Saturday, February 4, 2012

YouTube video: Rehearsal at home

The script

Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment
an original song cycle by Diana Prechter and husband Kent Cole.
Austin, Texas 2012


(1) (Rap Song - introduction to main characters…)

Catherine married Edgar and their baby makes 3.
Catherine's brother is the jerk known as Hiindley.
Heathcliff is named after some dead child
by Catherine's father who rescued him before he became wild.

Hindley goes away but comes back when he inherits.
He's a man of bad temper and very few merits.
He marries a woman who has TB, they have a kid, his name is Hareton, His mom he'll never see.

Hindley now bitter rules the house with a heavy hand,
and Heathcliff is sent to work on the land.
Catherine is groomed for a monied marriage - to Edgar's house she goes in the family carriage.

There's something wrong with Catherine, she's paler than most.
Walking around - she already looks like a ghost!

Edgar's sister is the girl called Isabella.
When it's time to fall in love she's aware of one fellow.
Isabella may be pretty, she may even have a dimple,
but her understanding of character is really quite simple.

She elopes with Heathcliff, after one night she regrets.
As fate would have it, a child she begets.
Linton is born near London town,
His mom is sick, his health is bad, his dad is rarely around.

When his mom dies, it's really sad. but he's a bit of a jerk and now he lives with his dad.

Not enough so far of Cathy we've said.
She's the baby who's born the night Catherine gets dead.
Her dad is Edgar and he's still alive.
She's a feisty girl, hell bent to survive.

When it's time to fall in love, two cousins are around. Hareton or Linton? Her judgement is not sound.

She marries Linton, it cannot be repealed.
When daddy Edgar dies, her fate is sealed.
Now the daughter-in-law of Heathcliff, true!
She has the temper of Catherine, whom Heathcliff loved and knew.

The death of Linton widows her, and the estate from her dad to Heathcliff transfers.
Mistress of Nothing! Young Cathy hell-bent, is slow to pick up on where Hareton went.

He's been waiting in the wings, his story barely started.
But soon the two cannot be parted.
When Heathcliff finally dies, young Cathy inherits. Hareton turns out to have a few good merits.

It's the happy ending for which we've waited - the only love which the stars of the heath have fated.

(SPOKEN:) Emily Bronte delved into the deep, at 28 years old,
to ask "What is love? And how does it live within the soul?"

(2) (Two Rocks for Every Dirt)

Put on your dress and don your cape
as we go on a journey to an ancient landscape
Your pants smell of horses, your jacket of soot.
Where there is no road, you will go on foot.

CHORUS
Beautiful, bleak
hills blown by the sea,
the brambles catch a skirt.
Wide vistas, little heat,
and there below your feet are
two rocks… for every dirt.

Unprotected and weather-worn,
beyond the hill you'll hear a hunting horn.
Hamlets and villages made of stone.
An old house in ruins was once a home.

CHORUS
Beautiful, bleak
hills blown by the sea,
the brambles catch a skirt.
Wide vistas, little heat,
and there below your feet are
two rocks… for every dirt.

In this time, in this place there is a destiny
For two souls growing crooked as a twisted tree.

The erotic life force propels the soul through love toward death.

We turn our thoughts to the heathen, sensual, Catherine and Heathcliff!

(3) (The Neighbors Asked)
The neighbors asked "but what did he bring?"
"where did he come from, the little brown thing?"
it was Heathcliff, age 7, rescued from the street
and his new family began to feel his heat.

Catherine age 6 is where this story begins,
she took to Heathcliff - like an evil twin.
with the innocence of youth before one ever knows
they romped on the heath choked full of primrose.

Two children grow tangled in their sensuality.
An older brother mangled by his jealousy.
A kind father dies on a forlorn night
to leave these three - undone - looking for a fight.

The weather broke, sleet and snow,
the larks were silent, winds blowing cold -
LIGHT AND SHADOW
This is what happens when people are not whole.
They find something, outside, to complete them - LIGHT AND SHADOW

Without mother, without friend
two broken hearts began to mend
Extended adagio…
They take center stage as they slowly become one
LIGHT AND SHADOW.............
oooo…LIGHT AND SHADOW
oooo…LIGHT AND SHADOW
oooo…

(4) (Savages)

(H) Owe! She's pinched me on the cheek, says I.
(Cath) I love to look him in the eye.
(H) There's often something wild about her mane.

