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Learn Your Lines (MFF/F)

InkQuillWrites

Registered User
Joined
Apr 23, 2023
Messages
10
Points
3
Learn Your Lines


“Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.”

“How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.”

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
… uh … uh … I”

“Fuck’s sake, Annie!” interjected the director, angrily. “Come on! We’re three weeks out from opening night and you’ve still not learnt your fucking lines!” The rest of the cast murmured and nodded in agreement, their own frustration visible.

“I’m sorry, Chris. I’m sorry. I’ve just been really busy …” Annie pleaded, looking down at her feet and avoiding the stares from the rest of the cast.

“We’re all busy, Annie, and everyone else has managed it! Look, we knew taking on King Lear was ambitious. It’s a huge play, really challenging material.” Chris cut her off wearily. “But this is Act I, Scene I for God’s sake. If we can’t get that right the whole play is fucked!”

“I’ll have them perfect by next rehearsal, I promise.”

“You said that last time! We’re almost ready to fit costumes! If you’re not going to take this seriously, we’ll need to re-cast you and quickly!”

“Please, Chris, one more chance! I’ll have them perfect by next time, I promise.”

“Fine. OK. One more chance. But we’ll test you – if you don’t know the part backwards and inside out, there will be consequences,” he warned darkly. “Annie, go home and learn your lines. Everyone else, come on now, Scene II – places, Edmund, Gloucester.”

-----

Annie slunk out of the theatre, downcast and blushing red with embarrassment. It was her third year with this student theatre group, so she had grown very close to the rest of the cast over years of productions and she knew she was letting her friends down. She knew she shouldn’t have taken on such a major role at the same time as trying to captain the hockey team and to work on her dissertation. She would have said no this time, but when she found out Tom, her crush, was playing the King of France and when he asked if she was auditioning and told her that she would make a good Cordelia – her sweet, innocent face, blonde hair and big eyes a great physical match for the one loyal, faithful daughter to King Lear – well, she couldn’t say no. Was he flirting with her when he suggested she play the love interest to his character, or was he simply suggesting what was best for the play? She wasn’t brave enough to ask, but certainly didn’t want to miss the chance to find out.

Between the hockey team and a bad essay crisis over the last couple of weeks she just hadn’t found the time to sit down and learn her lines like she knew she should. She didn’t even have all that many lines in the play, it’s just she was so, so busy. With Chris’s rebuke still stinging in her ears, she swore that as soon as she got back to her room she’d buckle down and use tonight to really get them down straight.

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit”

She turned over the script and recited from memory

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit”

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I

… uh …”

She looked back again

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit”


There was a knock on the door. “Hey Annie! I thought I heard you back.” It was Sophie, her neighbour. “We’re going down to the union bar for some drinks, want to join us?”

She was tempted. “I don’t know if I should, I’ve got a couple of essays due later this week and I’ve still got to learn my lines.”

“Oh, come on! We won’t be back late, you’ll have plenty of time later!”

“Oh … go on then. I could use cheering up, rehearsal didn’t go well.” Annie said with a grimace, getting up. As long as she didn’t get back too late, there should still be plenty of time before the next rehearsal.

-------

“The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”


Chris gave a minute for the last line of the play to resonate before jumping up to congratulate the cast “Great work everyone! Great work! That’s the first time we’ve run the whole thing and it’s really starting to come together well.”

“Apart from Annie’s bits,” grumbled Rach.

“Let’s not dwell on that. She’s working on it.” Chris said. “Come on, let’s get packed up and then we can have a drink to celebrate. And remember, we’re meeting half an hour early for the next rehearsal to fit the costumes.”

“Chris, can I have a quick word?” asked Sammie. “Rach, can you join us?” she said, beckoning her friend to join them in a corner away from the rest of the group. “I’ve got an idea to help us … incentivise … Annie.”

