So many cultures have been forced to turn away from their pasts. We even fly flags of forgotten kingdoms. We even have mermaids who change into colonial whites.

It had to be pure and dust-free -- it pours like water at times in the piece -- and we brought it in over the last year, 56 bags a week, special-ordered through local hardware stores. It fills the stage!

Just because a few Mexican flags fly, obviously it matters to some extremists.

One is forced to speak not of what is held in common between the cultures, but what is held in common between the myths, and that in its simplest archetypal forms

You're forced to pick it up. I used to turn all these knobs, and now I push all these buttons.

Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the God of storms, The lightning and the gale.