Out Lines – Episode 9

Episode Transcript

[music]

0:00:00.0 Jordan Schildcrout: Imagine if Oscar Wilde had lived past 1900.

0:00:03.6 Jay Thomas as Bill: You didn’t mean it.

0:00:05.6 Mark Finley: So dark.

0:00:06.3 Karen Stanion as Gladys: Something tingling with excitement is about to take place.

0:00:12.1 Gail Dennison as Lady Herodias: Quelle surprise!

0:00:12.8 Christopher Borg as Herod: Now she dances!

[music]

0:00:14.7 MF: Hello, and welcome back to Out Lines, the podcast where three very important people have a deep and complex discussion about a super important play, Now She Dances!. I’m Mark Finley and I’m also really important.

0:00:29.2 Virginia Baeta: I’m Virginia Baeta and I’m not really sure where to put myself in the importance scale right now.

0:00:34.5 JS: I’m Jordan Schildcrout and I’m a “man of no importance.”

0:00:37.1 MF: Oh, I was hoping somebody would throw that in there.

0:00:39.0 VB: Yep, nice.

0:00:40.2 JS: In this episode, we reach the thrilling conclusion of Doric Wilson’s play, Now She Dances!.

0:00:45.2 VB: And we also investigate the thrilling and also somewhat disturbing trials of Oscar Wilde. But before we can get into that, let’s go into the play.

[music]

0:01:00.0 MF: When we last left Now She Dances!, Salome was interrogating The Prisoner and things were about to really spiral out of control.

0:01:07.7 Virginia Baeta as Salome: Salome was recovering from a momentary Delilah delusion.

0:01:12.3 Bill: Bill had grabbed a butter knife.

0:01:14.1 Chris Weikel as Lane: Believe me, it’s important.

0:01:15.8 David Leeper as The Prisoner: And The Prisoner was trying to get Bill to put him back in the summerhouse.

0:01:19.3 Herod: When Herod and Lady Herodias burst through the French doors.

0:01:22.7 Lady Herodias: Entering laughing.

0:01:25.4 Herod: Salome, my dear child.

0:01:28.6 Lady Herodias: It’s all been settled.

0:01:30.5 Herod: The contract has been signed.

0:01:32.6 Lady Herodias: You’ll get everything.

0:01:34.5 Salome: It has not been settled. Mamma, Herod, go back inside and wait.

0:01:39.0 Herod: But…

0:01:39.3 Lady Herodias: Oh. Hello there, we meet again.

0:01:44.9 Salome: I’m not kidding. Go back off stage and wait.

0:01:49.9 Lady Herodias: Lady Herodias and Herod do as they are told.

0:01:54.2 Herod: A touch confused but going with it.

0:01:58.4 Salome: And Salome turns her attention back to Bruce.

0:02:01.9 The Prisoner: My name’s not Bruce.

0:02:04.4 Salome: Now, sir, come to me.

0:02:07.6 The Prisoner: No.

0:02:08.5 Salome: Yes.

0:02:08.8 The Prisoner: Why?

0:02:10.3 Salome: I am your lover.

0:02:12.0 Bill: No, Miss Salome, me.

0:02:15.6 Bill: Bill, overcome with devotion to Salome, claims he will die without her.

0:02:21.5 Salome: Salome laughs this off.

0:02:23.4 Lane: The butter knife is still in Bill’s hand.

0:02:26.1 The Prisoner: Hadn’t you better disarm him?

0:02:29.7 Lane: Interfere?

0:02:31.3 Bill: When it’s too late, when I’m lying dead on the floor, then you’ll appreciate me.

0:02:39.3 Salome: Maybe, maybe not.

0:02:42.5 Bill: Salome turns away from Bill and back to The Prisoner. She starts unbuttoning her bodice.

0:02:52.7 Salome: In years to come, when you talk of this, and you will, be kind.

0:02:58.6 The Prisoner: Bill, give me that knife.

0:03:01.4 Bill: Look at me.

0:03:02.1 Lane: William. You’d better leave the theatrics to your elders.

0:03:07.6 Bill: Look.

