MRS SHIN: He is the idlest, dirtiest …
MR SHU FU: He is nothing. He does not exist. He is simply not present, Mrs Shin.
Enter Sun.
SUN: What’s this about?
MRS SHIN: Would you like me to call Mr Shui Ta, sir? He won’t like strangers wandering round the shop.
MR SHU FU: Miss Shen Teh is having an important discussion with Mr Shui Ta, and they cannot be interrupted.
SUN: She’s here, is she? I didn’t see her go in! What are they discussing? They can’t leave me out!
MR SHU FU prevents him from going into the back room: You will have to be patient, sir. I think I know who you are. Kindly take note that Miss Shen Teh and I are about to announce our engagement.
SUN: What?
MRS SHIN: That is a surprise for you, isn’t it?
Sun struggles with the barber in an effort to get into the back room; Shen Teh emerges.
MR SHU FU: Forgive us, my dear Shen Teh. Perhaps you will explain.
SUN: What’s up, Shen Teh? Have you gone crazy?
SHEN TEH, breathlessly: Sun, Mr Shu Fu and my cousin have agreed that I ought to listen to Mr Shu Fu’s ideas of how to help the people round here. Pause. My cousin is against our relationship.
SUN: And you have agreed?
SHEN TEH: Yes.
Pause.
SUN: Have they told you I’m a bad character?
Shen Teh remains silent.
SUN: Perhaps I am, Shen Teh. And that is why I need you. I am a debased character. No capital, no manners. But I can put up a fight. They’re wrecking your life, Shen Teh. He goes up to her, subdued: Just look at him! Haven’t you got eyes in your head? Putting his hand on her shoulder: Poor creature, what are they trying to shove you into now? Into a sensible marriage! If it weren’t for me they would simply have put you out of your misery. Tell me yourself: but for me, wouldn’t you have gone off with him?
SHEN TEH: Yes.
SUN: A man you don’t love!
SHEN TEH: Yes.
SUN: Have you completely forgotten? The rain?
SHEN TEH: No.
SUN: How you hacked me down from the tree, how you brought me a glass of water, how you promised me the money so I could fly again?
SHEN TEH, trembling: What do you want?
SUN: Come away with me.
SHEN TEH: Mr Shu Fu, forgive me, I want to go away with Sun.
SUN: We are in love, you know. He escorts her to the door.
Have you got the key of the shop? He takes it from her and gives it to Mrs Shin. Put it on the step when you’ve finished.
Come, Shen Teh.
MR SHU FU: But this is rape! He shouts into the back room: Mr Shui Ta!
SUN: Tell him not to make so much row here.
SHEN TEH: Please don’t call my cousin, Mr Shu Fu. We are not of one mind, I know. But he is not in the right, I can sense it.
To the audience:
I would go with the man whom I love.
I would not reckon what it costs me.
I would not consider what is wiser.
I would not know whether he loves me.
I would go with the man whom I love.
SUN: Just like that.
Both walk off.
Interlude
in front of the curtain
Shen Teh in her wedding clothes, on her way to the wedding, turns and addresses the audience.
SHEN TEH: I have had a fearful experience. As I stepped out of the door, joyous and full of expectation, I found the carpet-dealer’s old wife standing in the street, shakily telling me that her husband was so excited and troubled about the money she lent me that he had fallen ill. She thought it best for me in any case to give her back the money. Of course I promised. She was greatly relieved and, weeping, gave me her good wishes, begging me to excuse her for not completely trusting my cousin, nor, alas, Sun. I had to sit down on the steps when she left, I had so scared myself. In the tumult of my feelings I had thrown myself once more into Yang Sun’s arms. I could resist neither his voice nor his caresses. The evil that he had spoken to Shui Ta could not teach Shen Teh a lesson. Sinking into his arms, I still thought: the gods wanted me to be kind to myself too.
To let none go to waste, not oneself either
To bring happiness to all, even oneself, that
Is good.
How could I simply have forgotten the two good old people? Like a small hurricane Sun just swept my shop off in the direction of Pekin, and with it all my friends. But he is not evil, and he loves me. As long as I am near him he will do nothing wicked; what a man tells other men means nothing. He wants to seem big and strong then, and particularly hard-boiled. If I tell him that the old people cannot pay their taxes he will understand. He would rather get a job at the cement works than owe his flying to a wrong action. True, flying is a tremendous passion with him. Shall I be strong enough to call out the goodness in him? At the moment, on the way to my wedding, I am hovering between fear and joy.
