The Blackout

Text 1: Half-Light, by Iona Mercer

An original short story extract.

Seven minutes before the curtain rose, Freya had already checked the prop table three times. She moved along it again, pinching each object into its chalked outline: silver cup, paper fan, wooden dagger. Even the feathers in the prince’s hat had been combed in the same direction. Freya’s mouth was a straight pencil line.

Ellis had checked nothing. He occupied the centre of the stage in his cardboard crown, tossing an orange from hand to hand and spilling jokes among the younger actors. Their laughter bounced into the empty rows. When Freya hissed that the audience was taking its seats, he caught the orange behind his back and bowed to her.

‘Your Majesty,’ she said, ‘this is not a rehearsal.’

‘It never is,’ Ellis replied, grinning.

Then the theatre vanished.

The stage, the painted palace and the rows of red seats were swallowed at once. Somewhere in the darkness, scenery struck the floor with a crack. A child began to cry. Freya heard feet scrambling towards the wings and, for one blank second, every instruction in her head scattered.

Ellis’s voice lost its glitter. ‘Nobody move.’ It came through the darkness low and level, something solid to hold on to. ‘Put a hand on the shoulder in front. Leni, keep talking so I know where you are.’ He counted the children towards him, one by one, until their breathing began to slow.

Freya’s fingers found the torch taped beneath the prompt desk, exactly where she had left it. A white coin of light sprang into her palm. She checked the fallen scenery, cleared a path and led the group towards the side door. Ellis came last, carrying the smallest child, his crown crushed beneath one arm.

At the doorway, Freya counted everyone again. Ellis did not make a joke. She did not tell him to hurry. Together, they turned back towards the dark stage.

How does Iona Mercer use language and structure to establish impressions of Freya and Ellis, and then make the reader reconsider those impressions?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.