Catastrophe Practice (4 page)
Read Catastrophe Practice Online
Authors: Nicholas Mosley
ARIEL | And my father? |
HELENA | Isn't he in a tomb â |
ARIEL | Oh, I thought it was a monastery. |
Helena puts down her stitching. She seems to be in despair
.
HELENA | How did you get in? |
ARIEL | I climbed. |
HELENA | No one's ever climbed. |
Ariel comes and looks down at Helena. He seems to quote
â
ARIEL | â Except once at the time of Napoleon â |
Helena closes her eyes
.
Ariel watches her
.
I thought I'd come to your party.
HELENA | Oh Pree will be pleased. |
ARIEL | Why do you call him Pree? |
HELENA | Paris, you know; gay Paree. |
Helena seems to be overcome with embarrassment
.
After a time Ariel moves round the stage again
.
ARIEL | What does he do â you know â in that little room â |
Helena opens her eyes. She seems to make a great effort
.
HELENA | Oh Ariel I wish I knew! He used to go out mornings and evenings. And I always knew where he was! In the fields, the factories â |
She puts a hand to her head; sways
.
â Now he's most of the time in his room â
Ariel goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over
.
ARIEL | I thought he might give me a job. |
HELENA | Oh Ariel I don't think he does give jobs! |
ARIEL | Not in his factories? I saw one on the road â |
HELENA | With little flames coming out of the chimneys? |
ARIEL | And ashes â |
HELENA | There were ashes? |
ARIEL | On the fields â |
HELENA | The poor fields â |
ARIEL | And men like snow. |
Ariel comes back to Helena and stands over her
.
And people on the roads with prams,
pushing.
Helena goes on with her stitching
.
HELENA | Oh Ariel, I sometimes think â |
ARIEL | It might be better if â |
HELENA | Rather than â |
ARIEL | â What would have been the colour of her eyes, her hair â |
HELENA | Sometimes at night â |
ARIEL | You can hear him? |
HELENA | It's terrible! |
Ariel walks round the stage again
.
ARIEL | You mean, how much can we say? |
HELENA | How much can we know. |
Helena looks out at the wings, left. After a time Ackerman comes on through the loggia. He wears a white dressing-gown. He stands on the steps watching Ariel and Helena, who ignore him
.
He begins to pace up and down the balustrade at the back. He declaims as if rehearsing a speech
â
ACKERMAN | Do you hear the rumble, the thunder, when the spirits come out and invade the upper air. And the young apes stir in the trees. And flop on the roads like parachutes. You tread on them they kick With wings like snow. And in the ditches breed. With eyes blown out. And in no-man's-land at night you hear them calling â Good! â Good! â to put them out of misery. With your tongue a pistol. And their mouths, roses. |
He stops, by the wings, left, with his head up, as if hearing music
.
HELENA | Look who's here! |
ACKERMAN | Who's here? |
HELENA | Ariel. Your grandson, Ariel. |
After a time Ackerman comes to Ariel and holds
his hand out
.
ACKERMAN | You were in your pram. You looked up to the leaves, the shadows. Children see by what they learn. There was an accident! Between the rocks and the whirlpool, you had to be changed. |
Ariel frowns. Then he takes his hand
.
ARIEL | I thought I'd come to your party â |
ACKERMAN | â Oh Pree will be pleased! â |
ARIEL | â Why do you call him Pree? â |
They both seem to have said the wrong lines. Then Ackerman says mockingly
â
ACKERMAN | The sun doesn't get filtered at this high altitude. |
ARIEL | I wondered if you could give me a job â |
ACKERMAN | Oh I don't think I do give jobs. |
ARIEL | Not in your factories â |
ACKERMAN | Jokes â |
ARIEL | Shit â |
They wait
.
Ackerman goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over
.
ACKERMAN | How did you get in? |
ARIEL | I climbed. |
ACKERMAN | No one's ever climbed. |
They wait
.
Then Ariel turns to Ackerman; smiles
.
ARIEL | I had irons â |
ACKERMAN | On your hands â |
ARIEL | And feet â |
ACKERMAN | Your poor feet! â |
They wait
.
ARIEL | And the people in the valley? |
ACKERMAN | Want to get in â |
ARIEL | For what â |
ACKERMAN | â We haven't got â |
ARIEL | So you provide â |
ACKERMAN | â Waste from the factories. Jokes. Shit. |
He watches the audience
.
Helena has lain back as if she is asleep
.
Ariel comes to the front of the stage and looks at the audience with Ackerman
.
