Writing for Nothing

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Writing for Nothing Page 12

by Martin Crimp


  Stage Direction Katie Mitchell

  Sets and Costumes Vicki Mortimer

  Lighting Director James Farncombe

  Movement Director Joseph Alford

  Characters

  King

  baritone

  Isabel, his wife

  soprano

  Gaveston

  his advisor and intimate friend

  doubling as

  Stranger

  baritone

  Mortimer

  his chief military expert

  tenor

  Boy, later Young King

  an adolescent, son of Isabel and King

  high tenor / haute-contre

  Witness 1 / Singer 1 / Woman 1

  high (coloratura) soprano

  Witness 2 / Singer 2 / Woman 2

  mezzo-soprano

  Witness 3 / Madman

  bass-baritone

  Also required (all silent roles)

  Young Girl, daughter of Isabel and King

  Other Witnesses

  Audience at Play, to a maximum of, say, twenty

  Part One

  SCENE ONE

  Palace: King’s Apartments.

  King, Mortimer, Gaveston, Isabel, the Boy and Girl.

  Mortimer

  It’s nothing to do with loving a man. It’s love full stop that is poison. The whole human body –

  King

  Yes – we hear you – love full stop –

  Mortimer

  And the money –

  King

  Always the money – always the human body –

  Mortimer

  – the money you spend –

  King

  – we will spend whatever we like –

  Mortimer

  The money you spend with Gaveston while people starve is unacceptable –

  King

  – Ah – ah – ‘with Gaveston’ – ‘unacceptable’ –

  Mortimer

  – yes when the price of bread –

  King

  Don’t bore me with the price of bread.

  Don’t block my mind with politics.

  Mortimer

  You are the king.

  King

  Then treat me – Mortimer – as king.

  Love me. Defer to me.

  Defer to my friend and advisor Gaveston.

  Let us spend money on poetry and music.

  Or would you rather we preferred for our entertainment

  human blood and the machinery of killing?

  Mortimer

  No one is talking about blood.

  King

  Oh? What? No one? –

  Mortimer

  Nor do I fight wars for my entertainment –

  King

  – Who is no one? Am I no one? –

  Mortimer

  – I fight to protect our people –

  King

  – I thought I was king.

  Who am I, Gaveston? – tell me.

  Gaveston

  King – you are king.

  King

  King – I am king.

  Don’t call me no one, Mortimer.

  Don’t go out into the world and call love poison.

  Love makes us human.

  Mortimer

  So does the need to kill.

  So – forgive me – does politics.

  King

  Do you want – Mortimer – to be me? –

  Mortimer

  I don’t understand.

  King

  – want to be me –

  take my wife – Mortimer –

  use my bed – Mortimer –

  murder and kill and take my crown?

  Because cities will burn and wherever you touch the immaculate surface of her skin your politics will leave streaks of my blood.

  But maybe – tell me – does Mortimer keep a cat?

  Takes Girl on his lap.

  They say there’s an insane person claiming to be king

  on evidence provided by his cat.

  Maybe his name is Mortimer.

  Mortimer

  I am loyal.

  King

  What did he say?

  Gaveston

  He said he is loyal.

  He claims not to have

  a cat.

  King

  He tells me my people are starving – but who have

  I ever harmed?

  Isabel

  No one. Yourself – sometimes.

  King

  Not you?

  Isabel

  Never.

  King

  You see: I am entirely innocent.

  And have I hurt Gaveston?

  Isabel

  Ask Gaveston.

  King

  Have I hurt you, Gaveston?

  Gaveston turns away.

  I ASKED YOU A QUESTION ANSWER ME.

  Gaveston

  Not when you grip my neck.

  Not when you hold my right hand deliberately over a flame.

  Not even when you have forced me to swim in winter under the dull grey ice till my lungs are beginning to split –

  Oh but when you let that man

  equate money with love and the whole human body

  with shame and bitterness –

  when he questions your right to be king –

  when his eyes move – look – like a sly animal’s over everything you own

  then I want to run at his throat with a steel razor –

  Take his property.

  Mortimer

  No – none of this is true.

  Gaveston

  Take Mortimer’s property.

  Take his house – take over his land. Punish him.

  Give me his rents.

  Remove from his finger that fat gold ring.

  Mortimer

  None of this is true.

  Isabel

  But Mortimer is our friend –

  King

  Yes Mortimer is our friend –

  Gaveston

  Mortimer – Mortimer – even the name means death –

  King

  Mortimer is our friend

  and is loyal and in his own cold way – believe me –

  Mortimer loves each one of us.

  Gaveston

  Then why in his own cold way when I take my hand

  and I place it here –

  place it like this –

  He takes the King by the throat perhaps – a gesture that suggests both violence and intimacy.

  – does he feel –

  look at his face –

  disgust?

  Tell me I’m wrong – dead man Mortimer.

  Isabel

  Tell him he’s wrong.

  Mortimer looks away.

  King

  Oh my poor friend Mortimer –

  from this moment you have no land –

  from today you will have no property.

  The clothes you are wearing

  you no longer own.

  And being now nothing

  you have no name.

  Isabel

  Don’t call him nothing.

  King

  I say that he has no name:

  do not contradict me, Isabel.

  I say he is nothing.

  I say that all I can see where Mortimer once stood

  is the black space of a collapsing star.

  Gaveston

  But I see the ring.

  King (to Boy)

  Ah. Sweetheart.

  Boy

  What is it

  Daddy?

  King

  Bring Gaveston the ring.

  Mortimer is impassive. The Boy struggles to remove the ring.

  Gaveston

  The boy needs a knife.

  Isabel

  No!

  King

  No violence please.

  Let ours be a regiment

  of tolerance and love.

  SCENE TWO
/>
  Palace: Isabel’s Apartments, some months later.

  Isabel, Mortimer, the Boy and Girl, and a number of Witnesses.

  Isabel

  Who are these people, Mortimer?

  They’re frightening my children.

  Mortimer

  I’ve travelled, Isabel.

  I wanted to see my country.

  I began in the mountains

  but there was nothing to eat but stone.

  So I came down to the spring meadow

  but in each refuge

  I found a shepherd with his throat cut

  and the clean bones of animals.

  In the foothills

  I dug for roots

  and lay for heat

  in the ash of burnt villages – but –

  closer – Isabel – to our own city

  I found these witnesses.

  And led them in secret

  here – Isabel – to your door.

  Isabel

  Why?

  Mortimer

  Listen.

  Isabel

  What is it she’s holding?

  Witness 2

  My husband died – forgive me –

  in your husband’s war –

  but then your husband gave our land –

  he gave away our home – he gave our property –

  to Gaveston.

  I came here with nothing but my body

  and sold it over and over – forgive me.

  I had a baby – oh forgive me – but my baby died

  and this is my baby’s ash.

  Since Gaveston has taken everything

  then I would like him to take my baby too.

  Yes – yes – here is my baby too. Take it.

  Isabel

  Keep her away – I am not Gaveston.

  My name’s not Gaveston – keep her away from me.

  Witness 1

  They say one jewel from Gaveston’s silver cup –

  one cut emerald –

  could’ve fed my whole dead family –

  Witness 2

  They say he’s magic and can predict the future.

  I hope his future

  is to be burned alive.

  Witness 1

  They say one night of the music

  for that man Gaveston –

  Isabel

  ‘They say’ – ‘they say’ – that’s not a witness –

  Witness 1

  – say just one night costs the same

  as one whole year of our labour –

  Isabel

  No there is no connection –

  Witness 1

  – one whole year of work –

  Isabel

  – no connection between our music and your labour.

  Mortimer

  Tell her what else the people say.

  Witness 3

  They say

  we know why

  the poor sleep three

  in a bed but

  why do

  the rich?

  Isabel (to Girl)

  Bring me a cup of vinegar.

  Pause.

  Listen – witnesses – I respect each one of you.

  I am a human being and a mother too.

  My body is forked like yours:

  it loves – and breaks –

  like a common criminal’s –

  with the same pain.

  But do not come here

  trying to put a price on music.

  She takes the cup of vinegar from the Girl.

  This – is acid –

  and this pearl …

  She takes a pearl from around her neck.

  … this pearl – you are right –

  would buy each one of you a house with fourteen rooms

  and beds and winter firewood but –

  the beauty of the pearl

  is not what the pearl can buy.

  The beauty of the pearl – like the slow radiance of music –

  is what the pearl is.

  Look.

  She drops the pearl into the vinegar.

  Fourteen rooms dissolve.

  And the whole winter stock of wood.

  The dull dreams of the average dreamer –

  money – property – burn away

  in the acid of of of

  of pure and inexchangeable value.

  And? – what? – which one of you will drink it?

  Maybe this one – this one – you – you – three in a bed –

  the slanderer!

  She tries to force Witness 3 to drink.

  Mortimer grabs her and knocks away the cup.

  Now give them all money and get them all out.

  The Witnesses go.

  Boy

  Why do the poor sleep

  three in a bed – Mummy?

  Isabel

  To keep warm – sweetheart.

  Boy

  And why – Mummy – do the rich?

  Isabel

  The man told a lie – sweetheart.

  Boy

  Why did the man tell a lie?

  Why did the man tell a lie – Mummy?

  Isabel

  Because he is poor and angry.

  Mortimer – tell me – what is it like to kill?

  Mortimer

  There is an art to killing – but no joy.

  Isabel

  What is it I should do?

  Mortimer

  Provide an entertainment.

  Empty Gaveston’s mind with music –

  and I can destroy him.

  Isabel

  No one must harm my husband.

  Mortimer

  No one will harm your husband –

  only Gaveston.

  What are you thinking, Isabel?

  Isabel

  Move away.

  The children are watching us.

  SCENE THREE

  Palace: a theatre.

  The theatre’s curtain is closed – empty chairs are set out for an audience.

  King and Gaveston.

  Later, Isabel, the Children, Singers 1 and 2, Mortimer.

  King seizes Gaveston by the wrist.

  King

  How can I love you?

  A man with the steel hand

  and sleepy smile of an assassin.

  Gaveston

  Yes I’m a human razor:

  take care or I’ll cut your throat.

  King

  You bite your fingernails like a boy does –

  the skin’s broken where you punched the wall –

  why did you punch the wall?

  Gaveston

  Love is a prison:

  I wanted to see daylight.

  King

  How can I love a man who calls love a prison? –

  who says he would cut my throat?

  How would you kill me, Gaveston? –

  would it be slow? –

  or sudden?

  Gaveston

  I’d only kill you for money.

  King

  For money? – kill me for money? – how much money?

  Gaveston

  How much would you pay me?

  King

  How long will it take to die? – I’ll pay you for every minute.

  Tell me my future, Gaveston.

  Gaveston

  Then open your hand.

  King opens his hand.

  King

  What can you see?

  Pause.

  Gaveston

  Here – look – is my baby king.

  He appoints ministers and sets villages alight

  even in his painted cradle –

  and his rattle is a box of emeralds.

  And here –

  – keep it still –

  – is his child bride Isabel.

  This same hand that now seals the instruction

  to sever a man’s head

  strips bare her silk body.

  Now your belovèd boy’s tor
n out of her –

  and another child –

  and this – look – shows how the children grow

  so fast does life move till already this line cutting across

  means war or fire or storm or crops burning –

  King

  Yes yes politics – but where –

  Gaveston

  – means Mortimer testing for Isabel

  the machinery of killing –

  King

  – Mortimer – machinery –

  but where is my future? –

  where is my brother Gaveston?

  Gaveston

  You know where I am:

  inside your life.

  I’ve no life out of it.

  I live where you are looking:

  in the hard palm of your hand.

  Isabel enters with the two children.

  Behind them, the audience for the performance, who come and sit in the chairs.

  Isabel

  Please everyone – be seated.

  Gaveston

  What is the music, Isabel?

  Isabel

  The killing of Saul

  and of Jonathan his son.

  Gaveston

  I don’t like killing – neither will your children.

  Isabel

  A child knows it’s normal to kill our enemies –

  but this will be David’s lament: there is no violence.

  King has taken his place in front row of the audience, with his children beside him.

  Gaveston

  I have no enemies.

  Isabel

  Please – sit next to me.

  Gaveston

  Won’t you sit with your husband.

  Isabel

  I am closer to my husband

  Gaveston

  the closer I am to you.

  As they sit together in the back row of the audience, the onstage curtain goes up to reveal two female Singers, exquisitely dressed.

  Singers

  And David said:

  where is my brother?

  where is my brother Jonathan?

  ‘They fastened his body’

  – said the messenger –

  ‘to the wall of Beth-shan.’

  Where is my brother?

  where is my brother Jonathan?

  Gaveston

  Oh how very beautifully they sing –

  Isabel

  You have tears in your eyes –

  Singers

  They took down his body to be burned.

  Isabel

  – is it too tight?

  Gaveston

  Is what?

  Isabel

  The ring, the ring –

  is Mortimer’s ring too tight for your finger?

  Don’t move away from me – no –

  sit close sit close to me Gaveston sit closer –

  Singers

  And David said:

  where is my brother?

  oh where is my brother Jonathan?

  But Gaveston stands when he sees Mortimer staring at him from the edge of the space. Members of the onstage audience stand around him as if to block an escape. The Singers continue.

 

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