Florence speaks looking down at the table.
FLORENCE
Walls, platforms, pillars, architraves —
Siva has moved on up the shaft. She gets her fingers on the edge of the blown-out grille into Dionysus’ room. She rests.
Hortense speaks looking at Florence.
HORTENSE
Huts, wire, chimneys, watchtowers —
FLORENCE
Blood, mucus, liver, heart-beat —
They wait.
ANDERSON
Now you see it —
FLORENCE
Now you don’t —
Anderson faces the audience.
ANDERSON
Men with their legs apart, peeing —
He waits.
Then he stamps on the ground.
Siva, in the ventilation shaft, has climbed on till she can see through the grille into Dionysus’ room.
Hortense is moving round Anderson’s room looking closely at the walls, etc., as if she is trying to find something there.
HORTENSE
There’s always a flower-seller outside a Spanish jail —
Anderson faces the audience. He seems to quote —
ANDERSON
— On such a night as this — the fields dirty with snow —
Hortense stops; looking at Florence.
HORTENSE
You need a contralto — ?
Siva has managed to raise herself so that her head and shoulders are through into Dionysus’ room. She is thus visible to all the audience.
ANDERSON
But you’d see it when it had —
FLORENCE
What —
Anderson calls, imitating a young girl’s voice —
ANDERSON
— The tanks are in the streets! There are people dying! —
Florence speaks in a matter-of-fact voice.
FLORENCE
— The more houses they build, the more places there are in the evenings —
HORTENSE
The smell down there!
FLORENCE
Honestly!
Hortense looks up as if to try to see Siva. She seems to try out —
HORTENSE
— Pretend you are so gentle, so sane —
Florence speaks with her eyes closed.
FLORENCE
With your foot against my face —
Siva, with her head and shoulders through the grille into Dionysus’ room, seems to be considering how to get down.
ANDERSON
A cell —
HORTENSE
An egg —
FLORENCE
A liver —
HORTENSE
A heart-beat —
Siva, with her head and shoulders through the grille, watches Dionysus who is against the opposite wall.
Dionysus is staring at her as if he were seeing a vision.
ANDERSON
— There’s an old man upstairs —
FLORENCE
— Can’t you get past his milk bottles?
Hortense and Anderson face the audience.
Florence seems to doze.
After a time —
HORTENSE
How long have we got?
FLORENCE
Fifty minutes.
Siva, in the opening of the grille, top right, is rearranging her mountaineering equipment She drops a rope down into Dionysus’ room. She fastens a rope round herself. She prepares to lower herself down into Dionysus’ room.
Hortense is looking at the audience.
ANDERSON
They’re trying to reach us?
FLORENCE
We’re trying to reach them.
HORTENSE
They hear us? We heard them tapping?
As Siva begins to lower herself into Dionysus’ room, Anderson says as if to Florence —
ANDERSON
We didn’t want anyone to see this?
As Siva lowers herself there is lowered from the flies, centre, in front of the structure, a dummy body like that of Siva’s, on a rope. A hook passes through the body The body is dressed in the same clothes as Siva. It is lowered at the same rate as Siva lowers herself into the room: it pauses when she pauses. When Siva reaches the floor of Dionysus’ room the dummy stops at the same level and dangles there, like a bait. Dionysus watches the real Siva.
Florence remains with her eyes closed.
Hortense and Anderson watch the dummy Siva.
HORTENSE
A curtain —
FLORENCE
Customs —
ANDERSON
Curtain —
Siva unhooks herself from her climbing gear. She goes and sits on Dionysus’ bed. She speaks to Dionysus.
SIVA
Hullo —
FLORENCE
Hullo —
SIVA
I wondered if you remembered me —
Dionysus has straightened. He seems to be feeling behind his face where there are the strings of his straitjacket.
ANDERSON
But if you get used to it —
FLORENCE
What —
HORTENSE
It stays inside?
Dionysus manages to get out of his straitjacket. It is as if the Moor’s rods, that seemed to go through his body, have succeeded in cutting the strings of his straitjacket.
He comes to the edge of the first floor and faces the audience. He raises his hands. In one of his hands he holds his flute.
Siva watches him.
ANDERSON
To turn —
FLORENCE
Wound —
HORTENSE
Help us ?
