Brave New World
an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's novel
by Paul Stebbings and Phil Smith
for American Drama Group Europe & TNT theatre Britain.
Performance draft July 99.
CAST (Five plus taped voices):
Bernard Marx
Helmholtz
Fanny/Linda
Lenina
The Director/John the Savage.
Epsilons, Deltas, Savages, Policemen played by all.
Scene 1
(On stage is a constuctivist object made out of poles which can be spun and hung upon, approx. two meters tall. A humming electronic music begins to be heard. A gas masked policemen takes a loud hailer and speaks):
Police: Epsilon workers take your soma tablets now. Relax. Your leisure time entertainment begins in five seconds. Take your pill and sit quite still. Come, come come! Float off to fun!
(As the beat of the music begins to intensify Bernard and Lenina, two Alpha plus members of the elite, enter through the auditorium).
Bernard: Ah, officer, which way to the Alpha Beta Disco cathedral?
(policeman points and pats Lenina on t he bottom as he exits).
Lenina: Thank you officer.Oh Ford! Quick let's get away from those horrible epsilons. Look at them sitting there! Yuck! I hate Epsilons! (She performs standard ape parody).
Bernard: They won't hurt you, Lenina! They've taken their Soma drug.
Lenina: 0h, but they're so..stupid!
Bernard: "Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn't do without Epsilons."
Lenina: Come on, Bernard, let's dance!
Bernard: Oh Ford!
(As Lenina and Bernard enter the stage area, Fanny and Helmholtz enter, dancing a strangely clinical, but highly physical dance - a courtship dance, more gymnastic than romantic. Lenina and Bernard join in).
This little bottle of mine
It's better than any wine
You can get smashed
Without breaking glass
Any place, any body, any time!
Oh this little bottle of mine
This little bottle of mine!
(They squirt each other with aerosol sprays and their
bodies erupt into erotic movements.)
Fanny: (Shouts:) A squirt of soma spray
And it's a sexy day! (To Helmholtz) Squirt me more! Squirt
me more!
(Helmholtz squirts Fanny with the spray and she writhes and thrashes in pleasure. Helmholtz is chasing her, stalking her round the dance floor of the cabaret, enjoying the chase.)
Lenina:(To Bernard:) Squirt me, Bernard! Squirt me! Come on. A squirt is better than a flirt!
Bernard: I'm not in the mood!
Lenina: There are no moods, face the facts: just relax!
Bernard: There are no moods, face the facts: just relax!
(Bernard squirts spray on Lenina, who writhes with pleasure.)
Lenina: More, more! (Bernard does not oblige.) Don't you want to have me, Bernard? Take me, educate me! (Lenina squirts soma spray at Bernard. He dodges it.)
Bernard: Just wait a moment! I'm not ready!
(Bernard looks about for an excuse. Sees Helmholtz with Fanny now draped around him.)
Bernard: Helmholtz! Helmholtz, old buddy!
(Helmholtz sees Bernard, at first with some irritation, then takes advantage of the opportunity to get away from Fanny.)
Helmholtz: (To Fanny:) Wait here for me. Baby!
(He breaks from Fanny, squirting her with an extra strong amount of soma spray. Fanny writhes on the ground. Helmholtz goes over to Bernard.)
Bernard: Help me, old man, help me! Lenina wants to have me now.
Helmholtz: Everyone belongs to everyone else – do your duty. What is her name? I think I had her last year. I had her last year. Very pneumatic.
Bernard: Her name’s Lenina.
Helmholtz: Oh yes! I thought you wanted to have her?
Bernard: I do. But not right now. I want to get to know her a little.
Helmholtz: There's nothing else to get to know. What you see is what you get.
Bernard: There must be some mystery? Why won’t she talk to me before we..do it. You could help. Unless you have things you have to that other girl? (Looking over at the writhing Fanny.)
Helmholtz: Oh, I've had a hundred and thirty girls this year, you know!
Bernard: (Politely:) Any good ones?
Helmholtz: How long is it since you had a girl?
Bernard: (Embarrassed.) I've been busy. Look out, here they come!
(Fanny and Lenina have recovered from their writhing and now gyrate around Bernard and Helmholtz. They sing, lasciviously:)
Fanny/Lenina:
This little bottle of mine
It's better than any wine
You can get smashed
Without breaking glass
Any place, any body, any time!
