Banquo's Ghost

Anna dawdled idly along Cross Street towards St Mary’s Catholic Church.  The November evening was unseasonably warm, although a thick, unrelenting fog had settled over the City and she could hear the low fog horns of the freight ships as they pulled in to North Harbour to unload their wares.

She was early for rehearsal, hence her lack of hurry.  To be honest, she had wanted to get out of the house – what with Tom’s friends coming over for band practice – or as it was in reality, drinking and playing Call of Duty on the X Box.  She enjoyed the rehearsals and had been thrilled when she got a part in MACBETH, even though she had never acted in a play before – it was only a small part, a servant who appeared in a few scenes and spoke half a dozen lines, but for Anna it was the gateway into a new world.  The members of “The Midsummer Night’s Theatre Group” were exciting, interesting and full of wonderful stories and exhilarating anecdotes, so different to the girls from the hairdressers where she worked or Tom’s mates and their respective partners.

“Hey Anna!” a voice called out as she neared the old building.  It was Terrie, the tall, dark haired girl who played one of the witches.  She was coming from the opposite direction and had raised her hand in an arcing wave.  Anna waved back energetically.  She noticed Terrie’s tattered, old copy of the play in her hand – apparently it had belonged to her grandmother who had been an actress and a playwright.  Anna’s own copy had been freshly bought from Waterstones after she had been given the part.  She and Tom didn’t have many books in the house, let alone plays.

“Hey hun,” she addressed Terrie as they met in the gateway of the church. “How are you?”

“Yea, okay ta.  A bit hung over!  Ended up going out last night after work.  Shall we go in?”

Terrie worked for the University in some sort of administrative capacity.  That she was hung over was no surprise, for her social life seemed to take precedence over any professional obligations.  Anna followed her in to the building where a few of the other cast members were milling around, chatting or reading their scripts and drinking tea.  The church was old – maybe a few hundred years, Anna was not entirely sure.  She came from a family of atheists and had never been in a Catholic church before.  It was adorned with statues and paintings of Jesus and what she guessed must be other characters from The Bible.  They rehearsed there because one of the cast members – who played Lady Macduff - was a friend of the priest and so they were allowed to use the space for free.

As she removed her coat and put in her tea order with Terrie who disappeared off to the kitchen, Carson, the director bounded over to her, full of his usual energy and enthusiasm.  According to Terrie and the other witches, he was some kind of genius who had published a thesis on Shakespeare and had gained an English “A” level at the early age of fourteen.  He certainly looked the part, what with his silver framed glasses and a penchant for wearing vintage velveteen suits whilst carrying around a selection of books, half of which Anna had never even heard of.

“So glad to see you again Anna!” He gushed.  “Banquet scene today – hope you’re ready and prepared!”

“Of course,” she replied, brandishing her copy of the play, as though this proved she was.

Once the rest of the cast arrived, they set the makeshift stage for the banquet scene – this was the scene in which the ghost of Macbeth’s friend, Banquo appeared, although nobody else could see him except Macbeth himself – all the other guests just thought he was going mad.  It was Anna’s favourite scene – partly of course because she was in it, and partly because she liked the idea of the ghost scaring Macbeth – whom she had decided was a pretty mean character.

Just before they started rehearsing the scene, Anna called for them to wait.  She produced her purple Nokia Coolpix from her pocket and held it out to Ben, who played King Duncan and wasn’t in the scene.

“Mind taking some pics of us Ben?  I want to show my Mum.”  She said, smiling.  Ben accepted graciously, after a brief demonstration of what to press and when.

The scene began and Anna was pleased she had remembered all her lines.  Banquo’s ghost arrived on cue, walking zombie like around Macbeth and his ensemble of guests and Luke, who played the main part, acted suitably frightened.  Carson the genius was certainly looking delighted as he watched them from the pulpit.

The scene finished and they all clapped each other.

“Hey, let’s see those pics!” shouted Terrie.

Ben handed back the camera and Anna pressed the relevant buttons on the digital machine until an image came up on the screen.  She began to flick through them as the others crowded round her – but something was wrong with the pictures.  In the place were Banquo had stood, there was only a thin, white, smoky line.

“Wait – those aren’t the images I took,” said Ben.

A door slammed.  Everyone turned to look as a young man entered the building.

It was Jason, the guy who played Banquo.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late!” he called.

And all the lights went out.


917 words