ROY: Oh, my God. My God!

Everyone looks at him.

I’ve got it. [He looks ecstatic.] Roy, you’ve done it again. Sometimes I’m so… what’s the word—

CHERRY: Mentally ill.

ROY is so locked into his train of thought that he is not stopping for passengers.

ROY: Perspicacious. It was there, before my eyes. [Pointing to LEWIS] You! You’ll play Ferrando! [LEWIS is astonished.] Solved. The show lives. Così lives!

HENRY enters quietly.

LEWIS: Roy, I can’t sing.

ROY: So what, neither can the others, but by the time we open you’ll be singing like a bird.

LEWIS: But I’m directing the show.

ROY: To be perfectly frank, Jerry, what you’ve done up until now, no one would call directing. Henry, meet the new Ferrando. [A beat.] We’ll start rehearsals in five minutes. Nature calls.

He goes out. LEWIS sits down, stunned, trying to take it all in.

JULIE: I’m pleased, I like Così. Do we need Zac?

LEWIS: Probably.

CHERRY: Can’t. He’s having shock treatment. Been a bit depressed lately.

CHERRY gives LEWIS a sandwich, whispering so JULIE won’t hear.

Here, this will prepare you. It’ll be good, won’t it, us two on stage together?

LEWIS: I really don’t feel hungry.

CHERRY: Yes, you do.

He takes it obediently.

Never get involved with a junkie, Lewis, all she wants is money to buy drugs. You know she’s porked every psychiatrist in the hospital to get prescriptions for drugs. She’s notorious for giving head to them, that’s why she’s called the head shrinker.

As RUTH and HENRY share a thermos of tea, NICK arrives warily; LEWIS spots him, pleased to see him.

LEWIS: Excuse me, Cherry.

He hurries over to NICK and they speak without being overheard.

Nick, I was expecting you earlier.

NICK: There’s a lot of organisation required in setting up a moratorium. You said you were going to help out.

LEWIS: I’m really busy on this.

NICK: A fuckin’ Mozart opera. Lucy can’t believe it either. I mean, I directed you in two of Brecht’s plays, didn’t you learn anything?

LEWIS: They want to do it.

NICK: Only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity. They’re definitely mad. [Softly singing] ‘They’re coming to take me away, ha, ha, to the funny farm…’

LEWIS: Nick, they’ll hear you.

NICK: I’m only doing this as a favour, so you’ll help me out on the moratorium committee.

LEWIS: There’s been some new developments. I thought I could swing them to do The Exception and the Rule, but they still want to do Così.

NICK: Christ, you’ll never be a director until you can convince them that what you want to do is what they want to do. Okay, let’s see what they’ve got. [Spotting JULIE] Wow, she’s not half bad.

They approach the others as ROY enters.

ROY: You’ve got someone to play Ferrando?

LEWIS: No. [To everyone] This is my friend, Nick. We did university productions together. He’s a director. I’ve asked him to come along today to have a look at what we’ve been doing and give us his opinion.