SCRIPT - Sleepwalking Apocalypse 9-11

SLEEPWALKING APOCALYPSE: 9/11

PROLOGUE

IN THE MEADOW

(As people arrive, several things are happening at once. Greeters hand out programs, which describe the sequence of the show and have the Chinese character for Kwan Yin. Audience are encouraged to wander among the various acts.)

--Butoh dancers are moving about on red chairs and space blankets. They are surrounded by a green cord with red paper airplanes on it. Near then is a placard which reads:

THE SLEEPING KINGDOM

The Sleeping Kingdom came about

because the king was afraid for his daughter.

If he heard a sound in the night he would rise

to see she was still in her bed

and not being kidnapped by pirates.

If she stood on a chair his hands would hover

like angels or prison guards.

To protect his beauty, he sealed the kingdom

with a hedge of roses that no one could penetrate

in or out.

The roses bloomed, the petals fell

and all that remained was a wall of thorns.

Handsome princes would try to break out

but every thorn they slashed with their swords

created two more thorns.

Over time, cut off from the world, the people

began to lose their taste for daylight

and the prick of a thorn would send them to sleep.

By the time his daughter pricked her finger

she barely knew she had fallen asleep

because everyone else already had

and none of them knew they were sleeping.

-- A man in a suit wears a green cord with paper airplanes around his neck. He wanders around reading passionately from the PATRIOT ACT II.

-- Someone walks around with two red paper airplanes, making them do synchronized flying tricks and saying "That is SO COOL."

-- A large white effigy is partially covered with red cloth. Audience members are encouraged to write their fears on red pieces of paper which are then attached to the red cloth.

-- Two people stand reading texts of dreams and fears.

**** see appendix

-- Several dancers in large white animal/spirit masks move about on the edge of the action, never too close.

ACT ONE

IN THE MEADOW

When everyone is assembled, a GONG is sounded and the audience is gathered facing two extension ladders which have been raised up as Towers.

WOMAN

in my dream

i watch the towers falling

the smoke and glass come up

and become a mushroom cloud

I point and shout but no one else sees it

I run around shouting

There's going to be fallout

You can't live here anymore

MAN

When the towers fell

they punctured the crust of the earth

Most of the casualties were actually caused by

the outflow of molten magma

The magnetic pole was wrenched aside

East is now true north

The earth's crust is unstable

Tectonic plates have not yet moved to cover the hole

The ground is not solid anymore

my feet don't meet the ground anymore

I can't adapt to the new gravity

My organs shift I move differently

My heart is in a different place

My feelings combine in different ways

I can't see anymore what I saw

The world I was in no longer exists

Everything that stood under me is gone

(A dancer enters with a uterus tattooed on her belly. A length of red tubing is passed from the Towers to her. She attaches the tubing from the Towers to her uterus. She lifts her arms to the Towers, trembles, responds as if to a sudden blow and crumples to the ground.)

WOMAN

on August 6, 1945

from a distant star I observed the flash

when a sheet of sunlight passed through my city

and beings were burnt to shadows

from a distant star I saw skin melt

until hearts were revealed in their cages

from a distant star I was able to watch as

the human race was vaporized

the earth melted to glass and was gone

there came another world in its place

but not the world I knew

(The dancer is covered with a red sheet which snaps up in the air and billows down on her.)

MAN (w/audience)

Repeat after me.

repeat after me

Repeat after me.

repeat after me

Repeat after me.

repeat after me

Repeat after me.

repeat after me

We called it

we called it

the City of Minarets.

the city of minarets

At night

at night

the flash of bombs

made the city

a garden of domes and light.

a garden of domes and light

No one could sleep.

no one could sleep

Now

now

so many

will never wake.

will never wake

(As a woman sings in Yiddish, the Towers slowly fall to the ground. They are covered with bright red fabric. They are lifted up and carried away like coffins.)

