Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce

I am Charlie

Drama

by Stephen A. Cardinal

An empty stage except for a guitar, a mail bag, and two TV monitors (or preferably banks of monitors), one on each side of the stage. A crucifix leans against the wall stage left.

In the center of the stage a gas chamber juts out from the wall. Windows on either side of door. Smoke oozes out from “leaks” in the chamber.

On either side of the gas chamber the monitors play B-Roll images. We hear moderate volume from each, loud enough to be followed by anyone listening carefully.

The STAGE LEFT screen now shows ‘slot machine’ images of Charles Manson, Hillary, Donald the serial killers, Hitler, Geobbels, etc. all rolling on three reels. They spin, halt one, two three, showing different images. Then they roll again.

The STAGE RIGHT screen shows news images and commentary of SERIAL KILLERS.

On the Right screen these images continue while the audience is seated. They may blink off, blink on, ‘change channels’, loop and start over.

The images culminate with the right screen showing images of the Manson trial and the newspaper and TV reports of the Tate La Bianca murders.

The lights go down, both TVs blink out to blue.

Lights highlight the gas chamber as smoke billows out.

TV Monitors come back to life.

Charlie’s death sentence is read aloud in higher volume on the right monitor, the newspaper headline “Manson Sentenced to Death” then appears on that monitor.

Right monitor then shows headline “California strikes down Death Penalty. 2. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce Manson Death Sentence Commuted to Life”. Monitor then shows Charlie in cuffs, smiling, raising his arms in triumph.

The left screen rolls to images of Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Hits the jackpot. Bells ring siren sounds, lights flash.

Smoke billows out of gas chamber. Charlie unseen, inside.

CHARLIE Yes. Yes. Charlie lives. He can’t be killed. He can’t be silenced.

(See hands grab door from inside through smoke, shake it. His head pops through the smoke like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.)

CHARLIE Not even death holds sway. You saw it. I’m the reason they nixed the Death Penalty in California. Damn straight, people. I’m in control.

(A slow rumble is heard from off stage left, then from off stage right, growing louder and louder. Charlie works his fingers on gas chamber door.)

CHARLIE C’mon baby. C’mon. C’mon.

(The noise grows grow louder. The smoke thickens.)

CHARLIE That’s it baby, you can do it. C’mon, you can do it.

(Charlie pushes the door open, lurches forward toward the audience and stops dead cold. He’s young Charlie Manson wearing an orange prison jump suit, barefoot. Charlie works his fingers and rubs his hands, stretches, walks toward the audience, looks back toward the chamber, then back to the audience.) 3. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce CHARLIE Yes. Charlie can’t be killed, he can’t be contained. He can’t be silenced. He can’t be. He can’t be. He. Can’t.

(Charlie sniffs a couple times.)

CHARLIE You smell something burning?

(Looks back to the chamber. Moves back, plows though smoke, disappears, reappears through smoke, holding a script.)

CHARLIE What the fuck?

(The monitors show what Charlie is reading off the script. The text on the monitors is in a typewriter font.)

CHARLIE “I Am Charlie. The Demon of the 20th Century. A Play in Four Acts.”

(Looks around.)

CHARLIE What the? Where the fuck did this come from?

(He tears off the page, crumples it, tosses it away. As he does so, the page crumples on the monitors and flies off the screens. Next page appears on monitors.)

CHARLIE “Synopsis. Act One. Young Charlie.”

(Monitors continue to show text of what’s being read.)

CHARLIE “Establish Charlie’s nascent demonic character. Pulls wings off flies and legs off spiders. Two kids in fight. Establish trauma of seeing mother in bed having sex. Charlie is taken away by police. Charlie shows up at Boys Town. He escapes from Boys Town in the middle of the night.” Jesus fucking A. Christ. 4. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce (Charlie shakes his head, rips page out of script, crumples it and tosses it away. Again, page crumples on TV screens, flies away. Next page appears on screen.)

CHARLIE “Act 2. Charlie is locked in cell with hardened criminals. Establish he’s not afraid, he’s confident. The hardened criminals back away.”

(Stops reading, leans into audience, hisses like a snake.)

CHARLIE It ain’t true.

(Lifts script and reads.)

CHARLIE “He’s released. See him in stolen car chased by police.” Never happened. “Back in Jail. Released, Charlie holds up convenience store with gun. Back in jail. Pulls switch blade from boot. Cuts cell mate.”

(Tears off sheet. Crumples, tosses it.)

CHARLIE Same old B.S.

(Next sheet appears on screen.)

CHARLIE “Act 3. Charlie sells soul to devil in Satanic ritual.”

(Charlie looks up and around.)

CHARLIE Hey Satan, where the fuck is my check? “Imbued with evil powers, Charlie assembles his family of cutthroats and sex slaves.” That’s it. You know how it ends. Spooky crew terrorizes Los Angeles. Entire country gripped in fear. Who will they slaughter next?

(Points to audience members.) 5.

(Charlie lifts script, lunges at a different audience member.)

CHARLIE Who wrote this? You?

(Lunges at another audience member.)

CHARLIE You?

(Lifts script over his head with both hands.)

CHARLIE It’s all fucking B.S.

(Tosses away script. Rushes at audience.)

CHARLIE All of it. Hasn’t changed in fifty years. And it won’t change in a hundred. Or a thousand.

(He pounds his chest.)

CHARLIE But I’m here to tell ya. Charlie can’t be silenced. He can’t be muzzled.

(Raises his hands, fingers splayed.)

CHARLIE Ain’t nothing can stop me, understand? They had me up for death, then, poof! No more death penalty in California. Do you think it was a coincidence? Well, do you, punk?

(Points at audience member.)

CHARLIE Damn straight. It ain’t no coincidence. I’m in charge. I’ve always been in charge. I was meant to stay around, to be here, to be seen, to be heard, to be hated. And to be loved. Especially loved.

(Walks around nodding to everybody.)

CHARLIE Yes. I’m liking this. Get your groove back. Bit by bit. I am Charlie. I am Charlie. I am. 6.

(Monitors show a succession of prophets, not just religious, include Karl Marx, Einstein, others.)

CHARLIE I’m the avatar man, the voice crying in he wilderness. Isn’t the prophet rejected in his own land? Isn’t that the rule? The new human race is being birthed. Can’t you see it? Make that path straight, Charlie. They can’t see the path Charlie. Show them the path. Get the crews ready Charlie, get them prepared, Charlie. You the man, Charlie. It’s true. I am. I can prove it. Bugliosi thought he was killing me.

(Right monitor shows Cielo, left a Black Mass. Points at tossed away script. Left monitor show Bugliosi.)

CHARLIE The monster that devoured Cielo. The creature from the Black Mass. Evil Charlie nipped in the fucking bud. There’s no way we’re going to let Charlie get away with this shit. End of story. Full stop. Everybody lives happily ever after on the Good Ship Lollipop.

(Good Ship Lollipop on monitors, transitions to Titanic. Charlie taps his forehead, points at the audience.)

CHARLIE But you were out there, weren’t you? Waiting. And you weren’t sailing on the Good Ship Lollipop, more like the Titanic. You were always out there, waiting for me to steer you clear of that iceberg. It was your energy that made it happen. I saved you. You saved me. And when you found me, and when I couldn’t be killed, then you knew. Then you knew. You knew you were right all along about Charlie, and you responded, Oh man did you respond.

(Charlie moves to mail sack. Right monitor shows stacks of letters. Left monitor shows a black and white 1950s image of a teeny- bopper penning a fan letter.)

CHARLIE I got letters, letters, letters. Thousands of letters, every year.

(He offers letters toward audience.) 7.

(Charlie riffles through letters pulled from the sack, tosses a couple bunches in the air.)

CHARLIE From you, my fans, man. All my fans, telling me you’re ready. Sending me your love and your money. Lots of bread, man. Somehow you knew I needed it. And I answered as many letters as I could, mostly from real needy fans, and I would send those folks a check for 99 bucks out of the money flowing in with the letters. That’s why you sent the money, to connect with the others, to build the community. To get ready. I couldn’t answer ‘em all myself. And even though I couldn’t answer you myself, I wasn’t going to abandon you. I hired a full crew of inmates to help me answer ‘em. I called them my X men. It was a regular prison industry.

