PROLOGUE (D.Storen/D.Brock)
A Place Where Hope is Missing.
HEPH
Curious. Curious. Fruits and legends in plain sight.
Myth hangs in the air. Radiant energy. I want to get
close. Closer still. Taste. Devour. Ingest a vital promise.
What could be the harm in one. Just one. Just one.
SCENE 1. AWAY FROM EYES (K. Soden/D.Brock)
An Artist’s Studio.
ARTIST
This is easy away from eyes…
This could get me killed. Each of us thinks
in silent strokes. It’s death and life and this…
It’s death and life and this….
It’s…
FRIEND
I don’t know anything about art, but you have been consumed.
By this…Please get some sleep.
You will die if you don’t eat.
ARTIST
She will get me killed. Each stroke has been
compulsion, each stroke will be punished
by a cut made in my skin. I must finish her,
then destroy her, or else she will destroy me.
I am a coward.
FRIEND
Please get some sleep. Even madness, passion need some rest.
I fear you are possessed.
FRIEND
Smell this liquor. And what’s this plant?
ARTIST
It’s Eucalyptus.
FRIEND
I could get used to this Eucalyptus… this proper liquor.
Even madness, passion need some rest.
I fear you are possessed.
Fine! Then I will drink this wine. I will eat.
In place a full heart, my gluttony.
Perhaps when you are done, you’ll return to me.
(To the Painting.)
Is it you? Are you the one? Murderer.
Murdered? I don’t know art, but you
seem alive and whispering. Beautiful.
Is it you? I could believe you had power.
You can no sooner answer, than I climb
in and ask. Or I climb in and kiss. Tell me.
If I was powerful…I’d make myself into art.
ARTIST
This is easy away from eyes.
Words and colours are simple in private, in
dark and lonely spaces. I near my self-portrait’s end.
I fear the completion, my decision. Done. Done.
We all think we have a masterpiece to speak, a
voice against a power.
My voice is in a million brushstrokes.
GENDARME
Tell me! Where is she? The law demands her head,
the paintings burned, the revolution bled!
FRIEND
I will kill you dead!
I will not beg for my life. I beg for hers.
GENDARME:
The artist’s silent brush strokes. Death and life.
I don’t know art, but you…. alive and whispering.
Speak! Please, I ask you. Tell me what to do…
ALL
Silent strokes….Alive and whispering…
Tell me…
GENDARME
Tell me! Where is she? The law demands her head,
the paintings burned, the revolution bled!!
This could get me killed. Each of us thinks
in silent strokes. It’s death and life and this….No!
Now she must die. It’s death and life and this….No!
Now she must die. It’s…now!
FRIEND
I will not beg for my life. I beg
for hers. Say the word, spare the sword,
As she is consumed by her creation,
I was consumed by her creation.
I was consumed by-
ARTIST
I am pathetic beside my work.
Beside this version of myself.
If my blood leaves this room, my body will be torn
in fours by their horses. I will burn beside her—
or she will save the world. I will hang, be raped,
suffer for imagination.
All I have to offer is now done.
I will be done on Earth. Done. I sign my name.
Now she must die. No. She will save the world…
a million brushstrokes… compulsion.
ARTIST/FRIEND
She will save the world.
ARTIST
You will burn beside her—she will save the world!!
GENDARME
No!!!
INTERLUDE (J.Glaser/D.Brock)
A Place Where Hope is Possible.
HEPH
Good fortune! Exhilaration! This is power.
A never-ending source of power. Infinite lives
to live. Infinite stars to touch, but none can burn.
Who has touched the sun and lived to tell? I have.
SCENE 2. KALEIDOSCOPIC (D. Storen/D.Brock)
A sick room.
A LOVER
look back on our life together,
could you put me in the earth?
i refuse to let you go.
i will keep you here,
we will persist,
remember, the single jewel
we plucked together on an astral night?
the promise we’d always be together?
i will pluck them all to keep that promise.
you will stay. you will stay.
i will be back at sunset.
THE MONSTER CALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
A LOVER
red ruby, black jet
i prayed for them in temples
from sunrise to sunset.
when prayers didn’t work
i begged a demon’s help.
a magnificent bargain
worth the mystery of later debt.
i will be back at sunset.
