"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
JOHN / LENINA side
39.
ACT II
MUSIC in.
DIRECTOR and WORLD STATERS enter.
DIRECTOR
I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I did have sexual relations with that woman.
Years ago, mind you! She didn’t look-- But I have nothing to hide, my friends!
And I will continue to serve as your Director, because I am now - and have
always been - a prime example of what an Alpha plus plus should be!
YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN THINKING
THE DIRECTOR IS A FATHER!
HE CAN’T LEAD US
THAT’S A THREAT AGAINST OUR STATE
THOSE SAVAGES CAME HERE
BUT THEY’RE BEING DEALT WITH
I ASSURE YOU
THAT EV’RYTHING’S STILL GREAT
WE ALL MAKE SOME MISTAKES
I’VE STILL GOT WHAT IT TAKES
TO SAVE US FROM CHAOTIC DISCORD
YOU NEED ME AND I NEED YOU
I’LL CONTINUE TO STILL LEAD YOU
HERE IN THIS YEAR OF OUR FORD
(Lights up on JOHN and LENINA)
JOHN
Lenina! About the other night-LENINA
You don’t have to say anything.
JOHN
I didn’t mean to upset you, at the Feelies, I mean. I just-LENINA
No, I-- I just wanted to share it all with you, but... John, I was hoping we
could maybe... be with each other tonight.
I would love that!
Really?
JOHN
LENINA
JOHN
Especially after only being with Bernard.
Oh.
LENINA
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
And my mother, of course.
Well that’s just wrong.
40.
JOHN
LENINA
JOHN
But you’re the one I want to be with more than anything. What would you like
to do? Anything but those Feelies again...
LENINA
No-- John, I mean I want to be with you. You know... The way a man and a
woman can be with each other.
JOHN
Oh... “But If thou dost break her virgin knot...”
LENINA
Yeah, that’s not really applicable in this case.
Can’t we just take it slow?
JOHN
LENINA
It doesn’t get any slower than this! We’ve known each other for days! I just
don’t understand. I want to be with you!
JOHN
But you are with me! I’m right here!
LENINA
You might as well be back on the reservation! What do you do there, when you
like someone?
JOHN
I never -- I mean... you talk. And go for long walks together, alone...
Walking and talking...?
LENINA
JOHN
That’s not all you do. Sometimes, you... hold hands.
No oral?
What?
Nothing.
LENINA
JOHN
LENINA
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
22.
LENINA / JOHN / BERNARD / LINDA side
LINDA (CONT’D)
THEY DON’T ACT FORMAL
HAVE RANDOM SEX
THEN WOMEN THROW THINGS
AND SPIT AWFUL NAMES
TERRIBLE NAMES
SUCH NASTY NAMES
JOHN
OH BOY
CAUSE I ACT CIVILIZED
I’M NOT A WHORE
CIVILIZED
MORE SEX IS MORE
CIVILIZED
HAVE PLENTY OF MEN
THEN HAVE THEM AGAIN
NO ENVY OR SHAME
NO HATRED OR BLAME
JUST BE CIVILIZED
SO SWEETLY CIVILIZED
COMPLETELY
OH LET ME
YOU WILL SEE
I HAVE TO BE
CIVILIZED!
(LENINA enters, sees LINDA, and screams)
Aaa! What’s that?
LENINA
BERNARD
Lenina! That’s Linda, John’s mother.
LENINA
Bernard! Did you just say... the M word?
BERNARD
Yeah, but we’re friends, so I’m allowed to say it.
LINDA
You have to bring us back with you!
What?
Can you really?
BERNARD
JOHN
BERNARD
I don’t know... I don’t really have the authority, though I suppose I could call
the Minister of Emotional Reconditioning, and he has a friend on the Bureau of
Reservation security; they play a weekly game of Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy...
LINDA
Oh! Finally! Yes! I need to pack! Where are my velveteen shorts?
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
23.
(LINDA exits)
LENINA
Bernard, you can’t bring that creature back to the World State!
BERNARD
Why not?
She’s hideous, for one thing!
LENINA
BERNARD
She’s one of us, Lenina. A Beta girl lost on a savage reservation... If we take
them back with us, I could be the most famous man alive! We, I mean. We’d be
famous. I have to make some calls.
(BERNARD exits)
JOHN
“What light through yonder window breaks?”
