Sophie
What’s going on?
A beat.
Phil
Jerry, I told you to stop sending me junk like this while I’m trying to work.
LUCY giggles. The office dissolves.
Sophie
Just an ordinary day. I worked late, got back on the tube and went home.
SOPHIE enters her flat. She presses the button on her answer-phone.
Mother’s Voice
Sophie dear, it’s mum. I know this is terribly short notice but the Smiths have invited us to dinner on Tuesday.
During this message a cat meows. She picks it up.
Sophie
Hi Stanley!
Mother’s Voice
Young Ned’ll be there too. He’s doing so well these days, you really should . . .
SOPHIE clicks off the message and cuddles the cat.
Sophie
Good night.
The other performers create the bed. SOPHIE goes to bed.
Sophie (narrates)
That night I found I couldn’t sleep. And I don’t mean it took me a long time to sleep . . . I stared at the ceiling all night.
The next night was the same. I looked out of my window only to see other people staring out of their windows back at me.
Two other insomniacs appear.
London became the city that never sleeps!
And that was when I noticed . . . people had started to forget the names of things.
The other performers create the tube. SOPHIE gets on the tube.
Voice
Mind the . . . Mind the . . .
Passenger
Gap?
Voice
Mind the gap.
The office.
Sophie
I seem to have run out of . . .
Phil
Paper?
Sophie
No.
Jerry
Paperclips?
Sophie
No!
Lucy
What then?
Sophie (struggles)
Staples.
Jerry
What?
Sophie
Staples . . . you know . . . for stapling er . . .
Phil
Paper?
The two look at each other, this is scary.
The office transforms into the bed.
Sophie
And as darkness fell once more we dreaded the night. (frustrated) We tried everything . . . (These actions are acted out.) Hot milky drinks. That didn’t work. So we tried exercise. That didn’t work! We even tried counting sheep.
As they begin to count sheep, in different languages, they walk and gradually arrive in the office.
And because we had not slept we gradually lost a sense of words and then a sense of meaning altogether. The whole city had amnesia.
The office. SOPHIE looks at her colleagues.
Sophie
Who are these people? (Trying to focus.) Work, I’m at work.
All examine their desks.
What is my work?
Gradually the office dissolves. They can’t make sense of the office equipment – it all becomes foreign to them.
What’s this thing for?
The performers discover each other.
(To colleague.) Who are you? (Turning to another colleague.) Who are you?
In this moment it was as if all our successes had been wiped out, all our failures forgotten. Everything and everyone was . . . (She searches for the right word.) new.
The camera flashes. Blackout.
Void
A pause. SOPHIE has disappeared. The group look around trying to see where she has gone.
Alex
What happened?
Ketu
Where did she go?
Guide
She selected her memory.
A slight pause.
Ketu
Strange . . .
Alex
It’s more than strange, it doesn’t make any sense. If the whole of London suddenly suffered amnesia, we’d have heard about it.
Nia (smiles teasingly)
Maybe you did, only the amnesia got you?
Alex
Seriously, it can’t have happened.
Nia
Unless it only happened in her head. Her illness, remember?
Ketu
The scar!
Alex
But if it was all in her mind, why did the camera flash?
Ketu
There is some subtle magic to this thing. Why that particular memory?
Guide
Why do you think?
Ketu (realising)
The memory . . . it helped her make an important discovery . . .
Nia
It was real to her!
Alex
What about my race then? It was real to me!
Ketu
She actually lived through her memory. Yours was just a dream.
Alex
And who are you to judge?!
Ketu
No! (He walks up to ALEX.) The camera . . . it’s in here!
He touches ALEX’s chest.
All look at each other.
Silence.
But . . . what about my great discovery?
Nia
How come that left you here?
Ketu
Yes. (He thinks.) Science . . . truth . . . fact . . . maybe these things mean nothing on their own . . . it is how we each act on them.
Guide
What do you mean?
Ketu
It’s not what you think, it’s what you do with it . . . That’s what matters.
The others look at him.
(To himself.) What was I to do with my new knowledge?
The lights slowly change.
Ketu’s memory
Ketu
The Earth is round like an orange . . .
The performers are now villagers. Ketu approaches two men who are scything crops.
The Earth is round . . . like an orange.
The reapers laugh with him. KETU moves on. He finds a woman pounding flour.
The Earth is round like an orange!
The woman gives him a frightened look. KETU moves on. He finds another villager engaged in chores.
The Earth is round like an orange!
The villager gets up and threatens KETU.
Suddenly all villagers point spears at him.
KETU is arrested and shackled to a wooden frame.
An ELDER comes to talk to him.
Elder
Ketu . . . You must not say these things.
