Ladies MacDeath is a comedy/drama/musical about the machinations behind the throne and how tyrants always attempt to dethrone the tyrant who came before them. You can download the pdf file from here: download Ladies MacDeath.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
What we know from reading history [some of us still do that] is that behind every throne there is a conspiracy linked to people who want to topple whoever sits upon that throne. The toppling comes, sooner or later. Sometimes the person on that throne dies of natural causes. Sometimes they die of unnatural causes. But one way or another the King or Queen is replaced with a new King or Queen or Emperor or Empress.
Democracy does away with this ancient process where the rule was “Might is Right.”
The toppling of the leader comes about in a peaceful way and is undertaken by the people who are being ruled. They have the ability to openly give their opinions and then act on their opinions through a process called voting. This voting thing has traditionally been tied to a timeline, every two years, every four years, every five or seven years, depending on the form of the democracy and its set of rules.
Currently, in one of the western states— a great world power—a would-be dictator, a would-be King and his cohort are trying to destroy all vestiges of democracy and bring their authoritarian would-be state into line with the two other great power authoritarian states currently on the planet.
This amusement you are reading, or are going to read, is an attempt to show the machinations behind any throne. The fact that such machinations may eventually come to pass in a country that has had a tradition of democracy—however flawed that democracy might be—for over 200 years, is scary. It is scary because it could result in the death of millions in a rather short period because of violence related to the takeover, but even more scary because it could result in the death of billions because these new authoritarians are proponents of the man-made climate disaster that is currently underway.
The characters depicted in this petite drama are of course fictional, although their names may have some resonance because they sound just like people who are participants in the public sphere today.They are pure fiction, with only accidental resemblance to real people.
If this entertainment amuses you, I am happy. If this prank annoys or angers you, I am happy. Ladies MacDeath is a distraction. It is a distraction calculated to open your eyes and brain to the horrors that await you if you are trapped inside a system that is governed by one, or a coterie around that one, without giving you, the audience, any possible ability to either comment upon the evil you see, or remove it without resorting to the violence called for in tyrannicide.
The ones who conspire to kill a tyrant in this little piece aspire to become tyrants themselves, so whatever fate befalls them can be seen as their just deserts.
This merriment (with dark overtones) is written in such a way that a clever composer of music could turn it into a theater piece. In fact, I have added some classical vocal descriptions to the various members of the cast in order to give a composer a push in the right direction when writing for that particular character.
Enjoy your reading. Enjoy your composing. Enjoy your freedom as long as you have it. There are tyrants all around us, and they are seeking a throne to sit on for the time remaining them on earth.
This bagatelle will, hopefully, motivate you, the audience, to let democracy survive yet another challenge and self-correct itself so that in the future democracy will be able to immunize itself from the deadly virus of authoritarianism.
All the illustrations in Ladies MacDeath were generated by giving commands to Artificial Intelligence.