Writings

Developing 'A Leak In The Universe'
by John Tudor

'A Leak In The Universe' is a work in progress, a stage play about a magician's encounter with real magic, and this piece is about it's development. (Unpublished)

What would a magician do if he were to encounter undeniably real magic? Would he be elated? Confused? Terrified?

"A Leak In The Universe" is a short play that deals with this idea. It is a work in progress of mine that will hopefully one day be produced in it's entirety. A master magician has found a box that makes things disappear, really disappear, and he must deal with the world shattering discovery with the help of some peculiar friends. At the 1998 Mystery School session Kevin Dunn and John Tudor presented a fragment of A Leak In The Universe, and the following essay is the history of the piece and some of the process of producing the play.

"A Leak In The Universe", was written in 1953 by the British author and critic I.A.Richards. Richards is also the author of many books on the workings of language (The Meaning of Meaning, with How to Read A Page Best being his own favorite) and spent most of his time at Cambridge University and Harvard. Richard's love of language is evident in the play, and it indeed becomes his drawback as an author. The play has only been performed twice in it's entirety, first in 1954 at the home of the author William James, and second in 1955 on BBC Radio. The piece presented at Mystery School is a fragment, which was presented once before in 1983 as a student work at Lander University. The fragment is cut down and rewritten from the original, as the dialogue is too flowery for modern audiences and is more of an intellectual exercise than a workable play. The aim of this modern version is to take as much of the original work as possible, and (using the rules of the Magic Play stated in The Theater of Wonder) create a new work that is still true to the original.

The Original Version

The original play starts with the character of the Conjuror speaking directly to the audience, in verse that is very obtuse and abstract, then finally talking about the Box. From there the play is a series of what are referred to as "French scenes", that is, two characters in conversation. It takes place at the Institute For Advancing Studies in London, where all sorts of experts are on hand. The Conjuror has found a Box that makes things disappear, that really makes things disappear. It cannot be explained in terms of conjuring. His friend, the Nobel Prize winning physicist (Dr. Baltscheider Klaus) arrives to discuss the Box with him. Klaus leaves convinced that the Conjuror just needs a vacation, but the Conjuror is not so sure, and takes the Box to the stunningly beautiful spirit medium Mrs. Nemo. Mrs. Nemo (who several times refers to her husband The Captain) enters a trance and several voices emanate through her from the spirit world talking about and for the Box, along with disturbing visions. The voices speak in elaborate poems, giving visions of the "Vortex": the great Void beyond, and a strange creature who possessed or perhaps created the Box. Or perhaps the voices are the Box itself speaking from the Great Beyond. The voices make several references to the Box and it's creator in terms of the Devil, which theme runs heavily through the rest of the play. It is an oddly literary idea of the Devil, which the next character, Dr. Hermann Zocca, identifies for the Conjuror.

Zocca (a literary historian) identifies the nonsensical poetic statements from the spirit world as bits of literature; in-cluding Virgil, Dante, Milton, and Blake; with Eliot, Chesterton, and Aristotle thrown in for good measure. Here the playwright first shows that he's really writing for himself and his fellow academics, as it ceases to be a play and becomes a pedantic demonstration of his own erudition. All the same, the medium's visions point to the Devil, or at least something from very near that "cavernous edge of the world". As Zocca leaves Dr. Klaus suddenly bursts in, very worried, as he has been analyzing the Box in various ways and it can't be explained by scientific reason. Even the X-Rays disappear, and Klaus considers it very dangerous. The Conjuror maintains himself as the Box's keeper, even as he states "it could be the very Devil." He lets Klaus off the hook, telling him it is a trick in some Cosmic sense, a trick he has escaped. Klaus exits again, very relieved.

To get to the bottom of the matter, the Conjuror visits Professor Omori, a Buddhist Zen Master. The two men have a long, involved discussion of the moral issues of the Box. The Box is the Great Renouncer, The Rebel, The Devilish Ender of All. Again, "Leak" becomes not a play but a philosophical exercise. They are interrupted by a call from Mrs. Nemo, who's had another message from the Great Beyond about (or perhaps from) the Box. The message amounts to a threat, a threat so disturbing neither man will say it out loud; and the audience is left to wonder what the spirit message could have been. When the two try to decide what to do with it, the Conjuror suggests they offer it violence, and the Box matter of factly vanishes. The Conjuror speaks directly to the audience at the end that he has learned something from it; he has had his epiphany, he has remembered himself.

