Week 3 Session: “The Dance of Discovery” in Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” – 2 scenes with Septimus – The Rehearsal Room [Video, Audio, and Transcript versions]

Week 3 – Arcadia – The Dance of Discovery – The Rehearsal Room

Nathan Agin: Well, we’re back for week three. wonderful to see everybody. And, you know, I was, I had such a good time. you know, after the last session, I’ve just been thinking about a lot of the work that you guys have been talking about and re. Listening to different things. And, you know, I. I wanted to make the comment that, you know, this work is not impossible, but it just takes time. And I’m sure any one of you, if you were doing a production, you’d all be brilliant in your own ways, but they’re just. You just be given. Given the constraints of, Constraints of a production, you just wouldn’t have the time to unearth all of this stuff and. And so to be able to see how granular you can get and to figure out what is what exactly, you know, how. What led to this moment. it’s so thrilling to experience as an audience member. And I hope those who are. Who are listening or watching, you know, have an appreciation for that, because this isn’t, This doesn’t always happen, but it’s just when you take the time to do it, it’s. It’s really exciting work. and I think maybe a lot of times it falls on the shoulders of the artists or actors or director, outside of rehearsal, you know, what are they thinking about in between sessions? But if you do take the time, like I said, it’s not impossible to, you know, find some of this stuff.

Geoffrey Wade: It just.

Nathan Agin: It just takes, Takes real, thought to,

Brendon Fox: To do it.

Nathan Agin: So, you know, my hats off to all of you guys. You’re doing such a great job. I’m really enjoying kind, of rediscovering this play and finding all these nooks and crannies that I didn’t even know were there before. So, I’m just loving it. And, I will, I’ll stop fawning over all of you.

Brendon Fox: And, I’ll let you never stop fawning. Please just.

Chris Guilmet: Oh, yeah, stop.

Brendon Fox: You can. You can pause, but. But don’t fully stop. That’s.

Nathan Agin: Yes, well, I will pause for now and I’ll turn it over to you, Brendan, and hope you guys have a great, session tonight.

Brendon Fox: Thank you, Nathan. well, it’s interesting that Nathan, mentions this about, It’s not impossible, but we all know the constraints of rehearsal, processes. And I think that one of the things I’ve been thinking about the last two weeks is that, yes, we’re only focusing on two scenes, right? And we’re spending a number of hours on just, you know, what, an eighth or so of the play. But I do think that what’s valuable, and, I mean, I’d love to talk even more about this maybe next week as we wrap up, but I’d love for you all to be thinking about some of the takeaways that are not just applicable to this play or stoppered, but what are some things that we can take from this potentially to work on other scripts, whether classical or contemporary? Because I think this play straddles both multiple, styles. And one thing that struck me is that there is some. There’s such value in slowing down. And I don’t know about you all, but I know that, you know, I’m a huge fan of table work, regardless of what the. What the play is. Yay. Yes, Jen. And the. And I really think it. I see a, change happen when all it takes are a few actors that slow themselves down, that tap the brakes for themselves. And I think it sends a message to the cast, the rest of the cast, that that’s okay, because the director can say it all they want. Take your time. Take your time. But it’s another thing entirely when people actually take you up on that just from the director’s point of view, and when they do, then everyone goes, oh, okay. And then things can start to float to the surface, and I think it let things become less daunting and dense. But I think so much of what I want when watching you all is. And I’m just thinking for you, Téa, in particular, is you becoming so new to this, giving yourself permission to not run headlong or to achieve a result or to understand it all fully, but just to actually let yourselves breathe in it and register what’s happening. Because I think that’s another trap of Stoppard, Just like with Shakespeare, it’s like, oh, I know what I’m saying. So I’m just gonna run to the end zone, and then we’re left behind, and your fellow actors are kind of left behind playing catch up, and we’re not actually breathing in the thoughts with you. And so I don’t know any. If you have any thoughts on those thoughts, but I just wanted to start with that, and I think Nathan teed that up nicely anyway. But I. It’s just something I was thinking about that. It seems kind of basic, but actually is so important and kind of overlooked is the pace in which we unpack, a play. Any. Any thoughts on. On that? And.

James Newcomb: Yeah, yeah, I worked With a number of directors, I think that get nervous when they were. Would like to have structure

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James Newcomb: as soon as possible. they want to get a sense of what the structure of the scenes are going to be and jump to blocking. And I remember, when I did, Measure, for Measure at the Goodman, Bob Falls was directing. We, did two weeks of table work. And it was got to the point where people were sort of muttering, are we ever going to stage this thing? But the fact was, is that because we did so much detailed table work, all of the staging kind of just fell into place, because people knew why they were saying what they were saying and who they were saying it to and instinctively knew. And Bob knew as well that, you know, where somebody needed to be to say what they needed to say. And And it really was a. Ah, you know, on the other hand, I did have an experience once with Shakespeare and Company where we were doing a Twelfth Night and we dropped the play in and we took three weeks and we were going to take it to Toronto. And suddenly, we realized we only had about five days to stage it. And so we were staging scenes three, you know, three at a time. So, you know, you can get to an excess, of course, but I find that, you know, when you take the time early on with the text, a lot of the other stuff falls into place.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, well said, Jimmy. Thoughts? Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, Tam.

Téa Guarino: I, When I did 100 words for snow with Brendan in Connecticut, that was like my first show out of school. So I was very. And it was just me on the stage, so it was just like thousands of words. Hundreds.

Brendon Fox: For an hour and 40 minutes, we should say.

Téa Guarino: Yes, probably longer. it’s like just me in the words. So I. We took the time, like at the table to. To digest it and to. I was like, terrified out of my mind because it was just. It was so much to. To handle and I didn’t know if.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I could do it.

Téa Guarino: But we. But Brendan is amazing, as we all know, and we just. We broke it down. And I think that Thomasina is kind of in the same temperament that Rory was. Like, my, my character in the other show was just, like, always, like, curious and wanting to know more and just like finding where that more is, but also finding where I can slow down and where the words are kind of helping me and kind of when. When things don’t make sense, how can I use the words to help me get there and things like that. So I think definitely, with. With this text that I’M getting more familiar with just kind of the pace and how things are going with, with each character in the arc of the story. I think it’s, a great thing to throw in there, just like slowing things down. Even if, like, you as an actor know what’s going on, your audience still needs to catch up with you. So making sure that you’re all on the same page, that everyone is enjoying it at the same time. So, yeah, I think that’s, that’s fantastic.

Brendon Fox: It makes it a little less, daunting, I would think. Téa, just from what. Just going off of what you were saying, that sense of these ice flow of words, whether it’s Shakespeare or a one or two person show or Stoppard. And you look at that like, you know, that ice flow, so to speak, that like how do you chip away at that? And I think it is like a beat at a time, one thought at a time. And that’s how we process watching a play too. It’s like. And we don’t just, you know, take in a speech in one gulp. I think that. So I think it’s like you said, it’s reflective of the audience keeping up too, but also the sense of like looking on the page going, oh my gosh, I got this aria for two pages. this, this feels intimidating, but I think letting yourself give yourself permission to kind of back through it, a thought at a time, and breathe through it. I’ve noticed that with actors when they go, oh, that wasn’t so bad, you know, that was, that was now that I let myself take my time through it, you know.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah. And,

Brendon Fox: Go ahead, Chris.

Chris Guilmet: Oh, okay. well, I was thinking that, not necessarily about going, slow, but when we’re given the time to sit and do table work as a group, I think actors can be somewhat selfish with a text.

Brendon Fox: Right.

Chris Guilmet: We’re looking at our lines, what we need to say. if you have a little bit of time, maybe page through and see what other people are saying about us. But we’re focused on our character and what we are doing. And when

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Chris Guilmet: we have the chance to sit in a group and you can get different perspectives from the other characters, stuff that we’re not necessarily going to get. If we’re just blocking and staging, we’re like, we’re all investigating the text and there can be some dialogue and you can be shown stuff that you never would have seen on your own because you’re getting the perspective from someone else, across the table from you who isn’t playing the part.

Brendon Fox: I just.

Chris Guilmet: I love, I love this. Getting into the text and the words and digging them and talking about the characters and in this setting where, like, we aren’t necessarily invested. This character is mine, this is my role. That we can talk about each other’s motivations, what we’re doing, and, oh, well, did you see this line? Like, what does that mean? This is so much fun. and I miss. I miss rehearsal processes that leave that part out because, you know, whatever reason, the budget is small. So let’s cut a week off and we’ll just get it on stage first. We’re missing out if we’re not digging into the words.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah, I agree. That’s largely what I was going to say. I’m a nerd, so I’m always going to be team table work. Yeah, it’s like, let’s dig in and find more. But it’s really exciting when you get to listen to other scenes because you can figure out, like, things about your character based on what other people are saying, things like that. But you can also tee up things like if you know someone else, if you’re listening to someone else’s scene and you’re like, oh, I can actually help that scene that I’m not in if I really, like, pop this plot point here in this scene. Like, that’ll tee that up for later on. And, you know, when you’re mostly concentrating on your scenes, you may not think of that unless you’re sitting around a room going, oh, that. That’s got a thread that links to here and that sort of thing. That’s fun.

Brendon Fox: As a. As a quick example of that, Jen, I love that you mentioned that, because I’m right now, I mean, early stage of staging the Winter’s Tale with, high school conservatory in Worcester, and they got interested. We just went through table work recently, and one of the things that people were noticing and throwing out was, oh, my gosh, people are talking about time a lot. You people are talking about faith a lot. And it’s exactly what you said, Jen. I think you hit on the head of, like, since we’re all doing this together, I can help for the audience to go, wow, I’m hearing this. I keep hearing this time. I keep hearing these ideas. And same thing in Stop. Stoppard loves doing that too. So I think it’s another way to not only help each other, but help the audience with those big ideas. And if everyone is aware, like, wow, we’re. We’re all chiming in and taking our own stab at this big idea. Then it’s. To me, that’s a lot. It. Frankly, it takes the onus off the director to be like, hey, by the way, you aren’t aware of this, but in three other scenes, they talk about time. So, it actually saves time at the beginning to front load everyone starting to clock that with each other and going, oh, my gosh. Well, Jen, I can help with that. And let’s all make. Make that a thing and be mindful of that. And I think that’s. I think that’s so true. And. And Chris, just really quick, I feel like, to me, what you just said is fascinating because we have. We have a couple of Septimuses here, but I. And I think it was just exciting. And also, I feel like there’s something about the idea of, yes, we’re focused on our role, our lines and such, but at the same time, we’re ultimately Team Arcadia, and how can we collectively, whether we’re the only person playing the role or if we’re going to divide it up and we’re going to go, you know, in a more deconstructed way, either way, it’s a sense of, I’m a piece of this. And it’s a way to kind of also create ensemble. I think that having the table work allows us not just intellectually to connect, but start to feel like, oh, here’s a way we can all help tell this story together and not feel like, well, I’m playing Septimus, so I don’t really need to hear other people’s thoughts, because then what’s the harm, right? That’s what I feel like. It’s like everyone can just throw it into their knapsack and maybe it’s worthwhile, maybe it’s not. But that’s, another reason why I think it’s better. It’s good to do tape work with the entire group rather than just those people in the scene. Because, like you say, because someone on the outside might go, you know, it’s funny, I just noticed this about this character, and it’s hard, right? When you have the tunnel vision of, you see, you can only see so much, right? Everyone can only have a certain amount of what they’ve gleaned about a character, so why not hide? Mind it, you know, yes, ultimately a certain person will be doing those lines up on stage and that blocking, but in the early stages, why not all hands on deck? You know, it’s a. It’s because these characters, like Shakespeare are so

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Brendon Fox: rich and contradictory and are full of universes. So it’s. The more we learn about them from each other I think the better. Like I’m discovering things about these characters I hadn’t clocked and I thought I knew this play. So I think it’s. It’s. It’s all to the good, you know, if we allow ourselves to check our ego a little bit to just feel like anyone can chime in about. About this and it doesn’t feel territorial, you know. Kate, Jeff, anything to. To add?

