Dark Receiver

" ... And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother, that you insult, exult, and all at once, over the wretched?"

She chuckled as she listened; the speech coming from somewhere nearby, she was sure. On her feet now, she listened trying to detect the origin of the voice ... stepping to the side and cutting back to an alcove that was almost directly at right angles to the place she had chosen to rehearse.

" What though you have no beauty, as, by my faith, I see no more in you than without candle may go dark to bed.
Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?"[/"

She stepped out before him then. An amused smile on her lips as he spoke to out.

"Well I can't remember what follows right after that, just that she reprimands him and of course Phebe are spoken to as well"

Her minds cast over the lines and skipping the Phebe-Rosalind dialogue to declare.

"Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might;
'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?"

She giggled as she saw his head snap round and take in her presence.

"Ha! what say'st thou, Silvius?"

She teased him finally, curious as to what "manner of man" could actually recite chunks of Shakespeare, even if not all of this rather minor scene.

Elron Kramer

He adjusted his glasses, well the voice definitely fit the person, she was rather beautiful. Theater material for sure, he returned her grin with one of his own and leaned back against the tree

"Sweet Phebe, pity me."

Racking his brains he finally remembered the next part

"Wherever sorrow is, relief would be: If you do sorrow at my grief in love, by giving love your sorrow and my grief were both extermined"

Claire Westall


"Sweet Phebe, pity me."

She smiled as she took in his appearance, her eyes on his as she replied:

"Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius."

She wondered fleetingly if he too were an actor and how it would be to play opposite him ...

"Wherever sorrow is, relief would be: If you do sorrow at my grief in love, by giving love your sorrow and my grief were both extermined"

His response impressed her once more.
There were few she knew who could just pick up a character and go with it ...

She was curious about him, but did not want to break the spell of the scene, so she eased down onto the grass beside him and responded.

"Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly?"

Elron Kramer

He placed a placemarker in the pages he was busy reading and closed the book, it was obvious that she was testing him, to see if he could keep up with the character...Silvius if he remembered correctly. He gave her a smile, and closed his eyes to try and remember, the words that came to mind made him blush slightly, but that was how Shakespear wrote it

"I would have you"

Claire Westall

Claire noted the book now cast aside and watched as he seemed to search for the next line ...

"I would have you"

The words were delivered so quietly, that for a moment, she did not realise that it was just a line ... and ... her next cue. Only the fact that she was well rehearsed enabled her to murmur.

"Why, that were covetousness."

She paused, aware of him watching her intently, but could not decipher if it were the interest of a stranger who found himself embroiled in the strange rehearsal, or if he indeed were playing Silivius, love struck shepherd.
She doubted they could sustain this for much longer yet was loathe to be the first to step out of character.

"Silvius, the time was that I hated thee;
And yet it is not that I bear thee love:
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure;"

Though in the play, most of their dialogue is spoken to be overheard, she matched his previous tone, making their scripted dialogue, quietly intimate ... a different interpretation of the scene she realised as she continued.

" ... and I'll employ thee too:
But do not look for further recompense
Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd."

Perhaps this was the way she would interpret this part of the scene?
A contrast from the previous, she mused ....

Elron Kramer

He chuckled and threw his hands up in resignation

"OK I give up, I can't really remember the rest, it's been a very long time and I have read a lot of literature in between"

He stuck out his hand

"Hi, my name is Elron. I noticed that you are reciting alone, need any help?"

He chuckled and threw his hands up in resignation

"OK I give up, I can't really remember the rest, it's been a very long time and I have read a lot of literature in between"


She laughed as he admitted his recital had run dry, though in truth there was only a short 4-liner left before Phebe's main speech of the scene.
He stuck out his hand

"Hi, my name is Elron. I noticed that you are reciting alone, need any help?"

She put her hand in his.

"Hi ... I'm Claire ... "

She eyed the discarded book.

"Sorry I disturbed you ... I thought this part of the park would be deserted enough not to be overheard, but it seems I'm not the only one who hides out to read ... "

She picked up his book and looked closely at the title, curious as to what he chose to read.

"I'm trying to prep the scene for auditions next week ... Romeo and Juliet ... ?"

She wondered if he was aware of the theatre's new production.

"I'm not trained or anything like that, but I figured it was worth a shot ... even if I get 'woman with basket entering stage right' it would be something ... "

She chuckled.

