ROBERTS smiles across at WOYZECK, WOYZECK slowly turns to look at him as he understands what he is saying. Then he returns to his preoccupation with food: hold this as long as it will bear.
BLACKOUT
(INTERVAL SUGGESTION AT THIS POINT)
SCENE ELEVEN
Marie’s room, she is by the cot, looking down at the baby.
MARIE:
Yes, they sparkle and catch your eye, don’t they! You’ve never seen anything like these before! Nor have I, for that matter.
She goes across to mirror, looks at her ear-rings in it.
MARIE:
What sort of stones are they? He said they were gold, but what are the stones? Look at them flash in the light!
The baby cries. Marie turns.
MARIE:
Off to sleep now, you! Close your eyes! They’ll still be here to sparkle in the morning. Off you go to sleep now!
(sings) Quickly, quickly, close your eyes,
Settle your head and still your cries:
The Gipsy comes by stealth and night
And takes the boys not tucked up tight
To lead them quietly by the hand
Never to return from gipsyland.
The baby is quiet. Marie gets up, goes to mirror again. She turns her head this way and that to see herself. WOYZECK’s haggard face appears at the window for a long time, staring: Marie does not see him: eventually he taps, and she turns at once, gasps, goes to the door. WOYZECK’s face disappears. At the door, before she opens it, MARIE pulls off the earrings and throws them into a vase on the table before her mirror. Then she lets in WOYZECK. He comes in slowly, weakly.
MARIE:
Franz!
WOYZECK is so exhausted he cannot even speak for a moment. He half embraces, half falls on Marie. She helps him to a chair at the table, on which are a few scraps of cheese, bread, fruit. A long pause as Woyzeck stares at the food. Then, very slowly, he realises that he can have it; again very slowly he takes a piece of cheese, then bread, fruit and anything else, in a mounting rhythm until he is eating ravenously, not taking his eyes from the table. Marie stands watching him. Then she pours him a glass of beer: this he drinks at one draught.
MARIE:
They’re. . . .finished with you?
WOYZECK does not answer, goes on eating.
MARIE:
It’s good to see you eating again, Franz.
Long pause: MARIE fetches more food: WOYZECK begins to slow.
WOYZECK:
Not too much. (pause) Overloading (pause) At first. . . .
At length he sits more upright, begins to talk, not so much to MARIE — though she is obviously meant to hear — as to himself.
WOYZECK:
. . .for you, Marie. (pause) And the boy. (pause) Such a relief! (pause) You should have seen the things they did, I should tell you about the things they did to me! (pause) Why? (pause, then turning to her, as casually as his condition allows:) Did I see you had an earring on just now?
MARIE:
(flatly) Yes. I picked it up in the street.
Pause.
WOYZECK:
How lucky to find the pair of them. . . .
Long pause. Abruptly, WOYZECK gets up, MARIE backs away a little. But WOYZECK goes over to the baby, looks at him, lifts him, puts him back in another position.
WOYZECK:
There, that’s more comfortable for the little bastard. (pause) How he sleeps through anything! (looking closer) But he’s sweating! (turns to MARIE) The poor kid sweats in his sleep! Already he knows what it is to work! Poor little bleeder, he’s human like the rest of us.
Long pause. WOYZECK turns very slowly and looks hard at MARIE for a long moment. Then his weariness overcomes him and he sinks down on the bed, asleep or unconscious. Another long pause as MARIE watches him. Then she goes to the table, sits down, and quietly begins to cry.
SLOW FADE DOWN
SCENE TWELVE
Marie’s room. The DRUM MAJOR rises from the bed, where he has obviously just been making love to MARIE. He begins to dress.
MARIE:
(from the bed, fiercely) Now will you tell me!
D MAJOR:
First things first, like I said!
He grins, keeps her in suspense as he pulls his trousers on and looks round for his shoes.
MARIE:
Tell me!
D MAJOR:
They gave him a month’s jankers, that’s all. Bloody lucky it wasn’t longer.
MARIE looks relieved. She gets out of bed, dresses from this point on.
D MAJOR:
The CO’s got a soft spot for him. Sometimes I think he’s bent, the CO. (roars with laughter) Queer for bloody Woyzeck! (laughs again)
MARIE goes over to the baby’s cot, checks that the baby is asleep, then turns back towards the DRUM MAJOR.
MARIE:
I always knew this was going to happen. He’s sort of haunted, Franz — no, not haunted, but fated, you know? (pause) It’s almost as though he wants things to happen to him. I can’t explain it, really. (pause) Because he’s so taken up with the pain and things which are happening all the time to everyone, not only to him, he doesn’t seem able to see anything else but pain and misery. (pause) He brings things upon himself. You know?
