Interrogating the Nude -- Doug Wright

In the intro to his book, he talks about his grotesque Medusa painting in elementary school.  It was not only good, it was forbidden.  He fancied himself to be a provocateur.  Later, he just wrote about provocateurs.  Characters who subvert the status quo on purpose, "gleefully".

The characters are eccentric, but he says that sometimes the most extreme personalities yield the most universal human truths.


About Interrogating the Nude, he says he was inspired by Marcel Duchamp, (Dada, conceptualism) how his art not only was decorative, but "punctured the mind."  Tackled his life.
First draft was more biographical, almost encyclopedic in scope.  Boring.  Didn't do the man justice, cause he was not a boring person.  Needed to emulate his art, not his life.
"Nude Descending a Staircase" was noted as desecrating the most sacred form to art, the female nude.  Wright says it wasn't really that outrageous anymore, and so he had to take things further.  Critics had said Duchamp had "murdered art" so why not make it a mystery, whodunnit type thing?

"What constitutes an aesthetic crime?  What is the impact of irreverent art on public morality?  Is one man's felony another man's muse?  And isn't innovation always a crime against the status quo?"

Premiered in 1989 at Yale Repertory Theater.




DUCHAMP begins with the metaphor, I think.  He is "desecrating the nude," "murdering art" etc. Speaks in metaphors and ridiculous language.  His description of his and Rose's fucking, "our bones gelatinous and our skins chafed, so great was our exhaustion."  I think ROSE is DUCHAMP.   Cast as male actor with a similar build to Duchamp.  "Share the same umbilical cord."  Turns out that with the exception of conjoined twins (ie Siamese) all twins have their own umbilical cord.
Seeking attention and notoriety (which is what he found).  After he finished telling his story of the "murder" he says "alert the papers"


INSPECTOR takes it seriously.  It is unbelievable to him.  Outrageous.
Heads the "Art as decoration" (rather than puncturing the mind)

CONSTABLE PUBLICK:  Whining.  Why do I always get these kinds of jobs, etc?  All the raucous ones.  Grotesque, etc.

ROSE SELAVY:  Name seems to be conjured by Duchamp in wordplay.  "Eros, c'est la vie!"  (Love is life)  Rose Selavy.  Perhaps representative of his inspiration?  She does what she wants, though he thinks he knows her mind.  Perhaps that metaphorically.  Literally she is Duchamp in drag.

MAN RAY:  Appears to be a real person Man Ray who did avant-garde photography, worked with Duchamp.  Not his birth name, but an associated name that he thought to mean "joy, to play, to enjoy"
"Shit, I never thought I'd see the day when a mixed metaphor could land a man behind bars."




Painting the nude.  DUCHAMP refers to literally painting the nude, Rose's skin, etc.

Page 61-62, talking about art, how Rose existed only between the two of them, but now she is to be put before the world.  People will remember her if the story sells, that she was walking here or there, or...  Become legend in a sense, and as a result, become art.




What fascinates me about this play are the possibilities in work between ROSE and DUCHAMP.  They essentially will have to imitate each other by the end of the play, as ROSE becomes DUCHAMP II, and DUCHAMP acts "(As Rose)".  Their mannerisms, their voice.  All could be copied from each other.  Also, they descend the stairs.  :P

They flat out switch at the end.



Monologue:

MAN RAY meeting Rose for the first time.  Drunk, stumbling to the door.  Etc.
Possible arc:  Shooing -> Seducing / comforting -> Evicting (laying down the law, so-to-speak)