The Play (MF/F)
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:04 pm
OK. My attempt at fiction. Please comment.
Mum had always enjoyed her acting. Am Dram as she hated it to be called had been part of her life at school and through university and then her after work relaxation. She even met my dad in a play and they would take it in turns to perform in one production whilst the other stayed home with me. Even after my dad ran off with his leading lady mum carried on, now with my Gran watching me for the rehearsal nights. I always went to see mum in her pantomimes, usually playing principal boy, but the other plays were “too dark” or too racy”. That was until I was 13. It was also when she was happy for Granny not to sit with me every night she was out.
She had described the play as a criminal comedy farce, and as she was late back after final rehearsals Gran did sit with me before hand, up to and including opening night on Thursday. On Friday night I had a front row seat in the community theatre to watch.
Mum played a rich “lady who lunches” and dressed in, well what she’d wear to work, except her dark brown slightly curly hair was in a tight bun, not her usual style, past her shoulders. Blouse, jacket, skirt, tights and heels. She joked with the other characters and her “staff”. Until the end of the first act when she was “kidnapped”.
This involved her being “dragged” from her bed wearing only an electric blue night dress, shoulder straps, no sleeves, not low cur but showed her neck and collar bones, and came to just about her knees. Her hands were tied behind her back with rope, she was blindfolded and gagged with white cloths. The first act closed with her being led off stage tied up like that.
The second act had five scenes , opening with mum still in just her nightie but now tied to a chair. In addition to her blindfold and gag she her hands were behind the chair, a rope was round her tummy and chest tying her to the chair , and her legs were tied together at ankle and knees, and she was like this for three of the five scenes. At various points she would raise her legs up and wiggle her toes as if stretching whilst tied up. She pointed her bare feet straight at the audience and showed that her soles were almost black. I don’t know why seeing my mum’s dirty bare feet should be so surprising. She, like I, never wore shoes in the house, so we were both often barefoot, and seeing mums feet was not unusual. Maybe it was seeing her dirty feet as , of course, mum was always telling me to wash and be clean etc.
This leg raising was part of the comedy , as at various times she would either kick or trip up one of her kidnappers. The plot was that there was infighting within the kidnap gang, and two other gangs who also wanted to kidnap her. Tripping them up allowed one gang member or other to get the upper hand. The second act ended with mum being “stolen” by another gang and carried uff, still tied up gagged and blindfolded in her nightie, over the shoulder of a rival gang member.
At the start of act three mum had managed to give her kidnappers the slip but was still all tied up , and had to hop across the stage several times before being able to cut herself free, untie herself and reach her leading man who arrives just in time to think he’d rescued her.
The final curtain call she took her bow untied but still wearing just her electric blue nightie.
Mum had always enjoyed her acting. Am Dram as she hated it to be called had been part of her life at school and through university and then her after work relaxation. She even met my dad in a play and they would take it in turns to perform in one production whilst the other stayed home with me. Even after my dad ran off with his leading lady mum carried on, now with my Gran watching me for the rehearsal nights. I always went to see mum in her pantomimes, usually playing principal boy, but the other plays were “too dark” or too racy”. That was until I was 13. It was also when she was happy for Granny not to sit with me every night she was out.
She had described the play as a criminal comedy farce, and as she was late back after final rehearsals Gran did sit with me before hand, up to and including opening night on Thursday. On Friday night I had a front row seat in the community theatre to watch.
Mum played a rich “lady who lunches” and dressed in, well what she’d wear to work, except her dark brown slightly curly hair was in a tight bun, not her usual style, past her shoulders. Blouse, jacket, skirt, tights and heels. She joked with the other characters and her “staff”. Until the end of the first act when she was “kidnapped”.
This involved her being “dragged” from her bed wearing only an electric blue night dress, shoulder straps, no sleeves, not low cur but showed her neck and collar bones, and came to just about her knees. Her hands were tied behind her back with rope, she was blindfolded and gagged with white cloths. The first act closed with her being led off stage tied up like that.
The second act had five scenes , opening with mum still in just her nightie but now tied to a chair. In addition to her blindfold and gag she her hands were behind the chair, a rope was round her tummy and chest tying her to the chair , and her legs were tied together at ankle and knees, and she was like this for three of the five scenes. At various points she would raise her legs up and wiggle her toes as if stretching whilst tied up. She pointed her bare feet straight at the audience and showed that her soles were almost black. I don’t know why seeing my mum’s dirty bare feet should be so surprising. She, like I, never wore shoes in the house, so we were both often barefoot, and seeing mums feet was not unusual. Maybe it was seeing her dirty feet as , of course, mum was always telling me to wash and be clean etc.
This leg raising was part of the comedy , as at various times she would either kick or trip up one of her kidnappers. The plot was that there was infighting within the kidnap gang, and two other gangs who also wanted to kidnap her. Tripping them up allowed one gang member or other to get the upper hand. The second act ended with mum being “stolen” by another gang and carried uff, still tied up gagged and blindfolded in her nightie, over the shoulder of a rival gang member.
At the start of act three mum had managed to give her kidnappers the slip but was still all tied up , and had to hop across the stage several times before being able to cut herself free, untie herself and reach her leading man who arrives just in time to think he’d rescued her.
The final curtain call she took her bow untied but still wearing just her electric blue nightie.