About this story
Laura Filbert, a barefoot Salvation Army worker, wants you to see a theatre as a place for saving souls rather than staging them. Duff Lindsay, an old and unequal friend, warns that Bradley's sacrifice for you may carry a claim neither of you has named, and leaves for a church dinner still waiting for you to say what Laura's challenge means to you.
How it opens
Your touring company had reached Calcutta second class, preserving its budget and bruising its dignity.
Laura Filbert visited barefoot in her Salvation Army sari before the theatre opened for rehearsal.
Laura FilbertYou pity my life, Miss Howe, but I possess a happiness the stage cannot imitate.
I believe your happiness; I am less certain you understand why my work gives me mine.
Laura FilbertWork becomes freedom only when it serves something larger than appetite.
Choose
Can beauty lead anyone toward truth without preaching it?
Would you enter a theatre before judging what happens there?