Marshall

Marshall
Character Details
Full Name	Marshall Worth
Played By	Jesse Kovarsky, James Finnemore, Alistair Goldsmith and Fionn Cox-Davies.
Starts Loop	Trailer Park

Overview

Marshall is Wendy’s husband and they share a trailer together.  He writes scripts on a typewriter that he carries around with him.  Like Mary, he’s weak and easily manipulated by the other characters. Works as an actor and heeds direction from the narrator, and is often manipulated by the studio’s higher ups. Wendy and Marshall have a child called ‘Chrissie Worth’. 

Appearance

Wears a black tuxedo.

Loop - Basic

• Flirts with Dolores at party (Birthday Tent)
• Directed to snow room by Alice (Finale Stage)
• Dances with Dolores (Studio 4 - Snow Room)
• Given watch by Dolores (Studio 4 - Snow Room)
• Wendy discovers the watch (Woodchip Caravan Park)
• Dances and sleeps with Dolores (Ornate Bedroom)
• Prevented from passing through gates by Gatekeeper (Gates)
• Open's letter in sync with Mary through the Mirror
• Receives drink from PA and dances seductively (Ornate Bedroom)
• Dances with Wendy (Ornate Bedroom)
• Seduced by Delores at Orgy (Masonic Temple)
• Directed to his death by the Fool (Studio - Snow Room)
• Murdered by Wendy (The Woods)

Loop - Extended

Marshall’s loop begins in the Woodchip Trailer Park, talking with his friend and fellow actor, Frankie.  Dolores stands on the Finale Stage nearby and the two men tease each other about the glamorous movie star.  She approaches them and they’re starstruck.  Frankie asks for her autograph and she dances with them both, while eyeing up Marshall.

It’s Dolores’ birthday and Frankie takes her to the Mess Tent nearby to celebrate. Meanwhile, Marshall gets ready outside his trailer.  Wendy arrives home fresh from a film shoot and they head off to the party together.  They enter the tent and join the others who are in full swing.

Dolores flirts with Marshall, who is flattered by the attentions of a famous diva.  Wendy gets on stage to sing and the group ridicules her.  Marshall does nothing to protect her and Wendy storms out in a rage.  The party breaks up and the guests filter out. Marshall leaves the party with Dolores and they bump into the casting agent, Alice Estee, who tells them to make their way to Studio 4.

They get separated en route, but meet up again on set and the two lovebirds dance up and down the snow mounds.  They seduce each other and sway ecstatically to ‘Past, Present and Future’ by The Shangri-La’s.  As they dance, The Assistant enters the room and watches them from the shadows.  Dolores and Marshall circle the crowd and make giant playful loops in the snow.  They slide down the slopes backwards and lie exhausted on the floor. Dolores gives Marshall a gold watch given to her by the Assistant unseen by Marshall.

Marshall heads back to his trailer and does some work at his typewriter.  Wendy arrives and as they embrace, she discovers the watch.  They dance and fight around and on top of the caravans as Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Two Shots of Happy’ plays in the background.  There’s an angry tension between the two lovers as they push and pull each other, back and forth.

Marshall is upset and guilty, and storms off to Dolores’ bedroom where he finds his new lover.  They dance wildly and romp on the bed before Dolores is called away by The Assistant.  Marshall settles on the sofa  at the far end of Dolores’ room wracked with the guilt of his infidelity. Moments later, The Assistant returns with Wendy in tow. 

Wendy confronts him again and they fight and climb the furniture, thrashing about on the bed.  Marshall leaves and tries to exit via the studio gates, but The Gatekeeper stops him and asks for his name.  He points his torch at a photograph of Marshall on the wall, which has the words ‘NO EXIT’ scrawled across it.  Marshall leaps against the metal gates and they struggle until Marshall realises he’s beaten. The Gatekeeper hands Marshall a letter and says "It's from Dolores."

He goes back into the studio and through to the Audition Suite.  Standing by a mirror, he opens the letter which he believes is from Dolores.  The mirror is a two-way screen and Mary is visible on the other side. The two sinners mirror each other’s actions.

Marshall walks to Dolores’ Bedroom and finds The Assistant dancing to ‘Free and Easy Mind’ on the radio.  He watches her seductive moves and is entranced.  She turns to face him and beckons him over.  She hands him an invitation to Mr Stanford’s party and passes him a glass of liquor, tilting the cup until he drains it dry.  Marshall staggers, drunk and poisoned.  He paws clumsily at her, but she’s not interested – she’s here to dress him for the party.  Each time he makes a drunken lunge at her, she turns him aside.  She gently takes off his coat, slips him into a shirt and suit, and sprays him with cologne.

By the time he’s dressed, he’s exhausted from his exertions and he collapses backwards onto a table.  ‘What did you give me?’ he whispers in wonder and he loses consciousness.  The Assistant doesn’t answer.  She raises his invitation to her mouth and marks it with a scarlet kiss.  She drops it onto his stomach for him to find when he comes to.

He wakes and makes his way to the party in the Masonic Temple Hall, where he’s stripped naked and straddled by Dolores.  He’s surrounded by a gaggle of partygoers who claw and smother him.  Wendy comes into the room, and gives a cracked laugh as she sees Marshall and Dolores writhing together. Wendy starts towards the table but by the time she gets there he and Dolores have disappeared. He reaches out for Wendy, but The Assistant holds him back.  He pulls away in horror, then turns and runs.

He stumbles down a corridor and up a set of stairs.  He runs to Studio 4 and slows down when he sees The Fool sitting in a director’s chair, playing with a black chess piece.  The Fool places it on the table and makes it jump in a series of exaggerated loops, before dropping it on the floor.

Marshall stops in front of him.  The Fool is all too aware of the fate that awaits him and, wordlessly, points towards a door.  Marshall turns away, a dead man walking.  He runs to the Woodchip Trailer Park.  He dances in the clearing, hurling his body through the air and into the ground over and over again, in anguished guilt.

Wendy enters and Marshall stops still.  He bumbles around, still feeling the effects of the drugs.  Reaching out to her, he falls to his knees.  He kisses her and pleads forgiveness, an absolute wreck of a man.  Wendy’s hands are around his face, as if she’s searching for something that will let her forgive him.  She holds him at arm’s length with pity and fury in her eyes.  She leads him to the top of a woodpile and they embrace.  ‘Diner' from the ‘Mulholland Drive’ soundtrack plays over the speakers as she takes something shiny from her belt and slams it into his gut.  He clutches his stomach and blood pours through his fingers.

Trivia

Like William and Mary, who have a son called ‘Christian Woods’, Wendy and Marshall have a child called ‘Chrissie Worth’.  Both these names are similar to ‘Christiane Woost’, the lover and victim of Johann Christian Woyzeck (the real Woyzeck).

Inside Wendy and Marshall’s trailer is a copy of ‘The Sandman’ with a note written by Marshall to Chrissie.  There’s also a scrapbook filled with images of death and destruction and mushroom clouds.  Each image is mirrored on the page opposite.  There’s a similar book in William and Mary’s home.

Marshall may be partly based on the character Joe Gillis, a down-and-out screenwriter who can’t pay his bills, in the film ‘Sunset Boulevard’.  In the movie, Joe is a kept man in a decaying mansion belonging to Norma Desmond, a possessive movie star.

References

Image credit: http://www.fluxmagazine.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Punch-Web-2.jpg