Or how they used to do it in the old days: pay a dozen or so soot-smudged orphan kids to dart back and forth throughout the performance with the script printed on signs, keeping time with the action on the stage. Might lose a few to milk-leg or dropsy but these were the mud times so at least they’re not dodging industrial machinery through a cloud of mercury and asbestos.
Or how they used to do it in the old days: pay a dozen or so soot-smudged orphan kids to dart back and forth throughout the performance with the script printed on signs, keeping time with the action on the stage. Might lose a few to milk-leg or dropsy but these were the mud times so at least they’re not dodging industrial machinery through a cloud of mercury and asbestos.