JOHN SHANE – Poet, Author, Editor, Musician (Please Click On The White Titles On The Black Panel & Scroll All The Way Down To View Posts)

The English National Operas Mini-Opera Libretto script competition closed on May 21st., and on June 4th. the judges will announce the names of the ten librettos from those submitted that will go forward to the second phase of the project.

You can find the script entries here on the English National Opera website:

http://www.minioperas.org/typeofparticipants/script-writer/

And five of my entries are here on the ENO site:

http://www.minioperas.org/participantname/john-shane/

In the second phase of the project, composers will write music to the ten winning librettos, and post their compositions on Soundcloud. The music judge, composer Nico Muhly will then select ten compositions which will go forward to the third phase of the project.

In the project’s third phase, visual artists will create video to the soundtracks of the librettos and they will post the resulting work on Vimeo, where they will be judged by film director Terry Gilliam, who will then select three overall winners.

If you are not already familiar the English National Operas Mini-Opera project you can find it at the following web addresses:

www.minioperas.org                            http://twitter.com/#!/minioperas

Seed stories were provided for the project by the well-known authors Will Self (Death Of A Government Inspector), A.L. Kennedy (On Paper) and Neil Gaiman (The Sweeper Of Dreams) and you can click on the authors’ names to go the web pages where you will find their stories.

Over the past weeks since the ENO mini-operas project began I have written a total of 15 mini-opera librettos that I am presenting here.

The story of Dr. David Kelly, the UK government weapons inspector who died on July 17th, 2003, is both fascinating and controversial, and I did a lot of research to try to understand what happened to him in the months leading up to the second Iraq war.

As a result of my interest in this research, 11 of the librettos I have written are based on ‘The Death Of A Government Inspector’, and each of them examines the story in a different light using different compositional approaches, and view the story from different points in time. With further work, these 10 interlinked librettos could form the basis of a single larger piece in due course, as can be seen when they are read in sequence in one sitting, as laid out below on this page, and on the separate page dedicated to them on this site. Libretto no. 11 in the sequence, ‘Then Tremble Tyrants One And All’  can also be accessed separately by clicking on the white title in the black panel above.

I have also written two librettos for the seed story ‘On Paper’ and two librettos for seed story ‘The Sweeper Of Dreams’, and these further four librettos can each be found on their own page on this web site, again by clicking on their respective titles in white on the black panel above on this page, where the link to the separate page for the 10 librettos based on ‘The Death Of A Government Inspector’ can also be found.

In writing these librettos, I have experimented with solo, duo, trio, and multiple protagonists, chorus ensembles, etc., using for the most part contemporary conversational diction expressed in verse with rhyme and metre that aims at clarity of meaning rather than attempting to mystify with obscurity. I found the main difficulty was to express the full intent of the seed story in such a brief format. The librettos can, of course, be cut further as necessary to more closely fit the format, and, although they are already quite polished in this form, since writing for the musical theatre always involves a great deal of re-writing, these versions of the librettos should not be regarded as more than early drafts.

I wrote a good deal of additional material relating to Dr. Kelly and the Iraq war that I have not included here and if I do a later date create a longer single work based on these Mini-Opera scripts that additional material may well be included in it. I feel at the moment that a writing a part for a narrator would enable me to succeed in linking the various scenes together.

I hope you will enjoy reading these pieces as they stand, and that one of them will find its way forward to the next stage in the ENO project.

ALL THE MINI-OPERA LIBRETTOS ON THESE PAGES are Copyright©JohnShane 2012.  All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form without prior written permission.

J.S.

IMMEDIATELY  BELOW THERE FOLLOW THE TEXTS OF THE SEQUENCE OF ELEVEN INTER-LINKED MINI-OPERA LIBRETTOS I HAVE WRITTEN BASED ON THE SEED STORY ‘THE DEATH OF A GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR’.                                  

THIS SEQUENCE OF 11 LIBRETTOS CAN ALSO BE FOUND ON A SEPARATE PAGE BY CLICKING ON THE WHITE LINK IN THE BLACK PANEL ABOVE ON THIS PAGE. 

TITLES:

1. OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF WOUNDS 

2. WHY DID Dr. DAVID KELLY HAVE TO DIE? WAS IT MURDER OR WAS IT SUICIDE?

3. LAST THOUGHTS OF THE DYING MAN

4. PRIME MINISTER, DO YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS?

5. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY 

6. HELL’S MOUTH OPENS WHEN YOU TELL A LIE – THE LIE OF THE GLORY OF WAR 

7. I HAVE A LOVER HIS NAME IS WAR

8. NOT IN MY NAME! THE TRAGIC HISTORY OF Dr. KELLY AND Mr. BLAIR

9. THE FALL GUY  -  TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN

10. THE SOLEMN BLOOD THAT STAINS THESE SHEETS

11. THEN TREMBLE TYRANTS ONE AND ALL – For There Will Come A Time When You Will Surely Fall.

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1. OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF WOUNDS 

The Haunting Of Alastair Campbell By The Lament Of The Ghosts Of The Dead Of The Second Iraq War

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(After the end of the second Iraq war, Alistair Campbell, the Press Officer and Adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is alleged to have released false information to provide reasons for the Iraq war, is struggling with alcohol abuse and depression.

As he wakes in his bed, he is surrounded by ghostly figures that he doesn’t see. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair also appear, attempting to justify their invasion of Iraq. 

The ghostly figures include the ghost of Dr. David Kelly, the UK government weapons inspector who died alone in the Oxfordshire woods on 17th July, 2003 in mysterious circumstances, after Alastair Campbell leaked his name to the Press as the source of off-the-record denials that the documents the government had produced as reasons for going to war were valid, and ghosts of the dead of the war in Iraq. The ghosts form a Chorus, and at the composer’s discretion, parts of the Chorus sections below can be sung by individual members of the Chorus as solos, with other parts of the Chorus sections sung as ensembles… )

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

Should we have just let Iraq’s agony continue?

PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR:

Call a spade a spade, George, call a spade a spade

GEORGE W. BUSH:

Saddam Hussain was a tyrant

TONY BLAIR:

How could we not invade?

GHOSTS OF IRAQ WAR DEAD: (as they hover around Alastair Campbell’s bed where he is sleeping, lamenting the consequences of the invasion of their country…)

Out of the mouths of wounds

Come these songs

Out of the empty skull sockets

Where once there were eyes

Come these muffled laments

Out of the graves of babies

Come these stifled cries

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (waking in his bed… he doesn’t see the ghosts…)

I awoke with a groan

But I suppose it could have been worse

I could have awakened from sleep

With my usual curse

I could have cursed the maker

Of this world of woe

Although the world has no maker

As far as I know

(He looks in the mirror and doesn’t like what he sees. He starts to get dressed…He seems to sense unseen presences in the room with him…)

GEORGE W. BUSH:

Should we not have listened

To the Iraqi people’s cries?

TONY BLAIR:

Should we have done nothing

While Saddam and his thugs

Made them suffer and die?

GEORGE W. BUSH:

We could have just sat on the sidelines….

TONY BLAIR:

But sooner or later, we’d have been criticised

GHOSTS OF IRAQI DEAD:

Where the flesh gapes open

And broken bones protrude

There, this furious music issues forth

To tell this tale

Of the damage done by wanton lust

For the black gold

Known to the world as ’crude’….

 

We not only question your motives

We want to know why you felt you could lie

Why didn’t you think things through more carefully

If you really wanted to save people’s lives?

 

We think you were out for revenge

We think you wanted the oil

We think you tried to lay claim

To the highest of motives

To cover policies that were

Fundamentally soiled

We were all ordinary people

Who struggled in Iraq to keep our children fed

 

Now the desert sands run red

Our city streets are littered

With the bodies of the unburied dead

And this man wonders why

We come to haunt him

Each night where he lies sleepless in his bed

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

When I awoke exhausted

In the cold light of the dawn

I could have cursed the fact

That I’d ever been born

Dreams of the Iraqi dead

Filled with me with dread

I sat up, shook my head

And opened my eyes wide

But there was nowhere

Within my own thoughts

That I could run to or hide

I felt alone and terrified

Re-entering this world

That is so forlorn

Filled with the knowledge

That beneath our feet

The grave constantly yawns

GHOSTS OF THE IRAQI DEAD:

Every night he drinks

Because he believes it will help him not to think

He does not want to remember

The deaths caused by his actions and his words

He wants to forget all that occurred

In Iraq

As a result of the passions he helped to stir

But his mood is black

Because, every night we haunt his dreams

And keep taking him back

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

I awoke with a groan

But I suppose it could have been worse

I could have awakened from sleep

With my usual curse

I could have cursed the maker

Of this world of woe

Although the world has no maker

As far as I know…

But, still, each day I have to get up

To face the world’s music

And somehow or other put on a show

THE GHOST OF Dr. DAVID KELLY:

Dr. David Kelly here, Alistair

When I died people thought that you just didn’t care

You have a lot to answer for, you and Tony Blair

But I suffered enough in my life to be able to understand

The depths of your despair

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (picking up an empty bottle from beside his bed)

What is it that you want from me?

