Act 2, Part 1 Summary

This act begins with Cecily delivering a long lecture on the development of Marxism/Socialism in Russia, the political and philosophical development of Lenin, and how he was forced to leave the country after a shift in the intellectual perspective behind the Socialist Revolution. She also tells how he came to be in Switzerland at the same time as Joyce, Tzara and Carr. She translates as Lenin and Nadya repeat their conversation in Russian from the first scene of the play in which they talk about the revolution. As Carr appears in one of his costumes from Earnest, Cecily concludes her lecture, by saying it was only natural that the British Government would assign someone to spy on Lenin.

We understand Carr to be that spy. He hands Cecily the calling card left behind by Tzara when he visited Carr in...