[Deemer]
(Treplev enters the garden. He is very upset. He moves about, unable to contain his energy, then turns and talks to the audience.)
TREPLEV: Philistines, the lot of them! And mother is the worst. It's one thing if she hates the play - I expected her to. My play confronts everything her kind of theater stands for and challenges its very method. Of course, she wouldn't like it.
But to be so rude as to interrupt the performance! Then she becomes a tyrant, she decides that because she doesn't like it, no one else can like it either. That's what upset me.
Poor Nina. She's the one who must take the brunt of such bad manners. She lacks confidence about her talent as it is, what will this tell her? She may think the commotion is about her own performance.
I should have foreseen this. I should have known that mother not only would hate the play, she couldn't stand to let it be performed - because that would be like evidence, that would be like admitting into existence a piece of work that challenges the very direction of her energy and life, that mocks them, really. My play mocks everything her kind of theater stands for.
She no doubt thinks I am pouting, that I had my feelings hurt. But this is not a personal issue, this is an artistic issue. This is not about me, this is about the kind of theater we need on our stages today. We desperately need new forms for theater! I could have as easily presented the play anonymously, if that were possible - this is not about my ego!
This is about the very nature of theater. This is about nothing less.
But poor Nina. She doesn't have the slightest idea what the play is about. She's so young and ignorant about such things. It doesn't matter. An actress doesn't have to know anything about dramatic theory.
But I hope she isn't taking this interruption personally. She has a marvelous raw talent. Mother is probably too jealous to see that.
Mother is the egotistical one, she can't see beyond her own press clippings. She was jealous of Nina from the start and determined that she would hate my play even before she had the slightest idea what it was about.
You know what just happened? A self-fulfilling prophecy. Mother got just what she wanted. She always gets what she wants.
(Masha enters.)