“THE GODDESS SPEAKS.”
1 The Goddess Exists
2 Weapon of Democracy
3 Beijing Man
4 Seeker of Freedom
5 Ghost of Head Mason
6 Counter-Revolutionary Rebellion
7 The Goddess Murders
The stage is lit by three footlights, red gels on either side and a clear in the middle. Four flashlight beams cross the stage from either side of the club space. Opening theme is played by the orchestra, which is set behind the main stage. A smoke machine runs at low power. The plaster Goddess is at stage center. The opening video is played during the theme, and near its conclusion the voice of the flesh Goddess begins over the sound system.
Goddess:
I stand before you.
I, the Goddess of all freedoms and Democracy,
I stand before you as the natural reaction to half a century of images.
You must not fear me, though I have the power to twist your fears to fit my needs.
You must not hate me, though your hatred becomes me.
You must not destroy me, though in me the seed for your destruction are sown.
What you must know of the Goddess is this, and this only:
The Goddess never lies. The Goddess is incapable of falsehood.
The people whom the Goddess loves will never come to harm.
The Goddess loves those who love the truth of the Goddess.
The Goddess never repeats herself. The Goddess never lies.
What the Goddess said yesterday is far removed from what the I Goddess speaks today.
Though there is a new Goddess every day,
I am the same Goddess as yesterday, and I bear no relation to her.
During this speech, the plaster Goddess remains at the stage center. The flesh Goddess comes onstage after the first sentence and moves about without expression. He wears an all-black costume with an undetermined emblem on the arms. On two sheet screens on either side of the stage, there are slides of television snippets and other pertinent images. The flesh Goddess mainly moves along the front of the stage, staring intensely but without expression into the eyes of various and random audience members.
Goddess:
The Goddess has machines that, when operated by humans, cause death.
I, as the Goddess, am the sole legal author of death.
These weapons have proved useful, on occasion, in causing death.
The manufacture of these weapons have been consistently useful in creating the food of defense.
Using these weapons to create food has been the greatest reward of these machines.
Yet death, in Democracy and in numbers too great, is detrimental to the free flow of goods and services.
Food and drugs must be sent to the people.
More subtle weapons are afforded to the Goddess.
I am the Goddess tonight. Bastions! Bring the weapon!
Bring forth the towering weapon of Democracy!
Bare the weapon on this stage!”
Masked bastions wheel out a television and place it in front of the plaster Goddess as the flesh Goddess raises his arms in expressionless incitement. The stomping democracy theme is played. The bastions whirl the TV while the flesh Goddess exits and mask Goddess enters. The mask is a clean white surface upon which slides are projected. He wears a black outfit that covers the whole body. He stands behind the television, and his movements during the scene suggest that he is physically tethered to it. The tone is even; the Goddess is calm.
2. Weapon of Democracy
Goddess:
“Now I am calm.
The Goddess is calm.
I am in the presence of the images that provide me sustenance.
The images sooth me, and enable, I appear strong, and bold.
I have no fear to show to the people. The people want to be led,
and this weapon of democracy leads in my image.
When I appear on the screen, tall and virile and speaking the truth;
incessantly and willfully sowing truth on the screens of the rules—-
I feel strong! I’ve been presented to the people.
We’ve elected, I’ve been seen, the choice has been made.
Every time the people watch me rule, it validates the force of my rule.
They see my image on screens, and maybe one will say,
‘Yes, it is he who rules’, and fathers point, and say to sons, “it is he’”, and I rule.
And they see products.
The products provide hope, and they are bought.
Workers purchase aspirin products, and consume them.
The people suck down syrup-based caffeine products, and remain alert in the market place.
When the sun falls, and it is time for rest, they swallow pills to sleep.
When they awaken, the Goddess tells them the morning truth.
My weapon does not murder you. In the morning, you are alive, and well.
The weapon of Democracy is good.
The people are please to see the Goddess,
and Goddess thrives on the energy of the viewers.
All who are good profit when the Goddess thrives.
The weapon is in the hands of wise and capable men.
Those who stand aloof from the Goddess, and behold her.
The broadcast of the truth rests with the earnest man,
the man who holds and sets forth all the images of the screen,
possesses and shares equally and at the same time.
I give to you, in this room and on this stage——TV Man!
The smoke machines give a controlled burst of vapor, enough to cover the stage for TV Man to enter, the plaster Goddess to be replaced at stage center, and the mask Goddess to exit. The TV Man wears a fine suit. His head is a television. The logo of the Goddess flashes on the screen of TV Man’s face whenever he speaks. He carries a microphone, and holds it in the fist of his right hand, which is placed over his heart. He gestures with his left hand often, but never moves the microphone. A small television is mounted on the top of the mask. The orchestra plays the TV Man theme.
