At that juncture, conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin took the stage and on cue, the crowd produced copies of his book -- "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" -- and pointed them up to the bright mid-day sun.
So the role requires not only an animal that can handle lights, microphones and an audience, but also one that can cross the stage, sit, stay and exit on cue.
Houellebecq can appear obsessed with pubescent sex; his characters frequently abhor the sexualisation of children - there is a holiday talent show here in which 13-year-old girls masturbate on stage - but they leer on cue none the less.
Then the voice: it's a big, barnstorming, PA-shattering Italian stage voice when required, then on cue it shrinks to a husky, wistful crooner's gasp.
How does running three auditoria compare to getting a stage house to crumble nightly on cue in An Inspector Calls, his sensational National calling card (his second NT production, Machinal, brought him a second successive Olivier Award) or getting Billy Elliot to dance?
His entrance was met by a standing ovation, his stage managed jokes laughed at on cue, and the audience clung on to his every word before he was marched out again immediately after his speech.
Then, on cue, they staged an incredibly loud, incredibly hokey "shoot-out" with unseen murderers in the farmhouse.
Then, on cue, they staged an incredibly loud, incredibly hokey "shootout" with unseen murderers in the farmhouse.
Right on cue, enter stage-left, a rebel group of local residents and activists who are determined to beat the developers at their own game.