(Left monitor shows prisoner stamping out license plates.)

CHARLIE Not like that, man. So I stayed in touch with my fans. I was locked up, but I was still free. You can’t lock up the mind. The will. Only the body. And why? Why me? Why was I so popular? Why am I still so popular?

(Charlie does his karate dance, throws more letters into the air.)

CHARLIE Why will I always be popular? Because everybody knows Charlie is the genuine article, the real savior of the time, sacrificing himself to free you, and you, and you. All of us. Not like all these other fucking cheap imitations that came after. Did they get mail like me? And who the fuck were they, anyway? Look.

(Photos of mass murderers appear on screens as he expounds on each. The slot machine hits the jackpot with images of Dean Corll.)

CHARLIE Dean Corll. You probably don’t even remember this prick. Shit, you probably never even heard of him. Dean Corll. Killed 28 teenage boys from 1970 to 73 in Houston. What kind of demented prick does that?

(Moves to next picture: Ted Bundy. Slot machines hits the Ted jackpot.) 8.

(Charlie smiles, points at a particular audience member.)

CHARLIE Remember Ted. We’ll get back to Ted later, OK.?

(Moves to next picture: John Wayne Gacy. Slot machine hits the Gacy jackpot.)

CHARLIE John Wayne Gacy. More teenage boys. And his folks named him after the Duke. Must of known something was seriously wrong with the little fuck from the beginning.

(Charlie cocks his head. Takes a few steps each way and looks back as mom and dad expound.)

CHARLIE Does his head look funny, mom? I don’t know, dad. Maybe a little. Let’s name him after the Duke. Maybe that’ll straighten out that head. Good idea. Maybe the name might fix that strange head. Stop what’s coming from that strange head. What was coming is coming, people.

(He lunges at the audience.)

CHARLIE You know it, don’t you? That’s why you’re here. To find out if it’s really true. Well it is fucking true. This is what’s coming, people. It’s already here, it’s every day. In every state. Then it’ll be every city, on every block, every day. A huge awesome wave sweeping over the planet. Just don’t let the fuckers blame it on me. They’ll try, you know it. This all started with Charles Manson. That monster Charles Manson created all these mass murderers. Bullshit.

(Points at Gacy photo.)

CHARLIE This bullshit has nothing to do with me. I’m the messenger, not the message. These fucks are what happens when you just focus on your personal prick, man, and miss the message. I can understand it. You do have to ejaculate all the crap that they’ve put into your head for your whole life. You got to get rid of it, somehow, some way. 9. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce These assholes just thought they could get rid of it through their pricks.

(Points around audience.)

CHARLIE A lot of folks think they can get rid of the shit that way. But you can’t get rid of it that way. It’s too powerful.

(Monitors show montage images of adults messing with kids, taking toys away, sending them to their rooms, boy going into confessional, cop writing teenager a ticket.)

CHARLIE Mom. Dad. Priests. Rabbis, teachers, cops. Everybody. It’s everybody fever, man. Everybody fever, Everybody that’s ever fucked with you since it all started.

(Lunges at audience. Points at members one by one.)

CHARLIE Don’t touch that! You’re going to be sorry, young man. Okay, that’s it, go to your room. I said go to your room. Now! Your penance is a zillion rosaries. Start any time, but keep praying. Was anything going to save us from this crap?

(Slot machine hits the Timothy Leary jackpot, hippies smoking dope on the other monitor.)

CHARLIE Remember tune in turn on drop out? Was that it? Maybe. One thing about that was right on. Tune in is the key. These losers couldn’t even do that.

(Monitors reprise serial killer photo then quickly transition to Slot machine hitting the Jeffery Dahmer jackpot.)

CHARLIE And this fuck, Jeffery Dahmer. Head in his refrigerator. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a thing in Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Ain’t never been there myself. Is that what they call head cheese? And the cops, they were really tuned in. The kid escaped and they turned him back over to the bastard. Just a little gay argument, you know. Family business. Yeah, family business all fucking right. 10.

CHARLIE They tore down the place where Dahmer lived. Maybe so it wouldn’t become a shrine to these fucks. I don’t know. More likely, just to try to wipe the memory clean. Wash, rinse repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. Well, they ain’t wiping away the memory of Charles Manson, are they?

(Charlie moves from photo to photo. Slot machine hits the jackpot on each serial killer one-by one.)

CHARLIE Dean Corll. 118,000 Goggle postings. Ted Bundy. 507,000. John Wayne Gacy. 563,000. Jeffrey Dahmer. 551,000. Must be the same half a million fucks.

(Slot machine hits the Charlie jackpot again with all the bells and sirens. Charlie raises his arms, fists clenched.)

CHARLIE Charles Manson. 26,800,000. And climbing.

(Points at audience member.)

CHARLIE I haven’t checked it lately. It’s probably way higher now, right?

(Moves back.)

CHARLIE Maybe you can forget these other fucks. But you can’t forget me, you’ll never forget me. I’m number one. And I always will be. Why? Because I’m tuned in. I know what’s going on, what’s coming. 27 million understand. More.

(Lunges toward the audience, points at someone in the first row right, and then at another in the first row left.)

CHARLIE So even though I was in jail, I wasn’t really in jail. I was out and about. I was in your heads, man, and you’ll never forget me. See. I’m still out and about. And I’m fucking dead. Or am I? 11.

CHARLIE Charlie Manson released in secret. And whisked off to a theater in [insert current city name].

(Points back to gas chamber, then to more audience members. A spot lights each one as he points to them.)

CHARLIE I’m here because my life is entwined with yours. And yours. And yours. You wouldn’t have thought so back then. It was horrible, I was satanic. I was the devil incarnate. They invented fake news, man, just for me.

(Points back at serial killer photos.)

CHARLIE But am I really a monster?

(Right screen screens show Tate La Bianca B- roll, Left screen shows Las Vegas shooting.)

CHARLIE Or was I just out of time? Just early, I mean, ahead of time. It’s happening, people. I think you’re coming around to believe it by now. My exit at this exact moment in time is just an exclamation point, a little reminder. I won. I’m immortal. I can’t die.

(Charlie does the ‘grab your dick’ rapper shit.)

CHARLIE And I’ll be fucking your daughters over and over again. Forever. Forever and ever amen. I’ll be fucking your sons, too. I’ve got the world by the balls, folks, and I ain’t letting go. Because I am Charles Manson.

(Struts around.)

CHARLIE I am immortal.

(Lowers arms, points at audience member.)

CHARLIE Eternal. Don’t like it? Well, you better fucking learn to live with it, because this is your trip too. You might have been able to stop it, but it’s too late now. Way too late. Hey, I’m not a killer? Well, neither am I. I never fucking killed anybody. Besides, do any of us really want to stop it? You may not think so, but you don’t want it to stop.

(Charlie rushes the audience.)

CHARLIE What the fuck are you talking about Charlie? Stop what Charlie?

(Slot machine hits Healter Skelter jackpot.)

CHARLIE Helter Skelter. H-E-L-T-E-R. No A. Great assassins. Poor spellers. Helter Skelter. The great, ultimate battle opening the door of freedom for all mankind. What kind of bullshit is that? Bullshit? Helter Skelter? Hmmm. Helter Skelter. Helter Skelter. Helter Skelter.

(Right screen shows Nazi torch march, split screen with Charlottesville torch march. Charlie points fingers back and forth.)

CHARLIE Helter Skelter? You don’t see no fucking difference, do you? And back in the day. In the 60s. You may not have called it that, but Helter Skelter was in everybody’s mind, too, wasn’t it? Back in the day? Riots, assassinations, Viet Nam.

(Screens shows LA riots. JFK, RFK assassinations, Vietnam.)

CHARLIE Burn, baby, burn. I mean, could we have been wrong about it? We weren’t really wrong about it, were we? Back then? Just a tad early?

(Screens show LA, Detroit in flames at night.) 13.

Copyright 2018CH ADoRLIE Not Reproduce I didn’t know all this shit was coming. Back then. Man, I was out of jail and free for the first time in my fucking life. I wasn’t no fucking prophet. At least I didn’t know I was.

