Play of Shadows: In which the play’s the thing

Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell

Welcome to Play of Shadows, in which, in the fabled city of Jereste, our Hero, Damelas Chademantaigne, flees a duel and takes refuge with a Theater Troupe. Our young Hero faces many adversaries, among them a Duellist, (the Vixen); An Assassin, (the Black Amaranth), and a dreaded vigilante army (the Iron Orchids), while he Confronts Undesirable Truths from the Past, and is charged by a Duke to perform A Play that will Reveal the Truth and may destroy Jereste in the process.

Author: Sebastien de Castell
Cast: Bill Capossere, Marion Deeds
Theater note: Anyone throwing rotten fruit at the actors will be escorted from the theater.

Scene: An empty theater. A moth-eaten velvet curtain, probably red once upon a time, is drawn closed across the proscenium arch. As we watch, the curtains twitch.

Marion: [Pokes head out] Bill? You here? [Pauses, listening, then flings aside the curtain and tiptoes out onto the stage. She glances around nervously, then tiptoes downstage center.]

Marion: [Turns in ¾ profile and strike a pose, one arm extended. Clears throat.] When corruption rises in a flood, and city gutters run with blood, then from backstage will stride our hero… Damn. What rhymes with hero?

Bill: [Entering stage right] Zero?

Bill: [Advances downstage.] Are you going to declaim the whole review?

Marion: Ha ha ha! No. Of course not! (Obviously changing the subject.) Damelas, Play of Shadows’s protagonist, isn’t a zero. He just thinks he is.

Bill: (walking over to a small table on which rest several prop swords). Definitely not a zero, though I’d say he considers himself more a five or six. I kind of like how he seems perfectly content to just be, well, average, or even worse than average, at a number of things. Whether it’s swordsmanship [He picks up one of the swords, tests it’s bated, then swishes it through the air once, twice], at which he thinks he’s not very good. Or, [faces audience and projects his voice outward] “Acting!” [Bill pauses for thunderous applause, then takes a grateful bow.]

Marion: Uh, the theater’s empty, Bill.

Bill: Really? You didn’t hear that? Though of course Damelas gets some help from his surprising talent as a “Bardatti Veristor”: one with the “gift to summon the spirit of whichever historical figure the script demands, channeling their essence into himself and lifting poor performance to magical heights.” Kind of like Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln. I quite liked this concept, yet another example of one of my favorite elements of fantasy, the ability to make the metaphorical — the actor “becoming” the character — literal. What did you think of the idea? And of the whole theater/actor troupe setting and background?

Marion: (Approaches the prop table, picks up a sword, nearly drops it, sets it down.) Huh? Oh, I loved the Veristor magic! (Picks up a small book from the table.)And frankly, I’m a sucker for live theater, especially the “behind the scenes stuff.” De Castell sold me on it completely—from the minute we meet the irascible director, Hujo Shoville, and Beretto. I never doubted I was watching an acting troupe.

(Advances downstage still holding the book. She squints as she looks out at the seats.) Although, I have to say, I got a little confused more than once during the performances. With Damelas basically moving through time…(Pauses.) Is that a spoiler?

Bill: A touch, a touch, I do confess it. But not so much we have to turn in our Equity card, I’m thinking.

Marion: Anyway, I had trouble tracking action on the stage in the present tense from what Damelas was experiencing in the Veristor trance. (Strikes a pose.) The book could have worked a bit on the blocking.

Bill: Blocking — my favorite part of directing high school plays! (points with sword) “Wonderful! Now let’s try walking across stage to your spot so you don’t cross directly in front of every other person just as they are delivering their lines.” Ahh, memories. Anyway, I’m generally a fan of non-linear structure, and that held true here. I don’t recall feeling too disoriented by the time/persona shifts, and I really liked how the past story had its own twists and turns and how the historical figure Damelas was channeling (an earlier duke) became a character in his own right. But while I didn’t have an issue with the time shifts, I did think the pacing teetered a bit in the latter part of the novel.

Marion: Seriously. Things slowed down in that climactic scene at the end.

Bill: Agreed. [Bill moves the sword through a few moves in slow motion] Though to be honest, the underlying villain mystery ostensibly driving the plot toward that scene was the least compelling part of the story for me. It wasn’t uninteresting; I just found the character interactions and the “do we dare stage the play” tension to be more engaging and suspenseful. The “Iron Orchids”, for all their dastardliness, felt a bit faceless, muddy, and somewhat anti-climactic

Marion: On one hand, I’d say if you wasted as much time on “social” as I do, you’d identify the Iron Orchids immediately, but as far as the book goes, I agree with you. That “unseen enemy” is probably going to arch over this whole series, right? (Sighs, shrugs.) And yes, the play was the thing!

