Genre: Arthouse/Noir/Fantasy/(slightly, morbidly)Philosophical
Words: 394
Theatre Peripatetikos
In the largest city, with the most of lights, exists a long, wide, alley that none ever find. It’s at the middle of everything, where it remains impossible to find. But, it’s only a turn, then walk downhill, and slightly off to the right. There is not a soul to be heard, not even the pigeons squawk this far in.
Modern halogens suddenly stop; old gas burners atop of old style posts dimly light the well-worn packed dirt path. The buildings are ramshackle constructions of wood and clay, each made only a single level high.
There’s a pub on the corner, its benches spilled out from the long gone doors. The ancient alley, once a grand road continues to bring forth all likes of shops. There is a grocer, a Laundromat, an old haberdashery, and some kind of creepy café.
At the very end of the alley, facing to where you would walk in, is an even older playhouse. The oldest building on Earth. The supports are splitting with aging cracks and part of the roof now lies on the ground. But, the sign is still there, although in significant disrepair. The ‘Theatre Peripatetikos’ also still has its doors, though they and the hinges complain when you push them open.
It has a grand foyer, heated with too many candles, they reflect off the gold gilded benches, and then vanish into the cleanest and softest cream coloured carpet. Scantly hidden by gold plated arches, a series of painted red doors align the back wall. Beyond them, each is a different stage, with different actors performing the very same play. There’s no audience anywhere, the fold seats are all empty. But, the actors still act although none of them knows why. It’s thought it began that once they were patrons, somehow forever now caught in the design.
The play, it seems to have no end. Actors die, and two, or more, show to replace them. It has no genre, no seeming plot. But all who see it come to act in it. The tale of nothing reverbs all around, getting ever faster the longer it turns.
If it ever happens, that you find yourself in that particular dirt road alley, if it occurs that you have lost the way back. You need only join the play to return yourself to the place where you left.
