EPISODE 40 - HIROSHI
PHILIP
Hello everyone, Pip here, introducing you to a new episode of the Amelia Project. But first of all, I wanted to say Thank You. Thank you to all of you who are listening, to all of you who have spread the word and maybe told a friend about the show, and of course an extra special thank you if you’re supporting us on Patreon. As a lot of you know, my dream is to be able to make this show full time at some point, and thanks to our patrons, we are heading in the right direction. In fact, I’ve just been to tell the Boss of my dull dayjob that as from September, I will be going part-time, which means that I can dedicate two full days a week to death-fakery. This is quite a big step which I am really excited and also a little bit scared about, so, if you want to make it a bit less scary, and if you want to support all the artists and actors and engineers who work on this show, we’d be super grateful. Head over to ameliapodcast.com and click on ‘support the show’. We’re so happy for every new patron, no matter the size of your pledge. Speaking of support, we’d like to dedicate this new episode to our super patron Mints and such! Today, we catch up with the Interviewer at Golovin Prison. And when we last left him, he just managed to get hold of the key to another cell… The cell belonging to Hiroshi, a robotics engineer. Enjoy the episode…
PROLOGUE
(THE INTERVIEWER IS WALKING DOWN THE BLOCK D CORRIDOR)
INTERVIEWER
(MUMBLING TO HIMSELF) Fourth door on the right, fourth door on the right…
(HE STOPS, INSERTS A KEY INTO A LOCK, TURNS THE KEY, OPENS THE DOOR AND STEPS INTO HIROSHI'S CELL, WHICH IS A LARGE WORKSHOP. WE HEAR PIANO MUSIC AND DRILLING IN THE DISTANCE)
Hello?
(STEPS)
Hello?
(PAUSE, NO RESPONSE, JUST PIANO)
(SING-SONG) Helloooo?
(HIS VOICE ECHOES IN THE EXPANSIVE CELL. NO RESPONSE. JUST PIANO MUSIC)
(SING-SONG) Hiroshi?
(CLEARS HIS THROAT AND PUTS ON A RUSSIAN ACCENT) Hiroshi! It's... Fedor Sudakov! I need to talk to you! Urgently!
(QUIET CURSING IN THE BACKGROUND AS THE DRILLING STOPS AND FOOTSTEPS APPROACH)
Hiroshi!
HIROSHI
(HASTILY) Yes sir!
INTERVIEWER
(RUSSIAN ACCENT) I've been sent by Mikhail.
HIROSHI
(SCARED) Oh.
INTERVIEWER
(RUSSIAN ACCENT) How are you getting on with the ballerina?
HIROSHI
Ah- I've replaced the sensors, the pressure pads, pick up coils, ah, contact switches, re-calibrated the encoder and accelerometer, strengthened the clamps, oiled the axles, joints and end-effectors, I exchanged every single shaft screw, tweaked the CPU and overhauled the entire actuator system.
INTERVIEWER
(RUSSIAN ACCENT) So, she will be ready to appear at the Bolshoi in... (HE CHECKS HIS WATCH WITH A SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH) two hours?
(A PAUSE. HIROSHI TAKES FAST AND SCARED BREATHS, PIANO MUSIC)
(IMPATIENT) Well?
HIROSHI
(AFTER A PAUSE, SOFTLY) No. No, but-
(PLEADING) Please don't put me in the basement…? Please! I will have her dancing again in... a few weeks! I just need to order a new magnetometer from Japan, and reconfigure the oscillator circuit and find a way to reduce mechanical stress! It will take th-tree- two weeks! I can do it in two weeks!
INTERVIEWER
(SWITCHES BACK TO HIS NORMAL VOICE, AMUSED) Oh, Hiroshi, relax.
(IN THE PIANO MUSIC, THE AMELIA THEME SLOWLY TICKS IN)
HIROSHI
What?!
INTERVIEWER
I haven't been sent by Mikhail.
