My Time at Temple Studios, Part 23

Show #23

Saturday, May 17: 5 pm

This show was the only one during the trip at which I was not expecting to meet up with anyone I knew, so I spent my queue time chatting with strangers. Among them was a man who was bringing his parents to the show for the very first time – so I decided that, despite being first in the queue, I'd let them go into the dark maze ahead of me, just so they could get the full effect and start their first show off on the right foot. It was a great plan, and from the confusion and amusement I could hear up ahead of me, it was going swimmingly – but then we entered the holding chamber next to the lift and encountered a fairly obnoxious crowd of Luna's Listers, who had been let in early, and who were standing around, blathering loudly (and obviously drunkenly), and refusing to put their masks on. Well, I tried.

Fortunately, my irritation was quickly forgotten as the lift door slammed open and I got my first look at Pinky, the new exec played by Sonya Cullingford, who was absolutely stunning, all glammed up in her silver dress. Literally, I was stunned.  She immediately took charge of the situation and had the Luna's Listers calmed down in record time.

A few shows back, when I followed Sonya's Seamstress, I commented on how nice she seemed, and how I thought that maybe it was because that's just Sonya's demeanor, and maybe she can't suppress it. After only a few sentences from Pinky, I was pleased to see that I was absolutely wrong on that front. Pinky is polite, and friendly in that Hollywood sort of way, but very stern. And even when she's being nice, you can just see that there's a steely coldness at her core. It's unlike anything I've seen Sonya do before, and quite impressive.  She zipped through the introduction with a clipped efficiency and dropped off the first bunch of masks in the basement, deliberately separating a group, much to the distress of the woman who got left behind, verbally protesting. Pinky advised us that fortune favors the bold, then turned to the woman and looked her in the eye. “Are you bold?” She asked.

“No.” The woman said.

“Well, you'd better buck up, then.” Pinky replied, throwing open the door. Nothing like tough love.

I immediately rushed for the stairs, heading back to the ground floor so that I could make attempt number two at my aborted PA loop from the night before. Normally I would get out in the basement and rush upstairs to save time, but I figured I could get away with sticking around for the second half of Pinky's spiel on account of the PA emerging slightly later than the other characters anyway. I got to the ornate bedroom, expecting to hang out with Marshall and Dolores for a bit while I waited for the PA, but to my surprise, there was no sign of Dolores – and the PA (Stephanie Nightingale) was already there, Wendy (Katherine Cowie) in tow. I was late. But not just a little late – this was a good ten minutes later than normal. It wasn't just my decision to go to town first; something must have gone awry. Still, while it's a shame to have a truncated show, it doesn't make much of a difference once you're inside. I settled in for my loop and followed the PA downstairs. In fact, I was the only one who followed her. So far, so good.

We got to her office, which she entered by crawling through the window, and she sat down to do her lipstick – you all know what that means. She caught my eye with a flick of the mirror, hunted me down, and sucked my soul out of my neck, breathing it into a bottle of red liquid (which, unusually, she had to pour first). Then we went right back upstairs to Conrad's dressing room. While the PA was rooting around, Conrad (Adam Burton) emerged from the darkness and locked us all in before confronting her. I'd never seen a Conrad lock the door before, but it makes a lot of sense for the flow of the scene – if the white masks know they can't leave yet, they're less likely to get in the way during the flip and twist at the door.

The usual power struggle ensued, ending with Conrad leaning on the counter while the PA sucked his soul (life force? Manna? Whatever it is) from the back of his neck. As she pulled away, I noticed a long, stringy thread of drool stretching from her lips to his skin, and instinctively reached up to my own neck. She didn't drool all over me too, right? Surely I would have noticed. I think.

