BLATHER REVIEW

The Wall, pt 5 (Side Three)

Part 1
Part 2 (Side One)
Part 3 (Mother)
Part 4 (Side Two)

Out of the dying strains of "Wish You Were Here" comes "Hey You". As, I think, in the audiences mind, this should be a turning point of sorts (we're entering the second half of the show), Pink will now, almost soberly and out of character, address the audience itself.

This is a hard song to come up with visuals for. And since there'll be plenty of visuals for Side Four, maybe this is a good time to treat this part of the play as nothing more than a song being sung, if y'know what I mean.

Stalking the front of the stage, Pink will look directly into members of the audiences eyes -- as many as possible. They should begin to feel that they're no longer just passively watching a play, but are being asked, personally, to enter into it.

Pink begins:

Hey you, out there in the cold
getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisle with itchy feet and fading smile, can you feel me?

Wife, unsettled and still holding onto hope, singing to Pink and addressing the audience while pointing at the Worms:

Hey you! Don't help them to bury the light!
Don't give in
without a fight!

Pink turns in the vague direction of Wife's voice:

Hey you, out there on your own,
sitting naked by the phone, will you touch me?
Hey you, with you're ear against the wall
waiting for someone to call out, will you touch me?
Hey you! Would you help me to carry the stone?!!

Wife, shaking her head, pleading, and near tears:

Open your heart,
I want to come home!

The Schoolmaster enters, with trusty 4-foot long giant ruler in his hand, and explains to the audience:

But, it was all a fantasy
His wall was too high, as you can see
No matter how she tried, he would not break free!
And the Worms ate into his brain!

Of course, he wont sing it as calmly as it's sung on the album. It will definately be a controlled-shreiking Schoolmaster moment! If there was any doubt left that Pink might not be the "hero" of this play, it should be gone by now.

And, as for the worms, they've been conspicuously absent. This is a moment for Pink to be himself, so the Worms (the gals in pink) will be resting quietly in the background for now. (I mean, c'mon, you can't expect four actress-singers to put out for 1&1/2-2 hours straight!)

Wife, now turning to the audience, wails:

Hey you!
Out there on the road, only doing what you're told,
can you help me?!

Pink turns sharply and runs to the wall at stage left:

Hey you! Out there beyond the wall,
breaking bottles in the hall, can you help ME?!

Pink and Wife sing the rest together, each more angry and more desperate than the other:

Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all!!
Together we stand
divided we fall!....

Both Pink and Wife slink to the floor on their respective sides of the wall.

Pink, very deliberately, takes off the wall-vest. This, he obviously feels (my kingdom for an actor!), might be his last chance to save himself. He sheds the vest and leaves it lying at the base of the wall.

At this pont the album goes into "Is There Anybody Out There?" followed by a haunting acoustic instrumental. I'm going to reverse them and play the instumental first (for reasons that'll be obvious in a minute).

During the instrumental Pink will simply retreat to stage right (the bed) and use super-sized (for the audience's sake) crayons to draw pictures of Nothing. He'll seem to have an idea, but it all comes out nebulous, and he sets aside page after page still trying to draw a coherent image.
That's all.

The music seems to want more -- maybe the audience is expecting some more film images -- but this is going to be pure emptiness. And if anyone in the audience thinks this is boring then they're not paying attention, dag nab it!

I'm toying with the idea of having Pink sloppily color with crayons while the disembodied voice of the Schoolmaster shout "Stay inside the lines!". It might work, but I wonder if it would enhance the message or confuse it. Any thoughts?

Anywho, Pink looks up from his coloring book and begins to wander toward the wall at more extreme stage right just as the minor chord driven music of "Is Anybody Out There?" begins to take over.

He feels the wall asking "Is there anybody out there?"
Getting no answer he moves downstage along the wall and asks again. By the the fourth, and final that "Is there anybody out there...?" is asked, he's at stage left, near Wife.

The Worms come out of the dark and seem to want to comfort him as the opening piano riff of The Final Cut's "Paranoid Eyes" begins.

I'm not sure how to describe the facial expressions of the Worms at this point. They're not desperate or forceful or malicious. They're just concerned, worried and eager to help; in a word: motherly. But, maybe those facial expressions look exactly alike?

