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2017 BAM Next Wave Festival #MYLAI

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Adam E. Max, Katy Clark, Chairman of the Board President

William I. Campbell, Joseph V. Melillo, Vice Chairman of the Board Executive Producer

My Lai

Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert & Vân-Ánh Võ Music by Jonathan Berger Libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman

BAM Harvey Theater Sep 27—30 at 7:30pm

Running time: approx. one hour & 15 minutes, no intermission

Direction and set design by Mark DeChiazza and Rinde Eckert Video projection design by Mark DeChiazza Lighting design by Brian H. Scott

Season Sponsor: MY LAI

My Lai Lullaby For string quartet, dàn– bâu` and dàn– tranh

Jonathan Berger, composer In collaboration with David Harrington and Vân-Ánh Võ

My Lai A monodrama for tenor, string quartet, and Vietnamese instruments

Jonathan Berger, composer Harriet Scott Chessman, librettist

I. First Landing Flight Descent The Ditch

II. Second Landing Hovering The Bunker

III. Third Landing Postcard Fishing

KRONOS QUARTET David Harrington violin John Sherba violin Hank Dutt viola Sunny Yang

Rinde Eckert vocalist

Vân-Ánh Võ, t’rung, dàn bâu, dàn tranh

ADDITIONAL CREDITS Audio engineer Scott Fraser Creative consultant Drew Cameron Producer Janet Cowperthwaite Production management Kronos Performing Arts Association

My Lai (music by Jonathan Berger, libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman) was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert, and Vân-Ánh Võ by the Harris Theater for Music and Dance with support from the Laura and Ricardo Rosenkranz Artistic Innovation Fund and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations 2013 Music Commissioning Awards initiative, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

These works were written for Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert, and Van-Anh Vo. Photo: Yannick Grandmont —Harriet ScottChessman andmusicians. piece togetherwithsuchaninspiring groupofartists inthecreation ofthis I amgratefulforthischancetostretch mymusicalwings,andtoparticipate now, andyetthevoiceIimaginedforHughThompsonhashelddeepened. tocomposethemusic, thelibrettochanged,graduallygainingshapeithas Once Jonathanstarted suggestions, overthecourseoffirstyearandahalf, beforeIheardonenoteofhiscomposition. towritemusically.aspects ofthisprocesshasbeentheeffort Irevisedthelibretto, withJonathan’s This ismyfirstlibretto—Iamafictionwriterprimarily—andoneofthe mostsurprisingandfulfilling crew.helicopter andyoungtwo-person involving thethreeunauthorizedlandingsthis24-year-old pilotmadewithhisreconnaissance ofthelibrettotrustingthisvoiceandfollowingarcthat terriblemorning, wrote thefirstdraft baffled,painedandsorrowful—came tomepowerfully.humble, yearningandfurious,forthright, I figure.Isoughtfirsttolistenforhisvoice,andsomehowthisvoice—open, plainspoken,extraordinary todoresearch,HughThompsonincreasinglyemergedformeasacompelling, Once Istarted to face,fromthatdayon, ashis actions cameunderfirebyhisowncountry. Georgia musthavehadthatmorninginMarch1968.IalsocaughtsightofhowmuchThompson ofHughThompson, Isensedthecourageandhumanitythisyoungofficerfromrural 2013, thestory . AssoonasJonathanBergertoldme,inJune It hasbeenajoyandhonortocollaborateonMyLai —Jonathan Berger the frayofwar. set throughacharacterstudyofanindividualwhounintentionallybecomesinextricablyboundupin expression inwhichthepoliticalandsocietalunderpinningsofconflict,itssenselessbrutalityare new soundworlds.AswasthecaseinmyrecentworkTheWar Reporter seeksamodeof , MyLai into simultaneouslyrepresentsacontinuationofmycreativepathandanexcitingdeparture My Lai toseekclosureandresolution. idealistic attempttostopthecarnagearepiecedtogetherinaneffort proudofwhathedid,theconsequencesThompson’s naïve, neither heroic,norparticularly hospital room,whereThompson, surrenderingtocancer, facesdeathunderhospicecare.Feeling Scored fortenor, theworktakesplaceina traditional Vietnameseinstruments,andstringquartet, Thompsonvilifiedasadisloyaloutcastformuchofhislife. left andtrialthatshookthenationalconscience, toconductaninquiry massacre forcedthemilitary graspandflewhimtosafety.from itsdeadmother’s Thompson’s refusaltoremainsilentaboutthe threatened toopenfireonhisowntroops. Failing tostopthecarnage,hepulledawoundedchild the troops.Aghastathisinabilitytostopslaughter, inamomentofenormouspassion, Thompson theincident,thenbylandinghishelicopterbetweenciviliansand to intercede,firstbyreporting a routinereconnaissanceflight.Appalledbywhathesaw, Warrant Officer HughThompsonattempted actions ofayoungarmyhelicopterpilotwho, byhappenstance,witnessedthekillingincourseof and swayedthecourseofhistory. Theeventsofthatdaymaywellhavegoneunnoticedsaveforthe 16, 1968,wasoneofthedarkestmomentsVietnamWar—one thattraumatizedthenation The massacreofover500innocentciviliansbyAmericansoldiersinthevillageMyLaionMarch —ARTISTS’STATEMENTSMY LAI Who’s Who

