by Peter Handke
VON STROHEIM
You are beautiful.
BERGNER
Have you seen my handbag anywhere?
VON STROHEIM
(Puts a necklace around her neck.) What do I get for that?
BERGNER
Why do you have to spoil my necklace for me?
VON STROHEIM
What must I do to make you stop despising me? Is it the way I move that you dislike? Is it my hairline? Is it the way I hold my head that makes you look away? Do the hairs on my hands disgust you? Do you find it exaggerated the way I move my arms up and down when I walk? Do I talk too much? (PORTEN, watching from some distance away, laughs. Pause. VON STROHEIM as on the telephone) Are you still there? (BERGNER looks at him.) Where were you? Why don’t you say something? Do say something! Come back! You were so beautiful, it was painful to look at you; so beautiful that I was suddenly very much afraid for you. You were so painfully beautiful that you left me behind—me, who was suddenly so alive—left me behind—terribly alone. You said nothing, and I talked to you as one talks to those who have just died: Why don’t you say something? Do say something! Can you imagine it?
(Pause.)
BERGNER
Not any more. For a moment—(Pause.) No. It’s over.
VON STROHEIM
Don’t stop talking, I am afraid to break in when you stop talking. Right now my tenderness for you is so vehement that I want to hit you.
(Pause. He hits her. She stands up. He stares at her. She lets him stare at her.
Abandoning the long rigidity, she moves slowly and walks up and down in front of him. She interrupts her smooth movements now and then to turn jerkily, leans her hand on the hip, stretches herself loosely, lets her arms drop, while moving like this, grazes a number of objects, supports herself everywhere, once swings around to VON STROHEIM, stops in front of him, takes off her necklace. She is standing there as if she has just come through a door and has leaned against it. She strokes him with the necklace and lets it drop into his pocket.)
BERGNER
(Looks at him.) Don’t move! (He wants to touch her, she stands still, smiling; he hesitates briefly, now touches her neck and wants to pull her toward him; but he is a moment too late, her neck resists him, she shakes off his hand and steps back.) Why don’t you look at me as if you didn’t care?
VON STROHEIM
For that I would have to imagine that you were mine.
BERGNER
Then imagine it.
VON STROHEIM
Where should I begin?
BERGNER
(Points to the guitar.) Does that belong to you? (She shoves it away contemptuously.)
VON STROHEIM
The longer I look at you, the ghostlier you seem to me.
BERGNER
And with every one of your feelings you describe to me you take a possible feeling away from me.
VON STROHEIM
I’m not describing my feelings for you.
BERGNER
But you’re intimating them. And every time you intimate your love for me, my feelings for you grow duller and I shrivel up. Your feelings move me, but I can’t respond to them, that’s all. At first I loved you, you were so serious. It struck me that usually it can be said only of a child that it is “serious.” Besides (She laughs.), you had such beautiful eating habits. You really ate beautifully! And when I once said, “I got wet to the skin!” you said, “To your skin!” When I speak of it I almost love you again. (She embraces him suddenly, but immediately steps back again even farther away.) But I only have to mention that and I become insensitive right away. You talked all the time and I forgot you more and more. Then I was startled and you were still there … A complete stranger, you talked to me with shameless intimacy, as to someone at the end of a movie. Do you understand? I am taboo for you! Suddenly I was taboo for you. Two seconds! Two seconds of pain, that’s what having loved you will mean to me later on. (Pause.) I’m not disappointed, I’m not sad, I’m only tired of you. (She moves imperceptibly under her dress.) I have wronged you so much.
VON STROHEIM
Wronged in what way?
BERGNER
The wrong of loving you.
( PORTEN suddenly claps her hands vehemently, GEORGE laughs offensively, VON STROHEIM and BERGNER slowly move away from the spot and begin to walk around aimlessly in different directions. Pause.)
JANNINGS
(Begins telling a story.) A short time ago I saw a stewardess, but an ugly one …
VON STROHEIM
(Interrupts him. ) Let’s talk about something else.
JANNINGS
(Begins another story.) Not long ago I saw a woman standing in the street, not a streetwalker, I must add …
GEORGE
(Interrupts him.) Something else!
JANNINGS
It is less than a week ago that I saw behind a bank counter someone who had a rather long nose. But when I talked to him, it turned out that despite …
PORTEN and BERGNER
(Interrupt him.) Let’s change the subject.
