DON JUAN IN FLAMES
A play in two acts
[Copyright by “Società Italiana degli Autori e degli Editori (S.I.A.E.)”]
_______________________________________________________________________________
apply to: Alessandro Balducci – Via Cicco Simonetta, 12 – 20123 Milano – Italy
Phone: (+39)
02.58.10.79.79
www.alfredobalducci.it
–
alessandrobalducci@tiscali.it
Hugh Barty – King – Autumn Cottage – Ticehurst – Wadhurst
In his many years as one of Italy's leading playwrights,
Alfredo Balducci has written some 50 dramas and comedies, eight of which have
won national prizes.
Don Giovanni al
rogo
His
L'equipaggio della Zattera was given
a memorable production at the Piccolo Theatre in Milan; his
L'eredita' at
the Sistina Theatre in Rome; his
I dadi e l'archibugio
(Assault
at
arms
length)
at the
Teatro Stabile in Trieste.
Translations of his works have been made in
english,
french,
spanish,
slovene,
czech,
russian,
romanian,
greek and
serbocroat.
Hugh Barty-King made an
english version of
I dadi e l'archibugio as
Assault
at
arms
length, which was performed at the open-air
Minack Theatre in
Other
english versions of
italian plays by Hugh
Barty-King performed in
FACT AND FICTION
Alfonso
XI, King of Castile, was only a few months old when his father, Fernando IV,
(who had himself become king at the age of nine) died in 1312, and he succeeded
to the throne of Castile,
the large Roman Catholic Christian kingdom in the
centre of Spain, much of which was occupied by muslim arabs from Morocco known
as Moors.
An infant monarch required a
guardian to take care of himself and a regent to take care of his subjects.
Many claimed to be the only person in
The play thus opens two years
later, with the 14-year-old boy-king trying his best to find, with the help of
counsellors, solutions to on-going internal and external problems that could no
longer be left to the wrangling of glory-seeking incompetents whose only aim
was to aggrandize themselves without any concern for the well-being of those
they ruled.
Was the Don Juan in the title
of this play a real person? The
“Don Juan, according to a Spanish story apparently first dramatized by
Gabriel Teller (who wrote under the name 'Tirso da Molina') in
El burlador
de Sevilla and subsequently by Moliere in Le Festin de pière and in
Mozart's Don Giovanni, was Don Juan Tenorio of Seville, Having attempted
to ravish Dona Ana, the daughter of the commander of Seville, he is surprised
by the father, whom he kills in a duel A statue of the commander is erected
over his tomb. Don Juan and his cowardly servant Leporello visit the tomb, when
the statue is seen to move its head. Juan jestingly invites it to a banquet. The
statue comes, seizes Juan and delivers him to devils. Don Juan is the
proverbial heartless and impious seducer”
King
Alfonso XI of Castile, aged 14
Consalvo,
his first minister
1st
Counsellor
2nd
Counsellor
3rd
Counsellor
Mr
Johann, entrepreneur
Vector)
Gurgi )
capitalists
Ladog)
Lucas,
Mr Johann's associate
Don Juan
Tenorio
Catalinon
Dona Ana
Madame
Gorak
Noblemen,
servants, soldiers, businessmen, villagers
[The
stage is divided into two halves. Stage Left we see the interior of a Spanish
church as it appeared in the 14th century when it was built. Stage Right
changes from one scene to another, each of which we recognise however as
belonging to the times we are living in to-day. Each change of scene from Stage
Right to Stage Left, and from one scene to another on Stage Right, is marked
by a brief blackout.
To understand it better, imagine the interior
structure of the nave of such a church being painted on a transparency hanging
Stage Left, which is only lit from behind and made visible when the action of
the play requires it. At all other times it remains dark and invisible.
Stage Right on the other hand is where the
characters act as we do to-day, in contemporary settings. Here will be placed,
according to the requirements of the script, furniture and objects which create
the room, the ambience, in which each Stage Right scene takes place. For the final scene the two halves
of the stage are joined.
The same actor/actress takes the part of 1st
Counsellor and Vector; 2nd Counsellor and Gurgi; 3rd Counsellor and Ladog; Don
Juan and Mr Johann; Catalinon and Lucas; Dona Ana and Madame Gorak.]
ACT I
[Stage Left]
[Inside a 14th century Spanish
church, in which a number of NOBLEMEN stand waiting. The 14-year-old
KING ALFONSO, carrying a horse whip which he is always fiddling
with, and CONSALVO, wearing a cowl, walk in through an upstage opening. They
are followed by his three counsellors VECTOR, GURGI and LADOG also in cowls,
who stop and bow to the king, as do the NOBLEMEN. ALFONSO, playing with his
whip, comes downstage with
CONSALVO, and briefly bobs his head at
the three counsellors lined up behind him].
ALFONSO. I beg you. I
beseech you, Consalvo.
CONSALVO. I beseech
you – to conduct yourself with
the dignity of a king. [pointing
to the counsellors] See those
people? They are your counsellors. Don't let their penitent garb deceive you,
but they deserve your respect.
ALFONSO. Listen to me,
Consalvo.
Please!
CONSALVO. Your majesty! They
are all looking at you. No matter how you behave in the privacy of your closet,
but in your public appearances you cannot afford to lack a sense of occasion,
to give the impression of being insensitive of the seriousness what it is you
are being asked to take part in, the weighty nature of the matters you are
asked to give advice on.
ALFONSO. The meeting is
off – postponed. For an hour. Just one hour alone. That is all I need.
CONSALVO. If I may say
so, your majesty, postponing the meeting would do no more than throwing a
cupful of water on flames that are already blazing.
ALFONSO. Are you trying
to frighten me? What blaze?
CONSALVO.
What blaze?
Fires are roaring away in every corner of
your kingdom your majesty, destroying our traditional way of life down to the
roots, and you ask...
ALFONSO. [interrupting] By the way, Consalvo, I forgot to tell you. What
do you think I found had arrived from
CONSALVO. Not the only
unbridled beast in Castile...There are plenty of them rampaging fast and loose
all over our country, with no one to stop them viciously trampling on your subjects
wherever they ride. They are the ones which need your attention, majesty, not...
ALFONSO. Everything is a
misfortune to you, Consalvo. You hear someone blowing a trumpet, and it is the
Moors invading us. A gaggle of people get together in the square, and you think
they are plotting revolution.
CONSALVO. And with good
cause. Little do you know.of the schemes being hatched all around your throne,
every day, every hour of every day.
ALFONSO. That lovely
beast is still in my stables, and hardly a soul has set eyes on her yet. Only
the best for the King of Castile, is that not right? And the sooner my subjects
can get the message, [con brio] the more
speedily will they come to love me, trust me, obey me.
CONSALVO. Please, your
majesty! They are looking at you..
ALFONSO. When will the
day come when no one looks at me? I long for the day when I can go about
without being watched by nobles, military instructors, schoolmasters,
archbishops, ambassadors. When will that day come, Consalvo?
CONSALVO. Ah! Here they
come [he
looks off Left].
Gird
up your loins – and your thoughts. These are the people, the most powerful
members of our hereditary nobility, come to learn what you have in mind for the
protection of our country from its enemies, your plan to rescue it from its
seemingly endless internal turmoil. Your counsellors over there will help and
guide you, but it is to
you to whom
these
noblemen, on whose loyalty you so desperately depend, will look to for clear
and firm leadership. This is a critical meeting. So remember: :resolution not
hesitation.. Every inch a king. Convincingly regal bearing; head held high,
eyes front; at
them, not down at the whip on your lap.
[A group of
NOBLEMEN enter Stage Left, who stop and bow their heads on
seeing the king.
ALFONSO
and
CONSALVO move towards them.
ALFONSO
sits himself in the chair which one of the noblemen has placed before him.
CONSALVO
formally addresses him]
CONSALVO: Your majesty. Our
wearing the habits of those who seek forgiveness for their sins show how distraught
we are at the disasters that beset our beloved country. In Galizia goats have
been born with two heads,. In
1sr COUNSELLOR.. Witchcraft,
necromancy and other devilish activities are rampant throughout
2nd COUNSELLOR: Recruiting
for military service is severely resisted wherever you go, in the towns, in the
country villages, everywhere.
3rd COUNSELLOR There is a
village in the hills of
1sr COUNSELLOR Several
soldiers on an expedition in
CONSALVO. So you see,
your majesty, a terrible cord of corruption and impiety is strangling
[ALFONSO
follows CONSALVO to the left
where a spotlight reveals the statue of a warrior]
ALFONSO. Who does this
statue represent?
CONSALVO. Do you not
recognise Don Gonzalo De Ulloa, the leading knight of Calatrava, one of your
most dependably loyal warriors?
ALFONSO. Oh yes. Of
course. Don Gonzalo De Ulloa who died recently.
CONSALVO. Who was
assassinated recently, your majesty. We demand that the person responsible
should be proclaimed a traitor and condemned to death.
ALFONSO. Why make this
demand of
me?
CONSALVO. Because you
alone have the power to decide such matters. The man who killed Don Gonzalo is
a nobleman of your court. I am referring to Don Juan de Tenorio.
ALFONSO. Oh yes. Now I
remember. But why do you talk of assassination and betrayal? It was in a duel,
was it not?
CONSALVO. An assassination,
your majesty., that deprived your throne of one of its most indefatigable
defenders.
1st COUNSELLOR It is
true, your majesty.
2nd COUNSELLOR It is
exactly as he says.
ALFONSO [rising from his chair] Do you take me for a fool? [embarrassed, he sits down again]
CONSALVO. Your majesty...
ALFONSO [pulling himself together] Leave me, gentlemen...I have said...
we
have said, that we remember what happened very
well, particularly because Don Juan de Tenorio had our sympathy and affection. Don
Gonzalo died by the sword in a duel., pierced through the heart in a properly
regulated encounter,. He was a brave fighter. It was a
fair
fight,
an honourably conducted duel, strictly abiding to the rules.
CONSALVO.. Don Juan's act
of betrayal took place before he fought that duel. -- his treatment of Dona
Ana, Don Gonzalo's daughter..
ALFONSO... What do you
mean?
CONSALVO. Don Gonzalo
fought to defend the honour of his daughter whom Don Juan ravished.
ALFONSO. How?
CONSALVO. More despicably
than your majesty could ever imagine.
ALFONSO. We asked
how?
1st COUNSELLOR Spare us,
majesty, from going into details.
ALFONSO [annoyed] So!
2nd COUNSELLOR. Perhaps –
perhaps, your majesty, does not yet know how one can deprive a young lady of
her honour?.
CONSALVO. [to Gurgi] Have you any doubt on the matter? Have you
forgotten your sovereign's age?
2nd COUNSELLOR. At 14, well... er...there are
some things that...
CONSALVO. And from whom,
pray, would his majesty have learned them?
3rd COUNSELLOR. Our
sovereign lives at court in splendid isolation defended by his teachers.
2nd COUNSELLOR Well, I
thought perhaps...
CONSALVO. …that we should
provide him with teachers who specialise in depravities of this sort, eh?
ALFONSO. What particular
depravities should we know about?
CONSALVO. Those indulged
in by villains of the kind of which Don Juan de Tenorio is an outstanding
example.
ALFONSO. All right. But
would someone be good enough to tell me just what Don Juan
did to Dona Anna?
CONSALVO [hesitating]... he… er… assaulted her… used violence against
her.
ALFONSO. What? Don Juan,
a brave, strong knight-at-arms attacks a weak little girl? We would have found
difficulty in believing that ,even if we had seen it with our own eyes. I have
no more time for fairy stories, Consalvo.
CONSALVO. It happened
none the less, your majesty.
ALFONSO. But why should
Don Juan have used violence?
CONSALVO. So he could
indulge in lechery.
ALFONSO. Lechery?
What do you means?
CONSALVO. That is surely
something your majesty should be well acquainted with. Lust – lechery - is one
of the capital sins that I would have thought your theology master would be
bound to have told you about.
ALFONSO. All I am saying
is that your line of argument is not one which we have as yet examined very
thoroughly.
2nd COUNSELLOR. What worries
me is the way it seems his majesty is being educated. I would say it is far
from the right way.
3rd COUNSELLOR. You mean
there are – er – too many gaps in his syllabus?
2nd COUNSELLOR. I mean
our sovereign lord isn't reigning over angels, is he, but over men and women –
human beings?. It is his duty as monarch to make judgements on matters that
affect his subjects' behaviour, and he cannot do so if he has does not know the
nature. of such matters.. How can he be expected to condemn evil if he has no knowledge
of it?
1st COUNSELLOR. All he
has to do is to recognise what is good and reject everything that fails to
approximate to it.
CONSALVO. Well, your
majesty, all I can say is that nothing – not one thing - that Don Juan de
Tenorio ever did in his time on earth could ever be remotely regarded as a good
act
ALFONSO. I would like to
hear something of the evil he has done, not the good that he has not done.. For
instance, why should he have resorted to violence against this girl?
CONSALVO [embarrassed] Well. In order... in order to kiss her, your
majesty.
ALFONSO. Is that all?
CONSALVO.
Ah. Well. Don Juan is no novice in this kind of thing. There have been a large
number of women he has – er – kissed in the course of his dissolute life.
1st COUNSELLOR. It's
quite true. Everyone knows what happened to Donna Isabella at the court of
Naples.
2nd COUNSELLOR. And to
that sinful woman Tisbea, to Arminta, and to hosts of others of every age and
position in life.
3rd COUNSELLOR. He made
no distinction of wealth or rank when it came to – er – sinning.
.CONSALVO. Put an end to
all such wickedness, your majesty – with unequivocal conviction, showing an
exemplary sense of what is right and good, and what is wrong and sinful
ALFONSO. I see. So what
you want me to believe is that goats are being born in Galizia with two heads
because Don Juan of Tenorio kissed a lot of women? Do you really want me to
condemn him to death because of this? You who call yourselves my counsellors - wise,
moderate –minded men – are seriously proposing that I should act in this way?
1st COUNSELLOR. We have
additional reasons for giving you this advice, your majesty.
ALFONSO. All right. What
are they?
1st COUNSELLOR It's just
that... .
CONSALVO [aside to Vector] Mind how you go.
1st COUNSELOR. The fact
is Don Juan has committed sacrilege by promising these women holy matrimony.
ALFONSO. To Dona Ana
too.?
1st COUNSELLOR. Certainly.
He promised to marry her as well as all the others
ALFONSO. The answer is to
force Don Juan to marry Ana. That will put a stop to it all, won't it?
