[Michael Frayn] The problem with writing anything original is that it doesn’t exist when you start to write it. And moving from something that doesn’t exist to something that does exist is a very major transformation. And the only thing that makes it possible is that after you’ve struggled and struggled and struggled to think of the plot and the characters and everything, and struggled to think of plausible things for the characters to say and do, at some point the characters, if the play or the book is going to work at all, seem to come to life and start to speak and do things of their own accord. And I realise this sounds a coy sort of thing to say, but that’s what it feels like. It does feel as if they begin to have their own voice and their own will. And it creates problems because they don’t always want to work out… to perform the plot that you’ve carefully worked out for them.
[Noises Off, excerpt from play]
[Dotty] Always the same isn’t it. Soon as you take the weight off your feet down it all comes on your head. And I take the sardines…oh no, I leave the sardines, no I take the sardines.
[Man] You leave the sardines and you put the receiver back.
[Dotty] Put the receiver back.
And you leave the sardines.
[Dotty] I leave the sardines?
[Man] You leave the sardines?
[Dotty] I put the receiver back and I leave the sardines?
[Man] Right!
[Dotty] We’ve changed that, have we love?
[Man] No, love.
[Dotty] That's what I've always been doing?
[Man] I shouldn't say that, Dotty my precious.
[Dotty] Well what about the words, love?
Am I getting some of them right?
[Man] Some of them have a very familiar ring.
[Noises Off, excerpt from play]
[Dotty] Always the same isn’t it. Soon as you take the weight off your feet down it all comes on your head. And I take the sardines…oh no, I leave the sardines, no I take the sardines.
[Man] You leave the sardines and you put the receiver back.
[Dotty] Put the receiver back.
And you leave the sardines.
[Dotty] I leave the sardines?
[Man] You leave the sardines?
[Dotty] I put the receiver back and I leave the sardines?
[Man] Right!
[Dotty] We’ve changed that, have we love?
[Man] No, love.
[Dotty] That's what I've always been doing?
[Man] I shouldn't say that, Dotty my precious.
[Dotty] Well what about the words, love?
Am I getting some of them right?
[Man] Some of them have a very familiar ring.