3. Beijing Man
TV Man:
I am the TV Man. Ladies and Gentlemen, watch TV.
I have come here tonight for one reason, and one reason only:
To have ladies and gentlemen watch TV.
This is what I will do: Tell you what I am going to tell you, then tell you, and then tell you what I told you.
None will have a necessary and binding relation to the other.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is a special Goddess that I will tell you tonight.
A Goddess of Freedom and Democracy.
It’s all very important, but the Goddess will be here tonight, and she will speak.
Consumable products, legal and widely available in the free marketplace,
will also appear on the screen periodically.
It is in your best interest, as well as that of the Goddess,
to purchase and consume these products.
But for now, ladies and gentlemen, alive and well, from Tiananmen Square,
The Goddess of Freedom and Democracy!
Two hooded characters cross from stage right and push the plaster Goddess off the stage. The flesh Goddess enters from stage left and joins TV Man at stage center. The flesh Goddess now wears a white robe, as if Confucius. Chunks of plaster and metal lath are tossed onto the stage from the right after the orchestra announces the entrance of the Goddess. The TV Man puts his left arm around a beaming flesh Goddess. The TV Man variously gestures with this arm throughout the part, and the flesh Goddess makes proud gestures.
TV Man/ Goddess:
Listen, Goddess, you had a great run over there on the Square.
“Yeah. Hey, thanks TV Man. I tell ya, it was hot out there on that big concrete slab, sun beatin down on you all day, not a damn thing to eat.”
“Let me ask you, Goddess, did you tell the people out there, all those dead people, that they would die?”
“Of course. It is true that the Goddess never lies, but also the Goddess relentlessly tells the truth. As soon as I stood, tall and full of powerful meaning, I began to utter, in the common frequency, and in the plain air, for all to hear, that they would quite rightly and swiftly die.”
“Do you think they believed you?”
“Those who knew the true nature of democracy knew they would be murdered. A true leader in Democracy must never fail to use the weapons of democracy on the people.”
“You speak the truth, Goddess.”
“There was a beautiful moment, TV Man, of understanding and truth, that happened in one speck of time on the square and in the minds of the dead. It was a true instant of Democracy, and it brought tears of joy to the Goddess. The truth was clear: nothing muddled the perception of truth, freedom and democracy.”
“Tell us, Goddess, tell the TV Man of this shining moment that will stand forever on the screens of the ruled.”
“When they heard the Goddess coming, and there was only one footstep: one leg was heard, and then the other, and they knew that truth in some form was coming down the street, down real asphalt, through a real city, and with real guns, and there was only one footstep. But when they turned the corner, everyone saw there were rows of forty backed by rows forty, and there were thousand then at one moment, on the minds of the people who stood there and looked, with their breath caught in mid-gasp, and they all thought at once: These people are here to kill me. Now I will die.”
“Goddess, you took a nasty dive there at the end. You looked like a million bucks.”
“Thanks, TV Man, but that was not the Goddess. We sent in the stunt Goddess.”
“Stunt Goddess?”
Action freezes onstage. Voices of torment and despair play over the sound system. The Seeker of Freedom rushes from near the orchestra, which lapses into the Freedom music. The Seeker wears a mask with two eyes that dominate, they are as big as softballs. She wears a dark green dress. She is ragged and out of breath, but for no apparent reason, while the flesh Goddess cowers at the sight of Seeker of Freedom, TV Man makes tentative steps towards her.
4. Seeker of Freedom
Seeker/ Goddess:
“I am the Seeker of Freedom, and I denounce this Goddess as the proponent of a predetermined truth. I refuse to swallow your version of fact, whole and unchewed, Goddess. I choke on your offerings.”
“You repel me, Seeker of Freedom. Your words are strange, you make me waver. You must not broadcast doubts of the truth to the people. I fear you. I am strong, know you not that? Look at my veins; I determine the course of history. I hold sway over nation-states. Yours is to receive the truth as it is determined. You repel me, I shy from your face, I cannot hold your gaze. Do not cast your beam of doubt, do not probe, I must be unquestioned, I feel faint, I was elected by the consent of the ruled…”
The flesh Goddess moves backwards toward the left end of the stage as speaks. There is pain on his face, he shakes his head as he speaks, his hands clasped over his scalp. The TV Man is shocked at the exchange, and stand between the two.
Seeker/ TV Man:
“TV Man, you must shine your lights on my face. Broadcast the images of the pursuit of freedom. My despair is measurable. I am constrained and —”
“Why do you doubt the Goddess? Has she not ever soothed you, don’t you take shelter in the shadow of her greatness? Are you prepared to denounce the products, Seeker? What do you know of the world, and the truth? Aren’t you grateful that the Goddess has assumed the burdens of this post-war construct? Do you desire the fall of the Goddess?”
