The Myopia: An Epic Burlesque of Tragic Proportion

Figure 1.

Warren G. Harding. Source: Stefan Lorant, The Glorious Burden (1976).

Figure 2.

Warren G. Harding at age nine, with sisters Charity and Mary. Source: Library of Congress.Theatrical accoutrements at the turn of the century. Source: Viewpoints: Library of Congress Selections of Pictorial Treasures (1976). Cartoon contemporary to Harding’s term in office. Source: The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee.

Figure 3.

Theatrical accoutrements at the turn of the century. Source: Viewpoints: Library of Congress Selections of Pictorial Treasures (1976).

Figure 4.

Cartoon contemporary to Harding’s term in office. Source: The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee.

Figure 5.

Flossie Kling, around the time she began dating Harding. Photo: Schermer Collection.

Figure 6.

Source: Stefan Lorant, The Glorious Burden (1976).

Figure 7.

“National Galaxy” (presidents of the United States). Source: J. Greenleaf (Boston, 1849).

Figure 8.

“Ugh!” (1924). Cartoon: Rollin Kirby.

Figure 9.

“The Older Rapunzel” (1969). Etching and aquatint (17-1/2 × 15-3/4 inches). Copyright © David Hockney. Source: Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

Figure 10.

“The Tower Had One Window” (1969). Etching and aquatint (17-1/2 × 15-3/4 inches). Copyright © David Hockney. Source: Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

Figure 11.

“The Enchantress with the Baby Rapunzel” (1969). Etching and aquatint (17-1/2 × 15-3/4 inches). Copyright © David Hockney. Source: Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

Act One: Flare-Up

Characters

THE RACONTEUR

NARRATAGE in the form of stage directions

YETTI

KOREEN Yetti’s daughter

FEBUS Koreen’s suitor, later her husband

BARCLAY son of Febus and Koreen

WARREN G. HARDING a character from history

FLORENCE HARDING Harding’s wife

OLD-TIMER a country fellow

HENRY CABOT LODGE senator from Massachusetts

WILL HAYS Republican Party chairman

GEORGE HARVEY editor, North American Review

JAMES WADSWORTH senator from New York

CHARLES CURTIS senator from Kansas

FRANK BRANDEGEE senator from Connecticut

SELDEN SPENCER senator from Missouri

REED SMOOT senator from Utah

WILLIAM BORAH senator from Idaho

WILLIAM CALDER senator from New York

JOSEPH FRELINGHUYSEN senator from New Jersey

LAWRENCE PHIPPS senator from Colorado

MEDILL MCCORMICK senator from Illinois

JAMES WATSON senator from Indiana

HENRY HASKELL reporter, Kansas City Star

IRVIN KIRKWOOD reporter, Kansas City Star

Setting

Various.

Notes

YETTI speaks with an East European accent.

The Myopia is performed as a solo—in the “storytelling” tradition. One actor plays all the roles, using the stage directions as narration.

Prologue

THE RACONTEUR I’ve been thinking about pictures. I’ve been thinking about pictures and how one might make pictures on the stage, which is not to say that I’ve been thinking about stage pictures. On the contrary.

I’ve been reflecting on the difference between the image and the imagined, and the relationship of imagining to thinking—and I’ve been thinking about thinking, but for the moment that’s tangential.

I’ve been thinking how a picture is a picture of something, but not the something it is a picture of. And the same for film—which is after all pictures—and for anything that is a picture even if it is not a picture but a recording of something, but not the something it is a recording of. And others have addressed this issue more astutely than I. If you wish, see me after, I refer you.

But that this is not true of live signals, broadcast or monitored, might lead one to consider the televising of something, which is not by necessity a recording though it is by necessity a transmission. Here again others—I must refer you to others—though I will say that television, no matter how it is...