(Screens show hippies, Summer of Love.)

CHARLIE All I wanted was to groove, man.

(Points to someone old enough in the audience.)

CHARLIE You were there, man, you know. Were you a prophet? I wasn’t no prophet. I was just getting laid. I was really good at it, too. How about you? But.

(Raises his clenched fists, bangs his temples,)

CHARLIE Something was after me. Something was trying to take control. I tried to fight it. I took a lot of drugs. They helped. Fucking helped, but it always came back. And there wasn’t nothing I could do about it. I kept asking myself, who the fuck is in control here? Until. The music came to me.

(Spot lights guitar. Charlie singing his song comes up and plays, then fades.)

CHARLIE The music came to me and said, Charlie, you’re good, in fact, you’re more than good, you’re great. A star. No, not a star. A Superstar.

(Monitors show images of Beatles and Rolling Stones.)

CHARLIE That’s all it would have taken. If they would have just let me fulfill my destiny, none of this other shit would have happened. Helter Skelter had to be done, but it wasn’t really my job to do it. It was somebody else’s job. Some other guy. Some other guy who fucked up, missed his cue. I didn’t know that back then, but I know it now. These things always work in pairs.

(Monitors show pairings.) 14.

Copyright 2018CH ADoRLIE Not Reproduce Christ, John the Baptist. Hitler, Churchill. Hillary, Trump. They push each other, they need each other. And one always has to come forward first. And when he doesn’t, the other guy has to do the job. So whoever he was, wherever he was, he dropped the ball, and I had to pick it up. I had to do it because he didn’t. Who was that fucking failure? To tell you the truth, I don’t even fucking know today.

(Points at audience.)

CHARLIE Was it you? Maybe you, or you, or you. Is that why you’re here? Because you’re feeling guilty? Charlie Manson would be remembered today as the man who brought the peace and love everyone was trying to find into reality, halting the chaos, stopping it stone cold with his music.

(Points to guitar.)

CHARLIE I knew it. So I practiced. I got good at it, too. I wrote some songs, played. Got in the groove, got into the music scene. Got some gigs. I was almost there. Then.

(Slot machine hits Beach Boys jackpot.)

CHARLIE I guess nothing happens by chance, right? It’s all pre-programmed. You know, go with the flow, right? A couple of my ladies got picked up by a beach boy, and Dennis just moved me along click, click, click, right up to the brink of fame and fortune. I was almost there, man, that close.

(Does Karate shit.)

CHARLIE And just think how different things would have turned out. So who fucked it all up? It could have been me, I could have been weak. Maybe I just missed one little beat somewhere. I mean, it’s the story of my life, always getting fucked, somehow some way by somebody. You’ve all been fucked over, right? You know what it’s like. Think about anytime you’ve been fucked over and multiply it by ten, by a hundred, by a million. That’s me. That’s Charlie. I am Charlie.

(Slot machine hits Terry Melcher jackpot.) 15.

(Slot machine hits Dennis Wilson jackpot.)

CHARLIE And Dennis Wilson. Well, Dennis just abandoned me.

(Lifts the guitar, carries it across the stage and drapes it by the strap over the cross.)

CHARLIE So much for the fucking music career. So much for the peace and love. That’s what opened the door.

(Makes a sweeping gesture with one arm.)

CHARLIE C’mon Helter Skelter. Step right in.

(Smoke billows out of gas chamber. Charlie cross his arms, watches it, then lunges toward the audience.)

CHARLIE Is this some endless loop of pain and misery? No. There’s nothing wrong with you, Charlie. It’s what you’ve been preparing for all your life. To be ready, to pick up the torch and run with it. The revelation. Helter Skelter. It could have been the music, the peace and love trip, but you’re prepared, Charlie, you can do what has to be done. Pick up that Olympic Torch from the fucker who dropped it. It’s yours now.

(Raises hand like holding torch. Points it at audience members. Monitors show Olympic Torch run, then athletes on the medals platform.)

CHARLIE So you, you, you, can follow that torch and move on to the podium, to the top platform. It’s the world that will pay the price. Not the Garden of Eden, Charlie, not here on earth, but the fires of hell, right here on earth.

(Lowers torch to floor, seeps it in front of himself to set the world on fire.) 16.

(Screens show Tate/LaBianca images.)

CHARLIE A lot of things in life happen in increments, step by step. You don’t really know the next step until it’s right there in front of you. That’s not the way this thing has been portrayed. I didn’t plan Helter Skelter.

(Points to gas chamber. Smoke belches out.)

CHARLIE I was just preparing for it. You wait, you’ll see, when that wave breaks over and you’re faced with your own Helter Skelter, you will embrace it, you’ll have to. It ain’t even a question of deciding. All the shit that’s already going down and will go down before the main wave breaks, means if you don’t embrace it, you die.

(Points finger at head like gun, pulls trigger.)

CHARLIE Bam. Bam. Bam.

(Smiles, moves slowly toward the audience.)

CHARLIE Isn’t Helter Skelter why you’re here, right now? Not me, you say? Well, maybe. Maybe not you.

(Lurches back to serial killer pictures.)

CHARLIE Nobody ever talked about all the crap with these people that went down before their own personal Helter Skelter wave broke.

(Moves back to center stage, points to Tate/La Bianca images, then at tossed away script.)

CHARLIE But they wrote a whole fucking bible on Charlie Manson. Remember? His mother was a whore. He was abused as a child. He was in jail his whole life.

(Left screen shows Boys Town.) 17.

Copyright 2018CH ADoRLIE Not Reproduce Remember? They sent him to Boys Town, for Christ’s sake, and Father Flanagan couldn’t even save him. Every fucking crazy image and metaphor they could find to pin it all on mad man Charlie. He did it, he dreamed it up, he hypnotized the crew to do it. It’s an aberration. Right. All bullshit.

(Right screen shows the Manson gals, left screen the Cielo crime scene.)

CHARLIE The gals weren’t hypnotized. The folks at Cielo fucked with the gals, that’s for sure, you never heard much about that. The gals just wanted to square the deal. There was lots of whacky shit going on up there. It sure wasn’t an attack on the innocents.

(Monitors show headlines of ‘Manson Family’ murders, videos of the gals chanting in court.)

CHARLIE You think I’m some kind of evil genius? Bugliosi was the real evil genius. He distracted you from all the crap that went down with the crew up on Cielo with the Manson family crap. There never was any fucking Manson family. The press machine created the Manson Family the same way they created mad man Charlie.

(More images of wacky women. Charlie shakes his head and walks around.)

CHARLIE I was swimming in a purple haze through all this, man. It was like being on acid, twenty four seven. It was like a permanent hallucination.

(Sounds hurled at Charlie from out of nowhere. He ducks and races across the stage to avoid being hit.)

CHARLIE They we tossing shit at me from every direction. Like I said. Charlie hypnotized the gals. He turned them into zombies. He was the father of the Manson Family cult.

(Show monster pix.) 18.

Copyright 2018CH ADoRLIE Not Reproduce I started seeing Frankenstein and and the Wolfman and Dracula in my own head, man. They’d point at me and say, “Charlie, they’re going to blame it on you.” So, I knew from the start they were going to blame it on me. But I kept asking myself why, why me, why?

(Regains confidence.)

CHARLIE I did figure it out, ‘ventually. They needed a scapegoat.

(Show old testament burnt sacrifice pix.)

CHARLIE Who they?

(Show pix of young WW II soldiers.)

CHARLIE The Greatest Generation. The Greatest Generation. Their world was falling apart.

(Show pix of the Silent Majority.)

CHARLIE The silent majority. The great patriots. Their world was falling apart and they were trying desperately to keep it together. So they had to cling to what they knew. We saved the world, now it’s the job of the next generation. The great patriots who sent their sons and daughters off to be slaughtered by the tens of thousands in Vietnam.

(Show bloody Vietnam pix.)

CHARLIE It’s your duty son. You have to defend your country against the commie hoards. If you don’t.

(Show pix of massive domino knock down.)

CHARLIE Vietnam will go commie, then Thailand, then, then, Canada. Then it’ll be Red Dawn in Podunk Center. Their whole world was melting. I’m melting. I’m melting. I’m melting. Who’s causing this? Who?

