Body on the Stage (29 page)

Dennis watched the four men
assume their roles, standing taller, smiling and turning on the
charm as they went to meet their public.

Inside the bar all heads turned
as the jewelled jackets were noticed. Jessica held up a sheaf of
flyers.

“Good evening, ladies and
gentlemen. We thought we’d introduce you to the latest hot talent
to parade on the Regent Theatre stage. These are the guys from
Ladies Night
, the show that opens in two week’s time, and
ladies, you won’t want to miss seeing this show.” She handed out
flyers to everyone she could reach as they walked through. “Guys,
you’ll be able to pick up a few tricks to entertain your
girlfriends if you come along. And girls, you’ll be able to meet
the actors in person after every performance so make sure you bring
something they can sign.”

There were squeals of delight
from a table of girls in the corner. Warwick gave them a dazzling
smile in return.

Once they’d completed their tour
of the bar they regrouped outside and walked along to the next
hotel a little way up the street where the pattern was repeated.
Dennis found he was enjoying playing a role. He started acting more
and more like a minder as the evening went on.

It wasn’t until he saw two
familiar and menacing shapes in the distance that the reality of
his situation hit home. The tall blond man and heavy-set red-haired
man were standing in the half-shadow of a narrow alley watching
them, their faces pale in the orange streetlight. Dennis edged
towards Jessica and murmured quietly in her ear.

“I think we have unwanted
company.”

She followed his gaze. “OK, I’ll
call in the cavalry. No sense in taking risks.” She pulled out her
cellphone and held it clearly in view as she pressed the keys, then
spoke loudly enough for the two watchers to hear. “Detective Senior
Sergeant Matherson, please. We’re at the corner of Bridge Street
and Diana Drive and those suspects you were interested in are right
in front of us. Yes, OK, understood.” As she put away her phone the
two men melted into the shadows and disappeared.

“Shouldn’t we have kept them
under observation rather than frightened them off?” said Dennis.
“By the time Jack gets here they’ll be long gone and he’ll have a
wasted trip.”

“That’s why I didn’t actually
call him,” she said softly. “It was just a bluff to get rid of
them. We’ve got a promo tour to complete and I didn’t want to spend
the rest of the evening answering questions about those two
loons.”

Dennis’s rosy glow of security
was replaced by a chill of apprehension. “Suppose they come back?
They could still be watching us from a distance and they’ll see
that no police cars turn up.”

“Then we’ll make a genuine call
and they’ll be arrested, or questioned, or whatever Jack has to do
to keep them out of our hair.” She patted his shoulder. “Stop
worrying, Dennis, it’ll be fine. Cathy, your gym does martial arts
classes, doesn’t it? You’ll be able to deal out a few swift kicks
to soft places if push comes to shove, won’t you?”

Cathy waggled a hand to signify
only partial agreement. “I know the moves, but our combat classes
don’t actually involve direct contact with an opponent. Still, I
might be able to threaten enough to frighten them off. And if that
fails, just hand Dennis a towel.”

He shot her a horrified look. To
his relief Jessica was too distracted to question her further and
pushed them towards the car.

“Come on then, back to the limo
and off to our next destination, my happy band of thespians and
associates.”

For the rest of the evening
Dennis kept an anxious lookout, wishing he really was a minder with
an earpiece and a hefty colleague within range to help out. They
visited several more bars and hotels and his heart was in his mouth
every time, but they didn’t see the two heavies again. At last,
when the actors and costumes were safely back at the theatre,
Dennis was able to relax.

His dreams that night were
fragmented and frightening, causing him to wake sweating several
times. He hoped it was from the low-carb, high protein diet Cathy
had given him in his final week of training, but the reality of
Vincenzo’s murder and the threat from the two thugs kept intruding
on his thoughts.

