Tom Stoppard Plays 3

by Tom Stoppard

  This was the first of three partitions which were to dismember the country by the end of the century. By the standards of the time Poland had a liberal tradition, squeezed now between three emperors. In 1793 Russia and Prussia decided to cut Poland down to size.

  (He separates two bread rolls to the ‘east’ and two more to the ‘west’. This leaves half a dozen bread rolls in the middle of the table.)

  Poland, what was left of it, rebelled and in 1795 the three power blocks finished the job.

  (He pushes two rolls to the ‘west’. two to the ‘east’ and two to the ‘south’. There is none left in the middle.)

  Poland disappeared. Of course there were still an awful lot of Poles around, and when Napoleon turned up to challenge the great powers large numbers of them joined his armies. The reward was the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807.

  (He places a single bread roll in the middle of the table.)

  It lasted as long as Napoleon lasted. And when the victors met in Vienna to carve up the map, Russia got the prize.

  (He pushes the bread roll to the ‘east’.)

  For a hundred years after that Poland was mainly an idea kept alive by an underground at home and émigrés abroad. The period of romantic exile.

  NARRATOR: Oh yes, handsome young men in lace cuffs playing the piano in Paris … I wondered.

  WITNESS: They were waiting for a miracle. The miracle happened in 1918, with the simultaneous collapse of the Russian, Austrian and German empires. The victors met at Versailles and put Poland back on the map.

  (He pushes two bread rolls from ‘east, ‘west’ and ‘south’ into the middle of the table.)

  In 1920 the old enemy, now known as Soviet Russia, invaded and was repulsed. Poland survived until the Nazi–Soviet pact in 1939.

  (He divides the six bread rolls and pushes them ‘east’ and ‘west’.)

  The thieves fell out. Hitler lost. The allies met at Yalta to carve up the map and Churchill and Roosevelt let Stalin keep his prize.

  (He moves three bread rolls from ‘west’ to ‘east’.)

  This is a true picture, except for the bread rolls. You don’t get a basket of bread rolls put out on a café table in Poland.

  However, it is now possible to speak of 1945.

  NARRATOR: (To camera) The first post-war Communist leader, Gomulka, was toppled in the Stalinist paranoia in 1948. Eight years of bad times growing steadily worse finally in 1956 touched off a huge working-class revolt which left eighty dead and brought Gomulka back as a reformer. Things got worse. This time it took fourteen years. Gomulka announced food price increases and touched off a workers’ revolt in the Baltic ports in 1970. No one knows how many died, some say as many as 200. The massacre brought down Gomulka and elevated Edward Gierek.

  12. INT. GIEREK’S ROOM

  Telephone ringing. As GIEREK moves through the frame:

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Things got better and then the same. In 1976 Gierek announced food price increases. There were strikes. Gierek backed down. Things got better, then the same, then worse. Poland was going broke. In July 1980 Gierek announced food price increases. There were strikes. Railwaymen closed one of the main lines into Russia, or, to put it another way, one of the main lines into Poland. Gierek went to the Black Sea to meet Brezhnev. On August 14th the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk closed down. Gierek flew home the next day. The Politburo met. Prime Minister Babiuch went on television. Gierek went to the country, hoping that the crisis was over.

  (GIEREK answers the telephone. He listens for a few moments, annoyed.)

  GIEREK: (Into phone) You told me they would settle.

  13. INT. PARTY HEADQUARTERS (POLITBURO). DAY

  The Politburo is meeting again.

  KANIA: It was in the balance. A majority at the shipyard voted to end the strike. They were swung back by a radical element. SZYDLAK: Reactionary. You mean a reactionary element.

  KANIA: The shipyard swung back to keep solidarity with the places still on strike.

  GIEREK: (Shakes his head impatiently) Solidarity.

  KANIA: I said this one was not like the others. Now we’re no longer dealing with a shipyard but a committee representing 150 plants and factories.

  SZYDLAK: (Furiously) The scum want to set up an independent trade union! – They demand abolition of censorship – access to the media – This is not a strike. It’s a bloody mutiny!

  GIEREK: (Sharply) It’s clear that the official trade unions have lost touch with the aspirations of their membership. You have forfeited their trust.

  SZYDLAK: (Surprised) What kind of language is that?

