“Where is Aadesh?” I asked, “There are only twenty minutes left till he goes onstage!! I need him to be ready right now! WHERE IS HE?!” Being a stage manager was difficult especially when you had as uncooperative colleagues as I did things were even more difficult and infuriating.
“Uh I am so sorry” said my assistant “Aadesh has been puking nonstop since the past forty minutes, the boy literally looks like his soul is going to leave any moment...I am afraid to say this but I think he won’t be able to go onstage..” whispered by assistant whose eyes shook in fear looking at my face which I was sure was burning with rage.
“What? He is vomiting?! Didn’t I tell him not to have that rubbish take-out before the performance?! Where is the understudy?! Why is no one here?!” I roared. “The understudy. Where is he?! Find him before you have to face my wrath” I howled at my assistant who ran away to find the understudy immediately after hearing my threat. I was about to pull out all my hair in anger and then strolled in the theatre director with a smirk on his face looking quite pleased with himself.
“Well dear, today’s the day isn’t it! Today’s the day everyone sees the magic which I directed!” he cooed. I really hoped that my face explained to him the whole disaster which had just happened because I did not want to be the one who had to tell him about the tragedy which had just occurred.
“Actually-” I began but was cut off by my assistant who rushed in with the understudy; “Ma’am I apologise for interrupting you but here’s the understudy” she squeaked. I turned my head to look at him and there stood the understudy with an arrogant smirk, “Heh, I knew you would need me. Well look here I am! The answer to all your problems” he boasted. I was about to strangle the boy but I heard the cheers of the crowd and stopped myself, taking a deep breath, I said,”Yes you are certainly the answer to all our problems...please go change into your costume and put on your makeup...please...right now!”.
Things couldn’t go any worse than this...but well...it did! It became so much worse! The costume designer came into the scene and taking a close look at the understudy he sighed and said,”Boy won’t fit into the costume...Boy, haven’t you gained a few pounds? This is why I told you to come for the latest costume fitting but you didn’t.” “What is going on?!” The stage director roared and the whole room shook, gathering all my courage. I narrated everything that had taken place while the understudy looked at the costume designer in horror and sobbed. The director clung on to each and every word I said. “Gosh!” the director exclaimed; “What must we do now? There are only fourteen minutes till showtime!”
The understudy had rushed out of the room and our play had no main character and just then strutted the person I had been dreading the most, the producer; “Where is Aadesh?! Only fourteen minutes left! Why is nothing prepared?!” he said to me while all I could do was give him a sheepish look.
Fortunately enough, the director elaborated on the tragedy to the producer, who after hearing about it looked like he would break down at any moment. “Aa..Aadesh...not here in this play….then what’s the use of even performing it today?! He was the reason why we have a full audience today! Cause they wanted to see Aadesh perform it...Oh! How disappointed would they be to see someone other than Aadesh on stage...Aadesh was supposed to be our main focus today but no! Even that has been ruined” he cried.
He shook my assistant from her shoulders and cried out,”What do I do?! What should I do?! God! Give me an answer!” My assistant surely looked very rattled then and looked like she was going to get sick at any moment. “Wait a moment Abhijeet” said the director to the producer, ”You aren’t going to like this idea, but what if I go onstage? I am quite sure I have the same build as Aadesh so I will fit into his costume and I certainly know each and every dialogue by heart. This is the only solution which we have at the moment.” All of us were dumbstruck by the director’s words but we had to admit that his solution was the only solution we had. The producer hesitated before agreeing but he too was aware that this was the only solution.
So there it was, our stage director putting on the main character’s costume and make-up and going onstage to put on a performance. Thankfully, even though the audience were quite disappointed at not seeing Aadesh onstage they didn’t show it. “He is doing a pretty decent job, isn’t he?” I asked the costume designer whilst the main plot of the play had just begun and the costume designer sighed and said,”Well he certainly got what he wanted from the very beginning.” “What do you mean?” I questioned; “Ah right, you weren’t here since the beginning but as rumours go around, the director wanted to cast himself as the main character in the play since the very beginning but the main producer was strongly against it and wanted Aadesh to play the role” he answered while I was speechless at his words. Just then, Aadesh walked in looking quite sick and he apologized to both of us while we nodded, not having the energy nor the heart to tell him off for his actions. ”Hey, it's just that the director offered me a protein shake before the performance and it had nuts and I am severely allergic to nuts! I thought I mentioned it to him but probably not” he laughed weakly while all the costume director and I could do was stare at each other alarmed, hoping that the thought which both of us had in our minds was untrue.
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