ACT TWO

PROCESSION

(The audience members are given the opportunity to hold one of the gravestone icons. They are asked to walk in single file silently.

As they walk holding the gravestone icons, they encounter several things.

-- A number of objects scattered along the path. Each object is on a white hand.

burnt credit card

doll

light bulb

broken computer screen

chocolate wrapper

disposable diaper

torn bit of the Constitution

pencil

singed book

condom

-- three red paper airplanes have crashed into the ground and are mashed. They also are on white hands.

-- a long row of white silhouettes, suggestive of corpses. A woman sits beside them in black, keening. Another woman sings in Yiddish next to a sign saying "Rafah".

-- a woman stand silent, wrapped in a veil/hijab made from an American flag.

-- Soldiers hold up an extension ladder as a wall. One soldier wears a helmet. Another wears a black hood. Another wears a black hood and a helmet.

The helmeted soldier keeps repeating "Your identification is insufficient. Your identification is insufficient."

At this wall, the audience is turned away and begins to circle back towards the original meadow.

-- Several animal-headed creatures have been hovering at the edges of the action. When the audience moves through a small grove of trees, these animal-headed creatures move up closer and watch them.

-- beyond the grove of trees, the woman from the Towers section stands between 4 white arrows on the ground. The red tubing-cord is held up across her, and she tries to move with it or against it in several of the directions the arrows point.

-- a woman with tent and sleeping bag sets up a one-person Camp Casey.

-- the animal/spirit dancers at one point converge close and watch intently the audience passing by.

-- READERS:

9/11: change the channel

9/11: they deserved it

9/11: no one deserves that

9/11: why us

9/11: there is no why

9/11: goes around, comes around

9/11: never again

9/11: the devil is alive

9/11: change the channel

9/11: never again

9/11: never fear

9/11: never learn

9/11: never happened

9/11: change the channel

I want to protect our children.

I want to protect everyone's children.

I want to protect my freedom.

I want rivers to stay alive.

I want the world I grew up in to be here for my children.

I don't want to lose my child. I don't want my child to hate me.

I don't want my tiny spot to become tinier.

I want everything to stay the way it is.

I want everything to change.

Please stay.

Please go

I want what is true to still be true

This is the last movie I will see.

This is the last page I will read.

This is the last time I will be touched.

This is the last food I will taste.

This is the last time I will swallow.

This is the last sigh.

This is the last sound.

This is the last intake of air.

This is the last giving away.

this is my last moment in the world

this is my last hour in the world

this is my last day in the world

this is my last life in the world

this is my last eternitiy in the world

ACT THREE

IN THE MEADOW AGAIN

(The audience arrives back near the original location. The Towers/ladders lie on the ground, covered in red fabric. Three women are singing songs in Spanish and Yiddish as people gather.

When the songs finish, audience members are shown how to lay down their gravestone/icons in a large circle, facing the lake.)

MAN

and there will come a passage

o child of endless sky

when demons will surround you

do not fear them

recognize them they are your own

they are images of your mind and your heart

they are images of your strength

savages will attack you

do not fear them

tyrants will threaten you

do not fear them

poisonous insects will infect you

do not fear them

they are only the body of your desires

if you fear them and run with fright

they will turn into devils and vampires and your flight

will become a battle that is never won

do not fear them they are only your thoughts

you are empty you are a form of emptiness

and your thoughts take on form in this emptiness

you will come toward death at the gate of darkness

death by the spear of the dark savage

death by the blinding light

death on the slaughterblock

do not fear it

it is only the face of your hatred for yourself

o learn it is yours

the revolving flame of death is only

the appearance to your body of the final pathway

which leads to the ocean of light

the crossing to fullness o do not fear it

it is yours it is the reward of your birth

if you stiffen with terror and turn your back

you will bring into being the death by spear

you will give teeth to the blinding light

and the body of death will overtake you

do not fear the demons your mind brings forth on the world

they are only the children of your heart

your love and your hate give them body

they are angels of your desires

they are you recognize them they are only yourself

they are you o child of endless sky

o love them

they are you

(The white effigy has been uncovered to reveal a white puppet of Kwan Yin, Chinese goddess of compassion.

