We Open on Venus

<p><strong>TOIL AND TROUBLE!</strong></p><p></p><p>The Star Company launched its new venture in classic theatrical style: they got run out of town -- on a rocket! But with the reactionary LORDS party left safely behind on Earth the traveling troupe set its sights on taking Shakespeare to the stars...</p><p></p><p>Destination: New Venus.</p><p></p><p>The name hinted at exotic delights -- but life on New Venus was thoroughly regimented by Amalgamated Petroleum a Terran-based oil cartel. And though the planet was awash in petrochemicals from the Bay of Benzene to the Gulf of Oil none of life's little pleasures -- air water -- came cheap in this company town.</p><p></p><p>Enter the Star Company with its incendiary mix of veteran troupers innocent ingénues and volatile prima donnas. When Amalgamated approved a production of MacBeth -- to be staged in the high school gymnasium -- the actors bravely took to the boards in the name of the Bard. Little did anybody imagine how much trouble those three witches would stir up!</p>