HIROSHI
...you haven't? Then who are you? What are you doing here? What do you want?
INTERVIEWER
I want...
HIROSHI
Y-yes?
INTERVIEWER
Your story.
(THE AMELIA THEME KICK IN)
THE INTERVIEW
(WE’RE IN HIROSHI'S CELL, THE PIANO MUSIC IS STILL GOING)
HIROSHI
There's no time for a story! I'm trying to get Ivana ready for-
INTERVIEWER (INTERRUPTING)
Ivana?
HIROSHI
The ballerina!
INTERVIEWER
The premiere is in two hours. I thought it's impossible to get her ready by then?
HIROSHI
Better to try than to waste my time telling stories!
INTERVIEWER
Listen Hiroshi. Stories are never a waste of time. And anyway, I'm your route out of here.
HIROSHI
...what?
INTERVIEWER
I can get you out of Golovin.
HIROSHI
(DISBELIEVING) Nobody escapes Golovin!
INTERVIEWER
My previous clients have been very satisfied.
HIROSHI
...previous clients?
INTERVIEWER
Aleksei Popov, Marya and Daria, Clara Knoff, Oleg...
HIROSHI
Oleg? Like (IMITATING) "Da" "Njet" "Da". That Oleg?
INTERVIEWER
There's more to him than first meets... the ear.
HIROSHI
You really want to help me?
INTERVIEWER
Yes. But I need to get to know you first.
HIROSHI
And what's in it for you?
INTERVIEWER
We'll get to that.
HIROSHI
Alright. What do you want to know?
INTERVIEWER
First off: Tell me, what's this delightful music? They didn't give me a record player in my cell.
HIROSHI
(AMUSED) A record player?!
INTERVIEWER
A CD? Ah, pity! I prefer vinyl.
HIROSHI
Not a CD either. Come and meet Albert.
INTERVIEWER
They gave you a pianist?!
HIROSHI
(CHUCKLES) Don't be silly.
(HIROSHI MOVES TO A FAR CORNER OF THE WORKSHOP AND THE INTERVIEWER FOLLOWS. THE MUSIC GETS LOUDER, HIROSHI WHIPS OPEN A CURTAIN)
I built one.
(WITH A FLOURISH, THE MUSIC COMES TO AN END, THE INTERVIEWER APPLAUDS EXCITEDLY)
INTERVIEWER
Well prick me like a cactus! A robotic pianist!
HIROSHI
(PROUDLY) Albert can do classical, jazz and liturgical, but he's especially fond of show tunes.
(ALBERT STARTS PLAYING CHEESY SHOW MUSIC)
INTERVIEWER
This is most impressive! When did you build Albert?
HIROSHI
Albert’s a prototype. His younger brother Sergei is a much more serious musician. He specializes in Shostakovich.
INTERVIEWER
And where is Sergei?
HIROSHI
On loan to the Vienna Symphony.
INTERVIEWER
You built Albert and Sergei here in Golovin?
HIROSHI
My initial job was to create the world's first robotic classical pianist. They were so impressed with Sergei that they put me straight back to work, this time on a robot conductor for the Moscow Philharmonic.
INTERVIEWER
You succeeded?
HIROSHI
Cheslav Dubinsky has just returned from a successful tour of China. His interpretation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was the talk of the Beijing Music Festival. (DREAMILY) I'll never forget the standing ovations.
INTERVIEWER
Wait wait wait - you went to China too?
HIROSHI
Yeah! I always travel with my robots.
INTERVIEWER
Really? They let you out of Golovin for that?
HIROSHI
Yeah - I'm the only person who can calibrate Cheslav's motion controller and program Sergei's ROS. Anyway, as long as I deliver, the Russians keep me on a long leash. When Cheslav conducted Madame Butterfly at the Mariinsky I watched every performance.
INTERVIEWER
Well, it must be nice to get out of Golovin from time to time.
