SCENE 12: CONSTRUCTION

1965

At the construction site workers are preparing a dogman to be lifted by crane to plant a flag on the top of the completed sails. A tour party of official guests is viewing the site and everyone wears hard hats.

CHORUS

Raise the roof!

Lift up your voices.

The roof is raised!

A city rejoices.

Raise your glass to this great achievement,

Raise your glass to this

Feat of engineering.

Praise to the skies

All those who have laboured

So many years on this

Masterpiece of engineering;

Praise their skill ,

Their strength,

Their daring.

WORKERS

On the scaffolding above

Dizzy with pride,

Pride and elation.

Perched sky high

In a world apart.

Kicked upstairs,

Far above our ‘station’.

You can kiss g’bye class:

We built a bloody work of art!

A dogman with the official flag is prepared to be lifted by crane. He also secretly carries the workers flag, revealed later.

TOUR GUIDE

The team of workers

Intend to plant a flag at the top,

The topmost point

To mark completion

Of the giant vaults.

A tour de force.

A tour de force of engineering,

The roof will be covered,

Covered in a million

A million white tiles;

Glazed and unglazed,

Like snow and ice.

The dogman begins his ascent

WORKERS

We’re in full cry,

We’ve earned the right to crow a bit.

Concrete, steel and tile

Are bound with our love and sweat.

Our banner will fly,

No boss’ll dare to lower it.

Politicians on the grope for glory

make the union mightier yet...

The Eureka flag is unfurled to the obvious embarrassment of the Politician.

The flag in place, the dogman descends to applause.

TOUR GUIDE

The roof will be covered with a million,

A million white tiles,

A million white tiles

A work of art,

A work of art.

WORKERS

Dizzy with pride and elation

Perched sky high in a world apart.

Kicked upstairs,

Far above our ‘station’,

We’ve built a work of art

A bloody work of art.

CHORUS

Raise the roof!

It’s history making:

The roof is raised!

A nation is waking;

Is waking with a start

To a golden age of art.

The Architect appears suddenly and throws himself on the ground in front of the Politician with his hat held out like a begging bowl

ARCHITECT

Is this want you want, Premier?

POLITICIAN

What the hell?...

ARCHITECT

You want me to beg?

I’ll beg.

POLITICIAN

Get up

You’re making a fool of yourself

And me.

Very publicly, relishing the Politician’s embarrassment.

ARCHITECT

Then approve my request.

POLITICIAN

Your request is being considered.

ARCHITECT

How can I test my ideas for the ceiling

Without a prototype?

It’s not unreasonable.

You must approve the funds!

POLITICIAN

Must I?

Your request is being considered.

The Politician and his immediate circle (including the Maestro) move on, the rest of the party eventually follow the tour guide out.

CHORUS

(TOUR PARTY, OFFICIAL GUESTS)

What kind of prank is this?

Who does he think he is?

Was that some kind of joke?

I always thought he was an odd sort of bloke.

The wrong man for the job.

He’s short a coupla bob up top.

Eccentric, way out of line...

Unbalanced,

An oddball...definitely iffy

A queer fish, such childish behaviour

For someone supposedly in charge.

This doesn’t bode well,

We could be in for a stuff up writ large.

POLITICIAN

To the Maestro, savagely.

“You must release the funds”

Who does he think he is?

That’s taxpayers’ money

Not some pool of petty cash

For his personal wish list!

He’s in for a rude shock.

MAESTRO

To the Politician

He’s in cloud cuckoo land.

You can count on my full support in this,

My full support...

They leave and the Architect stands up and dusts down his knees, smiling to himself. The engineer who can scarcely believe what he has witnessed, approaches him angrily.

ENGINEER

Have you gone completely mad?

You know you’re on a limb.

Abusing the man with the axe

Is not a clever tactic!

In fact it might just send us all

Crashing to the ground.

ARCHITECT

Flippantly, with mock hurt

You used to laugh at my jokes.

The honeymoon must be well and truly over...

more seriously

It’s as if we don’t speak

The same language any more.

ENGINEER

I wonder if we ever did.

I take it you’re refusing outright

My advice for the glass façade?

ARCHITECT

I can’t accept advice

So clearly wrong.

quietly furious

Look,

You know the way I work;

You have to trust me.

My inspiration

Comes from nature

My shapes from instinct.

Solutions reveal themselves

In their own time.

Too free for you perhaps,

but freedom breeds harmony,

Purity of form, function and expression...

ENGINEER

Oh I’ve heard all this a thousand times!

“A building should grow like a tree”

You say,

“The mathematics,

The economics will look after themselves,”

Well I can tell you now:

They don’t.

They don’t!

I have to do that!

Always straining on ropes of logic

To bring your reckless sketches

Back to earth...

Harnessing them,

Putting them to work

On this planet,

Not the one of your imagination.

And in the eyes of history,

You’re the hero:

Possessor of vision

Promethean gifts.

