Faust/How I Rose

Characters

FAUST
GRETCHEN (RHONDA KINDERMOERD)
MEPHISTOPHELES
PHAEDRA, A Mouse, Friend, and Confidant to Faust
ABDULLÁ, Assistant to Mephistopheles
JUDGE
BABY KINDERMOERD, Child of Gretchen

Scenes

1. LETTER #1
2. DEAR PHAEDRA
3. THE FALL
4. DEFENSE MEETING
5. THE TRIAL OF FAUST: RHONDA KINDERMOERD
6. PLOT A
7. MONOLOGO—ABDULLÁ
8. LA MUERTE DE PHAEDRA
9. MEPHISTOPHELES AS GRETCHEN
10. HOW I ROSE
11. DEAR GRETCHEN

Letter #1

(FAUST flying above burning city, into speakerphon.) . . . and an occasional brain cell, for what, I ask you, ? I ask you, for what? Hello? Hello . . . ? Patchouli . . . Patchouli! Can you hear me? . . . I'm dictating letter #1 . . . all right . . . ok . . . (Phone goes dead.)

Letter #1. Dear one, I am writing you from an airplane above your country. The computer breakdown continues over most of the hemisphere. The nation is in a coma. We are just about over the border, I don't know if you'll ever get this. As we move away we see only smoke and light. It's hard to tell if it is fog or exhaust or light from the city but I would hate to tell you that your city is destroyed while you are still in it. But then you may know that already. Then again, we both know its true and you are just a photograph in my hands now. And your city is smoke and vapor. Our plane continues to circle, sniffing the tureens of silence that surround it. What happened to the hotel? Hello, can you hear me? Hello . . . ?

Dear Phaedra

(In FAUST's office; FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES.)

FAUST: (Speaking into phone.) Rhonda, could you take this down for me? Dear Phaedra, I'm sorry it's all worked out this way. I never imagined it would turn out this way. I never wanted it to turn out this way. What could I do? How could I change it? I had no power, no control over anything.

MEPHISTOPHELES: It was Faust who in his uncertainty and namby pambyism couldn't decide how to save her.

FAUST: Shut up asshole. And so, in that split second of time you were lost to me forever.

MEPHISTOPHELES: Strawberry fields forever.

FAUST: And you became a strawberry mark on the rug. That's all that was left of you.

MEPHISTOPHELES: I told her to stay hidden and not move, the fool.

FAUST: But you moved. And then the world moved. And threw you out of its orbit.

MEPHISTOPHELES: And then Faust didn't move.

FAUST: And then God and the Devil moved. I told you they always move together. But in different directions.

MEPHISTOPHELES: I did not move. It wasn't me. You see, the devil never moves. Everything around me moves. That's the problem. I stay constantly still. It's everything else that moves. Do you see me moving? I'm talking to you but do you see my mouth moving? No. Ask them at the Politburo cantina, they know me better than you do.

FAUST: Liar.

MEPHISTOPHELES: Never moved a millimeter, never changed an ounce. It's god moving and everyone moving and the plants and planets moving and all the trash in the universe and the moon moving that changes everything. And because they move they make time move and it's time moving that kills everything, that makes everything die. I ask you, what is this incessant need to move?

FAUST: You're moving right now. Don't believe him, Phaedra. Poor Phaedra.

MEPHISTOPHELES: She can't hear you. She's a forever now. As if one move would make them feel alive And realize the consequences of their movements. Do you think Jupiter feels the consequences of its movements? It's just a dumb planet circulating as you, Phaedra, were a dumb mouse circulating as you my dear Gretchen are just a fattened calf moving around the slaughterhouse looking for a sledgehammer. No pain, no gain. Vade ad formicam, o piger, et considera viaseius et disce sapientiam. Go to the ant, you sluggard and consider its ways and learn wisdom.

FAUST: It's this need to move that colors everything. That makes everything hurt...