Enjoy the Fun

When Binyamin returns to Alexandra in “The Bodyguard”, he has to keep his identity a secret. He exploited the benefits of being declared dead eight years before. He was even buried with a lavish funeral that included professional mourners. But when he is spotted by an old family friend, he tries to deny his identity:

I snapped my head back as if he’d struck me. Oh yeah, I can ham it up better than any of those sissy actors, Thespis included. Just one of the many tricks I’d learned to deflect my father’s wrath. “Who me, Papa?” I’d say, dropping my voice and blinking my eyes like a cave dweller. “You think I did what? Jumped out the window to relieve my lust with Zenon’s daughter? Where? In the pantry of her father’s cookshop? How could that be? I was right here studying geometry. Honest.” Then I’d shake my head and tighten my lips as if to hold back a moan of pity.

Binyamin was an experienced liar, but he was no Thespis. Thespis, who lived in Athens 600 years before Binyamin, is regarded as the first actor of the Western world. Emerging from the Chorus of a Greek tragedy and wearing a mask, he spoke directly to the audience to portray his character.

Of course, someone at the time objected! An Athenian reformer named Solon asked Thespis why he “wasn’t ashamed to tell so many lies before such a number of people?” Thespis supposedly replied that there was no harm doing it in a play.

And there’s no harm in doing it in a novel. So, pick up a copy of The Deadliest Returns. It’s full of lying scoundrels. Enjoy the fun. Just click here.