by Maxim Gorky
Quiet.
Yelena Hello, sir.
Vageen Madame.
Look at you.
Yelena Good evening.
Vageen I painted this. For you.
Yelena What is it called?
Vageen ‘Love’s Progress: Epitome to Epitaph’.
Yelena Do you want to tell me?
Vageen Do you want to hear? I have been duped. A stool pigeon in your petty soap opera. You used me, and brilliantly I might add.
I feel like a child. See? There the child in the clutches of the evil, scheming, unbelievably powerful witch.
Yelena Witch?
Vageen You used the depth of my passion to win back your husband – who had abandoned you, I might add. Left you on this – barren shore. There. To the vicissitudes of the wind and the sea and the passage of time. To die. To die for all he cared, and you found me and fooled me and befuddled me and made me love you so that he would come running back to you and you would be happy again. But what about me?
Yelena Dimitri …?
Vageen Don’t Dimitri me.
Yelena I never said I loved you.
I never said I found you attractive, or that I desired you.
I have never desired you.
Vageen Great.
Great. Thanks a lot. Because I love you. I love you and I desire you and those things, when they are fused into one person? That’s unbearable, Yelena. To love someone and desire them? It’s horrible. It’s virtually impossible.
But I will always love you and desire you and there is nothing anyone or anything can ever be done about it. I am. That’s me. You. I will probably find a wife. But she will just be. Some woman. You will always be. I am.
Can’t you see?
Yelena I can.
But to be honest? Dimitri? If anyone played anyone along in this? It was you. You offered me companionship, trust, friendship. A safe place to express myself and, when I did finally say to you how lonely and isolated, how far away from my own heart and life I felt? When I finally spoke to you – as a friend – only then did you start changing the rules. Only then, once I had made my confession, only then did you start with your flirtations and your own desires and your own feelings.
Vageen Really?
That’s not how I remember it.
Yelena Let’s just see it as it is. Look at me. Shake on it. Be free. Be true – that’s what an artist needs to be, first and foremost to himself. And don’t look upon women so badly.
Vageen I was just. I don’t. I don’t.
Do I?
Protasov is in with his shoes on.
Protasov Should I be worried?
Vageen Oh. / Jesus Christ.
Yelena Pavel, really.
Protasov Did you get rid of Melaniya?
Yelena She’s in the garden with Liza. Shall I call her?
Protasov No, no. Let sleeping dogs lie is my policy, don’t you agree, Dimitri? The new maid just tried to eat the soap. I don’t know where she’s from. To eat soap? Don’t get her. Darling?
Yelena leaves.
Vageen I told your wife how much I loved her, again.
Protasov And is she … Will she? Dimitri?
Vageen No. But love is relentless.
Liza, Melaniya and Yelena appear from the garden.
Liza Where is he?
Yelena Let’s send for him.
Liza No, don’t do that.
Liza keeps moving through.
Melaniya She’s quite … She’s talking about the steppes and the wilderness. I think I’ll stay / by her.
Liza (off) Melaniya Nikolayevna?
Melaniya Coming.
Melaniya follows Liza off.
Protasov So did she say she loved me?
Vageen You? I’m not talking about you …
Protasov Don’t be angry.
Vageen Are you joking? You?
Protasov Me? Yes. We are married. She loves me. I’m erratic, which I think probably makes me interesting.
Vageen It’s your wife who is interesting around here. And there’ll be others. Keep your eyes open.
Yelena enters.
Yelena We’ve got to call the doctor.
Protasov I’ll go fetch him.
Nanny enters.
Nanny Dimitri? A letter for you.
Vageen Me?
It’s from Boris.
Yelena What does he say? What does he say?
Vageen ‘Hurrying away … Hamlet made the wrong decision and dragged everyone into the storm with him … Ophelia knew when to take her bow … No umbrella in the river … When sporting a suit, remember, it’s all about the tie … Yours …’
Protasov What’s he going on about?
Yelena Is there some private joke here? What’s he saying?
Vageen Well … we were having a laugh yesterday.
Liza hurries in.
Liza He’s here.
