Sweetheart, over____ - stageplay (2006)
ACT 1
Running the scenarios. At the SALTON home, in BARBARA and MARIA's sitting room.
(BARBARA SALTON stands at a high table reading a book. She wears a black dress down to her ankles. There's a revolver on the table.)
(MARIA SALTON enters.)
MARIA
I don't care.
BARBARA
Yes. You do.
MARIA
I care about the politics of it. Not the fact of it. I could've organised a Hens' Party. But I wouldn't.
BARBARA
No.
MARIA
The thought of them. In the lodge.
BARBARA
It's a hut.
(BARBARA continues reading. She turns a page. Then turns it back.)
BARBARA (Continued)
It's a broken-down corrugated-iron shack. It's a tin shed in the bush.
MARIA
It's grotesque.
BARBARA
Yes. That's the fact of it.
MARIA
Roy, with his sad little show of masculinity presiding over a circle of empty posers. Man posers, with crusty pouches.
BARBARA
The fact is the whole thing.
MARIA
I hate that name. Roy.
(BARBARA closes the book, keeping her place with a finger, and looks at her sister.)
BARBARA
Do something for me, Maria.
MARIA
What?
BARBARA
Change.
(MARIA brings her hand up to her face. Lets it drop.)
MARIA
I told you. I don't care.
(BARBARA goes back to reading the same page.)
MARIA (Continued)
Do you know what's going on with the world? Do you?
BARBARA
Everything.
(She looks at MARIA.)
BARBARA (Continued)
I've got no respect for you. You've opened yourself way up. What do you think Dad will do with you dispatched, a new son-in-law, and only one daughter left who hates his guts?
MARIA
Don't call him that.
(contemptuously)
Roy!
BARBARA
That's what he is. You're stupid and selfish.
MARIA
You're jealous.
BARBARA
I'm jealous of my freedom. Of being left alone.
MARIA
And you're young. I can't change anything. And even if I did, if I wanted to, if I tried to change things, they'd only get a lot worse.
BARBARA
You don't feel anything.
MARIA
Can't you see? I don't care what I feel. Is that a gun?
BARBARA
Yes.
MARIA
Is it registered in your name?
BARBARA
I don't know.
MARIA
Hide it.
(She doesn't.)
MARIA (Continued)
Millions are displaced. Everyday. Millions. And tortured. And raped. All we've got to worry about is cheese. Let Maria be dispatched, let her have this rendition. Let the stepfather extend his empire, his patrimony. But... I don't know how you become a millionaire from cheese! How could you take it seriously?
BARBARA
Mum seems to like making cheese for him.
MARIA
I can't believe you said that.
BARBARA
You're next.
(She returns to the same page in her book.)
BARBARA (Continued)
No, sorry: Maria's next. Coupled. A monogamous couple. And the strange repeated acts confirming it, like the new homes you see dotted over a landscape that had in childhood been fields: The dreariest structures representing the anxious economies of thrifty little people.
MARIA
Give me that!
(BARBARA throws the book at MARIA. MARIA rushes her and grabbing her around the waist, brings her down. They fight.)
BARBARA
I can hear your ... little motor purring ... every petty denial produces one more ... spot of love oil. ... Your indifference is a fantasy ... you use it ... to make yourself more appealing...
(Through the preceding, MARIA interjects the following.)
MARIA
SLUT ... BITCH ... GET THE FUCK OFF ME!
BARBARA
I know you, Maria.
(MARIA grabs her by the hair.)
MARIA
Since when? Since when has our relationship been so volatile?
(BARBARA bites her.)
MARIA (Continued)
ANIMAL BITCH!
(BARBARA gains the upper hand. MARIA struggles.)
BARBARA
Don't call me a bitch: you! ... hanging there ... out of reach ... I won't forgive you for going through with this. I'll never.
(MARIA gets out from under BARBARA. She makes a run for the table.)
(BARBARA tackles her. She lands heavily, face down.)
(BARBARA gets to the gun first. She rolls MARIA over and, holding the gun clumsily, grips MARIA's face with her free hand.)
MARIA
DON'T THEN!
BARBARA
Aaargh!
(BARBARA holds her gunhand up as if to pistolwhip MARIA.)
MARIA
LOOK AT YOU! Just like them!
(BARBARA lets her hand drop slightly.)
MARIA (Continued)
But not as clever as them! Not clever enough...
(BARBARA raises her hand again.)
MARIA (Continued)
DON'T! ...
(BARBARA hesitates.)
MARIA (Continued)
No, Barb. Don't! ... Listen. I'll go tonight...
BARBARA
Where?
(BARBARA relaxes her grip on MARIA.)
MARIA
To the hunting lodge - the shitty shack - the Stag do. I'll...
BARBARA
What will you do?
MARIA
I'll...
BARBARA
You don't DO things, Maria!
MARIA
I'll go as the stripper! I'll be the stripper!
(BARBARA, stunned for a second, breaks out laughing.)
MARIA (Continued)
You like it?
(BARBARA rolls away from MARIA laughing.)
MARIA (Continued)
Can you see it?
(BARBARA turns on MARIA suddenly.)
BARBARA
No!
MARIA
Come on! Think!
BARBARA
They'll recognise you immediately.
MARIA
I'll wear a veil. And they won't be looking at my face.
(BARBARA shakes her head from side to side and starts laughing again, more quietly.)
MARIA (Continued)
They'll die... What is it?
(BARBARA cradles the revolver, laughing and shaking her head.)
MARIA (Continued)
They'll die, Roy will die. Of shame.
(BARBARA turns back to MARIA.)
BARBARA
I'm coming.
MARIA
No you're not.
BARBARA
Yes I am.
MARIA
No.
BARBARA
He has no shame. They'll enjoy... they'll enjoy seeing you humiliate yourself. Because it's what you always do.
(BARBARA points the gun.)
MARIA
So.
(BARBARA wags the gun at her.)
MARIA (Continued)
How would you do it?
BARBARA
Do what?
MARIA
Intervene. In their society.
BARBARA
I'd dress as a man. I'd be dressed as a man, a gangster. 1920s. Prohibition time.
MARIA
And they wouldn't recognise you?
BARBARA
I wouldn't give them a chance. I know about the still. I know the cheese business is simply a front.
MARIA
A front?
BARBARA
Yes. For the still.
MARIA
How do you get that? Did you just pull it out of the air?
BARBARA
Out of choice.
MARIA
You'd act on that?
BARBARA
Why not? You don't know: there's the possibility of a stripper. But you don't know. And you can decide to be her. Where I choose to be him. In a world of chance or of choice, why not?
MARIA
Because you've got a gun.
(BARBARA puts the gun down between them.)
(MARIA turns her back on her. She rubs her forearm where BARBARA bit her.)
BARBARA
I doubt it's real.
MARIA
I know. But it's not that simple.
BARBARA
No, it's not.
MARIA
Roy wants to make my sweetheart an international sales rep. He'd be traveling a lot. Overseas. I won't see him. I won't have him. If Roy has him first.
(She faces BARBARA.)
MARIA (Continued)
Maybe he could change things. From the inside.
BARBARA
The only thing he's going change from the inside is you. Then it's me. Then it's my turn.
MARIA
Why does he have to ruin things?
BARBARA
Who?
MARIA
Da... All of them.
BARBARA
You let them. They play out their fantasies through you. The bride to be. You know this. I won't let you initiate a scenario into which I'm seconded by association, by sex, by convenience.
MARIA
You'll ring the Best Man. He chose Max.
BARBARA
Of course he chose Max.
MARIA
And you'll secure the booking for the evening's entertainment.
BARBARA
You want me to pimp for you?
MARIA
I'll go with you on this only so far. Since you don't give me a choice, come with me. But I meet them at their level. Because I grant you this much, yes, I've brought things to their level, by being open to their suggestion. I've been the theatre in which there's been a delay. And then in which, with one violent release, the restoration of the same will be presented. Just as there can't be a wedding without a bride, there can't be a Stag Party without a stripper. I won't have my sweetheart directed by Roy into the deceit that they're not one and the same, inducted into the world of cheese. And then the play will end.
(BARBARA and MARIA exit stage left, whence we hear telephone dialtones, as they ring MAX, all the while getting changed for the journey to the shack in the woods.)
The first room. M_D on screen: his environment is a studio with high windows, bare except for a daybed, a chair, a chess board, the pieces set mid-game, and a telephone.
(The telephone rings. M_D picks up.)
M_D
Hello. Who is speaking, please? ... Barbara Salton. I don't know any Barbaras. ... Or Barbies, Barbs or Babses. ... Please don't cry. ... It sounds like a very uncomfortable, a very inconvenient situation. I'm sorry for you. But what can I do for you? ... Cheese, you say? Now this I know something about. I was once a cheese smuggler... No. I'm not being sarcastic. Nor am I being ironic. I was referring to my former life. Now many years have passed and of course you're not interested. Why should you be? ... And you have a very charming voice. Please continue. ... Maria is your sister. ... No. I don't think that will happen. But a wedding is all in the anticipation of it. At least congratulate her on looking forward to it. ... Yes. Ever since she was girl... ... No. This is not Max. ... Of course.
(shouts away from the receiver)
MAX!
(M_D covers the receiver with his hand.)
M_D (Continued)
(reminiscing)
I wrote to you Maria, about the studio. Next door. I said that this will be "our cage outside of the world." No one will know. When we are in there, together... I will never write such letters again. For the length of time it takes for paint to fade and peel, I go to the door I peer in through holes. And see... What I haven't been allowed to see. All these years. And what I've accepted... You are in the second room. You're there. Filling it. ... This is the sort of art I'm talking about. Beautiful but of course impossible to achieve.
(M_D leaves his memories and shouts for MAX.)
M_D (Continued)
MAX!
(Enter MAX VINE, stage right. MAX, the dandy, wears a suit of austere cut, militaristic, perhaps skirted.)
(He marches across the stage and takes the receiver that M_D holds out to him from the screen.)
(MAX is in almost constant motion. The black cord attaching the receiver to the screen lengthens and criss-crosses the stage.)
MAX
Max here! ... Who?! ...
(brightening)
Babs!
(BARBARA gives him an earful about waiting so long for him to come to the phone.)
MAX (Continued)
Babs, darling, don't give me this shit! ... Well, it wasn't me who kept you waiting, was it? ... And it could've been worse as well. It might've been the altar! ... The altar! ... Yes. You might've been trembling, standing trembling, in your virgin state, not sure of whether you wanted the ritual to end or wanted it to go on forever! ... What's that? ... Don't say that to me! ... You don't know me well enough to. It might be a term of affection of an intimate kind. But without those sort of clues I might take it as an insult! ... I am not being trivial! ... I'm failing to be trivial because I'm not indifferent to your tone. ... The best man, what is that? ... Being the best for anybody's one favour too many. But carry on. ... I see. Is she supple, firm and complete? Not a dwarf or an amputee, not Greek or of Levantine extraction?... Your sister! Are you completely insane?! ... Don't cry! ... No,no,no. ... Put her on.
(MAX drops the receiver, it slithers back across the stage and off.)
