Wally Chambers is a New York actor, and a good one, but like most of that crowd, he never gets the parts or the recognition he deserves. Now, he’s gotten a call to read for the part of Bottom, the man-turned-into-a-donkey by the mischievious fairy Puck, in a production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream to be held at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Wally gets the part—on one condition—that for six months after the play closes, he not tell anyone he’s played the role. It seems he’s going to double for Regis Fillman, the Hollywood star actually giving credit for the role. Not his understudy, mind you, but as the donkey half of the role, with Regis playing Bottom in his human form. Wally isn’t happy about that but—what the heck!—he’ll be working and acting with well-known names, including bombshellAudrey Flax, blonde, buxom, and five inches taller than he, so he agrees.
Rehearsals go well, though Wally discovers Regis to be more of an ass than the character he’s playing. Audrey, on the other hand, in spite of her dumb blonde persona, turns out to be a smart, sensitive young woman, and he realizes he’s falling in love with her, though she apparently just thinks of him as a friend. He’s so much of a gentleman that Audrey thinks he’s gay, though he disabuses her of that. Fast! Never mind, Wally’s just happy to be around her as someone she can “be herself” with.
Just before opening night, disaster strikes. The actor playing Puck is in an auto accident and his understudy gets stabbed in a bar fight and panic runs through the cast. Who will now play Puck? Enter Rob Fellow to save the day, with an actor’s Union card and knowing Puck’s lines backward and forward, including all the stage directions. Sure, he’s an odd character, but hey—what actor isn’t? So the show goes on…
…and Wally is suddenly pursued by thugs mistaking him for the gambling-addicted Regis, the girl of his dreams is about to fly back to Hollywood and out of his life, and he finds himself being marriage counselor to the king and queen of the faeries…all while in his Bottom costume, which has suddenly turned into real donkey skin and won’t come off…
MY OPINION: Regis Fillman? Where do you get these names, TJ? I always like stories set backstage! Subtitled “Wally and the Fairy Queen,” even for those of us who aren’t familiar with Shakespeare’s play, this story is an entertainment for any night and any season of the year. Wally is sweet and earnest in his theatrical as well as romantic endeavors, and Audrey matches him perfectly as the vulnerable starlet treated by everyone as slightly stupid because of her hair color but inwardly nursing both a sensitive heart and a great talent, and Regis is the typical jerk who’s just may have talent but stomps over everyone because of it. The description of rehearsing for the play and the backstage scenes brought back memories of when I myself “trod the boards,” though it was never in a self-adhering donkey-suit! And the opening passages describing Central Park, the Delacorte Theatre, and Belvedere Castle, are almost poetic.
It’s a sweet romance, a look at backstage life, and a modern-day fairytale all rolled into one, a little reminiscent of the play the actors are bringing to life, with a definitely happy ending.
Shakespeared is available from Eternal Press, a division of Damnation Books, www.eternalpress.biz
This novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.
