"WOMAN:" "It's just round the corner." "Lorraine Barry." "Uh-huh." "Interesting." "What do you think of her?" "As an actress." "As an actress?" "Well, if she's allowed ten minutes over each entrance and exit and then allowed to overact in between, she's perfectly appalling." "Occasionally, when properly directed, she has a quality of magic and truth you can't get from anyone else." "She hasn't been properly directed since she gave Adrian Gurney his nervous breakdown." "Poor Adrian." "Hmm." "Ray, you are the only director around who could get that performance out of her." "Do you think she'll do it?" "Ah, she'll do it." "To begin with, she hasn't had a new play since Dear Yesterday." "Also, she hasn't got a man at the moment and she's in serious trouble with her taxes." "She'll do it, all right." "If you can stand the wear and tear, Ray." "But never say I didn't warn you." "I'm quite sure I can deal with her." "JC:" "Our author's being very quiet." "RAY:" "Do you feel she'd be right for Helen?" "Lorraine Barry?" "She'd certainly be a huge draw if we could get her." "RAY:" "But?" "Isn't she almost too glamorous for the part?" "I just see Helen as a more ordinary woman." "Glamour is what audiences want these days." "We've all been starved of it for too long." "Those down-to-earth plays are poison." "Box-office poison." "I think Bryan's play is perfectly down-to-earth." "Yes, but it isn't depressing." "Helen does kill herself in the end." "That's dramatic, not depressing." "Oh." "JC:" "Bryan, dear boy, she is one of our biggest stars." "Do you object, Bryan?" "Speak now, or forever etcetera, etcetera." "No, I don't have any strong objection." "Weak objections don't count in the theatre." "It's hysterics or nothing." "Well, if you think she can do it." "Right, I'll call Clempton, her agent, and send her a copy of the play." "Ray?" "You know, you're absolutely right about her magic and her truth." "But there's something else about her, too." "What's that?" "She is the least intelligent, most conceited and most tiresome bitch" "I've ever encountered in all my long experience in the theatre." "How can he say that and send her the play?" "He sent it already." "Two weeks ago." "And he knows she wants to do it." "Who told you that?" "A little bird told me." "I always consult with the birds before I go to a meeting with JC." "If I'd objected to Lorraine, I wouldn't have agreed to direct your play." "RAY:" "What's it to be?" "BRYAN:" "Scotch, please." "Excuse me, old man." "Hello." "Can I have my usual, please, and a Scotch." "Doubles." "Certainly, sir." "You actually saw my first play?" "In darkest Shepherd's Bush." "I'm amazed anyone ever found that damn theatre." "They took it off too soon." "It was beginning to attract attention." "Attract attention?" "After three weeks, it made 7,12 pounds and sixpence." "Apparently the number 73 from there to Finsbury Park makes more in one trip." "That's all right." "Come on." "Thank you, sir." "Can I have a pint?" "Certainly, sir." "To your new play." "Thanks." "Cheers." "We should talk about the other parts." "But not here." "However, I would like to get Carol Wild to play Stella." "Do you know her work?" "I've seen her once." "She'd be very good." "She's got terrific energy." "She'd keep Lorraine on her toes." "Ray, how are you?" "Adrian!" "You're looking fit." "Oh, can't complain." "I hear you're doing a new play for JC." "Hmm?" "Whoever told you that?" "This is Bryan Snow, my accountant." "Adrian Gurney." "Pleased to meet you." "Well, I mustn't keep you." "Never come between a man and his accountant." "I'll, uh, see you around." "If I had said you were a playwright, we'd never have got rid of him." "Adrian Gurney, that's familiar." "He's the director JC mentioned." "Apparently, Lorraine Barry gave him a nervous breakdown." "Still, at least he's walking again." "Are you sure you want her to say yes?" "Utterly." "Heaven forfend I shall sound over-confident, but I can deal with her." "You see, I know that behind all that fiddle-faddle and nonsense," "Lorraine is a bloody good actress." "Oh, I know a dozen actresses who could play Helen technically as well, but none of them could bring to it what Lorraine could if she knows what she's doing." "Trust me, she's going to know what she's doing in your play." "Then I'd better pray she agrees to do it." "Depends whether you want peace or prosperity." "The two rarely go together in the theatre." "Have another." "The same again, please." "Certainly, sir." "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "Look, Clemmie, you're her agent!" "Why should I tell you what to do?" "Okay, here's what you do." "Tell Lorraine it's a good idea she meets the author first." "JC:" "He's nice and sympathetic and young." "You're Bryan Snow." "You've arrived at exactly the right moment." "I've just been reading your wonderful play for the seventh time." "Do come in." "She'll adore him and she'll make sure that he adores her." "She'll get him on her side, for whatever that's worth, so that when she faces Ray Malcolm, she'll feel cosy and secure." "For the time being." "That's all this business is about, isn't it?" "The time being." "Right, bye." "You must have one of these little scones." "I made them for you specially." "I adore cooking." "But I never dare go into the kitchen when my maid's in the house, so every now and again I send her off to the movies and have a field day." "Can you cook?" "Oh, only scrambled eggs." "There is nothing in the world more divine than scrambled eggs." "Now, where were we?" "Oh, yes." "Helen." "I've been dying to ask you about Helen." "JC told me you were in one of those horrid prisoner-of-war camps." "Is that where the idea of the play came to you?" "Well, maybe the germ of it, but I only really developed it afterwards." "You see, that's what I think is so wonderful about this play." "It seems to be about afterwards, when really it's about the war." "How it's never really over for some people." "Right." "I think that's what's so moving about Helen's suicide." "I love those lines of hers at the end." "How does it go?" ""Oh." "It's over for Donald." ""Over for all of them." "They were heroes." ""It's not over for me." ""I'm still one of the victims."" "You've learnt it already." "Some of the lines just stick in my head." "JC has told me some wonderful things about the director, Ray Malcolm." "Oh, he's a great admirer of yours." "He'll be very good." "Now, he really understands the play." "Well, I just hope he's right for us." "Oh, damn." "I forgot to phone Clemmie, my agent." "Forgive me a moment, will