Characters:
H.P. Lovecraft, a fantasy writer who created the famed
Cuthulhu Mythos.
Robert Bloch, a pulp novelist that went on to write the
novella PSYCHO.
Metronoma, a shape shifting Fungi from Yuggoth (the
ninth planet of our solar system)
Setting:
Arkham. Mass. [1]
1937.
On stage Left is the
flowered wallpaper study of Lovecraft.
This consists of a library, an old armchair, an old phonograph recorder,
a lamp and a miniature tea table and chair.
There is a window on
the center wall; on the Left wall there is a shelf that holds letters and
stationary of LovecraftÕs as well as a black metal canister. The shelf is
book-ended by two framed oval portraits of LovecraftÕs Aunts.
The Stage Right wall
holds a framed drawing that resembles a Himalayan Mountain drawing by Nicholi
Roerich. [2]
On Stage Right is
the empty void of a hotel room in Arkham, Mass. There is a foldable roll-away bed, a small night table
holding a green lamp and an old radio. A suitcase is opened on a stand.
Down stage right is
the hotel bathroom with an old sink, a tiled floor and a shower.
Stage center is the
natural world where Metronoma lay.
She is placed before a large screen that masks a pod from outer space.
PreShow: Popular music[3]
comes from an old radio in LovecraftÕs study.
The lights fade and
the music follows.
The Love Theme from
METRONOMA is heard as we see Bloch enter the dark study of Lovecraft with a
flashlight. He examines books and
drawers and soon locates a small black book which may be the Necronomicon. He opens it and starts to read as the
book emits a cloud of smoke that causes Bloch to disappear.
We hear BlochÕs
voice as we now see him in the hotel room at stage Left. Bloch, in flashing neon lights, opens
the door on the small night table.
He removes what seems to be the Bible from the nightstand and replaces
it with the small black book. He
slides the replaced book under the bed as we hear this monologue in voice over:
Taking
the life of one of your friends isnÕt an easy thing to do, but for meÉI was
invited.
ItÕs
not like I even thought about it much before the invitationÉbut once I received
the noticeÉitÕs all I could think about.
I
was seventeen at the time I did itÉbutÉhellÉI donÕt remember what itÕs like to
be seventeen anymoreÉI felt much older at the time.
I
know that if I didnÕt do it like I was told toÉthe world wouldnÕt be the way it
isÉ
IÕm
not saying that IÕm not crazyÉhell, I never thought it would come to thatÉ
But
I knew that if I didnÕt do it the way he told me toÉIÕd never be who I am
todayÉ
IsnÕt
that rightÉMETRONOMA?
The lights darken
and we hear BlochÕs voice again in voice over:
Here's
where it begins...in the dark...it's not as if it always begins here...but for
now, I guess it does...
I
first started writing H.P. Lovecraft when I was fifteen...he was a hero of mine
and I read every incredible yarn that he spun in "weird tales"
I
loved that rag, and I was eager to read every tale that Lovecraft wrote.
He
was a solid writer... wrote fantasy as if he was writing for the
"Science" journal...
I
mean, I almost believed every word this guy wrote, but it wasn't until he
started writing me that I believed everything...everything.
It's
some sort of dreamy pleasure to get a well written letter...like a warm smile from a girl on the
train......a letter that you read over and over...sometimes you even pin it up
over your bed to let it watch over you at night.
The
more letters I got from Lovecraft, the more personal the correspondence
became...we were becoming friends...
The
words began to possess me...his letters, the ease of his cursive...he always
wrote in longhand...everything...all of his stories, by hand.
then
the letters began to get more urgent...like he was warning me of something out
of one of his stories, like words out of time...about the end of the world and
all...
he
wrote to me about how he had been learning of a force that was growing that
would make all time and space irrelevant...and how he, himself, was preparing
for the end...
letter
after desperate letter filled my mailbox of Lovecraft's discoveries about the
future of the world and the rise of the Great Old Ones, those beings from outer
space that created life on earth...he warned me that he himself was planning
his departure for planet x...
At
first I laughed at the nature of these letters, but the intensity and the
urgency of his pleas for me to come and visit him...to share in his
discoveries... started to fester inside of me...
