Leaving Planet Earth Read online

  LEAVING

  PLANET

  EARTH

  By Catrin Evans and Lewis Hetherington

  The World Premiere of Leaving Planet Earth was produced as part of Edinburgh International Festival 2013. This site-responsive production was performed in Edinburgh International Climbing Arena and Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

  CAST (in character alphabetical order)

  Emilia

  Molly Taylor

  Hal

  Chris Nayak

  Harper

  Juliana Yazbeck

  John

  Finlay Welsh

  Jost

  Peter Wiedmann

  Meeka

  Anna-Maria Nabirye

  Saad

  Robert Jack

  Vela

  Lucianne McEvoy

  Boy (Audio)

  Angus and Joseph Pinsky

  Sinead (Film)

  Muireann Kelly

  Gatekeeper voiceover

  Melody Grove

  GFO Journalist (Film)

  James Blake

  GFO voiceover

  Kenny Blyth

  CREATIVE TEAM

  Writers/Directors

  Catrin Evans & Lewis Hetherington

  Producer

  Judith Doherty

  Set & Video Designers

  Becs Andrews and Dave Lynch

  Lighting Designer

  Paul Claydon

  Composer & Sound Designer

  Philip Pinsky

  Costume Designer

  Kat Smith

  Set Design Assistant

  Lia Waber

  Costume Design Assistant

  Dannie Gallagher

  Costume Cutter & Maker

  Sara Hall

  GFO Filmmaker

  James Blake

  PRODUCTION TEAM

  Production Manager

  Fiona Fraser

  Finance Manager

  Deborah Crewe

  Technical Manager

  Simon Hayes

  Stage Manager

  Mickey Graham

  Stage Management

  Lee Davis, Kara Jackson & Anne Page

  Head of Sound

  Roy Fairhead

  Sound Engineer

  Guy Coletta

  Head of Stage

  JJ McGregor

  Production Technicians

  Kieran Diamond & Dave Cooper

  TRANSMEDIA TEAM

  Transmedia Designer

  Beata Zemanek

  Transmedia Assistants

  Omar Branco

  Douglas Chalmers

  Robert Doyle

  Natalie King

  Stuart Smith

  Martha Schofield

  For University of Edinburgh Centre for Design Informatics/Centre for Speckled Computing/Edinburgh College of Art: Professor Jon Oberlander, DK Arvind, Janek Mann, Michael Walters, Andrew

  Bates, Arno Verhoeven and Mark Kobine.

  For Edinburgh Napier University: James Blake, Malcolm Innes,

  Ian Lambert, Andrew O'Dowd, Euan Winton.

  LEAVING PLANET EARTH

  Catrin Evans and Lewis Hetherington

  LEAVING PLANET EARTH

  OBERON BOOKS

  LONDON

  WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM

  First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd

  521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629

  e-mail: [email protected]

  www.oberonbooks.com

  Copyright © Catrin Evans and Lewis Hetherington, 2013

  Catrin Evans and Lewis Hetherington is hereby identified as authors of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The authors have their asserted moral rights.

  All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to the authors c/o Oberon Books. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author's prior written consent.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-034-8

  Epub ISBN: 978-1-78319-533-6

  Cover image by Douglas Chalmers

  Printed, bound and converted

  by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

  Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you're always first to hear about our new releases.

  Contents

  Characters

  Departure Point

  Aboard the Voyager

  The Gfo Film

  The Car Park

  Leading Audience into Their First Space

  The Mining Department

  Transparency Coordinator has an Official Chat with a Wellness Enabler

  Miner Experience Continued

  Lifestyle Suite: Viewing Point for the House of Gatekeeper

  Decision About Old Earth With Vela & Peace-Building Commissioner

  Data Miner, Arrivals Officer and Pilot in the Bar

  The Atrium: One

  Old Earth Visualisation Exercise

  Old Earth Museum

  The Guard and Vela Wait at the Memory Bank

  Memory Bank Vela Visits Sinead

  Vela in the Old Earth Museum

  The Atrium: Two

  Mapping Station

  Pilot and Peacebuilding Commissioner

  Transparency Coordinator Talks of Naming Her Land

  Transparency Director, Wellness Enabler and Peacebuilding Commissioner Meet the Guard

  The Atrium: Three

  Arena

  This play is performed across three floors of Edinburgh International Climbing Arena.

  Each audience member will be given a Personal Quanitifier. A device which attaches to the hand that can light up, vibrate, be tracked through the space and collect and record data from the wearer.