KRONOS QUARTET (performer) and home season performances, education For more than 40 years, San Francisco’s Kronos programs, and a self-produced Kronos Festival. Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba In 2015, Kronos launched Fifty for the Future: (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cel- The Kronos Learning Repertoire, an education lo)—has combined a spirit of fearless exploration and legacy project that is commissioning—and with a commitment to continually reimagine the distributing for free—the first learning library of string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos contemporary repertoire for string quartet. has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands RINDE ECKERT (co-direction, set design, of concerts, releasing more than 60 recordings, performer) collaborating with many of the world’s most The multi-talented Rinde Eckert is an acclaimed intriguing and accomplished composers and , composer, librettist, musician, performer, performers, and commissioning over 900 works and director. In the service of grappling with and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos has complex issues, his virtuosic command of ges- received more than 40 awards, including the ture, language, and song takes the total theater Polar Music and Avery Fisher Prizes, two of the artist beyond the boundaries of what a play, most prestigious awards given to musicians. a dance piece, an opera, or a musical might be. Sometimes tragic and austere, sometimes Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long- broadly comedic, entirely grounded by presence, running collaborations with many of the world’s his work is alchemical—moving from rumina- foremost composers, including Americans Terry tion and distillation to hard-won illumination, Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich; Azerbaijan’s or its lack. Eckert creates work, chamber Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Russia’s Vladimir Martynov; pieces, and through-composed operas with Poland’s Henryk Górecki; and Serbian-American larger casts, and has long collaborated with other Aleksandra Vrebalov. Additional collaborators art makers including choreographers, compos- have included Wu Man, Laurie Anderson, Tanya ers, directors, and new music ensembles. His Tagaq, Mahsa Vahdat, Trevor Paglen, Van Dyke opera and new music-theater productions tour Parks, múm, Dawn Upshaw, Noam Chomsky, throughout the US and to major European and Tom Waits, Asha Bhosle, Taraf de Haïdouks, and Asian festivals. Three of Eckert’s plays have run Howard Zinn. successfully off-Broadway, receiving Drama Desk nominations and a Lucille Lortel Award. His On tour for five months per year, Kronos appears theater writing credits include Highway Ulysses, in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, Horizon, Orpheus X, and And God Created Great clubs, and festivals. Kronos is equally prolific Whales, which had three off-Broadway runs and wide-ranging on recordings, including the with the original cast and director for a total of Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated Nuevo 227 performances. In addition to My Lai, current (2002) and the 2004 Grammy-winner Alban theater and music projects in which he also Berg’s Lyric Suite. Kronos’ most recent releases performs include Aging Magician composed by include the One Earth, One People, One Love: Paola Prestini with direction by Julian Crouch; Kronos Plays Terry Riley box set; Folk Songs, Slide with composer/performer Steven Macky; which features Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, and My Fools: A Life in Song, his newest one- Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant sing- person show. Eckert was the 2007 finalist for ing traditional songs; and Ladilikan, a collabora- the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His awards include tive album with Trio Da Kali, a “super-group” of being named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist in Malian griot musicians assembled by Aga Khan 2012, the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music Initiative. Theatre, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2005 American Academy of Arts and Letters The nonprofit Kronos Performing Arts Association Marc Blitzstein Award. Eckert lives in New York manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including with his wife, the actress Ellen McLaughlin. the commissioning of new works, concert tours Photo: Zoran Orlic Who’s Who