He
sent me a train ticket to Arkham, Mass, where he lived...and insisted that I
come visit him, that I would be the only one that would believe his late night
discoveries...
So,
I left Wisconsin...I boarded the train to Arkham, Mass...home of Lovecraft and
the famed Miskatonic University...
I
boarded the train to visit my idol... to meet the Great Old One, himself.
Lovecraft enters his
study where he opens an old newspaper headline from 1931, a New York Times
headline that reads: Planet X to be named Pluto.
He removes the
drawing from the wall and pins the newspaper in its place.
The Metronoma[4] device begins to click and Lovecraft
responds by looking in its direction and thinking to himself as he hears the
voice of the young Metronoma in his head:
Metronoma: HowardÉHowardÉHowardÉ
Howard: Boy. YouÕre a misbehaved little boy,
Metronoma.
Metronoma:
HowardÉ
Howard: youÕre here to keep the time
MetronomaÉThatÕs all. To keep the time. Little
boy.
Metronoma:
Howard LovecraftÉYouÕve done well, Howard, your life on earth is almost
over, just a few more thingsÉyouÕre not
still dressing up as Abduhl Alharzed
are you???
Howard: Speak when spoken to, Metronoma. See, IÕm not speaking because no one is
speaking to meÉno one speaks to me, Metronoma.
Metronoma: the Necronomicon is alive and well; you
wrote it when you were just six
years
old, as Abduhl AlhrazedÉ.the ÒMad Arab.Ó Are you still ÒmadÓ Howard???
Howard:
IÕm not speaking because no one is speaking to me. No one speaks to me.
{Howard then begins
to take out the letters to seal as Metronoma takes center stage}
Metronoma begins to
come alive at stage center as her unclothed body takes projections of a ghostly
forest. She begins to speak to
Lovecraft in a whisper:
making
love to a book...
is
that what you do Howard?
make
love to a book...?
it's
what I do to pass the days here on earth...
That
butterfly feeling of the pages fluttering on my skin...
light
whisps of air feather, touching the hairs on my body...
the
spine thrusting in to me...
eeeew,
Howard...
why
don't you write a book about me, Howard?
it
would be your gift to me...
Like
the Necronomicon itself...I dream of making love to the Necronomicon, Howard,
that evil book...I lust for it.
your
words, all of your handwritten
words pressing against my breasts..
the
cursive flow of pain that ignites my eyes as you enter me...
with
your words...your misbehaved words
you
write such naughty words, Howard...
my
entrails spread over the ground, seeping into the earth...
through
the pine needles, into the mud...
feeding
your creatures...Howard...
feeding
life into the "Old Ones"...cthulhu....
my
wetness...my blood, my urine...all melting into the earth, and causing a forest
of lust to grow...
a
green meadow of thirst from the pleasures of my juices...
let
the book rub against your body, Howard...
the
bold face print of the pages smears into black pools of iron that blocks the
passage of gold leafed edges cutting thin blood slits along my back...
humping
me, the book...humping away at my body...not stopping...
Howard...your
book is making love to me...
your
handwritten, cursive words of fear are inside me now...
one,
two, three...
your
book is alive inside of me, I can feel it kicking, I can feel it throbbing
inside of me, becoming flesh...the pages covered with a weblike membrane of
juice and puss, the jacket of cock is ensconced with my organs...which empty
out onto the forest floor...in your toes....in your eyes.
Have
you seen me make love to a book?
I've
seen you making love to a book, I've seen it when I sleep at night...
Do
you see my innards, Howard, do you see my organs flushing their way out of my
body all over the earth...do you see my green blood in your eyes Howard...
Do
you make love to books...?
Howard?
Metronoma rolls over and reveals herself
caressing a large book.
Lovecraft is
motionless, then he turns on the radio to his right that is located in the old
phonograph recorder.
He turns on to the
radio program W3XR, sits in his chair and begins to write and seal letters.
HOTEL ROOM lights
fade up a little
Bloch on stage. He turns on an old radio of his own and
we hear that he is listening to the same program that Lovecraft was listening
to.
