What's in a title?

I mentioned in my last post how I am trying to incorporate allusions and references into the script where it fits. These sorts of things shouldn't by the focus, and should never distract from the main story, but if woven in properly can create a richer world for our characters, and vital connections to other cultures and works of art. (If you want to get really trippy, you could say that references can work like cultural hyperlinks.)

Another place I've tried to play with this idea is by unpacking the title of the play itself:

XERXES ATLAS

It has a nice ring to it, with all those Xs and Ss, and it almost sounds alliterative if you slur it enough. But what does it really mean? For a while I was writing it in the possessive form, as Xerxes' Atlas, which though encumbered with punctuation seemed more grammatically correct. I think the meaning of the title is best left up to personal interpretations, but I think it does nicely express some ideas and themes of the play. Most notably, "Atlas" reflects its global scope, but in cultural inspiration and creation via the "world wide web."

However, I thought I might try to infuse some extra weight into the title by working Atlas into the scene I'm writing as much as possible. So far I've gotten two separate references to "Xerxes Atlas" into the scene that I'm working on. One refers to Xerxes' self image (or his mask), and the other refers to his relationship with Esther.

You'll have to read the scene to find out what I mean, though!