you?" "Well, I know Mr. Ray Malcolm has done some wonderful things at the Old Vic." "He's probably a genius with Chekhov." "Oh, Clemmie darling, yes." "I would have called you before, but Bryan Snow is with me." "Yes, darling." "But I do think you might have warned me that he's young, attractive and has a wonderful sense of humour." "Of course he does." "Well, I think he does." "You do approve of me, don't you?" "He has to." "I made him some of my special scones." "Have they thought of anyone yet for Stella?" "Well, what about Marian Blake?" "Well, in heaven's name, why not?" "Well, I never heard such nonsense." "She's one of the best actresses we have." "Oh!" "It was, was it?" "Well, who does he suggest?" "Carol Wild?" "He must be out of his mind." "Hold on a minute." "Do you know your Mr. Thingamajig wants Carol Wild for Stella?" "Yes, he did mention..." "Have you ever seen Carol Wild?" "Only once in Leave My Heart." "I thought she was really quite good." "Well, you can't judge by that, it's a foolproof part." "Well, she has the energy that's..." "Energy!" "She's never still for a moment." "Zooms about all over the place." "It's like acting with a mosquito." "Anyway, she's far too young to play Stella." "No, all I mean, Miss..." "Now, Clemmie darling?" "Yes." "You can tell Ray Malcolm from me that he'll have to think again." "Carol Wild is quite wrong." "The part cries out for Marian Blake." "I don't care what..." "I blame JC." "I consider it very high-handed of him... (INAUDIBLE)" "Yes, look, um, will you have dinner with me tomorrow or the night after?" "And I'll ask Ray, and you two can get to know each other." "I'd adore to." "I can't tomorrow, and Thursday I'm going to a first night." "Why don't you come with me and then we can dine afterwards." "Wonderful It's, um..." "Well, I'm just very excited." "Bryan?" "Yes, yes." "I want you to promise me one thing, for the play's sake." "I want you to be absolutely and completely honest with me." "I love this play." "Let's be idiotically honest with each other so that no one, least of all me, can stop you from having the success you deserve." "Promise?" "Promise." "(METERTICKING)" "Oh, dear." "Sorry to keep you." "That's all right, guv." "It's been a lovely afternoon." "Thank you for coming." "I'm sure you're right about your Mr Malcolm." "He'll be very clever and very charming." "I'm not an enemy." "That we still have to find out." "Bye." "Bye." "Um, actually, do you think you could just drop me here?" "I've just remembered that I've got a bit of shopping to do." "Why are you being so charitable about that appalling play?" "Well, look, I don't feel I should criticise it." "I'm too vulnerable on that score." "You know, people in glass houses?" "Dearest Bryan, compared to that play, you have written Hamlet and The Cherry Orchard combined." "You should have been a critic, not an actress." "I hate first nights, don't you?" "Um, actually, I've never been to a first night before tonight." "Never?" "Well, not a full dress affair like this evening." "Listen, at my first night in darkest Shepherd's Bush, only three men in the audience had jackets." "That is all going to change." "After this play, you are going to be the toast of Shaftesbury Avenue." "I will be happy just to survive the two weeks in Manchester." "MAN:" "Hey!" "CROWD: " Happy birthday to you "" "I think our director friend is planning a late entrance in act two." ""Darlings, I couldn't find a taxi anywhere."" "Directors really are so very much more theatrical than actors these days." "How very sweet of you." "(CROWD CHEERING)" "I'm sorry." "I've no time to spare." "Bryan, I'm sorry." "Ray, this is..." "There's no need." "Lorraine Barry." "Can you forgive me?" "I just couldn't find a taxi anywhere." "I ran most of the way." "Late or early, it's lovely to meet you." "I've heard so much about you." "And I've admired nearly everything you've ever done." "You must both be starving." "Why don't we all order?" "How was the play you saw tonight?" "A disaster." "The titanic." "The audience was the iceberg." "Oh..." "Bryan is being humble in preparation for the dreadful ordeal we're going to put him through." "They asked me to play the lead." "Thank God I said no." "Thank God, indeed." "We're both very grateful" "Oh..." "I've just been telling Bryan that compared to tonight's performance, his play is Hamlet and The Cherry Orchard... (PIANO PLAYING)" "LORRAINE:" "I just said to Bryan..." "We should have those." "Oh, yes... (PIANO PLAYING)" "BRYAN:" "Why are they acting as if they've fallen in love?" "What's going on behind their faces?" "God, I don't know how to play this game." "RAY:" "Ralph got terrible sunburn at Brighton." "When he put all that armour on, of course he started to bake under the lights." "Well, I told them that I simply wouldn't play opposite him." "In the end, they offered the part to Madge, and she got this terrible skin condition." "Oh, my dear." "It got worse and worse..." "BRYAN:" "Ralph, Madge, Jimmy, Phyllis, they know everybody." "If only they said their surnames," "I'd at least know who they were talking about." "I know what you're going to say." "Yes, she left them off." "LORRAINE:" "Oh, no!" "Do you know, I heard this story..." "Like a rocket!" "Well, I mean..." "They could go on like this all night and most of tomorrow without even mentioning my play." "Maybe they're not going to do it after all." "Bryan?" "You're very quiet tonight." "Not getting nervous about the read-through already, are you?" "No." "Well, we must make an arrangement..." "One syllable in one hour." "That's quite good going for an author." "I'm coming in." "WOMAN:" "Mind your backs." "MAN:" "Good morning." "WOMAN:" "Morning." "Harry?" "Good, it's like a medieval mortuary in here." "Get some light on the morbid scene." "Harry?" "Sir?" "Lights." "MAN:" "I haven't read it." "More light!" "More light!" "Bob!" "Get rid of this bloody pig or they'll be laughing all through the read-through." "Morning." "Morning." "Critics gave it a roasting last night." "(HUSHED CHATTERING)" "This scene's an absolute gem between you and I." "I think it's a delight." "Excuse me." "You're Bryan Snow?" "Marian Blake, Stella." "Pleased to meet you." "I simply adore the play." "Stella is a wonderful part." "So sympathetic and fun, too." "Lorraine has told me all about you." "I've never known her so enthusiastic about a play or its author." "Good morning, everybody!" "ALL:" "Good morning!" "Ah, Gerald, you look in great shape!" "JC!" "Linda, darling, lovely to have you in a play again." "Eric." "Lovely to work with you at last." "JC, hello!" "Marian, darling." "How are you?" "Ask me that in three weeks' time, darling." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "Well, Ray, you ready to go?" "Yes." "Is Lorraine here?" "No, but I'm ready to go." "MAN:" "We've never played husband and wife, have we?" "WOMAN:" "No." "Well, we came close." "That rather scurrilous play." "It was rather!" "WOMAN 1:" "Yes, yes, all right, all right." "WOMAN 2: 'Cause we start the play." "The nervous author?" "Yes." "I'm Tony Orford, Ray's assistant." "You must be feeling quite appalling." "Oh, a little nervous, yes." "Wait till after the read-through." "You'll feel ghastly." "It does get better, usually." "MAN:" "All right, ladies and gentlemen." "Um, I'll go and sit on the side." "Oh, no." "You have to sit in the firing line next to Ray." "It's no worse than a long morning at the dentist." "Well, Bryan, dear boy." "You made it to the starting line." "Many don't." "I hope you had your porridge this morning." "Where's Lorraine?" "I'm sure she can't find a taxi." "All right, everyone." "I apologise for this Bavarian brothel" "(ACTORS LAUGHING)" "Our set will be a little more cheerful" "I'm sure you all know one another." "Yes, indeed." "Don't we just, yes." "Thank you." "Marian." "Hmm?" "This is an author." "(ACTORS APPLAUDING)" "Brilliant, but understandably nervous." "Don't be put off by him, I've told him not to be put off by us." "In two weeks in Manchester, he'll see what we're really like." "All right." "Let's read it." "Um, what about Lorraine?" "She doesn't come on till page five." "And if she's late, the drawbridge is down." "Does that mean she can't get in?" "No, dear." "That's when it's up." "I'm not going to bother setting the scene or reading stage directions." "So, okay, voices off and enter Martha with Stella and Eric." ""It's been raining all the time." ""Hardly stopped all spring." ""The farmers have all been complaining."" ""Been exactly the same in London." ""Except for the farmers, of course."" "(WOMAN GIGGLING)" "(MAN CLEARING THROAT)" "Marian?" "You're Stella, I believe." "Oh!" "Sorry." "It's me." ""How have you been keeping Mrs Firth?"" "Sorry." ""How have you been keeping, Mrs Firth?"" ""Touch of flu at Easter." "Can't complain." ""Mr and Mrs Dwyer should be down in a minute." ""They just went up to change." ""They were out walking." ""I'll go and make the tea." "Make yourselves at home."" "BRYAN: oh, God, This is going to be torment." "MAN: "How long have they had Mrs Firth?"" "MARIAN: "About four years..."" "If I'd stayed on in the army, I'd have been at least a captain by now" "A healthy outdoor life, an MG sports, regular paychecks wife." ""Drinking?" -"She had some sort of breakdown." ""Her husband was killed in North Africa."" "It's Lorraine." "(DOOR SLAMMING)" "(DOG BARKING)" "This is the worst entrance I've ever made in my life." "I'm bitterly ashamed." "JC!" "Oh, Lorraine, darling." "Bryan." "Forgive me, Ray." "Nellie was ill and didn't turn up, and I couldn't leave Bothwell on his own all day, and then I couldn't find a taxi anywhere." "Bryan, forgive me." "I'm sorry, everybody." "Gerald, my love!" "It's been an age!" "How are you?" "(GROWLING)" "Oh, dear, yes, I'm sorry, I forgot about you and Bothwell" "He was only a puppy then, Gerald." "Harry, be an angel, put him in the prop room, would you?" "Tie him to something heavy, a suit of armour." "Marian." "Darling!" "Oh, it's lovely to see you." "Oh, you shouldn't have." "I'm perfectly happy with a straight chair." "Linda, you must sit on that." "I know you've got a bad back." "I should fall into a deep coma if I sat in that." "Lorraine, I couldn't possibly." "No, no, darling." "You must." "I shall sit on this hard chair." "No, perhaps I'll sit over there beside Gerald." "Marian, do you mind?" "No, no." "I'll get my things." "Yes, I think it would be better" "because we've all our scenes together." "You carry on." "Lovely, thank you so much." "Oh, now, I'll just..." "Ray, forgive me." "I'm holding things up." "You want to start." "We've started." "As you don't come in for the first few pages, we thought you wouldn't mind." "Shall we continue?" "MARIAN: "...some sort of breakdown." "Her husband was killed in North Africa."" ""Stella Simon, how long have you been here?"" ""Not long." "Mrs Firth let us in."" ""She didn't call me."" ""You look in the pink." -"How's Donald?"" ""Fine." "He's been dying to see you, Stella." ""It's been so long since we've all been together." ""I was only saying to Donald yesterday..."" "MAN: "I'm afraid there'll have to be an inquest."" "MARIAN: "Oh, no." "We'll all have to give evidence."" "MAN: "Yes, but they could decide she was walking and, uh, just fell" ""The car was some distance away."" "MARIAN: "She told me she was going on holiday." ""A long holiday."" "(SIGHING)" "Thank you, everybody." "We start rehearsals at 2:30." "BRYAN:" "I should have listened To my father and become a dentist." "Then I could have hurt people." "After the theatre, about 10:30." "Lovely." "Bye, dear." "Bryan?" "Breathing again." "Still a bit shallow, though." "The breathing, love, not the play." "Oh." "As a read-through, I'd give it six out of ten." "I'm going to stand you at least two stiff drinks and a sandwich." "Oh, no, thanks, but I promised Lorraine that I'd..." "Ah!" "No." "Well, I don't want to leave her with no one to have lunch with." "I said I'd probably meet her..." "No, today that's Ray's treat." "I'm afraid you're stuck with the assistant director." "You mustn't let it upset you, love." "They read well in inverse ratio to their grandeur." "The smallest part gets the most dramatic rendition." ""Dinner is served, madam."" "The leading lady always mumbles into her mink coat." "The leading man would if he could." "It's only a get-together, really." "Makes the poor dears feel warm and cosy." "If I had my way, on the first morning, they'd all sit on the floor and play Monopoly." "God, I missed these during the war." "Couldn't manage on one a week." "It nearly broke my spirit, it did." "No, thanks, no." "Scotch?" "Yes." "Two Scotches, please?" "Very good, sir." "I still think Ray should have waited for her this morning." "Heavens, no." "Fatal" "You know, I don't see why you both take it for granted she's going to be so difficult." "Because, my dear innocent, she is a great big, rip-roaring, glamorous star, and a female." "Sir." "Thank you." "Female stars are fussed over and spoiled out of all proportion to their actual status in the theatre." "They receive cart-loads of flowers on opening night, whereas the poor leading man or the director