a million billion pieces

By David James Brock and Gareth Williams

It’s time to make every moment count.

Sixteen-year-olds Pria and Theo—or as they know each other online, the aspiring opera singer PriaSoprano and outer-space aficionado Eagle19—have decided to have sex. There’s just one catch… they both have life-threatening genetic disorders that may cause them to explode from one another’s touch. But they won’t know what will happen until they try. Sick of being told what to do their whole lives, they rebel against their reality and meet at a motel. But while Pria is more or less accepting of her fate, Theo has hopes for the future, and what was planned as a simple meeting becomes much more intimate as they open up about their experiences. The fate of their lives comes down to one decision…

This teen romance space opera explores our willingness to live, what it means to belong, and the necessity of emotional and physical relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9780369103376

David James Brock

David James Brock is a playwright, poet, librettist, and screenwriter. He is a past winner of the Herman Voaden Canadian National Playwriting Competition for his play Wet. Brock is the author of two poetry collections, Everyone is CO2 and Ten-Headed Alien (Wolsak & Wynn). With Scottish Opera, Brock co-created Breath Cycle, a multimedia operatic song cycle developed with cystic fibrosis patients. He co-wrote both the opera and screenplay for Year of the Horse (with Mike Haliechuk) and the script for the film Mother of All Shows (with Melissa D’Agostino). He lives in Toronto.

Book preview

Cover: a million billion pieces by David James Brock with Music by Gareth Williams. Against a black background two outlines of the human cardiovascular system are outlined in blue and pink, holding hands.

a million billion pieces

written by David James Brock

music by Gareth Williams

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

a million billion pieces © Copyright 2022 by David James Brock and Gareth Williams

First edition: March 2022

Jacket design by David Gee

Author photo © Anita Nagra

Playwrights Canada Press

202-269 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON M5V 1X1

416.703.0013 | [e-mail] | www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact Playwrights Canada Press.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: A million billion pieces / written by David James Brock ; music by Gareth Williams.

Names: Brock, David James, author. | Williams, Gareth, 1977- composer.

Description: A play.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210396903 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210397004 | ISBN 9780369103352 (softcover) | ISBN 9780369103369 (PDF) | ISBN 9780369103376 (HTML)

Classification: LCC PS8603.R6225 M55 2022 | DDC C812/.6—dc23

Playwrights Canada Press operates on land which is the ancestral home of the Anishinaabe Nations (Ojibwe / Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Mississauga), the Wendat, and the members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), as well as Metis and Inuit peoples. It always was and always will be Indigenous land.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

Logo: Canada Council for the Arts.Logo: Government of Canada.Logo: Ontario Creates.Logo: Ontario Arts Council.

acknowledgements

This play was written with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and Young People’s Theatre. Our deepest gratitude to Allen MacInnis and all our friends, cast, crew, and workshop participants at Young People’s Theatre, especially Stephen Colella for his dramaturgical advice and energy from the very first draft of this play. We also want to thank Philip Akin, Amber Ebert, and Tita Kyrtsakas for their contributions along this play’s journey.

Though a million billion pieces portrays a fictional chronic illness, it’s a creative extension of Breath Cycle, our community opera project exploring opera and voice for singers with cystic fibrosis. We are indebted to vocal coach Marie Claire Breen, Scottish Opera, and the whole medical staff at the Gartnavel General Hospital respirology department (Glasgow) for their support.

This play is dedicated to the original co-creators, singers, and performers of Breath Cycle, not only for their artistic collaboration, but for the reminder that big music inhabits single seconds.

David & Gareth

playwright’s note

"In a million billion pieces, Pria and Theo are both afflicted with the same lethal genetic disorder. Both grow up ‘mired in precautions’ believing they won’t reach adulthood, that even being in a room with someone who has the same disease will cause them to instantly explode into ‘a million billion pieces.’ As far as I know, no such disease exists, but I think people of all ages can relate to their feelings of fragility and isolation, as well as an intense desire to be around people who understand us."

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