JANNINGS
All right. No more than five minutes had passed when a man in the park approached me. No, not a faggot …
(He is interrupted by a girl who comes onstage from the right, a suitcase in her hand: ALICE KESSLER. She is wearing an afternoon dress and looks as if she had come to this performance by mistake. )
ALICE
(Puts down the suitcase, begins to speak very matter-of-factly .) Is it you? Am I in the right place here? I heard you talking from a distance and came in. The sounds I heard were so inviting, voices and laughter, what is more beautiful than that? What are you showing to each other there, I’d like to see something too. What are you whispering about? I’d like to hear something too. (She tosses her hat to VON STROHEIM. He is so disconcerted that he turns aside instead of catching it.) How are you? (Pause. All of them seem petrified.) How are you?
BERGNER
(Suddenly loosens up and moves. She practices her reply.) Fine? Fine. Fine! We’re fine. Indeed! We’re fine! (Pause. She tries to talk normally again. ) And how—and how are you?
ALICE
(Answers quite naturally.) I’m fine too. Though my hand is still trembling from carrying that heavy suitcase, and I’m still a little weak in the knees because I’m not used to wearing high-heeled shoes; but I can put up with all that because I’m so happy to see you. What are you doing here?
BERGNER
(Is glad to be able to answer so simply.) We’re talking.
ALICE
And now you don’t know how to go on?
BERGNER
Perhaps. (She falters.) Yes. Yes!
ALICE
Hello!
BERGNER
Hello!
ALICE
(To the others) Hello! (They raise their heads, perplexed. As if awakening, still half asleep, not knowing yet what they are saying, they say one after the other: “Hello!” Then they comprehend what they have said and become lively. The stage light gradually turns into early-morning light again. ) What time is it?
(GEORGE nudges JANNINGS in the hip.)
JANNINGS
(As if back to sleep already) Don’t you have a watch? (He gives a start.) “How late is it?” Of course: how late is it? Well, how late is it now? You could have said so right away. ( He opens his pocket watch in front of ALICE.)
ALICE
Thanks! (He shuts the watch again.)
JANNINGS
(After a pause.) Don’t mention it. (He spreads his arms wide as if he just found a solution and plays with the answer.) Don’t mention it! (To GEORGE ) Ask me what time it is.
GEORGE
(Merrily) What time is it? ( JANNINGS shows him the pocket watch.) Thanks!
JANNINGS
(Shuts the watch.) Don’t mention it.
GEORGE
(Merrily) Thanks!
JANNINGS
(Cheerfully) But I insist: don’t mention it!
(ALICE holds out her hand to JANNINGS. He shakes it instantly. She also holds out her hand to GEORGE and he shakes it instantly. She holds out her hand to PORTEN and PORTEN shakes it gratefully. VON STROHEIM understands too and takes her hand.
Now she takes off her gloves and everyone watches very inquisitively. She hands them to VON STROHEIM and he takes them. He now picks up the hat and tosses it playfully to GEORGE. GEORGE catches the hat and puts it on the table. VON STROHEIM adds the gloves to it. Everything is working well. BERGNER sits down, apparently relieved.)
ALICE
(To VON STROHEIM ) What do you have there in your hand?
VON STROHEIM
(Opens his fist.) A necklace. Yes, a necklace!
ALICE
It’s beautiful!
A VOICE
(From the wings) It’s not beautiful.
(ELLEN KESSLER now appears from the left, also with a suitcase, dressed exactly like ALICE. She tosses VON STROHEIM her hat, then takes off her gloves and hands them to him.)
VON STROHEIM
(Puts the things on the table and asks ELLEN) So you would like to have it?
ALICE
(Replies) Yes.
(He turns to ALICE and puts the necklace around her neck. She moves voluptuously.
ELLEN begins to walk around. She walks about with the same movements as ALICE did before. Shakes hands with everyone and says: “Hello!” They answer her—at least, the first two do—after an initial pause; then they laugh at each other as over a joke. Behind her back GEORGE takes a cigar out of the box and shows it to JANNINGS; then he takes out a second one; they laugh silently; finally GEORGE shows JANNINGS a third cigar, JANNINGS becomes serious and looks to the left and right, but no one else appears.
In the meantime, ELLEN taps VON STROHEIM on the shoulder to greet him. He is talking to ALICE. )
VON STROHEIM
Why is it that I’m so sure I’ve seen you before whenever I look at you, although when I actually say it (He turns to ELLEN, since she has tapped him on the shoulder, and continues talking to her as if it were quite normal), it strikes me as the usual cliche? (ELLEN holds out her hand to him and he bends over it. She shies back, and ALICE says, “He bit me!” remaining motionless, while ELLEN performs the appropriate gestures. VON STROHEIM to ALICE) In my imagination I was about to pinch myself in the arm.
ALICE
(Motionless.) Already forgotten.