I do hate when things break.
What?
LENINA
JOHN
LENINA
Nothing, I didn’t mean-- What was that name you called me before?
You mean Juliet?
JOHN
LENINA
Yes! Juliet! I think... I think I was dreaming about you calling me Juliet.
JOHN
“Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast. Would I were sleep and
peace, so sweet to rest.”
(slowly)
“So sweet to rest...”
What is it?
Nothing, it’s just-- It’s silly...
Tell me!
LENINA
JOHN
LENINA
JOHN
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
24.
LENINA
I never told anyone-- of course. When I was a little girl, I woke up in the
middle of the night, and I heard a voice inside my head. It just kept whispering
over and over, saying all these things I didn’t understand, like “a gram is
always better than a damn” and “even Epsilons are useful”... I was so
scared... It was just my hypno-paedic sleep conditioning, I know that now... I
just sat there all alone, crying, terrified of that soothing, smoothing, creeping
voice...
JOHN
The voices I used to hear from my mother’s room weren’t soothing... She told
me conditioning makes you feel safe.
LENINA
It’s supposed to, but sometimes... What’s it like? Having a... mother.
JOHN
But don’t you-- No, of course you don’t... It’s hard to explain. It’s... safe. Like
when you’re bad, or you do something wrong, even if she beats you, or calls
you names... She still has to love you.
That word...
LENINA
JOHN
But you all love in the Other Place!
Not-- It’s not the same.
LENINA
JOHN
My mother told me all about the Other Place, and the tall, beautiful buildings,
and the people who are always happy. I used to pretend I could fly away there.
Now that it’s real...
Kiss me.
What?
You know... kiss me.
LENINA
JOHN
LENINA
JOHN
(embarrassed)
Wh-- But-- What about Bernard?
What about him?
Aren’t you two...
LENINA
JOHN
LENINA
“Everyone belongs to everyone...” Don’t you want to kiss me?
JOHN / BERNARD / LENINA side
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
15.
home. When the set transition is complete, the CROWD
runs off stage, and lighting shifts, grounding JOHN,
LENINA and BERNARD in John’s home)
We’ll be safe here.
JOHN
LENINA
How horrible! Please, Bernard, can we just go back to the World State and take
enough Soma to forget that we ever saw such a horrible, gruesome display?
She’s upset. From the ritual.
BERNARD
JOHN
“A most unhappy gentleman.” It should have been me. They could have had
twice as much blood from me...
LENINA
Do you mean to say you wanted to be hit with that whip?
BERNARD
No, of course he’s not saying th-Absolutely, yes.
JOHN
BERNARD
Seriously?
LENINA
But why?
JOHN
To please our Lord in Heaven, so the rain will come and the corn will grow...
To purge myself of sin.
Well, that’s insane...
BERNARD
LENINA
Bernard, please! “A gram in time saves nine.” “One cubic centimeter cures ten
gloomy sentiments!” “A gram is always better than a damn!”
JOHN
Oh! Macbeth! “Out, damned spot!” Right?
LENINA
What is he even talking about!?
BERNARD
(giving her the Soma)
Here-- No, don’t take all of-- OK.
(SHE lays down on the bed. JOHN closes a curtain, giving
her privacy, leaving HIM and BERNARD alone)
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
16.
BERNARD (cont’d)
You wouldn’t happen to have anything, like-- What do you people use to calm
the nerves around here?
You mean like whisky?
What what now?
JOHN
BERNARD
JOHN
Whisky. It’s like-- It relaxes you and makes you forget about things that are
bothering you. If you have too much, you pass out.
BERNARD
Like Soma! Perfect. It’s just that I’m a bit shaken up-- I’ve never been in a fight
before.
JOHN
You haven’t actually been in a fight now... Here!
(JOHN retrieves a bottle and two glasses. HE pours)
BERNARD
Oh, that smell! No, that is nothing like Soma!
JOHN
Cheers!
What are we cheering?
BERNARD
(JOHN clinks his glass)
BERNARD (cont’d)
Oh, that’s part of the thing, you’re supposed to-- OK.
(THEY drink)
BERNARD (cont’d)
Aaa! Oh, that’s terrible! My chest is on fire! And yet, for some strange reason I
can’t explain, I kinda want more of it. So tell me more! I want to know
everything about being a savage!
