"Flies all green 'n buzzin' in his dungeon of despair Who are all those people that he's locked away up there Are they crazy? Are they sainted? Are they zeros someone painted? It has never been explained since at first it was created But a dungeon like a sin Requires naught but lockin' in Of everything that's ever been" --Frank Zappa, "The Torture Never Stops"
Guetterigg looked up sharply. "No, no, fool!" he barked. "No lights yet!"
"Sir?"
The stage manager stalked over, cuffing the cowering apprentice upside the head and prising his hand from the massive lever. "Fool," he spat again. "Got to appease the electrics, first."
"App... appease them?"
"Spirits... got to appease them, make an offering. Disastrous otherwise. A powerful force, electricity!" Guetterigg pulled down a pair of rusty jumper cables that ran up into the panel. "Disastrous," he muttered again, under his breath.
The apprentice nodded. "What sort of offering, sir?"
Guetterigg gave a nod toward the caged creatures in the corner as he approached, squeezing the jumper clamps in his wiry hands. The cage bars rattled noisily in a sudden flurry of agitation. "That's what they're for, you see..."
Under construction!
It's basically the [Grand Guignol] all over again...
Possibilities for future expansion: an upstairs with rooms for guests (heh - 'guests' - heh heh). A backstage where the proprietor/stage manager (name: "Guetterigg"?) lives, in a squalid den filled with gruesome old props and sets and stage equipment.
Thought I'd try something other than the gothy architecture vibe that immediately sprang to mind... so I decided to base the Teatr on some more postmodern buildings - either jagged Brutalist things (think '60s and '70s slabs of concrete, occasionally arranged in interesting shapes) or something more early-21st century (oddly shaped, lots of glass for to see the moat, perhaps some interesting public art). Making that mesh with the vibe of the Teatr was a neat challenge... and I figured concrete was a good place to start.