STUDY: Midnight Hour

SCENE ONE (1378)

The Nameless Queen is waiting for her husband. The king bursts in doing a lot of business, really quickly and urgently. Ministers are following him. He’s talking about plants, trade deals, architectural contracts. He points out that the Queen’s clock is slow. SLOW REVEAL: We hear mention of the curse. He talks more about it. Terms with a witch. He signs the approval for the architect. He’s getting weak. Queen is sad by his clear lucidity and amazing discipline. Lennart asks Queen to blindfold him and drug him more. He mentioned Itodia and the prince and how he wants to meet the king. Rumors of madness is mentioned. (more curse). Can’t find a better double? Queen interjects. Offers help. King risks not trading with them. Queen suggests a ball and meeting him afterwards at night. King then asks ministers to leave so he can spend just a half hour with his wife.

PURPOSE: Reveal the curse dramatically with minimal backstory. (the effects of it on them) Reveal the villain of the piece, the prince that won’t just let them be. Foreshadow the climax: The Ball. The Double. The Villain.

SCENE TWO (1104)

They hold each other. They talk about her dead mother. They talk about the five years they’ve sacrificed. REVEAL: The deal they made with the witch. 7 years of irrationality, no name of queen, can’t leave the castle. They talk about the stress they’ve been put under. With just twenty minutes, she insists on making love. He’s looking at the clock. At the stroke of one o’clock, he turns into the mad man. He fucks her violently. He’s talking nonsense. She answers him best as she could.

PURPOSE: Reveal the curse in complete. Show the curse in action.

SCENE THREE (878)

Queen is waiting in the garden. Daughter runs up to her. She asks if Volis is her father. It’s a bad scene that her daughter doesn’t recognize her dad. Volis asks where her husband is. He insults her by saying its’ their custom to have a king meet a visitor at the gate. She retaliates cleverly and says that in Stromhold, we let our guests rest first. And hints at a different country’s custom being worse. He mentions he was at Surnway where the Queen came from. He mentions he’s on a quest. She offers him hunting. He declines because she’s not doing it either. She offers him the ball. He flirts with her a bit.

PURPOSE: Show the villain and his threats. Show that the queen is resourceful (not that we haven’t shown her being resourceful in the past two scenes.

SCENE FOUR (784)

Jorger, the king’s cousin is dancing with the Queen. They are wearing masks. He’s wearing a sun mask. Volis shows up with a Raven mask. Queen introduces theme. Jorger talks for the king as best as he could. Jorger is blunt. I’m not here for a ball. They go to a dais to talk. The king is sitting behind the dais behind a curtain. Jorger hears a noise from behind the curtain. Asks if its’ a ghost, but the queen laughs it off. He says, oh, I thought it was related to the curse. He knows? Rosdahl the minister interrupts and brings the conversation back to the ever wood negotiations. They have preliminary talks. Rosdahl saves Jorger and suggests they continue the conversation after the ball. Volis asks if he could dance with the queen.

PURPOSE: Bad guys close in. The double is barely working. This guy knows something. PAY OFF for everything. The ball, the villain, The double, the hiding. EVERYTHING IS DRAMATIZED SO WELL.

SCENE FIVE (523)

The Queen is racing down the hallways trying to get into the room. They don’t know why the negotiations are still going. It’s almost 1AM. Volis peers out. He had set the clock slow in an attempt to entrap Lennart. Lennart falls to the ground. He turns crazy. Queen closes the door on the ambassador even though it’s too late already. She teases Lennart into a game. They run.

PURPOSE: The dark night of the soul. Everything is revealed. Collapse! Worst thing ever!!!

SCENE SIX (2215)

Queen wakes up. Lennart is beside him. The clocks were not ticking. Prince Volis was by the mantle. How did he get into the bedroom? Queen walks to the door to get guards. Volis stops her. Queen threatens him. He tells her I have a magic flute. They’re all asleep. Volis is here to break the curse. Volis starts to rattle off names. She tells him to go. Lennart is shifting in his bed. He can wake up at any minute now. He wakes up laughing crazy. Queen screams for the guards. He tells Volis he needs to leave. She’s afraid of what lennart will do to Volis. Lennart sees Queen, then Volis. Lennart gets mad. Lennart threw vase. Volis twists the Queen’s arm and he realizes there’s another way to break this case. Take her outside. Volis drags her outside. Lennart is laughing crazy and chasing them now. The Queen falls down limp to make it hard for Volis to take her out. Volis keeps dragging. Queen snatches a chair and clings to it. Lennart grabs an iron poker. Volis drops him. She bites her tongue. Volis has put the lantern on a side table and now he’s getting ready to pick her up. He does. She hits him, tells him to put her down. Lennart hits him in the side with teh iron poker. He drops the Queen. Volis draws his sword. Lennart swings again misses, and Volis cuts Lennart’s side. The king berates himself and says he needs to be clever. He’s about to say the Queen’s name so he can be smart and save his queen even though that would bring the plague on them. The queen cannot let him do this and punches his penis. The queen grabs the iron poker and swings it at Volis. Queen jams the poker into his neck. She smacks him again. She goes to her king. She comforts his idiot king.

PURPOSE: Climatic end with a physical fight that drags out from bedroom, to sitting room with a fight. Threats, no guards, rattles off names. King wakes up. She lures him. He pulls her away. She goes limp. She clutches stuff. She falls, She is held up. She hits him. King hits him with a poker. He drops her. He cuts him. He gets confused and frustrated. He wants to call out her name to protect her. She punches him in the penis. Queen grabs the poker and attacks.