Amongst the chaos of Act II we find our soldiers commanded by the Iron King to complete the destruction initiated in Act I and scour the city. A message stated she was held in the tower, but before she is released these boys have the dirty task of dispensing with the surviving captors. The horn has been blown and walls have come down and the dust is blinding, but this does not stop the work of our boys. In our introduction we hear the calm and constant voice of the Iron King driving his young soldiers into madness: "Dive into them deadly...my boys my fingers, my boys my fingers."

The highest power holds control over the boys, and from their innocence comes guiltless killing in the name of the Iron King. Initially naive and obedient, they believe that the place of their decision can be filled by the words of their king. An innate string of questions begins to surface: "You take that place in me, when I was a child was I not bright? When I was a babe was I not holy? Tell me the truth... what's the story?" After all, when they were children, they were children of light. But soon, in the place of their natural light, the madness of the "dust" seeps into their every pore and eventually makes its way into their minds.

The city is under siege and the full punishment for the crime of keeping the Queen captive is not complete. Wandering through the dust and chaos that they have created, our soldiers play the pawn with the horrific task of finishing off the ones remaining.

Three distinct victims can also be heard in Act II, delirious and begging for help from these young strangers, unaware that they are reaching out to their killers:

A young woman struggles from under flaming debris: "I'm pinned to the ground, and I can't feel my hands. I'm looking for help and I'd move but I can't."

An old man exhales his final breath, a breath of dust: "This was my home since I was a babe. Now it is crushed, my life is lost. Through this dust I now must wade...I will be dead before too long."

A mother pleads with the lurking figures, desperate for the ones she loves, cut down by a boy not unlike her own: "Two sons, I have two sons, have you seen them in this rubble? Two sons... I must find them, for I have nothing, I have nothing."

And with this last arc of the blade, the killing grows too much for the hearts of our boys. They have to bear the weight of this death and we hear them before they throw their minds into the swirling chaos of the horns in the finale of Act II: "I thought that these were the hands of a man, then I looked down-they were covered in blood. I am so sick from all this death, at the hands of a boy with no heart, a boy with no heart".

Act III: We Are The Lights

Act III: 'We Are The Lights'
Original blockprint by William Lemon III 2007

Act IV: Come Down Like A Man

Act IV: 'Come Down Like A Man'
Original blockprint by William Lemon III 2007

"Our King's Magician fights a god who rises from his ruin. Looking down and all around, says 'Boys, what are you doing?'"

Act IV is seen from the perspective of the Magician of Rhetoric. Shouting, (as if on his soap box, out and through his bull horn) he describes why we do what we do when we kill. There is honor in this shower of blood, there is dignity in eliminating the threat posed. His insanity and speech simultaneously grow darker as we for the first time hear the god of the felled city rising out of his rubble in a rumbling earthquake. He is a quiet and peaceful, considerate god, with prowess in every area greater than this King's Magician, except for the ability to scream senselessly to achieve what he wants. Speaking in a foreign tongue, the god quietly asks what this King with big hands and a small head comes for. Is he in love with the Queen whose city he has destroyed? The question goes unheard, unanswered, as the war drums sound again along with a Magician's flute to commence yet another battle for the city's soul. The god will rise with his beloved people in the end but the tired soldiers, now so weak from fighting, have no spirit to rebuild. What is the King's next card? We shall see in Act V...

Act IV Players:
Olivia Galarza: narrator
William Lemon: lead vocals , flute, trumpet, field recordings
Gibby Haynes (King's Magician)
Devendra Banhart (Angry God)
Lou Rogai: piano (interlude)
Stephonik Youth: vocals
Steven Kurtz drums, percussion
Jay Hudak bass guitar
Edward Klinger steel pan, hand drums, vibraphone, percussion
Brother James Barbee timpani, percussion
Melanie Moser violin

Act V: There Can Be Only One

Act V: 'There Can Be Only One'
Original blockprint by William Lemon III 2007

"Our King's priest comes in times of need, to sanctify these boys and deeds, to show them that their wrong is right, and baptize them in holy fight."

Act V is the song of our preacher, and what follows our narrator's introduction is a cacophony of beliefs: field recordings, representative of all the denominations of monotheism. Preachers from around the globe and close to home make their case as the only "true" religion until the words become unclear in their competition. Then, out of this muddied dark, comes the voice of the believer. "I understand", at first deep and old, then progressively younger and younger until it has finally become the voice of an innocent child.

The first four acts have seen the testing of our King's "boy army" almost to their breaking point. They have marched over smoking rubble, struck down endless victims, and felt the cold shiver of ghost warnings, only to then meet the god of Act IV in a close battle: ignorant will against a foreign logic of silence.

They are weak from their war and need to extend their efforts to rebuild the walls of their conquered city, but where will they find this power? Just as they are lying down to rest their bodies on the heaps of their smoking destruction, a figure rises to the smoking mount, and a spirited sermon ensues...

