He sends the court Fool to Ankh-Morpork to recruit the same acting company that Tomjon was given to, which now resides in the Dysk Theatre on the river Ankh.

The witches cast a spell in the middle of the play that causes the actors to portray the killing of the king truthfully, and the audience sees that the Duke and Duchess are guilty of killing Verence I. Felmet finally succumbs to insanity and stabs several people with a retracting stage dagger, before tripping and falling to his death in the Lancre Gorge.

[2] The text makes overt references to the Marx Brothers, The Tramp of Charlie Chaplin, and Laurel and Hardy, as well as the life and works of William Shakespeare.

It borrows themes and sayings from Macbeth, including "when shall we three meet again", the "dagger of the mind", "out damned spot", the three witches, and the title of the novel itself; from Hamlet, including the ghost of the dead King and the play within a play; "all the world's a stage" from As You Like It; and Duke Felmet descending into madness in the company of his Fool, derived from King Lear.

Tomjon reads some of Hwel's rejected ideas, which echo pantomime dialogue, the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Waiting for Godot.