  GIEREK: You have let us down, Comrade! (More calmly)

  Independent unions are, of course, out of the question. But reform … yes. (Looks directly at SZYDLAK) A reform of the official unions. (To KANIA) Now I will have to talk to them.

  KANIA: Do you want me to come with you?

  GIEREK: No – on TV. (To BABIUCH) My turn.

  14. INT. TELEVISION STUDIO

  GIEREK speaks to a single television camera. He is apparently in his office, sitting at a desk, the office bookcase behind him.

  GIEREK: I would like to say as frankly as I can that we are aware that quite apart from many objective factors, mistakes in economic policy have played an important part … We understand the working people’s tiredness and impatience with the troubles of everyday life, the shortages, the queues, the rise in the cost of living …

  (Our camera has tilted slowly up, to find two ELECTRICIANS standing on a gantry, looking down on GIEREK.)

  FIRST ELECTRICIAN: I think I’ve seen this before …

  SECOND ELECTRICIAN: Typical bloody August … nothing but repeats.

  (We cut to a different angle of GIEREK talking to the television camera. We see his image on a monitor, being watched by MACIEJ SZCZEPANSKI.)

  GIEREK: (On monitor) But strikes do not change anything for the better. Together we must find another way. We must do it for Poland’s sake.

  (This is the end of Gierek’s speech. He pauses a moment and then relaxes as SZCZEPANSKI approaches him.)

  SZCZEPANSKI: Good … very good. Congratulations, Comrade First Secretary.

  GIEREK: Thank you.

  (GIEREK is gathering up his papers. He stands up.)

  SZCZEPANSKI: By the way, what did you think of the bookcase?

  (GIEREK looks behind him as the bookcase, which is now seen to be a fake flat, is moved aside by two PROP MEN.)

  GIEREK: Nice. Very nice.

  15. INT. SZCZEPANSKI’S OFFICE

  SZCZEPANSKI is mixing cocktails.

  SZCZEPANSKI: Edward, do things look bad?

  GIEREK: For you, you mean?

  SZCZEPANSKI: For me? Why for me? Try and come out this weekend, relax a little.

  GIEREK: How many cars do you have, Maciej?

  SZCZEPANSKI: Cars? I don’t know. Who’s counting?

  GIEREK: Kania.

  SZCZEPANSKI: Kania? And what does he make it?

  GIEREK: Eighteen.

  SZCZEPANSKI: Eighteen? Well, Comrade, you know … as Chairman of the State Committee for Radio and TV one has to get about.

  GIEREK: How many houses? An aeroplane. A yacht. A health club staffed by young women with unusual qualifications Yes, Comrade Kania has a file on you.

  SZCZEPANSKI: That’s his job.

  GIEREK: Yes. He undoubtedly has a file on me too. How much was that little object you presented me with on my sixty-fifth birthday?

  SZCZEPANSKI: Well, it was gold. All right – who built your country house? Twenty-three million zlotys. We serve the Party. The Party rewards us. What do you say, Edward?

  GIEREK: I think I’ll be busy this weekend.

  16. INT. KURON’S FLAT. NIGHT

  JACEK KURON and GEREMEK are watching GIEREK on a television set.

  GIEREK: (On television) Attempts by irresponsible individuals and anarchic, anti-socialist groups to use stoppages for political ends and to incite tension are a dangerous aspect of recent events at plants
on the Gdansk coast …

  (GIEREK continues but the NARRATOR’s voice takes over.)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Jacek Kuron, who now joins the story, had a strategy for freedom in a Communist state – pay lip service to Party rule while organizing into self-governing groups, like unions.

  GEREMEK: I think he’s talking about you, Jacek.

  17. INT. GIEREK’S OFFICE. NIGHT

  We see what is apparently the studio bookcase, but the middle of it is a concealed door which now opens. GIEREK comes through the bookcase to his desk and we see that behind him there is another office with a SECRETARY at a desk. The phone on Gierek’s desk is ringing. GIEREK picks it up. He listens for a moment.

  GIEREK: Lock him up.

  18. EXT. STREET. NIGHT

  KURON and GEREMEK are walking down the street.