Why won’t you let me be?

What must I do to be free of you?

THE GHOST OF Dr. DAVID KELLY AND THE GHOSTS OF THE IRAQI DEAD:

We all of us died because you brushed

The voice of your conscience aside

We are here because you know in your heart

That you took the nation to war on the basis of lies

We will not disappear until you no longer deny it

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (shaking his head as if to clear it of images he doesn’t want to see and voices he doesn’t want to hear..)

What is it that you want from me?

Why won’t you let me be?

What must I do to be free of you?

 

Dr. David Kelly is dead…

But I can’t get his face and his voice out of my head…

 

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2. WHY DID Dr. DAVID KELLY HAVE TO DIE? WAS IT MURDER OR WAS IT SUICIDE?

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane  (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(On 17h July, 2003, the UK government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly was found dead in the Oxfordshire woods after being named by Alistair Campbell, the Prime Minister’s press adviser, as the source who had denied the truth of the government’s claims that Saddam Hussain had a horde of weapons of mass destruction ready to be deployed in 24 hours, claims that were used to take the country to war. 

Several days after his death, the ghost of Dr. David Kelly appears among a mixed group of angry and bewildered members of the public who form an ensemble Chorus, as they stand and sit with newspapers, laptops and TV screens in front of them, trying to make sense of the latest news of the death of Dr. David Kelly. 

At the composer’s discretion, parts of the Chorus sections below can be sung by individual members of the Chorus as solos, with other parts of the Chorus sections sung as ensembles… )

CHORUS: (as they read and watch the news)

Why Why Why

Did Dr. David Kelly have to die?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Or was it suicide…?

(The ghost of Dr. Kelly appears…)

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I served my country as best I could

In a world of smoke and mirrors

- a world that holds so many terrors! -

I tried to do some good

But I became inconvenient

For the government

When I talked to the Press

And then I found myself

In a terrible mess

But – tell me – what is a government weapons inspector for

If not to protect innocent people from being killed in a war?

CHORUS: (looking up from their reading and viewing…)

Protecting innocent people from being killed in a war!

That was what Dr. David Kelly had always worked for!

(singing to one another..)

He was a government weapons inspector, you see

And his bosses sent him to Iraq to look for WMD

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

When I learned about the ‘dodgy dossier’                 (pronounced, of course, ‘doss-ee-ay’)

I realised the government wanted to take us to war

Come what may

And it didn’t me take long then to decide

That I had to tell the Press that the government lied

They told the world that Saddam Hussain

Had huge quantities of weapons of mass destruction

And a nuclear program under construction

Nobody wanted Iraq to be free more than me

But my life’s work depended on my integrity

And I felt someone had to tell the public the truth

So – off the record – after they gave me their guarantee

I told my contacts at the BBC

We didn’t have any concrete proof

CHORUS:

He wanted to tell the public the truth

So he told the journalists there was no proof!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

But then the reporters I trusted hung me out to dry

And I was afraid I’d have to kiss my job goodbye

Journalists are always supposed to protect their source

But they betrayed me – though I suppose they’d say

That their hand was forced

The government would stop at nothing

To keep their push for war

From being blown off-course…

Then Alistair Campbell leaked my name

And my department said I could lose my pension

If they could prove I was to blame…

Which would mean that – after I’d worked for the government all my life! -

There’d be nothing left to live on for me and my wife

CHORUS:

Nothing to live on – for him and his wife..!

After he’d worked for the government all his life..!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

‘Dark actors are at play….’

CHORUS: 

‘Dark actors..! ‘Dark actors…!

Dark actors are at play!’

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

‘Dark actors are at play’

That’s what I emailed to a friend on the morning of that fateful day

I’d always told them that in my line of work it was understood

That if powerful people wanted something from me

And I didn’t come up with the goods

One day I might end up dead in the woods

CHORUS:

Dead in the woods! Dead in the woods!

That’s how he said he might end up

If he didn’t come up with the goods!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

It can’t be denied

That there were people on all sides

Who had secrets I knew

That they wanted to hide

So it hardly needs to be said

That there were plenty of people

Who would be only too happy

To see me dead

CHORUS:

It hardly needs to be said

There were plenty of people

Who wanted him dead…

But the politicians who so like to bask

In war’s much-vaunted glory

Say he killed himself        

(The ghost of Dr. Kelly disappears…)

And now that he’s gone

They’re sticking to their story…

Why Why Why

Did Dr. David Kelly have to die?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Or was it suicide…?

Did he kill himself because he felt

So totally compromised

After he got caught up

In the government’s lies?

We don’t have all the facts

So how can we decide?

We may all be weary

Of conspiracy theories

But why was the information classified

For 70 years

If there was nothing to hide?

Why Why Why

Did Dr. David Kelly have to die?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Or was it suicide…?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Was it murder…?

Or was it suicide…?

————————————————————————————————————————–

3. LAST THOUGHTS OF THE DYING MAN

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(The UK government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly is alone in the Oxfordshire woods on a hot summer’s day in 2003. Could he have killed himself there, the Chorus asks, and we see and hear how they imagine it might have happened, with Dr. Kelly singing a detailed interior monologue of his last thoughts…but who are the shadow figures among the trees…?)

CHORUS:

Could it have happened like this?

Could Dr. Kelly have killed himself alone in the woods

After calmly giving his wife a goodbye kiss?

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (to himself as he puts the last of the 29 painkillers into his mouth from the now nearly empty pack of 30 in his hand…)

I want to cry

But the tears won’t come

I want to feel

- something, anything -

But I’m just so numb

I long for some relief

From this heavy sense of grief

(he takes a gardening knife out of his jacket pocket…)

CHORUS:

Did he die by his own hand…?

- This kind and gentle man?

Or was he killed because he got in the way

Of the government’s plans?

Dr. DAVID KELLY: 

Almost blunt!

The bloody knife won’t cut!

Here I am sawing away at the vein

Christ! It hurts

I swallowed 29 of Janice’s pills

And they’re making me feel ill

But so far there’s no sign of them deadening the pain

Last time I had this knife in my hand I was trimming the roses

Well, now I’ll never need to trim them again

Oh, God, I never wanted to die like this – not like this

But now it’s actually happening…

How long will it take till I lose consciousness?

How much blood do I have to lose?

Maybe I should have brought a bottle of vodka

Mix the pills up with booze…

I suppose that would have made it go quicker

But it would have made Janice suspicious

She knows I never touch a drop of hard liquor

Jesus, what a mess I’ve made

Push down on the bloody blade…

When you try to imagine your own death

You always want your last thoughts

To be something meaningful to you

In a little while I’ll be dead

But what I’ve got going round and round in my head

Is a stupid song I heard yesterday

While I waited in line in the supermarket queue

I can’t say that kind of music is something I ever understood

And, now I never will

I’m checking out for good -

I couldn’t bear to live to see how many people

The war in Iraq will kill

What is the name of that singer anyway?

The one everyone loves to hate?

God, I wish this was over

Why is it that the most popular singers nowadays

Always seem to be the ones who are the most second-rate?

Or is it just that I’ve become bitter

Too cynical after seeing too much of war

To believe in love songs any more?

Christ, Janice, I wish you were here

But I couldn’t bear to see your tears

I don’t care about those politicians in town

- I don’t give a damn about Tony Blair and that bruiser next door

What’s his name? – Gordon Brown  -

But I’m so sorry I’ve let you and the girls down

I wish I could have said a proper goodbye

To my daughters

Wish I could have given them one last kiss

They won’t understand why I’ve done this

I was supposed to take care of them

But I was too busy trying to save innocent people

From being slaughtered

So much for my high ideals

The government’s created a juggernaut

To take the country to war

And I’m about to get crushed under its wheels

I’ve seen other people become scapegoats before

Now I know how it feels

It’s getting harder to concentrate now

I’ve got to let go – but I don’t know how

It’s getting dark…

Out here in the woods everything’s growing dim

Yes, yes, I know…

Night comes at the end of the day

There are some battles you just can’t win…

But that doesn’t seem to matter so much any more, somehow..

