Or at least Charles Arrowby – the protagonist and narrator of Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea. And Charles, a retired director, playwright, and sometime actor, has a lot to say about the theatre…

This, for instance:

Emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. In the middle, they are acted. This is why all the world is a stage, and why the theatre is always popular and indeed why it exists. […] The theatre, even at its most ‘realistic’, is connected with the level at which we tell our everyday lies.

Which is, at least to an extent, true enough. And, once you combine (and/or contrast?) it with Hodges, makes for a truly interesting reflection on mankind, doesn’t it?