A Couple of Characters

Reviewing one of my favorite Arthur Miller plays, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, tomorrow night. Hopefully all will go well for all. Break legs and all that.

Harry Bolls, like all of us, is not always the bravest or coolest, except when it counts. You find my heroes flawed like that–human, but are willing to do what it takes. Sometimes the tragic flaw leads to self-sacrifice like in the classic tragedy, sometimes not, but always a human reaction. Well, this time I’ll introduce a couple of my favorite characters in Harry’s Reality…

“The Shadow pulled Winston’s limp body into the hovercar. He plopped the unconscious man in the seat. Then pulled a laser ax from inside his Stealth cloak and placed it on the side of the man’s jaw. He then reached over with his other hand and touched the smooth area toward the back of the ax weapon and tool. It hummed to life on stand-by.

“Winston jerked awake at the vibration, saw Death bending over him and Winston’s eyes uncontrollably rolled to the back of his head.

“That wouldn’t do.

“The Shadow pulled him sideways in the seat and slapped him hard across the side of his face, then a back hand to the other side. He did this repeatedly until Winston looked up once again at the hooded Grim Reaper, the Shadow of Death, and accepted his fate. Winston knew what he wanted as he found his face being forced to submit to the retinal scan on the dash to activate the vehicle. The hovercar flashed a light to indicate it was ready for flight. Just as the Cyber vehicle was about to greet its driver, the laser ax sliced into the dash and severed its communication connection completely—Winston’s Outside lifeline to Makr, permanently disabled. The ghoulish stranger pushed Winston away from the controls to the right side of the car. Winston’s head hit the side of the clear canopy hard and he lost consciousness again.”

***

“The hexahedron slab of amber, some ten feet high and four to five feet in diameter, hung in the air without apparent support. There were no visible wires or chains. Beginning its descent into a green colored vat below, it rotated on an invisible axis, spinning slowly, causing the image of the Bio inside to appear as a distorted, disjointed, disfigured form to anyone who might see it. Once there, the opaque amber gemstone began to melt as it touched the green nano-gelatin. What was amber in color was now green. As the chemical reaction took place, the man melted, too, becoming a creature hardly recognizable, a blob of cells. Yet he lived, held prisoner in the glassy green gelatin composed of tiny single cell-size nanocyberts that were rearranging his cells to form connectors to his nervous system so his new stainless steel and titanium body would answer to his once human brain. Hidden in the microscopic Cyber design, of course, was Makr’s will.

“Physically he would never see, hear or feel like he did before, but he would have sensors with far greater capacity than his original Bio sensory organs. Had he dreamed up this transformation himself, he would have been delighted to lose his ugly exterior. He had always wanted to be smarter and stronger, but that hadn’t been humanly possible. However, it was Cyber possible. He was what he was and that was that. He wanted more–more of everything he was and that was what Makr would make of him. He wanted to be smarter and stronger. Could he also be invincible?

“A voice boomed in his head again.

“‘YOU’LL HAVE ALL YOU DESIRE AND THEN SOME. YOU WILL INDEED BE MORE OF EVERYTHING; YOU WON’T BE A BIO ANYMORE. YOU’LL BE TOTALLY NEW. A PERFECT PRODUCT OF SYMBIOSIS–A CREATURE FEARED FOR ITS POWER. YOU’LL BE AMONG THE GIANTS OF THIS NEW WORLD.’

“With those last words, Harlan Leach’s moment of ecstasy was nearly over. Unknown to him, his lifetime of horror had just begun.

“It began pleasantly enough…it always did. I’m alive! Can’t believe it–alive! Everything is wonderful! I feel fine. It’s beautiful here. Then, a question. What’s that I hear? Music. Singing. Then, the horror. Screaming. Can’t stand it! Hideous images. Deplorable feelings.

“In his mind, he saw his own body sucked into a machine, shredded and regurgitated, but he didn’t feel it. He witnessed his own death—in stringy spaghetti threads of humanity swirling about until it all became liquefied and one substance. He saw Death waiting patiently. He grieved for himself. He felt a loss knowing someone very important to him had died. Was there any such person?  Now he knew that he was the one who had died. No one else would feel his loss; he was sure of it. He had no specific memories of anyone who might care—not even the parents who had abandoned him as a baby.

“Suddenly, he felt unbelievable pain. Can’t bear it! He felt a hundred heartbreaks and disappointments, as many fleeting moments of happiness, and unbearable loss. Soaring joy. Unfathomable sadness. Memories. Past. Happy. Sad. Remembered. Forgotten. He sensed he was screaming. He was screaming! Nothing came out! He couldn’t scream without a mouth. He heard screams all around, but not his own. The eternal agony of others… He knew the awful helplessness of being Bio, fragile, trapped and doomed! In a millisecond, he sensed an explosion, a tearing apart of his own soul…Oh, the hopelessness! He wailed. He moaned. He became one of the screamers. Once he was with them, they stopped screaming and were singing.

“Then, no singing. No voices. No sound. Now music. No music. Nothing. No! Memories gone. Who? No matter. Feeling content. Warm, comfortable, cozy, secure. Makr! The man, who no longer remembered he had been anything, realized he was not alone. There were billions like himself. And, yet, he still felt alone, totally alone. Although he knew he must be in a factory where Bios lost their minds and were reconditioned, but this–this had to be different. The Bio man, Leach, awoke, a little tired, but otherwise fine. Whew! What a dream, he thought. Then he noticed it. It hadn’t been a dream! He discovered the mind blowing truth. His body was gone. In its place were unfinished, twisted metal structures. It was only his Bio mind that remained. Had he had a mouth he would have screamed.

“Worse than that. Makr had given him back his tongue and a single human eye.”

For those of you who continue to look for Acting Smarts articles or search for my old Acting Smarts Training Web Site, they no longer exist. I am, of course, still willing to speak and train. I am directing. Acting may be a little different story, but I am focusing on my writing at the moment and using this domain/blog site as my jumping off point. From here, you can still find my theatre reviews and commentary and interviews on STAGE Magazine and Training and Development articles on the Free Management Library. This site is http://shawsreality.com or https://shawsreality.wordpress.com. You can reach me at jshaw@shawsreality.com.