Brian Friel Plays 1

by Brian Friel

  MANUS: Bloody, bloody, bloody hell!

  (His voice breaks in exasperation: he is about to cry. OWEN leaps to his feet.)

  OWEN: Hold on. I’ve a bag upstairs.

  (He runs upstairs. SARAH waits until OWEN is off. Then:–)

  SARAH: Manus … Manus, I …

  (MANUS hears SARAH but makes no acknowledgement. He gathers up his belongings. OWEN reappears with the bag he had on his arrival.)

  OWEN: Take this one – I’m finished with it anyway. And it’s supposed to keep out the rain.

  (MANUS transfers his few belongings. OWEN drifts back to his task. The packing is now complete.)

  MANUS: You’ll be here for a while? For a week or two anyhow?

  OWEN: Yes.

  MANUS: You’re not leaving with the army?

  OWEN: I haven’t made up my mind. Why?

  MANUS: Those Inis Meadhon men will be back to see why I haven’t turned up. Tell them – tell them I’ll write to them as soon as I can. Tell them I still want the job but that it might be three or four months before I’m free to go.

  OWEN: You’re being damned stupid, Manus.

  MANUS: Will you do that for me?

  OWEN: Clear out now and Lancey’ll think you’re involved somehow.

  MANUS: Will you do that for me?

  OWEN: Wait a couple of days even. You know George – he’s a bloody romantic – maybe he’s gone out to one of the islands and he’ll suddenly reappear tomorrow morning. Or maybe the search party’ll find him this evening lying drunk somewhere in the sandhills. You’ve seen him drinking that poteen – doesn’t know how to handle it. Had he drink on him last night at the dance?

  MANUS: I had a stone in my hand when I went out looking for him – I was going to fell him. The lame scholar turned violent.

  OWEN: Did anybody see you?

  MANUS: (Again close to tears) But when I saw him standing there at the side of the road – smiling – and her face buried in his shoulder – I couldn’t even go close to them. I just shouted something stupid – something like, ‘You’re a bastard, Yolland.’ If I’d even said it in English … ’cos he kept saying ‘Sorry-sorry?’ The wrong gesture in the wrong language.

  OWEN: And you didn’t see him again?

  MANUS: ‘Sorry?’

  OWEN: Before you leave tell Lancey that – just to clear yourself.

  MANUS: What have I to say to Lancey? You’ll give that message to the islandmen?

  OWEN: I’m warning you: run away now and you’re bound to be –

  MANUS: (To SARAH) Will you give that message to the Inis Meadhon men?

  SARAH: I will.

  (MANUS picks up an old sack and throws it across his shoulders.)

  OWEN: Have you any idea where you’re going?

  MANUS: Mayo, maybe. I remember Mother saying she had cousins somewhere away out in the Erris Peninsula. (He picks up his bag.) Tell Father I took only the Virgil and the Caesar and the Aeschylus because they’re mine anyway – I bought them with the money I got for that pet lamb I reared – do you remember that pet lamb? And tell him that Nora Dan never returned the dictionary and that she still owes him two-and-six for last quarter’s reading – he always forgets those things.

  OWEN: Yes.

  MANUS: And his good shirt’s ironed and hanging up in the press and his clean socks are in the butter-box under the bed.

  OWEN: All right.

  MANUS: And tell him I’ll write.

  OWEN: If Maire asks where you’ve gone…?

  MANUS: He’ll need only half the amount of milk now, won’t he? Even less than half – he usually takes his tea black. (Pause.) And when he comes in at night – you’ll hear him; he makes a lot of noise – I usually come down and give him a hand up. Those stairs are dangerous without a banister. Maybe before you leave you’d get Big Ned Frank to put up some sort of a handrail. (Pause.) And if you can bake, he’s very fond of soda bread.

  OWEN: I can give you money. I’m wealthy. Do you know what they pay me? Two shillings a day for this – this – this –

  (MANUS rejects the offer by holding out his hand.)

  Goodbye, Manus.

  (MANUS and OWEN shake hands. Then MANUS picks up his bag briskly and goes towards the door. He stops a few paces beyond SARAH, turns, comes back to her. He addresses her as he did in Act One but now without warmth or concern for her.)

  MANUS: What is your name? (Pause.) Come on. What is your name?

  SARAH: My name is Sarah.

  MANUS: Just Sarah? Sarah what? (Pause.) Well?

  SARAH: Sarah Johnny Sally.

