because of their interminable visits, but that he has not received any sort of freedom when they are not around, either. An audience member becomes dissatisfied and leaves his box to get on the stage, complaining that the play is going on without providing any satisfaction to the audience. The prompter becomes fed up, and the script plummets from the sky onto the ground. The audience member brings a Chinese torturer to try to cure Victor. Eventually, he gets a mildly satisfactory answer and leaves the stage. Dr. Piouk, whom Victor is stunned to learn is now his uncle by marriage, arrives with Olga to see if he wants to take a poison pill and commit suicide, but he does not wish to. The glazier leaves his work unfinished, leaves the tools to Victor, and Mme. Karl again arrives to ask for the rent. He gives her a wad of money from the drawer, but it's not enough, so he gives her the tools, and tells her to pawn the jacket he thinks that he has left on the stairs to pay the rent. She tries to offer him food, but says that she can't be a nursemaid to him. He pushes the bed as far from the door and window and as close to the audience member's box as possible, then sits on the bed to rest. Staging The staging calls for "marginal action" which interacts with the main action only at a few specific moments. Victor's apartment is always shown on stage, although none of the main action of the first act occurs there. He walks around in a pattern, although much of the details are left up to the actor. In the second act, Victor's apartment is shown from a different angle, and the Krap home is still visible. For much of the act, that part of the stage is empty, except for a moment where Jacques lights the lamp and paws his master's armchair. At one point, Victor arrives, and Jacques allows him to sit in his father's chair. This part of the stage then remains empty until the end of the act. In the third act, Victor's apartment is seen from yet a third angle, and has encroached upon the stage entirely, with the Krap home completely gone. Performance history On April 13, 1998, the French Embassy in Washington, DC, hosted the first staged public