VÂN-ÁNH VÕ (performer) JONATHAN BERGER (composer) Vân-Ánh Võ is one of the finest performers on Jonathan Berger’s music has been widely hailed Vietnamese traditional instruments in the world, for its expressivity and powerful drama. Berger’s and a rapidly emerging composer. She dedicates “dissonant but supple” (New York Times) com- her life to creating music by blending the sounds positions include vocal, orchestral, and chamber of Vietnamese instruments with other music music as well as electroacoustic music. Berger’s genres, and fusing deeply rooted Vietnamese mu- sixth string quartet, Swallow, was premiered in sical traditions with new structures and composi- New York in 2014 by the St. Lawrence String tions. In 1995, Võ won the championship title in Quartet. Recent commissions include a work for the Vietnamese National Đàn Tranh (Zither) Com- the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Cen- petition. Since settling in the San Francisco Bay ter, Chamber Music America, Spoleto Festival Area in 2001, Võ has focused on collaborating USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Denver with musicians across different genres to create Chamber Music Society, and the Gerbode, new works, bringing Vietnamese traditional music Mellon, and Ford Fellowships, among others. to a wider audience and preserving her cultural Berger’s violin concerto Jiyeh was released last legacy through teaching. She has released three year on Harmonia Mundi’s Eloquentia Label. CDs: Twelve Months, Four Seasons (2002), She’s Berger’s works are also available on Naxos, Not She (2009) with award-winning composer Centaur, and Sony recordings. Following critically Bao Đo, and Three-Mountain Pass (2013), with acclaimed performances in California and New Kronos Quartet as guest artist. Võ has also been York, Berger’s opera, Visitations, is scheduled to collaborator and guest soloist with Southwest receive its Chicago premiere in 2017. Berger has Chamber Music, and jazz, rap, and other world been composer-in-residence at Spoleto, Banff, music artists. Additionally, she has been co- and numerous universities throughout the world. composer and arranger for the Oscar-nominated In addition to composing, Berger is an active and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for Best researcher in music perception and cognition, Documentary, Daughter from Danang, the Emmy and has authored more than 70 publications. Award-winning film Bolinao 52, and the winner of Berger is the Denning Family Provostial Professor multiple Best Documentary and Audience Favorite in Music at Stanford University. awards for A Village Called Versailles. She has presented her music at Carnegie Hall, Zellerbach HARRIET SCOTT CHESSMAN (librettist) Hall, Kennedy Center, Houston Grand Opera, Harriet Scott Chessman, a fiction writer, is the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, on NPR, and at author of the acclaimed novels The Lost Sketch- many world music festivals throughout the US, book of Edgar Degas, Someone Not Really Her and as a guest artist with Kronos Quartet at the Mother, The Beauty of Ordinary Things, Lydia 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London. She has been Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, and Ohio invited and participated as a screening judge in Angels. Her fiction has been on the San Fran- the World Music category for the 2015 Grammys. cisco Chronicle’s Best Books list and featured In addition to the dàn Tranh, Võ also performs as on Good Morning America and in The New York soloist on the monochord– (dàn Bâu), the bamboo Times, in addition to being translated into seven xylophone (dàn T’rung), traditional– ` drums (trông), languages. She has taught creative writing and and other traditional– instruments. Recently, in ´ at (where she earned a collaboration with Asian American for Community PhD in English), Bread Loaf School of English, Involvement, an NGO which has served refugees and Stanford University. After 12 years in the in Santa Clara County for 40 years, Võ received San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in Con- an award from Creative Work Fund for The Odys- necticut, where she is working on a new libretto sey—From Vietnam to America, which premiered and a collection of short stories. My Lai is her during the 40th anniversary of the end of Vietnam first libretto, and she has been thrilled to contrib- War, highlighting the incredible power of the hu- ute to this beautiful piece. harrietchessman.com man spirit, the value of freedom, and the will of the Vietnamese Boat People to survive. Who’s Who