CONSALVO. All right then.
Action! We'll go at once and get things ready
for their wedding and
make it a really joyous, festive occasion, with music, singing, dancing –
3rd COUNSELLOR. - and
drinking.
CONSALVO. - raising our
glasses to the infamous seducer of women whom the authorities will allow to go
on living and be free to indulge in more infamy than ever before.
ALFONSO. If Don Juan has
been used to deceiving women with a promise of marriage, which he has no
intention of fulfilling, compelling him to marry will mean he will no longer be
able to make any such promises, is that not so? Once really and truly married, he
will be incapable of offending in this way.
CONSALVO. That may well
be so, but does it mean that all his past misdeeds will go unpunished,
forgotten, as if they had never been committed? If that happens, Dona Ana will
never agree to marry the man who killed her father.
ALFONSO. So it is not Don
Juan who breaks his promise! Dona Ana is the deceiver, Don Juan the victim – is
that it?
[CONSALVO
signals to the
THREE COUNSELLORS to stand aside, and. goes to Alfonso]
ALFONSO [enthusiastically] Oh yes, Consalvo. I certainly do [cracks his whip]
CONSALVO. Saddle it, jump on its back and
spend the rest of the day riding around on it?
ALFONSO. Yes, yes. Just that. Please let me,
Consalvo!
CONSALVO [unrolling a scroll]
All right then. Sign this document condemning Don
Juan to death.
ALFONSO. Give me a pen. Quickly.
[ALFONSO
seizes the pen that is handed
him and signs the scroll; then leaps excitedly to his feet]
CONSALVO. Your majesty! Control yourself. Your
court is watching you. [ushers him out]
That's
it. That's better. Look straight ahead. Now then, off you go Slowly, with
dignity, straight to your carriage. Regal bearing, remember?
[ALFONSO
goes out through the upstage
opening through which he entered. CONSALVO and the
THREE COUNSELLORS bow their heads and make way for him, as do
the NOBLEMEN]
CONSALVO. [triumphally brandishing the signed scroll] Into our hands at last – the demon!
BLACK OUT
Scene 2
(Stage Right)
[A spotlight picks out
the statue of an old man on a pedestal, at the foot of which is a bunch of
flowers tied with a . ribbon. Then we gradually see a long table at which are
seated King Alfonso's
THREE COUNSELLORS
no longer dressed in cowls but in the tailor-made suits
of modern busdinessmen.
VECTOR, GURGI
and
LADOG At the head of the table sits
CONSALVO similarly dressed. He rises to
his feet to deliver a speech of commemoration]
CONSALVO. I am not going to ask for minutes to be
taken of this meeting.. I would regard that as too formal for an occasion such
as this, quite superfluous. Besides, each one of you has already spent a considerable
time in private meditation on the sad loss of our friend, our brother and
colleague,, our beloved leader. The Great Kirby as everyone called him. His
voice will no longer be heard at our board meetings, or over loudspeakers
exhorting his workpeople in the factories with inspired words of
encouragement.. The Great Kirby.has been removed from the busy scene, enriched
with all the bustle, sounds and brilliance that dominated all his working life,
saluted by the blasts of the thousand sirens, the roar of the thousands of
motors, the chorus of happy, devoted voices, the whirr of the latest machinery
that every day sound from every corner of his vast empire.
For me there is only one yardstick by which a man
can be judged after he has left this life. Look at the vacuum he leaves.. The
huge void which the Great Kirby leaves is a resounding, tremulous, black hole
of desolation and despair..
[CONSALVO
sits
down. After a brief pause VECTOR rises to his feet]
VECTOR. Quite so. It isn't easy to speak after so
eloquent a tribute as yours Consalvo. It has been a great loss for all of us.
It will be some time before we recover.from the shock. Indeed, who knows if in
fact we shall ever succeed in recovering fully?. The empire of the Great Kirby
is finished.. To indicate the extent of the power he wielded,, we referred to
it as the
GURGI [rising] Great Kirby, your death signifies the end of an epoch, of a period of
loyalty and complete faith in one man, his actions and intentions, such as
rarely occurs in the story of commercial success. Such a state of things no
longer exists.. Loyalty and faith have no place on the factory floor, the
office, the laboratory... Each one of us searches in the darkness for a dagger
blade. Betrayal lurks like a scorpion hiding under a stone. Seemingly innocuous
words cover hidden meanings.
LADOG [rising] So there is no place for courage in to-day's world, is that it? Let's
get this quite clear. Let's have the guts to speak our minds. How did the Great
Kirby meet his death? We know he was killed, .but we pretend not to know whose
sword it was that killed him. It is no use suggesting it may have been an
accident, or that perhaps he was the victim of someone who betrayed his trust. All
such theorising will take us nowhere, so long as we do not have the courage to
confront people we believe played some part in the whole wretched business, and
put to them precise questions in the hope of receiving precise and truthful
answers.
[Enter
Mr JOHANN].
Mr JOHANN. If I am the person you are talking
about, I shall be glad to answer, and answer truthfully as I can, any question
you choose to put to me.
CONSALVO. I must say I would like, if possible, to
avoid turning this commemoration gathering into a business meeting.
Mr JOHANN. It
might, on the other hand, be the best way for you to have what I shall be
saying on record. In any event, who has ever known the Great Kirby to be very
far away from business? Don't be alarmed. I also wish to say a word or two in
his honour. ]going up to statue] A part of your empire passed into my hands, Great Kirby. You had
little idea how you were going to bear the loss.. It was the first defeat of
your long career. One has to lose sometimes. That is how one learns
how to lose. Ours was a fair duel. Your suicide
proves it. One would have expected your loss to have bowled you over with fury,
but instead your reacted with little more than a gesture which we interpreted
as indicating you were – well – annoyed, but that was all. I quite see, you
know, how you came to fire that pistol Why only yesterday you were making the
rounds of the factories of which you are so justifiably proud. What a sight
those stacks of sheet metal make, piled on the quayside, glittering in the sun!
You were right to love your factories so much, Great Kirby... and you have paid
dearly for that love! I liked fighting you., old man., because, even in a
fight, you were so grand – a grand man, a great man You always stood tall; you
never cringed; you never crawled.. Yes, our duel was indeed fair.. I always
made a frontal attack, while others had tried to get at you from the side or
the back.
VECTOR. They did iideed..
Mr JOHANN. Am I not right in saying that on one
occasion you tried to smash his hands when they were clutching a steel bar?
VECTOR. Who told you that story?
Mr JOHANN. I watched you do it. Myself. That was
how you tried to take the Great Kirby's place. And then there was the occasion,
was there not Gurgi , when you offered him a chair and you suddenly pulled it
away from under him just as he was about to sit on it, which would have meant
him breaking his collarbone, poor old man.? Far from frontal.
CONSALVO. If this meeting is to continue in this
tone, it is impossible for me to remain in the chair. [he moves out of the chair at the head of the table and
goes to sit with the others]
LADOG [sarcastically] One always knows of course when, in the world of business, this
action can be regarded as disloyal, and that one cannot.
Mr JOHANN. The fact that one doesn't know the
difference may account for the way one acts, but it cannot be said to justify
acting disloyally
LADOG. All right. We tried to bring the old man
down by stabbing him in his back. So what? We failed. But what did
your duel, as you call it, end up
with? A body.
Mr JOHANN. At the end, he was a tired old man who
had for long stood tall,
and suddenly became aware that he was no longer
taller than his competitors.
VECTOR. Why do you go on lying? True, you succeeded
in accomplishing what all of us were also trying to achieve. But we were not
acting out of lust for power – at least, not in my case – but to regain the
freedom of action we had had when our future depended on
our actions not his, not on
anyone but ourselves. With his autocratic style of management, our ideas, our
efforts counted for nothing It is a good thing that we should have this out,
Johann. You succeeded in delivering the final blow that felled him. But I am
not sure that that should make us happy because, as far as I can see, it has
only resulted in having the determination of our future pass from him to you,
juast changing from one dictator to another.
Mr JOHANN. What do you expect me to say in reply to
that? That I should go on protecting you as I have up to now?
GURGI. Go on protecting us?
LADOG. What do you mean?
Mr JOHANN. Do you know why, when he discovered you
were all conspiring to replace him as boss, the Great Kirby didn't get rid of
you all in one big sweep? It was because I faced up to him; and to face
me he needed all the strength he
could summon.
VECTOR. In that case, we could, I suppose, tell you
how grateful we are, if that, as I presume, is what you want us to do. However,
I think we should first ask ourselves just what effect you intended your action
to have – on whom, on what?
Mr JOHANN. On your future in a new, profitable and
challenging sphere of operations Were you not thinking of what the creation of
Research & Exploration Ltd signified for
my future? I thought we were all in this together..
GURGI. You certainly showed yourself somewhat
ingenuous in coming to us with that proposition.
LADOG. The sort of beginner's idea that has to be
paid for.
.Mr JOHANN. So. For you, Ladog, loyalty never needs
to be given a hundred per cent but only up to a point. And I take it that you
have now reached the point when you feel you are no longer required to be
loyal.. What has been our relationship all this time? Were we in a state of
perpetual warfare, always 'fighting' each other? Is that how you would put it? You
were armed to the teeth,. I had nothing on. .I was naked.. Remember? However, I
was a young man of some charm, shall I say, and with one or two good ideas.. And
I worked hard, you know. You had money to invest and it earned you good
dividends. All I had was a headful of ideas, and there is no immediate return
to be had from
them.
VECTOR. A lot of water has flowed under the mill
since then, Johann. Not much point on.going over all that again.
Mr JOHANN. Quite.. What matters now is the future..
What do you think it holds for you? As as I am concerned, now that I have
finally managed to feather my own next,, I am going to see it stays that way –
nice and cuddly eh?
VECTOR. It seems to me the moment has come for all
of us to hold on to what we've got.
Mr JOHANN. Or else declare open war. My activities
now stretch far and wide – very far and very wide., you know. Or perhaps you
don't know. If so, it would be better for your future, if you did. I could sell
you products well below cost price and recover my losses from the profits I
make with the large number of other companies I control. I could make a storm
break over all your markets and swallow them up one by one – or in one big
gulp.
LADOG. Are you trying to frighten us, Johann?
Mr JOHANN. Don't talk like that, Ladog. The stock
exchange has very sensitive ears. The storm might break sooner than you think..
VECTOR. Success for its own sake – just for the
satisfaction of having brought whatever it is to a satisfactory conclusion –
has always been a bad counsellor..
Mr JOHANN. That is why I have not yet made up my
mind on anything, and I am looking to you people to counsel me, to guide me.
GURGI. If it was left to you to decide which path
to take, I know exactly which it would be; the one that involved the greatest
risk.
Mr JOHANN. Well said, Gurgi, It shows there is
something you have understood. The charming young man I used to be has changed.
A somewhat less charming side, a sterner side, of my character has come to the
fore.
VECTOR. And from now on, it is that aspect of your
personality that you want to predominate?
Mr JOHANN. Not at all. I am quite happy as I am. The
ocean, the
VECTOR [gets up and prepares
to go] At this point I think it would be useless for me
to stay.
Mr JOHANN. Where are you going, Vector? Tell me, to
whom are you going to sell your steel? What enterprise do you now plan to
invest in? And you, Gurgi? And you, Ladog? The Kirby empire was enormous and I
now have a large part of it.
VECTOR. Is that meant as a challenge?
Mr JOHANN. Good lor' no... Just a hypothesis
VECTOR. I have given you my advice.. You do what
you think is right. You can unleash a tempest, as you say. But are you sure you
can control the wind and the waves, once you have done so? And have you ever
thought what a man can do just before he
drowns?
LADOG. Everyone defends himself in his own way,
Johann… And not everyone, as you said yourself a moment ago, stabs their
opponent in the front.
Mr JOHANN. You mean I should watch my back?
GURGI. You can hardly be said to have a back if you
are encircled.
VECTOR. It is not worth
our playing the game you played with Kirby. None of us would ever
contemplate committing suicide.
LADOG. It is not against ourselves that we would
take up arms.
[VECTOR, GURGI and LADOG quickly make their exit, leaving
Mt JOHANN leaning back in the chair into which he has slumpd.
Enter LUCAS who walks up to the back of Mr
Johann's chair]
LUCAS. Why
did you do it?
Mr JOHANN. It was such a delicioius sensation.
I got such a kick out of it. I just couldn't deprive myself of so great a
pleasure...
LUCAS. But it wasn't part of our plan.
Mr JOHANN. I know. But they were so frightened. They
were white with fear. You should have seen their faces. Trembling all over It
was nauseating.. I tried to contain my feelings, but it was beyond me.. They
disgusted me; they made me loathe them in a way I couldn't control.and, before
I knew what, I had my hands at their throats.
LUCAS. How could you have let yourself do such a
thing? You have so fine a sense of timing. You always manage to choose just the
right moment for making – and carrying out – decisions. You never lose your self-control,
never act on the spur of the moment. You of all people to allow yourself to be
carried away by a sudden passion, which, from what you say, it seems to have
been.. So out of character. I just don't believe it.
Mr JOHANN. You're quite right, Lucas. You know me
only too well. I merely wanted to make quite sure.
LUCAS. Of what?
Mr JOHANN. Of myself, my motivation. Has disgust
been the sole driving force of my life up to now?
LUCAS. Well?
Mr JOHANN. As I said, it gave me the greatest
pleasure to see in their eyes the fear which made me despise, and hate, them. But
hate cannot be responsible for everything I do.
LUCAS. No. Acting as you did in this case, you were
able to confirm that a secondary gain arising from what I might call the
Intoxication of being as successful an entrepreneur as you have been, was the
ability unhesitatingly to avenge yourself. beforehand you only took vengeance
reluctantly. This however has not been the main spur in all the years of your
intense activities in the markets of the world. That has been Ambition -
achieve wealth and power.
Mr JOHANN. There has been something else.
LUCAS. An even stronger driving force? To conquer? That's
right, isn't it? I know your type only too well.
Mr JOHANN. You may think so. But I know.so little
of what goads me on. I must discover, Lucas,
why I have done what I have
done.
LUCAS. You will never find an answer that satisfies
you. For you also want peace of mind – or at least something, however
irrelevant, that creates calm and stillness.
Mr JOHANN. I am not seeking justification, merely a
reason...
LUCAS. They say it is a characteristic of the
modern man, wanting to pull himself together and get on with life; to leave it
to others to drown in melancholia. That's not your style. You express yourself
in all sorts of ways, at every level.
