FEDYA: Is there anyone who believes otherwise?
ELENA: Our Tsar—
FEDYA: Our Tsar has freed the serfs—
ELENA: To do what? To be what?
FEDYA: Perhaps they threw him out of the university because he’s lacks the capacity to speak for himself.
ELENA: He dreads your answer.
FEDYA: My answer to what?
KARAK: I have a letter…
FEDYA: Of concern to me because… ?
ELENA: You have access to publishers.
FEDYA: As do you.
ELENA: I haven’t your connections.
FEDYA holds out his hand for the letter.
He reads it.
KARAK: On behalf of the students of Kazan.
ELENA: On behalf of all students.
FEDYA: [handing it back to ELENA] Plaster it on the streets with the rest of their nonsense.
ELENA: It deserves better. You know it—
FEDYA: There is a man who waits across the alley—who opens every piece of mail before it comes through my door—who watches for me to take one wrong step—
ELENA: And informs on you so often they’re still sifting through reports from years ago.
[To KARAKOZOV] Tell him. Go on. What you told me.
KARAK: When they knew I was coming to Petersburg…
There are few writers who the students respect as much as you. Because of how much you’ve sacrificed already.
FEDYA: I’m done with revolution. I’ve served my time for it.
ELENA: Yet nothing has changed.
This is the future / of Russia, Fedya.
FEDYA: You think the beggar in the street cares about the future of Russia?
ELENA: If it means more bread in his mouth—
FEDYA: Because then he’ll be happy?
ELENA: Because then he’ll no longer be so distracted by hunger that he can’t find the path to his own happiness.
FEDYA: In the paradise you’d build for him?
KARAK: That we will give him the means to build for himself.
A long beat.
FEDYA puts out his hand for the letter.
SCENE THREE
The actor playing KARAKOZOV transitions into ALYOSHA. As he does so—
[KARAKOZOV]: It’s only the ordinary who must live in obedience. This is what Dostoyevsky taught me. That the extraordinary have the right—the duty—to step over the mundane obstacles of ordinary law, of entitlement… And each man’s life is the proving ground. Whether he is an ordinary man—or one among the extraordinary.
The actor adds the final elements of ALYOSHA’s costume; becomes fully ALYOSHA.
SCENE FOUR
Night. FEDYA’s flat. FEDYA in the shadows. He is writing (in the notebook). MITYA and ALYOSHA are with him.
FEDYA: You’ll begin not at a university, but in a monastery…?
ALYOSHA: I believe in God?
FEDYA: You believe in truth.
MITYA: Truth is whatever we can get away with.
A woman’s flesh in your hand.
FEDYA: You devote yourself to the elder there. At the monastery. Watch for him to show you the way forward. The moment when it comes.
ALYOSHA: To do what? Go where?
FEDYA: Bringing light to darkness. Your only goal. But taking a path so far from the ordinary…
Is it even possible?
ALYOSHA: What?
FEDYA: To write you. To write a thoroughly good man. A thoroughly good man whose end won’t be completely misunderstood—
ALYOSHA: Why? What’s to be my end?
FEDYA: Truth so far from where you ever hoped to find it.
MITYA: They told me Lazarus walking from his tomb was truth. I didn’t believe it.
FEDYA: Witness it yourself. Then you’ll believe.
ALYOSHA: Are you certain, brother?
Mustn’t we already believe—if we’re to see the miracle when it comes?
SCENE FIVE
The noise of the roulette wheel spinning to a halt.
In a candle-lit room, we see FEDYA. He has lost on the last spin. He searches through his pockets for more money to place. He places his last coins. The wheel spins again. He loses.
As he plays, we see the actor transitioning from MITYA to KOLYA.
[KOLYA]: No-one but me at the train station, the morning he arrived back from the east.
He’d been forgotten. He understood that. Knew his moment had passed. That there were other writers—lesser writers—who had slipped all too readily into his place.
Ten years he was in that prison—and every day of it showed on his face, like a shadow of hell.
