It brims with love for every story that has ever existed and will be handed down for all eternity. […] A play about the stage girls' way of life. Charming those who watch with an overflow of brilliance. Every time they stand on stage, they revive and continue to shine. To live for the stage and be alive on the stage – Stage Girls. Elle Nishino
Creation
The Performance Festival’s scriptwriting team wrote a play about the 25 Major Arcana. Prior to the reveal of its title, it was called the “’Performance Festival’ Play." Meanwhile, the five-year-old Elle. wrote an untitled play referred to as "Play A." Its events were inspired by the Revues which take place in the arc Arcana Arcadia. While these two plays developed separately, Amemiya met Elle and was inspired by some of her ideas, which changed the course of the Performance Festival's Play. After Elle saw Arcana Arcadia performed at the Performance Festival, she decided to write the Star's lines, which the Performance Festival had left blank, and complete Arcana Arcadia.
Plot
Act 1
The Girl wakes up in a desert with no memories, other than that she made a promise to meet someone “at the end of the moonlight… at the promised place—the secret paradise.” The first person she sees after she comes to is the Doctor. He says she’d come down with a disease called delusional fever, but he helped cure her, and she is now staying in his clinic. Soon, the High Priestess comes to arrest the Doctor for tricking people into taking his cure for delusional fever and, consequently, not believing in God. The High Priestess believes that only God can save people, so to her, the Doctor cannot actually be curing people of this disease and has to be lying. The High Priestess has the Doctor brought to the Vatican and locked up, and she goes to chat with the Magician she has in her service. The Magician gets the High Priestess sleepy with some wine, and she goes to visit the Doctor in jail. The Magician tells the Doctor that he will be hanged the next day, but she offers him a way to go free and continue his work, as long as he understands the hardships of the life he is about to take on. The Doctor agrees so that he can continue saving people, and the Magician tells him a sentence to say when he is about to die.
The day of the Doctor’s trial, he is hung upside down pelted by rocks as the High Priestess accuses him of spreading lies to make people doubt the existence of God. The Girl, who is present at the trial, protests that the Doctor saved her life and many others, making this hanging unjust, but the Magician tells her to quiet down and believe in him. A fire is lit under the Doctor, and the Hanged complains about the unfairness of his trial. He reasserts his determination to keep saving people andsays the phrase the Magician told him to say—"I am not going to stop walking.” The Devil appears, summoned by his words. He explains that the Doctor had once cured the Magician’s granddaughter of delusional fever, meaning that she knew of the Doctor’s skills. Wanting to change the world, she decided to sacrifice her soul so the Doctor could keep curing others. The Devil admonishes the High Priestess for using threat of punishment to gather faith and claiming that only God can save people before sending the High Priestess and her knights to Hell. The Doctor invites the Girl to come with him on his journey, but the Girl says she has to continue on her own journey, and they part ways.
Act 2
Wheel of Fortune and Strength talk about what fate and strength are. They also talk about the Girl and how she never grows old and always perseveres on her journey. Meanwhile, the Girl reveals that a war has broken out during her journey, so she had to stop and stay at a seaside town governed by the love of God and law. Doubting that the end of the moonlight actually exists, she becomes a military nurse for the soldiers in this town. Meanwhile, soldiers are panicking because they don’t know where their reinforcements are and they have heard rumors of a new weapon developed by the enemy. The Hierophant, who is the town’s protector, comforts them and tells them to remember that they are loved by God. The Hierophant notices an evening primrose in the church and asks who planted it, to which the Girl responds that she did.
Then, the Chariot arrives at the town and wreaks mass destruction, causing the townspeople to panic. The Hierophant tries to get the Chariot to abandon violence and to believe in love and in God, and they put the evening primrose the Girl planted in the Chariot’s turret. However, the Chariot shoots the Hierophant in the chest, calling their sentiments about God and love meaningless in comparison to the reason it was created: to destroy. The Chariot continues to wreak mass destruction, and the people continue to panic. The Girl falls when the Chariot shoots her in the heart, seemingly about die. Strength and Wheel of Fortune comment that this seems to be the end of the Girl’s journey. As she dies, the Girl looks up at the moonlight and remembers the journey she’d given up on, and her desire to reach the end of the moonlight is renewed. Wheel of Fortune’s hourglass turns, signaling that the Girl is going against fate. The Girl decides to keep living and keep going on her journey. Later, while she’s still in the Girl runs into the Chariot again, who asks her if she’s from the Hierophant’s town. The Girl denies that she is and tells the Chariot that she is heading to the end of the moonlight. The Chariot lets her go since she’s not a target, and the Girl keeps walking. Strength and Wheel of Fortune talk about fate again, and they remark on how the Girl has changed her own fate.
Act 3
The act opens on the jury of a court assembling, most of them complaining about jury duty. The trial, said to be the 99th retrial of this particular case, starts, and the Girl comes in, as she is the person on trial. The Prosecutor asks the Girl some questions, none of which the Girl can answer to the Prosecutor’s satisfaction, so the Prosecutor concludes that the girl is lying. The Part-timer, one of the members of the jury, feels bad for the Girl and wants to help her, but she does not want to look bad in front of the court by disrupting, so she stays silent. The Judge tells offers to let the Girl’s case go if she moves to the city permanently and adheres to their way of life. The Girl says no, and the jury finds her guilty. The Girl appeals against the jury’s decision, setting up the 100th retrial of this case. Later, Staff visits the Girl in her prison cell to bring her food and explains to her no one in Happiness City could understand why someone would leave and willingly face the dangers of the outside world.
