Play: Sleep and the Infernal Clockwork

Sleep and the Infernal Clockwork

(Lights come up on a cyclorama creating the silhouettes of two characters: a woman and a man. The woman stands in one place, the man is constantly running in place. A transparent scrim is in front of them. A jogging jazz rhythm is playing with a mechanical, repetitive electronic song slowly sinking in, indistinguishable at first, slowly seeping into the cracks of the jazz rhythm until it actually compliments the rhythm of the jazz song. The electronic song continues to grow louder until, by the time the piece ends, the electronic song has dominated and decimated the jazz song. On the scrim, a sun is projected, then the words, in the center of the scrim “We work like clockwork” is projected on the screen, far above the actors. A moon is then projected in the sun’s place. For the rest of the play, these words show up and diminish from the scrim: “Ambition”, “Trust”, “Love”, “God”, “Money”, “Desire”, “Truth”, “Honesty”, “Tact”, “Punishment”, “You”, “Me”, “Hands”, “Death”. The lights and projections slowly fade as the electronic music takes its place. The electronic song is heard for a bit after all the lights have faded, then it fades itself.)