Rock 'n' Roll (13 page)

MAX
The tankies … How the years roll by. Dubcek is back. Russia agrees to withdraw its garrisons. Czechoslovakia takes her knickers off to welcome capitalism. And all that remains of August '68 is a derisive nickname for the only real Communists left in the Communist Party. I'm exactly as old as the October Revolution …

STEPHEN
I know, you said.

MAX
My life would have been neatly encapsulated if I'd dropped dead in March. From the October Revolution to the dissolution of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When did it start to go wrong?

STEPHEN
1917.

Max's fires are not out. He can still be terrifying. He swings his stick at Stephen, and brings the stick down on the table, smashing a plate or two.

MAX
You haven't earned the right to condescension! You lilywhite turd, I'll let you know when I can take a joke!

Esme has jumped up and come running.

ESME
What's going on?

STEPHEN
It wasn't a joke, Max. I'm sorry if you thought so.

Esme has seen the smashed crockery. She starts gathering it.

ESME
What on
earth—?

MAX
It seems I've devoted my life to a mistake.

STEPHEN
To
correcting
a mistake.

ESME
What are you talking about?!

STEPHEN
(
to Max
) What
I'm
talking about is December 1917, ‘The General Instructions on Workers' Control' in reply to the Petrograd Factory Committees—

ESME
(
furious
) Oh, for God's sake! You're like a couple of children!—

MAX
Factory Committees?

ESME
—and I won't have it in my house!

MAX
You anarchist arsewipe!

ESME
That's enough!

Pause.

STEPHEN
(
meek
) Sorry.

ESME
I thought you were coming to help.

STEPHEN
I am helping.

Esme leaves inward with the bits of crockery.

STEPHEN
(
cont.
) Is it her house?

MAX
Of course not. It belongs to the college. Jesus. And as for you. Christ almighty. The boy stood on the burning deck arguing the small print of workers' control in the Petrograd Factory Committees.

STEPHEN
You asked me. When Soviet Communism collapsed it was further away from the theory than when it started—so I'd say it went wrong at the beginning.

MAX
So forget the civil war, the famines, Hitler, American hegemony—it all went wrong when the workers weren't trusted to manage the workplace. You're not an anarchist, you're a Utopian. I don't know why you joined.

STEPHEN
I don't know why you left. You've still got the hymn sheet. But it's not Communism if the revolutionary elite is giving the orders and the workers are still taking them. That was the core of the matter, since you asked.

MAX
Well, it's not the core of the matter for
us, now\
The working-class vote could make this a socialist country
permanently,
and they voted in millions for the most reactionary Tory government of modern times. We give them crap. They eat crap, they read crap, they watch crap, they have two weeks in the sun, and they're content. Why aren't they angry? That's the core of the bloody matter!

STEPHEN
Then you should be listening to them instead of despising them for their crap tabloids, crap TV, package holidays—no, really, you hate what's happened to this
country—mass culture and yuppy culture, both. The workers have let us down, haven't they? They
jump
to buy their council houses and shares in British Telecom. The Labour Party moved to the left and got trounced—and
you
think the problem is it's not ‘left'
enough.
Well, it's over. Marx read his Darwin but he missed it. Capitalism doesn't self-destruct, it adapts. The tankies are in denial, still looking to the melting snowman of organised labour. The Trots can organise revolutionary demos coast to coast, till you realise it's the same fan-base turning up for every gig. We can get the Tories out by modernising. Eurocommunism wins votes.

MAX
(
angry
) Of course it does. But why call it Communism?

ESME
(
entering
) Who're these people you've invited?

MAX
(
to Esme
) If I said to you ‘I'm a Euro-vegetarian, so I'm allowed lamb chops', would you (a) laugh in my face, (b)—

STEPHEN
Fish pie, Max. Not lamb chops, okay? Fish pie.

ESME
(
to Stephen
) Alice needs you to do your salad dressing.

Esme moves the paper aside, then notices it.

ESME
(
cont.
) Oh—is this …?

STEPHEN
(Yes.)

ESME
(
like Alice
) She looks all right. ‘Candid Candida, the Columnist Who Cuts the Crap …' Poor Nigel. ‘Candida's Carp' … ‘Stamps are going up and you know where you can stick it.' Is that grammar?

STEPHEN
I can see you're going to hit it off.

ESME
Did you show Alice? Here.

STEPHEN
Actually, hide it somewhere till after. There's a big spread on Syd Barrett, she'll go berserk. It describes him as a vegetable with the wild staring eyes of a frightened animal. That's a bit strange when you think about it.

