Kaspar and Other Plays (8 page)

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Authors: Peter Handke

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BOOK: Kaspar and Other Plays
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VI
When this does not get him anywhere, he gets up. First he tries getting up all at once. He fails. Halfway up, he falls down again. On the second attempt he gets almost all the way up, only to fall once more. Now he laboriously draws his legs out from under him, during which process, his toes get caught on the back of his knees. Finally he pries his legs apart with his hands. He stretches out his legs. He looks at his legs. At the same time he bends his knees, drawing them toward himself. Suddenly he is squatting. He watches as the floor leaves him. He points with his hand at the floor which is becoming more remote. He utters his sentence with an air of wonderment. Now he is standing upright, turns his head this way and that, toward the objects on stage, and repeats the sentence:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
 
VII
He begins to walk again, still in an artificial manner, but now more regularly: for example, the feet are turned inward, the knees stiff; the arms hang slack, as do the fingers. He directs his sentence, not tonelessly yet without expressing anything, at a chair. He directs the sentence, expressing with it that the first chair has not heard him, at the next chair. Walking on, he directs the sentence at the table, expressing with it that neither chair heard him. Still walking, he directs the sentence at the closet, expressing with it that the closet does not hear him. He utters the sentence once more in front of the closet, but without expressing anything:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
As though by accident, he kicks the closet. Once again he kicks the closet, as though intentionally. He kicks the closet once more: whereupon all the closet doors open, gradually. The audience sees that the closet contains several colorful theatrical costumes. Kaspar does not react to the movement of the closet doors. He has only let himself be pushed back a bit. Now he stands still until the closet doors have stopped moving. He reacts to the open doors with the sentence:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
 
VIII
The tri-sectioning of events now sets in first, Kaspar moves across the stage, now no longer avoiding each object but touching it
(
and more
)
; second, after having done something to each object, Kaspar says his sentence; third, the prompters now begin to speak from all sides, they make Kaspar speak by speaking. The prompters—three persons, say—remain invisible
(
their voices are perhaps prerecorded
)
and speak without undertones or overtones; that is, they speak neither with the usual irony, humor, helpfulness, human warmth, nor with the usual ominousness, dread, incorporeality or supernaturalness: they speak comprehensibly. Over a good amplifying system they speak a text that is not theirs. They do not speak
to make sense but to show that they are playing at speaking, and do so with great exertion of their voices even when they speak softly. The following events ensue: the audience sees Kaspar walking from the closet to the sofa and simultaneously hears speaking from all sides.
Kaspar goes to the sofa. He discovers the gaps between the cushions. He puts one hand into a gap. He can't extract his hand. To help extract it, he puts his other hand into the gap. He can't extract either hand. He tugs at the sofa. With one tug he gets both hands free but also flings one sofa cushion onto the floor, whereupon, after a moment of looking, he utters the sentence:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
Already you have a sentence with which you can make yourself noticeable. With this sentence you can make yourself noticeable in the dark, so no one will think you are an animal. You have a sentence with which you can tell yourself everything that you
can't
tell others. You can explain to yourself how it goes with you. You have a sentence with which you can already contradict the same sentence.
The prompters stop speaking at about the time Kaspar does something to whatever object he happens to be touching: the sofa cushion falls on the floor at the moment the prompters stop speaking; it functions like a period. Kaspar's sentence after each encounter with an object is preceded by a brief pause.
 
