The workers exchange glances.
INSPECTOR: Some of the cells where he is are still vacant, come to think of it. Didn’t I hear you people singing a charming ditty just now? Pray don’t let me interrupt you. I too am something of a musician. Just that it pains me, Mrs Vlassova, that such a song should have been sung in your house. Because it means that I have to search your house for the music, so that we members of the police force can join in with our crude voices. He walks over to the divan. For example, Mrs Vlassova, I shall have to slit your divan open. Is that what you wish? He slits it open.
PAVEL: No banknotes there, are there? That’s because we are workers and don’t earn much.
INSPECTOR: And that mirror on your wall. Does it really have to be smashed by the rough hand of a policeman? He breaks it to pieces. You’re a respectable woman, I know. And there was nothing dubious in the divan. But what about the chest of drawers? It’s a nice old piece. He overturns it. Well, well, nothing behind that either. Vlassova, Vlassova, decent people are never sly; you aren’t sly, are you? And there’s your dripping jar with a spoon in it; very touching, that jar. Takes it off the shelf and drops it. Dear me, it has fallen on the floor, and now it seems that there really is dripping in it.
PAVEL: Not much. There isn’t much dripping in it, Inspector. And there isn’t much bread in the breadbin, or much tea in the tin.
INSPECTOR: So that’s a political jar after all. Vlassova, Vlassova, do you really have to get mixed up with us in your old age, with us bloodhounds? How beautifully you’ve washed your curtains. It isn’t often one comes across that. Nice to see it. He rips them down.
IVAN to Anton, who has leapt up out of fear for the duplicator: Sit down, they’ll shoot you.
PAVEL loudly, in order to distract the Inspector: Did you really have to throw the dripping jar on the floor?
ANDREI to the Policeman: Pick the jar up!
POLICEMAN: It’s Andrei Nachodka from Little Russia.
INSPECTOR goes up to the table: Andrei Maximovitch Nachodka, weren’t you in gaol once before on a political charge?
ANDREI: Yes, in Rostov and in Saratov. But the police there had some manners.
INSPECTOR pulling the leaflet from his pocket: Do you know the villains who are circulating these highly treacherous leaflets in the Suchlinov works?
PAVEL: We’ve never seen villains here before.
INSPECTOR: We’ll soon shut that big mouth of yours, Pavel Vlassov. Sit straight when I’m speaking to you!
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Don’t you shout like that. You’re a young man, and you haven’t learnt what it is to be poor. You’re a public servant. You get a fat regular salary for cutting up my sofa and finding my dripping jar empty.
INSPECTOR: It’s too early to start crying, Vlassova, I should save your tears for later. Better keep an eye on that son of yours, he’s going down a bad road. To the workers: One of these days you’ll learn it doesn’t pay to be sly with me.
The Inspector and the Policeman leave. The workers tidy up.
ANTON: Mrs Vlassova, we owe you an apology. We had no idea they suspected us. And now your flat has been wrecked.
MASHA: Were you very frightened, Mrs Vlassova?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Yes, I see Pavel’s going down a bad road.
MASHA: So you think it’s all right for them to wreck your place because your son is fighting for his kopeck?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: They’re not in the right, but nor is he. (5)
IVAN back at the table: What about getting those leaflets distributed?
ANTON: If we let just one police search stop us distributing leaflets, then we’re all piss and wind. Those leaflets have got to be distributed.
ANDREI: How many are there?
PAVEL: About five hundred.
IVAN: And who’s going to distribute them?
ANTON: It’s Pavel’s turn.
Pelagea Vlassova beckons Ivan to come to her.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Who’s to distribute your leaflets?
IVAN: Pavel. It’s got to be done.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Got to be done, indeed. It all comes of reading books and getting home late. Then it’s working here with those machines and having to hang them out of the window. And then covering the window with a cloth. And discussing things in a whisper. Got to be done! All of a sudden there’s me with the police in my house, and they’re treating me like a criminal. She stands up. Pavel, I’m not having you distribute those leaflets.