Mr JOHANN. I just want to know myself, that's all –
LUCAS. Looking for the goal that you are aiming
for, the star you are following, is that it? The ideal you ate trying to
measure up to. Does achieving success such as yours depend on having such an
incentive?
Mr JOHANN. It
doesn't have to be a very high goal. [holding
up finger and thumb to show small height]. No more than that – wrinkled and thin maybe. All that matters is that
it makes a plausible explanation of why I act as I do.- not, as I say, one that
justifies it..
LUCAS. And
where are you going to search.for it?
Mr JOHANN. In
my past life. Help me.Lucas.. You are, after all, my closest friend.
LUCAS. Is it really so important to you? I wonder
you can be bothered.
Mr JOHANN. I've got to try and make sense of what
has happened.
LUCAS. All right, I'll help you, Mt Johann.
Mr JOHANN. Good, Right then. Where do we start.?
LUCAS. Is there any definite point of departure?
Mr JOHANN. No. You're right. There isn’t.. As far
as I can remember, the whole of my life had been pointed in one direction – the
point of arrival, of which I have always had a very clear picture in my mind.
LUCAS. So. It is a matter of running over the
principal moments of your journey up to the top.
Mr JOHANN. Exactly. You've got the message. .
LUCAS. At your service, Mr Johann. Off we go!
BLACK OUT
(except for
a spotlight on Mr Johann}
SCENE 3
Mr JOHANN. It
was an evening in early summer. I was standing in the street waiting for you.. It
would be more accurate to say I was filling in time, waiting for you. I was
watching a window in the big office block opposite. All the lights were on
inside the room., and in it, was you Lucas, conducting a very delicate
negotiation on my behalf. Impatience? There was little to distract me; all my
thoughts were concentrated on what was going in that room, although the
non-stop noises of the busy street did much to try and divert my attention. But
to no avail. I shuffled up and down the pavement, my eyes fixed on that window,
the polar star of the wonderful journey on which I was about to embark – or
hoped I was about to embark. Impatient? I'll say. Why didn't you come out? What
was keeping you? And then suddenly you appeared on the steps of the front
entrance, making your way infuriatingly slowly, down to the street,. without a
thought to what you will have known must have been my concern for what might
have happened, what unforeseen circumstance had held things up; that meant, God
forbid, calling the whole thing off! I had the greatest difficulty in staying
on the pavement and not rushing across to you and hearing the news at once, putting
an end to the agony of panicking, of waiting alone with thoughts of disaster,
of having to face up to an irretrievable setback that.... Now, now, no more of
this. I calmed down; slowly crossed the street just as I would have done on any
day, any time. And at last we came within a few feet of one another, and -. oh
dear! – my impatience got the better of me.
[Mr JOHANN
walks
off Right along the line of the spotlight which then goes out]
BLACK OUT
SCENE
4
(Stage
Left. Time-14th c)
[Lights up stage left.:
the interior of the church. DON JUAN emerges from the shadows Right holding out
his hand to welcome CATALINON who enters Left]
DON JUAN. Catalinon
CATALINON.
Not so loud, sir, please.
DON
JUAN. Where have you been all this time?
CATALINON.
Don't you want to hear the news?
DON
JUAN. What has happened?
CATALINON.
It's your head, sir They are demanding the head of Don Juan Tenorio.
DON
JUAN. And that frightens you?..
CATALINON.
They have condemned you to death. You had better escape.
DON JUAN.
But the girl. Did you manage to go and see her?
CATALINON.
This is hardly the moment to start talking about women.
DON
JUAN. I know what moment it is, Catalinon. I entrusted you with a mission. Have
you carried it out?
CATALINON.
Yes, sir. Yes, I have. But I beg you to go somewhere safe..
DON
JUAN. Stop worrying, or I'll give you a taste of the stick.
CATALINON.
Kill me, sir, but I fear for your life. You should see how they are searching
every corner of the town for you. They have patrols in every street. They
passed a law forbidding anyone to go about with his face hidden by his cloak.,
or ride in a carriage with the blinds drawn.
.DON
JUAN. Has the king signed my sentence of death? – a poor boy, the prisoner of
ambitious politicians.
CATALINON.
That's how it is. His counsellors have forced his hand. They hate your guts. They
wish you dead. You've got to get away and hide somewhere. You must leave this
city.
DON
JUAN. And the girl?
CATALINON.
What does that matter to you? You've hardly seen her. So short a time.
DON
JUAN. And do you think in all these years I have not learnt to recognise the
kind of girl I want at a glance?
CATALINON.
What does one girl more matter?
DON
JUAN. But she is the girl I love.
CATALINON.
Even if you only spoke to her for one instant?
DON
JUAN. True. It was only for an instant. So what? To me it seemed infinity; an
instant that represented eternity.
CATALINON.
That's all quite beyond me, I am afraid
DON
JUAN. No matter. You do not have to understand. She said she would come to me? Yes?
When?
CATALINON.
You are not going to risk your life by waiting for her, are you?
DON
JUAN. When – will – she – come, idiot?
CATALINON.
At dawn, sir.
DON
JUAN. Do you want me to miss seeing her? to let her down?
CATALINON.
If you stay, so far as you are concerned, there will be no dawn.
DON
JUAN. There will be, Catalinon - in five hours time.
CATALINON.
But think what could happen to you before then! If an instant is eternal, as
you say, what are five hours?
DON
JUAN. What are five steps more or less on the way to the sun?
CATALINON.
They are the five steps that will save you from the gallows. Pull yourself
together You must come to your senses, before it is too late.
DON
JUAN. Come to my senses? What makes you think I ever left them, animal? Up to to-day
you have seen me in a very different light.
CATALINON.
You are right. I am an ass. What I meant to say was Get out of yourself, your
old self.
DON
JUAN. Come on, now, tell me what happened at your meeting with her.. Did you
have any difficulty in persuading her to see you? Did you remember what I told
you to say to her? Did she ply you with questions? How long did it take her to
agree to meet me here?
CATALINON.
One thing at a time. What do you want to know first?
DON
JUAN. Everything, dunderhead, everything! Where did you have your talk? In the
street? In her house? Was anyone else present? Did she show surprise? Offended,
maybe? Did she – er – smile?
CATALINON.
How can I possibly...
DON
JUAN. Speak up, man Speak up. Go on! Can't you see the agony I am in, not
knowing where I stand with her. What is her name?
CATALINON.
Stella,
DON
JUAN. Perfect.
CATALINON.
She agreed to come – but on one condition.
DON
JUAN. What? The usual?
CATALINON.
The usual.. She will only make love to you, she will only yield to you, if she
is married to you.
DON
JUAN. Is that all? Well. That's a very reasonable demand from a young woman in
love. All she is interested in is to be mine for ever. And to achieve that, we
promise each other to get married.
CATALINON.
You will promise her. That is no concern of mine. I have no part in it..
DON
JUAN. What name did you tell her was mine?
CATALINON.
That of your cousin Don Pedro Zamora
DON
JUAN. We have never offered Don Pedro's hand in marrage to anyone before, have
we?
CATALINON.
No, sir. Not so far as I remember.
DON
JUAN. Good. Well, drag a sleepy friar from his bed to carry out the ceremony,
and as soon as we have the blessing of heaven, Stella will be mine...
[Noises
off]
CATALINON. Ssh! Someone's coming. Out looking for
you, to arrest you. We're done for. All is lost. Did you not hear footsteps? For
goodness sake, hide!...... Ah, they've gone away.... Yes... definitely. We're
saved. A near thing. But for how long?.
DON JUAN. Who knows, my friend? Long enough to
allow Stella to fall into my arms, I trust. I don't think the denizens of
Heaven would deny me that, would they? I cannot believe they would do me that
incivility,.
CATALINON. No. They are more likely to throw you
into the inferno so long as you continue to live a life devoted entirely to
satisfying your lusts.
DON JUAN. Talk to me about her,, Catalinon. It will
brighten up the long wait we have for dawn..
CATALINON. What can I say about her? She is a woman
very similar to all the others you have known.
DON JUAN. On the contrary, she is unique. For the
first time.
CATALINON. She is like all the others, master..
DON JUAN. What do you know of them , you ass? Have
you seen another who lowers her eyes as gracefully as she does? who blushes like
her?
CATALINON. They are all the same.. The only
differences lie in their personalities, in their minds. But, so often you are
with them for ages and come away without ever having penetrated their minds, in
the same way that bees fly from the flower on which they have landed without
the honey for which they have so assiduously been searching..
DON
JUAN. No. It is not your fault, it is their calculated deception. I grant you,
the sentiments that women express are all the same: their flirtatiousness,
their self-centredness,. their presumption that they can keep another human
being bound to them. Having said that, what a marvellous range of qualities
they possess! Whereas, if you take to your horse and ride across the
countryside, you cannot fail to notice that the fields are all composed of the
same grass; the flowers are those you have seen everywhere every day of your
life; the water you see never differs from one river, one lake, to another.
[more
noises off]
CATALINON.
Ssssh! I thought I heard a noise.
DON
JUAN. You are imagining things.
CATALINON.
. On the contrary. A noise of some sort came from the direction of the town
square. It sounded like people running. There - don't you hear it? They are
coming this way this time.
DON
JUAN. Sounds like one person to me.
CATALINON.
I implore you – go and hide.
DON
JUAN. Listen! It's a very light step. A woman's. It's Stella, Catalinon. It's
Stella.
CATALINON.
Sssh!
DON
JUAN. What did I tell you? She couldn't wait till dawn to see me
CATALINON.
Hide, sir It could be the soldiers; the patrol sent to get you..
DON
JUAN. She just couldn't stick waiting.... Here she is. Here she comes
BLACK
OUT
SCENE
5
(Stage Right. Time
– Present)
[Lights
up on Stage Right. MISTER JOHANN enters from dark Stage Left, holding
out his hand to greet LUCAS who enters at that moment from Right.]
Mr
JOHANN. Lucas!
LUCAS. So
this is where you are?
Mr
JOHANN. Where else would you expect to find me?
LUCAS. Aren't
you going to ask me what has happened?
Mr
Johann. I can already tell from the look on your face.
LUCAS. He
accepts.
Mr
JOHANN. Only after a bit of a struggle, eh?
LUCAS. You've
won, Mr Johann.
Mr
JOHANN. So when do we meet to put the seal on it?
LUCAS. Tomorrow
evening – at his house.
Mr
JOHANN. Come now, fill me in on the detail. How did he react? Did you gather he
was expecting a request of this kind, or that it took him completely by
surprise? Did you plunge in at once, or did you leave it to him to introduce
the matter? Once he knew what it was you had come to suggest, did he agree
straight away, or did he insist on you elaborating on what you were proposing?
LUCAS. Calm
down.. I can't tell you everything we talked about; it was a…
Mr
JOHANN. But if I am not to make a wrong step when we meet tomorrow and say the
wrong things, because I am unaware of what will antagonise him and what will
make him see how he will benefit from it , I've got to be fully briefed
on his attitude.
LUCAS. Is
it not enough to have won him over, to the extent that he has heard your
proposal and now wishes to be quite sure what it is he is letting himself in
for.? Only natural. Or is it that you want to see him lie defenceless at your
feet?
Mr
JOHANN. There you have it, Lucas. I want to marry the widow Gorak, oh yes, but
I want her served up on a silver plate..
LUCAS....
surrounded by all the enterprises she currently administers.
Mr
JOHANN…All of them. Including the smallest, the apparently least important
ones. For how can one ever know whether a company is 'important'. or
unimportant, with or without potential, until one has closely examined it. Just
as you have to do with women. A fine dress, a little make-up, gives them a
fascination that
no one
ever suspects. For long I have watched the development of the Gorak companies
as an outsider, and dreamt how I would deal with them if they belonged to me.
And now that it looks as if they nearly do, I cannot give up. I've got to see
this through.
LUCAS. A
very apt comparison that: .commercial firms and women. It is through our
mistakes that we discover the truth about both of them.. You talk of business
in the way Don Juan talked of women - all out of proportion, carried away on a
wave of sentimental, erotic nonsense.just like him.
Mr
JOHANN. After all, manufacturers, banks, business companies are very feminine,
would you not say? Fickle, unfaithful, capricious. . For me they have the same
tantalising attraction as women. .I cannot resist building my portfolio up and
up, and up again, accumulating one enterprise after another at an ever
increasing speed. Accumulation, acceleration. They possess me; they take over
my whole life. The pace becomes hypnotic, manic. As you say, all sense of
proportion deserts me; my mind goes into over-drive. My appetite is
insatiable.. Not just addicted, but intoxicated Enough is never enough – for me.
And how insanely incensed I become if I hear of a rival casting an eye over a
prize that I have arrogantly assumed no one would ever dare try to beat me in
the race for its acquisition! How consumed I am with hate if he pips me to the
post and wins what I have so madly coveted! Oh yes, firms and companies are
indeed feminine Lucas. How otherwise could the thought of acquiring them excite
me so?. Where does it come from, this craving for new conquests – another
factory, another firm, which so many others long to take over, so patently
capable of further development in the right hands – leading finally to
owning the adored courtesan, no
longer at arms length but clutched in full embrace. No greedy grabber, but
proud proprietor. You have not only gained a gained a wife, but wealth and
power.
LUCAS. Mr
Johann.... Tenorio... Careful! The flaming inferno is just behind you.
Mr
JOHANN. Why should I worry about hellfire, when this is my only way of living?
[The lighting creates the effect of flame
We
are back to where
Mr JOHANN and LUCAS were talking a the end of Scene
2, p. 16, and decided to explore how Mr Johann acquired his present character]
LUCAS. So
that is it, is it? That explains how you find yourself in this situation to-day?
Mr
JOHANN. Yes. It is a process firmly imprinted on my memory.
LUCAS. I
would say it should encourage you not to allow your over-heated mind ever to
run away with you again.
Mr
JOHANN. That's not what is occupying my mind just now, which is what are the
circumstances that have landed me in the position I find myself in to-day..
They belong to my past not my future. It began with the time when I was toying
with the idea, somewhat impetuously, of marrying the widow Gorak, for whom I
fell.after first setting eyes on her. But oh dear, what a bitter laugh she had!.
I still hear it whenever I think of her. It did not worry me at the time. Why
not? Well. It was a very important moment in my life., making a bid for
Research & Development Company.
[The spotlight follows Mr JOHANN as
he walks to the table which now becomes visible up stage STAGE RIGHT at which
are seated VECTOR, GURGI, LADOG and WIDOW GORAK.].
