Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
Tom Slattery
Derived from the earlier-draft one-act play by Tom Slattery, Farenheit; a Future Prometheus,
based on Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus
Education-affiliated and/or non-profit theater groups may perform this play as a stage play
without needing permission from the author.
FORETHOUGHT
CAST:
ANN (female)
SHIRLEY (female)
CHING-SU (female)
Minor Parts:
Security Officer One
Security Officer Two
Three Armed Men
Newspersons
Technician
Nurse
Robot
Revolutionary 1
Revolutionary 2
Revolutionary Three
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FORETHOUGHT
To prepare the audience, WORLD GOVERNMENT FLAGS and LOGOS could be placed in the
lobbies. On doors into theater logos: UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT. Ushers and other
theater help could be costumed in official-looking WORLD GOVERNMENT UNIFORMS, gruffly
escort patrons to their seats.
SETTING: Unit set stage remains divided for all three scenes taking place in World Government
properties. Stage Right (Scene One) is an office. Stage Center (Scene Two) is a small medical
operating theater, with dentist-type chair for brain surgery. Above the operating chair is a bright
surgical light and a monitor screen, essentially a large TV screen (for use with a videotape).
Stage Left (Scene Three), the largest stage portion, is a modestly furnished hospital room,
including couch, chair, and bed.
SCENE: begins as TWO SECURITY PEOPLE and VLADIMIR WATERS, Minister of Health and
Welfare, bureaucratic stuffed-shirt in a suit and tie, carrying BRIEFCASE, enter stage right.
Stage center and stage left are darkened.
SCENE ONE
Enter Stage Right: Minister of Health and Welfare Vladimir Waters and Two Bodyguards. They
look furtively around. Waters stops, looks at his bodyguards.
WATERS. (sighs, contemptuously) And released him unharmed this morning. They had a
message for Our Dear Leader. (motions) This is Farenheit's office.
UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT flag is on indoor flagstaff beside desk. On the modernistic
desk behind which ANN sits we see a logo: UNITED WORLD GOVERNMENT. MINISTRY OF
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
Ann, the secretary, hangs up the CORDLESS TELEPHONE. DIGITAL CLOCK is on wall.
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Telephone RINGS. Ann picks it up as Waters stands patiently waiting.
ANN. (into telephone) Ministry of Research and Development, World Government. (listens to
phone) No, I'm sorry. (listens) He's presently holding a press conference at City University.
Should I give him a message? (listens) All right, then. I'll tell him you called. (hangs up, smiles
greeting to Waters) Doctor Waters. We're expecting him any minute.
WATERS. (dabs brow with handkerchief) Press conference. (sighs, shakes head) I wish he
hadn't done that. They were just waiting for him to . . .
ANN. He felt he had to. (glances at digital wall clock) He'll be here soon.
ROBERT FARENHEIT, in sports coat, no tie, deals with a small horde of NEWS PEOPLE and
TV CAMERAS.
NEWS PERSON. (thrusting microphone) Can you tell us anything more about it, Dr. Farenheit?
FARENHEIT. No, I've said everything I can. Details are in the handouts.
ENTER STAGE LEFT: THREE ARMED MEN in business suits leap out from behind curtains,
point AUTOMATIC WEAPONS at Farenheit.
Armed Man sprays something at Farenheit. He slumps as other Armed Men grab and drag him
off.
SHIRLEY. (frenzied outrage) They arrested Robert! (stunned, looks at others) Just after he left
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the university.
SCENE TWO
They pause in front of sign: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, TOP SECRET CLEARANCE
ONLY.
They enter operating room and stride up to DOCTOR SMITH, in surgical greens, green surgical
cap, sterile gloves, wearing surgical face mask.
The Police Commissioner and the General give Smith curt acknowledging nods.
Farenheit sits in "dental chair," head shaved and marked for surgery, arms in restraints,
unconscious. A blinking headphone-like gizmo (electro-pulse anaesthetic) covers both ears.
TECHNICIAN in surgical greens sits at microsurgery monitoring screen.
Smith glares.
GONZALES. He's been tried and convicted. It's out of your hands. (snort, sneer, and nod at
Smith) Medical scholarship, Smith. Nice job. Wouldn't want to lose it, would we?.
(contemptuous wave to Farenheit) Him? Ph.D. on government grants. What's he do? Stirs up
trouble. Leaks government secrets.
Technician adjusts controls in front of X-ray or ultrasound (or NMR, etc) monitor screen. On a
SCREEN visible to audience, we see a SKULL, AS IF BY X-RAY.
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GONZALES. (cynically) You don't want to do this?
SMITH. Microchip implants had been reserved for incorrigible criminals. Murderers.
(glares at Gonzales, Hauptmann)
GONZALES. Punishment, Smith. Satellite prisoner control. Talk when you let them. Pain
when we want it. Can't recognize anyone, unless . . . (snaps a motion) Get with it. We don't
have all day.
GONZALES. (touch of exasperation) Surely you can understand the terrible social
consequences of his criminal acts.
GONZALES.
So the court said.
SMITH. Robert and I are fellows in the Academy of Sciences. I met him once. We talked
briefly.
GONZALES. (full of sarcasm) Oh, I didn't know! (nods at Hauptmann) General Hauptmann
has performed these procedures if you're not up to it. His "patients" have sometimes had the
good fortune not to survive.
SMITH. (looks over sterile tray muttering) Medical science. It comes down to this.
SMITH. (glares at Gonzales, Hauptmann) Right. It's what we do with it, Commissioner
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Gonzales.
GONZALES. We can discuss metaphysics some other time. Let's get on with it.
