by Peter Handke
GEORGE
Is there anything in it?
(Pause.)
PORTEN
(As though she had answered immediately) I’m just looking. (Pause. She puts the paper away.)
GEORGE
Give me the paper. (Pause. Then she gives him the paper, but does so as if she had given it to him at once. GEORGE opens it, looks at it only after an interval. Pause. Then he exclaims as if he had seen the picture on first glance.) Ice floes!
(Pause.)
PORTEN
(Lively) Really? (Pause.) How much do you weigh?
(Pause.)
GEORGE
Two hundred eighteen pounds.
(Pause.)
PORTEN
O God!
(Pause.)
JANNINGS
(Shakes his head. He hesitates and looks at GEORGE.) Why are you shaking your head? Do you want to contradict me?
GEORGE
I am neither shaking my head nor would I, even if I shook my head, thereby want to contradict you.
PORTEN
(To JANNINGS ) You were shaking your head yourself.
JANNINGS
That was me?
VON STROHEIM
That was you.
JANNINGS
(Looks to GEORGE. ) Who is speaking?
VON STROHEIM
I am.
JANNINGS
(To VON STROHEIM) That was you?
GEORGE
Yes.
JANNINGS
(To GEORGE) You’re talking?
GEORGE
Are you dreaming?
JANNINGS
Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advised?
Known unto these, and to myself disguised:
Am I transformed, master, am not I?
(Pause. To GEORGE) Do you have a match?
GEORGE
Yes.
(Pause. JANNINGS points with his finger on the table, but the others look at his finger. At last he looks at his finger too and lets his hand drop. Pause. VON STROHEIM wants to pull out the red cloth.)
JANNINGS
(Sees it and screams) No! (VON STROHEIM puts it away again instantly. Pause. PORTEN begins to laugh, becomes quiet immediately. GEORGE looks at her questioningly, she only shakes her head. Pause.) Let us pray to God.
PORTEN
(Instantly) My candy.
BERGNER
(In her sleep) There’s a rat in the kitchen.
(Pause.)
VON STROHEIM
(Reaches into the cigar box. He asks) May I take one? ( They look at him, he pulls back his hand. He asks once more) May I take a cigar? (And already extends his hand. They look at him and he pulls back his hand. With arms pressed to his sides, he asks once more) May I take one? (No one looks at him and he takes a cigar. PORTEN gives him the ashtray.)
GEORGE
(To PORTEN) Thank you.
PORTEN
Why are you thanking me?
GEORGE
Because that would have been my job.
(Long pause. GEORGE lifts up the teapot and puts it down again.)
JANNINGS
(Upbraids him.) What do you mean by that?
GEORGE
(Pulls in his head. Pause. He takes out a piece of chocolate candy, removes the silver foil, and eats the candy. After he has consumed it, he asks PORTEN) Or did you want a piece of it? (She doesn’t replay. He stares into the paper.) Just now I read the word snowstorm, and now I can’t find it any more!
(All stare into the paper. Pause.)
VON STROHEIM
(To PORTEN) Do you have the number 23-32-322?
PORTEN
No, I have the number 233-23-22. (Brief pause.) In my neighborhood there is a shopping center with stores, restaurants, and …
VON STROHEIM
A movie house?
PORTEN
Why? (Pause.) I once attended a going-out-of-business sale …
GEORGE
And everyone screamed, ran around, and turned over the furniture?
PORTEN
No. They—Yes! They turned over the furniture, screamed, and ran around! (She looks at him happily, becomes serious again instantly. Suddenly delighted, to VON STROHEIM) 23-32-322? Yes, that is my number. (Pause. She looks at GEORGE for a long time.)
GEORGE
Why do you look at me like that?
PORTEN
I’m afraid I might not be able to recognize you again. (She was serious when she began her reply but ended it as a joke. She cuddles her head against her shoulder. Pause. GEORGE lowers his head.) Hey!
GEORGE
(Shouts at her.) What kind of a feeling do you have? (He comes to his senses and asks her again kindly) I wanted to ask you: what kind of feelings do you have?
PORTEN
Too many of them.
JANNINGS
In those days the grass smelled of dog piss before the thunderstorm.
PORTEN
Who’s saying that?
JANNINGS
I?
PORTEN
I see. (She continues at once.) As a child, if I wanted to have something, I always had to say first what it was called.
