David Hare Plays 1

by David Hare

  Anna and Eileen on the servants’ stairs.

  Eileen By the time the war came he was on one of the big national dailies. Fought his way up.

  Anna From?

  Eileen Poverty. Terrible. He comes from Glasgow, from the Red Clyde. You must know that.

  Anna I don’t know anything.

  40. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

  Anna comes into her bedroom. Closes the door. She then picks up the chair to put it under the handle. But then pauses with the chair in her hand. Turns. Puts the chair back where it came from. Goes instead into the bathroom.

  41. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

  As before. Anna’s face, asleep. We are very close.

  Archie (VO) Woman.

  A moment, then Anna opens her eyes. She does not move. The sound of ripping material.

  (VO) I’m at yer feet.

  Anna scrambles up the bed and stands on top of it. By this time she can make out the figure of Archie at the bottom of the bed. He is very serious and very drunk.

  The Scotsman’s approach to the art a’ love-makin’. (Pause.) The Scot makes love wi’ a broken bottle. An’ a great deal a’ screamin’. (Pause.) There’ll be a moment while I take off ma clothes.

  He disappears beneath the end of the bed. There is a pause. Anna peers forward, into the dark.

  42. INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

  Anna lying in bed with the sheet pulled up around her. She is soaked in sweat, her hair in strands. There is a light on in the bathroom and the door is ajar. You can see a trousered leg and hear the sound of water in a bowl. Anna barely turns towards the figure.

  Anna I literally didn’t know there was such a thing as an electricity bill. I was sheltered, I suppose. Where we live we just always left the lights on. I assumed the electricity just came … it just came and you paid your taxes and you got your light. Then the other day I was talking to Eileen and she said electricity prices had risen, and I said, you mean, you have to pay? For what you use? You have to pay? Gas, electricity, water. It had never occurred to me. (Silence. She shivers.) Archie. I am trying to learn.

  The light goes out in the bathroom. Archie walks silently through the bedroom, opens the door and goes out. Anna alone.

  43. INT. KITCHEN. DAY

  Daylight flooding in at the kitchen window. Anna is sitting on the table with her back to us as Eileen carefully steams open envelopes over a boiling kettle. She then sorts the letters out into two piles.

  Eileen (sorting through letters) German … German for you … English for me … German … English.

  Anna casually picks one up.

  Anna Who wrote them?

  Eileen Just ordinary people in Germany writing to their relatives in the States.

  Anna I didn’t know they were allowed to.

  Eileen Why not? America’s neutral.

  Anna Then how did we get hold of them?

  Eileen Not that neutral, apparently. English …

  Anna What are we meant to do with them?

  Eileen You’ll have to ask Genius.

  Anna Is he down?

  Eileen In the office.

  Anna Ah.

  Anna goes. Eileen continues to read her letters.

  Eileen Whoops. Somebody’s dead.

  44. INT. GUN ROOM. DAY

  Archie at his desk writing flowingly with a fountain pen. Bright morning light behind him. Around him fresh supplies of office stationery‚ including two piles of files almost ceiling-high. On one wall is pinned a new map of Germany. He does not look up as Anna comes in. She stands at the door with a fistful of letters.

  Anna I want to know what to do with these.

  Archie looks at her, referring to the piles of stationery.

  Archie I shall be opening files on named individuals. While their army is in Russia we shall be looking for examples of favouritism at home. How Nazi Party officials get more food, get more clothes, than ordinary people. How they get sugar. How they get fruit. How they get wine. How they give parties in private rooms where cakes full of raisins and marzipan are eaten. Outrageous things. You have to comb through these letters, and open files on any named official, you have to pick out from the gossip any hard fact, any details of their way of life, any indiscretion, any sign that they’re enjoying themselves more than their brothers-in-arms. This way we drive a wedge between the Party and the people. We broadcast real names, plausible offences, backed up with thorough research.

  He looks at Anna, then returns to writing.

  Anna And when we’ve finished with the letters …?

  Archie Yes.

