DEDICATION SONNET, IN
THE ELIZABETHAN MODE
If Francis Bacon were
alive today,
Incarnate as an astrophysicist,
Would he be prone to worship and to pray?
To find the God that Albert Einstein missed?
The God who never
plays a game of chance;
Who never lets the universe run down;
Who hides his hands behind the cosmic dance;
And masquerades as subatomic clown?
What are the proper
questions then to pose?
Do we create our own reality?
Or does the seed contain the unseen rose
That overturns the law of gravity?
If Bohr and Einstein
could agree on this:
The world bestows the ignorance of bliss.
ACT ONE, SCENE ONE
LIGHTS UP ON GOD, PLAYED
BY A WOMAN, WHO TAKES CENTER STAGE AND ADDRESSES THE AUDIENCE DIRECTLY
Bored with angels always
singing
praise that set my ears to ringing,
I decided to create
a creature who would question fate.
To give it freedom and a
voice
to praise or blame me as a choice.
I must admit, as God, I
love it,
when it tells me: "God, go shove it!"
Or when it says, I don't
exist.
God, how I love an atheist!
(PAUSE)
Of course, this freedom
has a price,
so, yes, I had to throw the dice,
and gamble that the human
race
would grow up soon to take my place.
I bet the universe and
more
that you would learn to mind the store.
I bet my whole
omnipotence
upon your future competence.
So please don't think of
me as king---
I don't rule over anything.
I'm more like angel with
broken wing,
or like a wasp, without its sting.
I have no power anymore,
except to guard this fateful door,
that opens to the world
beyond,
if you should knock and I respond.
As well it goes the other
way
for mortals who had passed away,
but now are ready for
rebirth
upon this dark and dreary earth.
usually dead for over a
century,
they need some help upon re-entry.
Two such souls are now
approaching,
though they don't need that much coaching.
Both you know from
history,
so that part's not a mystery.
SIR FRANCIS BACON enters,
crosses downstage and bows. She is ólim and petite, about 40, with dark
hair, and dressed in Elizabethan finery.
One with whom I am quite
taken---
Him you know as Francis Bacon.
As an author, quite
prolific,
sensitive and scientific.
But now he feels a bit
forlorn
because his friend's already born.
LEONARDO DA VINCI enters,
crosses downstage and bows. He is 50, tall and heavy, dressed to look like
the Mona Lisa, complete with long hair wig.
And then that
painter-engineer,
Leonardo, whom, I fear,
suffers from ambivalence
with sexual equivalence.
PRISCILLA MCMAHON enters,
bows, inspects BACON and LEONARDO, and stands between them USR.
Both will soon become a
child
of Priscilla, who's not wild
about that old infirmity,
traditional maternity.
A play director by
profession,
she would like her self-expression
focused on the modern
stage,
not the birth announcement page.
But Leonardo and Sir
Francis
both decide to take their chances
On Priscilla's virgin
womb,
To share it, though there's not much room.
Now each twin needs a
different father,
and I know that fact will bother
Those of you with moral
scruples
formed when you were first grade pupils.
You're the ones who must
decide
what the Ten Commandments hide.
Priscilla does break
Number Six
and does get into quite a fix ---
Not because she is a
sinner ---
How else could these twins get in her?
NICK MCMAHON enters,
crosses, bows and stands with PRISCILLA. He is about 35, tall,
bespectacled, intense and nerdy.
Priscilla's husband
Nicholas,
a near-sighted physicist,
would be the father of
Sir Francis,
if only he would make advances.
But because of Nick's
benign neglect,
Priscilla finally does elect...
ERNIE FREVEL enters,
crosses down, bows and takes his place on the other side of PRISCILLA. He
is the same age as NICK, but shorter and seedier looking.
To take a substitute to
bed
so Leonardo can be bred.
Ernie Frevel is his name,
and he's achieved some local fame
as physicist in great
defiance
of what he calls: pseudo-science.
Now the only problem here
of course
is organizing intercourse.
Sperm and egg don't live
that long,
So for these twins to come along,
Too much time can not
elapse
between the two separate acts.