  NARRATOR: (Voice Over) Back in the sixties Kuron was a radical Marxist calling for a revolutionary workers’ state. The Polish United Workers’ Party did not appreciate him and put him in gaol.

  (KURON, in conversation, bursts out laughing.)

  KURON: (Cheerfully) Now I’m rehabilitated. But I’m still followed by the police.

  (The camera tracks with them and finds the NARRATOR in the foreground.)

  HARRATOR: (To camera) The Polish intellectuals played no part in the rebellion in 1970 which brought Edward Gierek to power. But in ’76, when Gierek had to survive the first rebellion of his own, Kuron and others, shocked by the brutal police repression, formed the Workers’ Defence Committee.

  (Tracking again with KURON.)

  KURON: (To GEREMEK) The Workers’ Defence Committee was formed out of shame. When you get to Gdansk, tell them that this time we won’t just leave them to it. This thing could be amazing. Workers’ power, economic power, not a rebellion but a social force. No blood in the streets. That belongs to history.

  GEREMEK: You think so?

  KURON: Don’t you?

  GEREMEK: History is my subject.

  (They come to a corner and shake hands to separate. GEREMEK moves off. Two POLICEMEN approach KURON and arrest him, without drama, and walk him towards a nearby police car. The NARRATOR is in the street, watching this.)

  NARRATOR: Kuron and fourteen others were arrested on August 20th. For Gierek the subversive influence of the intellectual mavericks was the single most important factor underlying the Polish crisis …

  (He is interrupted by the WITNESS, who is now drunk.)

  WITNESS: Horse manure.

  (The NARRATOR turns.)

  NARRATOR: What is?

  WITNESS: Kuron and his friends have been overtaken by events and they’re still trying to catch up.

  NARRATOR: Then why arrest them?

  WITNESS: Gierek has got to arrest someone. Every day Brezhnev wants to know what’s being done. Every day the answer is – nothing! Worse than nothing – negotiations instead of breaking heads. So Gierek arrests a few intellectuals. The Russians understand that. They’ve read Marx, Gierek knows it’s irrelevant.

  NARRATOR: Why doesn’t he arrest the strikers instead?

  WITNESS: He can’t afford to.

  NARRATOR: You mean he’s scared? Or broke?

  WITNESS: Try the money.

  (Another camera angle. The WITNESS weaves his way down the street. The NARRATOR faces the camera.)

  NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the economic situation was the single most important factor underlying –

  (The WITNESS turns round and shouts to the NARRATOR.)

  WITNESS: That’s the one!

  (The camera tracks along the street, following a long fence on which graffiti have been scrawled, crude pictures illustrating the Narrator’s next speech.)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Edward Gierek came to power promising political and economic reforms. He intended to go down in history as the man who turned Poland into a modern industrial nation. And for a while it worked. Life became freer and richer. The relaxation lasted a couple of years. The money lasted longer, but it was all borrowed – two billion by the middle of the decade, from the West alone. The idea was that the money would be turned into tractors, colour TVs, Polish Fiats … and then back into money. But almost everything Polish, except what came out of the ground, had a Western component which had to be paid for in hard currency to keep the expensive new factories in production, and with the oil crisis in 1973 those prices went up so more had to be borrowed, until Poland’s industry was working just to pay the interest on a debt which, by 1980, topped 20 billion dollars.

  19. INT. BOARDROOM (BANK). DAY

  Formal meeting room. There is a ‘round table’ of BANKERS, FINANSKY among them. The Narrator’s speech overlaps into this scene.

  FINANSKY: When we met in April I proposed a loan of 500 million dollars which would enable us to refinance our accumulated debt. This agreement proposes only 325 millions. In addition you propose a rate of interest above the Eurodollar rate. This is disappointing, gentlemen. You are endangering our ability to repay. This is the truth.

  GERMAN BANKER: Minister, we represent more than 400 banks from sixteen countries. To service your debt requires 95 per cent of your export revenue.

  AMERICAN BANKER: American banks are badly exposed. 1.7

  billion dollars. Just the commercial banks, quite apart from a billion dollars in credits from my government.

  FINANSKY: American banks are lending the same to Peru.

  AMERICAN BANKER: Yes, and ten times as much to Brazil. But these countries are members of the International Monetary Fund, so the money does not come without strings. We are in a position to insist on certain controls. In your case we have no control.

