The Fourth Wall (Exeunt Omnes)

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts..."

("Wild Willy" Shakespeare,

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)

The beginning of the end of the world

started with a round of applause.

There was some whooping, some cheering,

a flushed faced lady fainted in the aisle.

It was like The Fonz had just walked in.

After a while the crowd got fed up,

they looked down at their hands

and wondered what they were doing

and steadily, readily, the adulation

turned to pissed off hissing and booing.

In a trice the restive became aggressive,

seats were ripped from the auditorium,

eyes gouged out with mini ice cream spoons.

The hate-filled patrons then turned their ire

on the dire atrocities behind the fourth wall.

The curtain-muffled stage manager

whispered urgently to his cast:

Don't let them backstage! I'm sore afraid!

I heard some shots. I've seen a blade.

They've come to shank us, not to thank us!

So they left the stage. Exeunt omnes.

B.R. 01/02/2022

Acclaimed thespian Snagglepuss (who was playing the role of Enobarbus) told the Daily Cougar: "The crowd turned really ugly. I thought we were going to get pulverised... have the shit kicked out of us, even..."