JOHN
I don’t consider myself to be all that savage...
BERNARD
Savage, Neanderthal, whatever. The point is, how do you people manage
without conditioning, and knowing your place?
It’s all right here!
JOHN
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
17.
BERNARD
“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare?” What is this?
JOHN
I thought all civilized people read Shakespeare!
BERNARD
I’ve got news for you; most civilized people don’t read, period. I happen to be
one of the few. But then again, I have an important job in the psychology
department, so... you know. Can I have some more witsky please?
JOHN
You must be very important, to be married to someone so beautiful.
Married? What?
Well-- Aren’t you...?
Don’t be ridiculous!
BERNARD
JOHN
BERNARD
JOHN
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-- “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.”
BERNARD
There you go again! So this is like some sort of conditioning guide for savages,
is that--?
JOHN
The tribe doesn’t know Shakespeare. I found this book when I was a child. I
thought it came from the Other Place. It’s been my guide, my only guide. It’s
how I learned to read... How to be a man.
BERNARD
“Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of
York...” What’s the deal with this Richard I-I-I guy?
JOHN
It’s Richard the Third. But there is no discontent in the other place! Isn’t that
right? Everyone is always happy!
BERNARD
Yes, but sometimes-- It must be nice to be part of a tribe, like you are.
JOHN
Oh. Well... I’m not really part of the tribe, exactly. They think I’m... different.
Oh?
BERNARD
JOHN
I don’t really fit in with them. But that doesn’t happen in the Other Place! No
one ever feels different, or alone!
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
LENINA / BERNARD side
Lenina! There you are!
Oh, hey, Bernard!
10.
BERNARD
LENINA
BERNARD
I’ve been meaning to tell you, about last orgy... I saw a doctor.
LENINA
“A doctor a day keeps the jim-jams away!”
BERNARD
Right. Well, the point is, we won’t be having that problem again-- It was just-you’re so pneumatic and I was a little... if that makes sense-You’re so funny!
LENINA
BERNARD
Oh, because you think I was joking! Right, of course. Yeah, look at me! Jokey
Bernard! OK, I’ll stop now.
FANNY
I swear, I do not know what she sees in him...
FOSTER
The standard height for an Alpha plus is one point eight three meters. Any way
you look at it, he’s still too damn short!
FANNY
(robotic)
“A gram is always better than a damn.”
WORLD STATERS
“A gram is always better than a damn.”
BERNARD
HOW I WISH THAT I COULD HAVE HER
I KNOW THAT WILL NEVER BE
HAD THE CHANCE AND BLEW IT BIG TIME
DON’T KNOW WHY SHE TALKS TO ME
COME ON, MAN, YOU HATE THESE ORGIES
SEX AND DRUGS, REQUIRED FUN
EVEN IF YOU HAD LENINA
WORLD STATERS
YOU WOULDN’T BE THE ONLY ONE
ORGY PORGY
ORGY PORGY
LENINA
Where are you sitting at the orgy?
Oh. I got Clara Deterling.
BERNARD
"BRAVE NEW WORLD" - 2/25/15
11.
LENINA
That’s nice! She’s very pleasantly pneumatic.
I guess.
BERNARD
LENINA
Bernard, as a member of the psychology department, you can get special
clearance to visit a Savage Reservation. Is that really true?
BERNARD
Oh. Well, yeah, I mean, technically I could-LENINA
I’ve always dreamed of visiting a Reservation!
Really?
BERNARD
LENINA
Wouldn’t it be fascinating? To see how savages still live according to the old
ways?
“Was and will make me ill...”
FANNY
WORLD STATERS
“...I take a gram and only am.”
BERNARD
Can you guys stop doing that? Say... Lenina, do you want to go to the
reservation with me?
Really?
LENINA
BERNARD
Well, yeah! I’ll get special permission, and we can go away together, just the
two of us, like a regular holiday! But with savages!
Oh, Bernard! How exciting!
LENINA
MALE WORLD STATERS
ORGY PORGY
FIND YOUR SEAT
TREAT YOUR NEIGHBORS
THEN REPEAT
WORLD STATERS
SATISFACTION LEFT AND RIGHT
FEMALE WORLD STATERS
ORGY PORGY
FIND YOUR SEAT
TREAT YOUR NEIGHBORS
THEN REPEAT