  Anna Do we send them on?

  Archie stares at her.

  Archie Yes. We send them on.

  Archie returns to writing. Anna moves across the room sharply and puts the letters down on his desk.

  Anna Mr Maclean.

  Archie Yes.

  This time he does not look up at Anna.

  Anna I have to go to the medicine cupboard.

  Archie Yes.

  Anna I have some bruises.

  Archie Yes.

  Nothing. Anna turns to go.

  45. INT. LANGLEY’S OFFICE. DAY

  Fennel in a big chair with a pot of coffee. He looks more crumpled and effusive then ever. He talks in a fast stream which Langley can barely intercept.

  Fennel We now have four stations like yours, Will, each pretending to be an individual broadcasting from within Germany. Of course, none of this would be necessary if we could persuade the BBC to take a less literal attitude to what they like to call the truth, but I’m afraid that they do go on insisting that when the Navy says it’s sunk a sub, it does actually have to have sunk a sub. So I can’t see us getting much joy out of them. So what I’d like to do is co-ordinate all intelligence outlets, and start a Rumour Committee which will take charge of all misleading information, so we don’t find ourselves with lots of little rumours popping up all over the place, but put all our efforts into good big sharp vicious rumours that really do the job….

  A knock at the door.

  Langley Come in.

  Anna enters.

  Anna I’m sorry, I just want the medicine chest.

  Langley Yes, of course. Come in.

  Langley goes to get it down from a high cabinet. Fennel goes on‚ ignoring Anna.

  Fennel It’ll be a high-level committee; Sandy, Gargs, Freddy, if we have to, God help us, weekly meetings, decide who to go for …

  Langley Yes.

  Fennel Mostly the smaller fish, but go hard …

  Langley Yes.

  Fennel It’s the little chap, the local leader we can really destroy, smears, innuendo, well co-ordinated …

  Langley Yes.

  Fennel Anyway we’ll send you Rumour Directives. They’ll come on G2s, of course. When you get the G2, for Christ’s sake don’t forget to cross-file.

  Langley hands a white box with a red cross to Anna.

  Langley Here you are.

  Anna Thank you.

  Fennel I hope you’re settling down all right, my dear. Don’t find it all too high-powered.

  Anna smiles, not knowing what to say. She clutches the box.

  Your uncle was very angry with me. Said I’d sent you to work for a savage.

  Anna looks at Langley.

  Langley I think he means Maclean.

  Anna I see.

  Fennel That’s right.

  Anna opens the medicine box and searches through it. They look at her as if expecting her to say more.

  The Celtic race, you know: a cloven-hoofed people. They do seem to be fighting quite a different war.

  Anna He seems … he just seems a very extraordinary man to me.

  She turns and looks at them defiantly. Then refers to a bottle.

  Is this Dettol?

  Langley That’s what it says.

  46. INT. BEDROOM. DAY

  Anna sitting on the edge of her bed. She lifts her skirt up and undoes a suspender. Pulls down her stocking. On her upper thigh‚ scratch and bruise mark
s. She applies the Dettol with cotton wool. Tears come into her eyes. She works down her thigh. Tears flow now, silently. Without sobbing, she just lets the tears run down her cheek.

  47. MONTAGE SEQUENCE TWO

  Chopin again. The same segment. Under it we see: Eileen hard at work at night, typing furiously; Karl broadcasting, a look of extreme vindictiveness colouring his face; The Unit sitting round a dinner table heavy with Christmas decoration. Anna comes into the dining room with a soufflé she has obviously just cooked. Everyone applauds. Anna getting out of bed in the morning. She removes an empty whisky bottle from the bedside table and takes it to the wardrobe. There she sets it in a rank next to six other empty bottles which are stacked on a high shelf next to her teddy. Fade. Chopin ends.

  48. INT. PASSAGE. DAY

  Now almost impassable. A line of filing cabinets is banked along one wall. Opposite, several thousand loose files and complete editions of German and English newspapers. Langley comes down with a file and finds Anna sitting on the floor in the corridor doing her work. She is wrapped in many sweaters against the cold. He refers into the gun room.

