Spectre of the Theatre!

Places, everymortal! Happy Wednesday—I bring ye free tickets to Friday’s show, SPECTRE OF THE THEATRE! Summersbane & I found the ruins of the Shattered Empire’s grandest theatre; locals claim ‘tis haunted, but, surely we shall manage to conduct our own show without interruption from any phantoms? Be there Friday at 8PT when the curtain rises on SPECTRE OF THE THEATRE!

Below—I dug through a pile of old playbills, & was able to reconstruct a rough timeline of this theatre’s history:

• In the Year 103 Ӕ.A. (Ӕror Anweald—“Before the Empire”), the longest-running show was a comedy, known as “The Folly of Kings.” The highlight, apparently, was an extended exchange of sarcastic riddles, warning of the pitfalls of monarchy.

• 86 Ӕ.A.—after an extended war with neighboring Elves, this theatre ran a patriotic invective, “Our Sylvanican Cousin.” Judging from the engravings of the performers, human actors portrayed bumbling, arrogant Elves, with exaggerated ears, & something the playbill describes as “that classic Elven manner of speech.” Ran for the entire year.

• 41 Ӕ.A.—for two weeks, a new staging of “Folly of Kings” apparently revised the riddles. The description indicates they were “updated for modern attitudes.” A fragment of script I found indicates the revised riddles were aimed largely at Elves & the poor. The short run, to me, says all it must about this conservative reboot’s anti-popularity at the time.

• 41 Ӕ.A.—the next show—called, curiously, “The Wolves?”—ran for 41 weeks. The description in the playbill merely says, “A hilarious new musical rendition of our most ancient tale.” Each actor portrays a wolf, & all are named “Wolf.” Audience reviews from later in the run describe one actress as, “A masterful performer who makes Wolf as funny as Wolf, but with all the soul of Wolf.” Impossible to interpret.

• 12 Ӕ.A.—a generation later, another attempt at “Folly of Kings.” Revised once more, according to the playbill, to “reflect new political realities.” Another script-scrap lay on a shelf, & the riddles once again found new targets. Aimed squarely at kings, as in the classic presentation, but now meant to deride kings who resisted imperial consolidation. This version ran for six months.

• In 0 A.I. (Anno Imperialis, “Imperial Year”), all normal shows were cancelled. Instead, each week, imperial representatives reenacted the final Triumph of Unification. Also, the first “imperi-prov” classes are held in the theatre.

• 24 A.I.—the theatre begins splitting its schedule. On weekends, the matinees & nights are dedicated to major productions. During the week, classes of various kinds dominate the daytime, & the nighttime is given over to shows where, apparently, outsiders rented the theatre. Shows with titles such as, “One Night in Romtonko Villa,” “1,001 Times My Family Upset Me,” & “Dwarvish The Wolves?” Apparently that was “The Wolves?,” but performed entirely in a Dwarvish dialect, as some sort of artistic stunt. Those shows lack sophisticated playbills, which now only mark the major weekend productions.

• 100 A.I.—in this year, the weekends were dominated by re-stagings of “Folly of Kings,” musical versions of older plays, dramatic versions of old musicals, & special engagements of “Triumph of Unification” reenactments to mark the Empire’s centennial.

• 477 A.I.—Curiously, in this particular year, imperi-prov took the weekend spots. It seems likely the Empire suffered something of a comedy bubble.

• 503 A.I.—The final year before the Shattering. The schedule vacillates between short-form imperi-prov, avant-garde imperi-prov, & something called “Imperi-provised Folly of Kings.”

• The most recent playbill I discovered, which seems to be about a decade old, is hand-printed, on low-grade, recycled paper. It advertises a show called, “The Folly of Unification.” Which, apparently, was preceded by a short presentation called, “Imperi-Provised The Wolves?”

Thank ye for reading—I hope these artifacts help set the stage for Friday! & thank ye to the growing cadre of generous mortals who can & do support our works here with coin!

I shall write ye Saturday with a fresh dispatch—written from inside the ruined green room at the Spectre of Theatre! Join us there Friday at 8PT, & bring those opera glasses! ‘Til then—be safe, be well, & remember to memorize those lines, unless ye prefer Imperi-prov…

Cheers,
Amœnus Franco
Wizard, Writer, Board-Treader