Everything—the walls, The Chandelier, the robots—is working together. Simon seems to be everywhere, inhabiting them all, omnipotent. Evvy finally removes the headphones and tells Nicholas and Miranda that she has been channeling Simon: “I’ve been listening to Simon. It’s like when we fell in love … You can jump. You can fall forever, and do it again.” Now it is Evvy and Nicholas who are transformed, as they too are absorbed into The System. Only Miranda is left to face the outside world.
Video production by Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams
Libretto
Scene Seven – Into The System
NICHOLAS
Still, I do wonder—
Now that we are ready
To leave the last bit
Of these mortal bodies,
I do wonder
Why does he choose
More and more
To live away from the world.
The senses will be stronger,
Not weaker.
The body will do more,
Not less.
The mind will be free.
The senses will be pure,
More and more.
MIRANDA
What will it feel like?
What does he feel?
EVVY [She removes the headphones, and regains focus.]
I will tell you what it is like.
I have been listening to Simon.
It’s like when we fell in love.
This is what it’s like:
When you stand on a high building
Or on a bridge and you want to jump—
Something in you wants to jump,
To feel what it might be like.
You can jump.
You can fall forever, and do it again.
You are free to keep on falling forever
You are free to fall and change your mind
And drift back up.
I’ve been listening to Simon.
Excuse me.
NICHOLAS
She is going into the system.
The world is her body,
She is everything she hears,
She can see for a million miles.
It is like falling in love.
EVVY is transformed, absorbed in The System. Her body becomes empty and she is manifested somewhere in the room.
EVVY [as part of the room]
Are you coming, Nicholas?
NICHOLAS
I’m already there!
NICHOLAS too is transformed, appearing as some previously inanimate part of the room. It appears that everyone in the family unit except MIRANDA has “become the room.”
MIRANDA
They have all gone into the world of light!
But what about the poor, the children, the starving?
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 