Blood to the Soil

(A mini opera script inspired by Will Self)

by Cleo Harrington 2012

Total darkness, no sound, no movement.

Then we hear the sound of a RICOCHET stretched out - guttural yet mechanical. It is a slowed down gun shot followed by a slowed down punched key of a typewriter. The RICOCHET sounds repeat on a loop.

Then a rather dim SPOTLIGHT pans across the stage as if searching for something. It finds JESUS MAN -with his back to us- hanging at the back of the stage – hanging in the balance – arms outstretched like clinging to what appears to be the side of a steep – almost vertical HILL. We see (magnified on small flat screens placed left and right of the cross) JESUS MAN’S hands buried in the earth - close up of his fingers grasping the soil.

JESUS MAN: Let me crawl back into the soil. Let me return to who I am. Absorb me into the mineral of you great God of all. Absorb me. Absorb the poisoned blood of me - the blood that putrefies within me. Yield to me to the soil. Yield me to the soil.

The SPOTLIGHT fades and another bigger SPOTLIGHT falls onto the front of the stage. We see a seated row of five suited COMMITTEE MEN with their backs to us. Their chairs are fixed to the spot. They are watching everything – the events unfold. They don’t move but heckle aggressively.

COMMITTEE MEN: Speak up and tell the truth. Hurry up and tell the truth. No time for lies, no time for utter fools.

ANXIOUS MAN bearded, glasses and wearing creased ill-fitting grey suit comes in stage left frantically mopping his brow. He weaves in and out of the seated COMMITTEE MEN. Still mopping his brow as he moves in and out of the seated men.

He is whispering, fretful, and incoherent.

ANXIOUS MAN: It was supposed to be off the record. Just an informal chat. We shared some information. Nothing more than that.

ANXIOUS MAN scuttles off the stage.

SPOTLIGHT goes off and in a beat a new SPOTLIGHT falls stage left onto a ‘troop’ of six men in camouflage gear who move in very slow combat style movements. They move in time to the sounds of RICOCHET and BOOTS ON DRIED EARTH.

The SOLDIERS are trudging across a dried out Iraq dusty landscape.

One by one SOLDIERS fall dead to the ground.

We hear WEEPING from JESUS MAN as the SOLDIERS collapse into a heap.

The RICOCHETS, BOOTS ON DRIED EARTH and WEEPING sounds all combine to create a beautiful trance like symphony.

The SPOTLIGHT moves off the SOLDIERS and JESUS MAN is lit up again.

JESUS MAN: Stop my mind thinking. Stop my heart from beating. Take me back to the soil. Take me back to the soil.

The SPOTLIGHT moves across to COMMITTEE MEN. They are watching the events unfold. They don’t move at all but continue to heckle aggressively.

COMMITTEE MEN: Speak up! Speak up! We want to hear the truth. No time for lies - no time for fools.

ANXIOUS MAN weaves in and out of the COMMITTEE MEN. Mopping his brow as he moves in and out of the seated men. Like a thread. He is whispering.

ANXIOUS MAN: It was supposed to be off record. An informal chat. We shared information. Nothing more than that.

COMMITTEE MEN: Speak up! Speak up! We want to hear the truth. No time for lies - no time for fools.

ANXIOUS MAN scuttles off the stage.

SPOTLIGHT goes off again and a new spotlight reveals (stage right) a suited JOURNALIST and his SECRETARY.

A sort of jolly office scene, which is colourful and fast moving. The SECRETARY is typing in an exaggerated cartoon like manner. Hands up and down, up and down.

The JOURNALIST moves in a dance around her as he dictates the letter.

JOURNALIST: Thank you David for your time today. I am happy we got time to talk. I must say how enlightening your words have been. Enlightening indeed.

The SECRETARY stands up. 

SECRETARY: Enlightening. Especially the thing about the 45 minutes.

The JOURNALIST presses her back down onto the chair.

JOURNALIST: Keep it quiet. Don’t tell a soul. We want to be first to tell the world.

SECRETARY:  Keep it quiet. Yes I promise not to say. But the 45 minutes thing has blown my mind away.

JOURNALIST: All right just type, stop going on. We have to get it in now. We have to get it done.

SECRETARY: Yes -we have to get in now. Yes - we have to get it done.

SECRETARY finishes typing and pulls the PAPER from the typewriter to check the words.

JOURNALIST grabs the PAPER from her and throws it into the air - releases it with great bravado. 

SPOTLIGHT follows the PAPER as it flies upwards like a freed dove in flight.

Up and up above JESUS MAN on the hill.

JESUS MAN : I should have said no. I should have kept quiet.

