Help!

We don't have a suicide pact - we have a woman turning into a tree in a play with no scene breaks. There are times when I really question what I was thinking when I decided that was the thing to do- especially when I'm stuck - but I'm finding that writing through the places where I would probably bail and call it a scene usually ends up taking me somewhere I wouldn't have gone to otherwise - the panic for one thing. I had initially started with thinking they were going to interact with the audience but it became clear that wasn't the right direction and that I had to embrace the idea of a fourth wall - which I really don't like. But it works in this case and I'm incorporating video for another dimension. But I get stuck in what are typically or would typically be the top and bottom of a scene. One thing I've done to make matters worse for myself is not to allow transitions - I'm not writing a nice little bridge that gets us to the next place.  We're just suddenly there or else we're waiting for something to happen. Playing with time and how compact I can make or how far I can extend it.

Let me just say that the first time I read the thing about the power point presentation I cracked up.  I didn't think about how sad it was, but how spectacularly funny it was and then started imagining little stick figures offing themselves in various ways, because the characters can't really decide which method to use. Maybe there could be a vote? A weighing of pros and cons by the people at the party? Maybe the audience could vote - this might be a way to get them to participate before plunging them in completely. 

This also might answer the question about why don't they just do it.  Because you're right, when you are really going to do it, you just do it and no one can stop you. Because you don't include them. You don't give them the chance.

Who came up with the idea of the pact? Did they coerce the other person into agreeing with it? Or are they equally committed? Whose idea was the presentation and the party? And you know, the Oscars are looooonnnnng with all the dance numbers and songs and retrospectives on dead people, so you can really stall for time if you maybe aren't so hot on the idea of a suicide pact and you happen to find yourself in one.

And if you maybe are just suicide curious and not suicide serious you might find little things that prolong taking action, little things that keep getting in the way - like coming to an agreement on the preferred method or the right day and time and location and what to wear and what to eat and which music to listen to or whether there should be music and how will they hold each other, will they look into each others eyes or will they want privacy? What if one loses consciousness sooner or dies faster?

And maybe the people at the party really want to help them and so they start to weigh the pros and cons of each method and day and time and location, etc and then put it up for a vote? And maybe the audience can also vote? But once each issue is solved, another comes up - it's always something - if one of the couple is not so gung ho about it they can come up with more and more absurd reasons until finally there isn't anything left but to act.

Did they create the presentation together or did they divy up the project? Are there any surprises along the way? Things that got into the presentation that one of the couple doesn't know is there? And it either pushes them closer to the decision or takes them further away? Like maybe there's a graph listing reasons for dying vs. reasons for living. And then a Q & A with the people at the party that results in a consensus that there really is no reason to go on living. You know, looking at it all graphed out and everything. A strong case could be made. Or maybe in spite of the reason one of the couple is not convinced. Or maybe one of the couple changes their mind - was hesitant but now is ready only the other isn't. Because when are we ever at the same place at the same time?  Maybe there is concern that one will follow through and the other one will bail. What are the contingencies?

You've probably figured this out by now. Sorry to have been AWOL. I have had a splitting headache thingie since Sunday. It finally let up today and I managed to write two pages - that's like an average of two sentences a day, woo hoo.  One of the things I've found helpful when I get stuck is to write absurd sentences over and over again. Or have them do something that is completely antithetical to the concern at hand. Like in the middle of an enormous, irrational fight they break for a power snack. Or to say something that it is absolutely innappropriate or too intimate for the other person. Something that is the one thing the other person doesn't want to hear at that moment or takes them off in a direction they aren't ready or willing to go in. I'm finding that exercises aren't helping, just keep writing and thinking of the whole thing as an exercise, an experiment, an improv.

I should start a list, we could share ideas about how to keep it going.

Cheers,

Elizabeth

And they are my people ?!! Even better. :)

C'est La Nuit Qu'il Faut Attraper La Lumiere (It's the Night That You Have to Catch the Light)

You can read my review of it here at the bottom of the page: http://www.indietheater.org/clownreview.php

They were clowns from France, who I believe are now back in France. But perhaps they'll return for the Clown Festival next year? I hope so.  

Sometimes the need to talk to others is done in order to give away certain items.  In our office, when someone leaves or goes on secondment or whatever, the vultures start circling for the office, the good stapler, the two hole punch, the dictating machine that actually works, even the "good" rubber bands.

Maybe they're doing this to show that they could've got ahead but lost the promotion, because someone else got the bonus who didn't deserve it;  they were going to email their suicide notes but "that's too impersonal".

Maybe the presentation is their way of showing how logical their suicide is "the highest percentage of poor people are former office workers..."

what was the name of that show ?

i want to see it.

Did you have powerpoint in the original at cornish ?

I can't remember !

Funny enough, there is weird powerpointy video in my solo show too. :)

Or what if one of them changes their mind halfway through?

That happened already, actually. I really need to expand on it.

