Free A Decent Interval by Simon Brett

during the lunch-break, was trying in a desultory fashion to do
The Times
crossword and finding that his eyes kept gliding over the clues.
    A few seats along from him, Dennis Demetriades was avidly pressing the buttons of his mobile. Charles was constantly amazed by how much time the younger generation of actors could spend texting or whatever else it was they were doing with their phones. He never saw any of them with a book or a newspaper. Dennis, Charles noticed, had changed his facial topiary. The thick black stubble had been allowed to grow to the contours but not the density of mutton chop whiskers. Their forward points joined a thin line of moustache across his upper lips. The young actor, Charles reckoned, must have to get up very early to tend his beard garden.
    On the other side of the Green Room sat Geraldine Romelle, immersed in a copy of Montaigne’s
Essays
. Her choice of reading matter rather intrigued Charles. Was she a genuine intellectual or one of those actresses all of whose ideas came from other people and who would uncomprehendingly read a difficult book ‘because this really great guy recommended it to me’?
    As the argument between Ned English and his Hamlet continued, Charles and Geraldine were both doing something that actors are quite skilled at – taking in every word of a conversation without apparently listening.
    â€˜I’d be heard perfectly from the back of the auditorium,’ said Jared Root, ‘if you have me miked.’
    Dennis Demetriades wasn’t distracted from his mobile, but the two other actors exchanged surreptitious looks. Charles and Geraldine were both old enough to know about the value of ‘projection’ in the theatre, and both quite capable (particularly in their cups) of going on at length about the new generation of actors who spent so much time working for television that their voices ‘just aren’t trained to fill a theatre’. The covert looks the two exchanged became covert smiles as they waited for Ned English’s response.
    â€˜Jared,’ he said, ‘may I remind you once again that we’re putting on a straight play here, not a musical? And not any straight play either, but one of the greatest plays in the English – or indeed any other – language. The part of Hamlet has been acted by generations of the most famous actors in the world – and none of them needed electronic aids to ensure that they were heard at the back of the auditorium.’
    â€˜But that’s an old style of acting,’ argued Jared Root. ‘Belting the words out. It’s corny and unnatural. I’ve been tweeting about it and my followers aren’t going to want to see something they can’t hear.’
    â€˜No, but, Jared, if you projected properly they would be able to hear. It’s really not difficult. I’m sure if you made an effort—’
    â€˜Listen, Ned,’ said the singer in a tone that implied he was being entirely reasonable, ‘audiences – particularly young audiences – are used to watching television where people act more like they’re just talking than, you know, like, declaiming.’
    â€˜That may be true, Jared, but the theatre audience is used to a different experience. They—’
    â€˜That’s what the
old
theatre audience are used to, right. But if you want an audience that isn’t just made up of old farts – and that’s what Tony has said quite definitely he wants with this production – then you’ve got to present younger people with something that they’re, like, used to seeing. And they’re used to seeing people acting naturally, and the only way you’re going to achieve that in a great big theatre like this is by using mikes.’
    â€˜Jared,’ said an exasperated Ned English, ‘for the last time, there will be no mikes in this production of
Hamlet
.’
    â€˜Huh,’ the star responded.