Assuming that y'don't know the song "Paranoid Eyes" I'll describe it thusly: It's a quiet song, for the most part, with a 6/4 beat. Maybe even a 12/4 beat. Either way it a 3/4 beat, super-sized, and almost sounds like a lullaby.

What's special now is the way that it's sung. The Worms will approach Pink at stage left and pull him toward center stage singing the lyric. But, they'll sing it as four voices. I mean, they'll overlap their voices throughout the lines.

For an example here are the first lines:

Worm 1: "Button your lip and"
Worm 2: "lip and don't let the shield"
Worm 3: "the shield slip"
Worm 4: "Get a fresh grip"
Worm 1: "grip on your bullet"
Worm 2: "bullet-proof mask"

And so it reads like:

"Button your (lip and don't let the shield) slip
Get a fresh (grip on your bullet)-proof mask"

The idea is that they're not a character, but merely a voice - or several voices - within Pink. If this is done well then I think it could be the highlight of the show. We're hearing a single lyric sung by four different voices for no other reason than that they each - as characters - barely exist.

Up 'til now the Worms have been a curiosity, a device, no more significant than the vintage radio, the desk, or the playing of Churchill's speaches. But now they are singing, but it's a strange kind of singing. They don't sing with one voice, and I think that that'll help the scene because it's definately a transitional scene; Pink is surrendering to the Worms' whispers.

They run up to him after the final "Is there anybody out there...?".
As the quiet and soothing piano tinkling of "Paranoid Eyes" begins, the four Worms take him by the arms and lead toward center stage singing:

Button your (lip and don't) let (the shield) slip.
Get (fresh grip) on your (bullet-proof) mask.
And if (they try to) break down your (disguise with their) questions,
you can hide (hide) hide
behind (paranoid) eyes.

The Worms lead Pink to stage right where he'll mime holding a glass and leaning on a bar. The Worms:

Put on (yer brave face
and) slip over (the road) for a jar
Fixing yer grin (as you casually lean) on the bar
Laughing too (loud for the rest of) the world
with (the boys in) the crowd
you can hide (hide) hide
behind (petrified) eyes.

There's a more comforting musical interlude here because it breaks out of the controlled quietness of the rest of the song. A gently pulsing tambourine makes it sound sound free'er, and also gives time for the Worms to cross the stage and retrieve the wall-vest that Pink left laying at stage left. They gracefully -- as if in a ballet -- return it to him and again help him into it.
As they dress him and lead him to the chair at stage center they continue:

You believed (in their stories of) fame, (fortune and) glory

Pink, tucking himself into the vest, sadly nods in agreement.

Now you're lost (in a haze of alcohol-soft) middle-age

And Pink, settling into the chair, sounds out:

The pie in the sky
turned out to be mi-i-i-les too high

The Worms take turns hushing his lips with their forefingers; "sshhh.." they sing:

You can hide (hide) hide
behind (mild blue) eyes,
Hide (hide) hide
Hide (away the) blue skies

The gentle piano calms even more as we hear the ever loudening beat of the snare drum that ushers in "Bring The Boys Back Home".

While many off-stage voices will be heard here, Mother's is the foremost; singing apart and more emotionally than the rest.
Films will play, on the wall, showing columns of soldiers marching backward, and tanks rolling in reverse.
At the final "BRING..." we'll see the Saddam statue falling UP; running in reverse. And as Mother wails her final back ho-o-o-o-me..!", we'll see the famous film of the stone swistika being exploded above the stadium. It'll, be in slow motion reverse as it reconstitutes its sorry self back into existence.

Pink sits in the chair at center stage, glassy-eyed, not even caring about what might be going on around him. The worms stare into Pink's face and ask "Is there anybody out there...?" Their voices reverberate through the silenced theater for a moment. Satisfied that Pink has no answer, they twirl away in all directions as "Comfortably Numb" begins.

The lights get brighter and Wife enters from the left, Mother from the right, and a Doctor enters from the rear, probably dressed in a blue surgical outfit.

Posted by Tuning Spork at August 28, 2004 12:15 AM