Bare

Well I went to see “Bare: A Pop Opera” and to my surprise our gent with the bowler was there.

But first, I have to get something off my chest

I fucking hate “Bare”.

I don’t hate the overall production. It’s a fun thing to try to pull together, and there are great casting opportunities, etc. etc.

But I fucking loathe the script and music. I feel like it’s trying to ride off the coats of Rent or something like that in regards to gay popera. Now yes, the struggles of two gay high schoolers trying to keep their lives private or public at a Catholic (it’s always Catholic) boarding school is an interesting concept and brings up some interesting issues. But it feels clichéd, slightly pretentious, and my god there are some stupid decisions made in this play!

Okay now that I let all that out, onto the matter at hand.

Now since there was designated seating this time around, the gent wound up on the other side of the theatre. I went to chat with him once intermission came around.

“Well, looks like you stayed for the show this time. This show doesn’t seem like your type.” I said as I approached him.

He looked up to me and gave a smile that pushed up his bushy mustache. “Yes, well I’ve never seen this show before and I’m open to new things. It’s not bad. There’s certainly plenty of festering chaos to satisfy me. I don’t care much for the music though.”

“You and me both.” I couldn’t resist cracking a smile at that remark.

“So Christopher-“

“Chris.” I cut him off “Chris, Mr. Schultz. Schultzy. Anything but Christopher.” I don’t necessarily hate my name, but there’s something that bugs me with 3+ syllable names.

He let out a light laugh. “Well Mr. Schultz, what can I do for you”

“I have questions.”

“Well my boy. I shall give you answers provided it’s information that I’m allowed to divulge. So I read your posts. Interesting encounter you had there.”

“Yeah about that, who the hell was that? The masked mad and the runner.”

“Ah, well I’m not permitted to give you his name just yet. As for the runner, he was some poor soul who was looking for at least one night of refuge and hoped you could give it. We were kind of hoping that he would get to your place and give a nice little opening past some of the more meddlesome traps you’ve fortified yourself with. Unfortunately, we did not expect you to show up when you did nor did we expect our masked man to get impatient. It was a debacle on our part.” He pushed up his glasses, for some reason he seemed ashamed that that night was such fuck-up.

I should have asked if the masked man was sent specifically for me.

“Alright then. So who hacked into my blog? Was it you? ” The fact that I felt like I was (at the least) partly responsible for this Runner getting killed was weighing pretty heavy on me. It still is.

He laughed “No, no, my boy. I’m an old man. I am technologically inept. Sure I check up on blogs and the like, but that’s the extent of my capabilities. The one who hacked our blog was just one of our comrades.” He stroked his ‘stache “I must say, he was quiet flustered when he returned. He was not expecting your traps at all.”

“Well, I’m glad to know that I’ve left a good impression.” A new question had popped in my mind. “So if keep abreast of the blogs, have you been reading The Mystic?”

“Mr. Strahm? Why yes I’ve been keeping my eye rather closely on him.”

“Then you’ve read his recent post.”

“Yes that gal Mary is quite the chatterbox.”

“So how accurate is she?”

“For the most part, everything said is accurate.”

“For the most part?”

“I cannot go any further into it than that.

“Well….were you involved in that weird cult.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “I would never associate myself with that lot. There’s-“ The lights began to dim as intermission was ending. He smiled “Well Mr. Schultz, it looks like the show’s about to resume. I’d suggest you take your seat.”

He was forced to go back to my seat and endure the rest of the show. However I did manage to ask one last thing: “What should call you?”

“Good question. Hmm…I can’t give you my real name so…Call me The Grigori.”

Once the show was over I went to continue my conversation with The Grigori but he was long gone.