RALPH Walking down the Balls Pond Road, for example.
ANDY I never went anywhere near the Balls Pond Road. I was a civil servant. I had no past. I remember no past. Nothing ever happened.
BEL Yes it did.
MARIA Oh it did. Yes it did. Lots of things happened.
RALPH Yes, things happened. Things certainly happened. All sorts of things happened.
BEL All sorts of things happened.
ANDY Well, I don’t remember any of these things. I remember none of these things.
MARIA For instance, your children! Your lovely little girl! Bridget! (She laughs.) Little girl! She must be a mother by now.
Pause.
ANDY I’ve got three beautiful grandchildren. (To BEL) Haven’t I?
Pause.
BEL By the way, he’s not well. Have you noticed?
RALPH Who?
BEL Him.
MARIA I hadn’t noticed.
RALPH What’s the trouble?
BEL He’s on the way out.
Pause.
RALPH Old Andy? Not a chance. He was always as fit as a fiddle. Constitution like an ox.
MARIA People like Andy never die. That’s the wonderful thing about them.
RALPH He looks in the pink.
MARIA A bit peaky perhaps but in the pink. He’ll be running along the towpath in next to no time. Take my word. Waltzing away in next to no time.
RALPH Before you can say Jack Robinson. Well, we must toddle.
RALPH and MARIA out.
BEL goes to telephone, dials. Lights hold on her.
Lights up in Fred’s room.
The phone rings, JAKE picks it up.
JAKE Chinese laundry?
BEL Your father is very ill.
JAKE Chinese laundry?
Silence.
BEL Your father is very ill.
JAKE Can I pass you to my colleague?
FRED takes the phone.
FRED Chinese laundry?
Pause.
BEL It doesn’t matter.
FRED Oh my dear madam, absolutely everything matters when it comes down to laundry.
BEL No. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Silence.
JAKE takes the phone, looks at it, puts it to his ear.
BEL holds the phone.
FRED grabs the phone.
FRED If you have any serious complaint can we refer you to our head office?
BEL Do you do dry cleaning?
FRED is still. He then passes the phone to JAKE.
JAKE Hullo. Can I help you?
BEL Do you do dry cleaning?
JAKE is still.
BEL puts the phone down. Dialling tone.
JAKE replaces phone.
JAKE Of course we do dry cleaning! Of course we do dry cleaning! What kind of fucking laundry are you if you don’t do dry cleaning?
Andy’s room. ANDY and BEL.
ANDY Where are they? My grandchildren? The babies? My daughter?
Pause.
Are they waiting outside? Why do you keep them waiting outside? Why can’t they come in? What are they waiting for?
Pause.
What’s happening
Pause.
What is happening?
BEL Are you dying?
ANDY Am I?
BEL Don’t you know?
ANDY No, I don’t know. I don’t know how it feels. How does it feel?
BEL I don’t know.
Pause.
ANDY Why don’t they come in? Are they frightened? Tell them not to be frightened.
BEL They’re not here. They haven’t come.
ANDY Tell Bridget not to be frightened. Tell Bridget I don’t want her to be frightened.
FRED’s room.
JAKE and FRED.
FRED is out of bed. He wears shorts. They both walk around the room, hands behind backs.
JAKE Pity you weren’t at d’Orangerie’s memorial.
FRED I’m afraid I was confined to my bed with a mortal disease.
JAKE So I gather. Pity. It was a great do.
FRED Was it?
JAKE Oh yes. Everyone was there.
FRED Really? Who?
JAKE Oh … Denton, Alabaster, Tunnicliffe, Quinn.
FRED Really?
JAKE Oh yes. Kelly, Mortlake, Longman, Small.
FRED Good Lord.
JAKE Oh yes. Wetterby, White, Hotchkiss, De Groot … Blackhouse, Garland, Gupte, Tate.
FRED Well, well!
JAKE The whole gang. Donovan, Ironside, Wallace, McCool … Ottuna, Muggeridge, Carpentier, Finn.
FRED Speeches?
JAKE Very moving.
FRED Who spoke?
JAKE Oh … Hazeldine, McCormick, Bugatti, Black, Forrester, Galloway, Springfield, Gaunt.
FRED He was much loved.
JAKE Well, you loved him yourself, didn’t you?
FRED I loved him. I loved him like a father.
Third area.
BRIDGET Once someone said to me – I think it was my mother or my father – anyway, they said to me – We’ve been invited to a party. You’ve been invited too. But you’ll have to come by yourself, alone. You won’t have to dress up. You just have to wait until the moon is down.
Pause.
They told me where the party was. It was in a house at the end of a lane. But they told me the party wouldn’t begin until the moon had gone down.
Pause.
I got dressed in something old and I waited for the moon to go down. I waited a long time. Then I set out for the house. The moon was bright and quite still.
Pause.
When I got to the house it was bathed in moonlight. The house, the glade, the lane, were all bathed in moonlight. But the inside of the house was dark and all the windows were dark. There was no sound.
