Valentin is the tragic hero of Life And Trust NYC.
He’s a boxing champ down on his luck; his debilitating addiction to Conwell’s Cough Syrup is the only thing getting him through the day. Valentin represents the average everyman struggling through the world, fighting his inner demons while trying to rise up and do the right thing.
Valentin of Life And Trust NYC stands opposite J.G. Conwell, the titan of industry who did not create Valentin’s problems, but directly contributes to the character’s inebriation by wantonly producing Conwell’s Cough Syrup for wealth and power.
Valentin lives outside the opulent Conwell manor estate, opposite New York City’s commercial street in the tenement apartments. He lives with his sister, Gretchen, who does what she can to help Valentin overcome his addiction.
Valentin wear boots, a white tank top, and suspenders. He’s oftentimes shirtless, too.
The official description of Valentin in the Gilded Net, the official newspaper (and program guide) of Conwell Coffee Hall and Life And Trust NYC, describes him as the following:
Gretchen’s towering prizer fighter of a brother, who works at the Destiny Park fairgrounds in the wild-west show as a bucking bronco.
As a veteran of the American Indian Wars, Valentin is wracked with PTSD and suffers from a crippling syrup addiction. Tonight, he’ll be pushed to the brink…
I followed Valentin throughout his first loop on my 05 November 2024 visit to Life And Trust NYC. He was played by Zachary Eisenstat, and has also been played by Jacob Michael Warren, Brendan Duggan, Collin Baja, Derek Tabada, and likely others I’m unaware of.
Read my observations and insights below.
(Please Note: I did my best to recreate the order and details of Valentin’s character loop and scenes, but my memory is fallible and certain details might be incorrect.)
Initial Scene (Loop 01): Down And Out
Valentin (Zachary Eisenstat) starts his first loop outside his apartment on the streets of New York (Level A). He’s desperate and delirious.
He stumbles into his apartment where he’s met by his sister, the aspiring actress Gretchen (Jennifer Florentino). She’s briefly sympathetic to her brother’s melancholy before confronting him with his addiction—many, many empty bottles of Conwell’s Cough Syrup.
They argue in a dance reflecting frustration and regret before Valentin weakens and flees the apartment down the streets of New York.
Scene Transition: The Devil You Know
Valentin stumbles into J.G. Conwell & Co Pharmacy where he pleads for more syrup from a youthfully restored Conwell (Collin Baja) and the austere Mephisto (Mike Tyus).
Valentin and Conwell spar before Mephisto abruptly ends the dispute by giving Valentin what he wants— a fresh bottle of syrup. Mephisto sends him on his way out of the pharmacy.
Scene Transition: Dorian Gray, The Club Kid From Hell
Valentin take swigs from the fresh bottle of syrup. He looks around himself as if he’s hallucinating—seeing us, his spectral followers and observers.
He makes his was down to Destiny Park (Level C) where he disappears into a side room outside the wild-west rodeo.
As Valentin disappears a flamboyant character appears in the park—Dorian Gray (Aaron Dalla Villa)—who flits around like a Club Kid from Hell.
Dorian enters the rodeo as Valentin emerges wearing a horse mask. He and Valentin engage in a dance of dominance and submission. Dorian Gray tries to break down Valentin as the dance turns from aggressive to sexual.
Once Valentin is sufficiently broken and desperate, Dorian smugly departs and Valentin flees.
Scene Transition: Fighting Demons
Valentin travels to the boxing ring (Level B) where he meets with his sister Gretchen. They engage in a heartwarming dance of compassion and encouragement before she departs, leaving Valentin alone with his demons.
Valentin pops his tank top off, places the empty bottle of Conwell’s Cough Syrup down on a nearby stool, and begins shadowboxing. Is he warming up? Is he struggling against his inner turmoil?
Who said it has to be either or?
Scene Transition: A Literal Dance With The Devil
The real fight begins as Mephisto enters the ring with Conwell and his close friend Stanford (Douglas J Gillespie) trailing behind.
Mephisto removes his tuxedo jacket, wearing only his corset and collar-choker-necklace accented with a cameo.
Conwell and Stanford take bets, and in the beginning Valentin has the upper hand in his literal dance with the Devil, landing some hits in one of the best dance performances of all of Life And Trust NYC. Valentin is doing so well that Conwell and Stanford have concerns about their bets.
No need.
After Mephisto lets Valentin have his fun, the flashing stadium lights start glowing green as the Devil’s supernatural influence takes hold. Mephisto starts beating Valentin before he invites Conwell into the ring to take his own shots.
As Conwell strikes Valentin, Mephisto dexterously gestures his hands, controlling Valentin’s movements and forcing him to submit and loose.
It’s a rigged fight and the underdog stays under.
Scene Transition: Modern Medicine
A beaten and battered Valentin stumbled all the way down to Dr. Marie’s laboratory (Level D). Dr. Marie (Sophie Bortolussi) is a woman of modern medicine and science, and she x-rays Valentin’s shoulder. It’s dislocated, so she relocates it and leaves him to rest.