(Charlie melts.) 19.

(Show Woodstock.)

CHARLIE Drug-crazed nekid hippies having their dirty drug-crazed nekid hippie sex. Get a haircut. Take a bath. Sylvia, Sylvia where’s my fucking gun? Sylvia, for God’s sake. Their world was falling apart. They needed a scapegoat.

(Reprise scapegoat pix.)

CHARLIE And in the midst of all the chaos the white man elite figured out how to use what you might call the “Spirit of the Time” to their advantage.

(Show Nixon, George Wallace. Slip in Trump pix. Charlie points at Trump.)

CHARLIE Not him. Not yet. These were the big Grand Poobah white man elite back in the day, right, but we all know that shit flows downstream.

(Show Bugliosi pix.)

CHARLIE Vincent Bugliosi. White man on the make in Hollywood. Yes. During his eight years in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, Vincent Bugliosi successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, which included 21 murder convictions, without a single loss. Vincent Bugliosi. There’s a reason why he never had a single loss. He made shit up.

(Show Manson trial newspapers showing Helter Skelter.)

CHARLIE It’s a fact. I wasn’t there, I didn’t plunge no knife into no movie stars. So the only way my buddy Vince could get me convicted was if I directed a--

(Air quotes.)

CHARLIE --“conspiracy to commit murder.” Now, I did talk about Helter Skelter up at the ranch, no don’t about it, so he wove that into a conspiracy. But I never sent nobody nowhere to start no race war. If I had a better lawyer, I never would have been convicted. 20. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce (Looks up and around. Hollywood sign comes up on monitors.)

CHARLIE Hollywood. Where dreams come true. The press and Bugliosi, that was the “criminal conspiracy.”

(Manson cult headlines on screens.)

CHARLIE But I didn’t have a better lawyer and I became what you see before you today. Mad man Charlie Manson. Father of the Manson Family cult.

(Raises arms.)

CHARLIE I wasn’t no cult leader. I wasn’t no father figure. I was more like a cowboy trying to herd cats. Yeah, I played it, it was fun. There was a lot of fucking. But there was no fucking family.

(Lunges at audience.)

CHARLIE I fucked everybody. And why not? So when they gals came to me and told me what they were going to do to the crew up on Cielo, I knew if they did it would all be blamed on me. I knew it.

(Gas chamber starts belching smoke. He points back at gas chamber.)

CHARLIE Why the fuck did I stay, man, I was going to leave, I was just about to, when I was shamed into staying by the gals. But here’s the difference. I could have gotten away before the wave broke back then, but you won’t be able to now, because soon, very soon, there just ain’t going to be any place that’s going to be safe. It’s like a black hole, it’s going to swallow everything up. All you can do is get ready. And that’s all I was talking about then, and that’s what I’m here to talk to you about now. Get ready.

(Monitors go black, then blink on with blue screens. Now an argument ensues between Charlie and disembodied female voices coming from the monitors. 21. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce See decibel tracings across the screens as disembodied female voices taunt.)

CHARLIE What the fuck?

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Poor Charlie. Yeah, poor Charlie.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 All he tried to do was save the world. Yeah, and you stopped him.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 It wasn’t me, it was you. Na uh uh.

CHARLIE What the fuck? Who the hell?

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 You know who we are Charlie. Yeah Charlie, you know who we are.

(Charlie backs away from screens, raises hands, becoming freaked.)

CHARLIE Wait a minute, wait a minute. I’m, I’m not that Charlie. I came back from the dead. I am immortal. Charlie 2 point 0.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 But, that sounds like the same old Charlie That’s right. More like Charlie 10 point 0. to me.

CHARLIE Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing here?

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Who are we? You know who we are. Don’t Yeah Charlie, you know who we are, we’re you recognize us? your family.

(Charlie presses his temples)

CHARLIE No. No. No. That’s all bullshit, it never was a family. 22.

CopyrightFEMALE FR O2018M SCREEN # 1 Do NotFEMA LReproduceE FROM SCREEN #2 What do you mean? We lived together. We We loved together. ate together.

CHARLIE That family shit was all a creation of the media. Stop talking about it.

(Points to audience.)

CHARLIE You’ll get them wrapped up in their own family bullshit and they’ll never get free from it. There never was no fucking family.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 What do you mean, no family? We did the We killed together. most intimate thing a family can do together.

CHARLIE This can’t be happening. Not now. Not after all the trouble I went through to bring these people here.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Okay, after he says there never was a I suppose the next thing he’s going to say family, what’s the next thing he says? is that he never killed anybody.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 He’s said that already, hasn’t he? Yeah, but it’s a broken record. He’ll say it again.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 And again. And again.

CHARLIE I never did kill anybody.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Really, Charlie? Yeah. c’mon Charlie.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 You know what? He always claimed he Oh, I see. But you’re wondering if he ever killed what’s his name, but. did. You know what, maybe you’re right. Maybe he never had the guts to pull the trigger. 23.

CopyrightFEMALE FR O2018M SCREEN # 1 Do NotFEMA LReproduceE FROM SCREEN #2 Maybe he’s just a real wimp. You could be right. A gutless wonder. Are you just a gutless wonder, Charlie?

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Charlie Manson. All talk and no action. Charlie Manson, gutless wonder.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Gets fools to do his dirty work. Fools become tools. Tooools of the wiiiimp.

CHARLIE Stop. Stop it you two.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 We don’t have to stop. We can torture you Yeah, the wimp who can never die. forever.

(Rushes back toward gas chamber. It really starts belching out smoke.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Unmacho man. Panty-waist.

(Charlie yanks gas chamber door open. Tons of smoke billow out.)

CHARLIE Go away.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 What’s he up to? I don’t know.

(Charlie rushes back and forth between the monitors, then approaches open gas chamber door)

CHARLIE You’ve got no right. No right.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Oh, look, the twinkie’s going to kill The milquetoast is going to do what himself. Bugliosi couldn’t. 24.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Die Charlie, die. Do it, Charlie, do it.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Die. Die. Die. Die, Charlie, die, die.

(Charlie screams from inside chamber, chokes, coughs fade away to silence amid smoke billowing out. Then the television monitors and all the lights in the house go dark one by one in succession and the theater is dark for about a minute as smoke clears.)

SCENE TWO

(Spot lights gas chamber door. Charlie steps out, raises his head and smiles, points a thumb over his shoulder back at the chamber. Shuts the door.)

CHARLIE You didn’t think I was really going to do it, did you? Just slip away, into the ether or somewhere, and abandon you in this battle, did you?

(Point somebody out in the audience.)

CHARLIE Well did you? Fucking aye, man, we’re going to the fucking stars. Together. That’s what this is all about. That’s why you’re here.

(Points back at the chamber.)

CHARLIE I just needed a little fumigation to get rid of the gals.

(Takes a step toward each dark monitor.)

CHARLIE Worked.

(Show homeless under a bridge, restaurant image, superhero image.)

CHARLIE You could be sleeping outside under a bridge, You could be eating out, you could be at a Superhero movie. Nothing else much in the movie theaters, right? But you’re not. You’re here live and there’s a reason you’re here.

(Pulls a theater ticket out of a pocket, raises it.)

CHARLIE You bought a ticket.

(Points around waving the ticket.)

CHARLIE This ain’t no ordinary ticket. It’s your ticket to the stars. Did anybody sneak in?

(Points to someone.)

CHARLIE You? Hope so. But you’re here. So you can come, too. Elvis may have left the building without you, but Charlie ain’t leaving you behind. And I ain’t talking about no Heaven’s Gate crap. This ain’t no fantasy.

(Right monitor shows Heaven’s Gate images. Left monitor shows a comet.)

CHARLIE Another group of fuck-ups. They figured out we were going to the stars, but they couldn’t figure out how. Heaven’s Gate calling cosmic Uber. Come in cosmic Uber. Oh, you’re sending a comet to pick us up? That’s neat. Come pick us up. Sure, we’ll be there in twelve minutes. I’ll follow it in on my iPhone. How we going to ride a fucking comet? Never mind.

(Screens show close up of tennis shoes on Heaven’s Gate folks.)

