Moderator [into the phone with her back to the audience]: Hello … Thank you very, very much for taking the time to call me back.

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [embarrassed, and still confused, speaks slightly faster]: Yes sure … And I apologise if my repeated calls to your office were a source of bother to anyone … my apologies … I was just hoping to ask you some questions following your designation last year as the most powerful person in the world …

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [still in an overwhelmed and nervous voice]: Thank you. I was very keen to hear your opinion about this designation, and what it might stand for in our world today. I mean, I’m sorry if my question sounds a bit vague, but I have to admit I’m not a journalist, though your office might have thought so. I’m just a simple person … I mean an artist … [Laughing nervously] or what some call “an engaged artist.”

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator: Yes true, others nominated you, and you have nothing to do with this. Still, it is important to hear from you as well: what did this designation mean to you personally?

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [slightly disappointed]: Did it not somehow help make your power known to the public as indisputable?

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [more disappointed]: All right, I see … but don’t you find that seeking power has become an end in itself nowadays? Not only do we witness it everywhere and in every aspect of life, but no one appears to be immune from the pleasure of being in its shadows, and rubbing shoulders with the powerful.

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [surprised]: Am I? [Thinking for a moment] True, had it not been for this designation, I would not have been chasing you for over a year. Could I myself be interested in this issue, as you hint, out of a hidden attraction to power? [Hesitant] Well I think I’m not interested in that alone … More, I had an urge, naïve or mad as it may appear, to raise questions and discuss with you directly what seems to me to be an important issue. [Still trying to convince the person on the other end of the line of the importance of this subject] The power dynamics we see in societies today are maddening … [Also to Speaker and audience] They force on the many a great sense of helplessness …

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator: I think now we all understand that power is not a force that only prohibits. It makes things happen … it allows, creates, produces … Moreover, it presents itself as something that cares for us and is there to protect us. But, in the end, in the very end, in the exact very end, power’s main aim is to influence and control people; things, events, the future, everything. Am I wrong?

[Silence, listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [as she replies, she starts walking back to the right-hand side of the stage, toward the two seats, where the Speaker is still seated waiting for her. She nods her head and makes a “1” sign with her finger that could mean it will take only one more minute, or one more hour. Here again, as throughout the entire phone call, the Speaker is free to react as he wishes, but without speaking. And the Moderator should be ready to respond, also without speaking.]: I don’t know how we can do that exactly. After I heard about your designation as the most powerful person in the world, I actually tried to find out ways to measure someone’s power. Only physics seems to offer us a clear method. It calculates power as the amount of work performed during a period of time. So if you managed to do something in less time, compared to others, it would mean you have more power. And it’s true, most of us might not manage to do in our entire lifetime what you would do in a single phone call.

[The Moderator, still speaking, reaches for her bag. Pushing her free hand into her bag, after few seconds she lifts out a packet of cigarettes. She carries on listening; now, holding the phone with her shoulder close to her ear, she takes out a cigarette, puts it between her lips, and puts the packet back inside the bag. She then continues searching for something inside her bag, and keeps nodding, listening to the person at the other end of the line. Finally she throws the bag on her seat, and with a sign of her hand asks the Speaker if he has a lighter. The Speaker shakes his head with a “No.” Distracted, the Moderator now takes the cigarette out of her mouth and starts speaking passionately, walking away from the two seats towards the left-hand side of the stage, as if she’s in her own living room. Speaker now leaves the stage, probably to find a lighter. As she speaks, she occasionally stops, while still holding a cigarette in her right hand.]

Moderator [holding a cigarette in one hand and the telephone in the other]: I remember an excellent example from physics that explains very well how this can happen: Smoking a kilogram of tobacco, it seems, releases much more energy than does detonating a kilogram of TNT. But because the TNT reaction releases energy much more quickly, it delivers far more power than smoking a kilo of tobacco.

[Moderator puts the cigarette in her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth, says hesitantly]: I think I did come across this somewhere. And the proof of that is, that in the US there’s so much control on smoking but none on guns … [To herself] Or was it coal, not cigarettes? But all the same; they both make lots of smoke.

[Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [takes the cigarette out of her mouth]: One could say that you became the most powerful person in the world because others allowed you to be so. If a group conforms to someone’s influence and control, that person’s power over it is enhanced. But if this group doesn’t conform, that person’s power over it would become zero. Nil. [With more confidence] This also means that just as power was granted to you it can be taken away from you. You might be replaced with someone else at any moment. The revolts that happened over the last few years in some parts of the world are the best example.

[Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [passionately with a cigarette in her hand, walking back and forth at the left-hand side of the stage, and sometimes moving behind the projection screen, constantly appearing and disappearing from the audience’s view]: Yes true; you also have the power to replace those who may oppose you, and choose others who would only support you. This happens constantly, in politics as well as in work and personal relations. But it can only happen because of the support of those who themselves are mainly concerned with power and are chasing after it; what I would call “dog players.” And pardon me if this sounds a bit crude, but such people would appease power no matter how destructive it might be, or become, or was. And they would do so by any means, including playing with the dog of the powerful, whether this dog is a big black Rottweiler or a small white puppy. They will also not hesitate to intimidate or push aside others whom they fear could hinder their hunt for power.

[The Moderator stops speaking suddenly, and returns the cigarette to her mouth, still listening to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: What I’m seeking is an opposite situation. [As if thinking out loud] What would happen if we start chasing after the weak, and look to celebrate the weakest person in the world? Simply not to play with the dogs of the powerful, but to jump with the bugs of the weak! [In a declarative voice] Personally, what really concerns me is not power, but weakness.

[Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth and saying thoughtfully]: You are right again; I didn’t chase anyone considered to be weak for over a year. But someone weak probably would not be as hard to reach as you are. Anyway, it could be that there is something in power that attracts us all, regardless of how critical we are of it.

[Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: What is it about power that attracts us? [Thinking to herself] Many, like the dog players, only seem to think they’ll find pleasure originating in a feeling of power, whereas they find pain in a feeling of weakness. On the other hand, while they seek pleasure in power, they often do so by means of weakness. For instance, many powerful artists just jump on those who are weak; they try to represent them, film them, paint them, write about them, do artistic projects with lots of funding attached to them … Just name it! And maybe that’s expected. Do we come across many interesting projects about the powerful, which go beyond criticising them? Look at me here, I’m probably engaged in what may appear to be the least interesting conversation. If this conversation were with someone considered weak, people would perhaps find it more interesting. What I mean is, that although weakness is rejected, it has always been used as a source of creativity. So there must be pleasure, not only pain, that originates from it.

[Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: Yes, and to me, it seems, we tend to reject certain feelings and forms of being that we consider signs of weakness, since they seem painful to us, sometimes without even really experiencing them; for instance, madness, disabilities, strangeness.

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: In themselves these states of being are not necessarily painful; at least no more painful than others. But we tend to consider them so, due to our inability to imagine being in other states. Then we just assume our own state to be the most ideal, perfect, and powerful, and the only way to achieve true pleasure. Probably this is what also leads those in power to exclude or even exterminate anyone they condemn as “weak.” [cupping her hand, in which she still holds the cigarette, in a shape like a bracket]. Concentration camps, refugee camps, work camps, Roma camps, summer camps … whatever, they can all camp!

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: And there must be a place for what we deem as weakness in our world, also beyond our career calculations or our sense of charity; a place that is granted out of a true sense of generosity. Weakness, in the end, is a state we all experience. [Hesitantly] Do you yourself feel weak sometimes?

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: I don’t know … I’m trying to think … remember … [Hesitant, and with shift in tone, a more personal one] May I ask you a personal question?

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth, timidly]: Are you a man or a woman?

[The Moderator returns the cigarette briefly to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: Well I guess gender doesn’t matter in this case anyway. What I mean … how can I say this … all right … [Summoning the courage to speak] You know, when doing a scan during pregnancy to determine whether a child will be born with a physical or mental disability, men or women are presented with two choices from which they are expected to choose: to accept the child, or not to accept the child. It is mad that we are so casually expected to reject different forms of being, because we consider them as weaknesses. Would we be presented with such choices, or faced with that dilemma, if we were certain that our child would be the most powerful person in the world?

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: My impression is that our inability to deal with weakness is what actually causes powers to turn dangerous, without much opposition. Yet it is power, with its potential for danger, that we should oppose and diminish, be it good or bad; not weakness, which is not only harmless in itself, but in the end, is a source of inspiration and creativity.

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: Yes you are probably right. To diminish power, for a start, I should not be speaking to you. But secretly I was hoping, that maybe, madly, that you, being the most powerful person in the world, could bring about the abolition of power.

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: If someone’s power is measured by their ability to influence things and people, maybe you, being so powerful, could make power collapse, and allow weakness to be the most desirable state. Would you? [She pauses] In fact how powerful are you?

[The Moderator returns the cigarette to her mouth as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator [shocked, taking the cigarette out of her mouth]: How do you know all of this; that I’m on stage at a theater hall, acting as a Moderator, for a session entitled “Beyond the Limits of Power”? …

[The Moderator keeps the cigarette in her hand as she listens to the person at the other end of the line.]

Moderator: So it seems, just as you say, nothing today is beyond the limits of power, at least not beyond yours. [She raises the cigarette to her mouth, but without putting it between her lips.] I need a lighter.