TI:ME:CO:DE:
Excerpt from TIMECODE. A Ballet and Play on the subject of Time and Quantum physics with original music and choreography. Created for children for children and commissioned by the ROH. It was devised by Will Tuckett with Martin Ward and Andrew Whelan. Choreography and Direction: Will Tuckett. Music: Martin Ward. Script: Andrew Whelan
Professor Dullish, having torn a hole in time is visited by the Tarquins. These holders of the Keys of Time have come to help him mend the hole. The four Royal ballet dancers Robin, Josh, Romany and Leanne play the Tarquins. The professor was played by actor Paul Ryan.
ROBIN
I am Tarquin 1.
LEANNE
I am Tarquin 2.
JOSH
I am Tarquin 3.
ROMANY
…and I am Tarquin 4.
ROBIN
We are ‘The Time Keeper’, holder of the keys of temporal reality and we are here to speak with you, Professor Deeply-Dullish…
PROF
How do you know my name?
ROBIN
…on a matter of multigalactic temporal urgency.
PROF
Speak to me? About time? Gosh. Fire away.
As ROBIN opens his/her mouth to speak, ROMANY casually leans on one of the machines. It lets out a loud and incessant alarm sound. LEANNE, JOSH, and ROMANY run around trying to sort it out while the Professor listens to ROBIN giving him a fast, mimed account of why they are there, complete with extravagant hand movements. This takes about thirty seconds. LEANNE, ROMANY and JOSH breathe a sigh of relief and the Professor turns to the audience
PROF
Astounding. He told me they work for The Inter-dimensional Ministry of Time. It seems they are all different versions of the same person from parallel temporal quadrants.. er different parts of time. My little experiment caused a huge rip in the very fabric of beingness, and now I’ve gone and lost five minutes down the hole. He says that I have to help them find the five minutes, or we’re in big trouble. Hmmm, well it sounds like total nonsense to me. (Turning to the Timekeepers) I don’t believe you Tarquins, or whoever you are. Prove it!
ROBIN
Prove it? Hmm. You think you know time. But you don’t. Today is today right?
PROF
Yes. Of course…
ROBIN
…and Yesterday was yesterday and tomorrow is tomorrow.
PROF
Of course. Simple isn’t it.
ROBIN
Wrong. Today is also Yesterday’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow’s Yesterday and Yesterday is the day after the day that was Yesterday when Yesterday was Today and…
PROF
Wait. That’s just too confusing for words. We’ll be here till next week.
ROMANY
Which is last week to the week after.
PROF
No! Stop!
ROBIN
You are right. Let’s do this properly. Let’s take you back to the beginning.
The Time Keepers look at each other and with one swift movement, they click their fingers. The lights immediately go out and everything is silent. A beat, then.
PROF
Hello. Er… Tarquin 1? Any of you? The beginning? I don’t understand. There’s absolutely nothing here.
TARQUINS
Exactly!
PROF:
My goodness! I know where we are. Oh my great goodness. We are here! Before it all began. Deep in the empty blackness that existed before the storm of creation raged. We are here, at the beginning. Maybe 20 billion years in the past? We are about to observe the birth of a baby universe. Our universe. To experience the awesome mind-blowing, cosmic power of the explosion to end all explosions and to start all things. The Big Bang
SFX BIG BANG!
The biggest bang in history, or rather, before history started. The explosion of all the bits and pieces that make up everything in existence, animal, vegetable or mineral; you, me, Mount Everest, Mars and your school dinners. All this stuff, or matter, travelling faster than you could possibly imagine: a cataclysmic, cacophonous crunch that started life and set in motion every tiny, tumultuous second of tick-tock time. And so we travel on and on and… yes, here we are where some of those bits and pieces ended up, billions of years later. Our own solar system. Out amongst the planets
Music, movement, we see the spheres forming and revolving in the planetary dance.
My word. It’s so… so beautiful.