Smith reaches to sterile tray. Hauptmann and Gonzales put on surgical masks.
We hear DRILL SOUND. On the monitor screen we see a surgical drill-bit entering a skull.
Doctor Smith concentrates on threading a microchip implant into a small hole in Farenheit's
shaved and marked head.
Hauptmann and Gonzales. Wearing surgical masks, they exchange cynical sneering glances.
Monitor screen shows chip and micro-wires pass through dura into brain.
On the monitor screen, wires attached to chip begin to extend into various brain areas.
Smith concentrates on the gizmo controlling micro-wire movement. He studies the monitor
screen showing wire movement. Wires cease movement.
GONZALES. That it?
SMITH. Done.
Smith sutures drill hole. Applies bandage. Removes pulse-anaesthetic gizmo from Farenheit's
head. He almost instantly begins to regain consciousness.
SMITH. (disgusted, turns away) I'm sure you're familiar with the apparatus.
Gonzales looks at Hauptmann, who goes to Technician at control apparatus. Technician gets up.
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Hauptmann sits down, familiarizes himself.
GONZALES. Pain?
GONZALES. What's the matter, Doctor? You regret your skilled surgery?
HAUPTMANN. They have it down to a fine art now. The first one. . . Messy!
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GONZALES. Okay, smartass genius. Get out of this one.
HAUPTMANN. Come on. Let's go before he comes to. Pulse anaesthetic makes 'em babble.
FARENHEIT. (shouting angrily) I'm a scientist! Dammit, Not a crook! (looks around, shouts)
Lots our eyes can't see without science, inventions: (more normal voice) Bacteria. Viruses.
Molecules of DNA, the mother of all life! (shouts again) Or, in space: The moon. Planets.
Galaxies. Quasars. Creative scientists, inventive minds made us . . .
SPOTLIGHT ON: A NURSE. She stands observing where Farenheit can't see. Aware of
something, he attempts to look, but can't see back.
FARENHEIT: I'm a scientist. And . . . (cynical laugh) . . . victim of science. Now I have to
struggle to survive. (pause, sighs) So this is the new "World Government": total arbitrary
power. (pause, looks around) Should've known. I'll have to figure a way out. (pause,
remembers) I blew the whistle. People had to know these things! (struggles against restraints)
So they made me a high-tech zombie.
FARENHEIT. Once I was Director of Research. I made it happen. Now the world has cheap
safe power. So what do I get? (pulls against restraints) Now I'm a criminal.
HEFTY ORDERLIES wheel gurney from backstage -- behind Farenheit -- joined by onlooking
Nurse.
FARENHEIT. (aware of something, looks sideways) Someone's coming! (eyes dart) What do
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they want?
NURSE. (commandingly) To take you to your room. Command Central has the Court's
permission to make you unconscious for the move.
SCENE THREE
Farenheit tries to look sideways, but cannot see who it is. Nurse nods "okay" to figures standing
in corridor behind her. Figures hand Nurse something as if payment for a bribe. She takes it
and lets them in. They go toward Farenheit.
FARENHEIT. (anxiously) Who's there? (strains to look) Someone to gawk at me? (pause)
You see a scientist wired to work like a puppet. That's what. (sniffs to detect a scent) I know
that perfume.
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FARENHEIT. I wish I knew.
SHIRLEY. You want to get something done in the World Government, you find a way.
SHIRLEY. I see, Robert. And it's frightening. (tearfully points at Farenheit) Can I call that
"you"?
FARENHEIT. (shaking head) There's a device in the door. If I attempt to go through it, a
signal from Central Control paralyses me. Calls guards downstairs.
SHIRLEY. Nurse said we had about an hour. (shakes head) So this is what our World
Government has come to.
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ANN. They're despicable. It's worse than before.
FARENHEIT. Peace. Oh yes. And no death penalty. Hah! Now they have puppets to dance to
their tunes.
FARENHEIT. Giving hand signals and nods to the prosecutor and judges.
SHIRLEY. Ironic. They brought an end to threats of nuclear war. Could’ve ended all life.
FARENHEIT. (firmly) Can and will! (pause) Might seek to use me to save his skin. And I
won't.
FARENHEIT. I don't know. They're power-hungry nuts. The thing is, they've created massive
social instability, economic chaos. (pause) Want-a-bet some of them start slipping over here?
FARENHEIT. Exactly!
ANN. Do you?
FARENHEIT. Maybe.
SHIRLEY. What?
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FARENHEIT. Every time I think about it I get furious. (pause) Let me backtrack. (considers
it) The crisis hit. Governments, political parties, multi-national corporations, world financial
leaders met frantically. It broke down into posturing, gain-seeking. Then chaos.
FARENHEIT. War had been part of the human condition. Even after the Cold War, small wars
threatened to escalate into total catastrophe. (pause) I lectured. I wrote articles. I went on talk
shows. I met with corporate leaders, with my fellow scientists. (sinks back) I failed. I could not
drum-up interest in a Charter for World Peace.
FARENHEIT. Sure.
SHIRLEY. Environmental groups. Socially concerned people. Thinking people of all kinds.
FARENHEIT. Yeah, you're right. Anyone with any sense knew that if things were left to
themselves, we might as well give up on our little blue planet. But the ones who held power . . .
Well, they were afraid of losing it.
FARENHEIT. That aside, things were deteriorating. People were starving. Guerrilla wars, with
clever leaders. But solutions required coordinated efforts on a global scale.
FARENHEIT. Especially. Things got worse. Ozone depletion began to threaten crops.
