Blockwart
Blockwart is an audio play tracing one year in the life of BOULD, a young acting student whose reality begins to blur with the mythic play he’s rehearsing. Set in a fictional Berlin where the seasons carry their own distinct mood, month by month the enigmatic house caretaker BLOCKWART guides the listeners through the unsettling landscape of 2026.
Script, voices, artwork:
Øyvind Renberg
Sound design, mix, music:
Louis McGuire
WEBSITE
https://oyvindrenberg.com
Blockwart
9: September
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At east Berlin’s Friedrichsfelde “Socialist cemetery", Blockwart longs for his beloved Tiergarten back west, and while Bould and Bertha contemplate life with quiet reverence among the tombs, a graveyard flasher stops them in their tracks.
Characters, in order of appearance:
BLOCKWART, house caretaker
BOULD, acting student, apartment block tenant
BERTHA, acting student
THE GRAVEYARD FLASHER
I've been out patrolling the neighborhood in my dear dear garden. People always go mute when I appear. I so quiet, everybody. I go quiet. And sooner or later they started talking. Simply saying nothing like it would be bad. People even make up the stuff. Just to fill the silence with something. My sister's in the resistance. My brother's in the resistance. My whole family is in the resistance. Whether true or not, what people confess to me, I note it down in my little book, in my dear dear garden. It had been a long day stopping by the cafe, the delivery driver's depot the old folks home. Then it was time for bed for my spirit's nightly burial at the Friedrichsfeld Socialist Cemetery. Here lies Blockbart Son of Stuart Grand Son of Coward Proud Sons of Teargarten Coat of Arms The Friedrich Feld Socialist Cemetery Resting place for the penniless. Way out east of all places I got thrown in here in with the Spartacus Lieg Liebknecht and Luxemburg Feet up in my hole Like a spider I hang awake upside down, waiting for rebirth in the morning and another day on the beat in my dear tear garden my Eden The moon illuminated the graves the graves twinkling dusted with mist embroidered with moss sensitive eyes would have noticed that the stones themselves had shrunk and sunk ever so slightly since they were first set Shh somebody's coming. The dead call on us call on us to act bold The dead call on us Oh and Bertha to act reading headstones and actors we are Bertha nineteen going on twenty celebrating their youth against the gravity of death Look Old Spinster Skin and Bones Convenient when needed easily forgotten never to return eighteen sixty two to nineteen sixty three The year Kennedy died look to the memory of Evan Fröhlich went by his own hand desperately missed nineteen seventy-six to nineteen ninety-five and there's a whole school class in this one Brother I had this dream this dream my mother it was morning and she was waking up all confused I'm stuck in the rock face she said I tried to assure her that it was just the old sofa but then she said I miss you I cry but I'm right here I'm right here she reached out to me and as we embraced it was as if we saw the places I turned into her and she into me as her embracing myself there on the sofa and then it was night and my son was tucking me in. That's quite a dream bold at that moment a man appeared Tiny at first disappearing then reappearing between the hedges but as he reached bold and Bertha his vision revealed itself Athletic jersey, football shorts, but pulled down in the front. Look away Bertha Exposed to the moonlight with a flash the jogger had passed them and was gone. A graveyard flasher a flashing of a part is better than concealing a heart bold. As they reached the exit gates of the cemetery, Bertha pointed to a piece of paper on a lamp post. A sad dog moped out from a photo. Oh do you see that? Dog missing much loved passage. He won't appear. How do you know? It's just a feeling I have. Speaking of dogs, how is it going with that strange neighbor of yours? You mean the one I keep bumping into? It's funny. I haven't seen him. I heard he moved out actually. I kind of miss him now.