Geoffrey Wade: I’ll just say a couple things. I don’t have much dad, because M. My thoughts have been pretty much articulated already. But what you were just saying, Brendan, reminded me this is a. There is a directorial style of which I’m not particularly fond where a director likes to only. Only give information to one actor at a time. Ah, I don’t know. In the belief that. That Characters don’t know each other’s motivations or what’s going on in real life in a scene.

Geoffrey Wade: And I’ve. It’s. It’s a technique but I’ve never liked it, for much the same reason that you were saying. It’s sort of the opposite of a collaborative way of working which Chris and you, Brendan will be familiar with. What Antaeus used to do. We can’t do it anymore for various reasons. Antius originally this is the theater company that we are members of. I’m still here so I still work with it occasionally. And Their whole deal was to do sort of long term study, lots of readings, lots of table work, you know, many Mondays of getting together before doing a play. It’s much more of a conventional rehearsal style now. But we also used to double cast or partner cast or whatever you want to call it. They’re different names where two people would play be playing the same part not as primary and understudy but as two co. Equals. It made for longer and Often for the director more trying rehearsal periods. But

Geoffrey Wade: It was great seeing someone else do your, you know, your character and because you had to be around and watch them do it. and You. You learned. One learned a lot that way. It was. It was a great technique. But again these are all sort of luxuries and indulgences that are hard to come by, you know, when you’re limited by time and budgets and all that sort of thing.

Brendon Fox: It was amazing, Jeff. When I did the Noel Coward piece with Antaeus and it was Double cast. And I think it was a. I think it’s a one act, and it already has 10 to 11 characters in it already. And then when we double cast it, it was extraordinary. And I was not prepared for how intense it was, but also amazing because you’d have literally one cast would sit in the front row, and then with a tag team, we’d just do a chunk at a time. But, I love the fact that I was so afraid people would feel like, what the hell are you doing with that character? That’s not. But actually it was. I, would watch how the actress would think, well, what is the essential DNA of this character that we both agree on? And then we’ll manifest it in our own way that, you know. So if I suggested, well, you could cross to your wife over there. How does that feel? Sure. And I remember. No, I think it was the wife crossing the husband and one pair. The wife. The one playing the wife was like, I think I would sit on your lap. What do you think, honey? And then. And the actor would be like, yeah, that makes sense. And the other couple tried it and they’re like, no, I perch on the chair, the armchair, like. Like. And one was not good or bad, but it was like, yeah, they both are totally valid. And it’s. It shows. It’s like quantum mechanics. Right. It’s a little like this play of saying the multiverse is right there that you can literally see. Like, yeah, both are totally valid. And it works for those particular people. Right. So if we were doing our production of Arcadia, this is Lady Croom, this is Thomasina, this is Jellyby. Like, that’s. And somebody else is going to bring something else to it. So it really was a fascinating thing, Jeff, to see that no one owns the character. You know, there’s so much there that you can come at in a different way.

James Newcomb: That’s my argument that every production of any play is definitive because it’s. It’s definitive because these are the people doing this play and nobody else could do that play. Like, these people do it.

Brendon Fox: I love that. Yeah, that’s beautiful, Jimmy. Kate, did you have a thought?

Dr. Kate Moncrief: I was thinking about the perspective of the dramaturg, in all this, and a little bit, like, what the actor would experience. I think one of the. The interesting things about being a dramaturg is you are in the room with a lot of different kinds of directors who have a lot of different kinds of processes and, you know, everything

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Dr. Kate Moncrief: from the Brendans of the world, where you do 10 days of table work and then stage love slavers lost in three days, for a two and a half week rehearsal period. To people who do no table work, literally just start with scene one and figure out each scene as it goes along. To folks who have the method of table working each scene, but only with the people in it. And Jen, you’re self identifying as a nerd. I think we get along for some of those reasons.

Brendon Fox: Right.

Dr. Kate Moncrief: Book people. This is my actual office at work. This, is what happens to you when you get a PhD in English. All the books, the more processes I’ve been a part of, the more rooms I’ve been in, the more I just double down on the importance of table work and of a long.

Jennifer Le Blanc: The.

Dr. Kate Moncrief: I would argue in some ways that this is a luxury, right? We get to spend four weeks on two scenes and talk about anything we want to talk about and we don’t have time pressing on us. But in other ways, I would argue that it’s not a luxury because the more times I’ve experienced it, that deep understanding of the text, especially with Shakespeare, but really anything that’s, that’s heightened and any text, the more the actors understand exactly what they’re saying, the more the group understands what we’re trying to make together, the faster the staging goes and the more magical it is, then you get this cohesion that I think just doesn’t happen without this investment. So we could say that table work is a luxury. We could also say that it’s a necessity and, you know, not when you want to cut things. This isn’t the thing to cut. Like we need this time to do this job well, to do the play, you know, to do, to do. To do its service, to do each other’s service. So yeah, it’s, it’s interesting as everybody was describing this process or that one, that sort of dramaturg’s perspective of watching a lot of people do a lot of different things. And I, I just double down on the value of, of every little, every little word and doing it together.

Brendon Fox: And I feel one of the things I hear you talk about, Kate, is it’s, that’s so well put that the idea of specificity, right. It’s like to me. And that transcends any, you know, any play, to me rises and falls on how much are we turning the screw moment to moment? How much are we really understanding what, what we’re saying? And the more we, we understand it, it’s, you know, by the time we open, you don’t not necessarily on day one or two or eight, but it’s by the time we are presenting this for an audience. It’s not just we first have to know what you’re saying, then you can make some choices about it. Right. And then you. But the specificity is really, I think a requirement. And I agree with you, Kate, that this is a chance for us to put under, the electron microscope two scenes. But I think people could look at this and go, okay, we could extrapolate off this to the whole play. And some of this would be work people could be doing outside of rehearsal, some of it in. But also just the value of saying you don’t know what’s going on in this moment. I’m not sure, but we’ve had moments of that too, which I love and hope we’ll continue to. Of like drawing, you know, really, fessing up to. I think. I’m not sure what Septimus is exactly referring to here. Great. Because I think exciting things happen when we don’t front. And. And because I think Stoppard and Shakespeare, for example, will call us out on that. You know, I’ve learned that as a director too where like I will be found out sooner than later if I go, oh yeah, well I think it’s kind of like this. And then like a day later people come back, including the dramaturg being like, you know, I don’t think that makes sense. Like, yeah, I didn’t really know what I was talking about. I. I just didn’t want to look stupid with stopward.

James Newcomb: You know, I think one analogy could be how would you choose to build a house from the foundation up or from the roof down?

Brendon Fox: Wow. Yeah, right. Exactly. Well, so here’s a. It was so going back to thinking about foundations, I think we’ve done a lot of stop and start, which is great and important. I would love to propose that we use some, some of tonight to take. Go back to sort of big swings to go macro again and let ourselves go to. From beginning to end of each scene and then we can circle back and address particular, you know, points. So I would just for those who are in the scene, if we can have. If you have a pencil or pen at the ready or something to mark so that I know we’re in the middle of things of a scene, but if can make a mark or a jot something down. So if something occurs to you in the thick of it, let’s make the note. But let’s see what happens if we just keep Going. And then we can circle back and unpack those. Does that make sense? Are we

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Brendon Fox: good with that? And it’s. So we can use what I would encourage us as we take these arcs through the scene, we’ve really start. Now that we’ve started to dig into what they’re saying, let’s see what happens. If we can keep the stakes as high as possible, and in every moment, whatever they’re needing, they need it a lot. And how many epiphanies can we give them? You know, how, How often can they be blown away by themselves or by someone else? The more we can, the more surprises could yield some interesting stuff. So those would be the two things I would say. Sound good? okay. So, when we’re ready, Thomasina and Septimus.

Geoffrey Wade: Okay. Let me, just apologize in advance in case the dog barks. She’s. She barks. Sometimes.

Brendon Fox: There’S a dog on the grounds. It’s, It’s all good. You know, they. The lady croom loves dogs.

Geoffrey Wade: Mine may as well so pretends it’s the tortoise. Excuse me? The tortoise barking. Okay.

Téa Guarino: Septimus, what is carnal embrace?

Geoffrey Wade: Carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one, one’s arms around a side of beef.

Téa Guarino: Is that all?

Geoffrey Wade: No. Shoulder of mutton, haunch of venison, well hugged. An embrace of grouse. Caro carnis. Feminine flesh.

Téa Guarino: Is it a sin?

Geoffrey Wade: no, not necessarily, my lady. But when carnal embrace is sinful, it is a sin of the flesh. QED we had Cairo in our Gallic wars. The Britons lived on milk and meat. Latte et carne vivunt. I’m sorry that the seed fell on stony ground.

Téa Guarino: That was the sin of Onan, wasn’t it, Septimus?

Brendon Fox: Yes.

Geoffrey Wade: he was giving his brother’s wife a Latin lesson, and she was hardly the wiser after than before. I thought you were finding a proof of Fermat’s last theorem.

Téa Guarino: it is very difficult, Septimus. You have to show me how.

Geoffrey Wade: If I knew how, there’d be no need to ask you. Fermat’s last theorem has kept people busy for 150 years. And I had hoped it would keep you busy long enough for me to read Mr. Chaytor’s poem in praise of love with only the distractions of its own absurdities.

