by Hideki Noda
Scene 4
The Consultation Room. Enter CHIEF OF POLICE.
PSYCHIATRIST
Inspector, you cannot burst unannounced
Into my consultation room!
CHIEF OF POLICE
You’ll soon see if I can or I cannot.
What’s this, Yumi Yamanaka?
Pause.
Recognise it? Look, you’re shaking like maraca.
PSYCHIATRIST
Inspector, you are undoing all the progress we were making.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Progress! This is progress?
A lighter just like this was found
On the ground outside the apartment,
Her fingerprints upon it.
What’s wrong, Yamanaka?
Cat got your tongue?
CHIEF OF POLICE lights lighter under her nose.
She flinched, you saw it,
The glint of recognition in her eyes.
PSYCHIATRIST
It was fear, because you nearly burnt her face.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Admit it, Miss Yamanaka,
It’s your only hope of avoiding the death sentence.
Pause.
WOMAN
I’m sorry, but I’m not this Miss Yamanaka.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Who are you then?
Beat.
WOMAN
The Emperor’s mistress.
PSYCHIATRIST
The Diver.
WOMAN
No, I am the Emperor’s favourite mistress.
A lady of slightly inferior rank, perhaps,
But a lady all the same.
I am The Emperor’s true wife in all but name –
CHIEF OF POLICE
The Emperor’s favourite mistress?
Well in that case, I’m so sorry, Your Highness.
(To PSYCHIATRIST.) Progress?
WOMAN
And the Emperor will soon hear of this –
CHIEF OF POLICE
(To WOMAN.) I’m onto you, I’ve got your number.
(To PSYCHIATRIST.) And if you can’t make her remember
Who she is and what she’s done, I soon will.
I’ll tell the press of this new evidence, the lighter,
They’ll demand we charge and try her.
Exit CHIEF OF POLICE.
WOMAN
He loves me more than any of his other wives
He insists I’m always at his side.
His wives despise me, especially
Since I gave birth to our son.
A child of such perfect beauty,
He hardly seems meant for this sad world.
The Emperor calls him his secret treasure.
It’s clear he gives him more pleasure
Than any other of his other sons,
Even the crown prince.
But since his wives are so consumed with jealousy,
He’s given him a commoner’s name: Genji.
A telephone rings.
(Greatly disturbed.) I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!
PSYCHIATRIST
Why are you sorry… Yumi?
Silence.
PSYCHIATRIST
Yumi? Yumi? Is that you?
WOMAN
Who?
Who is this Yumi?
It was the wives, their jealousy,
That’s why soon after Genji’s birth I fell ill,
And the Emperor he knew I was the victim of some curse or spell.
And as the dew slips from the leaf,
I slipped softly from this earth
And died.
Pause. WOMAN slips from sofa.
PSYCHIATRIST
You died?
WOMAN
Last year’s blossoms
Are but a dream of the mind.
PSYCHIATRIST
So I am talking to a dead person?
WOMAN
Is that so odd?
PSYCHIATRIST
I can’t say it’s every day
I converse with the dead.
Do you know why you’re here Miss…?
The CHIEF OF POLICE appears flicking lighter.
WOMAN
I lost my lighter, the angry man said.
Pause.
PSYCHIATRIST
And I’m afraid our time is up.
We must stop, for today at least.
WOMAN
Can I ask you a question?
PSYCHIATRIST
By all means.
WOMAN
Do you believe the soul of a person lost in grief
Can wander off all by itself?
Door is opened, wind is heard.
PSYCHIATRIST (Into recorder.)
End of session three.
Subject continues to shift identity:
Pearl diver’s ghost, Emperor’s favourite mistress…
Genji? Genji? Name rings a bell.
Scene 5
Consultation Room. Enter CHIEF OF POLICE and PROSECUTOR.
CHIEF OF POLICE
So, Doctor, how far have you got?
PROSECUTOR
Does she remember who she is or not?
PSYCHIATRIST
Your Honour, Inspector,
I believe we’ve made a breakthrough.
CHIEF OF POLICE
A breakthrough?
PROSECUTOR
Good. (To CHIEF OF POLICE.) You see?
PSYCHIATRIST
Genji.
CHIEF OF POLICE
What?
PSYCHIATRIST
The first novel written in Japanese.
PROSECUTOR
The eleventh century.
Some believe it to be the first novel in world literature.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Fascinating, I’m sure.