MAX (Continued)
(addressing the audience)
The mind reels. The wheels are spinning. Lets look at the facts. You've clearly not been told about the mystery of the marital bed. Bound, indeed, to the sanctity of its failure. Two are made one and the one, I agree, is another instance of asymmetrical warfare. As the best man, could I do worse than booking the bride as the stripper? I've a budget. If you pay me, still the question arises, can I afford you? You're very generous. I'm sure your contribution will mark the proceedings. You need my help. The best and worst is, I'm the man! Consider your poor father. Not your real father. But consider his feelings. Even if they are simply other ways of pursuing his own interests. In cheese. Who knows? I doubt you'll leave the mark you expect. On the groom. But I won't let my doubt get in the way of your desire to be seen. As long as what you owe me and what I owe you in this remains hidden. There's no crime. Transport to and from is your affair. And I'm afraid, be aware, that it's a long and dangerous route.
(Exit MAX, stage right.)
(On screen M_D replaces the receiver. The phone rings almost immediately.)
(M_D picks up.)
M_D
Hello? ...
(MAX enters from the back of M_D's studio on screen. He returns to resume the game of chess left mid-game.)
(They smoke and play.)
M_D (Continued)
I'm very sorry. No. ... Yes. You have the wrong number. ... Thankyou. Goodbye.
(M_D replaces the receiver.)
MAX
Who was it?
M_D
For you, my friend, for you.
MAX
A woman?
M_D
So she claims.
MAX
What did she say?
M_D
I am the mother of someone, something, and so on. Is this Max? No. Apologies, both sides. She politely refuses to believe me.
MAX
Awkward.
M_D
Yes. I must have the wrong number. You must. Thankyou anyway.
MAX
She'll call again.
M_D
I imagine. Is it important?
MAX
No.
M_D
Thankyou anyway.
(They play chess and smoke.)
MAX
Are you coming tonight?
M_D
You know I can't leave my studio.
MAX
You might find the entertainment a welcome distraction.
M_D
No.
MAX
We have at least a few hours up our sleeve. Roy will be driving up in one of his favourite big and powerful cars.
M_D
Thankyou anyway.
MAX
Why do you keep repeating that pointless little phrase?
M_D
Thankyou anyway is the heat from the chair once the occupant has left it. The smell of the smoker's mouth in the exhaled smoke. It is a fine discrimination which can go either way. A negative positive. When you look, it's negative. When you don't look, I'm there with you. In spirit. The seat is still warm. I... flavour the air.
MAX
You're exaggerating as usual. It's an unnecessary politeness we've adopted from the English. Another example of the irony that makes them insupportable as a race.
M_D
You're right. But from one unnecessary politeness we now have a whole race, with which to flavour the smoke. With or without irony.
MAX
You must think you're winning.
M_D
But it's very clear!
(M_D giggles.)
M_D (Continued)
But it's not about winning or losing, my dear friend. Unless we are talking about women. It's about how we are using our time.
The journey to the hunting-lodge.
(Enter MARIA, upstage left, an enormous fur coat covering her entirely, except for her stilettos, with BARBARA, in a man's suit and hat of the 1920s, carrying a brown valise.)
MARIA
You look like an artist!
BARBARA
You look like a cliché. But I suppose it goes with the territory.
MARIA
Come here.
BARBARA
What?
(MARIA gestures upstage of her.)
(BARBARA follows her gesture and goes upstage.)
(MARIA opens her coat, flashing what's underneath, for BARBARA's eyes only.)
(Perhaps also, the men on screen react, raising their eyebrows.)
BARBARA (Continued)
Oh my god!
(MARIA closes her coat. They walk side by side.)
MARIA
See?
BARBARA
What?
MARIA
That's cheered you up.
BARBARA
You raided the trousseau.
MARIA
I don't know whose wishful thinking this stuff was.
BARBARA
Please say it wasn't Mum's idea.
MARIA
You know how she is about wax.
BARBARA
Stop it.
MARIA
She's the queen of depilation.
BARBARA
Don't tell me any more.
(She sniffs.)
BARBARA (Continued)
But the coat's hers.
(MARIA feels the nap of the coat.)
MARIA
It could be hers!
BARBARA
Stop.
(She sniffs again. They walk.)
BARBARA (Continued)
It's a long way.
MARIA
How do you know?
BARBARA
I walked it once. When I was little.
MARIA
Why?
BARBARA
I can't remember.
(They walk.)
BARBARA (Continued)
Roy made me. He took me hunting. He thought I was a boy.
(They walk. MARIA takes BARBARA's hand.)
MARIA
Twenty steps and then we eat. After thirty, we rest. Fifty steps and we'll have made a journey of several days.
BARBARA
Maria?
MARIA
What?
BARBARA
Would you have come without me?
MARIA
Of course I wouldn't.
BARBARA
My bag's heavy and I'm cold.
MARIA
I'm wearing more lace doilies than a Dutch kitchen and you're cold?
(They walk. BARBARA sniffs, releases her hand from MARIA's and wipes her nose.)
MARIA (Continued)
Tell me, which model of the modern woman's more appealing? She whose part's to take pride in entering her prized buns in culinary display? Or the woman whose pride's in prising her buns apart for entry in cunnery display.
(BARBARA holds MARIA back by the arm for a second, looks at her.)
BARBARA
That's disgusting. Prising them with what?
MARIA
A string. Or strings.
BARBARA
You're not supposed to layer G-strings. You'd look like a guitar if you bent over.
MARIA
I thought it would make them more comfortable.
BARBARA
And cunnery? Does it mean what I think it means?
MARIA
I think I made it up. I got it from culinary. But it left me with a spare L.
BARBARA
Save it for love. Anyway, it all comes back to the housewife-whore, virgin-slut routine. Women's roles written by men.
(BARBARA sniffs.)
BARBARA (Continued)
I think I am getting a cold, you know.
(She stops, rifles in the pockets of her jacket for a handkerchief.)
MARIA
If the women are written, then the men are equally moulded. Poor things. Like lightbulbs.
(MARIA stops.)
MARIA (Continued)
What are you looking for?
BARBARA
Do you have a tissue?
(MARIA feels in the pockets of her coat.)
MARIA
A ball of string.
(She pulls out an old rolly and hold it up.)
BARBARA
What's that?
MARIA
An old joint.
(She puts it back.)
MARIA (Continued)
Could be useful.
(She finds the following.)
MARIA (Continued)
A hairy boiled sweet, with spare wrappers. Lighter.
(She tries the lighter.)
MARIA (Continued)
Doesn't go. These pockets are bottomless. Loose change.
(She looks at it.)
MARIA (Continued)
Old coins, no gold. A tooth!
BARBARA
Yuk.
MARIA
Ow! There's something sharp in there. Buttons. Ow!
(She takes her hand out, sucks her finger.)
MARIA (Continued)
Pricked me. Not going down there again. Sorry.
(BARBARA sniffs, pats her breastpocket.)
BARBARA
Wait.
(She reaches into her jacket's inside pocket. Her hand comes out holding a folded and yellowing piece of paper. She unfolds it.)
(We see it onscreen, the first words highlighted as she reads.)
(Her curiosity turns quickly to shock.)
THE LETTER
Irene, / Given 1) that I am not the father of the child you carry, and 2) that Maria is not yet old enough to understand__ I've decided...
MARIA
What is it?
BARBARA
It's to Mum.
MARIA
Read it.
BARBARA
No. ... I can't.
MARIA
Who's it from?
(She looks for a signature. Onscreen we see highlighted: Yours / Affect.ly no longer / Raymond.)
BARBARA
Dad.
MARIA
Roy?!
BARBARA
No. Our real one.
MARIA
Give it to me.
(MARIA reaches out to grab it. BARBARA avoids her.)
MARIA (Continued)
Give it!
BARBARA
Leave me alone!
MARIA
What's the matter?
(BARBARA finishes the letter. She falls onto her knees, hugging the letter to her chest and folds over it, moaning.)
MARIA (Continued)
For god's sake, give it to me!
(BARBARA hugs the letter and rocks back and forth.)
MARIA (Continued)
Barbara! Let me read it! Come on Barbs!
(MARIA separates her clenched hands and removes the letter.)
(As she reads, what she reads is highlighted on screen.)
THE LETTER
Irene, / Given 1) that I am not the father of the child you carry, and 2) that Maria is not yet old enough to understand...
MARIA
That can't be right... We have the same...
(She looks at BARBARA.)
MARIA (Continued)
Oh.
(She places a hand on BARBARA's shoulder, who shakes her off.)
MARIA (Continued)
It's a shock. That's all. It's just a shock.
(BARBARA sniffs and rocks.)
MARIA (Continued)
Come on. One absent father's now two - what's the difference? He's a cad, that's all. They both are. A cad and a bounder.
(She resumes reading.)
THE LETTER
Irene, / Given 1) that I am not the father of the child you carry, and 2) that Maria is not yet old enough to understand__ I've decided to sign up immediately...
MARIA
Barb! Dad was a war hero!
(BARBARA shakes her head.)
MARIA (Continued)
I mean, my Dad.
(BARBARA shakes her head. MARIA reads the rest.)
THE LETTER
- i.e. to leave, before the baby's born, on a six week cruise of the coast of Africa, terminating I know not where___ Being as you've seen fit to let another man intrude upon your person, in such a manner that his issue will soon be hanging from your breast, I feel little compunction re my decision and will contrive to provide support as I am able__ Yours / Affect.ly no longer / Raymond
MARIA
What a bastard! I knew he left but I didn't know he left when Mum was pregnant. With you!
(MARIA folds up the letter. She sits down beside BARBARA, pulling the coat around her legs.)
MARIA (Continued)
Come on, Barb.
(She hands BARBARA the letter.)
MARIA (Continued)
Put it back.
BARBARA
You must hate me.
MARIA
Hate you?
BARBARA
I drove your father away.
MARIA
No!
(MARIA puts her arm around BARBARA.)
MARIA (Continued)
If anything I love you even more.
(BARBARA puts the letter back in her pocket. She sniffs.)
BARBARA
Well, I hate them. Breeding without taking responsibility for what happens. We're not even sisters anymore. We're half what we were. They've cut us in half!
(BARBARA faces MARIA directly.)
BARBARA (Continued)
Don't do it, Maria!
MARIA
Look how far we've come!
BARBARA
I'll lose you.
MARIA
Maybe thirty steps.
BARBARA
I won't let you.
MARIA
Where did you find that suit?
BARBARA
My legs tremble. I'm too weak to go on.
MARIA
He must have been a small man.
BARBARA
I only had to alter it a little and it fitted perfectly.
MARIA
If you're tired we should rest.
(They lie down to sleep, hand in hand.)
IRENE SALTON's speech on screen.
IRENE
Max, Max, thank God I got you... It's Irene, Maria's mum. ... Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. ... Look, she isn't with you is she? ... Of course it wouldn't be appropriate but... Do you know where she is? ... You're doing what?! ... When? ... Why might she be at her future husband's Stag Party? What would she be doing at a Stag Party? ... Roy? No, I don't see Roy at all, but you know how he is ... It's late and I'm going half-mad with worry. She's been in a very strange space lately. I want you to look out for her. ... I can beg if you like! ... Max, you're a naughty man! Please, please, if you see her, look after her, all right? Look after my little girl! ... Babs? Who do you mean? ... Barbara? ... Yes, yes. Her as well!
MARIA's dreams: 1 & 2.
(MARIA sits up.)
MARIA
Barbara! Did you call? Did you wake me?
(BARBARA grunts in reply as MARIA shakes her.)
MARIA (Continued)
Then if it wasn't you it must've been what I dreamt. Barb, I had a terrible dream. I took off my coat and the men were laughing, jeering, and throwing cubes of processed Salton cheese at me! What have I done?!
