Youkali
Youkali is the name of a beautiful song by German-American composer Kurt Weill, which conjures a vision of a magical island where "happiness and pleasure" hold sway—a utopian "land of our desires" where the "poor human soul" finds reprieve from life's harsh realities.
Set against the backdrop of a ‘New Parnassus’ or ‘Coffee House Proper’—a tangible realm that nourishes the romantic sensibility with a true stage for self-expression, a place to cultivate meaningful relationships, and a home, as Austrian critic Alfred remarked, "for those who wish to be alone but need sociability for this"— the play unfolds through the lens of its disillusioned hero, Rachmaninoff.
Irritated, ill at ease, and offended by the poverty of ideas given and received, the aged composer’s chance discovery of Youkali and, by extension, a network of masterful individuals across artistic disciplines—each filled with keen intellect, bold ambition, unwavering yearning, tempestuous despair, and diabolical eroticism—stirs Rachmaninoff’s senses. The harmonious blend of architectural design full of pleasure, attitude, and intellectual gravitas, together with a company of deep thinkers and vanguards, provides the essential refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.
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No.1
Rachmaninoff: “I am young, passionate, and spoiled by earlier successes. Too much flattery and too much fame. Depression overwhelms me and I drink too much”
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No.2
Mandarin Jacket Boy: “Salubrious Waters, Tea, and Wine, Here you may have and also Dine. But, as ye through the Garden Rove, Beware, fond youth, the Darts of Love”.
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No.3
Mandarin Jacket Boy: “Young man, all of us have difficult moments but this is life. Hold your head up high – keep to your anointed path. Work. I work every day. You must work”.
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No.4
One of the small fleet: “This new kind of architecture seems to me to come from the head and not from the heart. I cannot simply cast out my architectural gods in one moment and bend the knee to the new ones”.
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No.5
VO: “The room is such as has never been seen before. Its décor is an original coup of decorative fantasy... The walls, and the bar itself... are covered with an entirely unknown kind of mosaic, ‘Colourful as colour itself, and as fantastic as our fantasies”
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No.6
Madame X: “I have to tell you, frequenting Mendl’s Coffee House in times of agony and despair really helped me…I began to create again. The material grew until new ideas began to stir…inspiration had returned to me”