The Strangling on the Stage (10 page)

‘What?' came the puzzled reply.

‘Davina asked me if I would.'

‘Er?'

‘Jude, will you step into the breach and play the part of Mrs Dudgeon?'

‘Y
ou're absolutely mad,' said Carole. ‘What on earth do you want to get involved with that lot for?'

‘They're harmless.'

That was greeted by a customized Carole Seddon ‘Huh.'

‘And they're stuck for someone to play Mrs Dudgeon. It's not going to take much time out of my life.'

‘Not “much time”? Rehearsals three days a week? That sounds like quite a big commitment to me. You wouldn't catch me doing it. I couldn't afford the time.'

For a moment Jude was tempted to ask what her neighbour couldn't afford the time
from
. Although Carole always carried an air of extreme busyness, it was sometimes hard to know what she actually
did
all day … apart from keeping High Tor antiseptically clean, completing the
Times
crossword and taking Gulliver for long walks on Fethering Beach.

But Jude didn't give voice to her thoughts. The look of distaste on Carole's face suggested that her neighbour's involvement in
The Devil's Disciple
had brought back atavistic fears of ‘showing off' and traumatic memories of being The Ox in the School Nativity Play.

‘I just thought I could help them out,' said Jude.

Another ‘Huh. Well, I still think you're out of your senses. It's one thing lending them your chaise longue. Lending yourself is something else entirely.'

Suspicion appeared in the pale-blue eyes behind the rimless glasses. ‘And you're not joining them because of that man?'

‘Which man?' asked Jude, though she knew who Carole meant.

‘That smooth talker who you met for a drink last week.'

Jude grinned. ‘I can assure you my taking the part has nothing to do with Ritchie Good. If I'm doing it for anyone other than myself, then I'd say it was Storm Lavelle – she's the one who asked me. In fact, thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if Ritchie Good is rather annoyed by my arrival in the company.'

‘Oh?'

‘Because when we met I did prove rather resistant to his charms. He's not used to women reacting like that to him, and I don't think he likes it very much.'

‘Huh.'

‘Though actually, Carole, there is another reason why I want to be involved in this production.'

‘Oh really? What's that?'

‘Hester Winstone. I'm still rather worried about her … particularly since meeting her husband. I'd quite like to keep an eye on Hester.'

‘Well, rather you than me, Jude.' Carole positively snorted. ‘The day I get involved in amateur dramatics you have my full permission to have me sectioned.'

So it was that Jude took over the part of Mrs Dudgeon in the SADOS' production of
The Devil's Disciple
. She had an early evening healing session booked on the Thursday, so didn't attend her first rehearsal till the Sunday. Sensitive to atmosphere, she could feel the definite air of triumph emanating from Ritchie Good. He was pleased to have seen off Elizaveta Dalrymple.

Nor was he the only one who seemed relieved by the old woman's absence. Davina Vere Smith, despite her reputation as a ‘close chum' of Elizaveta, was relaxed and apparently had given up any pretence that she was in charge of the production. She meekly took on board Ritchie's notes and suggestions, even when they applied to performances other than his own. The actor was yet again doing a play on exactly the terms he desired.

Davina accepted all that, but what did annoy her was the regular list of absentees from every rehearsal. Two were involved in a Charity Marathon and one had shingles.

Olly Pinto, self-appointed toady to Elizaveta Dalrymple, did not leave the production, as Storm had suggested he might. But all the time there was something chippy about him, especially in relation to Ritchie Good. He grimaced a lot behind Ritchie's back, and muttered words of dissent at a level that was not quite audible.

Olly also talked a lot about Elizaveta and Freddie Dalrymple. He had been fortunate enough to meet the blessed Freddie just before he died, and reminiscences of the two of them were constantly on his lips. Elizaveta Dalrymple may have walked out of the production, but Olly Pinto ensured that no one in the
Devil's Disciple
company was allowed to forget her.

