Pinokenstein synopsis

Synopsis

SCENE 1: A storm is approaching. A huge clock tower starts to toll midnight. As it does, the overture begins. At the first climax of music, there is a lightning strike that kills all the lights. A second lightning strike reveals a laboratory cluttered with various medical and woodworking tools, a series of flashing lights and glowing liquids. A sheet-covered stretcher hangs from the ceiling by chains. Dr. Geppetto pops up from behind the stretcher and describes his creation in song using charts and X-rays (all animated in pop up book style). Geppetto pulls rope to lift the stretcher to the rooftop. Lightning strikes. Geppetto lowers stretcher and waits…nothing. Geppetto turns away and the figure stirs under the sheet, and slowly rises to his feet. Geppetto reaches to touch his creation, enthralled. Just before they touch, Pinokenstein screams as his lower torso falls off. Blackout.

SCENE 2: Two months later, Geppetto absently enters the lab with Pinokenstein’s lower torso. Pinokenstein asks for it to be attached now, but Geppetto won’t, saying he must go to his brother’s house to announce his engagement. Pinokenstein asks why Geppetto doesn’t treat him as well as he treats the others. Geppetto tells him it’s because he isn’t flesh and blood- he isn’t human. After Geppetto leaves, Pinokenstein attaches his lower torso himself and decides to become human by taking parts of those Geppetto loves. As Pinokenstein advances towards the audience, blackout.

DREAM SEQUENCE #1: Music “Broken Promises” sung by art pieces. Geppetto is haunted by some of the half-completed items he left behind: a book, a puppet that somewhat resembles a blue fairy, and a painting. The nightmare ends as they descend on him.

SCENE 3: Geppetto awakes in a living room full of wood scraps and half-carved figures. He meets with his brother, Dario. They argue and Geppetto leaves the room. Pinokenstein enters, stunning Dario, whom he chops in two with an axe. Pinokenstein takes Dario’s upper torso and puts it on. While he does this, his nose grows. Geppetto enters, sees what has happened and nails Pinokenstein to a bench. He then sets the room on fire and exits. Blackout as the flames grow higher.

DREAM SEQUENCE #2: We are at the wedding of Geppetto and Carla. Beautiful organ music plays, turning sinister when they exchange vows. Pinokenstein pops out of a fire pit trap and drags everyone into the flames of hell with him.

SCENE 4: It is after the wedding. Geppetto and Carla are heard entering the bedroom in the dark and kissing. A light illuminates the silhouette of Carla behind a changing screen. Geppetto is frightened that Pinokenstein will somehow appear, and leaves the room to try to protect Carla. Pinokenstein enters and cuts Carla in two, putting on her lower torso while his nose grows even larger. Geppetto enters too late again. Pinokenstein cannot understand why Geppetto doesn’t love him now that he is flesh and blood. Again they fight, and Pinokenstein gets the upper hand. But he cannot destroy his creator, and so he runs.

SCENE 5: Geppetto chases Pinokenstein as the trio from before sings. Pinokenstein runs through the woods, while Geppetto follows his trail of blood. Pinokenstein swims across a river, Geppetto overcomes his fear of deep water, steals a boat and persues. Out of breath, Pinokenstein rests on the banks of the river where Geppetto sneaks up with an oar and attacks him. Pinokenstein is hit with the oar and experiences physical pain for the first time, but escapes into the arctic, pursued by Geppetto. They jump of a cliff onto the back of a whale which keeps submerging, interrupting their argument/fighting and then landing them onto a small iceberg. On the iceberg, Geppetto corners Pinokenstein. Geppetto is about to deal the final blow when he notices that Pinokenstein is shivering. He is cold. He is really a boy. As they reconcile, the iceberg they are on breaks in half, dividing them to float away into dark cold waters.