Act 1 Flashcards
(35 cards)
Beginning dialogue between Meg and Pete
"Is that you, Petey? Pause. Petey, is that you? Pause. Petey?"
Meg asking about the cereal
“Are they nice?
Very nice.
I thought they’d be nice.”
Opposites within the dialogue
“Was it dark?
No it was light.”
“Er – a girl.
Not a boy?”
Meg’s preoccupation with status
“They must have heard this was a very good boarding house. It is. This house is on the list.”
Meg calling for Stanley -infantalising
I’m coming up to fetch you if you don’t come down! I’m coming up! I’m going to count three! One! Two! Three! I’m coming to get you!”
introduction of the sexual undertones in M and S’s relationship
“wild laughter from MEG … Shouts. Laughter… (She is panting and arranges her hair)”
Stanley’s response to the cereal
“What are the cornflakes like, Stan?
Horrible.”
Stanley attacking Meg’s domestic roles
“You’re a bad wife … Not to make your husband a cup of tea. Terrible.”
Meg misunderstanding (purposefully?) a word sexually
“Succulent.
You shouldn’t say that word.”
“You shouldn’t say that to a married woman”
childish rebellion with Meg threatening to reprimand
“Say sorry first.
Sorry first.”
“You deserve the strap.”
Stan admiting dependence on Meg
“(absently) I don’t know what I’d do without you”
MEg and her afternoons
“MEG (sensual, stroking his arm). … I’ve had some lovely afternoons in that room”
Meg first mentions visitors
“A pause. STANLEY slowly raises his head. He speaks without turning.
What two gentlemen?
I’m expecting visitors.”
Stan trying to reassure himself that the visitors aren’t real
“It’s a false alarm. A false alarm”
Stan trying to assert dominance over Meg by using status
“(quietly) Who do you think you’re talking to?”
Stan’s Berlin piano fantasy
” (Speaks airily) I’ve … er… I’ve been offered a job, as a matter of fact.”
“A night club. In Berlin.”
“Berlin. A night club. Playing the piano. A fabulous salary.”
“Then we pay a flying visit to … er … whatisname …”
evidence of Stan’s unreliable Berlin piano fantasy
“I don’t think he could make it. No, I-I lost the address, that was it”
Meg telling Stan to stay with her
“You stay here. You’ll be better off. You stay with your old Meg. (He groans and lies upon the table)”
Stan taunting Meg with information
"Have you heard the latest? No. I'll bet you have. I haven’t. Shall I tell you?"
Stan taunting Meg with her wheelbarrow fear
“They’re coming in a van”
“They’ve got a wheelbarrow in that van.”
“They’re looking for someone. A certain person.”
Lulu enters represents the outside
“Why don’t you open the door? It’s all stuffy in here.
(She opens the back door.)”
Lulu - stereotypical feminine behaviour - external appearance
“She sits, takes out a compact and powders her nose.
(Offering him the compact). Do you want to have a look at your face? … Don’t you ever go out?”
Stan proposing to run away with Lulu - existentialism
"How would you like to go away with me? Where? Nowhere. Still, we could go. But where would we go? Nowhere. There's nowhere to go."
Goldberg’s beach memory
“When I was an apprentice yet, McCann, every second Friday of the month my Uncle Barney used to take me to the seaside, regular as clockwork.”
