The unseen chorus narrates stanzas as personal soliloquies. Voices alternate to speak them. Now a woman. Now a man. Or a child. Sometimes they combine to speak in unison.

The first and the last stanzas are spoken with the whole chorus.

When the stage empties, a gigantic movie screen is lowered; you can hear squeaky wheels of the pulleys as it is slowly let down; all lights go out and immediately in sepia-tinted cinema, dusty and scratched from its age, you see the scrolling title and credits for the travelogue of Faustus’ “Journey to Paradise”, starring Faustus and Alexander, produced and directed by Mephistophiles; Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet: Suite No. 2” is the dominant soundtrack; all speech appears in subtitles.

***

Music excerpt is

a movement from

Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2

as found on this album.