Brian Friel Plays 2

by Brian Friel

  Pavel All right, Prokofyich, we hear you.

  Nikolai Did you hear the news?

  Pavel I think so, Nikolai.

  Nikolai Arkady has arrived from Petersburg. Wonderful! Where’s Piotr? Piotr! Somebody help him with the luggage. Go and meet him, Pavel, (to Fenichka) He’ll probably want something to eat, won’t he? Everything’s in such confusion. This is no welcome. Piotr! I’m really going to have to reprimand that young scamp.

  General confusion and excitement. Prokofyich rushes off left. Dunyasha rushes on and picks up her basket.

  Dunyasha (privately to Fenichka) He has a friend with him! Get out your smelling-salts! O sweet Saviour!

  Fenichka Take the pram inside, Dunyasha, will you?

  Dunyasha Wait till you see him! A dark god! Jesus, could this be my lucky day?!

  Pavel Who is he bringing with him, Nikolai?

  Nikolai Dunyasha, tell Piotr I want him – immediately!

  She dashes off with the pram and basket.

  Yes, he’s bringing a friend with him – a young man called – called – I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten, Pavel. I’m really going to sack that boy.

  Arkady enters.

  Ah! There he is! Arkady! Arkady!

  Arkady Father! How are you!

  Father and son embrace with great warmth. Already Arkady is beginning to resemble his father. Prokofyich, cases in his hands, stands in the background and beams.

  Nikolai Welcome home! Welcome home, graduate!

  Arkady Thank you.

  Nikolai Let me look at you. You’re different. Have you lost weight? You’re altogether different. Have you eaten? You’re pale – that’s it – you’re very pale –

  Arkady All that study and all those exams. What I need is a long rest. Uncle Pavel!

  Pavel Welcome back, Arkady.

  Arkady It’s great to see you.

  They embrace warmly.

  And … Fenichka. It is Fenichka, isn’t it?

  Fenichka It is.

  Nikolai Of course it is.

  Arkady Indeed. Good to see you, Fenichka.

  Fenichka And you, Arkady.

  They shake hands and she leaves.

  Nikolai Prokofyich usually drives so slowly, we didn’t expect you until much later. Had you a good journey?

  Arkady It was all right. I’ve brought a friend with me, Father.

  Nikolai You mentioned that in your last letter. Great.

  Arkady His name is Bazarov.

  Nikolai Wonderful. We’ll have a full house again. And wait till you see your bedroom – we’ve had it all repapered. Pavel chose the colour scheme.

  Pavel That was a major row.

  Nikolai No, it wasn’t – was it?

  Pavel A minor row.

  Arkady His name is Bazarov – Yevgeny Vassilyich Bazarov. I would like you to make him very welcome.

  Nikolai Naturally we’ll make him very welcome. Won’t we, Pavel?

  Arkady Our friendship is very important to me.

  Pavel Did he graduate, too?

  Arkady Next year. He’s doing natural science and medicine. He’s probably the most brilliant man I’ve ever met.

  Nikolai Well, the brilliant Bazarov is every bit as welcome as you are … well, almost.

  Arkady Would you go and meet him, Uncle Pavel?

  Pavel (to Arkady) See? Still the message-boy. Plus ça change …

  Pavel goes off and Prokofyich is about to follow him.

  Nikolai And isn’t Prokofyich looking well?

  Arkady Prokofyich never changes. Thank you for picking us up.

  Prokofyich My pleasure. We’ll go out looking for birds’ nests tomorrow morning.

  Arkady First thing. We’ll show Bazarov all the good spots.

  Prokofyich Maybe you and I should go by ourselves first and then we –

  Pavel (off) Prokofyich!

  Prokofyich Coming, sir. (to Arkady) It’s good to have you back, Arkady.

  Arkady Thank you.

  Prokofyich exits left.

  Bird-nesting! He thinks I’m still a schoolboy.

  Nikolai In a way so do I.

  Arkady And I deliberately mentioned Bazarov because they didn’t get on very well on the journey. Prokofyich prefers the old ways, the old formalities. (He embraces his father again.) It’s great to see you, Father.

  Nikolai Thank you.

  Arkady And you’re looking very fresh.

  Nikolai Fresh? At my age?

