LUCY: Lewis?

She switches off the transistor. As she does so she notices the script and reads from it.

Are you raving?
Why would you ruin yourself
For a worthless woman?

[Throwing the script on a chair] My God!

LEWIS enters with the broom, surprised to see LUCY.

LEWIS: Lucy?

LUCY: I’ve come to pick you up and take you to the Galileo rehearsals.

LEWIS: Sorry, I can’t.

LUCY: Are you going to let Nick down? What about the moratorium meeting?

LEWIS: Can’t do that either. I got special permission to rehearse Così after they’ve had dinner. We’re running out of time.

LUCY: Make a decision, Lewis.

LEWIS: Decision?

LUCY: Between going to the moratorium meeting or staying here.

LEWIS: They need me.

LUCY: You can’t go to both.

LEWIS: We open soon.

LUCY: Make a choice!

Silence. He thinks.

LEWIS: Mozart. I’m not going to let them down.

LUCY: Working with these people has changed you. We used to talk about things. Important things. Now all you can talk about is reactionary drivel like Così fan Tutte.

LEWIS: It’s about important things—like love and fidelity.

LUCY: How to understand how capitalism exploits the working class is important. How to stop the war in Vietnam is important. How to make a piece of theatre meaningful and intelligent, like Brecht does, is important. After bread, a shelter, equality, health, procreation, money, comes maybe love. Do you think the starving masses give a fuck about love? Love is an emotional indulgence for the privileged few.

LEWIS: Without love the world wouldn’t mean much.

LUCY: Lewis, get a grip on yourself. You’ve always mistaken lust for love. Look at this theatre, a burnt-out wreck. A bloody great hole in the ceiling. An opera with just a piano and performed by mad people. About what? Two wealthy couples worried about fidelity. I’m going to Nick’s rehearsals.

LEWIS: You hate the guy. You think he’s an egotistical pig.

LUCY: Sure he can grate on people, but he gets things done. He’s doing a play that’s relevant and he’s doing something about the war in Vietnam. After rehearsals we’ll go on to the moratorium meeting. It’s going to be huge. Absolutely huge. The biggest protest ever seen in Australia.

LEWIS: You’re seeing a lot of someone you don’t like.

LUCY: He’s a fantastic organiser. Without him the committee would be in a shambles.

Pause.

LEWIS: Are you having an affair with him?

LUCY: You sound like someone out of a farce.

Pause.

LEWIS: Are you?

A beat.

LUCY: Of course.

LEWIS is stunned.

It’s only a fling. It doesn’t mean anything.

LEWIS: You’re sleeping with the both of us?

LUCY: I have sex with him and sleep with you.

LEWIS: What does that mean for us?

LUCY: Lewis—it’s not as if we’re married.

LEWIS: [quoting Così] ‘Woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix. Everyone swears it exists, but no one has seen it.’

LUCY: Don’t quote that fuckin’ opera at me! Is that what you think of women?