Sleep No More Spoiler Discussion

[alexxkay]

Massive spoilers will be in the comments. I'll be gradually adding to this over the next while, as I get spare moments to write. Hopefully, other folks who've been will also comment!

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Red Witch, part 2

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I think Hecate figured out I wanted to get into her herbarium and deliberately didn't choose me out of perversity. Perhaps I over-read the mischievous glint in her eyes. Still I perservered. Eventually she gestured me over to her working-desk. She took two small crytals from a balance and folded my hand tightly around them.

Well I certainly wasn't going to leave *now*! I wanted to see what else happened with her. Macbeth stopped by for a quick clean-up. He was all bloody, and washed himself at a basin on the floor near her desk. Then he put on a clean shirt from her trunk and left. They kissed at some point.

Hecate often visited the neighboring lounge/bar. Sometimes to do a scene with other actors, sometimes to grab a ghost for a one-on-one. Once she shared a drink with Duncan.

At one point, she watched a musical number. "Is That All There Is" played overhead, while The Short Witch danced and The Male witch lip-synched from the stage. (Perhaps a nod to "After Hours", another story about a man with trouble sleeping, moving through a surrealistic space.)

One of the high points of this room is the second Macbeth-consults-the-Witches scene. I've now seen it twice, from different angles. Some of the witches gather up ghosts beforehand, so maybe 100 people see it. Hecate walks in and lets out a loud, wicked laugh. She then sits to watch the rest of the scene, something she does quite often.

Colored lights play across the floor. Deep bass music, with an insistent, rave-like rhythym. The Witches shove some audience members back to make room -- perhaps not far enough; more than once in the ensuing madness I got hit by flailing witch-arms, or splashed with sweat. Dancing, grunting, gyrating...

The two female Witches tear at the clothes of The Male Witch. Soon he is down to his skivvies. He hurls himself into the darkness behind the bar, followed by The Short Witch. The Bald Witch dances. The music grows even more frenetic. The light strobes -- only flashes now visible.

A demon comes from behind the bar, male, completely naked, goat-headed. Macbeth stumbles in. The Short Witch has bared one breast, The Bald Witch, both. The Witches make out with each other; Macbeth makes out with the demon. The Witches pour blood all down the demon's front, then lick some off. A baptismal font is produced, in it a baby completely covered in blood, which the demon brandishes at Macbeth, then hands to the Witches, who parody breastfeeding it. They all taunt Macbeth with a small model tree. Macbeth flees. The demon and The Bald Witch vanish somehow. Hecate laughs aloud again: the scene is over.

There are still many people in the room. The Short Witch (re-clothed) does an energetic dance to "Moonlight Becomes You". I had not previously realized how much that song was about nakedness.

The Short Witch tries to grab an audience member (to dance with?), but Hecate stops her. The two of them interact inscrutably for a bit. Then Hecate fetches someone from the audience. (A woman, both times I saw it, though perhaps a coincidence.) Hecate leads the woman to stand near the font with the bloody baby. Hecate manipulates her hands so they are flat, palms upward. Hecate removes her right shoulder-length glove, and looks around for someone to hold it for her; this most recent time, I gallantly stepped forward and took it. Hecate then lowered her right hand into the font, to cover it with baby's blood, painted the palm of the woman's right hand with the blood, caressed the woman's left cheek, also with blood, then left.

The first time I saw this scene, the woman stood there for some time, holding her bloody hand out, an attitude of horrified bafflement visible even through the mask. The second time, I was busy returning Hecate's glove. She took it, smiled at me, lunged in to quickly but firmly kiss me on the cheek, then returned to her parlor.

After washing her hand and putting her glove back on, she did a bit more spell-work at her desk. Then, on to view the Final Banquet. I don't think I saw her full cycle...