A Motive For Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

like he was planting fence posts. Worse
still, his appearance in tights made it obvious that he was not in
top physical condition, and toward the end of the passage, Julie
Perkins began to favor her right foot as if she had been injured by
all the manhandling.
    As the party scene progressed it became clear that
this particular interpretation of The Nutcracker would go
down in history for all the wrong reasons. At one point, the boys
separated from the girls and mounted wooden hobby horses for what
was intended as a charming showcase for the talents of the corps de
ballet. Unfortunately, so many young male dancers occupied the
stage that they stampeded across it like Custer’s charge, with
equally ill-fated results. Then, during a Punch-and-Judy segment
where puppets entertain the party guests, Martinez let so many
young dancers ad-lib unmercifully that it triggered an instant
dislike for child dancers in the many audience members who had,
until then, convinced themselves that child dancers were at least a
cut above child actors.
    The one bright spot in the confusion was the debut of
Rudy Vladimir as the Nutcracker. If the young man was upset at
being bumped from the lead role, he did not show it. Instead, his
love for dance shone through. As Clara unwrapped her oversized gift
Rudy burst from the box onto center stage with the assurance and
mastery of dancers twice his age. As if out of respect, the
cluttered corps stepped back to give him more room. He used every
inch of available space as he whirled, leaped, and bounced his way
through a two-minute solo that came close to bringing the curtain
down. Every movement was breathtaking yet reined in just enough to
convey the feeling that he was, indeed, a wooden creature. Even the
starstruck girls in the audience burst into wild applause when he
was done.
    “Fancy bit of footwork, there,” T.S. whispered
hopefully to Auntie Lil, painfully aware that his vocabulary as a
critic lacked finesse.
    “It only makes the rest of them look worse,” she
whispered back. “This is a catastrophe.”
    But the real catastrophe still waited in the wings.
As the act drew to a close it became obvious why the Christmas tree
had been missing from the set. There was no room at the inn.
Martinez had chosen to make the tree so huge and the corps de
ballet so large that physics forbade their occupying the stage at
the same time. Instead, he had reserved the appearance of the tree
as a kind of climax for the Act I curtain. Members of the corps
began to melt off to the side, leaving Clara and her family alone
on the stage, where they clustered, bidding Drosselmeyer good
night. Suddenly lights appeared behind a transparent scrim that
masked a rear series of simulated windows. The window frames
appeared in stark relief and the shadows of departing guests could
be seen crossing in front of the windows. A gasp rose from the
audience as a twenty-foot, brightly lit Christmas tree began to
descend from above the stage, framed by the backlit windows. The
base of the tree inched downward majestically in time to the music,
but when it reached halfway, true disaster struck.
    The supporting weight controlling its descent
apparently snapped, sending the tree crashing to the stage floor in
a frightening explosion of breaking lights and crashing limbs. The
dancers jumped back, startled, and the well-lit windows were left
barren at center stage. Out of nowhere, the shadow of a man hanging
from the neck by a rope swung in silhouette behind the windows. It
was grotesquely realistic, sweeping in from stage right in a full
arc before swinging back again. Worse, it grew and shrank in size
as it swung, thanks to a spotlight set front right.
    This is really going too far, T.S. thought. This is supposed to be a children’s show.
    The audience murmured uneasily when the dancers
onstage continued to stare at the swinging shadow. Suddenly the
young dancer playing Clara’s little brother screamed and pointed up
toward stage