Yelena No, / just wait.
Liza I heard him.
Vageen No, that / was us.
Protasov No, it’s us, we were talking.
Quiet.
Liza You’re very quiet, now.
Vageen I was reading. A … um.
It’s dawned on them. Quiet.
Liza Where is he? I heard him.
Protasov We were just talking
Vageen leaves.
Liza What’s going on?
Yelena It’s all right, Liza.
Liza Pavel?
Yelena Liza, it’s / all right.
Liza Leave me alone, it’s not all right? What’s happened, Pavel?
Protasov I don’t know.
Liza Yelena, send for Boris. Send for him. Now.
Yelena Yes, yes. I will. Yes. Of course. Pavel?
Protasov Yes.
Yelena (whispering) Get the doctor.
Protasov (whispering) The doctor? Now?
Yelena (whispering) Yes.
Liza Something’s happening. You are whispering. Something’s … I’m falling.
Yelena It’s all right.
Liza If it’s all right, tell me what everyone knows.
Yelena No one knows anything.
Liza Look me in the eye.
Melaniya and Vageen appear.
Melaniya! Where is your brother?
Melaniya I don’t know.
Liza Someone tell me what you all know. Everybody / knows something.
Vageen We don’t / know anything.
Melaniya No, I … I don’t know.
Melaniya exits off elsewhere.
Liza I’ve done something terrible. Something terrible has happened.
Yelena No one knows.
Misha runs on.
Misha Guess what? Your friend the vet was found / hanging on a –
Vageen SHUT UP.
Misha Over the … creek.
Quiet.
Liza Yesterday evening!
Misha Did you guys know already?
Liza I knew it. It was me. I killed him. I knew. I felt it. The world tore open again and there is nothing there but death. / Yelena, I killed him. No. NO. NO. NO. NO.
Yelena Help me, Dimitri. It’s / not true, Liza.
Vageen Liza, calm yourself. Calm yourself.
They grab her by the arms and drag her back into the house. She is fighting and kicking and screaming like the devil. Loosha and Roman witness this strange part of the ritual.
Loosha Why are they doing that?
Roman She’s a weird one.
Misha Probably going to experiment on her.
Loosha What do you mean?
Misha Make some stinking potion out of her bones.
Roman More poison.
Loosha Really?
Nanny races in.
Nanny Loosha!
Roman Nanny, what’s happening with the girl?
Nanny Another attack, they’re coming every day now.
Misha And who sent the madness?
With raised eyebrows, Misha exits.
Loosha Are these attacks from the devil? Nanny?
<
br /> Nanny She screams / loud enough.
Roman She’s a bit of a maddy.
Nanny She should take her drops. Go and fetch me a towel.
Nanny goes one way and Loosha the other. Vageen appears from the house.
Melaniya makes her way in.
Melaniya How is Liza?
Vageen Screaming.
Melaniya What are you doing?
Vageen I’m just writing some notes about, how people.
Melaniya How can you do that at a time like this?
Vageen How can you breathe? These are the times when the human display is all there, to be had.
Melaniya He cut me down. I should have cut him down. I should have. Thought about him. Is Yelena alone in there?
Yelena has been calling for help over this. There is a curdling wail from Liza to end the offstage struggle.
Roman What’s she crying about?
Vageen Her brother’s dead.
Roman Yeah? So’s mine.
He goes. Vageen is packing up his drawing. Yelena comes out. Scratched face? Torn blouse?
Yelena I don’t think she’ll ever recover.
Vageen She’s recovered before.
Yelena There’s something behind her eyes that’s changed. Liza is kind of missing but a cunning animal has been … let out. We have to keep a lookout.
Vageen I’ve never seen you so worried.
Yelena She said, ‘Leave me, leave me.’ She begged me. So I did. I sat in the hall waiting. But then, I could hear her, I could hear her scratching around. I heard a drawer open. I ran into the room and she had Pavel’s revolver. Look.
Vageen Jesus … give that to me. You should have / called for my help.
