The Complete Dramatic Works (43 page)

ADA:
I suppose you have worn him out. [
Pause.
]
You wore him out living and now you are wearing him out dead. [
Pause.
] The time comes when one cannot speak to you any more. [
Pause.
] The time will come when no one will speak to you at all, not even complete strangers.
[
Pause.
]
You will be quite alone with your voice, there will be no other voice in the world
but yours. [
Pause.
] Do you hear me?

[
Pause.
]

HENRY:
I can’t remember if he met you.

ADA:
You know he met me.

HENRY:
No, Ada, I don’t know, I’m sorry, I have forgotten almost everything connected with
you.

ADA:
You weren’t there. Just your mother and sister. I had called to fetch you, as arranged.
We were to go bathing together.

[
Pause.
]

HENRY:
[
Irritably.
]
Drive on, drive on! Why do people always stop in the middle of what they are saying?

ADA:
None of them knew where you were. Your bed had not been slept in. They were all shouting
at one another. Your sister said she would throw herself off the cliff. Your father
got up and went out, slamming the door. I left soon
afterwards
and passed him on the road. He did not see me. He was sitting on a rock looking out
to sea. I never forgot his posture. And yet it was a common one. You used to have
it sometimes. Perhaps just the stillness, as if he had been turned to stone. I could
never make it out.

[
Pause.
]

HENRY:
Keep on, keep on! [
Imploringly.
]
Keep it going, Ada, every syllable is a second gained.

ADA:
That’s all, I’m afraid. [
Pause.
]
Go on now with your father or your stories or whatever you were doing, don’t mind
me any more.

HENRY:
I can’t! [
Pause.
]
I can’t do it any more!

ADA:
You were doing it a moment ago, before you spoke to me.

HENRY:
[
Angrily.
]
I can’t do it any more now! [
Pause.
]
Christ!

[
Pause.
]

ADA:
Yes, you know what I mean, there are attitudes remain in one’s mind for reasons that
are clear, the carriage of a head for example, bowed when one would have thought it
should be lifted, and vice versa, or a hand suspended in mid-air, as if unowned. That
kind of thing. But with your father sitting on the rock that day nothing of the kind,
no detail you could put your finger on and say, How very peculiar! No, I could never
make it out. Perhaps, as I said, just the great stillness of the whole body, as if
all the breath had left it. [
Pause.
]
Is this rubbish a help to you, Henry? [
Pause.
]
I can try and go on a little if you wish. [
Pause.
]
No? [
Pause.
] Then I think I’ll be getting back.

