The Collected Works of Zinthrano

The Collected Works of Zinthrano, published in 2564 AF, eight years after the death of the famous Anoomenon playwright, Taldyne Zinthrano contains all his finest work and copies can be found on the bookshelves of every cultured individual, even to this day.

Taldyne Zinthrano by DMFW

Born in Anoomenon in the last years of the Grey Kings, Zinthrano was active during the reign of Berick Manderson and then later, when the Great Impartial Court had supplanted the Grey Kings. It was a time which was rich in artistic endeavours of all kinds, a final flowering of the rich culture that Anoomenon had enjoyed and had spread throughout the world over the preceeding three centuries. Zinthrano's work is a mixture of historical triumph and tragedy, frequently inspired by the rulers of Anoomenon and often interweaves fictional personal stories with genuine events.
All of Zinthrano's plays first opened at the Anoomenon State Theatre in the Cultural Quarter of the city, a grand civic building, constructed over one hundred and fifty years before in the reign of King Prakadon Zold. The interior is shown in the image at the head of the article, with a staging of the play "King Zold" in progress.

Type

Text, Literature

Authoring Date

2564

Authors

• Taldyne Zinthrano

Play	Type	First Performance	Notes
The Fall of Allport	History	2524 AF	This was the thirty year old playwright's first commision, and the mixture of intrigue, drama and tragedy which he portrayed so skilfully made his name immediately in this powerful retelling of the events leading up to the Mating Game and its dreadful conclusion.
The Princes and the Lawmaker	History	2526 AF	Zinthrano's first major success, the play retold the story of the rise and fall of the Thin Princes of the House of Thorns and their defeat in battle against the Prime Lawmaker of Anoomenon, Veronika Mescalla. Drawing on many historical sources from the age of the Succession Empires, the play mixed complex personal drama, politics and grand spectacular staging with a resoundingly patriotic theme.
Tinto and Veranyn	Tragedy	2528 AF	The story which Zinthrano decided to tell in his 2528 play was almost entirely his own invention, yet it has become so well known that many people assume it is true. Taking the short poem known as Veranyn's Lament, the playwright built from that fragmentary base, an imaginary love triangle, featuring the faithless Tinto and his paramours, Lyrelle and Veranyn. Although Veranyn was a real lunar citizen and her lament is an original composition, we know next to nothing about the author or the true individual she is addressing in her poem. Yet with his invention of Tinto and Lyrelle, Zinthrano created a rich and moving imaginary context for the poem, and his play has become one of the world's most famous tragic love stories.
King Phariff	History	2532 AF	King Phariff was the first of the Grey Kings. In this play, Zinthrano looked at the history and people behind the movement that led to the Grey Kings. Chyou Grey has an important part in the first act but we see very little of Phariff himself. Rather than dealing with his reign, the play actually concludes with his coronation.
King Thakor	History	2534 AF	King Thakor was responsible for funding the project to build a second Space Elevator at Helsporan and this play looks at the politics of the time, including the implications for relations between Anoomenon and Modyran. Woven in between the high politics is a subplot concerning the lunar ambassador's divorce. King Thakor is a relatively short play and has few admirers. One critic is said to have complained that the tedium of the political story was enlivened only by the depression of the divorce plot.
King Mallick	History	2536 AF	Thought by many to be Zinthrano's finest play, it deals with the intricate politics between the Earth and the Moon at the time of Anoomenon's greatest ruler, King Mallick. There is a conscious and significant overlap between this play and the story told in the following one, "The Forces of Attraction", yet the treatment of the shared material could not be more different. The playwright demonstrated his versatility with these twin plays, representing the same events through the serious lens of history and the lighthearted, rose-tinted spectacles appropriate for a love story.
Forces of Attraction	Comedy	2538 AF	Subtitled, "Gravity and love considered in the special cases of the moon, Tumbalo Bailey and the Wild Princess."
The Butcher of Keldramys	Tragedy	2540 AF	For the 2540 season, Zinthrano had planned on a dramatisation of the old story of the Whispers in the Evening but he struggled with the composition and then in early rehersals became completely disenchanted with the whole project. At famously short notice, he abandoned the whole idea and jumping forward in time, wrote the story of the destruction of Vesper as a tragedy with the brooding and murderous Erik Willbold as his villain and the machinations of the New Sophisticates expanded far beyond what is known in recorded history into a fully fledged plot. The play evokes sympathy for the doomed citizens of Vesper and despite its rapid composition is considered to be one of Zinthrano's finest works.
The Martyrdom of St. Imylka	History	2542 AF	The story of St. Imylka was already well known and popular when Zinthrano created his interpretation in this famous play. The familar tale is treated with the deft and skilful writing of an artist at the height of his powers and the production was hugely popular. In the original staging, Zinthrano was able to call upon genuine Geigamon actors to stage the scenes on Neo Fleverovia, but this is not normally possible, making the casting and production of this part of the play, something of a headache for later directors presenting this play.
The Book Binder's Wife	Comedy	2545 AF	For this play, Zinthrano reached far back into the days of the early Foundation Age to tell a comic story about a grumpy old widower, a book binder in the city of Aberstone, who finds love, redemption and a new wife in the most unlikely of ways. Stylistically, it is a broad comedy, full of unbelievable co-incidences, near disasters, misunderstandings and witty jokes, which all ends happily. The play remains one of Zinthrano's best loved creations and is the most often performed of them all.
Zibbaipha Rising	History	2547 AF	Aberash Zibbaipha was in charge of the joint project between Anoomenon sorceror scientists and Modyran technicians which reactivated the space elevator at Modyran at the end of the Foundation Age. Thematically the play shares common ground, therefore, with one of Zinthrano's least successful efforts, "King Thakor". "Zibbaipha Rising" is generally considered to be a much better play. Rather than dealing with politics and finance, the focus is on the dynamics of the few characters at the centre of the engineering drama and manages to capture something of the tremendous excitement that their achievement must have provoked.
King Zold	History	2550 AF	Set in the reign of Prakadon Zold, the title of the play is somewhat misleading since it is largely concerned with the building of the Anoomenon State Theatre, the 150th anniversary of which coincided with the opening of the play. The Theatre had been very good for Zinthrano and this play was a celebration of its origins.
King Manderson	History	2553 AF	A daring piece of political theatre which attempted to interpret the reign of the last of the Grey Kings in the broad context of history, only twenty three years after his death. The play was controversial in questioning the virtue of the Great Impartial Court. If Zinthrano had not already been such a famous figure by this time he might have found himself in front of the Court on charges of bringing the government into disrepute, but the events were just sufficiently distant to take some of the sting out of the pointed criticism, and his popularity and the Court's unpopularity shielded him from the most unpleasant consequences. Nevertheless, his reputation was tarnished amongst some of his rich patrons.
The Trial of Klane Kalonia	Fantasy	Unfinished	This interesting experimental work was a play Zinthrano was still writing at the time of his death and is published in the collection only as a work in progress, which has never been performed. The audience is invited to imagine the legendary figure of Klane Kalonia, summoned from his sleep under the downs of Illunon and brought before the Court of the World to justify the ending of the Season Of Innocence. Picking up where the traditional story of Klane Kalonia and The Awakening of History leaves off, History himself is also summoned to the dock as a co-defendant. Scholars are divided about the merits of this unusual piece which is partly an opportunity to explore philosophical ideas about the nature of history, and partly a way to reuse some of the playwright's older material in something like a "greatest hits" structure.