PREMISE
From nothingness we come,
By nothingness we are sustained,
To nothingness we return.
Tola and Dragonetti (2002)
Honouring Mr. Stevens is a meditation on life, death, mortality and what it means to be human/more than human. Honouring Mr. Stevens asks the question: what do we hold onto, and why.
MR. STEVENS’ (MS) BACKSTORY
MS was a changeling, a minotaur. He had reputation for monstrous behaviour, which is not undeserved given his appetite for eating teenage children (did not anyone offer him an alternative? He may have preferred tofu, but this didn’t exist – as far as we know, in ancient Greece). He was detained in a custom-made labyrinth under the city of Crete, where every year the powers-that-were sent 12 tributes (teenage children) to be devoured – alive – by MS. His half-sister, Ariadne betrayed him by arming her crush, Theseus with a sword to kill MS, and a ball of red thread to find his way out of the labyrinth after doing so. MS, the minotaur, was slain.
In a world of parallel existences, and where souls inhabit new bodies, MS still takes form. After a normal upbringing – as normal as any child born between the wars and growing up through the Great Depression. From 1951, MS lived with his wife Mrs. Stevens (Mrs.S), in a small house with a garden in outer Melbourne. MS manifested (some might say “in this lifetime”) as a human, who bore no apparent trace of his minotaur incarnation, with exception for bouts of depression and a love of steak, but each of these can be attributed to his generation. His capacity to hold a grudge though, was extraordinary – a residual of his betrayal from his former minotaur life.
By the early 1980’s, MS and Mrs.S needed some help with odd jobs and around the house, and a local 14-year-old boy was employed every Saturday. When the boy arrived at the house each week, he could hear the dog-races on the transistor radio and would smell boiling chicken carcasses from the kitchen. These were the backdrop to his leaf raking, wood chopping and lawn mowing. After a short time, Mrs.S unexpectedly died, and MS was grief-stricken. The boy came each Saturday, just the same, to do the chores and to collect his $5 from the kitchen table, which was always left underneath a glass of orange cordial.
Not long after the death of Mrs.S, the boy arrived and, noting the absence of the call of dog-races and aroma of boiling chicken carcasses, he continued with his chores just the same. After finishing, the boy went inside to collect his $5, but the kitchen table was empty and the house was silent. He ventured deeper into the house. Moving down the hallway, he found a door slightly ajar. He peeked into the room – MS’s bedroom. There he discovered a lump in the bed. MS had died. The boy went directly to the kitchen and called his mother and told her what he'd found. As he waited for the ambulance, the boy had time to think. He ventured outside, and into MS’s woodshed.
From a box in hidden by a pile of newspaper, he drew out MS's blow-up sex doll and pornographic magazines. The boy found a shovel and buried them in the backyard. No one would discover MS’s secret. MS had left this corporeal world and would be remembered honourably.
MS transformed into a changeling – a spirit, a psychopomp He appears now, in 2025, to those who can see or sense him, as a minotaur. He is in a liminal place as he has unresolved business from his former lives, minotaur or human. He has not let go of his sense of betrayal or moved through his grief.
PERFORMER NOTES
MS has naturalistic but clean movements – not theatrical. The mask should never be touched (breaks the mask). There is a subtle sense of heaviness to the character, caused by grief/lens of loss, but this is not “played” at all (I don’t ever direct emotions, rather, with actions).
Mock up of Mr. Stevens at the children’s table with his props.
MS is seated at a green, wooden, children’s table. When only 2 participants are coming through, there are only 2 extra seats, and 3 when there are 3 participants. In some sessions MS sit on a child’s chair, like the participants and at their height. In other sessions he is seated at the children’s table in an adult chair. This is to test if participants respond differently to MS in these two variations. (I will direct which variation for which session).
When participants arrive in the large space after having travelled through the wardrobe, MS is seated, as if he’s been there the whole time. There are two small tables – one to his right and one left. On his right is a silver cake stand laden with pink and white marshmallows and iced vovos. To his left is a teapot and dainty cups and saucers. He serves cold mint tea (or perhaps water – TBD). On the floor near him is a large pile of snips of red wool/thread.
