Chapter 1413: Freedom—
In the grand hall of the Tuileries Palace's East Wing, the Gozzi Troupe from Venice was performing the classic play Turandot.
This play was the masterpiece of the renowned playwright Gozzi, and despite having been performed across Europe for over twenty years, it still retained immense popularity.
Joseph, however, was in the South Wing with his family, watching a new work by the young Prussian playwright Tieck—Puss in Boots.
Last month, when he saw the title on the theater festival's registration form, he momentarily thought he had returned to a 21st-century cinema.
But he quickly confirmed that this was indeed a script written by the Prussian last year; later animated films must have adapted the characters from this play.
Thus, he decisively scheduled this play as one of the performances for the first day of the theater festival.
According to the festival rules, two plays would be staged simultaneously each day. A judging committee would then assign a score, and the live audience would also give a score, with the average of the two serving as the play's final score.
This new audience-participation scoring model further ignited people's enthusiasm—who wouldn't want to personally experience being a judge, especially one whose opinion could influence the outcome of a world-class theater festival?
There were even people from many countries who traveled thousands of kilometers to Paris and bought tickets to watch, all to see their nation's play win.
They were used to watching dull aristocratic dramas and historical plays, so encountering such a lighthearted and humorous "fairy tale" immediately captivated them.
Even Joseph found the playwright's imagination truly rich.
Accompanied by lively music, the play quickly reached its first climax—
The poor young man Gottlieb wanted to marry the beautiful princess, but he didn't even own a decent outfit suitable for entering the royal palace. So, his magical tomcat, Henchel, devised a plan: he told Gottlieb to hide in the river beside the road where the King would pass.
When the King's carriage approached, Gottlieb stripped off his clothes, pretending to bathe in the river. Henchel then intercepted the King's retinue, claiming that its master, "Count Carabas," had been attacked by robbers while bathing in the river, and all his clothes and treasures had been stolen.
Sympathizing with the Count's plight, the King ordered his servants to present him with a set of magnificent garments.
At this point in the performance, the audience below instantly erupted in shouts:
"That cat is a liar!"
"Your Majesty, don't believe him!"
However, some also murmured enviously, 'Oh God, please grant me a cat like that...'
Watching this scene from the second floor, Joseph couldn't help but smile, thinking, 'It seems I was right to organize this theater festival.'
People in this era had very monotonous spiritual and cultural lives, so they easily became immersed in such entertaining plots and were subtly influenced by them.
Eventually, Henchel cleverly helped Gottlieb defeat the ogre. The latter finally married the princess using the ogre's wealth, and Henchel became a nobleman among cats. The entire play concluded amidst the laughter of the audience.
Queen Mary led the standing ovation, applauding the actors as they took their bows. The audience enthusiastically clapped and cheered, their excitement lingering for a long time.
More than ten minutes later, Alexandra linked her arm with Joseph's, following the King and Queen out of the Tuileries Palace, still eagerly recounting the plot of the play along the way.
Once they were in the carriage, the Crown Princess looked back at the theater, still unsatisfied:
"That was truly delightful, my dear, I'd love to see the late-night show again tonight."
All plays at the theater festival had an afternoon performance, and another starting at nine in the evening, running until dawn, with slightly lower ticket prices.
"Why not?" Joseph winked at her. "Just don't let Mother find out."
"Really?" Alexandra joyfully hugged his neck and kissed him. "You're too good to me!"
Such a breach of palace rules was something she couldn't have even imagined during her time at the Winter Palace.
Joseph wrapped his arm around her waist and smiled faintly:
"If you like it, we'll buy the copyright to this play. Then, I'll help you write the subsequent stories, mm, probably enough for two more parts."
The reason for two sequels was that he had seen two Puss in Boots movies.
"Oh God, that's amazing!" Alexandra exclaimed, planting several kisses on his face. "I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight from excitement!"
The next morning.
Joseph yawned repeatedly as he ate breakfast. The Crown Princess had indeed been overly excited last night, and it had kept him from sleeping well too.
Eman placed a stack of freshly pressed newspapers beside the table.
Joseph picked up the Paris Business Journal and saw that the entire front page was filled with news about the theater festival. The scores for yesterday's two plays were also out.
Out of a maximum of 20 points, Puss in Boots received a high score of 16, narrowly beating Turandot's 15 points.
It was remarkable, considering this result was achieved despite the German actors' heavy French accents, which led to many deductions in the "dialogue" category, while the Italian troupe's French was impeccable.
Joseph nodded in satisfaction. Choosing this play had indeed led to a successful opening. This would pave the way for the "main event" later on—
The final two plays for the last day of the festival were The Count of Monte Cristo by the French Royal Troupe, and Braveheart by the Florence Troupe.
That's right, it was the story from later generations that depicted William Wallace leading the Scots in thoroughly defeating the British army, and making King Edward I of England look like a cuckold, with the British only narrowly managing to turn the tables through deceit.
Of course, Joseph had personally written the script, entrusting it to the highly skilled Florence Troupe for performance.
He had privately watched the performance of the 1.9-meter-tall Florentine actor last week. That resounding cry of "Freedom—" was magnificent and heart-wrenching, not one bit inferior to Mel Gibson's portrayal.
Judging by the audience's immersion in the drama yesterday, it was likely that once Braveheart was staged, the British royal family wouldn't be able to clear their name even if they jumped into the River Thames.
If it could even stir up some anti-British sentiment in Scotland, that would be an Unexpected Harvest.
Just as Joseph finished breakfast, Eman entered swiftly, leading Berthier.
The Chief of General Staff saluted, his face beaming with joy:
"Your Royal Highness, news received this morning indicates that the British army completely evacuated Porto the day before yesterday at noon.
"Currently, fewer than one thousand enemy troops are defending the port, and the Marquis of Talavera is personally leading two infantry regiments to besiege it."
Indeed, after the Portuguese nobility abandoned Porto, Wellesley, lacking support, finally chose to retreat due to heavy British casualties.
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