I can’t go on, I’ll go on
Page 42
Silence.
VOICE MUSIC } (together): —rest … sleep … no more stories …………………………………………… no more words … don’t give up … it’s the right …………………………………………… one … we’re there … nearly … I’m there …………………………………………… somewhere … Woburn … I’ve got him … don’t …………………………………………… lose him … follow him … to the end … come on ……………………………………………… this time … it’s the right one … finish … sleep …………………………………………… Woburn … come on—…………………
Silence.
OPENER: So, at will.
They say, It’s in his head.
It’s not. I open.
VOICE: —falls … again … on purpose or not … can’t see … he’s down … that’s what matters … face in the sand … arms spread … bare dunes … not a scrub … same old coat … night too bright … say what you like … sea louder … like thunder … manes of foam … Woburn … his head … what’s in his head … peace … peace again … in his head … no further … to go … to seek … sleep … no … not yet … he gets up … knees first … hands flat … in the sand … head sunk … then up … on his feet … huge bulk … same old broad-brim … jammed down … come on … he’s off again … ton weight … in the sand … knee-deep … he goes down … sea—
OPENER (with VOICE): And I close.
Silence.
I open the other.
MUSIC: ……………………………………………………
OPENER (with MUSIC): And I close.
Silence.
So, at will.
It’s my life, I live on that.
Pause.
Yes, that’s right.
Pause.
What do I open?
They say, He opens nothing, he has nothing to open, it’s in his head.
They don’t see me, they don’t see what I do, they
don’t see what I have, and they say, He opens nothing,
he has nothing to open, it’s in his head.
I don’t protest any more, I don’t say any more, There
is nothing in my head.
I don’t answer any more.
I open and close.
VOICE: —lights … of the land … the island … the sky … he need only … lift his head … his eyes … he’d see them … shine on him … but no … he—
Silence.
MUSIC (brief): ……………………………………………………
Silence.
OPENER: They say, That is not his life, he does not live on that. They don’t see me, they don’t see what my life is, they don’t see what I live on, and they say, That is not his life, he does not live on that.
Pause.
I have lived on it … pretty long.
Long enough.
Listen.
VOICE (weakening): —this time … I’m there … Woburn … it’s him … I’ve seen him … I’ve got him … come on … same old coat … he goes down … falls … falls again … on purpose or not … can’t see … he’s down … that’s what counts … come on—
OPENER (with VOICE) : Full strength.
VOICE: —face … in the stones … no more sand … all stones … that’s the idea … we’re there … this time … no … not yet … he gets up … knees first … hands flat … in the stones … head sunk … then up … on his feet … huge bulk … Woburn … faster … off again … he goes down … he—
Silence.
MUSIC (weakening): ……………………………………………………
OPENER (with MUSIC): Full strength.
MUSIC: ……………………………………………………
Silence.
OPENER: That’s not all.
I open both.
Listen.
VOICE MUSIC } (together): —sleep … no more searching … to find him … in the dark … to see him … to say him ……………………………………………… for whom … that’s it … no matter … never …………………………………………… him … never right … start again … in the dark ………………………………………………done with that … this time … it’s right … we’re …………………………………………… there … nearly … finish—…………………
Silence.
OPENER: From one world to another, it’s as though they drew together.
We have not much further to go.
Good.
VOICE MUSIC } (together): —nearly … I’ve got him … I’ve …………………… seen him … I’ve said him … we’re there … nearly …………………………………………… no more stories … all false … this time … it’s the right one … I have it … finish it … sleep …………………………………………… Woburn … it’s him … I’ve got him … follow him …………………………………………… to—…………
Silence.
OPENER: Good.
Pause.
Yes, that’s right, the month of May.
You know, the reawakening.
Pause.
I open.
VOICE: —no tiller … no thwarts … no oars … afloat … sucked out … then back … aground … drags free … out … Woburn … he fills it … flat out … face in the bilge … arms spread … same old coat … hands clutching … the gunnels … no … I don’t know … I see him … he clings on … out to sea … heading nowhere … for the island … then no more … else—
Silence.
MUSIC: ……………………………………………………
Silence.
OPENER: They said, It’s his, it’s his voice, it’s in his head.
Pause.
VOICE: —faster … scudding … rearing … plunging … heading nowhere … for the island … then no more … elsewhere … anywhere … heading anywhere … lights—
Silence.
OPENER: No resemblance.
I answered, And that …
MUSIC (brief): ……………………………………………………
Silence.
OPENER: … is that mine too?
But I don’t answer any more.
And they don’t say anything any more.
They have quit.
Good.
Pause.
Yes, the month of May, that’s right, the end of May.
The long days.
Pause.
I open.
Pause.
I’m afraid to open.
But I must open.
So I open.
