The Birthday Party

The thing you had to know about Beau was

He never did anything quietly

So when he fired the Board

It was at the birthday party

They were throwing for him

At the restaurant across the street

Now, I don’t know if you know this

But some of the actors in the company were on the Board

Including my girlfriend at the time

But that didn’t stop Beau

From sacking them

I remember sitting there stunned

With a drink in my hand

And my girlfriend gasped

Which really stands out in my mind

Because, I mean, how many times in life

Do you actually hear someone gasp?

And what did Beau say?

What was the big dismissal?

He said—and I’m not kidding, he said—

‘Thank you for the lovely party.  You’re all fired.’

Then he grabbed a bottle of champagne

And walked across the street

To the theater

He wasn’t always what you’d call ‘a people person’

My girlfriend wanted me to quit the company

Demanded that I quit, actually

As soon as we got back to our apartment

She started packing a bag

Said she was going to move back to New York

Leave this shithole

And really try to be somebody

I told her it was her idea to come here

That I never wanted to be in an acting company

That I was doing really well in L.A.

And then she got the job at Orpheus

And I said ‘Okay’

Because I loved her

But that I wasn’t moving again

And starting from scratch

‘So what am I supposed to do,’ she asked me, ‘Sit around and play wife while you have the career I should have?’

I said—‘That’s funny, I don’t remember asking you to marry me.’

Well, that was it

She finished packing

And took off

A lot of couples back then were faced

With these sort of

Solomonic choices

Beau liked testing out the limits of his power

Every now and again

One year a wife got asked to stay with the company

But not her husband

One year Beau made a brother and sister choose

Which one of them would get to keep their job

He always said it was in the interest of art

But we all knew it was just in the interest of him wondering

Just how far his power extended

We all loved what we did

Maybe we loved it

More than each other

Maybe that’s how things started dissolving

That night, after Beau’s birthday party

I sat with my own bottle

Except it wasn’t champagne

Just good old whiskey

An actor’s favorite prop

I guess I should have been upset about my girlfriend

But I was too busy thinking about the next show

We were going to be doing Pinter

And I was going to have to start learning lines

It was always the next thing, you know?

The next thing and the next thing and the next

Until one day you realize

You spent most of your life

Just waiting for the next show

To open

And close