Mr. Noble has VETOED more performances of the King in Yellow.

It is a ONE NIGHT ONLY performance due to the FUCKING RIOT.

Mother fucker.

Did people not riot at Hamlet when it first was shown? ... Probably they didn't, but if so, it's because The King in Yellow is just better than Hamlet.

"That man," Talbot says without an introduction as soon as Terrence arrives at the coffeeshop for their meeting, "is a menace to art."

Terrence nods sadly in solidarity. "I'd say there's no accounting for taste, but he runs a theater."

"Cowardice! It's simple cowardice."

"I think you have hit upon it."

"The avant-garde is always censored by small-minded little--"

Terrence chuckles. "I would believe it. Plato said that a city's art can change its core, and - well, regardless of what cities may think, people hate change. ... Most people."

So Terrence's theater-finding process will look something like this: Ask Jing Yi and Simone for all the weird little bohemian performance centers they've been in before. Ask them to ask other people if need be. What he needs to find out from Estus is stuff like how many seats they need, if there are technical requirements, etc. Terrence is aware that he's not really a theater person but he can guess, and he's more than willing to drop his obligations and, like, go knock on theater doors and ask their managers about whatever as needed.

Talbot staged it for a rather small theater, so they'll need something else small.

"And some of the cast has backed out, so we'll have to find replacements at short notice..."

Smaller is certainly easier. The cast is... tougher. And stranger, to be honest. "That surprises me. I suppose it's an... intense text... Wait, what am I saying, the aggressors went for the stage, yes, alright, I, uh, that's understandable. I suppose."

Well, he can ask Jing Yi? And ask Jing Yi if he knows people who Terrence can reach out to. Pitching it as 'short-notice work for actors who need work' will probably go over better than harping on the importance of the artistry of this particular play.

"They've had nightmares or something."

Terrence blinks. "Not just after, after reading the script, but - in the process of performing it? Specifically?"

"Yes. Apparently it made the nightmares worse." Talbot's tone shows his contempt for how weak anyone would have to be to be driven away by nightmares.

Terrence is a bit thrown. "Huh. After reading it, I would understand. I mean - I haven't read your treatment, obviously, but the source text, it's - it's rather psychoactive, that's - to be expected."

Terrence doesn't really think he can ask, have you had the dreams too? Is it just me that's had that tale color even my sleeping mind? But he supposes his question has obliquely been answered.

"But, uh, performing it as intensifying - Huh."

His appreciation for the art deepens.

"Well. I'll ask around, certainly. I just wish I could point you right now to anyone who appreciates it as, well, as we do. I know they're out there."

"If people just read it they'd understand-- I thought, perhaps, the actors."

"How could they not get it?" Terrence isn't just sympathetic to Estus's plight, he's befuddled too.

"There was nothing but complaints!"

"I suppose - there were alterations. In the second act. To the text. Make no mistake, my friend, I mean no criticism, I myself found them quite entrancing, but - I'm just supposing aloud, could that have changed, the... the interpretation...?" Terrence's academic language is really failing him in describing what he's trying to get at, as well as his other language because he himself isn't certain, but maybe Estus will get it.

"There were no alterations," Talbot says. "I had the cast perform it exactly as written. I would never desecrate the King in Yellow in that way."

Terrence blinks several times. "My apologies. My memory must be failing me." He's trying his best to hide outright suspicion that might cause offense, but is clearly confused at the distinct possibility that he and Estus disagree about the contents of The King in Yellow.

"The play has-- certain properties when performed. They're brilliant! Brilliant! The way it works with the universal subconscious."

"...Oh." He says it thoughtfully reverently. He knew it was written as a play, but he's never read it aloud, or paid too much attention to that versus the text. He doesn't really have a grasp on what he's approaching, but it's a whole new angle of the work that clearly has a lot to it. The play is proof. "I see..."

"It connects with each member of the audience differently. You have to see what each individual brings to the text. Of course that's always true but with the King in Yellow it's true more deeply..."

"As with most things with The King in Yellow." Terrence is rather lost in thought. As a sort of light-hearted aside: "I suppose you could flyer some of the bohemian areas with the Yellow Sign and you might find enthusiastic performers that way."

"Perhaps, perhaps," Talbot says, "but it feels-- blasphemous-- to use it so casually..."