Téa Guarino: Our Mr. Chaytor has written a poem?

Geoffrey Wade: He believes he’s written a poem. Yes. I can see that there might be more carnality in your algebra than in Mr. Chaytor’s. Was it?

Brendon Fox: Couch.

Geoffrey Wade: of Eros.

Téa Guarino: Oh, it was not my algebra. I heard Jellyby telling cook that Mrs. Chater was discovered in a carnal embrace in the gazebo.

Geoffrey Wade: Really? With whom did Jellyby happen to say?

Téa Guarino: What do you mean, with whom?

Geoffrey Wade: Oh, with what? Exactly. So the idea is absurd. Where did the story come from?

Téa Guarino: Mr. Noakes.

Geoffrey Wade: Mr. Noakes?

Téa Guarino: Harper’s Landscape gardener. He was taking bearings in the garden when he saw through his spyglass, Mrs. Chater in the gazebo, in carnal embrace.

Geoffrey Wade: And do you mean to tell me Mr. Noakes told the butler?

Téa Guarino: No, Mr. Noakes told Mr. Chater. Jellyby was told by the groom, who overheard Mr. Noakes telling Mr. Chater in the stable yard.

Geoffrey Wade: Yes. Mr. Chater being engaged in closing the stable door.

Téa Guarino: What do you mean, Septimus?

Geoffrey Wade: So, thus far, the only people who know about this are Mr. Noakes, the landscape, the landscape architect, the groom, the, The groom. The groom, the butler, the cook, and of course, Mrs. Chaytor’s husband, the poet.

Téa Guarino: And Arthur, who was cleaning the silver and the boot boy. And now you, of course.

Geoffrey Wade: what else did he say, Mr. Noaks? No, not Mr. Noakes. Mr. Jellyby. You heard Jellyby telling the cook?

Téa Guarino: Hushed him almost as soon as he started. Jellyby did not see that I was being allowed to finish yesterday’s upstairs rabbit pie before I came to my lesson. I think you have not been candid with me, Septimus. A, gazebo is not, after all, a. A meat larder.

Geoffrey Wade: I never

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Geoffrey Wade: said my definition was complete.

Téa Guarino: Is Connor embrace kissing?

Geoffrey Wade: Yes.

Téa Guarino: And throwing one’s arms around Mrs. Chaytor, huh?

Geoffrey Wade: Yes. Now. Female’s last theorem.

Téa Guarino: I thought as much. I hope you are ashamed. I. Milady, if you do not teach me the true meaning of things, who will?

Brendon Fox: Ah.

Geoffrey Wade: yes, Yes, I am ashamed. Carnal embrace is sexual congress, which is the insertion of the male genital organ into the female genital organ for the purposes of procreation and pleasure. Now, Fermat’s last theorem, by contrast, asserts that when X, Y, and Z are whole numbers, each raised to a power of N, the sum of the first two can never equal the third when N is greater than 2m. But nevertheless, that is the theorem.

Téa Guarino: It is disgusting and incomprehensible. Now, when I am grown to practice it myself, I shall never do so without thinking of you.

Geoffrey Wade: Thank you very much, milady. Was Mrs. Chaytor down this morning?

Téa Guarino: No. Tell me more about sexual congress.

Geoffrey Wade: There is nothing more to be said about sexual congress.

Téa Guarino: Is it the Same as love.

Geoffrey Wade: Oh, no, it’s much, nicer than that. I am teaching. Jellyby.

Brendon Fox: You’re muted, Jamie.

Geoffrey Wade: Jellyby. Jellyby. I can’t hear you. I’m teaching.

James Newcomb: Sorry?

Geoffrey Wade: I’m teaching. I am teaching. Jellyby.

James Newcomb: Beg your pardon, Mr. Hodge. Mr. Chaytor said it was urgent you receive his letter.

Geoffrey Wade: Oh, very well. Thank you. Thank you.

Brendon Fox: Mr.

James Newcomb: Chater asked me to bring him your answer.

Geoffrey Wade: My answer? Oh, well, My answer is that as is my custom and my duty to his lordship, I am engaged until a quarter to 12 in the education of his daughter. When I am done, and if Mr. Chaytor is still there, I shall be happy to wait upon him in the gun room.

James Newcomb: I will tell him so. Thank you, sir.

Téa Guarino: what is for dinner, Jellyby?

James Newcomb: Boiled ham and cabbages, my lady. And a rice pudding.

Téa Guarino: Oh, goody.

Geoffrey Wade: so much for Mr. Noakes. He puts himself forward as a gentleman, a philosopher of the picturesque, a visionary who can move mountains and cause lakes, but in the scheme of the garden, he is as the serpent.

Téa Guarino: When you stir, rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round, making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backward, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink, just as before. Do you think this is odd?

Geoffrey Wade: No.

Téa Guarino: Well, I do not stir things apart.

Geoffrey Wade: No more you can, but, time must needs run backward. And since it will not, we must stir our way onward, mixing as we go, disorder out of disorder, into disorder, until pink is complete, unchanging and unchangeable, and we are done with it forever. This is known as free will or self determination. Sit.

Téa Guarino: Septimus. Do you think God is a Newtonian?

Geoffrey Wade: An Etonian? Almost certainly. I’m afraid we must ask your brother to make it his first inquiry.

Téa Guarino: No. Septimus. A Newtonian. Septimus, am I the first person to have thought of this? No, I have not said yet.

Geoffrey Wade: If everything from the furthest planet to the smallest atom in our brain acts according to Newton’s law of motion, what becomes a free will?

Téa Guarino: No.

Geoffrey Wade: God’s will?

Téa Guarino: No.

Geoffrey Wade: Sin?

Téa Guarino: No.

Brendon Fox: Very well.

Téa Guarino: If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really, really good at algebra,

00:35:00

Téa Guarino: you could write the formula for all the future. And although nobody can be so clever as to do it, the formula must exist just as if one could.

Geoffrey Wade: Yes. Yes. As far as I know, you are the first person to have thought of that it. In the margin of his copy of Arithmetica Female, wrote that he had discovered a wonderful proof of his theorem. But as the margin was too narrow for his purpose, he did not have time to write it down. The note was found after his death and from that day to this.

Téa Guarino: Oh, I see now. The answer is perfectly obvious.

Geoffrey Wade: This time. I think you may have overreached yourself.

Brendon Fox: Nice. Yeah, that’s. That’s lovely.

Téa Guarino: Yay.

Brendon Fox: Nice. Nice. Nice work. Wow. It was just. It’s. It’s so. It’s already so. So rich from all the moment to moment that we started exploring the last two weeks. So what. What jumped out of you? What would see, for those in it. Those listening. What was. What was that like?

Geoffrey Wade: Well, I. I’ll. I’ll start. What I. I find for Septimus is, each time I do it, but particularly as we find more details, his. His mind, M. Is all over the place. It’s not. Not in a bad way. But he seems to have a lot of things to think about. He’s not distracted the way,

James Newcomb: Ah.

Geoffrey Wade: Thomasina is kind of, you know, like water in a hot pan. She’s just shooting all over the place. Jamie had some great note about her. I actually wrote it down.

James Newcomb: Ecstasy.

Geoffrey Wade: He’s in a constant state of ecstasy. Right? And, there’s just. Septimus, is. He’s. He’s certainly engaged with her and. And interested in her. I think. He likes teaching. He also likes thinking about his own world and. And then when, you know, in this whole carnal. With the actual carnal embrace what. You know, what she’s actually talking about, when that comes up, that’s a whole nother a scenario. That’s a more personal thing. I mean, he’s partly in his mind and partly in his. Again, it’s like the whole play. He’s partly in this big thinking stuff and, And partly in. Oh, how do I. How do I handle this situation right here, right now?

Brendon Fox: Yeah, yeah. Which you thought had no consequences. You just found out.

Geoffrey Wade: Well, yes, I.

Brendon Fox: Out of the mouth of babes. You are. You have been found out.

Geoffrey Wade: Exactly.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead, please.

Téa Guarino: I think when we put it all together, just because of all the ideas that we’ve been, like, kind of stacking up for the last few weeks, I think the. The concept of, like, how can I surprise myself each time, really show this time, because it’s just there’s so much in each little thing, and then I think something that really stood out to me this Time was when Thomasina kind of grasps the fact that. Wait a minute. Like, you weren’t honest with me because what. The definition that you just said has nothing to do with what I just overheard. So this is weird. So I think just kind of the. How. I think every single thing that I’m thinking about can, like, be discovered in a different way. Like, not. It doesn’t all have to be like. But it can be like.

Brendon Fox: Hm.

Téa Guarino: Like, it doesn’t all have to be, like, one note in that way, which I. I found with, like, the different discoveries. but, yeah, just kind of the same as. As. As Septimus. There’s so much to think about, and I think slowing it down, like we were talking about in the beginning, really helped me discover that as well.

Brendon Fox: And it feels like, Téa, When you taking that moment about when you realize this doesn’t add up, I. And this is something I think we could explore maybe even more when we do it again. But I. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. The choice of words, which is not, you know, I think shame is not something that tends to come up with her, but I love that, you know, And I think there’s an opportunity that. I mean, Stoppard loves to play, I think, with these double meanings, right? Where one character thinks, oh, crap, oh, my God, I’ve been found out. Right? So I think that part of what you were saying earlier, Jen, about how do we tee things up for each other, something that’s occurring to me on a macro level is I think we could start to think more now about those moments of irony. And when you say shame on you, I think if you lean more into that, Téa, potentially of, That cuts

00:40:00

Brendon Fox: so deeply to you. You are truly, honestly ashamed. That can read to you, Jeff, like, she’s discovered me. You know, I’ve been found out. And then it isn’t until she explains, you have committed the sin of, keeping me in ignorance. Okay. You know, I was. You know what I mean? I feel like Septimus has to be. Has to have his feet over the fire for a moment, and that it’s Thomasina who didn’t realize what she’s doing. You know, she’s kind of triggering him, but it really comes from a place of shame on you. So it works for both of you, but just for very different reasons. Does that make sense?

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah. And, I. I love that the. The shame is not. Is not the, you know, the act of. Of having it off with the. The cheater. I just love what they call it the cheater.

Brendon Fox: Yeah. The.

Geoffrey Wade: The sin is not being truthful with her. That’s the sin.

Brendon Fox: Right? Yeah. I love it. That’s.

Geoffrey Wade: That’s the shameful thing. That’s what I should do about that. Because I think, I think it is. I think you’re. As you say, you’re right. She catches him out there and then.