ANDREI: It’s got to be done, Mrs Vlassova.
PAVEL to Masha: Tell her they have to be distributed for Sidor’s sake, to take the heat off him.
The workers come up to Pelagea Vlassova. Pavel remains at the table.
MASHA: Mrs Vlassova, it’s got to be done for my brother’s sake too.
IVAN: Otherwise Sidor could be sent to Siberia.
ANDREI: You see, if no leaflets are distributed today they’ll realise it must have been Sidor yesterday.
ANTON: That’s good enough reason in itself why it’s got to be done again today.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: I see that it’s got to be done to save this young man you have dragged in. But what about Pavel, suppose they arrest him?
ANTON: There’s not that much risk.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: There’s not that much risk, eh. You talk a fellow round and get him involved. This and that have to be done to save him. There’s no risk but it’s got to be done. We’re under suspicion, but we have to distribute leaflets. It’s got to be done, so there’s not much risk. So one thing leads to another. And in the end there’s a fellow on the gallows: stick your head through that noose, there’s not much risk. Gimme those leaflets, I’ll go and distribute them, not Pavel.
ANTON: But how will you set about it?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Don’t you worry. I can manage every bit as well as you lot. There’s my friend Maria Korssunova sells snacks there during the lunch break. I’ll stand in for her today and use your pamphlets as wrapping paper.
She goes and gets her shopping bag.
MASHA: Pavel, here’s your mother offering to distribute our leaflets today.
PAVEL: Argue it out between you. I’d rather not say what I think of her offer if you don’t mind.
ANTON: Andrei?
ANDREI: I think she can bring it off. The workers know her and the police have nothing against her.
ANTON: Ivan?
IVAN: I agree with Andrei.
ANTON: Even if they caught her she’d have the least trouble. She’s not in the movement, which means she only did it for her son’s sake. Comrade Vlassov, in view of the desperate situation and the great danger to Comrade Sidor, we’re for accepting your mother’s offer.
IVAN: We’re convinced that she runs the least risk.
PAVEL: All right.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA to herself: It’s certainly a very bad business I’ve offered to help with, but I’ve got to keep Pavel out of it.
ANTON: Right, Mrs Vlassova, we’re entrusting you with this packet of leaflets.
ANDREI: It means you’ll be fighting for us now, Pelagea Vlassova.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Fighting? I’m not a young woman any longer, and I’m not a fighter. I’m happy if I can scrape my three kopecks together, that’s enough fighting for me.
ANDREI: Do you know what’s in those pamphlets, Mrs Vlassova?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: No, I can’t read.
3
Courtyard of the Suchlinov factory.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA carrying a large basket, is outside the factory gates: It all depends what kind of man the gatekeeper is: is he idle or pernickety? All I need do is get him to give me a pass. Then I’ll wrap my wares in the pamphlets, and if they catch me I’ll just say ‘They were planted on me, I can’t read.’ She has a good look at the Gatekeeper. He’s fat, must be idle. I’ll see what he does if I offer him a gherkin. Fellows like that like eating but can’t afford it. She goes up to the gate and drops a packet in front of the Gatekeeper. Hey, I’ve dropped one of my pac
kets. The Gatekeeper looks away. Funny, I’ve gone and forgotten, all I need do is put my basket down, then I’ve got both hands free. When I was just going to trouble you. To the audience: Talk about hard-boiled! You have to keep chatting him up, then he’ll do anything for a bit of peace and quiet. She goes to the opening and talks rapidly: Just like Maria Korssunova, ain’t it, only yesterday there was me telling her: ‘Do what you like but just don’t you get wet feet!’ But d’you think she’d listen to me? No. Went on digging potatoes and got wet feet! Next morning she feeds the goats. Wet feet! What d’you say to that? So there she is flat on her back. But instead of keeping to her bed, that same evening out she goes. Of course it’s raining, so what does she get? Wet feet!
