Doctor Ox's Experiment

‘Doctor Ox’s Experiment is an apparently straightforward narrative which could be seen to have the concept of “tempo”, relative pace and the play between musical time and chronological time as a structuring device.’ (Gavin Bryars)
The place is not marked on any map: Quiquendone, a small town in Flanders of deep tranquillity and bureaucratic stultification. Nothing has happened here for centuries and the townsfolk conduct their lives with extreme slowness, never raising their voices or taking risks. Into their midst comes the animated impetuous figure of Doctor Ox, a scientist and adventurer who offers to supply the town (at his own expense) with a modern street-lighting system. In fact, along with his loyal but anxious assistant Ygène, he is conducting an experiment to see if the injection into the atmosphere of an oxygen gas can alter the behaviour of the townsfolk – and in time, perhaps change the world.
As the experiment proceeds, a ‘strange fever’ affects everything and everyone, and revolution threatens. There is a riotous performance of Meyerbeer’s ‘Les Hugenots’ (which in the old days was performed so slowly that it never got beyond the first act). As authority crumbles and various political factions compete for the people’s heart, the town leaders unite the townsfolk in a local nationalist cause, reviving a centuries-old dispute over a cow as a pretext to declare war on neighbouring Virgamen. Ox is delighted and develops his gas to give it fighting potential. Ygène repeatedly pleads with Ox to stop but he refuses. They fight, but meanwhile the dials and monitors in the empty lab have gone haywire. There is an almighty explosion, Ox and Ygène run off, and slowly everything seems to return to normal. Yet, in the final closing duet, it is clear that nothing can ever be the same again.