Zuvuya!

“’Zuvuya!’ is great and would make a great musical.  The script has all the right ingredients for good entertainment—fantasy and reality, costume, colour, humour and something which I call carnivalesque, as well as metaphysical.”

—Cy Grant

“A splendid mix of philosophy and entertainment.  ‘Zuvuya!’ takes us to another dimension of understanding.  Who knows … we might just find a way to survive.”

—Bryan Willis, dramatist and artistic director of the Academy of International Education Summer Theater Project

Synopsis

Background:

The Council of Worlds has just given the “thumbs down” to the human species, which is classified as a failed experiment in evolution. The Reptilian Empire, which has worked long and hard to subvert human evolution, is jubilant. The Council’s verdict gives them a free hand to invade Earth and scoop the brains of six billion “useless eaters.” Is there any chance for a last-minute save of the Homo saps? Yes, but it’s a very slim chance….

A group of Umerian ETs have incarnated on Earth with the mission of teaching humans the key to evolution: “Love one another and thereby activate the Zuvuya, a divine energy wave that uplifts species.” Unfortunately, as incarnation on Earth requires the erasure of all memory of pre-Earth existence, the Umerian incarnates are in the “Homofog” as to their mission, despite the fact they are routinely beamed up to Umerian ships for briefings.

However, the incarnates are drawn together as members of a “UFO abductees” support group; and while Darkad is finalizing invasion plans on Lunattack, the “abductees” are on their way to a popular television show (“Back of Beyond”), whose host hopes to discover the meaning of the mysterious word the abductees keep hearing from their abductors … Zuvuya.

Action:

After Darkad takes off for Saturn, to accept the Council’s authorization to execute their “species termination ruling," the commander (pro tem) of Lunattack becomes alarmed when he learns the Umerians might be making real progress in fulfilling their help-the-humans mission. To thwart any chance of their success, the commander orders that a key Umerian incarnate (Cordula) be abducted from the set of “Back of Beyond.” By this and other actions, he violates the Council’s “rules of interspecies engagement,” and the result is that the Council puts a “hold” on their termination ruling. The hold can be lifted only if Darkad marries Cordula, an event which would signal the complete failure of the Umerians’ help effort.

Cordula has been taken to the Opposite Universe, where everything is the reverse of what it is in our universe. There, on a planet called “Darling,” the saintly Cordula is a total bitch. She becomes “Queen Dis-cordula” and orders that any would-be rescuers be slain on the spot.

For this and other reasons (a rescuer in this universe becomes an enslaver in the Opposite Universe), a rescue of Cordula is well-nigh impossible. Nevertheless, a rescue is effected (with the help of a wizard); and Cordula returns to the “Back of Beyond” show, where she and her team-mates deliver the Umerian message of love and prepare the audience to confront the powerful Darkad, who is on the way….

DARKAD soon arrives and demands that Cordula go with him. A big battle of wits ensues, which Darkad loses. In the final scene, all in the cast gather and toast to the conclusion of the human experiment and the Reptilian experiment, and to the birth of Homo Galactica!—and Rep Galactica.

Cordula Herzog-Hall, real-life model for the character Cordula.