Goddess of the Green Room: (Georgian Series) Read Free Page A

it,’ Dorothy told him.
    ‘And I have Smock Alley standing empty. There’s not room for two theatres in Dublin. If it goes on like this I’ll have to get rid of my lease of Smock Alley – and who’s going to take it, eh? If Dublin can’t support one theatre, how can anyone open up in Smock Alley?’
    Dorothy shrugged her shoulders; she was thinking of her newest part.
    ‘If you would let me sing a song,’ she said, ‘I’m sure that would bring them in.’
    ‘There’s no place for a song in the play.’
    ‘We could make a place,’ she wheedled.
    ‘Rubbish,’ said Thomas; and went on to brood on a new means of luring people into Crow Street.
    Shortly afterwards he came up with an idea. ‘I’ve got it,’ he said. ‘We’ll have a play with men playing the women’s parts and women the men’s.’
    It seemed a crazy notion. To what purpose? But when some of the women appeared in breeches the purpose was obvious, and this was particularly so in the case of Dorothy. Her figure was enchanting, her legs long, slim and beautifully shaped.
    Yes, said Thomas Ryder, this could well give them the opportunity they were looking for.
    The play, Ryder announced, would be The Governess – a pirated version of Sheridan’s The Duenna. He had not intended such an inexperienced player as Dorothy to have a big part, but when he saw her in breeches he decided she should have that of Lopez.
    Dorothy was delighted. She would make something of the part. How pleased she would be if she could sing!
    ‘Sing!’ cried Ryder in exasperation. ‘Now why should Lopez sing?’
    ‘Because,’ replied Dorothy, ‘Dorothy Bland would like to sing and the audience would like to hear her.’
    ‘Nonsense,’ retorted Ryder. ‘You play your part, my girl. That’s all the audience ask of you.’
    ‘Don’t forget the theatre has been half empty these last weeks.’
    ‘The Governess will pull them in.’
    Dorothy posed before the mirror in her breeches. Grace said: ‘I don’t know. It’s not modest somehow.’ Dorothy kissed her. ‘Don’t you worry, Mamma. I’ll take care not only of myself but of the whole family.’
    Poor Mamma, she was terrified that Hester or Dorothy – and more likely Dorothy – would get into some entanglement and, always having longed for the blessing of clergy on her union, was fearful that one of the girls should find herself in a similar position. She was constantly saying that if their father had married her they would not now be wondering where the next penny was coming from, for Judge Bland would surely have relented when he saw his grandchildren. But because she lacked marriage lines she lacked security. Security! It was an obsession. She wanted it for her girls.
    So she was constantly warning. And she was right, said Dorothy to Hester. But she need have no fear.
    At rehearsal Dorothy swaggering on the stage in her male costume designed to show off her figure so amused Thomas Ryder that in a weak moment he gave way to her pleading to let her sing.
    The first night of The Governess arrived. The theatre was full, as it had not been for some nights, because people had come to see the women in male costumes and they were not disappointed. Particularly admired was the young actress who took the part of Lopez; her figure was trim and yet voluptuous; she was so completely feminine that her masquerading in male attire was an absurd delight. The audience was intrigued. They were beginning to notice Dorothy Bland.
    When at the end of the play she came to the front of the stage and sang for them they were spellbound. There was an unusual quality in her voice; though it was untrained it was sweet and true, but so were many other voices. Dorothy’s had a quality purely her own which touched them; it had a haunting charm, warm, full of feeling, tender and sincere.
    The song she had chosen to sing was one they all knew about an Irish colleen who came to Milltown, a district of Dublin, to ply hertrade as an oyster