She goes off quickly.
6
Private Room in a cheap Suburban Restaurant
A waiter is pouring out wine for the wedding guests. Round Shen Teh stand the grandfather, the sister-in-law, the niece, Mrs Shin and the unemployed man. A priest stands by himself in a corner. Sun is talking to his mother, Mrs Yang, in front. He is wearing a dinner jacket.
SUN: Bad news, mother. She just told me, oh so innocently, that she can’t sell the shop for me. Some people are dunning her to pay back those 200 silver dollars she gave you. Though her cousin says there’s nothing about it in writing.
MRS YANG: What did you say to her? You can’t marry her, of course.
SUN: There’s no point in discussing all that with her; she is too pig-headed. I have sent for her cousin.
MRS YANG: But he wants to get her married to the barber.
SUN: I’ve dealt with that marriage. The barber has been seen off. Her cousin will soon realise the business has gone if I don’t produce the two hundred, as the creditors will seize it, but that the job’s gone too if I don’t get the 300 on top.
MRS YANG: I’ll go and look for him outside. Go and talk to your bride now, Sun!
SHEN TEH, to the audience as she pours out wine: I was not mistaken in him. Not a line of his face betrayed disappointment. Despite the heavy blow that it must have been to renounce his flying he is perfectly cheerful. I love him very much. She motions Sun to come to her. Sun, you have not yet drunk with the bride!
SUN: What shall we drink to?
SHEN TEH: Let it be to the future.
They drink.
SUN: When the bridegroom’s dinner jacket is his own!
SHEN TEH: But the bride’s dress is still sometimes exposed to the rain.
SUN: To all we want for ourselves!
SHEN TEH: May it come soon!
MRS YANG, to Mrs Shin as she leaves: I am delighted with my son. I’ve always tried to make him realise that he can get any girl he wants. Him, a trained pilot and mechanic. And what does he go and tell me now? I am marrying for love, mother, he says. Money isn’t everything. It’s a love match! To the sister-in-law: Sooner or later these things have to happen, don’t they? But it’s hard on a mother, very hard. Calling to the priest: Don’t cut it too short. If you take as long over the ceremony as you did arguing about the fee, that will make it nice and dignified. To Shen Teh: We shall have to hold things up a bit, my dear. One of our most valued guests has still to arrive. To all: Please excuse us. Exit.
THE SISTER-IN-LAW: It’s a pleasure to be patient as long as there’s something to drink.
They sit down.
THE UNEMPLOYED MAN: We’re not missing much.
SUN, loudly and facetiously in front of the guests: Before the ceremony starts I ought to give you a little test. There’s some point when the wedding’s at such short notice. To the guests: I have no idea what sort of wife I’m going to get. It’s most disturbing. For instance, can you use three tea-leaves to make five cups of tea?
SHEN TEH: No.
SUN: Then I shan’t be getting any tea. Can you sleep on a straw mattress the size of that book the priest’s reading?
SHEN TEH: Double?
SUN: Single.
SHEN TEH: In that case, no.
SUN: Dreadful, what a wife I’m getting.
All laugh. Behind Shen Teh Mrs Yang appears in the doorway. She shrugs her shoulders to tell Sun that the expected guest is not to be seen.
MRS YANG, to the priest, who is pointing to his watch: Don’t be in such a hurry. It can’t be more than a matter of minutes. There they are, all drinking and smoking, and none of them’s in a hurry. She sits down with her guests.
SHEN TEH: But oughtn’t we to discuss how it’s all going to be settled?
MRS YANG: Now, not a word about business today. It so lowers the tone of a party, don’t you think?
The bell at the door rings. All look towards the door, but nobody comes in.
SHEN TEH: Who is your mother waiting for, Sun?
SUN: It’s to be a surprise for you. By the way, where is your cousin, Shui Ta? I get on well with him. A very sensible fellow! Brainy! Why don’t you say something?
SHEN TEH: I don’t know. I don’t want to think about him.
SUN: Why not?