Or have the powerpoint malfunction -

Hilarious and brilliant! There is a point int he play where it just stops because Pete goes downstairs to pay the Chinese delivery man and another where Debbie leaves the audience alone while she goes to pee.

that's a totally good idea. It's like 'choose your own adventure' kind of. and also very neil labute in a way, because people will, hopefully, be invested in the characters by that point in the play, and then to have to decide if someone is going to commit suicide--yeah, it makes you feel dirty if you want them to, you know, like agreeing with the big secret of 'The Shape of Things'. I love it. Showing that whole dark side of humanity is so fascinating.

I think that's a great and fundamental question to be asking in this time when the idea of connecting becomes more and more a remote possibility. As we gain new methods of communicating through technology (like the power point presentation...), what becomes of our ability to have a real human connection in the flesh? I think the work place mentality is a perfect example of that- I see these people probably more than the people I would consider my "friends" in a given week, and yet our relationship means nothing.

Or maybe that's just where I work? guys?

so...I guess i'm saying "soldier on!" Only in a really long-winded way.

Write two endings and halfway through the play have the audience vote - should they commit suicide or not? Go with the majority vote and act out that ending.

Don't be afraid of having them actually do it. For me one of the most powerful movies ever is Dead Poet's Society, because it takes us right into the headspace of Peter as he commits suicide. We sympathize with him, and for anyone to be able, however briefly, to reach that point is a very powerful thing to do. What if they commit suicide and the audience is left sitting there, with the bodies on stage? Can you sustain that?

Or what if one of them changes their mind halfway through? This creates tension which, we all know, is the fuel of drama. Will the other go through with it alone? Will they try and convince the other?

Or have a plant in the audience who jumps up and starts trying to dissuade them - leave the audience in doubt as to whether they're an actor or not.

Or have the powerpoint malfunction - something I learnt when researching suicide recently for an article was that people have very structured plans. If something goes wrong with that plan, they panic, and things can go in a completely different direction.

Fascinating stuff, Josh, would love to read it. In December, of course!

Are they looking for the audience to stop them ?

Maybe there's room to play with this. it's an interesting device, the audience being characters within the play. I also like that the audience are made characters against their wills, and I'd like to play with that a little more too.

I am interested in the idea of an audience's responsibility, now that you mention it. I think ultimately the piece is about loneliness vs. connection. These are two people that you spend all day with (ficticiously, in an office), but never connect with. I guess the question is: why don't we connect? What happens to people who can't connect for one reason or another?

It doesn't always work, but when I find myself waiting around for a character to do something, and wondering why they're just talking instead of doing the thing, I usually experiment with having the character do the thing. Or attempt to do the thing and find they can't. 

Attempting suicide is scary, and no one is any good at it because it's not like you get to practice. Perhaps exploring the reality of that? I don't know these character's relationship but once this goes beyond power point presentation can they really do it? go through with it? can they really let the other person do it? and who gets to go first? are they telling these stories to see if perhaps they actually have a reason to live? are they looking to the audience to give them a reason to live?

I saw a great clown show earlier this year that was just one clown- this sort of eccentric homemaker woman clown- and we watched her obsessively go through her daily routine hour by hour several times- and each time it got harder, and each time she got older until finally she dies on stage, and goes to heaven. In heaven, she can finally see the audience, and talked to us and asked us "You saw everything that happened."- her life, her suffering, her death- "And you did nothing?" I don't know if this is where you're going with your piece, but I feel like playing with the idea of the responsibility of the audience to the performance on stage is an idea to toy with. If we do nothing to stop their suicide, are we equally guilty?  if you wanted it to. I don't know if that helps- but I thought of it after I read admin-rhino's comment above. 

Hope that helps and isn't too "write it like this!", which is not my intention. It sounds like an awesome piece, and  i am excited to read it when you finish it, which you will. 

Mmmm. Are they looking for the audience to stop them ? To give them a reason not to ?

This is such a powerful setting I think because the audience doesn't speak in a theatre ( often) and so they won't stop them , which will lead to them doing it.

Often when people leave suicide notes and such, they secretly hope that someone will stop them or find the note before they get a chance to do it. Just to give you a bit of a psychological perspective, look at severely depressed people or manic depressives when they are in their manic phases. They tend to talk a lot.

This does help some, but I guess I meant how do I move the action forward? These characters are going to commit suicide, so why don't they just do it? Why do the need to talk to the audience first? Why are they filling time? I just need to think about it more.

I am not sure if you're stuck with how to make them speak or how to move the plot forward...

But if you're trying to make them speak, maybe try to forget for a moment that they are talking to the audience and try to put them in a more intimate setting. Then, they can deal with telling that same thing to the audience. One thing that never fails to make characters speak is to put them in a therapist office or in a therapy group. Even if they resist, you'll learn a lot from what they are saying while they resist. And if they don't resist, even better ! Then you can take that dialogue and have them speak it to the audience, which will be super interesting because it will be challenging for them to share such intimate things with the audience.

I hope that helps.