by Brian Friel
CASIMIR: Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes!
(He sings a few bars with the piano, conducting at the same time – he is radiant with delight. Then he returns to the step.)
CASIMIR: The G minor. Wonderful, isn’t it?
TOM: Yeah.
(CASIMIR sings a few more bars.)
CASIMIR: When I think of Ballybeg Hall it’s always like this: the sun shining; the doors and windows all open; the place filled with music.
(He is suddenly off again – left – for more deck-chairs. The sound of static from the speaker. Then FATHER’s laboured breathing. TOM listens.)
JUDITH: That’s the best lunch you’ve had in days. Let me wipe your chin.
(FATHER’s incoherent mumbling.)
JUDITH: It’s very warm. I don’t think you need this quilt, do you?
(Incoherent mumbling. TOM goes to the speaker. He stands listening.)
JUDITH: Oh, Father, you’ve soiled your pyjamas again! Why didn’t you tell me?
FATHER: Judith?
JUDITH: Come on. Let’s get them changed.
FATHER: Where’s Judith?
JUDITH: I’m Judith.
FATHER: Where’s Judith?
JUDITH: I’m here beside you, Father.
FATHER: Where’s Claire?
JUDITH: In the drawing-room.
FATHER: Where’s Claire?
JUDITH: Can’t you hear her? She’s playing the piano for you. Lift your leg, Father.
FATHER: Where’s Alice?
JUDITH: Everybody’s here.
FATHER: Where’s Casimir?
JUDITH: Everybody’s at home. They’re all downstairs.
FATHER: Where’s Anna?
JUDITH: Anna’s in Africa – you know that. Now – the other leg. Father please, I can’t get them off unless you help me.
FATHER: Where’s Judith? Where’s Claire? Where’s Casimir? Where’s Alice? Where’s –
JUDITH: They’re all here. They’re all downstairs.
FATHER: Let me tell you something in confidence: Judith betrayed the family.
JUDITH: Did she?
FATHER: I don’t wish to make an issue of it. But I can tell you confidentially – Judith betrayed us.
JUDITH: That’s better. Now you’re more comfortable.
FATHER: Great betrayal; enormous betrayal.
JUDITH: Let me feel those tops. Are they wet, too?
FATHER: But Anna’s praying for her. Did you know that?
JUDITH: Yes, I know, Father.
FATHER: Anna has the whole convent praying for her.
JUDITH: Now let’s get these clean ones on. Lift this leg again.
FATHER: Where’s Judith? Where’s Alice? Where’s Casimir? Where’s Claire?
(WILLIE returns, carrying a parcel of two bottles of whiskey. TOM pretends to consult his notebook.)
WILLIE: That’s her hooked up. Any sound out of her?
TOM: Yeah; something was said a moment ago. Seems to be working fine.
(WILLIE examines the speaker.)
WILLIE: Aye, it should be. She’d need to have this whole house rewired – half of them fittings is dangerous.
TOM: Is she aware of that?
WILLIE: Sure it would cost her a fortune. Tell her I’ll take a run in later and sink them bare wires. And I’ll leave this (parcel) here for her. A drop of whiskey. I thought maybe, you know, with the family back home and all, she might be a bit short. They come last night, didn’t they?
TOM: And a late night it was, too. This’ll be very welcome. You’ll be going to the wedding, won’t you?
WILLIE: Me? Oh damn the fear.
TOM: Will you not?
WILLIE: Not at all; that’ll be a family affair. What about yourself?
TOM: I leave tomorrow.
WILLIE: They’ll manage without us. (Leaving) Well …
TOM: Okay, Willie. You’ll be back later?
WILLIE: Aye, sometime. And tell her, too – them groceries she wanted – I left them in the pantry.
TOM: I’ll tell her.
(Father’s voice suddenly very loud and very authoritative.)
FATHER: Are you proposing that my time and the time of this court be squandered while the accused goes home and searches for this title which he claims he has in a tin-box somewhere?
(WILLIE is startled and delighted.)
WILLIE: Himself by Jaysus!
JUDITH: Now this leg – that’s it – that’s great.
FATHER: And that we sit in this freezing court until he comes back? Is that what you propose, Sergeant?
JUDITH: Raise your body just a little.
FATHER: Because I can tell you I won’t have it – I will not have it!
WILLIE: Himself by Jaysus, guldering away!