Lovecraft sits in
near darkness and during the next scene he starts to use an old Pineolator
breathing device to clear out his nasal passages.
Bloch turns down the
radio and goes into the bathroom.
We hear Bloch in
voice over[5]:
that's
me there...Robert Bloch...
friends
call me Bobby...so...I guess you can call me Bobby, too.
I
was seventeen...but as I said, who the hell remembers what they were like at
seventeen...so I like to remember myself like thisÉ
Ébefore
I got real fat...
I'd
been holed up in this hotel here for days...not knowing when I would get the
final go ahead to meet Lovecraft...at his home...
once
I arrived in Arkham, I received a telegram at the station...directing me to
this hotel...saying that Lovecraft had some new discoveries that may disprove
his other findings, and he no longer needed my assistance...
so
now I was waiting...waiting...thinking that this telegram was the first typed
message that Lovecraft had ever sent me...
waiting...just
waiting...
I don't know
if you have ever been to downtown Arkham, Mass....alone...but if I can give you
a word of advice...don't.
There's
something about the deserted town alleys that tear the heart out of a
man...something about the gray sunlight reflected from grimy roofs...something
about the mournful rattle of distant trains going to Boston...something about
the crumpled bits of soiled paper flopping listlessly along empty streets...the
streets of Arkham...something about the closed shops with large paned windows
of clothesless dolls and ...the locked doors....it gets to you...does things to
your insides...you start wondering whether or not, in the midst of all this
death and decay...you're really alive.
The
prospect didn't please me at all, so I resolved to just wait for the word here
in my hotel room.
Staring
at walls that felt like they weren't there at all...
This
is all I've been doing...walking in and out of the bathroom...just waiting to
open the door again by my own hand...
Waiting
for a reason to go over there and introduce myself to my friend...
Holed
up and waiting....
Bloch begins to
shave. He lathers up his face with
shaving cream from an old cup. He then takes out the razor, notices the
removable blade and begins to take the blade out of the razor. He goes to his nightstand and returns
to the bathroom with a bottle of large white pills, a glass and a bottle of
whiskey.
He removes one of
the pills and begins to use the razorblade to sever the pill in half. He puts the blade back into the razor,
puts the other half of the pill in the bottle, takes out a glass, pours some
booze into it and takes half of a pill with a true hard swallow.
At this Point
METRONOMA enters the Hotel room.
She finishes
dressing, putting on stockings, shoes, etc.
OhÉyeah, thereÕs
another thingÉso sometimes in a hotel when you are waiting there is a knock on
the door. A knock that will linger
in your mind for a long timeÉand sometimes the knock seems to come from some
place else entirelyÉthis knock led toÉand this knockÉwellÉI didnÕt have the
feeling that I should have told her that it was my first timeÉbecause it was, and
I knew she could tell tooÉI did the right thing in playing all quiet and
allÉlike this was a matter of course in my lifeÉ
Sometimes
thatÕs just what you need when you are alone, thinkingÉwaitingÉI learned a lot
about the quietness about being comfortableÉsometimes itÕs just what you need
when you are aloneÉsometimes itÕs just what you need when all you have to look
back at was a pile of thumb-smudged lettersÉshe was quiet tooÉshe smiled a lot
Énot sure if you can trust someone with an unstoppable smileÉbut I didÉI liked
her, I liked her a lotÉI wanted to see her againÉso I gave her my radio.
During this voice
over, Metronoma plays with BlochÕs Shaving cream on his face, she kisses him
and then pulls slightly on the shower curtain, playfully, then places a bundle
of letters on the night stand much like the ones that Lovecraft was sealing.
She unplugs the radio and exits, leaving the hotel room.
Metronoma crosses
stage left to behind LovecraftÕs study.
She puts on the Cuthulhu mask[6]
and rises in the window during this scene, also building the sound up to a
terrifying tension.
During this Bloch
finally shaves, he is careful and the music is played on stage as we watch the
menÕs behaviors.
We see Lovecraft in
his chair with Cthulhu in the window shadows behind him, lurking.
Bloch, seemingly
possessed by some sort of unworldly urge, removes the blade from his razor and
cuts himself on the cheek. Blood.
