Unknown to most of the participants, a terrifying cloud hung over the
group as the festival approached. Among the advertised attractions
(including the inevitable excursion of M. Antipyrine) was a sketch by
Breton and Soupault, _S'il vous Plait._ This supposedly had four acts, of
which the second had already been presented at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre.
The first and third acts also existed, but the fourth remained a mystery.
The authors took Aragon into their confidence. Given Dada's current
hysterical atmosphere of competitive shock, it was clear that this fourth
act must, if it were to avoid anticlimax, be a real drama, the kind of
thing that would one day be called a 'happening.' They had devised just
such an event. When the moment came, the curtain would rise on the
authors (who would also play the two male parts). While the audience
watched they would write their names on slips of paper, fold them and drop
them into a hat. They would then draw one of the papers out of the hat.
Whoever was named would then shoot himself through the head with a
revolver. Vachi himself could not have devised a more chilling denouement,
nor one more perfectly arbitrary. The presentation was planned for some
time in April.
On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, -IID42 Kandinskij @27+ wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, { brad brace } wrote:
>
> > "I get it!"
>
> Any more canvases, P? .. .:.:~:. :.:~ .. .: ~:
>