HENRY:
Not yet! You needn’t speak. Just listen. Not even. Be with me. [
Pause.
]
Ada! [
Pause.
Louder.
]
Ada! [
Pause.
] Christ! [
Pause.
]
Hooves! [
Pause.
Louder.
]
Hooves! [
Pause.
]
Christ! [
Long pause.
]
Left soon afterwards, passed you on the road, didn’t see her, looking out to …. [
Pause
.] Can’t have been looking out to
sea.
[
Pause.
]
Unless you had gone round the other side. [
Pause.
]
Had you gone round the cliff side? [
Pause.
]
Father! [
Pause.
]
Must have I suppose. [
Pause.
]
Stands watching you a moment, then on down path to tram, up on open top and sits
down in front. [
Pause.
]
Sits down in front. [
Pause.
]
Suddenly feels uneasy and gets down again, conductor: ‘Changed your mind, Miss?’,
goes back up path, no sign of you. [
Pause.
]
Very unhappy and uneasy, hangs round a bit, not a soul about, cold wind coming in
off sea, goes back down path and takes tram home. [
Pause.
]
Takes tram home. [
Pause.
]
Christ! [
Pause.
] ‘My dear Bolton ….’ [
Pause.
]
‘If it’s an injection you want, Bolton, let down your trousers and I’ll give you one,
I have a panhysterectomy at nine,’ meaning of course the
anaesthetic
. [
Pause.
]
Fire out, bitter cold, white world, great trouble, not a sound. [
Pause.
]
Bolton starts playing with the curtain, no, hanging, difficult to describe, draws
it back no, kind of gathers it towards him and the moon comes
flooding in, then lets it fall back, heavy velvet affair, and pitch black in the room,
then towards him again, white, black, white, black, Holloway: ‘Stop that for the love
of God, Bolton, do you want to finish me?’ [
Pause.
]
Black, white, black, white, maddening thing. [
Pause.
]
Then he suddenly strikes a match, Bolton does, lights a candle, catches it up above
his head, walks over and looks Holloway full in the eye. [
Pause.
] Not a word, just the look, the old blue eye, very glassy, lids worn thin, lashes
gone, whole thing swimming, and the candle shaking over his head. [
Pause.
]
Tears? [
Pause.
Long
laugh.
]
Good God no! [
Pause.
]
Not a word, just the look, the old blue eye, Holloway: ‘If you want a shot say so
and let me get to hell out of here.’ [
Pause.
]
‘We’ve had this before, Bolton, don’t ask me to go through it again.’ [
Pause.
]
Bolton: ‘Please!’ [
Pause.
]
‘Please!’ [
Pause.
]
‘Please, Holloway!’ [
Pause.
]
Candle shaking and guttering all over the place, lower now, old arm tired takes it
in the other hand and holds it high again, that’s it, that was always it, night, and
the embers cold, and the glim shaking in your old fist, saying, Please! Please! [
Pause.
]
Begging. [
Pause.
]
Of the poor. [
Pause.
]
Ada! [
Pause.
]
Father! [
Pause.
]
Christ! [
Pause.
]
Holds it high again, naughty world, fixes Holloway, eyes drowned, won’t ask again,
just the look, Holloway covers his face, not a sound, white world, bitter cold, ghastly
scene, old men, great trouble, no good. [
Pause.
] No good. [
Pause.
]
Christ! [
Pause.
Shingle
as
he
gets
up.
He
goes
towards
sea.
Boots
on
shingle.
He
halts.
Pause.
Sea
a
little
louder.
]
On. [
Pause.
He
moves
on.
Boots
on
shingle.
He
halts
at
water’s
edge.
Pause.
Sea
a
little
louder.
]
Little book. [
Pause.
]
This evening …. [
Pause.
] Nothing this evening. [
Pause.
]
Tomorrow … tomorrow … plumber at nine, then nothing. [
Pause.
Puzzled.
]
Plumber at nine? [
Pause.
]
Ah yes, the waste. [
Pause.
]
Words. [
Pause.
]
Saturday … nothing. Sunday … Sunday … nothing all day. [
Pause.
]
Nothing, all day nothing. [
Pause.
] All day all night nothing. [
Pause.
]
Not a sound.

Written in French in late 1961. First published in English as ‘Sketch for Radio Play’
in
Stereo
Headphones,
no. 7 (Spring 1976).

HE:
[
Gloomily.
] Madam.

SHE:
Are you all right? [
Pause.
] You asked me to come.

HE:
I ask no one to come here.

SHE:
You suffered me to come.

HE:
I meet my debts.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
I have come to listen.

HE:
When you please.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
May I squat on this hassock? [
Pause.
]
Thank you. [
Pause.
]
May we have a little heat?

HE:
No, madam.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
Is it true the music goes on all the time?

HE:
Yes.

SHE:
Without cease?

HE:
Without cease.

SHE:
It’s unthinkable! [
Pause.
]
And the words too? All the time too?

HE:
All the time.

SHE:
Without cease?

HE:
Yes.

SHE:
It’s unimaginable. [
Pause.
] So you are here all the time?

HE:
Without cease.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
How troubled you look! [
Pause.
]
May one see them?

HE:
No, madam.

SHE:
I may not go and see them?

HE:
No, madam.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
May we have a little light?

HE:
No, madam.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
How cold you are! [
Pause.
]
Are these the two knobs?

HE:
Yes.

SHE:
Just push? [
Pause.
]
Is it live? [
Pause.
] I ask you is it live.

HE:
No, you must twist. [
Pause.
]
To the right.

[
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Faint.
]

[
Silence.
]

SHE:
[
Astonished.
]
But there are more than one!

HE:
Yes.

SHE:
How many?

[
Pause.
]

HE:
To the right, madam, to the right.

[
Click.
]

VOICE:
[
Faint.
]

SHE:
[
With
voice.
]
Louder!

VOICE:
[
No
louder.
]

[
Silence.
]

SHE:
[
Astonished.
]
But he is alone!

HE:
Yes.

SHE:
All alone?

HE:
When one is alone one is all alone.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
What is it like together?

[
Pause.
]

HE:
To the right, madam.

[
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Faint,
brief.
]

[
Silence.
]

SHE:
They are not together?

HE:
No.

SHE:
They cannot see each other?

HE:
No.

SHE:
Hear each other?

HE:
No.

