ABSTRACT
The class took place in ‘Marya’s apart ment’, in other words, in the set with the curtains closed. We contin ued working on the exer cises with the madman and the damp
fire place. Thanks to Tortsov’s prompt ings our perform ance turned out well. It was
so enjoy able that we asked to do both scenes over again. While we were waiting, I sat with my back resting against the wall. Then some thing quite unex pec ted happened. To my amazement, for no
appar ent reason, the two chairs next to me toppled over onto the floor. No one had touched them, but they fell all the same. I picked them up and managed to right two others that were tilting badly. While I was doing this my eyes were caught by a long, narrow, vertical crack in the wall. It grew bigger and bigger and finally, as I watched, reached its whole height. Then I real ized why the chairs had fallen. Someone was opening the curtain, one of the ‘walls’ of our room, and this was pushing objects away and toppling them over. Someone had opened the curtain. And there was the black hole with Tortsov and Rakhmanov stand ing in
silhou ette in the semi-dark ness. As the curtain opened I felt totally differ ent inside. What shall I compare
it to?