Bill: On the other hand, if the villains were a bit muted for me, the other characters burrowed in pretty deeply, such that I found some specific scenes involving them strongly moving, though I won’t spoil them here.

Marion: We probably have different scenes, but I felt the same way. I really liked the women. The Black Amaranth is just another flavor of Greatcoat, or Greatcoat-adjacent, but I liked her. All the characters were realistic and had meaningful roles to play. In the past tense story, Ajelaine’s journey was inspiring and surprising. I even—or maybe especially—like two of the minor female characters, Zina, a street urchin, and Gray Mags, a street woman with plenty of opinions.

Bill: I was a fan of the women characters too, except for the duellist who challenged Damelas. The Vixen was the one character who never fully rose above the level of “plot device” for me.

Marion: But a well-dressed plot device.

Bill: Well-dressed for sure, even if she never became fully fleshed within that attire for me. But the others were all sharply drawn: the Black Amaranth, Zina (I do love me a good street urchin) and Gray Mags, Rhyleis the Bardatti troubadour. And the same for the male characters as well: not just Damelas but also Beretto and Shoville, and the others.

Marion: (Holding out the book as if to read from it) and speaking of (tries to project as well as Bill previously) Acting! (Pause.) I liked Abestrini! He’s introduced as a has-been, clinging to his rags of privilege, but he is a real actor, and provides inspiration at a key point, not to mention a “distraction” that would have the groundlings of Shakespeare’s day rioting with delight. (Snaps the book closed.)

Bill: And a good number of the more well-heeled in the audience as well, though they’d hide it behind their scented handkerchiefs. I did love Abastrini’s opening up of character; he could have been such a stock character and instead blossomed into so much more. In fact, that description could serve for a number of the characters. Damelas, for instance, is early on a relatively passive character, more acted upon than acting (pun quasi-intended), but he gradually starts to more assertively claim his agency.

Marion: (Sits down cross-legged to listen.)

Bill: I also loved how the theater served as more than simply setting and background but was an integral part of the story as well as the politics of the city. Theater is meaningful in Jereste and in this story, and I greatly appreciated De Castell lending it that gravitas.

Marion: Exactly! Theater is sacred in Jereste–I loved that too. And I enjoyed the “trope reversal” with the Court of Shadows and the Court of Flowers. (Rises.)

Bill: As I often note, I don’t care if authors employ familiar tropes; I care how well they employ them. And I’d say De Castell deftly executes his tropes here, whether we’re talking “found family”, fighting against outside expectations based on family background, a plucky group of outsiders coming together to stand strong, an ancient adversary, etc. Beyond the good execution, the relative uniqueness of the theater background “freshens up” the more familiar elements, and it never hurts to have strong characters and good banter.
Marion: I guess we’re both on-board for the next book, Our Lady of Blades, right?

Bill: Oh, absolutely. And I’m looking forward to seeing how that book does what this one did even though it can stand alone: expands on the world of the Greatcoats, exploring other orders, such as the troubadours and Veristors, other regions, and other means of telling a story in this world.

(Bill extends his hand, then realizes he’s still holding the sword. He places it back on the props table sheepishly, then holds out his hand again. Marion takes it.)

Bill and Marion: When shall we two meet again? In March, when the writing hurly burley is done and the next book launches!

Curtain

Published in March 2024. Damelas Shademantaigne picked a poor night to flee a judicial duel. He has precious little hope of escaping the wrath of Vixen, the most feared duelist in the entire city, until he stumbles through the stage doors of the magnificent Operato Belleza and tricks his way into the company of actors. An archaic law provides temporary respite from his troubles–until one night a ghostly voice in his head causes Damelas to fumble his lines, inadvertently blurting out the dreadful truth: the city’s most legendary hero may actually be a traitor and a brutal murderer. With only the help of his boisterous and lusty friend Bereto, a beautiful assassin whose target may well be Damelas himself, and a company of misfit actor who’d just as soon see him dead, this failed son of two Greatcoats must somehow find the courage within himself to dig up long-buried truths before a ruthless band of bravos known as the Iron Orchids comes for his head. Oh, and there’s the that matter of the Vixen waiting to duel him…