SCENE 19:

Evening Star

He was just a kid wearing too much Max Factor and it wasn’t even Halloween. When he wasn’t Miss-Ile or Marilyn Monroe, he was David Morgan from Utah who spoke in the voice of a young boy. Loddy didn’t know what to make of him, how to act, what to say. She didn’t want to appear stupid or unknowingly hurt his feelings. So she said nothing. They were leaning against the brick wall outside The Garage Theatre. David toyed with his bracelets, a three-inch cuff of noisy annoyance while Loddy kept her eye out for Percy who had the keys to the door.

“My parents, they just wouldn’t understand. I get calls from my mother and she still asks why don’t I find some nice girl and get married.”

“What do you tell her?”

“That I’m still looking. Don’t want to hurt them. They’re nice folks.” They fell silent and then he said: “So Loddy, will you marry me?”

“Huh?”

“Kidding. Just wanted to hear how that sounded,” David said and rubbed his hands, cracking his knuckles as though preparing for a boxing match. He went on to summarize his life so far: never finished high school. Converted to Catholicism. Moved to Montreal to enter postulate training as a monk.

“Like, why in the heck would you do that? Were you like trying to avoid the draft too?”

“I thought that was what I was meant to do,” he said in his melodic Streisand voice while crossing his eyes. “But I left the monastery after five months, and became a hairdresser and, eventually, a hat-check girl at PJ’s. Erica thought I did good impersonations and the rest is history, as they say.”

“You’re so funny.”

“Just call me funny girl!”

“Seriously.”

“Okay, seriously.” Back to his David face. He took a deep breath. “I became disillusioned because it didn’t offer me what I wanted. The monks were no different than anyone else. They drank, smoked and slept on beds in comfortable rooms. There just didn’t seem to be any point to it. It was just too ... too comfortable.”

“Did you, like, want to punish yourself or something?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

He fogged up the glass door with his breath and started a game of X’s and O’s. Loddy couldn’t resist and joined in. She drew an X beside his O. When it was obvious she would win, he erased the game. He didn’t like losing. They briefly caught their mirror likenesses in the glass door.

Loddy made a dash for the sidewalk to check for Percy while David fixated on his reflection, adjusted his makeup and re-applied lipstick. No sign of Percy. She stepped back and studied David as he primped himself.

“Why Monroe and Streisand only?”

“I love Streisand’s guts and bitchiness and her voice,” he said, becoming energized and animated. “She’s such a perfectionist and does everything so well. Marilyn is, well, she’s just such a sex.”

Before Loddy could comment, Percy showed up.

“You said five o’clock sharp,” Loddy said. “You’re late!”

“Had a nap. Forgot to set the alarm.”

“Comprendo.”

They spent the rest of the day reading Evening Star, a 30-minute monologue written by a drama student from Sir George Williams University.

“You know, Percy,” David said, putting the script down. “I don’t think I can identify with the character in the play. Some people can’t accept what life has given them. I can. Suicide is not my bag.”

The character was meant to be portrayed by a female, but Percy thought David’s questionable gender would add another dimension of alienation, a story centred on a beautiful woman, a lonely persona, enacting a last rite of passage.

“Knowing you,” Percy said, sliding a cigarillo between his lips, “if you ever decided to kill yourself, you’d do it with a full marching brass band behind you. But this is called acting, so just pretend.”

xxx

On opening night, Montreal’s gay community packed The Garage Theatre. While some critics might call David just another drag queen, to his friends and admirers, he was a talent majore, and they showered him with telegrams, flowers and a standing ovation. And the reviews were good:

Of the three plays, Evening Star was the most original. We meet an actor in the guise of Marilyn Monroe, dolled up in sequins and feather boa, lip-syncing to Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend (and she did it very well). The actor disrobed, removing jewellery, shoes, dress and, as the falsies fell out of her bra, this reviewer was surprised to find that “she” was a “he”. The play is set in a dressing room and, as she pulls on a robe, we become privy to her one-sided conversation with an absent lover. After the final line, it’s time now, isn’t it? Marilyn Monroe singing River of No Return washes over the entire audience. The spotlight captures the face of David Morgan, female impersonator, and slowly diminishes until it evaporates into a blackout as though she never existed.

— The Montreal Star

Adult Games was a box office hit and, over the two-week run of the trilogy, Samuel took a break from drinking as line-ups circled the block and audiences were turned away. He strutted around the mezzanine, perplexed by this thing called Miss-Ile, and planned to extend the show for another two weeks. But David had other commitments — a gig in Las Vegas as a showgirl.

“Life is no easier now than it was in Utah,” he told Loddy. “But there’s a certain relief in not having to pretend the thorns are roses. Besides I’ll be able to afford my sex change operation.”

Their friendship had grown over the course of the run — Loddy let David colour her hair platinum like Marilyn Monroe’s, and he taught her make-up tricks to enhance her facial features, discover her cheekbones, and conceal her double chin. But he couldn’t convince her to revamp her wardrobe and discard the red caftans and tent dresses that hid her largesse.

On David’s final night in the city, his friends threw a farewell party at Percy’s apartment. He arrived wearing no make-up, a stubbled face and his shaved eyebrows revealing the use of an eyebrow pencil. He’d be taking the bus into Nevada, and Loddy praised his courage.

“You are so true to yourself,” she said, hugging him. “I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll send pictures.”

As promised, David sent Loddy postcards from every hick town along the bus route until Vegas. And then they stopped.