by David Hare
Jack What does that mean?
Pauline You know.
Jack No, I don’t.
Pauline I think you do.
She looks, reluctant to go on.
Jack Pauline, I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Pauline Saturday. Saturday night.
There is a short silence. Jack shifts.
Though that was by no means the first time.
Jack The first time what?
Pauline By no means.
Jack What?
Pauline I felt your anger.
There is a second short silence.
Jack You’d better be specific.
Pauline You sound like a lawyer.
Jack I’m going to be a lawyer.
Pauline As if you were being charged.
Jack Aren’t I being charged?
Pauline I didn’t mean it that way. It’s a borderline thing.
Jack Meaning?
Pauline It was four in the morning. We’d been at a gig. I was exhausted. A pub, then a gig, then a club. At some point, sausages and mash, am I right?
Jack Yes.
Pauline I was out of it. We came back here.
Jack And?
Pauline I don’t claim I said no. On the other hand, I don’t think I said yes.
There is a moment as Jack takes this in.
Jack Is that the charge? Is that it?
Pauline People talk about fucking as if it’s just one thing. But it’s not, is it? It’s many things. ‘I fucked.’ ‘She fucked.’ As if that told us what went on. But it doesn’t, does it?
She waits.
What’s your view?
Jack Oh no –
Pauline Please –
Jack I’m not saying anything. On this subject, I’m not speaking. I’m listening. It’s safer.
Pauline is calm.
Pauline All right, what I mean is: fucking may be tenderness, it may be warmth, it may not be desire, it may be punishment –
Jack Punishment?
Pauline It may be violence.
Jack Are you saying I was violent? On Saturday? Physically?
Pauline Your feelings were violent.
Jack How so?
Pauline We’d schlepped round Newcastle. You were getting angry –
Jack Is that what you remember?
Pauline I think so.
Jack Why?
Pauline Kind of late, we ran into Eddie – not one of your favourite people at the best of times –
Jack I don’t mind Eddie –
Pauline Oh, come on!
Jack Perhaps I mind what he represents –
Pauline My freedom –
Jack If you call it that. But yes, he’s a prick. By the way. Objectively. He has a lot of hair. Flowing. Abundantly. But he’s still a prick.
Pauline All I’m saying is: by the time we were home, I’m not sure your motives were pure.
Jack moves, starting to be alarmed.
I’m just saying what happened.
Jack What you think happened. You admit you were far gone.
Pauline What do you want to do? Cross-examine me?
Jack No.
Pauline ‘Where were you on the night of the crime?’
Jack No.
Pauline Well then?
Jack It’s you making the allegations, not me.
Pauline So? That’s my point. You’re a strong man. You use your strength.
Jack is disbelieving.
Jack I can’t believe we’re talking about this.
Pauline I can’t believe it’s taken us so long.
Jack Oh, I see.
Pauline Yes.
Jack Now you’re saying: not just Saturday?
Pauline No.
Jack Other days? Before?
Pauline Yes.
Jack How many times? Often? You claim to have detected – what? What did you detect exactly?
Pauline Hate, I think.
Jack You think I hate you?
Pauline There are moments when you don’t like me very much.
Jack shakes his head.
Jack That isn’t fair.
Pauline It isn’t fair because it isn’t true, or it isn’t fair to say it out loud?
Jack Now who’s the lawyer?
Pauline No, really, I’d like to know.
Jack Yes, my feelings come and go, of course they do, because you come and go. That’s why.
Pauline just looks at him.
I was trolleyed.
Pauline That’s your defence?
Jack Christ, Pauline, you say we’re students.
Pauline So?
Jack What do students do? In your case, sleep around. In my case, drink. We met. We were drawn to each other. We had something in common. We wanted to escape our families. But maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re happier by your mother’s bed, doing the guilt thing. If every time we make love you’re going to say ‘rape’, then I’m really not sure where we’re heading.
Pauline moves across, decisive.
Pauline And just for the record I never said ‘rape’.
Jack I know.
Pauline I never even said ‘force’.
Jack You said I was strong.
Pauline We’re great friends, Jack, but we’re not great lovers.
Jack smiles and shakes his head.
Jack Wow!
Pauline I know.
Jack That sounded sort of definitive. Is that it?
Pauline I think it is.
Jack For good?
Pauline I would guess, yes.
Jack That’s what you think?
Pauline It’s what I feel.
Jack You kept that bottled up.
Pauline For months.
Jack looks at her, trying to suppress his hurt.
Jack Then probably best I’m off.
Pauline Probably best.
Jack Will I see you around?
Pauline I’m not going to hide from you if that’s what you mean.
They both smile.
Come here.
She puts her arms round him and they hug. After a few moments, she pulls back.
I have to work.
Jack Me too.
He goes. Pauline sits down to work, putting her books out and getting out pen and pad. Jack returns.
