Catastrophe Practice (26 page)

Florence remains with her eyes closed
.

Hortense and Anderson watch the dummy Siva
.

Siva unhooks herself from her climbing gear. She goes and sits on Dionysus' bed. She speaks to Dionysus
.

Dionysus has straightened. He seems to be feeling behind his face where there are the strings of his straitjacket
.

Dionysus manages to get out of his straitjacket. It is as if the Moor's rods, that seemed to go through his body, have succeeded in cutting the strings of his straitjacket
.

He comes to the edge of the first floor and faces the audience. He raises his hands. In one of his hands he holds his flute
.

Siva watches him.

In the upper room, left, the Moor, who has been kneeling with his head down facing his stove, right, as if overcome by fumes, now straightens. He sits back on his heels. He watches where the rods go through the bend of his flue-pipe
.

Florence speaks with her eyes still closed
.

Dionysus reaches, with his flute, for the dummy body of Siva hanging in front of the first-floor level. He fails to pull it back to him
.

The real Siva is sitting on the bed behind him
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Dionysus puts his flute down by the edge of the first-floor level. Then he goes back into his room
.

He takes hold of the rods which are sticking through the partition, and pulls them out. He ignores the real Siva
.

Siva watches him
.

She looks up. The other side of the partition from Dionysus, the Moor watches where the rods have been pulled through
.

Dionysus comes to the front of the first floor again and reaches with the rods for the dangling body of Siva
.

The Moor stands. He goes to the hole in his flue-pipe and tries to see through into Dionysus' room. Then he goes to the front of his floor and watches where Dionysus is trying to pull in with the rods the dummy body of Siva
.

Dionysus cannot get the dummy body of Siva in to the first-floor level. He can only push her sideways towards the Moor's room, left
.

Dionysus puts his rods down on the floor. The Moor stretches for, but fails to reach, the dummy body of Siva
.

Dionysus turns back into his room and looks at the real Siva on his bed
.

Upstairs, right, the Moor, having failed to reach the dummy body of Siva, turns and looks at his stove
.

Siva, left, speaks to Dionysus
.

Dionysus turns and looks at the opening to the flue-pipe in his wall
.

Hortense speaks facing the audience
—

The Moor goes to the opening of his flue-pipe again and tries to see through into Dionysus' room
.

Dionysus goes to the hole in the wall and tries to see into the Moor's room
.

Dionysus and the Moor turn and stare at the audience
.

Florence says mockingly
—

She stands. She leans with her fingers on the table in front of her — as if some session has ended
.

The Moor goes and puts his arms round his stove as if he is trying to pull it from the wall. Dionysus comes to the front of the first floor
.

Siva leaves the bed and goes to the hole in the wall in his room and puts her hands in, trying to
stretch it
.

The Moor leaves his stove and comes to the front of the first floor and stretches out his hands to the dummy body of Siva
.

Anderson seems to speak to the audience —

Siva, having failed to stretch the hole from the Moor's flue-pipe, moves back into Dionysus' room, and begins undressing
.

Siva has taken off her mountaineering clothes. Underneath she is dressed like a child gymnast
.

Dionysus picks up his rods at the front of the first floor and tries to push the dummy body of Siva round towards the left again, as if for the Moor to catch hold of it. But the Moor goes back to the hole in his flue-pipe and peers through it. He seems to see Siva, who is in her gymnast's clothes, as if in a peep-show. He turns to the audience
.

Florence, who is standing by her table, left, murmurs
—

She sits behind her table again: as if ready for another session
.

The Moor takes hold of his stove again. This time he manages, with a bang, to pull it, with its flue-pipe, away from the wall of the central partition. He falls back, embracing the stove. Dionysus puts his rods down on the ground. Siva, in her gymnast's clothes, goes to the exit of
the Moor's flue-pipe and puts her hands in it again as if to stretch it
.

Hortense and Anderson watch the audience
.

Siva, with the Moor's stove and flue-pipe removed, has succeeded in stretching the hole through the central partition. She puts her head through. She is looking down through the hole through the floor into the flue-pipe of Anderson's stove, which has been exposed by the Moor's pulling his stove away
.

Anderson comes to the front of the structure and looks up at the dummy body of Siva
.

Dionysus has gone back into his room. It seems that for the first time he is ready to notice the real Siva, who has her back to him and her head through the wall. He stands behind her and lifts her by the hips. He seems to try and help her push through the wall. By wriggling and stretching, she manages to get halfway through. The Moor, facing her, embracing the stove, gazes at her as if he is seeing a vision
.

Anderson, looking up, calls —

Dionysus leaves Siva and comes to the edge of the first-floor level and looks over. Then he picks up his rods
.

The Moor leaves his stove and comes to the edge of the first-floor level and looks at the audience
.

Siva, hallway through the central partition, pushes with her feet. She tries to hold herself up, uncomfortably
.

Dionysus, with his rods, has succeeded in pushing the dummy body of Siva round to the left so that the Moor can get hold of it. The Moor pulls it in on the left side of the partition. He lays it on the ground. Then he pulls the hook out
.

The Moor, having pulled the hook out of the dummy body of Siva, pulls out straw. He throws this over the edge of the first floor to the right. It scatters in and around Hortense's nest, in front of the structure by the footlights
.

Hortense looks down at her nest
.

The Moor stands. He kicks the dummy body of Siva to the edge of the first floor to the left
.

Anderson stares at the audience
.

The Moor goes and stands by Siva's head where the top half of her body is through the central partition. She holds out her hands to him. She seems to be in pain from the uncomfortable
position she is holding
.

The Moor does not take her hands
.

Hortense tidies her nest: then goes and sits on Anderson's bed with her head in her hands. Anderson looks up at the hook which the Moor has taken out of the dummy body of Siva and which is now swinging free in front of the first-floor level
.