------

Annie dashed across campus, hair still wet from a rushed shower as she realised she’d be late for rehearsal. As she burst through the door at the back of the auditorium, out of breath, she felt the main cast looking down at her from the stage in frustration. She looked up, confused to see they were all in costume, then remembered with a sinking feeling that she had been supposed to get there early as well.

Her friends all looked impressive in costume, contrasting the outfit she’d thrown on as she rushed out the door – scruffy jeans and a too-tight band t-shirt that she regretted blindly grabbing as soon as she remembered how snugly it fit across her chest. They had successfully made George, playing Lear look older – his beard had taken a few weeks to fill out, earning him merciless teasing during the process, but in his austere regal costume it leant him an air of authority. Her two suitors in the play, James and Tom, playing the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France both looked handsome dressed in more elaborate finery. Rach and Sammie, playing her two sisters Goneril and Regan, looked intimidating in their fine gowns with their dark hair tied severely back. She had grown very close to both of them over the years, which made their looks of disappointment and disapproval hit harder as she rushed in late.

As well as the cast, the stage was dressed with several pieces of furniture that had been dug out of storage or made for the play – a plain but imposing throne, a heavy wooden table with chairs and a pair of wooden stocks.

“Ah, Annie, nice of you to join us,” Chris said sarcastically. “Come on, no time to change, I hope you’re ready for your test.”

“Uh … yeah,” she said, hesitantly. She had managed to have a quick look over the rest of her lines since the last rehearsal, but guiltily knew that she hadn’t studied them as carefully as she should have. She’d just been so busy, she told herself, as she hurried down the length of the auditorium, climbed up the stairs to the edge of the stage and slipped off her shoes and socks – it was standard practice not to wear outdoor shoes the stage itself, particularly with the rest of the cast wearing thin costumed medieval shoes, and it was too slippery to be acting just in her socks.

“Oh, and Annie; Sammie and Rach have had an idea to help focus your mind and make sure this sticks,” Chris said as Annie’s two friends each grabbed an arm and marched her out towards the heavy wooden stocks in the middle of the stage.

“Uh … are these for Kent? Act II, Scene II, right? I didn’t learn that one, I’m not in it. Was I supposed to?” Annie asked, confused. “They’re really good, though,” she said as she patted them appraisingly. No flimsy painted cardboard prop, these were heavy, solid wood and sturdily constructed.

“We had an idea that would let us test out some of the new props at the same time as the costumes. Or at least those of us who remembered to get here to fit the costumes,” Sammie said pointedly as she lifted up the heavy wooden top bar while Rach guided Annie to sit down on the wooden bench and to put her feet up into the stocks. Annie complied, confused about where this was going, while Sammie lowered the top bar back into place and latched the stocks shut as Rach leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I’m sorry, Annie, but you can’t keep letting us down like this. You know that,” she said. “So we’ve decided to give you something of a lesson. I hope you’re not too mad at us afterwards. It’s for your own good, I promise.” She gave Annie a quick hug, and before Annie could process what was happening or object she was already locked into the stocks. Chris called from off-stage “Are they comfortable, Annie?”

“Uh … yeah.” The wooden holes for her ankles had been rounded off and smoothed so there were no rough edges.

“How sturdy are they?”

She kicked her legs a little, and the heavy stocks did not move or flex at all.

“They’re really sturdy – whoever made them did a really good job.”

“OK, places everyone and we’ll run from the top. Annie – I hope you’ve learnt your lines this time!”

Kent, Edmund and Gloucester gathered in their places around Annie while the rest of the cast walked off to wait in the wings. She felt awkwardly out of place, sitting down in the stocks while they stood around her, barefoot in jeans, wet hair leaving damp spots on her tight t-shirt while they all were dressed as medieval lords and kings. Cordelia wasn’t even supposed to be on stage at the beginning of the play, so she sat uncomfortably and tried not to draw attention to herself while the three actors started:

“I thought the king had more affected the Duke of
Albany than Cornwall.”
“It did always seem so to us: but now, in the
division of the kingdom … ”


She watched the start of the play from her seat in the centre of the action for a couple of minutes until the rest of the court entered the stage. It was a little confusing for her to be sat down instead of making her entrance alongside her on-stage sisters. Most took up the places she was expecting, but Rach and Sammie instead knelt down in front of the stocks by her feet. Her trapped, bare, ticklish feet.