VOICE: —come on … Woburn … arms spread … same old coat … face in the bilge … he clings on … island astern … far astern … heading out … vast deep … no more land … his head … what’s in his head … Woburn—
OPENER (with VOICE): Come on! Come on!
VOICE: —at last … no more coming … no more going … seeking elsewhere … always elsewhere … we’re there … nearly … Woburn … hang on … don’t let go … lights gone … of the land … all gone … nearly all … too far … too late … of the sky … those … if you like … he need only … turn over … he’d see them … shine on him … but no … he clings on … Woburn … he’s changed … nearly enough—
Silence.
MUSIC: ……………………………………………………
OPENER (with MUSIC): Good God.
MUSIC: ……………………………………………………
Silence.
OPENER: Good God good God.
Pause.
There was a time I asked myself, What is it?
There were times I answered, It’s the outing.
Two outings.
Then the return.
Where?
To the village.
To the inn.
Two outings, then at last the return, to the village, to
the inn, by the only road that leads there.
An image, like any other.
But I don’t answer any more.
I open.
VOICE MUSIC } (together): —don’t let go … finish … it’s the ……………………………… right one … I have it … this time … we’re there ……………………………… Woburn … nearly—
OPENER (with VOICE and MUSIC): As though they had joined arms.
VOICE MUSIC } (together): —sleep … no more stories … come on … Woburn … it’s him … see him … say him …………………………… to the end … don’t let go—……………………
OPENER (with VOICE and MUSIC) : Good.
VOICE MUSIC} (together): —nearly …just a few more … a few more … I’m there … nearly … Woburn ………………………………… it’s him … it was him … I’ve got him … nearly—…………………………
OPENER (with VOICE and MUSIC, fervently) : Good!
VOICE MUSIC} (together): —this time …it’s right … finish …………………………………… no more stories … sleep … we’re there … nearly ……………………………… just a few more … don’t let go … Woburn … he …………………………………… clings on … come on … come on—…………………
Silence.
Eh Joe
Film, Beckett’s sole attempt to write for the cinema, made use of the camera as a character: E, the perceiving eye. In this play, written for television three years after Film, Beckett again utilizes the camera as more than a simple recording instrument: it is an active force, in tension with the protagonist, Joe, moving in on him each time the Voice pauses.
In this two-character play—three if one includes the camera—the physical Joe, like the O of Film, makes every effort to isolate himself from the outside world and perception. And like O, he will fail, for after all outside perception has been suppressed, self-perception remains. Here the self-perception is a voice, a woman’s voice but emanating no doubt from within, who relates her own relationship with Joe, and then, in the same “low, distinct, remote” voice, that of a rival, another mistress whom Joe has loved and cast away, and who in despair has killed herself over him.
First produced by the BBC on July 4, 1966, and later by NET in the United States, Eh Joe once again demonstrates eloquently Beckett’s extraordinary ability to use each medium to maximum advantage, and while reducing the dramatic elements to a bare minimum to evoke a whole life—or lives—in the space of a few unforgettable pages.
Eh Joe
A television play
Joe, late fifties, grey hair, old dressing-gown, carpet slippers, in his room.
1. Joe seen from behind sitting on edge of bed, intent pose, getting up, going to window, opening window, looking out, closing window, drawing curtain, standing intent.
2. Joe do. (=from behind) going from window to door, opening door, looking out, closing door, locking door, drawing hanging before door, standing intent.
3. Joe do. going from door to cupboard, opening cupboard, looking in, closing cupboard, locking cupboard, drawing hanging before cupboard, standing intent.
4. Joe do. going from cupboard to bed, kneeling down, looking under bed, getting up, sitting down on edge of bed as when discovered, beginning to relax.
5. Joe seen from front sitting on edge of bed, relaxed, eyes closed. Hold, then dolly slowly in to closeup of face. First word of text stops this movement.
Camera
Joe’s opening movements followed by camera at constant remove, Joe full length in frame throughout. No need to record room as whole. After this opening pursuit, between first and final close-up of face, camera has nine slight moves in towards face, say four inches each time. Each move is stopped by voice resuming, never camera move and voice together. This would give position of camera when dolly stopped by first word of text as one yard from maximum close-up of face. Camera does not move between paragraphs till clear that pause (say three seconds) longer than between phrases. Then four inches in say four seconds when movement stopped by voice resuming.
Voice
Low, distinct, remote, little colour, absolutely steady rhythm, slightly slower than normal. Between phrases a beat of one second at least. Between paragraphs about seven, i.e., three before camera starts to advance and four for advance before it is stopped by voice resuming.
Face
Practically motionless throughout, eyes unblinking during paragraphs, impassive except in so far as it reflects mounting tension of listening. Brief zones of relaxation between paragraphs when perhaps voice has relented for the evening and intentness may relax variously till restored by voice resuming.
WOMAN’S VOICE:
Joe …
(Eyes open, resumption of intentness.)