HIROSHI
I also accompanied Sergei to the Royal Academy of Music in London when he won his Bach Prize. (CHUCKLES) Who would have thought that the Robot-Rave-Teen from Tokyo would go on to take the world of classical music by storm! Although, yeah, maybe it's not that surprising. My mum played Viola for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
INTERVIEWER
Robot Raves?
HIROSHI
(CHUCKLING) Yeah…
INTERVIEWER
I think you better tell me your story from the beginning.
(ALBERT STOPS PLAYING)
You've always been into robots?
HIROSHI
Yeah, yeah! My dad's to blame for that. He gave me a Meccano set when I was four and I've been a machinophile ever since. My dad and I spent the weekends building steam trains, and fork lift trucks and race cars.
(LAUGHS)
We even built a six meter motorized crane once, controlled by a twelve volt model railway controller!
INTERVIEWER
Nice!
HIROSHI
Yeah! When I was twelve I helped my dad restore a nineteen seventy one Mazda Cosmo. I just fell in love with its long hood and covered headlights. So cool!
INTERVIEWER
Your dad was a mechanic?
HIROSHI
(LAUGHS) No. He was a literary professor at the University of Tokyo. But he was happiest at the weekends, in overalls, you know, covered in grease, dreaming up remote controlled monster trucks and moon buggies. He- he brought these amazing books from The Institute of Oriental Culture, like "The Book of Hydraulic Excellencies." It contains plans for mechanical doves, and fish, angels and dragons, made for Chinese emperors going back as far as the Han Dynasty.
INTERVIEWER
Tell me about the Robot Raves...
HIROSHI
Yeah, eh, as a teenager I constructed a robot arm that could create music by manipulating records on a turntable.
INTERVIEWER
A robot DJ!
HIROSHI
Yeah! I hosted garage raves and Takeshi became the star of Tokyo's underground disco scene!
INTERVIEWER
Takeshi?
HIROSHI
My robot.
INTERVIEWER
Of course. And he consisted of just an arm you said?
HIROSHI
At first yes, but as the raves became more popular, I gave him a torso, a head with video camera eyes and legs with hydraulic knees so he could bop to the beat. Ah… Those were great times. Maybe I could have made a career out of it, but…
INTERVIEWER
You didn't? Why not?
HIROSHI
I was- I was offered a scholarship at MIT and moved to the US. My dad was so proud! After graduating I was hired as an engineer by one of the biggest companies in robotics.
INTERVIEWER
Oh, congratulations!
HIROSHI
I was in New York City, working at the cutting edge of technology and making more money than I knew what to do with.
INTERVIEWER
Living the dream!
HIROSHI
For about a year I thought so.
INTERVIEWER
Oh? What changed?
HIROSHI
I realized just how much junk I was producing.
INTERVIEWER
Come on! You're calling your robots junk?!
HIROSHI
No, no! Of course not.
INTERVIEWER
But?
HIROSHI
But they were producing, packaging and labeling thousands of useless products every day. I was creating efficient ways of filling the world with junk! And then the junk became all I could think about... Whenever I closed my eyes I just saw mountains and mountains of junk!
(SIGHS)
But that wasn't the worst of it.
INTERVIEWER
No?
HIROSHI
...no
(PAUSE)
My next project was to create a robotic fighter jet. A fast-moving, sensor-studded aerial drone able to carry twenty two missiles.
(HIS BREATHING GETS HEAVIER THE MORE PASSIONATE HE GETS)
INTERVIEWER
Gosh.
HIROSHI
(SOFTLY) Then I… I remembered Sundays with my dad, inventing things for the sheer wonder of it, you know? A perfectly calibrated speedometer or a silent combustion engine. And I remembered "The Book of Hydraulic Excellencies" and all the amazing mechanical birds, and otters, and dragons and monks. That's what I wanted to do! Give the world mechanical magic! Not- Not fill it with junk or be part of an economy of murder!
