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INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. DAY. SKY. Over which a title "LONDON--SUMMER 1593" appears. Title card: In the glory days of the Elizabethan theatre two playhouses were fighting it out for writers and audiences. North of the city was the Curtain Theatre, home to England's most famous actor, Richard Burbage. Across the river was the competition, built by Philip Henslowe, a business with a cash flow problem... ...The Rose... Gradually a building is revealed, The Rose Theatre, three- tiered, open to the elements and empty. On the floor, roughly printed, a poster--torn, soiled, out of date. It says: SEPT. 7TH & 8TH AT NOON MR. EDWARD ALLEYN AND THE ADMIRAL'S MEN AT THE ROSE THEATRE, BANKSIDE THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDIE OF THE MONEYLENDER REVENG'D OVER THIS the screams of a man under torture. The screams are coming from the curtained stage. VOICE (O.S.) You Mongrel! Why do you howl When it is I who am bitten? INT. THE ROSE THEATRE. STAGE. DAY. The theatre owner, PHILLIP HENSLOWE, is the man screaming. HENSLOWE'S boots are on fire. He is pinioned in a chair, with his feet stuck out over the hot colas of a fire burning in a brazier. He is being held in that position by LAMBERT, who is a thug employed by FENNYMAN, who is the owner of the VOICE. The fourth man, FREES, is FENNYMAN'S bookkeeper. FENNYMAN What am I, Mr. Lambert? LAMBERT Bitten, Mr. Fennyman. FENNYMAN How badly bitten, Mr. Frees? FREES Twelve pounds, one shilling and four pence, Mr. Fennyman, including interest. HENSLOWE Aaagh! I can pay you! FENNYMAN When? HENSLOWE Two weeks, three at the most, Aaaagh! For pity's sake. FENNYMAN Take his feet out. Where will you get FREES (the mathematical genius with a notebook) Sixteen pounds, five shillings and nine pence FENNYMAN including interest in three weeks? HENSLOWE I have a wonderful new play! FENNYMAN Put his feet in. HENSLOWE It's a comedy. FENNYMAN Cut his nose off. HENSLOWE A new comedy. By Will Shakespeare! FENNYMAN And his ears. HENSLOWE And a share. We will be partners, Mr. Fennyman! FENNYMAN (hesitating) Partners! HENSLOWE It's a crowd-tickler--mistaken identities, a shipwreck, a pirate king, a bit with a dog, and love triumphant. LAMBERT I think I've seen it. I didn't like it. HENSLOWE This time it is by Shakespeare. FENNYMAN What's the title? HENSLOWE Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. FENNYMAN Good title. FENNYMAN snaps his fingers at FREES and LAMBERT. LAMBERT unties HENSLOWE, FREES starts writing a contract. FENNYMAN (CONT'D) A play takes time. Find actors rehearsalslet's say open in three weeks. That's--what--five hundred groundlings at tuppence each, in addition four hundred groundlings tuppence each, in addition four hundred backsides at three pence--a penny extra for a cushion, call it two hundred cushions, say two performance for safety how much is that Mr. Frees? FREES Twenty pounds to the penny, Mr. Fennyman. FENNYMAN Correct! HENSLOWE But I have to pay the actors and the authors. FENNYMAN A share of the profits. HENSLOWE There's never any FENNYMAN Of course not! HENSLOWE (impressed) Mr. Fennyman, I think you may have hit on something. FENNYMAN slaps a contract down on the table next to n ink- pot and quill. FENNYMAN Sign here. HENSLOWE takes the quill and signs. FENNYMAN (CONT'D) Romeo and Ethel The Pirate's DaughterAlmost finished? HENSLOWE Without doubt he is completing it at this very moment. INT. WILL'S ROOM. DAY A small cramped space in the eaves of a building. A cluttered shelf containing various objects, wedged between crumpled pieces of paper. Among those we have time to observe: a skull, a mug that says A PRESENT FROM STRATFORD-UPON-AVON. At infrequent intervals further pieces of crumpled paper are tossed towards the shelf. The man who is throwing them, WILL SHAKESPEARE, is bent over a table, writing stOmZFJOh0I)lAM*oVyj*+2y/X=``g~(8y 7AĽP]h| іKP(7g0""r2/ M+P `jYL1NDH!سlzIE)Ϻ^e L3~hCNUAJ{2_'TPN "gc>DŁ.:z)O-kWP!í1#AFQAb(,髌$p:aeEgz 5lđ Kr690TFNJdFqʈR J"ގaX2T1~ $gPUֽPʡG^W.#x߰y-QG@"jwG!̚XO_?I^FR6,A-K y;j{ANT(k4D)Ȍn!oN+hyM8? ;~2(62畗 4`'W p!2|))nqxk<j-$ -`풗k(28YwC"2U`':$%)( }[혺=Zb+P?=, U$}<38ߦ gSF:=^-J zaL!IꌅqaǀR<2/EW\h$I̙6x)JE@/e"Ɋ`+4?Mn7Hvc! t/3:Uq4'2-!Cyd"HWS>P UO}8|dϛ6[LrSYp 7dWF̮u|SkI´,Kа-DB"5ɸyR#KO;"a0Fz.kDwHOxӞ TJ3NFS6xJ$tfUwɍ+m̓W{4je%VzUkG!rĵ2E#+Ԏ_5HZx@Ui[Db5_V"v5"J_U>Ckx8YiY `Y~F @蕊S {";ސ 14>OinzcYh(F !?i.>$5USyɸ