0:03:09.6 Bill: And to his own surprise, Bill stabs himself.

0:03:14.6 Lane: William.

0:03:17.0 Salome: Now, what have you done?

0:03:18.0 Bill: I stabbed myself.

0:03:22.0 Lane: In the garden?

0:03:23.8 Salome: For me?

0:03:24.3 Bill: For… For…

0:03:28.0 Lane: William?

0:03:31.2 The Prisoner: Quick, open his shirt.

0:03:33.1 Salome: Are you a doctor?

0:03:34.6 The Prisoner: No, but…

0:03:35.4 Salome: Then stay out of this.

0:03:38.3 Bill: I… You…

0:03:39.6 Salome: I what?

0:03:41.1 Bill: You didn’t mean it.

0:03:45.4 JS: Bill dies.

0:03:48.0 MF: So, there’s a whole lot there. [chuckle] I have to say, I’m really surprised that Doric didn’t throw in… When Lane says, “In the garden?” when Bill says, “Stabbed myself” and Lane says, “In the garden?” I’m surprised Bill didn’t say, “No, in the stomach.” Because it’s Doric. But he had to even pull back from that one. I love it.

0:04:12.1 JS: Well, it’s an interesting question. While there’s still some humor in the scene, how seriously should it be played? How much should we feel for the death of this goofy but still relatively likable supposedly character that we’ve been spending an act and a half with?

0:04:27.4 VB: I love how Doric does this. There is goofiness. He just stabbed himself with a butter knife, right?

0:04:34.1 MF: And dies.

0:04:34.7 VB: But Doric needs to set the stage that this is a place where death can happen. He needs to make that a possibility because probably up until this point, it didn’t seem like that is something that could happen. And you probably also have that thing, it’s like, “Well, it’s a butter knife. He can’t actually be dead.” If he had said, “Stabbed myself in the garden. No, in the stomach,” would probably have it more like, “Oh okay, well, he didn’t really stab himself.” I wouldn’t doubt actually that Doric had written that and then cut it.

0:05:05.1 MF: Yeah. Even though this is Bill’s line, it seems so Prisoner to me when he says, “When it’s too late, when I’m lying down on the floor, then you’ll appreciate me.” It just seems very Prisoner to me in Doric’s view of… The Prisoner could be saying this to Lane, as to the sacrifices that the people that are out there made for the people that are in there to have better lives. I also love his reference to Tea and Sympathy there. “In years to come, when you talk of this and you will be kind.” That’s so twisted. Again, that’s another… Not really gay, “gay play.”

0:05:49.3 VB: Definitely a gay line.

0:05:50.6 MF: Oh yeah, absolutely. That audience would have probably responded to it. I don’t even know if an audience today would even get it, which is a shame.

0:06:01.1 VB: You mentioned that about that line potentially being The Prisoner as well. I think theatrically, having scenes, extended scenes, with four people is challenging. Three is perfect, right? And then you add that fourth, and you end up in a situation where you either have two twos, or basically a three with a bounce. And that in this case, it feels like we have these sort of two parallel relationships, two parallel scenes where they’re sort of dipping into each other. But who sort of wants who? Who needs whom? And that Bill saying that, it reflects not only where Bill is but The Prisoner and also, in some ways, Lane. As far as, again, like who needs who, like Lane’s feelings towards Bill, you know, Salome’s “feelings” towards The Prisoner. I find what you brought up interesting as far as how that goes, how would you stage that moment? Where did you put people in space to make it clear that these are… You’re saying this for everyone.

0:07:05.8 The Prisoner: Let me help you.

0:07:06.7 Lane: Haven’t you done enough already?

0:07:10.4 The Prisoner: You set the stage.

0:07:10.9 Salome: Is he?

0:07:12.0 Lane: Yes.

0:07:12.4 The Prisoner: Dead?

0:07:13.3 Gladys: Gladys enters.

0:07:15.9 Salome: I dropped one of my props.

0:07:19.1 Lane: And it broke.

0:07:21.3 Salome: You, Mister No-name. You should know the poem even better than I. “But I am Love.”

0:07:32.1 The Prisoner: Love?

