immediacy of the spoken word is eroded by the iterative
　　　　  self-referentiality of the words being spoken. The pair on stage ".
　　　　  . . quote themselves . . . ,"(35) their present linguistic moment
　　　　  intermeshing with past (and future) language and reality.
　　　　  If we move from these temporal and spatial dimensions to another, we
　　　　  can also see that narrative, stage characters, stage set, and
　　　　  lighting also function to destabilize each other. If, for example,
　　　　  we look at the interplay between text and stage context, we find the
　　　　  two are open to an infinite Derridean rereading of themselves in a
　　　　  cyclic, creative manner.
　　　　  The stage image can be seen as a metaphor for self-creation: the
　　　　  creator creates himself through the narrative, or is created by it
　　　　  (the self being as much a Action as the fictional self) in a process
　　　　  of scissiparity (schizogenesis) presented on stage: a dramatic
　　　　  concretisation of the play between creator and created . . . .(36)
　　　　  Here, as well, our common ways of conception are shorted-out via the
　　　　  iterative interpenetration of levels of text and con-text with one
　　　　  another.
　　　　  If we are not yet exhausted by the multitude of layers functioning
　　　　  simultaneously in Ohio Impromptu and will allow a momentary look
　　　　  outside the immediate context of the play itself, we unearth yet
　　　　  more layers of information which intersect the play tangentially.
　　　　  First, as H. Porter Abbott has pointed out, the play is partially a
　　　　  humorous send-up of the conference that commissioned the work.
　　　　  It is hard not to entertain the idea that a dramatic piece
　　　　  consisting entirely of two ancient white-haired men, "As alike in
　　　　  appearance as possible," poring over a text, was intended to cast
　　　　  back an image, however refracted, of the audience for which it was
　　　　  composed -- scholars whose professional life is spent poring over
　　　　  texts and reading them to each other.(37)
　　　　  Those who read and reread texts for a living, watch two who read and
　　　　  reread texts for life. The cycle of refractions, which this level of
　　　　  information exhibits destabilizes the distinction between audience
　　　　  and stage (a relationship with which we will have further dealings
　　　　  later) in a backhanded ironic manner.
　　　　  Further destabilizing the distinction between fact/biography and
　　　　  fiction, the Isle of Swans, which figures so prominently in the
　　　　  play, is a real island in the Seine river.(38) Thus, the narrative
　　　　  as told could actually take place in our reality. We could (as I