The Seventh Wave

A Choreo-Poem in One Act

Unless indicated, all references to "Music" are meant to refer totherhythmic, percussion based music such as Peter Gabriel's "Passion".Tracks from this album are given as a reference point for the auralatmosphere required.

All italicized dialogue is heard offstage, either pre-recorded orreproduced offstage.

1) Prologue

If I were not here, would you know

Could you hear the tears falling

Could you hear my silent fear

Could you hear it gnaw my insides

With only an alarm clock as witness

Do you think if the lights turn out,

I would still exist?

Would I still be here if you weren't?

Can my voice carry across some proof of existence

Could your ears believe what they heard was me

Could I be myself by myself?

Could you?

Can you?

Where will I be when you leave?

Put out the light, and then put out the light......

2) Creation

Somewhere along the line I fell

correction

somewhere I tripped and fell

just a scrape, maybe a tiny laceration

but enough to stop my in my tracks

somewhere along the line the point

of departure became blurry

eyes just slightly out of focus

distorted perhaps by waves

that resemble the streams of hot air

which mark the heat emanating from an auburn street

I looked at my knee

and something in my brain

caused my eyes to become a microscope, revealing

each crevice of my skin, contours the size of

canyons delineating each epidermal cell

somewhere along those lines I lost myself

somewhere part of me died

the part that I gave to you

that you kept

selfish fool

my identity resides still in the

back pocket of an old pair of stone washed jeans

I would like to play a game

The recreation of re-creation

Two people

one and one

sometimes, though, this defies common mathematics

see, one and one still

somehow

make one, still together

and in that line the union between

you and you

somehow gets lost

so the separation of this siamese pair

leaves something behind

that you might never get back

sometimes you don't even want it back

so we cut out losses

and cover them thickly with gauze

3) Fear

Sitting, centerstage, an old shirt, far too big for her, covers hershoulders. She is reading an old journal.

Fear, of drowning

fear of being that alone, kept me busy making a deal

these are the desolate weeks

dark weeks

I feel weak

when nature in its bareness

equals the stupidity of man.

pale brows, still hands and dim hair

Flips a page

You gave me the hyacinths first a year ago;

They called me the hyacinth girl.

Flips

Fear, a motor pumps me around and around

here we go round the prickly pear

Until I fade slowly

and the crowd laughs.

One must be so careful these days.

Flips

Think now she gives

when our attention is distracted

and what she gives, gives

with such supple confusions

that the giving famishes the craving.

Gives too soon into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed withtill

the refusal propagates a fear

Flips, backlighting reveals a man and a woman behind the curtains, agooddistance apart from each other.

I cannot grow,

I have no shadow

to run away from,

I only play

my nerves are bad tonight. yes bad. stay with me. speak to me.why doyou never speak. speak.

Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair

Spread out in fiery points

Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.

I never know what you are thinking. think.

I think we are in rat's alley

Where the dead men lost their bones

what is that noise?

The wind under the door

what is that noise now? what is the wind doing?

hide it away somewhere out of the mind,

let it get roots and grow,

unrelated to jealous ears and eyes.

do you know nothing? do you see nothing? do you remembernothing???

"Fear" by Sarah McLachlan rises up, mime sequence as actress readsherjournal. Man reaches out, woman feels the hand upon her face, thenviolently is 'thrown' down, choreographed rape scene.

4) You

Actress talking to a chair, facing away from the audience. Frombehind thecurtain, another chair, with a man sitting in it, mirrors the staging.(Note: the asterisked lines were spoken in French in the originalproduction.)

Really, must you,

Over familiar

Dense companion,

Be there always?

The bond between us

is chimerical surely,

Yet I cannot break it.*

Thus far I have known your

Character only

From it's pleasanter side

But you know a day will come when you

grow savage and hurt me badly.

Totally stupid?*

Would that you were:

But no, you plague me*

With tastes I was fool enough

Once to believe in

Can I trust you even

On creaturely fact?

I suspect strongly you hold some positive truth, and feed mefictions:

I shall never prove it.

I see a different expression in your eyes*

which makes things different*

less contradictory*

your smile is a smile*

a frown a frown*

your features moves with the*

muscles of your face in a natural movement*

Oh, I know how you came by a

Sinner's cranium.

Who tinkered and why?

Why?*

I am certain, whatever

your faults are,

The fault is mine.

Woman makes to leave, man snaps suddenly, woman freezes. Turnsaroundslowly, anger mixed with regret. "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan comesup, at the third verse. She is forced to perform for him.

Into this night I wander

It's morning that I dread

Another day of knowing of the path I fear to tread

Into this day of waking dreams

I follow without pride

For nothing stands between us here

And I won't be denied

And I would be the one to hold you down,

Kiss you so hard

I'll take your breath away

And after I, wipe away the tears

Just close your eyes dear

The song changes to Tori Amos' "Precious Things", beginning withthesecond verse. The man emerges form behind the curtain. He blindfolds herduring the Amos song, only to leave the stage.