Greenhouse effect melting the Polar Ice Cap. Topsoil loss cut food production. We began to
meet for a change in world politics.
FARENHEIT. We knew at some point there would be one crisis too many. Then political-
economic implosion. Then chaos. We had to be ready.
FARENHEIT. Yes. We joined forces. They were glad to get us. Glad to get anyone credible.
And I was not unhappy with the political- military muscle.
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ANN. So that's how the coalition came about.
SHIRLEY. Didn't it bother you to join with a militant when you knew that millennia of war had
brought us to that point?
FARENHEIT. (indignantly) Look what brought us to that point! Progress and human nature.
Procreation beyond resources. When a crisis strikes, you don't have time to interview for
leadership positions.
SHIRLEY. Anyway, all the bad old political and financial leaders are exiled to an island in the
Pacific.
ANN. (sarcastically) And the "Good Director" is looking out for all of us.
FARENHEIT. (sighs) And we thought we had overthrown history itself and made the world
safe for ideas and progress. (frowns) Instead we have a world tyrant. Making zombies like me.
SHIRLEY. The more powerful one becomes, the less free he or she is to trust others.
ANN. This punishment is for the worst criminals. Why did he do this to you?
FARENHEIT. Rage!
FARENHEIT. When the World Government was established. Right away they divided up
power among themselves. The same old show.
FARENHEIT. It must seem very unreal . . . Maybe horrifying. I know they find it hard to
believe.
FARENHEIT. They say they're creating a genetically engineered "superior" human race because
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we were a natural selection accident. Inherently destructive. A monumental mistake.
FARENHEIT. (shakes head) Not that. They aren't breeding "Herrenvolk" and
"Untermenschen." They intend — to put it quite bluntly — to bring the human gene pool to
extinction. The new genetically engineered New Species will be placed in designed nurturing,
educational, and social settings.
FARENHEIT. Some — for a while. But the only authorized pregnancies will be engineered ova
implants. Permanent contraceptive drugs were to be secretly added to the world's drinking water.
FARENHEIT. I was the only member of the Central Committee to oppose this. I used whatever
delaying tactic I could. But they were bound and determined to make dinosaurs out of us . . .
ANN. Maybe they're right. Look at you. Human beings do these things to human beings. All
too regularly.
FARENHEIT. Of course. Human extinction is utterly uncalled for. (pause) There's a precious
relationship between our natural evolution and the universe.
SHIRLEY. That isn't going to get you out of this, Robert. I mean . . .
FARENHEIT. I know.
SHIRLEY. I can see why the World Government's furious. You shot them down.
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ANN. Now they'll have to use strong-arm methods.
ANN. The "immortality" thing? Thousand-year lifetimes for the select — to "educate and guide"
their new race?
FARENHEIT. They solved human aging. Then clamped "Top Secret" on aging-reversal
research.
FARENHEIT. In recent television appearances, the Director has had to utilize make-up artists to
make him appear his age. He has actually reverse-aged twenty years.
FARENHEIT. I would have. But there are only minute quantities available It's a long
expensive process. We were holding out until a bio-engineering breakthrough.
FARENHEIT. Of course. And therein lies the fallacy of their reasoning. Such a profound secret
would have leaked.
ANN. People living ten times as long. Able to have children ten times as long. Guess what
happens to world population?
FARENHEIT. Now that that's out, anyone can have a cheap electric car.
FARENHEIT. Ends the World Government monopoly on fuel and power generation. It was my
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own invention.
FARENHEIT. Maybe.
SHIRLEY. Maybe?
ANN. (stands, paces) Robert, are you being realistic? (a beat) I'm sorry. I'm tense.
ANN. What were you thinking when you called the press conference?
FARENHEIT. What else could I do? Would you have just let them go ahead with it?
ANN. No.
FARENHEIT. I knew there'd be repercussions. I thought they'd fire me, blacklist me. (sighs)
Not this. (beat) Caught me unprepared.
There is a DING SOUND, as from an elevator. All look that way anxiously, but when nothing
happens, return to each other.
FARENHEIT. Loosen up a little. (beat. They smile at it) I’m holding a few cards.
ANN. You’re. . .
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Startled, Ann, Shirley, and Farenheit look.
Vladimir Waters is ever the bureaucratic stuffed shirt. He strides to Farenheit carrying his
briefcase.
WATERS. I was in a meeting in Cancun. Grabbed the first flight out, got a taxi, came straight
here. (to Farenheit with guilt, fear) This is all very upsetting, troubling. Horrifying! What is the
world coming to? Robert, is there anything I can do to help?
FARENHEIT. (hint of a taunt) Look at me, Vladimir. They could do this to you as easily. If
this is a sympathy visit, you could be putting yourself in danger. It's not "government" anymore.
It's absolute arbitrary power! World dictatorship!
WATERS. Cool it! Don't make things any worse for yourself. Room's probably bugged. Just
let's concentrate on getting you out of this.
WATERS. Cut it, Robert. That's one of the reasons you're in this predicament.
WATERS. Plan! (scoffs) They represent absolute power. They're not accountable to anyone.
Plan! (shakes head, scoffs)
FARENHEIT. Not if he values his job, let alone health. He took a big chance just coming here.
WATERS. Just now I don't want to say anything that might rub them the wrong way.
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FARENHEIT. Well, you managed to stay clear of it. So far. Probably it would be best if you
went back to your office now. They could find some excuse to come for you next.
WATERS. Look, I'm your friend. I'll do what I can. But I can't do much if I get fired. Or
worse.
FARENHEIT. Thank you, Vladimir. I understand. You better stay clear of this. You cross these
guys . . .