MARK DECHIAZZA (co-direction, set design, work commissioned by North Carolina Sym- video projection design) phony and Princeton Symphony Orchestra; and Mark DeChiazza is a director, filmmaker, de- staging and design for composer John Luther signer, and choreographer. Many of his projects Adams’ Sila, a massive site-determined piece for explore interactions between music performance 80 musicians commissioned by Lincoln Center. and media to discover new expressive possibili- markdechiazza.com. ties. His work can bring together composers, ensembles, and musicians with visual artists, BRIAN H. SCOTT (lighting designer) dancers, music ensembles, and makers of all Brian H. Scott, a lighting and scenic designer types. Investigating the body and its relationships based in , is resident designer to space, time, and experience remain vital to for Austin-based Rude Mechanicals, where he his process across all disciplines. His large-scale designed Hitting Yourself at Lincoln Center, music-theater production Quixote premiered in Now Now Oh Now, Method Gun, I’ve Never spring 2017 at Peak Performances, and extends Been So Happy, How Late It Was How Late, a creative partnership with composer Amy Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Tesla, and Match- Beth Kirsten begun in Columbine’s Paradise play. At the Park Avenue Armory, he created Theater, which was produced and performed by lighting for and Ann ’s eighth blackbird. DeChiazza’s ongoing creative The Event of a Thread. He designed lighting for partnership with this multiple-Grammy win- Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s Landfall. ning ensemble began in 2009 with his lauded As SITI Company resident lighting designer, he production of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and created lighting for Steel Hammer with Bang on continues with Dan Trueman’s Olagón, now in a Can All Stars, The Persians, and Trojan Women development. Recent projects include produc- with the Getty Villa, American Document with tion concept, direction, and choreography for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Cafe Varia- Orpheus Unsung, a collaboration with composer tions, Under Construction, WhoDoYouThinkYo- Steven Mackey which premiered at Guthrie uAre, Hotel Cassiopeia, Death and the Plough- Theater in 2016; direction and editing of the film man, bobrauschenbergamerica 7; Henry Hewes Hireath, which partners with the performance Design Award 2004), Radio MacBeth, and War of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s 35-minute orchestral of the Worlds Radio Play, many of which have been presented at BAM. brianhscott.com

For the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Contact: Association: Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Janet Cowperthwaite, Managing Director Association Sidney Chen, Artistic Administrator P. O. Box 225340 Mason Dille, Development Manager San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA Sarah Donahue, Production Operations Manager kronosquartet.org Lauren Frankel, Development Associate facebook.com/kronosquartet Scott Fraser, Senior Sound Designer instagram.com/kronos_quartet Sasha Hnatkovich, Communications Manager twitter.com/kronosquartet Reshena Liao, Strategic Initiatives Project Manager The Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Nikolás McConnie-Saad, Office Manager Records. Brian Mohr, Sound Designer, Technical Manager Kären Nagy, Strategic Initiatives Director Brian H. Scott, Lighting Designer Lucinda Toy, Business Operations Manager My Lai—Libretto

MY LAI effectively stopped the My Lai atrocities.

CHARACTERS HUGH THOMPSON’S THREE LANDINGS Hugh Thompson, Jr. (inspiration for this libretto): Emcee and Phil (as voices in game show interruptions) (1) On the first landing, near a large irrigation ditch filled with villagers’ bodies, Officer PLACE Thompson tried to persuade the officer in charge, Hospital room in the Veterans Affairs Medical Lieutenant , to help those people Center, Pineville, Louisiana still alive and to stop the killing. Calley ordered Thompson to leave. As the helicopter rose up Son My˜ Village (including the hamlet of My˜ Lai), again, Sergeant David Mitchell fired his M-16 into the dead or wounded in the ditch.