BARBARA
Maria, I won't let that happen.
MARIA
Then I had another dream. There was a smell. I was alone. And I could only think that it rose from my own body but I couldn't contain it. It was overwhelming, putrid, like a vat of... And I was a child, naked and crouched behind the front seat of a car, unable to move because of the dead bodies of the other passengers, who'd been lying there for days and amongst whom I recognised my sweatheart...
BARBARA
Was I there?
MARIA
No.
BARBARA
Then it wasn't such a bad dream after all, was it?
MARIA
What am I doing?!
BARBARA
Let's move away from the main road, so if they pass they won't see us, and get some more sleep, because nothing like that's going to happen.
(They cross downstage.)
MARIA
(crossing with BARBARA)
Not far, please, Barb. I feel like shit but I don't want to sleep again if I'm to have such dreams. They're exhausting.
(BARBARA leads MARIA and they curl up on the ground.)
The men pass in a car on the Jura Rd.
(On screen, in the distance, a large and powerful car winds roaring through the dusk hills, its headlights chewing up the road ahead. A comet with its tail ahead of it, crushing and turning to gold by its light the dust of the unsealed road.)
MARIA's dream: 3.
(On screen through the following, M_D in his studio.)
(MARIA wakes with a start.)
MARIA
Did you call me? Did you touch me? My heart's beating like crazy. What's happened? My legs and arms are frozen. Darling Barbara, why did I let you convince me to sleep again? Dream number three was by far the most terrible.
BARBARA
Shut up, Maria! Can't I be with my own thoughts even for a moment?
(She stands.)
BARBARA (Continued)
I've lost my father. This isn't a dream. And you won't let me sleep!
(MARIA remains frozen.)
BARBARA (Continued)
So we'll walk in the dark off the road and I'll reassure you once more that this last most terrible dream means as little as the two that came before.
MARIA
No, we won't.
(She tries to get up.)
MARIA (Continued)
Because, really, I'm not being funny, Barb. I can't move!
(She manages a weak laugh.)
MARIA (Continued)
I'm scared!
(BARBARA sits down on her valise next to MARIA.)
BARBARA
Your underwear's cut off your circulation. Breathe. ... Tell me your dream.
(MARIA breathes a sigh.)
MARIA
(breathing deeply through the following)
We were on the run through the snow at the Battle of the Bulge. And Joe Crone was there.
BARBARA
Who?
MARIA
Don't ask me! The Chaplain's assistant. For the Company. With his thousand mile stare. I don't know. It was a different us. The snow lay thick and white on the field. We ran towards a stand of trees. We had no weapons. And I leant my head against a tree to rest standing up. And I could see everything that was going to happen.
(She takes a deep breath and continues.)
MARIA (Continued)
Me, a crazy old man. The baby I was then. Only eighteen years' old. Surrounded by war and death. ... I could see myself stuck in the present moment. Unable to get beyond it, unable to get over it. The two presents. Like bugs in amber.
(She releases a breath, lifts herself onto her elbows and turns her head to BARBARA.)
MARIA (Continued)
What have you done to me? Why have you brought me out here? There's no time!
BARBARA
You say you're afraid.
(MARIA nods.)
BARBARA (Continued)
Will you sit at home for the rest of your days?
(MARIA shakes her head.)
BARBARA (Continued)
Maybe ten steps further and in one night we'll have made a journey of days.
(BARBARA takes up her valise and exits stage right.)
MARIA
Wait for me!
BARBARA
(from off stage)
I take the lead and you want to and you can't. But I'm strong enough for us both.
(MARIA follows BARBARA off stage right.)
ACT 2
On screen: M_D in studio at night under artificial light.
M_D
There are two rooms. One is empty, silent and public. But full of the noise you bring in from elsewhere. Primarily the noise of the war. The only adequate response to the war is silence. Silentness. There are two rooms. Just as there are two rivers. One rising with glamour and glory. The other below it. Flowing in the opposite direction. ... Like someone who has survived the flood-time. By indefinite delay. I work in the second room. The one you can't see. ... The important thing is that a love story should develop in secret. With small muted noises. From the room next door. The second room. Or in the mind, even. ... A body of work. Whose delicately coloured forms suggest mucous membranes. And moist internal tissue. The eye slides over. ... Hearing what you can't see. Those sounds that frighten children, far away from film or TV. And more than just sex or love. That find in the pink and grey matter a home. And animate the figures in the second room.
Arrival at the hunting-lodge.
(The preceding scene rapidly segues into the present one. M_D's speech continues as a voice-over for the mime show outside the lodge.)
(The hunting-lodge is a rusted corrugated iron tin shed. It is perforated with nail holes and brilliantly lit from inside. It stands beside a river on the edge of the bush, casting shadows in the moonlight.)
(The shed is windowless, the door set on the side we cannot see. So that someone leaving or entering the lodge could plausibly remain unseen by us.)
(Roy's car is parked upstage right, its headlights now off, pointing directly downstage.)
(The river is heard underlying the whole scene, punctuated by the occasional muted barking of dogs whose vocal chords have been removed.)
(Every time the shed door opens, from inside, we hear a hubbub of male voices, raucous laughter and the ball pinging on the rotation of a roulette wheel.)
(The shadowy figure of BARBARA approaches the edge of the stage.)
(She lays her valise down, opens it and removes the handgun, unwrapping it from a long white opera scarf.)
(In the valise is also her long black dress from Act I and a full length white slip, MARIA's.)
(She hesitates holding the gun, wondering where on her person to conceal it.)
(She tries the inside pocket of her jacket. Too small. Then down the back of her trousers. It scratches.)
(Finally, she lifts her waistcoat and sticks the gun under her waistband down the front of her trousers.)
(She takes the scarf, winds it around her neck, until it covers the lower part of her face.)
(To complete her disguise, she has brought a pair of sunglasses and a pair of white gloves, both of which she puts on, pulling the brim of her hat down low.)
(Before going any further, she closes the valise, leaving it where it sits, and makes the machismo gesture of grasping her crotch, to check the gun.)
(Meanwhile, unseen by BARBARA, LOUIS LANG leaves the hunting-lodge, shed, and enters the stage.)
(There is a brief hubbub from inside.)
(BARBARA freezes.)
(Then the door swings closed, shutting out the noise.)
(LOUIS looks for somewhere out of view to relieve himself. He is a nervy type. He wears an apron with his croupier's outfit and a skull-cap.)
(BARBARA goes around the back of the hunting-lodge, shed.)
(LOUIS finds his spot, lifts his apron and unzips his fly.)
(BARBARA opens the door to the shed and goes in. Again, noise from inside.)
(LOUIS freezes, looks around, in case he's being watched.)
(He moves to the edge of the stage, not bothering to zip up his fly, where BARBARA has left the valise.)
(He holds his apron out in front of him, like a tent.)
(Enter MARIA from out of the bushes, stage left.)
(By this point M_D's voice-over from the previous scene has finished.)
(The noise from inside the shed lifts a notch, as does the sound of the river's flowing water, allowing, however, for the figures on stage to speak at normal volume.)
(LOUIS picks up the valise.)
(MARIA rushes up to him and embraces him, pinning his arms to his sides.)
MARIA
I'm here!
(LOUIS struggles.)
LOUIS
WHAT THE FUCK!? GET OFF!
MARIA
Hey!
(She loosens her hold.)
(He manages to turn around before she bear-hugs him again, from behind.)
MARIA (Continued)
What have you done with my sister?
LOUIS
I don't know your sister.
MARIA
That's her bag.
LOUIS
And who the fuck are you?
MARIA
I'm... I'm the hired help.
(He stops struggling.)
LOUIS
Whoop-dee fuck! So am I!
(He makes a lunge.)
MARIA
No you don't!
(She follows him, not releasing him.)
LOUIS
Yes I do!
(He makes another attempt to escape her.)
MARIA
Stop!
LOUIS
What is it?
MARIA
That's the lodge.
LOUIS
The Lodge?! Who are you, the fucking Queen?
MARIA
I'm the stripper. What's your name?
LOUIS
Louis. Get off me! Dirty skank!
MARIA
No! Give me the bag.
LOUIS
I can't with you holding me like that, can I? What did you do? Walk here?
MARIA
Yes.
(He struggles. She tightens her grip.)
LOUIS
I'll scream!
MARIA
Have some self-respect, Louis.
LOUIS
Na...
MARIA
What?
LOUIS
Na...
(He squirms.)
LOUIS (Continued)
My bladder!
MARIA
Am I holding you too tightly?
DOGS
(their vocal chords have been removed)
Huh! Huh!
LOUIS
Shit, see!
MARIA
What's that?
LOUIS
Dogs.
MARIA
What dogs?
LOUIS
Max said watch out for the dogs. Now you've brought them on.
MARIA
Max did?
LOUIS
(dropping his voice)
Shut up!
MARIA
(dropping her voice)
Give me the bag!
LOUIS
You smell like you walked here.
MARIA
My sis... I think I'm getting a cold. My glands are up.
DOGS
Huh! Huh! Huh!
MARIA
Why do they sound like that?
(The shed door opens. The noise of the hubbub inside increases.)
MAX
(off)
Lois!
MARIA
Shhh!
MAX
(off)
Lois!
MARIA
What's that?
(She starts giggling.)
LOUIS
Here, take the fucking bag!
(He drops it.)
MARIA
DON'T!
(Immediately regretting shouting, she releases him.)
LOUIS
Thankyou.
(MARIA crouches to retrieve the bag.)
MARIA
Shit.
LOUIS
Don't they know you're here?
MARIA
No.
LOUIS
I'll go tell them.
MARIA
No don't! It's a... I'm the climax of the evening, it's a surprise.
MAX
(off)
Miss Lane, your time is up!
(MARIA looks at LOUIS. He's embarrassed.)
MARIA
You?
LOUIS
It's supposed to be a joke.
(MARIA giggles.)
LOUIS (Continued)
But it's not funny.
MAX
(off)
Look, Lois, crawl your ass in here! You're making me look like a dick!
(MARIA guffaws.)
MAX (Continued)
(off)
Lois?
LOUIS
(threatening whisper)
It's not fucking funny!
(to MAX)
I haven't found a spot.
MAX
(off)
Go anywhere! The world's your... whatever. But the table can't wait.
(MARIA laughs.)
(LOUIS goes back around her and claps his hand over her mouth.)
LOUIS
(to MAX)
You said there were dogs!
MAX
(off)
For ... sake! This is why they sell diapers at casinos!
(MARIA bites his hand.)
LOUIS
OW! BITCH!
MAX
(off)
What's that?
LOUIS
I think I found the dogs.
MAX
(off)
That's right, you probably have! They're silent vicious sons-of-bitches. Roy had their vocal chords removed.
(He kicks MARIA.)
(She grunts and rolls over onto her side.)
MAX (Continued)
(off)
That's right, kick them in the guts.
(With MARIA preoccupied, LOUIS raises his apron.)
MARIA
(the wind out of her)
What are you doing?
MAX
(off)
Do you need a hand?
LOUIS
No.
MARIA
Have you been dangling out here all the time I've been talking to you?
MAX
(off)
Look, Lane, the chips are down!
LOUIS
(to MARIA)
I was... Yes, I was.
MAX
(off)
I'll spin the wheel this once but if you're not in here right away, you're fired...
MARIA
(with sarcasm)
I'm so sorry, Louis.
MAX
(off)
You can find yourself another gig...
LOUIS
I didn't want to say anything...