With a sinking feeling, she realised exactly where this was going. The three of them had repeatedly tickled each other as a trust exercise working on another play a year or two back, and all three were very ticklish. Since then it had been something of a running joke between the three of them – stretch out your arms above your head and you were likely to get a poke in the ribs, put your bare feet up on a chair and they would get tickled back down to the floor. When one of the three got too full of themselves, the other two would pin them down and give them a minute or two of tickle torture to bring them back down. And OK, maybe she had been instigating those incidents a bit more than the others, and doling out more than she had been receiving lately. Maybe she was overdue a little payback. But this was a big step further than she was expecting - never had any of the three been this trapped and vulnerable before, and never had it been as public as this display in front of the whole theatre group.

Before she could worry too much about Rach and Sammie’s plan, the play was moving on and she had to pay attention lest she miss her cue. Lear launched into his speech announcing his plan to divide his kingdom between his three daughters:

“Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
In three our kingdom …
Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
Our eldest-born, speak first.”

Rach, still kneeling at Annie’s feet, smirked a little as she easily recited her flowery speech:

“Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.”
“What shall Cordelia do?
Love, and be silent.” Annie said, confident of her first lines.

Lear tore the map and handed a third to Rach:

“Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.”

Sammie was equally confident as her own eloquent speech tripped off her tongue:

“Sir, I am made
Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness' love.”

“Then poor Cordelia!
And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
More richer than my tongue.”
Annie was still in the part of the play that she knew well, and was getting in to the spirit of this game. Maybe she’d get all of her lines right this time, make Rach and Sammie look foolish and escape unscathed. Maybe she’d even find a way to turn the tables and get Rach or Sammie locked in here before the end of the play’s run! She couldn’t let her thoughts get too far ahead of herself, though, as the play was running on and if she didn’t pay attention she would certainly lose. Lear handed another third of the map to Sammie in return for her flattery and continued:

“To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.”

“Nothing, my lord.”
She exchanged lines quickly with Lear

“Nothing!”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.”

“Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.”

“How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.”

“Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands
… uh … uh”

She looked around helplessly for inspiration as she realised she was stuck, while Sammie and Rach, sitting at Annie’s feet, exchanged predatory grins and leaned forwards eagerly.

“Why have my sisters husbands ... uh” Annie felt a mix of embarrassment at having once again forgotten her lines and rising nervousness as Sammie and Rach watched her with intense focus. Maybe she wouldn’t escape unscathed, she realised, trying to pull her feet back as she cringed away from the inevitable.

Why have my sisters husbands … eeEEEEP! No!” She burst out into laughter as the two glanced at each other and together flicked their nails lightly up her bare soles.

“No! Come on, please!” She cast her eyes frantically around the stage, searching for mercy but finding none in the eyes of the frustrated cast who had been putting up with her laziness for too long. “No! Don’t do this! Not like this! You know I’m too ticklish! It’s not fu-huhuhuhu-ny!” She knew she’d brought this on herself and couldn’t be too mad at her two friends even if the public nature of her lesson made her stomach churn. Her pleas trailed off into helpless laughter as Sammie and Rach expertly danced their nails over her trapped bare feet.

“Line! Line!” she said, panicking. Whether it was because she was trapped and couldn’t get away, or the public audience, or the build-up to this moment, her feet, normally bad enough, were even more ticklish than usual and her friends showed no sign of stopping as they dished out their admonishment.

… if they say
They love you all?
” Chris prompted

“Haply, when I shall wed,” Annie plunged on desperately, and the tickling stopped.

