For January, we wrote short stories using Writing Dice. If you aren’t familiar with Writing Dice, they are dice that tell you when and where your story takes place. It tells you what kind of conflict the story will have, the point of view, the theme and various character dimensions. For this challenge, we had to write a story of less than 2,000 words with the following guidelines:
The story takes place in ancient history, in a foreign country. It is a first person story with a man vs man conflict. The theme is justice. The main character is a man, privileged, stubborn and empathetic.
We have two entries this month. Enjoy!
The Play
By Glenn Matchett
My eyes widened and I thought perhaps my long time writing partner and friend had lost their considerable mind. ‘Surely you speak in jest, friend Lacurious?’ I smiled wondering if perhaps the jest was meant to put me in a jovial mood. Perhaps our next play together to present to the Emperor and the people would be a comedy? A light lark on behalf of my friend was something to put me in mind of fair japes that would inspire me to write fancies that could tickle all. My heart sank however and all hope of comedy faded as Lacurious’ expression remained firm.
‘I speak truth from the heart, friend.’ He eventually replied ‘I do believe this tale of unfair trial is best served using the young talented actor I have discovered. It will get us much attention, this novelty, and I believe it will usher change for the better for the future of our chosen profession.’ I was overtaken by anger and felt it in my cheeks. We had been writing plays, Lacurious and I, for over two decades and never once had I doubted his decisions. His notes on our plots, characters and career decisions were always on point. How could he have suddenly taken such leave of his senses? We had started in humble beginnings presenting local theatre to small grounds that gradually grew over time. Now both names of Lacarious Spronturus and Bentarus Jentura were praised throughout Greece. Each show we wrote was more successful than the last and the last dozen had been attended by Emperor Alexander himself opening night. We had worked so hard, but I saw it all slipping away in an instant, my hand instinctively holding my throat in anticipation of the blade that would fall upon it should Lacurious leave of sanity come to fruition.
‘I won’t hear of it.’ I hissed bitterly. ‘You want to cast….a woman as the lead?! I won’t hear of it! We will both be killed immediately! The woman herself would be killed for doing it! None will audition and no one will want to watch a woman on stage!’ Regarding me cooly like he had expected this reaction, Lacurious replied in a very even tone which only raised my ire in response to his mad plan. ‘It is exactly the reasons you speak of that it has to be a woman friend Bentarus. Women are seen as lesser than men and perhaps I have been guilty of thinking that myself but I saw this woman several months back in a kapeleion performance, and she is magnificent. I found her inspiring and she received a standing ovation for her efforts. No one cared, no one asked for money to be returned to their palms. Her talent overcame all of that and I knew immediately she would be the star of our next project and what it would be about. Her fearlessness is what makes her so compelling in her performance. She fears not people’s perception of what she can or cannot, she simply does.’
I scoff ‘A kapeleion? A place filled with those full of wine and likely more letches than actual appreciators of fine art of the type we can offer! An educated crowd will not attend a play starring a woman! They will laugh us out of venue’s with our reputation in tatters and our lives at risk at worst.’ I shake my head, determined to hold my position in society. I had grown accustomed to the finer things in life as our success had grown. Clothes, women, wine, food, housing. I had all but the finest and now this fool I had thought friend was looking to squander all I had. My heart bounded and I reached for a nearby fresh piece of fruit and ate hoping my anger could quill.
‘I propose a play about the injustice women face in our society.’ Lacarious continued to speak calmly but firmly as if I had said nothing. ‘I propose a play starring this fantastically talented actress about her being on trial for the crime of murder. She is judged by her gender to be incapable of the elaborate plot to kill her husband, but at the end we shall unveil the truth. We will tell the audience via a final reveal that the woman in question is in fact the killer. She will outthink all the men because they underestimate her and assume that much like this role she will exceptionally deliver that she is not capable of the crime.’ I meet the pitch with stone silence. I stand up, straighten my robes and stare coldly down at my colleague. He finally betrays an emotion that I liken to betrayal. I wonder how can he feel like this when it is he that has betrayed me with this nonsensical idea?’