In the upper room, left, the Moor, who has been kneeling with his head down facing his stove, right, as if overcome by fumes, now straightens. He sits back on his heels. He watches where the rods go through the bend of his flue-pipe.
Florence speaks with her eyes still closed.
FLORENCE
Testing. Testing.
Dionysus reaches, with his flute, for the dummy body of Siva hanging in front of the first-floor level. He fails to pull it back to him.
The real Siva is sitting on the bed behind him.
HORTENSE
But if they know the code —
FLORENCE
Why don’t they know the message?
Dionysus puts his flute down by the edge of the first-floor level. Then he goes back into his room.
He takes hold of the rods which are sticking through the partition, and pulls them out. He ignores the real Siva.
Siva watches him.
HORTENSE
They were making love —
ANDERSON
They were in the head —
FLORENCE
The Moor? Dionysus?
She looks up. The other side of the partition from Dionysus, the Moor watches where the rods have been pulled through.
ANDERSON
An eye —
HORTENSE
A hook —
FLORENCE
A dead body —
ANDERSON
A heart-beat —
Dionysus comes to the front of the first floor again and reaches with the rods for the dangling body of Siva.
The Moor stands. He goes to the hole in his flue-pipe and tries to see through into Dionysus’ room. Then he goes to the front of his floor and watches where Dionysus is trying to pull in with the rods the dummy body of Siva.
HORTENSE
To hurt you? —
FLORENCE
Protect you —
Dionysus cannot get the dummy body of Siva in to the first-floor level. He can only push her sideways towards the Moor’s room, left.
HORTENSE
Ladies and gentlemen on the grass —
ANDERSON
Huts. Watchtowers —
Dionysus puts his rods down on the floor. The Moor stretches for, but fails to reach, the dummy body of Siva.
HORTENSE
But I was with him —
FLORENCE
In that little room?
ANDERSON
Sweet. Pussy pussy. Down boy. Cheep —
Dionysus turns back into his room and looks at the real Siva on his bed.
FLORENCE
What did he do —
HORTENSE
Worked on the farm. Kept animals.
Upstairs, right, the Moor, having failed to reach the dummy body of Siva, turns and looks at his stove.
ANDERSON
I had this daughter, see, aged fifteen —
Siva, left, speaks to Dionysus.
SIVA
I climbed —
FLORENCE
No one’s ever climbed?
Dionysus turns and looks at the opening to the flue-pipe in his wall.
Hortense speaks facing the audience —
HORTENSE
You can hear them at night —
ANDERSON
It’s terrible?
The Moor goes to the opening of his flue-pipe again and tries to see through into Dionysus’ room.
FLORENCE
Da da di dum dum —
ANDERSON
Da da di da —
Dionysus goes to the hole in the wall and tries to see into the Moor’s room.
HORTENSE
Little wriggly things —
FLORENCE
With moustaches?
Dionysus and the Moor turn and stare at the audience.
ANDERSON
It goes on all the time —
HORTENSE
You can’t taste it, touch it, smell it —
Florence says mockingly —
FLORENCE
— Are we gods and goddesses?
She stands. She leans with her fingers on the table in front of her — as if some session has ended.
The Moor goes and puts his arms round his stove as if he is trying to pull it from the wall. Dionysus comes to the front of the first floor.
HORTENSE
— And I was left with an only son to bring up — ?
Siva leaves the bed and goes to the hole in the wall in his room and puts her hands in, trying to stretch it.
ANDERSON
Birds —
HORTENSE
Love-songs —
ANDERSON
What did we call them —
HORTENSE
Spot? Beauty?
The Moor leaves his stove and comes to the front of the first floor and stretches out his hands to the dummy body of Siva.
Anderson seems to speak to the audience —
ANDERSON
Do you know how often she has to do this?
Siva, having failed to stretch the hole from the Moor’s flue-pipe, moves back into Dionysus’ room, and begins undressing.
HORTENSE
Steps forwards —
ANDERSON
We go over — ?
Siva has taken off her mountaineering clothes. Underneath she is dressed like a child gymnast.
HORTENSE
To the underground river —
ANDERSON
To the pub!
Dionysus picks up his rods at the front of the first floor and tries to push the dummy body of Siva round towards the left again, as if for the Moor to catch hold of it. But the Moor goes back to the hole in his flue-pipe and peers through it. He seems to see Siva, who is in her gymnast’s clothes, as if in a peep-show. He turns to the audience.
