ZERO GRAVITY - an Edward Albee Fellowship award winner, this is a drama about love in the age of AIDS--a play within a screenplay--set in the ‘80s. A playwright and his lover are torn apart when the playwright is diagnosed with AIDS. Their struggle is chronicled in “The Myths of Venus,” a burlesque play the playwright is rehearsing. Faced with mortality, they reaffirm their relationship and leave behind the rich legacy of art.
INT. THEATER - NIGHT
A revolving circular stage set. FADE UP Frankie Avalon's 1959 hit "Venus." Folds unfurl like a curtain but it's the long flowing robe of VENUS, a one-armed alien drag queen. Played by NIGEL, MICHAEL'S ex-lover, her robe is a topographical map marked off in miles with the names of her conquests. She's chain smoking. The atmosphere dense.
VENUS
(utters rancorously)
For the love of God!
A vicious wave of her scalloped fan. She's sweltering from the high surface temperature of the planet.
VENUS
It's a bloody inferno up here. No place for
the goddess of fertility, protector of seafarers
guardian of good fortune, divinity of spiritual
and carnal love.
As she exhales a cloud of smoke, a scrim drops behind her.
VENUS
Through countless centuries so many
have venerated me...
(lifts her robe)
...blinded by unrequited love.
Projected on the scrim behind her is Venus of Cyprus, bearded, in woman's clothes. A canned audience
SHRIEK of HORROR. Venus drops her robe and turns, startled to find this "beast" on the scrim behind her.
Before she can protest, projected is a voluptuous, large breasted, hairy Venus - fat enveloping belly and buttocks.
VENUS
(bitchy)
Liposuction, that's what she needs.
Plump is out. Svelt is in.
(preening)
We like them long and slender, don't we?
Projected is a fifth millenium B.C. female figure whose head and neck are smooth phalli.
VENUS
(a deep thrust of her hips)
With that, great empires were defeated.
A revolving circular stage set. FADE UP Frankie Avalon's 1959 hit "Venus." Folds unfurl like a curtain but it's the long flowing robe of VENUS, a one-armed alien drag queen. Played by NIGEL, MICHAEL'S ex-lover, her robe is a topographical map marked off in miles with the names of her conquests. She's chain smoking. The atmosphere dense.
VENUS
(utters rancorously)
For the love of God!
A vicious wave of her scalloped fan. She's sweltering from the high surface temperature of the planet.
VENUS
It's a bloody inferno up here. No place for
the goddess of fertility, protector of seafarers
guardian of good fortune, divinity of spiritual
and carnal love.
As she exhales a cloud of smoke, a scrim drops behind her.
VENUS
Through countless centuries so many
have venerated me...
(lifts her robe)
...blinded by unrequited love.
Projected on the scrim behind her is Venus of Cyprus, bearded, in woman's clothes. A canned audience
SHRIEK of HORROR. Venus drops her robe and turns, startled to find this "beast" on the scrim behind her.
Before she can protest, projected is a voluptuous, large breasted, hairy Venus - fat enveloping belly and buttocks.
VENUS
(bitchy)
Liposuction, that's what she needs.
Plump is out. Svelt is in.
(preening)
We like them long and slender, don't we?
Projected is a fifth millenium B.C. female figure whose head and neck are smooth phalli.
VENUS
(a deep thrust of her hips)
With that, great empires were defeated.
