Strange Interlude 1927
Like More Stately Mansions,
Strange Interlude concentrates on inner voices and
psychosexual dilemmas. It has no touch of the romanticism that
defines much of the tone of Mourning Be-comes Electra and
no lyricism is felt in its characters. Consequently, it is a
play without music except for a tune heard during the boat
race, in act 8: "We'll row, row, row,..." sung by a drunken
Charlie Marsden as he interrupts Nina's attempt to tell her
husband of the illegitimacy of their son. In his drunkenness,
quite in character, he appears to mix several matters. He seems
to think the song is a college song appropriate to the boat
race, when it is in fact a song from the Ziegfeld Follies of
1912. He then confuses it with the nursery tune "Row, row,
row your boat." "'And we'll row, row, row,"' he sings.
"Remember that old tune when
you were a little girl, Nina?" Marsden — I've forgotten sorrow! There's nothing in life worth grieving about, I assure you, Nina! And I've gotten interested in this race now. (He sings raucously) "Oh we'll row, row, row, right down the river! And we'll row, row, row" — Remember that old tune — when you were a little girl, Nina! [II, 794] Row, Row, Row - words by William Jerome, music by Jimmie V. Monaco, published 1912 |
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