Sometime after that, the 100th retrial begins, where the same questioning as the previous day’s trial occurs. The Part-timer becomes even more frustrated with how meaningless the trial is when she gets a text with the message “The show must go on.” The Girl says she refuses to give up on her journey and stay in Happiness City, and she tells the Prosecutor that she’d rather go through hardship and grow as a person than confine herself somewhere where she’d always be happy. The Part-timer stands up and agrees with the Girl, saying that she also wants to be able to push her limits and that she hates how unchanging Happiness City is. Staff joins the trial as a witness, which causes the Judge to freak out since she doesn’t understand why people don’t want to accept the security Happiness City provides. The Judge and the Prosecutor start talking in a loop of “No exceptions” and “Indeed, Your Honor,” ending the case.
Staff explains that Happiness City was built by a refugee from a city destroyed by the Chariot. The refugee, wanting to keep all their loved ones safe, built a city with high walls to keep all potential dangers out. The Judge is revealed to be a machine made to oversee the management of the city. The humans all died out from Happiness City and were replaced by Korosu, who now act out the daily proceedings of humans. The Staff, the only remaining human in Happiness City, wanted to keep Happiness City going in case it could be of use again, but the Girl made them realize that it was truly an artificial, inhuman city. The Girl says goodbye to Staff and continues on her journey, but when she exits the city, she discovers that the moon is no longer in the sky.
Act 4
The Girl talks about her loneliness in her youth and her passion for magic. Since she wasn’t accepted by those around her, she became more resentful until she isolated herself in studying magic and became known as the “Witch of the West.” Then, Dorothy Ann and the “Wild Pirates” came into her world. She was captivated by Dorothy Ann, who praised her magic when no one else had. Dorothy Ann tells the Girl that she will be waiting for her “at the end of the moonlight… at the promised place—at the secret paradise.” The Girl says that her self as the “Witch of the West” died, reborn as “Star Girl.” She reflects on the people she’s met on her journey so far. She determines to seek out the moon, even though it’s disappeared from the night sky.
The play cuts to Dorothy Ann, who talks about how she lives a happy life, but she doesn’t know anything about herself. She talks about how she arrived in the Land of Oz” with her dog Toto, where she met the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion, and about the journey she went on with her new friends to defeat the Witch of the West. However, once she went back home, she was unhappy that she no longer had the adventure she experienced with Oz, and she realizes she has nothing in her current life.The Girl shows up. Dorothy Ann doesn’t recognize her, but the Girl claims that she’s Dorothy Ann’s daughter and tells Dorothy Ann that her existence is proof that Dorothy Ann does have something. Judgement, Hope, Charity, and Faith arrive and tell Dorothy Ann about how she’s helped them determine what they want in life. They tell Dorothy Ann that she’s the Moon, and that if she doesn’t come back to the stage, the role of the Moon will be lost forever, and Dorothy Ann will never be able to experience the joys of the stage again. Everyone encourages Dorothy Ann to come back to the stage, telling her that a lot of things are waiting for her there.
Act 4 is also considered a chapter of Wild Pirates.
Act 5
To celebrate Emperor's now complete conquest of the whole galaxy, Empress calls him. She seems happy for him, and they talk about their future marriage before proclaiming that the Moon will never fall under his control, breaking their engagement, and ordering her fleets to fire on his flagship. Emperor asks Empress what caused her to become so rebellious, and she tells him that, while she was on earth, she met Fool, Moon, and Star Girl, who all inspired her to regain her passion. Emperor then retaliates, intending to destroy the moon. In the midst of this chaos, Deputy Captain and Tower are trying to get Star Girl to a wormhole at the back of the moon. They believe the wormhole may be a gateway to Star Girl's promised paradise, though they are not certain at all. They worry about getting hit by a neutron mine, but right before they do, a barrier called Magician protects them.
Tower recognizes the Magician barrier as unique to one person's ship: Death's. Death offers to help Deputy Captain and Tower deliver Star Girl to the secret paradise since she represents all of their hopes for passion and creativity, things that Emperor will eradicate when he takes over the galaxy. Deputy Captain begrudgingly accepts Death's help, and Deputy Captain, Tower, and Star Girl follow Death through Emperor's fleet. Meanwhile, the Moon Empire, including Empress herself, has suffered great casualties, but she still refuses to surrender to Emperor. Emperor asks her why she would go he realizes that she's trying to help Star Girl. Emperor fires on Lovers, heavily damaging it. Deputy Captain has Star Girl ejected so she can get to the wormhole safely while everyone else (including Empress) take a brave last stand against Emperor. Star Girl lands in a desert.
Act 6 (Final)
Star Girl wakes up in the desert, which is empty, save for white sand of the bones and ashes of people who died there. Star Girl starts to wonder if her whole journey was meaningless if this was the destination she had been looking for for so long when the Fool rises from the sand. He asks Star Girl to recount her journey for him, which she does. The Fool is inspired by Star Girl's tales and resolves to go on a journey of his own.
World tells Star Girl that the Fool is the Fool Arcana and explains that an Arcana, or Stage Girl, is someone who "burn[s] their lives to give off brilliance...they are reborn no matter how many times they die... The 'main character' who continues on a journey in their own play in order to be the lead." World also explains that this secret paradise Star Girl has reached is where all Arcana end up at the end of their journeys before they are reborn. Star Girl envies how Arcana have something so meaningful to them that they continue to go through this cycle of death and rebirth. Fool points out that Star Girl was very passionate about telling the story of her journey, and World affirms that Star Girl's journey has meaning. Star Girl realizes that she wants to keep telling the story of her journey, and World pronounces her to be the Star Arcana. The Wheel of Fortune welcomes Star Girl home, and the Moon encourages Star Girl to be reborn and go on a new journey. All the other Arcana encourage Star Girl as well, and the Moon promises that they will be waiting at this desert when she has completed her new journey.
