The Peterson Theatre was packed with people waiting for the premiere of "Spartacus" to begin. For a theater located in the St. Antoine neighborhood, the Peterson Theater is not large, the backstage is very narrow, and Armand has added a singing group to the script for the chorus of the soundtrack. These people can not be hidden backstage - the backstage in the changing room, part some of the musical instruments stuffed, has been very full. Armand had no choice but to place the band in the auditorium. The auditorium of Peterson Theatre is also not big, it only has more than 300 seats, as for the box, it is not at all. The singing team took up more than 20 seats, resulting in the audience even 300 seats are not available.
Armand has been bragging about his new play for a long time, and he has a wide network of friends, and his friends have come to dozens of people, plus his friends mobilized some people, and Armand got some sponsorship from the Duke of Orleans, so he announced that the premiere of the free tickets, and the original can only accommodate 300 people As a result, the Peterson Theatre, which could only accommodate 300 people, was packed with almost 600 people, and more people wanted to get in. To let them in, the theater manager simply decided to temporarily remove all the seats in the theater and let everyone stand. But because there was no charge, the theater was still packed to the brim. In addition, those people at the bottom are not too concerned about the etiquette, the whole theater is as busy as a vegetable market. One woman even carried a hen she had just bought from the market and pushed her way in.
Spartacus" began in such a noisy way. The first scene opens with Spartacus leading a small group of gladiators and another group led by his friend Enomayor in the gladiatorial arena. On one side, the host of the gladiatorial event announces: "The generous Crassus has decided that the winner of this battle, who has killed his enemy, will become a free man! Immediately afterward, for the sake of "freedom", the two teams fought, and people kept falling, and soon only Spartacus and Enomayor were left standing. But Enomayor was already wounded and could only barely stand. His small shield had been lost in the previous battle, making it almost impossible for him to fight effectively. His opponent and best friend, Spartacus, was still almost unharmed. Victory seems to be out of the question.
"Kill him, kill him!" The actor playing the gladiator shouted.
"Spartacus, come on, kill me and you'll be free. Enomayor knew that even at his best, he was no match for Spartacus, a man who had won more than a hundred victories in the ring. Not to mention, he was already injured.
"It's a rare opportunity," Enomayor said, "for Crassus to be generous, otherwise, with your new master, Akzien's miserly nature, you would never have had the chance to become a free man again if you had missed this opportunity. If I were you, I would never let go of this opportunity."
"No." Spartacus said, "I will not kill my friend. If I were willing to wield a sword against my friend, I would be a citizen of Rome by now.
With those words, Spartacus sheathed his sword and turned to leave, ignoring the shouts from around him.
"Kill him! Or you'll be whipped!" someone shouted.
"Bastard slave!" someone cursed.
"I knew he was a sissy!" one audience member said with disdain. In the premiere, Armand's friend Louis played Spartacus. His body was fine, but his face was so handsome that he looked a bit like a girl, which made him unsuitable for a role like Spartacus.
"Go to hell!" Enormous suddenly shouted, waving his short sword and staggering towards Spartacus, who had his back turned.
Spartacus dodged lightly and let go of Enormay's sword while using his elbow to hit Enormay's chest, Enormay dropped his sword and fell to the ground in pain.
"Kill me!" Enomayor said with a ragged breath.
"No, I won't fall for your trick. I will not wield a sword against a friend."
In the next scene, a whipped Spartacus is with the other surviving gladiators, who ask him why he didn't kill Enormay so that he could go free. Spartacus continues to answer with "I don't wield a sword against my friends". But another gladiator, Crixus, pointed out coldly that his insistence was useless because Enomayor would soon die in the next fight for public entertainment: "It is said that very few gladiators have the chance to become free or to leave the arena. But I have not seen any of these lucky people. Even you, Spartacus, I have never seen a gladiator survive more than three years. Spartacus, you are an invincible warrior who has won more than a hundred battles, whether against men or tigers and lions, but do you think you can live forever in the arena?
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This comment silenced everyone, and finally, someone said, "Unless we escape!
"But who can lead us to escape?" Another person asked.