JUDITH: That’s more comfortable.
FATHER: We’re all petrified in this place as it is – really petrified. And I will not endure it a second longer. Case dismissed. Court adjourned.
JUDITH: Now over on your side and I’ll tuck you in and you’ll sleep for a while.
(A few short mumbling sounds from FATHER; then silence.)
WILLIE: D’you hear that for a voice, eh? By Jaysus, isn’t he a powerful fighting aul’ man all the time, eh?
TOM: Would you believe it! I’ve been here four days and I’ve never seen him yet.
WILLIE: Sure he hasn’t been down the stairs since the stroke
felled him. But before that – haul’ your tongue, man – oh be Jaysus he was a sight to behold – oh be Jaysus!
(CASIMIR has entered left with more deck-chairs which he sets up on the lawn. He now enters the study.)
CASIMIR: Always Chopin – the great love of her life. She could play all the nocturnes and all the waltzes before she was ten. We thought we had a little Mozart on our hands. And on her sixteenth birthday she got a scholarship to go to Paris. But Father – you’ve met Father?
TOM: Actually I –
CASIMIR: ‘An itinerant musician? (Wagging finger.) Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho.’ Wasn’t that naughty of him? (Sees WILLIE.) Ah!
(There is a brief, awkward pause – WILLIE smiling, expecting to be recognized, CASIMIR staring blankly. WILLIE finally approaches gauchely.)
WILLIE: How are you, Casimir?
CASIMIR: Yes? Yes? Who have we here?
WILLIE: No, you wouldn’t remember me.
CASIMIR: Should I? Should I? Yes, of course I should.
WILLIE: It’s –
CASIMIR: Don’t – don’t tell me – let me guess. I have it – it’s Deegan, the jarvey! Am I right?
WILLIE: Jackie Deegan.
CASIMIR: There you are!
WILLIE: Deegan, the car-man; that’s right; he’s dead; I’m Diver.
CASIMIR: Diver?
WILLIE: From the back shore.
CASIMIR: Ah.
WILLIE: Willie Diver.
CASIMIR: Ah.
WILLIE: Tony Diver’s son – the Slooghter Divers. I used to be about the gate-lodge when my Uncle Johnny was in it.
(Pause.) Johnny MacLoone and my Auntie Sarah. (Pause.) That’s going back a fair few years now. My Uncle Johnny’s dead, too – Jaysus he must be dead thirty years now.
(Pause.) I seen you this morning from the upper hill – I’ve the land all took from Judith.
TOM: And Willie’s just rigged up this thing so that your father can be heard down here now.
CASIMIR: What’s that?
TOM: A baby-alarm. Won’t that be a help?
CASIMIR: Ah yes; splendid, splendid.
TOM: Save Judith running up and down the stairs.
CASIMIR: Of course; indeed; wonderful; splendid; great idea.
WILLIE: I mind one day Casimir and me – we were only cubs this size at the time – the pair of us got into a punt down at the slip and cast off – d’you mind? – and be Jaysus didn’t the tide carry us out.
CASIMIR: Good Lord! Were we drowned?
WILLIE: Damn the bit of us: the wind carried us back in again. Nobody knew a damn thing about us except ourselves.
CASIMIR: Well, wasn’t that wonderful. Ha-ha. (Suddenly shakes WILLIE’s hand.) Marvellous to see you again. It’s so good to be back again. Do you know how long it’s been since I was home last? – eleven years. Now, if you’ll pardon me – I’m the chef for today!
WILLIE: Surely to God, Casimir.
(CASIMIR is off again – this time to the gazebo where he finds a few more faded seats which he carries out to the lawn.)
WILLIE: Same aul’ Casimir.
TOM: Is he?
WILLIE: When he’d come home on holidays from the boarding school, sometimes he’d walk down the village street, and we’d all walk in a line behind him, acting the maggot, you know, imitating him. And by Jaysus he never thought of looking round.
TOM: That expression – you’ve taken the land from Judith – what does it mean?
WILLIE: She has nobody to work it so she lets it out every year.
TOM: How many acres are there?
WILLIE: I could hardly tell you. It’s all hill and bog.
TOM: So you lease it?
WILLIE: I sort of take it off her hands – you know.
TOM: And you till it?
WILLIE: I footer about. I’m no farmer.
TOM: But it’s profitable land?