Able to observe everything at close hand, Jude was again struck by Storm Lavelle's talent. She really was making something of Judith Anderson. Since Jude didn't have her own transport, Storm ferried her to and from rehearsals in her Smart car – Fethering was virtually on the route from Hove. And in the course of those journeys the two women talked a lot – well, to be more accurate, Storm talked and Jude listened a lot. All her friend talked about was the play and how she was approaching the part of Judith Anderson. So far, she seemed too preoccupied with her acting to waste any energy throwing herself at Ritchie Good. Which was a considerable relief.

But Jude did tend to arrive at rehearsals in a state of mental exhaustion from all the listening she'd had to do.

Jude's observations of Hester Winstone at rehearsals were less encouraging. The prompter still seemed very nervous and unhappy. Both Ritchie and Neville Prideaux virtually ignored her and, having met Mike, Jude didn't reckon Hester was getting much support at home either. She tried to be friendly, but her suggestions of going for a drink together at the Cricketers after rehearsals were met with polite refusals. Hester Winstone was continuing to do her job as prompter, but apparently no longer wished to be involved in the social side of SADOS.

And then of course Jude herself had to get back to the idea of acting. The stuff she had done in the past had arisen directly out of her work as a model. There's an enduring idea amongst agents and producers that someone beautiful enough to be photographed professionally must also be able to act. Though it can work in the cinema where short takes and clever editing can disguise complete lack of talent, the inadequacy of models is more likely to be exposed by a full evening on the stage of a theatre.

But Jude had actually been quite good, she had discovered a genuine aptitude for acting, and she was surprised at how much she enjoyed coming back to it and playing Mrs Dudgeon. Also, in her early twenties she had been cast only for her beauty – in other words in straight roles. She had suspected back then that the actors in character parts were having more fun and, as Mrs Dudgeon, she found that to be true. There was a great freedom to be derived from playing a crotchety old curmudgeon, so different from her own personality.

Jude was unsurprised that Ritchie Good made no further attempt to come on to her, and indeed behaved as if their meeting in the Crown and Anchor had never happened. Any attraction she might have felt towards him quickly dissipated in the course of rehearsals. Seeing what a control freak he was in his discussions with Davina Vere Smith – they had long since ceased to be arguments – Jude was turned off by his egotism.

But she remained intrigued by him. There was something about his personality that didn't ring true, something that had struck her in the Crown and Anchor and had only been reinforced by further acquaintance. His habit of coming on to women was clearly a knee-jerk reaction, but Jude wondered how far he wanted any kind of relationship to develop. Had she proved more amenable when they met in the pub, seemed keener on spending time with him, would they have ended up under her duvet in Woodside Cottage that evening? She somehow doubted it.

Neville Prideaux, Jude could see as she watched him at rehearsals, was a more subtle operator. Jude kept remembering that it was Ritchie who'd chatted up Hester Winstone, but it was Neville who had actually gone to bed with her. He didn't have Ritchie's obvious attractiveness, but maybe he was the more ruthless seducer.

Since his character of General Burgoyne only appeared in Act Three of
The Devil's Disciple
, Neville was not at as many rehearsals as most of the company. As an actor, Jude found him impressive technically, though she wasn't moved by him. But perhaps that was the right way to play General Burgoyne. The right way to play Shaw, anyway. His characters were all, in the view of many playgoers, more like mouthpieces for opinions than people one could engage with on an emotional level.

The impression Neville Prideaux gave out of orderliness and detachment was strengthened by the time Jude spent with him during the inevitable post-rehearsal sessions in the Cricketers. She kept being reminded of Ritchie Good's rather bitchy comments about how, during his days as a schoolmaster, he'd run the drama department like his own ‘private fiefdom'. Neville was probably as much of a control freak as Ritchie, but the characteristic manifested itself in different ways. He never took issue with Davina at rehearsals, meekly taking her notes and doing what she told him, but he still contrived to play General Burgoyne exactly the way in which he wanted to play the character.

One evening in the Cricketers Jude was with Neville Prideaux when the subject of Elizaveta Dalrymple's defection came up. ‘Have you known her long?' asked Jude. ‘Were you with SADOS in the early days?'

