Absurd Person Singular

by

Sir Alan Ayckbourn

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Absurd Person Singular Quotes

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Act One Quotes

SIDNEY: [chuckling knowingly] I don't imagine the wife of a banker will particularly choose to spend her evening in our kitchen. Smart as it is.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Jane Hopcroft
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

JANE: No, but it's special tonight, isn't it? I mean, with Mr. and Mrs. Brewster-Wright and Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. It's important.
SIDNEY: Don't forget Dick and Lottie Potter. They're coming, too.
JANE: Oh, well, I don't count Dick and Lottie. They're friends.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Jane Hopcroft (speaker), Ronald Brewster-Wright, Marion Brewster-Wright, Geoffrey Jackson, Eva Jackson, Dick Potter, Lottie Potter
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

MARION: Just look at these working surfaces and you must have a gorgeous view from that window, I imagine.
SIDNEY: Well…
MARION: It must be stunning. You must look right over the fields at the back.
SIDNEY: No—no.
JANE: No, we just look into next door's fence.
MARION: Well, which way are the fields?
JANE: I've no idea.
MARION: How extraordinary. I must be thinking of somewhere else.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Jane Hopcroft (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright (speaker)
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

MARION: [bending to read the dial] What's this? Whites-coloureds—my God, it's apartheid.
JANE: Beg pardon?

Related Characters: Jane Hopcroft (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright (speaker)
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: What?
EVA: Did I put that glass in there?
SIDNEY: Er—yes.
EVA: My God, I knew it, I'm going mad. I am finally going mad.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Eva Jackson (speaker)
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

MARION: Oh, that's lovely. Just that teeny bit stronger. You know what I mean. Not too much tonic . . .
SIDNEY: No, well . . .
MARION: Perfect.
SIDNEY: Actually, that's neat gin, that is.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright (speaker)
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

RONALD: Ah. Well, as long as you know about him. Might have been after your silver. I mean, you never know. Not these days.
SIDNEY : No, indeed. No, he—he was from the off-licence.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Jane Hopcroft
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:

GEOFFREY: Oh now, come off it. Nonsense. She chooses to live with me, she lives by my rules. I mean we've always made that perfectly clear. She lives her life to a certain extent; I live mine, do what I like within reason. It's the only way to do it...
SIDNEY: Good gracious.
RONALD: I wish you'd have a chat with Marion. Convince her.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Geoffrey Jackson (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright, Eva Jackson
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:

MARION: This really is a simply loathsome little house. I mean how can people live in them. I mean, Geoff, you're an architect, you must be able to tell me. How do people come to design these sort of monstrosities in the first place, let alone persuade people to live in them?
GEOFFREY: Well...
MARION: Oh, God. Now he's going to tell me he designed it.
GEOFFREY: No. I didn't do it. They're designed like this mainly because of cost and people who are desperate for somewhere to live aren't particularly choosey.

Related Characters: Marion Brewster-Wright (speaker), Geoffrey Jackson (speaker)
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: These people just weren't anybody. They are people in the future who can be very, very useful to us...

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Jane Hopcroft
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Act Two Quotes

GEOFFREY: Yes, I know. You’re very anxious, aren't you, that I should go and work for the up and coming Mr. Hopcroft? So is up and coming Mr. Hopcroft.

Related Characters: Geoffrey Jackson (speaker), Sidney Hopcroft, Eva Jackson
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

GEOFFREY: Eva—I'm being very patient. Very patient indeed. But in a minute I really do believe I'm going to lose my temper. And we know what happens then, don't we? I will take a swing at you and then you will feel hard done by, and by way of reprisal, will systematically go round and smash everything in the flat. And come tomorrow breakfast time, there will be the familiar sight of the three of us, you, me and George, trying to eat our meals off our one surviving plate.

Related Characters: Geoffrey Jackson (speaker), Eva Jackson
Related Symbols: George the Dog
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

GEOFFREY: Now, I'm going to phone the doctor. I’ll just be two minutes, all right? Now, you sit there. Don't move, just sit there like a good girl.

Related Characters: Geoffrey Jackson (speaker), Eva Jackson
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

JANE: I must clean that oven if it kills me.

Related Characters: Jane Hopcroft (speaker)
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

JANE: Shall I tell you something—Sidney would get so angry if he heard me saying this—but I'd far sooner be down here on the floor, on my knees in the oven—than out there, talking. Isn't that terrible. But I’m never at ease, really, at parties. I don't enjoy drinking, you see.

Related Characters: Jane Hopcroft (speaker), Sidney Hopcroft, Eva Jackson
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: Now. I'll give you a little tip, if you like. You’ll never get a sink unblocked that way.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Eva Jackson
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

RONALD: Had a good year. Must be pretty pleased.
SIDNEY: Oh, yes. Had a few lucky hunches. Seemed to pay off.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker), Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker)
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: Don't do that! Don't do that! It's too late for that. Look at this shirt. This is a new shirt.

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker)
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Act Three Quotes

RONALD: Drink? No, I don't honestly think so. She's always liked a—I mean, the doctor did say she should lay off. But that was only because it was acting as a stimulant—She hasn't touched it lately.

Related Characters: Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

EVA: Darling, I hate to remind you but ever since the ceiling of the Harrison building caved in and nearly killed the Manager, Sidney Hopcroft is about your only hope of surviving as an architect in this city.

Related Characters: Eva Jackson (speaker), Sidney Hopcroft, Geoffrey Jackson, Walter Harrison
Related Symbols: The Shopping Complex
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

RONALD: Both my wives, God bless them, they've given me a great deal of pleasure over the years but, by God, they've cost me a fortune in fixtures and fittings. All the same. Couldn't do without them, could we?

Related Characters: Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:

RONALD: Nobody wants your damn picture, now shut up.

Related Characters: Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

MARION: Why don't you just go in the hall and shout "Go away" through the letter-box?
RONALD: Because he happens to have a very large deposit account with my bank.

Related Characters: Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Marion Brewster-Wright (speaker), Sidney Hopcroft, Jane Hopcroft
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: Yes. Up at Walter's place. Walter Harrison.
RONALD: Oh—old Harrison's.
SIDNEY: Oh of course, you'll know him, won't you.
RONALD: Oh, yes.
GEOFFREY: Yes.
SIDNEY: Oh, yes, of course. Asking you if you know old Harrison. I should think you do know old Harrison. He certainly remembers you. In fact he was saying this evening...

Related Characters: Ronald Brewster-Wright (speaker), Geoffrey Jackson (speaker), Walter Harrison
Page Number: 85-86
Explanation and Analysis:

SIDNEY: That's it. Dance. Come on. Dance. Dance. Come on. Dance. Dance. Dance. Keep dancing. Dance . . .

Related Characters: Sidney Hopcroft (speaker)
Related Symbols: Musical Dancing
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.