There’s a bright light shining from somewhere deep within…

I’m going into it now…

I seem to be floating away…

CHORUS:

Did he die by his own hand…?

- This kind and gentle man?

Or was he killed because he got in the way

Of the government’s plans?

Could it have happened like this?

Could Dr. Kelly have killed himself alone in the woods

After giving his wife a goodbye kiss?

The truth is, nobody really knows…

But as the underworld saying goes:

When so many powerful people have something to hide

‘Murder is easy – but it takes an artist to arrange a suicide…’

‘Murder is easy – but it takes an artist to arrange a suicide…’

‘Murder is easy – but it takes an artist to arrange a suicide…’

 

————————————————————————————————————————-

 

4. PRIME MINISTER, DO YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS?

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(While the UK Government Weapons Inspector Dr. David Kelly was dying in the Oxfordshire woods on 17th July, 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair was on a plane to Tokyo to attend a trade conference.

In this libretto, two parallel scenes intersect simultaneously in real time, running side by side: in one scene, Dr. DAVID KELLY is talking to himself lying in the woods on Harrowdown Hill in the clearing where he dies alone under an oak tree; Dr. Kelly’s dying scene intercuts continuously with the other scene in which TONY BLAIR is talking to ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on the plane to Japan. The two scenes collide at the end when the pilot of the plane tells Tony Blair the news of Dr. Kelly’s death. ‘Prime Minister, do you have blood on your hands?’ was a question a Japanese journalist asked Tony Blair the moment he got off the plane at Tokyo airport.)

 

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

(talking to himself as he lies under a tree on Harrowdown Hill. 

He has a knife and pack of painkillers beside him…)

Truth is always the first casualty of war

But what did I have to go and tell the truth for?

Any fool could see it would mean the end of me…

TONY BLAIR:  (to Alistair Campbell on a plane  from London approaching Tokyo and preparing to land)  

That damned Dr .Kelly – he’s really put us in a fix.

 ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (to Tony Blair on the plane)

How dare he deny the documents we released

About Saddam having a nasty box of tricks!

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods now…)

If you rob me of my good name

You rob me of my life

I never wanted anything to do with fame

All I ever wanted was to do my job

And take care of my daughters and my wife

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

We had to leak his name to the Press pretty damn quick

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

Wannabe whistleblowers like him

Just make me feel physically sick.

I wish he was more like Hans Blix…

 TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

If you throw enough mud, Alastair

Some of it’s bound to stick!

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

No doubt, to some he’ll look like a hero

 TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

Well it’s up to you, , Alistair

To make him look like an absolute zero!

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

Janice took a big chance when she married me

I promised I’d always protect her

But I failed in that

As well as in my job as a weapons inspector

 ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

When we left London

The media storm was about to burst

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

We had to get our story in first

 ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

Never mind the truth…

I had to tell the Press that we had the proof..

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

I never wanted personal glory

An official spokesman is supposed

To try to avoid becoming the story

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

You can always get by with a bit of a spin

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

When this all blows over

We’ll be have another election to win

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

After I talked to the BBC

About Iraq not having any significant quantities of WMD

Everything went wrong, and all the attention became focused on me

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

As soon as I get off the plane in Tokyo

I’ll get on the phone to George Bush 

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

Ask him to give things a little bit of a push…

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

We’ve got to get things back under control

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane, grinning)

You can tell George it was me that leaked the story

That Dr. Kelly’s the mole

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

When you’re a weapons inspector

Your work involves playing with fire

If you get caught up in the political games..

There’s always a risk you’ll get burned in the flames…

They lied but they’ll say I’m the one who’s a liar…

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

I told the papers that Kelly was the BBC’s single source…

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

That should help to get things back on course.

In the past what Kelly did

Might have been seen as treason…

 ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

Saddam won’t listen to reason

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

The only thing he understands is brute force!

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

The love of power on all sides is leading us all

To ever greater corruption

We’re being dragged down a path that will lead

To an orgy of death and destruction

Blair and Bush have made up their minds

To attack Iraq no matter what!

That’ll only make a bad situation worse, as likely as not…

The pair of them! Lying to take us all to war!

That’s not what they were elected for….

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

I’m convinced we’re doing the right thing

 ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

True, but, after 9/11, you can never tell

What tomorrow may bring

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

I have been a fool, it’s no use to deny it

Now I long for peace and quiet

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

I was so glad when this session of Parliament was finally over!

I almost wish they’d put me out to clover

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

Yeah, Tony, but you still had to keep

Your long-term promise to fly to Japan…

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

A bloody trade mission – at a time like this –

When I’ve got a war to plan!

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

It’s a long flight…

There’s so many reporters on board –

Try to say as little to them as you can…

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (in the woods)

I had to get out of town  

I felt I’d let everyone down

But now I have nowhere to run

Nowhere to hide

I’m ashamed to admit

I’ve even had thoughts of suicide

(On the plane, the pilot comes from the flight deck and whispers a message in Tony Blair’s ear)

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

Oh my God – now the shit’s well and truly hit the fan!

(Dr. Kelly is now lying at the foot of an oak tree…dark shadows gather around him…while on the plane there is a stunned silence between Campbell and Blair….Tony Blair’s face has become deathly pale…)

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

What….? What…?! Tony…?!

TONY BLAIR: (on the plane)

Dr. Kelly’s been found dead in the woods….

They think he may have killed himself…!  

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (on the plane)

The… stupid… little… man!

The usual wackos will think we were in on it

As part of some secret CIA/MI5 plan…!

JAPANESE REPORTERS: (Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell disembark at Tokyo airport and photographers’ flash bulbs go off… )

‘Prime Minister! Welcome to Japan!

Prime Minister! Prime Minister!

Do you have blood on your hands!?’

(Smiling his famous smile Tony Blair holds up his hands in greeting - his hands are white. The scene fades to…)

 BRITISH REPORTERS: (The scene that we have just watched when Blair and Campbell disembarked at Tokyo airport seems to be replaying: The plane lands again, the door opens again, etc. But this time when Blair and Campbell leave the plane they are back in London, where there British flags everywhere…the flash bulbs go off again as before and the reporters are asking the same questions as they did in Japan…)

‘Prime Minister! Prime Minister!

Welcome back from Japan!

Prime Minister! Prime Minister!

Do you have blood on your hands!?’

(smiling his famous smile again, Tony Blair again holds up his hands, confidently thinking to demonstrate again that they are clean. But his face transforms in shock and horror as he sees that..this time his hands are RED – BLOOD RED. 

Blood runs down the tarmac of the airport onto the red carpet… blood everywhere…)

CHORUS:

See how the love of power corrupts

The truth decays and war erupts!

See how the love of power corrupts

The truth decays and war erupts!

See how the love of power corrupts

The truth decays and war erupts!

(the chorus repeats this over and over as photographers flash bulbs at the airport go off – like bombs – and as the cameras flashes continue…

The scene at the airport transforms into a series of dissolves showing scenes of war planes bombing Iraq…casualties in the Iraqi streets, 

…..A London bus explodes on 7/07…smoke pours out of a bombed Underground station…smoke everywhere…smoke everywhere…smoke everywhere… as alarms and sirens go off…)

 

———————————————————————————————————————-

 

5. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY - The Death Visions Of Dr. David Kelly

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(It is July, 2003. UK government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly is lying on the grass in the woods in Oxfordshire with his back against a tree, where he is dying. We don’t know if he committed suicide, or if his death was made to look like suicide, but the effect is the same. He is dying. It appears he has taken all except one of the pills from a pack of 30 painkillers and then cut a vein in his left wrist with a gardening knife. But there was some evidence that this was not the cause of death. He may have died of heart failure. The Hutton Enquiry into his death ruled out foul play. But there were odd circumstances that leave the cause of his death unresolved in many people’s minds. In any case, we can see the almost empty pack of painkillers and the knife on the grass beside him. 

At first Dr. Kelly appears to be in great pain. But then, either because of the the effect of the painkillers, together with the loss of blood from his wrist, or for some other reason, he leaves his ordinary waking state and enters a state of ecstatic state of panoramic awareness in which he experiences viewing his body from above while a the same time a series of apparitions arise in his field of awareness as he lies dying. These apparitions are connected with the possible reasons for his death: his sense of failure at not having been able to stop the war in Iraq; his shame at his name having been leaked to the Press as the source of information given to a reporter that the reasons given by the government for the war were based on a falsehood; and the possibility that he was killed by the agency of some government that saw him as a threat to the drive towards war. 