SCENE
6
Mr
JOHANN. But first of all, let's trace what, much further back, gave rise to the
Me that has acted in this way. It would seem it was inherited from my
grandfather who was a peasant, a farmer,.in this part of the country.
One day when digging a deep trench in one of
his fields, he came across an iron box full of old coins of some past age, long
out of circulation of course. . He sold it, with its contents, and with the
proceeds bought himself a suit of clothes and a pair of shoes.. His son, my
father, also farmed, hoping that one day he too would find hidden treasure. And
believe it or not, one day he did
– only just below the surface. His spade hit what looked and felt like another
iron box. He dug it up and took it home to see what it contained.. It had
certainly lain hidden for a time, but not for as long as the one his father
found. It had only lain there unnoticed since that wretched war that Hitler and
Mussolini waged as the first step, they hoped, in their conquest of the world. But
it was no valuable treasure. It was one of the Duce's anti-tank mines which did
not take kindly to my father tinkering with it and exploded, hurling him, along
with my mother, into the air and destroying not only them but the entire house.
What lesson did I learn from this? That the useful, valuable suit of clothes
and pair of shoes acquired through the sale of the antique money box, came to
my grandfather as a result of his digging deep; and the useless, in fact wholly
destructive anti-tank mine from merely scratching the surface. If you are going
to dig, dig deep. I dig even deeper than my grandfather.. Excavation is the
name of the game. No superficial scraping for me. I get down to the bone. You
know the rest. If not, you'll find it all in the financial reports, the stock
exchange bulletins. Mr Johann has only been in business a short while, and
doesn't count for much, not at the moment at any rate.. Tomorrow will tell
another story, and it won't be, as you are well aware, about Mr Johann taking a
nibble at the market. That's not my style. I have my own way of doing things,
of opening up my own highway to success, along which others can stride with me,
pooling resources, sharing expertise. Co-operation. That's the key How can I
persuade other businessmen that journeying with me along my road will be of any
benefit to them? By inviting any likely to be interested in
participating in a large-scale operation of greatest potential, to examine and
comment on it – which is why you are here this afternoon. Come now..
[he spreads out maps and plans on the table
in front of Mme Gorak and the three men]
Look
here. Here's a map of the whole area, and here an enlarged close-up of the site
we will be interested in. And then, there is this view from the air of the
plateau surrounding it to the depth of seven miles. Looks like a great big
beefsteak, doesn't it? Those red circles are the points into which you dig your
fork, your potion That's the easy part. What's more difficult is chewing what
you have on the end of your fork once you've cut it off., if I may put it that
way It will be extremely tough – a very hard metal which can immediately be
transformed into gold however., much softer under the teeth and much easier to
digest, eh? [his audience chuckle and nod their heads in agreement]. Have
any of you ever had a go at archaeology? [they shake their heads] Pity. Because
when you have scraped away the surface, -the skin of the beefsteak, as it were
- you will come across hard bones - stones that have lain there for a very long
time. We have already done some test drilling and an expedition is on its way
to begin exploiting the site in earnest. The newspapers are expressing interest
in it. Among those working on such 'stories', there is always one reporter who
sniffs out the names of the financiers backing the expedition, which in this
case, under the guise of archaeology, is in fact secretly engaged on an
entirely different kind of research. Is this the set-up that I am asking you to
become involved in? You are probably asking yourselves how it comes that I feel
able to divulge the true nature of this expedition. Would it not be wiser to
keep it to myself? Well now. Suppose you see a man going out on a sunny day
with an umbrella under his arm. What would you, what would most people, say of
him? That he is crazy, a nutter who hadn't read his barometer properly. But, if
we see not one man, but the entire staff of a weather station walking along
with umbrellas under their arms, we would be certain to run and fetch our
raincoats, wouldn't we?. Get it? If a Mr Johann is reported to be the sole
financial backer of an archaeological expedition to reveal the ruins of a what
he believes his research tells him are those of a hitherto undiscovered city, people
will think he must have read the signs wrongly, in the way the man with the
umbrella had misinterpreted his barometer. Those who don't laugh at him, pity
the poor chap. They'll change their tune however should it come to their ears
that people of the calibre of Vector, Gurgi, Ladog and Madame Gorak have joined
forces not, as they have declared, to come up with a major archaeological
discovery, but mount a very substantial search for minerals. What happens then?
That's when we go into action – full steam ahead! This is the day our Research
& Exploration Company is born. Off go the stocks and shares; up goes the
return on them, re-investing the profits, piling up the capital, floating more
and more shares – one big bonanza which gathers momentum from one year to
another.. Gold pours down every valley into our coffers, filling our safes and
strongboxes, flooding the whole countryside, bursting the conduits - clinking
and clanging coins of every denomination pushing through stacks of banknotes
from every country under he sun. A yellow wave sweeps towards R & D, an
avalanche of the stuff,, raw and refined, gold dust and gold ingots, fashioned
into bangles and rings, minted into coin,, alloyed with every kind of metal in
every shade of yellow…Gold! raining down, cascading, showering all over us in a
shimmering waterfall. . A glittering haze rises like a mist. A vast yellow
swamp to swim in, from which peaks a shining rock pulsating with power, proudly
displaying its indisputable purity. Gold!
[Towards
the end of this outburst his audience have begun to giggle and snigger, and
when it ends they are all laughing uncontrollably. Mr JOHANN puts his
fingers in his years, patently wounded by what he considers their insensitive
reaction. He moves away, followed by the spotlight which brought him on,
leaving the four of them by the table in the dark. Hr returns to LUCAS
stage left.]
Mr JOHANN. Did you hear them laughing at me, Lucas? They
knew well enough all I had planned to do was far from laughable and utterly
workable – and in every way profitable. Oh yes! they laughed at the person who
had presented them with this wonderful idea for which he was asking for no
payment whatsoever. Free jpgt! So you see they not only hurt me, but disgusted
me, I could not let them get away with such abominable behaviour, could I? I
had to take my revenge on those four wretches, hadn't I? I started with the
widow.
BLACK
OUT
SCENE 7
(Stage
Right)
[A
drawing room. Mr JOHANN stands in front of MADAME GORAK who has
her face buried in a bunch of roses]
MADAME
GORAK. More flowers! Thank you, Mr Johann. How have you got to know me so well?
How did you manage to discover my secret passion for roses?
Mr
JOHANN. From your face. Anyone can tell from looking at you that you love
flowers, just as you love Art and anything of Virtue
[They go and sit side by side on the sofa]
MADAME
GORAK. Ever since yesterday when you started to show your affection for me, my
house has become a wonderful garden of tulips, madnolias, roses and orchids.
Mr
JOHANN. You adore flowers, there's no doubt about that, but you have little
idea how to write their names as is clear from the list you have made there.
MADAME
GORAK. Forgive me, Mr Johann.. What an idiot you must think me! Just that it's
not my subject; something I like but – er – am not really very acquainted with,
if you see what I mean. Oh dear!
Mr
JOHANN. Please madame, don't upset yourself. I can assure you that in these
days the words used for so long to name and describe flowers are now effete,
most of them dead. I could not possibly hold it against you for not being
acquainted with out-dated terms of this sort.
MADAME
GORAK. You have no need of words to express your feelings; you have done so,
more than graphically, by giving me flowers and seeing to it that they are the
roses that I am so fond of.
Mr
JOHANN. It was an impulsive gesture, [with a giggle] without any intense
calculation as to the reaction of the recipient! In the manner of the poet who
writes love poems to his beloved and then locks them up in a bottom drawer.
MADAME
GORAK. So you want me to believe that somewhere, in some escritoire, there lie
beautiful verses expressing your love for me? Is that what you are hinting?
Mr
JOHANN. No no. Merely a few jottings,putting on paper stray thoughts,
questions
I was asking myself as to my true feelings, my worries, what accounted for the
turbulence of my mind.
MADAME
GORAK. It is obvious I stand well apart from you, You must help me to come
closer, to fill the gap, to communicate. At the moment I feel as if I can
neither read nor write. We are not speaking the same language.
Mr
JOHANN. Of course I will help you. Language is no easy method of communication,
full of symbols so entangled that. they reduce rather than increase clear
comprehension. The key to their intended interpretation escapes us and lies
hidden
until –
until we succeed in mastering the language. No easy task, but in no way
impossible for anyone determined to work at it, and never let up Determination
is the name of the game, and what reward it brings! The satisfaction of being
able to express and measure the intensity of our feelings, not by means of a
miserably conventional, cliché-ridden, inadequate vocabulary, but through
infinite shades of colour – bright, vibrant, dark, faint, exquisitively clear! In
other words, by conversing with Dame Nature, madam. It is not beyond you, is
it, to appreciate that that alone can bring us the key to what the world is all
about, which for so many seems lost and hidden?
With
what a surge of emotion, with what joy, one gazes upon a field of poppies
shining
in the light of the sun! With what exhilaration does one greet the meadow, the
hill, the valley that suddenly come into view
on rounding the corner of a country lane!
MADAME
GORAK. Wonderful! What a marvellous man you are, Mr Johann!
So many
different sides to you. It would be invidious for me to say what they all add
up to;: someone strong-minded and fearless in negotiation, I should say;
well-versed in the intricacies of planning, fascinating in his private life.
And
now, with the formation of Exploration & Research Ltd and your plans for my
involvement, I must add "generous" as another outstanding quality.. It
would seem that that project has not benefited you in the way you imagined.. As
someone you engaged to work with you in it, you must see me as partly
responsible for any shortcomings. Yet, so far from seeking to pay me off, you
are asking my hand in marriage.
Mr JOHANN.
Might that not be a way of paying you out?
[The two of them briefly laugh together at
this remark]
MADAME
GORAK. I would like to think I knew all about you. But I must say I am in the
dark when it comes to what I suppose I should call your love life.
Mr
JOHANN. Ask me whatever you like. You have every right to.
MADAME
GORAK. Well, that's very comforting. So. Tell me something about your first
conquest.
Mr
JOHANN. You mean my really first one? That was a long time ago, when I
was very young.
MADAME
GORAK. . The experience that has ever since been engraved on your memory as the
moment when you first discovered the sort of person you were.
Mr JOHANN. Very well. I was no more than a
boy, my mind crammed with
theory
of little practical value.. It was round about then that I had my first – what
shall I say? – 'encounter'.. I had not exactly fallen in love. That would be an
exaggeration. .Not to start with anyway. But for youngsters without any
experience in such matters it is easy to mistake merely 'taking an interest'
for being passionately attached, a state of mind that must inevitably lead to
the climax which the world calls Being In Love.
The
object of my love was called Gobrial-Metals, smallish company not doing very
well just then, in which I squandered every penny I possessed by acquiring two
per cent of its shareholding. Total collapse came on July the sixth, when in a
few hours I lost 80 per cent of my investment. Undaunted, I gathered up what
little money I had left and bought another three per cent of Gobrial's capital.
All the other shareholders said I was mad. The management offered to give me an
administrative post in the firm, and I accepted. When war broke out in the
south, I reckoned their products would be in big demand, so I sold two per cent
of my shares and with the proceeds contracted, under an exclusive arrangement,
to buy a small quantity of their wares which I knew I could sell to the many in
urgent need of them at a good profit. How right I was! After two months, I
bought another 18 per cent of their manufactures. With all kinds of
circumstances acting in my favour, including loss-making movements on the stock
exchange for other manufacturers and suppliers in this field, my relationship
with Gobrial became firmer and firmer, closer and closer. In no time my
holdings rose to 24 per cent and then 32 per cent, whereupon I effected a
merger with a competitor La Magar, which I have to admit didn't last very long,
but did not prevent me purchasing another seven per cent of Gobrial.. I was sitting
pretty. What would shareholders and management say at the coming annual general
meeting? What would I say? I knew only too well there were many other
Board members poised to get control of Gobrial, but I had to outflank them. It
was risky, but it was now or never. I stated my conditions for maintaining my
central role in the financial affairs of the enterprise and not withdrawing my
very considerable investment. They were proposing projects which they would
find difficult to undertake without my stake in the firm's capital. Well did
they know it. And as a bribe not to take my money and run, they offered to
assign me another 12 per cent of the shares, then topping it up with further
bundle until I had the lot. Gobrial was mine! I was now, for the first time,
the sole owner of an industrial group.
MADAME
GORAK. What you had always longed to be. I can tell it from your voice,
Mr
JOHANN. It was the first, madame.. I had to prove to myself that I was capable
of doing it. I was anxiuos to assess what I was worth in the field in which I
had chosen to exploit my natural jpgts and newly won experience, and ensure
that any claim I made to be able to repeat what I had done, would not be
an idle boast.
MADAMR
GORAK. How did it all turn out? Were your efforts rewarded in the way you
hoped?
Mr
JOHANN. Certainly. And more. Within a few months I sold the flourishing Gobrial
for a very large sum, and since then it has changed hands several times, eventually
being gobbled up by the Great Kirby ,who deprived it of its separate identity
and incorporated as one of the many firms constituting his vast empire..
MADAME
GORAK. Did that matter?
Mr
JOHANN. Not really. It didn't detract from what I had done.. I had saved it
from collapse and given it a new life and an increasingly successful one. which
made it so highly marketable. All due to
[He takes a deep breath and sits back
relaxed, pausing to turn the conversation away from himself and on to the Widow
Gorak]
And how
have you fared in this field of romance and
amour?
MADAME
GORAK. I cannot claim to have fared with quite the same
éclat, if that is the word best suited to your way of
wooing.. Nothing very startling about my love-life, my short love-life. It
began with the man I was to marry. I learnt all I ever
knew from my husband.
Mr
JOHANN. And when you no longer had him? You've been a widow for six years now,
haven't you?
MADAME
GORAK. Yes. Well, after he died, it's been a rather sad story. There have been
one or two 'affaires' which looked hopeful when they started, but none of which
came to anything. It was highly disappointing, as you can imagine. I was
thoroughly disillusioned.and withdrew into a somewhat bitter, silent world of
my own. [she shows signs of distress]
Mr
JOHANN. .Don't distress yourself. Better if you stop right there; no point in
dragging up memories of those unhappy times.
MADAME
GORAK. How kind! Thank you so much. But talking about it acts in some way as a
bit of relief. We have the misfortune to live in a miserable, down-at-the-heel society
dominated by absurd superstitions and barbarous prejudices. What was I expected
to do when my husband died? Retreat into a convent? But I still had the rest of
my life before me and I wanted to live,
not meditate behind closed doors, with no link to the outside world, the
real world. But such an attitude
brought criticism of astonishing ferocity. I laid myself open to being regarded
as a woman who could be persuaded to act with any kind of perversity. For her
type, they said, nothing was
irreprehensible;
she was someone whose feelings could be played upon, whose affections could be
aroused in a purely recreational way with no intention of developing it into
the lifetime relationship known as marriage, which for so long was the only
acceptable culmination of what we once rather primly called 'courtship'.