CHARLIE Check out the shoes. Heaven’s Gate Nikes. They were all wearing them. Nike Decades. Now they sell for $1,500. Not the exact ones the crew were wearing, you understand. 26. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce Any pair of Nike Decades. Kind of makes you wonder. Who’s wackier, the Heaven’s Gate folks or the shoe collectors?

(Points to audience member.)

CHARLIE That’s the difference between the nuts and Charlie. Charlie isn’t nuts. That’s what nobody ever understood. That’s why they came up with the family crap. The girls were nuts, so Charlie is nuts too, ‘cause it’s a family. Do you see the dodge? Sure I wasn’t conventional, but who was, back in the day?

(Points to older audience member.)

CHARLIE Were you?

(Points both index fingers straight up.)

CHARLIE To the stars, baby. The how didn’t exist back then, but it does now. Well, it almost exists now. Some of you may be too old to be taking the trip, but maybe not too many. It might be just a few years away. It’s a fucking dangerous race between Helter Skelter and going to the stars. That’s why you’re here. A race to the future. And the future gave us a way to speed the trip up.

(Crosses his arms in front of his chest, snaps both fingers, chamber starts spewing smoke, growing in intensity.)

CHARLIE Waves. From the future. Waves from the fucking future? You think I’m crazy? Don’t answer that. I ain’t crazy. I have an IQ of 121. What’s yours? I ain’t crazy. In fact, I’m just prescient. What you might call super sensitive, super perceptive. An empath. A touchy feely guy.

(Points back at chamber. Snaps his fingers. Smoke stops.)

CHARLIE That was a wave from the future. Sometimes you can see the effect, sometimes you can’t.

CHARLIE Sometimes you can control them. Sometimes you can’t. We’ve been experiencing them all our lives. Ever been knocked out of the blue by something and couldn’t figure it out? Then, suddenly, you just instantly understand? In the beginning they really, really fucked me over, until I realized what was going on. I just didn’t know what they were. I thought I really was going nuts.

(Snaps his fingers. TV Screens come back on, but are both blue.)

CHARLIE Never a bad idea to reboot to reboot. You can never be too sure when your family-

(Charlie uses air quotes for family.)

CHARLIE -might show up.

(Points to audience member.)

CHARLIE Am I right, or am I right?

(Another small puff from the chamber.)

CHARLIE There’s a small one. They come all the time.

(Charlie snaps his fingers. The smoke stops.)

CHARLIE Let me stop those for you, they can be pretty irritating. Driving folks nuts is part of what they’re all about. But only if you don’t know what’s going on. You have to be susceptible. On the verge. About to flip, one way or another. Once you figure it out, everything becomes crystal clear. Instantly. You see they’re beautiful gift waves coming from the future, lapping over us, freeing us from all the old crap the others want to nail us to wall with.

CHARLIE When you’re a permanent guest in the Hotel California, you got a lot of time on your hands. And I’ve always paid attention to scientific discoveries. Quick version. Some scientists found waves rippling in from the past and some claim they’ve found waves rippling in from the future.

(Screen left shows an image of an Em drive. This is an image of the rocket engine unseen at this point on/in the gas chamber. Screen right shows a big galaxy.)

CHARLIE Now I ain’t no scientist, but this is called an Em Drive. It’s a kind of rocket engine. It’s going to be able to take us to the nearest star real fast. In 8 years. This is not bullshit. It’s real.

(Slot machine hits Einstein jackpot.)

CHARLIE And remember Einstein? We’re going to be going so fast that we’ll hardly age at all. When we get there we’ll find the new Garden of Eden. And if it ain’t there yet we’ll build it or move on.

(Right monitor shows series of Garden of Eden images from literature, paintings. Charlie taps his head.)

CHARLIE The pictures had to come from somewhere, right?

(Looks, points, up.)

CHARLIE You’re fucking crazy, Charlie, right? But I’m not. You see. The problem is, according to laws of physics, this Em Drive can’t work. But it does. And one of the ways to explain why it works is that there are waves coming from the future that suck it forward.

(Points to someone in the audience.) 29.

(Looks up toward cells.)

CHARLIE And Like I said, lots of time at the San Q. Lots of time. Not just for me, but for my X Men, too. So we get to looking at this Em drive in detail and figure out. It ain’t that hard to make one. And you know who’s in control of the prison right? It ain’t the guards. We put one of the damn things together. So everybody says, now what?

(Puts hands on hips, looks at gas chamber. Turns back to audience. Jabs thumb over his shoulder back at the chamber.)

CHARLIE Weren’t nobody using that. So we rigged it up. And son of a bitch if we didn’t lasso a few of those waves from the future.

(Chamber lights up, rattles, smokes.)

CHARLIE This was right before I left. I told the guys, keep working on it. And you know what. We figured something else out. These waves ain’t just running this engine, they’re washing over us all the time, pulling us forward just like they’re pulling the Em drive forward. And they’ve been blasting us ever since the dawn of time. Are they making us do shit or are they just rattling what’s already inside us? Either way doesn’t matter. It’s happening. Why would they do that?

(Left screen shows galaxy image, Charlie rushes toward it.)

CHARLIE They’re going to take us there, man. That’s been their purpose all along. Maybe they’re guided by some super intelligent beings or maybe it’s just chance. Either way, they’re going to whiz us off this rat hole and take us home. We got to get purified first, tough. They must purify man to take us to our home in the stars. And the purification process? That’s Helter Skelter in a nutshell.

(Rushes up to the screen showing the Em drive.) 30.

Copyright 2018CH ADoRLIE Not Reproduce To the stars man, to our home. It explains everything I’ve done, and why I’m not guilty of anything except being the hero of the future human race. And that’s why the culmination of Helter Skelter is coming now. It’s just around the corner. Because the trip to the stars is just around the corner.

(Charlie taps his temple.)

CHARLIE All you gotta do is get in sync. Here’s a fact. The first job of Helter Skelter is getting us so sick of this hell hole down here that we don’t just want to leave, we have to leave. So. The first job is.

(Slot machine hits Munch’s ‘The Scream’ jackpot.)

CHARLIE Generate fear. Massive unstoppable penetrating to the bone fear. You can pick the thread up anywhere, but let’s start about the time this was painted.

(Huge amount of smoke billows out onto stage creating “London Fog”. Slot machine hits Jack the Ripper jackpot.)

CHARLIE The Ripper. London. 1888. One of my personal favorites. Never found.

(Serial killer photos come up on one screen. Charlie points at them.)

CHARLIE Not like these fucks. Jack never got caught. He just stopped. Just stopped. But with the help of the media, he generated a horrible, penetrating fear. Mix in foggy London nights.

(Chamber belches out a big blast.)

CHARLIE And the press.

(Right screen shows bloody photo of Mary Kelly.) 31.

(Points to women in the audience.)

CHARLIE You? You? Or you? That was a future wave for sure. Jack the Ripper. Google postings. 9,190,000.

(Both screens start rolling forward with scenes of fear death mayhem speeding up and culminating in stacks of WW II death camp skeletons. About a minute as Charlie looks at his imaginary watch.)

CHARLIE You get the picture.

(Charlie taps his forehead.)

CHARLIE Next job. Eliminate the folks we can’t take with us. There's only so many seats.

(Right screen shows Jews with Stars of David on clothes being herded into trains, left screen shows naked Vietnamese girl running from napalm.)

CHARLIE Me? I ain’t got nothing against nobody in particular any more. I ain’t trying to hurt nobody. It’s simple arithmetic. There just ain’t enough seats. So.

(Right screen shows Hillary campaigning. Left screen shows Trump at Republican convention with crowd chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!” One screen hits Hillary Jackpot, the other Trump jackpot.)

CHARLIE Yeah man, they locked me up, why not her? Lock her up. Lock ‘em both up. Lock all the fucks up.

(Charlie taps his head.) 32.

(Points at picture of Hillary and Trump jackpots.)

CHARLIE You don’t want to take these fucks to the stars, do you, so they can fuck up the universe like they fucked up everything here. Do you?

(Lunges at the audience.)

CHARLIE Of course you don’t. The timing is now. It’s ripe, you’re ripe, the world is ripe, we’re all ripe. So. Coming soon to an earth near you, peak Helter Skelter. My men.