There’s a call for you down the corridor. I’m sorry, but it seems your mother has died.
SCENE THREE
2010. At once, a television interview. Pauline is speaking, she is on a big screen. She’s thirty-three. As in Scene One, the interrogator is heard not seen.
Interviewer Does it bother you, all this interest in you, rather than in what you set out to do?
Pauline Why would it bother me?
Interviewer I’m just wondering –
Pauline I’ve nothing to hide. People can poke around in any corner they choose, they’re not going to find anything very interesting. I’m not a film star. It just makes me laugh.
Interviewer So you don’t resent it?
Pauline There’s a moment, isn’t there – perhaps you’ve known one in your life – when you realise you have the power to do something. And at some point you realise you also have the responsibility. That’s what happened to me.
Interviewer And you don’t mind the intrusion?
Pauline Why would I mind it? I’m getting to talk to you.
They both laugh.
I saw something moving in the wrong direction. And all in the name of efficiency. But I’m not sure efficiency is always efficient, if you know what I mean. My thinking is: efficiency, great. But efficiency to what end? People die for freedom. People die for religion. They die for justice. Sorry, but they don’t die for efficiency.
SCENE FOUR
2018. Overlapping, Sandy is approaching, talking to Meredith Ikeji who is in her twenties, black, personable and enthusiastic. They start to talk as they come into view and as they arrive, the stage picture assembles around them.
Sa
ndy I don’t understand. I really don’t understand.
Meredith I took my chance. I decided to come.
Sandy That’s not taking a chance. That’s taking a liberty.
Meredith I parked down the road.
Sandy I don’t care where you parked. If you see her, you have to be brief. You have to be well-behaved.
Meredith Why would I not be? I’ve come all the way from London.
They have arrived in the kitchen of a house in Corby. There is a large table, groaning with papers, neatly laid out in piles. Sandy patiently lays out more.
Is it true that she’s frightening?
Sandy There are things you’ll notice. This is not a good sign.
He taps his fingers against his thigh.
When she does that, you know you’ve lost her attention.
Meredith I shall watch for that.
Sandy Do. And most important, because Pauline is who she is, she’ll ask you to stay for lunch.
Meredith Really?
Sandy Refuse.
Meredith Why would I refuse?
Sandy Because I’m telling you to.
Meredith What makes you think she’ll ask?
Sandy Because she always does. ‘Stay for lunch,’ she’ll say. And you’ll think ‘Hey, unbelievable, Pauline Gibson’s asking me to lunch. And there’ll be a long riff about soda bread warm from the oven and corn ripped fresh from the fields, the roots still screaming, and you’ll still say, ‘No. I have to go.’ Because she doesn’t actually want you to stay, believe me, she just feels she has to ask.
Meredith You mean, like when she says she’s not running?
Sandy turns, uncharmed.
They always say they’re not running, don’t they? But they never mean it. It’s a tactic, isn’t it? In sport, they call it a feint. I watched your press conference a few days ago. I know you said she wasn’t running, but I felt there was something funny going on.
Sandy Is that what you thought?
Meredith Am I wrong?
Sandy stares at her, stern.
Sandy What you have to understand: politicians who create hope are in a special category. They carry a special burden. Easier to be a journeyperson, a hack, a lackey, easier to be any one of the six hundred suited monkeys in Westminster. It’s scary arousing hope because at once you become the only person who can deliver disappointment. It’s easier to be anyone but Pauline.
Pauline arrives, carrying coffee. She’s forty.
Pauline Clitoridectomy, yes, I’m against it, is that what you wanted to know?
Meredith Ms Gibson.
Pauline What can I say? What do you want me to say?
Meredith I’ve got literature here.
Pauline I’m sure you have. Sandy, take the literature. You could have directed me to your website, couldn’t you?
Meredith It’s not the same as meeting, surely?
Pauline It depends what you’re after.
She holds out a hand. Meredith is flustered, awed.
Pauline Gibson.
Meredith Meredith Ikeji. I’m sorry to bust in.
Pauline Think nothing of it. I’m making coffee.
She smiles and shakes her hand. Then goes to the stove.
How long have you been waiting, Meredith?
Meredith I wrote to you two and a half years ago.
Pauline OK.
Meredith Twice we had appointments and twice you cancelled.
Sandy We’d have cancelled this one if you’d taken the trouble to make it.
Meredith That’s why I came unannounced.
Pauline What did you say to coffee?
Meredith Thank you.
Pauline starts to pour.
I know how busy you are.
Pauline I’m not busy at all.
Sandy Look at the table and tell me she’s not busy.
Pauline I used to be busy. In another life.
Meredith I’m amazed. I’d have thought –
Pauline Sandy and I while away the weekend playing Scrabble, don’t we, Sandy?
Sandy Free as birds.
Meredith How can that be?
