Secret Life of Humans (NHB Modern Plays) by David Byrne

Author:David Byrne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

VIII

George and Bruno’s wartime offices. 1944

As JAMIE and AVA begin to dig through BRUNO’s locked room, BRUNO and GEORGE meet in their wartime offices for the first time.

GEORGE. Bruno, you found us.

BRUNO. So is the mystery finally to be solved? Tell me, George, what will we be putting our minds to?

GEORGE. I’m so looking forward to collaborating. Here. But these instructions can’t leave these rooms.

GEORGE passes BRUNO a sealed envelope. He watches nervously as BRUNO opens it and reads.

JAMIE. So? What were they working on?

AVA. It’s not clear. These are his appointment diaries.

AVA passes JAMIE a set of small diaries. BRUNO finishes reading his briefing. He is deep in thought.

BRUNO. Right.

GEORGE. I warned you.

BRUNO. I hadn’t expected this.

GEORGE. It’s not too late to say no.

BRUNO. I’m… I’m thinking.

AVA connects BRUNO’s thinking with the papers she’s reading. Back as a lecturer, she addresses the audience.

AVA. It’s clearly something he’s nervous about. Since humans first started working together, contradictions and conflict have been an inseparable part of every culture –

GEORGE ( to BRUNO). I should say, it also gave me pause.

AVA. – our messy thoughts, feelings, desires and guilt compel us to think, criticise and change the world around us –

GEORGE. My parents are mathematicians. They’ve never had to – What a time to be alive. When you read mathematics, nobody prepares you for this.

AVA. – Consistency – well –

BRUNO. There are three questions to my mind. Should we do this? Well, maths itself, science itself, cannot be good or evil. It is either correct or incorrect, regardless of any later applications. Must we do this? The alternative is unimaginable. And can we do this?

AVA. – consistency is the playground of dull, inactive minds.

BRUNO. There was only one way to find out.

BRUNO strides to a large blackboard on the wall.

GEORGE. Right? Are we doing this?

BRUNO. It’d have to be a combination of geometry, topology, physics and – Are you with me, George?

BRUNO has noticed GEORGE is still uncertain.

GEORGE. Yes. I’m with you, Bruno.

We see GEORGE and BRUNO work together over the course of several months.

JAMIE. July 4. London. Slow day today with little progress. July 16 – still no progress, let alone a breakthrough. Wondering if the calculations we’re attempting to correlate are even possible.

AVA. There are other sealed boxes. Shall I?

AVA retrieves more boxes from BRUNO’s locked room.

JAMIE. July 24 –

BRUNO (voice-over). I have stared at the wall in my office so long I feel I could replicate every brick, crack and chip completely from memory. July 28 – still no significant progress. August 1 – No progress. August 8 – No progress.

More time passes. We hear and see extracts from the source books they are working through.

GEORGE (voice-over). Progress report to HQ. Week five. We are confident there is no way to work this out within the bounds of current mathematics.

TEXTBOOK (voice-over). This is because each point of X is open and so if X is infinite then the open cover consisting of the set of single points has no finite subcover.

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