ANNA: I said I’d marry Tom, then I said I wouldn’t.
DAVE [dismissing it]: I should think not.
ANNA [furious]: O-h-h-h.
DAVE: Seriously, what?
ANNA: I’ve been coping with Mary – her son’s marrying.
DAVE [heartily]: Good for him. Well, it’s about time.
ANNA: Oh quite so.
DAVE [mimicking her]: Oh quite so.
ANNA [dead angry]: I’ve also spent hours of every day with Helen, Harry’s ever-loving wife.
DAVE: Harry’s my favourite person in London.
ANNA: And you are his. Strange, isn’t it?
DAVE: We understand each other.
ANNA: And Helen and I understand each other.
DAVE [hastily]: Now, Anna.
ANNA: Helen’s cracking up. Do you know what Harry did? He came to her, because he knew this girl of his was thinking of getting married, and he said: Helen, you know I love you, but I can’t live without her. He suggested they should all live together in the same house – he, Helen and his girl. Regularizing things, he called it.
DAVE [deliberately provocative]: Yeah? Sounds very attractive to me.
ANNA: Yes, I thought it might. Helen said to him – who’s going to share your bed? Harry said, well, obviously they couldn’t all sleep in the same bed, but…
DAVE: Anna, stop it.
ANNA: Helen said it was just possible that the children might be upset by the arrangement.
DAVE: I was waiting for that – the trump card – you can’t do that, it might upset the kiddies. Well not for me, I’m out.
ANNA [laughing]: Oh are you?
DAVE: Yes. [ANNA laughs.] Have you finished?
ANNA: No. Harry and Helen. Helen said she was going to leave him. Harry said: ‘But darling, you’re too old to get another man now and …’
DAVE [mocking]: Women always have to pay – and may it long remain that way.
ANNA: Admittedly there’s one advantage to men like you and Harry. You are honest.
DAVE: Anna, listen, whenever I cheat on you it takes you about two weeks to settle into a good temper again. Couldn’t we just speed it up and get it over with?
ANNA: Get it over with. [she laughs]
DAVE: The laugh is new. What’s so funny?
[A wolf-whistle from the street. Then a sound like a wolf howling. ANNA slams the window up.]
DAVE: Open that window.
ANNA: No, I can’t stand it.
DAVE: Anna, I will not have you shutting yourself up. I won’t have you spitting out venom and getting all bitter and vengeful. Open that window.
[ANNA opens it. Stands by it, passive.]
Come and sit down. And turn the lights out.
[As she does not move, he turns out the light. The room as before: two patterned circles of light on the ceiling from the paraffin lamps.]
ANNA: Dave, it’s no point starting all over again.
DAVE: But baby, you and I will always be together, one way or another.
ANNA: You’re crazy.
DAVE: In a good cause. [he sits cross-legged on the edge of the carpet and waits] Come and sit. [ANNA slowly sits, opposite him. He smiles at her. She slowly smiles back. As she smiles, the walls fade out. They are two small people in the city, the big, ugly, baleful city all around them, over-shadowing them.]
DAVE: There baby, that’s better.
ANNA: OK.
DAVE: I don’t care what you do – you can crack up if you like, or you can turn Lesbian. You can take to drink. You can even get married. But I won’t have you shutting yourself up.
[A lorry roars. A long wolf-whistle. Shrill female voices from the street.]
ANNA: Those girls opposite quarrel. I hate it. Last night they were rolling in the street and pulling each other’s hair and screaming.
DAVE: OK. But you’re not to shut it out. You’re not to shut anything out.
ANNA: I’ll try.
[She very slowly gets to her feet, stands concentrating.]
DAVE: That’s right. Now, who are you?
END OF ACT ONE
Act Two (#ulink_8dd8b5f5-d843-521e-989e-ed85698461cd)
