Theatrically Free

She delivered the last line of the play which declared her freedom from the tyrant of a husband that she had endured for many years. She took her final curtain call along with the rest of the cast. Rapturous applause greeted them. How she had loved performing here in Adelaide in South Australia at the wonderful Playhouse. Adelaide audiences loved their theatre, always being so enthusiastic in their response. Tonight was the closing night of their season here before moving on to Perth. She was pushed forward by the rest of the cast and received a standing ovation. Quite overcome, she found tears welling in her eyes. She had to swallow hard and then gestured for the rest of the cast to come and stand with her. After two more curtain calls they all left the stage.

Back stage in the green room, there were hugs all round, some tears along with glasses of champagne being poured. It had been a day of two performances with a matinee plus an evening show. The days with two shows were always exhausting, but somehow the adrenaline always kept one going. One certainly didn't drink between shows so a glass now was most welcome. Carol got out of her gorgeous gold long dress which she handed to one of the costumiers ready to be packed up for Perth. Sitting in her Chinese decorated dressing gown, taking off her makeup, she noticed that there were at least twenty missed calls on her mobile.

Just as she was about to check the caller, her leading man, the well loved Adelaide actor Andrew Hawker came up , putting his hands on her shoulders, giving them a big squeeze and then kissing her neck . “Darling, how are you holding up? I'm exhausted, but what a reception from my home town. I told you that Adelaide audiences are the best and you didn't believe me, now what do you think?” Self satisfied with this he sat down on the empty stool beside her. Carol turning her head to look at him, thinking to herself, how much she had feared working beside this quite famous and well loved actor, replied ,” I'm sorry I doubted you , yes they were fantastic. As you know this has been my first time performing in Adelaide. It has been brilliant. I am just sorry that I am not going to have more time in this lovely city. I shall have to come back”. She turned back to her mirror, beginning to take off her eye makeup. “Well let me know when you do,and if I am here, I can show you around”. Andrew was then distracted by a dresser wanting to pack his costume. “See you in the bar later darling” and he moved away.

Packing up her make up, Carol suddenly remembered the missed calls on her phone. She picked it up, scrolled down to see who the caller was. Her heart lept to her mouth when she saw the name that appeared on the screen . It was her ex-husband. Why on earth was he ringing? They hardly ever called each other. Their split had been somewhat acrimonious. They had never had children, so there was little need to communicate. Out of courtesy to their fourteen year long marriage she had let him know when her parents had died, but he had not returned the complement when his mother had died. His father having died very early on his life.

What do I do? Why so many calls? What does he want? Where is he? Do I call him back or wait until he tries again? So many rhetorical questions going through her head that she felt quite dizzy with them all. Putting her head in her hands, she closed her eyes, feeling slightly sick. Carol knew she was going to have to pull herself together. Everyone was expected in the bar of their hotel, that was being made available just for the cast and crew. A last night tradition in any capital city. With shaking hands she took off her robe, putting on her new outfit bought in a hurry from David Jones, the main department store in Adelaide. She had been so looking forward to putting this on. It was a royal blue pant suit studded with silver sequins, incredibly flattering to her slim figure, the colour perfectly suiting her dark hair and olive skin tones. There were buttons that needed to be done up at the front. Her hands were trembling so much that she just couldn't get hold of them properly. Her understudy, Bev, noticed what was happening. “Hey Carol, too much emotion after the show”, she jested. “I'll do them up for you. What a fabulous outfit. You look stunning, even more stunning than you did in your gold costume!” With the buttons done up, Bev busied herself with her own dress, leaving Carol to compose herself, put on her shoes, throw things in her handbag and leave the green room ready to walk back to the Intercontinental Hotel, a short distance away.

