The Peterson Theater was packed with people waiting for Spartacus's premiere. For a theater located near the Saint-Antoine area, the Peterson Theater was not very large, the backstage was very cramped, and Armand added the song team to the script for the soundtrack chorus. These guys couldn't hide backstage at all - backstage was already jam-packed with a portion of the instruments tucked away beyond the changing rooms. There was no choice but to place the singing team in the audience. The audience of the Peterson Theater is also not big, it only has more than three hundred seats, as for the private rooms and so on, it is not at all. The singing team took up another twenty or so seats, leaving the gallery without even three hundred seats.
Of course, there is an upside to the theater being so small: it is particularly easy to fill it up. Armand had been bragging everywhere about his new play for a long time. He was so well connected that dozens of his friends alone came, plus some of the people his friends had mobilized. Plus, Armand had pulled in a little bit of sponsorship from the Duke of Orleans, so he announced that the premiere would be free of charge, with the result that the Peterson Theatre, which originally could only hold three hundred people, was crammed with almost six hundred in one breath. There were still more trying to squeeze in. In order to get them in, the theater manager simply decided on the spur of the moment to remove all the seats in the theater and have everyone stand. But because there was no charge, the entire theater was still packed. Coupled with the fact that those at the bottom of the hierarchy weren't too particular about etiquette, the whole theater was bustling like a food market. An older woman squeezed in carrying a hen she had just bought from the market.
Spartacus begins with such a ruckus. The first act at the beginning opens with Spartacus facing off in a gladiatorial arena with a small band of gladiators and another band of gladiators led by his friend Oenomaus. And off to the side, the presiding officer of the gladiatorial event announced, "The generous Crassus has decided that the victor of this battle, who kills his enemy, will become a free man!" Immediately afterward, the two teams fought for "freedom," and people kept falling, and soon only Spartacus and Oenomaus were left standing. However, Oenomaus was wounded at this point and could barely stand, and his small shield had been lost in the earlier battle, making it nearly impossible for him to fight effectively. While his opponent and his best friend, Spartacus, were still almost unharmed. Victory seems to be out of reach.
"Kill him, kill him!" The actor playing the gladiatorial spectator shouted.
"Spartacus, come on, kill me and you're free." Oenomaus knew that even at his best, he was more than likely no match for Spartacus, a guy who had already won over a hundred victories in the gladiatorial arena. What's more, he was already injured at this point.
"Opportunities like this don't come along very often," said Oenomaus, "and it's rare that Crassus has been generous, or else, with the miserly nature of that new master of yours, Vatia, you'd never have had the chance to become a free man again if you'd missed it. I'd never let this go if I were you."
"No." Spartacus said, "I would not kill my own friends. If I would have wielded a sword against my own friends, I would all be a citizen of Rome by now."
With these words, Spartacus, ignoring the shouts around him, sheathed his sword and turned to prepare to leave.
"Kill him! Or you'll wait for the whip!" Someone shouted.
"Lowly slaves!" Someone cursed.
"I knew he was a sissy!" A spectator scorned. Playing Spartacus in the premiere was Armand's friend Louis, who had no problem with his body, but his face was so handsome and even a bit of a girl that it didn't seem right for a role like Spartacus.
"Die!" Oenomaus suddenly shouted, brandishing his short sword as he stumbled toward Spartacus, who had his back turned.
With a flick of the wrist, Spartacus let go of Oenomaus's sword and simultaneously slammed his elbow smoothly into Oenomaus's chest, and Oenomaus dropped his short sword and fell to the ground in agony.
"Kill me!" Oenomaus gasped.
"No, I'm not going to take your bait. I will not wield a sword against a friend."
In the scene that follows again, the whipped Spartacus is with the other surviving gladiators, who ask him why he didn't kill Oenomaus so he could be free. Spartacus still replies with, "I do not wield a sword against a friend." But another gladiator, Crixus, pointed out coldly that his insistence served no purpose, for Oenomaus would soon die in the next gladiatorial fight to entertain the public: "It is said that a very few gladiators get the chance to become free men, or leave the gladiatorial arena. But such lucky people. I have not seen a single one of them. Even more so, except for you, Spartacus, I've never seen a gladiator survive more than three years. Spartacus, you are an invincible warrior, having won over a hundred fights, whether against men or tigers and lions, but do you really think you can stay alive in the gladiator ring?"
That silenced everyone, and finally, someone said, "Unless we escape!"