  Arkady And so is Uncle Pavel. What’s he doing with himself these days?

  Nikolai Oh, you know Pavel – killing time, as he says himself – walking – reading – (whispering) going to his English tailor and his French barber – thinking his own very secret thoughts … (after a quick look round) Arkady, there’s one little matter before the others join us – I’m really a bit embarrassed mentioning it –

  Arkady It’s about Fenichka.

  Nikolai Shhh. How did you know?

  Arkady Intuition.

  Nikolai Yes, it’s about Fenichka. You know Fenichka, don’t you? What am I talking about – of course you do! Well, as you know, Arkady, I’ve been very fond of her for a long time now. Her mother was the best housekeeper we ever had here and Fenichka has taken on those responsibilities with great assurance and skill, considering she’s only twenty-three, just a year older than yourself; so I’m old enough to be her father, too, amn’t I? Ha-ha. Anyhow, as I say, I’ve been very attached to her for a long time now; and indeed I have asked her – I have insisted – that she move out of that damp flat above the laundry and come into the main house. And I mention this now, Arkady, partly because I – I – because she’s afraid you might … well, disapprove of her.

  Arkady I might disapprove of Fenichka?

  Nikolai I hope you don’t mind too much, Arkady.

  Arkady Mind? Why in God’s name should I mind?

  Nikolai Well, because … well, I just thought that … Anyhow, anyhow, the real reason I brought her into the house – and I want you to know that I do, I do care very much for the girl, Arkady – I thought it only proper and correct that she ought to be in the house after – (Pause.) – she’d had the baby.

  Arkady Baby?

  Nikolai Hers and mine.

  Arkady You mean –?

  Nikolai A boy.

  Arkady You and –?

  Nikolai Six months old.

  Arkady I have a new brother.

  Nikolai Half-brother.

  Arkady Half-brother.

  Nikolai Mitya.

  Arkady Mitya.

  Nikolai Mitya. Now you know it all. Actually he’s the image of me.

  Arkady suddenly laughs, throws his arms around his father.

  Arkady Father, that is the best news ever!

  Nikolai Is it?

  Arkady Of course it is! You’re a sly old rascal but I think you’re great. Congratulations!

  Nikolai You’re not angry?

  Arkady Angry? For God’s sake, Father, I’m delighted for you!

  Nikolai Thank you, son. Thank you. We’ll not talk about it before Pavel. I’m not sure he quite approves of the whole thing. You know Pavel with his silly notions of class and public decorum.

  Pavel and Bazarov enter left.

  We can talk later.

  Bazarov, a student, dark, lean, intense. He senses that he is an outsider politically and socially in this house – hence the arrogance and curt manner.

  Arkady There he is! Come on, Bazarov! Come over here. Uncle Pavel you’ve obviously met – Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov. And this is my father, Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. Yevgeny Vassilyich Bazarov.

  Bazarov bows formally.

  Nikolai You are most welcome to this house, Yevgeny Vassilyich. I hope you can stay with us for most of the summer and I hope you don’t find us very dull company.

  Pavel Do you remember a Doctor Bazarov in Father’s old division? That’s his father, he tells me.

  Nikolai Really? My goodness, it’s a small … it’s a …

  Pav
el Extraordinaire, n’est ce pas?

  Nikolai Indeed. And you’re going to be a doctor, too? Great. Splendid. Sit down. Sit down. You must be tired after your journey.

  Bazarov I’d prefer to stand.

  Nikolai Of course. Stand. Naturally. Stretch your legs. By all means – stand … Now to organize our lives. Let’s have tea out here. Then you young men can have a rest and we’ll eat about seven o’clock. All right? Piotr! He deliberately hides on me, you know. It’s gone far beyond a joke. Dunyasha! Oh, you’ve no idea how difficult things are becoming. I’m not exaggerating, Pavel, am I? The old system – of course it had its failings. But now? – now I give all my land to the peasants to farm – give it to them. Will they even farm it for themselves? I wish you’d take an interest in it all, Arkady. It’s becoming too much for me at my time of – sorry, (to Dunyasha) Ah, Dunyasha. Bring the samovar out here.

  Pavel Cocoa for me, s’il vous plaît.

  Nikolai And a bottle of that black sherry in the sideboard. The young men may wish to – to – to dissipate!

