TOIL AND TROUBLE

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…

Destination: New Venus.

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.

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!