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Act 1, Scene 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If We Were Villains, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Free Will
Identity and Disguise
Love and Sexuality
Theatre and Corruption
Summary
Analysis
That evening, the fourth-years wait at humorously-named local bar “the Bore’s Head” for the cast list to go up. Wren, who’d been stationed at the FAB to be there when it appeared, enters the bar with the list in her hand. Alexander grabs the list and, smug, declares that he’d been right. Filippa points out that while Oliver is playing Octavius, he’s also playing Casca—and she’s playing three different roles herself. Colin, a third-year, is playing both Antony and a role in the third-year production of The Taming of the Shrew. Richard did the same thing last year. The others rib Richard, but he playfully accuses them of jealousy as he goes to buy another round of drinks.
It seems like the fourth-years were right not to take Alexander up on his bet. The cast list upholds the group’s opinions of themselves, as they’ve all been cast in the same parts yet again. Again, the group gets along well when they know where they stand relative to one another—even if it leaves some of them feeling a little inferior. Filippa’s point about Alexander being slightly off about her and Oliver foreshadows the surprisingly major roles that both of them will play in the personal drama to come; maybe Alexander has underestimated both of them a little bit, after all. Richard’s remarks about jealousy are lighthearted now, but they also hint at some underlying tension in the group, suggesting that their peace might be more fragile than it appears.
Themes