“You strike deep, TV Man. I am perplexed. These are the thoughts that gnaw at my conviction, you’ve voiced my conundrum. I claim to seek freedom and feel incapable of knowing it. Others point to my nation-state, and intuitively nod, and say, ‘this is freedom’. I want to remember more than fifty years ago, this is not the beginning of time. I sicken of hollow anniversaries that fill my calendar. I worship ancestors who fought for what I think I’ve lost. I have— TV Man, you see our plight, shine the lens, TV Man.”
As seeker of Freedom makes the speech of doubt, the flesh Goddess begins to straighten out of his cower and puff his chest, but as the TV Man begins to favor the Seeker; drawn to him, the Goddess slinks off stage. The smoke machine picks up and the orchestra begins to play the menacing Head Mason theme.
TV Man:
“I am not content, Seeker. My role, and that of the Goddess, is clear. Your doubts frighten me, appall me. My lens— Oh, my lens!”
TV Man writhes. The Head Mason enters from stage right. He wears a military-type uniform and carries a brick trowel in his left hand. His clothes are ripped and rancid, as if buried for a long time. He wears a mask. The face of the mask is skeletal and on the top of it rests a cinder block. He moves jerkily and with exhortative hand motions.
5 Ghost of Head Mason
Head Mason:
“I am the earthly remains of the Head Mason of the Wall in Berlin.
I come to incite this Seeker of Freedom to greater heights of vigilance in her search.
I have sought freedom, I have killed men for it.
I am dead, and in the ground.
Maggots and worms crawl through the empty sockets of my earthly form.
In the past, I have built the truth. I constructed the symbol of order, and now it is trounced on by the young.
What glory lies in peace? Who here has ever marched home from peace?
What scientific advances have been discovered in the name of peace?
What order is constructed without conflict?
Seeker, tell me, is your nation-state at war or peace?”
The Seeker moves to stage center with the Head Mason. TV Man is at stage left, intently observing the action, but will fade off the stage after a certain time, as the dialogue intensifies.
Head Mason/ Seeker:
” Head Mason, peace is breaking out across the globe. I am shown images of freedom in foreign locales, and am made to feel as if I should be joyous. Yet every day I am also told of war. Yes, Head Mason, I must tell you of a war on drugs.”
“Drugs, Seeker? Let me tell you, as a person who has killed, killed humans for the state and built towering figures of freedom from the rotting flesh of corpses, let me tell you that no war is ever fought against a thing that cannot die. Drugs are products, they do not breathe yet thrive in the free marketplace, they do not live and cannot die. War is always fought against the living. You interest me, Seeker of Freedom, tell me more of this war. Are there humans attached to these drugs you speak of, is there some from of death that can come to them?
“Yes, Head Mason, those who consume the drugs perish. Those who do not perish are sapped of ability to think, and choose. Those who command the war supply the enemy to the people.”
“The nature of this military action confuses me. Seeker of Freedom, we shall call the bearer of truth, the Goddess— we shall bring her onto this stage. The Goddess never lies. The Goddess will speak the truth, and we will fashion our actions accordingly. Let me tell you this—if you are right, if the Goddess both fights the enemy and supplies the enemy to the people, the Goddess must fall. Bring the Goddess!”
The flesh of Goddess returns to the stage, slack-shouldered. The TV Man attends her closely. The music focuses on the foreboding sequence of the Head Mason theme.
Head Mason/ Goddess:
“Goddess, we’ve brought you onto this stage for one reason, to tell us the true nature of this Goddess-sponsored war on drugs. I have seen war, and I know what stuff it is made of; its stench. Now is the time for the Goddess to speak the truth, in the presence of the Seeker of Freedom, and the TV Man, and all assembled. Tell us of the war.”
There is a long, tortured pause by the Goddess.
“I will tell you in the language of the war. I will say it only once. It is not the interest of the Goddess, but it will be spoken at the request of a great hero of freedom, the Head Mason of the Berlin Wall. The Goddess wages war in foreign locales. Products are grown and assembled in these lands, and are sent to the land of the Goddess for consumption. The people of the Goddess are the grand consumers of the world; the free marketplace dictates that these drug products must be sent to the people.”
“And the Goddess facilitates this movement?”
“It is in the interest of the Goddess.”
“Drugs are both the enemy and the weapon of the Goddess?”
“You are perceptive.”
“Then the Goddess must fall.”
The stage falls into black. Head Mason speaks his next lines in the pandemonium that follows. Two televisions are wheeled onto the stage, to add to the two screens. The mask Goddess returns to the stage, as well as the hooded figures. The counter-Revolutionary accompanying music plays, there is also a soundtrack of special effects: sounds of horror, despair, and anger. The flesh Goddess is offstage.