He is now fully KOLYA.
SCENE SIX
KOLYA’s office. FEDYA waits while KOLYA reads a letter. With an old rag, FEDYA dabs at a cut on his head.
KOLYA: What happened to your head?
FEDYA: Somebody hit me. With a lump of wood.
KOLYA: Who have you upset this time?
FEDYA: It was a drunk. By Kokushkin Bridge. Lashing out at whoever passed.
KOLYA: Been to one of your dens, have you?
FEDYA: It was the only way to decide whether to give it to you or tear it up.
KOLYA: I take it you lost then.
[Finishes reading the letter] It’s your hand-writing, Fedya.
You said it was the students’ letter.
FEDYA: It needed revising.
KOLYA: Yours is the only name on it.
A beat.
KOLYA: You’re making good progress on the novel then? If you’ve time to be writing letters to the authorities.
FEDYA: Will you print it?
KOLYA: Why not send it to them quietly?
FEDYA: I don’t want it to disappear.
KOLYA: Bombs in the middle of the city, Fedya. This is something new. Unpredictable.
FEDYA: No-one was killed. No-one was injured.
KOLYA: Livelihoods were destroyed. Peace of mind.
Was it Elena Petrovna persuaded you to write it?
FEDYA: Shall I find another publisher?
KOLYA: Forever the gambler, Fedya. Forever certain there’s no way you can lose—but lose it all you inevitably do.
FEDYA: One win is enough to counter a hundred losses.
A beat.
KOLYA: The novel progresses well then?
FEDYA: I have no paper. Ink. The stationer—at Gostiny Dvor—he refuses to give me my order. Not until I’ve paid him.
KOLYA: Is the novel even started?
FEDYA: It can’t be done. / It’s impossible.
KOLYA: It must be done. / You have a contract—
FEDYA: I have other things—important things—
KOLYA: [referring to the letter] Like this?
FEDYA: Ideas. Pages and pages of them.
About a man who murders his father.
KOLYA: Then write it and send it to Stellovsky.
FEDYA: I wouldn’t waste it on a crook like him.
KOLYA: You signed his contract. You took his money.
FEDYA: I won’t rush out another half-baked novel just to satisfy him—
KOLYA: You write this novel or he owns you—
FEDYA: I won’t give him this story—
KOLYA: Then throw something together. Anything.
FEDYA: How?
KOLYA: I don’t know.
I don’t know.
We’ll find an answer, Fedya. We always have, you and I.
[Holding out money] For the stationer.
FEDYA: And the letter?
KOLYA: I’ll put it to the censorship committee.
Must it be under your name?
FEDYA: There’s not a word there I fear.
KOLYA: Under ordinary circumstances, perhaps not. But these are no longer ordinary circumstances.
A beat.
KOLYA gestures towards the money again. FEDYA takes it.
SCENE SEVEN
The street outside a coffee house. KARAKOZOV is distributing leaflets.
STUDENT/S: [off] We have no need of a power that persecutes its people—a power that thwarts the development of our nation. We have no need of a power that raises corruption and self-seeking as its banner. Let the words of the people—the deeds of the people—be its end. Whatever the cost, so must it be.
During this, ANNA arrives. She is looking around, trying to find the place she is meant to be.
At the sound of a whistle, KARAKOZOV hurries away. As he does so, he pushes a leaflet into ANNA’s hands. She is looking at it when KOLYA approaches.
KOLYA: [referring to the leaflet] Yours?
ANNA: No.
No.
I don’t understand it. All this hate.
KOLYA: You’ve taken the words from my mouth.
ANNA: You’re Nikolai Ivanovich?
KOLYA: And you’re Anna. But you must call me Kolya.
Come inside. I’ll order us coffee.
As they move inside, KOLYA gestures for two coffees. They sit.
During the following, coffee and cakes etc are served.
KOLYA: [handing her a note] Stolyarney Lane—house of Alonkin—apartment 13. Ask for Dostoyevsky.