(Spreads his arms wide.)

CHARLIE Our men, right? Right?

(Left screen shifts back to Charlottesville torch march.)

CHARLIE I mean, this land is your land to this land is my land, right? You’re with me, right. I need you. I can’t do this alone, man. I am Charlie, man, Charlie. I am Manson. Ain’t no other Charlie here. No other Charlie.

(Points around.)

CHARLIE I am the master of this stage and you are the master of your stage. You bet your ass you are. And I am Charlie. Damn straight. A massive fucking slaughter that’ll make all the others look like amateur night.

(Retrieves and lifts theater ticket. lunges around at audience.)

CHARLIE This is your real ticket. Hang on to it. You win. You figured it out. You came here today. You the man. You the woman. You won.

(Moves close to audience member.) 33.

(Rushes back and forth between screens showing Bill and Hillary, McConnell, Ryan and Trump. Points to each.)

CHARLIE Sorry, sir. Sorry, ma’am. You’ve been bumped. Bumped. Bumped. And bumped.

(Points to audience.)

CHARLIE But you’re here. And you’re here and you’re in First Class. And you don’t have to do any of the dirty work, either. You just need to show up. Ready.

(Hands the ticket to someone in the audience. Its a real ticket for a future performance.)

CHARLIE Give it to a friend. Compliments of Charlie.

(Pulls another one out. Hands it to that same person.)

CHARLIE Better take two. They’re not going to want to go to the stars alone.

(Right screen shows images of Las Vegas, other shootings. Charlie points back.)

CHARLIE The others will take care of the reduction surgery. A massive fucking slaughter. All over the country. All over the world. You know it’s already started. You know it’s already speeding up.

(Screens shows modern serial killer photos.)

CHARLIE You have to crawl before you walk. You have to walk before you run. Plenty of these fucks just hanging loose, ready, willing and able to do your, I mean our, dirty work. The gals were right. I don’t have the balls to kill anybody, but these guys do. They’ll do their number on the highest profile American patriots from Fox News to members of Congress. 34. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce (Left screen shows image of Republican baseball game shooting, Right screen shows Fox News broadcast. Then right screen shifts to a professional baseball game.)

CHARLIE To sporting events. Everywhere. And take a look. Do you think this guy is kidding?

(Play Trump clip on left screen: “Just stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you hear from these people, the fake news. Just remember: What you’re seeing and hearing isn’t happening.”)

CHARLIE You talking to me? Well, is there anybody else here? Well, I guess maybe there is.

(Show clips of QAnon at Trump rally on right screen.)

Are these are the special guys, the Manchurian Candidate types that don’t really know who they are and are actually deeply implanted? They’re everywhere. But guys. And gals. We ain’t no sexist pigs, are we? Guys and gals tuned in. Then, blam. The whole world goes nuclear. The good folk, those who think they’re in danger from all this, not because they are, but because that’s been implanted into their brains, the good folks go bonkers. Well, more bonkers. Nuclear bonkers. And that’s it. Boom.

(The gas chamber starts belching.)

CHARLIE End game Helter Skelter.

(Smoke blows out in a torrent. Charlie, rushes the audience. Left screen shows images of the pope, cops, generals, presidents, celebrities, FOX news, MSNBC, 911. The left screen images speed up. More images appear on the right screen of death misery murder mayhem.)

CHARLIE Fear. Death. Mayhem. Fear. Death. Fear. Death. Mayhem. Wave after wave after wave. Oh come on asshole. Waves? For Christ’s sake. 35. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce This shit has been happening since the dawn of time. Exactly. Millions of years. But then God said, ‘Let’s take this act global. Let there be newspapers, movies, TV, Internet’. And so these too, all came to pass. The waves are coming faster. And faster. Once you understand, you’re free. They can lock your body up, Charlie, but that won’t stop the future. They can’t stop the future. And.

(Raises arms.)

CHARLIE I am the future.

(Rushes from screen to screen.)

CHARLIE Beautiful, isn’t it? That’s ecstacy, man, pure unadulterated joy, brought to you here today by your sponsor, waves from the future. That’s what it looks like when you understand it, when you let wash over you.

(Screens really speed up, Charlie becomes more frantic.)

CHARLIE Waves from the future? You seriously expect us to believe that? You’re fucking crazy, Charlie. No. I’m not. You’re not. This is happening.

(Lights flash, chamber belches, Charlie collapses, screens go dark. House lights go dark. Charlie screams in the dark.)

CHARLIE This is happening.

SCENE THREE

(Audio of Hitler ranting and raving plays for a minute in the dark. Spot comes up on Charlie above the stage.)

CHARLIE You’re not crazy. You’re just tuned in. You’re here. You’re tuned in. Let me show you how ‘crazy’ all this is.

(Charlie comes down the stairs. 36. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce Approaches TV screens, snaps his fingers, monitors come right to life. Right and left screens show images of Hitler, franticly gesticulating in pure reverie as he continues to rant. Slot machine hits Hitler jackpot.)

CHARLIE And God said, ‘Let there be Uncle Adolph’. And there was Uncle Adolph. Nobody can doubt he was in tune with Helter Skelter. I mean, he almost made it happen back then, all by his lonesome.

(Right screen shows pictures of Himmler in SS Uniform and Rohm in SA uniform.)

CHARLIE Folks are really fascinated by the uniforms. Anybody have any Hugo Boss in your wardrobe? You’re in good company. Hugo designed the uniforms.

(Right screen shows Werner von Braun, left shows a V-2 rocket launch.)

CHARLIE And who knows, they were light years ahead of us when it came to rocket science. Maybe they would have found the Em drive sooner, say about the time we went to the moon? Oh yeah right, about the time Charlie was working on his music career, getting ready to bring on the peace and love.

(Show Saturn V launch on right screen, moon landing on left. Charlie raises his hands, spreads his fingers, brings his hands together enmeshing the fingers of both.)

CHARLIE Then. Helter Skelter. But, it didn’t happen, so the future must have figured we needed a bit more fear, dread, and mayhem.

(Both screens show thermonuclear explosions. Full volume. Big flash of light inside of gas chamber followed by puff of smoke. Then left screen shows duck and cover commercial.) 37.

(Screens freeze and images burn through like film stuck in an old movie projector. Images replaced with Christ and John the Baptist.)

CHARLIE What’s going to save us? Religion? Well, religions always claimed to be in touch with the future waves, even if they didn’t say that exactly. And maybe they were.

(Points up.)

CHARLIE Where’s heaven, right? But that ship left the dock long ago.

(Show images of Evangelical leaders.)

CHARLIE These guys don’t even pretend anymore. When it comes to their buddy.

(Show Trump and Ten Commandment tablets. Charlie flings “tablets” away. Counts commandments off on fingers.)

CHARLIE The tablets are out the window. That’s great reverend. Now I shalt commit adultery, I shalt bear false witness, I shalt covet, I shalt steal, cheat, covet thy neighbor’s slaves and who knows, kill? Sorry, my bad. That’s okay, just ban abortion. So is it any wonder?

(Snaps fingers. Scientology sign comes up.)

CHARLIE That new religions are popping up? The old guys have lost touch with the waves. Are the new guys tuned in?

(Monitor shows e meter.)

CHARLIE Anybody know what this? C’mon, admit it. That’s right it’s an e meter. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to dis Scientology ‘cause it is no doubt a religion. Just think about it though. Science. Tology. L. Ron Hubbard invented it, you say, it can’t be a religion. 38. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce Maybe he didn’t invent it, maybe he just caught the Scientology wave as it was sweeping in, from the future.

(Second monitor shows meter.)

CHARLIE Lot of time in the Hotel California. Lot of time.

(Charlie grabs the imaginary electrodes and the machine starts humming. That gets louder and louder, gas chamber starts vibrating, smoke curls out, meter buries itself in the red zone, chamber conks out and spews out a puff of smoke.)

CHARLIE Highest reading ever recorded.

(Tosses imaginary electrodes away. Monitors show montage images of religion creators.)