0:07:34.1 Salome: “And I was wont to be alone in this fair garden.” Say it with me. “I am true love. I fill the hearts of boys and girls with mutual flame.”

0:07:48.3 Gladys: Your skirt’s trailing in the blood.

0:07:53.3 Salome: You’re so proud of it. Say it with me. “Then sighing said the other…” You know the words.

0:08:03.3 The Prisoner: “Then sighing said the other. Have thy will. I am the love that dare not speak its name.” With this, The Prisoner disappears back into the summerhouse.

0:08:17.9 VB: The poem.

0:08:19.8 JS: What poem is this?

0:08:20.8 MF: What poem is this?

0:08:21.8 VB: Right. This is the poem that is from The Trials of Oscar Wilde. Do we know who wrote that poem?

0:08:27.8 JS: Yeah. It’s called “Two Loves” by Lord Alfred Douglas. And it was actually read at the trial, and it’s what actually is the cue for Oscar Wilde to go into his famous speech about the dignity of gay love.

0:08:41.1 VB: Yes.

0:08:41.8 MF: That being said, why is it being used here? And why does she start it? Is it a mockery?

0:08:48.2 VB: The only other possible character in this play who might, but who won’t, is Lane.

0:08:55.5 JS: Well, what I find intriguing about this is that this is the exit cue, for The Prisoner. This is his final line, and of his own volition, it seems. He’s exiting the stage to go to his prison at the summerhouse. And so if we think about the moment in the actual trial of Oscar Wilde, where there’s this poem, and then Wilde’s defense of his queerness, which again, got applause from some and boos from others in the courtroom, is this basically his conviction? He’s going off to prison. He knows that this is the way that the script goes.

0:09:29.9 MF: That makes a lot of sense. Essentially, he’s trapped in the play finally.

[music]

0:09:35.9 MF: Let’s pick up with The Trials of Oscar Wilde. If you’re not familiar with what’s happened historically up to this point, you might want to stop here and listen to Episode Eight.

0:09:47.1 VB: So we move on to the first trial of Oscar Wilde, and just a spoiler alert, it’s a hung jury, this first one. And so Oscar Wilde actually was not completely wrong to think… To stay and stand against these charges. If hindsight being 20/20, and eventually, we know that he is found guilty and sent to prison and everything that happens, second spoiler alert. But in that first trial, enough of the jury does not agree with the charges. If they had just left it at that, we’d have a very different story. And the first trial is where we have “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name”.

0:10:27.2 David Leeper – Quoting Oscar Wilde: “The love that dare not speak its name”, in this century, such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan. Such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as “the love that dare not speak its name,” and on account of it, I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful. It is fine. It is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and younger man, when the elder man has intellect and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.”

0:11:35.1 JS: So should we should we talk about how extraordinary that is?

0:11:38.5 VB: Yes, please.

0:11:38.7 JS: That statement that we’ve just heard? The fact that in this trial, which of course, Wilde knows, is being highly publicized because of his celebrity. That these words will resonate through the country, if not the world, certainly over time. The fact that he sort of makes this defense for what the government is calling “gross indecency,” that he actually tries to ennoble it. He does this by finding a lineage for it in history, by claiming its virtue, its dignity, its beauty. This is, in some ways, an act of incredible bravery from this man in 1895, that he actually said these words on the stand in a public trial.

0:12:21.3 VB: Absolutely, “the noblest form of affection.”

0:12:24.9 JS: And I do think that it’s often turned to this particular passage to show how Wilde really influenced the way that later generations thought about their lineage. Do queer people have a history? Do we have a heritage the way that other cultures do? And Wilde not only makes that argument in this speech, but I would say the speech then itself becomes a participant in that. And so that later generations then refer back to Wilde’s speech saying, “Look, here’s part of your queer cultural heritage.” And this is done to ennoble it in a way that clearly the government doesn’t recognize at this time.

0:13:04.9 VB: Imagine, again, although there were groups that were greatly opposed to people doing what they wanted to do with their relationships, with their time. In many, many, many cases, socially accepted behavior, it might have been against the law, but people would either look the other way or just say, “Do what you’re gonna do.” That I think about what would have happened if they hadn’t gone on to that third trial. If they ended up with a hung jury, and Oscar Wilde was not put on trial, again. How this statement would have carried forward from that time, could have put this whole history on a different trajectory.