Florence, who is standing by her table, left, murmurs —
FLORENCE
— Wild geese are flying from the Arctic —
She sits behind her table again: as if ready for another session.
The Moor takes hold of his stove again. This time he manages, with a bang, to pull it, with its flue-pipe, away from the wall of the central partition. He falls back, embracing the stove. Dionysus puts his rods down on the ground. Siva, in her gymnast’s clothes, goes to the exit of the Moor’s flue-pipe and puts her hands in it again as if to stretch it.
Hortense and Anderson watch the audience.
HORTENSE
And the people in the valley — ?
FLORENCE
Want —
HORTENSE
What we haven’t got —
FLORENCE
So you provide —
ANDERSON
Waste from the factories? Jokes? Shit?
Siva, with the Moor’s stove and flue-pipe removed, has succeeded in stretching the hole through the central partition. She puts her head through. She is looking down through the hole through the floor into the flue-pipe of Anderson’s stove, which has been exposed by the Moor’s pulling his stove away.
SIVA
Hullo —
FLORENCE
Hullo!
SIVA
I was afraid you might not remember me —
Anderson comes to the front of the structure and looks up at the dummy body of Siva.
Dionysus has gone back into his room. It seems that for the first time he is ready to notice the real Siva, who has her back to him and her head through the wall. He stands behind her and lifts her by the hips. He seems to try and help her push through the wall. By wriggling and stretching, she manages to get halfway through. The Moor, facing her, embracing the stove, gazes at her as if he is seeing a vision.
Anderson, looking up, calls —
ANDERSON
Oi! They’re getting into government!
FLORENCE
Don’t you want your children to see this?
Dionysus leaves Siva and comes to the edge of the first-floor level and looks over. Then he picks up his rods.
The Moor leaves his stove and comes to the edge of the first-floor level and looks at the audience.
HORTENSE
A pin —
ANDERSON
A key —
HORTENSE
A lever —
FLORENCE
Liver?
HORTENSE
A heart-beat!
Siva, hallway through the central partition, pushes with her feet. She tries to hold herself up, uncomfortably.
FLORENCE
— Where did they put it —
ANDERSON
— Do you know?
HORTENSE
In a hole, I think, by the lavatory.
Dionysus, with his rods, has succeeded in pushing the dummy body of Siva round to the left so that the Moor can get hold of it. The Moor pulls it in on the left side of the partition. He lays it on the ground. Then he pulls the hook out.
FLORENCE
Your children —
ANDERSON
And your children’s children —
The Moor, having pulled the hook out of the dummy body of Siva, pulls out straw. He throws this over the edge of the first floor to the right. It scatters in and around Hortense’s nest, in front of the structure by the footlights.
Hortense looks down at her nest.
HORTENSE
— I pulled your hair —
ANDERSON
— I pulled mine —
The Moor stands. He kicks the dummy body of Siva to the edge of the first floor to the left.
SIVA
Quick! It’s hurting!
Anderson stares at the audience.
HORTENSE
But if it can see —
FLORENCE
What —
ANDERSON
Huts, watchtowers —
FLORENCE
Ladies and gentlemen on the grass —
The Moor goes and stands by Siva’s head where the top half of her body is through the central partition. She holds out her hands to him. She seems to be in pain from the uncomfortable position she is holding.
The Moor does not take her hands.
HORTENSE
Something like a head —
FLORENCE
Or a cage —
ANDERSON
On the wall of a municipal building —
Hortense tidies her nest: then goes and sits on Anderson’s bed with her head in her hands. Anderson looks up at the hook which the Moor has taken out of the dummy body of Siva and which is now swinging free in front of the first-floor level.
FLORENCE
Have you got the pin out?
ANDERSON
Pin in?
HORTENSE
Pin out!
Anderson looks at the audience.
Dionysus unscrews his rods. He lays them by the edge of the first-floor level by his flute. Then he goes to the back half of Siva and holds her by the hips. It is as if he is not sure what to do with Siva. He moves her slightly this way and that.
FLORENCE
How old were you —
HORTENSE
Five or six —
Dionysus leaves Siva. He moves along the central partition towards the back, looking on the ground. He moves the bed to the right; looks on what has been the ground underneath it.
FLORENCE
You had speech —
ANDERSON
Hadn’t you —
FLORENCE
Rhyme?
Catastrophe Practice Page 19