FARENHEIT. Made H-bombs, nerve gas. Thought he could overthrow the World Government.
WATERS. Underground nuclear explosion. Imploded on their bunker. You have to admit, the
man was dangerous.
FARENHEIT. No. Not all of his followers. And not one of the H-bombs.
FARENHEIT. Who knows? But look what's happened. Did the World Government end war?
Make world peace? Turmoil's everywhere.
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WATERS. (sighs) Sometimes the right words at the right time to the right person. . .
FARENHEIT. And maybe wasted effort. For all your good intentions.
WATERS. (disgusted) I'm sick of them, their insanity. All of us bumbling around seeming
foolish, trying to save our hides.
ANN. In other words, there isn't a whole lot you can do.
WATERS. Not a whole lot. (to Farenheit) What would you have me do?
FARENHEIT. Not right now. This has created serious political flack. But beware.
ANN. Robert, news has leaked. Even in the media. Everyone’s outraged. There are
demonstrations on campuses, in cities, all over the world. Full scale riots in a lot of places.
Even here, in the World Capital.
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SHIRLEY. This may have been the last straw.
SHIRLEY. The promised environmental cleanup of Japan never happened. Tokyo Bay still
reeks of chemicals and sewage.
ANN. Promised the end of poverty. Look at the slums of New York, Calcutta, Manilla.
SHIRLEY. Worse in Cleveland, Chicago, with Great Lakes pollution out of control.
SHIRLEY. So the poor huddled around the stinking sea — in Marseilles, Rome, Athens, Tel
Aviv, Alexandria — aren't happy with the Director.
ANN. Simple fact is: no one's happy with him.
ANN. Think you're part of the underground? Know where the other H-bomb is?
ANN. Madness.
SHIRLEY. The state of mind out there . . . There'll be a bloody civil war.
FARENHEIT. I know. It's been coming. When they established the World Government, I had a
gnawing feeling . . .
ANN. Demoralized.
FARENHEIT. The first job they assigned me was Media Tzar. (shakes his head) People lived
work-a-day nonsense. I tried to refocus them. Their ways of life and jobs were adding to
pollution and economic crises.
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SHIRLEY. Spend and waste.
FARENHEIT. TV gave no meaning to their lives. They viewed banalities, sales-pitches. High-
definition TV and the information superhighway fed on a creed of indulgence and squandering. I
fought it.
ANN. (proudly) I know. That's why I got myself transferred to your department.
SHIRLEY. It's been eroded, but you did a good job, Robert.
ANN. And you promoted environmental cities — using renewable energy, recycled materials.
ANN. Beautiful. Clean. Lively to live in. Rooftop forests and parks.
FARENHEIT. Modified Mayan calendar. Part of the legislative package for a new World Time
Observatory at Greenwich. Lot of people still don't like it. But it's official.
SHIRLEY. Brought an end to fighting over Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, and Jewish calendars in
the World Legislature.
ANN. After that you fought for computerized, robotized work places. Against powerful lobbies.
Pushed shorter work weeks through the Legislature.
FARENHEIT. Kids in the Third World could be in school instead of working in sweat shops
ANN. Well, anyway, you had them design a household robot to clean houses, clear tables, and
wash dishes. I have one.
FARENHEIT. Cargo’s now carried in automated ships with robot crews. I worked to give
people their own time — to find meaning, use creative potentials.
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SHIRLEY. And getting paid for it.
ANN. Here we are wandering. Better start thinking of a way out of this.
ANN. No.
SHIRLEY. You did some pretty amazing things as Minister of Research and Development.
ANN. I remember. You were the real hero, even though Chung and Humphries got the Nobel
Prize.
ANN. Yeah.
ANN. Don't need transplants when you can cure sick organs.
SHIRLEY. If!
SHIRLEY. What about the Institutes for Mental Health things you argued for?
FARENHEIT. Works.
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ANN. What good are healthy bodies and healthy minds if the environment is deathly ill? The
planet’s dying!
SHIRLEY. (glances cautioningly to Ann) It's a marvelous program, Robert. Some day it will
be utilized.
FARENHEIT. Well, okay. Something practical. They used to laugh at transmutation of metals.
That's because nuclear physics was wrapped up in contradictions.
ANN. And you did get the Nobel Prize for that.
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ANN. Yeah. (pause) We really ought to concentrate on getting you out of this.
SHIRLEY. You're one of the few in this World Government who has any respect out there.
FARENHEIT. May help. But it will take time. Few have the guts to speak out against the
World Government.
SHIRLEY. What?
FARENHEIT. Okay.
ANN. The only thing that's going to save us is to get him tossed out.
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ANN. We’re subversives.
FARENHEIT. Go down the hall to room 87 C. There should be a woman in there. If you can,
bring her back here.
FARENHEIT. Should be no problem. She's so pain-conditioned that they took the monitor off
the door. Just bring her back here.
ANN. (to Shirley) I'll go. You stay here. (to Farenheit) Eighty-seven C.
SHIRLEY. Should I?
FARENHEIT. At my wedding?
SHIRLEY. There better be more than that. He's gone through half a dozen sex scandals. No
one cares.
Ann leads CHING-SU, Oriental young woman, 20s, in straight-jacket, hospital clothes, into
room.
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She is confused, frightened, drugged. She slowly looks around.
CHING-SU. (drugged, spaced-out) Where am I? (to Farenheit) Who is this? (to Shirley, Ann)
Who are you?
CHING-SU. (points, wanders to Farenheit) Another one they put those torture wires in?