SHE:
It’s inconceivable!

[
Pause.
]

HE:
To the right, madam.

[
Click.
]

VOICE:
[
Faint.
]

SHE:
[
With
voice.
]
Louder!

VOICE:
[
No
louder.
]

[
Silence.
]

SHE:
And– [
Faint
stress.
]
—you
like that?

HE:
It is a need.

SHE:
A need?
That
a need?

HE:
It has become a need. [
Pause.
] To the right, madam.

[
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Faint.
]

SHE:
[
With
m
usic.
]
Louder!

MUSIC:
[
No
louder.
]

[
Silence.
]

SHE:
That too? [
Pause.
]
That a need too?

HE:
It has become a need, madam.

SHE:
Are they in the same … situation?

[
Pause.
]

HE:
I don’t understand.

SHE:
Are they … subject to the same … conditions?

HE:
Yes, madam.

SHE:
For instance? [
Pause.
]
For instance?

HE:
One cannot describe them, madam.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
Well, I’m obliged to you.

HE:
Allow me, this way.

[
Pause.
]

SHE:
[
A
little
off.
]
Is that a Turkoman?

HE:
[
Ditto.
]
Allow me.

SHE:
[
A
little
further
off.
]
How troubled you look! [
Pause.
] Well, I’ll leave you. [
Pause.
]
To your needs.

HE:
[
Ditto.
]
Good-bye, madam. [
Pause.
]
To the right, madam, that’s the garbage—[
Faint
stress.
]—the
house
garbage. [
Pause.
]
Good-bye, madam.

[
Long
pause.
Sound
of
curtains
violently
drawn,
first
one,
then
the
other,
clatter
of
the
heavy
rings
along
the
rods.
Pause.
Faint
ping—as
sometimes
happens—of
telephone
receiver
raised
from
cradle.
Faint
sound
of
dialling.
Pause.
]

Hello … Miss … is the doctor … ah … yes … he to call
me … Macgillycuddy … Mac-gilly-cuddy … right … he’ll know … and Miss … Miss! … urgent
… yes! … [
Shrill.
] … most urgent!

[
Pause.
Receiver
put
down
with
same
faint
ping.
Pause.
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Faint.
]

HE:
[
With
music
.]
Good God!

MUSIC:
[
Faint.
]

[
Silence.
Pause.
Click.
]

VOICE:
[
Faint.
]

HE:
[
With
voice,
shrill.
]
Come on! Come on!

VOICE:
[
Faint.
]

[
Silence.
]

HE:
[
Low.
]
What’ll I do? [
Pause.
Faint
ping
of
receiver
raised
again.
Faint
dialling.
Pause.
]
Hello … Miss …
Macgillycuddy
… Mac-gilly-cuddy … right … I’m sorry but … ah … yes … of course … can’t reach him
… no idea … understand … right … immediately … the moment he gets back … what? … [
Shrill.
] … yes! … I told you so! … most urgent! … most urgent! … [
Pause.
Low.
]
Slut!

[
Sound
of
receiver
put
down
violently.
Pause.
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Faint.
Brief.
]

[
Silence.
Click.
]

VOICE:
[
Faint.
Brief.
]

HE:
[
With
voice,
shrill
.] It’s crazy! Like one!

[
Telephone
rings.
Receiver
raised
immediately,
not
more
than
a
second’s
ring.
]

HE:
[
With
music
and
voice.
]
Yes … wait … [
Music
and
voice
silent.
Very
agitated.
]
Yes … yes … no matter … what the trouble is? … they’re ending … ENDING … this morning
… what? … no! … no question! … ENDING I tell you … nothing what? … to be done? … I
know there’s nothing to be done… what?… no! … it’s me … ME … what? I tell you they’re
ending … ENDING … I can’t stay like that after … who? … but she’s left me … ah for
God’s sake … haven’t they all left me? … did you not know that? … all left me … sure?
… of course I’m sure …
what? … in an hour? … not before? … wait … [
Low.
] … there’s more … they’re together … TOGETHER … yes … I don’t know … like … [
Hesitation.
] … one  … the breathing … I don’t know … [
Vehement.
]
… no! … never! … meet? … how could they meet? … what? … what are all alike? … last
what? … gasps? … wait … don’t go yet … wait! … [
Pause.
Sound
of
receiver
put
down
violently.
Low.
]
Swine!

[
Pause.
Click.
]

MUSIC:
[
Failing.
]

[
Telephone rings. Receiver immediately raised
.
]