Chapter 8

FUCK THE DONKEY

"No!" Leo screamed. "I do not want you to ride the donkey!"

"What then?" the girl asked. "What am I supposed to do with a donkey?"

Leo stalked from his seat in the orchestra, shouting curse words at the top of his voice. Billy grinned. He was on stage with half-a-dozen young actresses. They were lithe, naked bodies from Leo's point-of-view. Forming a semi-circle. Surrounding the donkey and Billy.

"But I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this awful old donkey," complained the girl who had been attempting to mount the animal. "I'm not an acrobat. You're the director. You have to tell me what you want."

"Okay," Leo shouted. Scrambling up the steps from the orchestra pit to the level of the stage. "Wait'll I get there!"

A buzz of talk from the girls beside Billy drew his attention. The girls spoke in whispers. like most professional actresses they were intent on keeping their thoughts secret from the director. That Billy was eavesdropping was of no concern. He was only an actor from their point-of-view.

"Would you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would you do what she's going to do?"

"How do you know what he wants her to do?"

"That's obvious."

"What?"

"He wants her to fuck the donkey."

"You're kidding, you're kidding, you got to be kidding!"

"On top of the donkey?"

"He told her to get off the donkey."

"The donkey is supposed to be on top of her."

"That donkey?"

"The scene is from "The Golden Ass' a classic Romay play."

"Maybe that's where the scene is from, but that donkey came straight out of the zoo."

"It would be alright symbolically. If they dressed an actor up in a donkey skin. You know what I mean. If he was human. Then it would be alright to do."

"I'm going to quit if we're supposed to actually do it. Bird, beast, or fowl. Even an actor. My husband'll kill me if he ever catches me at it again. You know that Greek play last year with the orgy they had in the last act. I had to wear a mask. Just to keep my husband from finding out."

"I've never done it before."

"Never?"

"In a play."

"You'll learn."

"Do they really stick their things inside you."

"Don't worry about them, honey, worry about that goddam donkey."

"What do you mean?"

"If he's up to donkey tricks in the first act, what do you suppose he's got in mind for a climax?"

"An elephant," Billy interjected. "I know because I read the script."

"You're kidding, you're kidding, you got to be kidding!"

"Did you really read the script?"

Billy nodded. "Yes."

"What kind of scene is this we're all in?"

"Is she really supposed to fuck that mule?"

"Is it an orgy?"

"What's next?"

Billy held up his hands. Cutting off their questions. "One at a time, or else I can't answer you. This scene that we're all in together is a parody. It's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, except that I play Snow White and you girls play the Dwarfs."

"Then why did I shave the hair on my pussy? I didn't know you wanted a beard!"

"QUIET!" Leo was glaring furiously. "You actors are a bunch of pricks! How about having some respect for each other? I'm trying to set a very difficult piece of business for this young lady and all we hear is a lot of goddam noise and gossip! Especially you, Billy, I thought you had a lot more sense!"

Billy blushed furiously. Leo was right. He had no excuses to offer. One of the cardinal rules of the theatre is the necessity for quiet backstage.

Certainly the circumstances were unusual. Neither Billy nor the girls had ever acted in the nude before. A certain amount of shyness had to be overcome. That, perhaps more than anything else, accounted for the nervous hilarity of the actor's voices that had carried on stage.

But Leo was furious. The "circus" he envisaged was a totally new concept of theatre and a radical form of stage presentation. Sex in various forms had always been a basic principle of the dramatic event. Recent years had emphasized this. Leo's concept was radical in that it included the audience.

As he remembered the circus from his childhood his keenest desire had been to join in with the acrobats and the clowns, the monkeys and the apes, particularly for the Grand Finale, which was always a vast triumphal march. Assuming that this desire to participate was a universal experience, Leo patterned his concept for "The theatre of Sexual Expression" to include the audience.

To visualize a mass orgy at the climax of his play was more easily said than done. That was up to the actors. Natural barriers of reticence and modesty had to be shattered. These barriers existed both in the actor and the audience.

"Insurmountable!"

"Impossible!"

"You'll never succeed!"

"Get out of my office with that cockamamie idea!"

"Up your ass with a piece of glass!"

"Use your own money!"

This was a fair sampling of opinion in the theatrical world when Leo first broached his idea to a number of prominent investors and men who had been known to gamble considerable financial resources on a number of dubious ventures. Some of them had backed Leo's efforts before-plays he had produced in previous seasons.

This time the response was all negative. Men whose money Leo had depended upon claimed their pockets were dry. Most of them agreed that a sex-spectacular seemed like a highly commercial idea. They even felt the concept of a circus was highly original and effective. Three simultaneous rings of action should certainly bring out the crowds. But the "action" itself was what terrified the backers and forced them to close their accounts.

"Let me see if I get the picture, Leo, I want to be fair to you before I say no-no money, Leo, that's the size of it, I'm afraid. First of all the amount of dough you'd need to mount a circus this size is fantastic. Say you get the money. Then you need actors. You can't use just any actors who are willing to fuck and suck and play with each other in public-the streets are full of those. You need beautiful bodies. Glamourous faces. Kings and Queens of the stage. If you were doing just a sordid sex play then I'd be glad to put up your money. People would flock to it. We'd make a fortune. But something as lavish and beautiful as you envision would not only cost a fortune but would require spectacularly lovely people."

