All The Secrets In The World

This is a musical about a strange event that happened to me in 1989.  

Characters

Mitch:   Graduate Student.  Tortured, cold, lonely.  Used to live with Gail.  They’re married, but she has moved out. 

Gail:   married to Mitch. Living on her own.  

Edward:   Mitch’s and Gail’s college friend, just finished a master’s degree and has mysteriously called them both to say he’s coming to Austin and needs to talk.  Robust and affluent. 

Zubia:   Mitch’s friend from college who lives in Austin and who feels everything about the world has treated him unfairly.  No one gets along with Zubia except Mitch

Act 1.  We meet the various characters.  Mitch is depressed and in a funk, as Gail has recently moved out and he doesn't know what to do with this life. Gail, on the other hand, is feeling newly liberated.  Edward calls each of them separately to say he is coming to Austin and has to talk.  It has been 6 years since they all graduated from college, and although they've grown a bit apart, they have still maintained good communications.  This mysterious call sets the play in motion.  Zubia is everyone's college classmate, but has isolated himself from everyone except Mitch.  He's too morose and intense for most people.  

Edward arrives and tells Mitch he's staying a few block away with Gail, even though Mitch has plenty of room.  This announcement is the first in a series of unusual events.  Mitch and Edward go out drinking, and Edward springs the reason for his visit.  What if you could learn all the secrets in the world?  But to do so, you'd have to leave everyone you know behind.  He's been offered a  secretive job in the defense sector and needs help making the decision.  Who better to ask than his great buddies from school?  

Act 2.  Everyone (Mitch, Gail, Zubia, and Edward) drives out west of Austin to go camping at Enchanted Rock.  We hear songs from each as they try to figure out how this weekend will resolve itself.  They stay up late into the night by the campfire playing “What if?” scenarios that they hope will flesh out Edward's answer.  The next morning, Gail and Zubia go back to Austin, and Mitch and Edward stay for a few hours to climb in the caves around the granite formation.  At the deepest and darkest portion of the journey, Edward helps Mitch through a very rough spot, and says something about this is what it's all about.  He's getting clarity on his answer.  They drive into down and Mitch drops Edward off at the airport.  Edward thanks him for a clarifying weekend and says I now know what to do.  Mitch sings a jubilant song – this news  has made the weekend wonderful, and Mitch feels he is also out of his funk because of this wonderful visit from his old friend. 

     However, at the end of this song, the lights dim and Mitch tells the audience that he never saw Edward again.  He vanished into the belly of the beast, perhaps to learn all the secrets in the world.   The reprise of the theme song is the answer to All the Secrets in The World, namely, that Edward decided, even after the deep fellowship of the weekend, that it WAS worth giving it all up to get into the inner sanctum of knowledge