MARCH SADNESS - A Symphony of Sorrow

[pumpkinhollow]

SYMPHONY OF SORROW

If the Audience Would Please Take Their Seats

You find yourself at the theatre.

You may be asking how you got here, why you are here, when did you arrive. But none of that matters, does it? Nothing matters. Whether you are shocked at yourself for thinking so or whether you have known that nothing matters for years on end does not matter either. Whatever meaning there was to be had in any of this escapes you now. Who you were and what you wanted, what you valued and stood for, it all seems now like such a hazy dream. Out of reach.

There is a ticket in your hand. It tells you where to go. You follow it dutifully. Ticket stubs are exchanged for playbills. A schedule of performances. Whatever. You numbly proceed to where you belong. Performers and stage crew to their places, orchestra to the pit, workers to their positions. All with the knowledge that there can be only pain.

A four-armed conductor in moth-eaten robes raises his baton, and there is music.

You deserve this.

You deserve this.

You deserve this.

Observer’s Overture

First Movement in E Minor

adagio, con dolore
PP

Lights down on the chorus, who sits in the stands. They are playing the role of the audience. Ad lib spoken word between chorus members seated near one another. Soft music begins to swell eerily.

Lights up on the stage. A performance begins, apparently in media res, where the chorus is meant to observe.

vacillante, improvvisato
cresc. P

The performers on stage play out their acts, appearing fearful. The chorus ad libs quiet uncertainty from the stands. Some of them will look down at their playbill and find their own name on the schedule of acts to come. There is a brief description on the page of the act that is scheduled for them. It is clear by the state of the ones already on stage that this isn’t something they have a choice in.

Chorus members attempt to rise from their seats, but cannot. Not yet. Foreshadowing to a later movement. For now, they must endure the overture.

Opera Infernale

Second Movement in Various Keys
( A medley of vignettes, performed in various styles)

chorale concerto a tutti, con affetto

F

Various chorus members rise between songs and make their way to the green room, where they are costumed. They have some time to talk with other incoming acts. They will find themselves and their loved ones being prepared for their acts.

segue

Those who performed before stop in the green room again. They look drained. A fate which awaits the incoming acts.

segue

On the stage, each act is a musical recreation of trauma. A worst fear, a most painful moment, an act of cruelty, a time of hardship. The styles will vary accordingly. If the other players in a given tale are present, they will receive their role without question. If a cast member has no fellow performers from their own world present, an understudy will be chosen to play any other roles from those that they are close to. Everyone is off book. Vocal quality is adjusted to match the conductor’s standards. Staff ensures there are no interruptions. The show must go on.

CODA: Für Nimona
A Coda in A Minor

There is a stranger in the green room, unmoving. Pale glowing eyes peer out from an ungulate-shaped void perched atop a high end suit. Antlers leer overhead. He is waiting for someone. Staff take no notice of him.

Ensemble's Lament

Third Movement in G Minor

bocca chiusa
PPP

There are other places to be besides the stage. Other roles to play.

pesante

Behind the stage, the stage crew toil under Baritone, the stage manager and the Viscount of Suffering. There is a pipe organ built into the man’s chest, and the bell of a horn where his heart ought to be. It shows. He is as cruel as he is miserable. He runs a tight ship.

declamando, letando

There are others in the pit, if they have the musical skill for it. And while this part of the performance is managed by a kinder sort, the Contessa of False Comforts is not so named for no reason.

The opera is long. There are no intermissions. The orchestra plays until their lungs ache and their fingers bleed, while Sonata assures them that it will all be over soon. Surely she cannot be lying. Surely there must be an end…

freddo, pietoso

Just outside the auditorium, there is work for the chorus serving food and drinks, taking ticket stubs for the endless stream of audience members, cleaning messes, or all other manner of soulless work. Perhaps these ensemble members simply did not interest the Conductor. Or it could be that they were made more miserable elsewhere.

Reprise - Observer’s Overture

Fourth Movement in E Major

impetuoso
FF It would seem that once a chorus member’s concerto is complete, they are free to move about the premises. At least until they are scheduled in a supporting role for another soloist. This means a chance to explore--- or escape.

presto repente, bellicoso
cresc.

Those attempting to escape will be met with resistance, however. Guarding the doors are shades, creations of the Conductor who can wear the faces of those held dear by those that look upon them. Escape, more likely, will come from within.

Members of the chorus who attempt to do battle with the Conductor, however, will find themselves up against something far more dangerous. Figures of glass, in all different shapes. Some abstract and solid, some hollow and human-like, and everywhere in between. Perhaps some chorus members will find one to be familiar.

The Hero will need an ensemble of her own to make it through and strike at the Conductor. Perhaps a resistance can be formed in a hidden location near the green room.

