"Have Tybalt's comments engraved on a board, and hang them outside the theatre with all our good notices. There's nothing that increases queues like a demand something should be banned. Remember the houses they got after the Lector of Sigmar tried to suppress Bruno Malvoisin's Seduced by Slaaneshi or The Baneful Lusts of Diogo Briesach?"
Bruno Malvoisin, sometimes misspelled as Bruno Malvosin, was a Bretonnian playwright of the previous century, infamous for his controversial and scandalous works. His plays were notorious for their themes, leading to censorship and suppression by imperial authorities.[1a][3a]
Rumours say the ghost of Bruno Malvoisin haunts the Vargr Breughel Memorial Playhouse theatre. Once the theatre’s writer-in-residence, he gradually succumbed to Tzeentch’s lure while working on a morality play, and his work became corrupted and decadent. It is said he was either driven out of town by an angry mob or disappeared into the tunnels beneath the playhouse in the form of a Daemon, there to create his magnum opus.[3a]
History[]
Bruno Malvoisin was a famous playwright and director who worked in Altdorf. During his youth, an unnamed usher's apprentice recalled that Malvoisin was the resident playwright of a theatre. However, he was said to have suffered under a curse, and some of his works were banned and suppressed. The emperor of the time branded one of his plays, Seduced by Slaaneshi, as obscene.[2b][2c]
Malvoisin was romantically involved with Salli Spaak, a courtesan who performed on stage for respectability. She gained celebrity, drawing audiences to her performances. She was also the mistress of Prince Nikol, the youngest brother of the emperor. The fortunes of the theatre often shifted according to Prince Nikol's favour toward her.[2d]
The Baneful Lusts of Diogo Briesach[]
Malvoisin's play, The Baneful Lusts of Diogo Briesach, was rumoured to be so salacious that it allegedly pleased Slaanesh himself. Shortly after its premiere, Malvoisin reportedly developed mutations, including a ring of tentacles around his neck. Before the witch hunters could apprehend him, he disappeared, and his fate remains unknown.[1a]
Following this, the play was declared heretical, banned, and all known copies of the first folio were burned in Altdorf's Königplatz.[1a]