  Langley What’s happening?

  Anna One of his moods. What’s that?

  Langley German prisoners of war. Interrogated by Intelligence. Very gratifying. Look.

  He opens the file and hands it to Anna. From inside the room you can hear Eileen’s typewriter and Archie’s odd bad-tempered grunt.

  They report a run on clothing in Berlin. It’s impossible to buy an overcoat because of rumours that Nazi Party officials are soon to get special clothing privileges.

  Anna Amazing.

  Langley They’re issuing denials but to no effect. All our own work. It’s proof someone’s listening. I’ll show it to him.

  Anna He wouldn’t want to know. It would spoil the game.

  They smile.

  Archie (VO, rudely) Anna.

  49. INT. GUN ROOM. DAY

  The room is now a fat stew of paperwork. Towers of documents take up most of the room. Archie is strained and tired. Eileen, who like Anna is well wrapped, is barely keeping her patience with him. Anna comes in.

  Archie I have chosen Cologne. I have chosen the Burgomaster in Cologne. Now what do we have?

  Anna looks round the room confused.

  Anna Eileen, is Cologne in the lavatory?

  Eileen No, no it’s over there somewhere.

  Anna heads where Eileen pointed, flicks through.

  Archie Eileen. Prisoner interrogation. Anything we have from the cages to do with Cologne.

  Eileen gets up and goes out.

  50. INT. PASSAGE. DAY

  Langley is standing listening outside the door‚ unseen by Archie. As Eileen comes out to get a file, she turns back towards the room and mimes machine-gunning Archie to death. Langley smiles and squeezes her arm. Eileen just nods and sets to work. Langley heads off down the corridor, casually tossing the file he has brought on to a random pile.

  51. INT. GUN ROOM. DAY

  Anna lays out what she’s collected on Archie’s desk, taking it all from one fat file.

  Anna Street directory. Train timetable. Party structure.

  Archie Ah.

  He takes that out and studies it.

  Anna Bus timetables. Guide to the museum. Plan of the sewers, any use?

  She smiles; he takes no notice.

  Archie His name is Duffendorf. Lutz Duffendorf, Burgomaster of Cologne, please.

  This last to Anna, who goes to a wall cabinet for a file-card system. Eileen meanwhile is back from the corridor.

  Eileen Cologne’s pretty good. Eighteen separate interrogations. Three or four look good.

  Anna (to herself) D – Duffendorf.

  Archie I need a woman, Eileen. Find me a woman of doubtful reputation.

  Eileen I’ll see.

  As she goes to search, Anna returns, with a white card.

  Anna Lutz Duffendorf. Age 43. Bookseller’s son. Married. No children.

  Archie No children.

  Anna His wife is blind.

  Archie Wife blind. How wonderful.

  Anna There’s a picture.

  She detaches a newspaper photo from the card and shows it to Archie, holding a pencil over the man’s face. An official dinner at which a group of Germans are conspicuously well fed. Duffendorf is fat and slack. Archie stares at him. Meanwhile, Eileen has found a suitable detail.

  Eileen Someone in the parachute regiment mentions a greengrocer, and his wife, in Blumenstrasse. She sounds what you’re looking for.

  Archie Good.

  He reaches down behind his desk and gets out three large volumes.

  Krafft-Ebing. Havelock Ellis. And Kleinwort’s Dictionary of Sexual Perversion. Start at the index, right?

  He hands the dictionary to Anna. Eileen is about to protest.

  Eileen Is this …?

  But Archie just looks at her and she turns away. Anna opens the book, then begins reading dispassionately.

  Anna Fantasies?

  Archie Yes.

  Anna Male fantasies. Judge. Air pilot. Hanged man. Horse. Snake charmer. Roman Catholic Priest …

  Archie All right. Off fantasies.

  Anna Fetishes?

  Archie Yes.

  Anna Food. Rope. Rubber. Leather …

  Archie Look up leather.

