You’re acting like hell.’
Of course it was a relief that he was talking about her acting, but what he was saying was so ridiculous that, angry as she was, she had to laugh.
‘You blasted idiot, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Why, what I don’t know about acting isn’t worth knowing.
Everything you know about it I’ve taught you.
If you’re even a tolerable actor it’s due to me.
After all, the proof of the pudding’s in the eating.
D’you know how many curtain calls I got tonight?
The play’s never gone better in all its run.’
‘I know all about that.
The public are a lot of jackasses.
If you yell and scream and throw yourself about you’ll always get a lot of damned fools to shout themselves silly.
Just barnstorming, that’s what you’ve been doing the last four nights.
It was false from beginning to end.’
‘False?
But I felt every word of it.’
‘I don’t care what you felt, you weren’t acting it. Your performance was a mess.
You were exaggerating; you were over-acting; you didn’t carry conviction for a moment.
It was about as rotten a piece of ham acting as I’ve ever seen in my life.’
‘You bloody swine, how dare you talk to me like that?
It’s you the ham.’
With her open hand she gave him a great swinging blow on the face.
He smiled.
‘You can hit me, you can swear at me, you can yell your head off, but the fact remains that your acting’s gone all to hell.
I’m not going to start rehearsing Nowadays with you acting like that.’
‘Find someone who can act the part better than lean then.’
‘Don’t be silly, Julia.
I may not be a very good actor myself, I never thought I was, but I know good acting from bad.
And what’s more there’s nothing about you I don’t know.
I’m going to put up the notices on Saturday and then I want you to go abroad.
We’ll make Nowadays our autumn production.’
The quiet, decisive way in which he spoke calmed her.
It was true that when it came to acting Michael knew everything there was to know about her.
‘It is true that I’m acting badly?’
‘Rottenly.’
She thought it over.
She knew exactly what had happened.
She had let her emotion run away with her; she had been feeling, not acting.
Again a cold shiver ran down her spine.
This was serious.
It was all very fine to have a broken heart, but if it was going to interfere with her acting… no, no, no.
That was quite another pair of shoes.
Her acting was more important than any love affair in the world.
‘I’ll try and pull myself together.’
‘It’s no good trying to force oneself.
You’re tired out.
It’s my fault, I ought to have insisted on your taking a holiday long ago.
What you want is a good rest.’
‘What about the theatre?’
‘If I can’t let it, I’ll revive some play that I can play in.