Penelope and Ulysses (17 page)

and I cannot act.

I must wait and see what will happen.

PENELOPE: All victims of war wait

to see what will happen

and hope that they will be spared.

We will not be spared,

and we will not wait to see what will happen.

TELEMACHUS: I must wait for my father.

In the first ten years of his departure from our lives

I grieved and ached to see his face

and to feel his reassurance

that life will return him to us, to each other.

Life did not return him after ten years.

He did not return to us.

Instead we had a plague of men

who have sought the region and you.

And here have they stayed.

Now they are ready to claim illegally and legally

what they think is rightfully theirs.

I tell you, Mother, they will want blood for their wait.

The one you choose will want my blood and later yours.

The others you did not choose will also seek blood.

I feel like a fly caught in the net of the spider.

PENELOPE: You are not a fly, you are a man,

and you are in your life

and therefore able to take the sword.

[
Grasps
and
holds
her
son
by
his
shirt
.]

I love you, my son.

What will happen unless you act

is that you will be killed. And worse for me.

They will make me watch your death,

as they will make you watch

my humiliation and violation.

We are not going to sit here waiting for them to kill us.

Bring me my sword. It is time for war.

A wise man will not seek war,

but when it comes to him,

and all reason has vanished,

then it is time

to cut the destroyers of life with a hot blade.

I am not going to offer you as a sacrifice.

As for me, I will know life

in knowing you have escaped.

It is not your time to die.

This is not the time for you.

Now leave me, my son.

Head to the sea.

There will be a vessel waiting

to take you away from me and Ithaca.

[
They
embrace
.]

TELEMACHUS: Is it true, what the masters say,

that “men’s souls are sinister and black

and the world will always burn with fire and weapons”?
38

I am not leaving you, Mother.

I am not leaving. [
kisses
his
mother
]

PENELOPE: My beautiful son, we have hurt the world.

We have hurt you.

My beautiful son, I could not bear

to not see you for all eternity.

[
They
both
embrace
and
weep

More
noises
are
heard
outside,
men
screaming,
running,
things
breaking
.]

PENELOPE: Bring my sword.

No one will touch you while I live.

Bring my sword.

Let me look outside.

[
Both
go
to
look
outside.

The
noises
stop
and
there
are
only
moans
of
pain
.]

Act VII
The Return
 

Colours of Dawn

TELEMACHUS: Mother, mother!

I can see a beggar coming towards us.

There is something that is familiar about him.

PENELOPE: Let me look. It is probably a trick.

You can’t believe in the appearance of things.

TELEMACHUS: Our dog knows him.

He has removed his beggar clothes and has a sword.

Mother! He is stained in blood.

And mother, the lazy and fat suitors are not moving.

They are all lying still.

[
Much
noise
and
yelling
is
heard
outside
.]

PENELOPE: Telemachus, let me look.

I cannot see what you see;

it is too dark and too many things,

and people are broken outside this door.

When this man comes here, you be ready.

No indecision, for it will cost us

our choice on how we will die.

No hesitation.

My sword will be ready to strike and strike hard.

TELEMACHUS: I sense him to be my father.

I smell the sameness of his blood.

PENELOPE: My son, you were not made for war.

You have the soul of a poet

who seeks refuge in the world of love.

My world and your father’s world has been of love,

and then the world found us

and caught us in its net,

and we became hunters and the hunted,

and still we kept the teachings

of the fool and the lover alive.

Get ready, to hold, hold the last breath.

How sweet life is at the end,

how sweet it is in the beginning.

Get beside me and stay there

for when his sword clashes with mine

he will not aim for you.

If you want love to remain in this world

then you will have to protect it.

[
TELEMACHUS
pick
up
a
sword
and
weeps
.]

TELEMACHUS: I cannot kill. I cannot protect you.

I cannot protect myself.

The ways of the world are not my ways,

and I am ready to leave as I was ready yesterday.

Mother, you have taught me many things

and my most loved teaching of yours

is longing, deep longing.

I cannot kill another.

You taught me to worship and reverence life.

I cannot kill this old man.

He reminds me too much of my father. [
sobs
]

PENELOPE: My son, it is your father and I

who are damned for allowing others

to deceive us into following a war we did not invent,

to allow others to reward us for killing.