In his dying moments he sees the bombers who blew up the World Trade Centre towers in New York; he sees George Bush respond to them by declaring the unending war on terror and Tony Blair join him in that war effort; he sees the protesters against the war, and he foresees those who will die in Iraq as a result of the war, and the horror of the torture committed in Abu Ghraib prison by US soldiers in Iraq. He also foresees the future suicide bombers who will respond to the War On Terror with a further terror attack in London, as the cycle of revenge killing continues. 

All those who appear to him believe they are acting not only in simple good faith but in the harmony with what they perceive as holy – ‘in the name of all that is holy’. The hypocrisy of this is clear to Dr. Kelly as he lies dying. 

And yet, at the same time, from the point of view of his expanded consciousness, everything – literally everything – including hypocrisy, bad faith, and the terrible acts of violence of the war – is seen as intrinsically holy, because, as his consciousness perceives its own nature in the moment of death, he enters the knowledge that the universe itself is sacred and nothing that exists in the universe is not sacred – even if it appears from the limited point of view of time and ego not to be so. The point of view of this piece is therefore intended to be both deeply ironic and completely serious at the same time. It is not intended as a cynical response to genuinely tragic events, but as a transcendent response to those events.

The apparitions begin to appear to the dying Dr. Kelly one by one, singing to him…and an ensemble chorus responds. At the composer’s discretion, parts of the Chorus sections below can be sung by individual members of the Chorus as solos, with other parts of the Chorus sections sung as ensembles…)

 

9/11 HIJACKER:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

I will blow myself up

In the heart of your infidel city

And bring your whole godless world

Crashing down around you

Holy, holy 9/11!

God is great!

We martyrs are bound for heaven!

CHORUS:

Holy the Twin Towers

And holy the planes!

Holy the explosions

Holy the smoke

And holy the engulfing flames!

Holy those who got out of there!

Holy the firefighters who rushed in and perished

Helping others to get down the burning stairs!

Holy those who died sending last messages on their phones

Holy those who jumped from the windows

Where they had waited afraid and alone

Holy the widowers! Holy the wives!

Holy the orphans who will never see their parents alive!

Holy those who died helping others survive!

GEORGE BUSH:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

I will find a way to invade your country

If it’s the last damned thing I do

We’ll bomb you back into the Stone Age

In revenge for the planes that you flew

(aside)

I know the hijackers didn’t come from Iraq

But never mind that - this is no time for inconvenient facts

That’s the country we’re going to attack

CHORUS:

No more time for jaw-jaw

We’re going to war!

We’ll give Saddam what for!

It’s time to apply the doctrine

Of ‘shock and awe’!

Holy the terror! Holy the fear!

Holy the children’s screams

And holy the mothers’ tears!

TONY BLAIR:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

We here in Britain will stand

By our America allies

As we always do

And as they did for us

In World Wars One and Two

Saddam’s a brutal dictator

Who’s made the Iraqi people bleed

I will not rest until they are freed

(aside)

Even if we have to release

Fake evidence for the existence of  WMD

Because the weapons inspectors we sent in

Didn’t find the proof that we need

CHORUS:

Holy the imperatives of sofa-cabinet government!

Holy Alistair Campbell’s sexed-up documents!

Holy those on whom the bombs will rain!

Holy the grieving spirit!

Holy the horror and pain!

Holy the chattering Kalishnikovs!

And holy the grumbling rocket-propelled grenades!

Holy Jihad!

Holy Crusade!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

I tried to prevent the war

I did best that I could

I always feared that one day

If I didn’t succeed in Iraq

I might end up dead in the woods

All around me

Here on Harrowdown Hill today

Dark actors are at play

I had to get out of town - I couldn’t stay

I couldn’t hang around like an inconvenient guest

When I heard they’d leaked my name to the Press

I just had to get away

CHORUS:

Holy the deadly concept of calling those who oppose you evil!

Holy the governments’ right to dehumanise people!

Holy the desire of all sides for revenge!

Holy this war that we promise will be without end!

ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

We, the people, are sovereign

You who claim to represent us in government

Must stop these things illegal that you do

What are your real reasons for taking us to war?

What is it that you are really asking our soldiers to die for?

CHORUS:

Holy Haliburton! Holy Blackwater!

Holy the mindless slaughter!

Holy the Pentagon! Holy the drones!

Holy Yale University’s elite Secret Society -

Appropriately named the ‘Skull And Bones’!

Holy the sniper’s rifle! Holy the tanks! Holy the Humvees!

Holy the rolling 24 hour news

That enables the world to know

The minute that Wall Street sneezes!

GEORGE BUSH:

Holy Mission Accomplished!

Now it’s time for the holy oil

That lies under their holy soil!

US MILITARY GUARD AT ABU GHRAIB:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

When is my next leave due?

I gotta get me another tattoo!

This time I want one that says

’Saddam – Fuck You!’

The bastards won’t get me!

I ain’t gonna be blown up by no I.E.D!

We’ll teach ‘em some manners here at Abu Ghraib!

You should see the photos we hid

Of when we made ‘em dance butt-nakid

And climb on top of each other

With hoods on the heads

In a human pyramid!

And that ain’t even the grossest

Of the many cool things that we did!

CHORUS:

Holy the shackles!

Holy the manacles!

Holy the electric cattle-prod

That has now become a sacred instrument

In this work that we’re doing here

For the glory of God!

US MILITARY GUARD AT ABU GHRAIB:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

When we got here the Iraqi’s were screwed!

Were we not brought up and raised

In the praise and the fear of the Lord

In whose name we now wield the whip

The blessed stress-positions

And the glorious water board?

Holy football! Holy beer!

Holy the helicopter

That will get us out of here!

CHORUS:

Holy! Holy! Holy!

Praise the power of we who are mighty!

All praise to the code of military secrecy

That lets us get away

With rape, murder, and robbery!

Kill, kill, kill! You know you’re only doing God’s will!

See our righteousness revealed

In the fact that, before us, others must kneel!

LONDON SUICIDE BOMBERS:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

We want to be martyrs, too!

You see how our people have been abused!

But now everything’s clear to us!

We are no longer confused!

Look how they dress – these Western women and girls

We stand with our brothers and sisters all over the world

We want to be martyrs, too!

LONDON SUICIDE BOMBER no 1:

Holy the repression of love and of sex!

Holy the denial of earthly desires!

Holy my body circled about

With these electric wires!

Holy the detonator under my old string vest!

Holy the strapped-on packet of Semtex!

LONDON SUICIDE BOMBER no 2:

Holy the broken glass

And holy the blown-out brains!

Holy the severed limbs thrown

From the burned-out buses

And the derailed tube-trains!

CHORUS:

Worship with us

At the shrine of death!

Celebrate with us

The premature snuffing out

Of the candle of life’s already

Brief-enough breath!

 LONDON SUICIDE BOMBER no 3:

The more we put others to the sword

The greater will be our eternal reward!

We believe what our politicians and our preachers teach us

When they shake their fists and promise us eternal bliss!

We are not afraid! We long for death’s ultimate kiss!

WALL STREET BANKER:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name of all that is true

The bank’s gonna make a killing

Before this war is through!

Just as we usually do!

Holy the markets! Holy the financiers!

Holy the money that buys obedience!

And holy the propaganda

That stuffs up the people’s ears!

CHORUS:

Holy Rumsfeld’s bumbling rear!

Holy Cheney’s contemptuous sneer!

Worship with us the raw energy of power

Revealed in war in all its naked beauty!

Join with us in sending more poor people’s children to kill and to die

With their heads full of words like ‘honour’ and ‘duty’!

Let us rejoice – All the world’s leaders made the right choices!

Drink to the glory of war! May it last for evermore!

Bless this war that will bring Heaven on earth nearer and nearer!

 Dr. DAVID KELLY:

Holy the ant! Holy the atom! Holy the whole damn universe!

Holy the blessing of tomorrow! Holy yesterday’s cruel curse!

Holy silence! Holy sound! Holy what goes around and comes around!

Holy above! Holy below! Holy the present moment

That is all we can ever really know!

More light!

More light!

CHORUS:

More light!

Light flooding everywhere

Washing away your cares!

More light!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

In the name of all that is holy

In the name all of all that is true

I did the best I could do -

More light!