‘Oh, good heavens, no. I only joined up after I retired … what, six years ago.'

‘And I gather you have some kind of role as the society's dramaturge?'

‘It's nothing as formal as that. Nothing official. It's just that there aren't perhaps that many people round SADOS who know a great deal about drama, and having spent my entire career researching and exploring the subject, I do feel I have something to contribute.'

‘Well, it's nice to have a hobby in retirement.'

Jude's words had been no more than a bland conversation-filler, but Neville Prideaux reacted to them with some vehemence. ‘I hardly have time for hobbies,' he retorted. ‘I'm busier since I've been retired than I ever was as a teacher.'

‘Oh?'

‘I run workshops and drama classes. And then of course there's
my own writing
.'

He spoke of this with some awe, which made Jude feel perhaps she ought to know about something he'd written. Better to confess ignorance, though. ‘Sorry, I don't know about your writing … except Ritchie said you'd written some lyrics for the SADOS' panto. Is that the kind of stuff you do?'

‘Oh, good heavens, no. That's just recreational stuff. No, basically I'm a playwright.'

‘Ah. Have you written lots of plays?'

‘Not as many as I would have wished. There was no time when I was teaching, so I've only really been able to concentrate on it in the last six years.'

‘With any success?'

‘Oh, I've had some very positive responses,' Neville Prideaux replied. Jude didn't think she was being too cynical to read this answer to her question as a ‘No'.

‘And,' he went on, ‘the SADOS' Play Selection Committee are very keen to do one of my plays next season, but I'm not convinced that that's a very good idea.'

‘Oh? Why not?'

‘Well, I just feel a production down here might be too low-key. I think the play would probably benefit from exposure in a larger arena.'

Like the West End? thought Jude. But she didn't ask the question. She was already getting a pretty clear view of the dimensions of Neville Prideaux's ego.

‘And what's the play about?' she asked.

‘Oh, there are a lot of themes,' he said rather grandly. ‘It's set in a school – or apparently set in a school.' Well, that's the only setting you know, thought Jude. ‘But obviously the school has considerable symbolic resonance.'

‘Obviously,' she echoed, prompting Neville to look at her rather sharply, assessing whether she might be sending him up. Jude's face maintained an expression of total innocence which had proved very useful to her over the years.

‘Anyway,' said Neville, ‘it's very difficult to talk about one's work – particularly in the drama. A play can only be fully realized and judged when it is acted out in front of an audience.'

Jude nodded agreement. ‘And how do you think the current one's going?'

‘Play?
The Devil's Disciple
?'

‘Yes.'

‘Well, I think it gets better in Act Three.' When the character of General Burgoyne comes in, was Jude's thought – i.e. when you're on stage. ‘And I think Ritchie's losing a lot of the nuance in Dick Dudgeon's character – particularly in Act One.'

‘I thought he was coming across quite strongly.'

‘Oh, yes, it's a competent performance, one can't deny that. Ritchie has a few acting tricks and tics to wheel out. But every part he plays is exactly the same. He never gets below the surface of a character.'

‘But I thought that was the right way to play Shaw. His characters don't have great emotional depth.'

Neville Prideaux shook his head in sage disagreement. ‘That's a very arguable statement, Jude. I mean, yes, GBS is more in the Ben Jonson tradition than the Shakespearean, and he looks forward to Brecht in some ways. His characters are “types” if you like, rather than psychologically complex individuals, but he doesn't go for the full Brechtian
verfremdungseffekt
. I would agree with you, there is emotional distance in Shaw's plays, but there's a high level of psychological engagement too.'

Jude felt she knew what it must have been like to be a sixth former in one of Neville Prideaux's classes.

‘And the trouble is,' he continued, ‘that Ritchie doesn't get near that psychological engagement. His Dick Dudgeon is nothing more than an assemblage of character tics. But he's not going to change. He doesn't listen to criticism. The only thing someone like Ritchie Good listens to is his own enormous ego.'

Well, it takes one to know one, thought Jude.