Elron Kramer

He adjusted his glasses again as they had slipped down a bit

"Yes sometimes the apartment can get a bit noisy with my flat mate around, so I come here to catch up on some reading, the fresh air is just a bit better than the stuffy library"

He listened to her, so she did have aspirations for the theater and he grinned as he stretched out his legs, leaning against the tree, placing his hands behind his head.

"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate-stone on the fore-finger of an alderman, drawn with a team of little atomies athwart men's noses as they lie asleep; her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs, the cover of the wings of grasshoppers, the traces of the smallest spider's web, the collars of the moonshine's watery beams, her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film, her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat, not so big as a round little worm prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid; her chariot is an empty hazel-nut made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. And in this state she gallops night by night through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; o'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight, o'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, o'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream, which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, and then dreams he of smelling out a suit; and sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, then dreams, he of another benefice: sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, and then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, and being thus frighted swears a prayer or two and sleeps again. This is that very Mab that plats the manes of horses in the night, and bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: this is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, that presses them and learns them first to bear, making them women of good carriage: this is she--"

He smiled at her

"Act I, Scene IV, Mercutio speaking of dreams. That was the part that I enjoyed the most of doing the play two years back"

Claire Westall

She settled comfortably beside his as he chatted. She had never been much for the library and always read out of doors ... or in her room ...
She shut out the memory of her parents and the current disapproval that suffocated her.

"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you... "

She watched him recite, even act out the speech from Romeo and Juliet growing more and more impressed.

He smiled at her

"Act I, Scene IV, Mercutio speaking of dreams. That was the part that I enjoyed the most of doing the play two years back"

Her eyes widened.

"You did Romeo and Juliet!?!"

She'd taken him more for a scholar than an actor, but he obviously had a memory for lines.

"Mercutio's a great character ... such energy... what character did you play?"

She didn't like to ask him if he had trained so instead queried.

"How did you get into acting ...?"

And hoped he'd elaborate ...

Elron Kramer

"Why I played Mercutio of course"

He chuckled

"Basically my Drama teacher in school had an old friend who planned the show and he convinced her to let me try out for Mercutio. She was impressed and I got the role, I have played Mercutio three times now and each time I just like the character more and more. Of course studies have kept me from getting any further into acting, but once I have my teaching degree in literature, I would probably have time to mold young minds and act as well"

He found himself at ease in her company, but then again he did tend to get along with most people, he grinned at her

"True, I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain"

He held up a finger

"But is it not true that dreams is what defines us? If we hold no dreams for our future, what would we be then?"

He chuckled

"Philosophy minor"

"Why I played Mercutio of course"

She chuckled with him.

"But never Silvius ...? ... as yet ...?"

She responded, though in truth Silvius was way too minor a part for someone with his experience she realised now.

"Basically my Drama teacher in school had an old friend who planned the show and he convinced her to let me try out for Mercutio. She was impressed and I got the role, I have played Mercutio three times now and each time I just like the character more and more. Of course studies have kept me from getting any further into acting, but once I have my teaching degree in literature, I would probably have time to mold young minds and act as well"

She listened avidly to him.

"True, I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain"
But is it not true that dreams is what defines us? If we hold no dreams for our future, what would we be then?".... "Philosophy minor ...

Claire sighed.

"Dreams are great ... helps if you have support ... "

She hesitated.

"I rather think my parents and my teachers kinda think it's a phase I'll grow out of ... and then actually pick something "serious" to study ... "

She shrugged.

"I think they're just letting me audition to "get it out of my system". They don't expect me to get anywhere with it ... and then I guess they think I'll come to my senses ... "

She forced a laugh.

"They could be right, but if I never give it a go, then I'll never know ... "

Elron Kramer

"With a voice like that? You should be on the stage, but that is just my opinion. To be honest I have once thought about trying for Silvius, but the dates of the production did not fit into my schedule, so I had to abandon the thought. Let me tell you something, if you do this audition and you get into the play, you will find one of two things: You love it or you don't"

He removed his glasses and rested them on his lap

"It is so much different when you are out there on the stage, bringing your character to life, drawing in the crowd, making them believe that you are who you play. Creating a new world for them to believe and breathe in, to use words to weave a magic of days gone past, that only the ones who want to believe in the good, evil and suddenness of our existence..."

