You know, when I was on that ledge, there was a humming bird in front of a flower. And its wings moved so fast that you couldn’t see —
She comes and looks over Ariel’s shoulder.
And my body, which I hate, had wires attached to its shoulders —
She looks up at the audience.
So that when you pulled, you could see —
She waits.
The back of your own head? Angels?
After a time she moves off round the stage again.
I do wonder if you’ll get that job! It’s so difficult, nowadays, with so many opportunities open —
Ariel suddenly yells —
ARIEL
He’s in the pub!
Judith stops. She stares at the audience.
After a time —
JUDITH
Don’t shout —
ARIEL
Don’t shoot —
JUDITH
— I’m pregnant.
She seems to find it difficult not to laugh — or cry. Then she goes to the balustrade and puts a leg up and climbs over.
At the far side, she is on a slightly lower level to that of the stage. She walks off, left, with just her head and shoulders visible above the balustrade. She is like a target on a fun-fair shooting range. Ariel watches where she has gone.
After a time Jenny, with her back against the proscenium arch, left, holds out her hand and lets fall from it a pendant which dangles on the end of a chain.
JENNY
Look —
ARIEL
What —
JENNY
He gave me last night —
Ariel gets up and stands by Jenny, and takes hold of the pendant dangling from her hand.
ARIEL
It’s an egg.
JENNY
He said —
ARIEL
What —
JENNY
Put it in —
ARIEL
Where?
JENNY
It’s a bomb —
ARIEL
A laboratory?
He lets go of the pendant He looks at the audience.
Jenny moves off round the stage like a water diviner with the pendant dangling from her hand. She speaks as if she were trying out some formula —
JENNY
— Couldn’t we have committees, you know, representation at every level —
ARIEL
— The more houses they build, the more places there are in the evenings —
JENNY
— Till we’re all in one room —
ARIEL
Like a telephone box?
Ariel goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over. Then he looks up to the flies.
Jenny, walking round the stage with the pendant swinging from her hand, stops above the crack in the rocks, where the pendant becomes still.
JENNY
— Mrs Ackerman uses them for her headaches —
ARIEL
— Mrs Ackerman gets them from her landlady —
JENNY
‘Landlady can’t be ‘headaches’ —
ARIEL
Why not?
Jenny lowers the pendant towards the crack in the rocks. The backdrop flickers. Then the image of the tree goes out. There appear swirling red lights as if of a town burning. Ariel looks at the audience.
JENNY
— Put a banana beyond the bars of a cage —
ARIEL
— With a packing-case, a stick —
JENNY
— Sit in the packing-case using the stick —
ARIEL
— On the banana —
He seems to be finding it difficult not to laugh. Jenny raises the pendant from the crack in the rocks. The lights on the backdrop become set, like lava.
Ariel comes to the front of the stage and looks over the footlights.
Jenny declaims —
JENNY
— A sort of tightness round the throat —
ARIEL
Mouth —
JENNY
— Eyes —
Jenny lowers the pendant into the crack in the rocks again.
Ariel looks at the backdrop.
Jenny raises and lowers the pendant several times; the backdrop remains the same.
ARIEL
Cant you —
JENNY
What —
ARIEL
Tell them a story?
Ackerman appears on the balcony above the loggia. He is holding what appears to be an old-fashioned gas-mask. He prepares to put it on. Jenny winds the pendant up into her hand.
JENNY
Once upon a time, children, when apples hung from trees —
Ackerman puts on the gas-mask. He adjusts the straps.
Jenny watches Ackerman.
— And its mouth was the same as its anus —
Ackerman stares out over the stage in his gasmask.
ARIEL
It comes in here: goes out there —
JENNY
And in between —
ARIEL
They came on once or twice; one or two —
JENNY
Didn’t they?
Ariel looks at the audience.
After a time Jenny goes behind a pillar of the loggia. She appears to be taking her dress off. Helena comes on through the loggia with her hands over her ears. She acts —
HELENA
Oh I do hate fireworks! They should send them up in paper bags, like the Chinese —
She takes her hands away from her ears.
She looks at Ariel, then at Ackerman.
Then she says in a matter-of-fact voice —
Have you taken the pin out? —
ARIEL
Pin in —
HELENA
I thought we were doing —
ARIEL
What —
HELENA
Put us out of —
ARIEL
— It in —
HELENA
— Yes —
ARIEL
— Misery?
