Chapter Twenty-Eight

THE SMELL OF FRESHLY-brewed coffee filled Eva Le Gallienne’s tiny backstage office. Bennie made the coffee by touch rather than turning on the lights in the windowless space, hoping to spare Miss LeG, as the director preferred to be called, some small amount of the heat that would make the room stifling as the day wore on. Brewing the day’s first pot of coffee, strong and black, was the beginning of Bennie’s job every day, seven days a week, for the last month.

She was grateful for the activity and the intense pace of putting together a Broadway opening. It kept her too busy to worry about her upcoming court date or to dwell on thoughts of Laura. Even though Bennie made it clear in her letter that it would be unwise for them to see each other, she was still disappointed that Laura had made no move to get in touch with her.

This morning, Bennie was rushing to set up a large table with fourteen chairs near the front of the stage. The casting was complete and today would be the first table reading of the script, when the ensemble of actors came together and read the play for the first time. It would be the director’s, and the cast’s, first opportunity to hear the text out loud.

Patricia Neal was cast to play Martha. The actress, better known for her movie roles, was a favorite of the producer, Kermit Bloomgarden, and the author of the play, Lillian Hellman. Miss Neal had made her stage debut in another Hellman play, Another Part of the Forest, for which she had won a Tony Award. Bennie supposed that Miss Neal appealed to Mr. Bloomgarden’s accountant temperament as a good financial risk, and to Miss Hellman’s sense that she could interpret her work well. On the day of her audition, Neal had read for both main characters, Martha and Karen. Mr. Bloomgarden had given her the choice of either part, and she chose Martha. Bennie thought it was a brave choice for Neal, and she was anxious to see how the actress interpreted the part.

The other starring role, Karen, would be played by Kim Hunter. If Miss LeG were right that Lillian Hellman wanted this revival of her play, about the power of an evil lie to destroy innocent people, to make a statement about the damage being done by Senator McCarthy’s House Unamerican Activities Committee, Bennie found this casting choice deliciously ironic. Kim Hunter was blacklisted in Hollywood for being suspected of belonging to the Communist Party.

The most difficult part to cast was that of Mary Tilford, the student who whispers to her grandmother an accusation of an illicit relationship between the two headmistresses. Twenty actresses had read for the part before Eva Le Gallienne finally chose a relatively inexperienced twelve-year-old, Iris Mann. Bennie’s job, between bringing Miss LeG endless cups of coffee and emptying overflowing ashtrays, was to read the grandmother’s dialogue for each aspiring Mary to play against. After the first page of Iris’ reading, Miss LeG’s voice rang out from the front of the auditorium.

“That’s enough,” she called.

“You’re our Mary. Congratulations,” the assistant director said as he bounded onto the stage and pumped the girl’s hand.

When she got the opportunity, Bennie asked the assistant director to explain the choice. He shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t ask many questions, but she did lean over to me and whisper, ‘Watch how she can make herself appear dead around the eyes when she tells the lie.’ Miss LeG said she’d seen that same look on Joe McCarthy’s face.”

As Bennie prepared for the table read, laying out scripts with each character’s name neatly printed on the front, she replayed in her mind her phone call with Livie that morning. It was full of her daughter’s chatter about her friends at school and her jumping lessons. Bennie called at eight o’clock every week day morning. She and the butler had settled into a routine that allowed him to put Livie on the phone directly, without Bennie having to speak to Olivia. Bennie assumed Olivia was probably as happy avoiding speaking as she was. Bennie supposed their confrontation would come soon enough in the courtroom.

Bennie arranged the principal characters’ scripts near the head of the table with secondary characters spread down the length of the table. She worried over whether to put Patricia Neal or Kim Hunter at the head of the table. She decided to leave the head empty and to put their scripts across from each other. She placed pitchers of water and glasses in several spots and stood back with her hands folded to check her work.