D MAJOR:
No. (pause) You’re finished with him.
MARIE:
I’m not! You just don’t do it like that!
D MAJOR:
I do.
MARIE:
You’re an animal! I still have a responsibility towards him. You don’t love a man for two years and then suddenly. . . .there’s nothing. . . .
D MAJOR:
Yes, there is. Though I don’t usually want anyone for more than a week.
MARIE:
You have a responsibility in love. . .
The DRUM MAJOR laughs uproariously.
D MAJOR:
Responsibility! Love!
MARIE:
The least we can do is to pass him on. . . .let him down lightly. . .I’ll talk with Joan, I’ll pass him on to Joan. . .she was always keen on him. . .in the beginning, anyway. . .
D MAJOR:
Pass him on to the CO!
MARIE:
You sod!
The DRUM MAJOR laughs, and stands up. As he begins to put on his tunic MARIE rushes across to him and runs her hands under it before he has fastened it.
MARIE:
What a man’s chest! I’ve never felt a chest like it before! I feel so proud of that chest!
D MAJOR:
Now you feel proud! Wait till you see me on a full dress parade with my baton!
MARIE:
Conceit!
D MAJOR:
Christ, you’re a woman! Already my baton’s up in the air again!
DRUM MAJOR puts hand on MARIE’s left breast, pulls her to him, tries to kiss her.
MARIE:
No!
D MAJOR:
Now who’s an animal?
MARIE:
Leave me alone!
D MAJOR:
(laughs) What a great fighting bitch you are!
MARIE continues to struggle, then suddenly capitulates.
MARIE:
Have it your way, then. (then, straight to audience) What’s it matter, anyway?
Hold briefly, frozen: then BLACKOUT.
SCENE THIRTEEN
The Medical Corps room, DOCTOR ONE and DOCTOR TWO come to attention as the CO enters. He motions to them to stand at ease: DOCTOR ONE sits down, DOCTOR TWO relaxes.
CO:
What are you doing about my melancholia? Have you been working on my melancholia?
The Doctors look at one another.
CO:
I thought you bloody hadn’t. Look, it’s getting worse. Now I can’t even look at dirt and dust and stuff like that without being reminded that’s what I am, that’s what we all are. Why do I insist on wanting to be more than that, eh? Why do I feel like this? Why i
s anything like this? Why don’t you bloody do something?
D ONE:
We can’t answer “Why” questions. . . .
D TWO:
We were not trained to answer “Why” questions. . . .
D ONE:
“Why” questions are properly referred to the Chaplain. . . .
D TWO:
The Chaplain is trained to answer them.
D ONE:
He can refer if necessary to higher authority. . . .
D TWO:
Dear old God, by name. . . .
D ONE:
Science is our concern. . .
D TWO:
“How” questions are the ones we attempt to answer. . . .
D ONE:
In certain cases can answer. . . .
D TWO:
Can provide an accurate answer to within a high degree of certitude in many cases. . . .
D ONE:
As in the case of our mutual friend Private Woyzeck. . . .
D TWO:
You recall our friend Woyzeck, sir?
CO:
Of course I bloody do! Is that what you’ve got me here for? What about the poor bleeder?
D ONE:
(to D TWO) Let’s have Woyzeck.
D TWO:
(goes to side) Bring in Private Woyzeck, Corporal!
Enter CORPORAL, with WOYZECK: the latter is haggard, greyfaced, but tired and dispirited rather than weak.
D ONE:
As you know, sir, we fed this case for twenty-four days on nothing but sphagnum moss and water. . . .
D TWO:
And then the case had approximately one decent meal before incarceration. . . .
CO:
YES yes yes!
D ONE:
Well sir, this corresponds to a pattern. . . .
D TWO:
A pattern of great military significance. . .
D ONE:
He has so to speak enacted for us. . . .
D TWO:
Acted out for us. . . .
D ONE:
Exactly the pattern of survival which may well be typical of our troops when cut off from their supply routes!
D TWO:
And then taken prisoner by the enemy!
D ONE:
It seems fortunate now that he had the one decent meal. . . . .
D TWO:
There seems a very good chance that the enemy would give him one good meal on capturing him. . . .
CO:
Why should they?
D ONE:
Private Woyzeck therefore represents, as you him, as nearly as we are likely to come. . . .
D TWO:
As far as we know. . . .
D ONE:
To a soldier in this condition. . . .
D TWO:
In this state. . . .
D ONE:
So we now propose to carry out a searching series of tests. . . .
D TWO:
We shall examine him with unbelievable thoroughness. . . .
WOYZECK groans, nearly collapses, has to be supported by CORPORAL. CO gets up.
CO:
(roars) You’re so bloody concerned with your own bloody work that you never have time to read what other doctors are doing, do you?
