ACT 1
Sc. 1: A coffee shop. Nessa is absorbed in her blackberry, conducting a business deal for Husk Inc. A waiter (Naya’il), a recent émigré, or an exchange student worker, interrupts her, wanting to practice his English. She fobs him off, and he clumsily drops a cup – at which point unearthly voices are heard, which she does not notice. She gives him her e-mail address to get rid of him.
Sc 2: Rolfus, terrifying patriarch and businessman, who bequeathed his company to Nessa, but demands to be kept abreast of every little detail, is hospitalized and infirm. We learn that there is an offshore leak that is out of control. He is frustrated that he cannot be present at an upcoming board meeting, and is briefing her. She, distracted by receiving a stream of enigmatic e-mails in fractured English (accompanied by unearthly music) protests that he is driving her too hard, and she doesn’t see enough of her family. Rolfus rails at her choice of husband, a weakling who has had to be paid off to disappear. We see (acted out as an ensemble number) a history of her marriage with her two children being raised, and her divesting herself of family ties by appointing Mattie to be her maternal instinct and her fashion sense, and her husband (represented by a scare-crow or blow-up doll) walking out and no one noticing. Nessa’s children, Syke and Fracto, grow from innocence to unruly teenagers, attention deprived and madly dysfunctional. Fracto is sullen and withdrawn and can only utter monosyllables and Syke is hyperactive. Rolfus, from his bed, despises his grandsons and vows that they will never run his company. He takes Nessa to one side and reveals irregularities in the company that he authorized without her knowing. Syke steals Nessa’s blackberry only to find all the enigmatic messages. He accuses her of having an affair and never paying any attention to them – a major adolescent tantrum, punctuated by monosyllables from Fracto.
Sc. 3: Board meeting. Environmental catastrophe looms, yet Nessa insists that Husk Inc. is too big to fail, despite panicking at Rolfus’s revelations. More enigmatic e-mails accrue on her blackberry and she now can hear the unearthly music. This distracts her, so that her board members accuse her of losing the plot. In the middle of the meeting, urgent news arrives that Rolfus has died. Before Nessa can react, a mysterious emissary (Naya’il) summons her to a briefing before a governmental inquiry.
Sc. 4: Rolfus’s funeral. The Priest (Naya’il) leads the congregation, which includes a grief stricken secretary, board members who need to prove Rolfus is dead, Mattie, Syke and Fracto. The service is disrupted by the late arrival of Nessa and then by her phone going off. The phone is answered by the dead Rolfus, who warns Nessa that she will never be alone. Nessa panics, grabs the children and jumps into a taxi.
ACT 2
Sc.1: A mountainous village, maybe suggestive of Nepal, chaotic and teeming. Nessa is incognito. Clamorous bicycle bells and car horns and beggars (children’s chorus) assail them. Fracto, from an internet café, alerts Syke to a worldwide search for the chairman of Husk Inc. The sons are finding the proximity of their mother disconcerting: now, she notices what they get up to and intervenes and offers advice. An enigmatic tour guide (Naya’il) approaches Nessa, offering to guide her and her sons to a retreat. As they leave, he runs over Gili, a village child and disappears into the crowd. The crowd turns on Nessa. Fracto and Syke slink into the crowd.
Sc.2: A filthy prison cell. Nessa, finally, reflects. Rolfus appears to her in a vision, and she dismisses/exorcises him. The prison guard (Naya’il), tells her that the village child accidentally run over needs an organ transplant to survive. Nessa donates an organ. With the help of a village doctor (Naya’il) the child is saved, and the village acclaims Nessa saviour. She donates other parts of her body to help the sick.
Sc.3: We see Rolfus in hell, appropriately boiling in oil.
Sc.4: Mattie arrives searching for the children. Syke and Fracto arrive with a local guerilla group of children to spring Nessa from prison. A Press Corps arrives, led by news of the miraculous healer. Naya’il wheels Nessa in, who is now just a head, and the Press recognize her as the missing chairman of Husk. She bequeaths the company to her sons, before the final, ultimate sacrifice.
© JULIAN GRANT 2010