Page 119 of The Wedding Dress Repair Shop
‘Bad cat!’ I scolded, putting him back on to the floor for the second time, and he pulled a very affronted face at me, said something short and probably rude in Cat and went out, tail up.
After deleting the gobbledegook he’d left behind, I began again.
Dear Will
It was lovely to hear from you, as always, but I’m afraid I’m living way too far from London to make it practicable for you to get here and return in one day, kind thought though it was.
Although I’m now totally indifferent to Marco’s affairs – of any kind – I do see your point about building on your huge success in A Midsummer Night’s Madness with a leading role in the next Marco Parys production, if it can be turned into another box-office success.
So, here is, more or less, what I was trying to drum into Marco’s head.
He needs to follow the success of A Midsummer Night’s Madness with another supernatural thriller, because that’s what the audiences will now expect. As I said to him, just forget the clever literary allegories and allusions, tedious symbolism and all that arty stuff. This play needs to be subtly dark and chilling: the audience must be unsure if the leading female character is really turning into a swan, or if it is all in her imagination … or possibly that of the leading man – your role. We could simply be seeing what he sees – but is it real or not? Keep the audience guessing.
Is she literally the ugly duckling who turned into a swan at the end? Will she fly away – or crash?
You get the idea, anyway, Will. Like the current play, it should all be down to suggestion, atmosphere, costume, makeup and lighting.
There really should be another good role for you in it, if Marco gets it right, one where the audience won’t know if your character is the hero or the villain of the piece, till the end … and maybe not even then.
I hope that all makes sense and you can drip-feed it into him when he seems receptive.
Garland xx
37
Pattern Pieces
After I’d sent off the reply to Will’s email, I put the new sofa covers on – and very bold and beautiful they looked, too. The roses werevastand it’s no use telling me they don’t come in a blue variety, because they do and I’veseensome.
It looked like an entirely new sofa and I thought my little sitting room was coming together nicely. I liked the mish-mash of bright colours against all those creamy white walls.
Thom had told me yesterday that he’d be in his workshop this morning because he wanted to string the Maria Marten marionette, but he rang just after Simon and Pearl had left for church, to say Simon had dropped a box off with him before he left, which was for me.
‘It’s full of the patterns for marionette costumes that his grandmother made over the years, which he thought you’d find useful.’
‘I certainly will – that’s great!’
‘Shall I bring them over, or do you want to come for them? I’m about to have a break and a cup of coffee anyway, so you can join me.’
‘OK, I’ll be right over,’ I said.
Thom’s workshop door was open and Jester, who was lying just inside it, with Golightly curled up beside him, thumped his tail in welcome. Golightly ignored me.
There was no sign of Thom, but I could hear him in the back room, making coffee.
Looking round, the first thing that caught my eye was the William Corder marionette, which was hanging on one of the pegs against the wall. It was now not only jointed and strung, but had been painted – and with its glossy black hair and light brown eyes, it looked disconcertingly like Marco.
Then my eyes fell on the sections of the Maria Marten puppet, also now painted, but not yet fully strung, which lay on the bench.
Thom had given her golden hair, a simpering expression, big blue eyes and a definite look of Mirrie, so perhaps his subconscious had been busily exorcizing his demons?
‘I see you’ve finished the William Corder marionette,’ I said when Thom emerged, carrying two mugs and with a packet of chocolate Hobnobs under his arm, which I took from him before they fell.
‘Yes, that one’s finished and Maria is well on her way. The Marino family from the puppet theatre prefer the Continental style of horizontal control bars, like Bruno, so we make most of our marionettes with those, unless we get orders for the vertical type that’s more common in the UK.’
‘It’s fascinating. There’s so much I didn’t know about puppets,’ I said, carefully not mentioning the resemblance of his two most recent ones to Marco and Mirrie.
After placing the mugs on the bench, Thom bent down and hauled out a cardboard carton from underneath it, which seemed to be full of big brown envelopes.