Joe …
(Full intentness.)
Thought of everything? … Forgotten nothing? … You’re all right now, eh? … No one can see you now … No one can get at you now … Why don’t you put out that light? … There might be a louse watching you … Why don’t you go to bed? … What’s wrong with that bed, Joe? … You changed it, didn’t you? … Made no difference? … Or is the heart already? … Crumbles when you lie down in the dark … Dry rotten at last… Eh Joe?
Camera move 1
The best’s to come, you said, that last time … Hurrying me into my coat… Last I was favoured with from you … Say it you now, Joe, no one’ll hear you … Come on, Joe, no one can say it like you, say it again now and listen to yourself … The best’s to come … You were right for once … In the end.
Camera move 2
You know that penny farthing hell you call your mind … That’s where you think this is coming from, don’t you? … That’s where you heard your father … Isn’t that what you told me? … Started in on you one June night and went on for years … On and off … Behind the eyes … That’s how you were able to throttle him in the end … Mental thuggee you called it… One of your happiest fancies… Mental thuggee … Otherwise he’d be plaguing you yet… Then your mother when her hour came … “Look up, Joe, look up, we’re watching you” … Weaker and weaker till you laid her too … Others … All the others … Such love he got … God knows why … Pitying love … None to touch it… And look at him now … Throttling the dead in his head.
Camera move 3
Anyone living love you now, Joe? … Anyone living sorry for you now? … That slut that comes on Saturday, you pay her, don’t you? … Penny a hoist tuppence as long as you like … Watch yourself you don’t run short, Joe … Ever think of that? … Eh Joe? … What it’d be if you ran out of us … Not another soul to still … Sit there in his stinking old wrapper hearing himself … That lifelong adorer … Weaker and weaker till not a gasp left there either … Is it that you want? … Well preserved for his age and the silence of the grave … That old paradise you were always harping on … No Joe … Not for the likes of you.
Camera move 4
I was strong myself when I started … In on you … Wasn’t I, Joe? … Normal strength … Like those summer evenings in the Green … In the early days … Of our idyll … When we sat watching the ducks … Holding hands exchanging vows … How you admired my elocution! … Among other charms … Voice like flint glass … To borrow your expression … Powerful grasp of language you had … Flint glass … You could have listened to it for ever … And now this … Squeezed down to this … How much longer would you say? … Till the whisper … You know … When you can’t hear the words … Just the odd one here and there … That’s the worst … Isn’t it, Joe? … Isn’t that what you told me … Before we expire … The odd word … Straining to hear … Why is that, Joe? … Why must you do that? … When you’re nearly home … What matter then … What we mean … It should be the best … Nearly home again … Another stilled … And it’s the worst … Isn’t that what you said? … The whisper … Th
e odd word … Straining to hear … Brain tired squeezing … It stops in the end … You stop it in the end … Imagine if you couldn’t … Ever think of that? … If it went on … The whisper in your head … Me whispering at you in your head … Things you can’t catch … On and off … Till you join us … Eh Joe?
Camera move 5
How’s your Lord these days? … Still worth having? … Still lapping it up? … The passion of our Joe … Wait till He starts talking to you … When you’re done with yourself … All your dead dead … Sitting there in your foul old wrapper … Very fair health for a man of your years … Just that lump in your bubo … Silence of the grave without the maggots … To crown your labours … Till one night … “Thou fool thy soul” … Put your thugs on that … Eh Joe? … Ever think of that? … When He starts in on you … When you’re done with yourself … If you ever are.
Camera move 6
Yes, great love God knows why … Even me … But I found a better … As I hope you heard … Preferable in all respects … Kinder … Stronger … More intelligent … Better looking … Cleaner … Truthful … Faithful … Sane … Yes … I did all right.
Camera move 7
But there was one didn’t … You know the one I mean, Joe … The green one … The narrow one … Always pale … The pale eyes … Spirit made light … To borrow your expression … The way they opened after … Unique … Are you with me now? … Eh Joe? … There was love for you … The best’s to come, you said … Bundling her into her Avoca sack … Her fingers fumbling with the big horn buttons … Ticket in your pocket for the first morning flight … You’ve had her, haven’t you? … You’ve laid her? … Of course he has … She went young … No more old lip from her.
Camera move 8
Ever know what happened? … She didn’t say? … Just the announcement in the Independent … “On Mary’s beads we plead her needs and in the Holy Mass” … Will I tell you? … Not interested? … Well I will just the same … I think you should know … That’s right, Joe, squeeze away … Don’t lose heart now … When you’re nearly home … I’ll soon be gone … The last of them … Unless that poor slut loves you … Then yourself … That old bonfire … Years of that stink … Then the silence … A dollop of that… To crown all… Till His Nibs … One dirty winter night … “Mud thou art.”