by Alan Townend26. Phrasal verb go or «Going on»
Here is a story with another Phrasal Verb — «go». Read the story
and try to understand the different meanings of the phrasal verbs
and then to help you I have given an explanation of the verbs at the
end but don't look at the end first. Read the story and find the
expressions with go in Italics.
And now — «Go On»!
«Going on»
Ever since I can remember I have spent the evening in draughty
halls, church halls, community centres, town halls or huts converted
for the evening into halls and sat on hard wooden seats watching
other people trying to make me believe that they are different
people. If you don't know what I'm going on about, I should explain
that I have seen a lot plays acted by amateur dramatic companies.
Comments like that of course don't go down very well with the
amateur actors themselves who sometimes go around with a long
face if they read a bad criticism in the local paper of their acting and
can't stop smiling if the critic goes on about how wonderful they are.
It is after all only a hobby. But amateur acting unlike fishing,
collecting stamps or bird watching is not a solitary activity. You can't
just go through an entire play on your own in an empty hall — you
need an audience. Acting and audiences go together like bread and
butter.
The thing about amateurs is that very often they don't get it right
and when the lights go out, you wonder what's going to happen. The
results can be unintentionally amusing for the audience and
occasionally it's just as well that the lights have gone out, because
you can quietly conceal your mirth in the darkness. Now, I don't
want to give the impression that I go about looking for trouble but
there have been some very amusing moments in my theatre-going,
which unfortunately have taken place at very serious moments in the
play. I went out the other night to see a performance of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Everything was going along fine up
to the famous balcony scene. I should point out that Romeo in this
version was a good deal older than the part demanded and was fairly
big and the same was true of Juliet, whose size came in useful as it
turned out so you could say they went well together. But I'd better
go back to the plot. The action calls for Romeo to climb up a ladder
onto Juliet's balcony. Now our hero was clearly not the athletic type
and didn't relish the idea of scaling that ladder but in the end he
decided to go for it. Unluckily for him the rope ladder couldn't take
his weight. Quick as a flash Juliet grabbed the other end and stopped
him falling to the ground. As Romeo went ahead with his passionate
love speech, Juliet went through her part as well as she could,
pausing now and again for breath to stop her crashing to the floor.
Then there was the time I went to see a melodrama. A man was
standing in front of a firing squad and the executioners were on the
point of firing when we heard what sounded like three gunshots.
The problem was that the officer hadn't yet given the order to fire.