Brendon Fox: I think you have the opportunity, Jeff, when we come back to us. The. You have that, you know, you have, you know. Ah, ah. Right. The, And I, I wonder if there’s an opportunity there for, For Septimus to. In the. In your relief to really lean in and own. You’re absolutely right. I am ashamed of that now that I know what we’re talking about. And it’s not about the act of carnal knowledge. You know, I, it’s just, it’s a. I’m always wondering, can he give her a bigger gift there of.

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah, yeah.

Brendon Fox: You called me out and you’re. You got me dead to rights. This is, you know, it’s like. And, and it’s a nice thing for you, Tay. I wonder if she feels real. Really feels validated. She. You really went to an extreme place of shame on you. And how refreshing to see an adult own it.

Téa Guarino: Yeah, I was thinking about that. I think the best gift that anyone can give Thomasina is like knowledge and more just things in things that she doesn’t know or just more information about things that she thinks she knows fully. So like, this is like a really big letdown of.

Brendon Fox: Yeah.

Téa Guarino: Why would you do that? Like, don’t you like the best I can be. Like, this is like. What do you mean? So I think just like someone, Septimus, who I feel like I trust fully, just taking the time to acknowledge my, disappointment is like a big, teller of our relationship as well. That he would take the time to be like, you know what? I apologize for that. Let me tell you exactly what it is in specific detail, leaving nothing out so that you know exactly what I’m talking about. And let’s see if you, if you want really want to know what it is now.

Geoffrey Wade: Right.

Brendon Fox: And I. Exactly. It’s such a great different tack. Right. That’s what struck me too. That, that it’s like, all right, I’m going to just overwhelm you with biology and just insert A into B and it’s like IKEA instructions. And, and, and, and, and then I, and I think it’s so smart that, you know, he goes to the non shame place, but he takes away any of the Eroticism, you know, there’s nothing hot about it. It’s literally like, you know, tabs and that. And that was. That is it. And I. That way. It’s great. Jeff. I think you can potentially. I think you can enjoy the fact when she gives you the ew. I think there’s the opportunity maybe, Jeff, to relish that more. You know, that. Well, that’s the theory, but I guess, I guess you don’t like it. I guess you’re going to stay away from that for a couple of years. Two points for Septimus. You know, I think. I think there’s more opportunities, Jeff, to pat yourself on the back, give yourself those moments. There’s plenty of moments that we’re discovering when you slip up. I think there’s also those moments on the flip side of, damn, I’m good. You know, her revulsion was chef’s kiss. Perfect. Yes. That’s. That. That. That’s. I mean, it was maybe even more than you had hoped for. Right. I love Tay at that time that you just gave that full, you know, 10 point in the Richter scale. I’m going to hurl everything you just said. You know, it goes that deep for her. Other thoughts from. From the group? Yeah.

Chris Guilmet: I have some thoughts. I was. So before I speak, I wasn’t. I had to leave early last week, so I didn’t see the work on this scene. So if I say anything that’s been said already, you can just tell me to shut my pie hole. but it was occurring to me listening to this, this time. Like, what a heavy lift these five pages are in this play, the first

00:45:00

Chris Guilmet: scene of the play. And you two have to establish your relationship with each other, how, smart you are. Like, you’re kind of giving the lay of the land. You’re introducing characters that we’re not gonna see for a few bit. Like, there’s a shit ton going on in this scene, and still, you guys have to have a relationship happening here that’s been lived in before we get to this point. Yeah. Before we get to the first light of the play. So good luck with that. but, Jeff, when you were saying that Septimus’s, mind is all over the place, I actually would say that that’s. To my way of thinking, that’s an opportunity to show how quick Septimus is. It’s not that his mind is all over the place. It’s that he can do these things. He can think this, and then he can think this, and then he can have this, and he can keep them all in the air all the time. So like almost it’s interesting to me to see when he gets information that then he fumbles because he’s such a smart man that, Thomasina throws him off guard. A 13 year old. Which also shows how smart the 13 year old is. and then I had a question. I don’t know if you guys brought this up last time, but, on page 10 at the end when Septimus goes from, you’re the first person to have thought of this. And then I know it’s stage directions that we might ignore in a production, but we’re doing table work. So I’m looking at the stage direction. He says with an effort, like, what is. Why is switching to Fermat’s theorem and effort? I, I don’t know what the. I don’t know what the answer that is. I don’t know if you’ve discussed it last week or not.

Geoffrey Wade: We, we did not. And it’s. That’s very good because that’s, that’s a place where I’m faking, it till I make it because I’m not, I’m not exactly sure myself why it’s such, an effort.

Téa Guarino: Well, Septimus leave like the little, like the note. Because we’re talking about the note. Like the note was found after his death. And then in the scene that we’re doing next, like there he’s. He left a, note and something like. I don’t know. I, maybe he’s thinking. I, I know we said he’s thinking about his death because, you know, we’re, we’re going to something else after this. But just like, maybe that’s too obvious but like the note was found after his death and like something is about to occur with

Geoffrey Wade: I, I think that refers back to it. And then Thomasina, of course will leave a note, right? As, As a sort of callback to it. But the way I’ve been thinking about it is that he’s. She’s made him what she has said. He is recognized as something that nobody’s thought of before or that I’ve heard about. Right. He said no, no, nobody’s. Nobody’s thought about that as far as I know. and this is one of those points where his mind seems to be ticking over quickly is in the sense of, although, ah, nobody’s found a proof of the theorem. People have been trying and maybe she’s somehow already on the way to, finding a proof of this theorem. So am I Thinking, am I sort of telling her this story? While I’m thinking, God, I wonder if she’s onto something. the story is there is a proof to the theorem. Supposedly, even though nobody’s found it, Fermat found it. so I’m. I. I don’t know. Somebody help me out here. It’s.

James Newcomb: Well, I was throw in, that it’s, the result of everything that’s come before, that Thomasina has a way of turning up the heat. I mean, you know, it’s.

Brendon Fox: It’s.

James Newcomb: It’s like temperature. The temperature of the scene. You know, all scenes have an arc, of course, but there’s something about the way this starts, what Chris was talking about, where somebody just turns the temperature up, you know, on the gas stove. She does with that question. And, you know, you’re like, you were saying that your mind’s in all these different places at once, and Jellyby comes in and gives you the letter. And, you know, that. That, It just feel felt to me like that the heat keeps getting turned up and you’re like, simmering, you know, that there’s a kind of, You know, because that’s, Is what Thomasina does, you know, he

00:50:00

James Newcomb: just turns. Kind of turns the heat up throughout the scene. And I’m. You know, I think, it boils over. That makes sense in the permanent thing where you’re suddenly, like, there was this personal thing going on that, you know, the event that happened and her wanting to know about carnal knowledge. And, you know, like you said, all this stuff is going on. You’re just sort of simmering, and then suddenly she comes up with a potential answer to ferment theorem. You know, it’s just.

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah, that’s excellent. And that. That image is. Is very useful because I think that’s what happens. It’s like, I think he’s trying to. He’s. He’s talking to her, saying there is a possibility that there is a proof of this. And he’s also. He doesn’t want to say it to her, I don’t think. But he. He’s thinking. He’s at, The. He’s also processing. He’s thinking, wait a minute, is she onto something? Is there. Is this the. Is this the beginning of the answer?

James Newcomb: So it’s roiling.

Geoffrey Wade: It’s roiling. Yeah. Like you said, the heat’s gone up a little bit.

Brendon Fox: Well, and I think, Jeff, to connect to what Chris said earlier, if we want to lean into showing you being a little More, for lack of a better term, slicker. In your dexterity of being able to multitask earlier in the scene, you can be, you know. You know, he knows he’s clever, and he’s able to. To do multiple things at once. There is something different than off of what you and Jamie are talking about, of, If you are giving this your full attention in a way that you haven’t quite before, you know, you’re dealing with the cheater stuff, you’re dealing with her, and you’re having to multitask. Okay, I grossed you out. But I’m also still on Chater. So maybe some of the effort and some of the boiling over and the simmering that I’m hearing you both talk about is also the act of the effort Septimus is putting in to just focus on this with her and. And being really mindful about sharing this with her. Yeah. Kate, did you have a thought?

Dr. Kate Moncrief: Yeah, I, I was thinking back to one of the first things you said, Téa, about discovery. And in this particular moment that you were discovering the way Thomas Cena is discovering. And there are different kinds of discoveries, and so you were playing those different kinds of discoveries.

Téa Guarino: The.

Dr. Kate Moncrief: The thing that she says to Septimus before he has to have some effort. When you are, breaking this down that I had written in my margins, big thought and. And build. You’ve got all these little big words, right? You’ve got if this and if this, then. If this and then. And there’s not a then, but. And then it would be really clear. And so, like, the way that she’s putting the pieces together is like doing a piece of math. And each one of those phrases of this long speech is a discovery. And her mind is so quick, right? If you did this and then this and then this, the formula exists. You just have to do it with algebra and that little, like, parenthetical. Although nobody can be so clever as to do it. And of course, she is right now she knows how to do it, and she’s going to start the algebra to put this together. I think for Septimus, the first realization. I’ve never heard anybody say that before. You might be the first one to say it when you were talking about how clever he is. This moment she’s more clever, right? Like, what do you say to that? He’s been teaching her.

Brendon Fox: That’s great.

Dr. Kate Moncrief: I’ll teach you what carnal embraces and I’m, you know, I’ve got. It’s like when the teacher has the handle on everything, and then that incredibly smart student, it just surpasses him in that moment. And how does he gather himself and like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, from what suggest he put it in the margins. He’s kind of like trying to get himself back on track. But she’s had this moment of, of of brilliance and of insight that I think just gives him pause and he has to think about what to say next. He has to try to explain to her something that she already understands better than he does.

Brendon Fox: Great. Jen.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah, yeah, I would say I was listening to it, kind of zoomed out and my my teacher brain kicked in. sometimes I get to teach, Shakespeare to folks which I love at all different age ranges. And there’s something so specifically delightful about teaching Shakespeare to kids. because it’s equal parts inspiring and totally humbling. Because you come in or I come in with like a curriculum, like, okay, and today I’m going to blow your mind with scansion or something. And I’m really excited. And then some 8

00:55:00

Jennifer Le Blanc: year old comes out with a thought that makes me go, okay, here’s your Ph.D. and thank you for teaching me that. Like, I have numerous times said to like a 9 or 10 year old, if I ever played this role, may I have your permission to steal that choice? Because that’s genius. And I’ve never seen an adult make that choice. Can you explain to me why? And then their rationale is so clear, but out of a different perspective. Right, so mine’s coming from dramaturgical. I looked up what that word means. I’m thinking of an example like an Oberon who was running off stage. and right before the line, I’m invisible. And we’ll overhear their conference and this eight year old just runs for the exit. And I was about to stop him because he has to stay for the rest of the scene. But I glad I didn’t because he screeched to a stop and went, I’m invisible. I’ll ever hear that conference. And I was like, you know, adults go like I’m a witch, like I’ve got magical powers. And they do all this justification. And I asked him and he goes, oh yeah, you just forgot. He just forgot that he was invisible. I was like, that’s genius. and no adult would ever make that choice. Yeah, so anyway, I was, I was just enjoying it like of that. Like my teacher brain was like, yeah, sometimes you get that student and you’re like, I have nothing to teach you. I’m grateful that you are teaching Me for the next hour.

