High Teas
by Moira Roth
these High Teas were done in memory of a friend, Christine Tamblyn, who died on New Year's Day, 1998--a year later on New Year's Day, 1999, I held a 'real" tea party in her memory, and each of ten friends brought a tea and edible to this. After that, over the course of a few months, I produced a series of high teas sets for various friends (usually sending them by e-mail) and each set has the same teas and edibles, but different stories.
HIGH TEAS FOR NAOMI SAWELSON-GORSE
High Tea 1
The Bride sits down, laughing, to a High Tea of Earl grey tea served in a gaudy blue-and silver teapot. Opposite her, equally animated, is Rrose Selevy. They gossip about the Dadaists, their old friend Marcel, and speculate if he will ever publish his Green Box Notes. The Bachelors perch in a row on the edge of the sofa, silent and too unnerved by the women's company, to eat any of the dill salmon tartlets, served on a fine silver platter.
High Tea 2
The Bride swigged cheerfully from the bottle of wine, and passes it on to Rrose, who--although normally too well brought -up to drink directly from a bottle--follows suit. Together they try to tempt the still-uncertain Bachelors, who exchange apprehensive glances between themselves (should they leave or not?), to slices of a small but delicious and rich fruit cake baked by Erin Blackwell. Noone eats. As the tea ends, each Bachelor slowly and alone leaves the room, and enters the Bride's garden outside. The two women watch this exit with wry amusement. "They will come back," the Bride assures Rrose.
High Tea. 3
The Bride, in a state of cinematic blossomings, partakes of her orange jasmine tea in a dark red teapot made in Kyoto. Rrose, adjusting her hat and reappling her lipstick, drinks reflectively from her cup. From outside the window, the Bachelors apprehensively yet longingly watch the women as they preen. The Bachelors have been studying the Waterfall, trying to figure out how it works. Then they slowly begin their perilous move through the giant Nine Malic Moulds, listening to the litany of the ominous Glider, the Chariot, below. Slow life, vicious circle, onamism.Will they manage to escape the Chariot's predictions? Far too consumed by their longing and fears, they dare not at the moment start eating anything--especially something like strawberries, hand-dipped in white and dark chocolate and arranged on a pale pink plate with hand-painted peonies.
High Tea 4
The Bride and Rrose talk of love and marriage, and the failures of men, as they toast to one another with their Mariage Frères Montagne d'Or tea, which they drink in fine pale blue porcelain cups and saucers. They watch the Bachelors through the window as the Bachelors continue to on their journey. Now they have almost reached the Sieves, which they agree reminds them of parasols, worn by elegant Parisian matrons who walked along the boulevard near the Bachelors' childhood home They ignore the women's gestures from inside the room, offering them chocolate-covered ginger, arranged on a large ceramic plate (found in a Marseilles flea market in 1911),decorated with swirling mauve orchids. They know there must be no distractions.
High Tea 5
The Bride and Rrose settle down to discuss the hats they have just bought--the Bride has also bought a veil for her wedding and tries it on in front of the mirror, watched by Rrose--over cups of ginger root tea which are casually served to them in mugs bought at one of those cheap, charming discount places in Munich--blue and white, and now slightly chipped. They have quite given up trying to get the Bachelors to join them, so are eating all the shortbread (long with butter) by themselves, taking the pieces one after the other in quick secession from a blue and white plate. The Bachelors cannot hear the women's voices, only the sounds of the Chocolate Grinder. They cannot hear the bride's impatient but seductive Draft Pistons' commands to them. They are consumed by fear, but also by longing.
High Tea 6
It is again time for afternoon tea in the living room of the Bride. Again her friend, Rrose is there.This time they choose a new tea, one from California, the Iron Goddess Tea. To celebrate the uncertain passage of the Bachelors so far, the Bride has herself prepared super-thin crustless cucumber-salmon sandwiches cut in neat triangles, which she has placed on a silver platter. The conversation between the two friends is rather desultory as they keep glancing outside the window. The Bachelors have moved through the Malic Moulds and are now fully costumed in their true (but perhaps it is their false?) selves, with their cemetery of uniforms and liveries.
High Tea 7
For their tea this afternoon, the women decide only to drink--and choose Liquorice Spice--and not to eat. The Bachelors are staring ahead apprehensively at the Network of Stoppages and The Sieves. How should they precede, they debate, in liquid or solid form? The Bachelors, in the meantime, have chosen their form--they hope it is the right decision for their lives depend on it. They will be solid and choose the shape of short needles.
High Tea 8
The two women meet again, this time for Earl Grey tea in a seal-colored squat teapot and petit-fours and sugared walnuts, surrounded by sprigs of fresh mint, on a pale grey-and-green plate. They no longer speak to one another, only watch the spectacle silently through the window. The Bachelors cough as they breath the dust of the Sieves. They cough again as they move through the Sieves.The Dust Breeding is overwhelming. Is this voyage worth the danger to their lungs and voices? Will they be able to speak at the end of the voyage.
High Tea 9
The Bride, adjusting her veil (which she has decided to wear for the afternoon), offers Rrose a cup of green and sage tea. Each treats herself to a chocolate truffle. Outside the Bachelors are grinding their own chocolate from the Chocolate Grinder. Safer to make it themselves, they agree
High Tea 10
Inside the room, the two women sip Thé des Poètes Solitaires. Outside, the Bachelors watch them, exhausted.