0:13:45.4 MF: Right, and also the history to gay people in the future.

0:13:50.6 VB: That’s right. When Oscar Wilde finished that statement, in the gallery of the courtroom, there was a response. Cheering, and in some cases, some not cheering. The justice, who was on the bench at the time, then said one of my personal favorite lines in all of trial history, “If there is a slightest manifestation of feeling, I shall have the court cleared.” [laughter] But just imagine testimony, real testimony, not written by some screenwriters in a room that brings people to a point where they cheer. And in some ways, that could be one of the reasons why the jury was hung. An incredibly compelling moment, however, [laughter] hung jury. [chuckle]

0:14:43.4 VB: Because of the ways that things are, the prosecution gets another shot. Now, from what I understand, there were a lot of people that were opposed to moving this forward, to driving this forward. Even Queensberry’s original solicitor did not want to continue with this. The government had decided what they were going to do, they were gonna take another swing. And in this case, they tightened their prosecution, they had fewer witnesses, the most compelling of the bunch, they made it as succinct as possible. In this case, the jury did not acquit Oscar Wilde.

0:15:20.6 JS: I think it’s worth pointing out too that as part of the prosecution in bringing in a series of what might be termed “rent boys.” Which is to say, young men that could be paid for sexual experience, that these are mostly working-class young men. And this is actually a point in the trial that the prosecutors are actually asking, “Wait, why would you be paying so much attention to a valet? Why would you be paying so much attention to a serving boy?”

0:15:47.6 VB: And then also you when you go back to those qualities when you’re thinking about what is beauty and noble and virtuous and etcetera. That those are qualities that folks couldn’t necessarily think that they could attribute to the working class, to the newsboy, the working boy. What do you have to talk about with this valet? What sort of scintillating conversation could you be actually having? It can’t be about that, it can’t be about the beauty of word or thought or philosophy.

0:16:13.2 JS: So the class difference between the men who are having relations actually seems to be almost as disturbing to the Victorian British public as the sexual relations themselves. That in other words, these same-sex relations are breaking down social propriety, and particularly the class structures, which of course, in so much of Wilde’s writing, he’s often satirizing. But here he can’t escape it.

0:16:36.0 MF: And also ironically, if the the germ of this is the relationship between Bosie and Wilde, Bosie is not working class. So it hardly seems fair. [chuckle]

0:16:48.7 VB: And so that, which is not all-inclusive, is sort of the story of the trials of Oscar Wilde. He is found guilty. His sentenced, he has two years of prison and labor. He eventually comes out. He continues to write, think, travel. His relationship with Bosie is never the same. He does not last too much longer after that. He’s a changed man. And also the world has changed because this is a very, very high profile trial about acts that people were sort of hoping to find ways to make less societally acceptable.

0:17:27.3 MF: I was gonna say not only that, but it’s like you were saying before, turn a blind eye to etcetera, we accept you. We don’t like necessarily that but you’re gonna go ahead and do it. In a way it’s hiding in plain sight. But in the aftermath of this trial, and this kind of love daring to speak its name, it’s not invisible anymore. You can’t turn a blind eye to it. It’s right there. And it’s right there in front of you, and it’s in your class. And it’s there.

0:17:57.4 JS: I think another important aspect of what you’re saying is actually what does happen to Wilde after his two years of hard labor in Reading Gaol. Of course, he, as you say, continues to write, most famously, The Ballad of Reading Gaol. But he goes into exile living mostly in France, spending some time in Italy as well. But his health never really recovers. And within three years, he’s dead in 1900 at the age of 46. And so just to think about this for a moment, that George Bernard Shaw is actually two years younger than Oscar Wilde. George Bernard Shaw lives until 1950.

0:18:37.3 MF: Wow.

