POST DOGMATIST QUARTERLY
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Alphabets for the Melancholy
a play for language on a sinking ship
by Che LeMomo (1998)
Silent movie dance for dancer (Dawn) and theramin (Saint-Saens’ "The Swan" performed by Clara Rockmore). Many blue letters fall from the sky, creating a sea, but this abecedarian ocean lacks Zs, so the dancer casts handsfull of Zs upon the waves. The three sailors (S1, S2, S3) sleep in fetal positions on the ocean floor. When the dance is over, they awake.
S3
Is this the night
S2
Is this the way
Captain
Was she the dawn
S1
Me’Captain
Captain
My dawn
S3
Captain
S2
Me’Captain
S1
Me’Captain
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the way the Always
drowns
S2
Is this the way the Bottom
sounds
S3
Is this the way the Cry
confesses
Captain
Is this the way the Dawn
undresses
Dawn is regal but nobody sees her.
S3
There
S1
There
Captain
Here
S1
Nevermore
Captain
Or evermore
Ss (whispering)
We have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Captain
But here
S3
Ahoy
S2
It is now then
S3
Now then
Captain
This is
S2
Me’Captain
Captain
Where is the dawn
I must reach the dawn
S3
Farewell to right and reason, say
Ss
Farewell to right and reason
S1
Light at noon is out of season
Ss
Say farewell to right and reason
S2 I can beat this, Captain
Improvisational event (The Fish)
Captain
I may have been wrong but I know it was real;
She undressed from her red gray orange fold
And her nakedness was gold...
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the way the Ever
ends
S2
Is this the way the Fever
tends
S3
Is this the way the Gateway
closes
Captain
Is this the way the Hope
reposes
S3
What, what way
S1
This passed into that
S2
That passed into this
S1
To here
S2
To this
S1
To this and that
S3
It is now then
Captain
This is...
She is...
Dawn
This is the way -- this is the night -- now...
Captain
My dawn
S1
Me’Captain
S2
Me’Captain
S3
Captain
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the way the Ink
obscures
S2
Is this the way the Jest
endures
S3
Is this the way the Kitten
nines
Captain
Is this the way the Love
unwinds
S2 (whispering)
We have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Ss (whispering)
Nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Captain
But here...
S3
But here is everywhere... Here is... Now...
Dawn You are leaving Y; you are commencing Z
Captain
I may have been drunk but I know I was
blessed; and her nakedness, her dawn,
undressed, was gold...
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
S1
Gold
S3
Gold
S3 Her light is almost, almost gone now, here now
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the way the Morning
hurts
S2
Is this the way the Never
lurks
S3
Is this the way the Only
soars
Captain
Is this the way the Passion
roars
S3
Is this the way the Quick
escape it
S2
Is this the way the Rest
won’t make it
Live Sound Ping
S3
No
S2
Already
S1
It’s now
S3
Oh no
Captain
Sing... Sing...
Captain
This is the way the Star
unwraps
This is the way the Thunder
claps
This is the way the Urn
remembers
This is the way the Vision
embers
This is the way the Windfall
clutches
This is the way the X-ray
touches
This is the way the Yearn
complies
This is the way the Zenith...
Cries
S3
This was this
S2
And that was that
S3
It’s now then
S2
Now
S3
Past Y
S2
Whereat
S3
Bedoomed
S2
Monsooned
S3
We’re out of time
S2
Fate calls
S3
In squalls
S2
Swells rising
S1
Climb
S3
Rise
Ss
Rise
S2
Crest
Ss
Crest
S3
But there... Look there...
S1
It treads uncanny
Ss
Oh
S1
Sea spirit
S3
Captain
S2
Is it
S3
Is it he
S2
Its ghostly tread becalms the sea
S3
Tis a god, perhaps
S1
Hide your vision in the mist!
The sailors put on spectacles of mist & blindly look about.
Ss Shshsssshsssh (misty sea sounds)
Blind Tiresias, dragging a rope, crosses the stage diagonally as he recites the following.
Tiresias
Have you sailed the Aegean’s
Brimstone
Clouds?
Or Drunk
the juice of
Enigmatic
Fruits?
Glissando’d
down to
Hades’
hounds
Inhaling
heaven’s disrepute?
Have you wrung the sweat from Jeremiah’s
gauze, or
Kissed
the
Lace
that wraps the
Moon?
Can you quell the Neural
flight to
Oz
Propelling
history’s
Quest
for doom?
Can you Read
the morning?
Stencil
Tears?
