DIRECTOR: You’d best mind your own business and leave my work to me.
WOMAN returns. She has sobered up a little and has even had time to change into a dark, well-tailored suit appropriate for a funeral.
MAN: (cheerfully) Our beauty’s back! We could hardly wait.
WOMAN: I know. That’s why I made it snappy.
DIRECTOR: (in a low tone, to MAN) And you turn out not to be such a bad actor after all.
MAN: (cheerfully) Let’s pull together now, the three of us, and get on with the job.
WOMAN: (to MAN) The consultant’s asking you to step out for a moment. She wants to talk to you.
DIRECTOR: She can wait. We have better things to do than chat. Let’s get down to business.
MAN: (hastily) No, no, I’ll go… I won’t be long. (exits)
WOMAN: Did you see that? He ran to her like an obedient little puppy dog. (with contempt) And they call him a prime minister!
DIRECTOR: But really, why do the two of you kowtow to an assistant?
WOMAN: You can’t guess?
DIRECTOR: I haven’t thought too much about it.
WOMAN: And I suggest that you don’t think much about it going forward either.
DIRECTOR: I don’t intend to. OK, let’s go over your monologue again.
WOMAN: Very well. Although I must confess, I’m tired of it. Where did we stop?
DIRECTOR: We haven’t started yet, if you ask me.
WOMAN stands before the “camera” and is about to say something, but doesn’t utter a word.
What? Still don’t know your part? (prompting) Dear friend!
WOMAN: Dear friend! (glances around, lowers her voice, and speaks in a different tone) Dear friend, while there’s no one else here, I’d like to speak with you.
DIRECTOR: (puzzled) What about?
WOMAN: First, even though I’m a blonde, I’m not as birdbrained as you think.
DIRECTOR: So you say.
WOMAN: You don’t believe it?
DIRECTOR: I do.
WOMAN: If I hadn’t pretended to be a ding-dong, they wouldn’t have brought me into the government. I’d’ve been passed over if I came off as brainy. They’re afraid of competition.
DIRECTOR: Is that all you wanted to tell me?
WOMAN: No.
DIRECTOR: What else?
WOMAN: So, when you were rehearsing with the prime minister, you said that all the cameras at the ceremony will be directed at him.
DIRECTOR: Well?
WOMAN: Why on him and not on me?
DIRECTOR: And why on you and not on him?
WOMAN: Because I’m a woman.
DIRECTOR: And he’s the prime minister.