The Auditorium

Behind the theatre's foyer, the blackness of the empty auditorium beckons. Once inside we sense its eerie ambiance. It is steeped in residues of the esoteric. A multitude of shadows hide behind the tabs and traverse. The charged emotions of actors now perpetually ‘resting’ and jaunty melodies of a pantomime long forgotten, ooze every crevice and crack. A phantom audience take their seats which creak and groan. “We can never be alone in here”. I flick a switch, the stage floods with a dazzling brilliance. The dead flee to the wings. dust particles rise like missed cues, and twirl and wheel around the lights and ropes, but can never escape this realm of lost soliloquies. I turn off the lights and the stage is plunged into the foreboding darkness once again. The dust settles, slowly the ghosts emerge to rehearse their lines and an invisible audience returns to rustle programs of a melodrama performed over a century ago. We take our leave, the auditorium heaves a heavy sigh and awaits another last night.