(Cath) I've spoiled you, yes it's true, says I.
(H) I know you love me if I can make you cry.
(Cath) You're not as brave as me to play this game.

CHORUS
Demon child? Or simply wild?
No mommy to wipe our face.
In heath and bramble we love to gambol.
Our passions turn to ravages… Let's grow up savages!

(H) That's rude the way that you behave.
(Cath) When I grow up, you'll be my slave.
(H) A king and nothing less to you I'll be.

(Cath) When I come near, your limbs grow slack.
(H) Come closer dear, I'll brush your back.
(Cath) I'll churn you like a tempest on the sea!

CHORUS
Demon child? Or simply wild?
No mommy to wipe our face.
In heath and bramble we love to gambol.
Our passions turn to ravages… Let's grow up savages!

Soon Hindley is master of Wuthering Heights
With a heart as black as anthracite
Most wayward, spiteful, violent of them all.

He tastes revenge with every blow.
Heathcliff proud, brought so low,
and Catherine's temper merely folderol.

CHORUS
Demon man, a schemin' man,
Catherine's brother will set the pace
as Chief Hater and Perpetrator,
A snake about to spring…
He's the Savage King!

In another house, more genteel
lived a brother and sister with much less zeal,
unaware of their ill-fated star.

Edgar and Isabella.

With parents dead, left on their own
to choose a spouse and make a home,
they didn't know that they were playing with fire.

CHORUS
Two quiet kids played quietly
Til their quiet life was history.
The ship of life was cast adrift
when he married Catherine, and she Heathcliff.

H - OW!
C - (taunts) Just bring it here and I'll show you what to do..
E- Don't you think it just some sort of misunder…

Frost and Fire!
(5) "Heathcliff's lament"

You played me as your pet,
some bird you'd teach to sing.
I grew up to expect
you'd give me everything.

I'm so hungry
enough to cry
So hungry for your love babe,
there is lightening in the sky -- I'm gonna run away!
.......................
I wake up every morning, feel the darkness and shame,
I look for my next victim, someone to share my pain.
I'm just a man darling, and you've put me to the test:
How to take this heavy weight -- off my chest!

I could keep on walking till I've walked around the world,
but the truth keeps walkin' beside me, says "you're my only girl."
I'm so hungry, stay up and howl at night.
So hungry for your love and I dream I hold you tight.
..............

Don't dont' don't - runaway.
Don't don't don't.
Don't don't don't - runaway. Listen what I say!

Don't don't don't - [overlaps with…] (H) I dream I hold you tight.
Don't don't don't - [overlaps with…] (H) I dream I hold you tight.
Don't don't don't - [overlaps with…] (H) I dream I hold you tight.

(6) "Catherine's Lament"

When I held the key to Edgar's heart
I knew that money could play its part
to lift both you and me from poverty.
But the schemes of my foolish heart were only brief!

CHORUS
The sun did warm us when you stood by my side
You chose to run away when the only thing I hurt was your pride.

Well I cried my tears - a long time ago
I married Edgar - just didn't know.
But how's a wife supposed to live
when her love is untrue?
Secret thoughts, like roots entwined with you?

CHORUS
The sun did warm us when you stood by my side
You chose to run away when the only thing I hurt was your pride.

Time torn in pieces now! 3 years later you returned.
But life got complicated - when you married a girl you only hated.

Time torn in pieces now! Visions of madness in my head.
With a husband devout, I'd rather die than live without -

My SOUL, My SOUL!
Hold my hand you'll see it's growing cold!

CHORUS
The sun did warm us when you stood by my side
You chose to run away when the only thing I hurt was your pride.
(7) "In which Catherine Dies"

Heathcliff loved Catherine, she was more than a friend
but Catherine called the shots said this love was a dead end.
Catherine. Catherine. It's more than half a sin to love Catherine.

