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Girl Genius
SocketWench

"—and when I asked him if that was a wrench in his pocket—"

The Socket Wench of Prague is a play[1] in the Heterodyne show canon. We don't know much about the plot, but along with the Heterodyne Boys it features Lucrezia and Klaus, who finishes the play wearing his pants on his head. Barry totes around a giant screwdriver, and there are at least two scantily-clad female characters, either of whom might be the eponymous wench and/or The High Priestess; the one played by Pix evidently ends the play in possession of an equally large socket wrench.[2] The script also apparently calls for a catfight in a grease vat and is considered to be rather risque . In fact, while the Circus is in Sturmhalten, Abner suggests putting on this play so they are deliberately run out of town, thereby allowing them to pass through as quickly as possible and keep Moxana hidden.

Unfortunately, they don't anticipate that Sturmhalten's ruler Aaronev would demand this play specifically (presumably, in part because the character of Lucrezia has some very commanding lines ). He also instructs them to tart it up . D'oh. And in the process of performing, Agatha's voice (indeed) triggers Aaronev's monitoring equipment, leading to ever-expanding complications.

According a snippet of the play's script included in the novel Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, it also features the character of a mysterious Stranger; it is deeply worrying, at least to Lucrezia, when it comes time to remove the garments in question, this enigmatic individual reveals that he is already not wearing any pants.[3] It's also explicitly noted that Pix is indeed playing The High Priestess again.

References

  1. The title is first mentioned in Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess on page 050 (web), panel 2.
  2. In the artwork , it's actually a box-end wrench that Pix is holding.
  3. A joking reference on the Foglios' part to a similar scene in the fictional play The King in Yellow, as included in the novel of the same name by Robert W. Chambers.
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