First written by Frank Moore for FAERIES, a performance with/for Linda Burnham, 1982.
We will use words, people, ideas, erotic excitement, images, messy fun play to fight the plot that has been brewing ever since the Roman days. For women, the plot has gone on longer except for whores and sex priestesses…ever since the cave days when she lost her equality. The plot of…of what…of romance, of thinking you can’t do something because you have no talent or no money…the plot of not trusting, not trusting yourself and not trusting others. The media, politicians, churches have been pushing it. You are not good enough. He is not good enough for you. Buy Topol toothpaste because smoking is a sexy front to hide your unworthiness, but yellow teeth and bad breath give it away. This is about trust. It will get pretty gross, fun, intense, boring, sexy, turned on, everyday…do you trust yourself? Do you trust me? I am a dirty old man who wants to get your clothes off, roll around with you naked…and other disgusting but fun things like making the whole universe disappear by playing cards. But trust is where the magic comes from…so will you revolt by trusting?
I am the director, I like to direct, I like women, I like to be turned on, I like to scream and be a spoiled bastard…I hope I have not forgotten any bad things…all the rumors about me are true. If all of these things are ok, stay. If not, go. If they become not ok during the piece, leave. But don’t interrupt or interfere with the piece. I may be lying. I am saying these things to save time. Time is a vital element of this magic. The longer the time that we are in the piece, the greater the magic. Don’t tell anyone about anything that went on in this piece, except if you add that you may be lying.
I will use bits and pieces which I will channel, not knowing why, not knowing how an individual bit fits into the whole. So I can not explain them. In some of these bits I will use some of you, using who you are, sometimes sending you to places outside of the cave of this room. Some bits only you and I can do alone. Nobody will see all of the parts. But in the end, there will be a whole. I will not use violence to create this magic. You will not be hurt.
We are putting an arrow in the dragon; we are tripping up the plot that has been trapping us for so long. One obvious way is the piece will change we who are involved, changing our lives and relationships…and that change, no matter how small, will cause a chain reaction in the outside world.
But there is another way that what we will do here will effect and affect the outside world. Science has come up with a theory which explains why one group of a species in another part of the world, with no physical or material contact with another group, picks up change that occurs in the first group. In the past, it would have been called magical. But what some scientists are now saying is that in DNA there is what amounts to a broadcasting unit which both sends out and receives data to and from every member of that certain life form…and perhaps to other life forms and maybe even to non-living material as well. It also has been long known that the observer effects what he observes.
The core of this piece is you and I will set a power erotic wave with each other that will be transmitted on the DNA network. It does not matter if you believe this. But the bits…or rather one of the bits…which I will have people other than you and I do, will create an open channel for our broadcast. So what the other people do in the piece is very important. Now I am talking to everyone else except you. If you feel threatened and want to leave, do so. Don’t argue, or judge. Don’t try to protect other people in the piece. If you do leave, I am counting on you to honor your commitment to not tell anyone anything about this piece without stating that you may be lying.
Back to the plot which we are fighting against today. If we had freedom to touch each other erotically without limits, without romance, they could not control us, they could not have power over us. They know this. If we know we can do anything we want…that we don’t have to wait for enough money before doing what we want…that it ain’t true that we have to have talent to do things that we want to do…then their power over us would vanish. That is why they make commercials promoting ideals and images that you cannot fit unless you use their product. “It’s so easy to get their attention…it’s so easy to lose it…use Head and Shoulders.” That is why they keep changing fashions. That is why they say wait for Mr. Right. That is why they say art takes talent and skill…which most people don’t have, and say those who are blessed with it must refine it before using it…why they say films must have a certain technical quality before people will see them…why they say don’t touch your cock in public, don’t stare, don’t ask, don’t need, don’t rub. The people who are on the top and the people who have accepted that they cannot do what they want, have ganged up to preserve this plot of snobs, experts, and morality. It is easy to see why those who are in power want to keep the plot going. But why the schmucks who spend their whole lives not doing what they want, thinking they aren’t good enough…why do they want the plot to keep going? Imagine someone like this seeing someone who…like me…is not as smart, skilled, good-looking as they are…so dumb that he doesn’t know that the plot says everything is hard. He bumbles through life doing what he wants, making movies and art…playing with sexy girls…all easy. They want to kill him because he, as a symbol, says they could have done what they wanted all along.
Premises:
Pleasure, arousement, excitement are good in themselves.
Curiosity is good.
Religious-political-business-establishment is keeping its power over us by promoting romance through the mass media.
There is no Mr. or Miss or Mrs. Right.
We can fight the plot through magic.
Photo by Ken Jennings.
From the book Frankly Speaking: A Collection of Essays, Writings & Rants by Frank Moore.
