Read The Collected Shorter Plays Online
Authors: Samuel Beckett
The Collected Shorter Plays (23 page)
GORMAN | They reared her well then just the same bled themselves white for her so they did, poor Mary used to tell us all we were very close in those days lived on the same landing you know, poor Mary yes she used to say what a drain it was having the child boarding out at Saint Theresa’s can you imagine, very classy, |
CREAM | Isn’t that what I’m telling you, reared her like a princess of the blood they did, French now I ask you, French. |
GORMAN | Would you blame them Mr. Cream, the best of parents, you can’t deny it, education. |
CREAM | French, French, isn’t that what I’m saying. |
GORMAN | They denied themselves everything, take the bits out of their mouths they would for their Nelly. |
CREAM | Don’t be telling me they had her on a string all the same the said young lady, remember that Holy Week 1912 was it or 13. |
GORMAN | Eh? |
CREAM | When you think of Simon the man he was don’t be telling me that. [ |
GORMAN | Peace to her ashes Mr. Cream. |
CREAM | Principles, Gorman, principles without principles I ask you. |
GORMAN | Eh? |
CREAM | Wasn’t there an army man in it? |
GORMAN | In the car? |
CREAM | Eh? |
GORMAN | An army man in the car? |
CREAM | In the Crowther blow-up. |
GORMAN | You mean the Lootnant St. John Fitzball. |
CREAM | St. John Fitzball that’s the man, wasn’t he mixed up in it? |
GORMAN | They were keeping company all right. [ |
CREAM | And his aunt Miss Hester. |
GORMAN | Dead then these how many years is it now how many. |
CREAM | She was a great old one, a little on the high and mighty side perhaps you might say. |
GORMAN | Take fire like gunpowder but a heart of gold if you only knew. |
CREAM | Her niece? No recollection. |
GORMAN | No recollection, Miss Victoria, come on now, she was to have married an American and she’s in the Turrets yet. |
CREAM | I thought they’d sold. |
GORMAN | Sell the Turrets is it they’ll never sell, the family seat three centuries and maybe more, three centuries Mr. Cream. |
CREAM | You might be their historiographer Gorman to hear you talk, what you don’t know about those people. |
GORMAN | Histryographer no Mr. Cream I wouldn’t go so far as that but Miss Victoria right enough I know her through and through we stop and have a gas like when her aunt was still in it, ah yes nothing hoity-toity about Miss Victoria you can take my word she has a great chip of the old block. |
CREAM | Hadn’t she a brother. |
GORMAN | The Lootnant yes, died in 14. Wounds. |
CREAM | The bloody cars such a thing as a quiet chat I ask you. [ |
GORMAN | Slipping along what would you want slipping along and we only after meeting for once in a blue moon. |
CREAM | Well then just a minute and smoke a quick one. [ |
GORMAN | When you think, when you think. . . . |
A dramaticule
For John Calder
Flo
Vi
Ru
(Ages undeterminable)
Sitting centre side by side stage right to left Flo, Vi and Ru
.
Very erect, facing front, hands clasped in laps
.
Silence
.
VI | Ru. |
RU | Yes. |
VI | Flo. |
FLO | Yes. |
VI | When did we three last meet? |
RU | Let us not speak. |
FLO | Ru. |
RU | Yes. |
FLO | What do you think of Vi? |
RU | I see little change. [ |
FLO | God grant not. |
RU | On the log. |
VI | Yes. |
RU | How do you find Flo? |
VI | She seems much the same. [ |
RU | God forbid. |
FLO | Dreaming of . . . love. |
VI | Flo. |
FLO | Yes. |
VI | How do you think Ru is looking? |
FLO | One sees little in this light. [ |
VI | Please God not. |
FLO | I can feel the rings. |
Curtain
NOTES
Lighting
Soft, from above only and concentrated on playing area. Rest of stage as dark as possible.
Costume
Full-length coats, buttoned high, dull violet (Ru), dull red (Vi), dull yellow (Flo). Drab nondescript hats with enough brim to shade faces. Apart from colour differentiation three figures as alike as possible. Light shoes with rubber soles. Hands made up to be as visible as possible. No rings apparent.
Seat
Narrow benchlike seat, without back, just long enough to accommodate three figures almost touching. As little visible as possible. It should not be clear what they are sitting on.
Exits
The figures are not seen to go off stage. They should disappear a few steps from lit area. If dark not sufficient to allow this, recourse should be had to screens or drapes as little visible as possible. Exits and entrances slow, without sound of feet.
Ohs
Three very different sounds.
Voices
As low as compatible with audibility. Colourless except for three “ohs” and two lines following.
A piece for television
Joe, late fifties, grey hair, old dressing-gown, carpet slippers, in his room
.
1. Joe seen from behind sitting on edge of bed, intent pose, getting up, going to window, opening window, looking out, closing window, drawing curtain, standing intent
.
2. Joe do. (= from behind) going from window to door, opening door, looking out, closing door, locking door, drawing hanging before door, standing intent
.
3. Joe do. going from door to cupboard, opening cupboard, looking in, closing cupboard, locking cupboard, drawing hanging before cupboard, standing intent
.
4. Joe do. going from cupboard to bed, kneeling down, looking under bed, getting up, sitting down on edge of bed as when discovered, beginning to relax
.
5. Joe seen from front sitting on edge of bed, relaxed, eyes closed. Hold, then dolly slowly in to close-up of face. First word of text stops this movement
.
Camera
Joe’s opening movements followed by camera at constant remove, Joe full length in frame throughout. No need to record room as whole. After this opening pursuit, between first and final close-up of face, camera has nine slight moves in towards face, say four inches each time. Each move is stopped by voice resuming, never camera move and voice together. This would give position of camera when dolly stopped by first word of text as one yard from maximum close-up of face. Camera does not move between paragraphs till clear that pause (say three seconds) longer than between phrases. Then four inches in say four seconds when movement stopped by voice resuming
.
Voice
Low, distinct, remote, little colour, absolutely steady rhythm, slightly slower than normal. Between phrases a beat of one second at least. Between paragraphs about seven, i.e. three before camera starts to advance and four for advance before it is stopped by voice resuming
.
Face
Practically motionless throughout, eyes unblinking during paragraphs, impassive except in so far as it reflects mounting tension of
listening.
Brief zones of relaxation between paragraphs when perhaps voice has relented for the evening and intentness may relax variously till restored by voice resuming
.
WOMAN’S VOICE
Joe . . .
[
Eyes open, resumption of intentness
.]
Joe . . .
[
Full intentness
.]
Thought of everything? . . . Forgotten nothing? . . . You’re all right now, eh? . . . No one can see you now. . . . No one can get at you now. . . . Why don’t you put out that light? . . . There might be a louse watching you. . . . Why don’t you go to bed? . . . What’s wrong with that bed, Joe? . . . You changed it, didn’t you? . . . Made no difference? . . . Or is the heart already? . . . Crumbles when you lie down in the dark. . . . Dry rotten at last. . . . Eh Joe?
