Endgame Act Without Words I (4 page)

It’s too soon on top of your tonic, it wouldn’t act.

HAMM
In the morning they brace you up and in the evening they calm you down. Unless it’s the other way round.

[
Pause.
]

That old doctor, he’s dead naturally?

CLOV
He wasn’t old.

HAMM
But he’s dead?

CLOV
Naturally.

[
Pause.
]

You
ask
me
that?

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
Take me for a little turn.

[
Clov goes behind the chair and pushes it forward.
]

Not too fast!

[
Clov pushes chair.
]

Right round the world!

[
Clov pushes chair.
]

Hug the walls, then back to the center again.

[
Clov pushes chair.
]

I was right in the center, wasn’t I?

CLOV
[
pushing
] Yes.

HAMM
We’d need a proper wheel-chair. With big wheels. Bicycle-wheels!

[
Pause.
]

Are you hugging?

CLOV
[
pushing
] Yes.

HAMM
[
groping for wall
] It’s a lie! Why do you lie to me?

CLOV
[
bearing closer to wall
] There! There!

HAMM
Stop!

[
Clov stops chair close to back wall. Hamm lays his hand against wall.
]

Old wall!

[
Pause.
]

Beyond is the . . . other hell.

[
Pause. Violently.
]

Closer! Closer! Up against!

CLOV
Take away your hand.

[
Hamm withdraws his hand. Clov rams chair against wall.
]

There!

[
Hamm leans towards wall, applies his ear to it.
]

HAMM
Do you hear?

[
He strikes the wall with his knuckles.
]

Do you hear? Hollow bricks!

[
He strikes again.
]

All that’s hollow!

[
Pause. He straightens up. Violently.
]

That’s enough. Back!

CLOV
We haven’t done the round.

HAMM
Back to my place!

[
Clov pushes chair back to center.
]

Is that my place?

CLOV
Yes, that’s your place.

HAMM
Am I right in the center?

CLOV
I’ll measure it.

HAMM
More or less! More or less!

CLOV
[
moving chair slightly
] There!

HAMM
I’m more or less in the center?

CLOV
I’d say so.

HAMM
You’d say so! Put me right in the center!

CLOV
I’ll go and get the tape.

HAMM
Roughly! Roughly!

[
Clov moves chair slightly.
]

Bang in the center!

CLOV
There!

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
I feel a little too far to the left.

[
Clov moves chair slightly.
]

Now I feel a little too far to the right.

[
Clov moves chair slightly.
]

I feel a little too far forward.

[
Clov moves chair slightly.
]

Now I feel a little too far back.

[
Clov moves chair slightly.
]

Don’t stay there,

[
i.e. behind the chair
]

you give me the shivers.

[
Clov returns to his place beside the chair.
]

CLOV
If I could kill him I’d die happy.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
What’s the weather like?

CLOV
As usual.

HAMM
Look at the earth.

CLOV
I’ve looked.

HAMM
With the glass?

CLOV
No need of the glass.

HAMM
Look at it with the glass.

CLOV
I’ll go and get the glass.

[
Exit Clov.
]

HAMM
No need of the glass!

[
Enter Clov with telescope.
]

CLOV
I’m back again, with the glass.

[
He goes to window right, looks up at it.
]

I need the steps.

HAMM
Why? Have you shrunk?

[
Exit Clov with telescope.
]

I don’t like that, I don’t like that.

[
Enter Clov with ladder, but without telescope.
]

CLOV
I’m back again, with the steps.

[
He sets down ladder under window right, gets up on it, realizes he has not the telescope, gets down.
]

I need the glass.

[
He goes towards door.
]

HAMM
[
violently
] But you have the glass!

CLOV
[
halting, violently
] No, I haven’t the glass!

[
Exit Clov.
]

HAMM
This is deadly.

[
Enter Clov with telescope. He goes towards ladder.
]

CLOV
Things are livening up.

[
He gets up on ladder, raises the telescope, lets it fall.
]

I did it on purpose.

[
He gets down, picks up the telescope, turns it on auditorium.
]

I see . . . a multitude . . . in transports . . . of joy.

[
Pause.
]

That’s what I call a magnifier.

[
He lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm.
]

Well? Don’t we laugh?

HAMM
[
after reflection
] I don’t.