6 Counter-revolutionary Rebellion
Head Mason/ Seeker:
“Seeker, I turn to you, for I am dead. I can do nothing for the fall of the Goddess. I impel you— the Goddess has spoken, she has sown her fall. Her voice is double, you were right to doubt the truth of the Goddess. All can see the capacity for deception is well-established. TV Man— you must broadcast this intelligence to the people.”
“Head Mason, I still seek Freedom, but I have received the images of the Goddess for so long. I am afraid, and unsure. What if my freedom is bad for the free flow of goods and services? What of the products? Can I seek without the products? What if I have nothing of value to replace the Goddess?”
“The Goddess must fall. TV Man will help you. I must return to my seat in Democracy Heaven. You will reside there when the Goddess falls. Glory will come to you; smash the Goddess now and your mass will create a new truth to fill the gap of her presence. You were intimately involved with her rise, her fall imprinted in you as well.”
The Head Mason slips off the stage in the flurry that follows. The smoke machine kicks in again, and the voices of the effects soundtrack return. The mask Goddess is at stage right, the hooded figures make circles at stage left, gnashing teeth and clawing the stage. The Seeker of freedom and TV Man are near the edge of stage center. They are motionless, and TV Man speaks finally as the commotion lessens.
TV Man/ Seeker:“What are we to do Seeker? What will I do without the guidance of the Goddess? I’ve no direction, I’ve nothing to attend, I’ve nothing but broken bits of images that I have beheld to the Goddess.”
“Show me the images now. I detest the Goddess, and she will fall, but I desire the representation of what I’ve seen before. Maybe I will come into what has spurred me to seek. Oh, at the moment that I’ve sought for, eyes wide open and salivating for it, the moment that the Head Mason evokes me to action I desire to see the images that sent me to this spot.”
“We can do it Seeker. We can create a new order of images, and they will please all that survey them, yes, we’ll try, and the Goddess—Oh, how I hate her, how I am jerked from here, and show this form there, and feasted on morsels and called it a meal—”
“I want to see the images in a different light; with a clear mind.”
Images appear on the screen at stage left, then on the television at stage left, then the other screen, the other television, and the surface of the mask Goddess. The Seeker raises her arms as the images begin, and begins to spring.
“Ah—now I am emboldened. Yes, now I feel the weight of the ages—ahhhh—now I am spirited by my heritage, my ancestors rose for freedom, they bore arms for Democracy when they knew there was none. I feel right, all is clear, nothing is grey, I must seek out that beast of a Goddess and rip her throat, throw it to the floor of a free nation-state. Bar what comes, what follows—”
“Yes, Seeker. The people will follow you as well. You grow in my eyes. The people want to be led, I will lead in your image. Go, Seeker, you rise in stature as you go—victory will follow you.”
The hooded figures rise and stare at the television and sheet screens. They are still. The mask Goddess moves her arms in a pattern as images are cast on his mask. The Seeker rushes across the stage to take action. Suddenly the screen at stage left blinks out and returns with a portrait of the flesh Goddess in his black uniform. The same thing happens to each screen until all have the portrait.
The TV Man falls to his knees and covers his face. The hooded figures bash at their bodies to puncture enormous bloodbags that are in their robes. The Seeker comes to stage center and kneels beneath the plaster Goddess, grabbing her head in the international sign of despair.
Hooded Figure #4 crosses the stage militantly, elegantly, with great gymnastic tumbles, as the music begins to come down from its deafening theme of the counter Revolutionary Rebellion. Finally, Hooded Figure #4 rips open the belly of the plaster Goddess, removes a bloodbag from inside it, and drenches the Seeker.
The flesh Goddess re-enters and comes to the middle of the stage. TV Man gets up and pushes the plaster Goddess to the center, the mask Goddess and flesh Goddess flank her. Seeker of Freedom lays lifeless. TV Man kneels in front of the Goddesses and behind Seeker, head touching the floor. The Goddess theme is played by the orchestra. The Goddess pumps his fist, looking straight into the eyes of the audience. He is vociferous.
7. The Goddess Murders
Goddess:
“The Goddess must never fail to use the weapon of Democracy on the people. The free flow of goods and services is uninterrupted. The people loves the Goddess, and the Goddess loves those who love the Goddess. All is well. All who love me—-rise, and repeat.”
The TV Man, Seeker of Freedom, and hooded figures rise and arrange themselves kneeling in front of the Goddesses and facing the audience.
Goddess/ All
“I have received the truth yesterday.”
“I have received the truth yesterday.”
“I have purged all falsehood today.”
“I have purged all falsehood today.”
“I will receive the truth today.”
“I will receive the truth today.”
“The Goddess never lies.”
“The Goddess never lies.”
The Goddess theme plays on as the ritual is over. The closing video is run on the mask Goddess. Stage falls into darkness.
© 1989-2002 Daniel X. O’Neil