Fanny: 0, Helmholtz, darling, come with Lenina and I! Lets have a megawoosh cocktail at the bar. Just you and us two!
Lenina: 0, I want Bernard to come!
Helmholtz: Sorry, girls! We're busy! Come on, Bernard!
Fanny: Hey wait! Why did you bring us to the cathedral if you didn't want to have us!
Bernard: I'm sorry, Lenina!
Lenina: (Smiles:) No one need ever be sorry! Thank Ford!
All: Thank Ford!
Helmholtz: Come on, Bernard, if you want to talk you can talk to me.
Bernard: (Now he can't drag himself away:) Goodbye, Lenina.
Would you play obstacle squash with me next week?
Lenina: I'd love to!
Helmholtz: Never wait, never late!
Bernard: Coming! (To Lenina:) Freud bless! (Bernard catches up with Helmholtz.)
Helmholtz: Those women! Terrible. Boring.
Bernard: I don’t think Lenina is boring – they say she spent nearly four months having only one man!
Helmholtz: There must be something better.
Bernard: It’s easy for you to say that! (Almost in tears) Everyone laughs at me. If you knew what I have to put up with. If you only knew.
Helmholtz: Poor little Bernard. Come on.(They leave.)
Fanny: How long have you been moping after that funny Bernard Marx? He doesn't even LOOK like an Alpha!
Lenina: Only a week.
Fanny: I like that! Lenina! ONLY a week! Have you had no one else in all that time?
Lenina: No. I don't see why I have to have someone all the time!
Fanny: 0, you don't! (Shouts as if to invisible listeners:) Lenina doesn't see why she has to have someone all the time! (To Lenina, seriously:) It's nice! It's fun! You be careful! It's such horribly bad manners to get fixed on one man!
Lenina: I just haven't been feeling very promiscuous lately. Don't you ever get tired, Fanny?
Fanny: You have to make an effort. Everyone belongs...
Lenina: . . .to everyone else. I'll make an effort. Maybe I'll have him after obstacle squash.
Fanny: Good girl. (Exit).
Scene 2
(The stage is bathed in an undulating red light. huge test tubes with embryo dolls in them are being spun around by a hunched and limping Epsilon. A new range of sounds are heard. Electronic ambient music combined with strange whisperings. At the back of the stage the Director appears followed by Bernard.)
Director: (To Bernard) Marx! Where are your students!
Bernard: They should be here. Here they are! (Lenina enters).
Lenina: Come on! It's starting! (Fanny appears behind Lenina, at
the front of the stage. They wear white coats).
Director: Good morning, students.
Lenina & Fanny: Good morning, Director.
Fanny: Sorry we're late. I was having my Professor.
Director: Good girl! Never neglect your research!
Fanny: Thank you, sir. (the scene continues at pace, it is like a
ward round with a senior consultant who marches from object to
object at speed with the students in pursuit, the machine whirring
and the Epsilon assistant/slave working furiously throughout).
Director: So Alpha class, this morning is your final opportunity to
consider general theory. So let's get on with it! Marx!
Bernard: Yes, sir?
Director: Where shall I begin?
Bernard: At the beginning, sir?
Director: At the beginning.(The students repeat and copy into their notebooks.)
Lenina & Fanny: Begin - at - the - beginning.
Director: The breeding hatcheries of London. See, the raw material of Society! The eggs and sperm of future generations. All kept at a steady blood temperature. From this indistinct mass we shall scientifically produce the genetically, socially and intellectually separate classes of the future - the Alphas like us, the Betas, the Gammas, Deltas and (Pokes the Epsilon slave then pats him when he looks around - all laugh indulgently).... the Epsilons. (Lenina and Fanny, the students, giggle. The Director roars:) Even Epsilons are useful! We couldn't do without Epsilons! We couldn't do without you. (The Epsilon beams).
Lenina & Fanny: (repeating phrases from their hypnoaedia)
"Everyone works for everyone else! We need everyone"
Director: Good! Mister Marx, perhaps you would like to describe the scientific creation of our system of classes?
Bernard: Yes, Sir. Er... (Coughs, a little nervous).
Director: Some time today, Mister Marx.
Bernard: Er. Sorry. Yes. It's very simple really. We start with the same basic material.The eggs for the higher Alpha and Beta classes
are fertilised by one sperm and each one grows into a single
embryo: barring accidents.
Fanny: They say Bernard was a genetic accident, that's why he is so weird.(The students giggle.)