WILLIE: Profitable? (Laughs.) If you’ve a pair of wellingtons, we’ll walk it some day.
(He goes off towards the hall. CASIMIR is arranging the seats into a wide arc. The music suddenly stops.)
CLAIRE: Casimir!
(CASIMIR stops working.)
CASIMIR: Hello-hello.
CLAIRE: Where are you?
CASIMIR: On the tennis-court – just beside the net.
CLAIRE: Can you hear me?
CASIMIR: Clearly.
CLAIRE: I’ve a test for you: what’s the name of this?
(CASIMIR is suddenly excited, suddenly delighted. He rushes to the step.)
CASIMIR: A test! She’s testing me! A game we played all the time when we were children!
CLAIRE: Casimir!
(He runs back to the centre of the lawn.)
CASIMIR: Go ahead! I’m ready! I’m waiting!
(He stands poised, waiting. His eyes are shut tight. His fists clenched on his chest. To himself as he waits in suspense:)
CASIMIR: Ha-ha. Good Lord – good Lord – good Lord – good Lord – good Lord –
(The music begins: Waltz in G flat major, Op. 70, No. 1.)
CASIMIR: Oh-oh-oh-it’s-it’s-it’s – (To himself) – the McCormack Waltz! (Clapping his hands in relief and delight and now shouting) The McCormack Waltz! Right, Claire? Full marks? Amn’t I right?
CLAIRE: Can’t hear you.
CASIMIR: You can hear me very well. That’s it. I know. I know.
(He runs into the study.)
CASIMIR: Got it! The McCormack Waltz! It’s the G flat major actually but we call it the McCormack because one night John McCormack, Count John McCormack, you know who I’m talking about? – the tenor? – of course you do! – well, Father had something to do with McCormack getting the papal knighthood – some French cardinal Father knew in the Vatican – and because of that Father and McCormack became great friends.
(TOM begins writing in his notebook.)
TOM: Casimir, this is precisely the material I – may I jot down? –
(But CASIMIR is now back at the door and clapping his hands.)
CASIMIR: Bravo, Claire darling! Bravo, bravo, bravo!
(Now he is back into the centre of the room again.)
CASIMIR: Anyhow McCormack was staying here one night and Mother was in one of her down periods and my goodness when she was like that – oh, my goodness, poor Mother, for weeks on end how unhappy she’d be.
TOM: She was forty-seven when she died?
CASIMIR: Forty-six.
TOM: Had she been ill for long? Was it sudden?
(Pause.)
CASIMIR: Anyhow, this night Claire played that waltz, the G flat major, and McCormack asked Mother to dance and she refused but he insisted, he insisted, and finally he got her to the middle of the floor and he put his arm around her and then she began to laugh and he danced her up and down the hall and then in here and then out to the tennis-court and you could hear their laughing over the whole house and finally the pair of them collapsed in the gazebo out there. Yes – marvellous! The McCormack Waltz!
TOM: Approximately what year was –
CASIMIR: A great big heavy man – oh, yes, I remember McCormack – I remember his enormous jowls trembling – but Mother said he danced like Nijinsky. (Suddenly aware.) I’m disturbing your studies, amn’t I?
TOM: Actually you’re –
CASIMIR: Of course I am. Give me five minutes to make a call and then I’ll leave you absolutely in peace.
(As he goes to the phone – an old style phone, with a handle at the side – below the fireplace, he picks up a cassette player from the mantelpiece.)
CASIMIR: Do you know what I did last night even before I unpacked? I made two secret tapes of her to bring back to Helga and the children, just to prove to them how splendid a pianist she really is.
TOM: Have they never been to Ireland?
(Momentary pause.)
CASIMIR: And I’m going to play them this afternoon while we’re having the picnic. And I’ve another little surprise up my sleeve too; after we’ve eaten, I’ve got a tape that Anna sent me last Christmas!
TOM: Very nice.
CASIMIR: A really tremendous person, Anna. Actually her name in religion is Sister John Henry and she chose that name because John Henry Newman – you know? – the cardinal? – Cardinal Newman? – of course you do – well, he married Grandfather and Grandmother O’Donnell – in this very room as a matter of fact – special dispensation from Rome. But of course we think of her as Anna. And the tape she sent me has a message for every member of the family. And it’ll be so appropriate now that we’re all gathered together again.
