To watch or observe a friend on stage

that is the true question that never gets answered.

Whether you simply enjoy their performance,

and laugh and cry at their antics,

the feeling of sympathy when their character loses their way

and the cheer of adulation when they rise to be the hero

you have always known them to be, the simple act

of watching and then forgetting all they have been through

to bring that moment of truth to the part,

shrug it off and never worry where it  may

have come from.

 

To observe them, to act as witness for them on the stage,

to stand up and be counted at the final curtain raises

for their last bow and the painted smile that runs

and the make-up melting under the fiery furnace of light,

to know where their performance came from

and what pressures took them to the point

of insanity as at times

they may have written their own dialogue,

scratched at earnestly for the soliloquy  in the darkness

and borrowed with grace an element from you.

 

To note that they battled bravely throughout

as the glare from the director as she toted up

the mistakes and grievances, the dropped lines

and the chances on which they stood still, not making

the right movement in which could have stopped

another fellow actor from feeling

the wrath of the audience, and comes out with

the dreaded line that they will never work again,

it was never a rehearsal, there is no time for that,

no read through, no camaraderie of a last command performance,

you just watch as your friend takes their bow

and the curtain is raised to receive them…

 

to watch or observe, it depends on how you

want to remember

their time on the boards.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015