Act 1 Eternal Sunshine Guide

A heartbeat becomes a 4/4 kick drum. Synth pads swell and distort, like a lullaby being fed through a broken pedal.

She slams the button.

The act spans approximately 35–40 minutes. It begins in the cold, sterile aftermath of a breakup and ends at the precipice of a dangerous choice. The sonic palette is intentionally jarring: warm, nostalgic R&B loops degrade into glitching electronics; acoustic guitars are slowly reversed and submerged under water; vocal harmonies arrive fragmented, like memories fighting for air. SCENE 1: “ZERO SUM” (The Opening) Setting: A white, minimalist apartment at 3:00 AM. Rain against a floor-to-ceiling window. The protagonist, CLEO (she/her, 28) , sits alone on a bare mattress. Her phone glows with a text she has typed and deleted seventeen times. act 1 eternal sunshine

A sample of a car commercial jingle from 2019 (their song?) chopped and screwed. A 909 drum machine with a missing snare—off-kilter, yearning. A heartbeat becomes a 4/4 kick drum

Cleo returns to her apartment. She opens a drawer she was told never to open (the instruction was erased, but the muscle memory remains). Inside: a single polaroid. The face is scratched out with a black marker. On the back, in her own handwriting: “You chose to forget. Do not regret.” The act spans approximately 35–40 minutes

She hesitates. Her finger hovers. The Ghost appears in the corner of the stage—not reaching for her, just watching. Sad. Human.

Cleo speaks to a therapist offstage (voice filtered through a telephone EQ). She describes the final fight: “He said I remembered things wrong. So I started recording everything. Now I have 400 hours of proof that I’m not crazy—and I’m still crazy for him.”