OLT: Judgement Monologue

[emberleo]

*Angel draped in white crepe cross-tied in gold ribbon walks lightly to center stage. She opens a book bound in black raw silk with silver ribbon*

Once upon a time
you lived in Paradise
The grass was green
The sky was blue
The age was golden

The light was beautiful
And the dark was a mystery
you never wanted to consider

It never occurred to you to question
the beauty of IS

Until someone *gestures to Devil*
taught you SHOULD...

*the book slams shut*

... And paradise was lost.

*the book falls to the floor*

*Angel begins to pace, her expression thoughtful*

You never forgot that trick
You never forgave yourself for falling
And you never again trusted the Divine
for allowing it

But you never gave up hope!
Someday the sky will fall!
Someday your pain will end.
Someday everything you ever wanted will be yours.
Someday you will return to paradise.

Well rejoice, children of paradise!
For your waiting is over.
Yesterday is gone forever
and Tomorrow the world ends!

So rise and fulfill your destinies!

*Angel raises her arms, saluting the heavens. She looks down at the audience, expectantly.*

For they will never be handed to you.

You will not live to see Tomorrow.
You awoke today.
You live today.
You will sleep today.
And when you awaken again
it will be
Today.

Tomorrow never comes.
You cannot return to paradise.

*Angel returns to center stage, and picks up the book*
*She holds the book out to the audience*

You never left.

*Angel smiles gently, and exits*

--Ember--

Comments

[revpanthera.livejournal.com]

I love your monologue. It frequently gave me chills at the end of it. I loved the addition of the book and dropping it on the floor.

Love, Panthera

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

From the director's perspective: I particularly liked your concept, monologue, and delivery, and found it a wondrous interpretation of the card. Thanks for making it happen so well!

From another perspective....

I hope the videographer caught the level of interaction we had during the second show. I was trying to be part of, and add to, your monologue without upstaging you (difficult since I was, in a basic phyiscal sense, upstage), and from the feedback I got it worked pretty well.

The underlying reaction: it hurt. But then... I think it should have. For all his occasional bluster and smoothness, the Devil I called was at times all too aware of the dynamics involved in his... position.

I'd still like to continue those conversations some time.

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

It was interesting sitting between you two in the 7 PM show. Judgement was fairly miffed that the Devil was a lot more popular, but her reasons for being upset weren't something I could understand at the time. Partially, I think, because I was in a very active and doing oriented mental place and from what little I could understand she was in a very 'Doing is not needed, everything is, can't you see?' mental space.
But my memory is probably munched.

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

Heh... your memory may feel munched, but I think your observation is pretty accurate.

With that in mind, it is significant to note that our American "culture" (and actually, in much of the Western world) there is a greater emphasis on doing than on being... to the ultimate frustration of the particular entity of Judgement as manifested in this show.

Of course, my own judgement may still be clouded on this issue ;)

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[wynkat1313.livejournal.com]

Wow! this is awesome - thank you for posting it!

LOVED THIS!

[divarabbit.livejournal.com]

Your monologue was so well-written and flawlessly delivered. You were so consistent and amazing in your message AND performance throughout the show. I truly and deeply appreciated your monologue- it gave me a whole new beautiful dimension on my reading of that card.

Note: everyone I knew who came to the performance noticed the interactions between the Devil and Judgement. They all got it and thought it was a really great detail.

[dimloep-suum.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, darling. Absolutely beautiful.

[auntie-sirenee.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you described it for me - now I can see it AND read it.

It's a marvelous monolog, Ember.

synchronicity

[djinnaya.livejournal.com]

Timely... to the minute.

Thank you.

Re: synchronicity

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Dare I ask what's up?

--Ember--

Re: synchronicity

[djinnaya.livejournal.com]

Well, you could, but it is all a little long for an lj comment. Mostly, I'm just working very hard and becoming very frustrated by my own self-imposed limitations. I keep forgetting that I deserve these things that I'm working so hard for, and then I stop myself from working for them. Lots of procrastinating and self-sabotaging. I'm just so good at that.

Amidst all that, I think about parts of me and places in my life that I had to walk away from that I now miss very much. The thing is that you can't actually *lose* parts of yourself. They're just sleeping until you need them. Good reminder there.

I was just writing a private post to myself questioning whether I was wasting my time, and then I checked my friends page and saw this. It pretty much squished that patch of self-doubt and frustration.

So, yeah! Thanks!

Re: synchronicity

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Well then, I'm glad to be of service! ;)

--Ember--

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

One of these days, I want to go and watch you work in person. You invited me, I didn't/couldn't. But yeah... chills.

[paka.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot. My fave Thoreau quote is about heaven being under our feet as well as over our heads, and I really like the idea that this place is heaven as well as hell.

On the less serious side, and hopefully without offending you, I'll fess up that the monologue consistently set my brain singing "Welcome to Paradise!" If it makes you feel any better, I couldn't hear the "You must get down" part of The Hanged Man's monologue without immediately thinking of "Jungle Boogie."

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

*grins* That's really ok. My life is a song cue, why shouldn't it make other peoples lives a song cue?

--Ember--

[shipofools999.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I wish more people would make their monologs available after the show. There is so much processing going on during the show, and with 22 cards, the show does get long. Having the monolog for later allows the possibility to revisit something that hit you during the show but that you didn't have time to ponder on.

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Quite a few people are doing it this time, so take a look around ;)

--Ember--

[lysana.livejournal.com]

That is very, very good. You have such a knack for OLT.

[emberleo.livejournal.com]

Well, there's probably several knacks to it, but I probably earned 'em.

I mean it's not like divination, poetry, or the performing arts are at all NEW to me, eh?

--Ember--

[mendou.livejournal.com]

Wow. I hope the video of your performance is available at some point, I'd love to see it. So far I've missed two individual performances (yours and Sabe's Star) that I would like to see on video.