  The audience groups will leave Edinburgh in three buses and travel to the Arena. The audiences will have an almost identical experience on the buses.

  When they arrive the three groups will see the show via three different routes – so each audience group will see the same scenes but in a different order. The show ends with all the audience coming together in one space – the main climbing arena.

  For clarity we have included a table summarising the three routes – so that you can see what order each audience group see the scenes in. But so as to save paper, we have ONLY included Group One's route in its entirety here.

  Characters

  VELA

  The Psy-architect of New Earth

  MEEKA

  A Pilot Pioneer who works in the Mapping Station

  HAL

  A Member of the Data Mining Team

  JOHN

  A Guard of the Old Earth Museum

  HARPER

  Arrivals Officer

  SAAD

  Peacebuilding Commissioner (and Mentor of Group One)

  JOST

  Wellness Enabler and Member of Vela's Team

  (and Mentor of Group Two)

  EMILIA
>
  Transparency Coordinator (and Mentor of Group Three)

  AV characters

  SINEAD

  Vela's Sister

  YOUNG BOY

  GROUP ONE

  GROUP TWO

  GROUP THREE

  Bus to New Earth Acclimatisation Centre with their Mentor: Saad.

  Bus to New Earth Acclimatisation Centre with their Mentor: Jost

  Bus to New Earth Acclimatisation Centre with their Mentor: Emilia

  The Mining Department and the Lifestyle suite

  The Old Earth Museum

  The Mapping Station

  All audience groups gather for Atrium 1. Vela and Boy. Old Earth Visualisation

  Then they move with their group on to their next experience

  The Old Earth Museum

  The Mapping Station

  The Mining Department and the Lifestyle Suite

  Whole audience move through Atrium in their groups on the way to their next experience.

  The Mapping Station

  The Mining Department and the Lifestyle suite

  The Old Earth Museum

  All audience groups come through the Atrium and head to the ground floor of the building.

  All audience groups enter the Arena and come together to celebrate Final Closure.

  DEPARTURE POINT

  The conference centre has the feel of a departure lounge. There are three check-in desks, one for each audience group.

  TV screens will display explanatory text:

  – WELCOME

  – PLEASE CHECK IN AT ONE OF OUR DESKS

  – ONCE YOU HAVE BEEN ISSUED YOUR PERSONAL QUANTIFIER PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IT

  – PLEASE VISIT THE PLEDGING STATION BEFORE DEPARTURE

  Once people have checked in and been given their Quantifier, they will be asked to wait in a designated area. The staff checking them in will mention that unfortunately the Pledging Station is out of order.

  A sign on the Pledging Station reads:

  Make your Pledge to our new society.

  Prepare yourself to take the New Earth oath.

  The Pledging Station has do not enter signs around it.

  Once everyone is checked in, the Front of House team go to their three designated spots and begin to gather the audience for departure.

  ABOARD THE VOYAGER

  The audience board their Voyager. The windows are blacked out. There is ambient music playing.

  Once all the audience have sat down an Introductory Video appears on the screens. A simple series of slides read:

  – Welcome.

  – New Earth is in your sights.

  – The preparatory team are looking forward to meeting you.

  – Remain calm.

  – Stay seated.

  – Allow yourself to be transported.

  – Enjoy the Journey.

  – Thank you for choosing to be part of something better.

  – Never look back.

  The JUMP MENTOR (either JOST, SAAD or EMILIA) stands up at the front of the bus.

  MENTOR: Hello all, and welcome aboard Voyager 8600.

  This is an extraordinary moment for us all. As you know, you are the final people departing from Old Earth. Once we have Jumped today the mass migration will be complete, and our commitment to looking forward will begin in earnest.

  My name is (Jost/Saad/Emilia) and I'm here to guide you through taking The Oath and making your Jump to New Earth. I feel very honoured to be your Jump Mentor on this very special voyage. Once we arrive at the Acclimatisation Centre you'll meet lots of my colleagues. We are all there to guide you through your initial transitioning process.

  For transparency's sake it is important you know that being a Jump Mentor is not my professional role on New Earth. Mentoring is something that members of the preparatory team volunteer to do. We've been preparing for the mass migration for some time now and so we're really excited to finally welcome you to New Earth.

  The following text is personal to each MENTOR on each Voyager.