I’m sorry, but I thought I heard you say
That you had made a breakthrough.
PSYCHIATRIST
The name. Yesterday.
The Emperor’s dead mistress’ son:
Genji.
PROSECUTOR’s mobile rings.
She plays –
PROSECUTOR
Excuse me while I take this call.
Yes? Yes, hi. No, all’s well –
PSYCHIATRIST
She plays characters from this story –
CHIEF OF POLICE
Plays?
PSYCHIATRIST
Believes.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Believes she’s characters in a story from the eleventh century?
Are you having a laugh?
PROSECUTOR
I too wish I was with you in the bath.
CHIEF OF POLICE
How is that meant to help our case?
PROSECUTOR
My hand?
CHIEF OF POLICE
Her name is Yumi. Yumi! Yumi!
PROSECUTOR
It’s on your tummy. The other one?
CHIEF OF POLICE and PSYCHIATRIST look at PROSECUTOR.
(Sotto.) Is dropping down, down, down into the deep
Bath water.
Yes…yes I’ll tell her tonight.
(To the others.) Sorry gentlemen, my daughter.
(To phone.) I’m still at work. We’ll talk later.
CHIEF OF POLICE
As I was saying, her name is Yumi Yamanaka,
An assistant in systems information
At the JEC Corporation.
She was having an affair with a systems engineer,
Sachio Sasaki,
And it was she who set fire –
Enter WOMAN.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Gentlemen, the Emperor’s mistress!
WOMAN
Me? Good heavens no.
Scene 6
Interrogation Room. WOMAN and CHIEF OF POLICE.
CHIEF OF POLICE
So,
Who are you then?
You must forgive me, Miss…
But you see w
ith cutbacks in the precinct
Money spent on psychiatrists and such things,
There’s little left for basic policing.
So when it comes to the good-cop/bad-cop routine
I must play them all, it seems.
So Miss…?
Perhaps you’d help me with this problem,
One with which I have been grappling:
A corpse is found
Covered in blood,
Decapitated,
The severed head lying on the ground,
Several feet away,
And over the corpse stands
A man with a bloody axe in his hand.
Now what do you think the likely cause of death?
Do you think it’s A: an accident?
B: death by misadventure?
C: perhaps it’s suicide?
Or do you think our friend there with the axe?
Do you think he might have had a hand in it?
I’m asking you.
I’M ASKING YOU!
You see the problem that I’m having?
A fire, two dead,
Your lighter found at the scene?
See what I mean?
SEE WHAT I MEAN?
Talk to me Yumi.
We can only hold you for thirteen more days.
We will charge you regardless,
Have no fear on that score,
So why not just admit who you are
And what you’ve done?
It’s your only chance of avoiding the drop,
Of not being hanged by your neck
From the end of a rope.
Say! Say, Yumi, who are you?
WOMAN (SHAKING.)
Evening Faces.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Evening Faces?
WOMAN (SHAKING.)
Evening Faces.
Scene 7
The Consultation Room.
PSYCHIATRIST
Evening Faces. Chapter Four.
(Indicating book.) Genji’s affair with Evening Faces.
So you now are his lover?
WOMAN
I will be your guardian in this world and the other.
I love him and he loves me. He chose this dress for me.
For my birthday. The seventh of July.
PSYCHIATRIST
So where did you meet your Genji?
At work perhaps?
Or at a bar in Fuchu City?
WOMAN
No, no, I met him in the evening light.
Scene 8
A flower grows.
WOMAN
Where in the world can I call home?
This earth is a temporary shelter,
I have always been alone.
Enter GENJI.
GENJI
Lady, what is that flower,
So white in the golden evening light?
An exchange of messages on fans.
WOMAN
That flower is known as Evening Faces,
It blooms from the cracks in deserted places.
GENJI
An unfortunate sort of flower,
To bloom in such a place at such an hour.
WOMAN
Yet one that has the power to thrive
On so little sustenance.
GENJI
And you, what sustenance
Do you require to stay alive?
WOMAN
A little light, a little nourishment,
Some warmth, is all the encouragement I need.
GENJI
(To WOMAN.) And I’ve no need to ask your name;
So beautiful a white face,
Blooming in the evening twilight
In this deserted place.
A boat. Fireworks.
Happy birthday, Evening Faces,
I organised them specially for you.
BOATMEN
Happy Tanabata!
GENJI and WOMAN look at fireworks.