  SWISS BANKER: Your exports are being hit now with these strikes …

  FINANSKY: (Sharply) The strikes are in response to the price increases which we were left in no doubt would be welcome to you gentlemen when we began these present negotiations

  AMERICAN BANKER: (To his neighbour) Well, isn’t that something? If Poland goes down the drain it’ll be the fault of Chase Manhattan.

  20. INT. EXECUTIVE WASHROOM. DAY

  GIEREK is using a wash-basin. When he looks into the mirror in front of him he sees two well-dressed, well-shaved, well-groomed members of the Politburo, JAGIELSKI and BARCIKOWSKI. They are standing respectfully behind him, for instruction. GIEREK busies himself with soap and water while he talks.

  GIEREK: (To JAGIELSKI) In the Lenin shipyard there is a strike committee representing 380 places of work.

  (JAGIELSKI raises his eyebrows in surprise.)

  Yes, we tried to split them with separate deals but they weren’t having that. (To BARCIKOWSKI) There are 25,000 on strike in Szczecin now. You will find a strike committee waiting to negotiate.

  JAGIELSKI: Kania says in Gdansk they have a list of sixteen demands.

  GIEREK: Twenty-one. Well, when they add the moon it will be twenty-two.

  BARCIKOWSKI: Is that what we promise them?

  GIEREK: Just end the strike. (To JAGIELSKI) You did it with the railway workers in July. You can do it with the shipyard.

  (GIEREK ducks downs to wash his face.)

  21. INT. THE SAME

  As GIEREK straightens we see he is now dry, and tying up his tie. In the mirror he sees JAGIELSKI and BARCIKOWSKI returning now in very different shape, unshaven, looking as though they had slept in their clothes, exhausted.

  BARCIKOWSKI: In Szczecin they make thirty-six demands, beginning with free independent parties.

  GIEREK: You mean unions.

  BARCIKOWSKI: No. Parties. Political parties.

  GIEREK: This is becoming grotesque.

  BARCIKOWSKI: I told them I had come to discuss workers’ grievances, not an overthrow of the political system. They accepted my point.

  GIEREK: Good.

  BARCIKOWSKI: And they told me that the first grievance is that the official union does not represent the workers’ interest. The demand for free unions is central, absolutely central. The workers’ spokesman in Szczecin is a veteran of 1970
– Marian Jurczyk – a strong Catholic. He demands also that Sunday Mass be broadcast on state radio. He is tough, very quiet, hard. When I arrived he did not even return my greeting. He said – these are our demands. The atmosphere is sober, unrelenting. No journalists, no cameras.

  JAGIELSKI: Gdansk is a circus. The negotiations are in a room with a glass wall. On the other side of the glass there are hundreds of people. No, not a circus, a zoo. Scores of photographers. And every word we speak is broadcast all over the shipyard. Walesa does most of their talking. He is friendly, no intellectual but sharp, and he has the workers behind him like a football hero.

  BARCIKOWSKI: The situation is very strange – some of these are our own people, Party members! You understand me, Comrade First Secretary? The party itself is unstable.

  (GIEREK, BARCIKOWSKI, JAGIELSKI leave the washroom. The WITNESS, in the role of washroom attendant, approaches the minor to tidy up after GIEREK.)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Gierek’s chief concern now was to maintain the Party line –

  (The WITNESS, busy cleaning the wash-basin, looks up into the mirror, interrupting the NARRATOR’s speech with a shake of his head.)

  (Correcting himself) – was to survive.

  (The WITNESS nods approvingly.)

  22. INT. SZCZEPANSKI’S OFFICE. NIGHT

  There are sounds of a party going on next door. SZCZEPANSKI, drinking, is brooding alone, watching GIEREK mouthing silently on television. Using a remote control he switches on a video recorder and Gierek’s image is replaced by a mildly pornographic film. Meanwhile, the NARRATOR is heard.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) A crisis meeting of the Central Committee made a dramatic show of cleaning out the stables. Four Politburo members were sacked, including the Prime Minister and the official trades union chief. There was a simultaneous purge of Party men in high government posts, including the Chairman of the State Committee for Radio and Television. Gierek was spared, confessing to …