The Odyssey: A Stage Version
Page 5
ALCINOUS
The more outlandish your tales, the more they’ll please us.
NAUSICAA
My father loves stories, he rewards their singers.
ODYSSEUS
Devious Odysseus, divisive Odysseus.
SECOND COURTIER
Did you know him?
ODYSSEUS
In Troy, that’s what he was known as.
ALCINOUS
Troy’s wind has touched every island with its ashes.
FIRST COURTIER
You’ll do well singing about him, eh, Phemius?
NAUSICAA
You know his stories?
ODYSSEUS
That liar Odysseus?
SECOND COURTIER
Tell us his stories, stranger.
ODYSSEUS
In a sailor’s prose?
THIRD COURTIER
As blind as he is, he’ll stitch them into one song.
FIRST COURTIER
His lines can hum like a succession of arrows.
SECOND COURTIER
Or combers that crest from the shale, horizon-long.
FIRST COURTIER
They are like huge oars lifting, the heft of his lines.
THIRD COURTIER
Thudding like lances on to the heart of this earth.
SECOND COURTIER
He baffles augurs. He can hear the bird’s designs.
FIRST COURTIER
He can smell the smoke of Troy, and that’s far enough.
ALCINOUS
He can feel the truth. The way blind men sense the wind.
PHEMIUS
What lasts is what’s crooked. The devious man survives.
ALCINOUS
Why’d you say that, Phemius? Because you’re blind?
PHEMIUS
That’s the way with tears. Crooked streams join their rivers.
ALCINOUS
Why has it taken so long to reach your kingdom?
NAUSICAA
You’ve found no mercy from the sea, make this your shore.
ODYSSEUS
No wanderer ever had a warmer welcome.
NAUSICAA
Tell us his enchantments.
ODYSSEUS
You’ve heard of Calypso?
LISTENERS
Yes.
ODYSSEUS
Her marble arms entombed him for seven years.
NAUSICAA
What kind of a woman was she? I know. Soft, but stern.
ODYSSEUS
Odysseus couldn’t recognize Odysseus.
NAUSICAA
Most women who look like statues have hearts of stone.
ODYSSEUS
Foam girdles the waist of her island with white lace.
FIRST COURTIER
Nausicaa’s blushing, look.
NAUSICAA
I’m not. Don’t stop for me.
ALCINOUS
She’s Atlas’ daughter. What do they call the place?
ODYSSEUS
Like her dimpled white mound: the Navel of the Sea.
ALCINOUS
Return us to her island. Now that you’re healing.
ODYSSEUS
A cave’s blue entrance: alabaster, porphyry.
NAUSICAA
I’m sealing my eyes.
ODYSSEUS
Waves of light on its ceiling.
NAUSICAA
I hear a spring chuckling like a woman, softly.
ALCINOUS
You’re too young for all of this, you’ve imagined enough.
ODYSSEUS
No, let her learn not to exploit her innocence.
NAUSICAA
Two bodies tangled in linen as white as surf.
ODYSSEUS
O Nymph, let your freshness salt and cure all my sins!
ALCINOUS
Was enchantment hidden in the island itself?
ODYSSEUS
In her and the island. One cleft of flesh, one of stone.
NAUSICAA
Soon I’ll have the power to make grown men dissolve.
ALCINOUS (To NAUSICAA)
Girl!
(To ODYSSEUS)
They claim she tames fierce creatures, not men alone.
ODYSSEUS
Lions purr under her palm, wolves flatten their ears.
ALCINOUS
And those wild beasts prowled the door of light from her cave?
ODYSSEUS
They growled when thoughts of home clouded Odysseus.
FIRST COURTIER
But didn’t he find delight in her happy grave?
ODYSSEUS
No. He sank into a sadness no flesh could cure.
FIRST COURTIER
Sadness?
ODYSSEUS
Longing for his island. She heard him weep.
NAUSICAA
Even while she oiled his body and brushed his hair?
