The first draft did not include the climatic classroom confrontation between Squid and Tamara. It was referred to but never seen. I felt as an audience we were being cheated of a great dramatic moment. I wanted to see Squid attacking Tamara about her devastating betrayal. With only a few references to what had occurred, Lachlan and I set up an improvisation with a group of gun actors to test whether our instincts for its inclusion were correct. In the highlight of our workshop we asked the actors to play out this moment. The public humiliation of Tamara in front of her class, having to accept her awful act of betrayal, is nothing less than tragic. What I didn’t expect, and something which the actors so wonderfully evoked, was the sadness and vulnerability surrounding Squid. Devastated by Tamara’s act he responds in the only way he knows how―by lashing out. The place of a teacher in this environment was also something of a revelation. Petchall also confronts the reality of Tamara’s flawed character whilst trying to protect her and Squid from the consequences of his actions. Our sympathies are tugged in three ways and we are left gasping.

It is a credit to Lachlan that he managed to recreate so clearly the words, atmosphere and complex character motivations that played out in this improvisation and translate them into a succinct passage of text. But of course he had led the actors to this point with such well-crafted characters that in some ways it was obvious what was going to occur. Not to detract from Lachlan’s ability, there is something so direct and powerful in, ‘She’s just a dumb slut who fucked your brother’ (p.67) shockingly delivered from the mouth of a teacher, that one wonders if it could only be discovered through improvisation.