LUCY: Nick, I don’t have much time.

NICK: Coming! [To LEWIS] Don’t forget the Galileo rehearsals.

He goes after LUCY. LEWIS feels betrayed. He and ROY, shy of one another are silent until ROY decides to break it.

ROY: This is where I belong: in the theatre.

LEWIS nods, not knowing what to say. JUSTIN ANDERSON enters.

JUSTIN: Morning, Roy. [To LEWIS] And what ward are you from?

LEWIS: I’m not from a ward. I’m the director—

JUSTIN: Lewis Riley?

LEWIS: Yes.

ROY: I was expecting someone a bit older.

JUSTIN: Justin Anderson. Everyone calls me Justin. I’m the social worker who initiated this project.

LEWIS: [looking at the theatre] It’s burnt.

JUSTIN: Coat of paint and it’ll be fine.

DOUG: [entering] Hey, someone must have been in here before me.

He casts an expert eye on the damage.

Allowed the fire brigade plenty of time to get here. Must have been kids.

JUSTIN: I thought you were in C ward?

DOUG: First person to have ever escaped from the closed ward since that murderer. [He notices JUSTIN’s expression of horror.] Having you on.

HENRY enters. He is very quiet and never looks anyone in the eye. His left arm is paralysed and he carries it as if it were in an invisible sling.

JUSTIN: Hello, Henry. You want to be in the play too?

He says nothing and sits on a chair.

ROY: Henry’s part of my hand-picked team.

DOUG: We’re the only ones who answered your ad.

ROY: [paying no attention to DOUG] Wonder where the girls are?

HENRY shakes his head.

JUSTIN: [introducing ROY] This is Roy, one of the patients who came up with the idea of doing a show.

ROY: [shaking hands] We’re going to make a great team. What’s your name?

LEWIS: Lewis.

ROY: We’ll be like Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

JUSTIN guides LEWIS away from the enthusiastic ROY.

JUSTIN: [sotto voce] He loves the theatre apparently. A great enthusiast when he gets going. He has his down periods like a lot of people, but he’s your support, your natural energiser. And this is Doug.

DOUG: So you’re the director?

LEWIS: [uncomfortably] Yes.

DOUG: Done anything I might have seen?

LEWIS: Probably not.

DOUG: You’re bragging. What about a movie? Done a movie?

LEWIS: No.

DOUG: Poofter?

JUSTIN: Doug!

DOUG: I want to know just in case he puts the hard word on me like Dr Simpson.

JUSTIN: And Henry.

LEWIS goes to shake hands with him but HENRY turns away.

Bit shy, the old Henry. Part of this project is to bring out people like Henry.

ROY: Shall we start now, Jerry?

JUSTIN: Hold your horses, we’re waiting for the women. How many are there?

ROY: Great response, great response. We need only three and we got them.

JUSTIN: They take longer to get here because they have to come from the women’s ward which is over the hill.

ROY: Where’s the piano? Asylums are the most inefficient places on this earth.