Read Online The Rain-Soaked Bride by Guy Adams - Free Book Online Page B

supposed to be open to industry professionals only. And backstage, every actor looks at another actor’s mum and wonders if she’s going to give them their big break. It’s a bit miserable really.’
    ‘Well,’ said Toby, loudly, in his West Coast accent, ‘I think some of them show real promise. Look at the eyebrows on this kid, he’s got the makings of a star, I tell you.’
    ‘You’ve just made every male actor behind that curtain wet themselves, you awful bastard,’ said Shining with a grin.
    Eventually the show started and they were treated to a procession of couples performing three-minute duologues from various plays. It was, for the most part, awful. Desperate actors hurling their biggest performances against the poky walls of the little room. Lots of standing up and walking purposelessly across the tiny stage in an attempt to look dramatic. There is nothing quite so sad as an actor fighting for your attention.
    When Cassandra came onstage, Toby was surprised to see that she appeared to be dressed as a giant insect, pipe-cleaner antennae bobbing as she wrestled with her fellow actor in an apparent attempt to eat him. Ninety seconds later she had walked off proclaiming herself to be Queen of Colony Nineteen. After a few silent moments, her co-star crawled off on his hands and knees.
    ‘What the hell did I just see?’ whispered Toby.
    Shining looked at his notes. ‘“A theatrical adaptation of Saul Bass’s 1974 film,
Phase IV
, written and directed by Cassandra Grace”,’ he announced.
    ‘Right.’
    Toby stared in silence at the rest of the show.
    c) Leicester Square, London
    Once the show had finished, Cassandra burst into the auditorium trailing curly blonde hair and scarves.
    ‘We need to go,’ she told Shining. ‘If I stay in this room any longer, I am likely to kill someone.’ With that she stormed back out again, and Toby and Shining were forced to jog after her, pushing their way past disappointed-looking actors who had been hoping to network with the only people in the building that looked like they might actually work in the industry.
    ‘I don’t believe it,’ one was heard to mutter. ‘You see that? They only went chasing after fucking ant girl. I think I’ll just retire.’
    By the time they got on the street, Cassandra had bought herself a cup of ice cream from the Häagen-Dazs café and was shovelling it into her mouth where it vied for space with insults for her fellow actors.
    ‘They just don’t know real creativity!’ she was saying. ‘I mean … Ibsen? Chekhov? Do we really need to sit through more amateurs being miserable in Russian? I was engaging with the audience! I was offering something fresh!’
    ‘You certainly were, darling,’ Shining assured her. ‘It was a revelation.’
    ‘I’m wasted,’ she said.
    ‘On what?’ Toby muttered.
    ‘Oh,’ said Cassandra, suddenly stopping and pointing at him with her little plastic spoon, ‘I don’t even know you.’
    ‘This is my colleague, Terry,’ said Shining. ‘He started working with me about eight months ago.’
    ‘I see,’ said Cassandra, screwing up her eyes as if this would help her see right into Toby’s soul.
    He tried to see beyond the frizzy hair and glasses, the layers of curiously mismatched clothes and the ice cream. He guessed she was in her late teens, early twenties. She seemed to be the sort of person who had yet to settle on the personality she was after so was going to try on all of them to see what might stick.
    ‘I like him,’ she said. ‘He’s nice. Terry’s a stupid name, though. What’s his real one?’
    ‘Don’t start,’ Shining told her. ‘You know how this works.’
    ‘Oh yes!’ Cassandra laughed, spinning around the square like a ballet dancer. ‘Spies and their silly games.’ She swooped in on Toby, put her arm in his and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘My name’s not Cassandra either.’ She looked at him. ‘You’ll probably fall in