The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
ToTK: PROLOGUE: Opening Night
Orikaeshigitae
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Each of you recieves the following playbill in a monthly publication you subscribe to:
The theater is in on the outer edge of the London theater district: ten or fifteen minutes brisk walk north from Leicester Square. The curtain time is quite late; as you arrive, the clouds loom bright in the sky, hiding the stars from your view. The other theatergoers gathering outside of the theater doors are drawn from all social classes, all dressed in your best, much like yourselves. The theater doors soon open. As you enter, you're handed another playbill along with a cast list.
The interior of the theater is gloomy with illumination coming from gas lamps evenly set around the red-painted walls and from the foot lamps below the stage's edge. The theater is small, but it's still less than half full -- there's about a hundred people waiting for the play to start.
The lights seem to flicker, and you wait anxiously for the curtain to raise.
--- FIRST TIME ON ANY STAGE ---
"CARCOSA"
or, "THE QUEEN AND THE STRANGER"
being a Fantasy in Two Acts
Adapted from the French and Staged by
TALBOT ESTUS
THE SCALA CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON W.1
17th October to 2nd November, 1928
9 p.m. MONDAY TO SATURDAY INCLUSIVE
MATINEES at 2 p.m. WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY
Admission 1s. 6d. to 3s.
(THE LIEBLER CO., Managers)
The Dorland Agency,Ltd. 16 Regent Street, S.W. 1
"CARCOSA"
or, "THE QUEEN AND THE STRANGER"
being a Fantasy in Two Acts
Adapted from the French and Staged by
TALBOT ESTUS
THE SCALA CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON W.1
17th October to 2nd November, 1928
9 p.m. MONDAY TO SATURDAY INCLUSIVE
MATINEES at 2 p.m. WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY
Admission 1s. 6d. to 3s.
(THE LIEBLER CO., Managers)
The Dorland Agency,Ltd. 16 Regent Street, S.W. 1
The theater is in on the outer edge of the London theater district: ten or fifteen minutes brisk walk north from Leicester Square. The curtain time is quite late; as you arrive, the clouds loom bright in the sky, hiding the stars from your view. The other theatergoers gathering outside of the theater doors are drawn from all social classes, all dressed in your best, much like yourselves. The theater doors soon open. As you enter, you're handed another playbill along with a cast list.
"CARCOSA"
or, "THE QUEEN AND THE STRANGER"
adapted from the French and staged by
TALBOT ESTUS
CAST LIST
The part of CASSILDA, QUEEN of YTHILL will be played by
MRS. HANNAH KEITH
The part of THALE, OLDER SON of CASSILDA will be played by
MR. WALTER PAIGE
The parts of UOHT, YOUNGER SON of CASSILDA, and NAOTALGBA, CASSILDA'S
HIGH PRIEST willl be played by MR. GEORGE KEITH
The part of CAMILLA, DAUGHTER of CASSILDA will be played by MISS JEAN HEWART
The part of THE STRANGER will be played by MR. MICHAEL GILLEN
The part of THE KING IN YELLOW will be played by
MR. TALBOT ESTUS
or, "THE QUEEN AND THE STRANGER"
adapted from the French and staged by
TALBOT ESTUS
CAST LIST
The part of CASSILDA, QUEEN of YTHILL will be played by
MRS. HANNAH KEITH
The part of THALE, OLDER SON of CASSILDA will be played by
MR. WALTER PAIGE
The parts of UOHT, YOUNGER SON of CASSILDA, and NAOTALGBA, CASSILDA'S
HIGH PRIEST willl be played by MR. GEORGE KEITH
The part of CAMILLA, DAUGHTER of CASSILDA will be played by MISS JEAN HEWART
The part of THE STRANGER will be played by MR. MICHAEL GILLEN
The part of THE KING IN YELLOW will be played by
MR. TALBOT ESTUS
The interior of the theater is gloomy with illumination coming from gas lamps evenly set around the red-painted walls and from the foot lamps below the stage's edge. The theater is small, but it's still less than half full -- there's about a hundred people waiting for the play to start.
The lights seem to flicker, and you wait anxiously for the curtain to raise.
I'll start posting the play shortly.
Orikaeshigitae on
0
Posts
Scene One
The curtains open on a palace balcony. On a couch, obviously once opulent and now faded and threadbare, reclines Queen Cassilda. Behind her, twin suns appear on the sky of a painted backdrop.
