“Oh, well, Robina Lester is in that squad, and young David Lester hovers between Caroline and Susan, I think, so that should take care of things. There’s no real harm in Donald. He’s not like Rinkley.”
“Well,” said Jonathan, deciding to change the subject as he looked down towards the bay, for he and Yorke were standing on the top terrace, “everything seems to be in order. We are quite ready except for the chairs for the audience, and I’m told they’re coming tomorrow morning.”
“You have to hand it to Lynn. He
“That’s the beauty of having a business tycoon in charge of the arrangements, I suppose.”
“He’s done us proud in the matter of costumes, too. No expense spared and everybody delighted—and that’s a miracle in itself. He’s behaved like a gentleman and togged up the other girls as handsomely as he has his wife. How do you like your own outfit?”
“I hardly know myself in it. It was a great idea to have the court party in Elizabethan costume and the workmen in Greek tunics and sandals. As for the fairy costumes, they are out of this world.”
“Well, they would be, wouldn’t they?” said Deborah, joining them on the terrace. “Is the weather going to hold up?”
“I do hope so, but it’s plaguey hot. Could end in a thunderstorm, I suppose.”
“Not in June,” said Jonathan confidently.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed. What a self-possessed young damsel your little Rosamund is. She really makes something special of that little scene with Puck.”
“We’re lucky with that young Peter Woolidge. Not only is he marvellous in the scene with Rosamund, but his acrobatics, swinging on branches and so forth, are most spectacular.”
“Well, he’s a trained gymnast, you know.”
“How did your daughter take it when she knew you had changed her part?”
“Yolanda? Absolutely delighted. She said, ‘So now I can wear boys’ clothes and ride a pony’. I said no to the pony. I told her that the hunting-party were to come in on foot but that she would be leading a couple of bloodhounds. She was more than satisfied with that and now that she’s tried on her doublet and hose she’s in the seventh heaven. Have the ‘props’ turned up, do you know?”
“All locked away in a cupboard—swords and things and, of course, the Pyramus and Thisbe retractable dagger—and Lynn has the only key. The dagger is marvellous. Out of curiosity I tried it, first on the cellar door—I was born with a big bump of caution!—and then on myself with Lynn and his boy watching. I must say it works like a charm and really stays put. Most realistic and convincing.”
“Lynn had it specially made by a theatrical expert. Goodness knows what this production must have cost him.”
“Well, he’s made one gain out of it. Emma is a different woman since the first read-through. She absolutely blossoms now.”
“Thanks to Deborah’s coaching!”
“Oh, nonsense,” said Deborah. “She only needed a bit of encouragement.”
As, in Brian Yorke’s experience, a dress rehearsal always takes at least twice as long as the actual performance, the cast of
Marcus Lynn had engaged his own experts and came along with them at three in the afternoon to make a final test of the lighting and the sound. Deborah gave them tea at half-past four and at five Valerie Yorke brought back Rosamund and Edmund, accompanied by Ganymede and Lucien. Signora Moretti brought her dancing class, too, for the children were to be rehearsed first so that they could be in bed at a reasonable time.
Nobody made any objection to this arrangement. Young Peter Woolidge good-naturedly turned up early, having begged time off work, and played his little scene with Rosamund and, as Deborah was playing Titania, there was no difficulty about rehearsing the four who appeared in her scene with Bottom. Rinkley himself did not appear and it was not absolutely necessary that he should. He would play the scene at its proper place in the play with Deborah speaking the little that the children had to say. When the fairy songs and dances had been rehearsed, the signora would take most of her pupils back to her dance academy where their parents would collect them. Rosamund and Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed remained, of course, at the house.
The children had already seen Bottom wearing the ass’s head, for Rinkley, as well as they, had had to get used to it. It and Pyramus’s dagger were the only ‘props’ which had appeared at previous rehearsals, so there was no anxiety that at the dress rehearsal or the actual performances there would be any youthful hysteria either of laughter or fear. While the children were rehearsing, the rest of the company put on their costumes. Puck, who wore nothing but a pair of green and brown tights and a becoming cap reminiscent of the horns of a faun, had already assumed these for the scene with Rosamund. Deborah had time to change while the first scene was being played after the dancing-class had departed, and the rehearsal proper began in good time. To Brian Yorke’s superstitious horror, it went off without a hitch.
“That’s an awfully bad omen,” he said to Deborah when, well before eleven o’clock, she was dispensing snacks, cheese and wine to a relaxed and self-congratulatory company.
“Oh, nonsense, Brian,” Deborah cheerfully assured him. “See how happy and relaxed everybody is. It’s all going to be marvellous.”
“Well, I hope so,” he said dolefully, “but the dress rehearsal ought to be a complete shambles if the show is to be any good. That is theatrical tradition.” At this point the statuesque, flawlessly-proportioned Dr Jeanne-Marie Fitzroy-Delahague, who was there to collect her two little coffee-berries, came up to Brian and said:
“I know of a Hindu baby boy, Sharma Rao. His parents will lend him to be your changeling child. You wish that?”
“Well, we don’t
