Oh certainly, it looks pleasant, seen through a glass or two (or more) of rum punch. But a floozy’s life, mesdames et messieurs, is not an easy one, what with the line at the peep show and the gentlemen who are no gentlemen at all.

Sometimes it takes more than rum punch to make the evenings pass. Sometimes it takes hashish. Or something even stronger.

Is it any wonder that a girl new to the life might decide that, if one works in the brothel, it may be better to use the brain than the body?

Love conquers all, surely. Yet love is capricious, love comes like a thief in the night. And in the meantime, there are still the patrons to please . . . .

All photos courtesy Rick Lieder:

Ben Stange and Samantha Moltmaker 

Ben Stange

Vanessa Ellen Hentschel 

Torri Ashford

Samantha Moltmaker

Left to right, Jordan Whalen as Istvan, Vanessa Ellen Hentschel as Spinning Jennie, Ben Stange as Laddie, Torri Ashford as Victoria, Samantha Moltmaker as Lucy, and Julanne Jacobs as Decca.

Photo courtesy Rick Lieder.

So instead we offer this portrait of LUCY, betwixt and between two masked patrons of the evening, contemplating just what a girl must do for love.

[Samantha Moltmaker as Lucy in "Love Conquers All."  Photo courtesy Rick Lieder.]

A mask that means Yes, we see you.

The smoke of a hand-rolled cigarette, the careless fall of ash on bricks.

Trinkets. A certain hilarity. A certain smell.

Outside it’s dark. Inside, why, here you are.

In three days, dear patrons, we will open the doors.

The site helps shape and form the play within it, the play animates the space. We inhabit both, and we invite the energy of those present: so much more than a passive audience, our patrons wearing masks, breathing incense, sipping punch and eyeing the floozies, as they peruse the trinkets and find, suddenly, that the story has come to life right where they stand . . .

Meanwhile, we keep considering that miniseries casting.  Thank you, Autumn, for suggesting the totally Benjamin Fu’ad Aït Aattou!

“The road has changed you, surely.”

What waits outside, in the imagined darkness?

“War’s like a fire, once you start it’s not so easy to put out.”

As is love . . . The stairway, the invitation to enter; the voices already inside.

“A girl like me has plans.”

We work to assemble, in words and scents and sounds, the dream that you will complete by your presence.  Love conquers all, but not always as an army does, not always by the way most apparent.

“What matters is desire.”

We do hope you like champagne.  And that you have a taste for love.

But . . .  oh dear. “It has nothing to do with writing,” says Mr. Hall, meaning sales vs. the language itself, the way the story is constructed and conveyed.  “As a writer myself, and a lover of good writing, it’s very hard for me to acknowledge that.”

Can such be so? When language is such a fabulous playground? When what is said can be cloaked by how, or goosed by same, or made to tango or fly or conceal itself in a cunning little aside that’s really a knife slipped between the breastbone and the heart . . .

We cannot dispute the findings of Mr. Hall, but the joy of passionate language will always be paramount in the story of Istvan and Rupert, those sexy maverick heroes, as they confront the highest stakes of all: life and death and love and the play that is all three – and that language will be offered in the hope that it pleases the reader as much as the tale it tells.

Just that, no more!

We’re busy dressing … for “Love Conquers All.”

But a beautiful corset is suitable for women of all ages, or men, or anyone who delights in proper posture, good looks, and that extra fillip of va-va-voomability. And we are more than delighted to be able to announce that the estimable IVY’S CUSTOM CORSETRY is generously donating a handmade corset to “Love Conquers All” on May 11th!

The corset will be waiting at the brothel; the proceeds of its silent auction sale will help fund the brothel; and its wearer may very well be the best-looking patron at the brothel. You know who you are and you know what you want, and if you want that sexy corset to help you conquer all, why, you know what to do: bid and win . . . Many thanks to the very generous Robin Richardson of IVY’S CUSTOM CORSETRY!

Our latest Rupert suggestion: Louis Garrel.