Pause.
I stood there in the moonlight and waited for the moon to go down.
ASHES TO ASHES
Ashes to Ashes first published by
Faber and Faber Ltd 1996
© Fraser52 Limited, 1996
Ashes to Ashes was first presented by the Royal Court at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, on 12 September 1996. The cast was as follows:
DEVLIN Stephen Rea
REBECCA Lindsay Duncan
Directed by Harold Pinter
Designed by Eileen Diss
Lighting by Mick Hughes
Costume by Tom Rand
Sound by Tom Lishman
Characters
DEVLIN
REBECCA
both in their forties
Time: now
A house in the country.
Ground-floor room. A large window. Garden beyond.
Two armchairs. Two lamps.
Early evening. Summer.
The room darkens during the course of the play. The lamplight intensifies.
By the end of the play the room and the garden beyond are only dimly defined. The lamplight has become very bright but does not illumine the room.
DEVLIN standing with drink. REBECCA sitting.
Silence.
REBECCA Well … for example … he would stand over me and clench his fist. And then he’d put his other hand on my neck and grip it and bring my head towards him. His fist … grazed my mouth. And he’d say, ‘Kiss my fist.’
DEVLIN And did you?
REBECCA Oh yes. I kissed his fist. The knuckles. And then he’d open his hand and give me the palm of his hand … to kiss … which I kissed.
Pause.
And then I would speak.
DEVLIN What did you say? You said what? What did you say?
Pause.
REBECCA I said, ‘Put your hand round my throat.’ I murmured it through his hand, as I was kissing it, but he heard my voice, he heard it through his hand, he felt my voice in his hand, he heard it there.
Silence.
DEVLIN And did he? Did he put his hand round your throat?
REBECCA Oh yes. He did. He did. And
he held it there, very gently, very gently, so gently. He adored me, you see.
DEVLIN He adored you?
Pause.
What do you mean, he adored you? What do you mean?
Pause.
Are you saying he put no pressure on your throat? Is that what you’re saying?
REBECCA No.
DEVLIN What then? What are you saying?
REBECCA He put a little … pressure … on my throat, yes. So that my head started to go back, gently but truly.
DEVLIN And your body? Where did your body go?
REBECCA My body went back, slowly but truly.
DEVLIN So your legs were opening?
REBECCA Yes.
Pause.
DEVLIN Your legs were opening?
REBECCA Yes.
Silence.
DEVLIN Do you feel you’re being hypnotised?
REBECCA When?
DEVLIN Now.
REBECCA No.
DEVLIN Really?
REBECCA No.
DEVLIN Why not?
REBECCA Who by?
DEVLIN By me.
REBECCA You?
DEVLIN What do you think?
REBECCA I think you’re a fuckpig.
DEVLIN Me a fuckpig? Me! You must be joking.
REBECCA smiles.
REBECCA Me joking? You must be joking.
Pause.
DEVLIN You understand why I’m asking you these questions. Don’t you? Put yourself in my place. I’m compelled to ask you questions. There are so many things I don’t know. I know nothing … about any of this. Nothing. I’m in the dark. I need light. Or do you think my questions are illegitimate?
Pause.
REBECCA What questions?
Pause.
DEVLIN Look. It would mean a great deal to me if you could define him more clearly.
REBECCA Define him? What do you mean, define him?
DEVLIN Physically. I mean, what did he actually look like? If you see what I mean? Length, breadth … that sort of thing. Height, width. I mean, quite apart from his … disposition, whatever that may have been … or his character … or his spiritual … standing … I just want, well, I need … to have a clearer idea of him … well, not a clearer idea … just an idea, in fact … because I have absolutely no idea … as things stand … of what he looked like.
I mean, what did he look like? Can’t you give him a shape for me, a concrete shape? I want a concrete image of him, you see … an image I can carry about with me. I mean, all you can talk of are his hands, one hand over your face, the other on the back of your neck, then the first one on your throat. There must be more to him than hands. What about eyes? Did he have any eyes?
REBECCA ‘What colour?
Pause.
DEVLIN That’s precisely the question I’m asking you … my darling.
REBECCA How odd to be called darling. No one has ever called me darling. Apart from my lover.
DEVLIN I don’t believe it.
REBECCA You don’t believe what?
DEVLIN I don’t believe he ever called you darling.
Pause.
Do you think my use of the word is illegitimate?
REBECCA What word?
DEVLIN Darling.
REBECCA Oh yes, you called me darling. How funny.
DEVLIN Funny? Why?
REBECCA Well, how can you possibly call me darling? I’m not your darling.
DEVLIN Yes you are.
REBECCA Well I don’t want to be your darling. It’s the last thing I want to be. I’m nobody’s darling.
DEVLIN That’s a song.
REBECCA What?
DEVLIN ‘I’m nobody’s baby now’.
REBECCA It’s ‘You’re nobody’s baby now’. But anyway, I didn’t use the word baby.
Pause.