CHARLIE So L. Ron created a religion, so what? So did Henry the Eighth, Luther. Calvin, Buddha, Christ. They all created a religion, that’s how religions start.

(Right monitor shows L. Ron Hubbard. Left monitor shows illustration from Fear by Hubbard.)

CHARLIE L. Ron may have even been a bit more in tune with the wave than the others. L. Ron claimed fear dread and mayhem have been with us since the dawn of time, and it hasn’t been pretty. Here’s how unpretty L. Ron thought things were. This is an illustration from a piece of fiction he wrote caller Fear. Fear. Dread. Fear. Mayhem. Dread. Fear. Dread.

(Monitors reprise Fear Dread Mayhem montage.)

CHARLIE What’s next? What’s next is, we gotta be careful. We can’t let the cat out of the bag, man. We know everything’s swirling around the rim of the crapper about to be flushed. But so do the gazillionaires. They’re buying bitcoins, they’re collecting passports, they’re hoarding gold and food. They know. 39. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce They’re buying retreats in New Zealand because it’s just about as far away from the coming chaos as you can get, and it’s pretty much empty. No hoards going to swarm over those shores.

They’re worried. They want to know how high above the ocean they have to build to escape the ice meltdown. And still have beach property.

They’re worried. They don’t know how to keep their private armies from slitting their throats when the shit hits the fan. Because they know, of course, they’re going to get their throats slit, for Christ’s sakes, they’re going to be the first ones. Unless.

(Points to Em Drive image on monitor.)

CHARLIE Unless they can get away. And. And.

(Places an open palm on his chest.)

CHARLIE And I can’t stop ‘em, not by myself.

(points to audience.)

CHARLIE But you. And me. You and me, together, we can. Just don’t let on that you know. Don’t give ‘em any hint there’s another way out. If anybody asks you what happened here today, just tell ‘em what they’re expecting to hear. It was just about that crazy motherfucker Charlie Manson. See? That’s what the whole fucking thing has been about since day one. That. Crazy. Motherfucker. Charlie. Manson. Help me out here. Saying something out loud imprints it on the brain. Help me out. Say it out loud. That. Crazy. Motherfucker. Charlie. Manson.

(Points to someone who said it. If you think you can get them to say it again, do it.)

(IF NOBODY SAYS IT:

CHARLIE Okay, Okay. I can dig it. If you don’t want to say it, just think it. That. Crazy. Motherfucker. Charlie. Manson.)

CHARLIE Thanks. So, here we are today. I’ve made my peace with Helter Skelter and I know you can, too. 40.

CHARLIE You can do it.

(Charlie raises his hands like wings, and moves them around like a soaring bird. Images of mayhem are now all seen from above.)

CHARLIE You’re above it all, you’re free from it.

(Screens show various images of space travel from sci-fi.)

CHARLIE Sure the details need to be worked out. Plenty of work yet to do. But we’re on our way.

(Spins around like a Dervish.)

CHARLIE I’ll get the message out to you about where and when to show up for the trip.

(Show image of Devil’s Tower and image of Devil’s Tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.)

CHARLIE Who knows? It might even be at the top of Devil’s Tower, so stay in shape.

(Starts walking back off stage. Turns.)

CHARLIE Oh yeah. Hang on to those tickets. They’re the real tickets. Nobody gets on board without one.

(Monitors go black, lights go off one by one, theater goes black.) 41.

CopyrightSCENE FOUR 2018 Do Not Reproduce

(Spot comes up on Charlie, stays on him as he walks on stage wearing a sport coat over his jumpsuit and has a microphone draped over his ear. Monitor images show large red TED on white background. Spot follows Charlie as he moves and speaks. He is suddenly calm, reasoned, professional. He smiles.)

CHARLIE Well, here’s something you weren’t expecting.

(Chuckles, raises his arms, looks around.)

CHARLIE The TED talk.

(Points at guy he pointed to earlier.)

CHARLIE I told you Ted was coming back. So. Fear, dread, mayhem and waves from the future causing them. With fear dread mayhem we could really start anywhere, of course, as I said. We moved on from Jack-

(Show Jack the Ripper images.)

CHARLIE -to show how they’ve been speeding up. We could have just as easily gone all the way back to the beginning of time.

(Show 2001 A Space Odyssey clip of ape with club. Play “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” music. )

CHARLIE When the first men looked up to the heavens and wondered “Is there anything out there?” When was that? Fifty thousand years ago, a hundred, more? Eons later and a couple of millennia ago-

(Show Aristotle, Plato “School of Athens” painting.) 42.

(Show earth centered universe diagram.)

CHARLIE Lucky us, right? And this model worked pretty well for what, 2,000 years or so. And that guided our culture all the way up to the point where these guys.

(Show medieval popes.)

CHARLIE Couldn’t burn enough of these guys.

(Show heretics being burned at the stake.)

CHARLIE To keep us from understanding the fact that the earth isn’t the center of the universe. Things were speeding up. It took only 500 years more for these guys.

(Show Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass).)

CHARLIE To label this picture “the current fantasy” back in the 60s. Of course everything in the present is the current fantasy. The question becomes what’s next. And that’s what we’re trying to bring to the surface here today. Is there any objective way to evaluate whether or not what we’re seeing moving around us is guided by the future? Perhaps there is. One way is to consider this. These future waves appear to be guided by intelligence.

(Show montage God reaching out to touch Adam’s finger from Sistine Chapel, Satan, Buddha, Christ, L. Ron Hubbard, Devil’s Tower space ship, little green men.)

CHARLIE God Satan little green men parallel universes, who knows? If they’re driven by intelligence the future waves might show signs of learning and increasing efficiency. Moving forward from Jack.

(Show WW I gruesome montage.) 43.

(Show Roaring 20s photos.)

CHARLIE Poof! It was over and if not forgotten, certainly ignored. Why? Well maybe it just wasn’t gruesome enough, not global enough.

(Reprise Uncle Adolph. World War II montage.)

CHARLIE World War II. Fifty million slaughtered across Europe, through Russia and into the far east. More civilians as well. Spread that fear dread mayhem around, let everybody get a taste. But even before that conflagration burned itself out it became evident that it just wasn’t going to get the job done either.

(Reprise nuclear explosion.)

CHARLIE This one missed it by this much.

(Show JFK, Cuban Missile photos B-52s in air bomb shelter.)

CHARLIE In October 1962 it came within a breath of happening.

(Show Castro, Kruschev.)

CHARLIE This guy almost convinced that guy to push the button. And son of a bitch, that didn’t work either. It needed a much more efficient strategy. You’ve just gone big, and that didn’t work. Why not try small? Real small.

(Show virus.)

CHARLIE How about coming up with a fear dread mayhem virus and infecting patient zero.

(reprise Charlie slot machine.) 44.

(reprise Tate La Bianca images, end with Hollywood sign.)

CHARLIE At the center of the world media machine.

(reprise fear death mayhem, old and new serial killer montages.)

CHARLIE Am I really crazy, has this whole thing been an act, or is this reality? I’ve had plenty of time of think about it, as you can imagine. But honestly, I can’t really say. For fifty years the Crazy Charlie meme has kept my message from being taken seriously. And maybe that’s a good thing.

If we’re sitting snug on our future planet and we’re sending those future waves back here, creating what’s going on in this theater right now, then maybe everything is hunky-dory. We’re here, right? But the danger is, that might also mean that right now, here, in this theater we’re creating the events of August 1969. And maybe we’re not creating it tonight, but maybe tomorrow night we will. And worse, maybe we’re changing it.

So, when you go back out there into the real world, the next time you see a Charlie Manson retrospective, and trust me, you will, if you’re bludgeoned by the same old bullshit media staring crazy Charlie, gruesome images, PIG and HELTER SKELTER scrawled in blood on walls, the gals chanting---basically the only images and messaging you’ve ever seen--- think about that for just a second---if there’s been absolutely no progression of thought--- then maybe we’re safe.

But, if one day you turn on the TV and they start talking about how Charlie Manson stunned the world, woke it up and changed the future, then we’re in deep shit, folks. Maybe it’ll stop peak Helter Skelter. Maybe it’ll keep the Em rive from being discovered, maybe it will condemn you to live in this shit hole forever.

