The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen takes place just after the Treaty of Versailles. A veteran who is genetically predisposed to cowardice searches for his brother from whom he's received a mysterious letter. When the veteran comes upon the town from whence the letter came, he finds that his brother (and the rest of the town) have been caught in a dance mania--a hysterical mass tarantism. With no one else around, the veteran befriends a spider--likely the one who is responsible for the tarantism, and together, they go up against the town doctor who believes that breakfast (and everything ordinary, for that matter) is beneath love.

In this installment of Performance Thanatology's ongoing research in death and performance, a solitary figure performs all his old songs and dances despite the loss of his partner, the loss of his dancing shoes, and the loss of his teeth. Somewhere between Krapp's Last Tape and Artaud's Spurt of Blood, this is what really became of vaudeville.