In the second act, Spartacus escaped from the gladiator school with a group of gladiators. They tried to escape northward, out of Rome, but the Roman soldiers kept coming after them. Many of the gladiators died on the way to escape, and finally, they had to turn south and hide in the mountains of Vesuvius.
It was during this escape that Spartacus concluded that "slaves cannot be truly free simply by fleeing, but only by overthrowing the slave system of man's oppression and man's enslavement can slaves be truly free. Our goal should not be just to try to escape the Roman soldiers but to destroy Rome and free all the slaves. Only when all the slaves are free can we truly have our freedom!
As Spartacus spoke these words to the remaining dozens of exhausted companions, backstage, the band began to play the melody of Joseph's new battle song, starting with a low and mournful intro, like a dark cloud hanging low before a storm, sinking. Then the somber first theme begins to play, the piece is pensive and firm, and each bar ends with a heavy accent, like heavy rain falling from the sky, or a rumbling war drum.
I know, my friends, my brothers, that you will wonder, you will say, "How can we stand against the whole of Rome with so many soldiers, so well trained, so well equipped, so well organized?
But I say, do not be afraid, my brothers, what do we have to fear? We have nothing to fear! For what could be more painful, what could be more terrible than the life we have lived? We live like pigs, we are trampled on like dirt, what is there to fear for us? Do we have anything to lose? What is there to hold on to in our lives?
Friends, brothers, if we have anything to lose in the battle, the only thing we can lose is the chains that bind us, but once we win, we will have won the whole world! A new world where no one can oppress or enslave anyone anymore! Cheer up, my brothers, it is Rome that should be afraid, the slave masters, the vampires! We, we don't need to be afraid!"
The theater fell silent. The uncultured lowlifes stopped talking, and they all stared with eager eyes at the actor playing Spartacus, listening to his cogent speech and nodding silently. Someone whispered: "Yes, we, we are not kings, we are not nobles, what do we have but chains? What do we have to fear?
The surviving gladiators were revived. Spartacus and his friends continued to gain new victories, and now their forces numbered in the thousands. Spartacus' friend Enomai also joined the rebellion during this time. Under the auspices of Spartacus, the slaves even established a true democracy based on the equality of all men.
"It was, it was wonderful, it was like a dream. One of the audience members could not help but whisper from the stage.
"It was like an archangel speaking. I can see how they could cast a girl as a general," said another audience member. Another audience member said.
"Doesn't it? I bet God's heaven wouldn't be any better than this. Another audience member responded in a low voice. Then he hastened to draw a cross on his chest, "Lord, forgive me.
"All people are equal, no more aristocracy, no more privileged class, and that's good. But men and women are equal ...... How can a woman still be on top of a man?" It is also said.
But then the drama got tense again. To destroy them, Rome sent an officer named Claudius with 3,000 well-equipped soldiers to besiege them. With the help of the local slave owners, these guys killed Vesuvius. Lacking weapons and supplies, the insurgents were unable to hold off the Roman soldiers in a head-on battle, and they retreated, eventually being surrounded by a precipitous mountain. In front of them were the Roman soldiers who were waiting for them, and behind them were the precipitous cliffs. Spartacus and his rebel army seemed to be in a desperate situation. Even Crixus said, "It looks like this will be the last time in my life. The good thing is that I am a free man these days.
But amid the desperate situation, a slave girl named Agnippe suggested a solution: "There are a lot of wild vines on this mountain, we can weave these vines into ropes, then you men can follow these ropes to slip down the mountain and attack the Roman soldiers from behind.
"Hum, just now still look down on women, without us women, you stupid men ......" The woman on the stage, who still had a chicken in her hand, couldn't help but say.
Spartacus took Agnippe's advice and led his soldiers down the mountain at night with these ropes and then launched a surprise attack from the rear, defeating the Roman army in one fell swoop. Spartacus, wielding his short sword, led the slaves in pursuit of the Roman soldiers, and he shouted, "Brothers, sing our song!
And so, to the sound of deep and majestic music, the slaves on the stage sang the following song.
"Debout! lesdamnésdelaterre
Debout! lesfor? atsdelafaim ......"