  Dunyasha is staring at Bazarov.

  Arkady Do you wish to dissipate, Bazarov? We would love to dissipate, Father.

  Nikolai Dunyasha!

  Dunyasha Sorry, sir?

  Nikolai Black sherry. In the sideboard. And glasses.

  She goes into the house.

  What’s the matter with that girl? And how is your father, Yevgeny Vassilyich?

  Bazarov looks blankly at him. Pause.

  Your father – is he well?

  Bazarov I suppose so. I haven’t seen him for three years.

  Nikolai He has been away – has he? – travelling?

  Bazarov Not that I know of.

  Nikolai Ah.

  Bazarov I haven’t seen him for three years because I haven’t been home since I went to the university.

  Silence.

  Arkady (quickly) Let me tell you about this character. He won the gold medal for oratory again this year – the third year in succession.

  Nikolai Wonderful!

  Arkady And he is also – (to Bazarov) – no, don’t try to stop me – he is also president of the philosophical society and editor of the magazine. It’s an astonishing radical publication – the college authorities banned both issues this year! We were brought before the disciplinary council – remember? ‘Revolutionaries! Damned revolutionaries!’

  Nikolai Oratory is an excellent discipline; excellent. I approve very strongly of – of – of – of oratory.

  Pavel On what do you … orate?

  Bazarov Politics. Philosophy.

  Pavel They have something in common, have they?

  Arkady Come on, Uncle Pavel. You know they have.

  Pavel (to Bazarov) And your philosophy is?

  Arkady Nihilism.

  Pavel Sorry?

  Arkady Nihilism, Uncle Pavel. Bazarov is a Nihilist. So am I.

  Nikolai Interesting word that. I imagine it comes from the Latin – nihil – nothing. Does it mean somebody who respects nothing? No, it doesn’t.

  Arkady Someone who looks at everything critically.

  Pavel If there’s a difference.

  Arkady There’s a significant difference, Pavel. Don’t be so precious.

  Pavel Me? – precious? Good Lord.

  Arkady Nihilism begins by questioning all received ideas and principles no matter how venerated those ideas and principles are. And that leads to the inevitable conclusion that the world must be made anew, (to Bazarov) That’s a fairly accurate summary of our stance, isn’t it?

  Bazarov shrugs indifferently and spreads his hands.

  Pavel So you believe only in science?

  Arkady We don’t believe in anything. You can’t believe in science any more than you can believe in the weather or farming or swimming.

  Nikolai I can tell you farming isn’t what it used to be. In the past five years, the advances I’ve seen in farming techniques –

  Arkady I wish you would stop trying to divert me with your juvenile asides, Father.

  Nikolai I am sorry.

  Pavel A simple question: if you reject all accepted principles and all accepted precepts, what basis of conduct have you?

  Arkady I don’t understand what the simple question means.

  Pavel On what basis do you conduct your life?

  Arkady If something is useful – keep it. If it is not useful – out it goes. And the most useful thing we can do is repudiate, renounce, reject.

  Pavel Everything?

  Arkady Everything without use.

  Pavel All accepted conventions, all art, all science?

  Arkady What use are they? Out.

  Pavel Civilization has just been disposed of, Nikolai.

  Nikolai But surely, Arkady, surely rejection means destruction; and surely we must construct, too?

  Arkady Our first priority is to make a complete clearance. At this point in our evolution we have no right to indulge in the gratification of our own personal whims.

  Nikolai I don’t think I had whims in mind, Arkady.

  Arkady At times it’s difficult to know what you have in mind, Father.

  Pavel And when do you begin to preach this gospel publicly?

  Arkady We’re activists. We aren’t preachers, are we, Bazarov? We are not going to –

  Pavel Aren’t you preaching now? (to Nikolai) This is all nonsense; weary old materialistic nonsense I’ve heard a hundred times.

  Arkady We know there is starvation and poverty; we know our politicians take bribes; we know the legal system is corrupt. We know all that. And we are tired listening to the ‘liberals’ and the ‘progressives’ –

  Pavel So you have identified all society’s evils –

  Nikolai Let him finish, Pavel.

  Pavel I would prefer Yevgeny Vassilyich would do his own talking, (to Arkady) But you intend to do nothing constructive yourselves?

