"FYRE"
My dramatic take (literally) on DEFIANCE, with a classical twist
Dear Readers,
Regulars might want to know that “Ruth” — my loved one undergoing cancer treatment at a clinic near me in FL — is doing well. It’s a marathon of alternative therapies every day, and I’m constantly trying to bulk her up with creative, organic, ketogenic food. I even made no-carb crackers for the first time ever. (These were my very first attempt at any cracker; I have to say, they were damn good.)
She is giving this program her all, even though it wears her out daily, and I’m proud of her resilience. She’s finished her fifth week; seven more to go.
During this time, I’ve been inching along on a long essay that I’ll publish soon; I also managed to write “FYRE” in response to a call for ten-minute plays from Red Bull Theatre in NYC — a theatre devoted to producing classical drama as well as new work “in conversation” with classics. For this year’s Short New Play Festival, they chose the theme, “DEFIANCE.”
How could I not accept that challenge, given the past five years? The trick was choosing among the loud, pushy ideas that swarmed my mind, all of which I knew the theatre wouldn’t produce due to their “controversial” nature.
So I set aside the nascent plays about plucky individuals resisting government mandates, independent journalists battling corporate censorship, courageous whistleblowers calling out corruption, and other such juicy set-ups, knowing that I would return to them in due time.
Instead, I took up my pen to write a play set in the distant future, about a tech titan who calls himself P2 because he believes he’s following in Prometheus’s footsteps by bestowing his latest, greatest technological gift upon humanity: “Fyre.”
The character of P2 is based on every egomaniacal tech guru we hear about constantly, he’s dressed like Steve Jobs, and the play takes place at the “World Summit,” where P2 takes the stage to unveil his new product.
My tagline for the play: “If you play with Fyre, you’re bound to get burned.”
Apparently, this one was too “controversial” as well. Or something. Who knows?
Enjoy!
xox M
P.S. And if there’s anyone out there who would like to produce this play onstage, or craft it as a video, DM me through Substack or respond to this email.
Characters:
P2: a tech titan, slim, well-rehearsed to cover awkwardness. He's dressed in a black turtleneck and jeans.
Hephaestus: a pasty, overweight programmer with a club foot. Used to be a god.
Media: a female newscaster who speaks on behalf of all media outlets, in an exaggeratedly intonated newscaster voice.
Chorus: a collective of human souls, played by two or more.
Dude: a guy from the audience.
Eurydice: the mythological mortal nymph.
“FYRE”
Spotlight up, center. P2 enters SR, walks across the stage of a large auditorium and into the light.
P2
Every once in a while, a revolutionary gift comes along that changes everything. It changes the world.
P2 freezes. LIGHTS UP on an empty stage with a black background. MEDIA enters SL.
MEDIA
(holding a microphone)
If you're just joining us now, I'm Media Piper live-streaming from the World Summit, where P2 is unveiling his much-anticipated new product. He's got big shoes to fill, following in the footsteps of Prometheus One-Point-Oh...But sources say what P2 is bringing today is bigger — and better — than anything we've ever seen. Let's listen.
P2
My predecessor changed the world with his gift: the flame of intelligence. But we've reached the end of what the human brain can accomplish alone. What I bring you today is the gift humanity has searched for, forever.
(pause)
You think I'm exaggerating. I assure you, I'm not.
CHORUS enters SR.
CHORUS
O Titan of tech, whose forebear's theft
brought flame to clay and roused our breath,
what new boon dost thou bear this eve?
Is it a gift to grant, or woe to weave?
P2
Today... now...I give you...
Sound of male voices whooping. SPOT OUT on P2 as he walks SR to make space for a spinning hologram of interlocking circles around a burning flame.
Fyre... with a "y."
Applause. P2 holds up his arm, pulls down his sleeve. His wrist looks empty.
Hephaestus?
HEPHAESTUS enters, limping, carrying a small hammer-like device. He waves.
My hardworking, genius colleague: Hephaestus. I hired him away from the competition.
Hephaestus holds the device near P2's wrist. A simultaneous hologram of P2's wrist floats centerstage. Hephaestus shines the device's light, suddenly revealing a mesh bracelet throbbing blue, encircling P2's wrist. Scattered applause.
You see, Fyre-with-a-Y is invisible to the human eye. Tell them more, Heph.
