White City

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

Since Pete revealed to the Brazilian press that he's working on a stage play 
for WHITE CITY, I put the cd on and checked it out.  It's one of my favorite 
Pete albums, and beautifuly done, but it certainly has no hint of a plot.

The album seems like a shapshot of a man in time (probably autobiographical 
as usual), and of course, the film presents it about this way, too.  There 
are events in the film, but they seem only illustrations for the songs, so 
it doesn't amount to anything more than an obscure vignette.

In order for this to become a theater piece, I'd think we need to know, at 
minimum:  1) What this man wants  2) how he tries to achieve it or not  3) 
whether he does achieve it or not.  This is very dependable construction, as 
it allows for supporting characters who give the main character advice one 
way or the other.  He gets to choose a path and either succeeds at the end 
or fails, depending on his wisdom, courage, manliness, etc.  This being one 
of Pete's opera, we can assume there's some cynical twist in the plot that 
causes the guy to fail, regardless of his best efforts.

Assuming we follow this plan, then how should we stage the opera?  I loved 
the opening of the film with the fence and the street sounds and then the 
music coming up so strongly, but after that it went very flat.  We'd need to 
get right into the crux of the problem, whatever it is.

Who should we get to design the set?  Any dancing in this one?


:)
keets