A Call In The Night (Remix): Difference between revisions
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== Synopsis == | == Synopsis == | ||
The first segment of this episode is a monologue, where Joe describes Joseph Molka's memories from his childhood. A childhood fish story with heavy sound effects. Discordant voices overlapping. | |||
4:30: The next segment alternates between scenes from a play and a panel discussion of the same play. The play is by the (fictional) playwright Joseph Molka and is about a man (Eric Sears) and a woman's (Beth Dixon) clumsy "date" in an unnamed city in the midst of a terrible plague outbreak. The man and woman meet in an art museum and have a playful exchange, and it is established the man is a callow visitor from out of town. The woman, whose name is "Jo" is a local resident and in a bit of exposition tells about the fatal plague which she treats largely as an inconvenience. A stranger accosts the couple and as he talks becomes progressively more agitated and irrational - this is the effect of the plague. The couple escapes the museum. Throughout the play sounds of coughing are heard. | |||
12:50: The panel discusses the plague, feet symbolism and the supermodernist movement. | |||
14:40: We return to the earlier monologue, which is apparently playwriter Molka's journal - this time, observations of his mother on vacation. | |||
18:30: The play continues into the next scene, with the couple going to a Chinese restaurant. Their familiar unease at being Anglo-Saxons in a Chinese-American environment is amplified when the waiter turns out to be increasingly abusive and irrational. He too is a plague victim, and the couple escapes the restaurant. | |||
24:30: Panel discussion. | |||
28:10: The next segment is a different kind of monologue: a gallows erected on a bridge and guards charged with asking passers where they are going and killing them if they swear falsely. | |||
29:50: Back to the play, the couple takes a cab to the woman's apartment. All seems to finally be going well with the romantic evening until the cab driver starts driving erratically, and he turns out to be another plague victim. | |||
32:40: Panel discussion. | |||
36:10: Finally the couple reaches Jo's apartment. They have brandy and she leads them into making love. | |||
44:40: The following panel discussion concerns itself with the sensory and religious themes in the play. Questions of determinism and freedom. | |||
49:10: The final segment is a repeating monologue: A story is repeated several times, changing slightly with each telling. While Molka is having an operation for club feet, his father dies<ref name=Slate/> and his mother claims his father has gone to Boston. He travels to Boston, searches the city, picnics in a cemetery and becomes paralyzed. | |||
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:95%; overflow:auto;"> | |||
<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Legacy Synopsis</div> | |||
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"> | |||
Monologue: Memories of childhood told in the first person against a rhythmic sound loop, a childhood fish story. Discordant voices overlapping. Joseph Molka's plays: a woman named Joe and a stranger in a plague ridden city. Each vignette is followed by an academic panel discussion. Scene in an art museum. A discussion of feet and the supermodernist movement. Monologue: Molka's journal observations of his mother on vacation. Scene in a Chinese restaurant; the couple is attacked by a waiter. Monologue: a gallows erected on a bridge and guards charged with asking passers where they are going and killing them if they swear falsely. Scene in a cab with a mad cab driver. Scene in Joe's apartment. Discussion of sensory and religious themes in the play. Questions of determinism and freedom. Monologue: A story that is repeated several times, changing slightly with each telling. While Molka's having an operation for club feat his father dies and his mother claims his father as gone to Boston. He travels to Boston, searches the city, picnics in a cemetery and becomes paralyzed. | Monologue: Memories of childhood told in the first person against a rhythmic sound loop, a childhood fish story. Discordant voices overlapping. Joseph Molka's plays: a woman named Joe and a stranger in a plague ridden city. Each vignette is followed by an academic panel discussion. Scene in an art museum. A discussion of feet and the supermodernist movement. Monologue: Molka's journal observations of his mother on vacation. Scene in a Chinese restaurant; the couple is attacked by a waiter. Monologue: a gallows erected on a bridge and guards charged with asking passers where they are going and killing them if they swear falsely. Scene in a cab with a mad cab driver. Scene in Joe's apartment. Discussion of sensory and religious themes in the play. Questions of determinism and freedom. Monologue: A story that is repeated several times, changing slightly with each telling. While Molka's having an operation for club feat his father dies and his mother claims his father as gone to Boston. He travels to Boston, searches the city, picnics in a cemetery and becomes paralyzed. | ||
</div></div> | |||
== Music == | == Music == | ||
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== Shared material == | == Shared material == | ||
The text is | The text is similar to [[A Call In The Night]]; the sound effects are heavier in the original and Joe's monologues are modified and delivered with different emphasis and set to different background sounds. | ||
== Miscellanea == | |||
* Joe Frank's father died on the day of one his operations for club feet.<ref name=Slate>[https://slate.com/culture/2018/01/joe-franks-last-interview-before-his-death.html "Joe Frank Signs Off"]. Mark Oppenheimer, ''Slate'', January 19, 2018.</ref> | |||
* Joe mentions the production of the original version of this program in a [[Katherine Wessling's interview with Joe for Speak magazine | 2003 interview]]. | |||
== Footnotes == | |||
<div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> | |||
[[Category:Absurd Monologue]] | [[Category:Absurd Monologue]] | ||
Latest revision as of 05:31, 18 February 2025
| Series | |
|---|---|
| Somewhere Out There | |
| Original Broadcast Date | |
| 1997 | |
| Cast | |
| Beth Dixon, Eric Sears, Paul Mantell, Rosemary Foley, Avery Hart, Arthur Miller, Joe Frank | |
| Format | |
| 55 minutes | |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by: | Pathology |
| Followed by: | Blues Singer |
| Purchase | |
We were in the garden. I sat in my wheelchair.
