THEATRE by W. S. Maugham (Chapters 28-29)

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What seemed the most scaring for Julia in the talk with her son on the first day of his arrival?

That was his suggestion that if she went into an empty room and someone suddenly opened the door there would be nobody there.

2. How did Julia prepare for the play?

Julia did not deliberately create the character she was going to act by observation; she had a knack of getting into the shoes of the woman she had to portray so that she thought with her mind and felt with her senses. Her intuition suggested to her a hundred small touches that afterwards amazed people by their verisimilitude.

3. How did she act at the dress-rehearsal? Why?

Julia spared herself. She had no intention of giving all she had to give till the first night. It was enough if her performance was adequate.

4. What advice did Julia give Michael about Avice Crichton? Why did she need it? Was that carefully planned?

Michael wanted to give her a contract, while his wife said it would be better to wait for the first night. “You can never really tell how a performance is going to pan out till you've got an audience”. It was planned to take revenge for her.

5. Who did Julia talk to about her conversation with Roger? Why? What did she need to get from the conversation?

Julia talked to Charles about her conversation with Roger, as she expected him to be more sympathetic.

6. Describe the state Julia was in before a first night? Compare her attitude towards first-night acting with the bygone years?

In bygone years she had been intolerably nervous before a first night. She had felt slightly sick all day and as the hours passed got into such a state that she almost thought she would have to leave the stage. But by now she had acquired a certain nonchalance. Throughout the early part of the day she felt only happy and mildly excited; it was not till late in the afternoon that she began to feel ill at ease. She grew silent and wanted to be left alone. She also grew irritable. Her hands and feet got cold and by the time she reached the theatre they were like lumps of ice. But still the apprehension that filled her was not unpleasant.

7. Who did she meet while wandering the streets of London at noon, 6 hours before the first night? Where did they go?

Julia met Tom, who offered her to have tea with him.

8. What thoughts accompanied Julia when she visited Tom's place?

The love that had consumed her then, the jealousy she had stifled, the ecstasy of surrender, it had no more reality than one of the innumerable parts she had played in the past. She relished her indifference.

9. Why did Julia change her attitude to Tom? What phrase does Julia pronounce to herself at the end of chapter 28? Comment on it.

Julia understood that she no longer cared two straws for him she.

“Love isn't worth all the fuss they make about it”. I think, sometimes people too dramatize whole speaking and thinking about love in the momets (and with people) where it’s impossible, where it doesn’t exist.

10. Was the first night a success for Julia? For Avice? Why?

The first night was success for Julia, as she deliberately killed Avice’s performance.

11. What was Tom's attitude towards Avice's acting? How does the scene in Julia's dressing-room characterize him?

Tom thought Alice’s acting was rotten. I think it means that he wanted to be only with people who could only introduce him to the high society, who he could use for his purposes.

12. Why do you think Julia refused to supper with Tom that night?

Julia refused to supper with Tom that night, as that was the end with him and Avice.

13. How did Julia spend that night? Was it typical of her? Why did she prefer this?

That night Julia wanted to be alone and enjoy herself. But it wasn’t typical for her. The woman understood that she would never have another moment like this in her life, and she wasn’t going to share it with anyone.

14. What was peculiar about Julia's appearance and order at the Berkeley? Do you feel that night was somehow significant to her? Why?

When Julia had got her face clean she left it. She neither painted her lips nor rouged her cheeks. She put on again the brown coat and skirt in which she had come to the theatre and the same hat.  Thus her simple disguise was evidently adequate, for when she came into the little room at the Berkeley of which she was peculiarly fond, the head waiter did not immediately know her.

15. How does she reflect about the day passed? Does she feel satisfied? Why? Prove your point of view.

It was wonderful to think that he meant no more to her than a stage-hand. It gave one a grand feeling of confidence to be heart-whole.

16. Describe the place in a restaurant where Julia was having supper? What was special about it? Why had she chosen to be seated there?

The room in which she sat was connected by three archways with the big dining-room where they supped and danced; amid the crowd doubtless were a certain number who had been to the play. How surprised they would be if they knew that the quiet little woman in the corner of the adjoining room, her face half hidden by a felt hat, was Julia Lambert. It gave her a pleasant sense of independence to sit there unknown and unnoticed. They were acting a play for her and she was the audience.

17. What conclusion did Julia come to while sitting at the Berkeley and "throwing prudence to the winds?"

“People are our raw material. We are the meaning of their lives. We take their silly little emotions and turn them into art, out of them we create beauty, and their significance is that they form the audience we must have to fulfil ourselves. They are the instruments on which we play, and what is an instrument without somebody to play on it?”