DRAMATIS PERSONAE
By
Madhog thy Master
Acting…
Such a delightful and fascinating art, indeed. The ability no, the possibility to change identity, personality… To re-invent a one's self, to interpret a role… To wear a mask that would hide our true feelings and all for the sake of acting…
Acting, however, is not just an art or vocation… Acting is Life itself.
It is the Truth of Life… Or better, one of the endless truths of our existence, the fact that we always wear a mask… We always play a role in order to survive in this cold world we are forced to live in… To hide our true emotions… Until eventually becoming the very same character we used to interpret, forgetting our real selves, or better, hiding them in some disclosed, dark location inside our mind and soul.
Everyone plays different roles in this huge play we call Life… Some more than one… Some only sometimes… Some don't even realize it.
What about me? I don't know for certain… All I know is that I don't know very much about myself… Because I haven't been very honest with me.
These masks… These personas we all use to wear sometimes or for a lifetime… This façades are part of ourselves along with what we hide (or think to hide) behind them… And so, a question becomes spontaneous:
How can we possibly distinguish what is Real from what is Fake?
In my opinion (which could be wrong), we can't… Because such difference is always an intricate matter of relativity, meaning that what could be real for one, could be false for someone else… In the end, Acting (whether wanted or not) is the way we, as sapient beings, used to relate ourselves with our own vision of Reality… Which could very well be wrong… Since nothing is certain… Not even in fiction.
And sometimes… Playing Life… Becomes Life itself.
Fang the Sniper was lying on a marble ground, pretending to be asleep… Mentally preparing himself for today's chosen role… Which was going to be an improvisation.
Just the way he loved it.
He played many different roles during the course of his life… He's been a serial killer, a bounty hunter, a relic hunter, a terrorist (but he dropped it after his bombs refused to detonate), a republican, a democrat, an independent, a communist, a Mexican wrestler, a barber gone mad, etc.
As far as he could remember, he's changed face more times than Frank Abagnale Jr… Why he did it, you may ask? Because he felt like… Or maybe because he needed it… Or both… Or neither of the two.
He was a mystery, after all.
Playing his life the way he wanted was his own way to react over the uncertainty of life… Improvising every time… Letting the happening of the moment to inspire his doing… That's what Fang was… Everyone and nobody at the same time… The physical embodiment of this world's Chaos which, ironically, left him without a real personality of his own, or better, with a personality entirely based on his acting…
An acting that would punctually ignore the boundaries of Reality and Fiction… An acting decided by his own instincts… Or maybe not. Who knows? Not me for certain.
There was still some time left before the beginning of the spectacle, therefore he decided to shortly relive some of his career's highlights, just for the fun of it.
He took a moment to concentrate, then the improvisation began.
The emo:
He took a knife out of nowhere and started cutting his arm, whining and crying about how miserable his life was.
The British intellectual:
Fang drank a genuine cup of tea while blabbering something about how great his people was and how inferior all the others used to be.
The Italian-American stereotype:
A pair of mustaches were now visible under the Sniper's pointed nose… He also seemed considerably fatter.
The average villain:
Suddenly, he felt the urge to take all the world for some dumb reason.
The symbolical villain:
He was going to cause chaos and havoc in order to expose the real sadistic nature of Man and erase his hypocrite concept of a so-called civilized society. His face was also painted in white and red… He looked like a deformed, demonic version of a clown.
And so on.
Fang gently removed his canvas hat from his pitch black eyes, his namesake tooth shined with the ambient light, and checked his watch…
"It's Showtime!" He said to himself while already entering in today's role…
The Videogame Villain:
Suddenly… A certain blue hedgehog came out of nowhere, he was clearly pissed, one could tell… Who would not be pissed off after coming through a demented Special Zone full of hard stone balls and annoying bouncing / vanishing stuff?
Fang exited from his "sleep" and, perfectly in character, laughed like a maniac at the hedgehog's expense… Then he took a jumping motorbike out of nowhere and tried to squash the rodent with it… He, however, was too fast for him and, eventually, Fang suffered a humiliating defeat, sinking into the marble ground thanks to a bouncing blue ball of spines…
Just like a videogame villain would have done against the Hero.
Satisfied with his victory, the hedgehog went forward and claimed his deserved prize… The fifth Chaos Emerald.
Only one was left to take and Eggman had it.
A little while later, Fang re-emerged from the ground… His previously mad gaze was now gone, a blank expression took its place.
The play was over, his mask was now dropped…
And there was nothing behind it.
Next time, he would play the role of a desperate, fallen actor who would kill himself with alcohol and drugs… And, of course, he would improvise.
The End
(Applauses and laughs)