A spoken-word audio/video opera by Ergo Phizmiz, with text entirely snipped from the writings of Noel Coward. The audio is created from Ergo's collection of gramophone records, a sample from Monteverdi's "Combattimento de Tancredi", a wooden kitchen door, and Ergo's "Hallucination Duets".
"The Impulse to Shoot at Every Shadow" by Ergo Phizmiz from Ergo Phizmiz on Vimeo.
Text-Collage, Sound-Collage & Production by Ergo Phizmiz
Voices by Ergo Phizmiz, Flora Bertolli & Martha Moopette
* * *
N
When
the curtain rises the stage is in darkness.
There
is the sound of voices. Enter Young Man
followed
by Young Woman. He turns up lights,
disclosing
a comfortable little study with
a
sofa, armchairs, books, etc.,
and
the remains of a fire in the grate.
*
M
In
January I went to Paris and breakfasted daily, curtains of wisteria
and
serried ranks of snow capped mountains.
F
For
the whole of the following year I did not work, my cough rapidly
disappeared,
and
then in a moment their colour and vitality faded.
M
Some
little question of English grammar I bit her arm right through to the
bone.
F
I
drilled resonantly, a slight strain, you play exclusively in your
mind,
I
may add, that was not entirely free from superciliousness.
M
To
this day we still meet occasionally and have a good time, but
the
paths back into the past are long and tortuous, and new faiths,
like new policemen, were sick and tired of it.
like new policemen, were sick and tired of it.
*
F
My
last link with familiar life, disappearing down the
M
& F
handbags,
hats, coats, sandwiches, apples, oranges, shoes, stockings, and bits
of fur,
a
tinny piano, too many chairs, a few mottled looking glasses,
always
a pervasive smell of last week's cooking.
*
M
Small
miserable groups of people huddled in corners.
I
had still one more battle. Cockie in his box,
Mother
to greet us blind in a dirty kimono, nor could
I have chosen a more thoroughly unsuitable place.
I have chosen a more thoroughly unsuitable place.
F
Conducting
a furtive, illicit detail, but the climax
was always the same.
was always the same.
M
I
soon became bored and wanted to go home,
made
up into dark little rooms and passages,
and
one could see across miles of marshes,
a
square edifice wearing perkily a pink corrugated tin roof,
falling
to pieces,
*
N
The noise is deafening – the chorus in
various travelling dresses
are clustered round the low counter,
trying to get the baggage examined
quickly, and talking, and shouting.
Young Englishman strolls languidly in.
*
M
& F
there
were two small ponds, five poplars,
a
ramshackle garden consisting almost entirely of hedges,
and
an ancient, deeply green orchard with thick grass
and
low growing apple trees, hats, coats, sandwiches,
apples,
oranges, shoes, stockings, and bits of fur,
a
tinny piano, too many chairs, a few mottled looking glasses,
always
a pervasive smell of last week's cooking,
two
small ponds, five poplars, a ramshackle garden.
*
F
I
was suddenly conscious-smitten by the sight of a poor old gentleman,
raspberried
with the utmost fervour, although far from assured,
had
at least been enough to procure me a dignified pose.
M
It
was the result of careful thought, only for the sake of the salary,
seemed
to be a static, over-cautious mania for travel and change,
but
to me it wasn't foolish at all.
*
N
She
takes the breakfast-tray from side table and rests it on her knees.
She
proceeds to pour out coffee, she sips some of it
and
then begins to eat a little toast. The telephone rings again.
She
takes off receiver and speaks with her mouth full.
*
F
It
is patronising, of course, to a certain degree,
but
not consciously or disagreeably so;
I
managed tactfully to erase some of the bloodstains.
As
a new animal I received many surprising visitors in my cage.
M
My
vision of myself at eight and twelve and sixteen is clear.
I
know how I looked, of course.
Superlatives
flew through the air, richochetting off mouldering midsummer.
F
Even
Irene forsook me for a while.
*
M
I
used to get packets of bacon on credit, restraining
the
impulse to shoot at every shadow cast by the street lamp.
F
Her
failure lay within herself, in her abrupt pride, and
sudden
sharp intolerance, and her inability, when in certain moods,
to
accept the small change of friendship, even from those
who
loved her dearly,
M
& F
deeply
green orchard with thick grass
and
low growing apples trees, hats, coats, sandwiches,
apples,
oranges, shoes, stockings, and bits of fur,
a
tinny piano, too many chairs, a few mottled looking glasses,
always
a pervasive smell of last week's cooking,
two
small ponds, five poplars, a ramshackle garden.
*
N
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