Peter and Alice (8 page)
Authors: John Logan
PETER
: I went there later, Mrs. Hargreaves. The water is placid.
BARRIE
: They stepped into the water togetherâ¦
PETER
: Witnesses saw two men holding each other, not struggling, quite still in the waterâ¦
PETER PAN
:
The most haunting time to see the mermaids is at the turn of the moon, when they utter strange wailing cries; but the lagoon is dangerous for mortals thenâ¦
BARRIE
: The distance from bank to bank is too small for the question of swimming capacity to enter into it at allâ¦
MICHAEL
:
Two small figures were beating against the rock; the girl had fainted and lay on the boy's arms. With a last effort, Peter pulled her up the rock and then lay down beside her. He knew that they would soon be drownedâ¦
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
:
Wendy was crying for this was the first tragedy she had seenâ¦
PETER PAN
:
Peter had seen many tragedies; but he had forgotten them allâ¦
PETER
:
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submergedâ¦
BARRIE
: They were not struggling. They were not trying to save each otherâ¦
MICHAEL
:
By and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moonâ¦
BARRIE
: Or maybe, Arthur, in the end they did save each otherâ¦
PETER
:
Peter Pan was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at lastâ¦
ALICE
:
A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the seaâ¦
MICHAEL
:
But the next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within himâ¦
PETER PAN
:
To die will be an awfully big adventure!
Lights change
.
BARRIE
stands in shock
.
PETER
is in his own thoughts
.
ALICE
has remained seated
.
PETER
: And you wonder I call it a
lie
? ⦠That play⦠That book.
ALICE
: Oh yes, it's a lie.
PETER
: Maybe there was a time I believed it, but life, Mrs. Hargreavesâ¦
ALICE
: Oh yes.
PETER
: Peter and Alice⦠Shards of youth⦠I'm no more Peter Pan than you're Alice in Wonderland. We are what
life
has made us.
He looks to
BARRIE
.
PETER
: Even he finally had to realize the same thing I have:
the only reason boys don't grow up is because they die
⦠Isn't that true, Uncle Jim?
Beat
.
BARRIE
: It is.
He leaves the stage, and the story
.
PETER
: There are no mermaid lagoons; there are still, deep waters where lonely boys drown themselves. There are no pirate captains; there are trenches and bullets and razor wire. We do not fly, Mrs. Hargreaves, nor could we ever.
PETER PAN
: Speak for yourself!
PETER
: Stop it.
PETER PAN
: Don't you ever get tired of blaming me for your miserable life?
PETER
: You're the glass that distorted everything.
PETER PAN
: Honestly! I fly through the night, skip on the clouds, sing in the forest, fight me some pirates, what harm have I ever done you? If you're broken, you broke yourself. I won't even remember you tomorrow.
ALICE
: You talk to him like he's real.
PETER PAN
: I am real!
PETER
: He's not.
ALICE
: Hard to tell sometimes.
PETER
:
Not for me
.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
: But then you think you're going mad.
PETER PAN
: We're all mad here.
PETER
: Be quiet!
PETER PAN
: Someone get him his mouth guard.
PETER
: He doesn't exist! â (
To
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
.) â
Neither do you! This is demented.
PETER PAN
: You're the expert on that.
PETER
: None of this is real.
ALICE
: I wonder who's more real, Peter Davies or Peter Pan?
PETER PAN
: Bully for her!
ALICE
: In a hundred years no one will ever remember Alice Liddell. And no one will ever forget Alice in Wonderland⦠Now you tell me who's more real.
PETER
: Mrs. Hargreaves⦠We can't live in a fantasy.
Reality may be hard, but it's all we have
.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
:
Wendy felt at once that she was in the presence of a tragedyâ¦
PETER
: Maybe there was a time but⦠The war ditched me really, and then Michael's death. The nightmares are pretty unspeakable. You see, when I close my eyes I see them, my familyâ¦and I feelâ¦
I feel they are waiting for me
. As if I would be
betraying
them if I didn't join them: for we are a family defined by our sadness⦠To this day I'm frightened to close my eyes, because when I do I see them, that line of corpses, lunging for me in the dark⦠My father, gaping in that monstrous leather jaw⦠My mother, falling in the parlor, hand outstretched⦠My brother George, bloody hands gripping the barbed wire tight⦠My brother Michael, eyes staring up, sinking down, reaching for me⦠I see them⦠Even nowâ¦
even now
â¦
He closes his eyes
.
Keeps them closed
.
PETER
: Do you see them?
This is harrowing for him
.
