Constantly thinking about the way Peter!Charles reacts to Alex!Monty shouting at him to “get Haselden on the line”. He always looks so upset and confused and keeps looking back at the door Monty’s just left through. They just make me sick and I miss how much they understand their characters
good god this always made me feel absolutely batshit insane. i think a lot about peter charlie's arc, specifically the ways he became more like monty throughout the show, and i think it's interesting to parallel the way alex monty delivered that line vs the rare moments peter charles would raise his voice. for example "give us a break hester" or some of the lines to jean and monty in the confrontation (which sometimes peter delivered very quietly and emotionally and other times he shouted & went for anger - thinking about "i trust him" and "i saw you monty" specifically). obviously none of those examples are quite as volatile as monty's "get haselden on the line" but they do feel like little stepping stones for charles, who never got so loud pre mincemeat, in his journey to becoming more like monty. and it's interesting that he learned to copy and mimic monty's way of speaking and sometimes even his mannerisms in little ways; maybe subconsciously, but definitely because of an innate need for monty's approval and the approval of the other men in his circle.
with alexpeter i think there was always an unspoken sense of charles feeling like he was getting a good grade in 'being monty' (especially prevalent in act as if of course, but way before then too), which reminds me of southwark 2020 jean leslie calling charles monty's "star pupil". obviously a LOT of that original dynamic has changed since then, but i think there were moments in peter's performance that brought back that specific charles characterisation. his reaction to "get haselden on the line" felt like one of them, because to me it read as someone who thought he was finally 'in' with monty (which gave him the confidence to approach and say "what are we going to do?", almost challengingly, in the first place) being proven violently wrong. he was pushed 'out', and he would stumble back (or in many cases with alex, was forced back) to join hester and jean: the social outsiders he thought he had risen above.
and i don't mean he thought that maliciously. i believe there is a fondness he feels for jean and hester that is more sincere than monty's, but it isn't a coincidence that hester and jean are the only people peter charles would raise his voice to (except for monty in the confrontation, but i do believe that is slightly different). i mean it just always comes back to gender doesnt it. because a LOT of what charles had learned from monty was how to perform masculinity 'correctly', and while i do think charles believed hester and jean were amazing women, he was never free from the preconception men had at the time that even the most amazing woman could never surpass the average man. so no matter his fondness, he didn't want to be looped in with them. that would mean failing at manhood, and manhood is the thing ewen montagu kept reminding charles he valued the most. and convinced charles he should value it just as much. it's intrinsic to how monty describes bill and how he talks to charles generally - alex's delivery of "so just be a man" being the most blatant example.
and now im thinking back to the staging/choreography of this bit. charles breaking away from hester and jean to follow monty. monty snapping at him, which makes charles stagger back to where he started. then finally charles looking back to the door monty left through, yet glued to his place among the women. i feel like it tells us so much about the arc of charlie's social standing and his relationship with masculinity. no matter how much he chases monty and tries to be like him, he is forced back, and left behind, longing to follow.
he turns things around by the end of the show of course (and really it's monty who gets left behind...) but that mid-act 2 charles characterisation will always stick with me. especially the way peter performed it. he is so very missed.
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