ODYSSEUS
Leopards with lantern-eyes guarded their sleep.
NAUSICAA
Now she adores a mortal. Unhappy goddess!
ODYSSEUS
So she helps him build a tree-raft, fastened with vines.
NAUSICAA
He leaves?
ODYSSEUS
He leaves one dawn, when clouds open their doors.
PHEMIUS
Our bodies long for their far shore, this raft of veins.
ALCINOUS
Yet he stayed there, cloud-pillowed, for seven years her guest.
FIRST COURTIER
How could a mere mortal break from immortal arms?
ODYSSEUS
Because that beach was shadowed by another’s ghost.
FIRST COURTIER
Whose?
ODYSSEUS
His wife’s. The raft is ready. That moment comes.
(Silence.)
ALCINOUS
Now?
ODYSSEUS
The goddess offers godhead. He refuses.
FIRST COURTIER
He declines immortality? God! Tell us why!
ODYSSEUS
He longs for his own rock, too stony for horses.
FIRST COURTIER
Over heaven?
ODYSSEUS
It seemed natural. Men love, then die.
FIRST COURTIER
But his name, Odysseus, rivetted in stars!
ODYSSEUS
He prefers to kindle the lamps of his own house.
PHEMIUS
And that house will be the lamp by which his raft steers.
NAUSICAA
Monsters, more monsters! Let’s have monster stories.
ODYSSEUS
You beg for what he’d rather forget. Well. Monsters.
ALCINOUS
Tonight you’ll curl in clean linen, the shell of sleep.
NAUSICAA
You’ll smell rain in the earth, and when the hillsides shine
ALCINOUS
You’ll see purple vineyards laddering every slope.
NAUSICAA
Then, our marriage-cart, drawn by nodding white oxen.
ODYSSEUS (Laughing)
Whoa! Whoa! Not so fast! You deserve a good husband.
NAUSICAA
There’s a ‘but’?
ODYSSEUS
How’ll I explain it to my wife?
(Laughter.)
NAUSICAA
Tell her you met me and were swept overboard and …
ODYSSEUS
That’s true.
NAUSICAA
Wouldn’t she be happy that I saved your life?
ALCINOUS
She’s a smart girl but a bit too fresh for her age.
NAUSICAA
Goddesses can be so vulgar! Caves made of gems!
ALCINOUS (To PHEMIUS)
Listen, poet, and let your eyes seal each image.
NAUSICAA
Remember you heard them at the Phaeacian games.
ODYSSEUS
Sir, the truths I will tell are too full o
f horrors.
NAUSICAA
We idle in the sun. We never have nightmares.
ALCINOUS
Let’s all move to another room to hear these stories.
ODYSSEUS
Some might redden the innocent shells of her ears.
NAUSICAA
Oh, please, please, begin your stories! You’ve a lot to gain.
ODYSSEUS
Then imagine an iron island. Sunless. Cold.
NAUSICAA
I’m shivering.
ODYSSEUS
The future is where we begin.
NAUSICAA
Is this just a dream?
ODYSSEUS
No. A place where dreams are killed.
(All exit, except BILLY BLUE, still as PHEMIUS, and three COURTIERS.)
FIRST COURTIER
You can build a heavy-beamed poem out of this.
SECOND COURTIER
It will ride time to unknown archipelagoes.
PHEMIUS
I heard that voice at Troy. This is Odysseus.
THIRD COURTIER
Why lie about it? Natural cunning, I suppose.
(They exit.)
MARTIAL CHORUS (Off)
To die for the eye is best, it’s the greatest glory:
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
There is no I after the eye, no more history,
Except his own, Odysseus. This was his first story:
A sea, like lead, heavy as time’s weight in water,
And a sullen harbour, eternally overcast.
Not a seabird beating, a thousand years in the future,
Time, altering the bodies where they were encased.
SCENE VIII
A long, grey, empty wharf. A sheep’s carcass, gutted, hanging from a pole. An oil drum rolls on, chased by the PHILOSOPHER, who rummages in the contents of the drum. ODYSSEUS, EURYLOCHUS and two SAILORS enter.