ALBERT EINSTEIN and NIELS
BOHR enter, cross downstage, bow together, and stand USL. EINSTEIN, played
by a woman, is about 30 to 35, with curly blond hair. BOHR is 40, tall,
rangy, with dark hair and brooding eyes.
And furthermore, we can't
ignore
Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr:
Both physicists of great
renown,
who've turned your world view upside down.
I need their help to
figure out
how I can roll and not crap out.
[ALL "WORTHIES"
AND HUMANS EXIT]
Now it's time our little
play
started getting underway.
But just remember who I
am:
I don't condemn, I give a damn!
I'm not that old infernal
judge
who burns you every time you fudge.
Consider this reality:
with me, you've got equality.
GOD moves to the doorway.
BACON re-enters, meets GOD, and holds up her right hand.
GOD
As you pass this sacred
portal,
don't forget that you are mortal . . .
BACON
. . . subject to the laws
of fate
on either side of heaven's gate.
GOD gives BACON a scroll
and two gold finger rings. BACON looks befuddled and enters the room
downstage. She is then startled to see LEONARDO enter, raise his right
hand to GOD, and receive his scroll.
GOD
As you pass this sacred
portal,
don't forget that you are mortal . . .
LEONARDO
. . . subject to the laws
of fate,
on either side of heaven's gate.
LEONARDO comes through
the door. GOD climbs up the doorframe, which is then whisked up and away.
BACON
Leonardo da Vinci! I
recognize you by your smirk.
LEONARDO (YAWNING LOUDLY)
What on earth am I doing
here?
BACON
The final on-site
inspection
right before conception.
LEONARDO
What? Whose conception?
BACON
Yours. And mine.
LEONARDO
Who are you?
BACON
Most recently, Lord of
Verulam, Viscount of St. Albans, and former Lord High Chancellor to her
majesty Queen Elizabeth the First, Sir Francis Bacon.
LEONARDO
So you're the one who
disturbed my heavenly repose.
BACON
I didn't wake you up.
LEONARDO
I know. You kept me from
going to sleep.
BACON
I don't recall.
LEONARDO
Of course you don't
recall. You lived a century after me, and with all your new-fangled
scientific ideas, you sent a firestorm up to heaven. Disturbed the recent
dead, upset the angels. All hell was breaking loose, and you were the main
culprit. What century is this?
BACON
Why, late twentieth.
LEONARDO
You know I didn't get any
repose until the early nineteenth. Yes, it took the music of Beethoven
resonating in the spheres to drown out your din, and soothe me enough to
sleep. And now it's less than two centuries. I'm in a bad mood, and I'm
not ready for another life on earth. It's much too soon, and I'd just as
soon not bother.
BACON
Well, Leonardo, you don't
have to reincarnate if you don't want to.
LEONARDO
What do you mean?
BACON
I mean, you have a
choice. You can say yea or nay to any destiny assignment. You need no
longer be a mere cog in the wheel of karma.
LEONARDO
Since when?
BACON
Since 1900. While you've
been reposing away, I have been studying the trends of evolution down on
earth. And somewhere at the turn of this particular century, we mortals,
both dead and alive, were given the opportunity to take our own destinies
in hand and direct them ourselves.
LEONARDO
Now whose bright idea was
that?
BACON
Apparently, God's.
LEONARDO
But why? The human race
is not ready for such responsibility. You or I and a handful of other
advanced souls could handle it, but not the entire human race. The world
will surely come to an end.
BACON
Then perhaps you might be
interested in helping to prevent that . . . conclusion to the planet?
LEONARDO
Whatever you're cooking
up, Sir Francis, I don't like it.
BACON
You know the only way you
can help is . . .
LEONARDO
Yes, I know, be born
again. You don't have to tell me.
BACON
It really isn't so bad.
LEONARDO
Infancy, childhood,
adolescence, early adulthood. It's not worth it. I am not going through
those stages again. Horrible! Besides, it's too risky. You never know who
your parents are going to be until the last minute, and then it's too
late.
BACON
Some of us know centuries
ahead of time.
LEONARDO
Some of us are
insufferably conceited. So enlighten me, Sir Francis: who are your parents
going to be?
BACON
The same as your parents.
LEONARDO
What do you mean?
BACON
I mean if two souls are
destined to be born of the same parents . . .
LEONARDO
You mean siblings.
