What Next?

Libretto by Paul Griffiths (E)

lyrS,dramS,A,T,Bar, boy alto

2(II=picc).2(II=corA).2(II=bcl).2(II=dbn)-2.1.1.1-perc(4):I=SD/2cym/
thundersheet/6brake dr/cowbell/marimba; II=cym/tamb/5cowbells/3metal
pipes/washboard/vib; III=tam-t/hammer/lion's roar/gong/tom-t/cym/SD;
IV=BD/2tom-t/SD/cym/flex/vib-harp-pft-strings:(min.4.4.2.2.2)

Now, the scene of an accident

There has been an accident of some kind, involving six “victims,” five adults and a child. They emerge from the wreckage dazed but apparently unhurt. The five adults – Harry or Larry (who is always called by both names), Mama, Rose, Stella, and Zen – are unable to remember how they are related, where they were going when the accident occurred, or how they came to be in the same place at the same time. Rose, a diva, vocalizes and treats the others as admiring fans; Zen, a would-be seer, dispenses cryptic aphorisms; Harry or Larry cracks absurd jokes; Stella, an astronomer, is fixated on the stars. Mama tries to bring order to the situation. The Kid, on the other hand, is preoccupied with a more pressing matter: his empty stomach. A pair of street workers arrive to survey the damage but in spite of their pleas for attention, the victims are ignored; after a while the street workers guide the adults off the stage. It falls to the Kid to ask the question that might save them all.

Dramatic, Poetic