When MS encounters participants, he stops what he is doing which is arranging short red threads in line on the table. He sweeps these off the table and onto the red thread pile nearby. MS takes the cake tray and pops it on the table – an offering. Then the teacups etc. Improvising/playing at the tea party – never speaking. Physical theatre/gestural cues.
Props for back up action, or more activity with participants/play
In up to 3 pockets, we will preset red thread, and in the top breast-coat pocket, there is a pair of small scissors on a chain. If and when you feel, want or need to, slowly draw a thread from a pocket, take out the scissors from their chain or in the opposite order – we need to see what works best practically, although I think the thread first is more curious than the scissors. Scissors imply cutting – we know what their action is. A red thread being drawn from a pocket is odd, and we don’t know what will happen, which is more interesting and unexpected. How and when you cut the thread(s), and what you do with them is improvised/play – see what happens with participants, following your instinct/responding to their cues. Because the table is set for tea, the red threads should go near the table. There are other more playful, fun solutions.
Timing
In theory, depending upon how participants respond, this tea party with MS is at the end of the session. If the session is running overtime, participants will hear the bell sound (I will be watching, timekeeping and ring the bell as necessary). They will have been shown/hear the bell during performance onboarding - this was not something we discussed in development/rehearsal, but I will add it to the script.
ONBOARDING
Participants have been onboarded with the PhD information outside, prior to meeting the host. In the outside onboarding, I (Penelope) will give each participant an identifying number.
OPENING CHARACTER – Hostess/Host
Props:
· Clipboard + pen
· Brown paper parcel
· Brass bell
Arriving at the top of the stairs, participants, two or three at a time, are greeted by the hostess. She is dressed in a 1950’s house coat, with pearls and hair tied up neatly. If male, the host wears a vintage suit and tie. The hostess is high status but operates with kindness. The hostess is genuinely curious about each participant, and, armed with a clipboard and pen, must ask participants to complete a survey before they enter the experience. The hostess records the answers on a paper on the clipboard. Each participant group will have their own piece of paper for you to make records. I will collect each page from the clipboard after they have entered and you have gone to switch into HMS costume.
SURVEY SCRIPT
ROSE/TOM: Hello and welcome to Honouring Mr. Stevens. My name is Rose/Tom. First, may I have your first name and your number please? In turn, if you please:
EG: Jan 12, John 45, Jenny 78 - and jot these down
ROSE/TOM: Thank you. Now I have 3 questions to ask you each before you enter. Please take your time, and I will note down each of your answers as we go along. Are you ready? Would you rather:
1. Fast or Slow?
Jot the numbers with their answers (F or S)
12 F 45 F 78 S
2. Canine Feline OR Vulpine? (Which means fox-like - which you can explain if they ask. Jot the numbers with their answers (C, F or V)
12 C 45 V 78 F
3. Knowing OR Not Knowing (K or NK)
12 NK 45 K 78 NK
Thank you very much. This is informative to the research. Before you go in, a reminder that you have around 30 minutes inside. When it is time to leave, you will hear me ring this bell (gently ring bell). This way please.
Lead participants to the three doors, make a selection but then choose to let them through the door to the right. Just before they go inside select one participant and give them a brown paper parcel. To this participant:
ROSE/TOM: This is for you. Please take this with you. You will know when to open it.
(Inside is a chicken mask) N.B. – I will ring the bell. This gives the illusion that the host/shadow puppeteer and the hostess/Minotaur are each separate entities.
DESIGN UPDATE
Photos of the wardrobe Jason Lehane is designing and constructing.
Across the week of February 3-9, Jason has continued to construct the walk-through wardrobe. The structural elements are nearly complete, and through next week he will finesse. We have been discussing the kinetic puppet within the cupboard, and the rough mock up below is an indication of what this will include.
Rough mock up of kinetic puppet within the cupboard.
Reference February 9th:
Tola F and Dragonetti C (2002). ‘WHAT INDIAN PHILOSOPHY OWES HEGEL’, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, (83): 1–36.