Brendon Fox: And they’re not saddled with all of the back. The lexicons and the scansion. And like you said, Jen, they’re coming to it so fresh. And I think, like, that’s exactly right on the money with Thomasina. And I mean, and speaking of that, I. Tea, something for us to look at next time is the formula must exist just as if one could, I think, to build on what Kate was saying. There’s a term I like to use, folks, with, Shakespeare and now Stoppard, which I got from my friend Patricia delaure. She teaches voice and speech at FSU Oslo, and she likes to talk about little big words, the ands, buts. You know, it’s conjunction junction, right? And those linking thoughts of doubling down or pivoting. And I think this is one of those great examples, Téa, of all of those things that Kate pointed out, the ifs, ands. But. And I think for everybody here, that could be something we could think about heading into next week. Is that, like, I think we’re going to be surprised at how many of those tiny words that then can send us in a different direction? Or are we playing Jenga and we’re just building and building it like you. Like you’re doing? And I think that. Tea, just thinking about when Septimus says yes, right after that first pause, it. Is there something interesting about that? But what just occurred to me was, you know, you are, You know, you offer this up, hoping that, you know, either tell me I’m wrong or give me some validation, but, you know, you’re. You’re reaching for the stars here. He. And he says yes. And what occurred to me just now is that could Thomasina be thinking he’s just saying yes to yes, the formula must exist. Like, you know what I mean? That small flashlight and then the next big so that you’re not prepared at all for. And yes, you’re the first to think of this. So it’s that double whammy of, oh, my God, yes, I’m onto something. But then the thing you’re really not prepared for is you’re the first person to think of this. And what struck me watching Te is I love that you were exploring her sense of yay. Is there also something a little scary about that? Or something that you have no reference point for? Does your compass spin? Because what if you had never really imagined, ever really, Septimus saying, I have no response to that. I have no answer to that. You are saying something I’ve never thought of. You know what I mean? Like, in your mind, maybe Thomasina fantasizes. Oh, yeah. But then he’ll go, no, jk, of course. I know, right? Yeah. But he actually says, you’re the first person. I mean, if you really think about that. And she’s smart enough to go, what? Like, what. What does that even mean? It’s not like the earlier victories of the scene of, yeah, I’m smart and I’ve got it. To me, there’s. It opens up a door that I don’t. I don’t. I don’t know what that means, but I feel like it means something to witness him saying to you. No one has ever thought of that before. I don’t know what that would be like. If someone said that to me, let alone the 13 year old me. I’m, You know, I just offer that

01:00:00

Brendon Fox: up in terms of. I think there’s. Does that, what does that make sense, Téa? In terms of just.

Téa Guarino: Yeah, it really does. I, think that’s an overwhelming sense of responsibility that I feel like falls on me. It’s like, oh, my gosh, am I gonna have to teach the rest of the world my theory? Like, do I become number one? Like, what comes from. I feel like everything is like, right, comes from this. This is right.

Brendon Fox: You, you’ve become Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, right? And you, you are. You are the. You are now the one. And then the fun can be when you hear him say, oh, and Vermont wrote it on the side of the margins and you’re like, oh, he was a prankster.

Dr. Kate Moncrief: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: Oh, oh, right. But for a moment, you glimpsed the cosmos, right? You had your Carl Sagan moment. And. And then I love that you come crashing down to a 13 year old. Oh, prank. Total prank.

Téa Guarino: Yeah. I think right deep down, well, I feel like I want. I feel like my. I’ve always wanted to reach that moment of having Septimus be like, you’re right. I. I don’t know what to say. But then when we finally reach that, because I say it earlier in the scene, like, am I the first person to have thought of that? Like, oh, my gosh. Like, nah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then, like, now it’s for real and it’s like, oh, no. Like, I, Like, I can’t accept this right now. Like, I need to learn more. Like, I don’t really have it in me. Like, halt. So I think it’s. I, I think it’s a, A perfect choice. I. I think that’s awesome. I. I think that’s, really fun.

Brendon Fox: And it could be fun too, Jeff, for you of like, then you’re still on the fact that she’s blown your mind, right? So then her laughing could. You know, I love that you’re like. You might have overreach yourself now if you think this is absurd. I think you’ve now gone into hubris, right? It’s like, oh, you’re so. You’ve. You. You’ve cracked the secret of the universe so much that now you’re just laughing at Vermont. You. You know, we might have. We might have. We might have drunk our own Kool Aid a little too much here, you know, in that moment. But. But yeah, I mean, I think there’s just. It’s. It’s something that’s really fun to explore in those pauses. I think that what was great too. I just want to clock this, that both. All three of you, even while we’re still on script, we’re finding the. The use of can not. Of trying to take the air out, right. So that. Not that it’s fast, but by keeping the cues tight. When we had those pauses, Jeff, of the. Yes, yes. Or that moment of, you know, registering gun room, even those meant something because I think, ah, that’s. It’s similar to like those empty beats, you know, those, those, those beats in Shakespeare where you don’t have the text, but there’s still those beats on the line. There’s something. There’s power in that, you know, so it’s just something for us to keep looking at. great. Can we. Can we take a little break? And when we come back, we’ll, pick up with the next scene. it’s 9:08. How about we take, seven, minutes and come back at 9:15?

Geoffrey Wade: Good.

Chris Guilmet: Sounds good.

Brendon Fox: Thank you. Thanks, everybody. I feel like, you know, it’d be amazing. Is like. Then 2.0 of this is. Then we pivot to all of like the modern characters.

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah, right.

James Newcomb: Yeah.

Geoffrey Wade: Nightingale’s a great character, man.

Brendon Fox: It’s just.

Geoffrey Wade: They all are. They all are. They’re all great.

Brendon Fox: all right, so shall we jump into scene, six? and, I’ll read in some of the stage directions since this has a little bit more of them. Are we ready?

Chris Guilmet: Yes.

Brendon Fox: The room is empty. Early morning. A distant pistol shot. The sound of the crows. Enters the dark, dawn, dark room with a lamp. He goes the window and looks out. He sees something. He returns to put the lamp on the table, then opens one of the French windows and steps outside.

James Newcomb: Mr. Hodge.

Brendon Fox: Septimus comes in, followed By Jellyby, who closes the garden door. He’s wearing a great coat.

Chris Guilmet: Thank you, Jellyby. I was expecting to be locked out. What time is it?

James Newcomb: Half past five.

Chris Guilmet: That, is what I have. Well, what a bracing experience.

Brendon Fox: He produces two pistols from inside his coat.

Chris Guilmet: Oh, the dawn, you know, Unexpectedly lively. Fishes, birds, frogs, rabbits. And very beautiful. If only it did not occur so early in the day. I brought Lady Thomasina a rabbit. Will you take it?

James Newcomb: It’s dead.

Chris Guilmet: Yes. Lady Thomasina

01:05:00

Chris Guilmet: loves a rabbit pie.

James Newcomb: You were missed, Mr. Hart.

Chris Guilmet: I decided to sleep last night in the boathouse. Did I see a carriage, leaving the park?

James Newcomb: Captain Bryce’s carriage. With Mr. And Mrs. Chaytor also gone? Yes, sir. And Lord Byron’s horse was brought round at 4 o’clock.

Chris Guilmet: Lord Byron too? Yes, sir.

James Newcomb: the house has been up and.

Chris Guilmet: Hopping as I have his rabbit pistols. What am I to do with his rabbit pistols?

James Newcomb: You were looked for in your room.

Brendon Fox: By whom?

James Newcomb: M. By her Ladyship.

Chris Guilmet: In my room?

James Newcomb: I will tell her Ladyship. you are returned.

Chris Guilmet: Jellyby. Did Lord Byron leave a book for me?

James Newcomb: A book?

Chris Guilmet: He had the loan of a book from me.

James Newcomb: His Lordship left nothing in his room, sir. Not a coin.

Chris Guilmet: Oh, well, I’m sure he would have left a coin if he’d had one. Jellyby, here’s half a guinea for you.

James Newcomb: Thank you very much.

Chris Guilmet: What is the turn?

James Newcomb: The, servants are told nothing, sir.

Brendon Fox: Come, come.

Chris Guilmet: Jellyby. Does half a guinea buy nothing any more?

James Newcomb: Her, ladyship encountered Mrs. Chater, during the night.

Chris Guilmet: Where?

James Newcomb: On the threshold of Lord Byron’s room.

Brendon Fox: Ah. Uh-huh.

Chris Guilmet: Which one was leaving?

James Newcomb: In which, entering Mr. Chater was leaving Lord Byron’s room.

Chris Guilmet: And where was Mr. Chaytor?

James Newcomb: Mr. Chaytor and Captain Price were drinking cherry brandy. They, had the fort.

Chris Guilmet: The.

James Newcomb: The footman to keep the fire up until 3:00. There was a loud altercation upstairs and,

Jennifer Le Blanc: Well, Mr. Hodge.

Chris Guilmet: My lady.

Jennifer Le Blanc: All this to shoot a hare?

Chris Guilmet: A rabbit? No, indeed. A hare, though. Very rabbit.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Like my infusion?

James Newcomb: Yes. My lady.

Jennifer Le Blanc: How dare you.

Chris Guilmet: I cannot be called into account. What was written in private and read without regard to propriety, addressed, to me. Left in my room in the event of my death.

Jennifer Le Blanc: What earthly ah, use is a love letter from beyond the graves?

Chris Guilmet: As much, surely, as from this side of it. The, second letter, however, was not addressed to your Ladyship.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I have a mother’s right to open a letter addressed by you to my daughter. Whether, in the event of your life, your death or Your imbecility. What do you mean by writing to her rice pudding when she has just suffered the shock of violent death in our midst?

Brendon Fox: Whose death?

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yours, you wretch.

