The CTR Anthology

by Alan Filewod

  Crane: You cannot see your children.

  PM: But they must know the truth from me! I will not temper my selfabuse with apology – or seek their compassion.

  Crane: Once the grief settles – the mind stabilizes – yes.

  PM: They are my children!

  Crane: They are now wards of the state, and will be protected until you have exorcised this pain.

  PM: You rob me of my children –

  Crane: – you have no rights –

  PM: – my fatherhood –

  Crane: – you no longer –

  PM: I demand my natural rights!

  Crane: The law stands above all men to protect us from nature’s cruelty. Nature is the enemy today. Go home, alone, and make peace with yourself.

  (Press scrum around Doctor and PM slowly moves to Evangelist, Crane, and MEA.)

  Doctor:

  His tragic life

  Not yet ended.

  The great leader

  Admired, envied.

  Man of great fortune pulled down

  Not by disease

  But by the storm of hysteria

  He sought to quell.

  Evangelist and Doctor:

  There is wisdom in his story.

  Shield yourself.

  Watch and hesitate.

  Pursue freedom

  And happiness only

  With extreme caution

  Then boast a full life

  Lived to a natural end.

  Desire is dead

  Passion turns to stone.

  Life lived

  Moment to moment Gone forever.

  SCENE THIRTY-FIVE

  (Newhouse talks to himself as he watches the preceding scene on TV. Commander Gordon, as an angel, watches. Crane introduces MEA to Evangelist. Chambers gets MEA’s attention and they confer privately.)

  Newhouse: It’s interesting that every human vice is attacked except this fashionable hypocrisy that stifles criticism and revels in the immunity of God. They cross themselves, in their religious disguise, and absolve all their earthly “crimes.”

  Hypocrisy would make my list of social crimes complete. If I did join them, I could hide my desires. Then I’d no longer need to defend myself from persecutors, but instead I could denounce them – publicly – defame their character, and condemn them to this famous hell of theirs. It is not in my nature to be dishonest, but the time has clearly come to give it more careful consideration.

  THE END

  Polygraph

  Marie Brassard and Robert Lepage Translation by Gyllian Raby

  After completing studies at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique in Quebec, Marie Brassard began working with Robert Lepage as an author and actor in the creative process that resulted in The Dragon’s Trilogy, and later co-wrote and performed in Polygraph. In 1990 she won the Jean Doat award in Montreal for her performance in both plays. She has also won the Barcelona Critics’ Award as Best Foreign Actress for Polygraph. In addition to her collaborations with Robert Lepage, she works as an author and actress for other theatre companies, writes scripts for short films, and conceives and directs music videos.

  Internationally renowned as a director who composes his own imagistic performance texts, Robert Lepage is the creator of numerous productions in both English and French, many of which have been showcased at international festivals. He studied at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique in Quebec and at the Institut Alain Knapp in Paris. Since 1981 he has been a principal member of Théâtre Repère in Quebec City, for whom he created the acclaimed The Dragon’s Trilogy, which won the Grand Prize of the Festival of the Americas in 1987. Other celebrated works include the solo performance Vinci, Tectonic Plates, Polygraph, and the bilingual Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Romeo and Juliet, which he co-directed. He is the recipient of many awards, and was inducted as a Chevalier de l’Ordredes Arts et Lettres by the government of France in 1991. He is currendy Artistic Director of French-language theatre for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

  Gyllian Raby is Artistic Director of Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton. She is a writer and director well known in western Canada for her theatrically innovative productions, especially her theatre/ballet interpretation of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. She became involved with Théátre Repère during the creation of Polygraph and was privileged to collaborate on the first version in Quebec City in 1988. Shortly afterwards, an offer to tour Polygraph in Europe caused her to write a complete translation. Since that time, the play has metamorphosed substantially.

  Polygraph was first produced in French as Le Polygraphe at the Implan-théátre in Quebec City, on 6 May 1988, by Théâtre Repère. A second version, a co-production with Montreal’s Théâtre Quat’Sous, played at the Théâtre Quat’Sous in November 1988. The English translation premiered at the Quayworks festival at Harbourfront, Toronto, on 21 February 1990.