A Call in the Night (Remix) is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series Somewhere Out There in 1997.
Synopsis
The first segment of this episode is a monologue, where Joe describes Joseph Molka's memories from his childhood. A childhood fish story with heavy sound effects. Discordant voices overlapping.
4:30: The next segment alternates between scenes from a play and a panel discussion of the same play. The play is by the (fictional) playwright Joseph Molka and is about a man (Eric Sears) and a woman's (Beth Dixon) clumsy "date" in an unnamed city in the midst of a terrible plague outbreak. The man and woman meet in an art museum and have a playful exchange, and it is established the man is a callow visitor from out of town. The woman, whose name is "Jo" is a local resident and in a bit of exposition tells about the fatal plague which she treats largely as an inconvenience. A stranger accosts the couple and as he talks becomes progressively more agitated and irrational - this is the effect of the plague. The couple escapes the museum. Throughout the play sounds of coughing are heard.
12:50: The panel discusses the plague, feet symbolism and the supermodernist movement.
14:40: We return to the earlier monologue, which is apparently playwriter Molka's journal - this time, observations of his mother on vacation.
18:30: The play continues into the next scene, with the couple going to a Chinese restaurant. Their familiar unease at being Anglo-Saxons in a Chinese-American environment is amplified when the waiter turns out to be increasingly abusive and irrational. He too is a plague victim, and the couple escapes the restaurant.
24:30: Panel discussion.
28:10: The next segment is a different kind of monologue: a gallows erected on a bridge and guards charged with asking passers where they are going and killing them if they swear falsely.
29:50: Back to the play, the couple takes a cab to the woman's apartment. All seems to finally be going well with the romantic evening until the cab driver starts driving erratically, and he turns out to be another plague victim.
32:40: Panel discussion.
36:10: Finally the couple reaches Jo's apartment. They have brandy and she leads them into making love.
44:40: The following panel discussion concerns itself with the sensory and religious themes in the play. Questions of determinism and freedom.
49:10: The final segment is a repeating monologue: A story is repeated several times, changing slightly with each telling. While Molka is having an operation for club feet, his father dies[1] and his mother claims his father has gone to Boston. He travels to Boston, searches the city, picnics in a cemetery and becomes paralyzed.
Monologue: Memories of childhood told in the first person against a rhythmic sound loop, a childhood fish story. Discordant voices overlapping. Joseph Molka's plays: a woman named Joe and a stranger in a plague ridden city. Each vignette is followed by an academic panel discussion. Scene in an art museum. A discussion of feet and the supermodernist movement. Monologue: Molka's journal observations of his mother on vacation. Scene in a Chinese restaurant; the couple is attacked by a waiter. Monologue: a gallows erected on a bridge and guards charged with asking passers where they are going and killing them if they swear falsely. Scene in a cab with a mad cab driver. Scene in Joe's apartment. Discussion of sensory and religious themes in the play. Questions of determinism and freedom. Monologue: A story that is repeated several times, changing slightly with each telling. While Molka's having an operation for club feat his father dies and his mother claims his father as gone to Boston. He travels to Boston, searches the city, picnics in a cemetery and becomes paralyzed.
Music
- "Sketch" - Penguin Cafe Orchestra (from Signs Of Life, 1987) | YouTube [Intro]
- "4:00 A.M., June; The Sky Was Green" - Peter Schickele, Stanley Walden & Robert Dennis (from The Open Window, 1969) | YouTube [2:26]
- "That Lucky Old Sun" - Yusef Lateef (from Yusef Lateef's Detroit, 1969) | YouTube [37:32]
The text is similar to A Call In The Night; the sound effects are heavier in the original and Joe's monologues are modified and delivered with different emphasis and set to different background sounds.
Miscellanea
- Joe Frank's father died on the day of one his operations for club feet.[1]
- Joe mentions the production of the original version of this program in a 2003 interview.
Footnotes
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 "Joe Frank Signs Off". Mark Oppenheimer, Slate, January 19, 2018.