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
,… uh … uh ... No! NO! HAHAHAH!” Sammie and Rach didn’t give her as long this time before deciding she was lost and diving in again with increased vigour, spidering their nails over her bare soles. They knew all of her worst spots and were resolved to exploit them, making Annie scream and flail about with her free arms. She could reach forwards to the top bar of the stocks, but the stocks were too tall for her to reach down to protect her bare feet, and too wide for her to reach the latch on the side, leaving her trying to tap out helplessly on the top of the stocks.

“No! This isn’t funny! This isn’t funny!” Annie managed to force out between laughter. “Stop! You’re enjoying this!” She accused, and neither girl denied it.

“You had plenty of time to learn your lines,” Sammie lectured as she moved her focus to Annie’s toes.

“I was busyheHEHEHE!” Both girls upped the intensity of their tickling as Annie’s excuses fell on deaf ears, merely increasing their frustration and their resolve to teach her a lesson she wouldn’t forget.

“We’re all busy, Annie,” Rach said with no sympathy in her voice. “Everyone else managed it.” The whole cast gathered round to watch and delight in Annie’s comeuppance, and her face burned red from embarrassment as helpless laughter was wrung from her, head thrashing about and hands straining for the latch that was out of reach. Her tormentors kept the intensity high for long, humiliating seconds before winding down and letting Annie catch her breath.

“Whew! OK, you’ve made your point. I’m sorry. I’ll learn them by next rehearsal, I promise! I mean it this time!” Relief washed over Annie as she reached the end of her embarrassing lesson.

“From ‘Good my lord,’” Chris said.

“What? No! Not again!” Annie said, and Sammie and Rach started very lightly tracing their nails over the balls of her feet again, making her twitch.

“From ‘Good my lord,’”

Good my lord,” Annie started urgently, seeing in Sammie and Rach’s faces that if she delayed or argued she would just get tickled worse.
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
They love you all
? … uh … uh”

Sammie and Rach leaned forwards, continuing to trace their nails lightly in little circles.

“ uh … Haply, when I shall wed,” she plunged on desperately
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty:
Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all
.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, amazed that under pressure she had somehow been able to dredge the words up from the depth of her memory.

But goes thy heart with this?” Lear asked

“ Uh … Ay, good my lord.” She’d been so focused on her speech she almost forgot the scene would continue.

So young, and so untender?”

So young, my lord, and true.”

Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
…” Lear continued, and Annie finally relaxed a little knowing she didn’t have any more lines for a while. She couldn’t relax too much as she sat while Lear continued to berate her character and Kent pleaded for her. It was a long scene, she knew, but she couldn’t quite recall her next lines. Maybe she would remember just in time again when she heard the preceding line, but Rach and Sammie were still kneeling at her feet with intent and she couldn’t help but nervously flex her toes as she sat exposed and helpless.

A few minutes later, Kent exited the scene and her two suitors, the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France entered. Both had been watching her torment from the wings and had expressions of amusement on their face as they stood over their potential prize sitting in the stocks. From her sitting position, Annie couldn’t help but admire Tom’s legs dressed in his silly medieval stockings – she’d never noticed his calves before before but now she could barely take her eyes away as he walked around the stage.

She sat awkwardly as the two suitors talked about her – Burgundy rejecting her now she had lost her father’s favour and her inheritance, but the King of France remaining true to their love. Tom spoke up in her defence:

This is most strange,
That she, that even but now was your best object,
The argument of your praise, balm of your age,
Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence
Must be of such unnatural degree,
That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection
Fall'n into taint: which to believe of her,
Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could never plant in me
.”

Every eye in the theatre rested on Annie.

I yet beseech your majesty,--
Uh … ” She was in trouble and she knew it. Her line wasn’t coming to her.

I yet beseech your majesty,--
Uh … Uh … Can we just skip ahead a bit? I … uh … I don’t know this bit very well.” She looked around at the cast, who looked down at her like a pack of cats looking down at a mouse. They obviously felt her lesson hadn’t gone on long enough and that she deserved another dose of tickle torture. She looked imploringly at her friends sitting at her feet eagerly without a drop of mercy. She looked up beseechingly to Tom but her heart sank as she saw the wide grin that was slowly spreading across his face. Her stomach turned somersaults; it was one thing to be humiliated like this by her friends, but another for it to happen in front of her crush. She could hear the amusement in his voice as he repeated her cue:

“Must be a faith that reason without miracle
Could never plant in me.”