GATEKEEPER: Can’t come in here without a pass.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Just what I told her. You know, her and me, we’re just like that – Gesture. – but talk of pigheaded, you never seen nothing like it. Vlassova dear, I’m sick, so you’ll have to go to the factory for me and sell my food packets. There you are, Maria, says I, now you’ve lost your voice. But why’ve you lost it? Just you say wet feet to me once more, she croaks, and I’ll crown you with this teapot! Did I say pigheaded? The Gatekeeper sighs deeply and lets her in.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: I know, I’m taking up your time.
It is the lunch break. The workers are sitting eating on boxes and so on. Pelagea Vlassova offers them snacks. Ivan Vessovchikov helps her to wrap these up.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
IVAN: And the wrapping paper is the best part.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
IVAN: And the wrapping paper is free.
A WORKER: Got any gherkins?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, yes, here you are.
IVAN: And the wrapping paper mustn’t be thrown away.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
A WORKER: What’s so special about what’s printed on the wrapping paper? I can’t read.
ANOTHER WORKER: How’m I to know what’s on your wrapping paper?
FIRST WORKER: You’re holding one, clever.
SECOND WORKER: Quite right, it says something.
FIRST WORKER: So what?
SECOND WORKER: Good for them, they say if we get drawn into negotiating the more fools us.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA crosses the yard: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
THIRD WORKER: Here they are, with the police after them and factory security tightened up, and here’s another pamphlet just the same. They know what they’re doing, that lot, and nobody’s going to stop them. There’s something in what they say.
FIRST WORKER: Well, when I see something like that I’m for it.
PAVEL: Here’s Karpov at last.
ANTON: I wonder what he’s got us.
KARPOV arrives: Are all our committee here?
The members of the works committee gather in a corner of the yard, among them Anton and Pavel.
KARPOV: We negotiated, friends.
ANTON: What’s the result?
KARPOV: Friends, we have not come back empty-handed.
ANTON: Did you save our kopeck?
KARPOV: Friends, we have always laid stress on the intolerable sanitary conditions in this factory.
PAVEL: Got the kopeck?
KARPOV: The marsh outside the eastern gate is an absolute disgrace.
ANTON: So that’s going to be your excuse!
KARPOV: Think of those clouds of mosquitoes every summer that drive us indoors; of the high incidence of malaria, of the persistent threat to the health of our children. That marsh, friends, can be drained at the cost of 24,000 roubles. Mr Suchlinov is prepared to take that on. The area gained would allow the factory to be extended, with a consequent increase in jobs. As you know, the prosperity of the factory means prosperity for all of us. Friends, at present it is not doing so well as we might think. We cannot ignore what Mr Suchlinov told us about our sister enterprise in Tver, whose imminent closure will mean 700 of our friends losing their jobs. We are for the lesser evil. It would be unrealistic to close our eyes to the fact that this country is facing one of the worst economic crises it has ever experienced.
ANTON: In other words, capitalism is sick and you are the doctor.
So you want to accept the wage cut?
KARPOV: Our negotiations suggested no other answer.
ANTON: Then we call for negotiations with the management to be broken off, given that you cannot resist the wage cut. We reject the marsh deal.
KARPOV: I’m warning you, don’t break off negotiations with management.
ANOTHER WORKER: You must realise it would mean a strike.
PAVEL: We say nothing but a strike can prevent the kopeck cut.
ANTON: The question for today’s meeting is quite simple. It is: should Mr Suchlinov’s marsh be drained or our kopeck be saved? We must strike; May 1st is only a week away now, when we must try to ensure the closure of all other factories where wages are supposed to be cut.
KARPOV: I am warning you!
Sound of the factory siren. The workers stand up and go back to work. Looking back at Karpov they sing him the
SONG OF THE PATCHES AND THE COAT
If you see that our coat’s in tatters
You come along and complain ‘That’s not good enough.
We must hurry to his rescue, do our best to help him.’
Off you go to buttonhole our boss
While we hang about and shiver.