0:18:38.2 JS: And he creates many of his masterpieces right between 1900 and 1950. Imagine if Oscar Wilde had lived past 1900, past the age of 46, what he might have actually given the world. And I think it’s because of this early death, which by every account is undeniably linked to the conditions of his imprisonment, that Wilde becomes a martyr, that in many quarters he’s actually referred to as “Saint Oscar.” And so this figure of the martyr, and particularly martyred for queerness, his homosexuality or gay identity as we might conceive of it nowadays, this is why it matters to Doric Wilson. That Doric Wilson sees in Oscar Wilde the martyred Oscar Wilde, the figure of John the Baptist in Salome, that he conflates these. So that Wilde’s persecution, his prosecution and persecution, and his ultimate death at the hands of the government relates to the beheading of John the Baptist within the biblical story of Salome. And the bringing of these two things together, to me, this is one of Doric’s great artistic insights. And, as far as I know, no one really did this before him. It’s a unique retelling of the story of Salome conflated with the story of Wilde’s persecution that, and that to me, really gives this play its power.

0:20:00.4 MF: It’s interesting that you mention that because if you look at the figure of John the Baptist, who basically harangued a decadent society. And you look at Wilde essentially doing the same thing but through satire, through wit and satire. Essentially Doric is making that switch and doing it in satire. He’s speaking Wilde’s own language, and making this juxtaposition. It’s really fascinating, and yet another level on this play.

[music]

0:20:38.5 Lane: Lane cradles Bill’s body in his arms.

0:20:46.5 Gladys: With Gladys standing by, ready to clean up.

0:20:51.4 Salome: Salome has not noticed that The Prisoner has returned to the summerhouse. She speaks to him. 

Salome: My hand, sir, take it. Look into my eyes. There’s a planetarium in my eyes. I have most of the Big Dipper in my left eye. In my right eye, you have a good go at the morning star. Keep out of that summerhouse! You locked the door, didn’t you? I heard the click. Do you want me to come back there and break that door down? You like that, don’t you, breaking down doors. Come out. Come out, come out, come out! We’ll have a party to welcome you. Waltzing does a lot for the soul. One, two, three. Come, two, three. Out, two, three. La, sir, la, if you think you have the right to refuse propriety. I dish out the rights around here! I shan’t be the poor loser in a contest won by a summerhouse! Not I, sir!1Lane, tell an amusing story.

0:21:58.9 Lane: Once upon a time, there was a young footman…

0:22:01.5 Salome: Ugh, never mind, Lane, things are quite funny enough. Do you hear that in there? I think your hilarious attitude is in bad taste. You tire me. I am finished with you. Herod, Mama? Everybody on stage.

0:22:18.3 VB: It’s funny ’cause I get to that point where I think about what does Salome… At that point where she says, “No moon.” What does she think the ultimate end of this is? Is it death? Is it multiple deaths? Or is it a successful seduction? What is going according to plan and what isn’t?

0:22:38.9 Herod: Herod and Lady Herodias return.

0:22:40.4 Lady Herodias: To find the new footman taking an unscheduled nap.

Lady Herodias: Rise, sir, from that completely recumbent position.

0:22:49.5 Salome: He can’t Mama. He butter-knifed himself to death.

0:22:53.0 Herod: Who’s responsible for this carnage?

0:22:56.5 Salome: The butler did it.

0:22:58.3 Lady Herodias: Not another one.

0:23:00.4 Herod: Remove it.

0:23:01.2 Lane: If Miss Salome is finished with it.

0:23:05.2 Salome: Quite finished. Thank you, Lane.

0:23:09 Gladys: Gladys and Lane pull Bill’s body to the side.

0:23:13.1 Lane: Lane covers the body with the Cape of Moloch. They both exit.

0:23:19.3 Gladys: Unobtrusively.

0:23:22.1 VB: And we have a little bit of discussion about the contract…

0:23:24.4 MF: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So they are talking about the contract. Everything’s ready to go. But it doesn’t look like Salome is ready to go.

0:23:32.1 Salome: I’m adding a rider to the contract.

0:23:36.0 Lady Herodias: He hasn’t anything left.

0:23:38.5 Salome: Oh yes, he has.

0:23:40.1 Herod: What do you want?

0:23:41.6 Salome: You desire me?