BACON
. . . at the same time .
. .
LEONARDO
Twins?
BACON
. . . with identical
inherited characteristics.
LEONARDO
Identical twins! You and
I?
BACON
Yes.
BACON
Oh, God, no, not with
you, not that I have anything personal against you. I mean, I'm not going
to be anybody's identical twin. No way.
BACON
Try this on, Leonardo,
maybe you'll change your mind.
(HE GIVES LEONARDO THE
RING)
LEONARDO
What is this?
BACON
A golden strand of
Saturn's ring,
to help remember everything.
LEONARDO
How did you get it?
You're not supposed to . . .
BACON
God gave it to me at the
threshold. Just before you got your scroll.
LEONARDO
That was God?
BACON
In the flesh, so to
speak.
LEONARDO
You're kidding. I thought
that was one of his angel lackeys.
BACON
No, that's God all right.
LEONARDO
I don't believe it. I
mean, I do believe in God, but I don't believe that God would . . .
BACON
. . . appear in such a
guise?
LEONARDO
Yes, what is going on
here?
BACON
Leonardo, put the ring
on.
(LEONARDO PUTS IT ON HIS
FINGER)
LEONARDO
What is this? A wedding?
Are we getting married?
(PAUSE)
Wait a minute. What am I
seeing? How can this be? You're in Italy! You're picturing my Last
Supper, I know how you feel about it.
BACON
You did it, Leonardo! A
century before I lived. Magnificent inventions! Stupendous works of art.
The basis for a new religion!
LEONARDO
You're back in England.
At a theater. You're speaking to an actor. A play is in rehearsal. The
actor is the playwright.
BACON
The Mona Lisa is
you. It's your self-portrait, Leonardo.
LEONARDO
You. I. You are a son.
Your mother is . . . the Queen. The Queen of England. Elizabeth. Your
mother. My mother. You were illegitimate. A bastard son. You could have
been king of England! . . . What is . . . happening . . .
BACON
. . . to me . . .
LEONARDO
. . . to you . . .
BACON
. . . our memories . . .
LEONARDO
. . . are . . .
BACON
. . . coalescing. They .
. .
LEONARDO
. . . are the same for .
. .
BACON
. . . both of us. Our . .
.
LEONARDO
. . . memories have . . .
BACON
. . . merged into one . .
.
LEONARDO
. . . another. We are . .
.
BACON
. . . one.
(LEONARDO PULLS OFF THE
RING AND THROWS IT DOWN)
LEONARDO
No! No! No!
BACON
What did you do?
LEONARDO
I pulled that damned ring
off. I won't have it. You hear me? I will not wear that thing.
BACON
Leonardo, for those
moments, I had your memory. And you had mine.
LEONARDO
It's obscene, I tell you.
BACON
No, it's beautiful. It's
our destiny together, Leonardo. As identical twins, we would share our
memories. Synthesize our lives.
LEONARDO
If I want to have a
memory of yours, I'll ask you. And I'll decide if I want to tell you
anything that's happened to me.
BACON
But, Leonardo, it's God's
plan for us.
LEONARDO
I thought you said I had
a choice.
BACON
You do. But you wouldn't
want to choose against such a plan, would you?
LEONARDO
Why not?
BACON
Because . . . it wouldn't
be right . . . for the future of the human race.
LEONARDO
Who cares about the human
race?
BACON
I do. You do. God does.
LEONARDO
I think all you care
about is yourself, Sir Francis. Not that anything's wrong with it.
Enlightened self-interest seems to be the rage in evolution now, isn't it?
BACON
You're correct about
self-interest, but wrong about enlightened. But that's how we can help
them, Leonardo. Enlightenment. That's our task together. Here, put this on
again. I'll set it for the preview of our lives together. How we'll unify
science, art, religion; revolutionize education, solve the economic
crisis, why we'll create a whole new Renaissance.
LEONARDO
I am sick of Renaissance.
I don't want to be born again. That's my decision, and nothing you do can
change it, so let's forget it. Now how do I get back to where I was?
(BACON LOOKS AT HIS
SCROLL)
I want to sleep, for at
least a Millennium. By that time, maybe the damned world will be ended and
nobody will have to be reborn.
