Viva la Vida - The Musical! (Act 1)
(During his current sequesterment in his bunker/basement, Archpope Drobbingdon has become convinced that the Viva la Vida album and related EP contain the basic elements of a narrative, which the band have chosen to obscure, perhaps through fear of how their radical new direction would be received. Their hints about recording a concept album may in fact be a clue. His attempts to reconstruct it have led to this, a musical play in two acts, which we at the CoCM have assembled from his sporadic e-mails and an envelope stuffed with scribbled-on napkins. We suggest that you play the songs where indicated, and read the description that follows, allowing the images to form in your mind. It’s like Titanic crossed with The Matrix, but with songs. Seriously, it’s THAT GOOD.)
Act 1, Scene 1
Narrator (Prospekt, whom we will meet later…): No-one knows the exact day that the earth died. But we all knew it had been sick for a very long time. And when the land died, so did society. It got dark and cold, and the corn withered and died. One day, there just wasn’t any food left in the supermarkets, no fuel for the cars, no water you could drink. And we began to get sick, and die. That was a few years ago. No-one knows what today’s date is anymore. The Fox abolished clocks when they seized control. They shut down the internet and the phones, and soon they were marching into what little was left of the cities, to root out the resistance. But there are many of us who survive.
Open on a rainy rooftop in London, on a dark cold night, some years after the Event. Several people huddle together on a rooftop.
Chorus: At night we go walking till the breaking of the day
The morning is for sleeping
Through the dark streets we go searching to see God in their own way
Save the night time for your weeping
And the night over London, hey
There’s no light over London today
So we rode down to the river where the toiling ghosts spring
For the curses to be broken
We go underneath the arches where the witches are saying
There are ghost towns in the ocean…
Our Hero, Drobbingdon, and his lover are moving through the city, aiming for a resistance camp known as Violet Hill. But she is weak from hunger, and sick from the water. He tries to keep her spirit high as they move slowly.
Drobbingdon:Lovers, keep on the road you’re on. Runners until the race is run. Soldiers, you’ve got to soldier on - sometimes even right is wrong.
Lover:They are turning my head out, to see what I’m all about… Keeping my head down to see what it feels like…
Drobbingdon:But I have no doubt - one day, we’re gonna get out…
Lover: What happened to our world, Drobbingdon? What went wrong?
Drobbingdon recalls the day of the Event
Soon they spy the distant glow of Violet Hill. She stumbles, and cannot go on. He picks her up, and carries her. He cries at the gates, and they open slowly. Beyond them, he sees many shacks, lit by the first street lights he has seen since the Event. But even as he carries her through the gates, she dies. He falls to his knees, griefstricken.
Drobbingdon: Steal my heart and hold my tongue
I feel my time has come
For you I’d wait ’til Kingdom Come
Until my day is done
Say you’ll come and set me free
just say you’ll wait for me
In your tears and in your blood
In your fire and in your flood
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing
I wouldn’t change a single thing…
Now several of the rebels have gathered around them.
Drobbingdon (to the rebels): Let me in… unlock the door
I never felt this way before
I don’t know which way I’m going
I don’t know which way I’ve come
I need someone… who understands
I need someone… someone who hears
Rebel #1: We hear you, friend.
Drobbingdon: What am I going to do?
Rebel #1: Why don’t you ask Prospekt?
Drobbingdon: Prospekt? Who’s that?
Rebel #2: He’s our leader… kind of. He’s a very wise man. They say he knows how to the see the future, by staring into a glass of water.
Drobbingdon: Do you think he’d speak to me?
Rebel #1: Maybe… Hey, why don’t you write him a letter? I’ll take it to him - he’s sure to read it then!
Scene II
In Prospekt’s hut. Prospect reads the letter from Drobbingdon.
Prospekt: You ask me, ‘Will I see heaven in my future?’ Let’s see…
He stares into the water, and an image forms. He gasps, and pulls his gaze away again. What has he seen?
Prospekt: Bring him in to me!
Drobbingdon is taken in to Prospekt’s shack.
Drobbingdon: What did you see? Is there anything for me here? Is there any point in living?
Prospekt: Son, don’t ask me how full or empty your glass is. Trust me: cling to the mast, spend your whole life living in your past, going nowhere fast.
Determined to take revenge for the death of his lover, Drobbingdon makes a prophetic speech that stirs the resistance into action.
Drobbingdon: There’s a wild wind blowing
There’s a cold war coming
On the radio I heard
Baby, it’s a violent world
I can hear it coming
I can hear the silent sound
Now my feet won’t touch the ground
Time came a creeping
Oh and time’s a loaded gun
Time only can lead you on, still it’s
Such a beautiful night
Oh, love, don’t let me go
Won’t you take me where the street lights glow
I can hear it coming
Like a serenade of sound
Gravity, release me
And don’t ever hold me down
Now my feet won’t touch the ground…
The crowd cheer and chant. Yet even as they reach a crescendo, Drobbingdon mourns his lost love…
Drobbingdon: Reign of love, I can’t let go
To the sea I offer this heavy load
Locusts will lift me up
I’m just a prisoner in a reign of love…
August 15 2009 | Music and site news | 2 Comments »
Day 10