I went back to the Asian Art Museum (in spite of my itinerary) because that’s what I felt like doing. I not only got through the Indian and Perisian galleries as planned, but I also got to the Korean stuff I missed before and to most of the Chinese stuff on the second floor. And I went to the museum shop and finally got a book on Siamese art. I went out when the museum was about to close.
From there I walked to Van Ness Avenue, and I got my ticket to see Valhalla—a hysterically funny and campy play with two related storylines, one of them about King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and the other about a gay guy from Texas. Actually, it was about truth, beauty, and dreams, and about being yourself. Ludwig would have been appalled, certainly not because of the above themes, but because he was extremely ashamed and neurotic about being homosexual, and the play was very open about it (and also made him very open about it). Also, the play portrayed Sophie as hunchbacked, which struck me as odd—I’ve seen photos of Ludwig and her, and they both were beautiful, and I certainly didn’t see any hump. It would have been mentioned in the biographies, I’m sure. I think the real reasons nobody wanted to marry her were: the way her mom peddled her for suitors all over Europe, Sophie was a notorious flirt, and her mom was probably too pushy about marrying her off and ironically discouraged suitors. A hump was an obvious physical flaw, which may be why the play did it—simplifies things.
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