Drugged unsteady Ching-su blurry-eyed looks over Farenheit, attempts to scratch itch but can't
in straitjacket.
CHING-SU. What did he do? (tries to scratch again) Oh, that itch. Damn itch. The drugs
cause it. (spaced-out, stares) Or maybe it's the shock treatments. (tries to scratch)
Ohhh!
ANN. Oh dear.
Shirley, Ann WHEEL AROUND, STARTLED, FRIGHTENED. Ching-su reacts more slowly.
A ROBOT, human-sized, pattern of 360o lights (as if eyes) circulating around upper head, enters
the room, stands obediently, observantly.
27
SHIRLEY. Horrible looking thing.
CHING-SU. Not very good. One fell off the roof. This one fell down the stairs. But they
repaired it in the tech-shop.
FARENHEIT. You're right. I was in the government. But I had nothing to do with this.
FARENHEIT. Maybe. Her father's a poor rice farmer. Might be afraid. Probably doesn't know
everything.
FARENHEIT. I knew they were experimenting with "patient care robots" here.
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CHING-SU. (spacey, looks over Farenheit) You met me. You know about my father. You
didn't do this to me. (shakes head, tries to focus) Who are you? Why do you know so much
about me?
CHING-SU. (to Ann) They're deliberately driving me crazy. Electro-shock. Drugs that make
me itch. Moved to a new hospital all the time.
SHIRLEY. Why?
CHING-SU. I don't know. (thinks) It's not because I was a whore. This is hardly a way to
correct wayward girls. (thinks) It can hardly be because I was the Director's whore. He's had
lots of them. (thinks) So you tell me. And tell me how I can get out of this.
CHING-SU. Oh, yeah. (thinks, brightens) The good guy. The scientist. (puzzled)
You did all those good things. So why are you being punished?
CHING-SU. No. Who cares? They’ll conjure up something. (studies Farenheit's scalp)
But tell me one thing.
FARENHEIT. What?
CHING-SU. (disappointed, sing-songish) Not the same one who did mine. (thinks)
What're you convicted of?
CHING-SU. All I want to know is when they'll let me out. What do you know about that?
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FARENHEIT. I'd rather not say.
SHIRLEY. Hold it a second. I want to know why she's being treated this way.
SHIRLEY. Tell Ann what you told me, and then tell us what this is all about?
FARENHEIT. (to Ann) Name's Ching-su. The Director's cute little sex-object a few years
back.
FARENHEIT. Let her tell you. I only read the files. I think her family's been paid to keep
quiet.
SHIRLEY. (to Ching-su) You want to tell us? (glances nervously at wristwatch)
CHING-SU. Where to begin. Well, it all started with the dreams. Maybe daydreaming,
fantasizing.
ANN. Not at all. Remember the David Koresh thing in Waco? Noriega at the Vatican Embassy
in Panama? Used primitive versions. Sharp stuff around now.
30
CHING-SU. Maybe. I don't know. They were vivid dreams.
ANN. Of what?
CHING-SU. Well, first there were voices. Like,"Gorgeous girl." Things like that. Then, "Why
do you sleep alone, beautiful?" Then it would be, "You could sleep with the Director."
CHING-SU. No. Like over weeks. Getting more definite. Then, "The Director is burning with
lust for you." Or something like that.
CHING-SU. Common sense told me it was nonsense. Foolish for an Asian farm girl to dream of
sleeping with the Director. I wanted to run away.
ANN. Psychoactive gases used with thought-implant. Asian Mafia uses it to recruit girls for
bordellos.
CHING-SU. I didn't know that. Anyway, I told my mother. She didn't know what to do, so she
sent me to a country doctor. The doctor didn't know, so he sent me to a psychiatrist at a
Government clinic.
CHING-SU. Yeah. They said it could be dangerous or something. Sent lots of notices.
Warnings.
FARENHEIT. I don't think she was the only one. From what I saw in the file, it appears that
higher-ups in the Government were using secret facilities, sophisticated techniques to create
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super-whores. Ostensibly for intelligence gathering.
FARENHEIT. Naturally.
FARENHEIT. Got hold of a picture of her in a high school play. Couldn't resist.
CHING-SU. I might have known. (sighs, shakes head) You want to hear the rest?
ANN. Definitely.
CHING-SU. When I got out of the hospital, I literally walked into a job as a high-priced call
girl.
CHING-SU. Now that I look back on it. (to Farenheit) So, if you read my file, you probably
know my sexual specialties and everything.
FARENHEIT. Everything that was in it. They imposed those appetites on your psyche. After
about a week — after they were sure of their success.
CHING-SU. (nods, interrupts) The Director came to Hong Kong. And they flew me there.
He knew all about my sexual specialties. And he was hot for my young body.
CHING-SU. Few months. Unlike his other sweet little playthings, his wife Vera felt threatened
by me.
FARENHEIT. It was more than that. Political. He was about to be voted out — for
incompetence. He suddenly had to get rid of liabilities, and he needed his wife's influence to
keep his job.
CHING-SU. I had no idea they were having me declared insane. Hauled me out of bed at three
in the morning. Locked me up. "Treatment" for delusions of grandeur.
ANN. Bastard!
32
ANN. But everyone forgot about it in a couple weeks.
CHING-SU. I escaped once. It was way out in the country, so it wasn't very well guarded. I
remember there was a river. Clear. Not polluted. I was thirsty. I drank the water.
CHING-SU. (nods to the Robot) They had the robots there, too. They sent one after me. Just
kept coming. Never stopped to sleep or anything. Day and night.
