Major spoilers are coming.
The first act of Contact is the story of 3 people, an upper-class Frenchman, his upper-class significant other, and the male servant, who pushes the swing for the woman. The upper-class Frenchman leaves, and the servant and the woman seduce each other on the swing. At the very end, after the upper-class guy comes back, the two men switch jackets as well as demeanors, and the "servant" says the only line of the piece, "Well played!" The actual couple is the "servant" and the woman; the three of them are playacting a sexual fantasy where the woman is cheating on her lover with a servant. I agree with Weidman that the ending seems inevitable in retrospect, which is what makes it such a good ending.
I kind of wish the second act had a similar ending, or at least some kind of build. As good as everyone is, the piece is essentially the same thing over and over again for 30 minutes.
Another interesting insight from the discussion: the swing's momentum is different if there are 2 people on it or one person on it, so trying to time the arc of the swing to the music was much more complicated than it seems to the audience. And Stro made a comment that each part is about contact, but there is also a reference to a swing in each part: the actual swing in the first part, the rat pack "swinger" vibe of the second part, and swing dance in the third part. |