Back into the ornate bedroom, then, for what is probably the most. . . let's say sensuous dance to “Free and Easy Mind” that I've yet seen from a PA. When Marshall (Fionn Cox-Davies) arrived and she began to dress him for the orgy, the thing that sticks in my mind the most is that she flung the hanger aside, with clear disdain for the set and any sort of order within it. I think it even knocked some other props or décor over. That's not something I would have expected from a PA, but it did start to solidify her take on the character in my mind. All of the PA's I've done complete loops with have a dominant trait that defines their take. Lucia Chocarro was the mysterious, inscrutable one. Kirsty Arnold was the impish one. Fania Grigoriou was all about control, both over herself and the world and people around her. Stephanie, on the other hand, is the fiery PA. She doesn't suppress her emotions, she doesn't care about order in her surroundings – in fact, I think she enjoys creating some chaos – and she revels in her own physicality. In many ways, she is the polar opposite of Fania's PA, which is appropriate, as I think those two are the most fully realized incarnations.

Incidentally, it was during this scene that I first noticed that we were being followed by a black mask with a camera. I saw several others throughout the rest of the loop as well. Not sure what they were filming for, but whatever it is, hopefully it will be released for public consumption. A video record of even a small portion of the show would be a dream come true.

I followed the PA down to the orgy, which happened in its typical orgy-like fashion, with the addition of a number of sultry glances from the PA. Afterward, I followed her out to the corridor, winding up in exactly the same spot I was in the night before. Feeling slightly sheepish, I moved two feet to stand on the other side of the hall, as if that would somehow give me a different perspective on things.

When Stanford (Sam Booth) arrived, he didn't have any white masks with him, so he just moved down the row of masks that had followed the PA, pointing at and asking each in turn, “Did you see that? Did you?” But when he got to me, at the end of the line, he pointed – and then he just chuckled. He glanced at the PA, then back at me, and she chuckled as well.

Okay, fine. It was my second loop in a row being in that exact same place with them. But there was a whole day in between! Surely that counts for something.

At this point we were squarely in the portion of the loop I had just done at the previous show, but it was still captivating, and much less crowded. And this time, after her tantrum in the white hall, it was my eyes that she stared into before taking off for her office. Which doesn't mean she picked me for the soul(or whatever)-extraction-via-wrist immediately thereafter – she didn't. But then, whatever it is that she's taking from us, she already had mine. Once that was done, she crawled back through the window to taunt old Dolores (Sarah Dowling), and everything else leading up to the reset happened essentially as before.

Once Dolores was restored and the story began anew, I noticed something that I hadn't picked up on before – the way she and the PA acted in that first scene is much more. . . friendly, for lack of a better term, than I'm used to seeing. They got right up close to each other, even put their faces together and looked out at the world while they were reading lines from Dolores's script. Of course, it's also difficult to miss the sarcasm dripping off of every bit of the PA's body language, which is a neat trick. I guess Fania's PA is working so hard to control her rage that she can't get away with that sort of thing, whereas Stephanie's PA has accepted her rage and made it part of herself, so she can express it in these new and different ways.

Then it was back down to the basement, and this time I was selected for dancing in the dark. One does tend to wind up in a slightly awkward position with that one – when the whole thing kicks off with her asking you, “have you ever danced with a stranger in the dark,” you really can't say yes. You just can't. Even if it's true.

The 1:1 (well, 2:2) ended with the grandmother mannequin still largely unassembled, and the PA and the Doctor (Rob McNeill) pushed it out into the hallway to perform the rebuilding as an open scene. Once it was done, I followed the PA into the Temple anteroom, where she deposited the Grandmother, and then into her office, where-

Wait, scratch that. She didn't go to her office. She stayed in the anteroom. Interesting. Things were not going the way they had always gone in the past. Instead, the Doctor rejoined us, and they performed a slow, simple, but effective dance on and around the rolling desk. I have to admit to feeling a tiny bit of panic when I heard the musical sting that normally signals the reveal of the watch accompany a backbend instead. I had to assume they knew what they were doing, but instinctively, just a bit of worry.

