SentenceThe Fourhundredandfortythird

“Splendid!” cried Maude, clapping her hands, “just as in Miss Brodie's Unparalleled Production of 'The Scotch Play' and remember we even got a mention in the Evening News with a photograph: “oh!

what knavery – perhaps we could base MacBeth himself on Michael Gove, now that would be topical and contemporary, and toss a few spareribs into the cooking pot, or does that smack a little too much of Yankee egalitarianism, hmmm?” and Crist pointed out that they were only desired as The Witches, not as Directors, despite their previous success in their roles, and Daphne, for her part, pointed out that as they surely were already word-perfect, they could certainly give tips on stage-craft and Actoring, to the children and even their Teacher, Miss Laverock, who was renowned for her solo soprano voice, rather than classical dramatics: but Dramatics was the one thing that Daphne, Maude and Crist could do without descending to Queenliness, nor resorting to Banality; it was the one area in which they had found they could work together selflessly, co-operatively, and with no need for daggers, drawn, at dawn: for as someone had once said, and the three loving cousins had taken to heart, with all seriousness: “The Play's The Thing!” and all three turned to me and said that, as we were all going to the Seaside, on Saturday, for a week, and I would therefore have no need for 'gainful employment,' almost as if that state of affairs would have me marked out as a Pariah, and I could set my mind to breaking down the play into chunks, or Acts, and each chunk into Bits or Scenes, and make a storyboard, and perhaps block out each scene on a sheet of paper, so that rehearsals could start as soon as we all returned to Melrose; the arrangement would enable me to use my free time beneficially, without the need to spend it in eating and drinking to excess and chasing after any 'bit of skirt' that came my way; there was no opportunity to refuse them and so the spell was already wound up and I could see no way out of it!