Dr. DAVID KELLY AND CHORUS:

More light! More light!

Light and only light

Energy is eternal delight!

Energy is eternal delight!

Energy is eternal delight!

 

(Note: ‘More light… more light…more light…’ were the last words of the English engraver, illustrator, & poet William Blake (1757 – 1827), spoken on his death bed, and ‘Energy Is Eternal Delight’ is a quotation from his book, ‘The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell.’   http://www.levity.com/alchemy/blake_ma.html )

———————————————————————————————————————–

 

6. HELL’S MOUTH OPENS WHEN YOU TELL A LIE – THE LIE OF THE GLORY OF WAR 

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Weapons Inspector)

(Ghosts of the dead of all sides in the Iraq war arise from their graves and appear to condemn all those who sent them to war.  Alastair Campbell and the ghost of Dr. David Kelly watch together with others of ‘the accused’, politicians, clerics, complicit reporters, responsible for the war in Iraq, who are in their beds trying to sleep as the ghosts of the dead surround them…At the composer’s discretion, parts of the Chorus sections below can be sung by individual members of the Chorus as solos, with other parts of the Chorus sections sung as ensembles…)

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

Hell’s mouth opens

When you tell a lie

Like the lie that we were told -

A lie as old

As the Earth itself is old

DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER:

The lie of the glory of war

DEAD FEMALE IRAQI SUICIDE BOMBER:

The lie of the martyr’s death…

We were deceived

In what we were taught to believe

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

We know the hot breath

That comes out of the mouth of cannons

DEAD FEMALE IRAQI SUICIDE BOMBER:

We know the blast of strapped-on bombs

Savage beyond belief

DEAD IRAQI SOLDIER:

Bombs that cause pain so intense that even morphine

Brings no relief

CHORUS OF THE DEAD ALL TOGETHER:

We who have paid the ultimate price

We who have made the ultimate sacrifice

Laid down our lives for our country

Given our lives for a cause

We do not want your applause

But we demand the truth

We hear what you say

When you claim that you feel remorse

For setting this war off

On its bloody course

But we want some concrete proof

DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER:

We have heard lies like yours before

You careless politicians of today

Are not the first to speak

Of ‘shock and awe’

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

You are not the first

To try to sell the public a story

In which you claim for yourselves the glory

For what you like to call a ‘just and necessary’ war

DEAD FEMALE IRAQI SUICIDE BOMBER:

Many innocent civilians died

As well as the willing and unwilling

Soldiers on either side

DEAD IRAQI MOTHER:

Children are still weeping

Mothers’ tears have not yet dried

Perhaps they will never dry

CHORUS OF THE DEAD ALL TOGETHER:

This is what we want to know

Before we can let go:

Was the cause for which

We were asked to fight

Really worth dying for?

What was the real reason

For this war?

DEAD IRAQI SOLDIER:

We Iraqi soldiers -

The flesh is rotting on our bones

Many of us do not even have a grave of our own

Our bodies will lie forever unmarked by a stone

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

We British soldiers of the coalition -

It’s true that we were there of our own volition

But we were not fighting for our own homes

We took the war to the enemy

We waged war in his country

Is it too much that we ask those who led us

For some moral clarity?

DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER:

We American soldiers -

We gave our breath

And lived our death

For what to you politicians is no more

Than an intellectual matter

About which you idly chatter

When you review your ‘foreign policy’….

Do you understand our incredulity?

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

Do you understand the reason

We are so outraged?

We suffered and died

Our families mourned and cried

While you in government strutted

And preened on the world stage

Wrapped in a narcissistic vanity

That bordered on insanity

DEAD IRAQI MOTHER:

While our country was ravaged

You saw Iraqi civilians like us

As being no more than what you called

‘collateral damage’

Our deaths to you were no more than

An unfortunate side-effect

That was ‘only to be expected’

DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER:

There are no words strong enough to tell you

How badly you let us all down

But still you presume to claim

The moral high ground

Saying, when you are questioned

On what you put us all through

That only God can judge you

CHORUS OF THE DEAD ALL TOGETHER:

But we do not agree

We will never agree

We do not leave the final verdict to God

Or to some future work of history

We who suffered and died

For a war that was as illegal

As it was unjustified

We condemn you utterly

DEAD BRITISH SOLDIER:

What greater sin is there for a politician

Than to lead a country to war

On false pretences?

DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER:

What greater sin is there for a man

Who did such a terrible thing

Than to seek to hide his offence

Behind a smokescreen

Of contorted legal defences?

DEAD IRAQI MOTHER:

After the smoke of the battle has cleared

After the war you started is over

Those who – unlike us – survived

Those who are still alive

Have to bear seeing you

Try to present yourselves as religious ‘men of charity’!

You mock our deaths with your hypocrisy

CHORUS OF THE DEAD ALL TOGETHER:

But do not think for one minute

That we do not see

We, the who died because

Of your lie

We see you….

We see, we see

And we do not forgive

As long as you live

As you do

We will not forgive you

We whose innocent blood

You caused to be shed

We condemn you

From the land of the dead….

You rained down bombs on our heads

Now we stand watch over your beds

We will not wait for history

To record your names in shame

We will haunt your dreams

Every night instead

————————————————————————————————————————–

 

7. I HAVE A LOVER HIS NAME IS WAR

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(Dr. David Kelly, who worked all his life to limit the worst effects of war, watches as Peace and War dance through endless time, singing of their love for each other….Why are human beings, who have everything to gain from peace, so in love with war? Peace herself confesses her infatuation with War, and War admits that, as he lusts after Peace, he knows he will never be faithful to her. This libretto is intended to be dramatised with a ballet expressing the dynamic of the fundamental interdependence of apparent opposites…)

(Dr. David Kelly is watching as Peace and War and their followers dance…)

PEACE:

I have a lover

His name is War

His cock is as hard as a rock

He eats my babies raw

I don’t know why

But I keep coming

Back for more

WAR:

I have a lover

Her name is Peace

I love to plough

Her sweet little crease

I sow my seed

In the wound

Where she bleeds

 

And even though I never

Seem to be able to give her

What she really needs

I cling to her because

Deep within me

There’s something

She continues to feed

PEACE:

He drives me mad

But I can’t seem to let go

I try to resist him

But I can’t because

I love him so

 

He likes to suck my milk

I let him suck me dry

He likes to suck my blood

I let him suck

Till it makes me cry

WAR:

I don’t understand

What she wants from me

I have to be true to myself, you see

I love her, but I have to stay free

PEACE:

He says he loves me

But he wants me to change

Well, that’s just not going to happen

As I’ve often explained

WAR:

She says I drive her crazy

And set her senses ablaze

But she also says she needs me

To settle down at the end of the day

I tell her I want to please her

But I’m much too set in my ways

She says she thinks I’m

Just going through

A difficult phase

PEACE:

He gets pretty wild

And I can’t say I blame him

What with the state

Of the world that we live in

But I always think in the end

I’ll find some way to tame him

WAR:

I truly adore her for her many charms

But whenever I go to take her in my arms

Somehow or other I always end up doing her harm

PEACE:                                                            WAR:

I am his and he is mine                                  I am hers and she is mine

BOTH:

Together we dance through endless time

PEACE:

Everything I love

He destroys

But you know how it is..?

WAR:

Boys will be boys…!

PEACE:

I can’t stop loving him

And all his cute little toys

WAR:

I know it doesn’t make any sense

But she always calls on me for her defence

PEACE:

Whenever I call him, I’m happy he comes

But then he always makes me dance

To the beat of his drum

WAR:

The reason this dance has been going on so long

Is that she believes that I can make her strong

But the truth is I will always make her weak

And she will never find in me the safety she seeks

PEACE:

I’d like to do without him

But I never seem to get the chance

And if he doesn’t get his own way

He just rants and rants

BOTH TOGETHER:

In the end, neither of us really understands

The nature of this strange romance

But we just don’t seem to be able

To keep out of each other’s pants

PEACE:                                                            WAR:

I am his and he is mine                                  I am hers and she is mine

BOTH:

Together we dance through endless time

———————————————————————————————————-

8. NOT IN MY NAME! THE TRAGIC HISTORY OF Dr. KELLY AND Mr. BLAIR

(In Memoriam Dr. David Kelly And Brian Haw)

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane. (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(Night time in London, July 2003. A scruffy, unshaven older man in an anorak is standing alone in front of the tent in which he has been living for months on Parliament Square, surrounded by anti-war placards. As pedestrians rush by, ignoring him, and cars and lorries pass, he looks over towards the Houses of Parliament, within which, in the Commons chamber, he knows the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is at that moment facing angry MPs at Prime Minister’s Question Time. The MPs want Tony Blair to take responsibility for the death of the weapons inspector, Dr. David Kelly, who has, apparently committed suicide in the woods in Oxfordshire after his name was leaked to the Press as the source of information contrary to the government’s statement that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that can be deployed against European targets at 24 hours notice. Whoever gave the information to the Press, it has undermined the reason the government has given for going to war against Iraq, and Tony Blair is accused of lying to Parliament. Behind the man in the anorak in Parliament Square we can see Big Ben, and as the great bells in the clock tower cease their portentous chiming, he begins to sing… )

BRIAN HAW: (anti-war protester, in Parliament Square, looking towards the Parliament building)

Not in my name!

