Culture is a major component of this story.
Here is a sample of how I handle it.
For this chapter, I had to write both a Shakespearean soliloquy and a song.
It took time, but I think the time spent was worth the result.
SOLILOQUY
“Love,” he began after a long dramatic pause which set the mood for the audience. “Infatuation constricts my soul. Obsession grips me. Suffocates all else. I would be swallowed. Absorbed. Merged as one.”
Giden paced the stage, tortured by the dilemma his character was facing. “I am entranced. Enthralled. A willing slave. Her delights are now my obligations,” he said, dropping to a knee. “My high-born status. Wealth. Irrelevant,” said the king, removing his crown and setting it on the stage. “In her eyes, I am small, ugly, and useless. Yet, demeaned and worthless. I want her more.”
The king rose and paced the stage, deep in tortured thought. “To be with her will cost me everything. I, in her harem, until death we part. But after our wedding night,” he said wistfully, “no promises.”
“Is this worth everything I own?” he asked the silent moon hanging over the audience. Yes, cried some in the audience. No, insisted others.
“If her pet is not a panther,” he continued to the moon, “then what?”
Winston drew the bow across the strings of his cello to make the sound of a panther growling – drawing laughter from the audience.
“Can I abide a python as a pet?” he wondered, as Cedric formed a snake head with his hand and shook the trampoline against his forearm to make a sibilant sound. “And if I abide, am I still a man? Surely I will be cast into the fire,” the king continued, as a burst of flame from Nigel’s mouth startled the audience.
Then, bringing his gaze down to the crowd, the mournful king asked: “Such love punished with eternal torment?” Here followed a fat pause for reflection. “Mother,” he pleaded to the audience, moving stage left. “You’ve passed, but I seek advice. “Should I give up all I am for this love?”
“Yeeeeees” answered all the women in the audience. “True love! True love! True love! True love! True love!”
“Dead Father,” he asked the other side of the crowd, after dashing across to stage right. “I seek your advice as well. For this girl, shall I give up all I have?”
“Noooooo,” shouted the men. “Be a man! Be a man! Be a man! Be a man! Be a man!”
True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man!
As the chants subsided, the crownless king moved back to center stage, shaking his head despondently. “My parents offer conflicting advice,” he explained to no one. “My mother tells me to follow my heart. My father instructs me to be a man.”
“True love!” The chanting started up again.
Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man! True love! Be a man!
“Can these two ways be reconciled?” the king wondered. “They must!” he concluded. “Love cannot be denied,” he proclaimed, creating hope in every lover’s breast. “The heart must lead.”
The women, believing they had won, cheered enthusiastically while the men shook their heads.
“”But,” he held up a hand to silence the ladies, “no man should damn his own soul to burn.”
To which the men responded heartily. “Be a man! Be a man! Be a man!”
“Bring me the dagger of Dyclaesean,” the resolute regent shouted to someone off stage, bringing the soliloquy to an end. “If she’s a panther, it will be her gift. If she’s a python, it will be love’s end.”
A servant bowed onto the stage, offering the king an ornamental dagger which he tucked into his belt after replacing his crown.
Sultry music flowed from the orchestra and the mood of every man in the square immediately brightened in anticipation. A few moments later a beautiful fiendling woman with prosthetic horns sacheted onto the stage, her thighs appearing and disappearing through her goddess skirt as she swayed suggestively before the audience, her back to the king.
One by one, the many scarves attached to her decorative belt were removed and dropped into the outstretched hands of a different man drooling at the front of the stage. As this burlesque act progressed toward its conclusion, Gideon moved comically about the stage trying to get a glimpse under the skirts of the dancing dress lodger. From time to time, Winston would growl with his cello, Cedric would hiss with his tambourine, and the audience would boo or cheer according to their desired outcome. The king, at times overjoyed and at times utterly terrified, would ready to pull his dagger or happily slide it safely back into its sheath.
Anticipation grew as the dancer’s scarves vanished and the moment of revelation drew near. As Gideon promised, only the cast knew how the story would end. That a fiendling woman was present and was in on the ending for the first time in the festival’s history only added to everyone’s uncertainty.
The dress lodger removed the penultimate scarf from her belt, leaving only a single garment dangling between her hips. Swaying as she backpedaled to the center of the stage, the king circled her desperately, comically, trying to get a peek. The audience roared at Gideon’s antics. The fiendling minstrel raised her skirt teasingly. Gideon pleaded with her. She smiled sweetly and nodded suggestively. Gideon moved closer, lowering himself to his knees. She slowly moved closer to him, gyrating her hips in front of his face. Taunting him. The king reached out to her, pleading, then fell face forward into her skirt and promptly vanished through a trap door.
For two heartbeats: silence. Then Winston’s cello began to growl – and Cedric’s tambourine began to hiss. Hilarious laughter filled the square and echoed back off of the shop windows as the two animals battled unseen. One. Two. Three. Four, shouted the minstrel with the guitar.
Whoa oh whoa oh, sang the band.
Whoa oh whoa oh, the audience joined the band.
Our good King Philip went to sea to search the world wide
He had a plan that he would find a beauty for a bride.
He found a girl on a fiendling isle and got down on one knee.
He heard the sound of grrr grrr grrr from between her knees.
He heard the sound of hiss hiss hiss from between her knees.
Music.
Somewhat perplexed King Philip asked what is that sound I heard?
Said lady fair to suitor king I give you my true word.
It was my pet hid ‘neath my skirts my good king if you please.
When you heard the sound of grrr grrr grrr from between my knees.
And you heard the sound of hiss hiss hiss from between my knees.
Music.
The good king he had second thoughts for pythons he did dread.
He much preferred his lady friends be panther girls instead.
Oh may I feed your pet my dear he offered to the lass.
I’d like to see it grrr grrr grrr If you don’t think it crass.
And I’d like to see it hiss hiss hiss beneath your hour glass
Band:
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
Crowd:
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
All together:
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
But the fiendling girl she did not want the best man in the land.
She would not let him feed her pet without a wedding band.
The king so yearned for her that he risked everything instead.
A python won’t go grr grr grr the lovestruck regent said.
But panthers do go hiss hiss hiss. I’ve not a thing to dread.
So the king became a married man. He wed his fiendling bride.
And gave his crown and kingdom up to be there by her side.
His wedding night the king went down and then was seen no more.
For panthers here go grrr grrr grrr and will forever more
And pythons here say hiss hiss hiss BUT FIENDLING PYTHONS ROAR!
All together:
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
As the chorus repeated, couples began dancing in the crowd while singles either approached a partner or drifted back to their seats singing along the way.
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
Two drunken kick lines formed in different parts of the square.
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
Whoa oh whoa oh
Gideon reappeared on the stage to a standing ovation and the whole cast gathered to take a bow. Nastya and her assistants applauded and beamed. All three appeared to be delighted. The chairman, who had been holding his breath and clenching his cheeks for most of the past ten minutes, appeared relieved.