consider themselves lucky if some fan gives them one carnation wrapped in cellophane." "Shall we?" "Yes." "Aren't male actors ever temperamental?" "Not to the same extent." "They can be morose, nervous, wretched, miscast, even tearful, poor swines." "They must not stamp or shriek or tear off all their clothes and jump on them." "Oh, no." "They must press on gallantly, standing aside for the leading lady, presenting her graciously to the audience, changing in less comfortable dressing rooms, all to feed the overweening vanity of some gifted domineering harridan." "You know, you make it fairly obvious that you don't really care for women." "Don't be silly, dear." "I adore women." "But not in what is known as that way." "Some of my greatest friends are women, and they're a damn sight more loyal and sweet to me than they are to each other." "Above all, I love great big glamorous stars." "They fascinate me." "And what about Ray?" "Does he feel the same?" "Oh, yes." "Well, then, why did he put her back up so soon?" "Pawn to queen four." "What?" "Opening gambit." "Over lunch, he'll calm her down, butter her up, spread warmth and understanding." "For the time being." "She won't really loathe him till Tuesday week." "The second week with Ray is total drama." "Usually better than the play ever is." "Present playwrights excluded, of course." "Well, I don't think it's necessary, all this playing games with people." "Games?" "Bryan, dear, it's deadly serious." "It's all our livelihoods for the next year." "Maybe two." "I don't really want any lunch." "I think I ought to go." "I ought to go." "You stay." "Thank you." "Yes, sir?" "Another Scotch, please." "Thank you." "Go and see a good film." "A film?" "While the actors are making a pig's dinner of the author's lines, they get terribly jumpy if he's around." "What, you mean not to come to rehearsals at all?" "Not till next Monday." "Ray will phone you every evening with a progress report." "Oh, don't call us, we'll call you." "Trust us." "We're not stealing your baby, just teaching it to walk." "See you next Monday." "RAY:" "Trust in your author's line." "Believe in the character, and the audience will believe in you." "Let's take it again from," ""You wrote my husband a letter?"" ""You wrote my husband a letter?"" ""While he was in the camp?" -"Yes."" ""And you mentioned Mr Farr?"" ""No, I just said someone."" ""But you said I was having an affair."" ""That's what I said."" ""But you didn't sign that letter." ""I think that was the most beastly, despicable thing."" ""Don't you lecture me!" "You're in no position to."" ""Why?" "Why did you do it?"" "(SOBBING)" ""You're husband was alive and coming home." ""Mine was dead." "(SOBBING)" ""After three years in a prisoner-of-war camp." ""What you did was beastly and despicable."" ""Don't you..." "Get out!"" "Oh, Christ!" "I didn't know Christ appeared in act two." "Even he couldn't act gracefully on this damn sofa." "It's hell to play on." "I feel as I'm acting in a hip bath." "We can't change it again, Lorraine, it's the third we've tried." "Well, you try it, then!" "You try being fascinating and moving with your knees hitting your chin!" "Harry!" "Sir?" "Harry, we don't like this sofa." "It looked fine from over there." "I'm not acting over there, I'm acting here, aren't I?" "I'm acting on this bloody stage!" "Harold, scatter a few cushions around." "Build them up." "That was coming along very nicely, Linda." "We'll go from your exit." "Is Marian ready?" "Marian!" "I just saw her go out through the stage door." "Did she say if she was ever coming back?" "Oh, dear." "That's my fault, I'm afraid." "She went to get some coffee for me." "There's a marvellous little cafe around the corner." "I don't care if she gets it from Venezuela." "She's meant to be here, not running errands." "Here I am." "Just in time." "Not in time at all" "We'll all take our coffee break now." "Is the author around?" "BRYAN:" "Yes." "Good morning." "Iron!" "Thanks." "Had a nice week?" "No." "Separation pangs, that's all Umbilical cord cut." "We're making progress here, at least some of us are." "Oh, I thought it was beginning to sound rather good, until the sofa incident." "Yes, Lorraine's having one of her days." "Any reason in particular?" "Who knows?" "Maybe her bath water was cold, or it was Charles's breath in the love scene." "Ours not to reason why." "To serious matters, the ending." "I want you to look at it carefully when we do it later." "Think about it." "What's wrong?" "I don't know." "Think about it." "Now, in this next scene, I want to cut one speech and transpose a couple of lines." "Come on, I'll show you." "Iron!" "RAY:" "We'll take it from Stella's line," ""We all knew it was John, dear."" ""We all knew it was John, dear." ""But that was the war." ""Surely what happened is over."" "LORRAINE: "It's over for Donald." ""It's over for all of them." ""They were heroes." ""It's not over for me." ""I'm still one of the victims."" ""Everybody's got something to hide, dear."" "(CLATTERING)" "Sorry." "Uh, sorry." "I didn't..." "I didn't know there was anything in the bottle." "Thought it was empty." "Sorry, um. "Everybody's got something to hide, dear."" "It's somewhere in here I start to worry." "LORRAINE:" ""I can't go on living that way."" "About what?" "The play dips." ""She destroyed Donald and us."" "In what way dips?" ""Poisoned us."" ""Poisoned us." ""He became a different person," ""and I can't love what he's become."" "Just dips." "MARIAN: "Be patient," ""he'll get over it."" "And then somehow the ending's affected by it." "What's wrong with the ending?" "Doesn't work." "MARIAN: "You can't go off with John."" "Look at your script tonight." ""No one will understand."" "Think about it." ""Not now."" ""Donald is a hero, everyone will side with him."" ""I know."" "RAY: "You shouldn't, you shouldn't."" "I know." "I was taking a pause." "There is no pause." ""You shouldn't." "You shouldn't"" ""He's still your husband."" ""He's still your husband."" ""And he wants you back."" ""And he wants you back."" "God, she'll never bloody get it right." "She didn't go out to get Lorraine's coffee, she went to have another lobotomy." "RAY:" "Just dips." "And then somehow the ending's affected by it." "How somehow?" "What somehow?" "How's it affected?" "RAY:" "The ending doesn't quite work." "What doesn't work?" "How doesn't it work?" "What the hell is he talking about?" "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "Mr Snow?" "Telephone for you." "Right, Mrs Webster, I'll be right down." "Thanks." "Hello?" "Thank God you're