“I yet beseech your majesty,--

uh …” She scrunched her eyes closed and clenched her toes in anticipation, wrinkling up her soles nervously for a second before Rach and Sammie decided she’d paused too long and struck again, nails dancing on her soles. “I don’t know! I don’t know! Line! Line!” she screamed desperately between gales of laughter.

If for I want that glib and oily art,” read Chris

If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak,--that – that
…” Annie rushed out, Rach and Sammie not letting up
“that … I don’t know! Line!”

“that you make known
” read Chris

that you make known … that you make known … I don’t know! Please! Stop!” Tears of laughter were running down Annie’s face as she thrashed helplessly in the stocks.

Rach and Sammie let up for a second, but only to shift their grips as each used one hand to take a firm hold of Annie’s foot and hold it back. They exchanged looks, and then started reciting Annie’s lines mockingly back at her while viciously tickling her feet.

“I yet beseech your majesty,--
If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not;
” Rach started, fingers flying cruelly across the ball of Annie’s foot.
since what I well intend,
I'll do't before I speak
,” Sammie continued, making Annie thrash as she zipped her nails up and her arch.
--that you make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;
” Rach picked up, pulling Annie’s toes apart and making her scream as she tickled between them.

But even for want of that for which I am richer,
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
As I am glad I have not, though not to have it
Hath lost me in your liking.
” Sammie finished as she scratched just beneath Annie’s toes, sending her laughter up an octave.

Annie’s cheeks burnt with shame as she thrashed and laughed, wet hair plastering itself to her head, her embarrassment doubled as her two friends turned tormentors proved their mastery of the lines she was supposed to have learnt herself. When they reached the end of Cordelia’s speech, Rach and Sammie didn’t stop but did ease up a little, bringing her laughter down to a simmering, squirming giggle that allowed the play to continue over the top of it.

Lear continued angrily:

Better thou
Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.”
Burgundy and Lear exchanged angry words, then:
“I am sorry, then, you have so lost a father
That you must lose a husband.”


Annie was so distracted by the ongoing light infuriating tickling that she had completely lost her place in the play. It was only after several seconds of silence that she felt everyone’s eyes back on to her.

“I don’t know! Come on, you’ve made your point! I don’t know! I’m sorry, everyone! Come on Rach, Sammie, this is too much!”

Peace be with Burgundy!” Prompted Chris from off-stage, and Annie desperately recalled:

Since that respects of fortune are his love,
I shall not be his wife.”


Next, Tom came to stand in front of her, and she remembered with embarrassment that his next speech was one proclaiming his love for her. Sitting in her scruffy jeans and too-tight t-shirt, face flushed from laughing, she felt distinctly unworthy of his attention as he knelt down in his finery and made eye contact with her:

“Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!”

Rach and Sammie were still lightly tickling her feet and Annie bit her lip to keep in her laughter as Tom delivered his lines teasingly:

“Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.
Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect
My love should kindle to inflamed respect.”


Annie squirmed in her seat, both from the ongoing tickling and from Tom’s obvious entertainment at her predicament as he bent down and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand.

“Thy dowerless daughter, king, thrown to my chance,
Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France:
Not all the dukes of waterish Burgundy
Can buy this unprized precious maid of me.”

Tom bent down and took her hands

“Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon:
Be it lawful I take up what's cast away.”

Lear replied:
“Thou hast her, France: let her be thine; for we
Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again. Therefore be gone
Without our grace, our love, our benison.
Come, noble Burgundy.”


