Celena > Recent Status Updates

Ari unlocks the suitcase, filled with letters from his mother, intercepted by his aunt and saved so he might know his father Isaiah died of typhoid, his mother named him Ari - lion, beholden to no one. His surname Silver and the tattoo amulet a word to guide him "I will create as I speak".

Uncle Israel is taken to hospital, he tells Ari that his mother always loved words, calls him "his heart's son", he was too wrapped up in himself to value gifts of others, distrustful of Zipporahs amulets and blind to the love Isaiah & Zipporah had for each other.

Billy and Ari's showdown. Billy subdues Ari, his maleficence cutting Ari's hair. Ari strikes back and Billy is left in the gutter. Billy opens the envelope to discover his mothers name is Esther, of Jewish faith. He is hit by a train on his way to be with her, his light.

Lily manages to escape Billy, all too aware of his purpose. She performs her own act at the theatre to great response.

Billy begins his seduction of Lily, Ari finds a key and a scrap of his uncle's shawl. Billy's mother tattooed him, an amulet of protection.

Billy's history continues - he rtns to Sydney, found Merle, who Crisp had duped as well. Merle has a child, not Billy's and Crisp knew his mother, swindled him out of his fortune, kept him apart from her. Billy claims his box from Merle with Golden Fortune's comb.

Ari left Lily a departing gift - the red book of Houdini she liked and the words "my shekinah" meaning dwelling or settling of divine place of God. Billy swoops in with an invitation to walk in the rain in the grounds of St Stephens and shares a story of meeting Houdini.

Lily, with Ari's departure, has been "knocked senseless" as a wren which her father taught her to care for by placing the bird in a warm, dark spot to recover. Stephen was the one able to calm her mother from self harm but then he died. Billy is being Lily's warm but dark spot.

Part 2 ends with Ari stepping into his uncles shoes for prayer, troubled by the need to go look for him. Billy saw Israel in distress and further disturbed him by feigning to be a messenger, sending him on the train to the Blue Mtns. The Birdman saw him.

Ari & Lily's show goes smoothly, though Lily's momentary reveal all finale sets Billy off. We learn Crisp & his daughter Merle have used Billy to gain his deceased father's fortune. Ari & Lily kiss at Bondi only to return home to news that Ari's uncle has vanished.

Revealed Lily's mother whipped her because she was pregnant outside of marriage, her religious practises twisting. Getting a bit heavy handed with references - faith, magic, reflection of Ari and Lily to the Houdinis.

Billy has orchestrated their costumes - he the one to make Trilby (Lily) sing (set up by his encounter with girl when he was gardner), Ari the faun (the sacrifice, the Jew).

Miss Du Maurier's costume party leads to Billy turning up his torment a notch or two. He dresses as Svengali from George du Maurier's novel, Trilby. Living up to His disguise as one who "manipulates or controls another, especially by force of personality for malicious purposes".

"It is a very hard thing for a son to learn that he is his father's disease." Inadvertently, Billy's father came to Crisp's shop afterBilly gave him a bottle of elixir. He told Crisp that his luck all left when Billy arrived. Billy overheard all of it. Still not sympathetic to him.

Lily's father is sent to war so he teaches her his famous trick of the disappearing coin. "Every little bird you see will bring me word of you, you can be sure of that." A letter arrives for Lily and Ari from Clay.

In part 2 we add Lily's narration - whose real name is Matilda, Tilly. Her father does little magic tricks for her, her mother a devout Christian and once again, we hear the comparison of faith and magic in The figures of Jesus and Houdini.

The performance shows a secret code has been practised between Ari and Lily, akin to the one between Houdini and his wife Bess. The one they used for their performances and the one wherein the doubting Houdini, if emerging from death to another side, would send to make her Believe.

Uncle Israel came to the boarding house to challenge Ari out of hiding. He was met by the 3 others, so left. The Birdman delivers the raven to Ari, but he is not there so Lily takes the bird, as Birdman is going to mountains. Ari's letter appears to be from his possible father, a friend of Israel's. He is a scribe working in leather so also probably the tattooist of Ari's finger.

He noticed a Professor Cuthbert Crisp stealing books from the library, followed him, confronted him in his store and became his apprentice in elixirs.

Billy was enchanted by a girl, Golden Fortune, who worked in an opium den his father slept away his time, his mother unknown. Golden fortune stole his father's pocket watch & when he retrieved it, used it to trade for touching her. As a gardener, he stole the mother of pearl & brass opera glasses from a rich girl.

Ari & Lily pass audition: they will have a trial performance to gauge reaction. The menorah will be used as a prop for the birds. "A new start, though the path be dark. A new start, though the light comes slowly. A new start, nonetheless."

He takes an envelope wondering if it is from his mother and the menorah. Refrains from looking in aunt & uncles suitcase. Lily begins to share her previous employ with Ari but when she cannot speak of something, Ari fails to encourage. He apologises and all is ok but his upbringing of not touching a woman holds a barrier he finds difficult to cross.

Common themes of the moon, religion vs belief, birds. Ari takes up residence in the shed, rtns to his uncle and aunts to find them at Tisha B'av: Nebuchadnezzar destroyed temple & Romans. He enters house to retrieve meagre belongings, some of which are missing, his room stripped. He enters attic space to look.

Billy is attempting to leverage his employ at theatre and his success at getting Lily employed there as an usheress. Audition day has arrived and he arrives earlier than his shift to see it but is told to leave by owner. He is making indents into wood panelling of 'Lily Little'.

Ari & Lilys menagerie is complete: parrot, currawong and lyrebird. Ari is aware of Billy's observations. Dressed in their audition finery Ari and Lily look like shadow and smoke. Ari's uncle, having challenged him about becoming a rabbi, has taken Ari's silence as refusal and when Ari's returns home, the door is slammed in his face.

"I felt I had been preparing for this all my life. The line of letters on my hand was a compass pointing in the direction I should follow, my true north..." Ari's abracadabra tattoo, despite being against the law of G-od means "the blessing, the curse". Ari's mothers name meant 'bird'.

Billy's obsession with Lily grows as her and Ari's relationship blossoms into a magical act, with their menagerie of birds. We learn Billy's mean streak is keen. Miss du Maurier's support of the couple, helping them and insisting Ari wear her father's morning suit and top hat.

Birdman refers to A rhyme of 16th century origins about magpies, thought to be bringers of ill omens. Michael Aislabie Denham's Proverbs and popular sayings published versions in 1846. One for sorrow...the Birdman says "six for secrets never to be told" but all versions I could find said seven for secrets.

"There always has to be a girl. The world started with a man and a girl in a garden."