  PRODUCTION

  Director and Set Designer / Robert Lepage

  Translator / Gyllian Raby

  Assistant to the Director / Steve Lucas

  Soundtrack / Pierre Brousseau, Yves Chamberland

  Music / Pierre Brousseau

  Lighting / Robert Lepage, Eric Fauque

  Slides / David Lepage

  Assistant Set Designer / Jean Hazel

  Stage Managers / Eric Fauque, Steve Lucas

  Production Managers / Michel Bernatchez, Richard Gagnon

  CAST (TORONTO)

  Marie Brassard / Lucie Champagne

  Robert Lepage / David Haussman

  Pierre Phillippe Guay / François

  TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

  I first translated Polygraph as it was being created, with the odd result that an English text existed before the authors considered their French production to be complete. Through the major revisions since then, the ideas under exploration have mostly remained the same (along with the majority of the words), though characters, time-frame, and situations have altered – and in our separate reality the Berlin Wall has fallen. The living performance has been allowed to metamorphose to reflect the authors’ deepening perception of and relationship with their material; if it is temporarily captured here, it is to record how far we have come this past year, and to point where we are going.

  Gyllian Raby

  A NOTE ON PUNCTUATION

  For this text, the punctuation is based on the actor’s voice training for reading aloud:

  During scenes when speeches intersect, as in the first scene, “–” indicates the speech is suspended in mid-breath and “…” indicates that the breath is trailing away.

  A period or colon is often employed to demonstrate what the voice is doing with the shape of the thought.

  Sometimes there is neither punctuation nor capital at the start of a line, because it is an uninterrupted continuation of a sentence begun on the preceding line.

  Line breaks are often used as a punctuation device.

  PROLOGUE

  THE FILTER

  A brick wall runs right across the playing area behind a shallow platform forestage. In a film-style introduction music plays and slides flash the play title and actors’ credits, the projections completely covering the wall. Stage left, Lucie Champagne reads an inquest report describing the results of an autopsy. Stage right, above and behind the wall, David Haussman talks about the construction of the Berlin Wall.

  Lucie: The autopsy has revealed that the stab-wounds were caused by a sharp pointed instrument which penetrated the skin and underlying tissues –

  David: After the fall of the Third Reich, little remained of its capital, Berlin, except a pile of ruins and a demoralized people.

  Lucie: The body-wounds are extremely large considering the small size of the inflicting instrument: we would surmise that the shape, depth and width of the wounds were enlarged during the struggle –

  David: The triumphant Allies enforced a new statute –

  Lucie: – by the slicing action of the knife –

  David: –
which split up the city into international sectors: American, French and British …

  Lucie: – as the victim attempted to defend herself.

  David: … to define their sector, the Soviets built a wall over forty kilometres in length, cutting the city in two …

  Lucie: … The victim received cuts to the left hand, the right upper arm, and was pierced through the rib-cage and the right lung, to the stomach. We have determined that the fatal wound was given here –

  David and Lucy: Right through the heart –

  David: – of the city.

  Lucie: – between the fifth and sixth ribs.

  David: The “wall of shame,” as the West Germans call it, was built to stop the human

  David and Lucy: Hemorrhage –

  David: – of Berliners leaving the East for the West

  Lucie: – was caused by the laceration of the septum.

  David: – symbolic of the division of the communist and capitalist worlds.

  Lucie: The septum functions like a wall bisecting the heart, it controls the filtration of blood –

  David: for almost three decades it was possible for visitors from the West to enter the Eastern Bloc –

  Lucie: – from the right ventricle to the left –

  David and Lucy: – but here passage is (was) one-way only. A sophisticated system of alternating doors would open and close to allow the flow of –

  David: visitors from the West –

  Lucie: – de-oxygenated blood –

  David and Lucy: – and to impede –

  David: – inhabitants of the East –

  Lucie: – oxygenated blood –

  David and Lucy: from circulating the “wrong” way.

