2
Unlocking The Gate
Oscar was one of those rare individuals who had found celebrity at a young age. Or rather, celebrity had found him. His career began as a child actor in a soap opera but as he’d grown, so had his part. And whilst he’d enjoyed his time on the set ofLove Lane, he had spent ten years in the show, and now felt it was time to move on to new, more exciting projects. Work had poured in. Personal appearances, commercials, paid endorsements and even turning on the Regent Street Christmas lights, but nothing that flared his passion for acting. Every new offer seemed trivial and meaningless. Nothing he could really sink his teeth into as an actor.
‘Panto?… Really?’ Oscar sighed down the phone.
‘Rickmansworth would love to have you!’ Cassandra, his overenthusiastic agent, shouted excitedly. ‘They’re doing Cinderella this Christmas!’
‘I really don’t want to be Prince Charming,’ he groaned.
‘Well, that’s good! That’s good!’ He could practically hear her nodding down the phone.
‘What? Why?’ he asked.
‘They’re offering you Buttons!’
BEEEEEP. Oscar had terminated their phone call and, later that week, their contract over a very expensive lunch. It didn’t take him long to find new representation and his new agent seemed far more tuned in on Oscar’s potential as an actor, as opposed to the cash he could make them solely through personal appearances. So when an audition for the role of LarsonHardy inWhen The Curtain Fallshad arisen, Oscar was the first name to be put forward. An actor of his celebrity being attached to such an obscure show could only be good for business, but what was even better was that he’d nailed his audition. Oscar was perfect for the role.
What he hadn’t counted on was meeting Olive.
‘This is Olive Green. Your co-star. She’ll be playing ElizaSmall opposite you,’ Michael Hughes, their director, had said on the first day of rehearsals. The room was noisy and packed, bustling with the cast and other creative types. Awkward hellos between actors who didn’t know each other at all or only half knew each other through friends or worse, knew of each other via other actors they’d slept with.
‘Hi,’ Olive beamed, taking the hand Oscarwas holding out for her to shake, stepping forward to kiss his cheek and accidentally treading on his toe. ‘Oh God! So sorry! Big feet.’
‘It’s fine! It’s fine!’ Oscar laughed. ‘Careful though! I reckon those boots could take someone down.’
‘Well, they have done before. What’s to stop me again?’ She pulled her blonde hair back behind her ear and Oscar smiled without really knowingwhy. What she’d said hadn’t even been all that funny, but it was as though someone had pulled a cord inside of him causing his heart to light up like a bulb, the fluorescent beams with nowhere else to go, shining out of his face.
It was then he realised that no one had said anything for several seconds.
‘Yes, well… I hope you two enjoy working together,’ Michael said, ending themoment between them and turning to address some other members of the cast.
Oscar turned quickly on the heels of his brown shoes, taking a seat on one of the chairs placed at the front of the room, which suddenly felt a few degrees warmer than it had before. As the rehearsal progressed, he found that he was unable to stop looking at his co-star during their read through, even during thescenes neither of them were in when he had no excuse to be looking her way. He even missed a cue for one of his lines, his script left forgotten in his lap, the page unturned. Occasionally, she’d catch him staring at her, and she seemed to find it hard to pull her own eyes away.
The world of theatre had acted like a flame to the flash paper that was their friendship. After mere weeks ofrehearsals, Olive and Oscar were growing increasingly fond of each other and certain people around them had started to notice.
‘Okay, okay, if you had to sleep with someone in the cast, who would it be?’ asked Tamara Drake, a spindly creature whose smiles were saved only for those with the potential to further her career.
‘Must we always play these games?’ Oscar sighed.
Jane,a smaller, slender girl whose name was as plain as her face, giggled.
‘If youhadto,’ Tamara pressed, and flashed her teeth at Oscar. He brushed back his floppy fringe with one swift movement, his bicep tensing. Jane almost choked on her bottled water.
‘What, I’m being held at gunpoint?’ Oscar asked.
‘Who would hold you at gunpoint and demand that you had sex with someone?’said Howard, a broad man who squeezed his way into the circle and awkwardly crossed his muscular legs, knocking over someone’s can of Pepsi in the process.
‘For someone who’s playing a cunning villain, you’re sooo clumsy, Howard,’ Jane sighed, sliding someone else’s bag out of the way of the approaching pool of Pepsi.
‘I’m not clumsy,’ Howard answered, mopping up the puddle withthe towel he’d brought to the incredibly hot rehearsal room for when things got a bit sweaty.
‘Well, you’re large then,’ Jane continued, clearly enjoying teasing her fellow cast mate.
‘You’re not large, everyone else is simply too small,’ Olive said, smiling at Howard whilst sliding herself away from the spillage.
‘Anyway…’ Tamara said, repositioning herself. ‘A man is holdingyou at gunpoint and demanding you sleep with someone.’