0:23:42.8 Herod: Where is the Ravel?

0:23:45.0 Lady Herodias: We can dispense with the music.

0:23:47.3 Salome: You crave and covet me.

0:23:49.6 Herod: I’m very fond of you. Where is Lane?

0:23:54.4 Salome: And you will give me anything I ask.

0:23:56.5 Herod: Miss Salome, deep in my heart.

0:24:01.2 Salome: Get up.

0:24:02.1 Herod: You’re taking the romance out of it.

0:24:03.9 Salome: Answer my question.

0:24:05.4 Herod: What is it that you want?

0:24:07.3 Salome: Just give it to me.

0:24:08.3 Herod: Aren’t you expected to dance?

0:24:10.3 Salome: Later maybe, there’s a little waltz step I’m warming up right now.

0:24:14.1 Lady Herodias: Then it’s settled. Quelle surprise! What an alliance! To the both of you.

0:24:20.6 Salome: No Mama, it is not settled.

0:24:22.7 Herod: But…

0:24:23.1 Salome: As soon as I’ve been given what I want.

0:24:24.9 Herod: Then tell me what it is?

0:24:28.5 Salome: Him.

0:24:28.5 Herod: Who?

0:24:29.0 Salome: I want him. In there, he who rejected me.

0:24:33.5 Herod: He isn’t mine to give.

0:24:35.5 Lady Herodias: He belongs to justice.

0:24:38.1 Herod: To this summerhouse and to those who follow.

0:24:40.3 Lady Herodias: And you don’t want him. Who knows where he’s been?

0:24:44.9 Salome: Fair enough, I consent to settle for his head.

0:24:49.7 Herod: After a tiny bit of pleading, Herod consents to a trial.

0:24:55.6 Lady Herodias: And the prisoner is found guilty.

0:25:00.5 Salome: Then give me his head.

0:25:01.4 Herod: It’s yours.

0:25:02.7 Salome: How do I get it off?

0:25:04.2 Herod: Not my jurisdiction.

0:25:05.6 Salome: Antipas, my sweet.

0:25:07.7 Herod: Not on your tintype.

0:25:09.9 Salome: Twiddle, I should have saved Bill. Mama?

0:25:11.6 Lady Herodias: Surely you jest.

0:25:15.3 Salome: Where is Lane?

0:25:17.2 Gladys: Gladys enters in her street clothes.

0:25:21.1 Salome: Gladys, bring me his head.

0:25:23.2 Gladys: Are you for real?

0:25:24.6 Salome: Sir Herod gave it to me.

0:25:27.8 Gladys: Nice of you to try to include me in the action. Hell, I seldom last beyond the first 10 minutes of the play. Let’s face it, there aren’t that many plays left with maids in them.

0:25:44.0 Karen Stanion: And with that, the actress formerly known as Gladys, exits through the audience. In the words of Doric Wilson from the stage directions she is jumping ship.

0:25:56.2 Lane: Lane enters from the direction of the summerhouse with the tray from Act One.

0:26:03.3 Salome: The moon.

0:26:05.6 Lane: On it is The Prisoner’s head covered with a colorful tea cozy.

0:26:15.5 Herod: The fake phonograph built in Act One sputters to life with the severed head motif from the opera Salome by Richard Strauss.

0:26:24.2 Lane: I found the tray thrown away in the shrubbery.

0:26:28.3 Salome: Is this?

0:26:29.6 Lane: I put a tea cozy on it, to keep it warm.

0:26:35.2 Salome: A wonderful head! You did come to me, sir. I have in my hands, on a precious middle-period Mesopotamian tray, under the cozy Auntie deFarge crocheted for me, a head. Bad country, miserable year, but a good head. An anonymous head. Aren’t you sorry you never told me your real name? Now you’ll never get proper credit. We must celebrate. We must sing and laugh and dance! Dance, yes, we must dance! Herod, we are going to a ball.

0:27:20.2 Lady Herodias: Not without a hat.

Lady Herodias: Lady Herodias produces a hat fit for Ascot from out of nowhere.

0:27:28.8 Salome: Salome puts on the hat.