IX
Kaspar walks to the table. He notices the drawer in the table. He tries to turn the knob on the drawer but is unable to. He pulls on the drawer. It comes out a little. He tugs once more at the drawer. The drawer is now askew
.
He tugs at it once more. The drawer loses hold and falls to the floor. Several objects, such as
silverware, a box of matches, and coins, fall out of the drawer. After regarding them for a moment Kaspar says:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
The sentence is more useful to you than a word. You can speak a sentence to the end. You can make yourself comfortable with a sentence. You can occupy yourself with a sentence and have gotten several steps further ahead in the meantime. You can make pauses with the sentence. Play off one word against the other. With the sentence you can compare one word with the other. Only with a sentence, not with a word, can you ask leave to speak.
X
Kaspar walks toward a chair. He tries to walk straight ahead even though the chair is in his way. While walking, he shoves the chair ahead in front of him. Still walking, he becomes entangled in the chair. Still walking, he tries to disentangle himself from the chair. At first he becomes more and more dangerously entwined in it, but then, as he is about to surrender to the chair, he becomes free of it just because he was about to give in. He gives the chair a kick, so that it flies off and falls over. After regarding it for a moment:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
With the sentence you can pretend to be dumfounded. Assert yourself with the sentence against other sentences. Name everything that comes in your way and move it out of your way. Familiarize yourself with all objects. Make all objects into a sentence with the sentence. You can make all objects into
your
sentence. With this sentence, all objects belong to you. With this sentence, all objects are yours.
XI
Kaspar walks toward the small table. The table has three legs. Kaspar lifts the table with one hand and yanks with the other hand on one leg but is unable to pull it out. He turns the leg, first in the wrong direction. He turns it in the right direction and unscrews the leg. He is still holding the table with the other hand. He slowly withdraws the hand. The table rests on his fingertips. He withdraws his fingertips. The table
topples over. After regarding it for a moment:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
To put up resistance. A sentence to divert you. A sentence with which you can tell yourself a story. You have a sentence which gives you something to chew on when you are hungry. A sentence with which you can pretend you are crazy: with which you can go crazy. A sentence to be crazy with: for remaining crazy. You have a sentence with which you can begin to take notice of yourself: with which you can draw attention away from yourself. A sentence to take a walk with. To stumble over. To come to a halt with in mid-sentence. To count steps with.
XII
Kaspar walks toward the rocking chair. He walks around it. He touches it as though unintentionally. The chair begins to rock, Kaspar takes a step back. The chair continues to rock. Kaspar takes one step farther back. The rocking chair stops moving. Kaspar takes two steps toward the chair and nudges it with his foot, making it move slightly. When the chair is rocking, he uses his hand to make it rock more. When the chair is rocking more strongly, he uses his foot to make it rock even more. When the rocking chair is rocking even more strongly, he gives it an even stronger shove with his hand, so the rocking chair is now rocking dangerously. He gives it one more kick with his foot. Then, as the rocking chair is about to tip over, though it is still not quite certain whether it will fall or go on rocking, he gives it a little shove with his hand which suffices to tip it over. Kaspar runs off from the turned-over chair. Then he returns, step by step. After regarding it for a moment:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
You have a sentence you can speak from beginning to end and from end to beginning. You have a sentence to say yes and say nay with. You have a sentence to deny with. You have a sentence with which you can make yourself tired or awake. You have a sentence to blindfold yourself with. You have a sentence to bring order into every disorder: with which you can designate every disorder in comparison to another disorder as a comparative order: with which you can declare every disorder an order: can bring yourself into order: can deny every disorder. You have a sentence of which you can make a model for yourself. You have a sentence you can place between yourself and everything else. You are the lucky owner of a sentence which will make every impossible order possible for you and make every possible and real disorder impossible for you: which will exorcise every disorder from you.
XIII
Kaspar takes a look around. A broom is standing there. He walks to the broom. He draws the broom toward himself with his hand or foot, so that it now leans at a wider angle. He tugs once more at the broom, again increasing the angle. Once more, just a little. The broom begins to slip, and falls. After regarding it for a moment:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
You can no longer imagine anything without the sentence. You are unable to visualize an object without the sentence. Without the sentence, you cannot put one foot in front of the other. You can remember yourself with the sentence because you uttered the sentence while taking your last step, and you can remember the last step you took because you uttered the sentence.
XIV
Kaspar walks toward the one chair that is still upright. He stops in front of it. He remains standing in front of it for the duration of the sentence. Suddenly he sits down. After looking for a moment:
I want to be a person like.
He has obviously been interrupted in mid-sentence.
You can hear yourself. You become aware. You become aware of yourself with the sentence. You become aware of yourself. You come upon something which interrupts the sentence which makes you aware that you have come upon something. You become aware: you can become aware: you are aware.
XV
Kaspar sits there. He is quiet.
