Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar Read Free Book Online Page B

sixty and so trained a half century ago. Theo is married to comely Anne, the actor and manager Will Beeston’s daughter, and she is forever patching everyone’s costumes and blacking their boots. Teddy is delicately featured, sweet-tempered, and very fond of Theo.
Nicholas (Nick) Burt:
also trained to play ladies but plays the hero very well (a good thing, since he is well over six feet high). He is pleased that King Charles has brought height back into fashion.
Michael Mohun:
also a leading man but smaller and somewhat owlish. He is married to Theo’s daughter Eliza.
Robert (Rob) Shatterell:
lives quite close to us in Playhouse Yard.
William Cartwright:
haven’t met him yet.
The Actresses
Mrs. Ann (Nan) Marshall and Mrs. Rebecca (Becka) Marshall:
sisters. Becka is the elder. Apparently, they are the daughters of a Presbyterian minister. One would never guess with their lewd talk and constant flirting. They are neither subtle nor pretty enough to make it endearing.
Mrs. Elizabeth Weaver:
the eldest of the women. She takes pains to hide her enormous hands and feet.
Mrs. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Knep:
small and bird-like. Teddy says she has a risqué past, but I have yet to see evidence of it. She does have an invalid husband who is always gambling away her money.
Mrs. Kathleen (Kitty) Mitchell:
pretty brunette with a sweet disposition and a fine actress (specialising in doomed heroines) but softly spoken and
impossible
to hear beyond the pit.
Mrs. Margaret (Peg) Hughes:
direct, popular, bright, and full of fun. And, they say, the first woman to act upon the stage—Desdemona.
Later
    This afternoon, Peg and Teddy heard me on the stairs and called me in to join them in the tiring room. Teddy was having trouble fixing his wig (he swears his head is too small to carry off a man’s wig, but I thought he looked splendid), and Peg needed me to help lace her into her silk wings. I did my best to appear nonchalant, but in truth I was delighted. Everything about their world fascinates me.
    Note
—Peg loved the new way I tied her wings (crossed over in the back with a bow) and has asked me to help her dress again tomorrow!

When I Glimpse Grandeur

June 7, 1663 (Whitsunday)
    In the tiring rooms:
    Theo, who tried to sit quietly while Teddy painted his face with Venetian ceruse, announced, “The queen is with child.” Teddy heralded his announcement with trumpet noises and ended up spitting on Lizzie.
    Kitty, applying more
crayon bleu
to her eyelids, looked up and said, “Maybe now she will settle in and stop being so … so … foreign.”
    “She
is
foreign,” said Theo, trying not to laugh and crack his face. Teddy gave him a stern look. “It’s not her fault. But she does seem to be adjusting. Still no ale but at least she has changed her dreadful hair.”
    “Is it true?” asked Kitty, outlining the delicate veins on her bosom. “What he said when he saw her?” She turned to me. “Too much?”
    “Maybe overdone just here,” I offered, wiping the harsh blue stripe off her throat—Kitty’s eyesight is not good. “What who said when he saw her?”
    Teddy reached for a fresh pot. “Ugh, you don’t know? Bonnie Charlie. He said that instead of a beauty they had brought him a bat. Theo, honestly, if you don’t sit still, I will leave you to do this on your own, and then where will you be?”
    “No! He didn’t! Because her hair…”
    Theo, between clenched teeth, said, “Well, when she first arrived it did look like she might—”
    “Take flight?” Teddy quipped, flapping his brushes in the air like great bat wings and getting powder on Lizzie.
“Someone
has had a word with her, thank goodness. She is wearing it
à la négligence
now—very chic.”
    “Bravo, Braganza!” Theo cried without moving his lips.
    “And now she will have a baby,” I said, handing Teddy Theo’s wig and taking up my basket. “She must be so relieved.”
    Teddy licked his thumb and pasted the wig to Theo’s head. “Oh, I think it is