Uncoil
Like a Vampire
razorback?
Weave
hope from white
Xeranthemums?
Pluck Yearnings
>From the Zodiac?
As the captain recites the following, a small white sailing ship slowly crosses the ocean, following the path of Tiresias.
Captain Auckland
Barbados,
nevermore
Carpathus
and
Durham
Elba,
nevermore
Frobisher
Bay
Gibraltar
Hong
Kong
Ischia,
off Naples’ coast, nevermore
Jamaica
Kinsale
Lisbon,
nevermore
Mar
del Plata
Newport,
nevermore
Odessus
Porto
Quiberon
Bay
Ravenna
Shanghai
Tobago,
nevermore
Ungava
Bay
Vera
Cruz
Willis
Isle
Xanthus
Yalta
and
Zanzibar...
Nevermore...
Nevermore
S3
Or evermore
You said...
Improvisational event (The Wind)
S3 (praying before a candle)
Apple
Bees
Can
Dapple
trees with
Earthy
Flights
of
Grazing
lights...
Hum
tumblers,
Incandescent
mumblers,
Jets
Kinetic,
Lithesome
bumblers...
Morning’s
hustle
Noonday’s
bustle,
Orange
Pollen
Quivers
Rustle,
Solar
Tigers
Ultrasonic,
Vibrant
flyers
Waltzing
chronic!
Xiphoid
guzzlers, make my honey!
Yeomen,
buzz your sunny
Zeal!
S1
One hell of a time we had of it
When her golden body rose
S3
It comes from here
S2
To us no song comes: Nowhere
Captain
Here...
S3
Here...
Captain
I may have been lost when the dawn undressed
when I saw sky and ocean part their lips
I tried, I tried to embrace her
Ss
Say
S2
Farewell to right and reason
Ss
Say farewell to right and reason
Dawn You are leaving Y; you are commencing Z
Ss
We have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Captain
But here
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the night the Angel
wakes
S2
Is this the night the Blossom
shakes
S3
Is this the night the Clear-eyed
grope
Captain
Is this the night the Doll’s
eyes ope(n)
S1
Is this the night the Engine
seizes
S2
Is this the night the Faith
in Jesus
S3
Is this the night the Galloping
quakes
Captain
Is this the night the Harbinger
waits
S3
What was
S1
We looked but did not see
S2
And there stood this and that
S1
As that was passing into this
S2
As this was passing into that
Captain
Here
Everything suspends as Dawn glows and speaks. S3, her candle still lit, carries it across the ocean before Dawn and kneels beside Captain, who is, as he has been from the beginning, suspended from a Jacob’s ladder.
Dawn
It shall flow like time but be fuller
not silent
a thing no human instrument can measure or touch
like the language of nature’s arcing gestures
the voice of flying
a grammar traced in a canopy of stars
to which your hearts respond by beating
It is that tone unheard to which you dance alone
for still you are alone
and must be alone...
The way, without effort, he attaches himself
to a frail, spinning world
and holds on
or is held
through the chill of winter
blue summer
gray fall
It is a form of knowledge you will certainly gain
by looking at yourself from the moon
or from a star
a silent knowing that causes even
the microcosmically small to lie down
together
under distance
vastness
night
to smother your vulnerability in an embrace
S3 Did anyone hear that bell? the bell?
Pause. Nobody hears it.
S2
No
Captain
My dawn
S2
Me’Captain
Captain
Dawn
S2
Me’Captain
S1
Captain
Dawn
This is the way -- this is the night -- Now...
Captain
Now... Yes...
S2 Now
S3 The
bell
S1 There
is no bell
S3
Then we have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
S1/S2 (mocking)
Nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Captain But here
S2
And nowhere
S3
Somewhere
S2
Nowhere
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the night the Inference
hits
S2
Is this the night the Javelin
splits
S3
Is this the night the Koan
is clear
Captain
Is this the night the Lost
reappear
Dawn It is
S1
Me’Captain
Captain
Dawn
S2
Ahoy
S1
Me’Captain
S2
Me’Captain
S3
Captain
Captain Dawn
S1
One hell of a time we had of it
When her golden body rose
S2
Say
Ss
Farewell to right and reason, say
Farewell to right and reason
S1
Yes, one hell of a time we had of it
When the sea rose high to an angry moon
And our stomachs black with gull and brine
That night the singer sang too soon
S3
Rise
Ss
Rise
S2
Crest
Ss
Crest
S1
His lungs were loud with crying gulls
Our ship was whipped by wailing chords
The angry sea had braided round our hull
As we implored, no more
S2
No more no more no nevermore no
S3
Rise
Ss
Rise
S2
Crest
Ss
Crest
S3
Rise
Ss
Rise
S2
Crest
Ss
Crest
S3
Rise
Ss
Rise
S2
Crest
Live Sound Ping
S1
Is this the night the Makeshift
bleeds
S2
Is this the night the Nether
needs
S3
Is this the night the Owl
awakens
Captain
Is this the night the Pawn’s
forsaken
S3
Is this the night the Quill
suspends
S2
Is this the night the Record
ends
Captain
Over
S3
Now
S2
Now
S1
Now
The sailors put on spectacles of mist & blindly look about.