Chris Guilmet: Oh, yes, I see.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Do not know which is the matter of your ravings. One envelope feel the rice pudding, the other of the most insolent familiarities regarding several parts of my body. And no doubt which is the more intolerable to me which. Oh, aren’t we saucy when our bags are packed. Your friend has gone before you. And I have dispatched the harlot. Cheater. Huh? And her husband and also my brother for bringing them the hair. Such as the sentence, you see? For choosing unwisely in your acquaintance. Banishment. Lord Byron is a rake and a hypocrite. And the sooner he sails for the Levant, the sooner he will find society congenial to his character.

Chris Guilmet: Has been a night of reckoning indeed.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I wish it had passed uneventfully. With you and Mr. Chaytor shooting each other with the decorum due to a civilized house. You have no secrets left, Mr. Hodge. They spilled out between shrieks and oaths and tears. It is fortunate that a lifetime’s devotion the sporting gun has halved my husband’s hearing to the ear. He slept on.

Chris Guilmet: I’m afraid I have no knowledge of what has occurred.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Your trollop was discovered in Lord Byron’s room.

Brendon Fox: Ah.

Chris Guilmet: discovered by Mr. Cher.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Who else?

Chris Guilmet: I’m very sorry, madam, for having used your kindness to bring my unworthy friend to your notice. He will have, He will have to give an account of himself to me. You

01:10:00

Chris Guilmet: may be sure.

Brendon Fox: Shelby enters the room with her infusion.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I will do it.

Brendon Fox: Jamie, you’re muted.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I will do it.

James Newcomb: Yes, My lady? Lord Byron left a letter for you with the valet, sir. Thank you.

Jennifer Le Blanc: When did he do so?

James Newcomb: As he was leaving, your ladyship.

Chris Guilmet: Allow me.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I do not know that it is proper for you to receive a letter written in my house from someone. Not where.

Chris Guilmet: Very improper, I agree. Lord Byron’s want of delicacy is grief to his friends, among whom I no longer count myself. I will not read his letter until I have followed him through the gates.

Jennifer Le Blanc: That may excuse the reading, but not the writing.

Chris Guilmet: Your ladyship should have lived in the Athens of Pericles. The philosophers would have fought the sculptors for your idle hour.

Brendon Fox: Really?

Jennifer Le Blanc: Oh, really? Oh, really.

Chris Guilmet: Now there’s a thing. A letter from Lord Byron. Never to be read by a living soul. I will take my leave, madam. At the time of your Desiring it to the Indies. The Indies? Why?

Jennifer Le Blanc: To follow the cheater. Of course she did not tell you.

Chris Guilmet: She did not exchange half a dozen words with me.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I expect she did not like to waste the time. The chaitor sails with Captain Bryce.

Chris Guilmet: As a member of the crew?

Jennifer Le Blanc: No. As wife to Mr. Chaytor, plant gatherer to my brother’s expedition.

Chris Guilmet: I knew he was no poet. I did not know it was botany under, the false colors.

Jennifer Le Blanc: He is no more a botanist. My brother paid £50 to have him published. And he will pay 150 to have Mr. Chaytor picking fires in the Indies for a year while his wife plays mistress of the captain’s quarters. Captain Bryce has fixed his passion on Mrs. Chater to take her on voyage. He has not scrupled to deceive the Admiralty of the Linian Society. And Sir Joseph Banks, botanist to His Majesty at Kew.

Chris Guilmet: Her passion is not as fixed as his.

Jennifer Le Blanc: This is a defect of God’s humor that he directs our, ah, hearts everywhere but to those who have a right.

Chris Guilmet: Indeed, madam. But is Mr. Chaytor deceived?

Jennifer Le Blanc: he insists on it. And finds the proof of his wife’s virtue in his eagerness to depend it. Captain Bryce is not deceived, but cannot help himself. He would die for her.

Chris Guilmet: I think, my lady. He would have Mr. M. Chaytor die for her.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Indeed. I never knew a woman worth a duel. Or the other way. About your letter, to me goes very ill with your conduct to Mrs. Chater, Mr. M. Hart. I have had experience of being betrayed before the ink is dry, but to be betrayed before the pen is even dipped. And with the village notice board. What am I to think of such a performance?

Chris Guilmet: My lady, I was alone with my thoughts in the gazebo when Mrs. Chater ran me to ground. And I, being in such a passion, in an agony of unrealized desire. Oh, I thought in my madness that the. The cheetah with her skirts over her head would give me the momentary illusion of happiness to which I dared not put a face.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I do not know when I have received a more unusual compliment, Mr. Hod. I hope I am more than a match for Mrs. Chater with her head in a bucket. Does she wear drawers?

Chris Guilmet: She does.

Brendon Fox: Yes.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I have heard the drawers have been worn. Now it is unnatural for women to be got up like jockeys. I cannot approve.

01:15:00

Jennifer Le Blanc: I know nothing of Pericles or Athenian philosophers. I can spare them an hour in my sitting room when I’ve bathed.

Jennifer Le Blanc: 7 o’clock. Bring a book.

Brendon Fox: Lovely. Why, why, why, why should he, why, why bring a book, Jen?

Jennifer Le Blanc: well, I think it gives an excuse for rendezvous.

James Newcomb: Ah.

Jennifer Le Blanc: And also, I think intellect is foreplay for her. Those are my thoughts.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, no, I mean that’s, yeah. So it’s spoken, it’s an alibi as well as the foreplay.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah, yeah, that’s my thought. What do you think?

Brendon Fox: No, I mean I love that. Well, it’s interesting that you like that. The last thing you say to him, you know, it, it feels like, we definitely know who’s, you know, who’s dictating the terms. And that’s both, not just in terms of yes, I will allow you to visit me, but also, also this is exactly how we’re going to do it. And the only, you know, and I, I, I could imagine that like you know, you know, septimist is pretty transparent at this point, as are most M men in a situation like this. So I, I think it makes sense that you have to spell this out to him of like, I don’t want you just running into my boudoir.

James Newcomb: It’s not.

Brendon Fox: Exactly right. And there, there, there are the servants to consider and we are in this world and like you know, he may just want to run right into your room but like you always have one part of your bandwidth to. Everyone is watching. Right. Like talk about multitasking like we did earlier. It’s like you can have your desires and you want this, but also decorum, right? And it’s, and it’s a win win because we will use that book. But also we are, we’re not going to, you’re not, we’re not going to make the mistake of like Byron, you know, and that whole thing that happened. I love that you’re just like you have one job and I am not. If I see you without a book at the entrance to my room, no admittance because, because people will talk and I, to me that just is another beautiful indication of her character of a sense of like I can have all this and all this desire and, and banter and everything. And as I’m sweeping away before I go, I’m giving you direction that’s non negotiable. It’s just, it’s so great that she can be, have that kind of forethought. And then it ends with, with you burning the letters which I don’t think we’ve really talked that much about, Chris.

James Newcomb: No.

Brendon Fox: Because it bring a book feels like that could be the end of the scene. Right? It’s this great kind of verbal button, but it’s not. So we have three letters that are burned in this scene. Yeah.

Chris Guilmet: There’s no need for the letters anymore on, the most practical level, because he doesn’t need to leave a letter for Thomasina because he’s going to see her and she’s already read the letter and burning it is helping her, like, let’s get rid of the evidence, you know?

Brendon Fox: Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah, I love that. And I love that you’re not doing it with her watching. Right. That’s just like. You know this as well, Chris, of, like, you’re doing this for her and for yourself. And like, this is not. Not something. The earlier burning is performative.

Chris Guilmet: Yes.

Brendon Fox: I mean, or it’s for an agenda. These. These are from. Are not for her eyes to see, but they just need to. Need to be done. And as much as you want to follow her up to her room, I love that you actually like Septimus now that you know what is going to be happening next. It. It’s. Yeah. I love that you are taking the time to get rid of the evidence. You know, there’s. He’s taking. It seems like, Chris, you’re taking a page out of her book of, like, bring the book, burn the letters. We. We. There’s. We. You know, we need to keep this all very airtight and discreet.

Chris Guilmet: Yeah. I think also there’s so much, talk about writing in this scene, like the. The letters that I’ve written, the letters that Byron has written, the letter to me. But also her great. That great speech about, about being betrayed before the ink is dry

01:20:00

Chris Guilmet: or before the pen is dipped and the notice board, that I. I also think that the Bring a book is just a little bit of stopper back to all that writing too, you know?

Brendon Fox: Yes. I love that. It is. It is like the. The cherry on top. Absolutely. Because it’s. It’s. It’s just. It really is part of what you two now have as your common language, which is. Which is interesting because, of course, you were there to. Part of your job as a tutor is to educate Thomasina on a lot of subjects. But it. But you’re also very well read. Like we talked about last week or the week before. Your side hustle is reviewing. Right. So you’re quite erudite with that. And, you know, I think, Janet, what struck me, too, is that for him to say that thing about the, you know, the Athenian philosophers and the sculptures of Pericles, you know, for that to come from Someone like that who is very well read too. It’s hm. You know, he hopes he knows his target and knows his audience and it kind of hits the mark. You know, I think there’s something fun, Chris, that we can explore more of. What if. What. What if we see more, a little more of next time of Septimus enjoying the fact that she has done that callback to your compliment, you know, about the Athenian philosophers. She’s listened so closely. She’s like, remember that thing from 10 minutes ago? I see you and I raise you hello. That’s hot. Because it’s not listening. Reading is hot. Listening is hotter in this world.

Chris Guilmet: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: Like everything is fair game. Everything has been packed away and then brought back out. It’s very Oscar Wilde that Way too very Shaw, that sense of like, I know what was in the back there and I’m gonna, And all that is ready to be deployed again.

