Catastrophe Practice (24 page)

The music stops
.

After a time, a bright light comes on in the upper room, right
.

This room is white-tiled; as if in a hospital, or a madhouse
.

There is just a bed, with no sheets or blankets, against the wall at the back
.

On the bed there is the man previously glimpsed, Dionysus, sitting facing front, wearing a straitjacket
.

There is the lamp-wire from the ceiling hanging down in a loop above his head
.

High up in the wall, right, there is what seems to be a boarded-up grille, or skylight, to the disused shaft, right
.

On the left there is a hole, dirty, halfway up the central partition, where the flue-pipe from the Moor's stove comes out
.

(This hole, owing to the central partition, some of the audience in the left half have difficulty in seeing; just as the other half have some difficulty in seeing where the Moor's flue-pipe goes into the wall on the right.)

Dionysus gazes out above the audience. Then he smiles
.

He stands
.

No hands!

Then he prances, in his straitjacket, sideways, to the left, like someone in a ballet; being careful to keep his front to the audience
.

When he comes to the central partition, he puts his ear against the wall just behind the opening to the Moor's flue-pipe and purses his lips by the hole as if he were playing a flute
.

Then he straightens
.

It comes in here —

He looks up at the boarded-up grille, or skylight, top right
.

Goes out there —

He looks at the audience
.

Or does it.

After a time he prances, still taking care to keep his front to the audience, to the wall, right, where he stands underneath the skylight
.

Sometimes they put a pea in it.

He looks up at the boarded-up skylight.

I'm a bird. I'm a camel —

He opens his mouth
.

Then he looks at the audience.

I don't want to be forcibly fed.

Then he prances back to his bed, taking care to keep his front turned to the audience
.

He stands in front of the bed
.

I've got this method, see, of getting up to the ceiling. I put my head through that noose. Then after a time — Hooray! I see such visions!

He throws his head back as if in ecstasy
.

Then he sits on the bed.

Huts. Watchtowers. Ladies and gentlemen on the grass.

He watches the audience
.

Twinkle, tinkle cow bells.

He waits
.

I think it's something to do with the man next door —

He seems to be searching about amongst the audience
.

Half a lifetime in the Russian Civil Service —

He waits.

Every time he farts a couple of noughts are knocked off —

He waits
.

Is it you — Is it you —

He waits
.

Da da di dum dum. Da da di da —

He seems to search amongst the audience
.

Like seeds. Like parachutes —

He waits
.

Poor little thing, it hasn't got any arms —

He waits
.

Poor little thing, it's only got two heads —

He stands. He closes his eyes. He acts
—

— I'm going to take you to a cell at the bottom of the garden and I'm going to say —

He waits
.

Light! Light!

He faces the audience
.

Let it have — how many?

After a time it becomes apparent that he is not watching the audience, but the vertical plane above the footlights as if it were a wall
.

I know they wanted this baby —

After a time, the voice of the Moor is heard from the darkness of the room next door. It is as if he were reading to himself; and trying to understand, or memorise, the dialogue in a play
.

Yes?

Got the wire?

He waits
.

Got the pincers?

Got the anaesthetic?

Dionysus remains facing the plane above the footlights
.

The Moor's voice continues as if reading —

I was sitting one day when two masked men came and tied me to a chair —

Dionysus stands by his bed. He looks up at the wire that hangs from the ceiling
.

The Moor's voice continues —

Act four scene one —

— My lord, what is your will, your pleasure — ?

Dionysus climbs, with difficulty, on to his bed. As he does this it can be seen that there is a flute held within the strings of the straitjacket behind his back
.

The Moor's voice continues
—

— They were dressed in a belt, black
stockings, and those conical hats, you know, like witches —

Dionysus, on his bed, begins to try, with difficulty, to get his head through the loop of the wire
.

— I understand your words but not the meaning of your words —

Dionysus manages to get his head through the loop. He faces the audience
.

The Moor's voice continues
—

We took the child, in its pram, to the airport —

Dionysus jerks, with his head, on the wire that goes up through the ceiling
.

