Eleuthéria
Page 15
They sit there gaping at the board
like two horses' asses and you' re
also there, even more of a horse 's
ass than they are, nailed to the
spot, disgusted, bored, worn-out,
filled with wonder at so much
stupidity. Up until the moment
when you can 't take it anymore.
Then you tell them, So do that, do
that, what are you waiting for, do
that and it's all over, we can go to
bed. It's inexcusable, it goes
against the most elementary
know-how, you haven't even met
the guys, but it's stronger than
you, it's either that or a fit. There
you have pretty much what's
happening to me. Mutatis
mutandis, of course. You get me?
GLAZIER
No. We are not playing chess.
AuDIENCE MEMBER It's this servant business that has
done us in. Your comic, what do
you call him - (He consults his
program) - Victor, he makes a
pretense of wanting to speak to us
and then into the wings he goes to
tell his paltry little tales to some
numbskull flunkey. No, no,
there 's a limit.
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1 45
GlAZIER
(To Jacques) You put up with
being treated in this way?
jACQUES
You need a manservant. Allow
him to have the soul of one.
GlAZIER
Wham ! (He covers his eye)
AuDIENCE MEMBER Such a lack of awareness -
GlAZIER
Ultimately you are tiresome, you
are truly tiresome . You understand nothing of what's going on .
You get here all frolicking and
rollicking, your pockets stuffed
full of solutions. But which ones?
For ten minutes you've been
chewing our ear off and we ' re still
waiting. Aside from your chess
story, which doesn ' t hang together, you still haven ' t said
anything that I myself haven ' t
already said a hundred times over,
and much better. You ' re disturbing us, that's all. You think he's
going to confide in you? Of
course not, you ' re hateful to him,
one more pain in the ass, no
more, no less. (He gets up, suddenly furious) But what did you
come here to do? Just when I was
in the midst of worming his secrets out of him ! Just when everything was going to work out! (He moves forward) Get the hell out
of here ! Get the hell out! (He
turns around at the sound of
1 46
SA.1UEL BECKETI
Victor getting up and clumsily
springing toward the door. The
Glazier makes a headlong dash,
catches Victor, lands him a slap,
leads him back to the bed, forces
him to sit down . To Victor) Bastard ! (He raises his hand. Victor
shrivels up)
AuDIENCE MEMBER Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Not like
that! Not like that!
GLAZIER
I ' m giving you the floor for the
last time. Then I ' m booting you
into the pit, with a kick in the ass,
in your thousand asses. Gladly!
Gladly!
AUDIENCE MEMBER That would be to let all hell break
loose.
GLAZIER
Well then, I ' ll let it break loose ,
hell, I mean . That will still be
better than your bleating like a -
like a season-ticket holder! (He
bends raging over Victor and
shakes him) Vermin ! Son of a
bitch ! Will you speak at last?
Speak! ( He lets him go all of a
sudden, collapsing on the bed)
Victor! (He takes his head in his
hands)
AuDIENCE MEMBER (He returns to his chair, leans
with his fingertips against its back
in an elegant stance) I will be
brief. I make out, in this racket,
two stances confronting each
ELEUTHERIA
1 47
other. I make them out dimly but
I do make them out. First (To the
Glazier) yours. About which I
cannot tell if it is moral, esthetic,
intellectual or whether it doesn ' t
stem quite simply from a kind of
taylorizing sentimentality, so
vague and entangled are your
references. And then that, much
simpler, of Dr. - (He consults his
program) - Dr. Piouk, who
seems to believe, in so far as he
knows French, that one turns away
from pain as necessarily and, let's
be fair, with as much blindness as
the butterfly from the darkness. I
say confronting each other, but
they don ' t even confront each
'
other. Set forth with vagueness,
with weariness, they coexist, if you
can call that coexisting, six of one
and half a dozen of the other, so
little does anybody give a damn.
And it's with that you are laying
claim to making this unfortunate
(Program) - this unfortunate
Victor a figure of farce. (He wipes
his forehead) But that's just the
tip of the iceberg. The awful thing
is that all the time you graze
something, oh I ' m not saying it's
important, but it could nonetheless make for our spending a
1 48
SAMUEL BECKETT
halfway decent evening. There's a
grazing, a grazing, and never a
touching, it's terrible . (Pause) By
the way, who put together this
flop? (Program) Beckett (he says
Bequet) , Samuel, Bequet, Bequet,
that's got to be a jew from
Greenland crossed with an
Auvergnat.
GLAZIER
Don 't know. Appears that he eats
his soup with a fork.