‘I will leave you friend Lacurious and hope when we next meet you have also found your senses. If you insist on delivering this…farce of a play with this ill begotten idea of…a woman as the lead portrayed as this master manipulator you will do so alone. When you are back to scribing plays for drunkards and the poor, I will not make myself available to your plight. You will become broke and without credit to your name. Even if I find I cannot write plays alone I will live comfortably and forget about you. Do you want to live that life my old friend? Pursue this path and that is your fate; I do not need an oracle to deem it to be so for I have been so certain of anything in my life.’
‘I feel sorry for you.’ Lacarious replies and stands up to straighten his own robes. ‘Art will not progress until we make it so. We write for those who can’t until they can. It is the only way humanity will grow and prosper. We will have to show empathy for those that are seen as not capable until we make others look and listen. Failure to not accept the difference, the new will lead to the death of us all. We will become a society of the poor for our very humanity will be empty and hollow. Even if on the surface we enjoy the luxuriousness of the world that benefits the few and ignores the many. You may be right Bentarus, perhaps this is a misstep in my career, but I would rather fail with the future in sight than rest on what is familiar while humanity stumbles itself into a future filled with comfort, bigotry and the solid knowledge that yes I may eat well, but I will never feel fulfilled while others go hungry who may have more to offer than society believes of them.’
With no words to say, I leave my former friend and writing partner without feeling guilty. I am tempted to perhaps not look back but ultimately do, expecting him to be running behind me suddenly begging for forgiveness after having come to his senses, but he is no longer where he was only a moment ago. I look around finding no trace of Lacarious around the area and assume that I shall perhaps never speak again. I will need to wait until the stench of this play passes until I start to begin my own next venture.
Over the next few weeks, I have to state many times I have nothing to do with Lacarious’ play that has everyone talking. I share wine and laughter among my peers mocking it and the concept of it. I even start to lie, to claim that Lacarious recent narrative offering is because I broke up our successful narrative partnership after years of carrying the load creatively but sharing the wealth. When word of the emperor coming, the laughter becomes less pronounced. I find less of a jovial attitude towards this adoration of a play and more curiosity among many respected minds. Perhaps they think of the play as an amusement to pass time and nothing more. Something to be seen, disparaged and forgotten. I hear talks of a full attendance on the day of the first performance and disregard the concept as nothing more than idle chatter to fill silences among people who should know better.
The first night I find to my surprise, the attendance is full and the performance and the play receives applause. No one sees the insanity in it, even the wise emperor who is one of the loudest to applaud the play once it finishes. I think perhaps this has been a case of mass insanity. I feel it will be a fad that will pass, but then the next day and the next plus more there is more full attendance, more applause and I start to question that perhaps I am the only one left who sees any sense. I wait several weeks for an opportunity to view this farce myself. I attend under guise so no one can recognize me and that if Lacarious looks out to the audience, he will not see me. I sit amongst the crowd and watch this play unfold before my eyes and I feel something form in my gut as I do so.
Regret that I could have been so wrong. Marlissa, the actress in the lead role performs the role better than I have ever seen and the play is a work of genius. I am tempted to clap at the end but instead leave quietly. I return home, thinking over the play that evening and onto the next day and onto the next. I feel inspired but find when I try to write my own next work that I am unable to produce anything from my pen that compares. I curse the blank scroll and throw it across the room. Perhaps I wonder if Lacarious could take me back but I know I will never admit defeat. If anyone asks, I will claim I have not seen the play.
I could reach out to Lacarious, commend him and tell him I was wrong. I could compliment him in his vision but no…I will enjoy what I have and remain silent. I am assured that another idea shall come and sense will reign once more. Women on stage is a one off fad that will pass, this I am sure. I will sit here in my home, drinking my fine wine and be assured that this will not be our future. To admit anything else is becoming a creature of the past waiting for time, history and what is to come to leave me behind in dust, forgotten and unwilling to succumb to the wave of things to come.