  JOST: My official role is as a Wellness Enabler. For those of you who are familiar with Vela's theories on Psy-architecture you will know that nurturing Wellness is at the heart of humanity's long-term survival. My job involves meeting individual units at regular intervals for chats. These chats offer everyone an opportunity to say what they're thinking and feeling, and to work through any difficulties they may be facing. It is also, more often I am pleased to report, a space people use to articulate their joy with their new life. It's likely a number of you will be assigned to me once you've completed your initial transition and so I look forward to meeting you in that capacity too. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to have a job that I know is really helping people, day to day I am making a difference. I never really had a chance to do that on Old Earth, but it's all possible now. If you want it to be.

  SAAD: I am the Peacebuilding Commissioner on New Earth. It's a grand title I know, and, well, I guess it is a grand job. As you know peace has been rooted into the soil of our new society and it's my responsibility to ensure it remains at the heart of everything we do. Of all the decisions we make. So no pressure then! As someone who was involved in the Early Exploratory Missions I know that we were so close to never making it to this moment. But with dedication and belief, and of course Vela's programme, we are here – and I cannot tell you how proud I feel to be playing such an important role on our new home. Now I'm always looking for new Peacebuilding officers and so I hope that some of you might be keen to meet me in that context. There is of course lots of rigorous training to get through but I'll guarantee you a place if you let me beat you at Hover Tennis!

  EMILIA: You will see me a lot. So I won't go on. I'm one of the Transparency Coordinators. It's our job to make sure the right information gets to the right people at the right time. And that transparency goes both ways, you let us know how things are progressing for you, and we can help you. The Acclimatisation Programme is not always easy, but it does work. Some things may seem strange or surprising but they will make sense in time. We can't show you or tell you everything at once it would be overwhelming. We provide total transparency, when you are ready to see it. All of us in the preparatory team have seen what happens when the floodgates of change are opened. So Vela's programme is all about making sure everyone is protected until they can truly embrace this new world. It still blows my mind truth be told. It's sort of different but sort of the same and… This is always where I wish I had brought a quote from a poet or something because I just can't do justice to the place, to the people.

  Back to shared script.

  MENTOR: Now, you're doing fantastically well everyone. You won't be surprised to hear that we have had the odd person, well, demonstrate quite high levels of anxiety, at this stage on previous Voyagers. I'm pleased to see you all looking so calm. But we know that many of you will be feeling a little overwhelmed. So my colleagues in the Media team have prepared a film for you, on behalf of all of us at The Galactic Futures Organisation.

  The MENTOR sits down and a film begins to play.

  THE GFO FILM

  GFO FILM SECTION 1

  JAMES: Hello my name is James Blake, I'm a journalist and this short film has been made specially for people preparing to make their Jump to New Earth.

  Since the GFO first laid out their plans for Mass Migration, I've been working very closely with Vela to make this film, to address some of the questions you may have at this time. And to let you in on some of the information which was confidential until you were safely through check-in.

  Cut to VELA in grand room being interviewed.

  VELA: Before joining the Galactic Futures Organisation I had been working in disaster relief for many years. I designed programmes to help communities struck by natural disaster or civil instability.

  I worked on rehousing the people of Denmark after The Floods, and managed the social remodelling project after the Second Great Fire of London. It was my work on those projects that drew
the attention of the GFO.

  They invited me to join their team in 2005, to join them in their mission to discover and make habitable an alternative planet for the human race.

  Until that point, I had never really appreciated that the GFO was born, not of vain fancy, but of a need for change; after the outbreak of World War 3 and the collapse of the United Nations. From the embers of the UN's Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, arose the organisation we know today. An independent progressive body rooted in the intellectual and ethical development of humanity.

  What we've achieved as a species is remarkable. But the way we are living is unsustainable. We've taken everything Earth has to offer. We need to move forward, and I believe that ultimately, we deserve to.

  My role within the GFO gives me the chance to practically contribute to this vision by managing the Acclimatisation of migrants; working closely with colleagues from the GFO's three major branches of research; Exploration and Habitation, Wellness, and Peacebuilding.

  I believe we must be neither sentimental about the past nor naive about the future. And we owe it to our ancestors to do whatever it takes to ensure humanity survives and then, becomes better.

  Cut to JUMP SPECIALIST being interviewed in his office.

  JS: What the GFO did so effectively was to exploit Jump technology to its fullest potential.

  Now as we know Jumping had humble and not entirely promising beginnings.

  Footage of mouse Jumping.