25 SEPTET PARTS 1+2 (2005)

O: Being in the calibration department for three years since I was 17 has been ….it’ll be hard to leave the calibration department when the purgatorium is finally enacted. We are caught up in deciphering so many meanings behind meanings behind meanings. Did you ever hear about that group, the Beatles? There apparently was a walrus in one of their songs and no one could figure out the meaning of it. Finally the band member Paul admitted he was the walrus. I’’ll have to see if I can get that song and listen to it sometime and find out what it meant. In any case I am not the walrus in this story.

Anyway, I….. How do you like your job? That first paycheck is a real rush.

(ON STAGE)

B; Don’t use that word in here.

J; Its great, I bought a car. What are we doing today?

K; You’re a secretary.

A; We’re secretaries.

J; What do you mean ?

M; Secretaries, belly dancers.

C; Folk singers.

L; We don’t do anything?

O; I am paid $700,000 a year to be here, I must be doing something.

B; I am paid 800,000….. EUROS.

K; How could that be? You don’t work as hard as I do.

A; We both do the same amount of nothing.

M; Apparently.

J; But we do stuff all day

B; Don’t use that word “stuff “in here.

C; Its not appropriate.

L; Too down low so to speak

O; We just don’t use that language up here.

B; And we don’t say down or low either.

K; Now get back to work

J; What are we doing ?

A; I don’t want to hear that question ever again.

M; Ever.

C; I just wish I could go somewhere and decafeinate and listen to Pink Floyd music all day.

L; (Looking at their replicants on screen) Now what are they doing?

J; I don’t know but I have to transcribe everything that is said.

O; Every meaningless thing in hopes that there will be some meaning, some content in something that someone can use.

J; Can we ever turn that off?

B; All offices are fed live into each other.

K; Total transparency

J; I don’t feel transparent.

A; You don’t? I do

M; I don’t feel transparent, I'm just not feeling it.

J; Really? I can see right through you.

C; It's so we will know what everyone else in the building is doing.

L; Solidarity, transparency.

J; Why do we want to know?

O; Don’t you want to know?

J; No.

B; I don’t want to know anything.

K; Ok, fine don’t.

A; But don’t ask me when it comes time for you to know something.

M; And then you realize you don’t know it because you were lazy and didn’t want to know it when you should have.

J; This is lame I’m quitting.

C; Don’t use that word.

L; No quitting.

J; Then they can fire me.

O; No quitting, no firing.

B; You will just be kept on salary even though you do nothing.

K; That’s how Goldie went for awhile till…

A; ..she was finally removed.

M; She was removed but kept on salary until her apparent death.

C; I hear they are making a film about her.

J; They, they, they, who are they?

L; Don’t use that word “they”.

O; Documentary.

B; Yes, they interviewed me, I lied of course.

K; Don’t use that word –

A; Lied.

M; Of course

C; Why didn’t they ask me?

L; I don’t know. And by the way she now being referred to as chiquitita now.

O; No more goldbug etc.

B; I knew her better than you did.

K; You dont want to say that too loud around here

A; I think it’s a theatrical.

M; What does that mean?

J; I think it means its just a story made up around her real life.

C; Why would they make a documentary about her?

L; She didn’t do anything important.

O; Apparently she did.

B; She must have been more intelligent than she appeared

K; Maybe she was hiding it.

A; Why would she do that?

M; Sometimes its better to do that around people who are less intelligent than you are.

J; I do it all the time.

C; You haven’t been doing that have you?

L; I would never do such a thing.

O; We are all equally as intelligent.

B; That’s what worries me.

K; What are you hiding?

A; I’m not hiding anything.

M; Yes you are.

J; I will have you reported for hiding your concealing your intelligence.

C; That would be a stupid thing to do.

L; So you are hiding it from me because you think I’m stupid.

O; I hate talking to you. It's all word games.

B: What do you think talking is?

K; You’ve had a bad day.

A; Communication, some kind of attempt at communication.

M; It's trading of information. Transactions of understanding ,lies , affection, ideas.

J; In here it is just trading information with out all the other stuff.

C; Word puzzles?

L; With answers.

O; It keeps the trade of information pure and superior, uncluttered and unfettered by all the restless chatter of the heart.

B; You have had a bad day.

K; Don’t use that phrase here.

A; Shall we think about what we’ve said and talk about it later?

M; I’d rather not.

J; Why?

C; (standing) Because you are an intellectual thughead and I will not submit ! I reject your alleged attempt at transparent solidarity!

L; We’ll have to refile it as a oblivious infliction of hostility in your direction.

C; The deliberate mortification of my mental flesh.

O; Not that word.

B; Hide and seek?

K; Lost and found.

J: Send in a report.

A: (screaming) Oh god! Shut up both of you!