lord bhairav and charonian steps

I went with Lord Bhairav and his favourite student Leela to watch aplay called B Three or BBB. Lord Bhairav is a Bhairav reincarnate –his real name is Bhairav Nath Burmula – huge frame, flowing manethat's turning grey now, teeth stained with too much smoking,bloodshot eyes. When he gets passionate, he can put Browning to shamein the art of dramatic monologue. Both the Lord and Lord's Leela coulddrop words like bullets in a video game, and I hang around with themfor wisdom. Before watching the play, they were speculating on whatBBB could possibly mean."Baroque of a baffled bubble," Leela chuckled, seeing me blowing a chewing gum.The bubble of my gum burst in a second, "Now kindly don't baffle mebefore a nice play," I said.Lord looked towards me and said, "She'll become a real academician.She uses theatrical terms so creatively. Did you know that "bubble" isa jargon used for the lamps in a play? Did you know that "baffle" is atimber box on which the speakers are kept so that other surfaces don'treflect the sound and spoil the effect?""I am baffled to know such a meaning of "baffle", sir," I said.Leela paid the least heed to me and continued with her reverie, "Oh Iwish the play is a baroque. I so love the baroque theatrical form,with its elaborate stages. Unlike other forms where you have toconcentrate on the plot and the characters all the time, this is coolfor the other senses. The scene changes from lovers in meadows, topalaces of kings, to beggars in dingy alleys. Done through sets thatchange so fast. Like films, and much better than films."Lord Bhairav chipped in, "Baroque comes from ancient Portugese wordbarroco which means a pearl of an uneven but elaborate shape.""What's an out-of-shape pearl got to do with all this," I asked."Shut up," grumbled the lord, "you'll never understand metonymies andmetaphors."So I shut up and we went into the play. The play's plot was about ateacher experimenting on students by regimenting them into a littlearmy, filling them with hatred against anyone who was not like them.He wanted to teach them the meaning of Nazism through this experiment.The experiment goes out of hand, and his students form their BlackBoard Brigade and not 'baroque of a baffled bubble'. This brigade isintolerant, coercive and violent. "Nice play sir," I whispered."Stanislavski would have been so happy to see them perform. Methodacting to the core," the lord whispered back." You should have invited Stanislavski also sir," I said, thinking hemust be one of his firang friends."Shut up," the lord almost roared, and everyone turned back. He calmeddown and whispered, "Stanislavski was a theorist. He postulated thatactors must remember their own experiences and reproduce thoseemotions while emoting the part of a character. That is methodacting."In the last scene, where a brainwashed student kills another becausehe doesn't conform to the former's ideas, Leela was almost in tears.She said, "Sir, had I been the director I would have used adeux-ex-machina or charonian steps but somehow I would find catharsisfor this denouement."I opened my notebook and looked at the lord. "Deux-ex-machina is whenGods descended literally on the stage to help out the hero in crisis.Charonian steps are under the stage, and the gods of the underworldemerged from those in Greek theatre to save the hero. Denoument is theuntying of the plot. And catharsis is relief. Now shut up and provideme some catharsis," the lord was visibly angry with me.And I hoped that a deux-ex-machina or gods clambering from charoniansteps would come and take me away from Lord and his Leela.