Once he had finished, he thought back to what Shelly had said about Mitchell wanting his nephew involved. Apart from not remembering telling her, Zane had only just arrived. But they needed hands, and they did have a deal. Mitchell answered on the first ring, his greeting making Tommy smile.
“Wait a minute,” said Mitchell. “Can I put you on speaker? I’ve got Zane here with me.”
“As I was about to say,” continued Tommy, “we’re having a rehearsal of the play this afternoon. They want the backstage crew to get an idea of set-changes, stage furniture and props placement. Last night Zane said he’d be interested in helping out and I thought it might be a good chance for you and him to come meet the gang and get an idea of what’s involved. Only if you don’t have anything else planned. It’ll be from one-thirty until around five-ish. After that we usually stick around for a drink and a chat. I know it’s your day off, Mitchell—”
“He’s been ordered into work,” came Zane’s voice. “On a Sunday afternoon. Can you believe?”
“Not ordered,” said Mitchell, sounding a little defensive. “I told you. It’s—”
“That’s fine. Then how about just you, Zane?” said Tommy. “Are you up for the challenge? We’ll have some fun. Or are you planning to head back to bed and sleep the day away?”
“He’s not you, Tommy,” quipped Mitchell.
“Sounds cool. Count me in,” called Zane. “Where shall I meet you?”
* * * *
Tommy met them at the appointed location outside an MTR station a few minutes later than arranged. When Zane spotted Tommy, he brightened noticeably, standing up from the roadbollard he’d been perched on. Next to him, Mitchell appeared flustered as he stared at the pavement while taking a phone call. Clouds hung low in the sky now, seeming to match Mitchell’s mood.
“Ready to flex those muscles?” Tommy asked Zane as he approached.
“Ready to do something,” said Zane, looking bored.
Mitchell peered apologetically at Zane before breaking off from his call to speak to Tommy.
“Thanks for this, Tommy. I’ll call or text you later when I’m done. I owe you big-time.”
“Yes, you do. And I’m keeping tabs,” said Tommy, which made Mitchell smirk and Zane chuckle. “Come on, Zane. We’ve got some magic to work.”
On the way in the taxi, Tommy read down the messages from all of his team who had agreed to show up that afternoon. They were a range of ages, some a little older than Zane. His principal lighting engineer was bringing a friend, and even though they would be stuck in the lighting control room for each performance, they had agreed to help with the staging during the afternoon.
Their taxi climbed the steep Peak Road until they rounded a bend and entered a lane leading to the school, their rehearsal location. Built in the late fifties, the Sino-Anglo International School where Tommy worked sat high up on the north of the island overlooking the Kowloon peninsula. Over the years, they had invested heavily in upgrading classrooms and facilities and providing top-quality school equipment even though the exterior of the building maintained a fifties municipal vibe with its weathered grey concrete broken only by intermittent blocks of light-blue tiling beneath windows or walkways.
Tommy felt particularly proud of their new school gymnasium, where he spent most of his time. Renovated andrefitted at the tail end of the coronavirus break, they now had the addition of fully computerised overhead lighting and four mobile banks of auditorium seating that could be moved and positioned easily to suit various indoor activities. Today they had been set up with three banks around the staging area, like an arena theatre, even though the actual venue for the play would be a small theatre in town.
Clusters of cast members lounged in them now, chatting or rehearsing their lines. Shelly had acquired several wooden gym benches, foldable tables and plastic chairs to represent parts of the set and props. From a quick conversation Tommy learnt that some of the cast were still reading from scripts and that the blocking—directions for where actors would stand, sit, move and how they would enter and exit—had begun only three or four rehearsals ago. Shelly kicked the proceedings off with a quick explanation.
“As most of you know, the set will be a fairly simple and static design. The Kit Kat Klub in Berlin is the main setting, but we’ll use stage right and left to represent other locations. The musical numbers are performed in the club downstage. I think you know most of this from your read-throughs, so I’ll ask Tommy Chow, the stage manager, to come up and explain some important staging points.”
At Shelly’s prompting, Tommy gave a speech introducing his team of stagehands and emphasised his list of essentials, such as actors listening carefully for their cues and picking up and returning props to the correct tables. He explained the goal of the afternoon’s rehearsal to perfect blocking. His crew had marked out the stage boundaries with masking tape to ensure the actors stayed within the confines of the stage. Always a great idea when you were not rehearsing in the actual venue. Once they had arranged the make-do furniture, some actors appeared unhappy, grumbling about the reduced space.
Without prompting, Zane stepped forward and checked the cast members' understanding of stage directions. He explained how he had been initially confused when working on his first play because he had always assumed the left of the stage meant from the audience’s viewpoint. Even though Shelly or the director would have done the same during early rehearsals, Tommy was impressed. Today, those directions needed reemphasising. Zane came across as genuinely friendly and humorous, never talking down to anyone, physically pacing out each of the nine positions from upstage right to downstage left. Shelly looked over at Tommy and gave him a thumbs-up at one point. He could also see that some of the younger players really appreciated the reminder, especially when he went on to explain the importance of being in the right place at the right time for several reasons, including lighting prompts, other actor’s’ positioning and, most important of all, so that the audience could see and hear everything. Zane played a quick game to see who could name the spot where he was standing then asked them where he should move to if given a specific stage direction.
The afternoon flew by. Adding movement to the scenes always provided another element to rehearsals, often a little chaotic, but with practice everyone eventually understood their places. After that, they could begin to weave dialogue and action together and the production would elevate to a new dimension.
Three hours in, they called a break. Tommy and Shelly found Zane sitting with three stage-crew members around his age. Shelly’s team always laid on hot and cold drinks and simple snacks for everyone, and Zane’s group appeared to have been handing around a pork bun, a local speciality with sweetened dough and a char siu pork filling.
“I’m surprised,” said Tommy as they stood over the group. “Mitchell told me you’re not a fan of local food.”
Zane turned his head away and muttered something under his breath before excusing himself from the group and coming over to talk privately to Tommy and Shelly.
“Do you know Uncle Mitchell’s friends, Harold and William?”
Tommy and Shelly shared a look.
“We both do,” said Shelly. “More by reputation.”
Zane told them about his first day in Hong Kong and being whisked off to lunch at a fancy local restaurant with Mitchell’s cronies. All Mitchell had told Tommy was that Zane disliked local food. Zane’s version of events told a different story.