Ketu
It is the truth!
Elder
Our laws are there for a reason. You are terrifying people!
Ketu
Why should they fear the truth?!
Elder
It is sedition! And you will admit it. You have until sunrise!
The ELDER leaves.
Ketu’s WIFE enters.
Wife
Ketu . . . I beg you . . . you must give up what you have said. They will kill or banish you.
Ketu
But it is the truth.
Wife
What does it matter? Think of me . . . and your children.
Ketu
How can you love me if I am not true to myself?
Wife
Be true to yourself. In your own mind. Just . . . reject what you have said in public.
Ketu
I . . .
The WIFE leaves as the ELDER appears again.
Elder
Ketu . . . it’s time . . . what have you to say for yourself.
A slight pause.
The WIFE appears again.
Ketu (in turmoil)
The Earth . . . is flat, like a plate!
He drops the orange.
A celebration erupts.
Elder
Welcome back!
Ketu (narrates)
The v
illage erupted in celebration. The ‘bad spirits’ had been banished from my mind. It seemed to me that to persist with my ideas, would cost me too much. I resolved to convince myself of the lie. But it would not be easy.
The performers are once again paddling their canoes, as in KETU’s previous memory.
Hunter 1 (watching the sunrise)
Ah! The sun is waking up.
KETU looks at him.
Ketu
Why do you think the sun is such a shape?
The HUNTERS are puzzled and intrigued.
And yet the Earth is flat?
Hunter 1
I don’t know . . . it just is. (Joking, to other HUNTER.) Why are the fishes in the water?
Hunter 2
(Laughing.) And the monkeys in the trees?
The HUNTERS disappear.
Ketu (narrates)
My knowledge obsessed me. I needed to share it with others . . . but they were all too frightened.
The WIFE appears.
Tell me, why are they so blind? The sun, the earth . . . it is so obvious.
Wife
Stop talking like this!
Ketu
But . . .
Wife
Ketu! (Cautiously.) Your brother is coming with the children.
The BROTHER appears with the two children. They run to KETU.
Son
Daddy, tell us the orange story.
Wife
No! It’s not a nice story.
KETU looks at his wife.
Will you deny them the truth?
Wife
To save them from danger? Yes!
Ketu
Ignorance is far more dangerous.
Wife
Ketu, tell a different story.
Ketu
This is my home.
Daughter
The orange . . . tell us about the orange.
The BROTHER stands watching. He looks intimidating. KETU weighs up his options.
Ketu
In the beginning the Earth was round, like an orange.
The BROTHER looks at the WIFE.
Ketu
But then a foolish ignorant god, who was not looking where he was going, trod on it and squashed it . . . flat!
Wife
Come on, children.
The WIFE and BROTHER leave with the children.
(Narration.) I knew then I could never live on a flat Earth. To be ridiculed and threatened and rejected. Pretending to be someone I am not.
Meanwhile, the other performers create a tree.
I will sacrifice myself. But on my own terms. Not to darkness and ignorance . . . But to truth and its pursuit . . . for my children.
KETU approaches the tree and attaches a rope to one of its branches.
And suddenly . . . I see it all. A moment of utter clarity. Our Earth, a perfect, beautiful orb . . . and before me . . . lies the universe.
He hangs himself.
The camera flashes.
Lighting change.
Void
KETU has disappeared.
Guide
Magnificent! I knew he’d come up with something interesting!
Nia
How can we compete with that? I never made any great discoveries . . . or huge sacrifices. (To the GUIDE.) Are we being judged . . . on what we achieved, what we learnt?
The GUIDE looks at her and shrugs.
Alex (recalling the GUIDE)
All we have is what we did.
Nia
We did nothing! Where are our moments of greatness?! Our truly significant discoveries?!
Guide
Things would be a little impractical if we were all towering geniuses. (Pushing ALEX.) Besides, how would the world survive without its fools? We always need someone to make fun of. 75, 76, 77 . . .
Alex (fighting back)
Hey, I’m doing the best I can, alright?!
A slight pause.
Nia (a sudden thought)
That’s right!
The other two turn to look at her.
Why does it matter . . . that our memories aren’t earth-shattering? (Realising.) The things that were really important to me weren’t like that . . . They were . . . tiny . . . almost insignificant. Things no one else ever saw.
Alex
Like what?
Nia
Remember the time we had that totally pointless row in the middle of Regent’s Park? Suddenly we both realised how stupid we were being . . . and then I felt your hand, so warm . . . and we just hugged.
Alex
Is that enough for you? Would you want to live eternity in that moment?
Guide
Be thankful you have even that!
Alex
What?
Guide (mysteriously)
Nothing.
