THE NIGHT THE ACTION TOOK PLACE

The actor stood on a bare patch of grass. He would act nowhere but here for he proclaimed that it was here and here alone that he belonged. So they moved the scenery to a few feet behind him. They moved the orchestra to a few feet in front of him. And beyond the orchestra rows upon rows of seating were arranged which on opening night were filled to breaking point. And so as the show progressed, to the rolling of drums, each pair of ears was tuned not to miss a single utterance of the great performance. And every gesture was equally well received by the keen pair of eyes that every member of the audience now possessed. And for this sharpening of the senses they paid dearly. And the green patch became the centre of an outward spiralling vast mesh of security gates which remained closed to all those save the ones who held the tickets. And so, on approval of these printed pieces of paper, the guards who were trained to recognize the value of these tickets and to be fooled by nothing else let them in.


The audience watched amazed at the actions which now occurred to them down on the bare piece of grass below.

After the performance with a final roll of the drum they filed out in silence. For they had seen nothing like this before and nor would they again. For tonight was the last performance. It was unrepeatable and quite memorable.


The scenery was dismantled, the orchestra packed up and the chairs upon which the ticket holders had been seated were stacked up and driven away in a large lorry. The security fencing was cut and the pieces were packed away. The security guards were paid and they too begun to disperse.


Now only the actor remained upon the bare patch of grass.

He paces up and down, looks out and speaks into the distance. Then again he moves on, stops and speaks. This goes on for a couple of hours. He bows and begins again.

A telephone call is made from a public phone box. A lorry stops. Two men leave from the front of the lorry. They approach the actor. They take an arm each. But because the actor is mid-way between a gesture there is a scuffle. Finally they manage to lift him. They carry him and place him in the back of the lorry. As they drive away there is loud banging coming from the inside of the metal lorry. Heads turn at the sound of the noise within, but they cannot place it.