Swamped

It's Lee. One of the few people you remember from your time in school.

Not because you were close, mind you. More of because they were constantly getting in trouble, usually when you were near enough to get a share of the blame.

They probably joined the troupe earlier. Patterson didn't mention them when listing the new actors.

"Can you believe old man Mackenzie?" Lee grumbles. "I work all night for him and he gives me a damn penny for it. And I had to haggle pretty hard just to squeeze that out of him. Not like he's hard up, either."

"No kidding. Especially since he just sold one of his ships. I know 'cause I was sailin' it and the new boss doesn't want me around."

"No fooling? If I'd known that, I might have tried to hold out for five pennies. Then again, I got better things to do with my time."

It continues for a while. A fairly basic comedy routine where the two of them talk about how miserly Mackenzie is. And, of course, a few minutes in, a very noticeable man in a fancy coat and hat steps onstage.

And you have a hunch about how this is going to proceed. One of them will spot Mackenzie as the other is going into a full rant on what an awful person he is, and there's going to be a solid two minutes where the first one is trying to warn the other, until Mackenzie clears his throat and interrupts.

The scene proceeds more or less as you expect - one of the workers starts listing off various insults about Mackenzie's selfish, thoughtless ways.

Although... one of those insults strikes you as a little strange.