Alastair holds out his arm for Mariel as they get out of the car. As they enter the building, they are met by the theater's owner, whom Alastair met the other night. Alastair smiles and starts to open his mouth, but the man looks stressed and busy. He closes his mouth and takes the two tickets out of his jacket's inner pocket. The owner takes them and waves them toward the stairs, then rushes out of sight.
Alastair stops for a moment and gestures to the art gallery that occupies the first floor. I don't know how much of an art fan you are, but he has some interesting pieces here.
They ascend the stairs and find themselves in the back of a small black box theater, with seats on three sides of the stage area. There is a small black scaffold against the upstage wall. The platform is blocked by a painted piece of set, with three "windows" cut in it. The scaffolding has stairs that make it accessible from the stage area. Other than that, there is no scenery. One of the aisles through the seats leads to a darkened doorway, and the other leads to the door to the stairs.
The Rose Theater
This play is by a Swedish playwright, August Strindberg. He was into modernist non-realism, so expect some things to be a little weird... He thinks of the character called only "the cook," who drinks the sustenance from the food before serving it. I wonder if Strindberg knew a Swedish Kindred...
And some things won't be so weird. Where would you like to sit?
Center section, please, said Mariel, clearly enjoying being taken out and treated like a lady. It's been AGES since someone put their arm out for me to take, she thinks, with a smile.
The center section, then. With Mariel still on his arm, he strolls to the the third row of the center section, and selects the two central seats. He waits for Mariel to sit before taking his own seat, and looks around the theater approvingly. Several people are already sitting. A few ordinary middle-class couples, a vigorous looking man in his 50s in the back row of the section to stage right, but Alastair's eye falls on a young woman, perhaps a student, with fair skin offset by beautiful dark hair.
A few more people are trickling into the theater, but it is almost time for the figurative curtain to rise. There are only a few minutes before the play is due to begin. Alastair looks over at Mariel with a smile to make sure she is comfortable and happy with her seat.
Mariel smiles. She sees that there is a little time before the play starts, and makes a very VERY quick call to Twist about something that has been weighing on her mind, after excusing herself to Alastair.
Mariel smiles as she finishes her call and turns her cell phone off for the play. Her gaze takes in the bare stage. So...I'm guessing this isn't a musical? she asks Alastair in a teasing tone, placing her hand lightly on his arm.
Alastair chuckles slightly at Mariel's joking question. Not in the way you're thinking. Critics will tell you that it follows the form of a classical sonata: Exposition, Development, and Recapitulation. I think you'll enjoy it anyway. As he finishes, the already meager house lights dim and the play begins.
Coughing is heard, and an old man in a wheelchair appears from under the scaffolding with a newspaper. A young milkmaid with strangely blank eyes walks slowly from the darkened doorway behind the stage-left seats, crosses and stands stiffly and silently at stage-right, looking at nothing in particular. The old man seems not to see her, and continues reading his paper. Nothing moves for a long moment. Suddenly, a battered looking young man half-runs, half-stumbles onto the stage from the same doorway behind the seats. He leans over, hands on his knees, breathing hard. Finally, her turns breathlessly to the milkmaid who has blinded only a handful of times since appearing on stage and has not moved at all.
Welcome, Liberator. Take her from this dark, evil world. And take me also, as soon as you would...
The lights go out, then come fully on, and the actors who had just been dying, despairing, and wasting away in the Hyacinth Room are now standing hand in hand, smiling at the applause of the audience. Alastair begins applauding also, and smiles appreciatively at the performance. The delivery of the actor playing Arkenholz had been a little stilted, but the actor playing Old Man Hummel had more than made up for it.
He turns to Mariel. What did you think, Miss Mariel?
Drop by the Theater
Draft this Post