Eventually we did go to the office, by way of the door that leads into reception. Stephanie's PA seems to have a real thing for alternate entrances to that room. Multiple trips through the window, and then using the reception door – before her, I'd never seen anyone walk through that door. Ever. For the longest time, I didn't even realize it wasn't just a wall.

Anyway, again, I was the only one there, so of course I wound up doing the watch quest. It lacked the dramatic start of Fania's version (nothing will ever top the desk-quake), but once I had the watch in hand, things quickly started getting very, very interesting. Instead of leading me upstairs by the hand, she grabbed my wrist, placing two fingers on the inside. As we walked, she slowly began squeezing a heartbeat, which grew quicker and quicker as we approached Studio 4. By the time we got there, “Past, Present, and Future” was already well underway – so we were still considerably later than I was used to. But it all seemed to work. She led me into the scale room, and mouthed along with the lyrics as she took the watch from me, placed it in the box, and handed it back. Then we headed back out into Studio 4.

Normally I find myself a little torn right at this point. On the one hand, I'm following the PA, so I want to watch her. On the other, she usually doesn't do much during the song, and there's a whole bunch of exciting running and sliding going on at the other end of the room. That was not an issue this time, however – the PA didn't give me an option. She held on to me, keeping me turned away from the action and facing her, and continued mouthing the words of the song until it was all over, when she finally took back the box and continued on without me.

Once the watch was delivered, and Dolores was dressed for the initiation, the PA headed off to the 1:1 room and again, amazingly, no one but me followed her. So in I went. It wasn't as scary as Fania's had been, but had some nice, unique touches of its own. Where the overriding image in my mind of Fania's 1:1 is of something monstrous, from another world, this one left me with the impression of an old, faded photograph, positioning the PA as something from a time long past. Not as terrifying, but more subtly eerie.

This is normally the point where I would depart the loop – since it's normally where I would have come in. But since the show started late, I stuck around a bit longer, until Wendy once again had Marshall's infidelity thrown in her face. Then I headed off for Studio 3. Yes, you heard me, Studio 3. The existence of Pinky had given me the final push I needed to attempt a Studio 3 loop. Would I succeed? Could I handle a whole loop without my mask on, surrounded by non-performers? I was certainly going to try, anyway.

As I walked in, Conrad and Andrea (Fania Grigoriou) were in the middle of their magic act, which was not well attended – but of course, it was still early. Once they departed, Pinky took the stage to sing “Telephone Man,” and I found myself a seat up front, earning a wink from Pinky when she saw me sitting down. The song was fun but stupid, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the way Pinky performed it as if she didn't understand any of the double entendres. But I forgot it almost immediately when Stevie (Alex Mugnaioni) took up a second microphone and the two of them broke into a barnstorming rendition of “Delilah Jones,” which stomped all over the original recording. I was completely blown away by it and a little overwhelmed, since the staging (Pinky on stage, Stevie at the carousel) meant that I was basically right smack in the middle between them, trying to twist and turn to catch whoever was taking the lead at any given moment. Which I failed miserably at, though it didn't affect my enjoyment at all.

Once the song was over, I got up and wandered over to the coconut shy, pleased to see that they were selling cocktails. The cocktail bar is never open post-show on double-show nights, so I assumed that would be the case during the show as well. My mistake. On my way over, Pinky intercepted me and welcomed me back with an old-fashioned kiss-kiss on the cheeks. She commented on the late start, checked whether I would be sticking around for a little while, and asked me how my directing career was going. Apparently, I was a visiting freelance movie director - which is actually sort of true. Sort of. Not in any legitimate, professional sense, of course, but I didn't mind playing the part. After slipping me one last insider tip that THE Harry Greener might be stopping by later (gasp!), she headed off to confer with Stevie and I procured myself an old fashioned.

