"With laughing song and merry dance! With song and dance!"
It was Saturday of show week. The matinee was over, the audience had gone and the cast and crew had retired upstairs to the dressing rooms. A small group sat in a corner of the green room on the second floor of Central Hall, discussing how the show had gone and what the audience was likely to be like for the final performance that evening.
"What are the plans for the next couple of hours?" Tom asked, leaning back in a chair.
"Don't think there are any," Ruth said. "A few people are going out to get food, but most of the others are just staying here. You know that strange cult thing they've joined? They've got to do their daily observance thing- what do they call it?"
"Boredom, I think," Tom replied.
"What do they actually do?" Adam asked.
"What it says, I think," Patrick said. "They just have to sit still and be bored. An hour of boredom a day."
"But why?" Ruth asked.
"No idea," Patrick shrugged.
"Sounds a bit strange," Adam said.
"Loads of people have joined, thought," Ruth pointed out. "Sarah, and Ben and Natalie, and David and even Emma and Ernest."
"The Dorian street gang," Tom said.
"Not just them, though, even some of the girls in the chorus like Karen and Rachel and Emily," Patrick said.
"Has anyone not?" Adam asked.
"Well, us," Tom said.
"Quite a few of the girls in our dressing room," Ruth said. "The newer ones. The...I hate to say it, but the ones who are in the show, but not really in the society, if you know what I mean."
They did. There was a shifting population of people, mostly girls, who joined for a show or two but never hung around, never really made their mark on the society by being elected to committee, helping make the set or surviving a crash. No one had anything against that, of course, but they weren't quite part of the society in the same way as the old dinosaurs who had been around for four or five years, or even longer in some cases. It wasn't just a performing group, in many ways it was a community.
"It's strange, that cult thing," Tom said. "Six months ago no one had heard of it, then Will comes along and suddenly everyone's a member."
"He's strange too," Adam said. "I mean, most people take a while to make friends, to become part of things, but he...he went straight in at the top, if you know what I mean. Everyone wants to be friends with him."
"I know what you mean," said Tom.
"Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy," Adam said, "but...why all the fuss round him?"
"Going out with Sarah probably helped," Ruth suggested.
"But that wasn't till later," Tom said. "By then he was already well in with that lot- the 'cool' people."
"The Dorian street crowd," Ruth said. "That's what's really strange. I don't think the God-King is as influential as he once was."
"Times change," Patrick said. "Would anyone like a cup of tea?"
"Sounds like a good idea," Tom replied.
The four of them went down one set of stairs to the kettle that lived on a table beside the fridge directly backstage.
"Is there anyone else who hasn't joined this cult thing?" Tom asked as they waited for the kettle to boil.
"Will tried to get me to join the other day," Adam said. "I have to say it makes you feel a bit of an odd one out when so many people are part of it."
Ruth was going through people in her head. "Other than us four...and a few of the girls' chorus, like I said before...I don't think there's anyone."
"Really?" said Tom. "Not anyone?"
"That's...a bit worrying," Adam said. Ruth nodded, but before she could say anything else the conversation was interrupted as Will himself appeared through the doors to the stairwell at the opposite side of the stage. He looked a bit surprised to see them.
"Oh, hello..." he said, seemingly taken aback. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for boredom?"
"No, we don't have to do that," Tom replied carefully, not wanting to offend anyone.
"All initiates have to undergo boredom," Will said, taking a few steps towards them. The others looked at each other. There was something worrying about Will's manner.
"We're not members," Ruth said cautiously. "We won't disturb you though, we'll just find somewhere to sit. Or we can go out, if that'll make it easier for you..."
"Not members?" said Will, taking another step forward. "You haven't joined?"
"No," she said.
"How did you get overlooked?" he murmured to himself. Suddenly Ruth and the others noticed Sarah and Nick were coming through into the backstage area from the auditorium, and Zoe and Matt were coming through the others. Zoe might be small, but she was strong, while Matt and Nick were taller than any of the four, who were feeling very uncomfortable.
"These people are unenlightened," Will said to them, pointing at Ruth and the others. "Encourage them to come up and see what they are missing."
The story continues...
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