Gina even agrees to sleep with the cruel, elderly father of another tourist to keep the play intact. In one particularly cruel scene, Catherine, speaking in French, lays out the psychological landscape of the film in a monologue that is listened to by the wide-eyed Gina, who just wanted to hear a story in French and doesn't know what Gina's words mean. She's ridiculed and insulted, all the while believing that she's making a friend. As the film continues, cruelty becomes a pervasive theme. Instead of talking to one another, the tourists talk at one another through the play.
Marriages collapse and sexual tension leads to violence, as both food and water start to run out.
His motivations are never fully revealed, thus adding to his quiet mystique, but his actions are charitable. It is Henry who initiates the play rehearsals, and he directs his fellow survivors with a gentle hand. He would have been wise, however, to chose one of Shakespeare's comedies.