(Charlie raises his hands to point out the size of the theater. Moves them in to indicate an imaginary box.)

CHARLIE Let’s not think bad thoughts. We’re in a box here. Top, bottom, four sides. Maybe being in a box like this keeps the waves we’re generating in the future focused inside this box today. 45. Copyright 2018 Do Not Reproduce We’ve just sent this message back from the future for us, here, right now, not for all the idiots out there. That’s all. So if the narrative out there doesn’t change, that means we haven’t changed it by being here today. We’re all still good to go. Just remember.

(Charlie turns, walks toward off stage.)

CHARLIE You can’t get on board without your ticket.

(Turns to walk off, turns back.)

CHARLIE Oh, by the way, even with all the TED Talks clogging the internet you won’t see this one, because it will be blocked. In fact, it’s being blocked right here, right now in (insert city name). You see, it’s really hard for folks to set down the Charlie Manson sack of bricks and take a look at it from a different angle. That’s the way it’s been designed folks. That’s okay. Remember. This is just for us. Let he who has eyes to see, see. And ears to hear, hear.

(Monitors buzz, pop, blink, come alive. Charlie rushes toward them, snaps his fingers. They come on blue, reboot. Then show flat line of voice tracings.)

CHARLIE Oh shit.

(Voice tracings of the women come back on.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 We’re back. Just when you thought is was safe to go to go out at night.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 No, safe to go to the stars. Yeah, and without us.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 I thought you loved us Charlie. Yeah Charlie, we’re family. How can you leave your family behind?

(Charlie covers his face with his palms and shakes his head.) 46.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Nothing can replace the family. Yeah, nothing can replace the family.

(Charlie lunges at audience.)

CHARLIE You did this, you brought them back. It was all settled. Then you thought them back. You sent them on a wave back from the future.

(Rushes around.)

CHARLIE You brought pictures of your family with you, didn’t you?

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Well of course they did. Yeah, Charlie, they can’t help it. Family is everything.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 We just tuned in to the pictures in the Wallets are family magnets. wallets.

CHARLIE Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

(Charlie frantically moves around, addressing the audience.)

CHARLIE It’s bullshit. Can’t you see this is what’s holding you back? They’re right, it is like a magnet. A magnet attached to an anchor. You can’t carry this baggage with you, we’ll never get off the ground. You have to let it go. They have to make it on their own. They have to buy their own ticket. You can’t do it for them. If they make it, great, if they don’t, you can’t let them stop the plan. We all need to be together on this.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 How are their families holding them back Yeah, Charlie, even the church of the Charlie? I don’t get it. golden tablets says that family is everything. 47.

CopyrightFEMALE FR O2018M SCREEN # 1 Do NotFEMA LReproduceE FROM SCREEN #2 Yeah, Charlie. They plan on going to the I don’t think so. They didn’t say everybody stars, too. They even said everybody has has their own planet. I think they said every their own planet. family has their own planet.

(In unison.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Nothing can replace the family. Nothing can replace the family.

CHARLIE Stop it. Stop it. We have to move on, now is the time, there’s no time to lose. We have to get things straight.

(The chamber spews out smoke, stops. Charlie points back at it, angry, as if the chamber were prescient.)

CHARLIE No, not now. Not yet. We’ve already been through this. I’m in charge here, not you.

(Chamber obeys, stops spewing smoke.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Wait a minute now, Charlie. Isn’t that one Yeah, Charlie, you’re not in charge, the of your future waves? future is. If it wants to go now, it wants to go now.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 Yes, now. Right now. Yes, we’re here. He can’t get rid of us. He’ll have to take us.

CHARLIE No. You can’t come.

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Why not? Yeah Charlie, why not?

CHARLIE Because you fucked the whole thing up here. I can’t let you fuck up the future.

(Charlie moves to the right monitor, yanks, yanks on one of the faux cables.) 48.

CopyrightFEMALE FR O2018M SCREEN # 2 Do NotFEMA LReproduceE FROM SCREEN #1 What are you doing? He’s pulling the plug on us.

CHARLIE Damn straight.

(Charlie yanks and yanks and with one huge pull the cable comes out, he reels backward a bit. The screen goes blank, making a dreadful sound, then comes back up blue. Now when the women speak they both come from the other monitor, with two voice tracings, one above the other.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 You can’t rid of us that easy. Hold on, he’s going to try and pull this plug.

(Charlie lunges to the other monitor, yanks on one cable, then the other, again and again, they won’t budge.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Panty waist. Wimp.

(With an Herculean effort pull Charie frees one cable. The womens’ voices slow down like HAL in 2001 as the traces flat line.)

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 You. Can’t. Do. This. To. Us. No. No. No.

CHARLIE I just did.

(The chamber stops spewing. Charlie takes several prolonged deep breathes.)

CHARLIE Look. I get that letting go of this family shit is hard for some of you. It was easier for me, because I never really had one. But. Look. You have to get rid of this family shit. There’s only so many seats. Only so many seats. And. And. Personal DNA testing. 49.

CHARLIE Don’t you see? It’s a a chain holding you back. Who gives a fuck if your great grandfather was a Swahili warrior prince? That was him, you are you. You never knew who the fuck he was in the first place. It’s all just meant to anchor you down, to keep you from your destiny. And. And. It’s not even accurate, it’s just more bullshit.

(Taps his head.)

CHARLIE Listen carefully for just a couple days. Listen how it’s constant. Family this, family that. It’s incessant, unending. Family. Family. Family. Family. Weren’t you listening? They set the trap back in 1969.

(Reprise La Bianca image and Newspaper front page Manson convicted.)

CHARLIE They’ve been tightening it ever since. The Manson Family was a manifesto. They tossed it in your face.

(Lunges at audience.)

CHARLIE It’s a trap, springing shut on your ankles. Can’t you feel the bite? Don’t let it keep you from your destiny. You can’t go, the chain will just yank you back. C’mon folks. Let it go. Come we me.

(Points up.)

CHARLIE To the stars, baby.

(Gets up, points around. Settles down a bit.)

CHARLIE There’s plenty of folks here who get this drift, maybe most of you. Maybe that’s why you’re here.

(Points around to the audience.) 50.

(Now the chamber cuts loose with a volcanic eruption of smoke.)

CHARLIE Oh shit. No. Not now. Not yet. They’re not ready.

(Em drive in/on chamber snaps open. See blue glow of lights.)

CHARLIE No. It’s too soon. They’re not ready.

(Points to audience.)

CHARLIE Who brought family pictures? Was it you? You? Stop. You’re causing this.

(Charlie leaps to the chamber, opens the door, tries to whisk the smoke away. The Em drive lights brighten.)

CHARLIE We can’t go yet. The ships aren’t even built. You’re just the prototype.

(He steps inside the chamber. The door slams shut. He can’t open it.)

CHARLIE No, let me out. I can’t go yet. I need to be here, to lead the pack.

(The blue glow from the Em grows brighter as the house lights dim. The monitors show star fields. The star fields show slow movement starting. Charlie can’t be seen now, enveloped in smoke.)

CHARLIE Wait. Wait. Wait.

(The monitors show movement through the star fields, speeding up as Charlie’s voice fades.) 51.

(The blue glow brightens, as the star fields speed up. The house lights go down. The lights glow brighter and brighter as the star fields speed up on the TV monitors. Charlie screams one last time.)

CHARLIE No. No. No.

(House lights go completely dark. Only the blue glow from the Em Drive and the speeding stars on the monitors can be seen. CO2 smoke wafts in as the Em drive whines louder and louder. This goes on long enough for the actor to get naked and back into the chamber.)

SCENE FIVE

(Whine of Em drive slows, star fields slow down, Em drive lights darken, star fields stop. Monitors go dark. Monitors reboot to show flat line voice tracings, which resume when the females speak. )

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 What happened? I. I Don’t know.

(Spot goes on the chamber door. It snaps open and naked Charlie stumbles out, collapses. )

FEMALE FROM SCREEN #2 FEMALE FROM SCREEN #1 Who are you? Yeah, who are you?

CHARLIE I am Charlie. I can’t be killed. I can’t be silenced. Not even the future holds sway.

MONITORS, HOUSE LIGHTS FADE TO BLACK