  (As if a continuous loop, the text of the Prologue is repeated twice, gradually increasing in tempo and volume with the drive of the music. The second time through, the naked body of François appears stage left above and behind the wall, lit only by projections of anatomical slides: bones, muscles and organs superimposed on his flesh. The scene ends with a blackout. Continuing the film script-style presentation of each scene, a projection indicates:)

  Projection

  PARTHENAIS, MONTRÉAL: INTERIOR, NIGHT

  (Parthenais is the colloquial name for Le centre de prévention de Montréal, a remand centre located on rue Parthenais. For the purposes of this play it is to be understood as a medico-legal forensic institute.)

  (Music. Lights rise first on a skeleton which is collapsed on the ground, centre stage. David approaches it: at a signal from his hands, it rises to its feet. David speaks objectively to both skeleton and audience, his English is very good, and is marked by a German accent.)

  David: The body never lies. To the pathologist, and others in a police inquiry, this is obvious to us. Even in flesh which has been horribly mutilated, the architecture of the crime is there, intact.

  And the shape, the disposition of the wounds tell us a true story … which has nothing, whatsoever, to do with your cinematic realism, or fiction.

  I myself, am not a forensic physician but a criminologist.

  (Holds the skeleton’s head, examining it in the cliché pose of Hamlet with Yorick.) And I believe it is possible also to see the truth which lurks in the mind of a criminal: to look through the skin, the skull, into his brain … What you are about to witness is the story of a murder. But you will not see any murderer, neither will you see any dead bodies. Because, sometimes, it is more appropriate to let the dead rest in peace, and to practise the autopsy on the living.

  (The skeleton flies out. Lights cross fade.)

  Projection

  HAMLET, ACT 3 SCENE I. EXTERIOR, NIGHT

  (Lucie stands in profile above and behind the wall stage left, on a moving pedestal. She is clothed in black, and holds a skull.)

  Lucie: Étre ou ne pas être.

  C’est la question

  Est-il plus noble pour une âme de souffrir les fleches et les coups d’un sort atroce, ou de s’armer contre le flot qui monte et de lui faire face, et de l’arrèter?

  Mourir, dormir, rien de plus.

  Terminer, par du sommeil, la souffrance du coeur et les mille blessures qui sont le lot de la chair

  C’est bien le dénouement que l’on voudrait, et de quelle ardeur …

  Mourir, dormir,

  dormir … peut-être rêver

  C’est l’obstacle,

  Car l’anxiété des rêves qui viendront dans ce sommeil des morts,

  Quand nous aurons chassé de nous le tumulte de vivre

  Est là pour nous retenir

  Et c’est la pensée qui fait que le malheur a si longue vie.

  (A 3 ft by 6 ft transparent mirror drops to hang above the wall stage right, indicating Lucie’s dressing-room. She goes to sit in front of the mirror and starts to remove her make-up. Lights fade.)

  Projection

  FRANÇOIS: INTERIOR, NIGHT

  (The sound score indicates the hubbub of a busy restaurant. François enters stage left with a “table for two” over his shoulder. This he swings down in an easy movement. Quickly setting it with plates and cutlery, he then positions two chairs either side. When the table is “set”, he immediately unmakes it, swings it over his shoulder, and repeats the whole sequence in a different spatial placement, all the while talking rapidly to invisible customers. During the course of the scene he covers the entire stage, so suggesting a room full of tables. He is mechanically focused on the job even during the quick-fire dialogue exchanges with Lucie. An entire day’s work in the restaurant is accomplished in this short double-time scene. David appears twice during the scene. Sliding in ominous slow motion over the wall to sit at the table like a watching Thought Police agent, he is obviously a product of François’ imagination.)

  François: Vous avez bien mangé? Je vous apporte la facture m’sieur. Par ici, s’il vous plait. Vous avez regardé le menu du jour sur le tableau? Oui. C’est pour combien de personnes? Par ici s’il vous plait.