Oh dear! Innocent little me! What a terrible
time I had in this 'real' world that I had chosen to live in. Mr Johann. It all
began a year after my husband died. My net income fell by 12 per cent...Next
year by even more., accompanied by a general deterioration of all that I had
embarked on in an attempt to make my way through the jungle that was Industry. Contracts
were terminated; trade agreements torn up; I found several of my trusted
executives were receiving bribes to feather their own nests; so on and so on. It
was a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong
did go wrong. Whatever I thought would turn the tide did just
the opposite.. The volume of business went down and down. Orders fell
drastically away. For instance, The Research & Exploration Company gave me
only half the orders they gave others.
Mr
JOHANN. It gave me even less, Madame.
MADAME
GORAK. I had to make a vital decision. Had the time come to withdraw from
running my businesses and handing their management over to someone who could
give them stronger, more virile, direction?. Who should that be? What kind of
association would serve me best? I gave the problem much thought., left no
stone, as they say, unturned, in my endeavour to reach the right decision. My
thorough review of all the options,. produced one form of association which
seemed to me to hold out more promise than any other, and that was Marriage.
Mr
JOHANN. Marriage?
MADAME
GORAK. The clauses that constitute formal written Agreements of Association
stultify any attempt to achieve smooth, harmonious, collaboration. They make
effective business partnership very difficult, leave very little chance of
either ever getting the slightest, shall I say?, fun out of it One associate
can always pick on the clause that is to him the most advantageous, and
complain how inefficiently and weakly it is being applied, which leads to
argument and ill-feeling, if not rupture. With marriage, we do without
'clauses' and so dispense with trouble – well, can expect less of it at any
rate.. Matrimony is an armour-plated contract that protects both sides from
having to take part in anything of that sort. There are no escape routes out of
marriage; no way of appealing for relief from it; no means of taking short
leave and then returning to take up the reins when you feel up to it Nothing of
that sort when two people are wedded. Marriage is permanent, implacable,
impregnable, unassailable. It is the only state which gives a poor, single
woman like me the protection she relies on to give her the chance of spending
what remains of her life with some degree of stability and, .shall I say,
happiness.
Mr
JOHANN. So. From now on, no longer single, no longer alone? Is that what you
want? I can assure you, your wish is granted.
MADAME
GORAK. Thank you. Thank you, my dear friend. Will you allow me to call you that?
Mr
JOHANN. With all my heart,., madame. With all my heart..
[He
takes her hand and puts it to his lips. They gaze at each other in silence,
smiling lovingly]
BLACK
OUT
SCENE
8
(Stage Left; interior of church brightly
lit with electric lights : Time – Present)
[The
marriage ceremony by which Mr JOHANN and MADAME GORAK have
been made husband and wife has just finished, and bride and bridegroom, in
happy, festive mood, pass slowly through the throng of wedding guests, who
include CONSALVO, VECTOR, GURGI and LADOG, pausing now and then to
receive and give greetings, to kiss and be kissed. They make their way Right,
followed by the wedding guests, through a dark area of the stage and out of it
on to Stage Right. They walk up to the table decorated with flowers
laden with refreshments if every kind, glasses of wine and bowls of fruit,
dominated by a centrally placed multii-layered wedding cake ablaze with
candles.]
CONSALVO
(coming forward with a glaas of wine in his hand]
For the ancients, a wedding such as this
would have had them drinking to a union of power and beauty, to a coming
together of Mars and Venus. That's not quite what we are celebrating to-day. Nothing
quite as neat as that. For am I not right in saying that our bride is indeed a
Venus, but one who not only possesses the beauty with which that goddess is
traditionally endowed, but one who at the same time has the strength of Mars
and the wisdom of Minerva?
[There is clapping and laughter, a hubbub of
voices expressing assent]
VECTOR. We should now drink to
Mercury, the God of Business.
GURGI. Yes.
That is, if you think they are in need of making sure he is on their side
.LADOG.
I would say they are going to manage very well on their own without help of any
kind, let alone divine intervention, if that is what you're hinting.
CONSALVO.
I think we can do without pagan nonsense of that kind. Let us proceed to do
what we are here to do, to raise our glasses and drink the health of
Madame Gorak and Mr Johann…
[They,
cry "Mr and Mrs Johann!", tinkle them glasses and drink, to the sound
of corks popping out of bottles of sparkling wine. CONSALVO takes Mr
JOHANN downstage]
CONSALVO.
Congratulations, Mr Johann.
Mr
JOHANN, Thank you, Consalvo.
CONSALVO.
Not only on your marriage, but on what would call the business acumen you've
shown in dealing with certain other matters.
Mr
JOHANN. I suppose you're referring to...?
CONSALVO.
Exactly. Well, it never matters very much if you lose at cards.
You can
always make up for it whenever you are next dealt a good hand.
Mr
JOHANN. Oh, all that's water under the bridge… As far as I am concerned that's
past history., though there is probably someone feeling a bit remorseful about
it all.
CONSALVO.
All of us are well aware how badly we treated you over the Research &
Explorarion Company. affair.
Mr
JOHANN. So what sort of retribution can I expect? Pay me damages of some kind?
CONSALVO.
No. No damages.
Mr
Johann. To ensure, I presume, that I don't take revenge on those responsible
for what they did to me, in a way they know would damage them very
severely?
CONSALVO.
You must remember, none of us knew that things would turn out as they did.
Mr
JOHANN. One can never predict, with any certainty, the effect any of
one's actions will have – in any
sphere of life Sometimes it is good; ; sometimes, like in this case, it is bad.
I can assure you and your friends I understand why you acted as you did.
CONSALVO.
In that case, it might soothe them if you told them so to their faces. Just a
few words, that's all.
Mr
JOHANN. All right.
[They
return to the table. Mr JOHANN joins MADAME GORAK]
Mr
JOHANN. Well, this is where bride and bridegroom go away, but before we do that
I must bid you - our good friends who have been with us on this happy occasion -
farewell. [the wedding guests gather round him] What would the ancients
have said at this juncture, Consalvo? [discreet laughter] They probably
didn't.feel up to saying very much. I likewise will keep it short: 'Thanks for
coming, see you again soon!' Though I am sure you will forgive me for adding -
I trust without too much rhetoric - that this is a day in my life that I shall
never forget. Everything else is buried in The Past, .left behind by the
obliterating March of Time which down the ages has made The Present the only
reality that, for the living, matters.
Marooned in the dark recesses of the past are the first locomotives, the men
who went on the Crusades, witnessed the fall of the
CONSALVO.
Fair enough. Would you say that Research & Exploration is the largest and
most successful business you have ever established?
Mr
JOHANN. Are you saying you would give anything to lay your hands on a goodly
percentage of its shareholding?
[The
wedding guests laugh and start loudly and merrily talking, and raising their
glasses to the newly weds. Through them Mr JOHANN and MADAME GORAK wend
their way out]
BLACK
OUT
SCENE
9
(Stage
Right. Time – Present).
[The
lights come on at once. On to the space have been moved furniture and fittings
of a double bedroom in a country hotel. We see the entrance door and a window There
is a telephone on the table beside the bed; a vase of flowers on the dresser, A
PORTER comes through the door carrying luggage which he puts on the
floor... Mr JOHANN and MADAME
GORAK, wearing a hat and gloves, and carrying her handbag, enter. The
PORTER goes out, closing the door.]
Mr
JOHANN [going over to the bedside table and lifting the telephone receiver]
Is there anything you want?
MADAME
GORAK. No thanks. What about you?
Mr
JOHANN. Me neither. [replaces receiver] A bit hot in here, isn't it?
Shall I open the window?
MADAME
GORAK. Yes. I agree.
Mr
JOHANN. Oh dear!. Not very romantic, am I? Anyone else in this position would
have come up with something more suited to – er – the – um...
MADAME
GORAK. Such as what?
Mr
JOHANN. Well, to start with...
MADAME
GORAK [going over to the flowers on the dresser] But you
have done what the 'situation'
demands - by having these flowers put here. That is so, isn't it? These are
your flowers?
Mr
JOHANN. Yes. I telephoned the innkeeper before we left and told him to make
sure we had a vase of flowers in our room.
MADAMR
GORAK. Wonderful! Thank you so very much.
Mr
JOHANN [going over to the window and looking out] How still and silent
it is outside!
MADAME
GORAK. [coming up to the window and standing beside him] One needs a
little peace after the strain of a day like this
Mr
JOHANN. I spent most of my early life away from the noisy bustle of the town.. It
is the silence of the countryside that I now miss most of all.
.MADAME
GORAK. Something tells me this is the moment when I should start pealing off,
don'.t you think? To strip?
MADAME GORAK.
OK! Down with my handbag! [she puts it on a table] Off with my hat, my
gloves! [she goes to her handbag ,opens it and takes out a number of
documents which she hands to Mr Johann]. There you are. There are
the papers relating to the charcoal and cobalt mines.
Mr
JOHANN. [takes them carefully and quickly glances through hem] First
class! [lowers his hand holding the papers] What a lovely dress you are
wearing!
MADAME
GORAK. Don't worry. Don't hurry me.. I'll be taking it off in due course.
Mr
JOHANN. Let me help you
MADAME
GORAK. Thanks. [she sits at the table] Give me your pen will you? [Mr
JOHANN hands her his fountain pen; she signs one of the documents with it
and gives it to him] That entrusts to you the management of all my
shipyards.
Mr
JOHANN. Great! Just you see what I do with them!
MADAME
GORAK. I have no doubt whatsoever it will be spectacular.
Mr
JOHANN. The first ship I launch will be named after you. It will be hoist with
a flag of your favourite colour. Which is what?
MADAME
GORAK. Green.
Mr
JOHANN. We'll make great play with every shade of it – the moist green of the
fields, the dark green of the sea, the emerald green of the sand, the reedy hew
of a slowly moving river, the bright ,glistening green of your eyes.. From
every mast will fly your pinion.
MADAME
GORAK. [signing another document and handing it to him] Here's the
warrant for.The Ferrier iron company.- laying myself bare piece by piece. See? There
goes my slip; now my shoulders are bare. Satisfy you?
Mr
JOHANN. Gorgeous.
MADAME
GORAK. Would you now like me to take off my bra.?
Mr
JOHANN. Nothing would please me more.
MADAME
GORAK. You know. This is the moment juste in those nightclubs, the
climax to the dance routines of the strippers which all the men in the audience
have been waiting for. The house lights go down, and then out, while a single
spotlight draws their attention with indecent insistence to the exasperatingly
slow unbuttoning that leads to a complete state of nudity – like this [hands
him another document] My United Steel Wire works
Mr
JOHANN.. Marvellously exciting.
MADAME
GORAK. You don't think it brazen of me to stand naked before you.?
Mr.
JOHANN. You still have an air about you that dispels any sense of shame you
might feel.
MADAME
GORAK. I hope I can keep it for the rest of my days. I shall make every effort
to do so. I can assure you .that. I've got to keep on working, haven.'t I?
[Mr
JOHANN puts the documents in his packet, and walks back to the window]
Mr
JOHANN. In which direction is the sea?
MADAMR
GORAK. Right in front, I think. Are there not some boats with lights on them to
be seen out there?
Mr
JOHANN. I can't see any. There's a bit of a breeze, and it's not that easily
recognisable salty sea air, merely the earthy smell of the fields. [moves
away from the window] If that's all right, I think I'm going to the
lounge.. You had better try and get some sleep. I have a number of letters to
write.
MADAME
GORAK. Could you not give yourself a break from work on a day like this?
Mr.JOHANN.
You see, I now have your business to attend to, as well as mine
MADAME
GORAK. Our business.
Mr
JOHANN. I know I have to earn your trust in my ability to manage your affairs,
and make our association work, and I shall do everything I can to see that it
does work
MADAME
GORAK. [sadly] I am sure that is so.. Nevertheless, I gave birth
to it. It is my baby. I gave it my name "Gorak Steel Works". I still
want to hold its hand, don't you see, to watch it grow up.
Mr
JOHANN. Of course. Entirely understandable.
MADAME
GORAK. Have we got to act with such formality when we discuss our business? We
are husband and wife, aren't we? The light in here is so stark and unfriendly. It
doesn't have to be that bright, does it? Couldn't we turn it down a bit?
Mr
JOHANN. I like it as it is. Being in a bright room makes it certain I will have
enough drive, be sufficiently alert and un-drowsy, .to force myself to do what
I know to be my priority, away from the beguiling 'I'll do it
later" mood which, if it
becomes
a habit, can only lead to failure. ..
MADAME
GORAK. Why don't you stay here tonight?
Mr
JOHANN. Because that is what I want to do.
MADAME
GORAK. Do you never let yourself do what you want to do?
Mr
JOHANN. Like everyone else, two sides of my character are always in conflict. If
I allow the weakest side habitually to surrender to the strongest, I am lost.
MADAME
GORAK. That's a rather dour outlook on life, is it not? How ascetics and heroes
see it – and live it. Not for the likes of you and me surely?
Mr
JOHANN. You have to play the Hero if you are ever to make a conquest.
MADAME
GORAK. Indeed? I would say True Love was a stronger incentive
Mr
JOHANN. Gratification of the senses maybe, but not the kind of love that
requires respect and good faith.
MADAME
GORAK. [sadly] I created that company with my own hands, Johann. You
know how much I love it. I can't believe you wish for this to be handed over
too.
Mr
JOHANN [returning to the window] The wind has died down – a south wind
that was far from fresh. – only a warm air smelling of autumn roses.
MADAME
GORAK. After a gap of six years, I find myself with a new husband..
Mr
JOHANN. Th Tea Rose in the gardens, the Dog Rose in the woods...
MADAME
GORAK. [taking the last document from her case] Here you are, Johann,
the Gorak Steel Works.
Mr
JOHANN. [takes it from her hand] This proves the love I was waiting for,
MADAME
GORAK. I am no longer managing anything.
Mr
JOHANN. [opening his arms out to her] Come now. You have my hands, my
arms, my love. Come my love. [they embrace]
BLACK
OUT
(End
of Act 1)
ACT 2
Scene 1
(Stage Right in darkness. Time -
Present)
[A
spotlight on Mr JOHANN and LUCAS, standing together in
conversation, as last seen at the end of Act 1, Scene 5]
Mr.JOHANN. We had a good laugh
over it all, didn't we?