INTERVIEWER
So you quit your job?
HIROSHI
No, no, I stayed.
INTERVIEWER
Oh.
HIROSHI (CON’T)
And decided to use the technologies at my disposal to make something impractical and beautiful instead.
INTERVIEWER
What did you make?
HIROSHI
The world's first robot performer.
INTERVIEWER
What kind of performer?
HIROSHI
An actor!
INTERVIEWER
Really?
HIROSHI
(PROUDLY) Yeah! Robots typically struggle with emotion, so what better challenge? I decided to create a robot who could play Hamlet.
INTERVIEWER
Why... why Hamlet?
HIROSHI
(QUOTING PASSIONATELY) "Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.
INTERVIEWER
(CONTINUING WITH EQUAL PASSION) O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet."
HIROSHI
Bravo! You know your Shakespeare!
INTERVIEWER
Oh yes! Albert? The gravedigger's song please!
(ALBERT STARTS PLAYING THE SONG)
(SINGING ACCOMPANIED BY THE MUSIC) "A pickax and a spade, a spade, for and a shrouding sheet, oh, a pit of clay for to be made, for such a guest is meet."
(HIROSHI LAUGHS AND CLAPS)
HIROSHI
Right!
INTERVIEWER
(A LITTLE SHEEPISHLY) Thank you. (BACK ON TRACK) Now tell me about your Hamlet.
HIROSHI
My Hamlet was a masterpiece in robotic sensing.
INTERVIEWER
What is robotic sensing?
HIROSHI
Basically, giving robots the ability to see, touch, and hear and move. Robotic sensing requires advanced algorithms that use environmental feedback-
INTERVIEWER
You mean your Hamlet could respond to other actors?
HIROSHI
(QUICKLY) Yeah! The idea was that I could put him in a production anywhere in the world and he'd adapt. He'd pick up on whether he was in a classical or avant garde staging and which language was being used. I programmed him to be able to perform in forty six different languages! He'd modulate his voice according to the size of the auditorium, so whether the show was being put on in a village hall, a high school or Broadway theatre, he'd fit right in.
INTERVIEWER
"Fit in"?!
HIROSHI
(LAUGHING) You should have seen his fencing moves!
INTERVIEWER
How did the rest of the cast feel about performing alongside a robot?
HIROSHI
(SADLY) It never got that far. After three months of blissful experimentation, my boss got wind of what I was doing.
INTERVIEWER
How so?
HIROSHI
He came to inspect the automatic missile trajectory mechanism I was supposed to be developing and robot Hamlet started quoting "What a piece of work is man" at him.
INTERVIEWER
(UNDERSTANDING) Oh dear. I assume you got fired?
HIROSHI
On the spot... They dismantled Hamlet and used his sensors as target seekers.
INTERVIEWER
Oh! What a waste!
HIROSHI
(DEEP SIGH) Yeah. But that night… there was a knock at my door. It was one of the company's board members. This modest looking man in round glasses and grey suit who always had the smell of sweet aftershave about him. He'd heard about my antics and wanted to talk. He ushered me into a taxi and we drove to the Vodka Room on Eighth Avenue. So, after drinks and chicken Kievs he asked me about my ideas. Most people would just laugh at me, but this Russian gentleman just listened and nodded. He said he could provide me with a workshop and unlimited funds. It sounded too good to be true! And I woke up the next morning, hungover and wondering if it had all been a dream. And... a limousine pulled up and a chauffeur stepped out saying he'd been sent to take me to the airport. And a few hours later I was on a private jet to Golovin.
INTERVIEWER
The man you met at the vodka bar in New York was Mikhail, I assume?
HIROSHI
Yes.
INTERVIEWER
Hmm... and he wanted you to provide prestigious feats of artistic engineering which he could show off around the world...
HIROSHI
Yeah.
INTERVIEWER
But he omitted to inform you that your new workshop would be in the middle of a high security prison...
