The Act prepares the conditions for its own realisation as the prisoner prepares for his escape,

with patience, ingenuity and absolute secrecy, identifying the method and the route, finding and securing tools and hiding them when not in use, concealing his efforts, and only setting out once everything is in place. On this extreme caution, diligence and wit, freedom depends. A moment’s indiscretion and the chance is gone for good.

The Act chooses the Actor and dwells silently inside him, or her, as the case may be, creating the conditions for itself, in methodical and scrupulous silence, so that when the work is done, the events converge and the moment arrives, the Actor is taken unawares, caught in a current too strong to swim against.

It is done, for good or ill, and the Actor is alone again, in ashes or in clover.