TIME (2) Shocked and furious, Officer Thompson December 2005, a few weeks before Hugh and his crew started to search from the air for Thompson’s death on January 6, 2006 ways to help the villagers. He bravely placed (Epiphany). his helicopter between US troops and about 10 people—including children—hiding in an The morning of March 16, 1968 earthen bunker. Commanding his crew to train their guns on the American soldiers, he brought the villagers out of the bunker and successfully ABOUT THIS LIBRETTO persuaded a large helicopter to airlift them to safety. My Lai approaches the My Lai massacre through the and imagination of Hugh (3) As Thompson flew the helicopter over the Thompson, Jr., the American Army helicopter village on the way to refuel, Andreotta spotted pilot who courageously intervened in the movement in the same irrigation ditch where atrocities, in which American GIs killed over 500 they had landed the first time. On this third innocent Vietnamese villagers, including many landing, Andreotta walked into the ditch, over women and children. Now facing cancer in the the bodies of the dead and dying, and rescued a last month of his life, Thompson is haunted by small boy. this massacre, and by his own inability to save more lives. Hugh Thompson became a passionate, devoted witness of this atrocity from that day forward. His testimony in 1970 became critical for the HISTORY Army’s investigations and prosecution of guilty parties. However, the House Armed Services Warrant Officer Thompson was a member of the Committee—with President Nixon’s help—tried 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry to undermine Thompson’s credibility as a Division. Flying his observation helicopter witness and threatened to court martial him for on the morning of March 16, 1968 on a his intervention. reconnaissance mission, the 24-year old officer, together with his young crew All of the officers and soldiers involved in and , could find no Viet Cong the massacre—with the exception of William activity in Son My Village. Calley—were ultimately acquitted. Found guilty of killing 22 South Vietnamese unarmed As Thompson and his crew started to realize civilians, Calley was sentenced to life in prison, that American soldiers were engaged in a but served only three and a half years under large-scale massacre, he made three heroic and house arrest. unauthorized landings, in addition to sending anguished radio reports. Upon his return to Thirty years after the massacre, Hugh base, Thompson reported the massacre in Thompson, Lawrence Colburn, and person, which led to the order to cease fire that (posthumously) Glenn Andreotta were awarded My Lai the Soldier’s Medal. In 1999, Thompson and I especially wish to acknowledge Trent Angers’ Colburn also received the Peace Abbey’s Courage valuable authorized biography of Hugh of Conscience Award. Thompson, The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story, Michael Bilton’s Four Hours in My Lai, and ’s My Lai 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and other writings.

I wish to thank Jonathan Berger and Kronos I dedicate this libretto to the memory of my for bringing me on board this resonant, moving father, G. Wallace Chessman, who participated project. I also thank the wonderful journalists, in the D-Day Landings, June 6, 1944, when he soldiers and who have investigated and was 25 years old. remembered the My Lai massacre and other aspects of the . —Harriet Scott Chessman

LIBRETTO If only I could fly out of my body, FIRST LANDING out of this sick body, out of my soul. 1: Flight No! No, no. [Hugh Thompson sings in darkness] Please no more! Please let me go. My Lord, what a morning My Lord, what a morning Oh, my Lord, what a morning 2: Interlude When the stars begin to . . .

[Lights up. A hospital room, bare, with a bed, a 3: Descent TV, a chair.] [As if peering out of his cockpit, surveying the I always wanted to fly, landscape from the air] rise up like a bird, to fly. I wish my little boy could see this. I wish my son Bucky could see this. This cancer, Such beauty son of a bitch infantry, This beauty moves through me. Ah! Just for a moment I always wanted to fly! I wish my little boy could see this.

They had no chance to fly. This beauty . . . My Lai

This? This! Do you hear me? Over? There! Can you hear? That! This. There! God damn it, can you hear me? Over. What’s going on? Over. Over. What’s going on here? Can you hear? How on earth? Ah! Look! What’s this? Bodies piled on bodies, Look! Look! Look there! just people, Along the hedgerow — children, like fish caught . . . No, not fish, Along — just bodies, just people caught, Here, there! some moving, In the rice paddy — some crying out . . .

