The Vagabond Clown

"This was no random act of malice," proclaims stage manager Nicholas Bracewell, after an audience brawl disrupts the latest comedic performance by Westfield's Men. If there was any doubt of design behind this affray, it's quickly dispelled by the discovery of a dead spectator in the gallery. So who wielded the dagger, and why? Bracewell and the other members of his troupe haven't the time to find out, before they are ousted from their usual stage in Elizabethan London and forced to take to the road for their income, beginning a tour of the Kent countryside that will bring them even more trouble than they could typically find in the capital.