Even people who were nothing to him
Were drawn to Genji. Rough mountain men
Would pause under the shade of the cherry tree,
To admire him. And those who’d basked,
However briefly in his radiance,
Were filled with thoughts, each in accordance
With his rank, of course, of how
They might be of service to him;
Offering up their daughter to him as a servant –
GENJI lays stepping stones upon the water.
GENJI
Or a not unpretty sister for my private pleasures.
WOMAN
It’s not surprising then that people of some sensibility,
Who had upon some occasion
Received perhaps a piece of poetry,
Or some other kindness,
Found him much on their minds.
And it distressed them not to be always with him.
(To GENJI.)
Let us make our wishes and hang them on the tree.
GENJI
What did you wish for?
WOMAN
You, forever. And you?
GENJI
Same. Me forever too.
He laughs.
I’m joking, of course.
GENJI’s mobile rings. The spell is broken.
Scene 9
Consultation Room.
PSYCHIATRIST
And that was your first time?
WOMAN
First time?
PSYCHIATRIST
The first time…you had intercourse?
WOMAN
No. You asked me how we met.
PSYCHIATRIST
But your first time?
WOMAN (CONFUSED.)
I don’t remember.
PSYCHIATRIST
This Genji, your Genji, what does he do?
WOMAN
Do?
PSYCHIATRIST
Work.
WOMAN
Nothing.
PSYCHIATRIST
But how does he live?
WOMAN
Very well. He’s famous, I said.
PSYCHIATRIST
But what’s he famous for?
WOMAN
For being the Emperor’s son.
PSYCHIATRIST
By his mistress?
WOMAN
His favourite mistress.
PSYCHIATRIST
What’s he like?
WOMAN
He’s beautiful.
A man of such perfect beauty,
He hardly seems meant for this sad world.
He chose this dress for me.
PSYCHIATRIST
When?
WOMAN
The first time we…
PSYCHIATRIST
Had intercourse?
WOMAN
The first time we crossed the line.
PSYCHIATRIST
Where was this, Yumi… Evening Faces?
WOMAN
Celebrity Perfect Ten.
PSYCHIATRIST
Celebrity Perfect Ten?
Scene 10
WOMAN
Yes, Perfect Ten, on Wowow,
Every Wednesday at ten pm.
You must know it.
And each year they do one with celebrities,
For charity –
WOMAN watches Perfect Ten on television.
V/O
Ladies and Gentlemen it’s the Perfect Ten Show,
And here’s your host To-no-chu-jo!
Applause.
TONOCHUJO
Good evening, good evening…listen to you!
Applause.
Welcome to Celebrity Perfect Ten
The show where real men
Get to build themselves the babes of their dreams
So let’s see which celebrity
Is behind tonight’s wet dream settee.
Enter GENJI.
Good evening, good evening, and what’s you’re name?
GENJI
Genji.
TONOCHUJO
And what do you do?
GENJI
Nothing, I’m the son of the mistress of the Emperor.
Applause.
TONOCHUJO
Listen to him!
GENJI
Listen to me!
TONOCHUJO
Don’t steal my catchphrase.
GENJI
I won’t, though I might steal your wife.
Laughter.
TONOCHUJO (Mildly irked.)
O, I can see that it’s going to be one of those nights.
But seriously, Genji –
GENJI
I was serious.
TONOCHUJO (Irked.)
Seriously!
It’s an honour to welcome you to Perfect Ten.
I know you do so much work for worthy causes,
So tell us, what’s your nominated charity to be?
GENJI
The home for homeless mistresses’ children.
Applause.
TONOCHUJO
What a generous guy! And I know it’s something
That’s close to your heart, this charity;
All those poor little bastards, quite literally!
So let’s play ‘build your babe’
For all those homeless mistresses’ children!
You all know the rules.
Round one is ‘Mother, Geisha, Whore’
The contestant is asked three questions,
For each correct reply
He receives twenty seconds building time.
Get all the questions right
And you have the full minute to build your Perfect Ten.
So Genji, are you ready?
‘Now spin the wheel which way will it fall
Mother, Geisha or Whore?’
Mother, Awww!
First question, Genji,
You fall in love with a woman
Whom you realise looks like your mother.
What do you do?
Drop her, undergo analysis,
Or fuck her just for filthiness?
GENJI
Nothing. I’d do nothing for what it’s worth.
TONOCHUJO
O?
Laughter.
GENJI
My mother died in childbirth.