Lovecraft sits,
politely, and removes a handkerchief and clears his nose.
Bloch cleans his
face, puts on a bandage and goes to the bed to lie down.
Bloch finds the
letters on his night table and lies down in the bed and begins to read and then
sleep.
Bloch begins to
narrate in voice over during the video projected dream. During this monologue we see Bloch,
Metronoma and Lovecraft in the woods of a magical New England forest. Bloch thinks of his loss of virginity
and begins to dream about what it must have been like for Lovecraft to lose his
virginity, as cloaked and described in the story, ÒThe TombÓ (1925) which has
passages interwoven in the voice over:
that
night my eyes didn't close, but I had a dream...
I
dreamed that I was indeed sleeping...
dreaming
in Lovecraft's mind, hearing the world in his thoughts...
our
thoughts merged together in some sort of dance-like chemistry..
I
was well into the recovery of several terrible nightmares when my mind stumbled
into the most beautiful shower of sunlight, and I remembered Metronoma.
there,
as a child of ten, I wandered by myself, at last...
I
dwelt apart from the visible world, as no human could...
Close by my home there lies a singular
wooded hollow, in whose twilight deeps I spent most of my time; reading,
thinking, and dreaming. Down its moss-covered slopes my first steps of infancy
were taken, and around its grotesquely gnarled trees my first fancies of
boyhood were woven. Well did I come to know the presiding dryads of those
trees, and often have I watched their wild dances in the struggling beams of a
waning moon but of these things I must not now speak. I will tell only of the
lone tomb in the darkest of the hillside thickets.
It
all seemed so clear to him.
The
vault to which I refer is of ancient granite, weathered and discolored by the
mists and dampness of generations.
Excavated back into the hillside, the
structure is visible only at the entrance. The door, a ponderous and forbidding
slab of stone, hangs upon rusted iron hinges, and is fastened ajar in a queerly
sinister way by means of heavy iron chains and padlocks, according to a
gruesome fashion of half a century ago.
I
shall never forget the afternoon when first I stumbled upon the half-hidden
house of death. It was in midsummer, when the alchemy of nature transmutes the
sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogeneous mass of green; when the
senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the
subtly indefinable odors of the soil and the vegetation. In such surroundings
the mind loses its perspective; time and space become trivial and unreal, and
echoes of a forgotten prehistoric past beat insistently upon the enthralled
consciousness.
All
day I had been wandering through the mystic groves of the hollow; thinking
thoughts I need not discuss, and conversing with things I need not name.
In years a child of ten, I had seen and
heard many wonders unknown to the throng; and was oddly aged in certain
respects. When, upon forcing my way between two savage clumps of briars, I
suddenly encountered the entrance of the vault, I had no knowledge of what I
had discovered.
But in that instant of curiosity was
born the madly unreasoning desire which has brought me to this hell of
confinement. Spurred on by a voice which must have come from the hideous soul
of the forest, I resolved to enter the beckoning gloom in spite of the
ponderous chains which barred my passage.
Henceforward
I haunted the tomb each night; seeing, hearing, and doing things I must never
recall.
Bloch sits on the
edge of the bed and is reading now from the stack of letters. He begins to hear his own voice reading
from the letters. The letter is an
imaginary letter from Sonia Green.[7]
Bloch and Lovecraft
enter together to the space, walking in the same steps. Lovecraft holds an old teaset and Bloch
has a new radio that may have appeared in the dream from a drifting Metronoma
that visited him in his sleep, lying in his bed.
Bloch and Lovecraft
begin to converge as possession takes over the two of them, leaving Bloch on
the floor and Lovecraft reverting to his childhood doppleganger, Abduhl
Alhazred, who entertains his creations at a play pretend teaparty, his teaset
vibrating with the pitch and yawl of BlochÕs radio.
Bloch collapses the
bed in the hotel room and pulls out an old typewriter and begins to make some
corned beef hashÉhe is also seen typing while sitting on the floor, drinking
booze and taking pills, not cutting them in half. Eventually he dresses and prepares to leave.
He looks in the
bathroom mirror and removes his bandage.