Director: Carry on, Mister Marx. It's very interesting...
Bernard: Yes. .er. . then there's the lower classes! Their eggs are removed immediately after fertilisation for cloning. From a single Delta or Epsilon egg we can produce up to 96 embryos, each of which.. barring accidents...
(Lenina and Fanny giggle.)
Bernard: I don't get the joke!
Director: (enjoying Bernard's discomfort) What Mister Marx is trying to tell us is that in our fertilising room here the higher classes, Betas and Alphas like yourselves, are produced individually while the masses - like these lower class embryos here - (Slave whizzes a test tube round for them to examine.) - are cloned in batches of identical brothers and sisters. Observe the lower class embryos! Identical workers grown in rows of 96 identical bottles for work on rows of 96 identical machines! This genetic engineering creates social stability.
Lenina & Fanny: (writing) Genetic engineering creates stability.
Director: Community, Identity, Stability!
Students: Community, Identity, Stability!
Epsilon: Communidy! Standentity! Stupidity!
(All laugh patronisingly at the Epsilon).
Director: Well done Epsilon, now off you go and bring in a little Delta.
Epsilon: Deltas are dumb. But we need dumb deltas. (Smiles and exits)
Lenina: (Mimics) Deltas are dumb. (Giggles)
Director: We need them all.
Lenina: Sorry Director I'm a naughty girl.
Director: What's your name, my dear?
Lenina: Lenina Crowne, sir.
Director: Very nice. (The Director: pats Lenina on the bottom. Lenina takes her paper of figures from Bernard and rejoins Fanny. Then confidentially to Bernard:) Have you had her yet, Bernard?
Bernard: Not yet, sir.
Director: Really? You amaze me! She's splendidly pneumatic! (Makes gesture).
Bernard: I certainly will have her at the first opportunity.
Director: That's the spirit! We have the reputation of my hatchery to keep up.
Lenina: (To Fanny) The Director is such a polite man. He just patted my bottom.
Fanny: I thought you only wanted weird Bernard.
Lenina: Maybe.
(A delta baby is brought on).
Bernard: Director! It's a Delta! In the Fertilisation area!
Director: Are you embarrassed in the presence of a Delta?
Don't you know that even Deltas...
Bernard: . . .are useful.
Fanny, Lenina and Bernard: We couldn't do without Deltas. Everyone works for everyone else. We need everyone!
Director: Marx, fetch the conditioning apparatus! Now observe how we condition a Delta.
(Bernard enters with flower and book. Piped music imitates birdsong and wind in trees the delta enjoys it and is then terrified by the sudden screaming of the Director and Bernard - the Epsilon takes him off howling.)
Director: All the Deltas grow up with an "instinctive" hatred of books and flowers. They don't need books and flowers! They are workers!
Fanny: Everyone hates books, Sir, but why should children hate flowers?
Director: A love of nature keeps no factory busy. Nature is free
and we want them to consume!
ALL: Consume, consume we know what me must do
Buy, buy I must have something new!
Fanny: Can I ask a question, Director?
Director: Go ahead, dear girl.
Fanny: Is it true that long ago it was normal for one person to-
Director: Yes, my dear?
Fanny: Its embarrassing, sir!
Director: 0h, embryos can't hear you!
Fanny: For a person to have sex with only one partner?
Director: (Embarrassed.) Dear, 0h, dear.. Well. .er... (Coughs. He sees Bernard returning.) Ah, perhaps Mister Marx can help us?
Bernard: Yes, sir?
Director: Tell us about families!
(Bernard is pole-axed with embarrassment. Fanny and Lenina giggle.)
Bernard: But, Sir, .. there are none!
Director: Not now, you fool! B.F.! Before Ford! (Fanny & Lenina laugh at Bernard).
Bernard: What – why…
Director: Go on, Marx. Tell us about the family!
Bernard: It's too terrible!
Director: History IS terrible!
Lenina and Fanny: History is bunk! History stinks! Tell us!
Fanny: Tell us please.
Lenina: Go on Bernard!
Bernard: In the past, babies came out of women! (Lenina and Fanny
roar with horrified laughter.) Not out of bottles!
Director: Imagine!(Lenina and Fanny scream.)
Lenina and Fanny: No! No!(to Bernard:) Go on, go on!
Bernard: A man and a woman lived together in a home.
(Lenina and Fanny stop laughing and screaming and look