MAX
(off)
It's a long walk home...
MARIA
Is it cold? Let me warm it.
(She removes her stilettos.)
MAX
(off)
You hear me?
LOUIS
NO!
MAX
(off)
Is that what I get for gratitude, you little shit?!
LOUIS
No. Max, no! I'm coming!
MAX
(off)
You better be!
(The door to the shed closes as MAX goes in.)
LOUIS
A minute. Give me a minute!
(He walks up to MARIA. He makes to raise his apron over her.)
LOUIS (Continued)
I could...
MARIA
(challenging him)
What!?
LOUIS
I don't think we want your type here!
(He passes her, exiting towards the bushes.)
MARIA
(calling after him)
And what type is that?
(She throws a stiletto after him.)
MARIA (Continued)
Exactly what type is that?!
(From her position on the ground, she pulls the valise towards her and opens it.)
MARIA (Continued)
Oh, no... A gun-shaped hole! Barbara...
Shots ring out from inside the shed.
(The first is followed after a slight, soundless pause by two further reports.)
(Each shot opens a new hole in the corrugated iron, through which light spills from the brightly illuminated interior.)
(The dogs take up their muted barking.)
(The hubbub is over.)
(Another second and MAX gives one short anguished, animal shriek.)
(MARIA leaps to her feet.)
(She strains forward, transfixed. In her hand she holds her remaining stiletto.)
(LOUIS runs in from the bushes.)
(Before he reaches the stage, MAX enters.)
(LOUIS stops in his tracks.)
(Enter MAX taking baby steps, babbling in shock and doing strange things with his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the tips of fingers.)
(He wears a gambler's visor and goes without his jacket, his shirtsleeves held up by sleeve clips, the metal expandable variety.)
(His face and front have been spattered with blood, which is especially thick over his chest, where additionally a dark central patch over the heart suggests that he has been shot. He believes himself shot.)
(MARIA backs off as MAX enters.)
(LOUIS fascinated, mesmerised by the sight of MAX, circles around the stage until he stands with the audience.)
(A note on MAX's babbling: it is his shock reaction. Although he does respond to MARIA and LOUIS, his babbling is continuous.)
MAX
(babbling)
I have a hole and that's all I have. I live in a hole. True, it is my milieu. I have a hole in the middle of my bed. The hole is lit. It burns in the middle of my bed. A little hole, in lieu of a pillow. The air escapes out through my hole.
MARIA
WHAT'S HAPPENED?
MAX
Marty, I wouldn't pee on her to put him out.
MARIA
ARE YOU HIT?
MAX
And if John is all we have for her.
MARIA
MAX! IS JOHN?
MAX
That bitch!
MARIA
(to herself)
Oh no, my sweetheart! Dad, look what you've done?!
MAX
A round flame or slit. True. Both burn.
MARIA
And Dad, ROY?
MAX
My pawn's alight, Roy. My buyer lit for a sale.
MARIA
STOP IT, MAX!
MAX
(regretfully)
Around the wheel goes. Shoot a bead. And out it pops.
(MARIA sees LOUIS.)
MARIA
(to LOUIS)
HE WON'T TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENED!
MAX
Happy mouse.
(LOUIS enters the stage. He stops before he reaches MAX.)
MAX (Continued)
A little weal's all I ask. A little ball in the middle. Turns. Turns back and forth. And first. Louis, you last.
(LOUIS reaches out to him. MAX leans into him.)
(LOUIS takes his arm, holding him like a blind man by the elbow and trying not to look at his wound.)
MAX (Continued)
(to LOUIS)
My last wishes are to break the laws.
(about the apparent hole in his chest)
How it burns! My whole hurts!
MARIA
MAKE HIM STOP IT!
MAX
Hell, I'm lost!
LOUIS
(to MARIA)
Do what?
MAX
Holy pawn! My bible, lost! I smell!
MARIA
SLAP HIM! HIT HIM!
(LOUIS can't with MAX resting his weight on him. He looks at the wound.)
MAX
The fire!
LOUIS
No, it's bad! I can see his heart!
MAX
All my laws have turned on me like dogs!
MARIA
I'LL DO IT!
(She marches up to MAX, wielding the stiletto.)
LOUIS
DON'T TOUCH HIM!
(LOUIS puts himself between MARIA and MAX, wheeling MAX around by the arm.)
(MAX pauses for the first time, upset by the violent movement, then his babbling starts again.)
MAX
I'm grown wise. Crossed, I'm wiser.
(MARIA drops her arm, holding the stiletto. She turns away.)
MARIA
I have to see what's happened.
MAX
Can't you smell it?
(MARIA makes a move towards the shed.)
LOUIS
NO!
(She stops.)
MAX
Money! The smoke we try and stoke into a fire! But only heaven burns!
(MAX pauses.)
LOUIS
Let me go in first.
MARIA
But it's nothing to do with you.
LOUIS
Nor you. We're just the hired help.
(A pause.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Hold him up!
MARIA
No.
MAX
A pillow all we have for fuel!
LOUIS
Well, keep him warm.
MAX
A tower castled king!
(MAX stands unaided, swaying.)
MARIA
No. Not my coat!
MAX
A burning zero hole around. And down is down. And gas all we have for a pillow.
(Exit LOUIS, to enter the shed.)
(MARIA panics.)
MARIA
No. No. NO!
MAX
Air for fire. F for all.
MARIA
DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH HIM LIKE THIS!
MAX
Money is the smoke. In Babylon. The spoke Max, the wheel.
(MARIA leaves MAX and retrieves her shoe.)
(Holding it, she returns to MAX.)
(She hands him the stiletto, placing it in his left hand.)
(She steps back and, facing him, undoes her coat.)
MARIA
Look at me, Max!
MAX
Ah, glad mouse! Who fears both cave and hair.
MARIA
MAX! Tell me what happened...
MAX
The murdered heir.
(MARIA holding her coat together, crosses quickly behind MAX.)
MARIA
Do you want me to be a widow before I'm even married?
MAX
The flavoured air.
(He pauses.)
(In the pause, MARIA, close behind him, opens her coat and draws him into it.)
(She reaches down his left arm to the hand holding the stiletto.)
(She takes hold of the hand and, turning the heel towards his chest, guides his hand, leading him to stab her heel into his wound.)
(MAX, as the heel digs in:)
MAX (Continued)
(sighing)
I kiss my sin.
(The stiletto is slowly withdrawn. A large lump of bloody flesh is impaled on its heel.)
MAX (Continued)
What's that?
MARIA
It's your heart, Max.
MAX
Is it really?
MARIA
No.
(MARIA lets go of him.)
(He touches the wad of flesh with his right hand, smells it.)
(Then he violently thrusts it away.)
MAX
GET IT AWAY FROM ME!
(The shoe, with wad, goes flying.)
(MARIA pulls away.)
(MAX falls forward onto his hands and knees and tries to vomit.)
(Exit MARIA, taking with her the valise.)
Determining the conditions for the state of rest in the hunting-lodge.
(MAX stops retching.)
(He sits.)
(Time passes.)
(MAX calms down.)
(Enter LOUIS carrying a large unopened bottle of vodka.)
(LOUIS gets a corkscrew from his apron. He fumbles with it on the screw cap.)
MAX
Give me that.
(LOUIS hands the bottle over.)
(MAX twists the lid takes a swig.)
(LOUIS sits next to him.)
(MAX drinks.)
(LOUIS bursts into tears.)
(MAX hands him the bottle. He waves it away. He stifles his sobs. He clears his throat.)
LOUIS
I'm sorry.
(LOUIS breaks into heaving sobs.)
(MAX holds his arm up.)
(MAX hugs LOUIS.)
(LOUIS cries.)
(When he's finished crying, he pulls away from MAX.)
(MAX offers him the bottle.)
(LOUIS resists.)
MAX
It's anaesthetic.
(LOUIS takes the bottle, drinks.)
MAX (Continued)
At least you're not a raving lunatic.
LOUIS
You lost it. I thought, I thought I...
(LOUIS starts up again.)
LOUIS (Continued)
(through the tears)
Was on my own. ... Fuck, man, you lost it completely...
(in a small voice)
...it's horrible.
MAX
What?
(He takes back the bottle.)
LOUIS
Horrible. Thing. ... And the worst of it is...
(LOUIS sees the shoe, the wad of meat skewered on its heel.)
(He stands shakily and looks more closely.)
LOUIS (Continued)
What's that?
MAX
My heart.
LOUIS
No it's not.
(He nudges it with his toe.)
LOUIS (Continued)
I know what it is. I know where it came from.
MAX
What is it then?
LOUIS
(looking around)
Where is she?
MAX
Who?
LOUIS
Stripper.
MAX
What are you talking abou... Ah, Maria! You know I've known her since she was tiny.
LOUIS
Where'd she go?
(He looks around.)
(He pauses, turns to MAX.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Why, Max?
MAX
How well do you know Roy Salton? It may surprise you to learn that the cheese industry is not all there is to it.
LOUIS
She must hate him.
MAX
Maria, why?
LOUIS
To become a stripper.
MAX
She's not a stripper! She's the bride to be... to have been. Before the fracas. I promised Irene I'd look after her.
LOUIS
Who?
MAX
Her mother. And Babs.
LOUIS
WHO?
MAX
Her sister.
LOUIS
No. To marry WHO?
DOGS
Huh! Huh! Huh!
MAX
John.
LOUIS
John's...
MAX
And Marty. Remember we used to call him Skinny Cricket, Marty Ricket Skinny...
LOUIS
I never did.
MAX
No. Unlucky. It was almost me too. I thought I was. It was only my quick thinking that saved me. We would've been five. Five.
LOUIS
Whoever did this is a monster.
MAX
Cricket stood up in front of me. That was lucky. He took the shot. Then John fell down, which was unlucky. Then Harry Hansen. Then Alex. Alex...
LOUIS
They posed them.
MAX
Marty was so skinny the bullets went right through him. That was unlucky, since I was holding him.
LOUIS
It's too horrible. It's a cemetery. They posed them in this kind of position.
MAX
The shots were reflected.
LOUIS
(correcting him)
Ricocheted.
MAX
I've made a lucky escape. I was supposed to be the Best Man. But I don't feel a hundred percent.
LOUIS
All I can say is... John. He died with a hard-on. But it isn't where it should be. Anymore.
MAX
Where is it exactly?
LOUIS
In Skinny's mouth.
MAX
Is that all.
LOUIS
No. Through the back entrance.
MAX
You don't have a back entrance to your head.
LOUIS
Marty does.
MAX
Yes.
(They take turns drinking in silence.)
The choice of possibilities authorised by the conditions of the state of rest in the hunting-lodge.
LOUIS
Alex who?
MAX
I didn't invite him. Smalls. John. John knew him. When John saw him he just laughed.
LOUIS
There are only three. Bodies.
MAX
Funny guy. He never said a word. Just sniffed into his scarf.
LOUIS
There's no Alex anything.
MAX
Strange. There was blood on his scarf. Then I saw him. After Harry.
LOUIS
He fell?
MAX
I don't know.
The sign of accordance between the choice of possibilities and the state of rest in the hunting-lodge.
(The drink's coming on.)
LOUIS
Only three shots.
MAX
No. There were more. It was all around.
(MAX gestures, describing a rough circle with the bottle.)
LOUIS
I heard them. First one. Then there was this weird silence. Then two more. Pow, pow. One after another. What happened after the first shot?
