Suggest the Empire

By Francis Bass

To Prince Oht, heir apparent of the Olisan Empire, all the trappings of nationhood seem as skeletal and artificial as the trappings of theatre. War chants to suggest fraternity, court language to suggest royalty, flags to suggest ownership—all are equal to flimsy poles to suggest spears, colored cloth to suggest flags, three men to suggest an army. All his cynicism is of little consequence while his father, the charismatic Alita Tolkash, still rules as emperor, but the time will come when Oht has to step up. And when Tolkash is injured in battle, and begins to have his own doubts about what the empire truly is, it looks like that time of responsibility is drawing sooner and sooner.

Suggest the Empire follows in the Shakespearean tradition of history plays, though it tells a completely invented history in a completely invented world. Relying entirely on presentational sets and costuming, the play portrays a centuries-old empire caught at a momentous crossroads, with conflict brewing in all quarters.

Run time is 160-180 minutes. Cast is 26 (no gender restrictions), with potential for double casting.

This publication also contains an afterword by the author, in which he discuss the origins of the play's premise, and all the he reading he did as preparation for writing it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Bass
• Release date: Dec 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370509034

Francis Bass

Francis Bass is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. His work has appeared in RECKONING, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, and others. He lives in Philadelphia.

Book preview

Suggest the Empire

Copyright © 2017 by Francis Bass

All rights reserved.

This play is copyright protected. All rights, including rights to performance of any kind, are strictly reserved, unless written permission is granted by the author. For inquiries concerning performance rights, contact Francis Bass at [e-mail].

Cover font Lusitana by Ana Paula Megda.

Distributed by Smashwords.

Table of Contents

Characters

Setting

Playwright’s Notes

Epigraph

ACT ONE

ACT ONE, Scene One

ACT ONE, Scene Two

ACT ONE, Scene Three

ACT ONE, Scene Four

ACT ONE, Scene Five

ACT ONE, Scene Six

ACT ONE, Scene Seven

ACT ONE, Scene Eight

ACT ONE, Scene Nine

ACT TWO

ACT TWO, Scene One

ACT TWO, Scene Two

ACT TWO, Scene Three

ACT TWO, Scene Four

ACT TWO, Scene Five

ACT TWO, Scene Six

ACT TWO, Scene Seven

ACT TWO, Scene Eight

ACT TWO, Scene Nine

ACT TWO, Scene Ten

ACT TWO, Scene Eleven

ACT THREE

ACT THREE, Scene One

ACT THREE, Scene Two

ACT THREE, Scene Three

ACT THREE, Scene Four

ACT THREE, Scene Five

ACT THREE, Scene Six

ACT THREE, Scene Seven

ACT THREE, Scene Eight

ACT FOUR

ACT FOUR, Scene One

ACT FOUR, Scene Two

ACT FOUR, Scene Three

ACT FOUR, Scene Four

ACT FOUR, Scene Five

ACT FOUR, Scene Six

ACT FOUR, Scene Seven

ACT FOUR, Scene Eight

ACT FOUR, Scene Nine

ACT FOUR, Scene Ten

ACT FOUR, Scene Eleven

ACT FOUR, Scene Twelve

ACT FOUR, Scene Thirteen

Afterword

Characters

ROYAL FAMILY

EMPEROR ALITA TOLKASH

Emperor of Olisa. 47.

EMPRESS ALITA IOZA TSHO

Second wife of Tolkash. Bshi princess. 18.

PRINCE ALITA OHT

Son of Tolkash and (by law but not blood) Tsho. Prince of Olisa. 21.

CLERIC ALITA TRAKASH

Son of Tolkash and (by law but not blood) Tsho. Younger brother to Oht. 19. Cleric in the Olisanok Temple of Mosato.

GOVERNOR ALITA KONASH

Brother to Tolkash. Imperial governor of the Olipacano district. 45.

DAME GLADUS ALITA TUS

Daughter of Konash. Wife of (now deceased) Prince Dosia of Ramia. 18.

