Swamped

The thief keeps staring into the audience, looking befuddled. At one point, Arthur has to give them a nudge to get them to say a line.

Perhaps this is one of the newer actors? An experienced member surely would have dealt with a hostile audience before.

You feel like the plot is getting worse, though. The robber and the mistress seemed to mainly be there for slapstick, but now Matilda's talking to them. Making a veiled job offer of some kind, you think. And you don't see why that's even in there - if she needs underlings in a later scene, they ought to have enough actors that there's no need to reuse these two.

You're more interested in what she's trying to do with Mackenzie, but that part of the scene feels like it's stalled. She dropped a little story about losing her title and having a plan to get it back, but it's not really clear what she wants from him. Besides money, obviously, which he's not really eager to spend.

Fortunately, that picks up a little after the pair have made clear they're accepting her offer. Matilda turns back to Mackenzie and gets straight to the point.