LUCAS. We
certainly did. We carried it through to perfection
Mr.JOHANN.
It was your masterpiece.
LUCAS. Your
contribution was not to be sneezed at.
Mr.JOHANN.
But it was really all down to you. I must say it gave us a lot of amusement. .The
dear widow revelling in the protection she had won from marrying me!
LUCAS. The
position in society in which one could best be sure one would not be knocked
about! Oh dear!
Mr.
JOHANN. She was confident no one could touch her in her impregnable nest, atop
unclimbable crags on which perched a faithful eagle poised to give warning of unfriendly
intruders! (laughs)
LUCAS. Madame
Gorak had forgotten that, although in our country a marriage contract is
indissoluble, a marriage can easily be wrecked by another of our state's
institutions, the Treasury, whose powers of taxation can have a devastating
effect on married couples and their offspring
Mr JOHANN..[laughing] Ha, ha, ha!
Well done, Lucas. How can I thank
you enough? . Under my management her enterprises flourished as never before, but
she was still the boss. She still owned them all. But what you did was a
masterstroke..
LUCAS. I
owe a lot to good luck, I must admit. To start with, anyway. It was purely by
chance that I met that wretched man who was your wife's financial partner.
He held
the accounts of all her businesses – the real ones – while she sent the
taxation authorities falsified balance sheets showing much lower profits than
those which, as a result of your skilful management, she was in fact receiving.
He knew what she was doing and decided to expose her to the police unless...
yes, this man planned to blackmail her. But he failed to act quickly enough. The
police heard rumours of probable criminal activities within the Gorak
organisation and were about to launch an investigation When this came to the
ears of Mr Big, he thought the best thing to do, was to fly out of the country
to one from which he could not be extradited, in which he could hide, and
escape the humiliation of being tried, convicted and imprisoned. Which is where
I came in. To my amazement he offered to hand over to me, for an astonishingly
small sum, a portfolio containing all the documents, registers, receipts,
returns with the true figures, which the police would need in order to proceed
with a prosecution...
Mr.JOHANN.
No use to me of course; but your idea of what to do with them was brilliant.
LUCAS. Once
again luck played into my hands. The airliner this chap flew out on,, you will
remember, crashed, and his name was on the list of those who perished in it,
which appeared in all the newspaper reports of the disaster. Police searching
through the wreckage. came across a suitcase, miraculously undamaged, full of
documents which for them meant nothing at all.
Mr
JOHANN. At which point it was my turn to act. And you're right, it was hard
going.
LUCAS. I
certainly didn't envy you having to do what you did.
Mr
JOHANN. It was essential that I did nothing to make La Gorak suspect I knew
that she had presented false returns to the income tax people..
As it
turned out, it all went off immaculately. But I must say I had watch myself all
down the line, never to betray my real feelings by some give-away remark,
expression on my face, an ill-placed shrug of the shoulder, a revealing smirk
or laugh.
[The
light goes out on Lucas; and then follows Mr JOHANN who moves Left to
meet MADAME GORAK who enters and walks up to him – both lit against the
dark background.]
Mr
JOHANN. Gorak! I have been talking to the lawyers all night, and so far we have
got nowhere. Completely bogged down
MADAME
GORAK. Don't worry. I know everything. The order for my arrest will be signed
tomorrow.
Mr.
JOHANN. Who told you that?
MADAME
GORAK. What's the point in being so secretive? The sooner I know how things
stand, the easier it will be for me to prepare my case, to decide what I am
going to say in the face of whatever it is they are to charge me with.
Mr
JOHANN. It is not at all clear yet whether they will hold you on remand – in
prison, that is to say -. pending your appearance in court.
MADAME
GORAK. I know. And I really don't think there is much you can do to help. So
forget it. I'll be all right.
Mr
JOHANN. I can't bear to think of you being in that dreadful prison. I just feel
I haven't been clever enough to find the weak spot in their case.. There must
be one somewhere. There must be someone involved in all this with whom we could
come to some arrangement, make a pact he would find worthwhile.
MADAME
GORAK. As far as I am concerned I am reconciled to taking whatever it they have
in store for me. If it's that prison, so be it, It won't be a life sentence,
that's for sure.. We'll have plenty of years together after I come out.
Mr.
JOHANN. The counsel we engage to defend you will see to it that any sentence is
the least that can be imposed in a case such as this. No question of that.
Hopefully
they'll do even better and you'll be found not guilty and freed.
MADAME
GORAK. Quite so. But just now, we have more important matters to discuss.
Mr.
JOHANN. What can be more important than this?
MADAME
GORAK. My companies. Don't you see? They’ll probably confiscate everything I
possess.
Mr.
JOHANN. Maybe, but not if we play our cards properly, and I think we'll
discover ways of doing that. So don't worry your head on that score. There are
other matters of greater concern.
MADAME
GORAK. I can't believe my ears, Do you really
believe that? They are bound to take the whole of the empire I have worked so
slavishly, and successfully, to build up all my life, - and you will let them
do that without raising an eyelid?
Mr.
JOHANN. No, no. Of course not. We'll stop them stealing your assets; take my
word.
MADAME
GORAK. And how do you propose to do that?
Mr.
JOHANN. Well. Right now, I couldn't rightly say. But I shall be talking to
people who have been n a similar predicament, and – er – well, get what advice
I can from – er – whomever I can
MADAME
GORAK. Wake up, Johann. There's only one way of stopping them, and that I have
already seen to. Making sure that when they look into the place where they
think my money lies, the cupboard is bare. They find nothing; they discover
that I have put it out of their reach. I have just been drafting the necessary
documents with my solicitor. I shall be penniless. So there will be nothing for
them to lay their grubby little hands on.
Mr.
JOHANN. And what do the accountants and shareholders of your companies think of
a ploy such as that?
MADAME
GORAK. It is all ready to go. It merely awaits you signing the documents, and
that will be it..
Mr
JOHANN. Awaits my signature?
MADAME
GORAK. All my companies are now
yours…
Mr
JOHANN. You have given up all your possess?
MADAMR
GORAK. All but one thing: our marriage. Through you
I shall
once again possess all my companies, as I did before we were husband and wife.
Mr.
JOHANN. So the ball is now in my court? It is for
me to decide what to do, and me alone?
MADAME
GORAK. Have you any difficulty in doing that?
Mr.
JOHANN. Of course not.
MADAME
GORAK. So?
Mr
JOHANN. I'm a bit bewildered, that's all. Taken me by surprise, Not at all what
I expected. Like opening a town house window which had always overlooked the
street and looking down into a gorge three thousand feet below.
MADAME GORAK. But your eyes are surely used to
gazing out into space?
Mr.
JOHANN. It is a bit forbidding being plunged alone, precipitately and without
warning, from light into dark
MADAME
GORAK. But I will always be at your side.
Mr.
JOHANN. You will always know what I am up to.
MADAME
GORAK. How's that?
Mr.
JOHANN. Have you forgotten our secret way of speaking to each other? Through
the flowers – the tulips, the convolvulus, the roses? They will tell you what I
am working at, they will remind you of my love for you, of my memories of the
past, my hopes for the future
[The
light on Madame Gorak goes out; and another comes up on LUCAS who is
laughing]
LUCAS..
Ha ha! Well done! That was magnificent.. How on earth did you manage to hide
the pleasure your deceit was giving you? As fine a piece of acting I have ever
seen on the stage. I don't know how you were able to keep it up, to keep a
straight face, I watched you and was expecting you at any moment to give the
game away by – well, I don't know – just bursting into laugher, But no. At no
point could she have suspected you were having her on. How did you do it?.
Mr.
.JOHANN. I was driven by I'm not sure what, but something that forced me on,
over which I had no control. It took possession of me, mocking every attempt I
made to come to my senses. - though not, I might say, entirely successfully. Luckily
I did manage to calm down and stop unbridled impetuosity ruining all I was
trying to achieve. That was the road to the nervous breakdown from which I
would find it very difficult to recover..
LUCAS. You
say you do not know what drives you. You've got to look deeper.
Mr.
JOHANN. No one knows the source of a call, a vocation, which is what motivates
me. It is a call to nirvana, to the state they call seventh heaven, which
yields the joy, the bliss no words can define, but those who have once sensed
it never stop seeking.
LUCAS. I
imagine your joy derives in no small measure from the enormous wealth
which has suddenly fallen into your lap and lets you acquire whatever you want
whenever you want it.
Mr.
JOHANN. I can assure you it would never have fallen into my lap, as you like to
put it, without the effort I made, and the plan I devised, to direct it there..
LUCAS. It
is your plan working out so well that makes you so happy, is that it?
Mr.
JOHANN. That's only part of what has brought me such joy..
LUCAS. You
started the ball rolling. You are the instigator of the whole thing..
You are
the one who have suffered the hurt of being mockd that day, - she and the other
three -for which you have ever since been seeking revenge...
Mr.
JOHANN. You may well say that, but as soon as I had avenged myself that first
time, I thought I was being all rather petty.
LUCAS. Maybe.
But after that you sought further vengeance?
Mr.
JOHANN. No, Lucas. I once thought as you did, but I was wrong. And I didn't
want to make the same mistake again. Which is why I drew up my new plan of
action so meticulously. I had to go it alone. The other three relied on
seemingly impregnable defences. Nonetheless they were check-mated. To divine
and frustrate their next moves, so that I could deliver the knock-out blow, I
had to rise above them. There was only one way of doing that, and that was by
taking the road that led to the palace of the Great Kirby.
BLACK
OUT
SCENE 2
(Stage Right)
[The
spotlight on Lucas goes out, and follows Mr JOHANN as he walks up to a
long table at the head of which sits in semi-darkness the grave, sombre,
severe-looking GREAT KIRBY… Behind him can be seen, in a transparency,
skyscrapers and smoking factory chimneys]
Mr.
JOHANN. Just a minute please. Let me look around and take in what I see… It's a
bit of an effort for me to speak; I'm somewhat tired and out of breath after my
long journey. You know what I am talking about only too well., You've watched
my progress from one year to another, and you know what it means for me finally
to meet up with you., Great Kirby, in this ivory tower of yours. Your
secretaries out there wanted me to leave this with them [holds up a letter],
the letter you sent me inviting me to come and see you.. I wasn't going to do
that. Oh no.. I'm going to hold on to it – very tightly.. It's much too
valuable a testimonial. It is a great feather in my cap.:to be able to show
proof of being asked to have a face to face business talk in his private office
with the Great Kirby . It puts me in the top league, head and shoulders above
my rivals...Most of them are eager social climbers – though none would
want to admit to it . However, I reckon they would give their eyes to be able
to tell their friends and customers that they consorted with, and were
consulted by, so high a star in the upper regions of the world of business as
the Great Kirby. How did I manage to penetrate this inner sanctum, which only a
chosen few have ever entered? An old trick. I gained entrance with a false key.
I sold some steel shares at less than the market price.. What? A scallywag like
me fixing the price of steel against you? No one, let alone the Great Kirby,
had ever heard of me. I reckoned the sooner he could find out who this 'Mr
Johann' could be, the better. A lunatic? An ignoramus bent on committing financial
suicide? If so, no matter. But perhaps he was no idiot, but someone of an
altogether different calibre who might well prove to be a threat.. When this
unknown expressed a wish to come and see you, you thought, as I hoped you
would, that I might have some useful proposition to make to you.and it would be
foolish to ignore me.. You would not want to miss out on a risky project for
which, with your wide experience, you would see a way of embarking upon, from
which others would sheer away.. Might it not be worth examining as the product
of a man who had risen from small beginnings, whose ambition and energy had
given birth to a scheme of great originality far beyond the run-of-the-mill
ideas that others sought to bring to your attention every day? These are the
thoughts which I hope have been running through your mind. My ambition is, like
you, to be able to look out of a window such as that [;points to behind
Kirby] from which one can see a dazzling universe. I look forward to the
day when I too can let my eyes survey the whole galaxy of metals.
[Mr,
JOHANN suddenly turns round to find LUCAS once more beside him, picked out
by a spotlight. The rest of the space is in darkness.]
Mr
JOHANN. Yes. Yes, Lucas. Perhaps I am now nearer understanding what drove me
on. It wasn'.t
ambition; it wasn't love of money.; or even a desire for revenge.. Now I see
what it was, Lucas. Yes, now I see.
BLACK OUT
SCENE
3
(Stage Left.
Time – 14th c)
[Darkened interior of the 14th century
Spanish church. CATALINON runs in, obviously very frightened]
CATALINON.
Master! Where are you? In Heaven's name, master! The soldiers are coming....
Take to your heels. Now. This is no time to hang around Get going! They’re
here.. You've got to hide. They're – ah! [he falls to his knees, clasps his
hands together on a praying position and keeps rigidly still]
[TWO
SOLDIERS with lanterns enter, and start looking around.. One of them
goes to the kneeling Catalinon and puts his lantern in front of Catalinon's face
to see if he knows who he is. He leaves him to get on with his praying, and
takes his lantern to search in another part of the church, joins the other
soldier, and the two of them make their way out. DON JUAN comes out of
the shadows and goes up to his praying servant.]
CATALINON.
Oh, it's you.. Lucky they never saw you.
DON
JUAN. How long is it before dawn?
CATALINON.
At least two hours. But be careful They'll probably come back.
DON
JUAN. Another two hours! It's the longest night of my life. It seems to be
going on eternally.
CATILINON.
Don't say things like that, master. Talk of eternity and you talk about death.
DON
JUAN. Does that still frighten you? Have you not yet got used to going through
life day by day, side by side with death?
CATALINON.
I don't have so close a relationship with it as that. No. Thanks to God, every
day I feel, and I am, very much alive, enjoying life along with so many other
living beings
DON
JUAN. Can you spend your whole life ignoring the dark cloud that overhangs all
mortals, of which those who throng our city streets seem more conscious than
most, the ever-present threat to life that mankind calls Mortality? Does it not
seem to you, as it does to me, that the feet of those who trudge the streets of
our cities are dispersing and blowing to the wind the dust of the dead?
CATLINON.
No more talk, master, I beseech you, that hints of the bottomless pit, the
infernal regions that lie beneath us.. As far I am concerned, my feet tread
dense, compact terra firma which shows no sign of either sooner or later
opening up to receive me.