0:27:32.4 Herod: Momentarily entrusting Herod with the prized head.

0:27:38.2 Salome: A young lady may well do without the benefit of naked trumpeters if first she takes special care to master the intricacies of the waltz.

Salome: Salome begins a slow waltz with the head.

0:27:52.0 Herod: Now she dances! 

Lane: But with her hat on.

0:27:56.3 Lady Herodias: Like the proper girl I raised her to be.

0:28:00.6 Salome: Take solace from that as I exit waltzing.

0:28:02.8 Lady Herodias: Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales mutates into an insane and energetic distortion of a waltz. The music swells as the lights black out.

0:28:16.3 MF: I love that, essentially, we’ve gotten a summary of the whole play up to this point, and the plays on which it is based up to this point in a page and a half.

0:28:26.2 VB: Yes, all of this. The decapitation of the prisoner and all of that is actually just sort of an epilogue.

0:28:34.2 MF: Yep.

0:28:34.4 VB: That moment is when The Prisoner returns to the summerhouse. Everything else that happens has to happen to wrap up the play. It’s like, “Okay. Well, we have to have a Salome so we have to have a head.”

0:28:44.3 MF: Yeah. It’s pretty glorious how it’s done, and how it’s contrasted in the other versions of this, that she exits waltzing as opposed to “Kill that woman!” I do love that the title line is three lines from the end. So effectively, it feels like the act curtain is coming down on the end of the show, “Thanks for coming to our play.” Again, it’s just embracing its theatricality. I love that.

0:29:08.2 VB: Also that Lane leaves before the head is requested.

0:29:13.1 JS: Fascinating.

0:29:13.9 VB: Gladys and Layne poll Bill’s body to the side, Lane covers it with the Cape of Moloch, and then Lane and Gladys exit stage right. And repeatedly people ask, “Where’s Lane? Where’s Lane? Where’s Lane?” And then shortly after getting the okay for the head, Lane returns with it.

0:29:29.7 MF: Interesting, because when he comes on with the head under the tea cozy, he says, “I put a tea cozy on it to keep it warm.” And in the stage direction it says “Bill has been revenged.” So I’m assuming that he goes off to do it, doesn’t matter whether she requests it or not.

0:29:50.9 VB: Exactly.

0:29:51.7 MF: It’s his fault that Bill’s dead.

0:29:53.8 VB: It’s like all of the other storytelling is like, “Right, right. Okay, so there’s this, there’s the contract. There’s that, there’s the other thing, there’s whatever. She asked for the head.” But actually, that’s all parallel. Again, a play running alongside another play, the play of Lane revenging this death.

0:30:10.0 MF: Right. And essentially she almost doesn’t have to request it, it’s inevitable.

[music]

0:30:15.5 MF: So that is the end of the play, Now She Dances!, but not the end of the podcast, Out Lines. In our next and final episode of this season, we’re going to bring up the lights, pull up the curtain, and have a bit of a talkback. We’re gonna look behind the scenes, talk to the actors who worked on our version of Now She Dances! and we’re going to talk about why we think this play is worth talking about. So please, come on back in and listen to the last episode.

0:30:42.1 VB: So much energy, so much energy.

0:30:43.2 JS: The spirit was in you.

0:30:45.1 MF: Yeah, I know, and I wish it would leave me alone.

[music]

0:30:47.3 Christopher Borg: Thank you for listening to Out Lines. Subscribe, get lost in our show notes and check out some awfully cute kitty pics at outlinespod.com. Season One of Out Lines features conversations recorded between September 2020 and April 2021. This episode’s selections from Doric Wilson’s Now She Dances! were directed by Mark Finley and feature Virginia Baeta, Gail Dennison, David Leeper, Karen Stanion, Jay Thomas, Chris Weikel, and me, Christopher Borg. I don’t own a cat, I’m allergic to cats. But I own a dog, and that dog’s name is Bruce Wayne. Thanks to Sarah Wardrop for the production magic, to the dastardly Morry Campbell for the theme music, and to Free To Use Sounds. You are all stars.

0:31:39.0 VB: Out Lines is a production of The Weakest Thing.