Act Two

ROS: Nor do I, really.... It's silly to be depressed by it. I mean one thinks of it like beingalive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead ... which should make a difference ... shouldn't it? I mean, you'd never know you were in a box, would you? It would be just like being asleep in a box. Not that I'd like to sleep in a box, mind you, not without any air - you'd wake up dead, for a start and then where would you be? Apart from inside a box. That's the bit I don't like, frankly. That's why I don't think of it.... 
      (GUIL stirs restlessly, pulling his cloak round him.) 
Because you'd be helpless, wouldn't you? Stuffed in a box like that, I mean you'd be in there for ever. Even taking into account the fact that you're dead, really ... ask yourself, if I asked you straight off - I'm going to stuff you in this box now, would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally, you'd prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all. I expect. You'd have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking - well, at least I'm not dead! In a minute someone's going to bang on the lid and tell me to come out. (Banging on the floor with his fists.) "Hey you, whatsyername! Come out of there!" 
PLAYER: We're tragedians, you see. We follow directions-there is no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means.
ROS: Well, really-I mean, people want to be entertained-they don't come expecting sordid and gratuitous filth. 
PLAYER: You're wrong - they do! Murder, seduction and incest - what do you want -jokes? 
ROS: I want a good story, with a beginning, middle and end. 
PLAYER (to GUIL): And you? 
GUIL: I'd prefer art to mirror life, if it's all the same to you. 
PLAYER: It's all the same to me, sir.