(HE TURNS TO EXIT)
BACON
Leonardo, . . . don't you
want to ride . . . in one of your . . . helicopters?
LEONARDO
They have helicopters?
BACON
Just like you predicted
and designed. In fact, that's part of your wake-up call. We have identical
scrolls. Let me read.
(LEONARDO LOOKS AT HIS)
"Wake me when the
day arrives,
my helicopters fill the air;
my Mona Lisa still survives,
and someone says: 'That's Leonardo there!'
I promise to be born again,
when engines calculate with light,
when women finally equal men,
and God retires from our sight."
LEONARDO
Has all that happened,
then?
BACON
Yes.
LEONARDO
I'm a regular Nostradamus.
BACON
There are helicopters
galore, swarming like dragonflies, machines called televisions that
transport life-like images over great distances, and gigantic computing
contrivances that calculate with light itself, just as you predicted. And
God is certainly retiring after this century.
LEONARDO
So, it looks like I woke
up just in time. Yes, I would like to ride in a helicopter
BACON
You know what that means?
LEONARDO
Yes, I'll reincarnate . .
.
BACON
Good, then let's put on
the rings.
LEONARDO
. . . but not as your
identical twin.
BACON
It's all or nothing,
Leonardo, we can't change . . .
LEONARDO
Oh, yes, we can. Or at
least I can.
BACON
What do you propose?
LEONARDO
We've come this far. The
powers that be went to a lot of trouble to set this up, so I don't want to
be too destructive of the wise plan of evolution. I just had a thought.
BACON
I see it, yes, but is it
physically, medically . . . possible?
LEONARDO
I do believe so. It
happens all the time to dogs and cats.
BACON
But people are more . . .
LEONARDO
. . . discreet?
BACON
Yes. Even inhibited. They
still have certain moral values. And our destined parents are no
exception.
LEONARDO
Then, they'll simply have
to learn to make adjustments.
BACON
I don't know if they can.
It might destroy everything. I think we should clear this idea with God.
It's much too risky.
LEONARDO
No, if God has given us
the freedom, then I think we should work it out ourselves.
BACON
I am going to clear this
with God.
END OF ACT ONE, SCENE ONE
© Copyright 2000 Tom
Mellett
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Is
a knowledge of Ancient Greek and modern physics the kind of background
necessary to create a work of pan-dimensional art? Perhaps not; but such
rigorous training did Tom Mellett no harm when it came to the production
of his full-length play, Cosmic Eggs and Quantum Bacon, by
Threshold Theatre at the University of Texas Austin, in 1989. The play is
about Sir Francis Bacon and Leonardo da Vinci trying to reincarnate as
twins in Austin, Texas. Inevitably, there are complications, requiring the
discarnate twins to consult with God and the husband, with Albert
Einstein, and with Neils Bohr. "I found Cosmic Eggs and Quantum
Bacon an imaginatively conceived and brilliantly executed feast of
ideas about the nature of reality in the guise of a play. The important
ideas it explores are recognizable as inspired by the writings of [Anthroposophical
Society founder] Rudolph Steiner by those familiar with his work, but the
audience's interest and appreciation are not dependent upon such
familiarity," wrote one critic. "Even those unschooled in the
epistemological issues at work in the play nevertheless find themselves
following plots in which the rationalism of modern science, historical
determinism, and metaphysical speculation all cross paths. The upshot
resembles Carl Jung's treatment of Job: both God and humanity should
redeem one another over the course of divine and human history,"
wrote another. Mellett was born and raised in New York City, studied
physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic, then developed an interest in theatre
after winning a playwriting contest at Rensselaer in 1968. He was trained
as a German linguist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era and
subsequently attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he received
a B.A. in Ancient Greek in 1980 and a B.Sc. in modern physics in 1997.
In-between degrees, he did a new translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus
Bound (produced at Austin Community College in 1990) and a one-act
translation-adaptation of Goethe's Faust, Part One. He has acted in
various Shakespeare festivals and written and staged several of his own
one-act plays. In 1976, he discovered the work of Rudolph Steiner
(1861-1925) and Arthur M. Young (1905-1995), and credits both with
inspiring Cosmic Eggs and Quantum Bacon.