Sandy The simple expedient of turning everything down.
Pauline Let’s face it: it’s the only reason people ask in the first place.
Sandy Also true.
Pauline People see it as a challenge.
Sandy They only want you if you’re not available. It adds to your glamour. It adds to your allure.
Pauline In my experience, there’s no bigger mistake than saying yes. Once you say yes, they’ve got you.
She smiles bitterly. Meredith has no idea what their double-act means.
Sandy Meredith needs a high-profile advocate.
Pauline Does she?
Sandy She needs a figurehead.
Meredith That’s why I’m here.
Sandy For her organisation.
Pauline If it were happening to men, we’d already be on our way to Africa on a military invasion.
Meredith That’s what I feel.
Sandy I’m sure we would.
Pauline If there were a country in the world where ninety-seven per cent of the men had their dicks cut off, don’t tell me they wouldn’t be sending gunboats.
Sandy They’d have left long ago. A flotilla.
Meredith I’m so pleased you think that.
Pauline In fact, if it were happening to men, there would have been a fair amount of publicity in major news outlets and none of it abusive of those seeking to right the wrong. The coverage would have been about the wrong itself. But because it’s women, it’s only women who are razored, it goes for nothing.
Meredith That’s the very thing I’m here to talk about.
Pauline Nobody even notices, because we are just a rib. I came from a rib, remember?
Sandy has sat down to read quantities of mail, and now Pauline puts her hand between his ribs.
Which one am I, Sandy? I’m not sure. Am I that one?
Sandy I don’t think so.
Pauline This one?
Sandy Restless this morning, Pauline? On the prowl?
Pauline And what I most despise, what I most despise, is when they say ‘It’s the culture’.
Meredith They always say that.
Pauline What sort of argument is that?
Sandy It’s a crappy argument.
Meredith It doesn’t just happen abroad. After thirty years of legislation, there’s not been a single successful prosecution in this country. What does that tell you?
Pauline ‘It’s the culture’. Oh really? You define your identity by criminality against women?
Meredith Exactly.
Pauline Because you fear women? Specifically, because you fear the power of their pleasure? Isn’t that it?
Meredith It certainly is.
Pauline What do they call it? ‘Cutting out the devil’?
Meredith That’s right.
Pauline You’ve worked on this, Meredith – you know much more than me …
Meredith Not really …
Pauline I don’t pretend to know anything …
Meredith Please …
Pauline And I’m by no means sure I can help you …
Meredith Really. I think you can.
Pauline But we’re meant to believe it’s an identity worth having, is it? An identity founded in fear. You cut women up, but at least that way you know who you are. The girls have the scars, and the boys have the culture. Well, it’s one definition of culture, I suppose.
Meredith That’s why I was so eager to meet you. I knew you’d have views on this thing.
Sandy Oh, she has views.
Pauline Except in Egypt, do you know that? Now this is something striking.
Sandy Try me.
Pauline In some churches in Cairo, what progress! Christians do it as well.
Meredith You know about that?
Pauline Christians! Imagine!
Meredith I can’t believe you know about that. That’s incredible.
Pauline Did you know that, Sandy?
Sandy I didn’t, no.
Pauline In Cairo, you can get your clitoris cut off by a Christian. So please don’t come to me with that argument about culture.
Sandy We won’t.
Pauline Thank you.
Sandy We wouldn’t dare.
Pauline The world is full of crappy arguments. And I think I’ve heard every one of them.
She sits down, her discontent dangerous.
I’ve baked some bread if anyone wants it. And an experimental flan.
She taps her fingers against her thigh. Sandy looks significantly at Meredith, who clocks both the gesture and the look.
Sandy You OK, Pauline?
Pauline What do you do for fun?
Meredith Sorry?
Pauline I’m wondering what form fun takes.
Meredith You’re asking me?
Pauline Yes.
Meredith How I have fun?
Pauline Yes.
Meredith I only left university a couple of years ago.
Pauline And was that fun?
Meredith I was involved in student politics.
Pauline Labour politics?
Meredith You got it.
Pauline I hope you toed the party line.
Meredith Sorry?
Pauline You got past the compliance officer, did you? No doubt you were interrogated to make sure your views were acceptable. Thumbscrews, was it? Were you waterboarded?
Meredith Actually, not.
Pauline To align with party policy? Did you swear an oath?
Meredith Obviously you know a bit about it.
Pauline Scraps, you know. Scraps.
She smiles at Sandy.
Sandy knows more than me. He used to work for the Labour Party. He was their eyes and ears for a while.
Sandy Press officer, she means.
Pauline It was his job to make sure everybody said the same thing. Now he works for me.
Sandy And I have no idea what you’re going to say next.
Pauline So much easier.
Sandy And so badly paid.
Pauline He just doesn’t seem to understand the vocational aspect of the job.
Sandy Not that I care. She gives me meals.