[I THE INVITATION] Come in. Don't speak. Leave your name outside the door. Tonight you will be someone I have never known. I have prepared a chair for you. I have prepared a lie. Sit down. Look at me. Now tell me why your hands are shaking. [II THE FIRST MASK] You wanted a king, so I gave you a crown. You wanted a sinner, so I knelt on the ground. You wanted a stranger with fire in his eyes. I became the stranger. You believed the disguise. But somewhere beneath it, beneath the silk and the skin, I heard your real voice calling me in. Not loudly. Not clearly. Just once. Just enough. And I knew you were frightened of what you had asked for. [ENSEMBLE BUILDING] PLAY THE PART! Don't look away. PLAY THE PART! Do what you say. PLAY THE PART! Give me the face you keep hidden at the end of the day. PLAY THE PART! Again. Again. Again. [III THE ROOM CHANGES] The table is a throne. The floor is a sea. You are the judge. You are judging me. I am the witness. I am the thief. I am the hand at your shoulder. I am the voice underneath. And every time you tell me who I am, I become it. Every time you deny me, I become it. Every time you whisper, “Don't leave,” I stay. [IV CONFRONTATION] Then you tore the mask from my face. I laughed. You cried. I said, “Which one of us is lying now?” You said, “Neither.” And that was the moment the whole room went cold. Because there was no character left. No king. No fool. No saint. No one to blame. Only your eyes. Only mine. [VOCAL CRESCENDO] WHO ARE YOU? I don't know. WHO ARE YOU? I don't know. WHO ARE YOU? Don't ask me. WHO ARE YOU? Don't leave me. WHO ARE YOU? Look at me. LOOK AT ME! [V WITHOUT THE SCRIPT] Take off the crown. Let it fall. Take off the name. Take off it all. No more beautiful answers. No more carefully spoken lines. No more pretending that we know where the truth begins. Come closer. Closer. I want to see the face that appears when nobody is watching. [FINAL MOVEMENT SLOW, MASSIVE] We played with fire. We called it a game. We changed our voices. We changed our names. But the heart does not change because the mouth tells it to. The heart remembers. The heart knows. [FINAL CHANT] I was you. You were me. For a moment we were free. I was you. You were me. No role. No mask. No dream. [CODA almost whispered] Morning is coming. The room is still. Your costume lies beside mine. Neither of us moves. You reach for my hand. Not as a king. Not as a queen. Not as the person you wanted me to be. Just you. Just me. And for the first time nothing needs to be played.