CHING-SU. Didn't see the old land-mine, though. (pleased) Blew off its legs. (sighs, dully)
But they found me anyway.
Robot whrrrs, moves, calling attention to it. Ann and Shirley jump away from it, keep wary eyes
on it.
CHING-SU. Sent me to another "hospital." They don't call them prisons anymore. And then
another after that, and another, and another . . .
SHIRLEY. Criminals.
ANN. A few days ago I would never have imagined things like this went on in the Government.
FARENHEIT. Wait'll you hear what they have planned for her.
SHIRLEY. Planned?
ANN. As bad?
33
FARENHEIT. Every bit.
ANN. She has a right to know. Maybe she can defend herself.
CHING-SU. (to Farenheit) It's my file.
FARENHEIT. (resigned) They have great plans for you. Now that you're a ward of the
government. (studies Ching-su) Think you can remember any of this? You're on Puromycin,
other drugs. You'll forget everything tomorrow.
FARENHEIT. First one, I think, was the Berlin Psychiatric Institute. They requested her for a
study on aggression.
ANN. Aggression?
FARENHEIT. From what I saw, give her drugs to make her aggressive. Then give her electro-
shock to see if they can stop the aggression.
FARENHEIT. Not much. (to Ching-su) Don't resist them. Don't fight it. Just try to get out of
there as soon as you can.
34
FARENHEIT. You have a better idea?
FARENHEIT. Didn't say. (thinks) Then to Volgograd. Then to "Women's Hospital" in Tokyo.
Someone scrawled a snide comment on the form, "bull dykes." Anyway, they want to study your
"sexual dreams," which I interpret as meaning they want to induce dreams and "study" the
results.
FARENHEIT. And funds it. They're building another research facility in Hawaii, but it won't be
finished in time for her.
SHIRLEY. Gad.
FARENHEIT. After that? Oh, Ireland. I think it will not be so unpleasant. It's an old castle by
the Irish Sea. They're parapsychology enthusiasts. Want to see if you can read minds.
Something like that. (a beat) Thought it was cute to name a room after you: the Ching-su room.
ANN. He had his good time with a poor farm girl. And then she's shipped all over the world as a
guinea pig for so-called "experiments."
FARENHEIT. See, that's why I didn't want to tell you this. (beat, while Ching-su cries) I'm
sorry.
CHING-SU. (sobbing) Why go on living? I should find a window and jump out.
35
FARENHEIT. You can't. Same with me. If we even try to consider suicide, the circuits inside
our heads blank out the thoughts. (a beat) Our only hope is the overthrow of the Director and
the collapse of his rotten government.
CHING-SU. How?
FARENHEIT. Look at the caliber of people around him. Yes people. First hint of something
going wrong . . . Rats on a sinking ship.
FARENHEIT. She figures in it. But, no. It's not going to be her.
FARENHEIT. (sighs) Okay. I know some politically damaging dirt. I don't know how far it
will go, but the spin doctors may sweat this one.
CHING-SU. Old "Teflon"? He'll turn on the charisma. It'll roll off.
FARENHEIT. Research and Development. Irony is: if I were still Minister, I could go to the
media, put a scientific spin on it. Dull the impact. (beat) They could even now parade me in
front of the TV cameras to put a good face on it.
36
SHIRLEY. You daydream, Robert.
FARENHEIT. Did I say your kid? (shakes head) Offspring. Great grandchild removed by
thirteen generations.
CHING-SU. After what I've been through? After what you told me?
FARENHEIT. The room's probably bugged. Some of this may be a bargaining chip.
FARENHEIT. (considers it) Okay. You want me to explain this? Or do you want to know the
other plans in your files?
ANN. Let's have those other plans, Robert. (holds up tape recorder) We'll get this on the air
somehow.
FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) This is sordid. I'm sorry you even have to hear it.
FARENHEIT. Those other pseudo-scientists were at least pretending. Some of the other
"researchers" have other ideas.
FARENHEIT. (nods) They'll send you to California — at the edge of Death Valley.
37
SHIRLEY. How do you know?
FARENHEIT. They're super confident about their secret files. They scribbled comments.
FARENHEIT. Georgia. Chattahoochie County Hospital. A "snake pit" relic of the past. They
blatantly intend to give you sexual stimulant drugs and "study" how you react. The scribbles in
the margins mentioned "orgies, pornography." It's guarded by helicopters, so they may also have
political prisoners there.
FARENHEIT. I don't know. Maybe the other way around. Convicting photogenic shapely
bodies.
FARENHEIT. No. But the notes were detailed. It was pretty apparent.
FARENHEIT. Some place just up the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Same kind of thing.
Then the Nairobi Tropical Disease Research Center. Synthetic rhinoceros horn aphrodisiacs "to
save endangered species."
FARENHEIT. One more. Egypt. I think they intend to release you there. Plans for an
international refugee center to be built in the southern Sinai.
SHIRLEY. Outrageous.
38
FARENHEIT. Let me backtrack. She's here indirectly as a result of it.
CHING-SU. Am I losing it again? I'm not following this.
FARENHEIT. When her brief affair with the Director was terminated, she was brought to the
Hong Kong Treatment Center, adjacent to the Asian Environmental Research Center.
ANN. Six million world-credits on rooftop groves of whispering pines, exotic Chinese gardens?
FARENHEIT. They were in on the plot to get her out of the political picture. One of them
administered enough dope to knock her out for a couple days.
FARENHEIT. They gave you an exceptionally thorough physical exam while you were knocked
out. They found you were three days pregnant.
39
FARENHEIT. A girl. About twenty-seven months old.
FARENHEIT. No. Being scientists, they duplicated the experiments. There are two more.
