Origins Obscura, Scene (xxl)

Next scene: Hyper-connectivities: flashing brilliantly on screens, monitors: Native American Mounds at the Mississippi Delta/Banaue Rice Terraces/Patagonian steppes/Southern African jungles).

A:

Away, away. Over here, psst, hey, over here...or was it there?  Where are we anyway?

 (Stage shifts. Audience views scene from the perspective of a bird perched on a branch of the tallest tree ever measured—eucalyptus leaves float down on the audience.)

Where have they gone?

Away.

I know, away, but where?

Far from here. I have a feeling we'll never see them again. Never touch them again.

(Audience hears a moaning in the background.)

Many voices:

Those are their mothers

Their fathers, their brothers, their children, their children.

(A beat in time, points to the ground)

Those are their footsteps.

(Turns on heels and points to the ground)

Those are the grooves left behind by their bodies dragged on the sand.

(Turns and points).

Those spaces in between are where they were lifted up.

(Turns and points).

…and those must be their tears washing up on the shore.

(Turning and pointing...)

That's where they... (Almost breathless)

That’s where…(Gasping for air)

That’s…(By now spinning)

Those are their...(Spinning faster)

(The rest of the individuals on stage spin, pick up the chorus. After each spin, next line becomes louder:

That’s where they…

Snagged

That’s where they…

Lifted

That’s where they…

That’s their…

Stage lights “shadow” the spinning bodies on stage. No disco ball can be used).

     (Silence. All we hear are fabrics of costumes, as individuals on stage spin. After a few minutes, they all fall down. Hard.)