  Bazarov We intend to do nothing constructive ourselves.

  Pavel Just abuse people who do.

  Bazarov Just abuse people who do.

  Pavel And that’s called Nihilism.

  Bazarov And that’s called Nihilism. Is this riveting discussion nearly over?

  Pavel Incroyable! Let me see have I got it right –

  Nikolai I’m sure you’ve got it right, Pavel. Let’s leave it for now.

  Pavel First our saviours will demolish the country and then they will remake the country. But suppose some simple person were to suggest that our saviours were just bletherskites – gold-medal bletherskites?

  Bazarov My grandfather was a serf, Pavel Petrovich. I believe I have some knowledge of the Russian people.

  Pavel I’m sure you have a very –

  Bazarov Indeed I believe I have at least as accurate and as sympathetic an understanding of their needs and of their mute aspirations as those absurd provincial aristocrats who affect English clothes and English customs; who believe they are civilized just because they speak cliché French; who talk endlessly about Mother Russia but who sit on their backsides and do sweet nothing for the ‘bien public’ as they call it.

  Pavel I suspect you’re deliberately trying to –

  Bazarov Words that come so easily to lips like yours – liberalism, progress, principles, civilization – they have no meaning in Russia. They are imported words. Russia doesn’t need them. But what Russia does need – and action will provide it, Pavel Petrovich, action, not words – what Russia does need is bread in the mouth. But before you can put bread in the mouth, you have got to plough the land – deep.

  Nikolai He’s right, you know: ploughing is a very important part of the farming cycle, (to Arkady) Sorry. I didn’t –

  Pavel So the two of you are going to reform Russia.

  Bazarov Remake Russia. Yes.

  Pavel By force?

  Bazarov (shrugging) If necessary.

  Arkady All that’s needed is a few people with total dedication. It was a penny candle that burned Moscow down, Uncle Pavel.


  Nikolai That’s quite true, you know.

  Pavel For God’s sake, Nikolai, you know nothing about it!

  Nikolai I beg your pardon, Pavel – it was a penny candle burned Moscow down. That is an historical fact. Father was able to quote chapter and verse on it.

  To Fenichka and Dunyasha, who have entered with a tray and samovar.

  Ah! Fenichka! Good! Great! Splendid! And beautifully timed – just when we had all come to a close understanding of one another’s position. Have you the sherry? Excellent. (to Dunyasha) Just leave the tray there. Thank you. Thank you. You haven’t met Arkady’s friend, have you, Fenichka? Yevgeny Vassilyich Bazarov.

  Bazarov Pleased to meet you.

  Fenichka You’re welcome.

  Bazarov Thank you.

  Arkady Dr Bazarov – almost.

  Fenichka Welcome, Doctor.

  Nikolai (to Dunyasha who is staring at Bazarov) Dunyasha, will you put the tray down on the seat, please?

  Dunyasha Oh yes – yes, yes, yes.

  Nikolai I think this is yours, Pavel (cocoa).

  Pavel Thanks.

  As the cups are being passed round Arkady has a private word with Fenichka.

  Arkady Congratulations.

  She looks puzzled.

  On the baby.

  Fenichka Oh. (She looks quickly towards Nikolai.)

  Arkady He’s just told me.

  Fenichka He wasn’t sure how you’d react.

  Arkady I’m pleased for you both.

  Fenichka Thank you.

  Nikolai is aware of this private conversation.

  Nikolai You’re sitting with us, Fenichka, aren’t you?

  Fenichka Not just now. I’ve got to bath Mitya and put him to bed. I’ll join you later.

  Nikolai Please do.

  Fenichka leaves.

  Dunyasha Can I get you anything else?

  Nikolai That’s everything, I think, Dunyasha.

  She is gazing at Bazarov and does not move.

  Thank you.

  She goes.

  There’s something the matter with that girl today. Now to organize our lives. Let me tell you what plans we have in store for you. The first formal engagement is on Monday week. It’s a rather long and convoluted story that –

  Pavel It’s quite simple: he’s having a welcome-home party for you.

  Arkady Great.

  Nikolai Some weeks ago quite out of the blue I had a visit from a young lady called Anna Sergeyevna Odintsov. (to Bazarov) An unusual name, isn’t it? – Odintsov. Are you familiar with it?