okay<br /> I could put a sailboat up there in the sky<br /> and then you have another sip of your coffee<br /> and you notice the little ceramic vase<br /> you had been working on the day before yesterday<br /> and you think<br /> I could put some kind of flat, muted purple<br /> right there where its stomach bulges out a little bit<br /> and then you see that drawing<br /> that fell on the floor<br /> off that table down near the other end of your studio<br /> and you go to pick it up<br /> and you just can't resist<br /> doing a little something to it<br /> adding a little picnic table to the landscape<br /> and by the time you finish that<br /> you find yourself down at the other end of your studio<br /> near the door out onto the terrace<br /> so you go out onto the terrace<br /> and sit at the little table there overlooking the vineyard<br /> because by then it's time for lunch<br /> and your husband brings you a sandwich<br /> and maybe a little glass of beaume de venise<br /> and after lunch<br /> you make love for the rest of the afternoon.<br /> That's the life I have in mind.<br /> <br /> <span class="subhead">DAWN</span><br /> <br /> The garage door opens.<br /> <br /> 20 people in brightly colored silly swimming suits<br /> dance on the beach<br /> to what might as well be Italian beach boys music<br /> it goes on and on and on<br /> happily ecstatically<br /> until they are finally all running around aimlessly <br /> some of them screaming<br /> at the tops of their lungs in joy<br /> and all the others singing and dancing<br /> <br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> <br /> Beatrice and Henry return,<br /> no longer in their wedding clothes.<br /> <br /> Beatrice is holding their newborn baby.<br /> <br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> song and dance<br /> <br /> <br /> THE END<br /> <br /> <br> <p class="aside">A NOTE:<br> Sources for Eterniday are The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and Alphonse Daudet s La Doulou, the journals he wrote in the last years of his life, translated by Milton Garver. <br> <br> Charles Mee's work is made possible by the support of Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher.</p><br> <br> <img src="../pix/1Pixel.gif" width="528" height="8" border="0"><br> <a href="#top"><img src="../pix/arrowUpWhite.gif" width="13" height="14" border="0"></a> </td> <td width="55" valign="top"><img src="../pix/1Pixel.gif" width="55" height="10"></td> </tr> </table> <br /> Music.<br> <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-595953-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body> </html>