Alex (to SOPHIE)
Won’t we get bored of it?
Guide
It doesn’t work like that. As I understand it, it’s a sort of loop . . . new to you every time.
Nia (to ALEX)
So what are we going to do?
Guide
Choose . . . you must choose quickly!
Alex
Why so quickly?
Guide
Because . . . it all decays! All your precious memories . . . everything you are . . . everything you think you are . . . you cannot hang on to it . . . it fades . . . until there is just a vague smudge of what you were.
Choose, while it is still real to you!
They look at the GUIDE who appears very anxious. ALEX looks at NIA.
Alex
I never took the time to think about us.
Nia
What’s there to think about . . . it’s a feeling. Alex . . .
She concentrates on the thought.
When I met you I thought you were a sexy guy . . . and maybe you’d . . . (Quoting him.) ‘be the one’. I never actually decided you were the love of my life. (She smiles.) But it seems you were.
ALEX smiles.
Alex
I don’t know what to choose. There are just too many things . . .
Nia
I know! I remember my favourite Sunday.
Alex
You have a favourite Sunday?
Nia
It was the day after the carnival.
Alex
Yes, of course . . . (Recalling.) I’d got very drunk . . .
Nia
Margaritas at that Salsa club . . . Shall I choose for us?
Alex
Am I going to be spending eternity with a hangover?
Nia
You were OK.
Alex (warmly)
OK. (Affirmatively.) OK, let’s do it!
The lights slowly change.
Nia’s memory
I remember . . . It was a Sunday afternoon in my bedroom. I was sharing with that ageing socialist and his hippy wife at the time.
ALEX lies down.
Alex
Yeah, and wafting up from the kitchen there’s a smell of that awful mung bean broth they insist on making.
NIA lies down.
Nia
I open my eyes . . . it’s bright out . . . we haven’t left the bed all day.
Pause. A ticking clock. The atmosphere is very lazy.
Nia
Hey you . . . don’t I get any of the bed? (She pushes ALEX to the side.)
Alex
It’s not my fault, this thing was built for midgets.
Pause. A ticking clock.
Nia
What do you want to do today?
Alex (enjoying being in bed)
I’m already doing it.
NIA gets up and crosses the room.
Nia
Yes . . .
NIA opens a window. We hear birdsong outside. NIA breathes in the fresh air, before returning to ALEX.
Let’s do absolutely nothing.
NIA drops into ALEX’s lap.
Alex
Good.
Nia
Good.
A pause. The clock ticks, birds sing.
(Narrates.) And somewhere in the haze of that utterly lazy afternoon . . . it was all there.
Sound of heartbeat.
I can feel your heartbeat . . . and my own.
Second heartbeat joins the first.
(Narrates.) And then you said it so quietly . . . as if I wasn’t meant to hear . . . Like it’s a thought you’d accidentally said aloud.
Alex (whispers)
I love you.
Nia
I love you.
Sound of heartbeat.
The camera flashes. Blackout.
Void
When the lights return, NIA has vanished.
Alex
Where is she?
Guide
Where do you think?
Alex
I was supposed to go too!
Guide
Then why didn’t you?
Alex
I . . . I don’t know, I wanted to!
The GUIDE looks at him.
That Sunday . . . I hardly remember it.
Guide
Then choose another moment with her!
ALEX is in torment.
You said when you met her she was ‘the one’.
Alex
She was! I wanted her to be. I wanted to feel completely overwhelmed!
Guide
But you didn’t?
ALEX struggles with the thought.
Be honest . . . for both our sakes.
Alex
It was good, great sometimes!
Guide
But?
Alex
I just can’t think of a moment that really . . .
Guide (interrupts)
Then choose a moment with somebody else . . . quickly. (He looks around anxiously.) 86, 87, 88 . . .
ALEX struggles.
Any moment at all!
Alex
I had a lot of good moments! OK moments! . . . Why isn’t OK good enough for you?!
Guide
Why doesn’t the camera flash?! Eh?! Because it is connected to your gut! Apparently OK isn’t good enough! For you.
Alex
That’s not true!
Silence.
What are my pathetic memories to you?
Silence.
I wanted to . . . to race bikes . . .
Silence.
Guide
Why do you think I’m still here?
Alex
I don’t understand.
Guide
No . . . but I’m rather afraid you will . . . and all too soon. (Panicky.) Please pick something, think on it. Want it!
Alex
I can’t! I . . .
He looks at the GUIDE beginning to realise.
You . . . You couldn’t choose either.
The GUIDE turns away.
All this time I thought you were some kind of angel of death . . . but you’re just like me.
The GUIDE, for once, is lost for words.
Is this what happens . . . if you don’t choose?