Act III

The play unfurled to show Constanze dealing with the struggle of men taking her seriously as a photographer and making the right connections to send her off to Berlin to become a photographer for the "important men". Who these men were was never mentioned. Her connections were mainly made through men liking how she looked - the women in the audience smiled more often than the men.

The Englishman took the chance and went to Germany, where he was laughed at.

After a short break where Wolfram Schneider wouldn't shut up about which actor he knew from where, they were back in their seats and watching the final act of the show.

Constanze sits in a train stop. It's raining. The stage rain looks incredible; it's some sort of light reflection projected onto the back wall accompanied by the sounds of rain: people drumming their fingers on certain surfaces and instruments as Charlotte Reisser refused to use pre-recorded sounds.

The Englishman arrives, his shoes squeak, and his clothes are soggy. The cigarette he's smoking is bent from the rain. He sits down next to Constanze and begins to talk to her.

"Entschuldigen, Fraulein, (excuse me, Miss)," he says, leaning over to her, "this is train Berlin?" His German was terrible and broken. The audience roared with laughter as the female star ignored him and continued smoking her own dry cigarette. Her clothes had not one spot of water. "A weather not is very good today, yes?" The Englishman says with a smile, obviously trying to engage in a conversation still. "I'm pouring wet!"

Constanze ignores him. She looks left and right to see if the train is coming, but there's no train in sight. She looks down at her watch and frowns.

"Ja, Zug ist spaten. (Yes, train is spade)." The word for late in German is "spät," and the word "Spaten," which the Englishman had used instead, translates to "spade" - this got the audience roaring with laughter. The actor was as unfazed by their laughter as the character was unfazed by Constanze's rejection.

"Hoping it will soon arrival!" He says cheerily. "I am hunger."

Constanze continues to ignore the young man.

"My name is Alfred," he says hopefully, "and yours names?" The silence between them stretches for several seconds until he breaks it again. "I'm sorry for my horrible German, I is very new to country."

He stands up and begins to pace, rolling up his soggy coat to show strong forearms. This uncivilized and desperate way of trying to prove himself to the woman made the audience chuckle. Charlotte Reisser sure wasn't doing any favors to the English, but as Martin watched, he felt like the Englishman Alfred was more stereotypically American than English. "You is very beautiful, Fraulein."

"You're eyes are blue like ocean. I came across ocean when coming into Germany. Very winding and wet, like now!" The actress who plays Constanze has the same indifferent expression. Martin admired her for it; he would have been rolling around laughing if he had to act next to the man playing Alfred. "Can you your number me give? I want call you."

No answer.

"You must cold be?" He asks, gesturing to her ankles. Her skirt fell just above them, and her socks didn't cover her pale skin.

A train whistle sounds, and both turn their heads as the train chugs toward them. The stage prop resembles a real-life wagon in everything but the size. As it's coming to a halt in front of them, Constanze swings around on the bench at the station stop and presses the heel of her shoe into Alfred's chest. Her eyes flick down to her ankle, and getting the message, Alfred gingerly reaches out to touch it.

"Does it feel cold to you, sir?" She asks in perfect English. The audience laughs at Alfred's dumbfounded expression. Constanze stands up and is about to get on the train when-

there's an obvious slip-up in the play. The actress hesitates before climbing onto the wagon as if knowing that the actor playing Alfred would have to say something but forgot. Then she gets on, and the wagon is pushed off stage by an unseen force.

The Englishman tucks his hands in his pockets and walks away from the station.

Wolfram Schneider leaned over to Martin and whispered: "he was supposed to ask: this is the train to Berlin, right? To which Constanze would reply: No, to Wien. But it seems like Rainer Altmaier, the actor who plays Alfred, a wonderful man by the way and an amazing actor, forgot his lines."

But Rainer had not forgotten his lines. As he stood there watching Maja Dieffenbach, the actress playing Constanze, step toward the train, he consciously decided to leave out the line he was supposed to say. It was a première. Charlotte was supposed to play the part, and she'd allowed him to add the last line about the train to Berlin. She'd even typed it up into the official script.

There was no need to say the line now with Charlotte dead. He smiled as he exited the stage on the right. "Bye, bye, Charlotte." He murmured.