There are three loud bangs from behind the backdrop. Jenny comes out from behind the pillar. She carries her dress in her hand. She watches the backdrop.
The backdrop begins to change back to the swirling lights of a town burning.
Ackerman, in his gas-mask, begins to droop over the balustrade as if he were being asphyxiated. Jenny turns to the audience. She stamps her foot by the crack in the rocks; but nothing happens.
ARIEL
It’s inside —
HELENA
— Outside —
ARIEL
You can’t taste it —
HELENA
Touch it —
JENNY
Smell it?
Ackerman has slumped in his gas-mask as if he has been overcome by fumes.
The others seem to have given up acting.
ARIEL
There are too many of them?
Ariel goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over. Then he looks at the audience. Helena looks up at the flies.
Jenny holds her stomach as if she might be ill. Then she seems to give up acting again.
The lights in the backdrop become set, like red-hot lava.
After a time there comes on from behind the loggia, right, Jason, a man in his forties. He wears dark trousers and a white shirt. He carries a coil of wire over his shoulder. It is as if he might be a stage technician.
He walks to the crack in the rocks and looks down. Then he looks up at the flies.
The others act as if they do not know whether or not he is supposed to be part of whatever they are or are not acting.
Jason puts his coil of wire down on the ground. He takes from his pocket a penknife and begins to trim an end of the wire as if preparing to make an electrical connection.
Ariel seems to be amused.
Jenny looks at Jason.
Ackerman is
slumped in his gas-mask.
Helena is staring at the audience.
Jason, having trimmed the wire, squats down as if to make an electrical connection within the crack in the rocks.
HELENA
Won’t you stay to lunch?
Jason looks up; looks round; then he goes back to making his connection in the crack in the rocks.
After a time Ariel calls —
ARIEL
I say, is this place going to be blown up?
Jason pauses: looks up at Ariel: then goes back to his electrical connection. Then he stands. He moves to the balustrade at the back, paying out the wire behind him.
On the way he glances up at Ackerman. When he is by the balustrade he turns and looks at Ariel. He holds out the wire coiled in his hands. After a time Ariel points at himself questioningly. It is as if he were asking — Me? Then he goes and stands by Jason. He raises his hands and acts —
ARIEL
— They usually give you more time, you know —
Jenny says as if she were not acting —
JENNY
There’s someone down the cliff?
Ariel looks over the balustrade. Jason has made a loop with the wire as if to put it round Ariel to lower him — or to rescue someone from down the cliff.
HELENA
Perhaps it’s a goat —
JENNY
— Joke?
HELENA
— Goat! —
JENNY
That’ll attract them —?
Helena speaks to Jason.
HELENA
Or you mean, what’s it tethered to?
Ariel lowers his head. He looks up at the flies.
ARIEL
Isn’t that music?
Jason throws the looped end of the wire down over the cliff. Then he jerks on the end of the wire that is attached to the crack in the rocks. Jenny ducks with her hands over her ears.
The others are still.
Then there comes on at the back of the balustrade, left, Judith. She still wears her black dress. She moves along on the level slightly below that of the stage.
When she comes to where she is close to Jason and Ariel, she speaks to Helena.
JUDITH
I’m so sorry. I never thanked you for your party —
She waits. The others do not move.
I did so enjoy it. Especially the Chinese lanterns.
She puts a foot up on the balustrade as if to climb over. She seems to wait for someone to help her.
I do hope you don’t mind. I spent the night in your little room.
She looks up at Ackerman.
After a time, Jason puts out a hand to help her over. As she takes his hand, and steps over the balustrade, she puts out a hand and strokes Ariel’s cheek Ariel jerks his head away.
Judith looks at Jenny.
Helena watches the audience.
After a time Jason says awkwardly —
JASON
Oh, Mrs Ackerman, my —
He waits.
— Wife? Mistress? Mother?
Then he turns to Ackerman, and holds out a hand as if about to introduce Judith to him. Then he seems to get an electric shock from the wire that he is holding. He drops it. He looks where the wire goes down over the back of the balustrade. Then he looks up at the flies.
Judith goes and stands underneath Ackerman, looking at him.
Ariel goes and looks down at the crack in the rocks.
Jenny has straightened. She watches Jason.
