Catastrophe Practice (19 page)

The light seems to have become steady
.

He murmurs —

And so on.

Then he goes to the old shelter, left, and begins to dismantle it
.

After a time the Char stands, taking the old curtain from her shoulders, and kicks it so that it is along the bottom of the plate-glass window. Then she goes to Harry, at the bar, and seems to whisper in his ear
.

Harry looks behind the bar. Then he climbs up on the bar and looks underneath it. Then he looks round the stage
.

Smudger breaks his pose by the footlights. He goes to the shelter which Bert has been dismantling and takes a chair from it He carries the chair to the back, by the gothic door, where he sits
.

Waldorf breaks his pose. He takes a chair from the shelter and follows Smudger and sits
.

Geordie and Norbert remain where they are: but they glance at each other, uneasily
.

Harry goes and opens the hatch of the food lift
and looks down
.

Then he looks at Sophie
.

It should become apparent, now, that the Barman is no longer on stage; and it is as if Harry has been looking for him
.

Sophie stirs. She stands, rubbing her legs as if they had gone to sleep. She tries to keep her hands over her breasts
.

Then she hobbles over to the chair by the window, right, that the Char has left
.

She stands by it She turns to Harry
.

Harry comes over and sits on the chair, right, facing Sophie
.

Waldorf and Smudger, by the gothic door, left, seem to be acting as if they had stopped acting. They are miming reading newspapers; drinking cups of coffee; tying up shoe-laces, etc. They are half-hidden by the partly dismantled shelter. After a time Sophie and Harry continue —

They suddenly seem overcome by giggles
.

They collect themselves
.

Bert has been watching Waldorf and Smudger
.

Sophie speaks to Harry
.

Bert has picked up Sophie's clothes from the ruins of the shelter. He carries them over and holds them out to her
.

Sophie takes them
.

Then Bert goes over to Waldorf by the gothic door, left, and holds out his hand
.

Waldorf mimes putting down his paper. He speaks as if he is guessing the answer to Bert's question — ‘Got it?'

Bert remains with his hand out
.

Smudger mimes putting his paper down
.

After a time Waldorf holds out his hand and lets fall from it, into Bert's hand, Sophie's brassiere, which he has been holding
.

Bert goes to Sophie and gives the brassiere to her. Sophie takes it
.

Then Waldorf and Smudger go back to their acting of having stopped acting
.

Sophie, with her clothes, goes behind the bar. Norbert and Geordie, who have remained in their poses since the photographer's light went off, now stand, take two of the chairs, and a table, and set them up by the dismantled shelter, left. They sit
.

Geordie says tentatively —

Smudger interrupts —

Geordie and Norbert look round as if to try to find out what they should be doing
.

Waldorf interrupts —

Waldorf and Smudger mime putting their papers down as if they are irritated, or bored
.

The light from beyond the plate-glass window has become brighter
.

Geordie turns and talks to Harry, right
.

The Char goes to the remains of the shelter, left, and takes from it the table which she carries to the right and places as it was at the beginning of Act I
.

Harry and Bert are by the plate-glass window, right. Sophie, behind the bar, has been putting her uniform on
.

The Char collects the remaining four chairs from the shelter, left, and puts them round the table, right. The tables and chairs are now roughly as they were at the beginning of Act I
.

The Char goes behind the bar. She puts on a white coat like that of the Barman
.

Norbert speaks from the table, left, facing the audience
.

Waldorf giggles
.

Bert speaks to Harry —

Harry turns to the bar. The Char watches. A Hostess, in her uniform, moves from behind the bar and goes and stands by the plate-glass window staring out
.

This is the older Hostess who has changed places with Sophie behind the bar — if possible, unseen. Harry stares at her
.

After a time Bert comes to the front of the stage and seems about to speak to the audience. Then he stops. He turns to the plate-glass window
.

He turns to the audience
.

We have seen how comforting can be the suffering of pain —

He walks round the stage as if looking for something on the floor at the back in the corners
.

Now we can see how pain can eliminate —

He comes back to the audience —

— You like it?

He watches the audience. Then he walks along the footlights, looking at the floor
.

— Nothing can be done against moral or
religious principles. The exceptions are children and lunatics —

He conies to where the Barman had left the radio in the first act. He picks it up and faces the audience
.

— Is that your child?

Harry is still staring at the back of the Hostess facing the window, right
.

After a time Smudger, from the back, calls as if he is fed up —

He waits, holding the radio, by the front of the stage
.

Smudger comes forward to the footlights
.

He takes the radio from Bert. He fiddles with the knobs
.

Smudger turns to the plate-glass, right
.

Your baby's dead.

Bert faces the audience
.

Give it your breast —

Smudger hesitates
.

Then he smiles, holds the radio like a child
.

Bert paces around the stage again, stamping on the ground, as if to test whether it is secure
.

There are some who say — We shall not make love upon the stage! But are we then automata —

He stops; facing the plate-glass
.

The subject thinks nothing, feels nothing —

Harry has moved closer to the Hostess at the
plate-glass window, watching her
.

After a time Waldorf, as if fed up, calls loudly from the back —

Smudger answers in the same manner —

He stands. He comes forward to the footlights. He and Smudger face the audience. They act mockingly, as if they think they know what to say
.

They smile
.

Geordie has his head in his hands. Norbert watches him as if he is also in pain
.

The older Hostess turns from the plate-glass window and comes forward She carries her papers
.

She speaks to Waldorf —

Waldorf'seems to think: then to guess —

He smiles. He has described someone like himself
.

The Hostess moves on to Smudger
.

He puts the radio down by the footlights. He raises his arms jokingly
.

Geordie, from the table, left, calls to the Hostess
.

The Hostess moves over to the table, left. She stands by Geordie and Norbert
.

Bert has gone to the plate-glass and has leaned his head against it. He bangs it with his forehead. He calls —