MAVIS BELFRAGE - A wanderer and single parent. Attractive, slightly haggard, capable of loudly ominous silences. Her nervous nature shows in smoking: holding the cigarette near the tip, inhaling it in quick little drags, stubbing it out long before finishing. Otherwise she is self-possessed. Her accent is posh without affectation.

ERIC MUIR A young lecturer at a teacher’s training college anywhere in Britain. A Cambridge scholarship has left him confident within very narrow limits, but living carefully inside these limits he is soberly sure of himself and without nervous mannerisms. His nearly deadpan face conveys feeling with a minimum of change and under stress becomes immobile. His voice is curt and quiet, his accent like Mavis.

SCENES

1 – Muir’s office
2 – Mavis’s bed sitting room
3 – Muir’s living room
4 – Muir’s living room, a week later
5 – Muir’s living room, a fortnight later
6 – Muir’s living room, early morning

NORMAN MUIR Manager of electrical goods shop, a widower of fifty. He is a buoyant and firm person with a naturally loud voice, but never when angry or disturbed. He is intelligent and tolerant, can be broadly built or else small and dynamic. His accent is local.

BILL BELFRAGE A stoical boy, determined not to be excited or interested in anything. He becomes lively when involved by a game. He should not seem older than fifteen. A small actress could play him.

CLIVE EVANS A young Welshman with an irritating air of detached superiority – only in Scene 10.

DR. SCHWEIK A formidable Slavonic academic – only in Scene 9.

INTERVAL

7 – Muir’s living room, a week later
8 – Muir’s living room, that night
9 – Muir’s living room, two days later
10 – Clive Evans’ lodgings
11 – The Muir’s living room