ACT ONE

One month before his eighteenth birthday, our lead EARNEST wakes up in a sparse room without any memories of his past; he doesn’t even know his name.  He is then taken by guards to a “school”, where he will be taught about morality in anticipation of a test - the “Rite of Right” - that he will take on his 18th birthday, a test which will determine whether he is ‘good’ and worthy of release.

On his first day at the school, Earnest meets GRAY, SPLIT, and EVE, who explain to him (to the extent of their knowledge) the purpose and workings of this mysterious place in which he finds himself (“You’re a Bad Guy, Earnest”).  They also give him his name.  

His first day also happens to be the monthly Memory Day - a day where the establishment reminds each student of a tiny memory from their past lives.  Earnest is shown a memory of his little sister, and he instantly becomes attached to her (“Bad Guy, Earnest” - continued).  His love for her motivates him to be as “good” as possible in order to make it out and reunite with his family.

Many prisoners have been preparing for their exam since they were 15. Earnest, however, only has one month to pass. Yet he has hope; his eagerness makes his classmates guess that he must have committed a fairly insignificant and harmless crime, and is inherently good.   

Gray, prickly and skeptical, is initially irritated by Earnest, and the feeling is mutual. However, there is also some romantic tension between the two.  (“What is Your Deal”).  Earnest comes to find out that Gray’s memories are always blank, and therefore, she has nothing to look forward to if she passes the test.  But in the time they spend together, Earnest manages to make her feel hopeful.  The very next day, girl is gone. It appears that that day was her 18th birthday and she ended up passing. Before she left she leaves a note to Earnest thanking him.

Full of optimism after bearing witness to Gray’s apparent success, Earnest begins to prepare for the morality test (“Montage”).  The day of his examination arrives, and he is put through the exam (“Regrets, Earnest”).  The exam consists of facing the victim of one’s crime - Earnest discovers that he killed his sister - but he passes by showing true remorse, and is released.  End Act I.

ACT TWO

Upon release, all the memories of a prisoner are returned as they pass through the boundary between the prison world and the real world (“The Break”).   we begin with Gray, who we find out has lost her mind now that her memories have been returned to her; the reason her memories were blank is that she had been subconsciously suppressing them because they were so horrifying (“Thanks for The Memories”).  (Are we going to say what happened to her? Maybe she was abused and killed her abuser?)  We also see that Eve fails the test, despite everyone believing that she is good, because she is unable to see why her actions were wrong due to her blind optimism (“I Just Don’t Get It”).  It is here that we find out that the penalty for failure is death.  Split is able to pass by sort of “gaming the system”, he’s come through the system many times before (“Been There, Done That”).

We follow Earnest’s journey as he comes to terms with the fact that he killed his sister.  He racks his brain and finally remembers that he killed her because she had also been through the “system” before yet still behaved like a criminal without appearing to show any compunction - he bought into the values of the system and instead of attempting to help her, he believed that she was inherently bad and felt that it was his civic responsibility to kill her (“I Had to Do It”).  He also felt that it was better if he killed her himself in a humane way, rather than leaving her at the mercy of the institutional system, assuming she wouldn’t pass a second time and would therefore be killed.  But in the present day, he struggles to convince himself that he is still a good person (“You’re A Good Guy, Earnest”).

Eventually, Earnest meets up with Split, who exhibits a similar although less dangerous attitude to Earnest’s sister, and Earnest gets his chance at redemption, which he achieves by being patient with Split and helping him to live a “morally good” life (“The Straight and Narrow”).   In return, Split helps Earnest to understand that the concept of being inherently or entirely “good” or “bad” creates impossible standards and puts too much pressure on people to conform to a strict idea or label (“You’re Just A Person, Earnest”).  End.