Chapter 405: Theatre

Chapter 405: Theatre

Rosen

“How is it?” I asked nervously as a beautiful woman in a red dress came toward me.

She is Audrid, my assistant.

“Seats are filling rapidly,” she replied.

“Good,” I said and looked at the chaos in the backstage. Controlled chaos.

I have seen, how quickly it could turn into uncontrolled and mess things up.

Actors are getting ready, stagehands moving the stuff, production manager throwing the orders. It is all happening in a small space.

Thank god, there are not many plants in here. A few are in places where they couldn’t be harmed.

I would have hated it, if something had happened to the precious plants.

I looked around and still couldn’t believe, it was all true. A few months ago, I was living in a small room, working in a small town as a scribe.

Nobody wants to hire the man, who cursed the imperial prince publicly and has imperial skill hanging on them.

One had half a decade ago. I was one most recognized names in the theater in the empire, but one fateful night changed it all.

I pushed the thoughts and looked at the performers getting ready for the play. That will start in half an hour.

They had a smile, nervousness, and others’ emotions on their faces. Some are reading their lines, while some playing with the mist.

They are enamored by it, and I can’t blame them. I myself am enamored.

It has been my dream since childhood to perform at Akanar Theater. It is the dream that every theater person.

It is one of the nine spirits, after all.

I was so confident that one day. I would reach high enough, that a call from that theater would come for me until all changed.

I had never thought, I would ever work in theater again. Much less in theater in the legacy.

It is all because of Uncle Vanis. He sent me to Silver, once again saving me.

I am scared. It would grand understatement to say I am not. I felt like I had lost my charm, and nobody would like my play.

I wanted to use one of the old plays, but Mr. Silver had asked me to use a new one.

I shouldn’t have told him about them.

I have new plays. I have written several in the past one and a half decades. There was too much spare time after I gave up the bottle.

We have been rehearsing for one and half months, every day from morning to night.

I had made sure every actor could recite their lines, even their dreams.

Still, I am scared. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t be able to work. People will know, I am not the Rosen, I used to be.

I looked at them once again, before walking toward the small window, that gives the look of seats.

Till now, I didn’t dare to look, but I have to.

So, I did and what I saw, made me take a breath of relief. Audrid had said, but I didn’t dare to believe her, but now, after seeing my own eyes, I could.

The theater occupies three floors and is the most beautiful one.

It was designed by the foremost theatre designer of the empire.

It had a classic imperial theater aesthetic; I am glad, Lord Silver had chosen this one over the softer style of merchant state.

I hate the empire for what it did to me, but I also loved it.

Like all the floors of the tower, it had plants, which I didn’t think would suit a theater, but they enhanced the beauty of it further.

They are special plants; I am not saying they are special plants because they are magical plants, or because they consume the emotion essence.

I am saying this because these plants release fragrances that are affected by emotions.

They evoke them.

Though not artificially. The fragrances wouldn’t affect the people if they didn’t already feel those emotions.

If they were the plants that artificially evoked the emotions.

I would have tried my everything to ask Lord Silver to remove them.

No actor, or playwright worth their salt would use such things. Those that believe in their art, would shun those things.

The theater is spacious with comfortable seats. It had a capacity of one thousand and twenty with two floors of balconies.

If Lord Silver wanted it; he could have easily added another two hundred seats and another balcony, but he didn’t.

I am glad, he didn’t.

Unlike most of the theater owners, Lord Silver’s purpose in building the theater is purest. It is not praise, but priorities.

For most theater owners, they want to earn money, but Lord Silver does not need money. He said he could give them all free, and it wouldn’t matter to him much.

What he wants is emotions.

Or at least not big ones; it is going much better than I had imagined.

The mist and plants are magic; the way they are reacting to emotions is simply unbelievable. They are enhancing the entire experience.

I had seen it working when rehearsing, but not at this scale.

The rehearsals had less than a hundred people watching, but here, there are thousands of them. The numbers have created quite an effect.

I could see how the mist was reacting to emotions, like the notes of music, while the smells of the plants completed it, creating a surreal experience.

I wish Lord Silver had been here. He had watched it during rehearsal, but it was a completely different experience now.

Unfortunately, he is busy with opening, but he said, he will watch it this week.

Minutes passed and soon everything turned blurry, and a face appeared in front of me.

There is never a day when I don’t think about her and wish she had been on that stage.

She used to breathe life into the theater and bring out any emotions that scenes require. So, expertly, that one would forget anything but her.

I left acting, seeing hers and focused on writing.

Before I knew it, an hour and twenty minutes passed, and the play stopped for the intermission.

I cleared my thoughts and looked at the people. Many are getting up to stretch and break, while others ordering food and drink.

Soon, the break was over, and the play resumed.

The second half is intense, and it affects the mist and smells heavily. The way it moves around the actors, and reacts to sounds with their emotions, is simply beautiful.

What is even more amazing is that it didn’t take the focus away from the play, but helped in attracting all their focus to the play.

“How were you able to make it past master of revels? Even with your abilities, it is quite a feat,” said Ota, seeing the scene, that would have been cut anywhere in empire.

Even the merchant state, where they give little more artistic freedom, might not have been comfortable with this scene.

“I didn’t say anything,” I replied, and Ota turned to me with wide eyes.

The same, expressions, I had when I looked at the script returned from Lord Silver.

I had asked for an edit book. The list of edits I have to make. The reply I got was shocking.

They said there was none.

To be honest, I had edits ready. I had diluted many scenes. Made them acceptable.

Lord Silver accepted the script as a whole.

They never do. I had given the script to a master of revels and they came back with edits. Here, I got none and even asked Lord Silver personally, to be sure.

He even said, he liked the controversial part.

Seeing that, I made the changes to the script. Made it more daring and, once again, it came back without any edits.

There was only one suggestion. It was about historical accuracy, where I needed to change the name of the year.

“Come again?” she asked. “There were no edits,” I replied.

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head, before focusing on the play.

The play continued and soon, less than ten minutes remained before its end, when I got out of the box and walked backstage.

I nodded at Zalis as the redemption arc played out.

Clap Clap Clap!

As it ended, there was a silence for a moment. I heard a sound for a second before the applause began.

Seeing that, a smile couldn’t help but appear on my face.

“You did it, Rosen.” Said Zalis, patting on my shoulder.

“It wouldn’t have been possible, without your support,” I replied to my friend.

Soon it was time for the curtain call.

“It was an amazing play. I hope I don’t get assassinated for it,” said Marten, the lead.

The man isn’t joking. The scene was pretty controversial. A few actors had refused it before Marten accepted it.

Some might take offense and assassinate him. Things like that, aren’t rare.

“I hope not. At least not before your understudy is fully ready,” I said, and the man laughed before we stopped at the stage with other actors and bowed.

Clap Clap Clap

The people stood up and begin applauding loudly.

My eyes begin to tear up. I didn’t want to cry, in front of all these people, but tears kept coming as the applause continued.

It continued for over three minutes, my longest ever, before it finally stopped.

‘I am back.’ I thought, before bowing again.

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