The Play's Evolution

It is a truly great pity the author was over-intellectual, as the play in concept is extremely intriguing. In concept, it is an extremely powerful work. I personally find it rather hard to enjoy reading the play as written, which may have contributed to it's obscurity. There is little character development, almost no dramatic build of interest, and (worst of all) the inspiration felt by the Conjuror is almost lost at the end. To make it into a usable work, I edited it down to just two characters, the Conjuror and the Scientist. My concept was to keep the poetic nature of the work, but find within that a naturalistic ground that actors could work from. We then have two characters of opposite world views who get deeply involved in the situation. Also, I wanted to show a real change or inspiration on the Conjuror's part.

So as edited into the current version, we have the Conjuror and the Scientist, who discuss the Box as in the original. The Box can't be explained by either Conjuring or Science, and the world view of both men is shattered. The Scientist is made to be the one to offer it violence, actually smashing it! The box disappears, and the vanish of the box is fearful to both points of view. The conjuror lets the scientist off the hook, and the door slams shut on the only chance that the world will ever know about it. The magician knows the truth deep down inside, and through the loss he is found again.

Techniques and Choices

The current (Mystery School) production is very similar to the initial student production in 1983. Some differences are present that reflect an increased sophistication. In the student work the technical side of the vanish of the box was done entirely by the Scientist. In the current production the box vanish was accomplished in stages, mostly when the Scientist character was talking; with half the "work" done by the Scientist and half by the Conjuror.

Also in the previous production the vanish of the incidental items (coal, coins and money) in the box were simply mimed. Originally I considered having other tricks in it to establish the character of the Conjuror, but decided not to as the extra tricks would add to the character but not to the play. I merely had the Conjuror do his extended brag on who he is as written.

To make the magic atmosphere believeable: In the case of the vanish of the first items, it is important that the trick receives no response as a magic trick though the audience knows that it is a trick. The spell of conviction and willing suspension of disbelief must hold for the moment, and too much attention to an incidental trick would be distracting. Actually, the choices I made in character direction have the Conjuror angered at the very suggestion (in the early part of the play) that it's a trick. The subsequent response by the Scientist to this outburst drives the entire rest of the play in emotional terms.

Imagination and Science, the Conjuror and the Scientist, are the right and left brains personified.
To illuminate this visually, the Scientist wears a proper, tailored suit; befitting his place as the future "President of the Royal Society." The Conjuror wears a loose satin dressing gown, as he is in his studio in repose and represents free, elastic thought. Kevin Dunn is cast to play his own type; an analytical, somewhat unemotional thinking man. The Conjuror is played as expansive and imaginative, though also quite frazzled by the whole experience. In final monologue "sign off" I split the lines between the two characters to close the play on an "up" note.

The Box: Good or Evil?

Several lines were added the play to suggest the metaphysical nature of what I perceived the author to be alluding to. ("A trick or not a trick, that is the question.", etc.) Much of the author's original intent is nonsensical, but the important change in the character of the Conjuror is present in the end of the original play. At the end, the thrust of the original play steers away from the references to the Devil, and for the Conjuror it suddenly seems like redemption: "I thought it was trying to teach me how to vanish the Cosmos, when it was only trying to teach me to remember myself." So the Conjuror says in the original text, and that is the key to the play as I see it. The Conjuror is the one who is Master of all mystic arts, etc., as he so claims.

Through the experience of possession and loss of a "real" Magic Box, the Conjuror faces the intrusion of the supernatural in the form of something truly impossible yet real. I added the line "To know, really know that such a thing could be in the world...!" and had the character give an expression of great exhilaration. He has found Real Magic again, and it illumines not just his tricks and illusions, but his life. I like to think of the Box, then, not as a dangerous, devilish object as the author did; but as the means to the Conjuror's salvation. In that sense, the play is a reminder, a remembrance of what the Conjuror truly is.