The Silence. Joss Stirling

slits the throats of her kids to spite their fucking father? You want us to react to it?’ He stalked into the middle of the room. ‘Here’s what I fucking think about Medea.’ He stomped on the mask. ‘Her kids are dead and she waltzes off Scott free. The chorus should fucking well have ripped her to shreds.’

      One of the girls in the class made a move as if she were going to argue, but Maurice motioned her back. Now was not the moment for a feminist intervention.

      ‘No excuses. No “he had it coming”. No one should do that to a child.’ Jonah kicked the mask away. ‘No one.’ He was shaking. He recognised the adrenaline. It would take just one wrong word, one snide comment, and he’d probably end up in jail for GBH.

      ‘You’re right, Jonah,’ said Maurice, finding the right words to avoid a fist in the face. ‘We forget that this should also be about the children’s right to life because the play focuses so much on Medea’s anger. I don’t think any movement training would come up with a more eloquent reaction than yours so I’m going to leave it there. Put the masks away please. I’m going to anticipate next week’s lecture on Jacques Lecoq and mime techniques instead. Everyone, take five. Jonah, a quick word please.’

      ‘I’m going out to smoker’s corner.’

      ‘Then I’m coming with you.’

      Jonah went out, expecting a reprimand. To prepare, he shoved his anger back in the cage where he kept it, driving it in with mental whips and prods. The smoking zone, huddled in a dank alley at the side of the building, was deserted. He went through his calming routine, getting out his cigarette papers, pealing one off, pinching just the right amount of tobacco, squeezing, teasing it out, rolling, sealing … As he brought it to his lips, Maurice offered him a light.

      ‘All right now?’

      Of course the fucking turd of a movement tutor could read his body language. Jonah drew smoke into his lungs, held it, then exhaled over their heads. Maurice was calmly smoking his own factory-made brand.

      ‘Yeah.’

      ‘I’m sorry. I should have included a warning at the beginning of the class that we were dealing with difficult subject matter.’