Yelena I’m surprised one of us wasn’t shot in the tussle. I did. Anyway the maid helped me restrain her. Melaniya’s there now. But she’s not much use and the new maid looks at us like we’re monsters, and poor Nanny was crying and weeping.
What’s all that noise? Where’s / that coming from?
Vageen I don’t know.
Yelena What is that?
The other offstage chaos culminates in a sudden massive commotion, the sound of fences crashing, petrol igniting and a mob on the loose.
A battered Doctor races round the corner.
Doctor Help!
Yelena My God. What’s / the matter?
Doctor Hide me. Lock the doors.
Vageen races towards the gates.
Yelena What’s going on?
Doctor They’ve smashed the barracks. It’s a riot! They’re chanting for blood. They dragged me at the gates.
Yelena Come with me.
Doctor They want us all dead. / They are hanging people. Doctors. Anyone with glasses.
Yelena Come with me, come with me. Did you see my husband?
Yelena leads the Doctor away. The stage is quiet, outside the commotion increases. Protasov bursts in.
Protasov Yelena?
Yelena?
Vageen enters.
Vageen They’re screaming, there’s masses of them.
Protasov They’re killing doctors. How is Liza?
Vageen She is in her room. What has happened?
Protasov I’ve no idea.
Yelena!
Yelena and the Doctor appear.
Yelena You’re all right?
Protasov Were you worried?
Yelena Of course.
Protasov Doctor? Are you OK?
Doctor Just.
Protasov And Liza?
Yelena She needs sedation.
Doctor I have nothing.
Protasov Yes, out on the road. You threw your bag.
Doctor Yes. It was awful.
Protasov It was horrible, Yelena.
Yelena Have you got anything?
Protasov Me? I doubt it. I’m not a doctor.
Yelena What are you then? This science of yours, what does it do?
Protasov Yelena?
Vageen races in.
Vageen There’s more of them … It’s a riot.
Nanny enters.
Yelena Nanny? Nanny, Liza? Go back to Liza?
Nanny I had to leave her. I can’t bear it. I had to untie her.
Yelena But Nanny, we have to keep / an eye on her.
Nanny Her dress was all torn. I had to change her. I can’t not dress her. / She was all …
Yelena Where is she? Nanny?
Nanny In her room. She’s … Poor Liza. / Poor thing.
Yelena goes.
Vageen What is she? Alone? How could / you leave her …
Nanny She’s not alone. I left her with the maid. She is doing nothing, staring at a photo of Boris. I couldn’t bear it / and then my poor Pashenka? How can I …?
Protasov It’s all right, Nanny. Thank you, Nanny. / Look.
Nanny You should be in bed, Pashenka.
Protasov I’m all right. Let’s / make sure Liza is better.
Melaniya You’ve taken such a beating?
Protasov I was all right out on the road. We did all right out on the road, didn’t we, Doctor? He threw his bag at them.
It was awful.
Nazar (calling in) Roman! They’re pressing in at the gates.
Liza appears. Yelena following.
Liza It’s happening. I am going. Shh. Listen.
Quiet.
I am going now. Listen.
She reads from her journal.
In the red of the sand
Is a burning ocean of emptiness.
On the blue of the horizon
The sun, that evil eye,
Watches enraged, gorging on our pain.
I will join my love,
Suffering together is somewhat easier to do.
She sings a snatch of some, loose, weird tune.
I will join my love, standing tall and strong,
I will join my love, beautiful and light.
Like two flowers we spread,
Pressed against the burning sand.
Quiet. She reads now, trying to make sense of the inspiration that penned the poem. Almost self-conscious.
And together we two
Will travel across the sand,
And beneath the tangled jungle
Bury his emptiness … and my sorrow.
She looks at them, between worlds.
That’s …
I worry for Boris. Do you know Boris? … No? I’m very sorry for you. Very sorry. He is the one for me.
It is happening. The crowds are massing. I am going.
She leaves, returned to her daze.
Yelena Oh Christ.
Protasov She read it well … Didn’t you think?
Vageen Pavel. / She’s …
Protasov She can still read. Surely if you can read and … she made sense. If you can make sense …? Lena? Sense? That’s / what matters.