But the pragmatist too

Has a kind of genius.

That’s what you’ll never understand:

The beauty,

The beauty of the golden mean.

Taking delight in the odd short cut

Gaining joy from gains achieved

Through slight of hand.

Knowing when and on what

To compromise;

Knowing that no one

Will ever so much as notice!

Remain as pure as you want

But remember:

Minds like yours

Dream up these monsters,

It takes minds like mine to build them!

ARCHITECT

Bitterly

Minds too tired to last the distance.......

ENGINEER

Yes,I’m tired.

I’m tired of you

And your pathological idealism!

ARCHITECT

To know what’ s best,

To follow through and make it real;

You’re saying this is madness?

ENGINEER

Relenting a little

I’m saying

You’ve gone too far...

ARCHITECT

You’re right,

I have.

Too far.

Too far to turn back now.

Are you with me?

ENGINEER

I”ve got work to do...

He goes

Alexandra’s voice is heard offstage.

ALEXANDRA

The harbour though was never held in thrall...

A worker notices something and runs to call offstage

ITALIAN WORKER

Hey, lady!

Get well away from there

Unless you wanna end up

Wearin’ sixty ton o’ concrete!

FOREMAN

What’s going on?

ITALIAN WORKER

Some crazy sheila’s up on the

Main stage scaffolding

FOREMAN

She one of the tour party or what?

Where’s her friggin hard hat?

Go and be a hero

Will ya mate?

She’s askin for it.

The worker rushes off. The architect approaches, curious.

ARCHITECT

I know her I think.

FOREMAN

Then kindly get her off the site

Before we chalk up our first fatality.

To wolf whistles and applause from the others, the worker returns escorting Alexandra. Still in evening dress, she looks distracted and tired, seemingly oblivious to this humiliation. The architect, sensing something is very wrong, kindly takes her aside. The foreman orders the others back to work. She recognises the Architect , takes in where she is and breaks from him in embarrassment.

ALEXANDRA

I’m sorry,

I shouldn’t be here I know...

ARCHITECT

If you don’t belong here

No one does,

But I’d give it a few more years!

ALEXANDRA

I wanted so badly...

I was determined...

Determined

To sing here once before I...

ARCHITECT

Before you?

ALEXANDRA

she starts to break down

Nothing.

God....

I must look....

What time is it?

I’ve spent the last twelve hours

Rehearsing my own mad scene.

ARCHITECT

Your husband?

Making as much trouble for you at home

As he is for me on the committee?

ALEXANDRA

He of little vision

And a good steady job...

ARCHITECT

You know I sometimes think

If they had Stradivari working here

These committee men

Would pace the floor behind him

Peering at their watches,

And suggesting

He use cheaper cuts of wood.

ALEXANDRA

And why a single cello

When he could have made two violins?

ARCHITECT

Quite!

So much more cost efficient!

It’s all very strange:

The same men said they wanted

The best building of its kind.

ALEXANDRA

I was there you know

When they first unveiled your designs.

Your vision possessed me.

Still possesses me.

You promised me so much!

ARCHITECT

What did I promise you?

ALEXANDRA

Fulfilment,

A purpose,

A reason to stay here.

But I can’t stay any longer

And stay sane.

And to leave...

To leave

Would tear the living heart from me.

She starts to cry

ARCHITECT

There are so many steps.

Do you know why?

So we approach like pilgrims

In some ancient rite

When we come to hear

Those like you

Who give so much of yourselves.

Forgive me,

But there’s still love

Between you and your husband?

ALEXANDRA

There is bitterness,

Regret,

And guilt,

But also love.

ARCHITECT

Then go home now.

Your husband will make a lot of noise

But he’ll follow you;

He’ll follow wherever your voice leads you,

Wherever you need to go.

In the end his own struggles

Will seem trifling

When compared to the gift,

The precious gift,

You can share;

You can share with the world.

We’re alike in that:

These grey men will rant and rave,

Reject plans they can’t even read.

But they know

That in fifty years

When the headlines are screaming

Some other scandal

This gift,

This precious gift remains

For the world to share.

Always bountiful,

Always wonderful,

Because it’s pure.

So for now

I’ll play the game,

Threaten resignation,

And once again they’ll melt.

They’ll melt...

The angels will see to that;

The angels will make sure of that.

ALEXANDRA

I’ll come back to see your vision complete;

The angels will make sure of that.

ARCHITECT

I’m on the verge,

Soon I’ll crack the ceiling’s code.

ALEXANDRA

The angels will make sure of that.

Europe beckons

I can finally take that road.

ARCHITECT

The angels will take care of that

ALEXANDRA

They’ll take care of that.

ARCHITECT, ALEXANDRA

So many steps,

But we’re halfway there.

The gifts we were given

Are not ours to keep.

Our two souls are driven

By the need,

Achingly deep,

To give,

To share them with the world.

And the angels will see to that

They’ll see to that.

Scene 13