A FATAL FEUD
The camera pans out, another photo coming into view: Lewis Stamper. Moderately celebrated RSC performer. A man who has never spoken about the rivalry, though he has long been rumored to be its cause.
And now, an older Lewis comes into view.
Lewis Stamper: Yes, I was at CADS with them.
Grainy footage of a CADS production of The Merchant of Venice fills the screen. Harper is on the stage, but in the wings you can catch a flash of Nadine hovering and waiting for her cue.
Lewis Stamper: Rivalries weren’t uncommon. We’re talking about the most competitive drama school in the country—we all had people we wanted to outperform. But Harper and Nadine? I didn’t even know there was tension between them until it took us all down.
Ivan Drozdov: I think Nadine created the rivalry because she was terrified—of failing, of not being invited back for a second year, of spending so much money on formal training just to potentially wind up back in the small town she started in.
Setting her mind on Harper and beating her?
I think it diluted all that fear into just one girl.
Zoe Holland: Harper was bored—and that’s an awful thing for a girl like Harper to be. Give her a splash of drama, and she’ll drown you. She smothered Nadine, pure and simple.
A photo of a bustling bar, gilded marble, and crystalline chandeliers bouncing the light so the whole thing glows.
It zooms, and there, in a booth in the back corner, are Harper and Nadine, seemingly locked in conversation.
It fades into a slightly more polished Nadine—sitting in that chair, wincing.
Nadine Heywood: There are a lot of reasons I could give you—and no, none of them are about the supposed boyfriend.
I felt out of place at CADS. Everyone was rich and well-connected, and Harper was kind enough to invite me along.
I know it’s difficult to believe, what with everything it spiraled into, but it began simply: with a socially awkward teenager and a girl who inspired envy.