Ground Zero at the Imbroglio

 

The gif above fails to convey the magnitude of the epic catastrophe that is the inspiration for the drivel below. Behold the tale of ravage and ruin, desolation and disruption. Look upon these works, ye mighty, and despair:

The old theater had hosted many a play. High drama and low comedy had pranced upon the well-worn boards. Tempers had often flared, on stage and off, and laughter had rattled through the rafters. Over the years the veteran hall had seen it all--or so we thought. It could not know--being a thing of wood and stone--and neither could we, the sentient beings and players upon her stage--that all the guns of World War I would soon commence to bray. 

It began with the lull that precedes the fray--the silence before the thunder. One walked away, sad and discontented, leaving the rest to wonder. A galaxy of wrath ensconced in feeble clay returned, fury and the human form full-blended.

The opening barrage of the pitiless attack made peace of mind draw back. Invective darkened the stage-light-sky and vituperation augmented the force of the dreadful operation. Sweet serenity fled at the blast, and the salvo obliterated the ground beneath her, leaving but the faint fragrance of her distant memory.

Players scrambled for the mental trenches as the cannonade continued. Revilement and castigation hammered with archangel blows. The boards heaved and splintered, devastated by the barrage. A sudden pause--an eclipse of the artillery--allowed brief exclamations of amazement, but the guns did merely reposition.

The bombardment renewed with increased vigor combined with spearing expletives. Angry words roared in the continuous shelling to detonate in shards of indignation, slashing bursts of emotional shrapnel exploding above the set. Trenches collapsed, and traumatized thespians staggered, reeling to and fro in their intellectual refuges. 

At length--some seven years by stage time--the cannons melted into molten pools, and the melange of fury and flesh laid the lash to the chariot's chargers to depart the scene of devastation. The players wandered through wreckage to evaluate the extent of the havoc and to gauge the degree of their personal ruin.

Theatrical mayhem and booming broadsides notwithstanding, the show must go on.