  MANUS: And where do you live? Come on.

  SARAH: I live in Bun na hAbhann.

  (She is now crying quietly.)

  MANUS: Very good, Sarah Johnny Sally. There’s nothing to stop you now – nothing in the wide world. (Pause. He looks down at her.) It’s all right – it’s all right – you did no harm – you did no harm at all.

  (He stoops over her and kisses the top of her head – as if in absolution. Then briskly to the door and off.)

  OWEN: Good luck, Manus!

  SARAH: (Quietly) I’m sorry … I’m sorry … I’m so sorry, Manus …

  (OWEN tries to work but cannot concentrate. He begins folding up the map. As he does:–)

  OWEN: Is there a class this evening?

  (SARAH nods: yes.)

  I suppose Father knows. Where is he anyhow?

  (SARAH points.)

  Where?

  (SARAH mimes rocking a baby.)

  I don’t understand – where?

  (SARAH repeats the mime and wipes away tears. OWEN is still puzzled.)

  It doesn’t matter. He’ll probably turn up.

  (BRIDGET and DOALTY enter, sacks over their heads against the rain. They are self-consciously noisier, more ebullient, more garrulous than ever – brimming over with excitement and gossip and brio.)

  DOALTY: You’re missing the crack, boys! Cripes, you’re missing the crack! Fifty more soldiers arrived an hour ago!

  BRIDGET: And they’re spread out in a big line from Sean Neal’s over to Lag and they’re moving straight across the fields towards Cnoc na nGabhar!

  DOALTY: Prodding every inch of the ground in front of them with their bayonets and scattering animals and hens in all directions!

  BRIDGET: And tumbling everything before them – fences, ditches, haystacks, turf-stacks!

  DOALTY: They came to Barney Petey’s field of corn – straight through it be God as if it was heather!

  BRIDGET: Not a blade of it left standing!

  DOALTY: And Barney Petey just out of his bed and running after them in his drawers: ‘You hoors you! Get out of my corn, you hoors you!’

  BRIDGET: First time he ever ran in his life.

  DOALTY: Too lazy, the wee get, to cut it when the weather was good.

  (SARAH begins putting out the seats.)

  BRIDGET: Tell them about Big Hughie.

  DOALTY: Cripes, if you’d seen your aul fella, Owen.

  BRIDGET: They were all inside in Anna na mBreag’s pub – all the crowd from the wake –

  DOALTY: And they hear the commotion and they all come out to the street –

  BRIDGET: Your father in front; the Infant Prodigy footless behind him!

  DOALTY: And your aul fella, he sees the army stretched across the country side –

  BRIDGET: O my God!

  DOALTY: And Cripes he starts roaring at them!

  BRIDGET: ‘Visigoths! Huns! Vandals!’

  DOALTY: ‘Ignari! Stulti! Rustici!’

  BRIDGET: And wee Jimmy Jack jumping up and down and shouting, ‘Thermopylae! Thermopylae!’

  DOALTY: You never saw crack like it in your life, boys. Come away on out with me, Sarah, and you’ll see it all.

  BRIDGET: Big Hughie’s fit to take no class. Is Manus about?

  OWEN: Manus is gone.

  BRIDGET: Gone where?

  OWEN: He’s left – gone away.

  DOALTY: Where to?

  OWEN:
He doesn’t know. Mayo, maybe.

  DOALTY: What’s on in Mayo?

  OWEN: (To BRIDGET) Did you see George and Maire Chatach leave the dance last night?

  BRIDGET: We did. Didn’t we, Doalty?

  OWEN: Did you see Manus following them out?

  BRIDGET: I didn’t see him going out but I saw him coming in by himself later.

  OWEN: Did George and Maire come back to the dance?

  BRIDGET: No.

  OWEN: Did you see them again?

  BRIDGET: He left her home. We passed them going up the back road – didn’t we, Doalty?

  OWEN: And Manus stayed till the end of the dance?

  DOALTY: We know nothing. What are you asking us for?

  OWEN: Because Lancey’ll question me when he hears Manus’s gone. (Back to BRIDGET.) That’s the way George went home? By the back road? That’s where you saw him?

  BRIDGET: Leave me alone, Owen. I know nothing about Yolland. If you want to know about Yolland, ask the Donnelly twins.

  (Silence. DOALTY moves over to the window.)

  (To SARAH) He’s a powerful fiddler, O’Shea, isn’t he? He told our Seamus he’ll come back for a night at Hallowe’en.

