Doing Time

"I've been "conceptualizing" -- to the point where only the basic premise of the short-story (subjective time distortion) remains intact.  But more of that later.  Here are the characters:

LEDA CALDER: (Kris' character).  Leda's a defiant

young woman accused of eco-terrorism, serving a

many-thousand-year sentence in VR solitary

confinement.  As might be expected, she's slowly going

insane.  She has no clear memory of her crime (if

indeed there was one) and experiences pronounced

amnesia in general -- possibly induced by the VR

environment, which she ostensibly thinks is "real,"

having no frame of reference.

ANONYMOUS WOMAN: App. Leda's age, this anonymous

character appears mysteriously in order to converse

with Leda about life "outside."  Enigmatic and

seemingly all-knowing, she could be a conduit to

freedom, a figment of Leda's imagination or an

alter-ego spawned by the VR software.

Leda and Anonymous eventually make contact with an

androgynous entity likened to a system administrator

(SYSOP), who, like Leda and Anonymous, could be many

things . . . perhaps even Leda herself.

Throughout the play, the action is assessed by a

strangely mannered OBSERVER (visible to the audience

but unseen by Leda and Anonymous)."

(from an email from Mac to Paul Kimball forwarded to me 5/29/2007)

"Doing Time" was originally a short story by Mac published in his collection, "Illumined Black". It then became a collaborative effort with Paul Kimball for a theatre production which was eventually staged by the Semaphore Theatre Company in Halifax, premiering in November of 2007 to rave reviews. Redstar Limited Films plans to eventually make it a feature film.

(Top Image: "Leda and the Swan" by James LeGros; bottom image: Official poster from "Doing Time".