Story Background

Story Background (possibly on-line, on flyers, on screen)

During the summer of 2011, the people of Weymouth noticed something unusual taking place along their sea front. Day by day, an unidentifiable set of unique looking creatures washed up onto the beach – often in groups of three and five, and seven: odd.

They washed up from all over the world.

Initially, their arrival struck horror and fear through the local community – “they look like sea–litter!” some cried, “Quazimodo!” others shouted, “are they human?” some asked.

In a short time, the local people realized that the new inhabitants were harmless, powerless, in fact, to be pitied, so they permitted them to remain, as long as they kept out of the way during popular beach time and, of course, during festivals or popular events. 

But, these creatures had come for a reason. And, on the eve of the sailing events for the London 2012 Olympics, when they suddenly appeared in full open view, there was outrage at their audacity.

The Play:

(Thursday)

The 'breathers' gather to celebrate the nautical adventure they are about to set in motion. As they have done for centuries, they begin to enact a ritual which honours the power of adventurous spirit, and the breath of the sound west winds. They have, within them, when they perform this collective ritual, the power to fill the skies with the great wind.

At another point on the beach, a contest is taking place, with a dark stony-faced and stony-souled villain, named Doldrum. The contest is an attempt to destroy the notion of peaceful competition, and give him a chance to steal the greatest force in the regions, thus giving him the might to stop the Olympics from happening.

As he examines the machines which have gathered the winds from across the regions, he hears the beach creatures, and, Seeing them, he asks  who they are.

“Who dares to disturb me?”

“A load of nothing” , he is told.

 He is told to pay them no attention, because, although they are strikingly odd and distasteful, they have no power other than to offend.

 “Nothing more than Sea – litter.  Not even worth the effort to pick them up and toss them away”

But Doldrum sees something else.  He sees in them, a force unlike any of the machine forces he has seen thus far. He sees in them the greatest threat to his mission; to stop all human celebration, to destroy hope.

As the beach people continue to enact their ritual, Doldrum takes flight, and  rushes at them. He intends to capture them, study them, steal their power, and destroy  them (or make them his servants).

His first attempt manages only to steal one –  and turn another to stone.

(Saturday)

A day passes and by Saturday he has now trapped more into see-through bubbles.

Witnessing their reluctance to be afraid, or run away, he becomes angry.

“You see what I will do to you and yet you dare to continue!”

Outraged by their audacity to express joyfulness, he  turns more to stone and finds other ways to  entrap them.  But to his frustration, the more he physically traps, the more powerful they seem to become – as if their power was coming from somewhere other than physical liberty, strength or might.

Now, enraged that a sense of celebration seems nearly invincible,  he concludes  they must be connected to some manufactured power source, some electrical surge.

“I will pull you from the wall – unplug you!”

Doldrum attacks everything – everything that emits light, sound,electricity. . And for a moment, it seems he may have succeeded, as the world plunges into darkness and silence.

And then, in the quiet of the darkness, a sound waves forward. It is the sound of a single breath, in and out. Then another and another. Soon the sound of breathing fills the air like a planet filling it’s lungs with life.  And then the beat of a heart, which grows and greows. It beats from  all sides of the sea front, drumming passion through the sand.

Duldrum is struck silent and motionless. He listens and watches with astonishment. And then he realizes the force he has so misunderstood. It is not the power of the machines gathered from the regions, or the physical strength, or might, or perfect form that  he could steal and thus stop the Olympics from happening, no, it is the spirit, the breath and the passion held inside. When he realizes this, his once stony heart and soul begins  to crack, and dissolve.

For the first time in his life he smiles, then laughs and dances! He dances to the rhythms made by the crowd. He starts to sing the songs he’d heard coming from them only days before. He joins in the celebration and gives  rise to the South-West winds which now rise as flames  across the sand and out into the water.

“Breathers!” he shouts, “the power is inside!!”

And as he watches the first breather he had stolen fly out and over the crowd, he breaks  into a million tiny pieces of sand. There is at that moment, a sudden gust of wind, which blows  him up and out to sea, and, as he flies, the skies fill with the sound of his voice, laughing with the breath of freedom.

The breathers hold  sand high in the air, sing, and let it fly with the wind.