GEORGE
(Wants to say something.) And I …
VON STROHEIM
(Irritated) Yes, people showed me something and then walked away with it—(Contemplatively) And I had to follow and get it for myself.
GEORGE
(Wants to say something.) And I …
VON STROHEIM
Or people simply opened the drawer in which the thing was and went away.
GEORGE
(To VON STROHEIM) And so that I could learn to get my Way—(VON STROHEIM looks away. GEORGE turns to JANNINGS.) I was shoved toward the objects that someone had taken from me. (JANNINGS looks away and GEORGE turns to PORTEN.) I was supposed to get them back myself.
PORTEN
(Remembering) Yes! How I fidgeted then!
VON STROHEIM
(While looking away, speaks to JANNINGS, who is clearing his throat.) You were about to say something?
JANNINGS
No.
(Pause.)
GEORGE
How strange! (With this exclamation he wants to call attention to himself, but no one turns to him. Instead, PORTEN winks at JANNINGS, who thereupon puts a finger to his lips and shakes his head. VON STROHEIM then bends forward and elongates an eye with one finger. This time attention is paid to the sign: as a reply JANNINGS pulls his mouth apart with two fingers; thereupon VON STROHEIM turns up the lapel of his jacket by grasping it conspicuously with thumb and little finger, and JANNINGS nods twice. PORTEN, VON STROHEIM, and JANNINGS laugh.) Strange!
PORTEN
(Asks him almost reluctantly) What’s strange?
GEORGE
(Relieved) Suddenly I remembered a hill I had climbed with someone and the cloud shadows that appeared and vanished.
PORTEN
And what’s strange about that?
GEORGE
That I should remember it so spontaneously.
PORTEN
(Cleans her eye as if he had spit at her during his discourse. Very hostile) Put your paper there away.
GEORGE
It’s not my paper.
PORTEN
(Snaps the paper away.) And move your cup away from there. (She snaps her fingers against the cup so that it turns over.)
GEORGE
It isn’t my cup.
PORTEN
And spare me your recollections. (She instantly continues kindly to YON STROHEIM) Do you know the expression “To mention the noose in the house of the man who’s been hanged”?
(JANNINGS laughs, VON STROHEIM smiles.)
GEORGE
Why are you so hostile?
PORTEN
And why are you so pale?
GEORGE
I’m not pale!
PORTEN
And I
’m not hostile! (She continues at once.) Do you know the expression “To place one’s hands on one’s head”?
GEORGE
(Looks at JANNINGS; then replies.) Certainly.
PORTEN
Why do you look at him before answering?
GEORGE
It’s a habit.
PORTEN
Put your hands on your head. (He hesitates.) Did you hear what I said?
GEORGE
(Again first looks at JANNINGS.) I’m still thinking about it.
PORTEN
But the expression exists, doesn’t it?
(GEORGE slowly places his hands on his head.)
VON STROHEIM
(Is playing along.) Put your hands on the table.
GEORGE
(Tests whether the sentence exists.) “Put your hands on the table.” (Relieved) Yes. (He puts his hands on the table.)
PORTEN
Make your hands into fists and caress me!
GEORGE
(Tests the sentence.) “Make your hands into fists and caress me!?” No!
VON STROHEIM
Hand me the cup.
(GEORGE hands him the cup unthinkingly.)
PORTEN
I’ll show you something (She smiles at VON STROHEIM as her initiate and starts searching in her clothes. Eventually GEORGE stretches out his hand while she is still looking. Now and then she looks at his hand and continues to search. Suddenly she hits his hand and shoves it away. Maliciously) That’s what I wanted to show you.
(He writhes and draws in his head. All at once she covers her eyes with both hands and shudders.)
GEORGE
(Startled) What’s the matter?
PORTEN
(Takes her hands from her eyes.) Oh, it’s nothing. (GEORGE wants to reach for the cup that VON STROHEIM has put down in the meantime, but VON STROHEIM displaces it a little and GEORGE withdraws his hand. They repeat this maneuver several times, both displaying a lot of patience. PORTEN interrupts the game; very hostile to GEORGE) Who are you? (GEORGE gets up quickly and assumes a pose behind the table as if his picture were about to be taken.) Now I remember. You’re the salesman. You gave me the … (She puts the riding crop on the table. She makes a slip of the tongue.) How much is it?
GEORGE
Riding crop.
PORTEN
Yes, that’s want I wanted to ask too. You sold me the riding crop.