She caught up with the rest of the cast as they were climbing the steps up to the grand entrance of the hotel. Andrew put his arm around her, saying, “There you are. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you. Great pant suit by the way”. Carol liked Andrew. He was a terrible flirt but there wasn't a mean bone in his body. He had never married but at one stage had lived with another actress that Carol vaguely knew, though she had never worked with her, for a period of about ten years. For some reason that Carol hadn't liked to enquire about, they had split about two years ago. Andrew didn't seem particularly unhappy about this and still mentioned his ex's name without rancour. Various actresses had been seen around with him in the last couple of years but as far as she knew there was no-one special. In fact at one point during a show they had been involved with last year he had proclaimed to Carol, that he was enjoying the single life again, being free had its definite advantages. This present show had certainly brought them closer together. Carol had a feeling that he was starting to show some interest in her, but it was always hard to tell with theatre people. “Darling” was such a common word among them. No-one ever put too much emphasis on cast members hugging and kissing. Such was the theatre world.

She put her arm around him, “Thanks, I bought this at your great department store, David Jones. So you see I am trying to make the most of Adelaide!” Throwing back his head he laughed, just as Carol's phone began to ring. Looking at the screen she saw it was her Ex. Involuntarily she muttered, “Oh no”, then looking at Andrew she said, “Sorry I am going to have to take this, you go on I'll catch you up”.

“Hello Ron, what on earth do you want? ” She had wanted to keep her voice neutral, but found it was impossible. Her voice was snappy and accusatory. A cracked voice answered her, “Carol I need help. I know you are in Adelaide, but coming on to Perth. Despite what you might think, I do follow your career. Well I'm in Perth. I am in some trouble with the law and have to go before the courts. I need a character witness. You are the only person I can think of, to ask for this”. Then started a huge fit of coughing. Carol held the phone away from her ear until the spasm finished. “He continued in a hoarse whisper, “Please Carol I'm desperate”. She sat down on the steps. Her dresser Bev was just climbing up, seeing her, she mouthed, “Are you ok?” Carol nodded and pointed to the phone. Bev returned the nod, continuing up the steps.

Panic started to permeate into her. What had he done? Why her? There must be somebody else he could ask. What sort of character witness could she be. He wasn't a very nice man. What attributes did he have? That he could keep a garden neat and tidy! He had run his own gardening business in Geelong, in the state of Victoria when they were married, which actually had been quite successful. She remembered thinking back then that he must have been nicer to his clients than he was to her! When the split happened she had left Geelong and gone to live in a little village outside Ballarat called Learmonth, about an hour from Geelong. She had some good friends there and they were always waxing lyrical about the wonderful village community there. Knowing how unhappy she was in her marriage, they kept on trying to entice her to come and live there.

So when the worst of all arguments and attempted physical abuse had occurred she had no hesitation to ring her friend Lydia to ask if she could come and stay for a while. Lydia and her husband Mark welcomed her with open arms, telling her almost as soon as she had stepped inside the front door, and been licked all over by their two beautiful dogs, that there was a small cottage just come up for sale in the village itself. Mark and Lydia lived a little way outside the village in a beautiful old farm house on a couple of acres. That first night with them in their gorgeously decorated, very comfortable spare room, she recalled sinking her head onto the pillow, closing her eyes, saying out loud to herself, “Now perhaps I can be free of him”

Events had unfolded very quickly after that. The cottage was ideal and charming. She had enough money to buy it outright without waiting for any divorce settlement as her parents had left her quite well off. The village had embraced her, there was often a contingent of them at the shows in which she was involved with at the Melbourne Theatre Company. Someone was always willing to look after the cottage when she went on tour. After fourteen years of unhappiness, she had finally felt peace.

Ron, on the other hand, had been as difficult as he could with the financial settlement with extremely nasty threatening emails. By a great stroke of fortune Lydia and Mark's son Matthew was a divorce lawyer who had helped her pro bono for which she knew she would be eternally grateful. It wasn't too long after she had moved to Learmonth that she heard that his gardening business wasn't doing well, then that he had taken to drink. After about a year of them being separated he sold the business and had moved up to Brisbane where he had some cousins.

