Page 59 of Kiss Me at Christmas
“I could be here by six,” said Billy, and Carly and Leo nodded in agreement.
“I finish at six but could get here for half past?” said Ricco.
“I could do half five,” Isabel said, her hand half raised when she spoke, as though she were in class.
“That’s settled, then.” Harriet gave Gideon her warmest smile. “Why don’t we start the auditions at four o’clock for those who can do earlier, and the f—”—it was on her tongue to saythe famous fivebut she stopped herself just in time—“five others, six if Sid wants to attend, can come later.”
Gideon made some throaty noises but agreed.
“Fine. Auditions to begin at four p.m. tomorrow.”
“Who decides who gets which part?” asked Isabel.
Gideon smiled cordially. “Myself, Harriet, and James…er, may I call you James?” He looked at James, who nodded. “I thank you.” He gave a small bow and smiled wetly. “We will have the final say over the casting, but in the interest of democracy, anyone may voice an opinion and be assured that it will be considered.”
Isabel nodded and Gideon carried on speaking.
“In addition to acting parts, I suggest we have four members of the chorus, taking alternate lines of narration throughout each act. It gives the narration a wonderfully otherworldly feel, as though a host of departed ghosts are looking down and chronicling us mere mortals below.”
There were murmurs of agreement, and Harriet was pleased to see the famous five nodding.
“Why don’t we do a read-through now, with all of uspresent?” asked Harriet, keen to keep this feeling of harmony going.
“An excellent idea!” Gideon crooned. “Perhaps, James, you would be so kind as to read the role of Scrooge…”
“Oh, I won’t be in the play,” James protested.
“You don’t need to be, this is merely a chance for us to bond through the words of Dickens. The theater is a sacred space, and we must become intimately acquainted with both the literature and each other if we are to dwell in its bosom.”
James nodded and shifted awkwardly in his chair. Sid sniggered loudly at the word “bosom,” and Grace tutted. Billy sucked in a breath, but Harriet caught his eye and he let it out in a huff.
“Now if we could have…you.” Gideon pointed at Ricco. “Yes, you, young man…”
“This is Ricco,” Harriet said helpfully when Ricco said nothing.
“Excellent! Ricco, if you would read for Mr. Scrooge’s nephew, and I will be one of the ‘portly gentlemen,’ if you, Douglas, might read for the other?”
Douglas, a man with jowls like a British bulldog and a pair of round-rimmed spectacles balanced on the top of a sparse yet unrepentant comb-over, nodded with enthusiasm.
“And perhaps, I don’t see why not, in this day and age. Yes, then.” Gideon was a man who spoke out his inner monologue. “Perhaps, you, Carly, my dear, would like to read for everyone’s favorite underdog, Bob Cratchit?”
“I don’t have to be Bob in the actual play, though, do I?”
“No, Carly.” Gideon gave her a grandfatherly smile.
“All right, then.”
“Marvelous. Now for the chorus, I suggest we travelclockwise around the circle, with all those who have not been assigned a character reading one sentence each of the narration. And last but not at all least, Grace, would you please be the voice of the stage directions?”
Grace gave a self-satisfied nod.
After a brief rustling of pages, the stage went silent and Gideon, using his cane as a conductor’s baton, signaled that they should begin.
Marley was dead: to begin with.
There is no doubt whatever about that.
And so they went around and around the circle. Harriet felt a shiver down her spine. Gideon was right, having all their voices speak the lines in their different tones and accents was powerful; it lent the prose an almost religious quality. She could imagine how it would feel to be sat in the audience listening to their incantations fill the auditorium. For the first time since she’d been hurled into this crazy endeavor, she could believe they’d actually make it to the stage.
