Two Researchy Things

Both of these came up in my first meeting with Sydney (costume designer) and I think are worth looking at:

1) Host Desecration. Host Desecration plays were these little sketches performed in churches to help whip up pogroms against Jews. The idea was that, since the host was the literal body of Christ, stories started up about Jews torturing and desecrating the host. These Medieval answers to the urban legend would be recited from the pulpit (and, at times, acted out). And then the popular anger that arose would be directed at the nearby Jewish populations. In some ways, Atheist Viagra is an oddly-skewed Atheist Host Desecration Play.

2) The other thing that came up was stage magic particularly the idea of stage magic in the 19th century. This came up because formally the play works in very similar ways. Someone comes forward and essentially says "I am going to trick you" and then, even though you know it is coming you (hopefully) get suckered into it. I find thinking about this play as a stage magic trick very helpful. Perhaps we should all watch The Prestige again...