ANNA: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky?
KOLYA: Your professor didn’t tell you?
ANNA: No…
KOLYA: I need someone who knows his work—
ANNA: I know his work, yes—
KOLYA: The importance of what he does—
ANNA: I understand—
KOLYA: I’m sure you do—
ANNA: But Nikolai Ivanovich—
KOLYA: Kolya.
ANNA: Kolya—
The novelist Dostoyevsky?
KOLYA: He’s nothing to be afraid of. Believe me.
Your professor said you were top of your class.
ANNA: I was.
KOLYA: Then you’re already cleverer than Fedya.
Work hard—and keep working him hard—and all of Russia will be in your debt.
[Indicating the note] The directions are there. And a small down-payment. To get you started.
He offers her a cake/pastry. She hesitates, then takes one.
KOLYA: Yes. We have each other’s trust. I feel it.
Together, Anna, we will see this done.
SCENE EIGHT
FEDYA’s door. ANNA knocks. Waits. Listens, her ear close to the door. Knocks again.
LANDLADY: [off] He’s not there.
ANNA: I was told to keep knocking. That he pretends not to hear.
LANDLADY: [off] He’s never there this time of day.
ANNA: I heard voices. Inside.
LANDLADY: [off] Then you want to stay well clear. He’s a madman. Would cut your throat as soon as look at you.
ANNA: You’re mistaken, I’m sure—
LANDLADY: [off] He has no money. He won’t be able to pay you. No matter what services you’re offering.
ANNA: I’m not—
He’s not—
I’m a stenographer.
LANDLADY: [off] Whatever it is you’re calling yourself nowadays, he’s not worth the effort. Not even for a mountain of gold.
SCENE NINE
FEDYA’s flat. It is dark. The faint sound of knocking.
FEDYA is working; MITYA and ALYOSHA are with him.
MITYA: He’s turned you against me.
ALYOSHA: No.
MITYA: You’re always hurrying away.
ALYOSHA: Listening to you reminds me what I am.
MITYA: What’s that?
ALYOSHA: The same as you.
MITYA: You and me? The same?
ALYOSHA: We share the same blood, the same history. Why not the same future?
Knocking.
MITYA: You know she has her eye on you. My woman.
Says all you need is the fury of a lover’s touch and you’d be cured.
ALYOSHA: Cured?
MITYA: Of your obscene dedication to the truth.
Keep your distance, brother. She’ll test you like she’s tested the rest of us.
ALYOSHA: Stay away from father.
MITYA: Let him take everything that’s mine—?
ALYOSHA: He is playing us one against the other—
MITYA: The hate that’s in my heart—
ALYOSHA: I’m scared what you’ll do.
A beat.
FEDYA: [to himself; barely heard] If we could discard God…
MITYA: [to FEDYA] You think I don’t hear you muttering? You think it doesn’t make perfect sense?
ALYOSHA: What? What does he say?
Knocking.
MITYA: [to FEDYA] Tell him.
A beat.
Always quiet as the grave…
[To ALYOSHA] All we need do is let go of this absurd hope that there’s something more—something beyond us—and we’d know it. [To FEDYA] Isn’t that right, brother?
ALYOSHA: Know what?
MITYA: Nothing is sinful.
Knocking.
ALYOSHA: What does he know/ of sin—?
MITYA: Anything—everything—is allowed.
Knocking.
FEDYA: To kill a thing as foul and sordid as our father…?
MITYA: Under such a system, it’d almost be an obligation.
Insistent knocking.
SCENE TEN
ANNA at FEDYA’s door. She is knocking.
As she’s knocking, FEDYA opens the door in a rush.
FEDYA: What?
ANNA is dumb-struck.
What?
ANNA grasps at words.
FEDYA: Go away.
ANNA: I was sent—
FEDYA: I don’t care.
ANNA: I was sent you’re expecting me.
FEDYA: I’m not—
ANNA: For the novel—
FEDYA: The novel—?