HIROSHI
That turned out to be the catch.
INTERVIEWER
Still, you said they've been treating you well here, right?
HIROSHI
The stroganoff takes some getting used to, but apart from that, it's been... amazing! I mean, this workshop is a robotocist's dream! And as long as I give Mikhail what he desires, he gives me all the resources I want and lets me accompany my robots on their many tours. It’s not a bad life - or - it wasn’t…
(SIGHS)
(GLUMLY) And then Ivana happened.
INTERVIEWER
Tell me about Ivana.
HIROSHI
Hamlet is a piece of cake in comparison. Hamlet just needs to not bump into other actors or scenery, find the best place to soliloquize. But a ballerina has to do jumps, and leaps and pirouettes. That requires highly sophisticated velocity sensors! Not to mention the challenge it poses for flexibility and equilibrium!
INTERVIEWER
I can imagine.
HIROSHI
I'm the first engineer to figure out how to get a robot en pointe and make it execute a perfect Arabesque. Radical new territory!
INTERVIEWER
And you managed?
HIROSHI
I thought so! Then during the Grand Pas de Deux at the dress rehearsal, Ivana lost her balance and crashed into the orchestra pit.
(WHISPERING) Mikhail is livid!
INTERVIEWER
You said you could fix her in two weeks. Why not just postpone the premiere?
HIROSHI
(GETTING AGITATED) It's not just the premiere! On Saturday we perform at Opera Garnier in Paris. On Tuesday it's The Royal Opera House. Then New York, San Francisco and Chicago. We're booked into the most prestigious opera houses in the world, tickets are sold out and expectations are (HIGH PITCHED) super high!
INTERVIEWER
Mikhail still wants the premiere to go ahead?
HIROSHI
Yes. I need to fix Ivana before the curtains rise tonight.
INTERVIEWER
But you said that's impossible.
HIROSHI
(CHUCKLES) Mikhail doesn't accept impossible. And you know what happens to anyone who doesn't conform to Mikhail's demands, right?
(ALBERT PLAYS A FEW DRAMATIC TUNES)
HIROSHI
The Golovin basement…
(LOUD) This isn't the moment Albert!
(ALBERT STOPS PLAYING)
Can you really save me?
INTERVIEWER
Yes.
HIROSHI
Okay but- How?!
INTERVIEWER
This will take some explaining. Are you ready for a story?
HIROSHI
You and your stories!
(SIGHS)
INTERVIEWER
It starts in nineteen sixty two.
HIROSHI
What?!
INTERVIEWER
Close your eyes, get comfortable and let me take you to... the Argonaut.
HIROSHI
"The Argonaut"?
INTERVIEWER
You're not closing your eyes.
HIROSHI
I'm too tense.
INTERVIEWER
That's no good! How can you immerse yourself in a story if you're tense?
HIROSHI
How can I relax when I've got two hours before I'm thrown in the basement?
INTERVIEWER
Fine, I'll give you the short version.
HIROSHI
Thanks!
INTERVIEWER
I spent three years on a submarine, with a Pole called Jan and a Swede called Olaf.
HIROSHI
You spent three years on a submarine?! Why?!
INTERVIEWER
Thought you wanted the short version?
(HE IGNORES HIROSHI’S PROTESTS)
HIROSHI
But-
INTERVIEWER (CON’T)
What better place to lie low than the bottom of the sea?
HIROSHI
But-
INTERVIEWER (CON’T)
Olaf was a tiddlywinks champion and Jan was a ballet dancer.
HIROSHI (TRYING TO INTERRUPT, BUT GIVING UP AS THE INTERVIEWER CLEARLY IGNORES HIM)
Right, right, but-
INTERVIEWER
Three years is a long time.
HIROSHI
(EXASPERATED SIGH) What are you saying?
INTERVIEWER
I'm saying that I learned everything there is to know about tiddly winks and ballet. I can pot a wink from a distance of four meters and my Pas de Chat is second to none.