Chris Guilmet: Potentially stupid question. And I should dig out the, dramaturgy packet. But when we’re talking about her drawers, we’re talking about underwear, right? So basically underwear. And I say, yes, she does. She goes, oh, I, wouldn’t do that. Come to my room. Like, that’s. That’s also nor for Septimus.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, I don’t think. I think it’s good for us all to be on the same page because I think what is. It is interesting that the way that like Lady Croom shares her, fashion proclivities and. And you know, and the fact that you’re sharing this in a very intimate way. I mean, the other thing that struck me for both of you this time is there the. The intimacy that happens here. There’s so much. As much as there is the talk of the double entende and sex and. And potential invitations. What I saw you two start to lean into is finding or maybe re. Realizing that this other person really gets you like that you’re actually like. Like, look at this. Like the whole section at the. At the bottom, of 75, top of 76. He insists on it. Finds the proof of his wife’s virtue that, you know, I think my lady who would have minister Chain or die for indeed. I never knew a woman worth the duel or the other way about. I mean, that sounds to me like two people who are already a couple in a way of this sense of looking at the world together, looking out. If that makes sense. That sense of. Yeah. What is it. What’s the deal with women in duels? Right? I, mean, it feels like you’ve it’s interesting, Jen, to me that like you share this with him, a man who just went out to fight a potential duel. But I love that you feel like, can we just talk about all the toxic masculinity of that and why any of that is even necessary. Women and duels. It makes no sense. There’s something I think that was there and I would encourage us to keep leaning into. And I saw you both laughing at each other’s wit and there’s, there’s the more we can learn from each other and go, wow, that’s. You see that too? Or I hadn’t thought of it that way. You know, that also is part of the gradual coming together of you two in a way that’s. That feels like it’s just flowing. Like when you first fight. There’s a flow. Right. You know, Red. not read by you. Well, it should be read by me. There’s that. That sort of. You’re playing the net in the tennis match that way. So there’s that kind of spark. But then there’s also the longer thoughts later where it seems like you both are kind of dovetailing. Like, does that make sense? It feels like a third date in a good sense of like, you know, like, like. Right. And also did you see that article about. And it feels like there you, you both are. No. We don’t know where this is ultimately going to be leading. There’s still that question and I love Chris

01:25:00

Brendon Fox: that I saw you sort of. You’re still on tenterhooks because, you know, I feel like Lady Croom is holding all these cards and you’re, you’re still in the dark to some degree of like, well, things are getting hotter. But yeah, at any moment she could pull the plug on all of this.

Chris Guilmet: There’s. I think there’s some The thing you say about like this being a third date is interesting because in this scene we both have new information about each other. Letter. And I have the fact that she went to Byron’s room.

Brendon Fox: Right.

Chris Guilmet: Probably. I never would have imagined that she, she presents herself as this one way. It’s like, oh, she sneaks around just like the rest of us. She’s this human and oh, maybe there’s like we have. We. We see each other differently now when, when we look m. And we’re ah, exploring that new person that we see that new version of the person that we’re. That we’re seeing.

Brendon Fox: Does that track for you, Jen?

Jennifer Le Blanc: Absolutely. The fact that he is. Didn’t jump to defend Mrs. Chater didn’t jump to defend Byron, made his loyalties clear and chose discretion proactively without me having to request it.

Brendon Fox: Hm.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Are all like, interesting points suddenly become more interesting to me? You know, like, that is he’s like in a very precarious position, but doing all the right moves for lady Croom.

Brendon Fox: M. And in a way that you both start off in a place of much more high intensity, frenetic sense of out of control chaos. And it’s interesting how over the course of the scene, your biorhythms start to match and you do start to feel more in control. You start to get to a place of. By the end, we’re burning the evidence like we are simpatico. But I like that the more you two start off in a place of high dudgeon and tons of questions and. Right. All this to shoot a hair. Explain yourself. How dare you? I mean, you’re coming in hot, Jen. I think it keeps you on the defensive, Chris. And then I love. Then you push back as well so that it’s. It’s messy. And I think that with that knowledge, like you’re saying Chris of each other that, oh, you’re human. But there’s also interesting for you, Jen, of like, oh, you, you. Can I hurt you? Like, you’re, You’re. That’s. That’s interesting too. Like, I think in some ways maybe the two of you done have done too good a job of fronting. And it’s taken these extraordinary circumstances to push you both in this moment of dawn, right? In this liminal moment of not day, not night is so beautiful by stoppard that this is matching this betwixt between hour and it’s exactly this moment of. Okay, so who are we? Who are you to me? You know, things are being redefined, but it’s. There is a sense of, oh, I’m getting. I’m starting to breathe now again. I’m starting to feel like, okay, I’m getting some control over. Over things. It’s. It’s interesting how you both are doing that for each other coming m. But it really helps with the arc if you both are from that place of really being off kilter, right. And, and letting the disequilibrium keep, you vulnerable. You know, like you said, Chris, not the cool cucumber lady croom. Right. But I think also, let’s just, you know, it’s hard to do this right now, folks in without costumes or anything, but we got to remember you coming into that room in your nightgown at six in the morning. And when Jelloby steps away, that scandal right there. Yeah, that’s. That’s not appropriate. You know, even if it’s now just you, your deaf husband, Thomasina, asleep, right? Sleeping the sleep of geniuses. But still, like that is. That’s. That’s. That’s underneath has got to be that frequency of. And I’m thinking for, you know, for both of you, of like the elf in the room is. You’ve never seen her, Chris, like this. As the French say, desavier. Right. That is,

Brendon Fox: You know, the very few people would see her like that.

Chris Guilmet: Right?

Brendon Fox: And she is not taking any. If she. You don’t. She doesn’t go away and say, I’ll be back with my rope.

Chris Guilmet: Right?

Brendon Fox: That’s that. That’s that. And I think that’s kind of interesting. I wonder, Jamie, if there’s something a little fun about when she decides to do the infusion. Is there something a little fun about that? You know, we talked about how much Shelby kind of loves the tea as he’s, you know, leaving. Oh, interesting. Okay. So they don’t want to chaperone,

01:30:00

Brendon Fox: you know, like, you know, it would only take a few minutes. But I love that it’s very unusual if she’s like, no, I got this. You can go. That’ll be all. Yeah, I bet. I bet that will be all. Okay.

Geoffrey Wade: Yes.

James Newcomb: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: Right. I gotta tell Cook about. Something’s going on. Something is happening. But discretion. Discretion. Right.

James Newcomb: But, well, all kinds of value in how that when she comes in with Jellyby and how it’s staged. Yeah, absolutely.

Brendon Fox: Well, and I wonder too. I mean, Jamie, like, the fact that you’ve seen all this happen. But like, I think for you and for Chris, this. She typically is the rock of the house, right? And if she is the person that is pretty unflappable, except for what happened tonight. This is really unusual. Right. And we kind of need. We, the audience looks to Jamie, you and Chris to be our barometer of this. That she is. The way that she just bursts in the room, the way she’s calling you out, the way that she’s in her nightgown like this is. This is not.

James Newcomb: And as those who have the calling to serve do, their best to be unflapped. This is flapping. This is definitely a, unusual. And it’s getting more unusual by the moments in the house. You know, it’s getting more, not untenable, but just use. The foundation is a little shaky. What. What was Known. And what is now it’s all sort of in flux. And,

Brendon Fox: Well, I love that, Jimmy, that time you and you shared the information. Once you chose to share the information with Septimus, I loved that you started to explore Jellyby’s kind of need to unpack this that you. We let. We let just. We saw some of the cracks in his veneer where he didn’t go full Real Housewives, Right. But he was. I felt like, you know, well, then this happened also. This. Don’t forget that, like, it starts to unspool pretty smoothly from him. And I. I like.

James Newcomb: Yeah, I agree with you. And it’s not so much that. I mean, I do make the reference, you know, as, like the, you know, the, usher, whatever, you know, in a, In a hotel that re. Puts his hand out and won’t leave until he gets the coin. You know, I mean, I make the reference to Byron left nothing in the room. Not a coin, sir. You know, but it’s not really. I mean. And that’s something else maybe to explore is that. It’s not so much. I mean, yes, I have a crown. I mean, I have,

James Newcomb: Is a lot. But there’s a decision to confide in Septimus.

Brendon Fox: Yes, exactly. That’s what I’m getting at.

James Newcomb: That I can be trusted with. M. This information, you know, in some way.

Brendon Fox: Yeah. Yeah.

James Newcomb: I mean, I don’t know. And that’s maybe a question, M. How long Septimus has been in the house?

Brendon Fox: well, I. I think that’s interesting, too, Jamie. M. Because that is. And I think, Chris, that’s important for you to explore as well, right? The fact that he could easily just say, thank you for the coin, Sarah, and have a good morning. Right. And that would be absolutely kosher for him to do and expected. And the fact that each thing he gives you is. There is a sense of, trust. And I wonder, too, Jamie, is the fact that, like, you’re still processing this as well, right? This didn’t happen yesterday.

James Newcomb: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: This is very fresh paint. So to maybe. Is there. Is there some agenda of sharing this with him in the hopes that he might offer some perspective in return, Right? Like, maybe he’ll fill. Fill in some blanks that you don’t know.

James Newcomb: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And, you know, is my situation and those in, who are in this, who are serving this house, are our situations tenable? I mean, are things, you know, unraveling, you know, within the status quo to the point where, you know, there needs to be concern, you Know.

Brendon Fox: Well, yeah. And I mean in terms of what your duties are, like doing the infusion. It struck me, Jen, I meant to ask this last time. Why do you decide? Why do you want to do it?

Jennifer Le Blanc: My gut reaction is I would like to get, Jellyby out of the room, in order to discuss these. And I cannot discuss the content of these in front of Jellyby.

Jennifer Le Blanc: So that is, that’s my, my impulse as to why. Yes, we would like the room, please, and a reasonable excuse.

James Newcomb: Yes. Oh, I see. Oh, I thought I might be included.

01:35:00

James Newcomb: Right. Okay.

Geoffrey Wade: Can I. I say, this Jellyby Septimus thing, something I noticed this time, which I thought was interesting, is that I think Jellyby is. I don’t know if this. Because they’re all servants together, you know, they’re. It’s. It’s us against them or, you know, letting you know. But he twice kind, of warns Septimus when he says, you were m. What? You were missed. Is that what he said?

James Newcomb: You were missed? Yes.

Geoffrey Wade: And then again he really, he goes another step further when he says, you were looked for in your room. Which are both things that they struck me this time as I thought. Oh, Jellyby’s letting him know what’s going on in the house. So he’s not walking on here, in here unprepared, sort of.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, that’s it.

Geoffrey Wade: Their relationship.

Brendon Fox: yeah, because you’re right, Jeffy, that’s a great point. I didn’t realize that he could have, he could have just.

Geoffrey Wade: He was taking the hair and gone. Right, right.

Brendon Fox: And let Septimus twist in the wind. Yeah, but, but, but, but he doesn’t, he does give him a little bit of ammo, a little bit of a heads up so that, then what he chooses to do with that information is up to him. Yeah, but, but yeah, you’re right. There’s a. That twice he actually you were looked for in your room. And like that’s pretty great information for you, Chris. Of like. Wait, what? that, that. And, and especially because then when Jen, you start to tell him what happened in your version. It’s, it allows you, Chris, to be like, oh, okay, so this is what you’re saying it happened. Okay. Because I’ve got, I’ve got it from Jelly, who I think is pretty neutral in this and doesn’t have the same skin in the game as you do.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah. Because he’s not only given a shield, he’s also given a weapon. Right. So it’s not just you Were looked for and your room has been raided and your name came up loudly. But it’s also. When asked who was leaving whose room, like, the weapon is. Well, she was on her way to Byron’s house, so, like shield and shield and weapon delivered.