ARMY

MARSHAL TENO GRESHANO

General of the militia of the Olisa district. Field marshal in the war to retake Ubnost. 50.

VALSHTAV

Senior Guardian of the bannerguard of Prince Oht. 40.

SOLA

Captain of same bannerguard. 21.

CAPTAINS

Late 20s to early 30s.

GUARDS

MESSENGER

UBNOST

MOTHER DOCANO OF UBNOST

Mother of the city of Ubnost. 55.

BUBAS

POLAS

RASHI

RUM

LOCAL

OTHER LOCAL

BUILDER

OLISANOK

REPRESENTATIVE OROSOXIK

Representative of Breanteno in the Assembly of Gods. 52.

KROSAS

GULA

MUOKZ

SOLPAR

CRIER

WARRIORS OF MOSATO

OLISA DISTRICT

ALITATAKA GULOA LOSAM

General of the Sons of Alitataka. 34.

BLOPUNK

GENERAL DEEPON

INTERPRETER

BLOPUNK ENVOY

BLOPUNK SOLDIER

Setting

A secondary world. The Olisan Empire, a large medieval empire comparable in size to the late Roman Republic, technologically equivalent to 13th century Europe. The climate is temperate.

Playwright’s Notes

SET AND COSTUMES. Any stage directions regarding costuming and set are suggestions. There are many different ways to handle this, and the only wrong way is to have all of the sets be realistic and all of the costumes be lavish.

GENDER. Although the gender of all named characters is inflexible, casting does not have to adhere to this at all, and probably shouldn’t. So, the actor playing KONASH can be female, but when OHT says, This is Alita Konash, brother to the emperor, the line should be left as is (not changed to sister to the emperor.)

AGE. The same goes for age.

RACE. And the same goes for race. Although every character has a fixed race, this need not play a factor in casting. For casting that adheres to the race of the characters, ALITATAKA LOSAM, HOST, and TENO GRESHANO would have the lightest skin; the ROYAL FAMILY (except EMPRESS TSHO), SOLA and VALSHTAV, all the OLISANOK characters and all the UBNOST characters would have darker skin; and the BLOPUNK characters and EMPRESS TSHO would have the darkest skin of the cast. There are lots of interesting things you can do with race, but the only thing you can’t do is whitewash the entire cast.

DOUBLING. For doubling of parts, any characters can be doubled (or tripled or npled in the case of unnamed characters.) The following are suggested pairings—if you are going to double cast a character that is in one of these pairs, the second character should be the one indicated, barring special circumstances:

BUBAS / MUOKZ

POLAS / GULA

RASHI / KROSAS

RUM / SOLPAR

INTERPRETER / BLOPUNK ENVOY

LANGUAGE. Throughout the play the characters speak Pratan, Olisan, Punkish, and Mubbish—although, except for Punkish, and Olisan in a few instances, this is all performed in English. Characters who are not native speakers of the language they are speaking in (i.e. EMPRESS TSHO speaking Olisan, RASHI speaking Pratan) should have some accent. In addition, actors may use accents when speaking Olisan or Mubbish, though this is not a necessity. If they do, the accent for all of the characters who speak Olisan should be the same, except for GULOA LOSAM’s accent. The accents of POLAS and BUBAS needn’t be the same, and any passage of untranslated language should not be accented. These accents can be real world accents, or they can be invented, or they can be something as simple as a lisp.

When bracketed speech appears under a line of untranslated language, the bracketed speech is not spoken. It is the translation of the character’s line, meant to give the actors direction.

PRONUNCIATION. Proper nouns can be pronounced in any way, though pronunciation should be consistent across the cast (with the exception of characters who have unique accents, as indicated above.)

… But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits that have dared

On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth

So great an object: can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? or may we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?

O, pardon! since a crooked figure may

Attest in little place a million;

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined two mighty monarchies,

Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Piece-out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puissance;

Think when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i’ th’ receiving earth;—

For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings …

William Shakespeare, Henry V I.Prologue.8-28

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

A hall in Ubnost Castle. A table sits at center, and a green flag is at far upstage center.