PETER
: I want to hear the mermaids singing to the moon⦠I want to be young, with my brothers⦠I want to be sane again and whole⦠I want⦠I wantâ¦to jump on the wind's back and away we goâ¦
He opens his eyes
.
PETER
: But here we are. Awake again. Into truth.
ALICE
: I can't afford your truth. I need mine.
PETER
: Even if it's not real?
A beat as she gazes at him
.
She finally stands
.
It's a little difficult getting up. She feels her age
.
She looks at him: dead on
.
ALICE
: Shall I tell you about reality, young man? ⦠When my son Alan was killed in the war, and my son Rex was killed in the war, I thought I could not know more suffering. My husband did not recover from the shock, honestly. He did not understand where his boys had gone. He got very old and I with him. He died six years ago, my gallant Mr. Hargreaves. After 46 years of marriage.
Beat
.
ALICE
: It was then I learned the estate was in less than ideal shape. He had not overseen our finances with the acumen I had expected. That fell to me. I found I could no longer afford to keep the staff intact; those seven pretty maids are no more, Mr. Davies. Cuffnells is a large house and expensive to maintain, so I've closed most of the rooms and spend my days in the library, at the top of the house, where there's little heat and it's very drafty⦠As I told you,
I sold Mr. Dodgson's manuscript for the money. Because I had to⦠But what will I sell next year?
Beat
.
ALICE
: My son Caryl and his wife look in on me every now and then, but I bore them so they find excuses to come less and less. My father and mother are long since dead, so too my sisters, so too my friends. No one comes to visit me. I see no one.
I am alone
⦠Do you know what it is to be 80 years old and sick and alone? Do you know that truth, Mr. Davies?
Beat
.
ALICE
: And if I sit there in that room at the top of the house and I think about my life and if I shut my eyes from time to time and imagine being warm in the summer and I hear the bees buzzing and for a moment I truly am Alice in Wonderland, do you have the heart to tell me I'm not?
She advances on him:
ALICE
: I can be the lonely old woman in the drafty room or I can be Alice in Wonderlandâ¦
I choose Alice
.
Beat
.
ALICE
: So, now the choice is yours.
PETER
: I don't know what you mean.
ALICE
: It's your life. Not Mr. Barrie's. Not your brother's. Yours⦠So choose.
PETER
: What would you have me do?
ALICE
: I would have you live.
PETER
: Believe in fairies?
ALICE
: Why not?
PETER
: Dance to the pipes in the deep, dark woods?
ALICE
: Take my hand. We'll go together.
She holds out her hand
.
He looks at her
.
At her outstretched hand
.
ALICE
: I'm a dying old lady, not much loved by anyone⦠But I know the way to Wonderland.
He longs to
.
More than anything
.
But he can't
.
His heart breaks
.
PETER
: I have grown up.
The backroom of the bookshop reforms around them
.
Fantasy and memory are banished
.
Exceptâ¦
PETER PAN
and
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
remain with them, on the fringes, like ghosts, like shadows, watching
.
ALICE
hears voices off
.
She glances through the door into the bookshop
.
ALICE
: I believe they're ready for us, Mr. Davies.
PETER
: Ohâ¦of course.
ALICE
: I'll see you inside then.
She steps to exit into the bookshop
.
But then she stops in the doorway, looks back at
PETER
.
Almost as if she has one more thing to say
.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
: (
To
PETER PAN
.) Two years later, Alice Liddell Hargreaves died peacefully in her sleep.
ALICE
exits into the bookshop.
PETER
starts to follow her. He turns
.
PETER PAN
: (
To
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
.) Some years after that, Peter Llewelyn Davies walked down into the Sloane Square tube station and threw himself in front of a train.
PETER
stands for a moment, looking at
PETER PAN
.
PETER PAN
leans forward, yearning
.
PETER
turns and leaves, slamming the door behind him
.
PETER PAN
turns to
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
.
Blackout
.
The End
.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR | |
 | RED 9781840029444 âThere is only one thing I fear in life, my friend... One day the black will swallow the red.' Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing. |
Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and
Winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play.
“A fresh, exciting portrait of a brilliant mind.”
Ben Brantley,
The New York Times
“Smart and scintillating. RED deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: the exhilaration of the act.”
John Lahr,
The New Yorker
“An electrifying new play.”
Marilyn Stasio,
Variety
“Plays about painters are fraught with difficulty. Either the hero preaches about art without practising it, or the Bohemian lifestyle supersedes the work. But John Logan's play about Mark Rothko overcomes these obstacles with finesse... It's a measure of the play's success that it makes you want to rush out and renew acquaintance with Rothko's work.”
Michael Billington,
The Guardian
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