Homeward Aria

Fifth and Final Movement in C Major

tiempo di fanfara, vittorioso
F

When a dagger of Aster is driven into the heart of Prince Efrain of Sorrow’s Song, at last, the illusion fades. The members of the chorus relinquish their roles and find themselves on the summit of Crane’s Ridge.

It will be an arduous journey home, but it can be done with the solace that there is one less Demon Prince to trouble Pumpkin Hollow. Music in a joyful major key swells, then decrescendos.

enfatico, mancando poco a poco

| CONTENT WARNINGS: altered states of consciousness, entrapment, grief, depression, mood control, loss of bodily autonomy |

Comments

[Max & Erik Combined Performance - Open to reactions] cw: simulated violence/burning

[maximumcake]

THE BEGINNING
FEATURING MAX MAXIMUM & LORD ERIK OSBORNE OF THE OZARK MOUNTIAN CLAN
OOC: The following show will be done in the Japanese puppetry style of Bunraku

The stage starts out dark and silent, then, as a bell tolls 12 somewhere far away the lights come up slowly to reveal two figures on stage, both dressed head to toe in black robes with black hoods over their heads. They are both holding elaborate puppets that stand half as tall as they do. One puppet is a perfect replica of Max Maximum, though close observers might notice some slight differences such as the roundness in his face that makes him seem so much younger in doll form. The other puppet is an unfamiliar woman with long auburn hair, pale skin, and amber eyes that may seem suspiciously familiar to anyone that's looked Erik in the eyes. Ordinarily, puppets like these would require three operators each to make them move but, as the soft sounds of stringed instruments start to play, the puppets seem to move in spite of their operators, not because of them.

The scene starts with Max and the unnamed woman seated together on invisible furniture, heavy drums begin to play as the two puppets pantomime flirting and snuggling with each other. The woman stands and reaches her wooden fingers to Max who follows. The music stays light and playful, but a subtle thrum begins behind it, growing louder and louder as the puppets hop together in a motion of going down the stairs. Down, down, down…

Once they reach their destination, the drums pick up and the puppets start to mime removing their clothes. Max's puppet seems specially made to be able to take off his shirt collar, which he does by flinging it away off the stage. As the two puppets tumble together the lights suddenly flash red and the woman's face rears up like a cobra about to strike. The mask of her puppet face suddenly changes to show demon horns, red eyes, and long, long fangs. [Linked example video]

The music changes into a thrashing beat of drums. A single stringed instrument plays an alarming sting as the fanged puppet falls onto the figure of Max, pretending to bite him and pulling a long scarlet silk scarf away from his neck to represent his blood being drained. But the Max puppet does not keep still, it flails about and, wait, what's that? He suddenly seems to be holding a lit sparkler that spills real embers of fire onto his sleeve, leaving little singe marks.

Max's puppet shoves the sparkler into the woman's face and all the music cuts off as she lets out a bone-chilling howl of pain. Her doll hair goes up in flames and the entire room is filled with the acrid scent of burning hair so thick it coats the tongue. While her puppet body convulses around in pain, Max's brings out a long straight knife. The music swells as he runs at the woman and drives the knife deep into her puppet heart. She wails so loud it echoes around the theater, and then the puppeteer drops her limp form to the ground with an echoing hollow thunk.

But the show hasn't stopped yet. The puppet of Max drops his blade and the spent sparkler, before the puppeteer themself falls to their knees alongside the puppet. Together puppet and puppeteer shake with painfully silent sobs as the music slows from the chaotic tempo of before.

And then... the other puppeteer, the one who controlled the woman, reaches to their own hood and pulls it off to reveal that he is Erik.

A cymbal thrills as the spotlight locks onto the vampire. He looks somehow even more ghostly white than usual as he stalks across the stage and reaches to the other hooded figure, slowly pulling it free of their head to reveal an equally pale Max beneath. Max looks up into Erik's face with shiny tear-filled eyes with some mixture of reverence and fear. Erik offers him a hand to help him stand, and he does so, letting the puppet replica of himself fall to his side, still attached to his hand. Behind them, a second curtain lifts to reveal a flat stage piece of a house. Now Erik brings a sparker up in his hand and lights it. He tosses it to the house. With a loud boom, fire erupts through the cutout windows, blasting hellish heat at the entire audience.

Erik turns to face Max and braces him with both hands on either shoulder. There's the sense that they are speaking but no lines are uttered. Slowly, reluctantly, Max turns to the burning house and removes the puppet from his hand, with one audible sob, he tosses the puppet to the flames. One last whoosh of heat rises up then the fire goes out.

And so do the lights.