Fifth and tenth generation boys. Both close to two years old now.
FARENHEIT. (to Ching-su) You were shipped to Havana. Completely unaware of this.
Something went wrong in Havana . . .
FARENHEIT. No intention. But they had the audacity to name the biological procedures after
you. The Ching-su procedures they call them. Unofficially, of course.
SHIRLEY. This is some pretty good stuff. How can we use it?
FARENHEIT. (considers it) Last I heard, the Director was scheduled for a photo-op in the
Hong Kong lab today. What time is it?
SHIRLEY. We can transmit the tape. Hit him with this in front of the cameras.
FARENHEIT. (shakes head) If all goes as planned, you won't have to. Documentation's
40
already in the hands of certain judges. Media should be getting the story right now.
FARENHEIT. Might be touch and go. Maybe some tense days or weeks.
FARENHEIT. They have your tenth generation great grandson is in the lab now. Your — and
the Director's — thirteenth generation removed great granddaughter is in the Asian Television
Communications Center studio. The other baby’s in a secret location. Added insurance.
FARENHEIT. Undoubtedly. Too late. Creature of compulsive punctuality. He's on his way
into the facility right now. With the media mob all around him.
FARENHEIT. Mass resignations. Each member of the Central Committee has already signed
one. Effective at noon. They'll be announced with these other facts. Under the World
Constitution, he has no legitimacy.
FARENHEIT. The way it works! This was not done without an exhaustive computerized study
of scenarios. We picked the one most likely to succeed with the least potential for violence.
ROBOT. (mechanical voice, beckons) Ching-su. You will come with me.
CHING-SU. Oh damn. I've got to go. It turns on the pain, or it gets rough. (Robot opens door
as Ching-su goes) I sure hope you're right about the Director. (Ching-su goes out, followed by
Robot) I hope you told me the truth. (Sound of Robot shutting door)
SHIRLEY. (looking toward door) How horrible. The old ranting ratbag. Put her through this.
41
ANN. For a political coverup, no less.
ANN. Me too. Sure made novel use of the World Bureau of Investigation data bank to find
himself a nice young sweetie.
FARENHEIT. You're in it, too. Amazing what they know about everyone.
SHIRLEY. It's not just the Director. The whole rotten system.
FARENHEIT. You see what happens when they insulate themselves from reality. Strong-arm
methods and PR propaganda can only go so far.
FARENHEIT. I doubt it. Remember how fast the Shah of Iran went? Remember the quick,
quiet demise of the USSR. These guys are surrounded by illusions and delusions of power.
FARENHEIT. Next week his own rubber stamp World Legislature will impeach him.
SHIRLEY. That'll be fun to watch.
42
ANN. Don't be so sure. He's still Director.
FARENHEIT. (points to his head bandages) I hope this kind of thing is abolished for good.
ANN. Oh Robert. Always the detached objective scientist. It might kill you!
STAGE BACK WALL ERUPTS INTO A GIANT VIDEO SCREEN. ANTHEM ACCOMPANIES
OFFICIAL WORLD GOVERNMENT LOGO. "COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF, THE
DIRECTORATE" prominently superimposed.
On Screen, ICHIRO HAYAKAWA, arrogant, in suit and tie, glares out as if on a two-way video
hookup.
HAYAKAWA. (sinister voice) Robert Farenheit. I have been commissioned by The Directorate
to serve you with official notice that as a result of your conviction for unauthorized
dissemination of Government secrets, prisoner control devices have been implanted in your
brain.
HAYAKAWA. Very well, Dr. Farenheit, we can dispense with the formalities.
FARENHEIT. As always.
HAYAKAWA. No smart stuff, Farenheit. The Directorate is furious with you for leaking that
material. You don't know the trouble you've caused.
43
FARENHEIT. Have a hard time making the human race extinct now, eh?
HAYAKAWA. The Director's on a world tour now. Trying to mend some of the fences.
HAYAKAWA. To be frank, no. I am ordering you to furnish all the details of the plot to
embarrass the Director in Hong Kong. Names. Times. Places. Quickly.
HAYAKAWA. Too late, Farenheit? This is the World Government. We're in charge.
Everywhere! It's never too late for an arrest. A conviction. Now. The details. Immediately!
FARENHEIT. Conceited jerk. Toady of the Director. What's wrong with him? He knows me.
Why ask one of his flunkies?
FARENHEIT. World Government. You guys seem to think you own the world. History books
are full of toppled arrogant regimes. You're running out of time as we speak.
FARENHEIT. The Director's done. Hang up. Go home and work on your resume. I'm not
going to tell you anything.
HAYAKAWA. It seems you find your present situation a bit too comfortable.
44
HAYAKAWA. I just follow orders.
FARENHEIT. You just talk. Don't you feel a little guilty for not having done anything decent
with your life?
HAYAKAWA. Save the lecture, professor. If you are so smart, how come you're in this fix?
HAYAKAWA. Because you didn't agree with the government's plans. Thought you knew it all.
Frankly, I'm glad you're not with us anymore.
HAYAKAWA. Are you going to help us, Farenheit? We could make things easier.
FARENHEIT. The story of your life. And if you really believe I'm going to tell you anything,
you're a bigger fool than I thought.
FARENHEIT. Scare tactics? I won't even talk to them until they remove the implant. Who the
hell do they think they are, anyway?
45
HAYAKAWA. This isn't getting us anywhere. You won't listen to reason.
HAYAKAWA. Reason enough. You understand this technology. They can turn you into a
vegetable.
