Photography by Annushka Munch
Costume design by Jennifer Giorno
Makeup design by Jessicalee Skary
Set design by Bernie Gabin
Production design by Phoebe Roberts
Arisia 2017
Base Instruments – ACT I
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Mrs. Hawking, the lady’s champion of London.
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Misses Zakharova and Sherba, of the Mariinsky Ballet.
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Mr. Nathaniel and Mrs. Clara Hawking, a handsome young society couple.
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Kiril Chernovsky should not have crossed Mrs. Hawking and Mary.
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Two Mrs. Hawkings enter. Which one leaves?
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Mrs. Hawking and Mary prepare to fight when an op gets dicey.
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The goons close in, but they don’t know what they’re in for.
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Mrs. Hawking takes one guy down easily.
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Mrs. Hawking observes how well Mary’s learned to handle herself in a fight.
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Mary’s skill with a fireplace poker makes her a formidable duelist.
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And in moments, Mary’s got another one down.
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But a third manages to sneak up on Mrs. Hawking.
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Our hero may sustain a wrenched shoulder…
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…but in the end she gets the upper hand.
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Curb stomped.
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It takes more than a little injury to take down Mrs. Hawking
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After the op, Mrs. Hawking shrugs off the pain of her injury.
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Mrs. Hawking tells Mary she’s doing so well, someday she sees her becoming exactly the same as she is.
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Enter Justin Hawking, Nathaniel’s charming, world-traveling elder brother.
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Justin turns on the charm with Mary.
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Mary is amused to hint at how much fun it is working for Mrs. Hawking.
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Nathaniel is surprised to find Justin there.
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Mary is embarrassed to have been flirting with the boss’s brother!
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Justin knows just how to needle Nathaniel.
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Enter the client, Elena Zakharova.
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She comes to ask them to investigate the death of fellow dancer Raisa Sergeyeva.
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Mary reads about how Raisa Sergeyeva died, supposedly in a fire at the theater.
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But Miss Z insists that it was foul play.
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Despite her admitted use of laudanum, Miss Zakharova is sure it was murder.
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Mrs. Hawking agrees to take on the case.
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Justin asks Nathaniel why he’s hanging around Auntie and her maid so much.
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Justin of course suspects baser motives.
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Nathaniel confesses he keeps it all from his wife, Clara.
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Justin knows keeping things from Clara doesn’t sit well with his brother.
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Mary visits her friend Arthur the police officer for information.
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Arthur gives her Miss Sergeyeva’s autopsy report.
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Arthur’s happy to be of help to Mary, even though she can’t tell him much.
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However, when Arthur asks her out on a date…
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…Mary’s a bit too distracted by her work to recognize the overture.
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Mary passes the information along to Mrs. Hawking.
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Mary is shocked to learn Mrs. Hawking once danced ballet herself.
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Nathaniel gets his briefing to help with the mission.
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He makes his desperation for her approval painfully clear.
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The party for the Mariinsky ballet.
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Nathaniel enters with Clara, but his attention is on his mission entirely.
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He’s been tasked with getting information from Lord Seacourse, and that’s what he’s going to do.
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Justin asks if Clara’s all right with how odd Nathaniel’s been acting.
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Clara’s used to Justin causing trouble– they once had a thing, you see.
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Clara tries not act worried, but Justin really wants things to be okay between her and Nathaniel.
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Until being distracted by a pretty ballerina, that is.
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Clara broke up with him, after all, and he must bear his broken heart somehow.
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Nathaniel is determined to interrogate Lord Seacourse.
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Nathaniel pretends to be just as much a heel as Seacourse is.
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He can’t let Mrs. Hawking down.
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But Justin comes over to needle him for his odd behavior.
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And Clara makes it clear she’s going to be giving it to him with both barrels later.
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Poor Nathaniel. How he suffers for his work.
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Mary finds a hidden laudanum bottle at the crime scene.
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Mrs. Hawking finds evidence of the fire being started elsewhere in the theater.
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They wonder if perhaps the fire came after the murder.
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Mary and Mrs. Hawking investigate the dressing room where Miss Sergeyeva died.
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Mrs. Hawking finds someone lurking around the theater.
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They interrogate Kiril Chernovsky, the Mariinsky company manager.
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He insists he did no murder, only the fire to conceal his thefts from the company.
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Chernovsky found her body, and set the fire so that his thefts wouldn’t be discovered.
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But they pause when he says he only saw Miss Zakharova backstage with him.
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Miss Z never told them that, so this changes things.
Watch the performance on our Shows page.