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Page:How a play is produced by Karel Čapek (1928).pdf/27

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The Production

THE producer of the play works on the sound basis that the piece must be given a helping hand, as they say. In practice that means that it must be produced quite differently from the way the author has arranged things.

“You know,” says the author, “I had always imagined it quite a quiet drawing-room piece. . .

“Oh! That wouldn’t do at all,” replies the producer, “the play must be given in quite a grotesque manner.”

“Clara is a shy, passive creature,” explains the author further.

“What are you thinking of!” cries the producer. “Clara is decidedly a Sadist by nature; a cruel creature. Look here, on page 37 Danesh says to her: ‘Do not torment

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