FARENHEIT. I understand the Directorate well enough to know that you wouldn't be
threatening me unless they were very worried.
HAYAKAWA. They'll get it out of you. They'll run you 'till exhaustion. They'll use thought-
process modification. They'll make it clear that there's no way out. They'll turn on pain.
FARENHEIT. If they do, they could kill me. You know that.
HAYAKAWA. So what?
HAYAKAWA. (sinister smirk) They'll turn on a little pain and a lot of discomfort. Tedious, like
a toothache. The computer has been programmed to keep you constantly moving all day. They'll
let you get an hour of sleep, then run you to exhaustion again.
HAYAKAWA. Just the facts. Any patterns resembling thought or consciousness, and the
computer turns on the pain. Pretty soon you're a carrot. Except that you'll probably tell them
everything they want to know long before then.
HAYAKAWA. You know how it works, Farenheit. You won't even be able to open your eyelids
unless they let you.
FARENHEIT. How does it happen that the Chief of Communications knows so much about
these things?
HAYAKAWA. None of your business. The point is: they're going to do it. This is what's going
to happen to you. (pause, points) So think it over carefully.
HAYAKAWA. We followed the letter of the law. Your boss has been convicted of the most
serious crimes . . .
46
SHIRLEY. Give us some time with him. We may be able to persuade him.
HAYAKAWA. Time.
FARENHEIT. He has no authority. He called to get the facts about Hong Kong. If he can't
report back with anything, they'll turn on the pain or something.
HAYAKAWA. Right. So unless you're some kind of a masochist, you'd better start talking.
HAYAKAWA. Okay, I give up. You two women: better get out of there. This isn't going to look
pleasant.
HAYAKAWA. Nothing.
SHIRLEY. You can't do anything until the appellate court has heard his case.
HAYAKAWA. Wrong. World security interest clause. Executive order. (points) Again, I
strongly advise you to leave.
HAYAKAWA. Until the guards get up here from downstairs. Okay, have it your way.
ANN. Put something in his mouth or he'll bite off his tongue.
47
FARENHEIT CONVULSES IN PAIN.
Shirley rushes forward with a pencil.
Audience hears shouts, commotion, protests, fracas, perhaps "gunshots" as if from a major
conflict erupting backstage, the hallway, theater lobby.
LIGHTS COME ON
REVOLUTIONARY ONE unlocks one arm restraint, and REVOLUTIONARY TWO unlocks the
other. They carry his limp body to a couch, stretch him out comfortably. Ann tucks a pillow
under his head. Shirley places hand on his forehead.
SHIRLEY. You put that thing in his brain. You better hope he's okay.
ANN. World Government or no Government, I'm personally going to take care of you if he's not.
REVOLUTIONARY TWO. (to Smith) There are going to be Crimes Against Humanity trials,
Doctor.
SMITH. Hold it a minute. I sabotaged it. As soon as they turned on the pain the second time, it
blew a fuse.
REVOLUTIONARY ONE. (to Doctor Smith) You better be telling the truth. We'll examine the
chip later.
SMITH. It's true. Why should I lie?
48
SMITH. I'm pretty sure.
FARENHEIT. You're . . . (tries to focus) You're still here? (sees Smith, frowns puzzled)
Aren't you the one who did the implant?
It points to Ching-su.
Robot’s arms flay, motors whir, but it runs out of steam, goes limp. Robot’s lights, other
apparatus, go off. It stands lifeless.
49
WALL ERUPTS INTO A VIDEO SCREEN.
World Government Logo appears with a "traffic STOP sign bar" crossing it out. World
Government anthem is cut short after half-a-bar, replaced by other music, perhaps John Lennon
"Imagine."
REVOLUTIONARY THREE. People! The World Government Council has been abolished.
Temporary administrative duties have been delegated to the Planetary Readjustment Society. Let
me stress: it is temporary. World elections are planned.
END
50
horrible, first draft. While living in Tokyo, again, in 1975, I rewrote in into a second, very little
better, draft. While a student at Berkeley in 1976, I made an attempt at visualizing it in teleplay
form, and this draft was copyrighted (on the advice of Berkeley's Professor Marvin Rosenberg,
and who gave me the form), Du 98834 (5/4/76). In 1980, while working on my MA at Central
Washington University in Ellensburg, I rewrote it as a screenplay yet once more. In 1986, I made
an attempt to quickly turn the previous screenplay into a stage play, and this horrible draft was
copyrighted because I had begun widely showing it around for input: PAu 852-665 (10/27/86).
The stage version you see here was derived from a later play (completed April 15, 1995) and its
screenplay version (copyright PAu 1-984-458, 6/1/95) in January 1997. This draft was
completely rewritten in September 1998.
The latest draft of the screenplay is available, is in standard screenplay format, 102 pages
in length. Reply to:
Tom Slattery
tslat20@hotmail.com
3. Immodest Proposals
Through the Pornographic Looking Glass
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-15974-5 / Paperback
This is a nonfiction work exploring pornography from its historical beginnings and questioning its impact on the
modern world.
4. Norikaeru
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-15248-1 / Paperback
This is a short science fiction novel playing with crossing dimensions and largely set in a dimension where the
American Revolution failed because Thomas Jefferson had a horse-and-buggy accident at a critical time in its
beginnings.
5. Open 25 Hours
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Ghost Stories
By Tom Slattery
ISBN 0-595-14022-X / Paperback
This is a collection of science fiction and ghost short stories by Tom Slattery. It contains “The Spore,” a science
fiction yarn not without some satire that is remarkably similar to the much later movie “Evolution” starring David
51
Duchovny.
52