Happy Days

Matthew is behind the curtain when the announcement comes: Ladies and gentlemen, the role of Winnie, played by Aira Wilson, will be performed at this first preview by Matthew Lim.

- HAN ONG

He hears the audience go crazy, their version of crazy, being an older crowd—whispers rising, falling, rising again. This is worrisome to him. Also, thrilling. Toggling from one reaction to the other induces vertigo, and he has to use deep breaths to calm the sudden onset of body chills.

Willa, the twenty-four-year-old stage manager, has the biggest smile on her face. This helps Matthew to understand that tonight’s audience has accepted the happy logic of the house manager's announcement. After all, it’s not Aira but Matthew who is the theatre company’s resident diva, celebrated for his portrayals of Lady Macbeth, Hedda Gabler, and Medea. (Matthew is that gratifying phenomenon: a star who didn't hit his stride with audiences or with critics until he was in his forties.) And what is Winnie but a great diva’s part—Beckett’s greatest? (To balance things out, Aira, with her easy sonority, led the company’s “King Lear” twenty years ago.)

Matthew gets into the “mound of earth” just left of center stage—it’s a hollow shell that opens and is secured with a latch, like a carriage door, its hinges and seams hidden from the audience.

He closes his eyes. A minute later, Willa is reassured by his thumbs-up.

But the serenity is short-lived. People are texting and posting! Willa’s assistant, Aidan, tells her, alarmed.

Matthew has to problem-solve for them. Get Aira to make an announcement!

Luckily for everyone, Aira is just out of sight in the wings. She is alerted, and gamely steps in front of the curtain. Her unfitness for tonight's performance is demonstrated by an aluminum walking cane. There is applause. Please, she says. We ask that you not post about Matthew on social media. For those of you who have just done so, can I ask you please to delete those posts? You understand that, given the estate’s ...

What word will she choose?