in." "It's Ray." "Have you got a powercut, too?" "Oh, yes, since 6:00." "I hope the lights come on again before we open." "I sometimes ask myself who won that bloody war." "I had to talk to you." "Are you alone?" "Oh, that was my landlady." "What's gone wrong?" "Nothing." "I just had an idea, in fact several, about the ending." "Yes." "Now, listen." "I've just been looking at that and I don't see why it doesn't work." "We open in ten days, if I change the end now, it'll need a major reconstruction." "Of course, of course." "Don't get upset" "I don't want to talk about it on the phone." "I want you to come down to my place in the country for a peaceful weekend." "We'll hash it over." "Have all the time in the world." "How's that?" "Yes, all right." "That'll be fine." "Come Friday night." "Small suitcase." "No dinner clothes." "TONY:" "It's an absolute tonic." "Instead of a National Health Service, the socialists ought to give everyone a country house." "(HORN BEEPING)" "Miracles!" "Your train was on time." "Two minutes early." "He was waiting waif-like on the platform." "Come in." "Bathe and refresh yourself." "Dinner at 8:30." "(WHISPERING)" "(TONY SINGING NESSUNDORMA)" "(CORK POPPING)" "No, no, thanks." "I'm all right." "Is that wise?" "Tomorrow you'll be ranting on about your acidity." "I still prefer my acidity to yours." "After a second bottle, he will crack and start reminiscing about his blighted career as an actor." "You blighted it." "I told him he'd never be as good as Olivier or Richardson." "TONY:" "I'm easily discouraged." "The British theatre owes me an incalculable debt." "If you're not careful, he'll put you off writing, too." "I'm off to whip up some dessert." "I know you won't talk about me while I'm gone." "He was a terrible actor." "But soon he's going to make a fine director." "He's learning all the time from my mistakes." "(TONY SINGING NESSUNDORMA)" "Had any thoughts about the ending yet?" "I'll quite understand if you haven't." "No, no, no, I have thought of another way of her committing suicide." "Sleeping pills." "But that would involve reconstructing the end, allowing for a time lapse of several hours." "No, I haven't got very far." "That's because you haven't gone far enough." "Say she doesn't commit suicide." "Oh, God!" "We'd have no ending at all" "(SINGING NESSUNDORMA)" "You said you'd keep off the ending till after the pudding." "We strayed onto it." "We'll eat in appreciative silence." "It's delicious." "Thank you." "Bryan still feels the ending works." "You mustn't bolt your food, dear." "I didn't say that." "But I do know that Lorraine thinks it's the most moving part of the play." "Not any more she doesn't!" "That's below the belt." "Shut up, Tony." "He doesn't usually hide behind the star's skirt." "Only when the author quotes her." "Lorraine has been ticking away like a time bomb ever since we rehearsed that ending." "I thought you didn't listen to everything she said." "Only when she's right, which, God knows, isn't often." "So what's her idea for an ending, then?" "Lorraine doesn't have ideas." "Her brain isn't big enough." "Before this all gets too sticky, how about seconds?" "The kitchen's full of syllabub, I got carried away." "I couldn't, thanks." "You know, you still haven't told me what you think is wrong with my ending." "I know this speech, I heard him rehearsing." "I'll get the coffee." "I watched the rehearsals." "The ending seemed to me to work." "I know you're very close to your play, understandably." "You've lived with it for a year." "I haven't." "When we start rehearsals," "I make my mind a blank." "I forget the play on the page, and I look at it on the stage." "After ten days, I suddenly start to see the play." "Nothing to do with the actors, the director, the author." "I see the play we're doing." "It suddenly has a life of its own, away from us all" "Without an ending." "You've written a wonderful play, Bryan." "It's moving, deeply felt, thoroughly contemporary, but its ending somehow strays back to the morality of the '20s and '30s." "It's too melodramatic!" "And because of that, they've all started to play the piece like Sir Henry Irving in The Bells." "Next week, I'm going to lead them gently down from the giddy heights of overacting, and your ending is going to stand out like the fifth ace in the pack." "Now, I hate to tell an author what his play is about, but your play is about people who are dead for each other, not about killing themselves!" "Miss my cue, did I?" "Coffee, everyone?" "Ah, I detect a touch of pallor." "Brandy is prescribed." "Black or white?" "Black." "We need this weekend to think about that ending constructively." "And if I don't agree to change it?" "We may have to find another star." "And another director." "I never threaten." "Sugar?" "No, he doesn't." "Let's take these into the sitting room and gently toss a few ideas around." "And get out of the washing-up." "(HUMMING NESSUNDORMA)" "I'm getting very bored with Puccini." "Now, Bryan, I don't want to push you, just to gently nudge you towards seeing the whole of Helen's personality, and an entirely different... (DOOR SLAMMING)" "Now, Bryan, if we could just start with the premise... (DOOR SLAMMING)" "Bryan, breakfast!" "Oh." "It's all right, dear." "It's only me, not Dorothy Lamour, as you thought." "My sister sends me these things from Malaya." "They're wonderful to sleep in." "How did you sleep?" "I, um..." "I can't remember." "I've got a bit of a hangover." "Oh, yes." "Yes, I thought you might have." "Get back into bed, drink some tea and have that sensationally fresh egg." "I've had two already this morning." "I took one look at the master, stretched out like a fish on a slab, and guessed you sat up till all hours." "If this sends you into a frenzy of vomiting, I'll put it out." "Oh, it's okay." "I could tell he was working up to one of his big virtuoso performances." "I suppose he rewrote your entire script for you, played out every scene, tore himself to shreds..." "No, he tore me to shreds." "He didn't really upset you, did he?" "He did, rather." "Yes, I know, he gets carried away by his own creative brilliance." "I know it's terrifying for poor authors." "He'll suggest 15 plots, an entirely new set of characters and the whole thing will end up like a dog's dinner." "Oh, don't let him panic you." "No, behind the headache, I'm just confused." "I don't want you to think I'm being disloyal to Ray." "No, he's the best director around." "In a year's time, I'll have learnt enough to be the second best director in town." "Bring me your next play but one." "Oh, I