Penelope and Ulysses (5 page)

PENELOPE: Do you have the burning desire

to be consumed by the journey of the navigator

who seeks the hidden, the unknown?

YOUNG PENELOPE: Do you have the courage

to swim where mermaids and sirens

lose their glory?

BOTH: Or is all your journey predictable

and rewarded by the acceptance of mediocrity?

Safety and security in the name of love.

I am afraid to be without you, love.

What of your Journey?

The one you were meant to make?

What of your Journey?

PENELOPE: There it goes again.

[
NOISE:
something
falling,
breaking.
]

YOUNG PENELOPE: Did you hear it?

PENELOPE: Did you see it?

[
Flickering
of
fire
light
]

BOTH: Did you feel it?

ULYSSES [
offstage
]: Penelope!

BOTH: Did you hear it?

PENELOPE: The groaning of a ship

that has carried too much in deep waters,

the groaning of my life,

the ache of the sirens

that are driven by the tenderness of truth.

ULYSSES [
offstage
]: [
loud
] Penelope! [
soft
weeping
]

BOTH: There it goes again.

YOUNG PENELOPE: I can hear him, in me.

PENELOPE: I can see him in me.

I can hear him in the darkest silence,

the mutest world.

YOUNG PENELOPE: He is calling for me.

PENELOPE: He is seeking me.

YOUNG PENELOPE: He is thinking of me.

PENELOPE: All the women he loves have my face.

All have to make this sacrifice to him and me.

YOUNG PENELOPE: All witches, all goddesses

have to change their face to mine.

PENELOPE: And when they love him

it is I who collect him to me.

It is I who receives his gift in me.

The longing.

[
The
stage
darkens
.]

PENELOPE: [
holding
his
sword
above
her
head,
whispers
]

Ulysses! Ulysses! [
offers
her
sword
to
YOUNG
PENELOPE
]

[
Complete
darkness
.]

Note:
At
the
end
of
the
dialogue
when
the
elder
PENELOPE
finishes
her
“longing
of
Ulysses,”
the
YOUNGER
PENELOPE
will
take
the
sword
from
her
hand,
lift
it
up,
and
run
into
the
next
Act,
which
is
“Joy.”

The
lights
will
go
dark
and
then
light
up
to
a
sunny
beautiful
day,
with
only
YOUNG
PENELOPE
on
stage
to
be
followed
by
YOUNG
ULYSSES
and
the
start
of
Act
II.

Act II
Joy
 

Colours of Spring

[
Ulysses
and
the
young
Penelope
are
in
their
sacred
chambers,
madly
in
love,
but
they
also
sense
that
something
will
enter
their
world
that
will
change
them
and
their
world
together
forever.
Nothing
will
remain
the
same,
and
sensing
this,
they
are
vividly
intense,
enjoying
every
moment
they
have
together.
These
moments
will
have
to
feed
them,
in
the
face
of
adversity,
uncertainly
separation,
or
even
death.
That
is
why
this
dialogue
between
them
is
so
intense
and
playful.

The
lights
work
in
harmony
and
together.

As
the
lights
diminish
around
PENELOPE,
the
YOUNG
PENELOPE
will
enter
the
stage
and
the
lights
become
bright.

YOUNG
ULYSSES
is
dressed
as
a
warrior.
He
is
strong,
happy,
and
in
love.

Both
YOUNG
PENELOPE
and
YOUNG
ULYSSES
enter
at
the
same
time,
YOUNG
PENELOPE
in
front
of
him
and
he
following
her.
Bright
yellow
lights.
]

YOUNG PENELOPE: Ulysses, Ulysses.

You lost your sword to me.

[
laughs
and
puts
his
sword
behind
her
neck.
]

[
Music.
PENELOPE
starts
to
dance
“The
Song
of
Penelope”—a
warrior’s
dance.

ULYSSES
watches
and
at
the
ending
joins
her

in
their
play
and
worshipping
of
each
other’s
body
and
youth
.]

YOUNG ULYSSES: Once more, my love.

[
They
swordfight
with
neither
one
dominating.

Then
they
bow
to
each
other
in
mutual
respect
of
each
other’s
skills.

ULYSSES
bows
to
YOUNG
PENELOPE
and
she
returns
his
sword.

They
kneel
in
front
of
each
other
and
revere
each
other’s
beauty.

They
are
on
their
knees
facing
each
other
in
deep
longing
and
desire
.]

I swear by all that makes and breaks me,

my purpose is to always find you,

to always seek you,

to always long and ache for you,

my beloved and desirable lover.

Whatever life, with all its turns and twists,

brings or asks,

by the power of the gods,

the anger of the devils,

the rage of the furies,

and whether I have been blessed in heaven

or cursed in hell; I am in heaven and in hell,

I will worship you every night.

[
puts
down
his
sword
and
kisses
her
passionately
.]

YOUNG PENELOPE: And will you not reverence me

in the morning?

For not to be with you

would be for me an eternal night

in which I would stay on the sea of life

searching and seeking and longing for you,

in every passing port,

every passing face.

The earth with all its passing beauty

would be a world of darkness.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Did you know, Penelope,

that before I saw your face

I loved you as a formless shape and flame?

You have haunted me since long

before I knew your name.

When I saw your eyes,

your smile, your face [
touches
her
face
tenderly
],

I knew I was with my woman.

I knew I had the incarnation

of all loving—

you are all women to me.

YOUNG PENELOPE: Did we dream of each other

before we met?

I had already heard your voice

in my dreams.

I recognised you when I heard your voice.

I had come home.

Or was it that you had come home to me?

I arrived and you had waited for me

with kindness and tenderness.

Every moment, every second is to be lived and consumed

in the fire of our love.

You are the fire

in my moment

and the seed from eternity.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Therefore, there is no other way—

I will reverence and delight

in the joy that you bring to me

for I will need to carry

these moments with me

when the sea calls me back to her,

when my destiny takes me away from you.

YOUNG PENELOPE: The sea—she is your mistress

and she surrounds my world.

Why are you listening

to her murmuring?

YOUNG ULYSSES: I do not listen to her murmuring

with my ear.

The murmurs,

sighs, whispers,

and rage are in my heart.

My heart resembles the tides

and passions of the sea, swirling

and raging the river of blood in me.

We are all related to the desires

and passions of the sea.

Last night I dreamed

that the sea was calling me,

“Ulysses, return to me.”

All her sirens and mermaids

have your face and voice, Penelope,

and all were tempting me.

I struggled to hide from her song

and all the while my heart beat and raged

like her mighty breakers.

My heart never rests.

It is always moving,

making, breaking, flowing

in deep tenderness or dark rage.

It is always awake.

Always seeking and longing.

And all the while,

her unheard song became louder

in the echoes of my silence.

YOUNG PENELOPE: My love. We cannot escape the turbulence

of the forever making and breaking decisions

of our nature and our destiny.

We cannot escape the sea.

She lives inside us and outside us.

We are floating in her and on her.

YOUNG ULYSSES: The untranslated, unopposed song

became as intimate to me as my breathing

and I realised that her hands reached out

to touch me.

They were your hands, Penelope.

Your long fingers

and pale, delicate skin [
touches
her
hair
].

The seaweed had become your hair

that was entangling me

and binding me to her.

YOUNG PENELOPE: “There is the sea and who will drink it dry.”
22

YOUNG ULYSSES: I did not struggle, I did not fight.

I floated to the bottom of her world

only to be tossed and spat out.

I woke to find you sleeping next to me.

I had been thrown and I caught you

in the tree

that we have made our bed.

YOUNG PENELOPE: What do think this means?