Said you're really an ugly girl

But I like the way you play

And I died

But I thanked him, can you believe that?

That sick, that sick, holding onto his pictures

Dressing up every day

Wanna smash the faces of those beautiful boys

Those Christian boys

So you can make me cum, it doesn't make you Jesus

These precious things, let them bleed, let them wash away

These precious things, let them break their hold over me

sometimes that expression appears when I am sleeping

or walking in the street

or sitting

or engrossed in my work

it remains before me

I push it away gently at first

then forcefully

then harshly

then with an anger resembling madness

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

And time yet for a hundred decisions

And for a hundred visions and revisions.

In a minute I loved

In the next minute you left

Do I dare

Within a smattering of seconds in my life

Your breath intermingled with mine

On an airy plane with only cigarette smoke as its companion

so in a voice, so in a shapeless flame

These tiny particles the only remembrance

angels affect us oft

Of a life I would not know

Skin I could not touch

Lips I could not kiss

And softly I died within

With no outward show to mark my funeral

I am calm. I am calm. It is the calm before something awful:

The yellow minute before the wind walks, when the leaves

Turn up their hands. It is so quiet here.

Looks into an imaginary mirror downstage, running fingers over herfaceand body.

I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:

How should I use them for your closer contact?

I am not ugly. I am even beautiful.

The mirror gives back a woman without deformity.

Unlike... (looks upstage, silhouettes of men everywhere)

It is usual, they say, for such things to happen.

It is usual in my life, and lives of others.

I am one in five, something like that. I am not hopeless.

I am as beautiful as a statistic.

Lighting suggests utter isolation, closing in on her. She is awareofthis.

All changed, changed utterly,

A terrible beauty is born.

These are the clothes of a fat woman I do not know.

Here my heart starts to beat faster and faster.

Music: Track 7.

There is an emptiness suddenly

I am so vulnerable suddenly

My flesh wishes to entrap me

My womb wants to strangle me

My womanhood comes crashing like a comet

Upon my breasts

Before this mirror

Reflection of my shame

My fear

Have you seen me lately, dear?

My body is opaque to the soul

A closed lid is my soul's flesh eye

I am weak with much giving

I am weak with the desire to give more

Look what you've made me into

Take my flesh in your hands and mold me like putty

Isn't that what you want

You

You

Lover

My only love sprung from my only hate

Yet when we came back late from the hyacinth garden

Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not speak,

And my eyes failed, I was neither living nor dead, and I knew

Drums fade. She sings, voice always on the verge of breaking,grippingherself tightly.

And I would be the one to hold you down,

Kiss you so hard

I'll take your breath away

And after I wipe away the tears

Just close...

She speaks in a childlike voice.

Sometimes I feel like I can't even sing

I'm very scared for this world

Music #16, Voice Pre-Recorded.

Eviscerate your memory

Here's a scene

You're in the back seat laying down

The windows wrap around

To sound of the travel and the engine

All you hear is time stand still in travel

and feel such peace and absolute

The stillness still that doesn't end

But slowly drifts into sleep

The stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen

And they're there for you

For you alone, you are the everything

How are you so smooth-faced

So slender waisted?

Have you braided the sun's hair

Swept the moon's courtyards clean?

I haven't braided the sun's hair

Or swept the moon's courtyard

I stood outside and watched

Lighting dancing with thunder

Lighting outdanced thunder

Everything is beautiful

But she is so young and old

I look at her and I see the beauty

Of the light of music

Female 1 has fallen asleep, and begins the next few lines still in that state, only to wake up during.

Come play with me I whispered to my new found friend

Tell me what it's like to go outside

I've never been

Tell me what it's like to just go outside

I've never been

And I never will

and we shall play a game of chess

pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door

Wakes up, finds she is alone.

Nothing.

Nothing comes of nothing.

SPEAK AGAIN

She is now frozen onstage as man makes his entrance. Filter's "Hey Man,Nice Shot" lurks underneath.

Man:

I am the nightmare man

that figure lurking just outside the corner of your eye

waiting to pounce like a starving rat

running around a long forgotten stretch of sewer pipes

can it be you want me next to you

next to your cheek

stroking you softly with my gnarled finger

you know I love you

Begins to "mold" her onstage. She passively lets herself be molded into form. His moves should be icily fluid, although her body should be jerky.Ultimately she should be in a position for a waltz. Siloutted figures are in statue form, pleading for help.

you do don't you

it would hurt me otherwise

that would displease me

i want only the best for you

truly

madly

deeply

remember the walk under the moonlight canopy?

how we danced

and you laughed as your head flew back wildly amidst

the chirping of grasshoppers

running their legs together in symphonic approval

of the way the contours of your body

fit oh so snugly the velvet dress that left

the base of your neck exposed

Standing behind her, he kisses the base of her neck. She makes no movement. He circles to the front.

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

Heavy indutrial music kicks on, strobe effects as the couple waltz,heralmost limpless, he dragging her like a ragdoll.

