12/06/2011 23:28:00
Lucky Luke
by
Bill Roberts
Smashwords Edition
* * * * *
Published by:
Bill Roberts on Smashwords
Amdram
Copyright (c) 2011 by Bill Roberts
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Jackie Shanahan was cast in the role of the maid. It was not one of the lead roles, but a significant one with many entrances and exits which suited Jackie extremely well as she loved making an entrance. Mrs Bennett the director found Jackie very irritating indeed and during rehearsals made many crushing remarks none of which had any crushing effect on Jackie since she was fifteen years old and most of them went straight over her head. Lev Strauss, the Jewish dentist who played the male lead, referred to Jackie as a kugel but a lot of Waverton folk had never heard the term.
Antoine Antonievic had been cast in the very minor role of the German Doctor who walks onto the stage where the young patient is surrounded by her grieving family. The Doctor applies a stethescope and feels a fluttering pulse before intoning a dire prognosis. At this there is a deathly hush: such a beautiful young girl, so full of promise. The Doctor then slowly packs his bag before drawing aside with the mother as the maid bursts into tears. When the uncle goes to comfort the stricken family retainer, the Doctor takes the opportunity to discreetly retire from the room.
A tiny role, but everyone agreed Antoine had made it a cameo. His deep, sombre voice had echoed sadly through the hushed hall, giving the perfect atmosphere to the most poignant scene in the play.
The part of the Doctor had in fact been a headache for the Director, as none of the Waverton locals with any ability at all had seemed willing to take it on. Antoine had been "discovered" at the Tennis Club, tracked down to his office in the local library where Mrs Bennett had auditioned him in a back room one quiet weekday morning. She had been delighted. Other minor roles she was prepared to compromise on, but not this one. True, Antoine's east European accent was not exactly what the script required. But a quick edit would fix that.
Antoine was new to the town, but had managed to recommend himself to the locals by saying nothing at all about the country he came from while listening intently and sympathetically to everything he was told about Waverton, Rural Life, Queensland Country and the Rights and Wrongs of Modern Australia. He took to theatre like a duck to water. After three rehearsals he needed no further direction. No-one knew anything about him and as he was a quiet person with only a very small role, their curiosity was not much aroused.
But Jackie's curiosity which was always aroused was all themore so in the case of Antoine. His milky skin with his rather thin beard, as she had recently read in a story, was like water through the reeds, his lips which were redder than most lips in Waverton and his lashes which were longer, together with his reserved manner, all made a mystery which she was eager to solve. She pounced on him at the second rehearsal and was indignant, almost outraged, when he smilingly refused to tell her how old he was.
"I'll find out whether you tell me or not," she declared. He smiled.
"You won't tell me because you're embarrassed because you're still a teenager," she offered.
At this he laughed out loud.
When Antoine didn't turn up for the third rehearsal Jackie went to Mrs Bennett.
"I told him we won't need him until the first dress rehearsal," she explained. "He only has three lines, you know."
Jackie stalked off. She was deliberately late for all her entrances that night.
The play itself was a British Evergreen, chosen by the Selection Committee of the Waverton Repertory Society in spite of a the protests of small but vocal group who seemed to think there were Australian plays which would answer equally well. But "Caroline's Last Wish" was simple, ageless (sort of), placeless (almost), did not call for any expensive sets or costumes, contained no offensive or questionable material and, most importantly, seemed unlikely to impose any great burden on the acting talents of the business and professional community from which the society traditionally cast most of its chunky roles. It was in fact an evergreen only by virtue of the existence throughout the English speaking world of groups exactly like the Waverton Reps.
The play was a roaring success. The whole town turned out to see it, and parties of people drove more than an hour from other country centres. Dwindling coffers were filled again and the members of the old school, especially old Mrs Bennet, were vindicated.
Some of the success, it is true, could be ascribed to the formidable publicity machine behind the production. Lev Strauss the extrovert dentist sold over two hundred tickets all by himself. But nothing should be taken away from the performance of the cast. Enthusiasm, energy and emotion more than made up for what, even to an untutored eye, was a noticeable lack of assurance and finesse.
Traditionally, the high point in the brief but intense seasons of the Waverton Reps is the party after the final Saturday night performance. This Saturday, flushed with success, the company is in the mood for celebration. The party is thrown in the Town Hall, beginning straight after the last curtain call (of which there were three, almost a record). Chairs are cleared to make a dance floor, someone wheels in two gigantic speakers, and willing hands drag forth brimming eskies from the change room.