He sighed, lost in the moment

"That is something you will either hate or loathe, there can be no middle ground"

"With a voice like that? You should be on the stage, but that is just my
opinion. "

Claire blushed at his praise. She always hoped that she had some talent and although she loved the theatre, she really had way of knowing if she was any good ...

"To be honest I have once thought about trying for Silvius, but the dates of the production did not fit into my schedule, so I had to abandon the thought. "

Claire was surprised that he had even considered Silvius after playing Mercutio, it seemed a minor, though interesting character.

"Let me tell you something, if you do this audition and you get into the play, you will find one of two things: You love it or you don't"

She nodded and listend to him.

"It is so much different when you are out there on the stage, bringing your character to life, drawing in the crowd, making them believe that you are who you play. Creating a new world for them to believe and breathe in, to use words to weave a magic of days gone past, that only the ones who want to believe in the good, evil and suddenness of our existence...
That is something you will either hate or loathe, there can be no middle ground"

Claire too was drawn in by the words he painted. She had been surprised and impressed by his impromptu response to her rehearsal, but it was clear he had real talent.

"I can't imagine loathing an experience like that ... "

She breathed finally ...

" ... suspending disbelief, creating a different world ... takes training ... and talent ... "

She sighed wistfully.

"Do you think Phebe and this scene is a good audition piece? I thought if I learned the lot, I'd be ready for anything they threw at me ... I've never auditioned for anything other than a school play ... this could be way out of my league ... "

Elron Kramer

"Well you recited that monologue well, you carried the character very well, so if you want to audition for her, yes you did well to learn that part"

He picked up his glasses and settled them back on his face

"So go ahead and monologue for me again, let's see what you can do if you have somebody paying attention. Play the character, convince me you are Phebe"

"Well ... I'm not sure who I'm auditioning for ... the play is Romeo and Juliet ... and I definitely didn't want to go for the balcony scene ... it's not as if I'd stand a chance of getting the role of Juliet anyway ... "

She blushed at the idea of monologuing for him. Now she realised how talented he was, she had to confess she felt much more self conscious now ...

"I thought Phebe would show enough ... range ... to fit anything else that was going.... "

Elron Kramer

"Romeo and Juliet and you go for Phebe? My dear that is a horrible miscalculation on your part. Let me think a bit..."

He sat in thought and then snapped his fingers

"Scene III: Even or odd, of all days in the year, come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls! Were of an age: well, Susan is with God; She was too good for me: but, as I said, On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; That shall she, marry; I remember it well. 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it, Of all the days of the year, upon that day: For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall; My lord and you were then at Mantua: Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug! Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge: And since that time it is eleven years; For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, She could have run and waddled all about; For even the day before, she broke her brow: And then my husband--God be with his soul! A' was a merry man--took up the child: 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.' To see, now, how a jest shall come about! I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he; And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'"

He grinned as he realized that he had fallen back into his recital voice

"Now that is a part that you can carry, I'm very sure of that"

"Romeo and Juliet and you go for Phebe? My dear that is a horrible miscalculation on your part. Let me think a bit..."

Claire's heart sank at his words. She had taken ages to select the character and the scene to prepare for the auditions. She felt comfortable with Phebe now and there was no way that she could attempt the nurse's role that he began to recite. She remained silent however until he had finished the speech and shook her head.

"I can't do that ... "

She said simply.
He had brought the character to life, but it wasn't a character that had ever appealed to her or that she thought you could even recite with any confidence.

" ... I'd never remember the words and ... it's not a part I can get inside ... "

She told him with a shrug, somewhat disheartened.

Elron Kramer

"Hmmm...try then, improvise. You can't stick to just one character, you will have to change characters at times. Sure you can do the Phebe role quite well, but Phebe is not in Romeo and Juliet"

He gave her a sly look

"But if you can't get into the role of the nurse, you do not truly wish to be a minor player...you dream bigger don't you? Go on try Juliet, I'm sure you can remember a few of her lines"

"Hmmm...try then, improvise. You can't stick to just one character, you will have to change characters at times. Sure you can do the Phebe role quite well, but Phebe is not in Romeo and Juliet"

She knew he was right, though she had chosen a scene with Rosalind and could play her ... but like he said ... neither were in the play she was auditioning for ...

"But if you can't get into the role of the nurse, you do not truly wish to be a minor player...you dream bigger don't you?
Go on try Juliet, I'm sure you can remember a few of her lines"

She met his gaze, sure he was challenging her, but sure she could never go for Juliet, even as a try out.