The light on the ceiling of the Moor's room comes on. The Moor is sitting on his stove, facing left, as if it were a lavatory. He is holding open on his lap a large volume, as if it were from this that he has been reading
.

He looks up
.

Dionysus remains with his head through the loop
.

After a time the Moor closes the book, closes his eyes, and says as if he were trying to learn something by heart
—

Tongue, nose, liver, heart-beat —

He opens the book, seems to read
—

Parliament, Church, Army, Civil Service — He closes the book; closes his eyes again —

Ball, cock, breastplate, anus —

He opens the book; seems to read
—

Murder, rape, war, Mummy —

He stares at the book He seems to think
.

Then —

— Keep the palm of the hand flat. The central finger carefully extended —

He closes his eyes: looks up
.

Police, perfection, piles, prostitution —

After a time he pulls back his robe where he is sitting and looks down as if into a lavatory. He replaces his robe. He stares to his front
.

After a time Dionysus jerks on the wire round his head. Nothing happens
.

They wait
.

Downstairs Hortense has remained on top of Anderson on his back on the bed. She pulls at the rod which seems to be through his eye
.

Hortense climbs, stiffly, off Anderson. She comes to the front of the stage and looks down at her nest
.

Hortense goes to Anderson's stove and takes off the lid and looks inside
.

Upstairs the Moor speaks with his eyes closed
.

Yes?

These old buggers are made of concrete —

He looks down at his book
.

Hortense leaves the lid of the stove off. She goes back to the bed. She takes hold of the rods that go up through the flue-pipe and tries again to pull them from Anderson's eye
.

Hortense seems to give up trying to pull the rods from Anderson's eye. She walks round the room
.

They seem to quote
—

Upstairs, Dionysus takes his head out of the noose. He climbs down from his bed. He goes and puts his ear against the central partition
.

He waits. He looks at the audience
.

Did you hear him?

Hortense speaks walking round the room
.

Hortense goes to the table and looks down at the instruments and slides
.

Dionysus leaves the central partition and comes to the edge of the first floor. He looks down
.

The voice of a young girl, Siva, is heard off-stage, right
—

Hortense looks up
.

He looks towards the right
.

Hortense comes to the edge of the structure and looks down at her nest
.

Upstairs the Moor has opened his book He continues as if reading
—

The Moor closes his book closes his eyes
.

He goes and stands with his back against the central partition, covering the exit to the Moor's flue-pipe. Then he looks up at the boarded-up skylight, right
.

Hortense goes back to the bed and sits again straddling Anderson. She takes hold of the rods as if to try again to pull them out of his eye. From above, Dionysus shouts
—

With a jerk, Hortense seems to manage to get the rods out of Anderson's eye
.

The top of them seem to go up into the Moor where he is sitting on his stove, above, as if on a lavatory
.

Everything becomes still. It is as if the Moor is transfixed
.

Then a faint roaring and shaking begins, as if from the pipes at the back of Anderson's room. Anderson, with the rods out of his eye and up the pipe, closes the inspection plate
.

The pipes at the back of Anderson's room and the stove in the Moor's room begin to glow. The other lights fade
.

Hortense gets off Anderson, goes to his stove, opens the lid, and looks inside
.

Steam pours out
.

Hortense puts the lid back on the stove. She sits on it
.

After a time steam begins seeping out as if from the Moor in the room above
.

The Moor gets off his stove. He pulls at the rods which are sticking out of the top of the stove. The voice of a girl, Siva, is heard again off-stage from the right, amplified
—

The Moor has lifted the rods up out of his stove. Then he puts the lid on it again and sits on it. The shaking in the structure gets more violent. Dionysus, in his room, right, is pressing his back against the central partition as if to stop the steam coming out of the exit there from the Moor's flue-pipe
.

There is a small explosion in the Moor's stove. A hole seems to have been blown in the bend of the Moor's flue-pipe where it turns to go through to Dionysus' room. Steam pours out into the Moor's room from this hole
.