EURYLOCHUS
This is frightening, sir. What kind of city is this?
FIRST SAILOR
Like one long Sabbath, an infinite, empty wharf.
(The PHILOSOPHER runs towards them.)
PHILOSOPHER
History’s repeated! A second Odysseus!
ODYSSEUS
Stop!
PHILOSOPHER
Wanderer, you’ll need advice.
FIRST SAILOR
Listen, buzz off!
PHILOSOPHER
They praised you once, Odysseus, forbidden phantom!
ODYSSEUS
Sir, none of my virtues is nobler than all men’s.
PHILOSOPHER
Well, now you hear to what quiet a country can come.
EURYLOCHUS
Apart from this bleating of sheep herded in pens.
FIRST SAILOR
Sir, everywhere there’s the sign of this giant eye!
PHILOSOPHER
A man becomes nothing at that Zero’s bidding.
ODYSSEUS
Is this the Greece that I loved? Is this my city?
PHILOSOPHER
Philosophy’s cradle, where Thought is forbidden.
ODYSSEUS
Can I see the Eye?
PHILOSOPHER
No, rather the Eye sees us.
EURYLOCHUS
The Eye’s their shepherd, and the nation are his sheep?
PHILOSOPHER
Return to that age of heroes, Odysseus!
ODYSSEUS
I’d like to see this monster. Does it ever weep?
PHILOSOPHER
No.
ODYSSEUS
And the wall?
PHILOSOPHER
Erected to keep us in pens.
ODYSSEUS
So this city is nothing but a giant cave?
PHILOSOPHER
With History erased, there’s just the present tense.
ODYSSEUS
I breach walls.
PHILOSOPHER
For a freedom that men dare not crave?
(Distant sound of a parade over the roofs of the city. Sings along.)
Listen.
What to the eye is best, the greatest glory?
Dulce et decorum est – to die for a lie with zest –
Pro patria mori.
EURYLOCHUS
There is no art, no theatre, no circuses even?
PHILOSOPHER
This is the era of the grey colonels. Grey rain.
EURYLOCHUS
So one cold eye is all these Greeks know of heaven?
PHILOSOPHER
Their statues weep with grime over history’s ruin.
ODYSSEUS
EURYLOCHUS, SHAKE ME! WAKE ME UP FROM THIS DREAM!
(Sound of a huge door closing.)
EURYLOCHUS
The cave is blocked. We can’t leave, Captain Odysseus.
PHILOSOPHER
The future happens. No matter how much we scream.
(Sound of boots over cobbles, two PATROLMEN in sheepskin coats enter, carrying chains.)
FIRST SAILOR
The Eye has found us.
PHILOSOPHER
Bay! Obey! Do what it says.
FIRST PATROLMAN
Do not talk to this one. He has slandered the Eye.
PHILOSOPHER
My turn has come.
SECOND PATROLMAN
By the way, what is your name, sir?
(The PHILOSOPHER is seized.)
PHILOSOPHER
My name is Socrates Aristotle Lucretius. Philosopher.
(He is marched up against a wall, clubbed, then held upright.)
FIRST PATROLMAN
Lower your heads, you sheep! The Great Shepherd is here.
(The door opens and the CYCLOPS slowly approaches. Sound of cheering crowds, distantly.)
PHILOSOPHER (Recites)
Yet I was one among many thousands in the square,
But always too late, too far at the back to see
The smiles of the tiny faces on the balcony.
Those in front with the caps, braids and medals, and those at the rear
In coats and identical hats who didn’t wave
Like the central one, turning both profiles repeatedly
Into a coin or a postage stamp. I had to be there
With the roaring victims who craned or held up children
And yelped and jumped high like dogs that you are training
In that boxed, crammed square that felt like a mass grave
To a drifting smell of formaldehyde or adrenaline,
Learn what I remember, that someday it could save.
