It is the middle of the night. Evvy enters in a daze, as in a dream, sleepwalking. Simon now inhabits The Chandelier, which vibrates with delicate music. They share a memory. Evvy asks, “Simon, do you remember the first time we danced?” and vivid sensory details of the experience come flooding back to them both. Simon assures Evvy that his appetite for life is endless and that he will always desire more, as Evvy strokes the Chandelier and conjures new sounds to envelope Simon’s voice.
Video production by Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams
She calls out to Simon, “Touch me,” as Simon’s voice in The Chandelier endlessly repeats “More.” From a memory of love in the past comes a renewal of erotic passion, melding Evvy’s physicality with Simon’s new form.
Libretto
Scene Four – Evvy’s Touch
Time cut/dissolve. It is the middle of the night. EVVY enters in a daze, as in a dream, sleepwalking. EVVY speaks with SIMON as The System. They share a memory.
EVVY
Simon, do you remember the first time we danced?
SIMON
In the parking lot of the Francis Drake Hotel.
EVVY
They had the windows open and we could hear the band.
SIMON
“Begin the Beguine.” I remember the terrace.
EVVY
On the other side remember the tall hedge.
SIMON
A tall hedge of pittosporum. I remember.
EVVY
And the smell I remember of night jasmine.
SIMON
Your dress pink your pearls in as I remember two strands.
EVVY
Held together I remember by a little silver bangle.
SIMON
I remember, love. And we danced for joy. Remember?
EVVY
It’s hard to get used to seeing you like this.
Haven’t you had enough?
Do you want to live forever?
SIMON
You say to me,
“Haven’t you had enough?”
And you say to me,
“Do you want to live forever!”
It’s not forever! It’s not “enough”!
Don’t think about enough!
Enough never is enough!
Ask anybody how much money
Would be enough for you?
Just about every body
Says double what they have
Or what they make.
What is enough being alive?
Why does the crushed bug
Keep waving a leg? That wave
Is for more, and more.
Forever doesn’t matter.
Enough isn’t good enough.
What matters is more.
Forever is not the point.
EVVY
Touch me.
O yes that.
And some this.
And this again, yes.
And more of that.
O yes both and that
Too and this other and O
More this.
And that.
And the other.
O.
Yes, yes that and
The other
And this and that and more and all
And the other and O yes
All yes all yes, all yes.
Touch me.
SIMON makes contact with EVVY a sublime, intimate encounter between EVVY and The System. MIRANDA walks in at the end of the scene.
MIRANDA
Buying…
Ever…
Over…
Rest of the
Earth…
Together…
To be continued…
Death and the Powers Preview Series
Series intro and prologue
Memory Download
Scene 1: Simon and the System
Scene 2: System Soliloquy
Scene 3: Getting to Know You
Scene 4: Evvy’s Touch
Scene 5: Nicholas and the Robots
Scene 6: The World Reacts
Scene 7: Into the System
Scene 8: Miseries, Memory and Miranda
Opera of the Future 