After recovering, he explores the lab, writes a signed “thank you” on her chalkboard, takes a swig from a bottle, lets out a loud belch, and departs.
Scene Transition: 1-On-1 Encounter
Valentin heads back to the streets of New York (Level A) and approached a closed door.
He turns around to one of his ghostly followers, extends a hand, and leads the individual inside.
A gold-masked steward waves off anyone else who tries to follow.
Scene Transition: Love Addict
Valentin once again finds the seductive Dorian Gray as he’s causing trouble in J.G. Conwell & Co Pharmacy.
Valentin walks lightly and slowly toward Dorian. Is he spellbound by him? Is he finally giving in to repressed desires? (It’s probably both, much like with Boy Witch and the Porter from Sleep No More NYC).
Valentin and Dorian Gray move erotically around each other before passing through the pharmacy’s alchemy lab and into the green-glowing Magic Forest, which holds the powerful secrets of Conwell’s brewed pharmaka.
Valentin and Dorian collapse before the great weeping willow crowning the forest. Dorian Gray acts as a seducer and temper, and Valentin finally submits to his repress homoerotic desires.
As they lie together and finally kiss, the green hue of the Magic Forest slowly distorts and glows red.
The encounter abruptly ends and both Dorian and Valentin move into the Conwell estate garden.
Valentin falls to his knees, desperate. Dorian teases him with both sexual affection and Conwell’s Cough Syrup. And just as Valentin thinks he’s going to find some kind of release, Dorian overtly reveals himself as an archetypal fuck boy. Dorian splashes the entire bottle of syrup in Valentin’s face, laughs, and skips away in cruel glee.
Valentin is left leveled and devastated, throwing the empty bottle of syrup into the garden night and howling a guttural cry.
He picks himself up and stumbles away in a daze.
Scene Transition: Defender Of The Weak
Valentin finds his way back to Destiny Park where Dr. Marie and another (unknown to me) woman are fighting with an aggressive Dr. Kellogg (Patrick Ferreri).
Valentin stands up for the two women, giving them a chance to escape. No matter, for Dr. Kellogg is more than willing to entertain Valentin, to whom he hands a flyer.
Dr. Kellogg smiles at Valentin and departs.
Scene Transition: Experimentation
Valentin finds his way into Dr. Kellogg’s medical clinic, where he’s manhandled and abused by an aggressive Kellogg and Davenport (Majella Bess Loughran) examining and experimenting on him.
Before long, Kellogg produces a contract for Valentin to sign, and in exchange for his agreement he’s given another bottle of Conwell’s Cough Syrup.
Scene Transition: Put Up Your Dukes
Valentin returns to the boxing ring, full of frustration and despair.
He’s met there by Dorian Gray, and also the miner Marco (Luca Renzi). Valentin engages Marco in a fight, all while Dorian watches on instigating.
However, this boxing match restores some of Valentin’s autonomy as he defeats Marco and pursues Dorian once again.
They end up in the dimly lit stable next to the boxing ring. Valentin and Dorian engage in a slow an acrobatic performance in the small and tight space. Valentin doesn’t come off as broken as he once was, and Dorian looses all interest.
He sends Valentin away one final time (from what I could tell) who leaves defeated and broken as he ascends upward (to the Ground Level).
Scene Transition: Broken And Desperate
The first loop’s ballroom scene is an opulent affair where most of the souls trapped in Life And Trust Bank convene.
A lot of visual storytelling is told in this scene:
– Conwell’s apparent control of everyone’s lives with his wealth and power
– Mephisto’s actual control of everyone’s souls, with the assistance of his Lilith servants
– The machinations of bad actors and unsavory characters, like Dr. Kellogg and Davenport
– The desperation of the souls controlled by the collective dark will of the bank’s movers and shakers
At the height of the ball, Conwell stands proudly atop one platform, and opposite him is Valentin atop the other platform. Valentin is on his knees, broken and desperate with his arms outstretched.
The visual is one that speaks to the idea of Americans struggling with opioid addiction versus pharmaceutical titans like Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. This is our real-life Conwell/Valentin parallel of wealthy powerbrokers using the secrets of pharmaka to control and abuse the unwitting masses.
Defeated by life, Valentin flees the ballroom.
Scene Transition: One Final Struggle
Valentin stumbles through the halls of the bank back toward his apartment.
The distorted ballroom music plays all around. The lamps lining the halls glow and flicker, serving as another indicator that we are not seeing Life And Trust Bank’s past at all.
Instead, we are witnessing a distorted reality created by Mephisto as a playpen for him to torment the souls under his power.
In a moving performance, Valentin dances throughout his apartment as he struggles against life one final time. He eventually collapses into the apartment’s bathtub, and he extends his hand to one of the observing apparitions.
This individual takes Valentin’s hand and hold it as he seemingly dies.
* * *
Tickets for Life And Trust NYC are on sale now.
Some images used in this essay are modified screenshots from the Life And Trust NYC promotional trailer found on YouTube.
Other images were found on various websites and are credited to photographers Stephanie Crousillat and Jane Kratochvil.
This review contains affiliate links.