(As he is saying the last few words he is also turning the handle on the phone.)
FATHER: Don’t touch that!
(CASIMIR drops the phone in panic and terror.)
CASIMIR: Christ! Ha-ha. O my God! That – that – that’s –
TOM: It’s only the baby-alarm.
CASIMIR: I thought for a moment Father was – was – was –
TOM: Maybe I should turn it down a bit.
CASIMIR: God, it’s eerie – that’s what it is – eerie – eerie –
(The phone suddenly rings – and his panic is revived. He grabs it.)
CASIMIR: Hello? Hello? Hello? Yes, I did ring, Mrs Moore. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m very sorry. Could you try that call to Germany for me again? The number is Hamburg – Sorry, sorry, yes of course I gave it to you already; I am sorry – Yes, I’ll hold on – (To TOM who is watching him) Helga, my wife – my wife Helga – to let her know I’ve arrived safely—she worries herself sick if I don’t – (Into phone) Yes, just for the wedding on Thursday, to give Claire away, and then straight off again. Yes, indeed I’ll tell her that, Mrs Moore. Thank you, thank you. (To TOM) Was always terrified of her, absolutely terrified; postmistress in Ballybeg ever since – Yes, yes, I’ll hold on.
(TOM fingers the limp servant’s bell beside the fireplace.)
TOM: When did they go out of action?
CASIMIR: What’s that?
TOM: The bells.
CASIMIR: Oh I suppose when there was nobody to ring them. Or nobody to obey them. She ought to be at home now.
(CLAIRE begins playing another nocturne. ALICE enters. In her mid-thirties. She is hangover after last night. As she enters she touches her cheek which has a bruise mark on it.)
ALICE: Morning, everybody.
TOM: It’s afternoon, Alice.
ALICE: Is it?
(She blows a kiss to CASIMIR. He blows one back.)
ALICE: Am I the last down?
TOM: Just about. Is Eamon still asleep?
ALICE: He was up and about hours ago. He’s gone down to t
he village to visit his grandmother.
TOM: And how are you today?
ALICE: I misbehaved very badly last night, did I?
TOM: Not at all. You just sat there by yourself, singing nursery rhymes.
ALICE: That’s alright. Tom, isn’t it?
TOM: Correct.
ALICE: Dr Thomas Hoffnung from Chicago.
TOM: You see – you were in great shape.
CASIMIR: Hoffnung’s the German word for hope. So your name’s really Tom Hope. Terrific name, Alice, isn’t it? – Tom Hope! Calling Hamburg.
ALICE: What?
CASIMIR: Helga.
ALICE: Give her my love.
CASIMIR: She’s in terrific form today.
ALICE: Is she?
CASIMIR: Claire.
ALICE: Oh – yes, yes. (She shades her eyes with her hand and looks outside.) Is it cold?
TOM: No, it’s a beautiful day.
(She sits on top of the step and holds her head in her hands. TOM moves back to CASIMIR who is anchored by the phone.)
TOM: Perhaps you could confirm a few facts for me, Casimir. This is where Gerard Manley Hopkins used to sit – is that correct?
CASIMIR: Look at the arm-rest and you’ll see a stain on it.
TOM: Where?
CASIMIR: The other arm – at the front.
TOM: Got it.
CASIMIR: He used to recite ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’ to Grandmother O’Donnell and he always rested his teacup just there; and one afternoon he knocked it over and burned his right hand very severely.
(TOM is writing all this information down.)
TOM: That would have been about –?
CASIMIR: Shhhh. Yes, Mrs Moore? Sorry, sorry?
Yes-yes-yes – of course – thank you – thank you. (He hangs up.) Something wrong with the lines. Can’t even get the Letterkenny exchange. Poor old Helga’ll think I’ve deserted her. Tell me again, Tom – I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten – what’s the title of your research?
TOM: I can hardly remember it myself.
CASIMIR: No, no, please, please.
TOM: ‘Recurring cultural, political and social modes in the upper strata of Roman Catholic society in rural Ireland since the act of Catholic Emancipation.’
CASIMIR: Good heavens. Ha-ha.
TOM: I know. It’s awful. I apologize.
CASIMIR: No, no, no, don’t apologize. It sounds very – it sounds – Alice, isn’t it very, very? – Right, let’s be systematic. Judith has shown you the family records and the old estate papers, hasn’t she?
