(Three or four characters, six scenes)

Now that we have nothing more
It is much easier than before.

Scene 1.
“The man who ran away from the future” (1971)
The main character faces a conversation
with an icon illuminated from behind.
Every answer to every doubt was foreseen,
recorded and reproduced on tape.
“Remember to be happy”
The entity had recommended at the end.
How is it possible to be happy within a totalitarian system?
Taking specific medicines.
To consolidate his happiness, he would have had to continue
taking his pills.
He did not do so. He ran away from the future.
It was easy, much easier than one would have thought.

Now that we have nothing more
It is much easier than before.

Scene 2.
What have we learnt from the experiment of Stanford prison?
Is it possible to commit a political act via Facebook?
The fact is
all people exploit themselves
even though they believe themselves free.
No, no political act is possible via Facebook,
I’m sorry, I’m very sorry.
It is not a matter of content.

Cut-up for writing is what circuit-bending
is for music.
No form, no aesthetics, only the dissolution
of the narrative structures. Simple and amusing.
The manhandled circuits of the CasioSK-1 keyboards
kids used to buy at the beginning of the eighties
for music lessons at school
set free all the suppressed sound
without any control.
Very enlightening.

Scene 3.
Perhaps it is what “the look in the camera” (studied in many books on cinema)
is for the suspension of incredulity
which ties the director and the spectator of the movie
(for 90 or 120 minutes).
In the Stanford experiment
those who impersonated the prison guards
in carrying out the orders received
became more and more sadistic.
No longer having any responsibility.
According to instructions.
And the prisoners?
The prisoners became more and more remissive and passive.
Turning into real prisoners.
According to the instructions received.
.
The more information is released
The more the world becomes ghostlike.
Information is no longer communicative
But cumulative.
After how long was the experiment interrupted?
After only 8 days.
We have just learnt that every image, even the most horrifying
[Even the one we would prefer not to look at]
has the function of entertaining us.

The lower the immune threshold
The faster it becomes
the circulation of information. Right?
With transparency
Darkness increases too. Right.
In the society of service
We can neither go forward nor turn back.

Scene 4.
Back to us, here is one more example:
Is it possible to carry out political acts on
“Celebrity Island”?
Certainly.
It would be enough to substitute the 14 participants
with 7 men and 7 women
having the same name and the same surname.
It is an old experiment.
Yes, an old theatrical experiment:
Every character has the same name.
It happens that
at a certain point the plot gets slower and slower
and gets stuck
the actors are clearly in difficulty, but
they do nothing to hide it
the spectators in the meanwhile look around in fear
the director, in turn, looks at the spectators
in a crescendo of anguish.
Nobody wants to leave the room. Everybody would like
everything to stop instantly.
Time seems to explode in eternity
when suddenly the cleaning ladies
by chance
by mistake
turn off the main switch
and nothing can be seen or heard anymore.

SScene 5.
Now
everything is easier, because we have no choice
In fact
Nothing is true. Everything is allowed.

Did you know that every official version
Is intrinsically false?
Yes, I knew.

Is it possible to carry out profoundly political acts
on Instagram?
No, it is impossible.
Is it possible to be unique on Instagram?

Do people prefer
to be unique or to be the same as everybody else?
It is a difficult question. But predictable.

A Controlled Society
Is no problem at all.
It was much worse, when we had
all the technological instruments,
to be able to relax, to have fun
To allow us finally to feel free.
It seems that nobody can control us anymore
as long as we have fun
in an innocent way
with images, with all the electronics
we continually buy.
The perfect purchase (they say) is the one that is
only momentarily satisfying with the possession of something.
Until the next purchase
[of the same thing].

Scene 6
Who said the novel was dead?
In this new and captivating tale
the author,
with dry and touching realism, brings alive characters
who move around in a
tensely dramatic story
on a background of excruciating collective instincts.
In the hallucinating final scene, we find
the mysterious character from the beginning also involved.
Who listens intently to the advice of an ambiguous esthetician

And now what shall we do?
If you want to kill fear you, yourself must become Fear.
It is only a piece of advice.

END