Catastrophe Practice
Page 6
There run on from the wings, left, Ariel pursued by the Footman and the Maid. They catch him; they scuffle; they seem to be trying to prevent him reaching the crack in the rocks.
Ackerman moves along the balustrade and begins to dismantle a section, right of centre. Judith goes to help him.
Jenny moves across the front of the stage to the proscenium arch, left, and leans with her back against it.
Jason turns to the front of the stage where the wire goes over. He looks down.
Helena remains by the wings, back left.
Ackerman and Judith arrange the bits of the dismantled balustrade to make it seem as if someone had fallen over.
Then the lights come on.
Everyone becomes still.
Ariel, centre, is held by the arms by the Footman and the Maid. He watches Jason.
After a time, the Footman and the Maid let Ariel go. They turn and watch the audience.
Jason takes hold of the wire that goes over the footlights.
Jenny, by the proscenium arch, left, watches Jason.
Ackerman and Judith continue to arrange the bits of the balustrade as if someone had fallen over.
Ariel goes and crouches by the crack in the rocks.
Ackerman and Judith go to the loggia, right, and look up.
Helena has not moved.
The lights go out.
Jenny goes and sits on the garden chair.
Ackerman and Judith reach up and begin to dismantle the huge toy-like blocks of which the loggia is made.
The Footman and Maid come to the footlights, right and left, and look out over the audience. The Maid puts a hand in her pocket as if she holds a gun there.
Ackerman and Judith carry blocks from the loggia and place them round the garden chair like prehistoric stones.
Jason crouches by the footlights, holding the wire, and turns with his back to the audience. Ariel and Helena have not moved.
The lights come on.
Everyone is still.
After a time Helena joins Ackerman and Judith by the loggia. They continue to dismantle the huge toy-like blocks of the loggia. They place them round Jenny in the chair.
Ariel is squatting by the crack in the rocks facing Jason. He has his hand on the wire.
ARIEL
— Johnny —
JASON
— Yes —
ARIEL
— Don’t jump. Your old grandmother, in Australia, has a message for you —
Jason is holding the wire with his back to the audience as if he is about to lower himself over a cliff. He turns and looks down over the footlights.
ARIEL
— You might hit a little doggy in the road —
JASON
Oh really!
The lights go out.
Ackerman and Judith and Helena continue arranging the blocks of the loggia around Jenny. The Footman and Maid, at the footlights, stare out over the audience. They both have their hands in their pockets as if they might be security men, or terrorists.
Jason lowers himself over the footlights. He looks, down.
JASON
It’s a sort of —
ARIEL
What?
JASON
Museum. Huts, watchtowers. Ladies and gentlemen on the grass.
When he is in the auditorium, Jason coils the wire at the front of the stage.
The lights come on.
Ariel is crouching by the crack in the rocks. He looks up at the flies.
ARIEL
That’s brilliant!
The Footman and the Maid, right and left, watch the audience.
Judith and Ackerman and Helena, having arranged the blocks of the loggia like primitive stones around Jenny in the garden chair, stand back as if to admire their work.
Helena goes to Jenny and stands with her hand on the back of her chair.
Judith and Ackerman go and stand by the broken balustrade.
Jason begins to walk off at the front of the auditorium, left.
Ariel is facing the audience.
ARIEL
See if they can fly —
He waits.
Now!
The Curtain begins to come down.
There are three loud bangs, from the flies, as in the first act.
The Footman and the Maid duck.
The Curtain stops.
Jason, at the front left of the auditorium, stops.
He looks at the stage.
Ariel looks at the audience.
The Footman and the Maid look up at the flies.
Ackerman looks over the broken bit of the balustrade at the back.
Judith watches Helena and Jenny.
Jason murmurs —
JASON
Ten minutes to go.
He looks at the audience.
Just time for a cup of tea?
The Footman and the Maid have straightened. They take their hands out of their pockets and raise them: they have no guns.
Helena and Jenny are posed within the circle of stones.
Ariel, by the crack in the rocks, takes his hand from the wire.
The Curtain continues to come down.
The Footman and the Maid seem uncertain; then they move off into the wings, right and left. Jason walks out through an exit at the back of the auditorium, left.
The Curtain stops a few inches above the ground.
Ariel can be seen, on his hands and knees, to have one hand on the wire: he is peering underneath the Curtain into the auditorium.
