The Malacia Tapestry by Brian W. Aldiss Page B

disguised ourselves in his scruffy costumes, except for Armida, who wisely insisted on retaining her own dress.
    â€˜Capital!’ cried Bengtsohn, clapping his hands as each of us emerged into the sunlight.
    He began to pose us, moving us about like chairs. Bonihatch, absurd in Prince Mendicula’s tinsel crown, stood to one side, gesturing to the nearest wall and the flat of the sacked city. Feeling hardly less silly with cork sword and general’s tricorne made of paper, I stood behind him, while Armida in a small tinsel crown was placed close beside me.
    When he had us as he wanted, Bengtsohn aimed the zahnoscope at us, adjusting its barrel and flinging a velvet cover over the glass panel at the rear.
    â€˜Stand still, all of you!’ he cried. ‘Not a movement, not one movement, for five minutes, or all will be spoilt.’
    Then he ran round to the front of his machine and removed a cover from the lens. We stood there until I grew tired.
    â€˜When do we begin to act?’ I asked.
    The old man swore and replaced the lens-cover, shaking his hands before his face in wrath.
    â€˜I tell you just to stand still without even a movement for five minutes, and you begin immediately to talk!’ he cried. ‘While the sun is bright, we must make so many pictures as we can, but each image takes five minutes for to form on the prepared slide. For the image to be crisp, you must be still – as quiet as rats. Don’t you understand?’
    â€˜You never told me that item in your secret recipe,’ I said angrily. Armida and the others were looking at me in disapproval. ‘We shall be here all day, standing like statues for five minutes at a time. That’s got nothing to do with acting, the secret of which lies in mobility.’
    â€˜You do not act, you stand like dead statues. Thus for several days. That is why you are having so well paid. We have fifty slides to make to contain the whole drama of the Prince. Now, prepare yourself again. This time neither a word nor a twitch, de Chirolo.’
    I said, ‘But you begin before we have learned or even read our parts. What is the story? What sort of a drama is this?’
    â€˜Don’t be silly, dear,’ Armida said. ‘We do not speak. We supply only the images, in a series of tableaux. When the slide-drama is eventually shown to audiences, Otto will recite what is happening, to bring out the beauty of the tableaux. Can’t you understand the principles of a mercurized play?’
    Titters from Bonihatch and Letitia.
    I froze, and again Bengtsohn went through his mysteries with the machine. There we all stood like waxworks, while he counted the time on a large hour-glass. It is no easy matter standing still for five minutes, particularly in the open air, where idleness alone induces a tendency to sneeze.
    At the end of the first five minutes, I was already preparing to make my excuses and abandon this exercise, despite the proximity of Armida. But Bengtsohn seemed so pleased, scuttling his first slide away into a dark baize-lined box, that I had not the heart to upset him. All the same, I was happy that my friends de Lambant and Portinari could not see our antics.
    â€˜Famous, famous!’ quoth Bengtsohn. ‘Now we will perform an indoor scene, where the Prince leaves his lovely princess in General Gerald’s care.’
    As I made to move into the palace, the old man caught my arm.
    â€˜I should have explained to you as I have to the others, for to make our matters crystal-clear. Owing to the present limitations of the zahnoscope, what needs plenty of light to achieve its miracles, we have to mercurize even the indoor scenes outside.’
    A sofa was drawn up, a curtain pulled behind us. ‘Indoors’ was parodied. This scene was more to my taste. Bonihatch made a noble gesture, arms spread wide, while I as Gerald bowed and clutched Armida’s hand. Five minutes of that was easily borne, as I felt the