From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Reversal
This work stages the cycle running anticlockwise through time. For the dance choreography, see Counterclockwise (dance).
The Reversal stages the cycle running backward. The stage rotates anticlockwise. Katita's red hair bleaches white with each scene; Leif's The wings as Icarus motif fold back into his shoulder blades; the hand cannon disassembles into component parts.
The libretto is sung in a constructed language phonetically mirroring English but inverting meaning with each phrase. The opera begins at Leif's crash and moves anticlockwise: the rocket cart slowing, the cabin reassembling from scattered timber, the watering hole draining, the desert interior greening as though climate itself reversed.
Katita's arias grow shorter and more urgent. She realizes that reversing the cycle does not undo it—it parallels it. There are now two cycles, one forward and one backward, intersecting at moments of paradox. In the final duet, Leif and Katita occupy the stage simultaneously in two opposite temporal directions, singing toward and away from each other:
Katita: "Break the cycle."— The Reversal, Final Duet
Leif: "Rebuild it."— The Reversal, Final Duet
The final chord—a perfect fifth—does not resolve. The stage halts mid-rotation. Blackout.