Her two sons and daughter enter. The four discuss matters of the royal succession, although no one is named, and no one calls another by name. The sons argue and they complain to their mother but Cassilda does not give them the attention they would wish, and in the end she wearily sends them away.
The talk seems to be one they have had many times before -- the actors bring across a feeling of ennui, of going through the motions.
ART = 5
Roll = 63
Result: Failed
Art: 5
Roll: 87
Result: Failed
'To hell with them,' he mumbles under his breath. 'I came for a story, and I ain't leaving 'til I get one.'
art - 5
roll - 24
FAIL
my bad.
but sup dude.
The palace: Cassilda's receiving room. The queen stands at a long table. She reads a report from a scroll: it names her city as Yhtill and her kingdom as Hastur and talks of a war that goes on against the kingdom of Alar. The conflict appears to be unending.
A child with jeweled fingers enters. It's unclear if he is another of the queen's sons although he talks to her with familiarity and even bullies her. They speak of Carcosa, a wandering dreamlike city which is a place of several unusual aspects: it appeared overnight; it is either on or beyond the waters below the palace, Hali; the towers of the city slip behind the moons at night and on seeing the city one knows its name. A fifth singularity no one speaks of. Cassilda sings a sad song about Carcosa's fate.
The priest, Naotalba, enters. He eyes the child with distrust, but it seems the queen has no power to dismiss the youth. Naotalba describes uncertainty out int he city.
A stranger has arrived, an unheard of event.
Only look at your own, please.
Ian Wickham
A couple a few rows in front of you start whispering urgently. They gather their things, then get up to leave. You are very annoyed at this and consider making a rude comment. But actually, you can sense a repressed tension in yourself, too, at odds with what you would call this play's understated portrayal of ill-defined evvents. The stage regains your attention, as the stranger makes to embrace the queen.
Andre Whitlock
The white-masked stranger enters; Cassilda is oblivious to his presence. She begins a soliloquy in which she speaks of each of her children who wander in distractedly as they are discussed (they are named here for the first time:) her eldest son, Thale, restless, contented and cruel, Uoht, her second son, flawed, ambitious, sensitive, Camilla, her daughter, quiet but influential. She bemoans how her family was only ever held together by the Yellow Sign. The theater is absolutely still.
You sense a tension in yourself, something tells you a truly awful event is about to occur. As all the other actors save Cassilda leave, the silent stranger, almost forgotten in the shadows, steps past her to the very front of the stage. He faces the audience.
Samantha O'Reilly
Then a second figure enters wearing long silk robes and a bone-white mask. She ignores him. Someone at the back of the theater shouts out and people in front of you turn to look as the disturbance continues. on stage the queen now looks at the newcomer.
She visibly struggles to keep calm.
Calvin Rensmith
The queen greets the white masked stranger who appears indifferent to her status. She seems to know who he is and has expected him, but is surprised that he has come so soon. When she puts this to him he replies that, no, she is really surprised that he wasn't here before. They talk for a while more but you realise that it's all clever word play designed to hide something else being said, and you lose interest in the actual dialogue, trying to figure out what they're hiding.
A couple a few rows in front of you start whispering urgently. They gather their things, then get up to leave. You are very annoyed at this and consider making a rude comment. But actually, you can sense a repressed tension in yourself, too, at odds with what you would call this play's understated portrayal of ill-defined events. The stage regains your attention, as the stranger makes to embrace the queen.
if you're going to bitch about it i wouldn't mind if you did it in the other thread, accessible via my signature
Roll- 68
FAIL
Calvin, beginning to squirm in his chair, eyes the people around. Scumbags, he thinks to himself shaking his head quietly. Stiff as boards, with their petty inside jokes. I don't understand a damn thing that is going on. I don't belong here. But then again, I paid the money. I may as well sit tight.
The Stranger immediately throws up his arms to reveal the Yellow Sign painted on his breast and sleeve and Cassilda collapses (Spot Hidden roll.) As the Sign is revealed, the audience around you gasps and cries. The stage lights go down and the house lights go up.
