L ' I N F E R N O

THE 3 RUN SWIFTLY OFF (OR FALL SILENT). DANTE AND VIRGIL DESCEND THE → R → . THE STAGE IS
VERY DARK.
GERYON
♫HUMMING / BOOMING WATERFALL – TOO LOUD FOR SPEECH * * * * * * * * * *
INF C16 87
INF C16 88-114 / KLINE
An Amen could not have been said in so quick a time as their vanishing took, at which my Master was pleased to
depart. I followed him. We had gone only a little way, when the sound of the water came so near us, that if we had
been speaking we would hardly have heard each other. Like that river (the first that takes its own course to the
eastern seaboard, south of Monte Veso, where the Po rises, on the left flank of the Apennines, and is called
Acquacheta above, before it falls to its lower bed, and loses its name, to become the Montone, at Forlì) which,
plunging through a fall, echoes from the mountain, above San Benedetto, where there should be refuge for a
thousand, so, down from a steep bank, we found that tainted water re-echoing, so much so that, in a short while, it
would have dazed our hearing. I had a cord tied round me, and with it I had once thought to catch the leopard with
the spotted skin. After I had completely unwound it from myself, as my guide commanded, I held it out to him,
gathered up and coiled. Then he turned towards the right, and threw the end of it, away from the edge a little, down
into the steep gulf.
DANTE SITS AT BACKSTAGE, READING THE BIBLE. HE PUTS IT DOWN AND STARES AHEAD. VIRGIL IS AT
THE FRONT OF THE STAGE, PEERING DOWN.
HE BECKONS TO DANTE, THEN CALLS HIM. DANTE DOESN’T HEAR BECAUSE OF THE NOISE. VIRGIL CALLS
AGAIN, THEN FETCHES HIM TO THE FRONT OF THE STAGE. VIRGIL SPEAKS IN HIS EAR AND POINTS TO THE
CORD AROUND DANTE’S WAIST WHICH HE HAS WORN FROM THE BEGINNING. DANTE IS PUZZLED.
VIRGIL MIMES UNKNOTTING IT, WHICH DANTE DOES SLOWLY. VIRGIL HOLDS THE TASSEL OVER THE
STAGE FRONT AND INDICATES THAT DANTE SHOULD SWIVEL TO UNWIND THE CORD DOWN THE ABYSS.
DANTE TURNS MANY TIMES. AT ONE POINT THE MUSE TERPSICHORE MAY PAUSE IN PASSING BEHIND
THEM TO SEE DANTE’S AWKWARD PIROUETTE.
DURING ONE TURN, AS DANTE FACES FRONT, BEATRICE MANIFESTS HERSELF IN THE HEAVENLY
SPOTLIGHT..◙ ..OVER THE BIBLE LEFT BY DANTE. SHE BLESSES DANTE, EXCHANGES THE BOOKS AND
VANISHES WITHOUT BEING SEEN.
EVENTUALLY, VIRGIL STOPS DANTE AND THEY PEER DOWN. VIRGIL POINTS. THEY FOLLOW A RISING
THING THAT THE AUDIENCE CANNOT SEE. VIRGIL SPEAKS INAUDIBLY TO DANTE AND INDICATES TO THE
THING WHERE IT SHOULD LAND.
VIRGIL HAULS UP THE CORD AND HE AND DANTE DESCEND THE → R → AND EMERGE SOME TIME LATER
FROM THE → L → INTO DARK SILENCE.
INF C16 115-123 / KLINE
I said to myself: ‘Surely something strange will follow this new sign of our intentions, that my master tracks with
his eyes, as it falls.’ Ah, how careful men should be with those who do not only see our actions but, with their
understanding, see into our thoughts! He said to me: ‘That which I expect will soon ascend, and, what your thoughts
speculate about, will soon be apparent to your sight.’
DANTE BEGINS SPEAKING WITH HIS TONGUE AND LIMBS OF WHAT HE HAS SEEN.
(NOTE THAT DANTE COULD NOT HAVE REPORT THIS AS IT HAPPENED BECAUSE OF THE
HUMMING./.BOOMING.)
131