#14 - the Butcher, the Baker, and the Candle Stick Maker

In addition to the main cast, throughout the play, there are several moments with lines for "Random Guy #1" or "Random Lady #3" - just those moments where someone else on stage gets to say a few words. I was going over the show for the millionth time one day, and I realized that there was a pattern. In those scenes with random lines, there were always three pieces of dialogue that would need assigning. I started to imagine that these lines could be delivered by the same three company members every time and thus giving the show three more characters. I dubbed these players the Butcher, the Baker, and the Candle Maker. They act as narrators without being too obvious. They are like Sampson, Gregory, and Abraham in Romeo and Juliet, Act 1. Scene I. The trio gives the audience information without looking right at them and saying "Hey, this is the context. Pay attention." In the Princess Knight, the trio have moments like this:

BAKER
There you two are! Hurry! I need those supplies in the town square! Some crazy lady just ordered 500 hundred “Wedding Pies”!
CANDLE MAKER
What a queen the Princess Scarlet will be!
BAKER
Yes, she will be a fine wife. Beautiful and charming. Didn’t you two hear me? 500 pies. 500 “Wedding Pies”! And I don’t even know what those are!
BUTCHER
Oh certainly. She is quite beautiful.
CANDLE MAKER
One of the most beautiful - elegant even! Bewitching and divine.
BAKER
Yes, she is a knockout. Moving on.
CANDLE MAKER
Any King would be proud to have such a lovely woman.
BUTCHER
Yes... but... (Looking around as though what HE would say would be treasonous.) I have heard that she is some what of a lofty dove.
CANDLE MAKER
Meaning?
BUTCHER
(Like some dirty word.)
A dreamer.(THEY all make knowing nods and “ah’s” as though this revelations is of some illness.)
BAKER
Well, come on! The wedding feast will still be spectacular. As long as we get there with everything on time.(They vanish into the woods.)

Exposition! This trio does this throughout, and as it is with every character in this production, they could steal the show.