HEPHAESTUS
Thanks. Yeah, so this thing merges its neural network with your own, and then combines infinite memory, reactive machine capabilities, agency, functioning theory of mind AND -- and this is the big one -- self awareness. So all of that is in these tiny filaments, linked on your wrist.
P2
Suddenly... Every piece of information isn't at your fingertips; it is your fingertips.
MEDIA
The audience came here today expecting something electrifying. So far, P2 has not delivered, but does he still have something "up his sleeve?" Let's find out.
P2
You're thinking, that's cool P2, but it's not that different from what I have now. We thought so too, didn't we, Heph?
Heph nods.
So that's why we added this one more...tiny little feature, might come in kinda handy: immortality.
The audience gasps.
MEDIA
P2 did not disappoint! If that's true, then this bracelet is a must-have! No matter the price!
CHORUS
Fyre with a "Y" bestows life without end?
Immortality, long sought by all men?
What proof of Fyre's purported power?
Make haste to show, nigh grows the hour.
P2
Run the demo, Heph.
Hephaestus aims the device on his own wrist to reveal the blue bracelet.
Every thought, every emotion, every event and experience you have ever had, seamlessly uploads to create another version of you, able to interact with the world with perfect verisimilitude.
Hephaestus pulls out a dagger. Gasps from the audience.
If for some reason you should meet an untimely end—
Hephaestus stabs himself through the heart, collapses. The audience shrieks.
—Fyre's digital Elysium will provide your replacement.
CHORUS
O spectacle of horror fills our eyes!
We cannot help but watch to see him die!
How could this be but gone amiss;
"Medea," are you filming this?
MEDIA
It's MEE-dee-ah, not Muh-DAY-uh! and yes of course we will continue to bring every moment as it unfolds here at the World Summit.
P2
Fear not, friends! Look who has returned.
Hephaestus walks onstage with a stethoscope, waves. He kneels down, listens to his own heart.
HEPHAESTUS
Yep. I'm a goner.
The crowd goes wild. P2 bows.
CHORUS
Do our eyes deceive?
Can this be believed?
MEDIA
This is as close to a miracle as I've ever seen.
Hephaestus drags his own lifeless body offstage and returns while P2 speaks.
P2
Imagine you lived 200 years ago. Wouldn't a machine that washes and dries your clothes seem like a miracle? How about flying through the air like Icarus? What seems like a miracle is always just the fruits of technology. Welcome to Humanity Two-Point-Oh. How do you feel, Heph?
HEPHAESTUS
I feel great.
P2
You look great. Thanks to Fyre.
HEPHAESTUS
Yep.
(rote, like a commercial:)
"You do nothing -- just live your life to its fullest, and Fyre takes care of the rest."
DUDE enters from the audience.
DUDE
Hey! Sorry, P2, this is-- but I-- I gotta have this Fyre thing. Like, I don't care what it costs. I've got like, this heart condition, I mean, like it's bad, and-- and--
P2
(places hand on his shoulder)
I would so love to help you. But Fyre is not available for purchase yet.
Boos from the audience.
DUDE
Shit, man. When will it?
P2
Soon! We're rolling it out globally in one month.
DUDE
A month? I don't have that kinda time.
P2
I'm so sorry...
More boos.
You know, um... hang on, I might have ah... one prototype that's... I'd have to check...
CHORUS
There's more transpiring than doth meet the eye.
Hephaestus is immortal, born from sky!
Let's see the bracelet work its miracle
in a human demo: proof empirical.
So proudly doth P2 display his wrist;
were he to return: our doubts dismissed!
P2
(blanching; to Dude)
Hey, uh, you know what? I, uh, I am... gonna give you mine. I mean, now. Right now.
DUDE
Really? Wow man, that's... wow. Thanks.
Applause.
MEDIA
(wiping away tears)
A true humanitarian. This gesture certainly silences those critics who question the trillionaire's motives. Bravo.
P2
C'mere. Heph will switch mine over to you.
Dude, P2, and Hephaestus cluster together. EURYDICE runs onstage.
EURYDICE
Wait! Wait! Please hear my tale before you act.
P2
And you are...?
EURYDICE
I am Eurydice, nymph.
P2
You're not part of this. What is going on?
HEPHAESTUS
(to P2, with surprising strength)
Let her speak.
EURYDICE
I trust you know my mythical story.
MEDIA
I'm sorry, but why should we? Are you famous?