There is no scar, it is gone.[8]
Metronoma begins to
tell Lovecraft the story of the boy:
fear...fear
is natural, Howard...fear is Human, but your kind of fear is not pleasant fear.
that
is what you are going to have to leave behind, your fear.
there's
no room for it in the cannister,
Howard...
have
I told you the story of the Boy, howard?
you're
the boy, and you are going to leave your home, your body...your life...but I
want you to think with me about the story of the little boy, Howard.
He
thought that he had fallen in love...
He
moved to Brooklyn and found himself getting much fatter than he was before,
loathing his own flesh in the mirror. Loathing everything, even the reason that
took him to the city.
No
luck with jobs, he loathed himself maybe even more than he loathed the
neighbors on his hall in his little Red Hook apartment building...neighbors
that he never met, but knew everything about them...at least he thought he knew
everything...
But
you didn't Howard, if you knew them, you wouldn't have thought so poorly about
them, so scared of how they were different.
doesn't
that scare you Howard?...the thought that someone is living right beside you,
above you, they know all about you, where your correspondences are coming from,
when you go down the hall to go to the bathroom...but you have never met that
person...and they think that they know you?
you
fear that person, yet you are that person Howard...you are a little boy
sifting
through their mail to see what foreign places the stamps were from.
that
scared little boy...he wasn't alone...at the center of it all like he was in
his hometown, playing, all alone ...
you
don't deserve to walk down the streets any more than any other person...
Howard..
if you're as
interested in traveling to yuggoth, your ninth planet, as much as you've
insisted, then you need to reconsider your youthful prejudices.
why
do you make the beings who live all around you phantom enemies? Contenders. Impositions.
Restraining you. Depriving
you of your joyful days. Was it
their faulty, rapturous, insensitivity that was creating your hopeless depths?
your
contempt is not qualified....Howard...and I am not going to do that for you.
You
have to make that decision yourself. Your body has grown to full capacity, but
your brain has not...there is something missing, this little boy is not a
complete man...
and
I can't show you the way to that Howard...just think about it a little bit
more...
before
we put your little brain in a metal canister, Howard
Bloch is dressed now
and Lovecraft has left to clean up for the meeting.
BlochÕs
voice is heard in voice over:
Our voices became one, LovecraftÕs voice came
from my bodyÉ
IÕm not sure what I was thinkingÉIÕve kissed
so many memories since that night thatÉIÕm not sure where the first glimpses of
decision were bornÉat his point ÉI remember two thingsÉI never saw a dawn in
Arkham, Mass, and it took me years to
close my eyes when I went to sleep after what happened that nightÉ
I knew the time had come for me to go over to
that hideous house of deathÉI knew that I was going to meet Lovecraft for the
first timeÉ
I was prepared to do what he told me to do,
his orders on the page became clear to meÉ
And I was ready for the first and last
encounter with my one idolÉ
So I left my hotel for good, and made my way
through the quiet, peaceful streets of Arkham, Mass, but I wasnÕt aloneÉthe
light footsteps of a young child seemed to follow me where ever I wentÉ
Bloch is led by
Metronoma through the woods to LovecraftÕs study where Lovecraft is now seated
in the armchair and the black metal canister on the shel above him is pulsing
brilliant colors. LovecraftÕs voice is heard as it seems he is speaking from a
dead state.[9]
Lovecraft
in voice over:
Welcome BobbyÉso glad to finally make your
acquaintance. As you can see,
everything is in order for my departure for the ninth planet. Please, have a
seatÉ I trust your stay at the Arkham Hotel was satisfactory? And I hope you had
a pleasant visit with Metronoma, he is a bright young lad.
YouÕll have to excuse me for speaking to you
this way, but for us to communicate youÕll need to speak with me through your
thoughts. Below the phonograph on
the table youÕll find the Telepethink Headset, pleaseÉ
Bloch
Stands there looking at himself, his idol, all reality is lost. Bloch puts on
the telepethink headset and their voices are heard conversing in their minds:
Yes,
mummhumm, yes, I know, IÕm leaving soon, yes, umhunhhÉetcÉ
Eventually
Bloch makes a recording with the phonograph on the table, he records the
incantation of ÒYog-SOTHOTHÓ and the record skips, repeating the chantÉ
Bloch
exits and LovecraftÕs dead body lands on the teaset table in sacrifice
position. We notice on his cheek a large scar, like the one that used to be
covered by a bandage on BlochÕs cheek.