AUDIENCE MEMBER No matter. Pulp it. No, but seriously, this could have been really something. Imagine it with clearheaded types, fresh-sounding
mouthpieces, the two ways of life,
the two mainsprings, faith and
pleasure, faith in anything at all
and the least displeasure, and the
unfortunate who wants neither
one nor the other and who goes
to rack and ruin looking for
something different. I mean,
there we would have had ourselves a good laugh . Well then, go
to hell.
GLAZIER
You like states of affairs that are
straightforward and clear-cut,
preposterous and side-splitting.
AUDIENCE MEMBER And what about you?
GLAZIER
Oh me, you know, I ' m somebody
who doesn 't ask for a lot anymore .
My requirements are shrinking by
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1 49
the minute . The merest
streetlamp, just something to set
off the fog, and I ' ll go happy back
to nothingness.
AUDIENCE MEMBER Listen. Let's drop the subject of
what isn ' t and cannot be, unless
we take everything from the very
beginning. Let's view things as
they are .
You want -
GLAZIER
Let's view things as they are ! But
where have you been all your life?
On the Canebiere?
AuDIENCE MEMBER You want him to speak, yes or no?
GLAZIER
Well! that's an idea. I hadn ' t
thought o f that.
AUDIENCE MEMBER Let him tell us a little of what he
told that would-be music buff.
What do you think of that?
GLAZIER
Why, that's an idea of genius. (He
turns politely toward Victor, lifting
his beret) Excuse me, Monsieur.
(He taps his shoulder) Excuse me,
Monsieur, forgive me for interrupting your conversation , but if
you could summarize for us last
night's pronouncements, made in
the wings, under the sway of
alcohol, you would be doing us a
supremely good turn . (Attitude
increasingly humble and coaxing)
A whopping good turn !
AuDIENCE MEMBER You're going about it like an ass.
1 50
SAMUEL BECKETI
GlAZIER
( Going down on his knees, joining his hands) Monsieur! Monsieur! I entreat you ! Have pity, have pity for those who crawl
around in the darkness. ( He
makes a show of giving ear)
Quiet! You ' d think it was Pascal's
space . (He gets up dejectedly,
dusts off the knees of his trousers.
To the Audience member) You
see. (He reflects) I ' m leaving.
You're taking my place, aren ' t
you? Here with him, here ( Gesture toward the audience) with
them. Thanks in advance .
AUDIENCE MEMBER Why, you ' re mad ! Is it possible
you've forgotten? Or that you
haven't noticed? A thing that's
right before your very eyes!
GlAZIER
I am going back home, to
Crevecoeur-sur-Auge. Goodnight,
everybody. (He goes)
AUDIENCE MEMBER ( So forcefully that he coughs) He
is afraid of pain ! (The Glazier
turns around. Coughing fits) It's
you he said it to ! Imbecile! The
sole assertion that escaped him !
GlAZIER
You're exaggerating.
AUDIENCE MEMBER His one and only mistake - and
you don 't take advantage of it!
(He coughs frenziedly)
GlAZIER
Something went down the wrong
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1 5 1
way?
AUDIENCE MEMBER (Calming down) You'll be telling
me that it's no longer any use ,
that it's too late, that we 've lost
the match. It's possible. It doesn ' t
matter. I t ' s all you have left, a t the
point you' re at. You'll be telling
me that what's said under duress
has no value whatsoever as evidence. But it does, it does, whatever one says, one gives oneself away.
(Mme. Piouk rushes in)
MME. PIOUK
Andre ! Andre ! Qacques gets up)
My husband. You haven ' t seen my
husband?
GLAZIER
(To the Audience member) You
haven ' t seen her husband? No?
Me neither. (He looks under the
bed) He isn 't here , Madame.
MME. PIOUK
He didn ' t come !
AuDIENCE MEMBER Why, no, Madame. We were expecting him, even with a certain eagerness, and then we were told
that he ' d had an attack during the
night. Of the liver, no doubt. . . ? At
any rate , it matters little . An attack
of one sort or another. During the
night. So we concluded from this
that he would not be keeping his
appointment. (To the Glazier)
Am I right?
152
SAMUEL BECKETI
GlAZIER
I followed the exact same line of
reasomng.
MME. PIOUK
Yes, indeed. He is very ill. He had
to stay in bed, with ice packs, on
his forehead and on his - his
stomach. I left the room for a
moment - (She wrings her
hands) - miserable creature that
I am, but I couldn ' t do otherwise,
and when I went back in he wasn 't
there anymore ! He 'd gotten away!
Half-undressed! With no hat!
( Sobs) Andre ! With no hat! I
knew he was supposed to be
coming here this afternoon. So I
took a taxi. And he's not around !
GlAZIER
What a family!
AUDIENCE MEMBER ( Politely) But doubtless you've
quite simply gotten here before
him, Madame. Give him a little
time. He won 't be long.