HIROSHI
(DOUBTFUL) You can dance ballet?!
INTERVIEWER
Well, Jan needed to keep up his training which meant he needed a partner. Olaf had two left feet.
HIROSHI
(CONFUSED) So you became his partner?
INTERVIEWER
I did. I danced all the female parts in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and The Nutcracker.
HIROSHI
(FLATLY) Why are you telling me this?
INTERVIEWER
Isn't it obvious?
HIROSHI
Not really, no.
INTERVIEWER
You just have to case me up as Ivana and I'll do the rest.
(PAUSE)
HIROSHI
Tha-That's your plan?!
INTERVIEWER
It allows tonight's premiere at the Bolshoi to go ahead.
HIROSHI
(UPSET) Without a real robot?!
INTERVIEWER
Give me a remote control head with LED eyes and nobody will know.
HIROSHI
You want to imitate a robot?
INTERVIEWER
Yes. Is that a problem?
HIROSHI
It's... insulting to robots.
INTERVIEWER
Insulting to robots?!
HIROSHI
(QUIETLY) And mechanical ingenuity.
INTERVIEWER
But the robot itself is imitating a human! It would simply be another layer of imitation. A human imitating a robot imitating a human.
HIROSHI
(SIGHS) I'm not convinced...
INTERVIEWER
Fine. Basement it is then.
HIROSHI
(QUICKLY) No- no, okay, wait! Uhm. You... you really think you can get through an entire performance of Sleeping Beauty?
INTERVIEWER
I'll give a performance worthy of a robot. And I won't fall into the orchestra pit. Promise.
HIROSHI
Sleeping Beauty has very difficult choreography!
INTERVIEWER
We've got the next hour to practice.
HIROSHI
It's not enough! You'll make mistakes!
INTERVIEWER
Oh! You can blame any imperfections on the previous accident and say you'll smooth them out for the tour. Come on! They'll be impressed you got Ivana up and dancing again so quickly!
HIROSHI
(NOT CONVINCED) We might be able to fool them for- for one show, but a whole tour? They're bound to notice!
INTERVIEWER
The first stop is Paris you said?
HIROSHI
Yes. Opera Garnier.
INTERVIEWER
Once we're in Paris we'll make a run. There's a small place in Montmartre where we can stay for a few weeks to plot our new lives. I've been meaning to go back to Paris... I just didn't think it would be via a Russian prison…
HIROSHI
(EXASPERATED) You're crazy.
INTERVIEWER
Coming from you that really means something.
(PAUSE)
HIROSHI
(ANOTHER SIGH) Alright. Come here and put on these.
INTERVIEWER
What's that?
HIROSHI
Ear protectors.
INTERVIEWER
So, we're doing this?
HIROSHI
(SIGHS) Yes.
INTERVIEWER
Oh! Goody! It's the right decision. Case me up!
(CLANKING OF METAL, A PAUSE THAT LETS US OUT HALF AN HOUR LATER IN GOLOVIN-TIME. WE HEAR THE WHINE OF A DRILL AND MORE SOUNDS OF CLANKING METAL. THE SOUNDS SLOWLY FADE DOWN)
INTERVIEWER (FROM BEHIND A METAL CASKET AROUND HIS HEAD)
How do I look?
HIROSHI
Uh… You look good. How do you feel in there?
INTERVIEWER
Hot. And my left ear is itchy but I can't...
(SCRATCH AND SQUEAK OF HIS METAL ARM AGAINST HIS METAL HEAD)
scratch-
HIROSHI
Speaking of ears, can you feel it when I do... this?
INTERVIEWER
Ouch! What was that?!
HIROSHI
I've attached small clamps to your earlobes with electrodes in them so I can give you mild electric shocks.
INTERVIEWER
Why would you do that?
HIROSHI
To communicate with you. I'll be sitting in the front row and can guide you if necessary.