All around you there are a mixture of reactions to the play: a couple of audience members appear to have been overcome by mild hysterics and there is muffled sobbing from more. one or two gentlemen are conversing rather loudly about the play, making fun of it - you get the feeling that they're looking for support. But many other audience members apepar to be spellbound. Some people are going home, but not many. One woman who is leaving seems to be taken out against her wishes.
"'Tis!" replied Aunt Helga
Roll: 33
Samantha watches interestedly at the hysterical types and the people leaving for a short bit before returning to her seat, eagerly awaiting the final segment.
Roll: 7
Calvin Rensmith shifts idly in his chair from one group to the other, fascinated at the reactions the play is pulling out of people. Glad I stayed. I could write a whole thesis on this play. It's positively polarizing. His eyes catch the woman being dragged out, though, and a sense of morbid curiosity fills him...
Roll: 38
Unable to tear his eyes away from the play until the action stops, Ian only sees the eclectic responses among the play-goers as the curtain drops for the intermission. Ian looks around with a dazed eye; he feels as if he should be doing something, but at the moment the only thing that appeals to him is staying in his seat and watching the rest of the play unfold.
Scene 1
A room in the palace that has been taken by the Stranger. The surroundings are severe, austere. One by one, the principal characters come talk to him. Thale wheedles and threatens in order to try and gain the Stranger's help in pressing his own suit for the throne. Uoht tries to bargain with him to gain support for his own claim. Camilla wants nothing. She says she wants to listen and learn, but then she speaks of Thale's troubles, instead of listening. Cassilda starts to treat him as an enemy but then suggests an alliance, even a marriage of convenience between her and whatever he represents. Finally the child comes in and stands mutely.
Idea roll:
The lights go down. We move to the final scene.
The characters are dancing at a ball, taking place on the palace balcony. The guests have all dressed themselves finely, intricately masked, and they move to music played by the small house orchestra (there are some extras out on stage now to make up numbers). It takes a moment to see the Stranger; he wears a white bone mask and moves stiffly, without gaiety.
After a while, the revelers take off their masks one by one. Their eyes look bright and their actions are extravagant, unrestrained. The Stranger keeps his mask -- rather, you realise he is not wearing a mask! He grasps the Queen by the arm and she collapses.
Another figure appears, in tattered robes: it is The King In Yellow. He is huge and he holds a sword and torch which emit smoke but no light. He talks with the Queen and the priest, Naotalba. From asides amongst the revelers it is clear that since now all have seen the Sign, all must wear the mask - Yhtill has become Carcosa. They are no longer entirely human.
The King disappears. out of the crowd of fear-stricken guests runs the child. He goes to the Stranger who himself has fallen to the ground, and taking him by the hand, follows in the wake of the King.
As the curtain falls, you find yourself becoming confused, disoriented. The final lines of dialogue peter out distorted and somehow lost.
Looking around, trembling, you see three guests slumped low in their seats, staring dully off into space. Two men rush forward out of the crowd towards the curtain, where they are met by stagehands. Three guests suddenly turn on a single woman: one man uses his cane, another uses a bottle, and a woman scratches and claws. Looking on, you feel a chill: they attack indiscriminately, rounding on good-hearted gentlemen who attempt to separate them from the poor woman.
The crowd begins emptying out of the theatre; a few stand above the crowd and shout for calm.
Surprisingly, as you look around you realize that tables are being laid out for an opening night reception. Most of the audience has already left, but drinks and food are laid out. Members of the public are welcome, of course, and a passing theatre employee informs Whitlock that Talbot Estus himself who is insisting that the reception goes ahead.
The cast appears from the direction of the dressing rooms, with the exception of Estus. They look worn down from the evening's production, but seem quite willing to talk over canapes.
"That was quite a moving performance, Mr. Gillen. I am not entirely sure that's the standard theater-goer reaction, but all the same, very powerful," Ian said, between bites. Attempting to appear merely casually interested, he produces the napkin with the symbol and continued, "I'm afraid I'm a bit of a symbolist nut and this particular sign struck me, could you possibly check to see if this is an accurate representation?"
"So, did you enjoy the play?"
"Outside of the costume? I don't know anything about it. Talbot organized the art direction and costumes for the play - he's pretty ham-fisted about his plays. Results in brilliant stuff, if you ask me - but you'll probably want to ask him about it rather than me."
Samantha is clearly nervous as she talks, trying to grasp at the sound of the higher class and dispel the sounds of her Irish upbringing.