I took my drink and had a seat at a table as the band began to play some quiet background music, sans singer. The place really was quite empty, with maybe a dozen other white masks (or is that still an appropriate term if we're all unmasked?) scattered about. I listened to one song, sipping slowly, then another. Not a lot going on. I hated to admit it, but I was getting bored. Surely something else interesting was going to happen at some point, but this wasn't that point. Perhaps I shouldn't have picked the show that none of my friends were attending for my first Studio 3 loop.

Eventually I noticed that there was a young woman at the table adjacent to me who appeared to be in precisely the same boat, slowly sipping her drink and periodically looking around the room with a lost, vaguely dissatisfied expression on her face. Now, I'm not normally very good at initiation conversation with strangers, but hey – this was Temple Studios, where fortune favors the bold. And I had to do something or I was going to lose it. So I hopped over to her table and introduced myself to Lauren from Manchester.

It turned out that this was her first show, and that she had some trouble figuring out the story and sticking with characters during the first loop, so she was taking a breather before heading back out. I explained a bit about how the show was structured and gave her a few tips about how to get the most from it. I also told her that she had picked a good night to visit, since there was filming going on, and presumably everyone would be working extra hard to make it a good show on account of that.

Bear with me, there is a reason I'm telling you all of this.

Eventually we were interrupted by Pinky, who brought Harry (Edward Halsted) over to meet me since, as a director, I might be a useful contact. I told him how much I loved his films when I was growing up, and how glad I was to see him still kicking. Playing a part is kind of fun, actually. Then he headed over to the carousel to sing, and – no, scratch that too. He sat down while the band played a song in his honor, which I have to confess was a big disappointment to me. I love that Harry comes down to Studio 3 to sing – if he doesn't actually do it, it kind of defeats the purpose of having him go there in the first place. Plus, the song in his honor was more of the same sort of thing the band had been playing anyway, whereas a vocal performance would have mixed things up.

After Harry left, I chatted with Lauren for another 5-10 minutes. Eventually we reached a point in the conversation where I mentioned that this was my 23^rd show, and she gave me kind of a funny, sort of confused look.

“So wait,” she said, “you're not part of the show?”

I shook my head, and she laughed.

“I thought you were an actor – because you have an American accent, and it's supposed to be in America!”

I told her it was my real accent, and then she asked me what I do, if I'm not an actor. So I told her. The response:

“So you're not really a director either?”

Please note that these quotes aren't exact - just as close as my poor memory can manage.  Anyway, I'm not really sure where you would take a conversation from there, and I didn't get the chance to find out, as shortly thereafter, Pinky returned to “borrow me for a minute.” She took me off to a side room for a 2:1 with her and Stevie, because they had been keeping an eye on me and though I might have what it takes to be a part of Temple Studios.

Oh, if they only knew.

The 2:1 was really incredible – probably twice as long as any 1:1 in the main show, involving some carny-style trickery and a brief special effect. It also required a lot more interaction on my part, and was really just a blast all the way through. The best part, though, was the snappy patter between Pinky and Stevie, who make one hell of a double act. It's really kind of a shame that so much of what they do is private, or at least heavily focused on one or two audience members at a time, because it really ought to be more widely seen.

After the 2:1, a singer emerged and the music got a bit more lively, as did the population. Definitely a step up, but it was also basically the same set that they do post-show, so I was already very familiar with it. I took the opportunity to explore the mirror maze and opium den in more detail, since I'd only ever passed through either of them very quickly. Then, knowing we were already well into third loop, I donned my mask and left Studio 3 behind me.

My brief encounter with her at the previous show had substantially increased my interest in Lily Ockwell's Faye, so I decided to pick her up for the remainder of the show. I got to Studio 5 midway through Bulldog (Damn it!) and picked her up from there.

It took me a few scenes to really settle in – oddly enough, the point where I started getting into it is the same point I had already seen at the previous show – the dance at Dwayne's trailer. I really love that dance; can't believe how dismissive of it I used to be. I also started to figure out why Lily hadn't clicked with me when I first saw her in March: she's not as sympathetic as Sonya or Katie. This is most likely by design – her take actually feels more like the original Faye Greener from Day of the Locust, who was much more self-centered and innately manipulative. She also feels a bit out of her league (as a character, not a performer), in a similar way to Katie's take.