I can’t tell you what he looked like.
DEVLIN Have you forgotten?
REBECCA No. I haven’t forgotten. But that’s not the point. Anyway, he went away years ago.
DEVLIN Went away? Where did he go?
REBECCA His job took him away. He had a job.
DEVLIN What was it?
REBECCA What?
DEVLIN What kind of job was it? What job?
REBECCA I think it had something to do with a travel agency. I think he was some kind of courier. No. No, he wasn’t. That was only a part-time job. I mean that was only part of the job in the agency. He was quite high up, you see. He had a lot of responsibilities.
Pause.
DEVLIN What sort of agency?
REBECCA A travel agency.
DEVLIN What sort of travel agency?
REBECCA He was a guide, you see. A guide.
DEVLIN A tourist guide?
Pause.
REBECCA Did I ever tell you about that place … about the time he took me to that place?
DEVLIN What place?
REBECCA I’m sure I told you.
DEVLIN No. You never told me.
REBECCA How funny. I could swear I had. Told you.
DEVLIN You haven’t told me anything. You’ve never spoken about him before. You haven’t told me anything.
Pause.
What place?
REBECCA Oh, it was a kind of factory, I suppose.
DEVLIN What do you mean, a kind of factory? Was it a factory or wasn’t it? And if it was a factory, what kind of factory was it?
REBECCA Well, they were making things – just like any other factory. But it wasn’t the usual kind of factory.
DEVLIN Why not?
REBECCA They were all wearing caps … the workpeople … soft caps … and they took them off when he came in, leading me, when he led me down the alleys between the rows of workpeople.
DEVLIN They took their caps off? You mean they doffed them?
REBECCA Yes.
DEVLIN Why did they do that?
REBECCA He told me afterwards it was because they had such great respect for him.
DEVLIN Why?
REBECCA Because he ran a really tight ship, he said. They had total faith in him. They respected his … purity, his … conviction. They would follow him over a cliff and into the sea, if he asked them, he said. And sing in a chorus, as long as he led them. They were in fact very musical, he said.
DEVLIN What did they make of you?
REBECCA Me? Oh, they were sweet. I smiled at them. And immediately every single one of them smiled back.
Pause.
The only thing was – the place was so damp. It was exceedingly damp.
DEVLIN And they weren’t dressed for the weather?
REBECCA No.
Pause.
DEVLIN I thought you said he worked for a travel agency?
REBECCA And there was one other thing. I wanted to go to the bathroom. But I simply couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. I’m sure they had one. But I never found out where it was.
Pause.
He did work for a travel agency. He was a guide. He used to go to the local railway station and walk down the platform and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers.
Pause.
DEVLIN Did he?
Silence.
REBECCA By the way, I’m terribly upset.
DEVLIN Are you? Why?
REBECCA Well, it’s about that police siren we heard a couple of minutes ago.
DEVLIN What police siren?
REBECCA Didn’t you hear it? You must have heard it. Just a couple of minutes ago.
DEVLIN What about it?
REBECCA Well, I’m just terribly upset.
Pause.
I’m just incredibly upset.
Pause.
Don’t you want to know why? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway. If I can’t tell you who can I tell? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. It just hit me so hard. You see … as the siren faded away in my ears I knew it was becoming louder and louder for somebody else.
DEVLIN You mean that it’s always being heard by somebody, somewhere? Is
that what you’re saying?
REBECCA Yes. Always. For ever.
DEVLIN Does that make you feel secure?
REBECCA No! It makes me feel insecure! Terribly insecure.
DEVLIN Why?
REBECCA I hate it fading away. I hate it echoing away. I hate it leaving me. I hate losing it. I hate somebody else possessing it. I want it to be mine, all the time. It’s such a beautiful sound. Don’t you think?
DEVLIN Don’t worry, there’ll always be another one. There’s one on its way to you now. Believe me. You’ll hear it again soon. Any minute.
REBECCA Will I?
DEVLIN Sure. They’re very busy people, the police. There’s so much for them to do. They’ve got so much to take care of, to keep their eye on. They keep getting signals, mostly in code. There isn’t one minute of the day when they’re not charging around one corner or another in the world, in their police cars, ringing their sirens. So you can take comfort from that, at least. Can’t you? You’ll never be lonely again. You’ll never be without a police siren. I promise you.
Pause.
Listen. This chap you were just talking about … I mean this chap you and I have been talking about … in a manner of speaking … when exactly did you meet him? I mean when did all this happen exactly? I haven’t … how can I put this … quite got it into focus. Was it before you knew me or after you knew me? That’s a question of some importance. I’m sure you’ll appreciate that.
REBECCA By the way, there’s something I’ve been dying to tell you.
DEVLIN What?
REBECCA It was when I was writing a note, a few notes for the laundry. Well … to put it bluntly … a laundry list. Well, I put my pen on that little coffee table and it rolled off.
DEVLIN No?
The Short Plays of Harold Pinter Page 42