  Anna looks at Archie, but he cuts her off before she speaks.

  It will do. Eileen.

  Eileen waits, pad in hand, patiently. Anna looks up the reference.

  You won’t believe this, old friend, what …

  Eileen Duffendorf.

  Archie … what Duffendorf’s been up to. Everyone in Cologne is talking about what the telegram boy saw when he looked through the letterbox trying to deliver. What he saw was the Burgomaster trying to deliver to Frau …

  Anna (not looking up) That pun won’t translate.

  Eileen Ilse Schmidt.

  Archie Trying to deliver to Frau Ilse Schmidt. Well we know how many people have been down that particular path before. But what is unusual is what she was wearing …

  Archie holds out his hand. Anna heaves across the open book.

  A leather bathing costume.

  Eileen is about to protest, when Archie jabs viciously at the book with his finger.

  It says here.

  Anna smiles.

  A leather bathing costume. And him standing with a hosepipe in his hand. (A pause. He closes his eyes.) Well, well, you ask why does she consent? It doesn’t sound like pleasure in the ordinary sense of the word. It is not. It is corruption. In return for her performance the Burgomaster is using his influence to secure her a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables which she will sell at inflated prices. While our countrymen are dying on the Russian front, she will exploit their families at home. And meanwhile even as they romp, above the obscene display there sits an old woman locked in her room. The Burgomaster’s wife. (His coup de grâce.) Alone. Listening. And blind.

  52. INT. EILEEN’S ROOM. NIGHT

  An identical room to Anna’s but Eileen has made it more homely with photographs and a dressing table stacked with make-up. Eileen is sitting at it in her slip, getting ready for dinner. Anna stands behind her, already dressed. They are laughing.

  Eileen He is going mad.

  Anna D’you think so?

  Eileen I’m sure. He is barking mad.

  They both laugh. Eileen looks at herself in the mirror intently. Then at Anna pacing behind her.

  Are you having a thing with him?

  Anna I suppose so. I suppose that’s what a thing is. (A pause. Eileen smiles.)

  Eileen What does he really think about …?

  Anna I don’t know. I don’t know what he thinks about anything. We’ve never had a conversation. We just have a thing.

  She looks down at Eileen. Then bursts out laughing.

  Isn’t life wonderful?

  53. INT. HALL. NIGHT

  The Unit going in to dinner. Anna and Eileen come down
the stairs together. Langley is standing outside his office as they come down. He moves across to intercept them.

  Langley Eileen. There’s somebody to see you.

  Eileen Oh, really?

  Langley Would you like to use my room?

  Eileen goes in. Langley closes the door behind her but we just glimpse a uniformed Officer as the door shuts. Anna is left standing looking across at Langley.

  Her brother has been killed. Singapore.

  Anna stands completely stunned by the news. Langley watches. Then she speaks quietly.

  Anna Oh God …

  54. INT. EILEEN’S ROOM. NIGHT

  Anna and Eileen in each other’s arms rocking backwards and forwards. Eileen is hysterical with grief, wild, out of control, like a drowning woman. The make-up has scarred her face. She is screaming.

  Eileen All the time …

  Anna Yes, I know …

  Eileen All the time …

  Anna I know.

  Eileen All the time we’ve been here …

  Anna Yes.

  Eileen All the time, all the time we’ve been here.

  Anna Yes, I know.

  Eileen I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it.

  Anna No.

  Eileen I can’t stand what we’ve done.

  55. INT. HALL. NIGHT

  In the darkness a single shaft of light falls on Eileen’s cases stacked by the door. The Officer we have glimpsed comes across and picks up her coat which is draped across them. Then Eileen comes into frame, still crying gently. He puts the coat round her shoulders, picks up her handbag. Then leans across her and whispers quietly. The tiny scuffles of grief. Anna watches in an upstairs doorway.

  56. INT. GUN ROOM. NIGHT

  Anna enters the darkened room with a cup of tea. Archie is standing staring at the blacked-out window, his back to the door.

  Anna Do you want this?