Strange Interlude

Strange Interlude Summary | Part 1, Act 1 Summary

The story of this innovative play is built around the love of three very different men for the same woman. Over the course of several years, affections shift, relationships change, a child is born and grows to manhood, and life is experienced as a "strange interlude" in the larger, infinite experience of the universe. Of particular interest is the way the story is told, with the characters speaking their thoughts throughout. This direct revelation of the subtext or emotions and motivations behind what the characters say and do, was a novelty at the time the play was written and has since become a popularly used device.

Act 1 takes place in Leeds' study. Marsden enters, looks around, and speaks his thoughts, recalling his first visit, the early death of his father, how difficult it was for him to write in Europe, and how being back in this town provides a quiet "interlude" in which he can remember, ask questions of himself, and write. His thoughts also refer to Nina, to Gordon, his and Nina's childhood friend, and to his mother, whom he thinks is jealous of his friendship with Nina. He jokes to himself about his lack of a sex life, and angrily recalls a difficult and ridiculed sexual encounter with a woman while he was at school.

Leeds enters, he and Marsden greet each other, and Leeds' thoughts reveal he sees Marsden as a calming influence on Nina. They talk about the damaging influence the war (World War I) had on Europe and on Marsden's writing, and then Marsden asks where Nina is. Leeds says she'll be right in, warning Marsden that she's changed. As they speak about how she's behaved since Gordon's death, their thoughts refer to frightening details of Nina's erratic behavior. Leeds' thoughts also reveal his resentment of how people always talked and thought about Gordon so much. When Marsden reveals he found the site where Gordon crashed, Leeds urges him to not tell Nina, saying she needs to get on with her life and then confessing his belief that Nina's begun to hate him. He explains that before war, Gordon and Nina were to be married, but he talked Gordon out of it, and that Nina somehow figured that out. Marsden tells him both he and Nina are imagining things and notices that Nina's coming. Marsden's thoughts reveal he's suddenly and excitedly eager to see her, while Leeds' thoughts express his hope that she's not going to make a scene. He also reveals his anxiety about whether to get her medical treatment.

Nina enters and greets Marsden distantly, her thoughts revealing how little she thinks of him in comparison to Gordon. Marsden's thoughts reveal how hurt he is by her coolness, but out loud he makes a joke. Nina's tone changes, she welcomes him warmly, and then tells her father she's going away, leaving on a train that night. Both Leeds and Marsden react with surprise, with Leeds commenting aloud that the decision is a sudden one and Marsden, in his thoughts, asking to whom she's escaping. In her thoughts, Nina comments on how tired she is of being lectured by her father just as Leeds is lecturing her on how ill she's been and how she needs to take care of herself. As he talks, Nina's thoughts reveal her passionate memories of Gordon and her desire to get away and contemplate his memory. Aloud, she tells Leeds she's made up her mind, saying that she's taken a job in a sanitarium for crippled soldiers run by a friend of Gordon's, that there's no reason for anyone to worry about her, and that she feels she has to pay for betraying Gordon. In explanation, she says she feels she has to give herself without fear, saying that on the night before he left, she had the chance to give herself physically to him, but he held back. She adds that she should have made him take her because she knew that if he didn't, he'd die and she'd have "no big Gordon or little Gordon" left to her. Finally, she accuses Leeds of telling Gordon to wait, and Leeds confesses that that's what he did, saying he did it for her sake and confessing that he was jealous, that he wanted to keep Nina for himself, and that he was glad when Gordon died. He weeps, asking for her forgiveness.

As Marsden worries in his thoughts about keeping his mother waiting, Nina forgives Leeds and asks him to understand how she must find a way to give herself to Gordon. Leeds says he does understand, but Marsden says Nina won't be able to stay away long. She asks him to help her pack, commenting that one day she'll read her story in one of his books and joking with him affectionately. As they go off, Leeds' thoughts turn to preparing for the classes he's due to teach at the university in a few weeks, to the day-to-day functions of his house and neighborhood, and to his hopes that now Nina will get over Gordon for good. Suddenly, his thoughts turn to how lonely and abandoned he feels, and he calls aloud for Nina. When she answers, he calms himself and reminds her to call a taxi in plenty of time to get her to her train. His thoughts turn to what he believes will be his lonely death; he pulls out a book, and reads aloud in Latin.