SHEN TEH: Because I wish you didn’t get on with him. If you like me, you can’t like him.
SUN: Then I hope the gremlins got him: the engine gremlin, the petrol gremlin and the fog gremlin. Drink, you old obstinate!
He forces her.
THE SISTER-IN-LAW, to Mrs Shin: Something fishy here.
MRS SHIN: What else did you expect?
THE PRIEST comes firmly up to Mrs Yang, with his watch in his hand: I must go, Mrs Yang. I’ve got a second wedding, and a funeral first thing in the morning.
MRS YANG: Do you imagine I’m holding things up for pleasure? We hoped that one jug of wine would see us through. Now look how low it’s getting. Loudly, to Shen Teh: I can’t understand, my dear Shen Teh, why your cousin should let us wait for him like this!
SHEN TEH: My cousin?
MRS YANG: But my dear girl, it’s him we’re waiting for. I am old-fashioned enough to feel that such a close relation of the bride ought to be at the wedding.
SHEH TEH: Oh Sun, is it about the 300 dollars?
SUN, without looking at her: You’ve heard what it’s about. She is old-fashioned. I’ve got to consider her. We’ll just wait a quarter of an hour, and if he hasn’t come by then it’ll mean the three gremlins have got him, and we’ll start without!
MRS YANG: I expect you have all heard that my son is getting a position as a mail pilot. I am delighted about it. It’s important to have a well-paid job in these days.
THE SISTER-IN-LAW: In Pekin, they say: is that right?
MRS YANG: Yes, in Pekin.
SHEN TEH: Sun, hadn’t you better tell your mother that Pekin is off?
SUN: Your cousin can tell her if he feels the same way as you. Between you and me, I don’t.
SHEN TEH, shocked: Sun!
SUN: God, how I loathe Szechwan! What a town! Do you realise what they all look like when I half shut my eyes? Like horses. They look up nervously: what’s that thundering over their heads? What, won’t people need them any more? Have they outlived their time? They can bite each other to death in their horse town! All I want is to get out of here!
SHEN TEH: But I promised the old couple I’d pay them back.
SUN: Yes, that’s what you told me. And it’s a good thing your cousin’s coming as you’re so silly. Drink your wine and leave business to us! We’ll fix it.
SHEN TEH, horrified: But my cousin can’t come!
SUN: What do you mean?
SHEN TEH: He’s not there.
SUN: And how do you picture our future: will you kindly tell me?
SHEN TEH: I thought you still had the 200 silver dollars. We can pay them back tomorrow and keep the tobacco, which is worth much more, and sell it together outside the cement works as we can’t pay the rent.
SUN: Forget it! Put it right out of your mind, sister! Me stand in the street and hawk tobacco to the cement workers: me, Yang Sun the pilot? I’d sooner blow the whole 200 in a single night. I’d sooner chuck it in the river! And your cousin knows me. I fixed with him he was to bring the 300 to the wedding.
SHEN TEH: My cousin cannot come.
SUN: And I thought he couldn’t possibly stay away.
SHEN TEH: It is impossible for him to be where I am.
SUN: How very mysterious!
SHEN TEH: Sun, you must realise he is no friend of yours. It is I who love you. My cousin Shui Ta loves nobody. He is a friend to me, but not to my friends. He agreed that you should have the old people’s money because he was thinking of your pilot’s job in Pekin. But he will not bring the 300 silver dollars to the wedding.
SUN: Any why not?
SHEN TEH, looking him in the eyes: He says you only bought one ticket to Pekin.
SUN: Yes, but that was yesterday, and look what I’ve got to show him today! He half pulls two tickets out of his breast pocket. There’s no need for the old woman to see. That’s two tickets to Pekin, for me and for you. Do you still think your cousin’s against the marriage?
SHEN TEH: No. The job is a good one. And my business has gone.
SUN: It’s for your sake I sold the furniture.
SHEN TEH: Don’t say any more! Don’t show me the tickets! It makes me too afraid that I might simply go off with you. But do you see, Sun, I can’t give you the 300 silver dollars, or what is to become of the two old people?
SUN: What’s to become of me? Pause. You’d better have a drink! Or do you believe in being careful? I can’t stick a careful woman. When I drink I start flying again. And you: if you drink there’s just the faintest shadow of a possibility you may understand me.
