(Licking his lips): In fact, what I like is cake. (Goes for the cake, stumbles and falls onto a bench. The alert Scholars are already there to support him with pillows)
THE CHILD: OK. The cake’s for you too.
NIETZSCHE: I don’t deserve it, I suppose . . .
THE CHILD: Right.
NIETZSCHE: Right. Look at me carefully. I’m an everyday person, in fact.
THE CHILD: Not really. I think your mind is on fire, Mr. Nietzsche.
NIETZSCHE (Struggling up from the bench): No. There is no fire inside me.
THE CHILD: Then how do you manage to capture my attention, Mr. Nietzsche?
NIETZSCHE (Throwing himself against a probe, with a groan): Yes. Yes! . . . Yes! I accept that!
(A knock is heard, and a Faraway Voice calls: “It’s open, Fritz!”)
Hello? (Looks about the room, then stumbles to throw himself against another probe) Yes! I accept that!
THE CHILD (As the Scholars line up behind him): Then how do you manage to capture my attention, Mr. Nietzsche?
NIETZSCHE: Please, be very careful.
(He falls backward and the Scholars push him back onto the probe as the Dangerous Man enters with a second cake.)
THE CHILD: Why should I be careful, Mr. Nietzsche?
NIETZSCHE: It could be that I am dangerous in my passivity.
THE DANGEROUS MAN: See?
(He shoves the cake at Nietzsche, who stumbles away with a giggle of shock.)
Your passivity is something very intense after all, Mr. Nietzsche.
NIETZSCHE: Perhaps.
THE CHILD: No—maybe! That’s what the word “perhaps” really means, really it does. Am I right?
THE DANGEROUS MAN: You’re right.
THE CHILD: But, in fact, I want nothing more to do with you, Mr. Nietzsche.
THE DANGEROUS MAN: She’s right, of course.
THE CHILD: Knock knock! Mr. Nietzsche.
NIETZSCHE: Knock knock? Is somebody talking to me?
THE DANGEROUS MAN: Hey—. Nobody said nothing.
(The music rises as a wall, decorated much like the others, slides in to hide the room behind. Nietzsche runs to it and runs his hands over its surface.)
NIETZSCHE: No, somebody who is outside is trying to get inside.
(The wall slides out, revealing four giant, egg-shaped heads, six feet tall, with faces painted in the center, rocking back and forth. They whisper in falsetto: “Peek a boo!”)
My dear friends. After you discover me, you find me.
(The Egg Heads say: “Oww-ee!”)
The difficulty is now to lose me, Friedrich Nietzsche.
(He marches clumsily across the front of the stage as the wall slides in front of the Egg Heads and then immediately slides off again, revealing an empty room. At the top of the ocean, framed against the red sun, a Beautiful Woman with naked breasts appears, wearing an occult crown and holding two disks painted with symbols. The music is very loud.)
THE DANGEROUS MAN (Shouting over the music and indicating the Beautiful Woman, above): Who is that woman up there?
NIETZSCHE (Prancing about the stage): Well, this is a person who claims she is unable to live without me.
THE DANGEROUS MAN (Jumping onto a bench to see the Beautiful Woman better): You?
NIETZSCHE: This is what she secretly tells me!
THE DANGEROUS MAN: You?
NIETZSCHE: Not that I believe this is true!
THE DANGEROUS MAN: Really?
NIETZSCHE: Do I believe this is true!
THE DANGEROUS MAN: Well? Do you believe it?
NIETZSCHE: Yes.
THE DANGEROUS MAN (Throws his leg up against the wall; he is frightening and semi-erotic): Yes, is it?
(Nietzsche jumps back in terror.)
Then whatever happens, you’ll never move from this spot.
NIETZSCHE: Perhaps—perhaps not. Perhaps, perhaps not—
THE DANGEROUS MAN: I don’t understand your hesitation.
NIETZSCHE: No. There is no hesitation. (Shouts loudly) This is Paradise, after all!
(The Dangerous Man slaps his face. The Beautiful Woman screams then disappears.)
THE DANGEROUS MAN: This doesn’t look like Paradise, does it now?
NIETZSCHE: Wrong. Feet, placed firmly on the floor—
THE DANGEROUS MAN: Pick up your feet when you walk.
NIETZSCHE: This is Paradise.
THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (Whispering as she peeps around a corner): Paradise.
NIETZSCHE: The oh-so-poignant torso, twisting slightly to suggest—unimaginable directions.
THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (Whispering as she peeps around a corner): Paradise.
NIETZSCHE: A certain dizziness entering history by accident.
THE DANGEROUS MAN: I don’t get it, obviously.
(The Scholars enter with sheets of paper and a giant-sized pencil. Nietzsche laughs and grabs the pencil, holding it over his head with both hands. The Scholars hold the sheets against the walls, and Nietzsche tries to write on the paper with his giant pencil.)
NIETZSCHE:
