by Martin Crimp
Gaveston
Dead man Mortimer –
what’ve you come to tell me, dead man Mortimer? –
the price of butter? – or is it the price of bread?
Mortimer
I’ve come for my property.
Gaveston
Oh? Oh? Property? Here’s your property.
Take her.
He pushes Isabel towards Mortimer. Now the King notices the disturbance.
Singers
Where is my brother Jonathan?
King
Arrest this man. Stop the song. Stop the music.
I SAID STOP THE MUSIC NOW!
The onstage Singers stop.
I order the arrest of Mortimer.
No one moves.
I command you to listen to your king.
No one moves.
I command you to kneel down at my feet
and swear to me your obedience.
No one moves.
NO BUT YOU WILL SPARE ME GAVESTON.
SCENE FOUR
Palace: private apartment
The King alone, holding a letter.
Isabel enters.
Isabel
I’m cold.
I was dreaming.
Come and sleep.
King
I never sleep.
Isabel
I’m cold. Come and hold me.
King (reads)
‘And one man drove a sword
through his body
and another
beheaded him in a ditch.’
Isabel
You’re tired: come and sleep.
King
I couldn’t save him.
I couldn’t save him, Isabel.
Isabel
Stop now. Come and sleep.
King
Who have I ever harmed?
Isabel
I’m cold. Even my lips are cold. Why are my lips so cold?
Won’t you kiss me?
King
I could hold his hand –
like this –
steady like this – Isabel –
over a flame
and he would meet my eyes while his hand burned and burned over that same flame
and smile.
Isabel
Ah.
Isabel turns away from him.
Why should you love him – tell me –
still love him – tell me – whom all the world hates?
King
Because he loved me more than all the world.
But why have you turned away?
Isabel
Turned away?
King
Turned to the dark – yes – turned away from me.
Isabel
How have I turned to the dark?
King
To hide your face there in the dark.
Isabel
I haven’t turned to the dark.
King
Then show me your face.
Isabel
No.
King
Show me your eyes.
Isabel
No.
King
Isabel!
She turns back to him.
Isabel
Here is my face.
And here – look – are my tears.
What have I ever hidden?
No part of this body.
No part of my mind – not my opinions.
Not ever my love.
I’m not the one, my poor poor sweetheart
who has turned and turned
and keeps on deliberately turning to the dark.
King
I will break him.
I will break Mortimer open.
I will cut his living body into four –
Isabel
I am taking our son –
King
– will hunt out each associate of his crime –
Isabel
I am taking our son –
King
– smoke them out of their own homes –
drown whole cities in their blood –
Isabel
I said I am taking our son to Mortimer.
Only he can protect him. (Pause.) Don’t you see?
No reaction from the King.
Then stay in the dark.
Play king alone here in the dark.
We will leave you the box of toys.
She goes.
After a long pause, King goes back to the letter.
King (reads)
‘But he mocked them
and asked by whose authority he should die.
They said: that of Mortimer.
And Gaveston replied:
“Mortimer is a dog.
His snout is between the queen’s legs
and his breath smells of murder.”
So they bound his hands.
And one man drove a sword through his body
and …
and another …’
He breaks off, unable to go on reading.
Part Two
SCENE FIVE
Mortimer’s house.
Mortimer, Isabel and Boy. Later, the Madman.
The Girl is skipping.
Mortimer
D’you like dogs?
I’ll buy you a dog.
Or maybe you’d like a lion?
Would you like to be king
and keep lions?
Boy
My father
is king
Mortimer
Your father cannot be king –
he wants you to take his place.
Boy
I’m a boy.
I have no experience.
Mortimer
Your mother and I will advise you.
Boy
What kind of dog?
Isabel
A greyhound –
Mortimer
– yes an immaculate greyhound.
But first you must show us
you understand justice and can protect the people.
Boy
Oh?
Mortimer
Yes from decadence and terror. Let the man in.
Madman comes in.
This man is promoting revolution.
He claims to be king.
Madman
No not a claim but a totally true statement.
Isabel
Tell my son what it is you believe.
Madman
I believe I am king and demand to be heard.
Mortimer
Oh he demands. Test him.
Boy
What is your evidence?
Madman
I am told I am king not only by inheritance but by the will of the universe encoded in a bright pattern of stars.
Mortimer
Test him. Who told him?
Boy
Who told you you are king?
Madman
I was told by Felicity.
Boy
Who is Felicity?
Madman
Felicity has green eyes. Felicity is a cat.
Mortimer
Test him. I said you must test him.
Boy
My father is king.
And I will be king after him.
To claim to be king is – oh – don’t you see? –
unintelligent.
Mortimer
No – is a crime. Say it.
Boy
Is a crime.
Madman
No not a crime but a totally true statement.
Mortimer
And to make this claim
is to ask to be put to death. Say it.
Boy
But his mind’s not right.
Mortimer
Say it –
Isabel
– we need you to say it.
Madman
No I am of totally sound mind and I will destroy
this child and rule with my cat in pe
rpetual glory.
Isabel
He says he’ll destroy you.
Boy
But his mind’s not right. Mortimer – spare him.
Madman
I don’t ask to be spared I ask you to offer me
respect and obedience.
Mortimer (taking the Girl’s skipping rope)
We can offer you this rope.
Boy
No!
Madman
No not rope but respect and –
Boy
Be merciful!
Mortimer begins to strangle the Madman with the skipping rope.
Mortimer
Let one poisonous idea leak out into the world
and the whole world will be contaminated.
Look.
I said look at this clearly and learn.
Boy tries to bury his face in Isabel but Isabel – although disturbed – forces him to look.
Understand –
that when you are king –
there will be no room for one man’s love for another –
no room for madness –
or for disorder inside –
the machinery of the regulated world.
Madman dies.
Boy
Ah.
But mercy …
Mortimer
When a man will be cut into pieces and burned
a rope is mercy.
Boy
What kind of crown
will I have?
Mortimer
Your father’s true crown of gold.
Boy
Where is my father? –
Mortimer
Your father is safe.
Boy
– is he in prison?
Isabel
Take your sister into the garden please
and pick her a sweet apple.
The children go out.
Tell me: how will you take the crown?
Mortimer
In front of witnesses. By logical argument.
Isabel
And after that?
I said: and after that?
What are you, Mortimer?
Mortimer
I am a man.
Isabel
Then touch me.
SCENE SIX
Prison.
King, Mortimer, Witnesses.
Later, the Stranger.
King
Drumming – I can hear drumming.
What is it you want from me?
Mortimer
The crown.
King
Drumming – I can hear drumming.
Mortimer
Give me the crown and your son will be king.
King
Drumming – I can hear drumming.
Mortimer
Your son has been chosen king –
King (mocking)
My son has been chosen –
Mortimer
He needs the crown.
King
– and needs the crown.
Then show me my son.
Let me speak to my children!
Drumming – I can hear drumming.
Mortimer (to Witnesses)
Write this down:
he is unfit to rule.
Write he imagines drumming.
King
Oh – I am a bad person.
Oh I have turned to the dark –
And the man I chose as brother –
I could not save –
write that I could not save him –
Mortimer
Self-pity. Write nothing. The crown.
King
Yes I have let my own people starve –
have wept to exquisite music –
Mortimer
The crown –
King
– while the hay lay drowned.
Mortimer
– in front of these witnesses – the crown –
King
Yes I have broken my own country’s back
but I will never never let you
dead man Mortimer
take this crown.
King seizes Mortimer’s wrist.
What’s your opinion now
of the human body?
You and my wife –
are you a good fit?
When your tongue’s inside her
– Mortimer –
can you still taste the husband?
Mortimer frees himself.
Mortimer
Write – write this down –
that lechery –
that sodomy –
have decayed his mind.
That he degrades his own wife –
betrays his own son –
so the crown will pass out of his family
and never return.
Write what he said.
Write he is no one.
King
I am not no one.
Mortimer
Write that instead of a man this man has chosen to be nothing.
Mortimer makes to go.
King
Take it.
Take it, Mortimer – and commend me to my son.
Mortimer takes the crown and leaves with Witnesses.
Two Women remain.
Pause.
What do you want from me?
Women 1 and 2
There is a man waiting.
King
What man?
Women 1 and 2
He comes from Mortimer.
He brings you light.
King
Brings me what light?
Women 1 and 2
What shall we say to him?
King
Say to come in.
Stranger appears.
Women 1 and 2
This is the man.
King
Come forward into the light.
I know you’ve come to murder me.
Tell me your name.
Stranger
I am a person all the world hates.
I stand outside every door:
no one invites me in.
When pear-blossom opens in spring
I nod to the drum –
hum to the wooden flute:
but no one invites me to dance
on the green meadow.
King
Come forward into the light.
Stranger
Like you I’m king of a stone palace –
King
Tell me your name.
Stranger
– and like you I am always alone.
You know my name.
Stranger steps into the light.
King (without expression)
Gaveston –
Stranger
My name is not Gaveston –
King
I know you’ve been sent to murder me –
Stranger
My name is not Gaveston –
King
– will it be slow? – or sudden? –
Stranger
– you know my name.
King
Tell me my future –
Stranger
You know what my name is –
King
– how will I die? –
Stranger
– open your hand.
Stranger takes the King’s hand.
Pause.
Here – look – is the living king.
Naked in his cradle
he rattles the wood frame
and the world – oh the world comes running.
See how the whole line of his life
is tense with pleasure
as Fate unwinds from its oiled machine
one long silk thread –
King
But how will I die?
Stranger
– until here – look – the machinery spits blood –
King
I said how will I die?
Stra
nger
His wife cries out in the night for Mortimer.
King
I said tell me – tell me –
Stranger
His own child staggers up onto the throne now
as puppet-king and takes his own place
on the puppet-stage of History.
King
– how am I going to die?
Stranger
How?
Don’t you see:
The thread is already broken.
You are already dead.
King
No.
Long pause.
Why do I feel nothing?
Stranger
The dead can’t feel.
King
No.
Why is my mind blank?
Stranger
The dead
have no thoughts.
King
No. When
did I die?
Stranger
When
means nothing.
King
And how?
Was it murder?
Stranger
Murder – murder
means nothing.
King
No.
Make me feel.
Stranger
I can’t.
King
No.
Make me alive again.
Stranger
I can’t.
King
Hold my body over the fire
Gaveston.
Make me alive.
Stranger
My name
is not Gaveston.
King
Bind me to a metal rack.
Burn me.
Make me alive.
Stranger
The dead
cannot burn.
King
Love me.
Burn me.
Make me alive.
Stranger
The dead
cannot love.
King
Love me.
Bind me to a rack of hot metal.
Hold me –
burn me forever
in a crucible of fire.
SCENE SEVEN
Palace: a theatre.
The theatre as before, its curtain closed, and rows of empty chairs.
Isabel and the Boy – who is now the Young King – both in mourning.
Later, the audience.
Isabel
What is the music?
Young King
I have forbidden music.
Isabel
Then what is behind the curtain?
Young King
It is
an entertainment.
Isabel
Ah.
Pause.
Who will be invited to the entertainment?
Young King
Yes.
Who shall we invite?
My father?
Isabel
Don’t play.
Young King
This is not play.
