Well-drawn characters, interesting storyline, sporadic cries of "ichor!". It can only be -
Marc Laidlaw - Mars Will Have Blood: Blackstone School's doomed production of
MacBeth utilizes a Martian setting, a cast kitted out in strange, kilted spacesuits, a ghastly musical score by Miss Shelley De Bose and "something like a huge cubist monster with a low, foam rubber belly, giraffe-long legs and a vast fanged mouth missing the lower jaw ..."
Ricardo watches in despair as his once-friend Neal (MacBeth) pulls love-of-his-life Cory Fordyce (Lady M.) and, after a bloodied nose from the former, plots his revenge. His means of getting even is to sprinkle himself in vampire's blood and put the willies up his enemy with an unscheduled appearance as Banquo's ghost. As the production lurches from one calamity to another, Ricardo falls to his death. As he catches his last breath, he catches a glimpse of the red planet - and it's terrifying.
One of my favourites from Graham Masterton's
Scare Care anthology.
J. B. Priestly - The Demon King: The company assembled for Mr. Tom Burt’s boxing day premier of
Jack And Jill at the Theatre Royal, Bruddersford are a motley crew, the solitary performer with any kind of track record being their Demon King, Kirk Ireton, whose talent has been somewhat diminished by his capacity for alcohol. When he disappears after a session in
The Cooper’s Arms mere hours before the pantomime it looks as though even the dubious talents of the Happy Yorkshire Lasses won’t salvage this turkey. But come the eleventh hour and Ireton - or, at least, somebody dressed in a most impressive Devil’s costume - shows up. The troupe go on to play a blinder.
H. R. Wakefield - 'Out Of The Wrack I Rise': (
Weird Tales, Nov. 1949): A Year to the day of his wife's death by drowning, conjurer Jerry 'Chu Chin' Pullin and "the big, bold strappy wench" who, as well as being his assistant, is also Mrs. Pullin mk. II, perform at the Blackton Empire. Before an indifferent, then hostile and, eventually, panicked crowd, they mess up every trick. Finally the safety curtain falls, crushing the skulls of both the amazing Chu Chin and the gal in the tight shorts.
The murdered wife, whose skeleton was dredged from the lake that morning, has had her revenge.
Reprinted in
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories: Volume 1 ed. Richard Dalby (Robinson 1990)
H. R. Wakefield - Farewell Performance: Theatrical agent Jack Granger is concerned that his star turn, ventriloquist Gustave Nimbo, is to play the Wolverham Empire within hours of learning of his wife's death. His fears are well founded: Nimbo goes into meltdown mid-act as his dummy, Nobby, denounces him as a murderer.
Also features a brief turn by everybody's favourite blue comic 'Ruddles Rowlock, the Ace of Chumps'.
John Lindsay - Melodrama (
Masterpiece Of Thrills, 1936): Michael is Sir Lambert's understudy for the duration of big hit
Night Seed, eager to take his turn in the spotlight but every night without fail the old pro is out there, strutting the boards, "delivering his speeches, causing trouble, making amends, finally being shot by the hero of the piece." His death-throes are the stuff of legend.
Thelma wants what's best for her man and hits upon a plan. Suppose she replace the blanks with live ammo?
Roger Johnson - The Melodrama: (
Ghosts & Scholars #10, 1988) Colchester, 1910: the ghost of a recently murdered girl manifests onstage during a performance of
The Murder of Maria Marten at the Corn Exchange, Colchester, starring Cain Foxborough, "one of the last of the once numerous race of barnstormers" whose company "specialises in innocent, old fashioned 'blood and thunder.'" At the play's climax, with Squire Corber about to swing from the gallows, the trapdoor opens and two figures fall through. Foxborough calms the audience while the police investigate. They find one actor dead having hit his head in on a trunk which has burst open to reveal ....
Stephen Crane - Manacled:
Argosy, 1900. A fire breaks out in the Theatre Nouveau during the second act. Bad news for the audience, worse for the guy playing the hero, Aubrey Pettingill, as it's the big prison scene and the warders have left him ... manacled.
Reprinted in Peter Haining's
The Fantastic Pulps, (Gollancz, 1975)
Charles Thornton - Double Puppet: The tragic demise of veteran Music Hall ventriloquist Arthur Day and his doll, Boris. At least they go out on a career high.
From
Pan Horror #18
P.S - An Actor Of Parts: Ernie becomes so engrossed in the roles he plays that he becomes them. It first occurs when he plays the Demon King, making him unbearable for his family to live with. He's more amenable during his stint as Puss in
Dick Whittington, but he comes to a dreadful end when he returns home after his first night as the lead in
Mother Goose ...
From John Hadfield's
A Chamber of HorrorsAlex White - On the Box: Divorcee Pamela - 'Pim Pim' to her friends - meets handsome barrister's clerk Archie at a party. Archie moonlights as a stage magician: "Rabbits out of hats, cards up my sleeves, streamers from your hair, sawing a woman in half. That sort of thing ... "
From
Pan Horror #15
John Probert - Of Music And Mayhem: Marlene Rothersay may well be "Britain's premier producer of Musicals", but she looks to have lost her touch with ill-advised latest offering
Oh, Hell!. After a series of increasingly spectacular mishaps blight rehearsals, a certain Stanley Beasey volunteers the services of his 'Theatrical Renovation Service' to ensure the smooth running of the production henceforth. All he asks for in return are the souls of cast and crew. Considering the show's big number is a little something entitled
I Was Tickled To Death By My Thong,
Oh, Hell! is surely beyond saving whether Marlene accepts the Devil's bargain or otherwise.
I'm sure there must be several more ....?
Graham,
The Argosy, Sept 1957