DON
JUAN. Tell the masses of the enchanting – or should I say, enchanted – world
which you inhabit, the delight it brings you, the stability, the freedom. But
don't be surprised if they take you for a madman. If they think you're mentally
unstable, you have nothing to worry about. However, if they go along with your
ravings and take them as the enlightened preaching of an inspired holy man, that's
the end of you. There is no place for the living in a world that turns a blind
eye on the wanderings of the mind, on all that is intangible, and can only
focus on matters with the substance, the rigidity of flesh and blood.
CATALINON.
Oh master! Discussions of this sort give me the creeps.
DON
JUAN. For them progress is anathema; moving on stinks. Let everything remain as
it has always been; let it go stale; let it go rotten; let our laws,. our moral
values, putrefy. That's the movement, the change, they accept. Transformed? You
bet! Not what it was at first..
CATALINON.
For God's sake! Do you have to talk like this?
DON
JUAN. A lively chap like you prefers to be silent on such matters, is that it? For
me silence is death.
CATALINON.
.Silence is not death; sounding off on life's profundities is not death.
DON
JUAN. My words of wisdom may not apply any longer, but then neither do the
ancient outpourings we term The Claasics which have lost their meaning, have no
life left in them, expressing out-moded, old-fashionad attitudes.. They now lie
neglected by the common herd – that's you and me - out of sight, out of mind,
in Time's cemetery, dead and forgotten. And good riddance! You are also dead,
Catalinon, and don't know it.
CATALINON.
What about you? Do you regard yourself as fully alive with that death sentence
hanging over you?
DON
JUAN. It is precisely that sentence that tells me they cannot wait to see me
once more back im the centre of the fray.. Get it? You'll need no further proof
of my being still very much alive and kicking than seeing me, as I assure you
you will, happily esconced in the arms of Stella.
CATALINON.
So that is all your fancy philosophising on life and death adds up to, is it, seducing
girls, deceiving virgins?
DON
JUAN. I don't know what you're talking about. Seduction, deception? That's not
me.
CATALINON.
Come off it. How can you deny it? Do you really think that I, who have
followed you round all this time like a faithful spaniel, have not seen
you at it
DON
JUAN. Your sharp eyes and well-attuned mind will also, therefore, have observed
the hypocrisy and prejudice that colours the talk and behaviour of the girls to
whom I assume you are referring. You will have noticed how well versed they are
in the obscene art which they have inherited from those who have preceded them,
that of exciting desire. You will witnessed how mesmerising a performance they
manage to stage over and over again. Dainty damsels? Fresh young virgins? Huh! Tree
trunks whose life once depended on springtime, regularly rejuvenating with
bright greenery, and resplendent flowers, and have now had their day - worn
out, cut down - do not blossom.. No new shoots, no new leaves, only moss and
fungus.
CATALINON.
Master, I have seen the kind of girls you have ravished. Many of them were very
young, innocent, pure as snow.
DON
JUAN. There was no part of them which they could accuse me of offending, except
their bodies. Feelings? Any 'shame'' they saw fit to express was simulated; their
virtue entirely false.; any modesty they attempted to display was artfully
feigned. It was all an act. And what squalor lay behind this make-believe! Venal
self-indulgence, sordidly satisfying their own brand of sexuality ,
calculating, sinister , evil-minded Jezebels..
CATALINON.
And what lies behind your façade of respectability, of good breeding and
all that?
DON
JUAN. Oh I have nothing to hide. Behind me roars the inferno. Its flames flare
high and I never try to obscure them. The flames are there for all to see. I
have no wish to smother my gross, corrupt lifestyle, my decomposition which, as
I described, is the fate of hewn down tree trunks,..with a cloak of hypocrisy.
CATALINON.
I see. And all that swearing of True Love? All those tears; all those promises
to love her till you die? 'For all eternity, my dearest'!
DON
JUAN. It's the required, boring ritual one has to go through to make sure that
she does not surrender at once, which they all reckon to do.. If she succeeds ,
there is none of the fore-play I always dream about and I find so invigorating.
I have to have my lies to counter hers...Mine are less severe than hers.
They are only spoken, whereas hers on the other hand are inevitably treacherous
and fake, acted in bad faith with irresistibly beguiling eyes, alluring smiles
and coral lips whispering and humming seductive sounds in your ears, erasing
all sense of dull reality and transporting you body and soul into the elysian
fields where there is nothing mundane, nothing sad to pull you down into the
Slough of Despond; nothing, for the moment at any rate, but joy unbounded.
Ecstasy!
CATALINON.
'Only spoken' – your lies? Huh! That in no way absolves you. With your promises
and declarations of love you profane Holy Marriage, your deceitful language
constitutes sacrilege of the most revolting nature.
DON
JUAN. You are wrong in judging my choice of my words on these occasions.. My
speaking in that way is an end in itself. Don't you see? Making those promises
and then abrogating them – betrayal – is my way of punishing them.
CATALINON.
In whose name do you do that? Under whose authority?
DON
JUAN. I haven't the slightest idea. Do you know what makes you tick, how
you come to think as you do? I have spent hours turning these questions round
and round in my head. From where, I asked myself, comes this overwhelming
Desire?...
CATALINON.
Indeed. That's the question. From where? Was it from Hell?
DON
JUAN. If the flames of the inferno are the instigators of the tormenting
appetite that consumes me from day to night, which you find sacrilegious.; and
if they want to encourage mankind to learn the truth about themselves and their
motivations, and reconcile themselves to loving the truth when they find it...
If I owe it to the inferno for this self-knowledge – if, that is – well
then I must be grateful to it In the circumstances, I think I have no
alternative but to accept that the flames from the pit
are responsible for me being Me.
CATALINON.
[backs away from him, staring him in the face] Terrifying!... After
that, I cannot but look on you with horror.
DON
JUAN. So you've changed your mind about what pleases you and what disgusts
you., what frightens you? Am I right? You are now horrified by the thought of
anyone shaking off the dust of death?
[CATALINON
continues his backwards withdrawal from Don Juan, and then
collides
with a lifesize statue which now stands in the shadows. It is one of
Don Gonzalo, the
father Dona Ana. He jerks himself round to see what he has bumped into,
and then squats down beside the statue, holding his head in his hands.]
CATALINON
[crying out in anguish] Oh master! What do you think I have seen?
DON
JUAN. [putting his hand to the hilt of his sword] What is it?
CATALINON.
Look there. It's Dona Ana's farher. He's come back.
DON
JUAN. What's that? You animal! [goes up to him, and cries out when he
sees the statue] Aaaah! You’re right, he has indeed returned.. Somewhat
heavier than before, thanks to all that bronze they've given him on his head
and shoulders. Give him the grander image he always thought he deserved,
strutting about like an over-ornamented turkey…
CATALINON.
Hardly the way, master, to talk about a man you have killed.
DON
JUAN. Don Gonzalo De Alloa has good reason to be very grateful to me. In his
lifetime, his ego was monumental. But it is only meeting his death at my hands
that made him the celebrity worthy of having a monument made of him. There he
stands, for ever fixed in a posture very much more 'noble', I might say, than
the one in which we always think of him – picking his nose There he is, his
head adorned with a helmet of bronze, which I am sure was never the case when he
was alive.
CATALINON.
No no. Don't talk like that, master. He was a warrior of some renown, covered
in glory and honour. It was just that you never let him enjoy his dotage.
DON
JUAN. I ended his life at its happiest. He had good cause to feel happy. He had
just returned from winning a bloody battle. He will always be remembered as a
victorious warrior. I made it certain that as a fighter he never suffered
defeat. If he had gone on living, who knows what he might have endured –
catastrophic disaster, ignoble flight, or much worse. He might have lost his
head – the one which up there [pointing to the statue] is now so
venerated – to a twenty-old whore who would have brought on it the contempt of
all who knew him and render him despised as a hypocrite who well deserved their
scorn.. I saved him from all that.
[DON
JUAN walks up to the statue, while CATALINON makes repeated signs of
the cross and murmurs prayers]
DON
JUAN. No. I have nothing against you, Don Gonzalo. I even have a little
sympathy for you. You are the victim of those who see your military expertise
as a way of sustaining their greedy and cowardly lifestyle, by sending you,
sword in hand, to defend what they hold to be virtues but I regard as degrading
vices.
CATALINON.
He defended his daughter's honour.
DON
JUAN. Of course...Dona Ana! What a joy! What a lovely beauty spot she had on
her neck!
CATALINON.
Is that all you remember about her?
DON
JUAN. It is memorable because, in other ways, she was like all the others.
CATALINON.
You mean to say you killed a man for a beauty spot?
DON
JUAN. A bit paltry, eh? Well, I would say, for that beauty spot, Don Gonzalvo
would have risked his life destroying an army.
[Noises
off]
CATALINON.
Did you hear that? The soldiers are coming back.
DON
JUAN. Go and have a look. The dawn that is about to break must be mine, and
mine alone.
[CATALINON
runs off, but returns immediately]
CATALINON.
There is someone walking across the square. But that's all, and I can't make
out who it is. Too far away
[DON
JUAN goes with CATALINON to the church door and looks out]
DON
JUAN. It's a woman, you idiot.. It's Stella... Don't you see? Dawn is at last
breaking. Go and wake up one of the friars and tell him to get ready for a
wedding…
CATALINON.
Wait a minute. You still have plenty of time.
DON
JUAN. Didn.t you hear what I said? Get on with it.
CATALINON.
Haven't you done enough sinning?
DON
JUAN. Do you want me to beat you up
CATALINON.
You can't escape God's justice; but then his mercy too is iinfinite.
DON
JUAN. [rushing at him] Rogue! Wretch! On your way!
CATALINON..
That's it. I've had enough. I'm off.
[
CATALINON runs out. Enter a woman
wrapped in a cloak which hides the fact that she is DONA ANA. DON JUAN goes
up to her]
DON
JUAN. Stella!... my love! I have been waiting and waiting for you. For far too
long.. All night. Time stood still
DONA
ANA. As it did for me, Don Juan Tenorio. [she lifts her mantel from her
face, and DON JUAN takes a step back, shocked at seeing who it is. He
kneels on one leg in front of her]
DON
JUAN.
Dona Ana!
DONA ANA. Ugh!
You wretch! Well on the way once more to indulge yourself in your
depraved habits, but not this time. Thwarted, unmasked, just as you were you
were about to lay your filthy hands, as your arrogantly thought, on your latest
conquest. Stella is a friend of mine.. Yes. She boasted to me about the tryst
she was having with a new Lothario whom she did not name, but from her
description I knew to be you, and even more certainly from the promises and
declarations of love.she said this fellow made to her. They had the familiar
false ring of insincerity which had sickened me, time and time again, as I had
had to listen to your monotonous, would-be 'romantic' speechifying.
DON
JUAN. Good evening, madam. Welcome to this holy church. This is not a meeting I
dreamt would ever take place. For I knew I was no longer in your good graces,
and could never expect your pardon for what I have done. But I know Heaven will
show me mercy.
DONA
ANA. Don't you blaspheme in my presence, you slut.
DON
JUAN. I take it as a sign from heaven, madam, that you should have come here to
take your revenge at the foot of your father's statue. [he takes his sword
out of its sheath and hands it to Ana] Here you are, madam. Clutch it
firmly. – not with a hand that trembles, but resolutely, confident in the
righteousness of the deed you have set your heart on. You are the purveyor of
divine justice. Thrust the sword into.my side with all the force of the hatred
you bear me. Even if in your heart you have forgiven me, do not let Christian
compassion soften your blow.
DON ANA
[throwing the sword down] No. The blood of my father, with which your
sword is blemished, must not mix with yours.
DON
JUAN. Have pity on me! Release me from a life that has become insupportable.
DONA
ANA. Don't worry. You'll be released all right. But not by a sword, but an
executioner's axe within seconds of your placing your head on the block.
DON
JUAN. How soon are you expecting that to take place?
DONA ANA. Very shortly. Soldiers are looking for
you all over the town. You can't escape.
DON
JUAN. Well. There might be a king's pardon on its way at this very moment
DONA
ANA. All sorts of people have a say in matters of this sort. Each has a
different responsibility…
DON
JUAN. That goes for you too. Who knows, tomorrow you may have decided to become
my accomplice in escapades which today you condemn as evil and criminal?.
DONA
ANA. I have already been your accomplice – I helped you kill my father.
DON
JUAN. This is the moment for you to unburden yourself of the guilt you feel in
having taken part in that. Our standing together here, beside the sinister
bronze monument of your father which, every time I look at it, makes me long to
join him in the after-world – our meeting here is a sign. Whether from heaven
or hell I do not know. But don't you see what it is trying to tell us? I don't
think you do.
DONA
ANA. Inside you there 's always an urge to destroy, though you do not always
let it out and make it the determinator of every action.
DON
JUAN. I find one reaches a point where one no longer has a choice, where one's
next step is pre-destined. You cannot go back, only forward. My destiny is
written in bronze. And so is yours.
DONA
ANA. Mine? What do you mean?
DON
JUAN.
Never before has the blade of a sword
severed so much; never has the point of a sword written anything so precise, so
definite.
DONA
ANA. What are you implying? Every word of yours is barbed.
DON
JUAN. Once an open plain stretched out before me. No longer I am now welded, as
it were, to this hunk of bronze.. I am at one with Don Gonzalo. As for you and
me, a barely perceptible trace of blood separates us, just a smear. But it acts
as an unscalable wall..
DONA
ANA. Between us?
DON
JUAN. Between you and me, Dona Ana,
DONA
ANA. I find it difficult to fathom what you are saying, Don Juan. What am I
meant to infer from the words that fall so glibly from your mouth -: sarcasm,
contempt, deliberately misleading phrases to allay my fears, to put me on the
wrong track, send me to perdition, betray my friends and allies? I can never
divine your innermost thoughts as conveyed in your poisonous remarks, so
artfully contrived to deceive.
DON
JUAN. Am I not waiting for them to lead me to the stake in the town square and
set fire to me in a holocaust of flame? Why should I lie to you?
DONA
ANA. To maintain in the eyes of posterity your legendary image of invincibility
– victorious up to the last. How better than by heroically wielding your manly
sword and mortally wounding your once-loved Dona Ana?
DON
JUAN. My body is a mass of wounds, - the result of continually crossing swords
with Don Gonzalo.