"But who can lead our escape?" Another asked.
In Act II, Spartacus escapes from the gladiator house with a group of gladiators, and they try to flee northward out of Rome, but Roman soldiers keep coming after them. Many of the gladiators died in their flight, and eventually, they had to turn south to hide among the mountains of Vesuvius.
It was on this escape that Spartacus came to the conclusion that: "Slaves cannot be truly free by mere flight; only by the abolition of slavery, in which man oppresses man and man enslaves man, can slaves be truly free. Our goal should not just be to try to evade the Roman soldiers, but to destroy Rome and free all the slaves. Only when all the slaves are free can we truly get our freedom!"
As Spartacus spoke these words to the dozens of exhausted companions in the background, the orchestra began to play the melody of that new war song of Joseph's, beginning with a low, mournful prelude that sank in like a low-hanging cloud before a storm. Then, the somber first theme begins to play, and the piece is subdued and determined, ending each bar with a heavy accent, like a heavy rain falling from the sky or a rumbling war drum.
Spartacus' oratory continues to the sound of this musical score: "I know, my friends, my brothers, that you will be doubtful, that you will say, 'Rome has so many soldiers, they are well-trained, well-equipped, well-organized, how can we, with so few men, fight against the whole of Rome?'
But fear not, my brothers, what have we to fear? We have nothing to fear! For what can be more painful, more terrible, than what we have lived in this life? What is there for us to fear when we live like pigs and are trampled like dirt? Do we have anything left to lose? Is there anything left in our lives to live for?
Friends, brothers, if there is anything we can lose in battle, the only thing we can lose is the chains that bind us, but once we are victorious, what we win will be the whole world! A new new world where no one can oppress or enslave people anymore! Cheer up, my brothers, it is Rome that should be afraid, the slavers, the vampires! We, we need not fear!"
The theater fell silent. None of the uneducated lowlifes spoke anymore; they all stared with eager eyes at the actor playing Spartacus, listening to his powerful speech and nodding silently. Someone whispered: "True, we, we are not kings, we are not nobles, what have we but chains? What have we to fear?"
The remaining gladiators revitalized their spirits. After that, they continued to raid nearby estates to liberate the slaves there, and slaves who had escaped from other regions fled to Vesuvius. Spartacus and his friends continued to gain new victories, and their ranks now numbered in the thousands. Oenomaus, a friend of Spartacus, also joined the uprising during this time. Under the auspices of Spartacus, the slaves even established a true, democratic system based on the equality of all men.
"This is so, this is so good, it's like a dream." Below the stage, an audience member couldn't help but whisper.
"It's almost as if the archangels are speaking. I kind of understand how they could cast a girl as a general." Another audience member said.
"Isn't it? I dare say it's God's heaven, and it doesn't get any better than this." Another spectator responded in a low voice. Then he hurriedly drew a cross on his chest, "Lord, forgive me."
"It's great that everything is equal, no more nobility, no more privileged classes. But can men and women be equal ... and can women still be put on top of men?" Others said this.
But then the plot tightens up again immediately afterward. In order to destroy them, Rome sent an officer named Claudius, with three thousand well-equipped soldiers, to besiege them. With the assistance of local slavers, these guys had slaughtered their way into Vesuvius. Lacking weapons and supplies, the insurgents struggled to hold off the Roman soldiers in a frontal battle, and they fell back, eventually being surrounded on top of a treacherous mountain. In front of them were tightly packed Roman soldiers and cliffs behind them. Spartacus and his insurgent army seem to be at the end of their rope. Even Crixus uttered, "It looks like this is going to be the last stretch of my life. It's a good thing I'm a free man during this time."
But in the midst of the desperate situation, a woman named Agnippe came up with a solution: "There are a lot of wild grape vines on this hill, and we can weave those into ropes, and then you men can slip down those ropes and attack those Roman soldiers from behind."
"Hmph, just now, you still look down on women. Without us women, it is you stupid men ... The big mom on the stage, who was still holding a chicken in her hand, couldn't help but say.
Spartacus took Agnippe's advice and led his warriors down the mountain with these ropes during the night, then launched a surprise attack from behind, defeating the Roman army in one fell swoop. Waving his short sword in his hand, Spartacus led the slaves after the Roman soldiers as he shouted, "Brothers, sing our song!"
So to the sound of deep and majestic music, the slaves on the stage sang one such song:
"Debout! les damnés de la terre
Debout! les forçats de la faim.."