Copyright & Permission to Reproduce
Lass die Toten Ihre Stücke Haben/Let the Dead Have Their Piece
written by Anna Kamerer, Clay Burkhead, Kyle Huse, and Lakin Anderson
directed by Gwethalyn Williams & Ashley Flinn
under the influence of Heiner Müller
Der Anfangsschnitt /Der Fehler des Mannes
The Initial Incision / Man's Mistake
FRANKENSTEIN: I MUST BEGIN WHERE I’VE BEGUN. START WHAT I’VE FINISHED.
An unknown entity lies, a man, perhaps scrambling for equipment, or unknown parts.
FRANKENSTEIN: ATTACH AND SEW ARMS TO TORSO!
Noises, some sort of the rhythm. Machines whir, sounds of metal upon metal.
Sewage of man-mess on the plate of creating. A roaring urge. A wincing stretch. Connecting like burning and melting with unease. He could only mash his eyes and the stale meat of mind into his monster. His brother. His comfort. His pride. His judge. His me to make doing undone. His me to make doing undone.
A market of corpses. Pick the best of the lot, the best. Not long buried, not bones or hair. Sort out the too bruised, the too rotten. Discard the fruits infested with worms. TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED. Leave the gnawed away ears and crushed noses. The trees scratch at the window in time. TUGGING twine through leathery flesh muscle and tendon.
An icy fever runs in my veins, stretching like canals between my quivering stitches. What once died can also live. What once lived within separate dismembered men. I exist and I rot. And I ache. And I am hollow. And my organs quaked in synchrony like the gears cracked within time. A taste like ash and butterfly wings. My external beast creaks and toys with movement of collected souls. The craft of other men's toil in life leaves me wretched to the bloodshot eye. My supple rotting FLESH!
Bildungsroman
Coming of Age
I saw, felt, heard, and smelt. I was curious, like a beetle in a burnt fallen tree. A man I was not. I was death, beating, hovering, rank, and alive. Formed to know fire and water. Formed to taste love and to chew lust and to hear the sounding of birds. I can never be soft with my touch. Kiss you like flakes of sunlight. Warm whisper my heart rough but dying to understand their graceful movements I want to inherit their life's merit a tiny speck for them to grasp how my heart melts all for what I can't achieve vengeance for everything I didn't get. For now, havoc.
I watched people and understood how they interacted. I saw joy on faces whilst the lute was played and I felt like they did and knew that they would never understand, that they would never know my heart as I knew theirs.
I am organs and flesh and feeling like temptation frustration can you help me understand take break this down my actions impulsive resulted in harm I know you can help me advisable advise for what I shouldn't do next after this I am still like you just a little dead a little hopeless a little more gigantic thoughts shared by us all things we would never do and have no choice but to do.
I am a man-made collage of squalid rotting skin bones teeth and nail GALVANIZED a direct current of electricity especially when produced by a chemical action REACTION There is a twitch a tremor, an incipient pulsing of blood, as the journal the notes are read it becomes clear a heavy foreshadowing of what is to come plays in my mind, a paroxysm of understanding OF WHAT STRANGE NATURE IS KNOWLEDGE permanent, irreversible, can emulation bring satisfaction, can observation bring acceptance Leave me to fend for myself to begin as a child knowing nothing LEARN THE HARD WAY. TOUGH LOVE. The least you could do is match my body to my heart.
Vorzügliche Leiche / Tragen der Muterhaut
The Exquisite Corpse/ Wearing the Mother's Skin
VICTOR: When we were young I used to imagine what you'd look like at our wedding. If I'd look at you differently. If I'd want you more.
ELIZABETH: I can't see you.
VICTOR: I'd kiss your shoulders. Taste your skin. Feel the tenderness of your flesh.
ELIZABETH: Step into the moon's light.
VICTOR: And here you are. On our wedding night. Bruised and soft. Broken. An appropriate revenge.
ELIZABETH: Is South America lush this time of year?
VICTOR: I would have laid my head upon your chest. To love the way your heart beats.
ELIZABETH: Let the dead have their piece.
My face peels, melts, drips down like a sticky mess stuck in my teeth my hair growing thin falls blown away in the wind eyes turn brown-yellow as their death reacts with the oxygen floating flowing grab her by the nape of her neck kiss me my mouth falls hold me bones pinching skin WAIT. Decay. The body I held grew cold. Hellish daemons bit at me from all around, pinching my supple body as if to say COULD'VE BEEN YOU. WISH IT WAS YOU. I fall to my knees in submissive agitated agreement. I hesitate and quiver, let out a wailing cry. I look at her rotting clay on the ground, seeping into the cobblestone path, the sky is green! My mother spits at me from the heavens and it tastes bitter. I'm so sorry...