VON STROHEIM
Already forgotten?
ALICE
You always ask. Were you alone too long?
VON STROHEIM
Why?
ELLEN
Or did you work too hard?
VON STROHEIM
Why?
ALICE
Or do you pose counterquestions only to win time for your reply? Because you’re figuring out a lie? Because in the meantime you’re so washed up that you can’t answer any more without lying? I came in quietly and you all sat there looking washed up, but you looked at me as though you had been quiet until then, and I, by entering so suddenly, should actually be the one to look washed up.
VON STROHEIM
What are you talking about?
ELLEN
About you. I only wanted to show you how you talk.
(She leans against his back, shoves one leg between his. He looks down at himself. She puts her arms around his neck. ALICE waves to him with a finger. ELLEN doubles the gesture by holding her hands to his face from the back and also bending a finger. He wants to take a step forward, and lean back at the same time, but remains standing there.)
VON STROHEIM
I’ll talk as I please.
(ELLEN puts her hand over his eyes.)
ALICE
Then say something.
VON STROHEIM
(Opens his mouth and shuts it. He moves his hands as if he were looking for something that keeps eluding him. He stammers, but whenever his hand seems to seize something, he produces whole syllables: “be, what, un, re”; then he reaches for it and it escapes him again, and he goes on stammering. ELLEN takes her hands away from his eyes and he calms down instantly.) I can’t; it’s like reaching for a piece of soap under water.
ALICE
What?
VON STROHEIM
Already forgotten. When you covered my eyes, I had it perfectly clear in front of me, but now I have forgotten it. (He falters.) “Already forgotten!” That was it! You said, “Already forgotten!” and I remembered something, but what? It escaped me again and again, and I had a feeling like searching for a piece of soap under water—(He makes a perfunctory gesture, suddenly sniffs his fingers, repeats the gesture. Pause.)
ELLEN
Perhaps you’ll think of it …
ALICE
… if you watch me?
ELLEN
(With a flattering voice, ambiguously.) Perhaps, if you watch me, you’ll also remember where you put me—(She laughs.) where you carried me to—(She laughs.) in those days, do you remember?—(She laughs.) and you’ll also remember what you should do with me now. (She laughs. Because ELLEN stands behind him, one does not see her talking, although ALICE moves her lips and makes the appropriate gestures.)
(They let him stand there and skip and dance across the stage side by side. With a fervent pleasure in their work, nearly parallel in their movements, they busy themselves with the objects and with the people: while one takes off JANNINGS’S boots, the other is loosening GEORGE’S shoelaces: finished at the same time, they begin to brush PORTEN’S and BERGNER’S hair; again they finish at the same time and skip over to the open drawer of the chest; they return with four fancy cushions and stuff them, running helter-skelter but with similar movements, behind the backs of the four people. There is hardly time to perceive these actions when they are already back at the table with four glasses and two bottles and they place them before the characters.
But now their movements slow down and begin to contradict each other; the work of the one is revoked by the other: one takes the glasses and bottles which the other has placed there away again; one dishevels the hair the other has just brushed; then one takes away the cushions from the persons to whom the other has given them. At the same time the other removes the bottles and the glasses that the one … Then one ties the shoelaces the other has untied, while the other in the meantime is taking away the cushions from … whereupon the one dishevels the hair that … while the other puts JANNINGS’S boots back on.
However, they stop at the same time and want to run offstage quickly in opposite. directions; they return once more and change directions, finally run into the wings. As soon as they have disappeared, they cannot be heard running any more.
Everyone onstage is holding his breath. Suddenly, out of their state of complete immobilization, JANNINGS and GEORGE leap up and rush to the suitcases that have been left onstage. They fling them into the wings after ELLEN and ALICE, but no crashing sound can be heard. They listen. Then they stop listening. While they are returning to their places, PORTEN suddenly leaps up too and throws the remaining things, hats and gloves, into the wings after the girls, tossing the hats as if they were gloves, letting the gloves sail through the air as if they were hats. One hears them crashing like suitcases.
They all settle in their places.)
PORTEN
Goo—(as in good)
(The others turn instantly to BERGNER.)
PORTEN
I’m speaking. (They turn awkwardly to her. BERGNER seems to have fallen asleep.) Hello!
GEORGE
(A little too late.) Hello!
PORTEN
(A little too late.) How are you?
GEORGE
(A little too late.) Fine. (A little too late.) And how are you?
PORTEN
(A little too late.) Fine—Please hand me the paper.
(A brief pause. Only then does GEORGE hand her the newspaper from the table. She holds it in her hand. Pause. Only then does she look into i
t.)
