Catastrophe Practice (3 page)

Ackerman comes down the steps
.

Ackerman watches Ariel; then the audience. It is as if, although he finds acting and their scripts increasingly absurd, he hopes the audience may recognise this, and how it is difficult to communicate with them more directly. After a time he takes from his pocket an apple. He turns to Helena and holds the apple out to her
.

Helena, at the front of the stage, puts her hands across her breasts in the attitude of a statue of Venus
.

Helena puts a hand to her head she sways
.

Ackerman puts the apple down carefully on a table
.

Helena takes her hand from her head It is as if she has once more given up acting. She turns to Ackerman
.

After a time Helena turns and walks out through the loggia
.

Ackerman looks at the audience. He murmurs
—

He waits. Then he goes out after Helena, as if he has become too embarrassed
.

After a time Jenny stands, goes to the apple
which Ackerman has put on the table, bends down to it, puts her ear to it, then picks it up and walks around with it
.

She takes a bite out of the apple: then spits
.

Pips!

She examines the inside of the apple
.

Oh Mr Ackerman, what big factories you've got!

She takes another bite: looks at Ariel: speaks with her mouth full
—

What happened, did it get lost in the wash?

She swallows
.

Who are you?

Ariel speaks from lying face down on the sofa
.

He sits up. He looks around the stage. He speaks as if he is more successfully trying to act not acting
.

This place is going to be blown up. They're coming up through the sewers. Rats and frogmen. Breaking down the fences. Leaping up the waterfalls. On to the dry land —

He stands. He goes to the pillars of the loggia, and kicks them. He looks up at the flies
.

Wood! Plastic!

He goes to the balustrade at the back and looks over
.

This is where Angelo fell! Two foot from the bottom! Into the bog! The glory hole! On to a foam rubber sea!

When he looks at the audience, it is as if he hopes that something may be being recognised there
.

Then he goes to the centre of the stage and squats down by what appears to be a crack in the rocks. He puts his fingers in, seeming to be trying to force the rocks apart
.

Jenny watches him
.

Ariel seems unable to get the rocks apart. He looks up at Jenny
.

Jenny puts her half-eaten apple back on the table
.

Then she gets down on all fours
.

Ariel stands. He looks round the stage
.

Ariel looks down at her
.

Jenny stands; then goes and sits on the swing sofa, left. She looks at the audience
.

Jenny begins to take off her dress
.

She seems to quote
—

Jenny, with her dress off, puts her feet up. Ariel goes and pulls the curtains that are round the back and sides of the swing sofa so that Jenny is half hidden
.

Ariel climbs into the swing sofa with Jenny
.

From inside, Ariel tries to draw the curtains round the front of the sofa
.

He manages to draw the curtains so that he and Jenny are hidden
.

The sofa rocks for a time; then is still
.

The backdrop goes blank
.

There are three flashes, as if of lightning, on the backdrop: then after a time, three bangs
.

The backdrop changes to a deep blue
.

There comes on at the front of the stage, right, Judith, a woman in her thirties. She wears a black dress and has bare feet. When she reaches the centre, she stops and looks at the audience. She seems to be someone who has taken refuge on the stage
.

There come in through the auditorium a man and a woman. They might be people who are pursuing Judith. When they see she is on a stage, they seem uncertain. Then they climb on to the stage and adopt the roles of a Footman and a Maid. Judith moves along the balustrade towards the left. The Maid goes to the table, left, on which there is drink and food. She picks up the table so that she seems to bar Judith's way
.

Judith stops. She turns and looks at the loggia. The Footman has gone to the other table, right, so that he seems to be barring Judith's way from the other side
.

Judith comes to the front of the stage and looks at the audience. She takes off the belt of her dress, provocatively
.

The Footman and the Maid put down their tables. They watch
.

Judith goes to the loggia and leans with her back against a pillar. She dangles the belt from her hand. The Footman goes and stands in front of her and holds out his hand
.

The Maid goes to the centre of the stage quickly and squats down by the crack in the rocks and puts her fingers in. Then she looks at the audience. Then she straightens, picks up her table, and carries it out through the loggia, right. The Footman goes and picks up his table and follows her out
.

The backdrop goes blank
.

Judith is left with her belt hanging from her hand
.

After a time Helena appears from behind the loggia. She is pushing a garden chair on wheels. She acts as if she does not see Judith. She wears sunbathing clothes and dark glasses. On the chair there is a basket. She comes to the centre of the stage and puts the chair down carefully over the crack in the rocks. Then s
he sits on the chair and puts her feet up.

The backdrop changes to a bright gold
.

Judith winds up her belt into her hand
.

Helena takes from her basket a half-made tapestry, and needles and thread. She begins to stitch. After a time she puts her stitching down and gazes at the audience
.

She enunciates carefully —

Then she goes back to her stitching
.

There are three loud bangs from behind the backdrop. Helena takes no notice. After a time she looks up
.

She enunciates carefully
—

A fate. A weaver of tapestries.

She closes her eyes
.

After a time she sings, in a faded but passionate contralto, a few bars from the 1 st Norn's song in Wagner's
Götterdämmerung
(‘So gut und schlimm es geh' —')
.

Judith puts her hands over her eyes. Then she looks at the audience and smiles. Then she goes out through the loggia
.

Helena stops singing. She looks in the direction in which Judith has gone. Then she goes back to her stitching
.

From now until the end of the act it is as if the actors are finding and coming to terms with a style — moving between acting a script and not acting, and acting not-acting — which they hope will be, and demonstrate, what they wish to convey
.

After a time the swing sofa begins to rock and bounce
.

Ariel's head pops out through the curtains. He holds the curtains wrapped round his neck as if he were a clown
.

Helena continues with her stitching
.

She jumps, puts a hand to her heart, and acts as if she had been alarmed
.

Ariel climbs out of the swing sofa. He arranges the
curtains carefully so that Jenny cannot be seen. He watches Helena. He murmurs as if quoting—

Helena murmurs —

She is looking down at her finger as if she had pricked it with her needle
.

Ariel waits. Then he seems to prompt her
—

Helena goes back to her stitching
.

Ariel stares at her. Then he moves round the stage. He acts as if quoting
—

Ariel stands looking down at her
.

Helena puts down her stitching. She closes her eyes. She acts as if she is having difficulty with her lines
—

Ariel waits. He seems to prompt her
—

Helena seems to say a wrong line
—

After a time Ariel moves round the stage again. Helena goes back to her stitching
.