ANNA: There’s a deadline and he gave/ me—
FEDYA: He sent you?
ANNA: This address and/ I’m here and I’m to—
FEDYA: You tell Stellovsky, Miss—
ANNA: I don’t know who you think—
FEDYA: Tell him he can threaten me all he wants—
ANNA: I don’t know anyone called Stellovsky —
FEDYA: There is no novel, there will be no novel—
ANNA: I’m the stenographer—
FEDYA slams the door shut.
[Through the door] I’m the stenographer!
A beat.
FEDYA opens the door again.
Nikolai Ivanovich sent me.
A beat.
FEDYA moves into the flat, leaving the door open. ANNA realises she’s expected to follow.
Inside, the room is still quite dark. FEDYA sits himself down and picks up his pen. His hand hovers over his notebook.
A silence.
[Filling the silence] That you weren’t here. That’s what I thought. At first. Or not answering. The number of times I knocked. I’d have gone. Given up. But Kolya— [Correcting herself] Nikolai Ivanovich—he said if you didn’t answer—
FEDYA gestures for her to be quiet.
Silence.
[Again needing to fill the silence] Your landlady, she said you were dangerous. That you wouldn’t be here. That you’re never here. She said to go home. But I could hear you talking and—
Another gesture to be quiet.
A beat.
FEDYA returns to the notebook. His hand hovering again, as though ready to write. After a moment, he gives it up. He goes about the room, opening shutters etc, letting in light.
FEDYA: A universe of ideas and what do I have to show for it? Half a page of nonsense. Sentences barely breathing. Because you knock at my door.
ANNA: I could go—
FEDYA: Too late—
ANNA: Come back—
FEDYA: It’s dead now.
Your name again?
ANNA: Anna Grigorevna.
FEDYA: I had a dream last night, Anna Grigorevna. A flea biting at me as I slept. I pulled my mattress apart searching for it, but it wouldn’t be found. So on it went. Biting and b
iting. Was that you, do you think?
ANNA: A dream is a dream.
FEDYA: Is that meant to be a clever answer?
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: You’re looking at my eye.
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: You are.
ANNA: I’m not.
FEDYA: You think it odd.
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: Why not? It is odd.
A fit. Last night. I fell. Knocked my eye. See? It seems I have no iris at all.
He is very close to her.
FEDYA: Kolya’s told you you’d be working for an ex-convict?
ANNA: Your sentence is finished, sir.
FEDYA: But you’re never entirely free.
Do you know why I was imprisoned?
ANNA: Yes.
FEDYA: I’m not a murderer, no matter what my landlady thinks.
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: I spoke my mind.
Nothing for you to fear.
A beat.
There must be a scrap of some abandoned novel here somewhere. Something worthless enough for Stellovsky…
FEDYA begins searching among his papers. Realising he’s not going to clear a space for her, ANNA finds herself somewhere to sit, takes her notepad etc from her case.
FEDYA has gathered together what seem like scraps of paper—bits of this and that, of various sizes. He has a handful of them. He starts organising them into some sort of order, finds the one that he’ll begin with. The whole business is quite involved and time-consuming.
He seems about to begin. Hesitates.
[Conversationally] Do you want tea?
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: Brandy?
ANNA: No.
FEDYA: The landlady used to bring me tea. When she knew I was here. Every other hour, a whole new pot. Even soup sometimes. Cake if she was feeling particularly generous. Until the incident with the rock. She thought I was going to kill her. I wasn’t. I was just working, but—. She hasn’t brought me so much as a mouthful of tea since. ‘If it’s in your head. If it’s in your head to do it,’ she says, ‘then who’s to say that your hands won’t one day follow?’
A beat.
FEDYA: You know my writing?
ANNA: A little.
FEDYA: Crime and Punishment. My last novel. You must know it.
ANNA: The work, sir.
FEDYA: Just say. If you haven’t read it.
I don’t bite.
ANNA: I haven’t read it.
FEDYA: There. Not so difficult.
The Parricide Page 2