"That's only one problem you'd have to overcome. Another is more difficult. For two-and-a-half hours those actors would have to portray, simultaneously, every imaginable form of sexual activity known to the human race. What you'll need is not a troupe of actors but an army of freaks."

"Two-and-a-half hours of fucking and sucking. The police certainly aren't going to sit still for that. They'll bust the joint on opening night. But, okay, for the sake of an argument, let's say the police situation doesn't exist-you are still left with the problem of the finale. How do you close an extravaganza like this? What do you do to climax the show?"

"An orgy?"

"Okay! Say it's an orgy! That's fine with me. All of the actors making it? No! Of course not! We've seen them doing it all night. We need something new and different! Novel and exciting! What?"

"Fuck the audience?"

"The actors invite the audience down to join them on stage. To do their thing. Any way at all. In other words, for the price of a ticket a member of the audience not only gets to see the show but also an opportunity to fuck the leading man, or lady-that's your idea, Leo, isn't that it?"

"Well, what can I say to you, kid, except that I love it. I really love it. I'd buy a ticket any time. But invest my dough in your show? No! I couldn't do that, Leo, to me it looks like it is absolutely impossible to do!"

"Impossible!" That was the one word reply.

For six long and discouraging months Leo had an infinite number of variations played on a similar theme. It was "Use your own money!"

Leo refused to give up. he scrounged small sums from small investors in a relentless effort. Now, finally, it was all on the verge of becoming a reality.

"You bastards!" Leo snarled. His face livid with fury, he stalked toward the naked huddle of actors, spitting his words in a flow of venom. "To hell with me! I only sweated blood and tears and guts for six fucking months to raise the money to put this show on the stage, that's all, six fucking months of my life! So what? That doesn't count! I don't expect any gratitude from a fucking naked ape!"

"Leo..."

"Shut up!"

"Please," Billy persisted, attempting to apologize. "None of us meant to belittle you or your efforts on behalf of this project."

"Shit!" Leo sneered. "I don't give a fuck what you think about me. I'm talking about your fellow performer. That little girl out there on the stage now. She's got to open the show. All alone with that donkey in the center ring of the circus. You think that's easy? One, two, three-boom, boom, boom! Is that all you think it is?"

A murmur of "No!" swept through the huddle.

"I should hope not," Leo said. A note of relief rang in his voice. "That little girl out there has got more courage than I've ever seen in an actor, or actress, before today-and that's the truth! Not many professional prostitutes would dare to attempt the act she's going to do!"

An audible gasp was heard from the stage. Leo's mention of "prostitute" had driven the point home. What had been the speculation of gossip was now confirmed as fact. It was as they suspected. The donkey and the girl fucking would open the show.

"Forgive me for shouting." Leo muted his voice. "Maybe it's better for all of us to blow off a little steam now and then. That's something we'll have to expect during the next few intensive weeks of rehearsal. All of us will be attempting the impossible. Using our energy to the limit. And more intimately with each other than any other experience in our lives." Leo paused. "I know that's a lot to ask for. Perhaps too much. Especially since the grand finale of this extravaganza will require all of us to participate with the audience too."

One of the girls gasped.

"That's right," Leo said. "That amounts to an orgy. Wilder than anything ever attempted before, anywhere. All the other words I could use for this you know, like fucking and sucking. Let's be frank with each other. That's what it amounts to."

"You mean perfect strangers?" one of the girls asked. She was a heavy-set brunette, with an ample bust like ripe melons. Her nipples shivered as she spoke. "I don't mind doing it with anybody in the show. That's legitimate, if you know what I mean. My agent told me that's what this play is all about, so I sort of expected it. But no one said anything to me about having to let anybody in the audience do it to me too. That's what you mean by an orgy?"

"Yes," Leo replied. "More than an orgy, a saturnalia. That's the wildest Roman orgy of all. Everyone in the entire city could join in, everywhere. On the streets-in the bath-anywhere. Everyone had access to everyone else. For one day the entire city went mad. There were no laws, no morals, no crime, no vice-anything was allowed, even murder, rape and death!"

"Get out of here!" the brunette shrieked. "I'm not going to be in your crazy show!"

"Baby," Billy laughed, "don't jump to conclusions! I'm sure Leo doesn't mean we're supposed to start killing each other for real!"

"I wouldn't be surprised," interjected a sultry Spanish girl. "Remember me, Billy, Conchita Valdez, we met at a party after Leo's last play closed?"

Billy nodded.

"I was in that play," Conchita explained. "So I've worked with Leo before. Obviously I love him or else I wouldn't be here in this crazy thing! Has anybody else here ever worked for Leo before?"

"No ... no ... no ... no..."

"Leo means everything he says," Conchita explained, "when he says it! He also exaggerates fantastically. What he means about the orgy at the end of the play is the exact truth. And I think it's the most daringly different original idea in the history of the theatre. Nothing like it's been attempted before. We can fuck the audience or they can fuck us. That's absolute equality."

"Right!" Leo shouted. "That's what I mean!"

"He's a genius," Billy whispered to the brunette. "That's what they're like. They're just children in a way. They seem to like to think about everything at the same time. Especially sex."

The brunette nodded. "Then this guy must be the supreme genius of all time! I never heard so much bullshit in my life!"