Then the lights in the auditorium come on. The lights on the stage go out.
The CURTAIN remains a few inches above the stage.
ACT III
The lights on the stage come on while the Curtain is still a few inches above the stage.
The CURTAIN rises.
SCENE: the same. A cold grey light The backdrop is unlit, so the material it is made of is showing. The broken pieces of the balustrade are arranged as at the end of the last act The wire still trails from the crack in the rocks ever the footlights and into the auditorium. The dismantled blocks of the loggia are in their semi-circle like prehistoric stones.
Jenny is lying in the garden chair within the circle of stones. She is in her underclothes. Her eyes are closed. She seems to have taken over the role of Judith in the last act.
Helena is standing by the broken balustrade, looking over. She wears an old overcoat and trousers and carries a travelling bag on a strap over her shoulder.
Judith is seated on one of the blocks, left. She is in her underclothes, and has on her lap a pair of jeans which she seems to be altering or mending. She speaks as she sews.
JUDITH
And when I’d come into the kitchen he’d got them even there, with little stalks sticking out like apples. And when I’d say — For God’s sake, if you want to speed up nature —
She bites her thread off: holds the jeans up to the light.
— he put them in the fridge.
She puts the jeans down: tries to re-thread her needle.
He called it proterogyny — of the female sexual organs.
She manages to thread the needle.
If you don’t eat it up for dinner —
She sews.
— bombs: seeds: apples —
She holds the jeans up again. She puts the needle in her mouth.
— you’ll get them back for tea.
She puts down the jeans. She puts the needle away. She rummages in a travelling bag that is beside her on the ground.
How many did he have with him, do you know? I think it was a number. Or was he on his own? I think it was a number. There are enough in the streets, God knows. In the valleys. Leaping up the fences. Breaking down the waterfalls. On to the dry land.
She has taken from her travelling bag an automatic pistol, which she holds on her lap and dismantles.
What were they doing in a place like this? I think they were imprisoned. Or were they protected? I think they were im
prisoned. You were in that chair. Then I was in that chair —
She uses Jenny’s old T-shirt, taken from the bag, to clean the pistol.
Put enough of us together —
She holds the pistol up towards the wings, right, and looks through the barrel.
— in a telephone box —
She squeezes the trigger.
— Help! He pushed me! —
She lowers the pistol.
It’s an overcrowded profession.
She reassembles the pistol and puts it back in her bag. Then she stands and struggles to put on the jeans, which are Jenny’s, and thus too small for her. wouldn’t it be for the best if —
She faces the audience.
— With your hands, your hair —
She manages to get on the jeans.
— you think you’re so morally superior —
She raises the T-shirt; she struggles to pull it over her head: for a moment it is as if she were being tortured.
— Oh no I didn’t —
— Oh yes you did —
Helena leaves the balustrade and comes towards her. She speaks in a masculine voice.
HELENA
— Either of you two girls coming with me across the park? —
Judith manages to pull the T-shirt down over her face. She says with relief —
JUDITH
— Freddie knocks his bowl over, and then he can’t drink.
Helena looks to the wings, left. Then she moves round the stage.
HELENA
They didn’t have any children. Or they didn’t have any children —
She stops by Jenny and looks down at her.
— The people on the roads. With their little tails going —
She looks at the audience.
— The queens of Egypt, on their beds.
She goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over.
What did they give her, do you know?
JUDITH
Coloured lights, shapes, music —
Helena turns to the ruins of the loggia, right. She acts —
HELENA
— When she came in —
Judith acts as if following Helena’s lead —
JUDITH
— With his arm around her —
HELENA
— And they were looking up —
JUDITH
— Our skirts —
HELENA
— Our little skirts! —
JUDITH
— Their tongues like bells! —
Helena comes to the footlights and looks at the audience. She speaks in her ordinary voice.
HELENA
Have you looked in her bag?
JUDITH
God, aren’t there enough people in this town looking in people’s bags!
She comes and looks on the floor by Jenny.
HELENA
It has to be in the dark —
JUDITH
Why?
HELENA
Or how can you look for it?
Judith seems to quote —
JUDITH
— There’s an underground river —
HELENA
— Disgorges its victims.