Bloch
re enters as Cthulhu and in what seems like a ceremony he devours Lovecraft
from the back of the neck.
The
video screen rises into space as a large pod is shown at center stage. This is a pod from another world, and
LovecraftÕs face is stretched out on it, mouthing the words ÒFather.Ó[10]
Unearthly
sounds; the pod is leaving for Planet X.
Lovecraft
is now replaced with Bloch, and the lights go out.
We
hear the voiceover:
Lights still out- must be five minutes now. Everything depends on lightning. Yaddith grant it will keep up!... Some influence seems beating through it... Rain and thunder and wind deafen... The thing is taking hold of my mind...
Trouble with memory. I see things I never knew before. Other worlds and other galaxies... Dark... The lightning seems dark and the darkness seems light...
What am I afraid of?
The long, winging flight through the void... cannot cross the universe of light . . .
My name is Bloch- Robert Harrison Bloch of 620 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin... I am on this planet...
Azathoth have mercy!- the lightning no longer flashes- horrible- I can see everything with a monstrous sense that is not sight- light is dark and dark is light...
Sense of distance gone -far is near and near is far. No light
I am it and it is I - I want to get out... must get out and unify the forces... it knows where I am...
I am Robert Bloch, I... ngai... ygg...
I see it - coming here - hell-wind - Yog Sothoth save me Ð
?
We
see Metronoma lying on the floor in BlochÕs hotel room.
She is reading from the small black
book and we MetronomaÕs voice:
What
am I afraid of?
I
can see it comingÉMy
name is Bloch- Robert Harrison Bloch of 620 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin... I am on this planet...
[1] Arkham, Mass. is a fictional town created by Lovecraft that is home to the famous and also fictional Miskatonic University. Arkham is based on the legacy of Salem, Mass.
[2] Nicholi Roerich (1874Ñ1947) was a philosopher and artist in the early part of the twentieth century. Lovecraft mentions the appeal of RoerichÕs paintings in his story ÒAt The Mountains of Madness.Ó (1931) In this story, the cyclopean images of RoerichÕs visions were comparable only to the famed book Ôthe NecronomiconÕ written by LovecraftÕs childhood alter ego Abduhl Alharzed.
[3] Popular music. W3XR , Arkham, Mass. This is a radio station that plays popular music from the early twentieth century centered around the theme of the Middle Eastern influence on popular standards in American music. Including versions of: ÔDardanella,Õ ÔAllahÕs Holiday,Õ ÔThe Sheik of Araby,Õ and ÔThereÕs Egypt in Your Eyes.Õ
[4] Metronoma is the product name for a tube transistor-based electric metronome made by Crystal Labs out of Connecticut. The device has a blinking orange light that blinks in time with the metronome
[5] Some text extracted From Robert BlochÕs story, ÒThe Dead DonÕt DieÓ (1952)
[6] Cuthulhu is the creature that Lovecraft invented that has a head like a giant octopus with tentacles. He lives in the city of RÕYLEH, in the South Pacific and was introduced in LovecraftÕs story, ÒCall Of CthulhuÓ (1929)
[7] Sonia Green was LovecraftÕs wife for five years, and the two moved to Brooklyn. Sonia made attempts at a hat business, but eventually left for a sanitarium in New Jersey before moving to Ohio, where she pleaded for Lovecraft to come. Lovecraft eventually moved from Brooklyn to Providence, RI, where he lived with his two aunts, never officially divorcing, but, nonetheless, leaving Sonia Green for good.
[8] Reference to ÒThe Case Of Charles Dexter WardÕ (1923) When a person is possessed by another person, their face begins to take on the characteristics of the possessor.
[9] Reference to the ÒWhisperer in the DarknessÓ(1935)
[10] Reference to ÒThe Dunwich HorrorÓ (1930) The large, jellyfish-like mass at the end of the story had a similar description, with one of the brotherÕs faces on it, stretched.