As you cannot kill, I cannot do otherwise—I will protect you.

You do not disappoint me, my son.

You are different.

You have gone further,

and may your father and I become your bridge

that will get you across the abyss

and darkness of our world.

We have different responsibilities in love, in life.

Mine is to protect you

and yours is to remain tender

and free from spilling blood.

[
The
stranger
comes
on
stage.
He
is
dressed
as
an
old
beggar.
He
is
older
twenty
years,
since
PENELOPE
has
last
seen
him,
and
he
is
unrecognisable
because
of
his
unkempt
appearance.
He
is
covered
in
blood.
His
body
language
speaks
of
humility
that
time
and
loss
has
taught
him.
He
has
long,
unkempt
hair
and
a
beard
that
is
grey.
But
he
is
still
a
strong
man.

PENELOPE
holds
her
sword
ready
for
battle.
TELEMACHUS
is
beside
her.

He
realises
who
the
stranger
is
and
runs
to
him
.]

TELEMACHUS: Father, Father, Father!

I knew it was you!

[
PENELOPE
is
still
holding
her
sword,
trying
to
pull

her
son
away
from
the
embrace
of
the
stranger
.]

ULYSSES: My son, my son, how beautiful you have grown!

I am told you have not spilled blood like the rest of us.

Your mother has kept your mind and hands

clean from this insanity,

this plague of spiritual decay.

The insanity of foaming dogs,

the wolves, the jackals,

the collectors, the hunters

that see other men’s lives

no more than that of insects.

Insects that they must exterminate.

My son, my son, I am ashamed for what I have done

and for what I have allowed other men

to influence me to do

in the name of gain, profit

and a better world, and the spread

of our civilisation.

Be wary of those who want to change the world

with the spilling of other men’s blood.

[
ULYSSES
weeps
as
he
tries
to
wipe
the
blood
off
his
son’s
clothes
.]

I have stained you with other men’s blood.

I have filled your young life

with so much betrayal and human blood.

PENELOPE: Who are you?

[
She
circles
him
with
her
sword
still
ready
for
battle.
]

Take your hands off my son.

He is innocent and believes the truth and the lies.

[
ULYSSES
moves
forward
to
PENELOPE.

She
puts
the
sword
between
them
.]

ULYSSES: My wife, my love, my lost and found life!

Don’t you remember me?

Have I aged so much

that you do not remember me?

I have not forgotten you.

I have always seen your face in front of me.

The sirens had your face

and they even took on your voice

to try to trick me not to return to you.

All my strength, all my planning,

all my scheming has gone into returning home.

All my waking and sleeping moments

have been filled with wanting,

longing, aching to return to you.

PENELOPE: You keep your distance.

You look like my husband.

Let me see the cut on your knee.

[
ULYSSES
shows
her
the
cut
on
his
knee
.]

Yes, you have that. But that is not enough.

This could be another trick.

You could be evil in disguise.

I am not going to put down my sword,

and unless you have something

more intimate to say about my husband

prepare yourself to battle with me.

No! Because you are playing the cruellest trick on me,

prepare to die!

ULYSSES: Penelope!

[
He
kneels
in
front
of
her
and
puts
down
his
sword
at
her
feet.
]

I am your husband.

It is right that you be sceptical of all

who call themselves your friend, lover, or husband.

I am Ulysses, returned to bring peace and freedom

to you and my home.

I carved for you, your bedhead.

I remember you wanted the forest,

rivers and even the pebbles

carved on our bedhead.

You wanted the tree to remain in the ground

so that it would remain living.

This tree will live as our love does,

and when we have died this tree

will hold us in its roots together.

You told me how the tree

keeps the world together with its roots

and how it gathers the dreams of the heavens

and brings them to us in its breath.

You told me how you believed

that a tree is like a great person

that holds many life forms in it and on it,

the tree where many can find shelter,

dreams and vision.

You told me the tree is your home,

and when I could not be with you,

the tree would bring you my dreams from the sky.

In our youth you were the fire in my soul.

In our old age, you are the inspiration in my heart.

I have returned to find you divinely accomplished,