JENNY
— Now you see it —
ARIEL
— Now you don’t —
HELENA
Don’t you get any farther —
JENNY
— Father?
ARIEL
Farther!
Jenny murmurs —
JENNY
Son and —
After a time, Ackerman takes off his gas-mask. He is red in the face and sweating.
HELENA
Shouldn’t you be saying — Won’t you come and see me have my bath?
Jason is looking up at the flies.
JASON
Oh. Yes —
Jenny moves quickly and puts a hand on Jason’s arm.
Helena turns to Judith.
Judith is looking up at Ackerman.
JUDITH
Won’t you come and see me have my bath?
She turns with her back to Ackerman, and looks at Jenny and Jason.
Ackerman makes a lunge over the balcony and takes hold of Judith violently by the hair. Judith opens her mouth as if to scream.
Jason looks down at the crack in the rocks.
The CURTAIN comes down
ACT II
The CURTAIN rises as if unexpectedly before the lights in the auditorium have gone out Judith is on the garden chair, left of centre, with Jason bending over as if he has been embracing her. Jason straightens: he looks at the wings, right. The lights in the auditorium go out.
The SCENE is the same, but as if at night. The backdrop is a dark blue: the surface of the rock is silver. The loggia is hung with coloured lights. The swing sofa has gone. The wire still trails from the crack in the rocks to the balustrade at the back.
Judith lies back in the chair with her eyes closed.
Jason walks up and down. It is as if he is lecturing.
JASON
They were in their natural surroundings — imagining — this or that is going on. Is it murder. Is it someone else’s wife. We found —if there was no misery — no one turned up. My wife, she likes a good murder. Will he strike? In capital cities, all over the world, people turned up.
He stops by the wings, left, looking out.
The rewards were — pain, deprivation.
They knew where they were. I am alive: you are dead. Mummy. Mummy.
He moves on.
We found happiness, if it was to be held, was against a blue background — a mother and child, a tree, a woman on the bed. But with enough room — this was the point — for a man to stand back and then move on — was this the point? — within his hands, his head. I have gone now, Mummy, Mummy. You are on the bed.
He comes and stands by Judith, looking down.
The problem was, to get people at the right place at the right time. So that when there was the crack in the rocks, the avalanche — ah, was that what it was! some would say, standing back; and then move on, their hands within their heads. And some, when the rocks came down, the avalanche —
He looks at the audience.
— the fighting in the streets: the people in the valley —
Judith speaks without opening her eyes.
JUDITH
— You drip, drip, making patterns in the snow like pee —
JASON
— would say: exactly.
He moves on.
JUDITH
— Would stay. Exactly.
Jason appears to be thinking.
After a time —
JASON
But what no one ever knew, was whether these theatres ever existed, or if they were just in the mind —
He stops; staring at the loggia.
JUDITH
— Which stayed alive —
JASON
— In the mind — ?
JUDITH
— Of the people.
JASON
But that you can’t say. Exactly.
After a time, he moves on.
In the silence, Jason and Judith glance at the audience as if they might observe what people in the audience might be making of what they are saying as if they are still carrying out an experiment.
Judith sits up and arranges her skirt.
JUDITH
Well, Mr and Mrs Ackerman are sort of gangsters, millionaires. They don’t have much feeling —
JASON
— Just a lift-shaft —
JUDITH
— Like a flower.
Jason goes to the balustrade at the bac
k and looks over.
JASON
And Ariel —
JUDITH
What —
JASON
Will he get that job?
JUDITH
I don’t see why not. His father came to save him —
Jason turns to her.
JASON
And arrived too late —
JUDITH
You were ill. In a monastery —
JASON
— Furry friends came to visit me —
JUDITH
I came to visit you!
JASON
— In your skirt —
JUDITH
— My little skirt! —
JASON
— Your tongues like bells —
They wait. They seem to be listening.
JUDITH
Ah, when you’re middle-aged, it’s not your fault!
Jason moves round the stage again He acts —
JASON
— I didn’t sleep with her, if that’s what you mean —
JUDITH
— I do think Jenny’s attractive. It’s a mistake, perhaps, to be so young —
Jason stands by the wings, left, looking out.
JASON
They didn’t have any children —
JUDITH
Who?
JASON
The women.
JUDITH
Catastrophe Practice Page 4