She married for comfort. She married for grace
While Heathcliff roamed the world acting like he owned the place.
Catherine. Catherine. It's more than half a sin to love Catherine.

When he couldn't stand to be apart any more, he showed back up at her brother's front door.
That brother gambled, drank and nearly went mad until Heathcliff owned everything he had.

Now more than a neighbor, less than a friend,
Heathcliff made his march across the heath to see the end of
Catherine. Catherine. It's more than half a sin to love Catherine.

His love. His girl. The only woman he ever loved in the whole wide world,
and she took to her grave the love she kept from him.

Each heart - forsaken...
A fruitless love he bore - he'd settle the score;
his love devout - she just held out;
Never a day - would she betray;
with life and limb - she longed for him;

he could have had her - but she's just a cadaver;
the end of a life - of a love-sick wife!
the sad untimely death of Catherine!
(8) (Lucifer)

Without her - I took on the work of Lucifer.
I delight in the hatred that I incur!
I hate and love. Why do I do it you might ask? ….you see
I don't know - but I feel it happening to me.

Without her - I took on the work of Lucifer.
Her daughter. My son. I keep them prisoner.
I hate and love. Why do I do it you might ask? ….you see
I don't know - but I feel it happening to me.


There's a monster inside …. "I feel it happening"
I'm obsessed with her …. "I feel it happening"
I see them cower and hide …. "I feel it happening"
I've got a bad temper …. "I feel it happening"

There's a monster inside! …. I feel it happening
There's a monster inside!! …. I feel it happening

My anger only grows it devours me, it's never sated.
Let them feel what it's like to be tormented and berated!

Some people cannot be rehabilitated.

There's a monster inside… the monster she created!

[The Temper Tantrum - Heathcliff CRIES OUIT: ]
You think that my temper gets the best but you never met Catherine, the tempter and the tempest!
(9) (The Haunting - spoken introduction)

Could it be, when they were born,
one soul in two was exactly torn,
and placed in bodies, his and hers.
Now one is dead, but the other half stirs.

Or is this what purest love resembles?
Not face or form or flowing tendrils,
But sadness, near madness, in the night
Where the ghost and the living seek to unite.

Come ghost Catherine, tell us
What crime did you abet?
What Destiny was thwarted?
How weighs on you such debt?

(10) (The Haunting Duet )

Again I feel that chill - the hour of my torment
But once again I hear her weep - her wild impassioned midnight argument.

Sheets writhing in this bed - possessed by my desire
Unfinished business with the dead - I inhale her soul but it's me that she devours.
every breath I take - only keeps us apart
I'm sure to slowly die - from my broken heart.
A noise - a shadow of hope - another electric hour
I'm standing in the cold - my tears will damn you, eyes full of black fire!

(Catherine the GHOST sings:)
Whatever souls are made of, yours and mine are the same.
the blackness in them knows how to betray.
my own tears have damned me, I'm only a slave
to the love I kept hidden 'til I went to my grave!

In heaven you're miserable. - no master could you serve
Are you in heaven or is it hell? Break your heart with weeping, that's what you deserve!
every breath I take - only keeps us apart
I'm sure to slowly die - from my broken heart.
Turn me once. Turn me twice.
Turn me in your grave, won't it be nice?

They call me half civilized.
When they put me in your grave, won't it be nice?

(11) THE END [SPOKEN over quiet music:]

Heathcliff died finally and it was just in time
so that the few remaining survivors of his reign of terror
could begin their lives anew
pulling happiness like a root from the ground.


And the holy ground where she was buried was secretly made unholy.
His living accomplice opened the grave of Catherine, the beloved,
and laid Heathcliff's tormented body - meat, gristle and bones -
beside her.
The longing finally consummated.

Death is so terrifying, so unfathomable,
that realizing you are not dead is a thrill.
So - Welcome to the living!
Grab your horse and ride through time: gallop past Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, take a train, a car, a plane. Safe landing in the present.

But in that place,
the wind still blows
and the air is chill.
A graveyard still sits
on that lonely hill.
In quiet earthy, unquietly
Two souls became the shape of one lonely tree.