VALSHTAV

Entering stage left, singing softly.

Rosa, rosa, march march march march!

SOLA enters after him. SOLA bears the Olisan flag, a white field with a diagonal arrow pointing up across it. They both wear blue shirts and black pants.

Rosa, rosa, lance lance lance lance!

He kicks the green flag pole, and it comes crashing down.

Rosa, rosa, on on on on!

PRINCE ALITA OHT enters as SOLA and VALSHTAV begin to put up the Olisan flag in place of the old one. OHT wears dark slacks, a blue button down, and a beret. VALSHTAV falls silent, and salutes OHT with a fist pressed to his forehead. They all speak Pratan (see note on LANGUAGE.)

OHT

At ease Valshtav. What do you make of this place?

He wanders about the room, examining it.

VALSHTAV

The Blopunk make the ugliest castles I’ve ever seen.

OHT

It’s not supposed to be pretty. It’s a statement.

VALSHTAV

What does it state?

OHT

We are the new rulers. We are so powerful we can construct big ugly things like this to watch over you.

VALSHTAV

It states …

He blows a raspberry.

… in my book.

OHT

Well get used to it. It’s where you and all the rest will be garrisoned.

VALSHTAV

They didn’t take very good care of it either. Everything’s covered in muck.

OHT

And would you like to volunteer to clean it?

VALSHTAV

Well someone ought to.

OHT

Get to your post, Valshtav.

VALSHTAV

Aye!

He takes a position beside SOLA, who stands close by the flag. OHT continues to look around for a moment, then faces the audience. Whenever he does so throughout the play, he is speaking Pratan.

OHT

It is no mirror turned to heaven, for that would be to capture the empire of the gods, an impossible task. Rather, this grand sprawl of peoples, this glorious army of the righteous and good, this divine country under one skyward-reaching flag, it is like a pool of water. In times of peace, the water is near motionless, and the empire of heaven is rendered perfectly on Teno. In times of war, the surface is choppy, and stirred with silt and mud, but yet glimpses of its inspiration are reflected still.

Beat.

I stole that. But I’m worthless with beginnings, so I need all the help I can get—and isn’t it pretty? It’s utter horseshit, but pretty. Unlike this, our scene. Ubnost castle. Named for Ubnost, the city which the Olisan imperial army has just taken from the Blopunk Empire. It wasn’t much of a taking, they had no forces stationed here. The only resistance we’ve met in this campaign was a small militia which we bumped into by accident, and crushed.

A trumpet sounds.

Fanfare. Fanfare tells you that the person who is about to enter is important, and if you recognize the tune, it tells you who they are. This is Alita Konash, brother to the emperor, and a general brute. His daughter—

ALITA KONASH enters. He is dressed similarly to OHT. He and OHT speak in Olisan.

KONASH

Ah, my prince, you have arrived speedily.

OHT

My horsemen travel quickly.

KONASH

As do mine, though they tread a touch slower of late, after the Battle of Koka. Surely some of your own were injured in the same battle—tell me, how is it that your cavalry may still progress so swiftly being injured as they are?

OHT

I did not take part in that battle.

KONASH

Absurd! And why ever not? You are the heir to the emperor, you must see battle some day, what wait you for?

OHT

It was my father’s will that I not take part.

KONASH

Ah, I suppose that is so. I suppose it was a very different scene in which I grew up—Tolkash and I had no father to protect us. We defeated the Great Rebellion by ourselves, when we were not much older than are you today. I suppose we were a different breed of royalty then, eh?

OHT stares at him.

Yes, gone are those days. Gone are the true battles, which we fought to gain the peace you have today. You are living in the age of revival, yet you were born too late to engage in that struggle. Well, if it were not for the better tomorrows of our children, for whom did we fight that bloody war?

OHT

And how is Dame Tus?

KONASH shuts down.

How tragic, that fine husband of hers died before she could even