Chapter 22 of 30 · 3'03"
Two men who staged a murder now fight over the play it could become. Clifford wants the story on stage no matter whose life it exposes: "I want a shortcut, Sidney..." Sidney, guarding his name and reputation, would rather burn the manuscript than let it be staged.
❝ Monologue · 4 lines Nobody Can Prove What Happened
A Threat to Burn the Manuscript
After Myra's death, Clifford and Sidney turn on each other over the manuscript. Clifford calls it his way out - "I want a shortcut" - and refuses to let it go; Sidney says he has a name and reputation to protect and threatens to burn the play in the fireplace. Calmer, they analyze why the story would hold an audience.
The argument isn't really about a play; it's about who gets to survive what they did. Clifford holds the one thing that could make him famous, and for him Myra's death is simply material; he will not let the manuscript go. Sidney answers with the identity he has spent a career building - "I have a name and a reputation," he insists, however tattered - and he would rather destroy the play than be remembered as the man who killed his wife. Then the scene turns strange and professional: the two of them discuss the murder like a script, weighing whether it could convince an audience, and one of them notes that "nobody can prove what really happened here." The cruelty is how good both men are at this.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“It worked perfectly, and nobody can prove what really happened here. Nobody!”
The repeated Nobody turns a quiet claim into a boast no one can challenge.
Informal
“I want a shortcut, Sidney...”
It states the selfish aim plainly, and the honesty is what makes it sting.
Informal
“To persuade an audience to suspend it's disbelief.”
A piece of theatre jargon that names the audience's willing bargain.
Formal
“And I don't give a shit whose property it cuts through, if you understand me.”
It admits pure self-interest without apology, and the blunt vulgarity makes the ambition clear.
Informal
Would have exactly the same effect on an audience, wouldn't it? Didn't we write a play, rehearse it? Didn't we plan it? Didn't we execute it? Wasn't she the audience? We did it! And it worked. It worked perfectly, and nobody can prove what really happened here. Nobody!
Up next · 23be in on itThe scene: Clifford Talks Sidney Into DeathtrapHe says he has a name and a reputation left, and he refuses to be remembered as the man who killed his wife. Burning the play is how he tries to keep the murder from becoming public.
No. Clifford treats the death as his material and never looks past his own success. When Sidney calls the play too dangerous, Clifford only presses that he wants a shortcut and will write it somewhere else.
For him the manuscript is a shortcut to fame, and he says so bluntly. He threatens to leave and write it elsewhere if Sidney burns it, because he won't give up that chance.
That's the argument. The men say the facts are outlandish and preposterous, yet entertaining enough to fool an audience - which is exactly why Sidney fears it and Clifford wants it.
Sidney did; it's the hit that made his name. That's why he wants to be remembered for it rather than for the crime - and why a play about his real life cuts so close.