Lear then left the stage with Burgundy and the rest of the court, leaving Annie alone with Tom, Rach and Sammie, still persistently lightly tickling her feet. Tom, emboldened, turned his his hand-holding into a gentle grasp of her wrists, stood up and walked behind her, lifting her arms up above her head, her tight t-shirt riding up and revealing a wide band of toned bare stomach. With the biggest grin, Annie’s eyes went wide as he said:

“Bid farewell to your sisters.”

Rach and Sammie bounded forwards to take advantage of Tom’s assistance and her stretched, exposed upper body. She looked up to Tom, desperate for any help.

“I don’t know! Please, Tom! Not you too! I don’t know!”

The jewels of our father” Tom prompted her.

“I don’t know!” she said, almost in tears as her eyes flickered back and forth between her two friends as they took up position to either side of her. “Come on, please! NoHAHAHA!” Rach and Sammie were merciless as they dove in once more, one going for an armpit and her ribs, the other spidering nails over her bare exposed stomach and focusing on her delicate navel. Again, Annie exploded into helpless hysterics under this fresh onslaught. She desperately tried to pull her arms down but Tom was stronger than her and his grip held firm while he recited her lines:

The jewels of our father?” Tom prompted again.

“I don’t know! I don’t know!

...with wash'd eyes
Cordelia leaves you...
” Tom prompted, amused.

“I don’t know! Stop it!” Tom pulled her arms slightly apart and Rach brushed her hair back and started tickling her neck.

...I know you what you are;
And like a sister am most loath to call
Your faults as they are named. Use well our father:
To your professed bosoms I commit him
But yet, alas, stood I within his grace,
I would prefer him to a better place.
So, farewell to you both.
” Tom finished off her lines, having to shout over her laughter while Rach and Sammie worked methodically up and down her upper body. Sammie, mockingly, had the next line and imbued it with double meaning as she straddled Annie and focused on her bare stomach while Tom joined in the tickling, sliding his hands down her arms, taking a grip around the top of her ribcage and starting to lightly squeeze.

“Prescribe not us our duties.”

Rach had moved back down to Annie’s feet and was working over both with vigour as she mockingly advised.

Let your study
Be to content your lord, who hath received you
At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted,
And well are worth the want that you have wanted
.”

Annie was going crazy under the triple assault and it didn’t register that it was her line again until Chris prompted from off-state, voice full of amusement.

Time shall unfold

Her brain jumped into gear at last and she forced out between laughs and screams:

“...what plaited cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
Well may you prosper
!”

Finally, Tom gave the cue for the end of her ordeal.

Come, my fair Cordelia,” he said fondly as Rach and Sammie finally stopped their onslaught, and Annie slumped backwards into him, his grip on her ribcage turning into a supporting hug. This normally was their exit from the scene, but Annie remained trapped in the stocks, dishevelled and panting, as Rach and Sammie finished the scene.

“Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what
most nearly appertains to us both. I think our
father will hence to-night.”
...
“We shall further think on't.”

“We must do something, and i' the heat.”


“And Scene!” Chris said from the wings, and the whole cast broke out into mocking applause. Rach and Sammie stood to either side of Annie, each grabbing a hand as took their bows in a line of three, Annie barefoot in stocks in the middle hanging her head to try and block out what was happening. “One of the more … avant-garde takes of that scene, I suppose,” he said as Annie avoided eye contact with the cast. “But hopefully effective,” he said pointedly, and Annie nodded desperately. “Great out of the box thinking there, Sammie. Anyway, moving on, Scene II. Annie, you’re not on again until Act IV – if you don’t know that scene better then I’d spend the next couple of hours wisely.”

“Maybe,” Rach spoke up, mock-earnestly “it’s best if Annie has some help studying.” Annie groaned and shook her head but could see from the cast's reaction she couldn't object. “Let’s get her off the stage and into a practice room – Sammie, Tom, do you want to help me?”
 
Wow, kudos for a play within a story!

Well written and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your story!!
 
I love how layered this is. It reminds me of why I gelled so well with the theater students back in the day!
 
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Tickle Experiment
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*** brad1701 ***
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