thesophie writes

I’m going to apply for The Twelve, a free course for aspiring playwrights. I want to adapt my previous idea I had for a screenplay (but became far too problematic) for the stage. I want to take the idea (synopsis below) and turn it into a series of monologues of people of different religions and their differing reactions to the news. I would like Phillip to be the linking monologue, so he acts a little like a narrator/greek chorus. I’ll use him to show my views.

I think it would work well as a play rather than a film because it allows more room for reflection and discussion of the issues around the theme. Also, quite conveniently, it does not need to be quite so realistic so *how* all religion is disproved doesn’t have to be shown directly.

Please leave comments on what you think of the idea. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Nigh is Now.

Imagine a world with no religion. Faiths followed for hundreds of years are abandoned. The human race is frantically searching for meaning. Now imagine all this is down to you.

Phillip Sands, 54, is a scientist working in London. After the death of his Father, he inherited the years and years of research and took on a huge project - to disprove the existence of any God. One night he cracks it, and euphoric, he tells his wife. Wary of the consequences though, Phillip warns his wife to keep his discovery quiet. But Phillip shares his secret with a fellow scientist who contacts the Media immediately. 

Suddenly everyone is after Phillip to reveal the details of his secret, but he goes into hiding. The government’s secret forces and the media hound him, wanting answers. Getting nothing from him, the newspapers, radio and television take it upon themselves to speculate. Speculation turns to assertion and soon the entire world is in a frenzy - “There is no God!”

Phillip’s wife tries to convince him to release the information - “It’s for the sanity of the nation”. But Phillip refuses, claiming he isn’t ready.

Linked through news footage, we follow the different stories of people affected by the so-called revelation. These include born-again Christian, Pete, returning to his vices of alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling. A Muslim lady, Fatima, joins women around the world in what the papers are calling the ‘burkha-off’ rally, where they throw their burkhas to the floor and set them alight, stamping and cheering their new found freedom.

Phillip now lives a hermitic existence. He sits in his laboratory, the blinds down, hugging the top secret file to his chest. He watches news footage obsessively, only allowing his wife into the room to deliver the stack of daily newspapers. He is sucked into the frenzy.

The world is chaotic, people who still believe kill the traitors of their God. Mass graves overflow with unbelievers.

Seeing these horrific images, Phillip finally agrees to make a press statement and explain his findings. He stands up in front of the crowd and takes a deep breath…

News footage reveals Phillip being shot, a manic crowd descending upon his dying body - “The Police have burnt all evidence of Professor Sands’ findings, unread. So now we can all resume normal life”

A former vicar stares at the screen - the fear of God once again filling his eyes, and Muslim women run from their husbands, ashamed. Pete sits in front of the broadcast - dead, a needle sticking out of his arm.

Taking photographs in the early stages of a relationship is an important bonding process. We laugh together, and admire on another’s features. We want to capture their beauty, we want to capture this moment. To share the memory in our later years together or look forlornly at them, alone. Whether with grief or gladness, we want this moment to be captured forever. Because we’re happy. And I love you.

thesophie

Sexy boy just came on iTunes as I was about to write the opening oil scene and it just hit me how much this is Owen’s anthem. You can just imagine him writhing around to it. He’s cool, he’s sexy. He doesn’t really fit the countryside, he’d suit the city, but he’s in the country, in the commune, and he outshines almost everyone. He becomes alpha male and fair enough - look at him.

But then icelandic girl arrives and is so stunning that women and men fall at her feet. He gets her first, but then she and his wife fall in love.

Maybe the film should be named after the third woman, if I can think of a good name for her!

I just thought, the key to romance is either they can’t be together and they want to or it’s unrequited. so at the beginning, Gwen needs to dote on Owen and really want it to work. I suppose she already is, that’s why she’s there at Capel Dewi with him despite not really being up for it. She’s sacrificing her happiness for his hoping that it means he’ll stay with her. She’s a doormat. But the experience ends up showing her so many new experiences and gives her such confidence that she realises she doesn’t need him and falls in love with the new girl. Who isn’t yet named. From that point onwards it is Owen who desperately wants it to work between them. It’s that tragic thing that seems to happen to me that when you like them, they don’t like you; and when they like you, you don’t like them. Hopefully this will converge in a happy ending where they both like each other at the same time and both know it.

I’m just pootling about with the first scene, it’s important, even in a first draft, for me to get into the vibe of the script. There is a small element of humour in this, and I think that’s okay. Most people would naturally laugh at the situation. To make it too serious would almost seem more silly than natural.

Could keep light theme from original symposium idea. Owen is going from one stage to another. He can give birth at the end through his novel, or Gwen could give birth. Or both. Perhaps it is bookended by his son reading the novel and at the beginning we think it is Owen himself. Perhaps this son wants to write HIS life and that’s how the film ends.