INTERVIEWER
Yes. My peripheral vision is rather limited in this thing...
HIROSHI
So, an extended shock in the right ear means you need to keep to the right. A shock in the left ear means move left.
INTERVIEWER
Sounds logical.
HIROSHI
If I alternate rapidly between left and right like this...
INTERVIEWER
(STARTS GIGGLING UNCONTROLLABLY) Stop it, stop- stop it! It tickles!
HIROSHI
...that means we're in danger and you need to run.
INTERVIEWER
Right! How much time do we still have?
HIROSHI
Ah… Mikhail’s gonna be here any minute to check on my progress.
(METAL CLANKING)
INTERVIEWER
Well, let's use the time we have to practice! Albert?
(ALBERT STARTS PLAYING TCHAIKOVSKY'S SLEEPING BEAUTY)
(DANCING AND SINGING THE WORDS) And plié! Croisé. En pointe!
HIROSHI
(LAUGHS) Wow! Okay!
INTERVIEWER
Told you!
HIROSHI
Wow! Yes! I'm impressed!
INTERVIEWER
Wait until you see my Pas de Chat. Ready?
HIROSHI
Yes!
(THE INTERVIEWER LEAPS ACROSS THE WORKSHOP AND COLLIDES WITH ALBERT WHO CLATTERS HEAVILY ONTO THE PIANO'S KEYBOARD)
Oh my God! Oh my god, oh my-
INTERVIEWER
Sorry Albert. Oh, are we another robot down?
(HIROSHI PULLS ALBERT BACK ONTO HIS PIANO STOOL THE PIANO CONTINUES AFTER A MOMENT)
HIROSHI
Albert is robust. He'll be fine. What about you?
INTERVIEWER
Continue Albert!
HIROSHI
You sure?
INTERVIEWER
Just a grazed knee. Nothing to worry about. Let's dance!
(ALBERT CONTINUES THE TCHAIKOVSKY)
Arabesque... assemblé... pirouette!
(THE PIANO MUSIC MORPHS INTO THE OUTRO AND CREDITS)
CREDITS
Stay tuned for the Epilogue, but first, the credits. This episode was written and edited by Philip Thorne with story editing by Øystein Brager and music and sound design by Fredrik Baden. It featured Alan Burgon as the Interviewer and Eli Hamada McIlveen as Hiroshi. Graphic design by Anders Pedersen and production assistance by Maty Parzival. This show is made possible through listener support, thanks to all of our Patrons, and a shoutout to our Super Patrons, Sophia Anderson, Kate Sukeyasu, Sophie Levezow, Jem Fidyk, Alban Ossant, Travis Kirton, Rushabh Shukla, Amelie Harris, Stefanie Weittenhiller, Chloe Leferman, Elizabeth Curry, Mints and such and Viktor Hesselbom. And hello to our new Super Patron, Rafael Eduardo Wefers Verastegui! For Transcripts, Merch and info on how to support the show, head over to ameliapodcast.com and now… the Epilogue…
(LOUD APPLAUSE! WE'RE AT THE BOLSHOI. WE FOLLOW THE CLANK CLANK CLANK OF THE INTERVIEWER GOING BACKSTAGE, THE APPLAUSE STAYS)
INTERVIEWER
(SOFTLY) How was I?
HIROSHI
(SOFTLY) I think we got away with it.
INTERVIEWER
(SOFTLY) I quite enjoyed it. Maybe we should actually do the tour. See the great opera houses! I've always wanted to go to La Fenice.
HIROSHI
(SOFTLY) We're not doing this any longer than we have to! Once we're safely out of Russia we run.
INTERVIEWER
(SOFTLY) Of course. I was just joking.
HIROSHI
(SOFTLY) Good. We go to Paris tomorrow.
INTERVIEWER
(SOFTLY) Ah. Paris. Les Des Magots is waiting...
(THE APPLAUSE FADES OUT)
END OF EPISODE.