don't think I'll ever write another play." "At this stage, you all say that." "Now, what you need is air." "Herr Fuhrer will sleep till noon." "Eat your breakfast, and then I'll take you walkies." "Do you think he's right about the ending?" "Do you really want my opinion on top of everyone else's?" "Well, if you're going to be the second best director..." "Oh, I think Ray's instincts are probably right." "His solutions are pure chaos." "The ending worried me when I read the play." "Would the audience believe Helen would do it?" "I mean, during the war, when everybody thought their last hour was nigh, didn't everybody sleep with everybody?" "I'd have done it for a dozen fresh eggs." "Half a dozen." "(LAUGHING)" "BRYAN:" "You're not Helen." "Her husband was a POW, a hero." "John was one of his best friends." "It's impossible for her, so it's the only way out." "To an audience, it may seem like an easy way out for the author." "Have you thought of getting all the emotional impact of your ending, and then not doing it?" "You're not gonna stop there, are you?" "Well, they think she's going to do it but she doesn't." "She pulls herself together and walks out on all of them." "Husband, lover, friends..." "Like Nora in the Doll's House." "She shuts the door on all of them, on their ideas of morality, duty and patriotism." "God, I'm even starting to sound like Ray." "It's a huge improvement." "It's the ending the play has always needed." "I think he's a genius." "I've distributed it and we'll rehearse it tomorrow." "I want Bryan to sleep for two days!" "I promise not to change a word of anything from now on." "Bryan, Ray has asked us to meet because he's done a terrible thing." "He's asked Carol Wild to come here in half an hour." "He wants to fire Marian Blake." "That's not true." "I wanted to throttle her." "You talked me out of that." "I warned him what trouble that's going to cause." "Now, Bryan, what do you think?" "She isn't very good, but is she really that bad?" "No, she's not bad." "I can forgive a bad actress and occasionally coax something out of her." "But Maid Marian is worse than a bad actress, she's thoroughly and appallingly competent." "There isn't a cheap or cringe-making trick she doesn't know." "Nothing I have done or said will budge her from her inner conviction that she knows how to do it." "She kills your play stone-dead from the first line." "All right, well, if you feel that strongly..." "All right, then." "But I must warn you both, for all our sakes..." "I know, JC, I know!" "Lorraine loves her!" "Lorraine needs her to wait on her hand and foot, toady to her!" "Of course any star would want Marian bloody Blake!" "She is a monumental bum-crawler!" "You'll give yourself a coronary and then we'll have to replace the director!" "Listen, Carol is coming in here to read for you." "I've marked the new scenes." "I've got to get back to rehearsal, and you will see her." "She's willing to come to Manchester, in heavy disguise, of course." "She'll see the play every evening, rehearse quietly and go on in the second week." "There'll be hell to pay when Lorraine finds out!" "And if she finds out before..." "Listen, would you please, JC?" "Leave it to me and Bryan." "Oh, no, this is something I really don't want to get involved in." "Don't worry, I'll go straight in." "WOMAN:" "Miss Barry, he's got someone with him!" "I simply, I had to barge in." "They told me Bryan was here, and I..." "I simply had to see him." "I read your new ending, darling." "It's perfect." "Absolutely perfect." "And I had to tell you myself." "Thanks." "Was it hell?" "I always think that to have to redo something you've already done must be one of the more ghastly things in the world." "Oh, yes." "Uh, I want Bryan to sleep for two days, so you mustn't overexcite him with praise." "We'll be late for rehearsal" "Let's leave these two to talk author's business." "Bryan." "Thanks." "Dear JC." "(MOUTHING)" "At least you didn't tear off all her clothes and jump on them." "Everything but." "If you need reassuring," "Ray has only won a temporary victory over firing Marian." "Lorraine is just waiting for the right moment, then..." "Oh, God!" "Is Lorraine Barry really worth going through all this for?" "I wasn't even sure I wanted her in the first place." "Bryan, Bryan, have faith!" "I have seen her on a matinee with the house a quarter-full, in a bad play with a fortnight's notice up on the board, and an audience so dull I thought half of them must be dead," "and by the second act, they were sitting on the edge of their seats." "And at the curtain, they screamed the place down." "Now, that is star quality." "And when I see it, the hair rises on my scalp, tears cascade down my face," "I bless the day I was born." "Well, I'll believe it when I see it." "You will, you will!" "There you are!" "I knew you were on the train!" "I saw you at Euston." "You didn't see me." "In that hat, we should have done." "You like it?" "It's delicious." "Bryan, where have you been?" "We've missed you!" "Catching up on my sleep." "Oh!" "Lorraine said it was because you couldn't face me." "Why?" "Because you are a naughty boy." "You have cut my whole last scene." "Oh, that!" "Well, Lorraine loves it, and I shan't mention it again." "I just want the play to be a success." "Where's Ray?" "He went up this morning." "I suppose you're all staying at the Grand." "Yes." "Not me." "I'm going back to dear old Mrs Fenton's." "Oh, I always stay there." "She is a perfect darling!" "Been running a theatrical digs for 14 years!" "Absolutely adores the theatre." "She'll do anything for you." "Do you know, no matter what time of night you come back, she's there waiting with a..." "(MARIAN CHATTERING)" "(INAUDIBLE)" "Oh, heavens!" "You shouldn't have let me go on!" "We'll be there in ten minutes." "I've got to go back and collect up my things." "I'll.." "I'll see you at the dress tomorrow." "Nobody, but nobody, should be allowed to do that to another human being." "She hasn't drawn breath since Crewe." "Oh, no, I feel terribly sorry for her." "BRYAN:" "It's like being with someone under sentence of death, except they haven't been told the verdict yet." "MAN:" "Actor beginners on stage, please." "Actor beginners on stage, please." "Thank you very much." "They've managed to make the bloody sofa look pregnant." "Un-stuff it a bit." "But Miss Barry said..." "Tony said un-stuff it." "It's a damned dress rehearsal, isn't it?" "She should be here." "She designed this sack, didn't she?" "Is it always this bad?" "My dear Bryan, there is a theory that the worse the dress