The Failed Rehearsal

Briony assembles her cousins in the nursery for the first rehearsal of The Trials of Arabella. The twins, Pierrot and Jackson, are reluctant and hostile, declaring they hate plays and dressing up. Lola, however, manipulates the situation, first threatening the twins into compliance and then maneuvering to take the lead role of Arabella for herself. Briony, feeling outmaneuvered and ashamed of her selfishness, reluctantly agrees. The rehearsal itself is a disaster: the twins cannot act, delivering their lines in a monotone, and Lola performs with a detached, condescending air. Briony's vision of a perfect performance is steadily wrecked by the incompetence and resistance of her cast. The event highlights Briony's loss of control and her first encounter with the messy reality of other people's wills, a precursor to her later inability to manage the truth.