Interesting.

They were led into the large, beautiful amphitheater by a slender, waifish golem and escorted to their front row seats. As they sat down, the lights dimmed and another golem appeared onstage.

"For your pleasure, tonight's play will be a showing of Edward Albee's Zoo Story."

She bowed and left the stage and the curtain rose on two benches facing the audience. Sitting on the right bench was a tall, slim man with thick glasses reading a book. After growing accustomed to the stiff formality of the myriad of servants he'd seen, Ross was slightly unsettled to see him casually flipping pages and scratching his nose.

A short, waifish man entered the stage with a strange gait. "I've been to the zoo!" he confidently proclaimed.

"Have you seen this one?" Ross whispered to Madison.

"Pause!" Ruth cried and the actors froze. "You don't have to whisper. They're here for us and they don't care. Talk over them, make fun of them, throw stuff - this is how theatre should be."

"I haven't," Madison responded. Ruth commanded them to resume the play.

Ross had trouble keeping his mind on the play. Ruth's callous disregard of Madison had unsettled him, even it was perfectly in keeping with what he knew to be true. While the men engaged in a mannered argument in front of them, he rubbed Madison's arm. The skin felt so real; how could it possibly be dirt?

"Pause!" Ruth shouted again. "New actors. Make them women!"

The two golems wordlessly stood and shuffled offstage. A moment later, two similarly-built women were in the same positions with the same props. Ruth turned to Ross.

"Any requests?"

Ross stammered, not sure what to ask for. "I don't know. Uh, can one them do a voice or something?"

"Give Jerry a Boston accent and give Peter a lisp!" Ruth commanded. "Resume!"

"Don't facking 'my deah fellow' me!" the newly Bostonized and female Jerry cried, to which Peter lispingly apologized. The play continued just as it had been, as though nothing was changed; the pacing and dynamics were completely unaltered by this strange interlude.

They sat in silence for a while longer, watching the play. Ruth was chuckling at Peter's flustered rants coming from a lisping woman. "Albee would fucking hate this," she said gleefully at one point. It was clear that her enjoyment came more from altering the play than from the play itself. Ross decided to make a gamble hoping to impress her.

"Pause!" he said suddenly. "Now Peter acts like a robot and Jerry acts like Homer Simpson!"

To his relief, Ruth nodded approvingly. He ordered them to resume and they immediately reanimated.

"Oh, don't be so alarmed, Peter," the short one said in a passable Homer impression. The taller one stared at her blankly as she continued her monologue.

The rest of the play passed in much the same manner, with Ruth and Ross shouting different strange commands and the golems seamlessly following. Ross found himself becoming increasingly comfortable with this strange woman, even as the simulacrum that he fell in love with giggled woozily between them.

As the play drew to the denouement, Ruth yawned. "Pause!" she said. The golems, one acting like a pirate and the other constantly slapping her breasts, froze. "It's getting late for an old woman. I think I'm going to bed. You can finish watching this or watch something else if you want. I've instructed my staff to cater to your every whim, so don't be shy about your requests."

"Wait, can you un-pacify Madison before you go?" Ross asked.

"I can't," she said. "Only you can, remember? Why do you think I insisted you open the box? She's locked to you, so modifier scripts will only affect her if you're the one to show them to her. Personally I like her better this way, but do whatever you want."

With that, she left Ross and Madison alone in the empty theatre. The actors stood frozen in the middle of a shouting match and Madison smiled contentedly at them.