The Two-Character Play - Plot

Plot

The characters in this play, Felice and Clare, are two actors on tour; they are also brother and sister. They find themselves deserted by their acting troupe in a decrepit "state theatre in an unknown state". Faced (perhaps) by an audience expecting a performance, they enact The Two-Character Play – an illusion within an illusion, an 'out cry' from isolation, panic, and fear. (Out Cry was the title of one version of this play, which premiered at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago in July 1971. Out Cry later premiered on Broadway, directed by Peter Glenville and co-starring Michael York and Cara Duff-MacCormick, and which ran from March 1–10, 1973 at the Lyceum Theater after one preview on February 28.)

The plot is confusing and difficult to follow, with little sense of a resolution. The Two-Character Play has a concurrent double plot with the convention of a play within a play scenario. The characters of Clare and Felice are psychologically damaged from witnessing the traumatic murder/suicide of their parents. They have remained recluses in the family home since the incident and are attempting to make hesitant contact with the outside world. As the actors dip in and out of performance, improvising parts not memorised or not yet written, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate the actors from the characters and reality from illusion.