[joe-frank-list] 'A tour of the city' act 2

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	'You're riding in a cab in the rain...' Joe tells the damage
the rain does.  The cabdriver (a parody East European accent) says
that a purification plant cleans the rainwater, takes Joe to the
bridge where people commit suicide by jumping into the unpurified
water, so acid bodies dissolve immediately.  People yell and jump.
The line is so long some give up waiting.  The crowd applauds good
dives.

	3:10: The president addresses the nation, recalls when we knew
our neighbors, talked to each other.

	3:40: Vorst (I take the interrogators' names from
'Nightride'.) interrogates Alex about his job (an electrical engineer
at the main power plant).

	4:10: Joe describes the hydroelectric power plant.  We can
hear the sound of its operation in the background.

	5:10: A warning light flashes; pipes and wires break; fires
start.  Workers frantically attempt repairs.

	6:20: Vorst asks Alex if he knows how much breakdowns at the
plant harm the city.

	7:20: A distant woman's voice, barely audible, questions Alex,
has the same conversation Olga had with Alex in act 1.

	8:20: Alex tells Voltgen that something is missing from his
life; Voltgen asks what he's missing as though it is palpable
('animal, vegetable, or mineral... what color?').

	10:30: The president recalls how wonderful it was to talk to
the people you encountered.

	11:00: Vorst asks Alex if he has any siblings (no), then why
not.  Vorst asks  Alex if he would have had more children had he been his
parents.  Vorst asks Alex why he has no children.  Vorst tells Alex
that Eva and Olga work for his organization.

	12:20: Alex converses with the distant voice of Eva, has the
conversation about making love from act 1.

	13:00: Vorst and Funk talk about what a great dancer Eva is,
that they were out with her last night.  Alex tells them she can't
walk; they disagree.

	13:30: Joe tells of a prisoner watching the rain from his
cell.

	14:00: Vorst tells of flying over the presidential palace.

	14:50: The president tells of being poor when he grew up, how
his mother made food from nothing: wood pulp omelettes, sparrow soup,
baked earthcakes.  The children would collect water by squeezing it
off ferns in the rain.  He calls upon citizens to take strength from
adversity, such as the blackout.

	16:20: Vorst asks Alex what he enjoyed doing with his father.
Alex says fishing.  Vorst makes fun of this.

	17:00: Alex has a flashback of fishing with his father.  Alex
wonders when his mother can join them fishing.

	18:50: Vorst asks what was wrong with his mother; she had had
an accident.

	19:30: Alex describes the accident that hurt his mother; it
happened when he stuck his mother's hat pin into an electrical socket,
which caused an explosion.  Vorst and Funk laugh at this.

	20:00: Sound from the Electricism service sounds faintly, then
the washerwoman's bout with the beetle, then the fellow describing
suicideurs, all from act 1.

	20:40: Joe says the streets have turned into canals; coffins
have floated out of the cemetery; a woman jumps from the bridge.

	21:50: Alex tells of the funeral parlor in his neighborhood;
he walks in.  A background voice (Vorst?) asks children's questions,
'Where does the rain come from?... Why do I have to go to my room?  If
I don't like it, why do I have to eat it?  Are we there yet?'.  Alex
describes the service in the parlor.  The minister sounds like he's
describing Alex; Alex notices the similarity.  Alex goes up to the
coffin, sees it's empty, so gets in, lies down; he notices his lips
are sewn shut, his face heavily rouged.  They close the coffin, carry
it out; he hears the sound of children playing in an adjoining lot.

	Year: 1984

	Cast: (some of) Alan Hunter, Marilyn Casky, Barbara Sohmers,
Arthur Miller, Brother Theodore, Mark Hammer, Joseph Palmieri, Clark
Gordon, Larry Block, Sharon Dennis-Wyeth, Richard Bauer, Tim Jerome,
and Joe Frank

	Music: 'Music for mallet instruments, voices and organ' (Steve
Reich)

russell bell