  Prendriez-vous un digestif? Deux cafés-cognac … tout de suite … qa sera pas long m’sieur … Oui, bonjour. Non, malheureusement, on a plus de rôti á l’échalotte. A la place, le chef vous suggère son poulet rôti, un poulet au citron, c’est délicieux. Alors, deux fois. Allez-vous prendre un dessert? Aujourd’hui, c’est la tarte á l’orange maison. C’est excellent, je vous le recom-mande … Oui. Une personne. Par ici s’il vous plait. For two? I’m very sorry, we don’t ’ave an English menu … I can translate for you … Denx places? Par ici s’il vous plait. Pardon? Vous auriez dû me le dire, je vous l’aurait changé sans problèmes. Oui, la prochaine fois, d’accord. Par ici s’il vous plaît.

  (Lucie enters and sits at François’ table, talking in double time.)

  Lucie: Salut, François, ça va bien?

  François: Oui, oui, ça va.

  Lucie: Aie, François, le propriétaire est venu cogner a l’appartement chez nous hier … Y’a essayé de rentrer chez-vous avec ses clés, pis y s’est rendu compte que t’avais changé la serrure.

  François: J’ai complètement oublié de l’appeler.

  Lucie: Tu devrais faire attenion à tes relations avec lui, parce-que ça commence tranquillement á déteindre sur les autres locataires. ça fait un mois que j’aurais besoin de peinture pour la cuisine … j’y ai laissé trois fois des messages su’ son répondeur, pis y me retourne pas mes appels …

  François: Excuses moi Lucie … Je l’appelle sans faut demain matin.

  Lucie: En tous cas, je te remercie beaucoup. C’était tres bon. (She goes out. François continues talking to customers and repositioning the table; Lucie quickly returns, and sits at “another” table.)

  Lucie: Salut François, ça va bien?

  François: Salut Lucie.

  Lucie: Aie, ça l’air que toé pis ton chum, vous êtes venus voir mon show hier … Vous êtes pas venus me voir après, c’est tu parce que vous avez pas aimé qa?

  François: Ah non! C’était magnifique … On a beaucoup aimé l’i
dée de faire jouer Hamlet par une femme. De nos jours c’est beaucoup plus per-cutant que ce soit une femme qui tienne ces propos-là, plutôt qu’un homme.

  Lucie: Ben en fait á l’origine c’tait pas prévu. Parce que moi je faisais la régie du show mais le gars qui jouait Hamlet y’é tombé malade, pis vu qu’y avait juste moi qui savait le texte par coeur, y m’ont coupé les cheveux pis asteur, c’est moi qui le fait … Aie, François, j’ai entendu dire … ca d’l’air qu’a CKRL, y cherchent un annonceur pour lire le bulletin de nouvelle le soir … t’as une belle voix, y m’semble que tu serais bon la d’dans.

  François: C’est gentil d’avoir pensé à moi, mais ces temps-ci c’est pas possible, j’ai trop d’ouvrage au restaurant.

  Lucie: Aie, j’ai croisé Alain dans l’escalier tantôt, y m’a même pas dit bon-jour … c’tu parce qu’y’é choqué contre moi?

  François: Fais-toi en avec ça … C’est á moi qu’y en veut.

  Lucie: En tous cas, j’te’remercie beaucoup, c’était tres bon. (She goes out. François continues.)

  François: A bientôt, Lucie. (Lucie returns almost at once, and sits at a “different” table.)

  Lucie: Aie Franôois, sais-tu c’qui m’est arrivé hier? Y’a une de mes amies de Montréal qui m’téléphone a dit tu devrais acheter Le Devoir, y’a une petite annonce dedans, chu sûre que ça va t’intéresser. Comme de fait …

  Y’a un réalisateur de Montréal qui vient tourner un film ici a Québec, un genre de “thriller” y’aurait besoin d’une filie à peu près dans mon age pour jouer le personnage principal … y cherche quelqu’un pis la semaine pro-chaine, y vient faire passer des auditions. J’ai jamais fait de cinéma, mais y m’semble que je serais bonne la dedans … Trouves-tu que ça serait une bonne idée que j’aille?

  François: Ben, certain … Faut pas que tu manques ça, vas-y!

  Lucie: En tout cas j’te remercie, c’tait tres bon!

  François: A bientót Lucie.