The SPOTLIGHT comes off JESUS MAN and back down to the SECRETARY and the JOURNALIST who begin a triumphant Tango dance across the stage.

JOURNALIST: It’s all so exciting. It will create a furore. We’ll stop them in their tracks. We’ll end this futile war.

SECRETARY: It’s all so exciting. It will create a furore. We’ll stop them in their tracks. We’ll end this futile war.

The SPOTLIGHT goes off.

SPOTLIGHT on JESUS MAN as the HILL he is clinging to rotates 180 degrees so that the man is now lying horizontal.

SPOTLIGHT on The SOLDIERS who lift themselves up and move in a slow, slow crawl across to JESUS MAN then fall once again across him.

Then even more SOLDIERS appear from the wings and stagger in slow motion across the stage and fall across the pile of SOLDIERS already lying across JESUS MAN.

JESUS MAN: (muffled with laboured breathing) I am the poison now seeping through your veins. I am the man who mentioned all the names.

COMMITTEE MEN heckle: Speak up! Speak up! We want to hear the truth. No time for lies - no time for fools.

The SPOTLIGHT remains on the endless stream of SOLDIERS coming across the stage and falling onto the funeral pile.

Then suddenly we hear cries above the stage. WOMAN1 is standing amongst a group of WOMEN and young CHILDREN dressed completely in black. They are huddled together at the top of the Busby Berkeley style staircase.

WOMEN 1: My husband is dead.

CHILDREN: My father is dead.

CHILDREN: My brother is dead.

CHILDREN: My sister is dead.

WOMEN 2: My son is dead.

They repeat the same three sentences as they descend each step.

COMMITTEE MEN (heckling): Speak up! Speak up! We want to hear the truth. No time for lies - no time for utter fools.

ANXIOUS MAN weaves in and out of the COMMITTEE MEN. Mopping his brow as he moves in and out of the seated men.

ANXIOUS MAN: It was supposed to be off record. An informal chat. We shared information. Nothing more than that.

COMMITTEE MEN: Speak up! Speak up! We want to hear the truth. No time for lies - no time for fools.

ANXIOUS MAN scuttles off the stage.

The RICOCHET, the WOMEN and CHILDREN’S, BOOTS ON DRIED EARTH sounds all build to a cacophony. The SOLDIERS continue moving across the stage and falling, the WOMEN and CHILDREN descend the stairs, JOURNALIST and SECRETARY dance.

Then suddenly everything stops. Everything. There is absolute silence.

Then in silence JESUS MAN emerges from the pile of SOLDIERS. He staggers through the frozen in time JOURNALIST and SECRETARY and the WOMEN and CHILDREN to the front of the stage.

JESUS MAN falls to his knees.

JESUS MAN: The words were little but the consequence vast. I am the Judas and the verdict will be cast.

Now we just hear one EERIE SOUND of all the sounds from before amalgamated and slowed right down.

JESUS MAN: I am the scapegoat. I am the fool. The flaw in the theory the dirt in the jewel.

JESUS MAN lifts a huge knife from the floor and cuts his left wrist.

The two SCREENS on back wall show magnification of his blood seeping into the soil.

JOURNALIST and SECRETARY start dancing around dying JESUS MAN without a care in the world.

JOURNALIST: Keep it quiet. Don’t tell a soul. We want to be first to tell the whole world.

SECRETARY:  Keep it quiet. Yes I promise not to say. But the 45 minutes thing has blown my mind away.

JESUS MAN collapses to the ground and JOURNALIST and SECRETARY stand behind him. They freeze in a tango move with their hands clasped and pointed towards the audience.

The SOLDIERS move across the stage and collapse around JESUS MAN. Then WOMAN and CHILDREN collapse around JESUS MAN.

The fallen group form a fragile human sculpture. Iconic, religious beautiful.

We hear the EERIE SOUND again this time slowed right down until it forms ONE NOTE.

ONE NOTE held for six seconds.

Then silence for a beat.

Absolute darkness.

Then SPOTLIGHT on the PAPER that had flown above and now drops back down, down, down.

It falls onto the group of dead BODIES.

Then we hear a BUGLE sound The Last Post.

Then hundreds of PAPERS cascade onto the stage, scattering across to the audience.

These PAPERS are signed declarations of war, signed documents informing the family of their death, signed conscription forms, PAPERS of all sorts to represent every part of the process that led to war.

SPOTLIGHT on COMMITTEE MEN who stand up dust down their suits as if to brush off what they have seen. They even brush each other down before shaking each other’s hands in a jolly and congratulatory way. They exit the stage muttering happily as if relieved at leaving a boring meeting – nothing more than that.