Weren’t those people just walking to market, Help! Medic! their baskets waiting to be filled? Why don’t you . . . Weren’t those people just heading to the fields on this bright morning? [Hugh takes remote control, turns TV on, and My Lord, what a morning. starts to watch a game show.]

[as if talking into his radio] Game Show Interruption #1 I’m taking her down. Open the door. [Applause, horns, laughter] Open the fucking door! EMCEE Look! In the ditch, that girl is still moving. [voice appears to come from an old-fashioned TV in Hugh’s hospital room] Medic! Medic! That girl is still moving! Welcome back! Welcome! We have an exciting show for you this morning. We’re playing with Where in God’s name is the medic? a teacher from Idaho, a nurse from Maine, and a Chief Warrant Officer in our Armed Forces. A The captain walks up, helicopter pilot, am I right, sir? pokes her with his boot ­­— his boot! [some applause, approving murmurs] He raises his automatic and — All right, then! You know how the game is God in heaven, played. We’ll show you three doors—a red, a what did You do white, and a blue one. Choose one and the game creating such a son of a bitch? is on. And to honor our brave American troops . . . let’s start with you, Officer.

4: The Ditch I’m sure you’ve had to make difficult choices in your line of work—this one should be a piece of The long ditch cake! The long, long ditch Every morning [laughter] Every day So, Officer, which will it be? Blue, white, or red? [As if talking on his cockpit radio] My Lai

[brief audience silence] For Christ’s sake!

Our officer seems a bit lost. But he’s a helicopter I never chose that! pilot, folks. I’m sure he knows how to land this thing! EMCEE

[laughter] This is the moment of truth, folks. Are you ready, Officer? So what’ll it be, Captain? [increasing laughter, applause] [audience silence] So let’s open the door and see what’s behind it. I said what’ll it be, Captain. Here we go!

HUGH [cheers, applause, horns]

Are you talking to me . . ? HUGH I’m not a Captain. Wait—Hang on! EMCEE EMCEE Hey, that woke him up! Always important to get the right rank. Sir, yes SIR! [as if snapping to Too late to change your mind, chief. Phil? What attention and saluting] has the officer chosen?

[laughter] PHIL

But seriously, Officer Thompson, time’s running Well Dick, the smoke is clearing, and you can out! Make your choice! just make it out. Okay. Looks like a ditch full of bodies, old people, women and children. Yeah, I [ticking clock music] see it now, women and children, babies. All dead or about to be, Dick. HUGH [murmurs, chatter, “oohs,” light applause] All the doors are red . . . ! HUGH EMCEE Stop this! Stop this right now! Look again, Officer. EMCEE HUGH Can we stop it, folks? The doors are all red! [laughter and cries of “No!”] EMCEE HUGH At last! Our contestant has chosen the RED door! You are going to stop this! [applause, laughter, horns] EMCEE HUGH [simultaneous with Emcee] That’s right. This is how the game is played. No! Listen to me!! That’s not what I said! [laughter, applause, rising to include helicopter My Lai

and gunfire] My Lord, what a morning. My Lord, what a morning. EMCEE My Lord, what a mor...

This is how the game is played, you candy ass, I’m going to try to stop this! bleeding heart, motherf— . . . I’m going to land her there, right there, between those children and our troops. SECOND LANDING [to his gunners] 1: Hovering We’re going to stop this madness. Larry! Man your gun. The ocean is glistening. Take aim. Take aim! The fields shine. Aim at our soldiers. Once you land, there’s no turning back, If those bastards . . . not for you, If those bastards open fire not for your crew. on the children in the bunker, blow them away, The ocean is glistening. blow those bastards away. The fields shine. Ah, blow those bastards away. Once you land, there’s no going back. My gunners nod, Larry and Glenn. You can’t just hover. They look at me and nod . . . You have to go down, Incredulous down into the madness. Angelic Mortified. You have to leave your life behind and dive, dive and dive We’re caught in this. into the madness. How has this happened? And dive, and dive and dive, Ah! The ocean glistened. into the madness. The fields shone. Here the world is changed, I’m bringing her down. forever changed. I’m landing this bird now. [to the Captain on the ground.] Hold your fire, Captain! 2: Bunker Captain, hold your fire! What’s that? There it is! Orders? Orders? Over there! I don’t give a fuck about your orders! An earthen bunker. For God’s sake, hold your fire. No! wait! A rabbit hole? Ah! Children hiding. I am caught in this. Little children hiding . . . almost caught. Ah, I am caught in this. Wait! Wait! It will never be over. My God! I will always be in it, Jesus Christ, shouting at the captain. what do I do? I’m still shouting. What would You do? [TV turns on by itself. Game show starts again.] My Lai