As for protagonist, it’s essentially Owen, as he undergoes the biggest change and it is he who must fight to save their relationship in the end. However, I will start with things being predominantly from Gwen’s viewpoint, though it will be omniscient. The writing will be sympathetic to, empathise with and focus on the person who is fighting for the relationship. First Gwen, then Owen, then eventually them together, happy as a couple.
IDEA - early in the film have gwen asking what people think of other halves, as in Plato’s Symposium. Most disagree with the idea, and she says so too, but we’re not sure. Then later, SUBTLY, Owen refers to her as his other half, or completing her, or something.

Fire as a theme - passion.

Use Symposium of lovers aspect for a film that is a series of shorts, a la Paris Je Taime.

Write the rewritten aspect as prose. Short story/novel.

THE COUPLE
They’re both fucked up, and it require bringing this third person into their life to realise they really need each other. His weakness is her strength, and vice versa, they fit like a jisaw, they tesselate. Possible image of people writhing in oil tesselating, “Two hexagons together don’t tesselate satisfactorily. You need more. But when do you stop?”
Her flaw is that she needs attention, affirmation, love. She cares what people think about her.
He doesn’t. His flaw is his arrogance. He doesn’t care about women, he is just sex obsessed. He loves his wife, but cannot connect sex with her. Like Howard’s End. ONLY CONNECT!
Or maybe these are too obvious and they should be swapped round? NO! Now, that would be obvious. I’m sick of weak guys. This guy OWEN, is a sex-obsessed sexy guy you’d love to spend the night with. He’s selfish, makes you feel dirty, but is so exciting. Like the guy from the unbearable lightness of being. To his wife he is caring to a point, but takes her for granted, he treats her like a sister perhaps. OR a mother. He treats her like a mother figure.
So his ghost should be something to do with his mother. She was a slut, so he’s mirroring the upbringing he saw. They lived in a caravan on the edge of a farm in rural wales and she would have gentleman visitors, leaving money on the kitchen table. He woud get to know everyone in the community this way. The men would treat him very well so he wouldn’t tell their wives and the women thought he was adorable. He was and still is immensly handsome. A sort of rural casanova.

And her, she is beautiful too. We need to like her, so i guess she’s a nikki. yeh. She’s a hard working girl.

This exposition can all come out in their group meeting introductions. First proper scene. No, perhaps not, this should be the inciting event I suppose. No, let’s keep it unity of place. I’ll think of an inciting event. Perhaps the new person joining the group. Yes, then the big event can be her moving in.

Just thought, a clumsy lesbian scene where she has fallen in love with the new girl and they try to have sex. Think me and anna. She desperately wants to try it but doesn’t know what to do, so feels awkward and not at all sexy. The new girl coaxes her into it and she ends up having the best sex she’s ever had. Plus before coming to the group, the wife had only ever had sex with owen before, so she is generally nervous about these new things before. She has inhibitions and problems with her attitude to sex. His is that he cannot assosciate it with love, her’s is that she cannot relax, no - … perhaps, need to think on that one.

So - 90 pages. let’s say 10 pages per section, which will bring us to 80, i’m bound to overwrite, or i can add detail. Anyway, it should be the rough first draft! Haha! Oh and I might want to bookend it, titanic stylee.

A - 10 pages of them arriving at the commune. Finishing with inciting incident of new girl arriving and him totally eyeing her up.
B - 10 pages of him getting with the new girl, first experiences wife not happy but going with it.
C - she moves into their shack. His goal now is to convince his wife to let her stay and for the three of them to live as a polyamorous threesome. Shhe’s not really happy but tries to fit in.
D - the wife bonds with the new girl. they get on well and the section ends with the three of them having a threesome. Owen thinks it’s brilliant, but the only real love making is happening between the two women.
E - owen starts to get suspicious, angry and violent towards the two women, he tries to assign them roles. he makes the new girl stay in the bedroom and the wife sleep in a single bed elsewhere.
F - they fight against this, and it becomes evident that owen is not such a bad guy, he was just driven mad by jelaousy of his wife having feelings for someone else, but he is in a pit of depression and panic and at the end of the section, the new girl leaves with his wife.
G - a woman tries to comfort owen with secual advances, but nothing can stop him missing his wife, even the sexiest of orgies. He has changed, and he needs to find her to convince her. Meanwhile, the wife is changing too. She misses him and has doubts in their running away. They’re a bit thelma and louise, but she just wants to go back all the time. Like in that thelma and louise simpsons take off where marge is worried about homer. SOMETHING CLEVER HERE THAT SHOWS THEY FIT TOGETHER. THE THING THAT BRINGS THEM TOGETHER IS THE THING THAT THEY CHANGED WITHIN THEMSELVES AND LEARNED FROM ONE ANOTHER.
H - The girl leaves and they have a big fight, kiss and make up, and live happily ever after……

As for the message. What am I trying to say.

BOTH sex and love are needed for a satisfactory relationship. ONLY CONNECT!
Sex alone does not a satisfactory relationship make.