Acting Up by Melissa Nathan Page A

d'oeuvres.
    She tried again. 'Are you enjoying your biggest challenge since RADA or is it proving too much, even for you?'
    Eventually Harry put down the menu.
    'On the contrary, I hope I have enough humility to admit when I was wrong.'
    Sara could hardly contain her relief and excitement.
    'What are you going to do? Where are you going to get another Lizzy Bennet at this late hour? How will you break it to the poor girl?'
    'No, I don't mean that at all,' said Harry stiffly. 'I mean exactly the opposite. She was the perfect choice. I couldn't have cast a more ideal Lizzy Bennet.'
    'Nor a more gorgeous Jane Bennet,' beamed Jack, putting his menu down and rubbing his hands together. 'I'm going to have the steak, I think.'
    'Ah yes, but Jane Bennet was never in doubt,' said Harry to Jack.
    Sara tried to pull the conversation back on track.
    'In what way is the Ugly Sister your perfect choice? Do tell, I'm fascinated,' she said, a careful lightness to her tone.
    Harry thought about it for a while.
    'Everything about her,' he said simply. 'Her temperament, her acting, her figure, her face, her eyes. She's perfect.'
    Sara found herself staring at the menu without taking any of it in. She discovered she'd lost her appetite. Damnation. She loved their foie gras.
    After the waiter took their orders, Jack started waxing lyrical about George. A thought crossed Harry's mind.
    'I do hope you're not going to do your old trick of falling in love with your leading lady and then breaking it all off the day before opening night.'
    Jack laughed, but said nothing.
    'I won't stand for any of that, you know. Not in my production,' said Harry, sipping red wine. 'I'll never forget when your Beatrice tried to punch your lights out in the final scene of Much Ado . We could have renamed that production Much Ado About Quite A Lot, Actually .'
    Jack smiled at the memory. He couldn't even remember the name of the actress now.
    'There's nothing worse than getting involved with an actress while you're in the same play as her,' lectured Harry. 'Ruins your focus.'
    Jack looked uncomfortable. 'Life's about more than focus, old chap.'
    'Not if you want to be great,' clipped Harry. 'Relationships with actresses are doomed. Biggest mistake an actor can make. Drains him of energy. He'll either be unhappy or unsuccessful.' He gulped down his wine. 'Unless of course, she's merely an advert actress. Though why anyone would want one of them is beyond me. Better not to let women in your life at all. Unfocuses you,' he repeated himself grumpily. 'Present company excluded, of course,' he said as an afterthought.
    Sara wondered desperately if that included marriage.
    Jack picked at his bread and looked around the restaurant.
    'Wine's splendid,' said Charles, belching loudly.
    * * * * *
    The honeymoon period was well and truly over and Jazz now knew who in the cast she hated, who she found amusing, who she thought ridiculous, and who she liked. Purple Glasses fitted into all the first three categories. Even Jazz was surprised at how much Purple Glasses managed to irritate her. In the beginning, Jazz had maintained a cool but polite distance. But there was always some pretext Purple Glasses found for bossing Jazz around, and pretty soon Jazz could hardly look her in the eye without either laughing in her face or being downright rude. The ruder she became, the more Purple Glasses seemed to seek her out.
    'You left your fan on the wrong chair again,' said Purple Glasses after a particularly long and difficult rehearsal, a note of triumph in her voice.
    'How will I ever live with myself ?' answered Jazz, in as bitter a tone as she could muster.
    Purple Glasses ignored her and studied her notes. 'You're meant to leave it on the chair Upstage Right, not Downstage Left. How many times do I have to tell you?'
    'Since you ask, you've told me quite enough times, thanks.'
    'Well, it doesn't seem to make any difference, does it?' said Purple Glasses as if she was telling a small child