MAX
What happened?! YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?! I FACED DOWN MY MORTALITY! THAT'S WHAT! And you were just lucky!
LOUIS
You lost it.
MAX
What did I say that makes you think that? The abyss gaped and I looked in. I saw things. Twenty years passed for me just like that. Twenty-three. An eternity.
(He tries to click his fingers.)
MAX (Continued)
Bouff! Just like that.
(He takes a swig.)
MAX (Continued)
That's what happened! And I have a hole in my chest...
(He picks his blood-soaked shirtfront away from his chest.)
MAX (Continued)
In my shirt. As big as your hand to prove it! Show me your hand.
(MAX grabs the proffered hand by the wrist, leans into it and loses his balance.)
(He ends up, letting go of neither LOUIS's hand nor the bottle, lying with his head in LOUIS's lap looking up at the hand.)
MAX (Continued)
Yes! See?
(MAX pulls LOUIS's hand down towards his face. LOUIS resists.)
(He then lets go. MAX kisses the hand.)
MAX (Continued)
Splash! Like that.
(MAX looks downstage towards the discarded stiletto and hunk of soft tissue.)
MAX (Continued)
He had small hands. I noticed it. Like all violent men.
LOUIS
Who?
MAX
Alex. Like a woman. But I don't know about women's hands. Get me up.
(LOUIS pushes MAX up into a sitting position.)
LOUIS
It's a piece of Marty.
(They both look at the shoe.)
LOUIS (Continued)
You know how spray-cans have that ball-bearing in them?
(He mimes shaking a spray-can, making the sound with his tongue: tickatickatickaticka.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Apart from John's kit, Marty's head...
(He stops shaking the can.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Was completely empty. ... I saw the bullet-hole. It was here.
(He indicates his temple.)
LOUIS (Continued)
It must have excited the Cricket's brain. Flying around in there like a ball in a can... Until he exploded out the back.
(MARIA stands beside the stage, listening.)
(LOUIS gets up, approaches the stiletto.)
(He removes a waiter's white champagne-towel from his apron. He takes the wad of soft tissue off the heel of the shoe and holds it out on the towel.)
LOUIS (Continued)
That's a piece of Marty Ricket. The Skinny Cricket. I looked for the other piece, the piece it blew out of his skull. Where John's... apparatus entered. I tripped over Harry Hansen. Hansen farted. It distracted me.
MARIA's return.
(MARIA enters, unseen by LOUIS and MAX, wearing a white sheath dress, down to her ankles, and pumps on her feet.)
(LOUIS wraps the piece of Marty up and puts it in his apron pocket.)
MARIA
I thought it was a mouse because it still had Marty's hair. It didn't move. But it seemed like it might. Beside the roulette wheel. The three bullets. The play money.
LOUIS
Is that your wedding dress?
MARIA
No, but it's the slip. Shit, I got a fright. A piece of bone about this long.
(She shows them.)
MARIA (Continued)
Exactly like a fat little mouse.
LOUIS
(to MAX)
I told her not to go inside.
(to MARIA)
You didn't touch anything?
MARIA
I touched... WHY? WHY shouldn't I touch anything?
LOUIS
Because they'll need to dust for evidence.
MARIA
Evidence of what? Everything is obvious.
LOUIS
But it's a crime.
MARIA
THIS ISN'T A CRIME.
MAX
Maria! You're upset.
MARIA
Of course I'm fucking upset, Max! I'm a widow now. Before the letter. But it's not a crime! Not unless I'm also the criminal. You see, I've admitted to myself what you've all known all along. I hated the thought of it. I hated the sound of the hubbub of your male voices in the lodge. And he, my sweet John, and even Marty, even Hansen, were always innocent. Like you said, Max, I would leave my mark.
LOUIS
No, Max. What's she fucking done in there?
MARIA
I took them down. It was like dismantling an exhibition. I thought it would be hard. But it was easy to lay them out, in order. To wipe them down. I laid them out. I put Mum's fur over them. To protect them. It was very tempting to lie down with them. They were stiff but they were also cold to touch. Now I'm tired. I need to sleep. It wasn't a crime. It was an expression.
(She lies down where she stands and shuts her eyes.)
LOUIS
You shouldn't have first let her get away. And now you can't just let her go to sleep like nothing's happened. Max!
The third room, part I.
MARIA
I can hear your voices in the third room.
MAX
Get the coat.
LOUIS
What?!
MARIA
Do you know the third room?
MAX
Get it.
MARIA
Where it echoes. The first is...
LOUIS
I'm not going back in there.
MARIA
The room I share with you. The second is...
MAX
Yes you are.
MARIA
The one you cannot enter. Now both those doors have shut.
(LOUIS glares at him.)
MAX
They don't need it now. And I promised.
MARIA
Your voice floats through. As if from far away. Softly and yet not any softer.
LOUIS
What? To be a fuckhead?
MAX
I promised her mother I'd look after her. Her and her sister, Barbara.
MARIA
You're saying this world, that is all appearances...
LOUIS
You get it.
MAX
All right.
(He doesn't move.)
MARIA
Is no truer than when it points. To another world beyond it.
(She yawns.)
MARIA (Continued)
And it's really a simple thing to show that it's false. Although it may seem real.
(LOUIS realising he's defeated, exits.)
The third room, part II.
(On screen, M_D in his studio, at night, looking straight out, as if boring holes in wood.)
MARIA
Especially to a community who have lost faith and direction. And who feel betrayed. Because of how the people will treat one another. When each. In his or her own time. Has arrived... At disbelief.
(Enter LOUIS, wearing IRENE's fur coat.)
(He stops when he sees BARBARA, whom he falls for on first sight.)
(Enter BARBARA, wearing the long black dress from Act I and carrying the valise.)
(She looks at LOUIS.)
(She coughs. A little blood comes from her nose.)
(BARBARA has pneumonia. She sweats and shakes.)
MARIA (Continued)
I'm about to drift away. I'm on the edge Of the precipice. My eyes are closed. And I can't open them again.
(On screen, we see that M_D has literally bored two spyholes in the door of the studio, the door leading to the second room.)
(We have been looking at him looking at us through the holes.)
(He moves out into the studio.)
(The studio is artificially illuminated. Outside the window it is still night.)
BARBARA
(to MARIA)
Dad wasn't there.
MAX
Roy doesn't gamble.
(LOUIS is overtaken by love with an urge to tell all.)
LOUIS
Something terrible has happened.
BARBARA
What?
LOUIS
There's been ... an accident.
(BARBARA sees her sister sleeping. She coughs.)
BARBARA
If you've even laid a finger on her, I'll...
(She coughs.)
LOUIS
No! We wouldn't!
BARBARA
(to MAX, coughing)
His car's here.
LOUIS
Wait!
(LOUIS takes off the coat.)
BARBARA
Where is he?
LOUIS
Put this on!
MAX
How the hell do I know?
(MAX drains the bottle and lies back.)
(LOUIS comes up behind BARBARA and tries to put it over her shoulders.)
BARBARA
Get off!
LOUIS
You're shaking.
BARBARA
I'm fine!
MAX
He went out hunting. When we got here.
(LOUIS gets the coat over BARBARA.)
(She collapses with its weight, in a fit of coughing. The coat falls to one side.)
(LOUIS goes to pick up the coat.)
(BARBARA snatches it off him.)
(She drags it over to MARIA and covers her.)
(LOUIS is left hanging.)
(BARBARA wipes her nose on her hand, sees blood.)
BARBARA
Got a tissue?
(LOUIS hands the folded champagne-towel from his apron pocket to BARBARA.)
(BARBARA opens up the towel. The piece of Marty's brain falls in her lap.)
(LOUIS sees it happening and, before BARBARA has time to react, he has retrieved it from her lap.)
LOUIS
Shit! Fuck!
(BARBARA coughs.)
(LOUIS stuffs the brain wad into his trouser pocket.)
BARBARA
What's that?!
LOUIS
Nothing.
(BARBARA wipes her nose, coughs into the towel.)
(She looks into the towel and sees a lot of blood.)
(She screws the towel up quickly and holds it in her lap.)
(She sits, shaking, coughing.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Does your father own a gun?
BARBARA
Who do you think taught me to shoot?
(coughing)
Anyway, I don't have a father.
LOUIS
Did he... Did he support your sister's marriage?
BARBARA
Sister? Only half of her's my sister.
LOUIS
Did he?
BARBARA
Support it? You'd think he was getting fucking married!
(Coughing, she uses the towel despite herself.)
BARBARA (Continued)
We all get used.
LOUIS
What?
BARBARA
I said, WE ALL GET USED.
(She coughs.)
LOUIS
What I'm going to say next you might find upsetting but you understand I've got to say it. Three men were killed tonight. Three shots.
BARBARA
I know. I did it.
(She coughs.)
DOGS
HUH! HUH! HUH! HUH!
Dawn and MARIA awakens.
(On screen, the first fingers of light through the windows of the studio.)
(The dawn chorus, bellbirds, tui, birds of the bush. It increases in volume with the very gradual brightening of the light outside the studio.)
MARIA
Barb! Is that you?
(BARBARA coughs into the towel.)
MARIA (Continued)
Why do the dogs sound like that?
BARBARA
Roy had their vocal chords cut.
(coughs)
You can't take away the instinct.
MARIA
Is he here yet?
BARBARA
Hunting.
MARIA
He'll find the bodies.
BARBARA
Let him.
LOUIS
No.
(BARBARA coughs and shakes.)
MARIA
Barb, you're sick. I can feel you beside me. You're burning hot. I can feel it. Let's go home. Let's get you back to the city...
LOUIS
Yes...
(BARBARA coughs.)
MARIA
Where you can be looked after.
BARBARA
I'm not going anywhere.
LOUIS
I can carry you to the car.
MARIA
Please.
BARBARA
Can't you see? They'll serve me dust. They'll serve me life. Life without parole. I'd rather stay here. And die. Than let them lock me up.
LOUIS
Max, help!
BARBARA
Again.
MAX
It's hopeless.
LOUIS
But I feel...
BARBARA
I can taste it. My throat's so dry...
(She coughs.)
LOUIS
I've never felt this. This...
MAX
She's not your type.
LOUIS
Give me, give us, time.
BARBARA
Like eating ash.
(BARBARA lets MARIA hold her hand to her forehead. She has the bloody towel to her mouth. She coughs into it continuously. Her whole body shakes in fits.)
MARIA
You're getting hotter by the second.
MAX
(to LOUIS)
Tell me. I'm curious. What would you do?
MARIA
Max?
LOUIS
(to MAX)
Keep her. Somehow. Ask her if I could.
MAX
(to LOUIS)
Go on.
MARIA
Max, help.
MAX
(to MARIA)
Why?
(LOUIS approaches BARBARA and kneels in front of her.)
LOUIS
I don't know your name. I don't know you. I don't know why you did it. If you did, I don't know how. Or why you'd say it. I don't know. I'm... Say anything. I'll believe you.
(BARBARA points at the valise.)
(LOUIS takes the valise aside.)
(He opens it with trepidation.)
(He withdraws from it. A single G-string dangles from his finger.)
(It's MARIA's. The valise is full of her lingerie.)
LOUIS (Continued)
What's this? ...
MAX
A disappointment.
LOUIS
What do you mean? ... What? WHAT?! ... You think I want this... crap!? ... Do you? ... DO YOU? ... I don't know what it means! ... TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS! ... WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! ... WHAT?!