Esme has found the page.

ESME
Oh, God …

STEPHEN
They doorstepped him.

ESME
He looks sweet. ‘A drug-crazed zombie who barks like a dog' … Honestly, are they allowed to do that?

MAX
Who're you talking about?

STEPHEN
Someone Alice knows.

MAX
What's the matter with him?

ESME
Nothing.

STEPHEN
He's a bit turned in on himself, that's all.

Esme stares at Syd's photo.

ESME
He used to be so …

Alice sticks her head in, shouts for Stephen. Esme closes the paper in response.

STEPHEN
Salad dressing.

Stephen leaves. Esme skims the paper.

MAX
(
tired
) What is to be done?

ESME
Don't worry, I'll see to things now.

She folds the paper back to
CANDIDA's
picture, pausing over it.

ESME
(
cont.
) Did you see Nigel's wife's picture?

MAX
(
leaving
) Don't worry, their byline photos are always years old.

ESME
How do you know?

MAX
It's the sort of thing I know.

Max leaves.

Esme ‘hides' the paper in a drawer and goes outside to gather her books. Jan approaches from the garden. He has a briefcase. He sees Esme. He watches her for a moment. Then she sees him.

JAN
Ahoj.

ESME
Oh my God. Jan.

JAN
Yes. Hello.

ESME
Jan.

Esme, carrying her stuff, moves to greet him. They manage an awkward combination of cheek kiss and handshake and second cheek.

JAN
Max didn't …?

ESME
No! No, he didn't. He probably thought he did, but … Oh, come inside, why are you in Cambridge?

She leads him indoors and puts her books down.

JAN
To see Max. He forgets things now?

ESME
A bit.

JAN
Seventy … three, nearly.

ESME
Yes. How long are you …?

JAN
Max said for lunch.

ESME
Of course, but in Cambridge?

JAN
Just to see Max.

ESME
When did you talk to him?

JAN
Yesterday from Prague … and just now from Dr Chamberlain's house.

ESME
Sit down a minute. (
changes her mind
) No, you want to see Max, of course.

JAN
Don't … Don't. There's no hurry now.

Jan sits down and puts his briefcase by him.

JAN
(
cont.
) My first time driving a car in England. Very nice. An adventure. From Stansted.

ESME
You rented a car at the airport? Well, of course you did. I worked that out.

Pause.

ESME
(
cont.) (sudden
) Look, there's some wine.

JAN
No …

ESME
Or …

JAN
No. (
pause: the books
) So, what are you …?

ESME
Oh, just … keeping occupied. Who's Dr Chamberlain?

JAN
You know. Lenka.

ESME
Oh. Lenka. I didn't … She wasn't married in those days.

JAN
(
small laugh
) No, of course not. Oh, you mean when …

ESME
Yes.
What?

JAN
About Max.

ESME
That's what I meant.

JAN
Lenka told me. Her and Max.

ESME
He didn't last.

JAN
Nor did Mr Chamberlain, she said.

ESME
Oh, so, so you're staying with Lenka?

JAN
No. I … stopped to see her …

ESME
Oh—she's the other one to lunch.

JAN
She's coming. She has a pupil, extra tuition … Plutarch.

ESME
So … well, you can stay, of course.

JAN
No, I have to go back.

ESME
(
jumps
) Lunch!—Oh, God—it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter
at all,
but Nigel's just got married—he's my—

JAN
Of course. Nigel. With the cassettes.

ESME
Yes—that Nigel. He's married a journalist. The fact is they were supposed to go to lunch at Alice's and her boyfriend's, for her to, you know, to meet her new—oh, Alice is my—Nigel's and my—

JAN
No, I get it.

ESME
Right. But now it's all happening
here,
because she chickened out.

JAN
Not enough chicken.

ESME
No, she … (
prickly
) Are you making fun of me?

JAN
No. I'm sorry.

ESME
(
pause
) So what's happened?

JAN
(?)

ESME
Don't tell me, then.

JAN
About what?

ESME
I don't know. You phone, you get on a plane, you rent a car, you drive to Cambridge, just to see Max, and you drive back to the airport. That's right, isn't it?

JAN
Yes. It's really nothing.

Alice comes in with a tray of stuff for the table.

ALICE
Oh. Hi. Hello.

ESME
This is Alice. Jan.

ALICE
Hi.

JAN
Yes. Hello.

ESME
(
bright
) Some of the cassettes were Alice's.

JAN
(
enlightened
) Ah. (
He points his finger at Alice.
) ‘Like a Virgin' … ‘A Kind of Magic' …