The Prologue in Performance

Abstract

The play opens in darkness with a voice (which the audience later learns is Archie’s) announcing the entrance of Dorothy Moore ‘on the occasion of a momentous Radical-Liberal victory at the polls’. This seems like a parody of all the showbiz clichés about the emotionally troubled singing star making a come-back. In the typically unctuous manner of an old-fashioned show business star, Dotty, whom the audience immediately recognises as Diana Rigg in a blonde wig and glittering gold dress, thanks her audience for coming, thanks the pianist as a cue to start and, as the introduction of ‘Shine On Harvest Moon’ is played, she dries. The musical introduction is repeated. But she still cannot remember her words. When she asks how it begins, offstage voices reply, singing, ‘Shine on, shine on harvest moon’. She picks up the words but goes wrong immediately, breaks off after a brief apology typical of such an overwrought show business personality (‘No I can’t, I’m sorry’) and exits to the accompaniment of a drum roll.