MME. PIOUK
But he no longer knows what he 's
doing! It's dreadful !
AUDIENCE MEMBER ( Shocked) He no longer knows
what he's doing?
GlAZIER
You've been to your sister's, Madame?
MME. PIOUK
Violette? No. Why? You believe he
may have gone there?
GlAZIER
Seeing that he doesn 't know what
he's doing. (Pause) He perhaps
wanted to ask after her.
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1 53
MME. PIOUK
But he didn 't even know - yes,
he knew she was ill. I told him last
night. But he must have forgotten .
He ' d forgotten everything. He no
longer recognized me.
AtmiENCE MEMBER If he has forgotten everything, the
chances are slim that he ' ll be
coming here . Stop and think a
little, dear lady.
MME. PIOUK
But everything may have come
back to him ! All at once ! (The
Glazier's hysterical laughter. He
goes back and forth with wayward
gestures) What's to be done?
(This passage comes abruptly to
an end, as if overrun with a feeling of fatigue and fatuity. A silence. Gestures of helplessness, of indifference, shrugs. Even jacques
who has been within an inch of
saying, What if Madame were to
notify the police? , lifts up his arms
and drops them listlessly. Mme.
Piouk completely overcome . She
goes to the door, hesitates, turns
around, wants to speak, changes
her mind, exits. Foreboding that
the entire play could come to an
end in the same way)
jACQUES
Let me go .
GLAZIER
(To the Audience member) Does
anybody need him anymore?
AUDIENCE MEMBER I don 't.
1 54
SAMUEL BECKETI
GI.AZIER
(To Jacques) Then you may go.
jACQUES
(To Victor) Monsieur does not
wish for anything?
GI.AZIER
Go, go, go. Monsieur is without
wishes. Buzz off. Qacques hesitates, looks at Victor with sadness,
lifts up his arms, exits)
AUDIENCE MEMBER Come on . One last effort.
GI.AZIER
You think so?
VrcroR
I am thirsty.
AUDIENCE MEMBER What did he say.
GI.AZIER
That he's thirsty. (Pause) I don 't
these interruptions .. .
AUDIENCE MEMBER H e fears pain.
GI.AZIER
Ah yes. Maybe he was lying.
AUDIENCE MEMBER We 're going to find out.
GLAZIER
He can 't be tortured.
AUDIENCE MEMBER Why not?
GI.AZIER
It isn ' t done.
AUDIENCE MEMBER Since when?
GI.AZIER
I couldn 't.
AUDIENCE MEMBER Me neither.
GI.AZIER
Well then?
AUDIENCE MEMBER You'll find out. (He turns toward
the stage-box) Tchoutchi ! Come
along. (Tchoutchi comes down
onto the stage, steps forward with
a broad oriental grin) You understand. (Dilatation of grin) You
have the pincers. (Tchoutchi
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1 55
displays the pincers. To the Glazier) Fill him in .
GLAZIER
Victor! (He shakes him) You must
speak, right now.
VICTOR
What?
GLAZIER
You must explain yourself.
VICTOR
Explain what? I don ' t understand.
Go away. (A gesture from the
Audience member: Tchoutchi
moves forward)
GLAZIER
(To the Audience member) He's
Taoist?
AUDIENCE MEMBER Unremittingly.
GLAZIER
Ow! (Tchoutchi moves forward)
Victor! Wake up! This time it's
serious. Your nails are going to be
torn out. (To Tchoutchi) Isn ' t that
so?
TCHOUTCHI
All flewll llnaills to llstarllt with .
GLAZIER
(To Victor) You hear? A few n ails
to start with .
(Victor lifts his head, sees the
Chinaman , smiles at him, pinches
him, draws back in terror)
AUDIENCE MEMBER He understands.
GLAZIER
(He keeps a strong hold on Victor) Speak! (Tchoutchi moves
forward)
VICTOR
(Frantic) What? Speak of what? I
don ' t know how to speak. What
do you want from me? Murderers !
1 56
SAMUEL BECKEIT
AUDIENCE MEMBER (To the Glazier) Ask him some
questions.
GLAZIER
Repeat what you said to Jacques.
VICTOR
But I didn ' t say anything to him ! I
don 't know any more ! I forget!
What do you all have against me?
I haven't done anything to you!
Let me be !
AUDIENCE MEMBER It's vague. Well, it's beginning to
flow. (To Tchoutchi) By the way,
you have the catheter? (Tchoutchi
takes a broach out of his pocket
and displays it. Grin)
GLAZIER
It is true that he hasn 't done
anything to us.
AuDIENCE MEMBER His offense is not to have known
how to hide. Ask him some ques-
tions.
GLAZIER