May 2019
NOTE: Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne build a summer estate in southern Wisconsin. "Ten Chimneys" feels like a throwback to a past golden age of theatre, and May is an especially good time to visit. sylviacavanaugh.com
May Tour of Ten Chimneys
“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
-Katherine Hepburn
Katherine Hepburn
strides through the “flirtation room”
the hidden heart of a summer estate
it teases in overlapping dialogue
of six swinging doors
dining room
drawing room
upper terrace
yellow room
Alfred Lunt
and the baroque
iron stove he just had to have
after he turned his back
to the audience
and made them read
his spine
Lynn Fontanne
oversees French Farce comings and goings
secrets wink like tinsel prints
lining the walls
it all feels so very red
in this slow decay of a stage set
that looks more polished
in the brochures
like the way we are slow
to recognize how fast
the years pile on
and the way we don’t
seem to mention
the possible return of the glaciers
which once scraped this land
to the bone
leaving rocky detritus
to build this nest upon
and yet these stony hills
grew verdant over time
in late May this place
feels like a last chance
green room
before the final act
a bright renewal
Helen Hayes
Noel Coward
Lawrence Olivier
Alfred and Lynn
the playful possibilities
I could invent
as I write them back
from black dirt
make a cake of it
compel them, once again
to disobey the rules
© 2019 Sylvia Cavanaugh
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