IN ORBIT
A Cometary Musical with a visitation from THE VAGABOND, a lonely comet, to our Pretty Little Blue-Green Planet.
IVAN and THERESA are a couple living in Indiana in 1987. IVAN is a devoted amateur astronomer, THERESA is a lawyer who teaches business law at a local Junior college. This also happens to be the moment of a visit from THE VAGABOND otherwise known as Halley’s Comet. They are planning to travel to Mexico to see it, however, they are distracted by bickering and suffering in a marriage coming apart. They are perhaps too earthbound to appreciate the infinite wonder of our universe and their place in it.
THE VAGABOND is enticed by etherial voices to “stay awhile” with them, but he is destined to continue his journey. It’s the forces of nature and physics that determine his fate. There is no free will or agency for a comet in this Universe unless it exists in the imagination of a mind which of course he doesn’t have.
THE ECHO OF THE BIG BANG
IVAN and THERESA
IVAN in his den setting up his telescope while THERESA is in the next room looking through an album of wedding pictures.
BEDTIME STORIES
IVAN is impatient with THERESA’S materialistic attitude toward him, his daydreaming and his obsession with skywatching so he parodies her father’s influence on her through his anti-religious, nihilistic world view.
IVAN goes back to his telescope to search for THE VAGABOND who picking up speed and reflecting on his endless, lonely trip around the Solar System.
IVAN is fascinated by the physics of nature and how it all seems to be explained with numbers. Numbers that can bring knowledge, better our lives but can also destroy us. He takes out his frustration by playing his favorite computer game: “Nuclear Armageddon”.
HOT WAR DREAM
THERESA is recounting a strange dream she had last night describing another path towards Armageddon.
Our friend, THE VAGABOND, is rhapsodizing about his favorite spot along his trip around the sun but every time he passes there are changes that fascinate him and so many sounds and images from the radio waves his has been receiving lately.
THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER IN HERCULES
IVAN is calculating the logistics of the comet’s position while waiting for a sighting.
Waiting for the Comet.
THERESA is lamenting the state of her marriage while waiting for the comet.
TWISTED METAL
THE VAGABOND is getting closer to planet earth and since he has been fascinated by this exciting, violent little planet he decides he wants to visit to get a taste of the thing that is unique to the violence he ha heard about: Pain.
Meanwhile, IVAN and THERESA are in Mexico with his telescope to get a glimpse of the visitation first hand.
THE VAGABOND, through the imaginative powers that some sophisticated objects from deep space possess, manages to visit Planet Earth to experience its thrills but instead gets mugged. Since he is of course homeless and addicted to crack, the pain and suffering he had heard so much about didn't feel so good.
THE FINALE: RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES
THE VAGABOND realizes he can’t alter his fate and must go back to his orbit as IVAN and THERESA leave Mexico to go back to their home with a similar sense of the relentless direction of their lives and their marriage. They leave us with some profound questions about free will and the true nature of our place in this vast impossible Universe.
THE VAGABOND goes back to his original orbit as do IVAN and THERESA
