Act Two

The theater is dark. The curtain has not yet risen. Soft, hypnotic French Pop music plays over the P.A. The scent of sweet lilacs is pumped into the hall via the air vents. Extras dressed as art students throw rose petals on the audience from various locations in the theater. After several minutes, a voice-over narration begins. The narrator speaks with a lisp.

Narrator:
Clothe me, Ariel. Clothe me in the pulse of our wildest desires. My cheeks are wet and heavy from jostling the boys as play ended and I was sent home. The military academy, the accidental choir rehearsals and you, my manchild of Mars, in your silk schoolgirl dresses - always so like love...
          Would that those days should return
                               and yet,
          perhaps in the dance we can remember,
                  perhaps in the dance we can forget...........


French Pop Music ends abruptly and is immediately followed by an extended segment of upbeat introductory music. With the beginning of the music, a Dionysus-like figure appears stage left, in front of the curtain. He is a faux hermaphrodite who is wearing only a small codpiece made of fig tree leaves and branches. His skin is chalk white and his hair is bluish black. He dances wildly, provocatively, to the music. Lit by a white spotlight, he moves with great speed in front of the curtain from stage left to stage right and then back again several times. Rose petals continue to cascade onto the audience. After approximately 10 minutes of the dance, he begins to sing:


"Strange New Dance"
(Upbeat tempo)

 
Well, there's a strange new dance
That I only do for strangers.
You better call the ambulance
'Cause I don't mind the dangers.
You know, it makes me want to laugh
When I hear people talkin'
'Cause when a black cat cross my path
I just keep on walkin'.

I wanna go somewhere I've never been,
Hey, Miss Lady, let this stranger in.
I'll pay in advance,
Let's do a strange new dance.


(He jumps from the stage into one of the aisles of the theater, gyrating, palpitating his limbs and heaving his prosthetic, buoyant breasts. The spotlight follows his every move.)

 
If I get hit by lightning
Or cut in two with a butcher knife,
It might be a little frightening
But, you know, I'll still feel all right.
They hung me down at the old town square
But I kept on kickin'.
When I got loose I started dancin' there,
I guess I just wasn't thinkin'.

I wanna see something I've never seen.
Hey, Miss Lady, do you know what I mean?
Gimme another chance,
Let's do a strange new dance.


(Musical interlude during which the hermaphrodite does intermittent lap dances with both male and female members of the audience. He dances with others in the aisles and persuades still more to join in on the frenzied merriment. He returns to the stage for the final verse.)


Come watch me pirouette
Between the bombs and the bullet trails.
Please excuse my bloody epaulettes,
I'll be here waitin' while you do your nails.
Underneath a tidal wave,
Under a landslide, watch me disappear.
You might think that I am brave
But, really, I'm just tired of standin' here.

I wanna do something I've never done,
Hey, Miss Lady, no, I'm not gonna run,
Not while I'm in a trance ...

(Music builds to a crescendo.)

 
Let's do a strange new dance.


(While music continues, the hermaphrodite dances himself into a blind frenzy. Rose petals fall madly, lights swirl and confetti is shot into the audience from tubular gun barrels that appear on either side of the stage.)