Die Geräusche von Seil der Würgend Fleisch
The Sound of Rope Choking Meat
Looking at her. From my loins or created for them? My sweet daughter. Immaculate and soft like the skin of peaches, or the breath of lilac. Her bed not a factory of rot, but a symphony of soundless life. Yes. She was made for me. Can you feel me, darling? My fingers skylark in hair like I'm looking for a cure. Am I wrong? No, heavens can't be such. Can't you feel me darling?
Amongst the stale limbs there was courage and there was fear. I held her cold hands in my own. Caressing the bloated fingers and aching in the moment of creation. Basking in the reality of death and taking in the power of life. In every way her stiff body represented the beauty of science and the stillness that is absorbed in death. The room echoed my scurried footsteps, bouncing off the stone walls, creating the illusion of company. I felt his cold eyes before I saw them. Halted. My final abrupt step lingered in the air as our eyes met. There was drowning isolation. There was a mad craving lust. There was blasphemous Hope. There was. There was my creation. Within the marrow of my hard white bones, I knew finally what I had always known. This beast deserved naught. Her body felt heavy against mine as I threw her from the slab to the unforgiving floor. Again. I felt her corpulent wrist in my grasp. And for a fleeting whispered moment. I felt her grasp back. The hall sounded. A tormented wail. Whether it was his or mine, trembling I knew not.
MONSTER: I welcomed death once, and you did me wrong. My body aches because of you, but it will not break for you. You owe me a woman and I won't forget that.
VICTOR: You're a mockery of life. I do not deny it is my doing, but will not make the same mistake twice.
MONSTER: You think you have control? SLAVE! I am no longer science, nor am i man! Do you still pump my blood? I'm no frog twitching on a board anymore. I hold the control and I vow my revenge. A deal was made. I was honest and you fetter me to misery. I WILL BE WITH YOU ON YOUR WEDDING NIGHT.
VICTOR: What were you before an abomination?
MONSTER: You owe me a woman and I vow I'll be with you on our wedding night
The sun of city streets is caked with dust. My feet are not my own. The possession: some molested fossil of life. Disturbed, I walk on looking for light.
Die Hochzeits-Nacht: Orkney-Insel
The Wedding Night: Orkney Islands
ELIZABETH: Your hands! Your breath! You're hurting me! I can't breathe!
MONSTER: Nothing good comes from struggle. Such beauty can't survive in a hopeless place as this.
The bed lay rumpled and preserved seemingly coated in amber, the MOON hung heavy in the window as if it surmised the night’s actions, but felt pangs of guilt left alone in the dark cold night, with her broken bruised body as company. Her eyes glazed over reflecting the night's shame and dark dark guilt. Has she always looked so hurt? Has she always been so benevolently beautiful?
ELIZABETH: He was cold and heavy in me. I was damp with fear. His sweat. Victor when did you get so cold?
ELIZABETH: I felt my pulse against his grip. A light sensation filling me. My toes curl. My grip on the sheets tightens. I can't (pause). Think (pause). With all this light inside of me (pause). (coughs).
Their figures turn to one dark shadow before breaking; He takes in the silence...
ELIZABETH: VICTOR LEFT ME HANGING. LEFT ME BROKEN. MY SHELL OF A BODY DOES NOT. DID NOT. WELCOME DEATH. Did not welcome you. Do you remember you mother Victor? Do you remember her death bed? Sweating and crying, but selfless and hopeful. And me and mine. This is what you missed. There was sweat and there was tears. And what did you say, about that beautiful oak?
I NEVER BEHELD ANYTHING SO UTTERLY DESTROYED.
A mess mud sticking to my feet my ankles. THE BLOOD dripping, running, pouring from my heart: a broken piece of furniture. OH HOW BLIND. I worried with you for you served you. Braided twine rough and dry rubbing the neck raw. Haunted dreams. I hope they drive you over the edge. Feel the floor's absence beneath you. Feel the dried hands around your neck. Take it--my breath. Watch my face. A corpse-like recollection. The neck, the lips, the eyes wide open tilting my head as if to beg like a stray pup. YOU DID THIS. How well have I taken blame taken punishment for you me him? The crackling sound of the vertebrae as the spinal column snaps from the CERVICAL AXIS ATLAS THORACIC EXPLOSION. Did you sleep last night? I hope so.
Geht auf eine Einsame Straße
Doth Walk on a Lonely Road
“Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk In fear and dread,
And, having once turn’d round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”
VICTOR: Remind me again, which of us killed Elizabeth?
MONSTER: That was me Doctor. Killed her with the hands you gave me.