You say the case for war in Iraq has been made

And that you have good reason to invade

But even if I am alone living here

In a tent in Parliament Square

With nowhere to wash my face

Or my underwear

Outside the Mother of Parliaments

The cradle of our democracy -

And nobody else bloody well cares -

I want you to know – I disagree!

Not in my name!

Like you, I want the people of Iraq to be free.

But, Tony -  you and your sofa-cabinet gang

- or you – you compliant whipped-in opposition MPs

From wherever it was that you sprang

- you cannot claim that you speak or act for me

Not in my name!

You say there must be a war…

But when has a war ever really resolved

Any of humanity’s problems before?

1st PROTESTER – A YOUNG WOMAN: (coming across the grass to join Brian Haw by his tent in Parliament Square)

Not in my name!

(to Brian Haw)

This is the first time I’ve ever been on a demo, you know…

(then, waving towards the Parliament building)

But tell me the truth, Mr. Blair

You over there in your well-guarded lair -

I don’t like to get in your well-combed hair

But I don’t want any more lies

It’s not enough for you to tell us

That you believe you’re a pretty straight guy…

Haven’t enough innocent people already died?

Not in my name!

I don’t want any part of the insanity

Of sending our young soldiers to die for your vanity

In some far-off foreign land

I don’t want their deaths on my conscience

I don’t want their blood on my hands

2nd PROTESTER – A YOUNG MAN: (bringing a placard to join Brian Haw in Parliament Square, waving his fist at the Parliament building..)

Not in my name!

You say you want to bring Iraq peace and democracy.

But I think that’s just more of the same old hypocrisy

Your reasons for going to war are like you

They’re nothing but phoney, Tony

It’s not hard to understand.

What you and George Bush really want

Is the oil that lies under the sand!

BRIAN HAW AND THE TWO OTHER PROTESTERS TOGETHER – (THEIR VOICES INTERWEAVING NOW BETWEEN CHORUS AND SOLO):

Not in my name! Not in my name! Not in my name!

I won’t play your game!

I cry out in my anger and my shame

Not in my name! Not in my name! Not in my name!

I do not agree…

BRIAN HAW:

Not in my name!

You cannot claim that you speak or act for them

You cannot claim that you speak for me

PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: (at the Dispatch Box inside the House of Commons at Prime Minister’s Question Time – with MPs of both parties either cheering and jeering him, randomly, with Mr. SPEAKER shouting for order to try to calm the House…)

Should we have let Iraq’s agony continue?

Call a spade a spade

Saddam Hussain was a tyrant.

How could we not invade?

I can place my hands on my heart and say

That I did what I did in good faith

(‘Hear! Hear!) (Boo! Shame!) (etc.)

I made my decisions as best as I could

With the facts that I had at the time.

I’m the Prime Minister, and in the end

I feel that the decision is mine.

(hoots of derision at the same time as cheers)

You here in Parliament will just have to learn to fall in to line.

(general confused outrage) (cries of Order! Order!)

I didn’t want David Kelly to die (Boo! Shame!)

We think it’s pretty clear why he died…

(Uproar – cries of ‘Murder! Murder!’) (cries of ‘Order! Order!’)

Anyway, I thought we were all on the same side?

(raucous laughter mixed with cheering)

If Dr. Kelly wasn’t the source of Andrew Gilligan’s story

Why did he feel he had to run away and hide? (losing patience)

Why did he commit suicide?

(shouts of: ‘How do you know he killed himself!?)

I have nothing further to say for today:

But Saddam Hussain must be removed!

As far as the government is concerned

The case war in Iraq has been proved!

(total uproar on the Commons floor) (cries of Order! Order!)

BRIAN HAW: (outside his tent in Parliament Square, but no longer alone – there are now a dozen people with him…pointing accusingly towards the Parliament building)

Even if you didn’t wish it to happen, Tony

Dr. David Kelly is dead

2nd PROTESTER:

You are as guilty, Mr. Blair

Together with your sidekick Alastair -

As if the two of you had yourselves

Put a bullet in poor Dr. Kelly’s head!

1st PROTESTER:

He was a private man who never courted fame.

But you used him to play out your deadly political game.

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind -

It was you and Alastair Campbell who leaked his name

BRIAN HAW:

And even if you didn’t wish for the result that came

The pair of you are can’t escape the blame, just the same!

(more tents are springing up in Parliament Square…more protestors are arriving with more placards…)

CHORUS OF NEWLY ARRIVED PROTESTERS SINGING NOW WITH BRIAN HAW :

Not in my name!

I cry out in my anger and my shame

Not in my name!

You say the case for war in Iraq has been made

And that you have good reason to invade

But a million of us will come together to

Tell you we do not agree –

Then perhaps you’ll see

BRIAN HAW :

Not in my name!

You cannot claim that you speak or act for them -

You cannot claim that you speak for me

I do not agree

TONY BLAIR: (now standing with his Fender guitar in front of the fireplace in the sitting-room at No 10 Downing Street where his ‘sofa cabinet’ made their decisions)

Thinking of my legacy

How I will be seen in the eyes of history

Means a lot to me.

We all know the score.

If you want to be remembered

As a great Prime Minister

Like Winston Churchill

Or Margaret Thatcher

And so many Prime Ministers before

You have to win a war.

But now it occurs to me

No matter what I achieve

My reputation as the leader of the nation

Will forever be tarnished by this terrible tragedy

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL: (The Prime Minister’s Press Officer – a spin doctor)

Come on Tony, don’t give in to self-pity

In private we can grieve.

But, if you want to get re-elected

You can’t afford to wear your heart on your sleeve.

Take it from me, we can blame it all on the BBC!

We are both of us practical men.

Remember – we don’t do God at Number 10!

The ball is still in play! I can make all this go away!

We did the best that we were able to do.

Now we’ll just set up an inquiry

That will sweep it all under the table for you!

BRIAN HAW AND CHORUS OF PROTESTERS: (still outside his tent in Parliament Square – but there is now a huge crowd that fills the square with him)

Not in my name!

I cry out in my anger and my shame –

Not in my name!

You say the case for war in Iraq has been made

And that you have good reason to invade

But a million of us will march through

London to tell you that we do not agree –

Then perhaps you’ll see

BRIAN HAW:

You cannot claim that you speak or act for them –

You cannot claim that you speak for me

I do not agree…

LONDON TAXI DRIVER: (calling out from his cab as he drives by)

Oi, Brian, you tell ‘em, you tell ‘em for me!

But don’t forget the lessons of history!

Don’t lose your sense of humour.

There’s too many fanatics about!

Always give house-room

To a healthy smidgeon of doubt!

Always maintain a perspective of irony..!

That’s what got us through the bleedin’ Blitz.

In time’s of trouble like this

Having a bit of a laugh with your mates

Is the best way to maintain your sanity!

Keep up the good work, mate!

Catch you laaaaater!

(the cab drives off, honking…with the driver giving a thumbs up through the open window… but we can see beyond him a huge mass of marchers a million strong, marching against the war…)

CHORUS OF THOUSANDS OF MARCHERS: (repeating over and over)

Not in my name!

Not in my name!

We cry out in our anger and our shame –

Not in my name!

We do not agree…!

BRIAN HAW:

You cannot claim that you speak them…

You cannot claim that you speak for me!

 

————————————————————————————————————————

 

9. THE FALL GUY  -  TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN

A Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane (Seed Story: Death Of A Government Inspector)

(The imagery of the ancient Greek legend of Icarus is used to reveal the mythic dimension of the death of the UK government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly in this libretto which explores the local political intrigue and international turmoil that led to Dr. Kelly’s death in the Oxfordshire woods after his name was leaked to the Press as the source who revealed that the UK government had falsified documents relating to finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to provide a reason to invade. 

