Cirrus@Austlit

Author's note: The play was written for two actors, but this is not essential. It was performed by five actors in a production by TheatreWorks West, Salt Lake City, Utah, in April 1993. The fifth actor became Alice B. Toklas, playing the music and serving the occasional quiche.

Gertrude Stein's speeches are not written as ordinary conversations. The rhythms are important. Light and shade are achieved in a speech with different pacing and emphasis on particular words rather than tonal variations. For example: ...Hello/hello/hello/Nancy. This/this is/is this/this is/Gertrude. Her speech patterns are precise, but not laboured. (Australian Gay and Lesbian Plays ed. Bruce Parr (1996)).