Two Seats Sold—Sanction: The Agency

I’m going to be in Edinburgh for a few days at Tabletop Scotland, which takes place in the aftermath of The Fringe. It occurred to me that given that The Fringe has been running for almost 80 years, there must be tales to be told that might suit a Sanction session.

While I recently wrote The Ovation, which deals with touring players, the timeframe is disjointed (although there are possibilities for handling the echoes of performances, see Mother’s Love for Cthulhu Hack), so I thought I’d suggest something else.

It is very much the grain of a notion of a hook. See where it takes you.

The Agency — Two Seats Sold

Task at Hand:
Butlers in the Factory support services unearth a odd ticket-sale pattern buried in historical records: one Fringe performance every August, stretching back decades, sells precisely two tickets. The venues vary, as do the acts and genres, but there’s something odd about the paper trail. That said, it doesn’t warrant more time from the Butlers.

The Factory dismisses it as corrupted data. Naturally, that means the Characters investigate.

What’s Going On:
There is historical precedent for Fringe performances playing to absurdly tiny houses. Even the most celebrated artists of the past century have occasionally found themselves performing to a tiny audience. Someone, with a sense of humour, in the Factory backrooms subsequently adopted “Two Seats” as a covert communication protocol.

The show itself doesn’t matter. Agents buy two tickets, sit in predetermined positions and exchange information through apparently spontaneous audience interaction: heckles, coughs, applause and the timing of departures. The system was retired in 1989. Or at least, that’s what the memo said. But, it wasn’t.

Twist:
This year’s show is a mediocre one-person comedy performed above a pub. The Characters identify the two ticket holders. One is a known Russian intelligence officer. The other is one of the Characters. Or, rather, someone attending as an Arthur—a cover identity—that the Character last used in an operation years ago. Both tickets were bought yesterday.