SCENE 1:
Clocks ticking rhythmically, clockmaker (CM) enters, begins
working on the clock, hums a little tune.
Customer 1 enters.
C1: I have a problem with my clock.
CM: Let’s see your clock…yes, I see. Leave it with me for
two days- I’ll have it ready by Friday.
Customer leaves.
CM goes to his bedroom, lies down, clocks keep ticking(sound
becomes louder)
Light swings to large wall clock behind audience and follows
hand movement, clock ticks rhythmically.
SCENE 2:
Clocks tick, CM walks in and for a second clocks stop
ticking and then they start ticking again normally. CM looks around still
confused and sits at his table, goes on working on the clock.
Customer 2 comes in, calls CM once or twice before CM
realizes he’s there.
C2: What kind of clocks do you…(fades out and ticking
becomes louder)
CM shakes his head.
C2: I was thinking of an alarm you know.
CM stares at C2 without responding.
C2: Hello? An alarm clock? Hello? (waves in CM’s face)
CM keeps staring at him.
C2: Freak! (and walks out)
CM goes to his room and sits on his bed. He hums his tune…
it becomes faster than the ticking of the clock and he loses the beat. He stops
and begins humming again along with the ticking but again he loses the rhythm
and becomes faster. Then the ticking of the clock increases speed to match with
his humming. He nods and goes to bed.
Light swings to large wall clock at the back, which makes
rhythmical noises and lights swing with clock hands.
SCENE 3:
One or two clocks are slower/faster. Some are going
anticlockwise but most are fine. Two customers come in C3 and C4, C4 is a
shadow person.
C4: Is my clock ready? The one I asked you to fix? Clock
maker?
C3: Do you buy old clocks?
CM: Yes.
C3: Oh, good. I have this 19th century piece
belonging to my father.
CM: But there’s still a problem.
C3: What?
C4: With the working?
CM: No, I’ve fixed the gears. The paint is chipping off the
dial – if you don’t change the dial soon, the hands will wear.
C3: What the hell are you talking about?
CM: Wait your line, sir; can’t you see I have another
customer to attend to?
C3: What? The man’s mad!
He leaves but his shadow stays on. More and more shadow
people come in and stand around the CM. The ticking becomes faster, one or two
clocks start shaking. The shadow people start whispering: “tick-tock,
tick-tock, tick-tock”.
CM gets scared and runs into his room, jumps into his bed
and then he realizes that the shadow figures have followed him to his room. He
starts whimpering and the lights fade out.
Light swings to the large wall clock which makes rhythmic
noises, light follows hand movements.
SCENE 4:
The clockmaker is already in the clock room. The clocks are
shaking and spinning, and the speed of the ticking is very irregular. CM
behaves strangely, random gestures, picking up things and keeping them back.
He’s humming with the clocks, stopping suddenly, starting suddenly, speeding
down and slowing down. Flashes of
colour on the screen behind (?)
The shadow people are larger, and blurred with the clocks on
the background behind, “tick-tock, tick-tock” One comes forward.
Shadow: Tick-tock, tick-tock clockmaker. Mad, mad… you’re
going mad.
A whisper is taken up by the shadow people. “mad, mad the
clockmaker is mad.”
CM: (laughs) Mad? So is that it? I’m mad?
The whisper grows louder, the ticking slows and speeds with
the whisper.
CM: You think
I’m mad? And you? (to the audience) Do you – all of you – think I’m mad,
too? Because I hear things you don’t? Because I see things you don’t?
What… do
you see?
The light
swings to the large wall clock behind the audience, and whirls around it. Coloured lights (?) The
ticking is as loud as possible and very irregular, the light whirls across the
audience as the ticking rises in a crescendo sharply till it seems like
something big is about to happen – and the room lights come back on, with the
puppeteers visible and the puppets only wood and cloth and string lying in a
lifeless heap on stage.
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