Act 1

Question 1

Beginning dialogue between Meg and Pete

Answer 1

"Is that you, Petey? 
Pause. 
Petey, is that you? 
Pause. 
Petey?"

Question 2

Meg asking about the cereal

Answer 2

“Are they nice?
Very nice.
I thought they’d be nice.”

Question 3

Opposites within the dialogue

Answer 3

“Was it dark?
No it was light.”

“Er – a girl.
Not a boy?”

Question 4

Meg’s preoccupation with status

Answer 4

“They must have heard this was a very good boarding house. It is. This house is on the list.”

Question 5

Meg calling for Stanley -infantalising

Answer 5

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!”

Question 6

introduction of the sexual undertones in M and S’s relationship

Answer 6

“wild laughter from MEG … Shouts. Laughter… (She is panting and arranges her hair)”

Question 7

Stanley’s response to the cereal

Answer 7

“What are the cornflakes like, Stan?

Horrible.”

Question 8

Stanley attacking Meg’s domestic roles

Answer 8

“You’re a bad wife … Not to make your husband a cup of tea. Terrible.”

Question 9

Meg misunderstanding (purposefully?) a word sexually

Answer 9

“Succulent.
You shouldn’t say that word.”
“You shouldn’t say that to a married woman”

Question 10

childish rebellion with Meg threatening to reprimand

Answer 10

“Say sorry first.
Sorry first.”
“You deserve the strap.”

Question 11

Stan admiting dependence on Meg

Answer 11

“(absently) I don’t know what I’d do without you”

Question 12

MEg and her afternoons

Answer 12

“MEG (sensual, stroking his arm). … I’ve had some lovely afternoons in that room”

Question 13

Meg first mentions visitors

Answer 13

“A pause. STANLEY slowly raises his head. He speaks without turning.
What two gentlemen?
I’m expecting visitors.”

Question 14

Stan trying to reassure himself that the visitors aren’t real

Answer 14

“It’s a false alarm. A false alarm”

Question 15

Stan trying to assert dominance over Meg by using status

Answer 15

“(quietly) Who do you think you’re talking to?”

Question 16

Stan’s Berlin piano fantasy

Answer 16

” (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 …”

Question 17

evidence of Stan’s unreliable Berlin piano fantasy

Answer 17

“I don’t think he could make it. No, I-I lost the address, that was it”

Question 18

Meg telling Stan to stay with her

Answer 18

“You stay here. You’ll be better off. You stay with your old Meg. (He groans and lies upon the table)”

Question 19

Stan taunting Meg with information

Answer 19

"Have you heard the latest? 
No. 
I'll bet you have. 
I haven’t. 
Shall I tell you?"

Question 20

Stan taunting Meg with her wheelbarrow fear

Answer 20

“They’re coming in a van”
“They’ve got a wheelbarrow in that van.”
“They’re looking for someone. A certain person.”

Question 21

Lulu enters represents the outside

Answer 21

“Why don’t you open the door? It’s all stuffy in here.

(She opens the back door.)”

Question 22

Lulu - stereotypical feminine behaviour - external appearance

Answer 22

“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?”

Question 23

Stan proposing to run away with Lulu - existentialism

Answer 23

"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."

Question 24

Goldberg’s beach memory

Answer 24

“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.”

Question 25

Goldberg’s romanticising of the past - nostalgia

Answer 25

“golden days, believe me, McCann. (Reminiscent)”

Question 26

Goldberg - first mention of identity

Answer 26

“Otherwise my name was good”

Question 27

G - foreshadowing - funeral

Answer 27

“Everywhere you go these days it’s like a funeral”

Question 28

G - truth vs. fact

Answer 28

“It’s more than true. It’s fact.”

Question 29

G - arbiter of society mode - first revelation of their mission to McCann

Answer 29

“(in a quiet, fluent, official tone.)
…might well approximate in points of procedure…All is dependent on the attitude of our subject…I can assure toy that the assignment will be carried out and the mission accomplished.”

Question 30

G interrogating Meg

Answer 30

“Why? How many have you got her at the moment?
“Just one?”
“What does he do, your husband?”
“And your guest? Is he a man?”

Question 31

Meg misremembering Stan’s Berling fantasy

Answer 31

“(faltering) In … a big hall. His father gave him champagne. But then they locked the place up and he couldn’t get out.”

Question 32

G saying he’ll organise the party and foreshadowing the destruction of Stan

Answer 32

“Sure. We’ll give him a party. Leave it to me.”

“We’ll bring him out of himself.”

Question 33

When G is mentioned Stan is robbed of language

Answer 33

"Goldberg? 
... 
STANLEY does not answer. 
... 
STANLEY sits still. 
... 
STANLEY sits still. 
… 
(dumbly) Uh?"

Question 34

Meg asking for a kiss after giving Stan the drum

Answer 34

“Aren’t you going to give me a kiss? (He turns sharply, and stops. He walks back towards her slowly. He stops at her chair, looking down upon her. Pause. His shoulders sag, he bends and kisses her on her cheek)

Question 35

ending stage direction of Act 1

Answer 35

“(beating it regularly. MEG, pleased, watched him … the beat becomes erratic, uncontrolled. MEG expresses dismay … his face and the drumbeat now savage and possessed.)”