The Magician’s great love affair with Angie has disintegrated, leaving him heartbroken. As part of his stage act, he plans to offer her the gift of levitation, allowing her to feel the freedom he could never allow her in their relationship. He reveals to the audience, however, that this romantic gesture has an ulterior motive: if Angie realizes that this feeling of floating free comes from the Magician, he will control her independence, and she will return to him. Angie is mourning for the romance that might have been, though resolute in her determination to find a stronger, less needy man, a man her own age. But when she allows herself to be hypnotized, has she given up her newfound freedom? Enter the Assistant. She pulls the rug out from under the Magician, and Angie, floating under her own power, is finally able to speak her mind. But who has the last laugh? Patter for the Floating Lady by Steve Martin is a poetic, absurdly magical one-act, a post-romantic power struggle, and a meditation on the many facets of love.
Patter for the Floating Lady guide sections
