Here we are. Beautiful, isn’t it? It may only be a small-town theatre, but it is a really nice one!
When I was a child and walked past it, I thought it was like the emperor’s palace. All those colourful frescoes, the stucco and the statues…
Don’t make fun of me, I was very young! And my parents weren’t theatre types: they were in the shop all day and all night. But when I grew up, Dad started sending me to the back of the theatre, selling sweets and cakes to the spectators during the intervals.
I remember those exciting evenings: flaming barbecues glowing in the dark, aristocrats and plebs all dressed up, pompous women shouting at the actors… I would have given a day’s pay to take a look inside!
But I had to wait a few years before I had could buy my own ticket. And get this: the first time I came in here as a spectator, I was so excited I forgot to bring a cushion! And I promise you, its really hard sitting on these tuff steps for hours and hours…
Ah, don’t worry: I brought some cushions for you. I wanted to get better seats for you in the Ima ca’vea, the steps closest to the stage. But sorry, I’m a baker, not a celebrity! See those seats over there, where the steps are covered with white and yellow marble? Those are the seats of honour reserved for the most famous men in Herculaneum. But it could have been worse: from up there on the seats at the top of the steps, the summa ca’vea, you would have seen pretty much nothing.
The theatre was designed by the architect Pu’blius Numi’sius at the time of Emperor Augustus. But the paintings are really modern: they are from fifteen or twenty years ago, when the theatre was restored after a terrible earthquake. I don’t remember anything, cos I was too young. But my mother told me that everybody around here thought it was the end of the world!
But we Romans always get up after a fall: now the theatre is even more beautiful. Even a poor guy like me feels like a great lord in here!
Tonight we are going to see a comedy by Plautus, a classic that never goes out of fashion. But I’ll tell you a secret: I’m saving up my tips so I can go and see Nove’llia Primige’nia, the famous actress. Everyone here is obsessed with her. Know what? My friend Lucius and his brother went all the way to Neapolis to watch her dancing!
But now sshh, silence: the show is going to start.