rehearsal, the more successful the first night." "Try and believe it." "Do you think you'll be ready soon?" "Ray grows madder by the moment." "(IN RASPY VOICE) Where is he?" "With the author." "Will you tell him I'm getting laryngitis?" "Get a doctor after the dress." "Here." "Leave it!" "Marian, I must talk to you." "Tony, do you think I've got time for a coffee?" "The way things are going, I should think you've got time for mastoid operation and a permanent wave." "It will all be over soon." "Be an angel and give this change to Charles." "All right, everybody." "Act one... (HAMMERING)" "MAN:" "Shut up!" "Thank you." "Act one ran fifteen minutes over." "Now, if we want to open tonight, let's finish this damn dress rehearsal" "Act two, ladies and gentlemen, please." "Mr Hawkins from, "If you carry on this way."" "Thank you, Mr Larch." "Tabs coming in!" "You all right?" "HARRY:" "Curtain up on action Ladies and gentlemen." "Thank you very much." "If you carry on this way, Helen, there's no hope for us." "We can't both live with your conscience." "(IN RASPY VOICE) I've told you, it's not my conscience." "It's migraine." "Maybe it's the same thing." "You have it every other day." "And I feel it's my fault." "John, give it time." "It's getting better." "Belli" "Belli" "(BELL RINGING)" "Oh, stone the crows." "It's probably the delivery of that wine I ordered." "(BELL RINGING)" "WOMAN:" "John, is Helen here?" "No, she's not." "You're lying to me, I must speak to her." "Don't go in there!" "Helen!" "Stella!" "What are you doing here?" "I thought you were never going to speak to me again." "What's happened to your middle-class morality?" "Helen, I had to speak to you." "(MARIAN SOBBING)" "I've already spoken to Donald." "He's coming to see you this afternoon." "You must reconsider!" "I can't, I can't... (SOBBING) I can't go on." "I don't believe it." "RAY:" "It's not happening to me." "Oh, God." "Ray, Marian's sick." "Will I have to go on tonight?" "No, dear, unfortunately Maid Marian is not sick." "Ask Jill to find out what's happening in her dressing room." "Right." "Ray." "Bryan, are you out there?" "Yes." "I need you up here." "All right, everybody, go and relax while I sort this out." "That was fine, Charles, you were doing very well until rain stopped play." "You can guess what's happened, can't you?" "Yes, she's told Marian she's going to be fired." "In a minute, Miss Barry will send for me, and I want you there." "No, Ray, not this time." "I need you with me." "I'm sorry." "Miss Barry would like to see you in her dressing room." "Come on." "What's the matter, scared of a little blood?" "No, you wanted all this." "You planned it all, now you handle it." "I don't know what favours Lorraine promises her authors, but I'm here to tell you she never delivers." "That's an unworthy remark." "I'm sorry, but I'm tired." "And I'm not going to let Lorraine get away with it." "She knows that JC has left it to us, and she's got to see we're united!" "Ray," "I wrote a play." "Yes, and do you really want two years of Maid Marian in your play in London?" "Come on!" "Come in." "You sent for us?" "I asked for you to come and see me." "And what you want to see me about concerns the play." "Of course it does." "Then it's only right the author should be present." "If that's what you both want." "I asked you to come and see me because I can't go on like this any longer." "I can't work under these conditions." "This atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion, it's breaking me completely." "I want you to be as honest with me as I intend to be with you." "Let's, for the sake of the play and the company," "try to find a way out." "Willingly." "Should you smoke with laryngitis?" "I haven't got laryngitis." "I only said I had because I had to think of some way to explain why I couldn't rehearse." "What I'm suffering from is worse." "It's much worse." "I'm sorry." "Tony has sent for a doctor." "I don't think you quite understand, Ray, what the effort of creating a new part means to someone like me." "I have been in the theatre since I was a small child." "But I need help and encouragement and understanding every inch of the way." "Please, my dear, don't think I'm blaming you entirely." "I know you were in the war, and the war can do terrible things to a person's mind." "Oh, thank you." "You're a clever man, Ray, but you have no heart." "And you'll achieve nothing real or lasting in the theatre without it." "Are you accusing me of lack of consideration to you as a director?" "Please, I don't want to quarrel or argue." "I simply want to state my case." "Then I'll be only too pleased to listen to what you have to say afterwards." "State away!" "It's simply this." "I'm lonely, lost, completely bewildered." "I don't know what I have done!" "Before rehearsals and during the first two weeks, we were close, you and I." "Then suddenly, everything changed." "I put out my hand trustingly for your help and you withdrew." "I have tried to reason with myself, and tell myself it's imagination and silliness, but it isn't!" "You know it isn't!" "Ray, what have I done?" "Why have you suddenly changed towards me?" "Is it my fault?" "Was I uncooperative in some way?" "Have I offended you?" "Don't you understand?" "I love this play!" "I've lived with it day and night since I first read it." "And now because of this..." "This deadly remoteness, this strange, twisted cruelty." "I've lost..." "I've lost my way to it." "I can't do it!" "I can't, I can't, I can't!" "Dear Lorraine, no, don't cry like that." "Please, don't be upset." "It'll be all right." "Oh, Bryan." "Thank you." "Thank you for at least understanding a little." "Is that all?" "(BRYAN MOUTHING)" "Yes, that's all" "Have you been quite honest?" "Absolutely honest." "I realise, of course, that you haven't believed me." "Dead right." "Not a bloody word." "I see." "Then there is nothing more to be said." "Oh, on the contrary!" "There is a great deal more to be said." "Ray, look, for God's sake, let's not go on like this." "Let's just finish the dress rehearsal" "Oh, shut up, and get up!" "You said before that you would be pleased to listen to what I had to say afterwards." "You were wrong, Lorraine, you will not be pleased at what I have to say, and it is this." "Never in all my limited experience of the theatre have I seen such an inept, soggy and insincere performance as you have just given in this dressing room." "Every gesture and intonation was ham and false as hell!" "Ray..." "You are not lost or lonely or bewildered." "You don't give a good goddamn whether I've changed