Brendon Fox: Yeah, that’s. And information is power. Right? And I love that. When we can make more of the fact of. In the midst of you trying to keep catch up, Chris, with what’s been going on in your absence, there’s also the. The you acknowledging on the fly how amazing it is that he’s giving you this. You know, that’s the. All of this is not expected. And it’s. And then before you can even fully process it, you know, you sweeping in and. And Jen, what’s that moment about with all this to shoot a hair? Can you give me. Can you unpack that a little bit for m. Me?

Jennifer Le Blanc: This is my impulse, but if other folks have ideas, I’d love to hear them. My thought is. So, dueling is illegal and scandalous at this time. So the ad. The admission that this is happening in my home could be scandalous if it got about because jelly beast is in the room. Right. So, the pretense has to be kept up that he left early in the morning with two pistols for the purpose of shooting hairs, which is, I mean, again, like, shutting the barn door when the horses are out. Servants all heard at volume the screaming that occurred last night. But we, like. It is also creating the story of, like, I can’t believe you got up early to shoot hares. How dare you? Is my impulse.

Brendon Fox: and then.

Jennifer Le Blanc: And then if there’s more to it than that, you know.

Brendon Fox: No, I love that. Because if you go. You go down that road, then he’s not playing along. And that’s even more frustrating. Like, really?

Jennifer Le Blanc: Really, dude, Being pedantic.

Brendon Fox: Yeah. What are you, a teacher? I’m trying to spin something for everyone’s sake here. And he’s going, well, technically, that tracks for me. any other thoughts from the group? I mean, that helps me.

James Newcomb: Oh, I think that’s pretty good.

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah, that sounds right.

Jennifer Le Blanc: We’re all agreeing to this version of history, right?

Brendon Fox: Yes. I also, like, can we look at the stage direction she gives him one of her looks.

Chris Guilmet: I was just looking at it.

Brendon Fox: Which to me, it’s like, there should be, like, a little trademark there, right? One of the trademark lady croom, like, number 22 of,

Jennifer Le Blanc: Like, yeah, you got a number 22 there, buddy.

Brendon Fox: I didn’t clock that until just now of, like, not A look. One of her looks, and she has many.

James Newcomb: She’s somewhere between Tallulah Bankhead

01:40:00

James Newcomb: and Bette Davis.

Geoffrey Wade: Yeah.

Chris Guilmet: Little bit of.

Jennifer Le Blanc: I like the idea of the. Like the servants having a book, a sketchbook, of going, so if you get a number 22, this means it.

Brendon Fox: And the eyebrow is up here, but pointed down.

James Newcomb: Right.

Brendon Fox: Kate, any thoughts?

Dr. Kate Moncrief: nothing else for the group. This is. This is great. I love that. That explanation, Jen.

Brendon Fox: That’s it, really. Ah, that. That is. I love that. And I think the, The I. I wondered, Jen, something to. To play with in that moment of you have no secrets left. I. I love that you two are both keeping the stakes high and that you are pushing each other to confess or to. To keep each other off balance. Are there also moments. Moments between the two of you of, enjoying the cat and mouse, of. Of allowing. When do you want to take your foot off the gas and just relish. I’ve got you. Like, what else can you hide? You know, I don’t know what that would deal. But is there something fun about the. I’ve got these letters. I don’t know what the hell they mean, but there’s something. And I think you. You know, what are you going to do? It feels a little like, you know, law and order or homicide. When they. When the. When the. When the cops in the. In the interrogation room go, you know, I mean, we’ve got the evidence, we’ve got the alibi, so what are you going to do? What’s your next move? Right, so there’s a. There’s a fun way to keep still, keep his feet to the fire. Sometimes it’s through intensity, and sometimes. What’s another way to throw him off of. And the cat that ate the canary? And then Chris, it could freak you out of. What else does she know? You know, what is she not. I feel like she knows something that I don’t know. And so it’s a. It’s another. Just another tool to. To play with.

Chris Guilmet: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: The. Yeah. I’m curious, Téa, as you were watching this time around on the outside, looking in, what. What jumped out at you when they were piecing it together.

Téa Guarino: I think the idea that you’re talking about before the. The small flashlight of things is very, just like such a helpful thing for me when I’m doing things here, but also in this scene, because I feel like Thomasina and Septimus’s scene in the beginning is very. It’s just not as like their scene is like maze here, here, here. And like, me and Septimus is like, okay, like, what’s this? So I feel like the. The small flashlight and discovering things about, like, each other and like, the limits that they’re pushing with each other is just so fun to see the choices that are being made. But, yeah, every. Everything that everyone has said, I’ve caught on. Agreed with.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: The little revelations mean so much. I love that, Téa. That sense of no discovery is too small about each other. And I think starting with that hotness, starting with that sense of tempo and intensity and. And when we come back to it next week, I. I would encourage, on page 73, Chris and Jen, I would encourage us to even play the net more and see what happens of the. How dare you propriety address to me left in my room. What? You refuse much from this side of it. Just see what happens if. Everything you’re exploring, but just to see what happens if. If you don’t give yourself time to reflect at all. Like, it’s. It’s very much just heat of the moment. Heat of the moment, you know, that you’re just. You’re. You’re pinging off each other and you’re not giving yourself time to breathe or, take a moment to think. Am I saying an appropriate thing? If. Does that. If that makes sense. it’s. And Jamie, before I forget, I’m not. I’m not above this, but I think when you say the house has been up and hopping, I couldn’t help but think, might you want to dangle the rabbit a little? You know, can there be a little Jelloby dad joke there of, you know. Yeah, yeah, that could be. Could be kind of, the.

James Newcomb: I just suddenly realized why it is. I think I trust Septimus.

Brendon Fox: What? Why?

James Newcomb: Well, he says that Thomasina loves a rabbit pie and he’s aware of what she likes to eat. Like, I am aware of how much priced pudding. you know, there’s just something about that. There’s a sensitivity to her other than as a student or as transactional, you know, that he’s.

01:45:00

James Newcomb: There’s something about that rabbit. I suddenly saw that rabbit pie and I thought, oh, that’s.

Chris Guilmet: That’s.

James Newcomb: That’s insignificant.

Chris Guilmet: Yeah, yeah.

Brendon Fox: No, I. I love that. That sense of. Because you’re right. Like, Chris, Chris, you know, you’re holding it at arm’s length. Like, I don’t want to touch this. I don’t want to deal with it. It’s dead. Not the way I wanted to start my day or the eighth shift of my Day. And the thing that immediately unlocks it for you, Jamie, is it’s just the.

James Newcomb: Way you take the rabbit from him. You know, it’s like I say it’s dead, and then he says that. And, it’s a very, I think, purposeful thing to take the rabbit.

Brendon Fox: Right.

James Newcomb: from, him, you know? I don’t know.

Brendon Fox: No, I love that because he’s. Yeah, he says she loves rabbit pie. All right, I’ll take it. you know, that’s. That. It’s, It’s. That’s the secret.

James Newcomb: He truly cares about her.

Brendon Fox: Yeah. Which is. Which is. I mean, you two both are not just employees when it comes to her.

James Newcomb: Yeah.

Brendon Fox: And I love the sense of that. Chris, you. You took time again, like we talked about last week. I don’t think you’re someone who loves to hunt, but you. I love that you shoot the hair for her. Right? And it’s. It’s really beautiful, actually. It’s. It’s. It’s making her. You want. You both want to make her happy. I mean, everyone actually cares so deeply about this young woman. And, you know, even though she, you know, I love the job is like, I don’t know most of the stuff that comes out of her mouth, but I know she loves rabbit pie, and I love. She loves jam and her rice pudding, and I can do that.

James Newcomb: The light of, of the world.

Brendon Fox: Yeah. And that’s what. When. When she smiles, when she gets that jam that your week is made, you know, and, like, and you don’t need to know all the stuff that, that she’s spouting, and it’s above. It’s above your pay grade, but, like, but that she’s. She relishes things that you can do for her, which I think keeps them all very human.

James Newcomb: Oh, yeah, I agree.

Brendon Fox: the, And. And just. I know we’re. We’re about a time, but I, There was just one. One other thing about the, the when. You know, starting on. On again. Like, we’re backing up a little bit on 75. once the. The. When you two watch the. The. The letter being burned. I, I, I would encourage you starting with that beat up. Now, here, now here, there’s a thing. A letter from Lord Byron. Never to be read by living soul. there’s. I know it’s hard right now on Zoom, but I would encourage you both to just take that moment, breathe that in of you both are on that same page of. Well, there goes a letter from, you know, he was a star of his Own time. Right. So you know what you’re doing. And the fact that if we have kept things pretty hot and intense prior to that, that naturally gives you a moment to breathe together and look at that together. And then, and then that’s when I think a turn starts to happen where you both start to have that intimacy of. Wait, she’s going with him? Well, not as a crew, as a mistress. Oh my God, really? You know, and then you both start to dish and start to kind of unpack. And that great amazing moment when you say jen, he insists on it. Right. But is Mr. Chaytor deceived? He insists on it. Sometimes we are willfully blind. We are insisting that I am not being cheated on. And I think that’s, that’s. But to find someone simpatico to go. Yeah, I understand the irony of that. So I think there’s just the opportunity when we come back to this, that you both are. Yes. Ending each other even when you don’t have lines. But it’s, it’s really beautiful just to see with both scenes that can. The dots you’re connecting. So thanks for the great work today. I’m really glad we got to pull the camera back and see these on the, you know, the big picture again.

Nathan Agin: Yeah, yeah, no, the, these scenes are, both of them are just. Oh, sorry.

Brendon Fox: Yeah.

Nathan Agin: those scenes, these scenes are both just humming along and it’s, it’s so fun to see all the discussion that you guys have had, how that is informing, the choices and then, and, and the pauses people are taking and you know what they’re, what they’re. It’s just, just so, I mean, you know, great material, great artists, you can’t lose, that, you know, if nobody else watches this, I’m just sitting here going, this is so much fun. Yeah, well, you know, it’s like it’s my, my personal theater company. It’s like, yes, please perform. I, I want to know more, more about these plays. These are great, but no, other people are enjoying these too. It’s it’s, it’s just wonderful though. Really, really, excellent conversations and, and so enjoying it. So thank you guys all so much for just another great week work. And we’ll come back next week for the final, final session. But yeah, really, really wonderful.

01:50:00

Nathan Agin: Thank you all so, so much.

Brendon Fox: Thank you everyone.

Nathan Agin: Yeah, have a great night. See you again.

Jennifer Le Blanc: Thank you.

Brendon Fox: Good night everybody.

James Newcomb: Bye.

01:50:07