The animal/spirit dancers move and pose among the gravestone/icons on the ground.

The two ladders/Towers are raised up in the middle of the field of gravestone/faces. The towers are now also covered with gravestone/faces.)

WOMAN

The towers are fallen, that stood so proud.

Dust and smoke spread wings to the sky

and everything's blotted out.

Troy is gone forever.

The tide of fate has twisted round

and we are drowned beneath it.

You Greeks, you masters of the world,

we were the world masters once.

Our power has passed, and yours will too.

Your sky-reaching towers will fall to the ground,

you will scrape in the dirt for your family's bones,

you will end up dirt yourselves.

You will live in fear of your world of slaves,

you will live in fear of their children,

and their children's children.

You have set the end of your world in motion.

It is already underway. It's begun.

Oh your children themselves. And their children. And theirs.

I pity your children. I pity them all.

MAN

So those behind you can hear, repeat after me.

repeat after me

loving mother

wife

daughter

beloved husband

father

son

treasured friend

colleague in struggle

unknown sister or brother

unknown civilian

victim of our forgetting

your seven children still cry for you

your two children still cry for you

your no children still cry for you

remember us

as we remember you

are still

alive

we have room

in our hearts

for all of you

WOMAN

(sings)

Sueno con serpientes,

con serpientes de mar,

con cierto mar, ay, de serpientes

sueno yo.

Largas, transparentes

y en sus barrigas llevan

lo que puedan

arrebatarle al amor.

(chorus)

Oh--La mato y aparece una mayor

Oh-- Con mucho mas infierno en digestion.

No quepo en su boca

Me trata de tragar

pero se atora con un trebol

de mi sien.

Creo que esta loca

le doy de masticar una paloma

y la enveneno

de mi bien.

(chorus)

Esta al fin me engulle

y mientras por su esofago paseo

voy pensando

en que vendra.

Pero se destruye

cuando llego a su estomago y planteo

con un verso

una verdad.

(chorus)

(Gong.

Two people unfurl the sign; THE END.)

end

APPENDIX:

DREAMS AND FEARS

to be read during the Prologue

READERS

in my dream

we're being invaded

the airplanes are big fat and white

like blimps

some of the planes have our flag on them

but shooting and bombing us anyway

by accident or what

my family's there

we huddle under trees

the fat white airplanes start to shudder and crack

they're not planes at all

they're larvae

and bugs with big black eyes and wings

come squirming out and fly down toward us

and bugs with no wings come tumbling down

and a shower of crawling bugs

buries us screaming

when I am asleep

I dream of grass and water and soft skin

when i am awake

i dream that i live in a house of rubble

i dream that my mother is buried there

and my family driven out

i dream that an iron wall

splits the ground where i was born

i'm screaming but no one can hear

in my dream

a mushroom cloud of water rises from Puget Sound

Is it an attack

or a mistake

in my dream

there's a contagious disease wiping out everyone on earth

To find out if I have it

I drop a stone into a glass of special liquid

If the liquid turns green

I'm infected

I drop the stone and I wait

in my dream

I'm a kid playing in the yard

my mom runs out

says Get in the car

It's a minivan full of bottled water

I run inside to get my special hat

but my mom is screaming There's no time

We have to get away right now

They're coming

But I can't leave without my hat

we argue she pulls at me

and the minivan drives away

with nobody in it

we run after it carrying the baby

the baby is pointing at things while we run

and telling us words for them

flower

car

telephone pole

doggie hey buddy hey buddy

in my dream

there's an opera house with an ornate front

i duck insided to escape the bombing

inside there are many stages

each with a different war being played

Some US Marines come busting in

They're lost they tell me Where's the stage for Iraq?

