by Nick Dear
Marat No, not really. But yesterday I got this telegram. (He hands it to her.)
Lika (reads) ‘Catch first plane. Lika needs you. Arrive by thirty-first, no later. Leonidik.’ – I didn’t know about it …!
Marat (cross) If it’s a practical joke …! It wasn’t exactly easy to get here!
Lika Poor thing, you’re tired …
Marat I suppose I am. – I had a strange dream on the plane. I was standing on a huge bridge. It was unfinished – that is, I had to complete it. The wind was howling … I looked about me and I saw both banks. On one bank was my childhood, the May Day parades, the battleship Marat, my father with his friends … On the other, the post-war peace, the new life … But I’m standing in the middle and the waves are getting bigger, the tide’s getting stronger, and I can’t, I just can’t join up the opposite banks …
Lika (softly) What will be will be. (suddenly astonished) Oh my God, what will be will be!
Marat What are you on about?
Lika You left, and I thought everything was fine between Leonidik and me. I gave my word, didn’t I? And now here we are three weeks later … and the rules have changed …
Leonidik returns, carrying a package.
Leonidik (finger to his lips) Sssh … only me … (He goes to the table and pours himself some wine.) Now I’m going to have a drink. No, Lika, don’t start – I’m going to have a drink. (Raises his glass.) My health! – what’s left of it. (Drinks.) Not bad at all, that.
He unwraps the package and hands Lika a bouquet of flowers.
These are for you. Quite hard to procure, but he managed.
Lika Thank you, but –
Leonidik What am I going to say? – We’ve been together for thirteen years and I love you now as I loved you on the very first day. But I love you in my own peculiar way. No less, but no more. Anyway that’s not the issue. – I simply haven’t justified your hopes. You put a lot into me. You neglected yourself. But all for nothing.
Lika Do I have to believe that?
Leonidik I must be alone. If I don’t do it now I never will. You know me, Lika – I’m weak.
Lika (desperate) Marat, speak to him! Tell him that –
Marat No. I shan’t.
Leonidik My train leaves at ten minutes to one. I’ll have a nice long sabbatical. (Pause.) I am an individualist. You’ve said so yourself. And I need to be alone. (to Marat) You have nothing to fear. You’re stronger. And the pair of you can’t live without each other, that’s transparently obvious. I’m right, aren’t I? Do not lie.
Marat is silent.
Please – don’t be a real man.
Marat … You’re right.
Leonidik (affectionately) Lika …?
Lika Goodbye.
Leonidik Full marks! You both understand! Fair enough, I knew you would. Marat, you said that on the brink of death it isn’t too late to start over. You were being melodramatic, as usual. But you got me thinking …
The clock strikes twelve times.
It’s the New Year.
They all go to the table and Lika pours wine.
(Raising his glass, softly) We must never betray the winter of ’42.
Marat (raising his glass) We must never come down to earth. (to Lika) Promise?
Lika (raising her glass, whispers) I promise you both.
They drink the toast.
Leonidik Well, I better be off. He packed his suitcase earlier. It’s next door. This man has foresight. We’ll see each other again, won’t we?
Marat … You’re trying to tell me that I’m more of a coward than you are.
Leonidik In a sense. (to Lika) Perhaps because he loves you more than I do. (Kisses her hand.) Who knows? (He stops at the door.) But there will always be a bit of me here, in this room. (He takes a fork and tries his salad.) Stupendous. (Pours another glass of wine and drinks.) And that was his last glass of wine. If I can give you up – why, I can give that up too! (He stares at the two of them.) Till we meet again.
Leonidik exits. Lika stares at the food on the table. Marat lights a cigarette with trembling hands. His voice is unsteady.
Marat On the first of May, 1945, we fought our way into the courtyard of a toy factory in Breslau. We were bombarded by mortar fire. There were seven of us. Only I survived.
Lika … Why tell me this?
Marat Because I can’t get out of my mind the thought that I might have died, that day … and this moment, this very moment, would never have been.
Lika Marat …
Marat Yes …?
Lika He’s all on his own … out there on the empty street …
Marat No, don’t, just don’t pity him, do you hear me? Don’t. For him everything starts afresh today. You must believe in him, Lika! (Pause. Nervously) How’s it going to be, us living together?
He falls silent, a little afraid, which Lika understands.
Lika Everything’s going to be fine. (softly) The sixties … I believe in the sixties. They will bring happiness.
Marat They can’t fail! We have such hopes!
Lika Just don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid to be happy! Don’t be afraid, my poor hero.
The End.
About the Author
Alexei Arbuzov, Russian dramatist, actor and director, was born in 1908. His work includes Tanya (1939), It Happened in Irkutsk (1959), The Promise (1965), Tales of Old Arbat (1970), and An Old-Fashioned Comedy (1978).
Nick Dear’s plays include Lunch in Venice (NT Connections, 2005); Power (NT, 2003); The Villains’ Opera (NT, 2000); Zenobia (RSC, 1995); In the Ruins (Bristol Old Vic, 1990); Food of Love (Théâtre de Complicité, Almeida, 1988); The Art of Success (RSC, 1986); Pure Science (RSC, 1986); and Temptation (RSC, 1984). He also collaborated with Peter Brook on the development of Qui est là? (Bouffes du Nord, 1996). His adaptations include The Promise (after Arbuzov, Tricycle, 2002); Summerfolk (after Gorky, NT, 1999); Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (after Molière, NT, 1992); The Last Days of Don Juan (after Tirso de Molina, RSC, 1990); and A Family Affair (after Ostrovsky, Cheek by Jowl, 1988). His screenplays include Persuasion, The Turn of the Screw, Cinderella, The Gambler, Byron, Eroica and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Opera libretti include The Palace in the Sky (ENO / Hackney Empire, 2001); and Siren Song (Almeida Opera Festival, 1994). He has also written extensively for BBC Radio, beginning with his first play, Matter Permitted (1980).
By the Same Author
ZENOBIA
THE LAST DAYS OF DON JUAN
POWER
THE VILLAINS’ OPERA
LUNCH IN VENICE
(in National Theatre Connections 2005)
FRANKENSTEIN
NICK DEAR PLAYS ONE
(The Art of Success, In the Ruins, Zenobia, The Turn of the Screw)
translations /adaptations
SUMMERFOLK by Maxim Gorky
THE PROMISE by Alexei Arbuzov
Copyright
First published in 2002
by Faber & Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
Published in the United States by Faber and Faber Inc.,
an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux LLC, New York
This ebook edition first published in 2014
All rights reserved
Adaptation © Nick Dear 2002
Translation © Ariadne Nicolaeff, 1967
Cover photograph of Leningrad in flames after enemy bombing (1942) by B. Kudoyarov © Novosti, London
The right of Nick Dear to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights whatsoever in this work are strictly reserved. Applications for permission for any use whatsoever including performance rights must be made in advance, prior to any such proposed use, to Rosica Colin Ltd, 1 Clareville Grove Mews, London SW7 5AH. No performance may be given unless a licence has first been obtained
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ook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–31855–1