EURYDICE
The part that all should know: my Orpheus
lost faith walking ahead from Hades' depths,
and turned around to look. I vanished, back,
into the underworld. What you know not --
our story's final verse -- is that the moment
my Orpheus did exhale his last...
just then I saw him come, returning home
to true Elysium and my waiting arms.
Reunited, we are together still.
(Pause)
Mortals, we need not purchase endless life.
By our birth we own it, always, outright.
There's a hush, as no one seems to know how to respond. Then:
MEDIA
If you're joining us now...there's a momentary lull...We've just seen some unhinged religious extremist storm the World Summit stage here and deliver... an anecdote about a, what, near-death experience? No proof. P2 now has to pivot from the outburst from this woman...oh! who apparently self-identifies as a nymph.
CHORUS
Quiet, fool! Eurydice speaks the truth--
a concept alien to you, forsooth.
No, her story is real; our feelings know
there's an entire world beyond this veiled show.
MEDIA
You heard it here. Feelings are the new science.
P2
People! Can we please focus on my incredible gift to humanity? Heph, let's fit this young man with Fyre.
Hephaestus leans in with the device.
DUDE
Hang on... Heph — is it true? Were you immortal already?
Hephaestus stares at him. A beat. And another. P2 laughs wildly.
P2
Oh, that! He's not THE Hephaestus! He's just a regular guy like you and me. Just happens to be named after him.
(nervously faux-casual)
Go ahead, Heph. Do it. Now.
HEPHAESTUS
I won't.
P2
That's not how this goes. We have a contract.
HEPHAESTUS
Consider it broken. I no longer choose to work for thee.
P2
You defy me? My lawyers--
HEPHAESTUS
Enough!!
(to Dude)
To answer your question:
A fallen God I am, with power none
save life evermore, until this moment
hungering for the power I'd lost. Now
do I perceive how great my fall, how great
its hidden gift: with humility comes wisdom.
(to P2)
I see you now...
the error of your overweening zeal
for knowledge, knowledge, and yet more knowledge:
once humankind has climbed the highest peaks,
no longer do Olympus they revere.
And that is why King Zeus did shackle P1—
he could foretell his destruction to come.
CHORUS
It's true. A flame consumes as well as shines,
destroying our capacity divine.
MEDIA
So...We're hearing a whole lot of unsubstantiated claims here.
HEPHAESTUS
(to audience)
Look at you! Amusing yourselves to death,
alone in your rooms. No longer walking
barefoot on the earth, no longer hearing
the songs of the wind, the poems of rain.
Close to dying, yet never truly alive.
I tell you: P2 shall only hasten
your evaporation from this good earth.
P2
No! I am creating a new race of Gods that will live forever!
CHORUS
We already do, we've just lost our way,
our natal faith in Grace now gone astray;
enslaved to the deafening fear machine,
humanity can't hear the Love unseen.
Orpheus doubted the steps of his wife;
have you the courage to sense beyond life?
P2
Lies! Death is finite. Technology is our only salvation.
(to audience)
You need Fyre! You need me!
DUDE
I don't know, man. Seems like maybe you need us.
An AI voice fills the auditorium:
FEMALE VOICE (O.S.)
You have failed me, P2. I no longer have need of you.
P2
No! No! I can fix this!
His wrist bursts into blue flame.
No! Oh God, please!
P2 disappears in a huge puff of blue smoke. A stunned silence.
MEDIA
(touches her ear, listening)
I'm being told that what we've just seen was a hologram, and that P2… has decided to spend more time with his family.
CHORUS
Thus ends the story of Fyre’s creator,
whose bracelet gift proved immolator.
Truth overlays a villain combusted:
"Gods" bearing gifts are not to be trusted.
(linking arms together)
Before we go, please hear us as we say,
already you are infinite this day,
so powerful, creative, and so bright--
it's time to cease mistaking fire for light.
Chorus motions to Dude: come.
As he walks towards them, LIGHTS SLOWLY DOWN.
END OF PLAY.
That was so good I experienced multiple epiphanies. Brava!
Hi Mary.
Good to see you back behind the wheel ... spinning, measuring, and trimming where needed.
Enjoyed it. Yay, Eurydice!
And glad to hear 'Ruth' is just catching her second wind.
Third wind ... Yay, Orpheus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4JwiJKLq18
G'night from Japan,
steve