"Sure I know her lines ... but dreaming bigger is one thing ... realism is another .... how many balcony scenes do you think they're going to have to listen to ...?"

Although she had dismissed the idea, she could not help but consider ...

"If I were to use a speech from Juliet ... I'd choose something ... different ... her 'farewell' speech before taking the Friar's potion ... that's the speech I'd choose ... "

Elron Kramer

"Then use that, come on my shy mockingbird, tell me a tale, a tale from a time of yore, when man was poets and bloodshed frowned upon"

He smiled at her, it was strange how he didn't think of her as a beautiful girl, but as somebody he could just go out and be himself

Claire Westall

"Then use that, come on my shy mockingbird, tell me a tale, a tale from a time of yore, when man was poets and bloodshed frowned upon"

His smile reassured her, encouraged her to give the speech a try. After all it was only the two of them in a park. An ... experiment of sorts ...

She racked her brain to remember the speech and started haltingly:

"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again."

She glanced across at him, very aware of him watching her, listening.
She closed her eyes trying to capture the scene of Juliet's bedroom, the feeling of desperation and fear and rather than "acting out" as she assumed "real" actresses were trained to do, began to murmur softly.

"I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I'll call them back again to comfort me.
Nurse!— "

She opened her eyes, finding Elron's watching her, but continued smoothly as if speaking to him.

"What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone."

As if the words gave her the cue, Claire was once more in the lonely bedchamber and wrestling with Juliet's dilemma.

"Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there. "

In her mind's eye she saw the vial and the dagger set ready.

"What if it be a poison which the friar
Subtly hath ministr'd to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is; and yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
I will not entertain so bad a thought."

She continued the speech, somehow finding the words and feeling Juliet's panic rising.

"How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?"

She halted, yet did not seem to be struggling to find the words, rather she seemed to be lost in thought before she continued, now seeming to address her words directly to Elron.

"Or, if I live, is it not very like
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place—
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
Where for this many hundred years the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort—
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking— what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad— "

Lost in the scene she had created, Claire seemed to shudder visibly.

"O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears,
And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone
As with a club dash out my desp'rate brains? "

Again a pause, her gaze moving beyond Elron now.

"O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee."

She did not mime drinking the draught and falling unconscious, yet her words hung in the air the scene still vivid in her mind until she turned and smiled somewhat self-consiously at Elron, amazed that she'd remembered all the words, but more so that she'd become completely lost in them.

Elron Kramer

It was perfect, he could see that when she started, she didn't feel part of the role, but she quickly got into character and he could feel with her. That building tension up to the point where she drinks the poison, the poison that should have saved her for Romeo, but in the end caused her love to take his life.

But her act had brought a tear to his eye, not because of it being so bad, for it being so good. He smiled at her and then took the time to wipe the extra moisture from his eyes and replacing his glasses

"Oh Bravo bravo, if I was a producer I'd be on my knees begging for you to play my Juliet"

Claire Westall

"Oh Bravo bravo, if I was a producer I'd be on my knees begging for you to play my Juliet"

Claire blushed.

"If only you were the producer ... "

She responded, but was taken aback by his enthusiasm.

"So ... you really think I should do that rather than Phebe on Thursday?"

She queried.

"... I thought that might be ... over-ambitious ... for a 1st audition..."

Elron Kramer

He snorted

"Yes! If they don't want to use you, I swear I'll find someplace where you can play Juliet. You captured the moment perfectly even if you didn't study for it, it came so...naturally. Yes yes use it"

He was on his feet by now and pacing up and down

"You have the talent, don't you ever dare bury it, the only person allowed to stop you now is you, nobody else"

Claire Westall

"Yes! If they don't want to use you, I swear I'll find someplace where you can play Juliet. You captured the moment perfectly even if you didn't study for it, it came so...naturally. Yes yes use it"

She laughed at his enthusiasm, but nodded. Despite her misgivings she would use the speech. After all he seemed to know what he was talking about and what could she lose by following his advice.

"You have the talent, don't you ever dare bury it, the only person allowed to stop you now is you, nobody else"

Claire thought of her parents, her own ambition restricted by "realism" and nodded.

"I guess ... I should just go for it ... "

She told him, though she thought that she really would need to get her head around aiming for Juliet. It was a role she had never considered for herself.