(He picks up the valise and empties its contents violently over MARIA and BARBARA.)
(He storms off the stage into the audience.)
LOUIS (Continued)
(muttering to himself)
She can't do that... That's fucked... She can't treat me like that... That's fucked... She's fucked... She's fucked... She's fucked...
(etc.)
(MAX, still groggy, after a beat, gets up and follows him out.)
The death of BARBARA.
(The light continues to increase. The birds continue to sing.)
(MAX follows LOUIS through the audience as LOUIS continues to curse and pace.)
(Through the following, MAX waits for LOUIS's inevitable crash, behind the audience.)
MARIA
With this dawn, ten dawns will pass.
BARBARA
Did you hear him? Did you hear how he cursed me?
MARIA
Save your energy.
BARBARA
What for?
(Behind the stage the headlights of Roy's car light up.)
MARIA
Shh.
(in a low voice)
Roy!
BARBARA
Has he been in?
MARIA
I don't know.
(The engine starts.)
MARIA (Continued)
He hasn't seen us.
(The headlights sweep the stage and the audience.)
LOUIS
I can't go on! Max, I can't go on!
MAX
No. You can't.
(We hear the wheels spin on gravel as the car speeds away.)
MARIA
Ten dawns will pass. A cascade of dawnlight. Like a waterfall.
BARBARA
I remember...
MARIA
Do you want to speak?
BARBARA
Listen.
(BARBARA's voice is light but clear. Her fits of coughing when they come are soundless.)
BARBARA (Continued)
A little girl. She hears her parents arguing in the hallway. She can tell by the tone. They come and say to pack her little suitcase. It's not yet light. It's like a funny game. But she does as they ask, to make them feel better, because she knows that it's not. She knows by the tone. So she goes along with it, with her parents, with them. And it's cold out of bed. She pulls her clothes on over her pyjamas. Some shells she collected rattle in the pocket of her coat. She wonders for a moment if it's something she's done. Every girl her age has heard about children who are sent away. She packs her little suitcase, with her doll, a book and her best green dress. And when she gets outside, when she gets to the gate, she notices the others. Other shadows are coming out of all the other houses, each with a little suitcase. ... Afterwards she can't say, which of her parents woke her up, who it was who helped her pack her best things, who got her dressed, or, whether, at last, it was her mother or father who carried her outside, past the front gate. Because in her mind they've become one. ... Later they'll insist that they didn't tell her, because she wouldn't have understood and didn't want to go. But this isn't true. She understood, at the time, the important thing. It was a game, and her parents were acting. She could tell by the tone. ... Even later, if they ask her what she remembers, she'll face them, the ranks of all the mothers and fathers, standing as one, in sunlight, and say, that at the time she was real, they weren't, and when she was, they were just play-acting.
(BARBARA has used up the last of her strength. Her eyes close.)
(The dawn chorus peaks in volume and the light is full.)
MARIA
Eight. Ten. Then eleven. Then twelve dawns will come. In a cascade of falling light. My darling, Barb.
(MARIA weeps over BARBARA.)
MARIA (Continued)
No... No... Now you listen to me.
(MARIA lays BARBARA out, resting her head in her lap.)
MARIA (Continued)
Yes, I'm weeping for you. And for the world. And for what we did. What's this sleep that holds you now? You're lost in the dark and can't hear me.
(Stage to black.)
ACT 3
On screen, M_D in studio in dawn light. On stage, in darkness, MARIA, with BARBARA's lifeless body.
(MAX and LOUIS return backstage.)
(There is a series of seven beats - light or sound - signifying the seven days and nights MARIA weeps over her sister's body.)
(Then, MARIA stands and exits slowly stage right.)
(BARBARA is either mechanically or physically removed from the stage.)
(On screen, we see BARBARA briefly appear in M_D's studio.)
M_D
There are two rooms. And there are two rivers. One flows over the top of the other. They run in opposite directions. The first is measured by extent, although it has depth. And although the second is measured by depth, it also has extent. The effect of both is violence. But violence on a different order. The first is the war. The second is art. ... A pane of glass separates the two. ... Don't be misled into thinking that either of them goes over our heads. No. The deeper stream shuffles stones in its bed and is sometimes lost from view in the dark. So to see it at all, lit behind the glass briefly, like a scene, an apartment window from a train passing, we are already standing in the first river. ... The singular occupants reading papers. A girl's face pressed to the glass, sitting on her mother's lap, in a passing carriage. ... You say underground. No. Below the surface of the war. Separated by glass. Running in the opposite direction. ... You think I could slip back in quite easily, yes? But for this paralysing sense of sadness, attendant on the fugitive thoughts that all captive images possess... this glass. ... The river above, the war, moves ever more slowly on. It spreads exactly like a river on a flood plain, dazzling, out-dazzling. ... The people in the cars, in traffic, are indistinguishable from those waiting to join them. And any sensible element we might call individual freedom is lost in a vast mechanised waiting room. ... Where oddly enough, we are also operated upon. ... On the wall a sign reads In Case of Emergency Break Glass. To make you wonder, will the glass burst inwards or outwards? While you wait.
(M_D looks out the window of the studio. He presses his fingertips against it.)
M_D (Continued)
... It's simple hydraulics to know the glass will burst out, because of the greater pressure of the river under glass, and leave only splinters and shards, which will be caught in the contrary flow of the first river, on the plain, out-dazzled. ... Because art can only increase the technical means of the long war, the second river will be lost, its greater pressure dissipated. ... Finally, it is the ongoing emergency of civilization, brought down to a single copulating couple, where the West may remind itself of the irony of this loss. And in the familiar gesture, clean its hands. And wash away the splinters and the shards of glass still clinging in the now, practically motionless expanse of water.
Passage to Babylon. This scene plays out under the preceding and ends with the end of M_D's speech.
(As far as possible unseen by it, MARIA replaces LOUIS and MAX in the darkness behind the audience.)
(MARIA is illuminated briefly at the beginning of her journey. She wears a slightly tatty green silk dress, bright but not ridiculous. Her hair is worn loose. Her make-up is intended to cover the ravages of her mourning and her peripatetic lifestyle since BARBARA's death. To complete the look, she has on a big pair of sunglasses. She carries a pink holdall or gym-bag.)
(MARIA's apparition behind the audience corresponds with M_D's look out the window.)
(As she advances through the audience, she is increasingly engulfed in darkness, until she reaches the stage, also unlit, as the screen goes dark.)
(Note on the scene: 1) to indicate a distance traveled by MARIA, which has an element of time, in the ascendant; 2) to notice that she is entering a new realm, which stands in a new relation to the on-screen studio.)
Babylon.
(Note: through the remaining scenes of Act III, the sun goes around, until it casts long shadows and it sets.)
(On stage, MARIA occupies one of two chairs at a cafe table, with her back to stage left. She has placed her bag under the table, between her feet.)
(On screen, the scene: A corner cafe, a lighted sign reads BABYLON above the entrance. The surrounding buildings are stone, old world.)
(Cafe Babylon is at the rounded apex of a triangular building that juts out into a town square, once the confluence of several cobbled streets, now dedicated to pedestrians and pigeons.)
(Note: This square is what M_D looks out on.)
(MARIA has the air of being a detraquee.)
(Enter LOUIS, stage left, the waiter, hurrying out with the intention of shooing her away.)
LOUIS
Excuse me, this table is reserved exclusively for cafe clientele. Unless you're going to order something, I'd ask you to move along.
MARIA
I'd like a glass of water.
LOUIS
Jesus fuck, it's you! What are you doing here?
MARIA
Waiting.
LOUIS
No. I'm... I'd ask you to leave.
MARIA
Please.
LOUIS
No. It's just the way you look.
MARIA
The way I look.
LOUIS
It's nothing. I'd have you in my home. But this is not my home.
(MARIA raises her glasses.)
LOUIS (Continued)
You look terrible. I know I've seen the photos and I shouldn't be too surprised. But... Look, I've got a double shift. I finish at two a.m. If you want to talk, meet me then.
(He points out to stage right.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Over there.
MARIA
To talk.
LOUIS
Not here.
MARIA
Why shouldn't my cheeks be hollow, my face drawn? ... Barbara...
(LOUIS takes hold of the back of her chair.)
MARIA (Continued)
Who was my sister.
LOUIS
Come on.
MARIA
My comfort, who walked beside me, the whole way to the lodge.
LOUIS
Get up.
MARIA
My strength, who freed me from a marriage of convenience, who saved me from compliance in the hubbub of male voices. And who paid for it.
(LOUIS gives up on moving her.)
MARIA (Continued)
I wept for her seven days and nights. Her clothes and all her hair had washed away. I stayed with her until her skin stuck to her bones, the worms broke through and her body caved.
(LOUIS leans in to her, on the back of the chair. He smells her.)
MARIA (Continued)
If it's this dress, it's all I have left. If it's how I look, I haven't rested since then, because of that. ... Since she freed me from the fantasies I had for my life, I've moved constantly. I've traveled. And everywhere I've seen a similar loss to hers. The young are in the ground.
(LOUIS puts his hand up to touch her hair. She turns her head. His hand hovers.)
MARIA (Continued)
Underneath, even, where I'm sitting now. ... Barbara, who was beautiful, who was my friend.
LOUIS
You were beautiful once.
MARIA
I was.
LOUIS
No. I'm wrong. What was expression before, experience has deepened. Why I didn't see it immediately, I don't know. But, and it's part of it, you seem... somehow foreign. Somehow... empty.
MARIA
It's Louis, isn't it?
(She takes his silence as assent.)
MARIA (Continued)
Thank you, Louis.
LOUIS
What do you mean?
MARIA
You've learnt to admit to feelings that you're not supposed to have.
LOUIS
Like what?
MARIA
Like regret.
(Pause. No answer.)
MARIA (Continued)
Louis, you look out on this square every morning, don't you?
LOUIS
(quietly)
Yes.
MARIA
Every day you see the sun turn the dull pages of these buildings into gold.
LOUIS
Yes.
MARIA
The all-night party's over. And the mist of children's breath mingles with the alcoholic smoke along the second floor. ... And as lovers return home out of windows, the sky opens like a mystery. ... I feel empty but in a sensuous way. The beauty of the scene is filling me. ... Aren't there two quite different eternities? The present. And the presence. They seem the same but I feel there are two. And we only live, and we only die, because we can't choose between them. A morning like this could last forever, couldn't it? If you let it. You'll let me stay here for a while, won't you?
LOUIS
All right, of course. But I can't make excuses for you just sitting on this table drinking water by the glass. Best if you order a bottled water.
(He places a list down on the table.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Still or sparkling?
MARIA
What?
LOUIS
Water.
MARIA
You choose for me.
LOUIS
Can you pay?
(LOUIS picks up the list.)
MARIA
I'm waiting for Max. Do you know where he is?
LOUIS
Everybody knows where Max is. Since he took over from Roy, he's everywhere. But I don't see him any more.
(LOUIS turns to go.)
MARIA
Why not?
LOUIS
It's my job.
(LOUIS leaves, to stage left.)
MARIA
And coffee.
LOUIS
With milk?
MARIA
No.
(Exit LOUIS.)
A plane flies high overhead.
