Édouard knew that Madame Madeleine was his stepmother, and their relationship was immoral, so he desperately sought to escape.
But he had no idea that Fanny, whom he was determined to take away, was his own flesh-and-blood sister!
This immense, cruel irony of fate draped the entire play in a heavy tone of ancient Greek tragedy—
The harder the characters struggled, the faster they hastened toward their destined ruin.
The audience, with this cruel, omniscient perspective, watched every choice the characters made, feeling as though they were hearing the relentless grinding of destiny's gears.
The second act concluded heavily amid Monsieur Lavalner's entrance, his command for Édouard to close the window, and the sudden intensification of the wind and thunder outside.
The moment the curtain closed, there was no applause in the Comédie-Française; people merely waited restlessly for the curtain to rise again.
"He's going to take Fanny away! God, he doesn't know she's his sister!"
"What will Madame Madeleine do? She looks completely mad!"
"This storm… it's not just the weather!"
"Hurry! The next act! I can't wait to know what happens next!"
The audience could barely settle in their seats.
They gathered in the corridors and lobbies, discussing and speculating intensely.
Critics also abandoned their usual reserve, huddling together to analyze the play's tragic power and complex humanity.
Backstage, Director Émile Perrin paced excitedly, listening to the clamor outside.
He knew that The Thunderstorm had completely conquered Paris.
This kind of eager anticipation was the dream of any theater manager.
The brief intermission felt unusually long amidst the audience's agitation.
When the curtain finally rose again to widespread anticipation, the audience once again held its breath.
The plot of the third act moved rapidly, like storm clouds driven by a gale.
The audience first witnessed the conflict that erupted among the four family members: Guillaume, Fanny, Marcel, and Madeleine.
The greedy and cowardly Guillaume, the Madeleine who was trying to flee everything, the Marcel filled with indignation, the Fanny immersed in naive fantasy…
And on this night of heavy wind and rain, the manor's electric line was brought down by the gale.
As expected, Fanny came to Édouard to elope.
They were followed by Madeleine and Marcel.
Madeleine, who knew the truth, could only endure the pain and consent to Fanny and Édouard's elopement.
They made plans and swore oaths in the manor's drawing room, ready to escape from it all…
The audience below almost wanted to cry out.
They watched the "lovers" plan their future in the storm, their hearts filled with powerless pity for the inevitable.
Some ladies tightly covered their mouths with handkerchiefs to prevent themselves from crying out.
The gentlemen's expressions were complex, uncomfortable with the union but chilled by the destined tragic end.
However, their escape plan could not be smoothly executed.
Like a ghost, Madame Madeleine appeared on the drawing room staircase.
This time, she was dressed in a dark gown, her face deathly pale in the lightning flashes, but her eyes burned with a wild frenzy.
She intercepted Édouard and Fanny as they were about to leave, even bringing along her son, Antoine.
Every word she spoke was an accusation of Édouard's betrayal.
Finally, she roused Lavalner.
At this moment, all conflicts, all secrets, all the tangled love and hate, sin and retribution…
were compressed by the increasingly fierce storm into this luxurious yet suffocating drawing room.
The audience held their breath, their hearts pounding.
They knew all the clues were in place, and all disguises would be utterly ripped away tonight.
The long-foretold, all-destroying "Thunderstorm" was not merely a natural phenomenon, but a total eruption of humanity and fate.
The secret was about to be revealed, and the tragedy was unavoidable. Everyone stared intently at the stage, awaiting the moment of final judgment…
[Lavalner: "How—(To Madeleine) Madeleine, you have returned after all."
Madame Madeleine (shocked): "What?"
Madeleine (panicked): "No, no, you are mistaken."
Lavalner(regretful and resigned): "Madeleine, I thought you would come back."
Madeleine (in great pain): "No, no! (Looking down) Ah! Heaven!"
Madame Madeleine: "Madeleine? What, she is Madeleine?"
Lavalner: "You don't have to pretend to ask me. She is Édouard's mother, the woman who died thirty years ago. Édouard's mother!"]
These few sentences exploded like thunder in the drawing room, reverberating deafeningly in the minds of the nearly two thousand spectators in the Comédie-Française.
Despite the foreboding, the impact of the secret being so plainly exposed was still devastating.
A collective gasp of shock arose from the audience.
Several ladies' fans clattered to the floor, unnoticed.
All eyes were glued to the stage, watching how the exposed truth shattered every person on it.
Just then, a flash of lightning, brighter than any before, ripped across the sky, followed instantly by a clap of thunder that seemed to shake the ceiling!
Nikola Tesla's arc lamps and the amplifiers installed beneath the stage achieved their maximum effect at this moment.
The light of the lightning was so intensely pale that some audience members instinctively closed their eyes; the thunder was so real and violent that it felt as if it had exploded on the theater's roof.
This was no longer a stage effect; it was the arrival of divine retribution!
In this chaos of light and sound, Fanny, whose spirit had completely broken, let out a piercing scream and rushed out of the drawing room, into the gale and rain outside.
The stage lights dimmed, focusing on the people in the drawing room who were now in utter confusion.
After a short, suffocating silence, a sharp, buzzing sound was heard.
Then, a servant scrambled into the drawing room, soaking wet and utterly terrified.
[Servant: "Master!"
Lavalner: "Speak quickly, what is it?"
Servant: "Fanny… is dead…"
Lavalner: "And Antoine?"
Servant: "Also… also dead."
Lavalner: "No, no, ho… how?"
Servant: "Fanny touched the live wire. The second young master didn't know and quickly pulled her away, and they were both electrocuted."
Lavalner: "This cannot be. This, this, — this cannot be, this cannot be!"]
The news of Antoine and Fanny's electrocution was the final hammer blow, shattering the last psychological defense of all the characters on stage and all the spectators below.
Several female audience members, at the moment the servant announced the deaths, let out a short sob, then rolled their eyes and fainted directly into their companions' arms.
The male spectators had also lost their usual composure.
Many were ashen-faced, their lips trembling.
Some instinctively gripped the armrests of their chairs tightly;
Even more dramatically, some suddenly stood up, clutching their hair, their faces contorted in agony, as if they were no longer bystanders but members of this tragic family.
On the stage, the tragedy continued to accelerate toward complete destruction.
As everyone rushed toward the garden, Édouard stood at the drawing room door, raising the pistol—
—which his father had given him for self-defense at the mine—and pointing it at his temple…
"Bang!"
Following the gunshot, the entire theater was plunged into a deathly silence.
Even the sound of the wind and rain outside seemed to halt at this moment.
At this point, the destruction was complete.
All the young lives were gone—Antoine died of innocence and kindness, Fanny died of ignorance and despair, and Édouard died of guilt and disillusionment.
In the manor, only three broken, aging souls remained—
Lavalner, who had lost all his children; Madeleine, whose mind was completely shattered; and Madame Madeleine, who had lost her lover, stepson, and biological son, and was sinking into madness.
The deep crimson curtain descended heavily and slowly amidst this dead silence, frenzy, and ultimate void.
The Thunderstorm had ended.
After the curtain call, the Comédie-Française was engulfed in an extremely oppressive silence.
This silence was the highest tribute to the power of tragedy!
(End of Chapter)