Overview
Lou Andreas Salomé, brilliant, beautiful and brave, cuts her way through a wonderland of late nineteenth and early twentieth century geniuses that includes Nietzsche, Wagner, Wedekind, Rilke, Tolstoy and Freud, breaking hearts and bruising egos as she goes, in an attempt to understand herself, love, sex, human nature, and the possibly imaginary or deceased deity in this wild ride of a play. It starts when she's older, studying with Freud, who is convinced that if she is to be a good psychoanalyst, she needs to come to terms with her troubled relationships with a series of brilliant men over the years, then flashes back to her famous encounter with Nietzsche, whose love for her was arguably a contributing factor to his subsequent madness. Lou turns down Nietzsche's proposal, manages to escape the clutches of Wagner and Wedekind, perplexes Tolstoy, marries a man she won't sleep with, has a torrid affair with the poet Rilke but then breaks his heart, perplexes Tolstoy, is despised by Nietzsche's jealous proto-Nazi sister, seduced in a madhouse, writes many books, and somehow manages to maintain possession of her own soul. But, Freud asks, at what cost? A chorus of Rhine Maiden/Nymphs accompany us on a bizarre, funny, unusual and unpredictable journey with Lou and her famous, lecherous and sometimes demented genius friends.