MBOAF 15 - Automat

"Man: Biology of a Fall"
Music by Evan Hause, Libretto by Gary Heidt
Act III Beginning (Scene 1)
Performed 10/6/07 at Kumble Theater in Brooklyn, NY

Directed by Jyana S. Gregory
Conducted by Evan Hause
Sets: Rumiko Ishii
Costumes: Jessica Ford
Lights: Matthew Richards

SYNOPSIS
Thanksgiving Day, 1953. A New York City Midtown Automat. LASHBROOK and OLSON (drugged) are having a grim Thanksgiving Dinner. Later Olson visits the shrink Abramson again.

LASHBROOK (played by Darren Lougee)
How's the turkey?

OLSON (played by Steven Ebel)
Fine.

LASHBROOK
Tastes like cardboard.
Hey, wipe your mouth, Frank, you're drooling.

What's it feel like?

OLSON
A diet of worms.

Enjoy that role.

LASHBROOK
It's okay

OLSON
Enjoy that role.

LASHBROOK
It's turkey.

OLSON
Gangster.

LASHBROOK
Huh?

OLSON
Chemist.

LASHBROOK
I know I'm a chemist.

OLSON
Thespian.

ABRAMSON (played by John Schenkel)
How do you feel today?

OLSON
Like a fly
who has landed
in the sweet narcotic fluid
of a carnivorous plant.
I am calm and unconcerned.
Nothing seems to matter.

ABRAMSON
Do you often feel this way?

OLSON
Only when they give me that stuff.

ABRAMSON
What stuff?

OLSON
I think they call it a chemical lobotomy.

ABRAMSON
You mean you think you're being drugged?

OLSON
I know I am.

ABRAMSON
That's very interesting. A classic paranoid delusion.
Who's drugging you?

OLSON
Bob.

ABRAMSON
"Patient believes his friend is giving him a chemical lobotomy,
Okay, Frank, does Bob put anything else in your drinks?

OLSON
Thorazine in my coffee this morning.

ABRAMSON
Well, that's the last symptom there. Paranoid schizophrenia it is.
Frank, we'll have to commit you.
Are you prepared to take this step?

OLSON
Okay.

ABRAMSON
Great. Now just sign here.
No, here. Okay.
Thanks, Frank.
As you said,
I'm an allergist not a therapist.
Now I can hand you over to the experts.
--------
Cameras: Orin Buck & Michael Sandoval
Sound: Dan Gaydos
Video editing: Evan Hause

www.manbiologyofafall.com

This opera is a work of fiction based upon true events and people.

© Evan Hause & Gary Heidt

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Frank
• Olson
• Harold
• Abramson
• Robert
• Lashbrook
• Horn
• Hardart
• automat
• Man
• Biology
• Fall
• Contemporary
• Opera
• Hause
• Heidt
• Defenestration