Both the producer and playwright were expected to attend this first run through, and Bennie could sense an electricity of anticipation in the air as actors and crew arrived. Even Miss LeG seemed jumpy the evening before, lighting one cigarette off another and giving Bennie the same instructions over and over. Bennie wondered if the director’s nerves were more about the scrutiny from the producer or the playwright.

Actors took their seats, most of them leafing through their copies of the play and marking their parts. The rest chatted in groups of twos or threes. Everyone turned in unison when the doors in the back of the auditorium swung open to let in sunlight and the three principles of the morning—author, producer, and director. Le Gallienne and Bloomgarden took seats in the third row and Hellman stayed at the back of the auditorium, smoking and pacing back and forth behind the last row of seats.

Miss LeG greeted the actors. “We’ll read all the way through without stopping. If you stumble, never mind, keep reading. We’re going to start getting used to the play’s tempo.”

Far from stumbling, the two stars had already memorized their parts and, during the two-hour reading, delivered the lines with passion and authenticity. At the end of the last act, everyone around the table stood and applauded as Neal and Hunter embraced each other across the table.

Miss LeG joined in the applause. “Splendid, splendid. We’ll take a fifteen-minute break and then go through Act One again”.

Mr. Bloomgarden came to the stage and shook hands with Patricia Neal and Kim Hunter. Miss LeG called Iris over for a quiet conversation.

Standing in the wings, Bennie shaded her eyes with her hand and squinted into the darkness to gauge Lillian Hellman’s reaction. Instead of the author, who had apparently slipped out of the theater sometime during the reading, Bennie saw Laura sitting in the last row.

“How in the world did you find me? I seem to ask that question on a regular basis,” Bennie said. They were sitting on folding chairs in the tiny coat check room off the theater lobby.

“Your husband isn’t the only one who can have you followed, you know. And, by the way, he is having you followed. There’s a guy in a grey fedora sitting at the end of the counter in the diner across the street. I suspect he waits there every day.”

“Good.” Bennie raised one slat of the venetian blind covering a small window to peek at the front of the diner. “I hope Will is wasting lots of money on him. I do nothing but work, sleep, and talk to Livie on the phone every morning.”

Laura pulled Bennie into her lap and kissed her. “My bigshot director. I’ve missed you.”

Bennie felt a stirring in the pit of her stomach. She had been too busy to think of anything but the play, but right now she could think of nothing but the warmth and softness of Laura’s lips. She reluctantly pulled away.

“I have to go back.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have bothered you, but I knew Le Gallienne was doing the table reading today, and I wanted to give you moral support, if you needed it. It looks like you don’t, but it appears Miss Hellman could use some.”

“What do you mean?”

“She did nothing but pace back and forth and mutter through the whole reading. Finally, she mumbled, ‘I need a drink’ and stalked out.”

“Miss LeG told me that she’s unable to sit through the performance of her plays. She has a lot at stake with this production. How did you know about the table reading?”

“Charles knows everything that goes on in the theater in this town. What about your divorce? Can you use moral support for that?”

“Next Wednesday is the day we go to court for the first and, I hope, the last time. August says we’re ready. She’s helped me practice by grilling me as Will’s lawyer probably will. We’ll be in front of Judge Stone. August said he goes by the book, but that he’s fair.” Bennie stood with her hand on the doorknob, but made no move to open it. “My affair with Alice is our vulnerability, now that I am settled in a job and an apartment. She says we’ll answer those questions truthfully and focus on how I’ve rehabilitated myself. Isn’t that dreadful?”

“Yes. Will there be other people in the courtroom?”

“Olivia is named on Will’s witness list. She’s always behind Will. Has been through this whole thing. Probably no one else though.” Bennie opened the door a crack. “I need to go. Miss LeG is already extending herself to let me be away from rehearsal next week.”

Laura pushed the door closed again.

“I know. One more kiss. You can telephone me after court, right?” Laura embraced Bennie and kissed her.