But I swear, on my grave, now that it’s all over,
And the square and the balcony empty, I was there, but I didn’t wave.
(The PATROLMEN remove him.)
Let the Greeks remember Odysseus the Brave!
(The CYCLOPS faces ODYSSEUS.)
CYCLOPS
Don’t stare.
ODYSSEUS
Sorry.
CYCLOPS
What is your name?
ODYSSEUS
Nobody.
CYCLOPS
Where’re you from?
ODYSSEUS
Nowhere.
CYCLOPS (Nodding)
Where’re you going?
ODYSSEUS
I don’t know.
CYCLOPS
Nobody.
From nowhere.
Going where he doesn’t know.
Normal.
No?
ODYSSEUS
Yes.
CYCLOPS
What do you believe in?
ODYSSEUS
Nothing. For now.
CYCLOPS
Nothing?
Not the Great Eye?
ODYSSEUS
Not yet.
CYCLOPS (Laughing)
Not yet?
Nyet.
Why not yet?
ODYSSEUS
I don’t know you.
CYCLOPS
I s
ee all.
Everything.
You believe I see all?
ODYSSEUS
No.
CYCLOPS
No?
ODYSSEUS
You don’t see anybody.
CYCLOPS
I see you.
ODYSSEUS
I’m Nobody.
CYCLOPS (Laughing)
So you said.
ODYSSEUS
All you see is nobody and nothing.
CYCLOPS
The Eye likes you.
ODYSSEUS
The ugliest thing is a liar. So you’re really ugly, sir.
CYCLOPS
Noooh?
How ugly am I?
(ODYSSEUS dances.)
ODYSSEUS
Man, you so ugly nobody would believe it.
CYCLOPS
Except you.
ODYSSEUS (Black accent)
I’m nobody, dude. You’re ugly, I believe it.
CYCLOPS (Roaring with laughter)
God, what accent is that? I’m going to die.
ODYSSEUS
Oh, you will, you will, boss.
CYCLOPS (Weeping with laughter)
Stop, you’re making me cry.
ODYSSEUS
Laughter and tears, right? Pouring from the one eye.
CYCLOPS
I’m exhausted. You’re funny. I’ll see you again.
ODYSSEUS
Not if I see you first, man.
CYCLOPS
You’re a killer, Nobody.
ODYSSEUS (Laughing)
Not as much as you, my man.
CYCLOPS
You’re coming to dinner.
ODYSSEUS
I thought I was dinner.
(The CYCLOPS exits, roaring with laughter. EURYLOCHUS and the two SAILORS get up and join ODYSSEUS.)
EURYLOCHUS
What do we do now? Think, Captain Odysseus!
FIRST SAILOR
You must have some ideas: you’re famous for scheming.
ODYSSEUS
Let me think, let me think. There’s some way out of this.
SECOND SAILOR
They’re coming back. Oh God! Let us all be dreaming!
(The PATROLMEN return.)
FIRST SAILOR
Come on, then. They need us. Don’t whimper, don’t bend.
EURYLOCHUS
Generations of men, like seeds flung on the wind.
(ODYSSEUS obstructs a PATROLMAN.)
ODYSSEUS
Listen, the Cyclops likes me, sir, I’m his good friend.
FIRST SAILOR
Oh God, sir! Oh God, please, Captain.
ODYSSEUS
Leave him behind!
(The SAILORS and EURYLOCHUS are removed.)
SCENE IX
A dinner table. Night. ODYSSEUS and the CYCLOPS eating, attended by RAM, a manservant.
CYCLOPS
Know what you’re eating? Your men. As good as sheep.
(ODYSSEUS pauses, eats.)
ODYSSEUS
And you know what they call these drops from my eyes? Tears.
(He stops eating.)
CYCLOPS
My eyes cloud when I laugh. You must teach me to weep.
ODYSSEUS
Well, first you must lose things you loved.
CYCLOPS
Then cry, like this?
(He squeezes his eye shut.)