Complete Works, Volume IV (13 page)

FOSTER
It's forgotten. You've changed it

HIRST
What is the present subject?

FOSTER
That there is no possibility of changing the subject since the subject has now been changed.

BRIGGS
For the last time.

FOSTER
So that nothing else will happen forever. You'll simply be sitting here forever.

BRIGGS
But not alone.

FOSTER
No. We'll be with you. Briggs and me.

Pause.

HIRST
It's night.

FOSTER
And will always be night.

BRIGGS
Because the subject—

FOSTER
Can never be changed.

Silence.

HIRST
But I hear sounds of birds. Don't you hear them? Sounds I never heard before. I hear them as they must have sounded then, when I was young, although I never heard them then, although they sounded about us then.

Pause.

Yes. It is true. I am walking towards a lake. Someone is following me, through the trees. I lose him, easily. I see a body in the water, floating. I am excited. I look closer and see I was mistaken. There is nothing in the water. I say to myself, I saw a body, drowning. But I am mistaken. There is nothing there.

Silence.

SPOONER
No. You are in no man's land. Which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but which remains forever, icy and silent.

Silence.

HIRST
I'll drink to that.

He drinks.

SLOW FADE

Betrayal

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Betrayal
was first produced by the National Theatre, London, on 15 June 1978, with the following cast:

Directed by
Peter Hall

Designed by
John Bury

The play was produced at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 17 January 1991, with the following cast:

Directed by
David Leveaux

Designed by
Mark Thompson

It was produced in the Lyttelton auditorium of the National Theatre, London, on 24 November 1998, with the following cast:

Directed by
Trevor Nunn

Designed by
Es Devlin

It was produced by the Peter Hall Company at the Theatre Royal, Bath, on 9 July 2003, with the following cast:

Directed by
Peter Hall

Designed by
John Gunter

This production transferred to the Duchess Theatre, London, on 8 October 2003.

It was produced at the Donmar Warehouse, London, on 21 July 2007, with the following cast:

Directed by
Roger Michell

Designed by
William Dudley

It was produced at the Harold Pinter Theatre (formerly Comedy theatre), London, on 16 June 2011, with the following cast:

Directed by
Ian Rickson

Designed by
Jeremy Herbert

CHARACTERS

EMMA

JERRY

ROBERT

In 1977 Emma is thirty-eight

Jerry and Robert are forty.

The play can be performed without an interval or with an interval after Scene Four.

1977

SCENE ONE

Pub. 1977. Spring.

Noon.

EMMA
is sitting at a corner table.
JERRY
approaches with drinks, a pint of bitter for him, a glass of wine for her.

He sits. They smile, toast each other silently, drink.

He sits back and looks at her.

JERRY
Well . . .

EMMA
How are you?

JERRY
All right.

EMMA
You look well.

JERRY
Well, I’m not all that well, really.

EMMA
Why? What’s the matter?

JERRY
Hangover.

He raises his glass.

Cheers.

He drinks.

How are you?

EMMA
I’m fine.

She looks round the bar, back at him.

Just like old times.

JERRY
Mmm. It’s been a long time.

EMMA
Yes.

Pause.

I thought of you the other day.

JERRY
Good God. Why?

She laughs.

JERRY
Why?

EMMA
Well, it’s nice, sometimes, to think back. Isn’t it?

JERRY
Absolutely.

Pause.

How’s everything?

EMMA
Oh, not too bad.

Pause.

Do you know how long it is since we met?

JERRY
Well I came to that private view, when was it—?

EMMA
No, I don’t mean that.

JERRY
Oh you mean alone?

EMMA
Yes.

JERRY
Uuh . . .

EMMA
Two years.

JERRY
Yes, I thought it must be. Mmnn.

Pause.

EMMA
Long time.

JERRY
Yes. It is.

Pause.

How’s it going? The Gallery?

EMMA
How do you think it’s going?

JERRY
Well. Very well, I would say.

EMMA
I’m glad you think so. Well, it is actually. I enjoy it.

JERRY
Funny lot, painters, aren’t they?

EMMA
They’re not at all funny.

JERRY
Aren’t they? What a pity.

Pause.

How’s Robert?

EMMA
When did you last see him?

JERRY
I haven’t seen him for months. Don’t know why. Why?

EMMA
Why what?

JERRY
Why did you ask when I last saw him?

EMMA
I just wondered. How’s Sam?

