Phantasmagoria

Pale yellow lights colored the canted theatre, stage sheathed in shadow, yet. The show was not begun.  They filtered in, first, painting the aisles in formal apparel - a full night. Fluttering fans and whispered conversation suffused the hall, the dull roar of a barely concealed excitement.
Now. The seats filled to bursting, bustling with tiny movements, impatient expectations. The lights dimmed, drowning the space in black. The click, clack of steps across the stage, and bright lights shine from behind the stage, half blinding the audience. A man in a long-tailed piano suit and top hat stands on stage, hands clasped behind his back. With careful movements, deliberate, slow, he tips his top hat to the audience and winks, all cheery cheeks and genteel smile.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Masters and Misses, the greatest wonders of this age are revealed unto you this eve. Such wonders shall greet your eyes as never before seen. You will be dazzled, astonished, nay hypnotized by the grandiose and the spectacular, the fantastic mysteries revealed this night. And so, without further ado, the show begins anon." And with a second tip of the hat, the man disappeared into the rear of the stage.
On cue, a couple of black clad, stooped figures maneuvered out a large curtain, stretched between them. This they mounted on two giant poles across the center of the stage, stretching nearly the entire distance before the stage's rim. They, too, retreated into the recesses, dissipating into the black.  As the curtain was pulled across, the lights behind the curtain became even more vivid, splashing a brilliant white light now diminished by the impeding fabric.
The crowd whispered, confused at this turn, uncertain. What play was this? With vision of players denied?
And suddenly shadows appeared, shadows dastardly and beautiful, daunting and ephemeral. Skeletons cackled, capering across the stage, a woman sensuously danced, her shadow enigmatic against the veil. Magicians charmed, ghosts haunted, spectres and satyrs sauntered amongst men, moving mortals to madness. The lights strobed and wavered in brightness.
The show horrified as it entertained, dazzled as it frightened the spectators. And the show ended too soon. As abruptly as it began, the lights behind the stage dimmed, shrouding the room once again in darkness. When the auditorium lights brightened, the curtain was absent, the theatre just a room once again.