Helena moves off round the stage. Then she faces the ruins of the loggia again and acts —
— I was in the back of the van —
JUDITH
— He asked for water —
HELENA
— His head was in my lap —
JUDITH
— They’d kept the engine running.
Then Helena goes and looks over the balustrade.
She says in her ordinary voice —
HELENA
Don’t blame yourself, lovers quarrel.
Judith acts —
JUDITH
— I was in my pram —
HELENA
— Then I was in my pram —
JUDITH
— Till we’re all in one room —
Helena faces the audience.
HELENA
You don’t get to where you want to go, if you think you know where you’re going.
Jenny speaks with her eyes closed.
JENNY
I’m not asleep, if that’s what you mean.
Judith has been looking on the ground around the chair.
JUDITH
It’s all in your head —
HELENA
Your pretty head —
JUDITH
Your tongues like music.
After a time Jenny sits up and mimes arranging her skirt as Judith has done in the last act.
Judith has turned to the audience.
JENNY
You know how, he said, you’re in a wood, and you come out on to a cornfield —
JUDITH
Weren’t you a singer?
HELENA
I used to dance.
JENNY
— And in front of you there’s the sun, so that you can’t see —
Helena comes to the footlights.
She leans forward and screws up her eyes as if she were trying to read something on a wall in front of her —
HELENA
— I am the — conscience of — my unhappy — family —
JENNY
— A pit —
JUDITH
— A tomb —
HELENA
— A garden —
JENNY
Whether or not you’ve dug it yourself —
JUDITH
— Don’t push me dear, I’m peeing.
They wait.
Then Jenny makes a noise as if she might be imitating music, or a machine-gun —
JENNY
Da da di dum dum. Da da di da —
HELENA
You can’t say that!
JUDITH
It’s people!
Jenny lies back with her eyes closed.
Helena looks down over the footlights.
Judith watches the audience.
It is as if Helena and Judith were seeing through the screen that Ackerman and Jason were looking at in the last act.
JUDITH
In the end —
HELENA
Is it people?
After a time Ariel comes on from behind the ruins of the loggia He wears his white trousers and his coloured shirt. He holds his left forearm with his right hand. The sleeve of his shirt is torn and bloodstained.
He moves along the balustrade till he comes to the place where it is broken. He stops.
A spotlight comes on him from above the stage. After a time Judith goes to him, and takes his arm and examines it.
Jenny speaks with her eyes closed.
JENNY
You saw them, what were they like?
ARIEL
Two eyes and a nose, and a room behind.
JENNY
You were with them, what did they do?
ARIEL
One or two on street corners.
JENNY
You brought them —
JUDITH
I brought them!
JENNY
They followed you —
JUDITH
But what do we do?
After a time Helena turns and looks at Judith. Judith has taken off Ariel’s shirt, and is trying to make a sling with it.
Helena moves off along the footlights towards the left. She acts —
HELENA
— There was one took out his eyes —
Jenny speaks with her eyes closed.
JENNY
— Said Mummy, open your mouth —
JUDITH
— And in she popped them.
Ariel leaves Judith and comes down towards the footlights.
He stares at the audience. He acts tragically —
ARIEL
— They were coming across the ice —
JUDITH
— The barrel got so hot —
ARIEL
You couldn’t
see —
JENNY
— Pee — ?
JUDITH
See!
Helena puts her head in her hands.
Ariel watches the audience.
ARIEL
They cared?
JUDITH
They listened —
JENNY
They were seeing —
After a time Judith goes into the wings, back left, and seems to be trying to drag a heavy object on to the stage. It comes half into view, it is the swing sofa. She struggles with it: then she sits on it and rests.
Helena murmurs —
HELENA
It’s when you’re working —
JENNY
Dying —
ARIEL
Knowing?
JUDITH
Handing on —
Ariel is watching the audience.
ARIEL
— Where did he put it, do you know?
JENNY
— In some hole, I think, by the lavatory.
ARIEL
— Who’s going to get it, do you know?
JUDITH
— Some grandson, I think, in Australia.
They wait.
ARIEL
You throw your sticks on the ground —
JUDITH
Upsadaisy!
HELENA
You create it?
They wait.
JENNY
You stand back —
ARIEL
You go over.
After a time there come on from the wings, back right, Ackerman, followed by the Footman and the Maid who carry a stretcher. On the stretcher there is a blanket covering what seems to be a body. They are like a funeral cortege.