Back you come then, triumphantly set to show off
What you’ve managed to win for us:
Just some makeshift patches.
Right, we’ve got the patches.
Yes, but where is
The complete coat.
If you hear us cry out in hunger
You come along and complain ‘That’s not good enough.
We must hurry to his rescue, do our best to help him.’
Off you go and buttonhole our boss
While we wait and rub our stomachs.
Back you come then, triumphantly set to show off
What you’ve managed to win for us:
One stale crust.
Right, we’ve got a stale crust.
Yes, but where is
The complete loaf.
We don’t only need the patches
We must have a complete coat.
We don’t only need a stale crust
We must have a complete loaf.
We need much more than a job or two
We must have the whole of the works
And the coalmines and the steel and
Control of the State.
Right, all that’s what we must have
But what have
You to offer us?
The workers go off.
KARPOV: A strike, then!
PELAGEA VLASSOVA comes forward: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
KARPOV: A gherkin.
Pelagea Vlassova sells him a gherkin, and sits down to count her takings.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA to herself. They can’t be allowed to cut wages; it’s very wrong, and particularly hard on me. If wages keep going down how can I manage with Pavel? He’s already so dissatisfied. (6)
KARPOV follows her: This is a leaflet. So you’re handing them out? You realise this bit of paper means a strike?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: A strike? How come?
KARPOV: These leaflets are calling on the workers in the Suchlinov plant to strike.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: I know nothing about that.
KARPOV: So why are you distributing them?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: We have our reasons. Why are our people being arrested?
KARPOV: Have you any idea what they say?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: No, I can’t read.
KARPOV: They’re stirring our people up. Strikes are bad news. Tomorrow morning nobody goes to work. What about tomorrow evening? And next week? It means nothing to
the firm whether we work or not, but for us it’s a matter of life and death. The Factory Guard hurries in accompanied by the Gatekeeper. Are you looking for something, Anton Antonovitch?
FACTORY GUARD: Yes, they’ve been distributing leaflets agitating for a strike. I can’t think how they got in. What’s that you’ve got?
Karpov tries to hide the leaflet in his pocket.
FACTORY GUARD: What’s that you’re stuffing in your pocket? He pulls it out. A leaflet!
GATEKEEPER: So you read those leaflets?
KARPOV: Anton Antonovitch, my friend, surely we’re allowed to read what we want.
FACTORY GUARD: Hah. Seizes him by the collar to drag him away. I’ll teach you to read leaflets that call on your workforce to strike.
KARPOV: But I’ve done nothing. This woman here will tell you I’ve done nothing.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: He’s done nothing. I can swear it. He’s completely innocent!
KARPOV: Let go! Let go of me!
FACTORY GUARD beating him: I’ll learn you! Leaflets!
Factory Guard and Gatekeeper take Karpov away.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: All the man did was buy a gherkin.
4
PELAGEA VLASSOVA GETS HER FIRST LESSON IN ECONOMICS
Pelagea Vlassova’s room.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Pavel, today I distributed the leaflets you had given me, so as to take the heat off that young man you people had got involved. After I’d finished that, with my own eyes I had to see another innocent fellow being arrested just because he had read one of those leaflets. What is it you’ve got me to do?
ANTON: Thanks from us all, Mrs Vlassova, for your clever action.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: So that’s what you call cleverness? And what about Karpov, whom I and my cleverness put in prison?
ANDREI: ’Twasn’t you that put him in prison. Far as we know it was the police.
IVAN: But you helped unite the workers in the Suchlinov factory. You’ll have heard the strike vote was almost a hundred per cent.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: I didn’t want to make a strike; just to help someone. And I didn’t help him, but got someone else into trouble. How about Sidor, how about the other one? Why are they being arrested? Because they read leaflets? Why are you striking? What did that leaflet say?
Brecht Collected Plays: 3: Lindbergh's Flight; The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent; He Said Yes/He Said No; The Decision; The Mother; The Exception & the ... St Joan of the Stockyards (World Classics) Page 12