CLOV
[
after reflection
] Nor I.

[
He gets up on ladder, turns the telescope on the without.
]

Let’s see.

[
He looks, moving the telescope.
]

Zero . . .

[
he looks
]

. . . zero . . .

[
he looks
]

. . . and zero.

HAMM
Nothing stirs. All is—

CLOV
Zer—

HAMM
[
violently
] Wait till you’re spoken to!

[
Normal voice.
]

All is . . . all is . . . all is what?

[
Violently.
]

All is what?

CLOV
What all is? in a word? Is that what you want to know? Just a moment.

[
He turns the telescope on the without, looks, lowers the telescope, turns towards Hamm.
]

Corpsed.

[
Pause.
]

Well? Content?

HAMM
Look at the sea.

CLOV
It’s the same.

HAMM
Look at the ocean!

[
Clov gets down, takes a few steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, turns the telescope on the without, looks at length. He starts, lowers the telescope, examines it, turns it again on the without.
]

CLOV
Never seen anything like that!

HAMM
[
anxious
] What? A sail? A fin? Smoke?

CLOV
[
looking
] The light is sunk.

HAMM
[
relieved
] Pah! We all knew that.

CLOV
[
looking
] There was a bit left.

HAMM
The base.

CLOV
[
looking
] Yes.

HAMM
And now?

CLOV
[
looking
] All gone.

HAMM
No gulls?

CLOV
[
looking
] Gulls!

HAMM
And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon?

CLOV
[
lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated
] What in God’s name could there be on the horizon?

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
The waves, how are the waves?

CLOV
The waves?

[
He turns the telescope on the waves.
]

Lead.

HAMM
And the sun?

CLOV
[
looking
] Zero.

HAMM
But it should be sinking. Look again.

CLOV
[
looking
] Damn the sun.

HAMM
Is it night already then?

CLOV
[
looking
] No.

HAMM
Then what is it?

CLOV
[
looking
] Grey.

[
Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder.
]

Grey!

[
Pause. Still louder.
]

GRREY!

[
Pause. He gets down, approaches Hamm from behind, whispers in his ear.
]

HAMM
[
starting
] Grey! Did I hear you say grey?

CLOV
Light black. From pole to pole.

HAMM
You exaggerate.

[
Pause.
]

Don’t stay there, you give me the shivers.

[
Clov returns to his place beside the chair.
]

CLOV
Why this farce, day after day?

HAMM
Routine. One never knows.

[
Pause.
]

Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore.

CLOV
Pah! You saw your heart.

HAMM
No, it was living.

[
Pause. Anguished.
]

Clov!

CLOV
Yes.

HAMM
What’s happening?

CLOV
Something is taking its course.

[
Pause.
]

HAMM
Clov!

CLOV
[
impatiently
] What is it?

HAMM
We’re not beginning to . . . to . . . mean something?

CLOV
Mean something! You and I, mean something!

[
Brief laugh.
]

Ah that’s a good one!

HAMM
I wonder.

[
Pause.
]

Imagine if a rational being came back to earth, wouldn’t he be liable to get ideas into his head if he observed us long enough.

[
Voice of rational being.
]

Ah, good, now I see what it is, yes, now I understand what they’re at!

[
Clov starts, drops the telescope and begins to scratch his belly with both hands. Normal voice.
]

And without going so far as that, we ourselves . . .

[
with emotion
]

. . . we ourselves . . . at certain moments . . .

[
Vehemently.
]

To think perhaps it won’t all have been for nothing!

CLOV
[
anguished, scratching himself
] I have a flea!

HAMM
A flea! Are there still fleas?

CLOV
On me there’s one.

[
Scratching.
]

Unless it’s a crablouse.

HAMM
[
very perturbed
] But humanity might start from there all over again! Catch him, for the love of God!

CLOV
I’ll go and get the powder.

[
Exit Clov.
]

HAMM
A flea! This is awful! What a day!

[
Enter Clov with a sprinkling-tin.
]

CLOV
I’m back again, with the insecticide.

HAMM
Let him have it!

[
Clov loosens the top of his trousers, pulls it forward and shakes powder
into the aperture. He stoops, looks, waits, starts, frenziedly shakes more powder, stoops, looks, waits.
]

CLOV
The bastard!

HAMM
Did you get him?