Game Show Interruption #2 EMCEE

HUGH Well, Officer Thompson, you didn’t get that one, but you still have one more chance. You’re still I’m not playing this game anymore. standing. He’s still standing, folks!

[surprised murmurs and laughter] [applause, laughter]

EMCEE HUGH

What do you say we give Officer Thompson here They weren’t soldiers. That was murder. They a round of applause for getting this far? were animals. No—Animals wouldn’t do that!

[applause, whistles, approving laughter] EMCEE

All right, then! We’re in the final round of the Last question—and this is for all the marbles. game now. Time for our Quiz! Two correct Are you ready, Officer? Are you ready, folks, answers—just two!—and you’re home free. Congressman Rivers, members of the House Armed Services Committee, President Nixon? HUGH HUGH I’m not answering any more questions. I already told you. I told everybody everything. This is a joke.

EMCEE EMCEE

First question: Confronting American soldiers on Are you ready for the last question? the ground, what did you order your crew to do? You have 30 seconds. HUGH

[ticking clock music] This is a fucking circus. I’m not playing! I’m out of this! HUGH EMCEE I observed three or four villagers running. Non- combatants, obviously—two were little children. He’s out of line here, folks. A loose cannon— They were under fire. Our soldiers—Charlie he’s jumping the gun. Can you blame the boy, Company . . . chasing them and— though? Can you, folks? Can we blame him for jumping the gun? [a buzzer sounds] [hoots and whistles, taunting] EMCEE HUGH [simultaneous with Emcee] Time’s up. So sorry, Officer. What did you order your crew to do? “Blow them away. Blow those You’re not going to prosecute a goddamned one bastards away” was the correct answer. of ’em—Calley . . . Medina . . . or any of the bastards that ordered this. You’re not gonna do a HUGH goddamn thing!

No, Sir! Our troops . . . they were NOT soldiers. EMCEE That is NOT what soldiers do. What do you say, Mr. President, Committee members: Can we blame him? Can we, My Lai

Congressman Rivers? Can we finally find a way just boys, really, that morning. to blame him? (My Lord, what a morning) Your country gone crazy.

THIRD LANDING 2: Fishing

1: Postcard Once more the ditch An ocean of bodies now [Hugh sits, reading a . He picks up Too many to count the telephone receiver and dials, holds the Small and smaller phone to his ear.] Glistening in the morning sun . . . Hello, yeah, I . . . I . . . I just . . . I just . . . Walking on bodies, I just wanted we fish out a little boy. to talk to Larry. I hold him by his small shirt.

Can I leave him a message? A little boy—a little boy about Bucky’s age— limp, but breathing. Tell him I called. Tell him Hugh called. He looks at us like he’s a thousand miles away Tell him . . . thanks for the postcard. on some distant mountain. Maybe I’ll see him soon. He’s as light as a leaf. Yeah, I’m still in the hospital. No, it’s not looking good, I take him in my arms. but you know what they say— I fly him out of hell . . . ah! nobody lives forever. I bring him to a nun in Quang Ngai City. [Hugh hangs up the phone] I always wanted to fly. Oh Larry, you were just a kid that morning [TV comes on for a brief moment. Hugh is sitting on top of the world. asleep in the chair. Someone turns the TV off, You and Glenn courageous, and all the lights go out.] just boys,