Richard Wall
Theater Eruption
From Chapter 13, Theater Eruption: an audience riot
Blue Green by Richard Wall
[First-person narration by Gaius Galen, relating a Blue/Green fracas at a theater contest]
The sisters made the scar disappear (“a gift” from her first owner was all Arbella would tell Messalina) while talking and laughing. Their reunion was interrupted by a man who strutted into the dressing room like a rooster, making clear these were his hens, even the male ones. Conversations died down.
“Nay my darlings, continue. Big finale in 10, not time to panic yet, but always time to think Victory! This pack of Green actors we’re up against couldn’t rouse a tear at a funeral,” said the man, wearing a beggar’s costume that was so realistic it probably had lice jumping around in it.
“Ah, how sweet! My Arbella and her sister together at last!” the beggar (Kyros, of course) swooped over and had Messalina’s hand against his lips in an instant. “Welcome, Messalina, to your sister’s home, her family,” and the beggar swept his hand around the room with the grace of a prince.
“And I see you brought gawkers – we love gawkers, don’t we ladies?”
The room agreed, the zebra woman saying, “I like the one in red,” and she winked at Atakam.
“You’re lovely Messalina – almost as lovely as our Arbella,” Kyros dipped his head to her. “Is the one next to the Hun in red yours? I love that Greek look with the dirty blonde hair.”
I smiled appreciatively and called out, “Gaius Galen Licinius at your command, most generous Host. Thank you for allowing us this brief union of sisters. And thank you for caring so well for Arbella.”
“Well, I try,” and he put a hand on the shoulder of each sister. “Gentlemen, your man Tedius there has your seats. I don’t always get to do these smaller performances. I hope you enjoy as we take the pyramis cake, our final skit certain to put us over the top.”
“Cake and the bonus money!” shouted someone.
“Yes, the bonus money is tasty too. Tighten up ladies,” said Kyros, giving the three of us a raggedy beggar’s bow. Messalina and Arbella talked intensely until another actress took Arbella by the hand to go, the sisters having one last hug and kiss. They would meet here together again after the finale.
We took our seats (Tedius was off stage and could see us from behind a gap in the curtain). Messalina excitedly related that at the dressing table, they had hurriedly discussed her plan to buy Arbella from Kyros with the money she had accumulated over her years of professional companioning. The money was safely in Sister Flacilla’s hands.
We caught the last part of the Greens’ closing skit, which was hilarious, actually. Atakam laughed out loud several times and punched me in the shoulder to further his enjoyment. The actors portrayed a scene that had been talked about in the city for the last week, the sacking of the chamberlain’s head chef after the Vandal foreign minister dinner guest threw up climbing into his carriage to leave. Messalina loved it, but in deference to Kyros and Arbella, she didn’t join us Greens rhythmically chanting our enthusiasm.
Out came Kyros and the other Blue actors and dancers, with Arbella singing in the background for two skits and playing small roles in two others, each also about recent rumors. But the last skit was the best – written just that morning about a juicy tidbit of gossip. Kyros’ beggar related the strange behavior of a certain litter that remarkably resembled the one often used by the wife, Santolia, of an austere imperial admiral. This was not-so-subtle code for Antonia, the fast friend of the Empress Theodora, who had a lurid reputation still suitable to her past as an actress. The “admiral” was Antonia’s real-life husband General Belisarius. The beggar had observed the litter picking up a youthful officer.
“The good officer must have been helping the lady adjust the springs of her litter seating,” said the beggar, “because there was such a lurching of that litter that the bearers almost dropped it twice.” Roars of laughter, but undercut by some hisses. The beggar said the litter’s heavy curtain opened and the young officer got out, with a kiss on the top of his head from a flushed Santolia.
The hissing grew louder.
“And it was so touching,” announced Kyros’ beggar, “that the lady tossed the young man a pair of men’s undergarments she generously donated to him for his help with the cushions.”
Laughter, chanting, hissing, arguments and movement started everywhere around us all at once.
“I serve under Belisarius and will not have his wife so maligned,” yelled out a drunken soldier who threw a clay wine cup at the beggar but missed. “You’ll not slander General Belisarius!”
“I’ll slander everyone in the city,” called back Kyros. “And if that’s as good as you can aim, heaven help Belisarius!”
The insult brought laughter before shoving, yelling and blows broke out in the audience. A column of faction guards quickly rushed onstage from the wings and locked shields in front of Kyros, Arbella and others in the troupe. Another cup thrown from the audience shattered against a shield.
The head judge in the low box just in front of the stage stood up with a Blue placard and proclaimed, “Tonight’s contest goes to the Blues on the strength of this rousing final performance. Hail Blues! The Theater is closing – now!” And with that, the judges exited below via a trap door.
Tedius was motioning to us frantically. Atakam pulled Messalina to his side, swirled his crimson cloak over her and drew his dagger. I got behind them and we moved toward Tedius then on to the back stage door. Kyros yelled to the guards to let us pass. I heard a scream from the auditorium behind us that sounded to me like a stabbing, then another bloody scream.
The actors, stagehands and attendants adhered to a somewhat orderly evacuation. Eight wagons out back loaded up Green and Blue actors, mounted guards ready to speed off. Infantrymen stationed nearby marched into the area to protect the talent.
A torch arced through the sky and landed on the roof of the wagon Arbella and Kyros were climbing into. “Hurry up Arbella. Wave farewell to your sister; you’ll see her again soon. We’re off to Smyrna, a little sooner than planned,” cried out Kyros, blowing a kiss to Messalina at my side.
Arbella looked distraught, matching the anxiety of her sister, who waved pathetically. A mounted soldier raked the burning torch off the wagon’s canvas top right as it thundered off, escorts bracketing the wagons front and back. We watched the remaining guards begin to grind into the reckless rabble that had come around from the front of the theater.
“Let’s go,” said Atakam, taking Messalina from my side and putting her under his red wrap again. “It’ll take them a moment to realize they have no chance against these guards, and by then we can be at our carriage.”
He strode off like the fearless Illyrian commander he was but with a disgusted look. He wove us through those streaming out of the theater, fights erupting as small groups of Greens and Blues went at each other, sometimes joining together to push back against the prefect’s troops that arrived and were effectively sweeping them away.
We were about halfway to the carriage when Messalina pulled herself out from under Atakam’s red cloak draped over her shoulder and stopped.
“I’m not worried about my safety, but about Arbella’s and the others’,” she said. “Should we follow to make sure they are safe?”
“They are well protected, and we couldn’t catch up to them anyway,” said Atakam, scowling at the partisans scuffling around us. “The faction troops will guard their theatrical assets. We are in more danger than your sister.”
“I don’t need your protection, Lord Hun! And I’ll decide how to help my sister. I don’t even know why you are here – wrapping me up like a baby in your mighty soldier’s costume!”
“The only reason I am here is to protect you – at his request,” yelled out Atakam pointing to me. I had never heard him yell before. “And you don’t know what you’re talking about!”
In the midst of the bedlam around us, Messalina and Atakam fairly squared off in confrontation. I was momentarily stunned, but Tedius immediately stepped between them.
“We are friends, here for the same reason,” he said in a calming tone. “Messalina has seen her sister for the first time in ages – and then saw her chased off by a mob. It was an unsettling goodbye, and she’s understandably upset.”