The drums sound, and our holy man takes his place on mountain high for all to see. One might think this figure is the King himself, but a discerning ear can tell that he too is only a puppet molded by the blind passion of his insane leader. "Turn with me boys!", as the french horns swell, we see the power of our King's god rise into the hearts of the exhausted soldiers. "Which one of these dead do you know, which one of these is worth it?" The separation makes the power of his people exclusive and unquestionable.

Act V Players:
Olivia Galarza: narrator
William Lemon: lead vocals (Preacher), flute,
Steven Kurtz: drums, percussion
Elizabeth Louise Tordis Gagnes: percussion
Jay Hudak: bass guitar,
Lou Rogai: piano, rhodes
Edward Klinger: hand drums, percussion
Louis Schwadron: french horn,
Group Vocals: William Lemon, Lou Rogai, Jay Hudak, Steven Kurtz, Tom Asselin

Act VI: This Is Our Celebration

Act VI: 'This Is Our Celebration'
Original blockprint by William Lemon III 2007

"A city crushed, it is built upon and made by hands of soldiers. But while they work, a Queen looks down and is growing ever older."

"Let's put our backs into it!" is the King's emotional command, and his boys spring into action. "We're almost there!" Sawing, cutting, erecting, modernizing, changing. Enlivened hands pass stones from man to man, steadily stacking the new walls of a stolen city. Four cold facades rise around the army. As if they were erecting a sunset, shadows slowly cover the city's interior, and the boys grow darker and darker with every brick.

"It's like a wish, a beautiful wish." From this wish springs a new age, a new people, a new Queen. The King has almost accomplished his insurmountable task, with baited breath the boys look on as the last stone is carried to its place by their King...with all his might and breath our King screams the last stone into a slot, and runs his hand across the smooth seamless cold of his walls. From behind him the sound of drums and preparation. When he turns around he finds a decorated and festive throng of sleep deprived idiots readying themselves for a celebration of a kind none of them have ever seen. The twisted masks and naked hairless bodies of the boys writhe as the song begins the celebration.

The six pyres of the old city's death are lit and the new "city to the night" is swaying. "This is our city, our stone upon stone, stone upon homes, stone upon bones". Stomping out the beat on the graves of the innocent, the crowd gnashes teeth and throws up hands, not thinking of the bloodied path that led them to this dance.

"This is our tradition!" Unapologetic and guiltless, the King joins them in the stomp. "And this is our celebration!" Deep horns bring them to a frenzy and the King is at the center of a writhing pit of bodies. Just then something catches the eye of the King. The golden statue at the center of the city is catching light and reflecting the motion. The statue is a commemoration to the queen, a golden tower with a small golden figure looking out metaphorically to her future King.

At this celebratory moment the King notices that if he looks beyond the tower statue to the darkened, forgotten corner of the city and looks to the top of the real tower, the only standing piece of the old city, he sees the same silhouette he saw from the sea as he first approached. He has forgotten the one reason he initiated the violence. His Queen has been longing for escape from her prison tower, and all she has seen is his distracted pursuit of victory. But through his screams of his own injustice, the crowd, crazed from his endless orders, parties on senselessly. Eventually, he breaks free from the crowd and makes his way to finally save his Queen and beg forgiveness.


Act VI Players
Olivia Galarza: narrator
William Lemon: lead vocals (Iron King), flute, field recordings
Stephonik Youth: vocals
Steven Kurtz: drums, percussion
Jay Hudak: bass guitar,
Lou Rogai: piano, rhodes
Edward Klinger: steel pan, hand drums, vibraphone, percussion
Brother James Barbee: timpani drums,
Ivan Berko: mellotron
Paula Henderson: baritone/tenor saxophone
Group Vocals: BJ and the chanting madmen

Act VII: Together Alone, We Jump We Rise

Act VII: 'Together Alone, We Jump We Rise'
Original blockprint by William Lemon III 2007

Breaking free from the crowd of insane celebrators, the first scene of our final act sees our King running, sword in hand, to the locked door of his Queen's prison tower only to find the the door is slightly ajar. 

"In panicked steps, a King runs to the top of the forgotten tower. This hour sees his work undone as he finally meets his flower."

Our king springs from his momentary shock ,and begins the ascent. Running and simultaneously apologizing to his mystery queen, our King cries out tearfully, "I was trying to build, I was coming up I was making my way and I was almost there, I looked ahead and I couldn't see, and I looked behind and I couldn't see, hold on baby, please hold on, I'll be there soon."

 Out of breath and excuses, our King stands, panting and weak.  He pushes the ancient door open and reveals his Queen standing in the window staring out on the same ocean from whence he came.  The first glow of sunrise frames her figure. After a moment to drink in the scene, our King breaks out into his plea: "Here I stand, and here I kneel, below my queen, lost in this dusty cloud... If you show your face I might show you how."