MARIA
I hear my heart. I hear my eyelids. Every blink, every beat, is one less. I'm scared, Barb. I have to remind myself that you're there. ... Each breath lifts my chest and gently sets it down again, like a foreign tide. Each breath echoes, like waves on a hull. And each blink makes the faint clank of a chain fixed to a mooring-pole. ... Lifts me up and lets me fall. As if I'm lying at the bottom of a glass boat looking down at this day that passes. And the light that changes. I'm moving while everything around me is still. Because my mooring-pole is broken. And it’s only an act of hope that holds the shattered vessel that I am together.
The secret of the dogs.
(LOUIS enters from stage left carrying a tray, on it, a cup of black coffee, a sugarbowl, a tall green bottle of water and a glass.)
(He sets the coffee down, the water and glass, then makes a show of opening the corkscrew on his barknife. The bottle has a screwcap.)
(LOUIS retreats as MAX swiftly advances from stage right.)
MAX
(entering)
I thought it was you! I see this little nook from my room. But I never seem to have a suitable excuse to come down and have a sniff around. A city needs these crannies and hidey-holes. Not that it wasn't relatively easy to find out where you were. There's a blog. And you do stick out. What are you wearing?
(He approaches to peck her on the cheek.)
MARIA
Louis works here.
MAX
I'm sure he does.
(He looks at the name above the cafe facade on screen.)
MAX (Continued)
'Babylon'. Auspicious. But I don't want to talk to him. I want to talk to you.
(MAX turns back to the table.)
MAX (Continued)
He only brought one glass.
MARIA
I only asked for one glass.
(MAX sits down.)
MAX
Are you going to drink that?
(MAX unscrews the lid of the water bottle and pours himself a water.)
MAX (Continued)
What is it you intend to do, Maria? Because what I'm trying to do is to make your name into a high-end brand.
(He drinks.)
MAX (Continued)
And you turn up looking like shit in a frock.
MARIA
For cheese?
MAX
I'm diversifying.
MARIA
Into what?
MAX
Lifestyle. Luggage.
MARIA
My name?
MAX
The Salton family name, really. But it's difficult. You know Irene's ill. Very ill. And Roy's locked up.
(MARIA cuts him off.)
MARIA
I've got something I want you to give to her.
(MARIA reaches into the side pocket of her bag and places the letter from her father, Raymond, on the table.)
MAX
What is it?
MARIA
A letter. It's hers.
(MAX picks the letter up and turns it over.)
MAX
Wise.
(He pockets the letter.)
MAX (Continued)
She wouldn't want to see you like this.
MARIA
What's wrong with the way I look? Why shouldn't my face be drawn, my cheeks hollow? I don't belong here any more. Despair is in my heart. I've become a citizen of terror, with no country. Barbara, who was my sister, freed me from the trappings of, the fantasies of, men and male society. And your world of cheese. Your empire of suitcases, now, is it? I stayed with her for days and nights. Outside your bush casino. Until, on the seventh morning, worms got her, her poor body caved. I buried her.
(MAX stops her.)
MAX
NO YOU DIDN'T. Listen. Let me tell you a secret. Roy cared for you both very much. He kept the whole thing quiet. With my help. Of course, he didn't expect it would be the dogs who'd give him away. They couldn't speak but what they finally said was most revealing. Roy's dogs were found to have ingested a large portion of the groom's party. When the contents of the dogs' stomaches were analysed, having mingled so promiscuously, it was impossible to say with any certainty how many there were or exactly who was there that terrible night. Roy had starved the poor things, for hunting.
MARIA
But, Barbara!
MAX
Babs was naked. And hairless. Leaving only conjecture as to what she was doing in that state. Perhaps on a separate occasion? Out hunting with Roy. To whom she was not related by blood, they said. You see? This is a better outcome.
MARIA
For you perhaps.
MAX
I was hoping you might consent to being groomed to play a part.
The flood and its aftermath, in which the flood is a permanent state of affairs.
MARIA
She was my friend, Max, whom I loved, whose dress the elements washed away, with all her hair. After I buried her, I drifted around the world.
MAX
Roy paid for everything.
MARIA
I was inundated by the press at every stop.
MAX
Naturally. But you were spared the full flood of public attention. When the media got hold of it, it was too late for Roy, too much for your mother. They were savage. He was profiled as an abusive stepfather. And a killer. Irene had another attack and couldn't be called on to provide evidence at his trial.
MARIA
I didn't rest. I couldn't.
MAX
You were photographed and filmed. There was speculation but you were never questioned.
MARIA
What I said couldn't be heard. I chose places where it was difficult to talk.
MAX
We couldn't risk you talking. Not until interest subsided. Not until our story was solid and all the facts came out. For instance, they also found Roy's pistol and a suit that fitted him quite well. But we kept an eye out for you.
MARIA
Everyone knows you need two eyes to see anything in perspective and make a choice.
MAX
I'm offering you perspective, Maria.
MARIA
With one eye closed.
MAX
There's no deception, no. We didn't have you shadowed. You went where you were moved to go. Product and information simply changed hands. We watched from afar. You were lucky.
MARIA
Was I? Six weeks became nine months, at sea, afraid my journey would never end.
MAX
Whatever you saw in those months, wherever you chose to go, whether it was the aftermath of a crime or even a war, it would have been worse for you here.
MARIA
Everywhere I went, they said, Come with us! We'll show you what life is like. We'll show you something! It was always the same. With hardly any digging, I found loss. The young, just below the surface. Spilling out of sacks. Lying ruined and dead. In bits and bones. It was never war. It was never a crime, Max. It was always an accident. It was children caught in an accident. Broken faces. Dead and dug up.
(She stirs her coffee with a spoon.)
MARIA (Continued)
They were the mementos of a flood that covered everything. The seashells Barbara found on a raised mound that she kept in her pocket.
MAX
Which isn't quite as read. But you have the gist. A young widow confronts her grief by visiting sites of recent tragedy, and so on. High water was reached with reports that you'd miscarried. Then media interest ebbed suddenly, when we took legal action to stop the rumours. Which is why I wouldn't be saying that death bestows her mortal favours exclusively on the young and innocent. ... Although it's a relief to hear it. Neither you nor I are children anymore. But then, nor was poor dead John. Nor Babs, even.
MARIA
There are characters that exist and characters that don't exist. Yet. Or, who are behind the scenes.
(She looks directly at MAX.)
MARIA (Continued)
Managing.
(She turns away.)
MARIA (Continued)
And there are those actors who have no other weapon but their bodies.
MAX
Which you have, my dear, to do with as you will.
(She sips her coffee.)
MARIA
I saw life, Max. Not death. Life. What it does. In its own country. Its patriotism and raw greed for land. And air.
(She raises the cup to her lips, to drink, but doesn't.)
MARIA (Continued)
I wanted children, Max. It's the one fantasy I can afford.
(She sips her coffee.)
MAX
Don't drink that now. It's cold.
(MAX gives a wave.)
MARIA
What are you doing?
MAX
We've been here for hours.
MARIA
The service is discreet. That's why I chose to sit here.
MAX
It's non-existent!
(MAX looks at MARIA.)
MAX (Continued)
I suppose you're not too old to breed. If you cleaned yourself up, and got rid of that dress, you might still. The press haven't done any harm to your reputation. Longterm. Intermittent paramours, yes. But, though it might initially attract them, I imagine men of the longterm disposition are, by natural dictate, scared of a woman with power. Then we'd have to find another method.
MARIA
Not here. No. The question is, how can I remain an actor, without a country? I doubt the words 'to be'. Regardless of the beauty of the scene, it's not paradise.
MAX
It's not ideal. So, tell me, Maria, where is paradise?
MARIA
Just below the surface of the accident.
(Pause.)
The arbitrary durations, number one. Infra-mince.
MARIA
Barb softened in the end. She became a little girl. In a painted sleep. Under a gibbous moon. Her sex opened up and sealed over.
(MAX recoils.)
MARIA (Continued)
And she was an infant. And then not even that.
MAX
Please, Maria.
MARIA
She was a promise.
MAX
Of what?
MARIA
So I put her under ground.
(to MAX's question)
Of a place. Of belonging. Because of my sister, I've hope. But I'm afraid, of what I have to do.
MAX
Which is?
MARIA
All the normal things. Breathe. Blink. Pass the time. Watch the shadows advance. Perhaps talk a little more to you. You see? I'm happy here. I've hope. I've rehearsed these lines so often, it's a comfort to speak them.
(Unnoticed by MAX, LOUIS approaches the table with a tray.)
MAX
It shouldn't be!
(As MAX stands, he knocks over his chair.)
MAX (Continued)
YOU'VE MADE YOURSELF A NARROW ROOM OUT OF PITY. But not for her. For yourself. You've come to enjoy your situation. Rather than screaming and having done with it!
MARIA
Max!
(MAX stops still.)
MARIA (Continued)
I will scream. I promise you.
2 men facing off at the mouth of the Somme river.
(Enter LOUIS.)
(MAX stares at LOUIS.)
(MAX is embarrassed, which he covers with defensiveness.)
(LOUIS meets MAX's eyes, then goes about his business.)
LOUIS
(precisely)
It's three o'clock.
(He sets the tray down on the table. He goes around behind MAX and picks up the chair.)
(MAX doesn't move to allow him to push it in.)
(LOUIS circles back around the table.)
LOUIS (Continued)
(precisely)
I wanted to tell you.
(He returns MAX's stare.)
LOUIS (Continued)
You can be heard.
(MAX and LOUIS face off during a long silence.)
(Silence.)
(LOUIS sets the water bottle, the glass and coffee cup on the tray. He takes the tray and returns inside.)
(MAX follows him with his eyes until he leaves the stage.)
The arbitrary durations, number two. Theory of the avant-garde.
MAX
(regaining his seat)
I remember, before they zoned it for pedestrians, laid fake cobbles, put up these facades, you could barely move or breathe, it was so congested. Two roads met here. There was a train.
(He gestures.)
MAX (Continued)
Two blocks of traffic in panicked frustration at their inability to merge. It was one of the worst bottlenecks in the city. That was back when I first started working with your Da... Roy. Right... up... there.
(He points.)
MAX (Continued)
You never came up to the old office?
MARIA
I wouldn't.
MAX
No.
MARIA
Is that where you keep the cheese?
MAX
No, we have a plant, plants. A network of suppliers. Can you believe it? I've seen the package it moves in. I designed it. But I've never actually seen the cheese!
MARIA
You don't like it.
MAX
I don't. ... I recall you struggling with puberty at the time. Budding breasts and so on. Yes. It's not such a bad location these days.
(He looks around.)
MAX (Continued)
Apart from the service. ... You should come up. Or we should eat, for example. Or go shopping. At least get you cleaned up.
MARIA
But there's more to it than cheese.
MAX
That's plain enough. There's always art. And therein lies the criminal element.
MARIA
What? Theft? Smuggling?
MAX
There were border crossings by night and raiding parties. I'm not so sure it's a secret anymore. Roy got the firm off his father, as you know. He severed its ties with production. It was the fashion. And began a philanthropic crusade. It broke the humdrum. He'd ascend the stair of a morning spouting off like a faucet. I wrote the copy. By hand, in those antediluvian times. Proposals to bring onto our payroll artists whom he'd distilled down to the very spirit, the solvent, of the leading edge. We are as responsible for what painters do, however, as we are to the stupid cows in the field.
(He looks to Cafe Babylon.)
MAX (Continued)
Why doesn't he bring coffee?!