Dramatis Personae: Dr. David Kelly; Janice Kelly, Dr. Kelly’s wife; Alistair Campbell; Tony Blair; British Soldiers; Iraqi Civilians; Andrew Gilligan, Journalist; President George W. Bush; Barbara J. Lee - US Senator (Democart) from California; Karl Rove, US Presidential Advisor; Anti-War Marchers outside UK Parliament; Crowd of Protestors outside White House, Washington DC; Chorus Ensemble.)

(At the composer’s discretion, parts of the Chorus sections below can be sung by individual members of the Chorus as solos, with other parts of the Chorus sections sung as ensembles… )

Dr. DAVID KELLY – UK GOVERNMENT WEAPONS INSPECTOR:

Look at me now! Look at me! Look at me!

Finally free!

Flying so high in the sky!

CHORUS:

Too close! Too close! Too close to the Sun!

Don’t get too close to the Sun!

No good will come to you if you do!

No good will come to you – or to anyone!

Don’t get too close to the Sun!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I had to tell someone!

I was stuck in that hopeless maze -

hour after hour – for days and days

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL – PRIME MINSTER’S PRESS OFFICER:

Sex it up! Sex it up! Sex up the document!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I had to tell someone!

The government leaked my name…

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

Meet the deadline!

Grab the headlines

for the government!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I’d never before felt so badly betrayed…!

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

Hold the front page!

That’s how the game must be played -

In the tabloid age!

CHORUS:

Engines of infernal combustion!

Weapons of mass destruction!

He was supposed to find them!

He was one of the government’s

Principal weapons inspectors in Iraq.

He was in a position to know

When they distorted the facts.

ALISTAIR CAMPBELL:

Sex it up! Sex it up!

Sex up the document!

Meet the deadline!

Grab the headlines for the government!

Hold the front page!

That’s how the game must be played –

In the tabloid age…!

CHORUS:

“In 24 hours,” Alastair Campbell said,

”half of London or Paris

Could end up seriously dead…”

JANICE KELLY, Dr. KELLY’S WIFE:

My husband, Dr. David Kelly, was a weapons inspector

It was a difficult job, but he did it with pride

He couldn’t have known how the government would lie

But they twisted the facts that he and Dr. Blix supplied

Just to keep the media onside…

He knew that because of what the government did

So many innocent people would die

BRITISH SOLDIERS:

That Saddam was a baddun’  - an’ no mistake.

His regime’s record was certainly gory!

But we weren’t born yesterday.

Don’t go thinking we’re barmy!

We are ordinary soldiers in the line of fire

The backbone of the British army.

Would somebody please give us a break?

We never bought the official story.

We knew in hearts – right from the start

All their so-called ‘evidence’ had to be fake!

ANDREW GILLIGAN, JOURNALIST:

My name is Andrew Gilligan

I’m a professional journalist.

And, as a reporter, I have to tell you this:

That story was just too good to miss!

Dr. Kelly was looking for weapons

Of mass destruction in Iraq, you see

And he confided in me!

He told me they couldn’t find any WMD!

Put yourself in my place -

If someone like him gave you information

That undermined the government’s case

Showing that the reason the government

Gave for going to war just wasn’t true -

What would you do? What would you do?

If the story came from such a reliable source

You’d publish the story, of course!

Any reporter would have wanted the glory

Of breaking such a significant story.

It was an opportunity too good to miss

An opportunity I simply couldn’t resist!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

He couldn’t resist! He couldn’t resist!

So he took the story and gave it a darker twist

CHORUS:

Spin! Spin! That’s the nature of the world that we’re living in!

TONY BLAIR – THE PRIME MINISTER:

As Prime Minister, I had to react

To keep the keep the case

For a pre-emptive war against Iraq intact

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

I advised the Prime Minister

To use the Official Secrets Act!

Threaten Dr. Kelly with prosecution!

We needed that UN Resolution!

I said, “We’ll leak a story to the Press -

But I’ll keep it vague – we’ll make them guess!”

TONY BLAIR:

It just doesn’t make any sense

To go on sitting on the fence -

Get it on TV!

But don’t attribute anything to me!

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:

I’ll tell them we’ve got concrete evidence!

We’ll sell this as a war of self-defence!

TONY BLAIR:

Get it on TV! Tell them we found the WMD!

But don’t attribute anything to me!

Never mind the truth!

Just tell them we’ve got the proof!

CHORUS:

‘Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!’ –

Every school-kid knows the rhyme

And like a damning blood-red glue or slime

It will stick to you and ruin your good name

Now and for all time.

You wanted fame - well, now you’ve got it!

People hundreds years from today

Will think of you, Tony Blair, and say:

“See how the love of power corrupts

The truth decays, and war erupts…!”

ANDREW GILLIGAN:

A million people on their feet

Marching in protest against the war

But they didn’t listen in the White House -

Or in Downing Street!

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH:

Never mind the truth!

The Brits have got the proof!

Yo Blair! He may be a phoney –

But we can count on Tony!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I did my job, I did my duty -

I exposed their lies to public scrutiny.

Now the paparazzi won’t let me be -

They’re hunting me…

They’re hunting me…

hunting me…

CHORUS:

Too close! Too close! Too close to the Sun!

He had to tell someone! Now he’s on the run

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I had to tell someone. Now I’m on the run -

The tabloids want their fun.

I feel the wind in my hair -

I fly in the sky without a care!

It’s good to be out of town -

I’m flying high.

But, if I dare to look down

I’m afraid of what I’ll see -

What will become of me…?

CHORUS:

Too close! Too close! Too close to the Sun!

As his mood continues to swing

Dr. David Kelly’s thoughts have given him wings!

He’s seeing things! He’s seeing things!

His mind is coming undone!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I have to break free, I have to break free -

These WMD will be the death of me!

CHORUS:

He tried to escape the grip of the monster

At the heart of the maze.

But wax will melt in the heat of the day.

He got too close to the Sun.

And now from his wax-winged arms

The feathers are falling one by one.

When the brilliant flash of his flight is finished

His life will be over and done…

But his story has only just begun…

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

Falling, falling, falling - falling out of the blue.

Calling! Calling! Calling! Calling to you!

My darling wife, I fear for my life

I’m calling to you.

Please help me to see this through…

JANICE KELLY, Dr. KELLY’S WIFE:

I didn’t dare to pick up the phone -

Has the Prime Minister’s heart turned to stone?

Surely they haven’t abandoned my husband

To face something like this alone?

We didn’t have much time to talk –

Then, when he went up Harrowdown Hill, he said,

‘I’ll be back soon, Janice, my love,

I have to go for a walk”

Dr. DAVID KELLY: (Among the trees on Harrowdown Hill with penknife and pills beside him on the ground)

My whole life is already in tatters

Now my reputation is going to be totally shattered.

The press pack will soon be banging at the door

I’ve never been through anything like this before -

I just can’t take any more…!

TONY BLAIR: (To the gathered Press Pack):

I welcome this opportunity to talk to you

To set the record straight.

I’m afraid there was nothing anyone could do

To save Dr. David Kelly from his fate.

We found the WMD, take it from me -

Dr. Kelly was his own worst enemy

ANDREW GILLIGAN – JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, I’m sorry,

But that’s simply not true!

And as for the reasons you give for Kelly’s death -

After all the lies you’ve told

Why should we believe you?

CHORUS:

Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!

People hundreds years from today

Will think of you, Tony Blair, and say:

“See how the love of power corrupts –

The truth decays, and war erupts…!”

TONY BLAIR:

I wash my hands of this!

I wasn’t the one to betray him -

With or without a kiss!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

Falling! Falling! Out of the blue!

Calling! Calling! Calling to you!

JANICE KELLY:

I don’t dare pick up the phone

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

How could they do this to me?

JANICE KELLY:

Has the Prime Minister’s heart turned to stone?

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

Finally, finally free. Look at me…

Look at me! I’m  finally flying free…!

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH:

It’s too late for any further debate, I’m afraid.

The case against the war has already been thoroughly made.

But today the goal-posts have subtly moved.

And I’m satisfied that, thanks to the Brits

the case for war in Iraq has now been conclusively proved

TONY BLAIR:

We’ve tried to reason with Saddam Hussein,

But, sadly, all our best efforts have been in vain.

The ‘Butcher of Bagdad’ must now be restrained.

