The Script
CROSS DREAM TRAFFIC
a wholly monotonous overlay
CHARACTERS
• Interrogator 1 – says “This is the COLOR sound.”
• Interrogator 2 – says “This is COLOR.”
• Man
• Woman
SOUNDS
• white, black, red, blue and yellow sounds – each occurrence doesn’t have to be identical, but should be recognizable as the same “color” from occurrence to occurrence
• X-SOUNDS are the sounds of the interrogators.
FORMAL PRINCIPLE: The work is structured on two interpenetrating dramatic processes: a double or möbius dream in which the man and woman characters jump tracks and find themselves in each other’s dreams; and an interrogation process in which two external characters attempt to either elicit or implant information to the man and woman characters. The dreams will be developed by improvisations from the actors, with the possibility of improvisation during performance. The script of the interrogators will be fixed.
The existence of the various characters will be left to the interpretation of the audience. For example, the man and woman characters might be two parts of a fragmented personality; or they could be a computer simulation used for training of the interrogators; or the dream interpenetration could actually be facilitated by unknown technology or other unexplained phenomena. The resulting situation will be treated as completely realistic and follow its own internal logic rigorously. The text below is a starting sample and of course may evolve as the drama is developed with the actors.
_____
INTERROGATOR 2:
This is white [white sound].
INTERROGATOR 1:
Sit there. I’d like to show you something.
INTERROGATOR 2:
This is red [red sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is black [black sound]. This is blue [blue sound]. This is white [white sound]. This is black [black sound]. This is white [white sound]. This is blue [blue sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is red [red sound]. This is white [white sound]. This is black [black sound]. This is blue [blue sound]. This is red [red sound].
External voice: please remove your masks(or words to that effect!)
Name the thing: [yellow sound + red sound]. Answer quickly. Answer confidently. Answer as though you are falling asleep. Name the thing: [yellow sound + red sound].
MAN:
Sunrise. Pumpkin. Volcano.
WOMAN:
Magma. Sunset. Squash.
INTERROGATOR 2:
This is white [white sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound]. This is white [white sound]. This is yellow [yellow sound].
_____
INTERROGATOR 1:
Mark the spot with a suffixation of water.
MAN:
Marked.
INTERROGATOR 1:
Mark the smell of the bright burned pages.
MAN:
Marked.
INTERROGATOR 1:
Mark the spot with a suffixation of water.
MAN:
Marked.
WOMAN:
The water in this well is a source of good health and the humid odor of spring provides a carefree warmth.
MAN:
Mark the well with a suffixation of water.
INTERROGATOR 1:
Marked. Sit there. This is the white sound [white sound].
External voice: please replace your masks(or words to that effect!)
MAN:
At first the subject was parachutes. My chute flew wildly against the velvet that day in the high wind. High in the high high wind. (Change in tone of voice to that of something being read clumsily off the page). We sailed out over sea and sky. My chute puffed out, but the seams held together. All the while, below us was a wonderland of crystal information.
(Back to spontaneous speaking tone of voice). The seams held together but the winds brought cold and fevers too. AND THEY USED PEPPER SPRAY. And then the snow came down like a parachute. I guess it hadn’t snowed for a long long long long long long long time. They asked the best weather forecaster in the weather service how he predicted it was going to snow. He said “I just know”. They said “I know, but HOW do you know”. He said “I can tell by the smell”.
INTERROGATOR 1:
How do you account for the attributes of things?
WOMAN:
What? Color? Smell? Color?
INTERROGATOR 1:
This is the white sound [white sound]. How do you account for it?
INTERROGATOR 2:
How do you account for it?
INTERROGATOR 1:
Sit there
External voice: please remove your masks(or words to that effect!)
___
WOMAN (monologue):
[A-SOUND] No, he is not my twin. Or my husband. Or my brother. [A-SOUND] No. [B-SOUND] No. [A-SOUND]. He is my sometime seamstress and he accompanies me wherever. [B-SOUND] No. Name the thing: [yellow sound + black sound]. Answer quickly. [A-SOUND] Marked. Answer confidently. Name the thing. This is yellow. [yellow sound] The black sound. [black sound]. Answer as though you are falling asleep. [B-SOUND] Yes, I hate hot colors when they slip down from something. [C-SOUND] Yes. Name the thing: [yellow sound + black sound]. Mark the thing with a suffixation of water. [A-SOUND] Name the sound: [yellow sound + black sound]. It is our friend the bumble bee marked with a suffixation of water. He accompanies me wherever. (this speech may be augmented or modified through actor improvisation)
External voice: please replace your masks(or words to that effect!)
___
INTERROGATOR 2:
How do YOU atone for the attributes of things?