(GEORGE sits down, PORTEN again puts her hands over her eyes and shudders. She pushes the riding crop away.)
JANNINGS
Don’t you like it any more?
PORTEN
No, I only pushed it away.
JANNINGS
(In a disguised voice) The riding crop on the table, that means: someone who’s very close to you will be swallowed up by a swamp and you will stand there slowly clapping your hands above your head. (He laughs in a strange voice. PORTEN gets up quickly, pushing the guitar off the table in the process. JANNINGS in a disguised voice) A guitar falls off the table, that means: hats staggering into glacial fissures during the next mountain-climbing expedition. (He laughs in a strange voice.)
VON STROHEIM
(To PORTEN, who is standing motionless) You want to leave?
PORTEN
(Sits down.) No, I stood up just now. (She suddenly crosses her arms over her breast and hunches her shoulders.)
GEORGE
Are you cold?
PORTEN
(Drops her arms.) No. (To VON STROHEIM) And who are you? (VON STROHEIM picks up the guitar and holds it as he did previously. PORTEN tenderly) Oh, it’s you! (She becomes serious again immediately.)
VON STROHEIM
Did you remember something?
(Helplessly, she tries to give him another affectionate look, stops, reaches for a cigar.)
GEORGE
Are you restless?
PORTEN
(Puts the cigar back in the box. Serene) No, I only wanted to take a cigar. (Suddenly she screams) I only wanted to take a cigar! (GEORGE shies back, pulls his jacket over the head, as if he were protecting himself against rain, and stays hunched up like that. PORTEN screams) I only wanted to take a cigar! I ONLY WANTED TO TAKE A CIGAR!
(They all hunch up more and more. Now one hears a noise emanating from backstage, a high-pitched, pathetic howling.
The howling coincides with a slight darkening onstage. PORTEN immediately stops and hunches up too.
The WOMAN WITH THE SCARF steps swiftly out of the wings and walks to the second tapestry door without looking at anyone. As soon as she opens the door, there is quiet behind it. Instead, one hears the rustling of a newspaper, which is lying just inside the door. The WOMAN goes inside and returns with a big DOLL that represents a CHILD. The CHILD is quiet now, it has the hiccups. It is wearing a gold-embroidered white nightgown and looks very true to life. The mouth is enormous and open. As the WOMAN reaches center stage with the CHILD, it starts to bawl terribly, somehow without any preliminaries. GEORGE, jacket over his head, quickly leaps toward the chest and closes the drawer. The bawling stops at once.
The WOMAN carries the CHILD now from one to the other very fast, and in passing, during brief stops, it reaches for the women’s breasts and between the men’s legs. Very rapidly it also wipes off all the things that had been lying on the table, then pulls away the lace tablecloth and drops it. When the WOMAN stands with the CHILD beside BERGNER, who seems to be still asleep, it begins to bawl again, and as suddenly as if it had never stopped. The WOMAN holds it in such a way that the CHILD sees BERGNER from the front. It stops bawling at once and is carried away.
The WOMAN returns alone, closes the tapestry door, and goes off. After she has gone, they all sit there motionless. One of them tries to reach for something, but stops as soon as he starts. Someone else tries a gesture that atrophies instantly. A third wants to reply with a gesture, interrupts it twitching. They squat there, start to do something simultaneously; one of them futilely tries to pull his hand out of a pocket; one or two of them even open their mouths—a few sounds, then all of them grow stiff again and cuddle up, make themselves very small as if freezing to death.
Only BERGNER sits there the whole time motionless, with eyes closed. All of a sudden, as though she were playing “waking up,” she moves slightly. By and by, the others look toward her. VON STROHEIM gets up and bends down to her. She again moves a little. The others are motionless. She opens her eyes and recognizes VON STROHEIM; she begins to smile.)
The stage becomes dark.
Translated by Michael Roloff
They Are Dying Out
“It suddenly occurs to me that I am
playing something that doesn’t even
exist, and that is the difference. That is
the despair of it.”
Characters
HERMANN QUITT
HANS, his confidant
FRANZ KILB, minority stockholder
QUITT’S WIFE
Act I
A large room. The afternoon sun is shining in from one side. The distant silhouette of a city, as though it were seen through a huge window, is visible in the background. (The background might also be formed by a backdrop, similar to a movie screen, with the silhouette of the city vaguely outlined against it.)