“How’d you like to go to the opening night of Shakespeare’s Hamlet?” asked Emma.
“I didn’t know it was on locally.”
“It’s not. I mean the actual first performance.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll see,” she said, with a smirk.
* * *
We drove to what looked like a multiplex cinema. However, none of the current Hollywood blockbusters were showing, instead the titles included Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Salome by Oscar Wilde and Uncle Vanya by Chekhov. My confusion deepened.
According to the foyer clock, we entered the theatre at seven o’clock and took our seats facing a blank wall. After a couple of minutes, the room darkened, and I had the feeling of simultaneously moving forwards and backwards with my stomach feeling like I was riding a roller-coaster. When the lights came on we appeared to be in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, complete with audience dressed in early 16th Century period costumes.
Onto the stage strode a slightly balding, bearded man dressed in doublet and hose who looked strangely familiar. He began speaking in a West Country accent. “I’d like to introduce my latest play – The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.”
* * *
The curtain came down, the room darkened and I experienced the same sensations as before, only in reverse. We entered the foyer. “Clever. Some sort of hologram?”
She smiled. “How long do you think we were in there?”
“About three or four hours.”
“Look at the clock.”
I looked up and barely suppressed a gasp. Only five minutes had elapsed.
Emma handed me a brochure. “You know how actors break the fourth wall? Well you’ve just broken the fourth dimension.”
I read the brochure’s title: ‘Travels In Theatre Spacetime Amplifying Normative Dimensional And Relativistic Simultaneity Events’.
“Interesting, ” I grinned. “Shame about the acronym.”
My entry in the October 2019 300 Word Story Challenge at SFFChronicles
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, or other Speculative Fiction
M. Robert Gibson 