how was the concert?
margo's interview with a lady reporter from the south-
that was way back.
- 'at's my loyal little woman.
easy, now.
that book is out of print, karen, those days are gone. fans no longer pull the carriage through the streets - they tear off clothes and steal wrist watches.
hello, miss harrington.
oh brother what?
every performance? then - am i safe in assuming you like it?
i doubt very much that you'd like her in 'the hairy ape'.
how'd hear about it?
let's get back to this one. have you really seen every performance? why? i'm curious.
but you must have friends, a family, a home-
'remembrance'.
not at all.
i'm not worried about you.
it's been a real pleasure, eve.
how about calling it a night?
now let's not get into a big hassle-
coming?
max is going to drop us.
i like that girl. that quality of quiet graciousness.
you've got margo mixed up with a five-and-ten-cent store.
the general atmosphere is very macbethish. what has or is about to happen?
there you are, both of you. max, karen has decided it's time to go.
up in the room.
too many. and you've got a new guest. a movie star from hollywood.
not exactly. sometimes, though, i wish i understood you better.
i will.
the play? all right, i guess.
twentyish. it isn't important.
how do you mean?
margo, you haven't got any age.
i know what i'm talking about, after all they're my plays.
week after week, to thousands of people, you're as young as you want.
just one person. isn't that so? you know what this is all about, don't you? it has very little to do with whether you should play "cora" - it has everything to do with the fact that you've had another fight with bill.
she's your understudy.
i thought you knew.  she was put on over a week ago-
back to copacabana. but eve. margo, let me tell you about eve-
you'd have been proud of her.
she was a revelation.
what do you mean?
that's beside the point.
you've been talking to that venomous fishwife, addison dewitt-
you knew when you came in that the audition was over, that eve was your understudy! playing that childish game of cat and mouse.
you have a genius for making barroom brawl out of a perfectly innocent misunderstanding at most!
i never said it was!
no! what makes you think that either miller or sherwood would stand for the nonsense i take from you - you'd better stick to beaumont and fletcher! they've been dead for three hundred years!
that would solve none of their problems - because actresses never die! the stars never die and never change!
i shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself a mind! just when exactly does an actress decide they're her words she's saying and her thoughts she's expressing?
it's about time the piano realized it has not written the concerto!
up to here! that's where i've got it - up to here! of all the star ridden, presumptuous, hysterical-
and again and again! two hours late for the audition, to begin with-
then a childish, heavy-handed routine about not knowing eve was her understudy-
of course she knew! for one thing, addison told her how superbly eve had read the part-! karen, let me tell you about eve. she's got everything - a born actress. sensitive, understanding, young, exciting, vibrant-
- everything a playwright first thinks of wanting to write about.  until his play becomes a vehicle for miss channing.
margo. margo's great. she knows it. that's the trouble. she can play peck's bad boy all she wants, and who's to stop her? who's to give her that boot in the rear she needs and deserves?
what is?
well. we've spent weekends before with nobody talking.  .  just be sure to lock up all blunt instruments and throwable objects.
when you asked a minute ago it was five-forty-two. it is now five forty-three. when you ask a minute from no, it will be-
five-fifty-five. we'll be at the station in plenty of time.
just a little skid, that's all. this road's like glass.
i have no intention of having an accident!
now what's this?
but it can't be! we can't be out of gas! i filled it myself yesterday! wasn't it full when you drove to brewster this morning?
incredible.
well. no sense my just sitting here. i'm going to walk up about half a mile, just in case.
what a way to die - trying to get an actress to the theater in time. tell max i want to be buried with royalties.
the audience will want its money refunded, believe me.
- it's addison, from start to finish, it drips with his brand of venom.  taking advantage of a kid like that, twisting her words, making her say what he wanted her to say-
eve.
she's been to see me, as a matter of fact she left just before you came in - you just missed her.
she wanted to explain about her interview, wanted to apologize to someone - and didn't dare face margo.
she started to tell me all about it - and she couldn't finish, she cried so.
you know, i've been going over our financial condition - if you'll pardon the expression.
what with taxes coming up - and since i'm a playwright and not an oil well operator - well, i've been thinking.
if - instead of waiting until next season to do 'footsteps on the ceiling', which is in pretty good shape - and if margo can be talked into going on tour with 'aged in wood' - we could put 'footsteps' into production right away.
if we could cast it properly, that is.
you've got to admit it would be a novelty.
eve did mention the play, you know. but just in passing - she's never ask to play a part like "cora," she'd never have the nerve.
no, i got the idea myself - while she was talking to me.
for once, to write something and have it realized completely. for once, not to compromise-
now just a minute-
now just a minute!
all this fuss and hysteria because an impulsive kid got carried away by excitement and the conniving of a professional manure slinger named dewitt! she apologized, didn't she?
that bitter cynicism of yours is something you've acquired since you left radcliffe!
hello! .  hi, margo.  no, not at all, karen and i were just chatting.  hmm?.  why - why, yes, i'm sure we can and i'm sure we'd love to.  right.  11:45ish. see you then.
margo - and bill - want us to meet them at the cub room tonight, after theater. for a bottle of wine.
i'm glad bill's back.
darling, i didn't promise eve anything. just said i thought she'd be fine for the part, but there were some practical difficulties.
you - for one. i told her you were set on margo playing the part - and i certainly wouldn't make a change without your approval.
it's been quite a night. i understand that your understudy - miss harrington - has given her notice.
for some reason you can't just pick up champagne and drink it. somebody's got to be very witty about a toast. for instance.
well of all-
city hall, that's for prize fighters, and reporters - i see a cathedral, a bishop, banks of flowers.
three days, that's for the bourgeois - i see a midnight elopement, waking up a village person.
there are very few moments in life as good as this. let's remember it. to each of us and all of us.  never have we been more close - may we never be farther apart.
very discreet. a note right out in the open like that. next time tell your lover to blow smoke rings - or tap a glass.
after all, maybe she just wants to apologize.
go on - find out.
- well? what happened?
you mean - all this time - she'd done nothing but apologize? what'd you say?
you know, she probably means well, after all.
that depends.
i don't think i could be.
what's your being married got to do with it?
what's so funny?
who is it? what's it all about?
hello. hello, this is lloyd richards. where is eve? let me talk to her-
tell her not to worry - tell her i'll be right over.
i didn't think you would! it seems to me, karen, that for some tine, now, you've been developing a deep unconcern for the feeling of human being in general-
- and for my feelings in particular! for my play, my career - and now for a frightened, hysterical girl on the eve of her first night in the theater!
old wives' tales, born of envy and jealousy! and a phobia against truth!
for services rendered - beyond the whatever-it-is-of-duty, darling.