We have been friends since fourth grade, Celia and I, and last week we revisited a play we did together in high school. It was Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." In the Broadway version, Angela Lansbury plays Celia's role as the medium Madame Arcati, while Christine Ebersole flutters about in my role as the pain-in-the-ass-first-wife's ghost that Madame Arcati conjurs up. I've read that Coward, a very, very prolific writer, wrote the script in something like ten days. Incredibly, considering the number of times we must have rehearsed this play, both Celia and I had forgotten the ending. Nor could I remember who played my husband in the play.
I do have the ghost costume in "Claudia's Clothing Museum of Past Personas." Not that it would fit. But I'm still blithe, if less lithe.
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Remember my re-write of "I'll Be Your Mirror"?
I'll be your memory
In case you don't know
What you did back then
I'll be the little voice that reminds you
Just what's behind you
When you draw a blank,
When you think you haven't got a clue
About some of the things you used to do
I'll be there to..
damn. I can't remember the next line.
oh well.
cba, you are so funny!
Thank you, Diane.
I just found the rest of the lyrics in my filofax. I used to be very systematic. My notes to myself read:
For Claudia, Sept. 1994.
If you think you haven't got a clue
About some of the things you used to do
You can always ask me if you dare
'cause I was there
And I saw you.
She and I had been comparing fond memories. Like when her stove in the little house on BI caught on fire.
We were both in the kitchen, and she shouted "What should I do??" I said :"Call John!!" who was right outside the window. Claudia, being the consummate New Yorker, picked up the phone and began to dial his number.
Hope to see you in Missouri, Diane. I am so impressed with your horse ranch I am going to have to go to at least two Jeal-Anon meetings a day.
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