CHERRY: [a bit more desperately] Am I hot?

JULIE: What would you do if that happened to you, Lewis?

LEWIS: What?

JULIE: If your friend Nick fell for your girlfriend?

LEWIS: And she fell for him? Feel betrayed, I guess.

CHERRY: [touching ZAC] There you are!

ZAC: Get your hands off me, you mad dog.

CHERRY: Am I getting warmer, Lewis? [Stumbling around in a new direction] I feel that I am. I know I am, I can feel your body heat.

JULIE reaches out and touches LEWIS. He thinks it’s CHERRY.

LEWIS: You got me, Cherry.

CHERRY: [puzzled] No, I haven’t.

JULIE laughs.

What’s so funny?

JULIE: Nothing. [Touching LEWIS’s face] What would you do, Lewis? Would you hit him? Like Dorabella and Fiordiligi, it’s just as easy for a woman to fall in love as it is for a man.

CHERRY: [desperately] Am I getting warm, Lewis?

JULIE giggles, CHERRY is suspicious.

Lewis?

ZAC walks into RUTH.

RUTH: [with a yelp] Doug!

ZAC: It’s Zac!

CHERRY: Lewis?

ZAC takes the opportunity to feel her up.

RUTH: [slapping him] I don’t care who you are—stop it!

CHERRY: What’s going on?

RUTH: [to ZAC] Touch me again and I’ll make you regret it.

ZAC pays no attention and lifts up her skirt.

I said—stop it!

She whacks him and he falls to the floor.

CHERRY: Is that you, Lewis? Lewis, where are you?

LEWIS and JULIE laugh at what is happening.

What are you two doing? I don’t want to play anymore. Where are you, Lewis? You’re pathetically thin, you need to eat.

JULIE kisses LEWIS. He responds and they kiss passionately. Suddenly the lights come back on. But as their eyes are closed, they don’t immediately realise and the others see the kiss vividly. CHERRY is horrified and furious.

ROY: [offstage] Hey, I did it!

CHERRY marches over to LEWIS and slams the sandwich into his hand.

CHERRY: Eat!

ROY: [entering] Master of all trades. Some rain got into the fuse box.

Noticing ZAC’s bloody nose.

What happened to you?

ZAC: I fell.

ROY notices the broken model on the floor and the bucket no longer catching water.

ROY: I leave you lot alone for a moment and chaos reigns. That’s what happens when you work with amateurs.

CHERRY: Eat!

Embarrassed at being caught out, LEWIS eats.

ZAC: My model’s broken, and I think my nose is too.

CHERRY: [quietly, to JULIE] Kiss him again and I’ll break your fuckin’ arm.

SCENE TWO

The theatre. Evening. LEWIS has his transistor on and the music is Velvet Underground’s ‘Candy Says’, though he is not listening to it. As he arranges the furniture for rehearsal he speaks some of Ferrando’s lines to himself.

LEWIS:

My Dorabella wouldn’t do such a thing Did she misbehave?
[Enthusiatically] Not that I have any doubts about her.
What? Speak out! Did she fall for you?
Oh, my God, if I even suspected…

[Noticing he needs something] Broom…

He goes out. A few moments later LUCY enters.