The Starving Artist and the Chimp (Part II)

Libretto for an Opera

ACT II

Francais enters stage left, holding a red notebook, and sings in a spotlight on the left side of the stage.

Francais:

I found a strange text in this red notebook
While walking in the park on Saturday
Walking in the park on a break from work
Does anyone here know who wrote this text?

The notebook writer enters stage right and sings in a spotlight on the right side of the stage.

The Notebook Writer:

I was reading people’s posts on Craigslist
No, not the sex ads,
No, not the sex ads
The literary and writing forum
Found a question that
Caught my attention:

Someone called Talker
Writing a story
Needed an idea

How does an artist
A starving artist
Find himself a chimp?

Working at a zoo
Is that what to do?
He wanted to know

Thought that he could ask
Writers on the site
For a better way

That his artist,
His starving artist could
Find himself a chimp

I had work to do
So I left the site
But I had an idea

What if the artist
Was an activist
Who frees chimps from labs?

I went back later
Ghost of Majestic
Had the same idea

Well not quite the same
Similar enough
Mine was not needed

But I was intrigued
As I thought about
The artist and the chimp

How can the artist
Find the chimp he needs?
Soon I decided:

The starving artist
Is not an activist
That just wouldn’t work

He is a loner
Society’s outcast
Would not join a group

He lives in a loft
He is a painter
No, he’s a sculptor

Who needs a piece of wood
To create the art
He has in his mind

A dancer enters stage right and performs an erotic ballet during the following verses:

A girl in his building
Strips at a nightclub
And she knows a man

A customer of hers
An importer of wood
From Indonesia

She knows where he works
He gave her a case
Of clove cigarettes

Trade for a lap dance
That she gave to him
One night at the club

She loves the artist
Tells him where to go
To get what he needs

To create the art
He has in his head
Can she be his muse?

The dancer completes her ballet, striking several poses as if modeling for a sculpture, then exits stage right.

The artist breaks in
To the businesman’s
Warehouse after dark

He lifts up a tarp
He does not see wood
Instead there's a cage

In the cage a chimp
A screaming, shrieking chimp
And the artist, he screams, too

Chorus:

Waaaaah! Woooooh!

(Sounds of human and chimp screams.)

The Notebook Writer:

He sees a clipboard
Reads the documents
Knows what’s going on

The businessman imports
Chimps from his country
For drug companies

For experiments
To test the treatments
For curing disease

Suddenly …

Activists arrive
Jump on the artist
Think he’s the bad guy

They tie him to a chair
And free all the chimps
Then they take their leave

One chimp stays behind
Unties the artist
Ponders his next move

Looks at the artist
Thinks a moment more
Then says: ‘You need me.’

He’s a talking chimp!
He helps take the wood
For the sculptor’s art

Inside the stolen wood
Smuggled heroin
Soon they’re on the run

The Indonesian man
Wants his heroin
And his talking chimp

I will write that tale!
No, that’s not the kind
Of thing that I write

I write tales of love
Of self-discovery
But I had a good time

Imagining this
Story of the chimp
And starving artist

The Notebook writer exits stage right.

Francais:

That was what was written
In the red notebook
Can anyone find
The author for me?
Maybe the writer
Wants the notebook back?
But now, more than that,
I have a story
A story of my own
That I want to tell
To the writer of
The red notebook I found:

That afternoon I took the bus back home
It’s a long bus ride, it’s a very long ride
I thought about the talking chimp
And if I could I tell the tale
From the chimp’s point of view
That’s what I was thinking
As I fell asleep and dreamed
I fell asleep and dreamed

I was in my house
And the telephone rang
When I picked it up
I heard a voice say:

Chorus enters stage right, swaying, finger-snapping, chanting:

Chorus:

Go to the window, the kitchen window
Go to the window, the kitchen window

/Francais:
|
|So I looked out my window
|My kitchen window
|
|Chorus:
|
\Go to the window, the kitchen window

Francais:

/So I looked out my window
|My kitchen window
|
|Chorus
|
\Go to the window, the kitchen window

/Francais:
|
|And there was a chimp
|Holding a phone and
|Looking straight at me
|
|Chorus:
|
|Go to the window, the kitchen window
\Go to the window, the kitchen window

Chorus exits stage right.

Francais:

I was terrified
Why was I so scared?
Because I was not me

I was there, outside
Looking in at me
I’d become the chimp

I was the chimp with
The phone in my hand
In my hand the phone

I was not dreaming
That I was the chimp
That I was the chimp

The chimp was dreaming
That he was me
That he was me

The chimp was dreaming
I found a notebook
And took the bus home

The chimp was dreaming
I sat at my desk
And started to type

The chimp was dreaming
That I wrote these words
These words you’re reading

Chorus enters stage right.

Chorus:

Go to the window, the kitchen window. (Repeat as Francais continues singing.)

Francais:

My life is just
The dream of a chimp
The dream of a chimp

Is my life just
The dream of a chimp?
The dream of a chimp?

But that can’t be true
I’m a real person
With real feelings, too

It just can’t be true
I’m a real person
At least I feel real

I’m not a chimp’s dream
Do I really know
How could I prove it?

(Chorus stops chanting as Francais concludes.)

How could I prove it?
How could I prove it?
How cold you prove it?