Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act I

ENTRY IN CONSTRUCTION

ACT I

LIGHTS OFF; WHITMAN'S FIRST WORDS ARE HEARD IN THE DARK.

WHITMAN: Love thoughts

SPEAKER 1: love-juice,

SPEAKER 2: love-odor,

SPEAKER 3: love-yielding,

SPEAKER 4: love-climbers,

WHITMAN: and the climbing sap,

SPEAKER 1: arms and hands of love,

SPEAKER 2: lips of love,

SPEAKER 3: phallic thumb of love,

SPEAKER 4: breasts of love,

WHITMAN: bellies pressed and glued together with love.

LIGHTS ON, NIGHT. SCENE TITLE, PROJECTED OR WRITTEN ON PLACARD: 1 Walt Whitman, "Love-thoughts"

WHITMAN AND A "BOY" MOVE CLOSE TOGETHER, ADDRESS EACH OTHER

BOY: The wet of woods through the early hours.

WHITMAN: Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep,

BOY: One with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other.

WHITMAN: The smell of apples,

BOY: aromas from crushed sage plant,

WHITMAN: mint,

BOY: birch bark.

WHITMAN: The boy's longings, the glow and pressure as he confides to me what he was dreaming.

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