Rehearsals stepped up in both
frequency and intensity. Dennis found himself wishing he wasn’t in
the last week of a major physical challenge at the same time as
trying to help a show in its final stages of production, as the
demands on his time and strength were almost overwhelming. He was
cutting back on water to dehydrate for the photo shoot and it was
already making him cranky. He was lifting the heaviest weights he’d
ever imagined possible and it was making him sore. If he had to eat
one more steamed chicken breast he was going to follow it with a
Big Mac and an entire cheesecake. Food plan be damned! And on top
of that was the worry about Cathy’s financial problems and all the
troubles at the gym. He almost wished he was still leading his
quiet, uneventful life as a housebound slob.

Tech week. Dennis had heard the
words spoken in tones of dire foreboding for the previous few days
but had no idea what the fuss was about. It was just another week
of getting through work and training and rehearsals as far as he
was concerned. And feeling the way he did he’d be lucky if he
lasted as far as opening night, especially as it was the day of his
after photo shoot.

Monday night was normal enough,
though there was a tension in the air that even Dennis could pick
up. The actors seemed edgy, almost worried. Thankfully they weren’t
flying into rages any more and there had been no tantrums or
walkouts, but he thought they looked, well, nervous. He supposed
that was a natural part of performing in public, and was relieved
he wouldn’t be in the line-up that would soon be strutting their
bare-assed stuff on stage. He had more than enough to cope with,
thank you very much. Adam had used him a few times during
rehearsals but Dennis was just as happy to help with other stage
crew duties and had shown an aptitude for scenery changing and
retrieving the strippers’ scattered clothing from the stage during
blackouts.

The Green Room had sprouted
curtains and partitions to make dressing rooms, and a long table
appeared covered with plain white newsprint paper, where an array
of props was set out. A whole lot of people Dennis had never seen
before turned up and seemed to be very much at home, making him
feel faintly resentful. Where had they been during the long
preparations for the show? How come they were greeted with as much
warmth and friendliness as he was when he’d been working his tail
off for weeks and they’d only waltzed in at the last minute? In a
rare moment when she was standing still, holding a coffee, he asked
Jessica about it.

“We need experienced people for
some of the staging jobs,” she explained, pointing them out. “They
might not be able to commit to the entire production run but they
can do a couple of weeks during the show. Those guys over there go
up on the fly floor and lift the backdrops, she does follow-spot,
that’s the Front of House manager, and this…” she reached out to
grab the arm of a short dark-haired man who was walking past, “this
is Gerry the fireman. He keeps this old wooden box safe for
us.”

“Ah,” said Dennis, “I’ve heard
of you, Gerry. You’re the one who’ll be helping me with all the
fainting women in the audience, apparently.”

Gerry looked down at his own
slight frame then at Dennis. “I think you’ve got more than enough
muscles for the job, mate. You’re on your own there!”

In this final week the crowd was
even bigger as the actors had their girlfriends backstage to help
with their personal grooming and presentation. It was Adam’s idea,
but Dennis wondered if the extra tension it generated was worth
it.

“Stand still, will you?” Leonie
complained to Warwick as she rubbed tanning foam onto his back and
smoothed it out. “I can’t get this even if you keep wandering
off.”

“I need a pee. Just give me two
minutes,” he snapped back.

“Well fine, if you don’t mind
looking all blotchy. Don’t blame me if it dries out while you’re in
there. I can’t fix that.” She stood looking after him with the tan
bottle in her hand.

Sherry was quiet and subdued as
she helped Mark to get into his spy costume. They were polite to
each other but Dennis sensed a restraint below the surface. Both of
them seemed to be going through the motions while worrying about
something else entirely.

Ricky had a bouncy little blonde
in tow who was having the time of her life rubbing him with oil and
checking him for zits. Her attentions kept him happily occupied and
for once he had no complaints to make.

Simon and Jayden hadn’t supplied
their own entourage so girls from the stage crew were cheerfully
doing what was necessary to complete their presentation.

“Oh I do love the theatre,” said
one happily as she smeared fake tanning lotion over Simon’s broad
shoulders.

“Yes, it’s fun, isn’t it?”
agreed the other as she carefully checked around the edges of
Jayden’s G-string for errant curls.