This has led me to my four-quadrant theory of Faye Greener characterizations. There are two axes, girl vs. young woman and sweet vs. . . let's say snotty. That's not quite right, but it's the best word I can come up with. Katie Lusby is the sweet girl. Sonya Cullingford is the sweet young woman. Lily Ockwell is the snotty girl, and Miranda Mac Letten. . . well, I can't say for sure, since I STILL HAVEN'T SEEN HER, but from what I've heard, it sounds like there's a good chance she would be the snotty young woman. I really hope I get to find out myself some day.

Then we headed up to the desert for the scene with Dwayne (Alistair Goldsmith) and Miguel (Ed Warner), and once again, I was left wondering what it was that I hadn't liked about it in March. Lily's dancing was great, and she even managed to sneak in one of her infamous shrieks when Dwayne jumped Miguel. Absolutely nothing to complain about.

After that came the Hoedown, and based on a suggestion I'd read somewhere (the source of which has long-since slipped from my memory), I decided to watch it from the raised stage against the wall opposite the bar, which did indeed prove to be an ideal vantage point. You're not quite as “in it” as you are if you manage a front row spot down on the floor, but it's much easier to get a sense of the overall choreography, and your view is never obstructed. I also decided to take a seat on one of the barrels there, but that lasted all of two seconds before a black mask shooed me off. Whoops.

The downside to watching from there is that it was much more difficult to follow Faye and Miguel out of the room afterward, but I caught up to them soon enough and, really, I've watched them cavort through the arcade so many times now I could probably act it out myself (not that anyone would want to watch that). They made their way back to the motel room and settled in for the usual – Miguel on the bed, Faye standing by the window, undressing. Of course, I was watching Faye (because she was the one I was following, not for any other reason. No other reason at all, I say, whistling innocently). Once her dress was off, she slowly turned around to face the bed, and I turned with her, expecting to see the same thing I always saw – an empty bed and no sign of Miguel. It's a horrible moment if you're on board with Team Faye, and is the reason why I largely hated Miguel for a long time.

But that's not what I saw at all. Instead, Miguel was still sitting on the bed, stark naked. He stood up and shuffled over to Faye with his pants around his ankles and his vest in his hand. When he reached her, he gave her a gentle (friendly, not loving) kiss, pulled up his pants, and ran out the door.

. . . I have no explanation for this.

More booze, more trailer dancing, and soon we were back in the Horse and Stars for Walking in the Sand, which was a little different than I was used to – instead of lip-syncing the song, Lily actually sings along with it, which adds an interesting layer to the scene. It kind of detaches her from the show a bit, and makes her feel more human and vulnerable – which is particularly important for Lily's Faye, who largely eschews the vulnerability during the rest of the loop, or at least downplays it. Her stomping also stood out to me – I mean, everyone stomps. There's a point in the song where you almost have to stomp. But Lily REALLY stomps.

Soon the song ended and Harry arrived. True to form, his dialogue with Faye was completely different from the last time I had seen it, with no mention of the studio insisting that she be his guest. We got down to Studio 2 and Faye continued walking through the crowd all the way up to the mound, rather than watching from the stage. I didn't feel like pushing through a mass of people, so I hung back and let her go. After the murder, I found a spot near the center of the stage to watch the finale, and was pleasantly surprised to find Phoebe (Mia Mountain) standing over me at the end, with her hand outstretched. Spontaneous walkout #2!

Unlike Zoe Mills' chatty Phoebe, Mia said nothing to me at all. She just smiled and led me to the opium den, where she removed my mask and left me with a kiss on the cheek. After that, I just had time to gulp down some water before heading back outside to meet some friends in the queue, in preparation for round 2.  Or round 24, anyway, if that's how you're counting.