Bringing herself back to the present, she asked him what he was doing in Perth and what was this trouble that he was in another coughing fit answered her before he said, “ I moved over here about a year ago. I got sick of the humidity in Brisbane, thought I would try somewhere different. I managed to find some rental accommodation here on the outskirts of the city . It was difficult to get a job at my age so I thought perhaps I would start up a gardening business again. I still had all my tools etc. My cousin from Brisbane designed a website for me. Things were going quite well. No-one has time to garden anymore . I got lucky and was asked to tidy up the garden of a really well off family in Cottesloe. Carol couldn't stop herself saying, “ Gosh that was lucky”. “Well”, he replied, “It was and it wasn't. Although I was getting quite a lot of business I wasn't able to pay all my bills. Everything is so expensive these days, gardening doesn't pay a lot. I started going down to the local pub to drown my sorrows”. “Oh no, Ron, you idiot. That was one of the reasons our marriage ended, your drunkenness. Don't you learn from your mistakes. I know what you are going to tell me next. You started to gamble”.

There was a silence on the other end of the phone. Carol felt like hanging up there and then but some misguided sense of loyalty to him kept her on the phone. Afterwards, she never really understood why she had continued the conversation. “Yes” was all he could say to answer her question. Then another silence before words came spilling out of him in a rush . “ I got into debt with my gambling. I didn't know what to do. I was desperate Carol. There was a deadline to pay back the money I owed to various people. Then this particular Sunday I was gardening at this wealthy house I told you about. All the family were out but I had a key to the back door so I could get things I needed from their kind of scullery area. I had to go and get some potting soil . First I went through to the laundry to use the toilet. Washing my hands I noticed there was a beautiful diamond ring on the sink. What got into me I don't know, but I quickly pocketed it, rushed out of the house and went to the first pawnbrokers I could find. Then with the money in my wallet I went and started paying back some of my debts. To cut a long story short. Of course the owners reported the theft, the police found me, charged me and now I have to appear in Court. If I can get a character witness I may just get off with a suspended sentence and a fine. Please Carol, I am begging you”. He started to sob.

She was so angry with him, but somehow she managed to say, “Look I have to go, but I will ring you back in the morning”. She hung up and turned her phone off before he could ring back. The cast party was the last thing she felt like doing now, but she knew she had to go so walking wearily up the steps she found her way to the bar where everyone was letting their hair down. Thinking back, she thought that night was the best piece of acting she had ever done, as no-one, not even Andrew or the very astute Bev seemed to notice anything. Eventually things began to wind down as everyone was mindful they had a flight to Perth in the morning.

She was so glad to get into bed, but sleep wouldn't come as she agonised over what she should do over this business with Ron. As dawn was beginning to break she realised when she woke up that she must have dozed off though she felt far from refreshed.

On the plane Andrew had the seat next to her. After take off, her eyes felt so heavy, she closed them hoping for some much needed sleep. Dreams began to invade her senses, until one felt so real, that someone was wiping her face, saying comforting words to her. On opening her eyes, she found that it was Andrew. “Hey Carol, what's going on? You were crying in your sleep, real tears. I thought last night that something wasn't quite right. You are a bloody good actress, but I just had a sixth sense that all wasn't ok.”. Turning her head to look at him, she realised that she did need some advice. “You are right, Andrew. Can we go and have some lunch somewhere when we have checked in. I do need to talk to someone”. He had the good sense not to question her any more then.

So, it was that they found a nice quiet restaurant near the hotel to have lunch. After ordering she told him the whole saga. He was a good listener and very empathetic. When she had at last told him everything, he took her hands in his across the table, looking into her eyes, saying, “Here's what I think for what it is worth”.

Ron was up before the court just a couple of days before they opened in Perth. Andrew came with her. He had insisted on accompanying her. Indeed she didn't know how she would have got through it without him. Without perjuring herself, she managed to give some sort of a character witness for Ron who, as he had predicted got a suspended sentence and quite a hefty fine. His look to Carol as he was led away from the courthouse was one of relief . He mouthed “Thank you“ to her.

Andrew took her to a nearby pub to buy her a restorative drink, saying as he brought it over to her, “Carol that is the end now of your dealings with him. You do not owe him another thing” . Then he laughed as he said it. She looked at him questioningly to which he answered, “Have you forgotten the script already, that is my last line to you in the show”! Smiling through tears of relief, she replied with her last line, “ I am free at last”.