Two Legends

Famously in the twentieth century, Frank O'Hara spends his lunch hour stepping out of the Museum of Modern Art to type poems on shop demonstration typewriters. Following his accidental death on Fire Island, he becomes a legend in his own lifetime. Watson’s extended riff on these lunch perambulations addresses this first legend. An interlude follows in which O'Hara and his friends emerge from MOMA to see figures from the legendary past. The second legend is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, in which awakening innocence, wicked sisters and mysterious identity collide with the all-too-human frailty of the gods. Herculean tasks are set. And, just as Frank O'Hara’s lunch hour takes on legendary status, so in Watson’s treatment Psyche finds herself at times in touch with twentieth century celebrity.