You learn to hesitate with the sentence and with the sentence you learn that you are hesitating, and you learn to hear with the sentence and you learn with the sentence that you are hearing, and with the sentence you learn to divide time into time before and time after uttering the sentence, and you learn with the sentence that you are dividing time, just as you learn with the sentence that you were elsewhere the last time you uttered the sentence, just as you learn with the sentence that you are elsewhere now, and learn to speak with the sentence and learn with the sentence that you are speaking; and you learn with the sentence that you are speaking a sentence, and you learn with the sentence to speak another sentence, just as you learn that there are other sentences, just as you learn other sentences, and learn to learn; and you learn with the sentence that there is an order and you learn with the sentence to learn order.
XVI
The stage is blacked out.
You can still crawl off behind the sentence: hide: contest it. The sentence can still mean anything.
XVII
The stage becomes bright. Kaspar sits there quietly. Nothing indicates that he is listening. He is being taught to speak. He would like to keep his sentence. His sentence is slowly but surely exorcised through the speaking of other sentences. He becomes confused.
The sentence doesn't hurt you yet, not one word. Does hurt you. Every word does. Hurt, but you don't know that that which hurts you is a sentence that. Sentence hurts you because you don't know that it is a sentence. Speaking hurts you but the speaking does not. Hurt nothing hurts you because you don't know yet what. Hurting is everything hurts you but nothing. Really hurts you the sentence does. Not hurt you yet because you don't know yet that it is. A sentence although you don't know that it is a sentence, it hurts you, because you don't know that it is a sentence that hurts. You.
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
Kaspar defends himself with his sentence:
I want.
I want to be like once.
I want to be a person like once.
Somebody else.
Like a person else.
Somebody.
You begin, with yourself, you, are a, sentence you, could form, of yourself, innumerable, sentences, you sit, there but, you don't, know that, you sit there. You don't sit, there because you, don't know that, you sit there you, can form, a sentence, of yourself, you sit in, your coat, is buttoned, the belt, on your, pants is, too loose, you have, no shoelace you, have no, belt your coat, is unbuttoned, you are not even, there you, are an un, loosed shoe, lace. You cannot defend yourself against any sentence:
He still maintains his sentence:
I want to be a person like somebody else was once.
He defends himself again:
Was I.
Somebody else like else.
Somebody else a person.
Be like I.
I be I.
Somebody was.
Be one.
I a person.
I want somebody else.
Like somebody else somebody.
Once like somebody.
Was somebody.
Like once.
I want to be somebody like.
The shoelace hurts you. It does not hurt you because it is a shoelace but because you lack the word for it, and the difference between the tight and the loose shoelace hurts you because you don't know the difference between the tight and the loose shoelace. The coat hurts you, and the hair hurts you. You, although you don't hurt yourself, hurt yourself. You hurt yourself because you don't know what is you. The table hurts you, and the curtain hurts you. The words that you hear and the words that you speak hurt you. Nothing hurts you because you don't know what hurting is, and everything hurts, you don't know what anything means. Because you don't know the name of anything, everything hurts you even if you don't know that it hurts you because you don't know what the word hurt means:
The first divergence:
I want to be like somebody else like somebody else once was somebody else.
You hear sentences: something like your sentence: something comparable. You can play off your sentence against other sentences and already accomplish something: such as becoming used to the open shoelace. You are becoming used to other sentences, so that you cannot do without them any more. You can no longer imagine your sentence all alone by its self: it is no longer your sentence alone: you are already looking for other sentences. Something has become impossible: something else has become possible:
He resists more vehemently but with less success:
One.
Be.
Somebody.
Was.
Want.
Somebody else.
Somebody else like I like once I want to be.
He resists even more vehemently, but even less successfully:
Waswant!
Somelike!
Someonce!
Some I!
Besome!
Likeonce!
Elsh!
Where are you sitting? You are sitting quietly. What are you speaking? You are speaking slowly. What are you breathing? You are breathing regularly. Where are you speaking? You are speaking quickly. What are you breathing? You are breathing in and out. When are you sitting? You are sitting more quietly. Where are you breathing? You are breathing more rapidly. When are you speaking? You are speaking louder. What are you sitting? You are breathing. What are you breathing? You are speaking. What are you speaking? You are sitting. Where are you sitting? You are speaking in and out:
Olce ime kwas askwike lein.
The prompters address Kaspar very vehemently:
Kaspar utters a very long
e.
Order. Put. Lie. Sit.
Kaspar utters an
n
for not quite as long a duration as the
e.
Put. Order. Lie. Sit.
Lie. Put. Order. Sit.
Kaspar utters a shorter
s.
Sit. Lie. Put. Order.
Kaspar utters a brief, formally difficult,
r.
Order. Put. Lie. Sit.
Kaspar utters a
p,
and tries to stretch the
p
like the other letters, an endeavor in which he of course fails utterly.
Put. Order. Sit. Lie.
Sit. Lie. Order. Stand.
With great formal difficulties, Kaspar utters a
t.
Stand. Sit. Lie. Order.
With great effort, Kaspar utters a
d.
Lies. Stands. Sits. Completely ordered:
Kaspar seeks to produce some kind of sound by means of movements such as stomping his feet, scraping, shoving a chair back and forth, and finally perhaps by scratching on his clothes.
The prompters are now speaking calmly, already sure of their success:
Hear?
Remain?
Open up?
Hear!
Remain!!
Open up!!!
Kaspar tries with all his strength to produce a single sound. He tries it with his hands and feet. He cannot do it. His strenuous movements become weaker and weaker. Finally he stops moving altogether. Kaspar has finally been silenced. His sentence has been exorcised. Several moments of quiet.
The prompters let him mutely exert himself.

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