The Actress Unmasked?

“Ahh crap…” swore Sam when she woke up and checked the time, realising she was running late. Going on that hen night last night really wasn’t the most sensible idea she’d ever settled on. She felt pretty ill and was running late for a very important audition.  Damn!  Her agent had fought tooth and nail to get her an audition for the Lion King production in London’s West End. Yet, here she was screwing it up!

Feeling incredibly mad at herself, Sam scrambled out of bed and into the shower. She was showered and dressed in under ten minutes. So, she had just enough time for the finishing touches, make-up: to make her look human.  She sat down at her dressing table and looked in the mirror to survey the damage. It was hard to believe that today of all days had got off to a spectacularly bad start.  She had imagined things so differently, and hoped it could only improve from here.

A muffled scream escaped Sam’s mouth. There wasn’t just last night’s mascara on her face. There was an entire skeleton mask painted on there. Crap. How? What? Crap. Sam grabbed her make up remover and started scrubbing.  Another panicked glance at her watch revealed she had just a matter of minutes to go from a heavily made up zebra to the next face of the Lion King…at that moment it dawned on Sam that perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, or was it?

Now, Sam’s agent, Peter, was full of lots of things, waxing lyrical about this and that and the other and how being distinctive really mattered.  Perhaps the mask that currently lay on Sam’s face was it – her chance to literally stand out from the crowd.  Her commitment and vision for the role such that she was literally thinking like one of the animal cast members making up the company.  What would Peter say?  It was either genius or madness.  The hard working peter was diligently clocking up his air miles and working on his tan on Florida (his fourth holiday of the year – not bad for August!) so was unavailable to offer advice.  Either way, there was a big call to be made and this was it.

Then a coin caught Sam’s eye in the hazy morning sunlight, its golden reflection calling out to her.  Maybe it was time to let fate decide.  These things had a way of resting in the hands of higher forces – and if nothing else it would be a heck of a story for the memoirs.  With a heavy intake of breath, she picked up the coin and rested it on her hand.  Heads she would go with her mask still on, tails not.  As she flipped the coin up into the air, she could feel hear heart pounding.  She closed her eyes tightly… not daring to see what the outcome was…