JERRY
You mean Judith.

EMMA
Do I?

JERRY
You remember the form. I ask about your husband, you ask about my wife.

EMMA
Yes, of course. How is your wife?

JERRY
All right.

Pause.

EMMA
Sam must be . . . tall.

JERRY
He is tall. Quite tall. Does a lot of running. He’s a long distance runner. He wants to be a zoologist.

EMMA
No, really? Good. And Sarah?

JERRY
She’s ten.

EMMA
God. I suppose she must be.

JERRY
Yes, she must be.

Pause.

Ned’s five, isn’t he?

EMMA
You remember.

JERRY
Well, I would remember that.

Pause.

EMMA
Yes.

Pause.

You’re all right, though?

JERRY
Oh . . . yes, sure.

Pause.

EMMA
Ever think of me?

JERRY
I don’t need to think of you.

EMMA
Oh?

JERRY
I don’t need to
think
of you.

Pause.

Anyway I’m all right. How are you?

EMMA
Fine, really. All right.

JERRY
You’re looking very pretty.

EMMA
Really? Thank you. I’m glad to see you.

JERRY
So am I. I mean to see you.

EMMA
You think of me sometimes?

JERRY
I think of you sometimes.

Pause.

I saw Charlotte the other day.

EMMA
No? Where? She didn’t mention it.

JERRY
She didn’t see me. In the street.

EMMA
But you haven’t seen her for years.

JERRY
I recognised her.

EMMA
How could you? How could you know?

JERRY
I did.

EMMA
What did she look like?

JERRY
You.

EMMA
No, what did you think of her, really?

JERRY
I thought she was lovely.

EMMA
Yes. She’s very . . . She’s smashing. She’s thirteen.

Pause.

Do you remember that time . . . oh God it was . . . when you picked her up and threw her up and caught her?

JERRY
She was very light.

EMMA
She remembers that, you know.

JERRY
Really?

EMMA
Mmnn. Being thrown up.

JERRY
What a memory.

Pause.

She doesn’t know . . . about us, does she?

EMMA
Of course not. She just remembers you, as an old friend.

JERRY
That’s right.

Pause.

Yes, everyone was there that day, standing around, your husband, my wife, all the kids, I remember.

EMMA
What day?

JERRY
When I threw her up. It was in your kitchen.

EMMA
It was in your kitchen.

Silence.

JERRY
Darling.

EMMA
Don’t say that.

Pause.

It all . . .

JERRY
Seems such a long time ago.

EMMA
Does it?

JERRY
Same again?

He takes the glasses, goes to the bar. She sits still. He returns, with the drinks, sits.

EMMA
I thought of you the other day.

Pause.

I was driving through Kilburn. Suddenly I saw where I was. I just stopped, and then I turned down Kinsale Drive and drove into Wessex Grove. I drove past the house and then stopped about fifty yards further on, like we used to do, do you remember?

JERRY
Yes.

EMMA
People were coming out of the house. They walked up the road.

JERRY
What sort of people?

EMMA
Oh . . . young people. Then I got out of the car and went up the steps. I looked at the bells, you know, the names on the bells. I looked for our name.

Pause.

JERRY
Green.

Pause.

Couldn’t see it, eh?

EMMA
No.

JERRY
That’s because we’re not there any more. We haven’t been there for years.

EMMA
No we haven’t.

Pause.

JERRY
I hear you’re seeing a bit of Casey.

EMMA
What?

JERRY
Casey. I just heard you were . . . seeing a bit of him.

EMMA
Where did you hear that?

JERRY
Oh . . . people . . . talking.

EMMA
Christ.

JERRY
The funny thing was that the only thing I really felt was irritation, I mean irritation that nobody gossiped about us like that, in the old days. I nearly said, now look, she may be having the occasional drink with Casey, who cares, but she and I had an affair for seven years and none of you bastards had the faintest idea it was happening.

Pause.

EMMA
I wonder. I wonder if everyone knew, all the time.

JERRY
Don’t be silly. We were brilliant. Nobody knew. Who ever went to Kilburn in those days? Just you and me.

Pause.

Anyway, what’s all this about you and Casey?

EMMA
What do you mean?

JERRY
What’s going on?

EMMA
We have the occasional drink.

JERRY
I thought you didn’t admire his work.

EMMA
I’ve changed. Or his work has changed. Are you jealous?