{"id":1406,"date":"2022-10-26T16:51:07","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T16:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2022-10-26T16:51:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T16:51:12","slug":"the-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-lesson\/1406\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do Eugene Ionesco\u2019s play \u2018The Lesson\u2019,\u201d Martha announced to the assembled members of Port Tennant Amateur Dramatics Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s it about?\u201d Dan Throwtrup is a small, balding, and paunchy man with a capacity for attitude that doesn\u2019t so much prove the adage about small men as spell it out in bold type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cDan, Dan, Dan.\u201d Martha sighed heavily and turned her back on the players. She marched to the rear of the stage, threw one arm in the air, and span on her heel. \u201cIonescu\u2019s plays aren\u2019t ABOUT things, unless of course you count the human condition as a thing. They\u2019re about the expression of the spirit. In this case, the dangers inherent in indoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot exactly a Christmas play, then?\u201d Dan observed. \u201cCouldn\u2019t we do Snow White?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAye,\u201d murmured Pete Collingwood, \u201cyou\u2019d make a bloody good dwarf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt least I have my own teeth,\u201d snarled Dan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo do I.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot for much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGentlemen, please,\u201d Martha pasted on her Am-Dram exasperated face, \u201cI firmly believe the residents of Port Tennant are ready for this wonderful comedic parable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho is going to sponsor it?\u201d Ali Hussein shuffled away from the two glaring men as they stood facing off with clenched fists. \u201cI can\u2019t see the Golden Paradise Chinese Takeaway paying good money to put on a play about the Baroque violence of Naziism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t need a sponsor, Ali,\u201d Martha was confident of this. \u201cWe\u2019ll need a bigger venue. This kind of exploratory drama is an entirely new thing for East Swansea. You might find it in the posh places like Sketty, or at the Taliesin, but since the Bay Campus opened, this part of Swansea has been a veritable cultural desert. The students will love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMartha,\u201d Alice Littlebottom put her hand up, \u201cwon\u2019t the students all be away at Christmas? Besides, they\u2019re mostly engineering around here, and about as cultural as Friday night in Wind Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, ye of little faith,\u201d Martha threw her hand palm outwards at her forehead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides,\u201d said Ali, \u201cit\u2019s not as good as \u2018The Chairs\u2019. Now that\u2019s a proper play. This is a bit of a one-joke diatribe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThink of the chemistry, Ali. Me as the ill-fated pupil, you as the enraged professor, Alice as the sardonic maid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about us,\u201d piped up Dan, \u201cme and this streak of piss?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone has to be front of house,\u201d Martha replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSorry Martha, but I think you\u2019re being a bit overambitious,\u201d Pete said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, let\u2019s put it to a vote,\u201d Alice chimed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery well,\u201d Martha conceded, \u201call in favour of putting on Ionescu\u2019s \u2018La Le\u00e7on\u2019 raise your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No-one moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see.\u201d Martha sat down and hung her head. Throwing back her hair, she looked around at the ensemble. \u201cNo ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are we going to do, then?\u201d Alice wondered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow about Snow White and the Dwarf?\u201d Pete replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan dived at him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do Eugene Ionesco\u2019s play \u2018The Lesson\u2019,\u201d Martha announced to the assembled members of Port Tennant Amateur Dramatics Society. \u201cWhat\u2019s it about?\u201d Dan Throwtrup is a small, balding, and paunchy man with a capacity for attitude that doesn\u2019t so much prove the adage about small men as spell it out in bold type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,685],"tags":[684],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-nov-2022-the-lesson","tag-lesson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-mG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}