5) Alone Again

you once told me I was strong

a strong woman

truth is, i'm not always strong

sometimes I let my hand yield

sometime i feel as lost as a tiny speck

in the grasp of some wild surge or in the grasp of some vastcreature

as predatory of fate

Nobody sees us,

Stops us, betrays us;

The small grains make room.

shhhhhhhhh (Actress mimes this gesture, though the soundcomesfromelsewhere)

I sit, perfectly voiceless.

We sit, myself with my invisble sisters

Lying together upon a dust-filled canvas,

Perfectly silent.

shhhhhhhh

So many of us.

So many of us.

We are shelves, we are

tables, we are meek,

We are edible

Nudgers and shovers despite ourselves.

Our kind multiplies

and multiplies

and multiplies

keeps going

forever giving

ever dying

We shall by morning inherit the earth

Multiply our sorrow

Our foot's in the door

our foot's in the grave

They swiftly slam the door

I scream in silence.

Good night, sweet ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, goodnight.

Music (Track #9), possibly a metronome.

Then how do I stand?

How can I turn the wheel that turns my life,

Create another hand to move this hand

Not moved by me, who am not the mover

Nor, though I love and hate, the lover,

The hater?

How do I stand?

How can I here remake what there made me

And makes me and remakes me still?

How do I seek control?

Dare I disturb the universe???

To each his own

But what goes to me?

6) Voices

(Unlike the other scenes, this dialogue should be spoken as quicklyaspossible. Voices can overlap, and it's probably good if they do. Thesevoices are heard, not seen, as the primary actress reacts off of thevoices.)

well when i'm stretched out dead in my grave then I suppose I'll havesome peace I want to get up a minute if i'm let wait O jesus wait yes thatthing has come on me yes now wouldn't that afflict you of course all thepoking and rooting and ploughing he had me up in now what am i to doFriday saturday Sunday wouldn't that pester the soul out of a body unlesshe likes it some men do God knows there's always something wrong withus

O yes that sometimes he used to go to bed with his muddy boots on whenthe maggot takes him just imagine having to get into bed with a thing likethat that might murder you any moment what a man well it's not the one wayeveryone goes mad

why can't you just kiss a man without going and marrying him first yousometimes love to wildly when you feel that way so nice all over you youcan't help yourself i wish some other man or other would take me sometimewhen he's there and kiss me in his arms there's nothing like a kiss longand hot down to your soul almost paralyzes you

some say she slipped out and got away some say he followed her andfound her some say he never found her but sent a messenger after her hewho was unquestionably master of caravans stooped to the floor he handedher her scarf it was unseemly that a woman appear disordered, dishevelledit was unseemly that a woman appear at all

Woman begins to speak softly under the voices, barely audible atfirst,while gently stroking her hair, until her voice dominates all others. Thefirst few lines can be repeated as needed to create a "cross-fade"effect.

steady

dry

window

lost river

But her face was steady and her eyes were dry

The room was small, hardly a room,

it was an alcove or a wide cupboard

with a closed door, a shaded window;

there was hardly any light from the window

but there seemed to be light somewhere,

as of moonlight on a lost river

seen in a dream

it was her hair.

7) Coda

Last night

and the night before

and the night before

and for weeks

months before

I gazed upon the shards of glass

which once composed my mirror

Strewn delicately across the floor

each sliver reflected back a part of me

one reflected my kneecap

another my earlobe

a third the nape of my neck

is this how you see me

bit by bit

composed of a few superfluous elements?

is this all you see of me

you could write a verse decomposing

my parts

my cheeks of rose

my hair of silk

and not know me

you could dance a waltz

and hold me tight in your grasp

our lips millimeters apart yet light years away

and not know me

your eyes could bore holes through my flesh

yet not penetrate my heart

For I only hold dominion there

For I alone hold the key

I alone hold sway

Here I choose

To let myself run free

In that quartered chamber

Do I find myself

After a world of redefintion

You seek to name me

Maim me

Dismember me

Take away myself from myself

No more.

To you I give nothing

To you I owe nothing

No more.

My eyes have been burnt by the sight

of asphalt, afraid to gaze upon the sunset

of an autumn night.

No more.

You cannot hurt me

Cannot harm me

Not anymore.

Every fibre of myself is once again whole

One again wholly mine

That is my religion

That is my belief

That is my belief

I believe

For now

From now on

I hold myself without fear

Without pain

Without regret

Looking forward, never back.

In beauty, may I walk.

All day long, may I walk.

With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty, may I walk.

With beauty before me, may I walk.

With behind me, may I walk.

With beauty above me, may I walk.

With beauty all around me, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty.

Music: Sarah McLachlan's"FumblingTowards Ecstasy". Lyrics below.

Oooh, all the fear has left me now

I'm not frightened anymore

It's my heart that pounds beneath my flesh

It's my mouth that pushes out this breath

And if I shed a tear I won't cage it

I won't fear love

And if I feel a rage I won't deny it

I won't fear love......

Blackout