  (OWEN goes to DOALTY who looks resolutely out the window.)

  OWEN: What’s this about the Donnellys? (Pause.) Were they about last night?

  DOALTY: Didn’t see them if they were.

  (Begins whistling through his teeth.)

  OWEN: George is a friend of mine.

  DOALTY: So.

  OWEN: I want to know what’s happened to him.

  DOALTY: Couldn’t tell you.

  OWEN: What have the Donnelly twins to do with it? (Pause.) Doalty!

  DOALTY: I know nothing, Owen – nothing at all – I swear to God. All I know is this: on my way to the dance I saw their boat beached at Port. It wasn’t there on my way home, after I left Bridget. And that’s all I know. As God’s my judge. The half-dozen times I met him I didn’t know a word he said to me; but he seemed a right enough sort … (With sudden excessive interest in the scene outside.) Cripes, they’re crawling all over the place! Cripes, there’s millions of them! Cripes, they’re levelling the whole land!

  (OWEN moves away. MAIRE enters. She is bareheaded and wet from the rain; her hair in disarray. She attempts to appear normal but she is in acute distress, on the verge of being distraught. She is carrying the milk-can.)

  MAIRE: Honest to God, I must be going off my head. I’m half way here and I think to myself, ‘Isn’t this can very light?’ and I look into it and isn’t it empty.

  OWEN: It doesn’t matter.

  MAIRE: How will you manage for tonight?

  OWEN: We have enough.

  MAIRE: Are you sure?

  OWEN: Plenty, thanks.

  MAIRE: It’ll take me no time at all to go back up for some.

  OWEN: Honestly, Maire.

  MAIRE: Sure it’s better you have it than that black calf that’s … that … (She looks around.) Have you heard anything?

  OWEN: Nothing.

  MAIRE: What does Lancey say?

  OWEN: I haven’t seen him since this morning.

  MAIRE: What does he think?

  OWEN: We really didn’t talk. He was here for only a few seconds.

  MAIRE: He left me home, Owen. And the last thing he said to me – he tried to speak in Irish – he said, ‘I’ll see you yesterday’ – he meant to say ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ And I laughed that much he pretended to get cross and he said ‘Maypoll! Maypoll!’ because I said that word wrong. And off he went, laughing – laughing, Owen! Do you think he’s all right? What do you think?

  OWEN: I’m sure he’ll turn up. Maire.

  MAIRE: He comes from a tiny wee place called Winfarthing. (She suddenly drops on her hands and knees on the floor – where OWEN had his map a few minutes ago – and with her finger traces out an outline map.) Come here till you see. Look. There’s Winfarthing. And there’s two other wee villages right beside it; one of them’s called Barton Bendish – it’s there; and the other’s called Saxingham Nethergate – it’s about there. And there’s Little Walsingham – that’s his mother’s townland. Aren’t they odd names? Sure they make no sense to me at all. And Winfarthing’s near a big town called Norwich. And Norwich is in a county called Norfolk. And Norfolk is in the east of England. He drew a map for me on the wet strand and wrote the names on it. I have it all in my head now: Winfarthing – Barton Bendish – Saxingham Nethergate – Little Walsingham – Norwich – Norfolk. Strange sounds, aren’t they? But nice sounds; like Jimmy Jack reciting his Homer. (She gets to her feet and looks around; she is almost serene now. To SARAH) You were looking lovely last night, Sarah. Is that the dress you got from Boston? Green suits you. (To OWEN) Something very bad’s happened to him, Owen. I know. He wouldn’t go away without telling me. Where is he, Owen? You’re his friend – where is he? (Again she looks around the room; then sits on a stool.) I didn’t get a chance to do my geography last night. The master’ll be angry with me. (She rises again.) I think I’ll go home now. The wee ones have to be washed and put to bed and that black calf has to be fed … My hands are that rough; they’re still blistered from the hay. I’m ashamed of them. I hope to God there’s no hay to be saved in Brooklyn. (She stops at the door.) Did you hear? Nellie Ruadh’s baby died in the middle of the night. I must go up to the wake. It didn’t last long, did it?

  (MAIRE leaves. Silence. Then.)

  OWEN: I don’t think there’ll be any class. Maybe you should …

  (OWEN begins picking up his texts. DOALTY goes to him.)

  DOALTY: Is he long gone? – Manus.

  OWEN: Half an hour.

  DOALTY: Stupid bloody fool.

