The mirror in Selina\u2019s bathroom was a focal point for her rich theatrical dreams. It was surrounded by small lights, much like a glamourous dressing room make-up mirror; it was Selina\u2019s confessional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Selina loved the theatre and was a member of the town\u2019s am-dram soc. It attracted all the local luvvies and a fair few from towns further afield who enjoyed a strut round the green room, and huddled round pieces of gossip like barnacles on a boat. Selina, having unglamourous theatrical skills, enjoyed a rather peripheral am-dram life. She offered services such as box office duty and prompting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
By and large, Selina was overlooked by the actors and was sometimes mildly patronized. She was invited to outings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018We\u2019re off to the Dirty Swan dear. Fancy tagging along?\u2019 That was Edward doing his mine host <\/em>act. He was Macbeth in this season\u2019s production of the Scottish play as well as Ernest in the Importance of Being Ernest.<\/em> Talk about hogging the limelight. And he was, in Selina\u2019s view, rather lazy at learning his lines, relying instead on good looks and over-confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One asset Selina brought to her prompting work was an excellent memory. She could remember whole plays, and often performed key speeches to her bathroom mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018A handbag, Mr. Worthing? \u2026\u2019 She loved Lady Bracknell\u2019s haughtiness. What would she give to talk to Edward in that voice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps this petty pace from day to day\u2026..\u2019 oh the wonder of Shakespeare\u2019s unforgettable lines. It took someone as pompous as Edward to mangle them. Selina realised she was incubating rather a disdain for the man. Hmm. The mirror continued to give excellent feedback on Selina\u2019s own performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Near the end of the season all talk turned to the wrap party to follow the final performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edward addressed Selina over some heads with an offhand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Selina, love, you\u2019ll be OK to slip into town and get some goodies for the buffet from Marks won\u2019t you? I need to talk to the press for a final adjudication.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I\u2019ll do that Edward, I expect you\u2019ll be busy trying to get your lines right for the last performance?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ooh that was brave. Selina was half forming a plan to bring Edward within the frame of ordinary mortals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final performance was underway. Edward was, as usual, relying on prompts. Macbeth\u2019s tomorrow and tomorrow speech was just ahead and\u2026.Edward was grasping for his lines. Selina\u2019s moment had come, she skipped a line then:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018And all our yesterdays have lighted fools\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018No, tomorrow and tomorrow comes first,\u2019 Edward blustered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience giggled delightedly as Edward bluffed his way to the end but couldn\u2019t face the curtain call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the party Edward sulked in a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018How can I face the public? I looked such a fool\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Get over yourself,\u2019 was the general consensus<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018You could take more care learning your lines, Sweetie\u2019, Selina offered on her way to the bar. \u2019You\u2019ll feel better tomorrow and tomorrow. Or the day after, maybe\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The mirror in Selina\u2019s bathroom was a focal point for her rich theatrical dreams. It was surrounded by small lights, much like a glamourous dressing room make-up mirror; it was Selina\u2019s confessional. Selina loved the theatre and was a member of the town\u2019s am-dram soc. It attracted all the local luvvies and a fair few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1752596483,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1752596638,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1129,1197],"tags":[1222,670,1219,7,116,1224,1218,1221,87,1217,14,1220,1223,1199,11],"class_list":["post-1988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1129","category-march-2024-tomorrow","tag-bathroom","tag-day","tag-edward","tag-her","tag-like","tag-loved","tag-mirror","tag-rather","tag-room","tag-selina","tag-she","tag-talk","tag-theatrical","tag-tomorrow","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-w4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1989,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}