Why are there so many people! ?
Riku Toki handed the coachman the fare, and then jumped out of the carriage with Natsume Soseki.
The crowd in front was like a quagmire. Although it was moving forward, it was extremely slow. Looking down from a high altitude, it looked like chewing gum stuck to the ground that had not completely dried.
Lu Shi shouted: "Give way!"
While shouting, he pushed his way into the crowd and stepped on the uppers of more than a dozen shoes at the same time.
When the British gentlemen and ladies around them saw that Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki were East Asians, they couldn't help but secretly curse them. Words like "rude" and "barbaric" kept coming to their ears.
Lu Shiquan's work has not been heard of.
Finally, he and Natsume Soseki arrived at the theater door.
The doorman naturally knew the two of them.
"It's Mr. Lu and Mr. Natsume, please come quickly!"
So, under the attention of the British people outside, Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki entered the Lyceum Theater.
The layout here is completely different from the first time I came here. Gas lamps are lit on both sides of the corridor. The bright lights reflect the huge portraits on the walls on both sides.
Henry Irving,
Golan,
Salvini,
Stanislavski,
…
A group of performing masters are drawn lifelike.
Walking further, you come to the door leading to the interior of the theater.
Lu Shi pushed the door open and entered.
At this time, the final arrangements were being made on the stage, and the stage workers were sweating profusely.
Natsume Soseki patted Lu Shi on the shoulder,
"Where!"
Following his gaze, Lu Shi saw Bernard Shaw smoking a pipe.
At this time, Bernard Shaw was having a very pleasant conversation with a woman, who must be the Ellen Terry mentioned before.
Lu Shi was secretly speechless.
"Tsk... I'm not ashamed."
He walked quickly.
Bernard Shaw heard the footsteps and turned around,
"Lu, are you here?"
Lu Shi didn't wait for Bernard Shaw's introduction, and took the initiative to say hello to Terry, and then asked in a low voice: "Mr. Superintendent, what's going on outside? Looking at the size of the queue, I feel that the audience today must be more than 1,500 people .”
Terry smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, does he have any misunderstanding about the Lyceum Theater?"
Lu Shi was stunned,
"misunderstanding?"
Terry's smile grew brighter and he said, "After Sir Owen took over as manager, almost every show was sold out. Scalpers were selling 'flying tickets' outside the theater. Ticket prices doubled, but demand still exceeds supply."
With that said, Terry pointed at Lawton,
"Charles Laughton, Mr. Lu must have known him. Despite his appearance, Sir Owen spoke highly of him. When praising Charles, he called him 'the greatest young actor of all time'."
What Terry means is that the actors at Lyceum Theater are all famous actors and very popular.
Therefore, many of those people outside are trying their luck and waiting for scalpers.
George Bernard Shaw said to Terry: "There is not only Charles and Henry at the Lyceum, but also you, my beautiful Ellen."
Terry covered his lips,
"Xiao, you are really good at talking."
When the two of them looked at each other, their eyes seemed to be stretched.
vomit!
Lu Shi quickly looked away.
After a while, Bernard Shaw said: "Moreover, the one who is on stage today is new..."
Before he finished speaking, he heard the door of the theater burst open.
Noisy discussions suddenly arose.
I saw people rushing in, and some ladies even broke their heels.
In 1900, there were not single seats with single numbers outside the private rooms. Tickets were sold according to areas, so people would line up as early as possible to try to find the best seat in the area of their choice.
Of course, the better the viewing area, the higher the ticket price.
Bernard Shaw nodded to Terry,
"You go first."
Terry bowed politely to Lu Shi and Bernard Shaw, and then walked backstage.
In Yes! Prime Minister", she will play Dorothy Wainwright, a female supporting character and Jim's political adviser.
Bernard Shaw took Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki to the second floor.
"Let's continue the topic we just talked about."
Lu Shi said: "You said that what is on stage today is a new play, and with the blessing of the Lyceum Theater and Sir Owen, people are very curious."
Bernard Shaw shook his head,
"It's more than that. Think about it carefully, what is the name of your play?"
Lu Shi was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized,
The plays in 1900 had common names, such as "Mrs. Warren's Profession", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Lady Windermere's Fan"...
It's just a bunch of stuff with no meaning.
But Lu Shi wrote "Yes!" Prime Minister", everything changed,
This name is not only concise and to the point, but also directly names the "Prime Minister", the head of the cabinet, which is very eye-catching.
It is very similar to the book review page of the Manchester Guardian.
"It is natural, therefore, that there should be a large audience," said George Bernard Shaw.
With that said, the three of them had already entered the private room.
Not long after they sat down, the drama officially began.
As the plot unfolds, a number of actors appear one after another.
Charles Laughton plays Jim Harker,
Henry Irving as Humphrey Appleby,
Innocenti Holman plays Bernard Woolley,
…
In the original play, Jim took the lead in going to the Ministry of Defense to inspect, asking questions about nuclear weapons, and then used this inspection as an excuse to lead to follow-up matters.
But in 1900 Britain didn't even have a Ministry of Defense, let alone nuclear weapons.
Lu Shi changed it into a battleship.
Soon, the first joke in the script appeared, and it was also the first joke Lu Shi told Bernard Shaw.
——
Humphrey: Bernard, what do you think is the purpose of the British government's defense policy?
Bernard: Defending Britain, of course.
Humphrey: No, Bernard, the purpose of defense policy is to "convince" people that the government is protecting Britain.
Bernard: People? who? German?
Humphrey: Not German! It's British! The Germans certainly knew that Britain was not protected.
——
As soon as this joke came out, there was an eerie silence in the theater.
Then the whole room burst into laughter.
In fact, the current British Empire is undoubtedly the strongest on the planet, with the strongest military strength in the world. There is no such thing as "Britain is not protected".
However, the liberal media promotes day by day:
"Blood stained!" At the Battle of Mount Tarana, the British army was annihilated with a loss of 465 people! 》
"It hinders the international outlook, the British are alienated, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States...more civilizations fight side by side with the Boers"
"Is the howitzer a supply given to others?" The Battle of Ladysmith cost us 10 cannons"
…
If you tell a lie a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times, someone will eventually believe it.
What's more, this isn't a lie, it's the truth.
Nothing more than a partial truth, or a part of the truth.
As a result, the citizens of London generally became savage, forgetting that their own good life was robbed from backward countries, and they all wanted to wear their clothes again, and evolved from barbarians who burned, killed, and plundered into reasonable and civilized people.
This knowledge gives the soil for the flower of irony to grow.
Moreover, Lu Shi was very smart and chose battleships as the entry point.
The battleship is a symbol of "giant ship and cannon doctrine". It was born in the age of sail and began to change in 1860.
However, the battleship fleet was discontinued between 1870 and 1890, and was revived only in 1890.
You know, it was only ten years from 1890 to 1900, which led to the views of London citizens still stuck in the past——
Battleships were giant boondoggles built at taxpayers' expense.
This view was not eliminated until World War I.
The audience laughed heartily, and the laughter seemed to lift the roof.
The actors on the stage even had to pause their performance to wait for the laughter to pass so that the next lines could be heard throughout the theater.
George Bernard Shaw's face was full of excitement,
"Lu, we are... no, it should be you, you succeeded!"
Lu Shi nodded,
He looked at the audience who were laughing wildly at the battleship joke and sighed silently,
Arms are in disrepair,
Arms are in disrepair...