  OWEN: I told him that.

  DOALTY: Do they know he’s gone?

  OWEN: Who?

  DOALTY: The army.

  OWEN: Not yet.

  DOALTY: They’ll be after him like bloody beagles. Bloody, bloody fool, limping along the coast. They’ll overtake him before night for Christ’s sake.

  (DOALTY returns to the window. LANCEY enters – now the commanding officer.)

  OWEN: Any news? Any word?

  (LANCEY moves into the centre of the room, looking around as he does.)

  LANCEY: I understood there was a class. Where are the others?

  OWEN: There was to be a class but my father –

  LANCEY: This will suffice. I will address them and it will be their responsibility to pass on what I have to say to every family in this section.

  (LANCEY indicates to OWEN to translate. OWEN hesitates, trying to assess the change in LANCEY’s manner and attitude.)

  I’m in a hurry, O’Donnell.

  OWEN: The captain has an announcement to make.

  LANCEY: Lieutenant Yolland is missing. We are searching for him. If we don’t find him, or if we receive no information as to where he is to be found, I will pursue the following course of action. (He indicates to OWEN to translate.)

  OWEN: They are searching for George. If they don’t find him –

  LANCEY: Commencing twenty-four hours from now we will shoot all livestock in Ballybeg.

  (OWEN stares at LANCEY.)

  At once.

  OWEN: Beginning this time tomorrow they’ll kill every animal in Baile Beag – unless they’re told where George is.

  LANCEY: If that doesn’t bear results, commencing forty-eight hours from now we will embark on a series of evictions and levelling of every abode in the following selected areas –

  OWEN: You’re not –!

  LANCEY: Do your job. Translate.

  OWEN: If they still haven’t found him in two days time they’ll begin evicting and levelling every house starting with these townlands.

  (LANCEY reads from his list.)

  LANCEY: Swinefort.

  OWEN: Lis na Muc.

  LANCEY: Burnfoot.

  OWEN: Bun na hAbhann.

  LANCEY: Dromduff.

  OWEN: Druim Dubh.

 
; LANCEY: Whiteplains.

  OWEN: Machaire Ban.

  LANCEY: Kings Head.

  OWEN: Cnoc na Ri.

  LANCEY: If by then the lieutenant hasn’t been found, we will proceed until a complete clearance is made of this entire section.

  OWEN: If Yolland hasn’t been got by then, they will ravish the whole parish.

  LANCEY: I trust they know exactly what they’ve got to do.

  (Pointing to BRIDGET.) I know you. I know where you live.

  (Pointing to SARAH.) Who are you? Name!

  (SARAH’s mouth opens and shuts, opens and shuts. Her face becomes contorted.)

  What’s your name?

  (Again SARAH tries frantically.)

  OWEN: Go on, Sarah. You can tell him.

  (But SARAH cannot. And she knows she cannot. She closes her mouth. Her head goes down.)

  OWEN: Her name is Sarah Johnny Sally.

  LANCEY: Where does she live?

  OWEN: Bun na hAbhann.

  LANCEY: Where?

  OWEN: Burnfoot.

  LANCEY: I want to talk to your brother – is he here?

  OWEN: Not at the moment.

  LANCEY: Where is he?

  OWEN: He’s at a wake.

  LANCEY: What wake?

  (DOALTY, who has been looking out the window all through LANCEY’s announcements, now speaks – calmly, almost casually.)

  DOALTY: Tell him his whole camp’s on fire,

  LANCEY: What’s your name? (To OWEN) Who’s that lout?

  OWEN: Doalty Dan Doalty.

  LANCEY: Where does he live?

  OWEN: Tulach Alainn.

  LANCEY: What do we call it?

  OWEN: Fair Hill. He says your whole camp is on fire.

  (LANCEY rushes to the window and looks out. Then he wheels on DOALTY.)

  LANCEY: I’ll remember you, Mr Doalty. (To OWEN) You carry a big responsibility in all this.

  (He goes off.)

  BRIDGET: Mother of God, does he mean it, Owen?

  OWEN: Yes, he does.

  BRIDGET: We’ll have to hide the beasts somewhere – our Seamus’ll know where. Maybe at the back of Lis na nGradh – or in the caves at the far end of the Tra Bhan. Come on, Doalty! Come on! Don’t be standing about there!

  (DOALTY does not move. BRIDGET runs to the door and stops suddenly. She sniffs the air. Panic.)