CO throws down on the desk a sheaf of papers he has been carrying.
CO:
Let alone do something for me. Read that HQ Bulletin, you stupid tits! This bloody experiment has been done before! Five years ago!
BLACKOUT
SCENE FOURTEEN
Barrack-room. Two camp beds with soldiers’ belongings beside them. WOYZECK lies propped up in one of them. ANDRES sits on the other, reading. WOYZECK is obviously not recovered, but he is stronger than in the last scene.
WOYZECK:
(looks around) Andres! (pause) Sunny day!
ANDRES:
Yes.
WOYZECK:
The band will be playing. There’ll be dancing on the terrace. . . .
ANDRES:
Uh-huh.
WOYZECK:
They’ll be dancing. . . .
ANDRES looks quickly at him.
ANDRES:
I suppose so. . . .
WOYZECK:
Dancing together. . . .Andres, I feel ill. . . .like I had a great hollow where my guts should be. . . .
ANDRES:
I should think so, after what you’ve been through.
WOYZECK:
No, it’s nothing to do with that. It’s not that sort of illness. . .(pause) I must see them together for myself, I must be sure!
WOYZECK attempts to get out of bed: ANDRES restrains him.
ANDRES:
What good would it do? Rest, you’re not well, you’re weak, you’ll be strong again soon enough.
WOYZECK:
Every day is. . .(pause) my head rocks. . . .(pause) This place is so hot. . . . .
WOYZECK allows himself to be put back on the pillow, and closes his eyes.
BLACKOUT
Lights up on same scene after just enough time for ANDRES to get into bed. Night. WOYZECK starts up in his bed, wildly.
WOYZECK:
Andres! I’ve been lying there unable to move! How long? I’m still alive! I had only seconds to live and the seconds ran out!
ANDRES stirs, groaning sleepily.
WOYZECK:
But I’m still alive! It was a dream. (pause) Was it I had taken poison, had been injected? (pause) No, no. (pause) The knife, the knife, it takes time to die by the knife, shorter or longer, it takes time. Does it take time? Not the bullet, the knife. . . .
ANDRES:
Go to bloody sleep!
BLACKOUT
Lights up again, almost immediately. Both half-dressed, finishing dressing.
ANDRES:
Why should it be me who has to tell you?
WOYZECK:
You’re my friend.
ANDRES:
What does it matter? She’ll get tired or he’ll get tired, then there’ll be more trouble. Things are quiet now, enjoy things being quiet!
WOYZECK:
Tell me what you’ve seen!
ANDRES:
I haven’t seen them!
WOYZECK:
(fiercely) What you’ve heard then! What other people have told you they’ve seen!
ANDRES:
Why?
WOYZECK:
I must know!
ANDRES:
(pause) They say she’s shacking up with him. . . .
WOYZECK:
That doesn’t mean he’s screwing her!
ANDRES:
No. . . . (pause)
WOYZECK:
I dreamt last night. . . .
ANDRES:
I know you bloody did!
WOYZECK:
(handing ANDRES a jacket) Here. Have this. Go on, I don’t want it any more. (pause, then, with a smile) It doesn’t fit me any more. (pause) This ring was my mother’s. You know, the last time I went to see her she didn’t even look at me? The neighbour who looks after her said the only time she seems to notice anything now is when the sun comes out and she feels it on the backs of her hands. (pause) You might as well have the ring, as well.
ANDRES does not take it: stares at WOYZECK sadly. WOYZECK puts the ring down on his bedside table, picks up his paybook, reads:
WOYZECK:
“Franz Woyzeck, private soldier, Third Infantry Regiment, First Battalion, Fifth Company. Born July 20th” — which makes me thirty years old. . . .seven months. . . .and twelve days. You can have that too, Andres. If you know where to flog it, you can get a fair bit for a soldier’s paybook.
ANDRES:
Franz. . . .You’re not well. . . .
WOYZECK:
(long pause) No. . . .
ANDRES:
See the doctor again. . .
WOYZECK reacts as though he has been hit: or madly, with a nervous tic. Stares at Andres for a long time.
WOYZECK:
When each goes out in the morning, Andres, who knows whose hearts will fail to carry them through the day, whose hearts will just stop, will not bring them home that evening?
Long pause. Then WOYZECK moves to go.
ANDRES:
What are you going to do now?
WOYZECK:
Report for duty. (pauses) But it was good, Andres, it was good!
ANDRES:
What was?
WOYZECK:
Nothing.
BLACKOUT
SCENE FIFTEEN
The street: indicate by placard if necessary. MARIE and JOAN enter, to be surprised, accosted, confronted by WOYZECK.
Well Done God! Page 18