The Glass Pillar

A London theatre stage on a January evening, seen from upstage toward the dark auditorium, gas footlights glaring at the stage edge, maroon velvet side curtains, in the middle a tall clear glass cylinder upright, on it a gleaming black box with a gilt border on turned feet and castors, on the box a small cross-legged figure seen from directly behind against the glare, a striped turban with a white feather, a golden-yellow silk tunic with brown shoulder fringes, brown velvet trousers, before it a semicircular wooden board with small bare brass holders, in the dark wing a hand in a black cuff pressing a red rubber bulb on a thin tube.