There was the eagle-stone (aetites) which the Countess of Newcastle was invited to wear in 1633 to ease her labour pains […].

But with exotic dancers, binge-drinking, tooth-ripping, show tunes, time travel, ebonics and murder, it's an approach not usually seen onstage.

It is indeed an 'extensive Volume,' of boundless, almost formless contents, a very Sea of Thought; neither calm nor clear, if you will; yet wherein the toughest pearl-diver may dive to his utmost depth, and return not only with sea-wreck but with true orients.

The runt was the grittiest pup of all; for days he writhed out of one convulsion into the next—calmed from one only to go through it all over again.