MAN:
What?
INTERROGATOR 2:
Size. Smell. [C-SOUND] Color. Taste.
MAN:
Me?
INTERROGATOR 2:
You. This is red [red sound]. This is blue [blue sound].
INTERROGATOR 1:
This is the black sound [black sound]. This is the black sound [black sound]. This is the yellow sound [yellow sound]. This is the black sound [black sound]. This is the yellow sound [yellow sound]. [yellow sound + black sound] Name it. Name it. [yellow sound + black sound] Name it.
MAN:
I believe it [yellow sound + black sound] is our friend the vanishing bumble bee. [yellow sound + black sound]
INTERROGATOR 2:
How do you account for the attributes of things?
MAN:
They appear to me as extensions of myself.
___
INTERROGATOR 2:
[A-SOUND] or in the event [C-SOUND]. In the event [A-SOUND] [B-SOUND].
INTERROGATOR 1:
[B-SOUND] in the non-marked event. [B-SOUND] in the non-marked event. Or in the event [yellow sound + white sound] [A-SOUND]. We can make it shiny like this [yellow sound + white sound] (subjected to some process, like increased volume, filtering, whatever).
INTERROGATOR 2:
We can add an attribute in that event or in the event [C-SOUND]. We can add it wherever.
INTERROGATOR 1 and INTERROGATOR 2 (together):
Wherever. That’s what she said to me.
INTERROGATOR 1:
[A-SOUND] or we can make it dull in that event [B-SOUND]. [yellow sound + white sound] (subjected to some process, like decreased volume, inverse filtering, whatever, a different process than “shiny”).
External voice: please remove your masks(or words to that effect!)
__
WOMAN:
They needed to show me something.
MAN:
They needed to show us the attributes of things.
WOMAN:
Did they show them to you?
MAN:
We sat by a water well and there were bumble bees nearby. Weren’t there?
WOMAN:
… and there was a plant with a purple attribute nearby.
MAN:
How did you ACCOUNT for that?
WOMAN:
I DIDN’T atone for it because I don’t think I did anything wrong.
___
INTERROGATOR 2:
This is red and blue [red sound + blue sound]. This is purple [red sound + blue sound].
MAN:
Hmm.
INTERROGATOR 1:
The two convocate and this is purple. Mark it. This [red sound + blue sound] is the purple sound.
MAN:
… and our friend the bumble bee convocates with it nearby. [yellow sound + black sound]. She said, “This water well is a source of good health and the humid odor of spring provides a carefree warmth to the day.”
INTERROGATOR 2:
… and nearby was a plant with purple attributes. This is purple [red sound + blue sound]. Red [red sound] and blue [blue sound]. Purple [red sound + blue sound].
INTERROGATOR 1:
The purple sound. Purple [red sound + blue sound].
INTERROGATOR 2:
And I suppose the water had no attributes?
MAN:
No!
INTERROGATOR 1:
… and [A-SOUND] in any event.
MAN:
No!
INTERROGATOR 1:
… and [B-SOUND] in the event [A-SOUND].
MAN:
No!
WOMAN:
I said, “It is our friend the bumble bee marked with a suffixation of water. He accompanies me wherever.”
INTERROGATOR 1:
… and nearby was the purple sound?
WOMAN:
Yes! [red sound + blue sound]
INTERROGATOR 2:
Hmm.
External voice: please replace your masks(or words to that effect!)
___
(A long section of water sounds with the purple flower (plant) sounds and bumble bee sounds coming in and out. Woman “asleep” recounts first improvised dream sequence, enhanced through varied and heavy live audio computer processing.)
AT THE MOMENT THIS IS A REPEAT OF THE PARACHUTE MONOLOGUE – UNSURE AS TO WHETHER THIS IS THE AUTHOR’S INTENTION
_____
External voice: please remove your masks(or words to that effect!)
INTERROGATOR 1:
Now. Divert attention entirely away from your right hand. I’d like to show you something. Don’t consider the position of your right hand. Disregard the sweatiness of your right hand. Even if you are listening, in some sense, outside of this conversation. Don’t consider the position of your right hand fingers or the clenchedness of your right fist. Disregard any slight tremulous movements of the right fingers of the right hand. Now, with your right hand disregarded… [red sound + blue sound] reach out for it [yellow sound + black sound].
WOMAN
But not it’s nearby of enough the water well.
MAN
The two suffocate and it’s purple. [red sound and blue sound]. This water well provides can a suffo-kixation of humid order. A humid order and the seamless attributes of things. It is our the bumble bee friend with a marked suffixation of water. He accompanies us wherever.
INTERROGATOR 2
I hate hot colors when they drip down from things.