(to MARIA)
You expect the hand that feeds the garret studio to be bitten to shreds. You expect it. But we never advertised. Our philanthropy. And not at all. It was the hand that took. And well-fed bodies. Mutilated and put on public display. As, within a matter of years. Ah, they seem like hours. The artists concerned grew more and more misanthropic. To turning from art altogether. To playing chess. When not making bombs. But promoting. Always promoting. Raw need. The human. The abject desire of being alive. And their horror before it. Made in a cadaverous advertising. The object of Roy's conquest was a block, of a soap's consistency. The cowardly torturers wrapped up. In its lurid and gratuitous self-expression. That's the given. That's the cheese I've tasted. A sheen on it. Of white spit. That they themselves took for the crest of a wave. The top of Parnassus. Or Olympus, even. On our example, in fact, advertising usurped the place of art. And I'd like to confess to a secret. Once the artists have evacuated, it's quite the pleasant garden.
The toilet scene.
(Enter LOUIS, with menu folders.)
MARIA
What's the time?
LOUIS
It's six o'clock.
(MAX turns to see LOUIS.)
MAX
At last!
LOUIS
The lunch menu finished at three.
MARIA
Do you have a toilet?
MAX
So you've brought us the dinner menu?
LOUIS
(to MARIA)
No.
MAX
You've brought us the lunch menu?
(MAX takes a menu folder off LOUIS and proceeds to read it.)
LOUIS
There's a public toilet.
(He points.)
LOUIS (Continued)
Over there.
MARIA
Thank you.
(She rises.)
(LOUIS fishes a paper napkin from his apron and holds it out to MARIA.)
MARIA (Continued)
What's that for?
(She takes the napkin.)
LOUIS
It floods.
MAX
This is the drinks menu!
(Exit MARIA.)
LOUIS
The dinner menu doesn't start till seven.
(MAX grabs the other menu folder from LOUIS.)
MAX
And what's this?
LOUIS
The bill.
MAX
For what?!
LOUIS
Services rendered.
MAX
We've had no service! And we've had no lunch!
LOUIS
Maria said... I don't like the way you talk to her. I could ask you to leave.
MAX
You don't like the way I talk to her!
LOUIS
You could show some respect. ... You never visit.
MAX
And do you imagine I'll be coming back?!
LOUIS
Will you?
MAX
I doubt it.
LOUIS
So. You could just fucking ask me.
MAX
What?
LOUIS
How I am.
MAX
You look well.
(LOUIS leans in close to MAX.)
LOUIS
I never said a word, Max. Not a word.
MAX
Why? Is blackmail a service you offer your regular customers?
(MAX takes LOUIS's hand and holds it between his.)
MAX (Continued)
I know I can always count on your discretion, Lois.
(LOUIS pulls away.)
LOUIS
You're a cunt, Max.
MAX
Thank you, my dear. I could dine out on that one for weeks. ... If there was dining to be had.
(LOUIS notices the bag MARIA has left under the table.)
(MAX takes out his cheque book, signs and slips a cheque into the bill folder.)
LOUIS
What's in her bag?
MAX
A bomb, my dear. She fancies herself so much as to lose her looks it must be.
(Enter MARIA.)
(MAX holds the bill folder out to LOUIS. He takes it and scurries away.)
MAX (Continued)
(after LOUIS)
Bye bye.
The arbitrary durations, number three. Sunset pas de deux.
(MARIA returns to the table.)
MARIA
I left my bag.
MAX
Was there something you needed?
MARIA
No.
MAX
It's all right. No one disturbed it.
(MARIA sits.)
MAX (Continued)
Was it noxious?
MARIA
It was surprisingly clean.
MAX
Sad. And unisex, I suppose?
MARIA
Yes. Although it was wet, as if it doubles as a shower.
MAX
It does. They're a sort of auto-douche. I imagine a sprinkler rising from the floor!
MARIA
No, it had water jets, recessed into the corners.
MAX
You're lucky it didn't go off by accident!
MARIA
Well, there was definitely something wrong with it.
MAX
I don't use them on that principle.
MARIA
What?
MAX
The principle of self-service. The more technology, the greater likelihood of something being wrong with it. It's anti-social. Feminine. You have to pussy-foot around it. In case the door opens, the bell rings, the air runs out.
MARIA
It's set on a timer.
MAX
Which makes it worse! A man should crap on his own time. Or do whatever. Not on the borrowed time of a mechanism.
MARIA
It occurs to me, that's the last shit I'll ever have.
MAX
Yes. I'm sure they imported them from France. Probably at great expense. The French love plumbing. Speaking of which, it must be seven and that little shit hasn't brought us the menu!
MARIA
The sun's setting.
MAX
Watch. The anti-rape lights will come on in a second.
MARIA
It's been a beautiful afternoon, hasn't it Max?
MAX
One of many at this time of year.
MARIA
No. I feel tired but in a sensuous way. The sky's given us the best tufts of cloud. The lingerie of a blue woman. Seen from below. Whose thighs quite wonderfully rotate through three hundred and sixty degrees. And now, she's dressed in angel hair. It turns flesh-toned. Cotton pink and red elastic. Look! What a glorious rose. The faces of the buildings tremble. Leaves of gold. For a lifeless creature that wants to live, all of life is in that. Trembling.
(Pause.)
Six minutes after nine o'clock.
(LOUIS enters, walking slowly. He stands across the stage from MAX and MARIA, afraid to approach.)
MAX
For every leaf, gold or not, for every rose, there's a little prick. Look at him. He moves as if he's underwater. And against the current. He makes me feel young.
MARIA
You know I wanted children. To watch them get bigger. And lose teeth and grow breasts and all that sort of stuff. But I can't.
MAX
It's a shame the inability is so rare.
MARIA
It won't be like that.
MAX
(watching LOUIS)
No.
MARIA
We could use a candle.
MAX
I don't think so.
MARIA
If I asked, do you think he'd bring one?
MAX
What for?
MARIA
Our table.
MAX
You can try.
(to LOUIS)
Lois, what are you doing?
MARIA
Come closer.
LOUIS
No.
(Short pause.)
MARIA
Why not?
LOUIS
Your bag.
MARIA
What?
LOUIS
There's a bomb in it.
MARIA
What makes you say that?
LOUIS
I heard it.
MAX
Did you?
LOUIS
Yes. You told me.
MAX
One of my stories.
LOUIS
Not funny.
MAX
The facts may be wrong but the story is, after all, true. I see no other explanation for such an unattractive bag.
(LOUIS comes closer.)
MAX (Continued)
We'd like to order. The lady would like a light. For our table. Why, I don't know. We're overlit as it is. A candle if you've got one. I'd like a menu.
LOUIS
You can't.
MARIA
I don't want a candle.
LOUIS
I came out to tell you. It's nine o'clock.
MAX
What about a lamp?
LOUIS
It's too late.
MAX
Don't be ridiculous!
LOUIS
Dinner ends at nine.
MAX
I demand a menu!
LOUIS
The chef's out of here.
MAX
And a candle!
MARIA
I don't want one.
MAX
I do!
(to LOUIS)
I gave you a cheque! An open cheque! What was that for?! Charity?!
LOUIS
It was for me.
MAX
For WHAT?
LOUIS
It's for me. For what you owe me.
(LOUIS reaches into his trouser pocket.)
LOUIS (Continued)
And this, this is for you.
(He places a nugget of dried meat on the table in front of MAX.)
(MAX inspects it without touching it.)
MAX
What is it?
LOUIS
I kept it for you. Something special, that's not on the menu.
MAX
It's not a chicken nugget.
(Touching it with a finger.)
MAX (Continued)
It's a testicle.
LOUIS
Close. A thalamus. It's the last piece of Martin Ricket's brain. Remember? You used to call him Skinny Cricket.
(to MARIA)
I'll get you a candle.
MARIA
No, don't.
LOUIS
(to MAX)
Enjoy.
(Exit LOUIS.)
(MAX picks up the ball of dried brain between thumb and forefinger.)
MARIA
If he brings back a candle now, will you tell him to take it away?
(No answer.)
MARIA (Continued)
Who would we be burning it for?
(No answer.)
MARIA (Continued)
Such a little light.
(She looks around at the lit stage.)
MARIA (Continued)
It'd be a gesture. Lost with all this light. False. Lost inside this great light. This false day. I don't want gestures anymore. No one should be burning candles for children who don't exist yet. Near the end, Barb saw it too. A hallway light that goes on. Those nights when mothers and fathers wake us and tell us to say a prayer, light a candle and pack for a long journey. Believe. Characters will go on. The indiscriminate traffic of the stage. And make their gestures. A prayer. A candle. All the same. But the journey's already been taken. By children in the dark. As if a single flame could ever be enough. Any prayer or any act. We've fought our way through to a clearing. Outside the labyrinth of time and space. To find it lit up for an emergency. The end that's over. And the accident we know about in advance. For the millions who are its victims, how many lights for all those? When all the sun isn't enough? Barb made the promise of a child. Who has to die. So I can hope. For the beauty of indifference. To have children. Older than I am when I set fire to the air. Without that it's hopeless. We're dust that breeds. We're just play-acting.
MAX
You have a choice, Maria.
MARIA
I do. And I have a chance.
MAX
For Babs?
MARIA
For my sweet heart? No. The past is over. For the future. For what's to come and become of us. I will. I will burn all the air here. So that they can breathe in paradise.
(Pause.)
MAX
So then.
MARIA
I'm still afraid, Max.
MAX
No, no. Go on.
(MAX pops the nugget of dried brain in his mouth and chews.)
(Note: the clumsiness of first love.)
MARIA
Aren't you going to say something?
(Short pause.)
MARIA (Continued)
Please?
(MAX chews.)
MAX
No.
MARIA
I can't if you don't.
(MAX swallows.)
MAX
Yes you can.
(Short pause.)
(LOUIS enters. He hitches lines to the three connection points on the shower curtain, concealed until now, in a circular yielding in the stage, around the table and chairs.)
MARIA
(to LOUIS)
What time is it?
LOUIS
Six minutes after nine o'clock.
MARIA
(to MAX)
Aren't you going to do something?
MAX
No.
MARIA
Are you at least going to get up?
MAX
It depends where you want me.
MARIA
Up.
(MAX stands. He moves away from the table.)
MAX
Like this?
(She nods.)
(LOUIS raises the curtain. It is translucent and white.)
MARIA
You can still see me?
MAX
Yes.
(Short pause.)
MAX (Continued)
Tell me when.
MARIA
When what?
MAX
When it's close.
MARIA
I have my veil!
MAX
Yes.
MARIA
Good.
(During the following, MAX moves downstage.)
MAX
Grief can do strange things to us, Maria. There's the case of the young woman who was raped by her boyfriend and was herself arrested.
MARIA
Why?
MAX
For hitch-hiking. But she'd taken off all of her clothes to get a ride.
MARIA
Where was she going?
MAX
They were more concerned about how she was getting there.
MARIA
Who?
(MARIA explodes inside the shower curtain.)
(She doesn't scream.)
(MAX is blown off his feet with the force of the explosion.)
CODA: the eleventh of fifteen instructions, by Marcel Duchamp.
(On the screen we see the remains of MARIA's body being lifted into position in M_D's studio, by M_D and MAX.)
(Her hair hangs down, covering her missing face. Only one of her arms is intact.)
(Her legs, cut off below the knee, are spread towards us.)
(It's too dark in the studio anyway to make out the details, sexual or otherwise.)
(On stage, LOUIS delivers this brief instruction.)
LOUIS
It is best to BE TWO. In order delicately to lift the nude. And place it EXACTLY. At the three points of impact.