SHEN TEH: Don’t think I don’t understand you. You want to fly, and I can’t be any help.
SUN: ‘Here’s your plane, beloved, but I’m afraid it’s a wing short.’
SHEN TEH: Sun, there’s no honourable way for us to get that job in Pekin. That’s why I need you to hand back the 200 silver dollars I gave you. Give them to me now, Sun!
SUN: ‘Give them to me now, Sun!’ What do you think you are talking about? Are you my wife or aren’t you? Because you’re ratting on me, don’t you realise? Luckily – and luckily for you too – it doesn’t depend on you, because it’s all been settled.
MRS YANG, icily: Sun, are you certain the bride’s cousin will be coming? It almost looks as though he had something against this marriage, as he doesn’t appear.
SUN: But what are you thinking of, mother! Him and me are like that. I’ll open the door wide so that he spots us at once as he comes rushing up to act as best man to his old friend Sun. He goes to the door and kicks it open. Then he comes back, swaying slightly because he has already drunk too much, and sits down again by Shen Teh. We’ll wait. Your cousin has got more sense than you. Love is an essential part of living, he wisely says. And what’s more he knows what it would mean for you: no shop left and no wedding either!
They wait.
MRS YANG: At last!
Footsteps are heard, and all look towards the door. But the footsteps move on.
MRS SHIN: There’s going to be a scandal. One can feel it; one can sniff it in the air. The bride is waiting for the ceremony, but the bridegroom is waiting for her honourable cousin.
SUN: The honourable cousin is taking his time.
SHEN TEH, softly: Oh, Sun!
SUN: Sitting here with the tickets in my pocket, and an idiot beside me who can’t do arithmetic! And I see the day coming when you’ll be putting the police on me to get your 200 silver dollars back.
SHEN TEH, to the audience: He is evil and he would like me to be evil too. Here am I who love him, and he stays waiting for a cousin. But round me sit the defenceless: the old woman with her sick husband, the poor who wait at the door every morning for rice, and an unknown
man from Pekin who is worried about his job. And they all protect me because they all have faith in me.
SUN stares at the glass jug in which the wine is near the bottom: The wine-jug is our clock. We are poor people, and once the guests have drunk the wine the clock has run down for ever. Mrs Yang signs to him to keep silent, and footsteps can be heard once more.
THE WAITER enters: Do you wish to order another jug of wine, Mrs Yang?
MRS YANG: No, I think there will be enough. Wine only makes one too hot, don’t you think?
MRS SHIN: I imagine it costs a lot too.
MRS YANG: Drinking always makes me perspire.
THE WAITER: Would you mind settling the bill now, madam?
MRS YANG ignores him: Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you can be patient a little longer: our relative must be on his way by now. To the waiter: Don’t interrupt the party.
THE WAITER: My orders are not to let you leave until the bill is settled.
MRS YANG: But I am well known here!
THE WAITER: Exactly!
MRS YANG: The service nowadays is really outrageous! Don’t you think so, Sun?
THE PRIEST: I fear that I must leave. Exit weightily.
MRS YANG, desperate: Please all of you remain seated! The priest will be back in a few minutes.
SUN: Drop it, mother. Ladies and gentlemen, now that the priest has left we cannot detain you any longer.
THE SISTER-IN-LAW: Come on, Grandpa!
THE GRANDFATHER solemnly empties his glass: The bride!
THE NIECE, to Shen Teh: Don’t mind him. He means it friendly-like. He’s fond of you.
MRS SHIN: That’s what I call a flop!
All the guests leave.
SHEN TEH: Shall I leave too, Sun?
SUN: No, you wait. He pulls at her wedding finery so that it is askew. It’s your wedding, isn’t it? I’m going to wait on, and the old lady will wait on. She is anxious to see her bird in the air again anyhow. It’s my opinion that the moon will be nothing but green cheese before she can step outside and see his plane thundering over the house. To the empty chairs as if the guests were still there: Ladies and gentlemen, can’t you make conversation? Don’t you like it here? The wedding has only been somewhat postponed, on account of the non-arrival of influential relations, and because the bride doesn’t know what love is. To keep you amused I, the bridegroom, will sing you a song. He sings:
Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 6 Page 11