ACKERMAN | We call them the fossils. To prove that the world was not made the other day. |
Ariel looks down over the footlights. Ackerman puts an arm round him. They stand together looking out
.
After a time Ackerman acts
â
ACKERMAN | â The king sat here, with his courtiers. |
Two eyes and a nose, with a room behind â
He turns, with Ariel, to the loggia, right
.
â Where Harlequin kept Columbine â
He turns to the swing sofa, left
.
He takes his arm away from Ariel's shoulder. He remains looking at the swing sofa
.
ARIEL | They rub together â |
ACKERMAN | Keeps them white. |
Ariel looks at the audience as if to see if there are any results from some experiment
.
Ackerman goes to the swing sofa and pulls back one of the curtains. He stares down
.
Ariel murmurs
â
ARIEL | â I can destroy you â |
ACKERMAN | â I can climb down â |
After a time Ariel calls
â
ARIEL | Oh you are an old fraud! I'm sure you're frightfully good at it really! |
Ackerman closes the curtain. He shouts â
ACKERMAN | On guard! |
He turns and faces Ariel
.
Ariel hesitates: then he crouches and holds on to his leg as if he had been hit there
.
ARIEL | You go for the legs â |
ACKERMAN | Tap the ground. |
ARIEL | You've got to give warning. |
Ackerman comes to Ariel and bends down as if
to examine his leg
.
After a time Ariel murmurs â
ARIEL | Did you see it? |
ACKERMAN | Underneath the chair? |
Ackerman looks towards the wings, right
.
Ariel says loudly, as if to divert the attention of anyone who might be listening â
ARIEL | â I don't see why there shouldn't be parasites in an industrial society â |
ACKERMAN | â Of course you young men want to give them cups of tea â |
Ackerman turns back to Ariel
.
Ariel puts an arm round his shoulder
.
ARIEL | Wouldn't it be better if â |
ACKERMAN | Instead of her arms, her hair â |
ARIEL | A bit of rope â |
ACKERMAN | Wire â |
ARIEL | Wine â ? |
ACKERMAN | Wire! |
They seem to be trying not to laugh. They begin to hobble off the stage through the loggia. Ackerman has his arm round Ariel. At the top of the loggia steps Ariel turns and looks back at the audience
.
ACKERMAN | They protect themselves â |
ARIEL | By rubbish? |
ACKERMAN | Don't they like it? |
ARIEL | But if they see it â |
ACKERMAN | One or two get through. |
Ackerman takes his arm from Ariel's shoulders
.
He looks at Helena. Helena has her eyes closed, lying back in the garden chair
.
Ackerman nods at Ariel: then he goes off through the loggia
.
Ariel goes and stands behind a pillar. It is as if he were imagining he were off-stage
.
The backdrop goes blank
Then there appears the huge outline of a tree
.
After a time Jenny pushes back the curtains of the swing sofa. She looks out tentatively She buttons up her dress
.
JENNY | Oh Mrs Ackerman, I did so love your partyâ |
She climbs out of the sola
.
The garden! The tree! Especially the Chinese lanterns.
She looks round the stage
.
Oh I know I ought to have gone!
She looks down at Helena
.
But I'm so in love with Ariel
.
Helena does not move
.
Jenny goes to the loggia and looks out at the wings, right
.
She sees Ariel. Ariel makes a move as if to stay hidden behind the pillar
.
JENNY | You know, last night, he hardly knew what he was doing. He walked up and down on the parapet. He said he was a bird â |
She comes and looks at the audience. She seems to quote â
â Stand back, you go over â
She waits
.
Then she walks round the stage. She seems to make a great effort to explain â
We had this child in its pram. We took it to the airport. It was a bright spring day. There were aeroplanes flying â
She stops and looks amongst the audience
.
Was it you. Was it you â
She moves round the stage again
.
I went ahead. Ariel was following me.
Wires had to be attached from the suitcases to the pram â
She stops; looks out at the wings, left
.
What's that burning?
She waits: then moves round the stage
.
They'd been watching for people like us.
She seems to be finding it increasingly difficult to know which way to face or how to convey her meaning
.
Mrs Ackerman â
She looks at the audience
.
What have they given her, do you know?
She tries to lift Helena's chair by its handles
.
There were men in the control tower â
The chair seems too heavy: she puts it down
.
She looks towards the loggia, right â
It was a small room, with fir trees â
She turns to the audience
.
You can't taste it, touch it, smell it â
She raises her hands, as if surrendering
.