I take them out back to a secret stone door

with long dark steps leading up to Iraq.

in my dream

i run outside

my face is covered with some kind of cloth

people are throwing molotov cocktails at airplanes

it's a stupid idea

i start to pray

but i'm speaking a language i don't know

i'm trapped with some people against a wall

and i'm debating in my head which religion i should use

to pray

in my dream

my 85 year old mother

is squatting over a ditch

she's not used to it

but it's all we have

i'm trying to help her

by holding her arm

she keeps trying to tell me

It's alright dear

but she's in pain

in my dream

i'm trapped in an airport with Michael Moore

Someone has taken over and everyone's trapped

until further notice

Michael Moore is a pushy companion

i dreamed the human race was gone

the world was simpler

the world was colder

I had a dream the other night

and you were in it

We were driving a car in a desert landscape

looking for some way out

then the car was gone and we were walking

We come to a barrier and try to climb it

An alarm goes off and security comes up

It's my uncle

in my dream

everyone has my face

i'm buried under piles of my own face

i claw at my faces trying to get out

but there's always more of my face

Noone notices I'm not there

because everyone has my face

My country has been invaded.

The china lamp, a jar of sea glass

a child's paper airplane

and a great hole in the ceiling

where once the chandelier hung

solid and steady

as a dream over my head.

My house has been invaded.

My mind too is gone from here.

It climbed the attic stairs

when the soldiers burst in

with broomsticks

and fisted hands

and four sharp teeth that drew blood.

Bruises, ragged nails and shattered thoughts

these are what's left of me.

My body has been invaded.

The potted herbs, a trampled rug,

one battered can

of gasoline

and the radio humming the distant tune

of freedom marching in my living room.

this is my home.

this is my kitchen sink.

this is my window garden

now filled with metal rain.

this is my bed of dust,

these are my shattered walls,

these are all that’s left for me:

one last match,

one last breathe,

one last glance,

And one foot in front of the other

one foot

all the way

to far away from here.[by jessica anderson]

in my dream i'm in chains with no escape

till fire comes up and melts the chains

but then i'm falling through fire

so i grab at the redhot chains to save myself

in my dream

i wake up in someone else's room

my clothes are spread out all over the floor

all the clothes i own

all over the floor and the grass outside

clothes i haven't seen in years

clothes i wore when i was a kid

clothes i only imagined spread out

across the grass and the sand beyond it

in my dream

I'm buried in a pit of dollar bills

they're worthless and nobody wants them

I scramble and flail to get out

but every time I reach the top

someone pours more dollars on my head

in my dream

i'm falling

but then I wake up

but I'm still falling

but then I wake up

but I'm still falling

but then I wake up

but I'm still falling

in my dream

I'm attaching scorpions to clocks

on the edge of a cliff

When I attach a scorpion to a clock

its pinchers stretch out

and become a crucifix

in my dream

i have two wombs

a man with the face of Jesus fills them both

one with my life on this earth

the other with my life in forever

my life in forever already exists

it grows in my womb like a child

and i build it with all i take in like a child

and it takes the shape of my soul

in my dream

they were right

I was wrong all along

I'm shaking Joseph McCarthy's hand

he's patting me on the shoulder forgiving me

in my dream

the voices in my head are gone

they've stopped and gone away

and I'm alone

there's a voice in my head still

but it's just my own voice

and it never stops

in my dream

the sky rains biscuits and pornography

anyone eating the biscuits or looking at the porn

will fall into the pit of molten cheese

but those who resist temptation

will be taken to a place in the sky where they can have

all the biscuits and porn they want

in my dream

i'm gazing at Earth from a distance

it turns out there's a whole portion of land on the planet

no humans have ever discovered

thousands of acres untouched

should i tell anybody?

The earth dreams

of galaxies and footsteps.

Stars take shape

and draw closer.

Planets dream

the collapse of space

as universe follows universe.

When all footsteps

have fallen silent

galaxies will walk the earth.

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