The Missing Line

Text 1: The Prompt Book, by Eleri Northcott

An original novel extract.

From her wooden box in the stage-left wing, Mara could see only a slice of the drawing-room set: the green sofa, half a window, and Mr Vale’s polished shoe whenever he crossed the stage. That was enough. She knew every entrance, every pause, every breath before every line. No one in the audience knew she was there, which was the point.

On the third night, Mr Vale stopped.

At first the silence fitted the scene. His character had just opened the letter; two hundred faces leaned towards him. Mara found the line with her finger and breathed the first three words into the dark. Nothing. She tried again, a little louder. Mr Vale stared at the paper as if the ink had drained from it.

The silence grew furniture: large, solid, impossible to move around. Somewhere in the stalls, a programme crackled. The actress by the fireplace lifted her glass, lowered it, lifted it again. Mara heard the director’s instruction from rehearsal: Never rescue them too soon.

Then Mr Vale’s hand began to shake.

Mara closed the prompt book. She stepped through the curtain carrying the brass coal scuttle. There was no servant in this scene, but she bent beside the fireplace as if there had always been one.

‘A letter from your brother, sir?’ she said.

Mr Vale looked at her. The missing line returned to his face before it reached his mouth. ‘My brother,’ he said slowly, ‘who swore he would never write again.’

The actress set down her glass. Mara placed one piece of coal on the fire and retreated. Dialogue caught, then ran. By the time she slipped behind the curtain, the audience was breathing with the play again.

She reopened the prompt book at exactly the right page. Her pencil rested beside the next cue. Out on stage, Mr Vale received the applause.

How does Eleri Northcott use language and structure to change the reader’s view of Mara as the performance begins to fail?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.