THE MONSTER CALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
LOVER 1
today i found pearls at
the bottom of the ocean.
from sunrise to sunset,
i didn’t breathe, and i knew
today was not my day to die.
each mollusc told me this as it
offered up a jewel of wounds.
i will be back at sunset.
THE MONSTER CALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
A LOVER
today i found emeralds…
in the eyes of a lion
from sunrise to sunset
on camel back, in scorching desert
past pink cliffs. At cave’s mouth
into labyrinth of rock and hieroglyphs,
then green gifts in a black tomb.
i will be back at sunset.
THE MONSTER CALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
A LOVER
today i found sapphire
on an island city of gems.
from sunrise to sunset
i descended down its violent rivers,
dodging venom, snake, and stone.
i came to calm waters, where
heaven’s blue sparkled on muddy banks.
I will be back at sunset.
THE MONSTER CALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
A LOVER
today i found amber,
in the bark of black poplars
from sunrise to sunset
i listened to the trees cry
for a brother they’d lost by lightning,
they were punished, wept electric as
he brought the sun too close to earth.
i refuse to let you go…i will keep you here,
we will persist.
ALL
Crawl and creep and come with us,
shed all lights, cross plain and peaceful.
A LOVER
Can she come?
THE MONSTER CALL
Let her go…Let her go….
INTERLUDE 2 (K. Soden/D. Brock)
A Place Where Hope is Fleeting.
HEPH
So many more to go. Ah! Much more to chase.
That gleam in your eye is a story I can see. A flicker,
flame, an entire world in a reflection. Burst vein.
Drowned heart. I will see the sparks in your blood!
Scene 3. DAFFODIL (J. Glaser/D. Brock)
A study. A garden. An open grave.
A MAN DYING
Cruel daffodil.
A WOMAN AT A GRAVE
Cruel daffodil.
A MAN DYING
Hear my voice forever echo and echo and echo…
Must you spy?
Giant with a hundred eyes.
Please. Why not just let me die
evaporate as dew
from a tree’s flat leaf?
Is this my punishment
for a life of faults?
This daffodil was once
paramount bloom between
two lovers.
I have no defense, no plea
my wish now is to perish,
deaf, forgetting.
A WOMAN AT A GRAVE A MAN DYING
Your fantasy drove a comfort away.
You loved a thing you couldn’t touch. My fantasy drove my comforts away.
If only I was the thing you dreamed,
we could have met in gardens until I loved a thing I couldn’t touch.
we both went into earth.
You ruined insipid, gushing love. I just wished to move you…
You wished to move me, but
imprisoned my limbs and skin.
Instead, I turned to dirt, left a cruel
heart in bed. Now, I’m only here
to make sure you’re fucking dead.
A MAN DYING & A WOMAN AT A GRAVE
Stop. You’re hurting me. Stop. You’re hurting me.
A MAN DYING
Please don’t make me watch! I’m sorry!
A WOMAN AT A GRAVE
Too late. Too late.
Escape. Leave him now. Escape this place and hide in a deep dark cave.
I will sleep at rock bottom. Keep silent and count stark days.
A MAN DYING
Let her go. You regret what you’ve done.
I regret what I’ve done. Let her go.
A MAN DYING A WOMAN AT A GRAVE
Must you spy? Your fantasy drove a comfort away.
Giant with a hundred eyes.
Please. Why not just let me die You loved a thing he couldn’t touch.
vanish as fog
from a rain wet street? If only I was the thing you dreamed,
Is this my punishment we could have met in gardens until
for a life of faults?
This daffodil was once we both went into earth. Instead, I escaped…
paramount bloom between
two lovers. hid… left a cruel heart in bed.
No defense! Let me die You ruined insipid, gushing love.
forgetting.
Please…let me perish, deaf
forgetting?
PLEASE!
No.
A WOMAN AT A GRAVE
Must you watch this stomp on a grave? Fists.
Giant with 100 eyes, grinding judge.
He carved scars. Kicks. Cut me this shape.
What would be his rotting wish? Kicks.
What? Fists. Should I acquit his corpse?
Here… my vicious fantasy.
…choke this daffodil…malignant bloom
between two….junk lovers
you can’t speak…
at bottom…
you can’t wreck…
at this bottom….
To sprinkle this dust and muck…
hear my voice, echo, torture…
dust and muck…suffering…in pain…
in pain to love….suffering…in pain…in pain
constant cruel heart…cruel dark daffodil…
EPILOGUE
A place where hope is hiding.