President Bush and I have discussed this together…

TONY BLAIR, GEORGE BUSH, TOGETHER:

We can’t delay the invasion for ever

Concrete plans have to be made!

It’s time for ‘regime change!’

We have no choice but to invade!

We have to invade!

ANDREW GILLIGAN – AND OTHER PRESS PACK MEMBERS:

Spin! Spin! That’s the nature of the world we’re living in!

They’d already made up their minds - it’s easy to see -

They just needed the excuse of the WMD!

CROWD OF PROTESTERS:

We put our faith in Tony Blair

We thought he was on our side.

We voted him in with a huge landslide.

He seemed to be just like us.

But look how he’s betrayed

The nation’s sacred trust!

BRITISH SOLDIERS:

This is a hot potater!

Anyone can see that madman

Saddam Hussein’s a brutal dictator!

But, if Tony and George want to pose

As good Christian gentlemen

Shouldn’t they see telling porky pies

To take a nation to war

As some kind of mortal sin?

We love our country

But should we be asked to die for a lie?

And anyway – is this a war that we

Or anyone else, can ever really hope to win?

BARBARA J. LEE - US SENATOR (DEMOCRAT) FROM CALIFORNIA - AS SHE VOTES AGAINST THE WAR IN THE US SENATE:

Excuse me…excuse me… excuse me…!

My name is Barbara J. Lee…

And I have the honour to be -

The US Senator representing the state of California here…

Let me ask you – why are we all caught up in Washington today

In this climate of pervasive fear?

I may be the only one on the Senate floor

Who is willing to vote against this unfortunate, misguided war

But let me say, now, as I’ve often said before:

Even as we act – let us not become the evil that we deplore!

CHORUS:

She – Barbara J. Lee –

Was the only one in the whole US Senate

To vote against the Iraq war

And what she said is worth repeating some more:

‘Even as we act - Let us not become

The evil that we deplore!”

KARL ROVE: US PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR:

You nay-sayers still belong to the ‘reality-based community’ –

While you talk, we act, that’s just a matter of fact.

We here at the White House make our own reality

We’ll bomb those rag-heads back to the stone age, you’ll see!

We’ve got the fire power and the political will.

And, after the tragic events of 9/11

We Neo-Cons are in political heaven!

It won’t matter who speaks against us

No matter how loud or how shrill.

We’ll have no problem to sell this war

To the rest of those chumps up on Capitol Hill!

IRAQUI PEOPLE:

They call civilians like us ‘collateral damage’

But when our country is ravaged

When our sons and brothers are killed

And our daughters’ and mothers’ virtue is soiled

How can we not cry out? - This is all about oil!

PROTEST MARCHERS OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE WITH BANNERS:

‘No blood for oil! No blood for oil!

IRAQUI PEOPLE:

It’s not hard to understand

Whatever the Americans

And the British demand

What they really want is the oil

That’s under our sand -

This is all about oil!

MARCHERS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT WAVING PLACARDS:

No blood for oil! No blood for oil!

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

I heard their anguished cries

And I couldn’t sleep at night.

What was I to do?

I made my best guess, I went to the Press

I thought what I was doing was right.

I made a judgment call -

I told them there the threat of the WMD

Was really non-existent or small…

I knew exactly what I was doing

I told them we never found anything!

I made the sacrifice –

Now I have to pay the price -

I’m falling! Falling! Falling!

Falling out of the blue!

CHORUS:

Out of the blue – one last lone feather falls

Over the stormy sea

Ripples spread out to infinity

From the spot where a splash signifies

That a man has died

And as he fell, with his arms

Spread open wide

Lost in the dream of his inherent divinity

Who could not think of the image

Of ‘Christ Crucified’?

ANDREW GILLIGAN - (to Camera on TV News):

The death of a government weapons inspector

Was it murder, or was it suicide?

Much of the story remains a mystery - even to me

Because, afraid of the judgment of history

The government made it clear

No one will have the facts for 70 years

So how can we hope to decide?

CHORUS:

Too close! Too close!

To close to the Sun!

He flew too close to the Sun!

Now Dr. David Kelly is gone.

They say men go mad in herds

But they come to their senses, slowly - one by one.

War is collective madness –

There is no war, that has ever really been won.

After some initial hesitation

Dr. Kelly became the conscience of the nation.

He was a very private man

Who in the manner of his death

Became a big sensation.

We can say of him today:

He flew too close to the Sun!

Too close! Too close! To close to the Sun!

He flew too close to the Sun!

Now Dr. David Kelly is gone.

But his story is not over and done…

With these words his story will live on…

———————————————————————————————————-

 

10. THE SOLEMN BLOOD THAT STAINS THESE SHEETS

Mini-Opera Libretto by John Shane

(In this libretto the ghost of Dr. David Kelly, the UK government weapons inspector, gives voice to a solo lament at what he saw in Iraq in and following the first Gulf War - Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) –  events that convinced him in 2003 that he must do everything he can to prevent a further invasion of Iraq… In certain Islamic societies today, as was once the case in western society, blood-stained marriage-bed sheets are held up before family and guests as proof of consummation of the marriage and the fact that the bride was a virgin. Here Dr. Kelly’s ghost holds up his bloody evidence of the evils of war….)

Dr. DAVID KELLY:

The solemn blood

that stains these

sheets

Speaks not of love’s

victory

But of love’s

defeat

 

For here you’ll not find

the trace

Of some young

virgin

Having been – by her

sweetheart

In some bower, lovingly

deflowered

 

But, instead what must

here be revealed

Is the dark flow from now limp and

lifeless bodies

Whose bleached and drained

veins have

By bombs and

bullets

Been broken open and

emptied

From wounds to the torso

and wounds to the

head

That have so darkened the off-white

linen

Of these drab Iraqi hospital

beds

 

And here

too

Are other monstrous

things

That I must show

you

Casualties who yet

live

But who

lie

As if they are

dead

And who, with their still bleeding

wounds

In the midst of the enactment of this immortal

drama

Have suffered such starkly human, mortal

trauma

That it will take an age

for them to

heal

 

Now I must tell

you

What I

feel

Is the cause

of all this

havoc

Which is none

other

Than the father’s inability to love

the mother of a

boy

Who then became a

soldier

And was sent to

Iraq

Where he ran

amuck

In a shopping

centre

Firing his gun

as if it was a

toy

 

Here we see the poison fruit

of the hatred mixed with

guilt

That was passed on

to him

With his mother’s

milk

In him this hatred then

began to smoulder

Until, once trained as a combat

soldier

He he was

deployed

- As quick as

that ! -

Complete with his lieutenant’s

pips

And his cock-eyed

hat

And all his childhood-gathered

chips

Unaddressed – and with their nuclear

family impact

Still fully

intact

On his broad

shoulders

To his place of

business

In this red-hot combat

zone

A hell-hole he had no

trouble

Recognising - at the

double ! -

As his home from

home

 

And here he has

finally found a

face

For his contempt for the rest

of the human

race

This is, after all, the ideal

place

For his hatred to be

projected

Onto those

who

Are, by him, supposed to be

protected

As here he incarnates, hour

after bloodthirsty

hour

The arrogance of a brutal, distant

power

Intent, now, in the name of

freedom

On ‘fucking Iraq in the ass

without a condom’

As the soldiers on the ground

are wont these days to

say

Or – by the same token – if my words

are to be read in the presence

of the more politely

spoken

What – in the somewhat seemlier

groves of Academia -

is called:

“The total subjugation

by the use

Of overwhelming

force

Of another sovereign

nation”

 

‘Is this American democracy at

work?’

I overheard the taxi driver

say

As he was carrying the child victims

of another US bombing raid

away

 

There are those who will

see

The shedding of this innocent blood

as being

Indelibly on all our collective

hands

And this is something that

we

In the safety and comfort of

our homes in the

West

Must hasten now

to understand

 

For the victims here

believe

 

- despite the fact that we also are victims

who are by our governments

routinely deceived -

 

that even we who tried our best to stop

this war

- in that we did not

succeed -

Are as guilty as anyone else

of making their families

bleed

 

Such is the fallen nature

of both men and

women

That the relatives of those

who have suffered this

carnage

Will inevitably now want

to see their blood

avenged

At some future

stage

 

And so, blood seeks

blood

And conflict leads to

conflict without

cease

Until, in the

end

Even though

it is the stuff of all our

dreams

It seems there is

no hope of

peace

It seems there is

no hope of

peace

It seems there is

no hope of

peace

————————————————————————————————————————-