Adam breezed into the bustling
Green Room. “Full costumes all this week, please, or as much as
possible if some items aren’t quite ready. Clara-Jane, do you need
any more help to finish things off?”

“No thanks Adam. I’ll get the
last of the Velcro sewn on tonight and everything will be ready
tomorrow. Barring the usual rips and tears, of course.” She eyed
the actors. “I know you guys will be careful, and I do expect a bit
of wear and tear as you whip things off during a performance. Just
make sure you don’t lose any items that aren’t giveaways, OK?”

There was a chorus of agreement
at varying levels of enthusiasm.

“Right, my lovelies, can we get
into position for opening, please? Curtain up in two minutes.” Adam
headed for the stage door and there was a hurried finishing of
drinks as actors and crew scurried to get where they needed to
be.

Dennis took up position on the
OP side ready to make the first scene change which was when the
truck with the veranda was wheeled on and a few pieces of set
furnishings were put into place. He’d had to ask Tony why it was
called the OP side after puzzling over it for days.

“It stands for Opposite Prompt,”
Tony had told him. “The prompt sits over there, up in the prompt
box, so over here is Opposite Prompt. Saves confusion between left
and right.” He’d launched into a spiel about how prompts were
always on the actor’s left side of the stage in theatres around the
world, but Dennis had stopped listening by then.

His focus was on the stage, here
and now. The usual show music started playing, the house lights
dimmed, and the actors made their entrance close beside him,
laughing and arguing in their opening lines. It all sounded a bit
stale and flat after hundreds of repetitions. Dennis thought he’d
be glad never to hear the too-familiar lines again as the scene
unfolded just the way it had before, over and over. He waited
patiently until the actors finished their lines and came
offstage.

He jerked into action as the
scene change music started – “I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. He
and Tony put their shoulders to the edge of the truck and heaved it
into position then locked the wheels. They picked up the battered
sofa and carried it on, and then a props girl ran in to take the
beer crate and sundry items off it, placing them carefully for the
actors to use.

“You’ll need to be quicker than
that!” called Adam. “I don’t like long scene changes. Let’s tighten
it up. You can practise it afterwards.”

The music faded down and the
next scene began. Dennis felt a bit stung by the criticism but
shrugged it off and vowed to do better next time.

Fortunately the next change was
a simple one. The truck and assorted bits went off as quickly as
they could move them, then the fly crew lowered in a shiny foil
backdrop and Dennis put a single chair over towards the side of the
stage.

“Better,” was Adam’s verdict
from the darkened auditorium.

Phew, thought Dennis, feeling as
if he was getting to grips with things at last.

It was difficult to see what
they were doing in the dim light of the blackout as there was only
a dull glow from the safety lights in the wings. It took a few
moments for their eyes to adjust after the bright working lights
went off, so he tried covering one eye for a minute or two before
the next scene change to give himself better vision. It worked
well, and he was able to move more confidently to put in place the
many items of gym equipment specified in the script.

At the interval there was a
scrum at the stage door as every member of the cast and crew
attempted to reach the Green Room supper table first. Erica
presided over the kitchen, handing out mugs of tea and coffee to
actors first then crew. Dennis hung back until everyone else had
been served then went in search of Tony to pass on his new-found
tip about night vision.

“Oh yeah, I should have told you
about that,” said Tony. “We close our eyes for the last few lines
of each scene so we’re ready when the lights go out. Sorry, mate.
Good on you for thinking of it though. We’ll make a crewman of you
yet.”

Once the play part of the show
had run its course and the strip routines had begun, Dennis had to
be on his toes watching from the wings as the various items of
clothing landed across the stage. It seemed as if none of the
actors could hit the same spot twice, with anything. He had to
memorise what went where and plan a run to pick them all up as
efficiently as possible during the blackout. He had a mortal fear
of being caught on stage like a rabbit in the headlights if the
lights came up while he was still scrambling after a pair of
undies. It was a while before he realised the stage manager was
watching for his return and cueing the lights once all was
clear.