towards you or not." "All you're upset about is that you've been thwarted, denied your own way!" "You have deliberately wrecked the rehearsal, pretended laryngitis, thrown the whole company and utterly destroyed Bryan's play, which you assert you love so much." "Then, seeing that you'd gone too far, your professional instincts told you to send for me here for a nice truce, a lovely, cosy chat, ending up with all of us in tears and me soothing you and comforting you" "and telling you you are the most glorious, God-given genius the theatre has ever known!" "Then, thinking you had us over a barrel, you would have set to work again insidiously to win back the points you lost at the outset!" "Namely, that Marian bloody Blake should play Stella, for which she is too old and entirely unsuited!" "And why?" "Because she is a good foil to you and is shrewd enough to allow herself to be your off-stage toady and bottle-washer!" "How dare you?" "How dare you talk to me like that?" "Get out of my room." "Keep quiet, I haven't finished yet." "Get out!" "Get out!" "Get out!" "(GRUNTING)" "I'll teach you to insult me in my dressing room, you fifth-rate little amateur!" "Camping in and out of the theatre with your giggling boyfriends!" "What gives you the right to tell experienced actors what to do or not to do?" "I will not go on tonight or any night!" "Now get out of my sight, both of you!" "Oh, no!" "The whole theatre can hear you, and I love you both!" "That, Marian, is irrelevant." "And you're fired anyway." "(MOANING)" "All right, everyone, let's finish the dress!" "Miss Barry will not be joining us, so we will simply go through it for moves and technicals." "June, you will play Miss Barry's part." "Burn that." "Come on, come on!" "I'll have another Scotch, please." "Have you seen Ray?" "No." "It's all terrible." "Lorraine won't see me." "She's locked herself in." "You can't send on an understudy on the first night, even in Manchester." "(SIGHING)" "Half an hour left." "I'll have to cancel the show!" "We can't let the show start till Lorraine agrees to go on!" "I should never have listened to Ray." "Bloody lunatic!" "My ears were burning." "Have you seen Lorraine?" "She's incommunicado." "I'll have to cancel the show." "No, don't do that." "Are you mad?" "If she doesn't appear, there'll be a riot!" "Do you know what's invested in this show?" "All our time and love." "If you cancel it, you've lost everything." "If you don't, there's a 50-50 chance Lorraine will go on, at least for tonight." "Not a bad bet, JC." "(GROANING)" "I swear to God, I'll never produce another play!" "I'll never write one." "(GODSAVE THEKINGPLAYING OVER PA)" "Is she going on?" "Probably only her dresser knows that, and Bothwell" "Ray, we can't..." "Deep breathing is awfully good." "It's been raining all the time." "Hardly stopped all spring." "Curtain up on act one." "The farmers have all been complaining." "Been exactly the same in London." "Apart from the farmers, of course." "How have you been keeping, Mrs Firth?" "Oh, a touch of flu at Easter." "Can't complain." "Mr and Mrs Dwyer should be down in a moment." "They just went up to change." "They were out walking." "I'll go and make the tea." "Make yourselves at home." "TONY:" "The second week with Ray Is pure drama." "Usually better that the play ever is." "She was drinking." "Drinking?" "Shh!" "She had some sort of nervous breakdown." "Her husband was killed in North Africa." "(MARIAN CLEARING THROAT)" "Uh..." "Listen, I think I can hear someone coming." "I can't hear anything." "I..." "RAY:" "Bryan, Bryan, have faith." "I didn't know Helen and Donald weren't getting on." "Yes." "No." "It stopped raining." "Mmm." "We recently..." "What?" "I'm sorry." "Lovely flowers." "Oh." "(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)" "That's the best round she's had in years." "Just watch her now." "Stella!" "Simon!" "How long have you been here?" "TONY:" "Because, my dear innocent," "She is a great big, rip-roaring, glamorous star," "And a female one." "You'd have gone on seeing John?" "I'd rather have lived a lie than this." "How can you tell after 1 5 seconds?" "You can't throw it away." "He's still your husband and he wants you back!" "RAY:" "Nothing to do with the actors, the director, the author." "I see the play we're doing." "It suddenly has a life of its own, away from us all." "I don't understand." "The war has to be over for me, too, Stella." "But where are you going, then?" "For a long, long holiday." "Bye, Helen." "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "Hello?" "John?" "Have you been waiting long?" "I'm sorry." "Don't wait for me any longer, John." "TONY:" "And when I see it, the hair rises on my scalp, the tears cascade down my face and I bless the day I was born." "(TELEPHONE RINGING)" "AUDIENCE:" "Bravo!" "Bravo!" "Well done." "You must be relieved." "Oh, yes." "Oh, you were terrific, thank you." "Oh, okay in acts one and two." "I'm afraid the part goes to pieces a bit in act three, but not your fault." "I know that Lorraine and Ray bullied you into changing the ending." "But in my humble opinion, it was better as it was." "Oh, I see a point, though." "I mean, if we'd played the suicide, she would have been off-stage for the last ten minutes of the play." "As it is, she's there alone with the telephone." "Oh, does it beautifully, of course." "Played precisely the same scene in Winter Wind at the Strand." "Really?" "Oh, not so good, course." "Same idea, though." "She's done it in different ways ever since." "Still, I think we've got a hit on our hands." "Mustn't miss the champers, come on!" ""Oh, what a beautiful day" ""We've got a wonderful feeling" ""Everything's going our way"" "A great evening, everybody, congratulations!" "Glad you enjoyed it." "Glad you enjoyed it." "JC!" "Well done, Harry." "Oh, thank you very much, sir." "Congratulations." "Congratulations." "Lorraine, darling!" "JC." "Oh." "You were sensational!" "Was I really all right?" "Stunning!" "Amazing!" "The business is gonna be terrific!" "Were you pleased?" "Was I a good girl?" "You were beyond praise." "The most moving, lyrical performance I have ever seen." "Thank you, Ray." "Thank you for everything." "You've taught me so much." "TONY:" "Trust us." "We're not stealing your baby, just teaching it to walk." "I knew I was right, because no one understands Stella like me." "just teaching it to walk." "WOMAN:" "Oh, don't." "Teaching it to walk." "I wish they'd take the mess home with them." "Wasn't she grand, though?" "Oh, yes." "Are you something to do with the show?" "Um..." "I was."