Ss Shshsssshsssh (misty sea sounds)
Tiresias enters. Captain has descended from his ladder and is kneeling, his head to the ocean floor. Tiresias circles him many times before speaking.
Tiresias Don’t you
hear the Angels’
Bidding
Cry?
Death’s
ferry’s
Ensign
Fluttering?
The Gale’s
night-rending
Howl
and din?
The gulls’ Incessant
muttering?
This Judgment
ends the
Kiss
of time; the
Lips
of God are parting.
Mother
moon makes
Night
her bride as
Oceans
swell with drowned men’s
Pride...
Was it a Question
of
Redemption
all along?
The Seer’s
blind
Terror
Unconfessed?
The Vanity
of judging right from
Wrong
where love by law is
UneXpressed?
Old Yearnings
for earthly Utopias?
Too much Zeal
for your own humanness?
Ss (whispered)
We have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
S2
There. There. Her light is
Captain
Here. Her light
S2
Her light
Captain
Her light is here
Dawn You are leaving Y; you are commencing Z
Captain
I may have been wrong and I may have been drunk
and I may have been lost but her skin was gold
S1
And this
S2
And that
S3
And nowhere, here there
Captain
Here and now or never
Live Sound Ping
S3
The bell
S2
Already
S1
It’s now
S2
It’s now
Dawn has by this time descended to Captain. They turn and slowly now ascend to Dawn’s perch behind the golden disk.
Captain Sing... Sing
S3 comes forward to the audience.
S3
This is the night the Seed
won’t sprout
This is the night the Torch
burns out
This is the night the Urge
betrays you
This is the night the Vast
dismays you
This is the night the Wraith
rebuts us
This is the night the Xiphoid
cuts us
This is the night the Yonder
screaming
This is the night all Zeal
stops dreaming
S2
Now...
S1
Now...
S2
I have nowhere to come from
Nowhere to go
Captain
But here
S3
Here
Captain
We are here to go
S3
All here to go
S1
We are here to go
S2
And it’s now then
S1
Here then
Captain
Now then
Ss
Now
S1
Now passed into that, that passed into this
S2
This passed into here, here passed into now
S3
Right here? Right now?
Captain
Right here
Dawn
Right now
Dawn turns and embraces Captain.
Dawn You are leaving Y; you are commencing Z
S2
To us the song comes: Here
S1
I hear it
S2
Light, her light is almost
S1
Gone now
S2
Say farewell to right and reason
Ss
Now
The sailors put on spectacles of mist and blindly, smilingly, look all about.
Ss Shshsssshsssh (misty sea sounds)
Dawn and the Captain float on the horizon.
Dawn
A
Dawn, Captain
B
Dawn, Cap, S3
C
Dawn, Cap, S3, S1 D
Dawn, Cap, Ss
E,
F,
G,
H,
I,
J,
K,
L,
M,
N,
O,
P,
Q,
R,
S,
T,
U,
V,
W,
X,
Y...
All Z!
S1
Alphabets for the melancholy
S2
Lexicons of inhuman folly
S1
Chansonettes for the golden dawn
S3
Drink deep, her light is almost gone
S2
Now is
S1
Here is
S2
This is
S1
That is
S2
Here is
S3
Look... It’s almost gone
S1
Drink deep, her light is almost gone
S3
Her light is almost gone
S3 and S1 together rouse S2 and, looking above, they slowly walk to center. Holding hands, they begin to circle beneath a light that grows brighter and brighter as all other lights fade. Dawn and Captain wave good-bye to the audience. The sailors are turning faster and faster beneath the blinding light.
Live Sound Ping
The music is ending. The sailors slowly fall, fall, fall to their knees, staring up into the light with immense anticipation. Then, the light and the music are gone.
End of Play.