DONA
ANA. So what? I'm no threat to you. Get on with it! Into my side with your
sword! That's it, isn't? I'm ready,
DON
JUAN. You're right. I loved you. When your poor old father started lunging at
me with his sword, I shouted at him that he need be in no doubt of my deep and
passionate love for you. But now, there he is, nothing but a lifeless replica
of himself, his eyes, his heart and mind turned to bronze. But then,
facing the man he believed to be a dangerous enemy, he hurled himsel at me in a
terrifyingly savage way which made me think he saw my declaration of love for
his daughter as creating a state of affairs that needed destroying as urgently
as an army of infidel Moors, and that this was his duty as a Christian man of
honour.. My yelling at him was obviously of no avail, as ineffective as trying
to move a mountain...
DON
ANA. [shouting] And what about Stella?
DON
JUAN. She is one of the several who came into my life after you; and would
still be playing a part were they not, at this very moment, stacking those logs
in the square to which, once they have placed me securely in the centre of
them, they will set fire ,and let the hot flames deprive me of my life as
efficiently as, though very much more painfully than, cold steel..
DON
ANA. That''s all you have to say about Stella?.
.DON
JUAN. It 's all rather bewildering. I'm not quite sure what lies behind all
this, nothing I can put my hands on, get my teeth into. Always shifting.. One
moment it all seems clear and there is plenty of substance; the next it all
goes muzzy and dark and empty. I am floating in air, with nothing to hold on
to. I know I must get a grip on myself,
but what help can I expect from the lights of phantoms in icy darkness?
DON
ANA. I am surprised you are able to divine so accurately, as it seems, what
lies in people's hearts. How do you manage to strike the right chords, attune
yourself to what their hearts desire?
DON
JUAN. I know the desires of my heart, madam. There was a time when it
beat in harmony with yours, and it is a rythym which, at an instant, it can
pick up again as if it had never been abandoned...
DON
JUAN. Ah! I have won you over – back to what you were to me that night. At last!
DONA
ANA. Be careful what you say now, Don Juan. Your words can at times be very
cutting and hurtful; at other times a balm that soothes smarting wounds.
DON
JUAN. You looked so wonderfully beautiful that night. Your eyes told me you were
blaming yourself for allowing yourself to fall for me so effortlessly. They
could not hide the modest young lady you were at root. You could never be
anything else, but all the while you had difficulty in stopping yourself being
carried away by red-hot, flaming Desire – floating away on waves of undiluted
rapture across a boundless ocean, and up, up into the skies. For me, you have
the same beauty to-day as you had then, lovelinesswhich is un affected by your
regarding any gesture of encouragement you make to me, as sacrilege.. Here you
are to-day with fear in your heart, but a tenderness in your arms, in your
whole body... driven by a burning desire to surrender, to take me into your
arms and...
DONA
ANA. [stretching out her arms to him] My love!
DON JUAN.
[embracing her] Careful, Ana. The flames of the inferno are not far
away.
DONA
ANA. All I can see is you, my love.
DON
JUAN. Mind how you go, Ana. What you are doing will anger the wind, will make a
nonsense of time.
DONA
ANA. I no longer have anything to fear. I have been looking for you, one could
say, ever since that night we first met, not consciously maybe but nonetheless
desperately. I was never able to shrug you off. You were there in my tears
whenever I cried...At times, you were my sombre mourning veil, the dagger with
which I longed to kill you, the rosary I held as I said my prayers.. I saw you,
but only in my mind, never with my eyes which were .dimmed with blood.. I never
heard your voice;. my ears were deafened by cries of agony..
DON
JUAN. At last I have found you, but too late. I have come to the end of the
road.
DON
ANA. Don't say that. I dread to think of losing you all over again.
DON
JUAN. I am sorry but this old man of bronze standing behind us here has decided
otherwise..
DON
ANA. Stop it. Nonsense. He can't touch us, nor can anyone else. We no longer
have families or friends or… You and I are on our own, away from everyone, 'up
against' everyone if that has to be.
DON
JUAN. No. It's over. Too late
DONA
ANA. I tell you it is nothing of the sort. We can disappear, drive off right
now, in my carriage.. It is the only one of its sortin the town. I guarantee no
one would dare to stop and search it.. We can go miles and miles away, where no
one could ever possibly find us.
DON JUAN. Not even him? [pointing to statue
behind him]
DONA
ANA. Stop questioning me. I have nothing more to say. I have pardoned you What
more do you want from me?
DON
JUAN. You mean, as far as you are concerned you are making a clean sweep of my
depravity?
DON
ANA. All of it, my dearest love.
DON
JUAN. You forgive me for lying so grossly to all those women about the love I
bore for them? For never knowing the children I fathered?
DON
ANA. We are turning over a new leaf, embarking on a new chapter in our lives
together.
DON
JUAN. But I killed your father.
DON
ANA. I love you, I say.
DON JUAN. Which deletes all you once held to
be so hateful?.
DONA
ANA. Yes, yes my love. Enough
talk. Come on. Get
going. We have no time to waste.
DON
JUAN. [shouting] No! [turns to address the statue of Ana's father]
You've been deceived by her; you've fallen for all your dear daughter has told
you. You nobly defend her honour; she forgives the man who has dishonoured her.
She will see nothing shameful about taking me into her bed, since she is
traumatised by the romantic-sounding twaddle which I declaim with such
convincing fervour on these occasions All she is concerned about is satisfying
her sensual, her sexual desires. 'Love'? She doesn't
love me, you old fool!
DON
ANA. Monster! Monster!
[DONA
ANA runs off, sobbing]
DON
JUAN. Catalinon! Did you hear all that, Catalinon?
[CATALINON
emerges out of the shadows]
CATALINON.
Saved, master. Saved.
DON
JUAN. Indeed, She could not deny that what I was saying to her father was the
truth, that the only 'pleasure', if that is the right word, she derived from
being in my company was the prospect of ending up in bed with me. She saw
herself as acting conventionally, as all others do. This is her justification..
If Ana sees that climax as all that can be said to constitute 'love', surely
Don Juan Tenorio cannot be condemned for thinking likewise? If she is
justified, so is he. Come on!.
Don't
let's hang around here. No one out there can now write me off as the lecherous,
lascivious outcast which has been my label for so long.
Come!
CATALINON.
[holding him back] Master! For goodness sake!...
DON
JUAN [breaking free] Nothing to fear. There's no reason for people not
to accept me now, Catalinon' They can't go on cold-shouldering me.
[DON
JUAN strides haughtily off, followed by CATALINON]
CATALINON.
Heavens above! Where on earth are you going? Going out there will be the death
of you – the end. Master! [in tears] The end of you.
BLACK OUT
SCENE 4
[The
spotlights come up on Mr JOHANN and LUCAS, standing in exactly
the same position beside the statue of Don Gonsalvo as Don Juan and Catalinon]
LUCAS. You
know what I think about this enquiry of yours. It's dragged on much too long.
Mr
JOHANN. I disagree. I never expected it would turn up so much information. Look
at that stimulating conversation I had with the Great Kirby… I go over and over
it again in the mind. So many ideas! I never know which to follow up first, all
are so startingly innovative and exciting, hold out so much promise.
LUCAS. Are
you sure you really had this conversation with Kirby?
Mr
JOHANN. Why do you say that? It is the mainspring of what we are doing, as I
reminded the others when we met here recently to review progress. I am greatly
indebted to the Great Kirby
LUCAS. I
can't understand why you are so keen to dig down and find the reason for
acting, for reacting, as you do, for what drives you. Does it matter all that? When
I sit down to a meal. I don’t ask myself Why.? Is it to satisfy my hunger? to exercise
my jaws? I just eat; get on with it
Mr
JOHANN. I suppose you find it strange that I should hanker after finding what
it was that led me to this huge cache of minerals of which no one, so far as I
can see, had any knowledge.. and why I was so affected by the Great Kirby's
support.
LUCAS.
. I wouldn't want to be analysing my actions every time,, questioning the
source of every idea that comes to mind.
Mr
JOHANN. For fear of what it might reveal, you mean?
LUCAS. Perhaps.
Mr
JOHANN. What turned on so wild and untamed a sensation of triumph within me,
when I heard the Great Kirby, of all people, concurring, saying Yes not
No
as I
expected?. I was obsessed. With him behind me on this, I said to myself, I will
be in a position to deliver blow upon blow of the severest and most lasting
nature on all my rivals. It will give me power of a more devastating kind than
I had ever had before..
LUCAS. Power
which could also bring you revenge on those who, for so long, had prayed for
your downfall?
Mr JOHANN. Not only them. Also all those who
were here the other day.
LUCAS. Without exception?
Mr JOHANN. Without exception.
LUCAS. So the protracted 'enquiry', which you
have been conducting into the source of your behaviour, is a waste of time. You
could have got the answers much more easily by psycho-analysis
Mr
JOHANN. Do you really think so?
LUCAS. Certainly.
All you had to do was to look at your unhappy childhood, the poverty, the
injustices, the humiliations, you had to suffer.in silence. Sustaining you
through this painful period of your life was a steady, unquenchable hatred of
those who subjected you so heartlessly to a miserable home life as a boy. The
bitterness you felt then, against those who had the power to boss you, has
remained with you ever since, and moulded you into the warring barbarian who
has learnt to shed his rusticity, enter the sophisticated world of the city
folk and beat them at their own game.. He has come to admire not mock the
splendour of their great mansions, their monuments, their churches. But exhausted
by the relentless onslaught, his ability fully to enjoy the triumph is
impaired, and overlaid by the ingrained hatred which drives him to raze the
city to the ground.
Mr
JOHANN. For me their country houses and churches are wasps' nests and wolves'
dens. What I hate about them is their detestable greed and their ferocious lack
of humanity. Fired by that, I propose to strike at them with all my strength.
LUCAS. By
aping them, you are your own target.
Mr
JOHANN. Obliging me to employ their tactics, and so become one of them, is what
I hold against them most of all'
LUCAS. So.
If I have understood you rightly, you see your rise to power as being driven by
ambition; to achieve fame and – er – well, wealth?.
Mr
JOHANN. To start with, yes.
LUCAS. Then
you faced a set of unscrupulous individuals determined to damage and humiliate
you; and your main object was then to wreak vengeance on them?
Mr
JOHANN. Absolutely, Lucas. Absolutely.
LUCAS. And
now this hatred which has been dormant for so long is rising from the depths
and directing all your thoughts and actions...
Mr
JOHANN….in pursuit of those, Lucas, - and there are plenty of them – whom I
hold responsible for this unwelcome social climate. I am not talking about
people in my own enterprises, but those in political and commercial life who
have been the provocateurs of a public malaise which they seek to have
accepted as the norm, and delight in making sure is perpetuated.
LUCAS. It
is an evi whichl the world has had to live with for centuries. How did it
originate?
Mr
JOHANN. All I know is that mankind is fashioned in the image of these
malefactors, so they must be held responsible.
LUCAS. That's
absurd. .When the prow of a ship cuts a furrow through the sea, the furrow
disappears and, behind the ship, the waters close up. That's not a once and for
all event. It happens continuously. Hatred loses all meaning if it is conceived
as a moral principle, a weapon in the armoury of the champions of justice. Hatred
remains hatred, just as the sea remains the sea even though on occasions it is
sliced through by the prow of a yacht.
Mr
JOHANN. No, Lucas. I cannot stand as a champion wielding the sword of justice. It
would be a pose which I could never sustain, by which few would ever be
deceived. I am still too visibly soiled; too much dirt and putrefaction
clings.. Such a champion must be untarnished, a patently shining monument to
virtue, a widely acknowledged hero who manifestly knows the difference between
Good and Evil. On the other hand, a hangman is a vicious sinner whose
intrinsically evil nature reveals itself in the pleasure he derives from
tightening his torture irons, and lashing his whip. The evil he dispenses is
limited to the pain he can inflict with the tools he has at hand. I am no
sadist. I see my vocation as one who is responsible for bringing the malefactor
to justice, being found guilty and sentenced to be chastised.. I then make sure
he receives the ordained punishment, which is executed however not by me but by
an executioner.
LUCAS. You
should have no difficulty in acting as your calling dictates. Gallows are set
up in town squares, not on top of mountains. The torturer heats his tongs in
the dungeon's brazier not in the boiling lava of the volcano. The executioner
sharpens his axe with his whetstone , not the scythe in the sky that is the
moon. For those who, .like you, feel they can be called upon to see that
trouble-makers receive the punishment they deserve, it is, they are mostly
having to settle family problems – like Hamlet and Orestes. Any such punishment
as they deem necessary is carried out in private.
Mr
JOHANN. Don Juan Tenorio, the fourteenth century Spaniard, is another. A long
time ago., Lucas? What is there still to remind us of him? Almost nothing. A
few legends maybe.. But he stands out very clearly. We have a very complete
picture of his character, not just in black and white but in full colour, with
all the winds of misfortune that seemed to whirl about him throughout his
tortured life.. How is it that Don Juan of all people is the only person that
has left so lively an impression on us, that preys on our conscience after all
this time and reminds us of our own failings?
LUCAS. You
know the answer very well.
Mr
JOHANN. Yes. He was perhaps the first to bring his private revolt against the
lifestyle of his day into the open, into the public domain, daring to challenge
the values, the oppressive moral code and religious faith of his
contemporaries. .He is still remembered and revered for rejecting the
conventional formula for the happy life as consisting of a routine of
bland:contentment, in which no one ever had occasion to give a thought to any
other way of passing the time.. For everyone else it was not The Thing to doubt
the current modus vivendi.. Don Juan refused to accept all that, as
people are starting to do now.. Rejection was the mainspring of his life from
the moment he set out on his career of chastising those who – well – he thought
deserved it..
LUCAS. Do
you see yourself ever changing your own modus vivendi in the course of
the years to come?
Mr
JOHANN. If you are hinting that in future I should try behaving with a little
more decorum, more humility,, you are barking up the wrong tree. If you take it
that I am certain to climb down on so much of what I hold to be true, it is an
unjust presumption.
LUCAS. You're
right. You are possessed of an overpowering ambition which will never let you
stop reaching for power in yet another field of action, even more risky and
complicated than the last.
Mr
JOHANN. Indeed. And I will conduct myself on that occasion, and the next, with
my customary acumen, which means highly successfully and, as usual, attracting
the admiration and envy of all., and celebrating my achievement by...
LUCAS....
seducing a pretty little girl, or [pointing to the statue behind him]
inviting Don Gonzalo De Ulloa to dinner?
Mr
JOHANN. We've come on hundreds of years since then. And to-day there is
precious little left of their way of conducting themselves, of whay they
regarded as sacred and immutable.. It's all gone What have we inherited from
them by way of Honour, Virtue, Religion? Damn all. The only thing that
motivates people these days is putting more and more money in the bank. That of
course is their weak spot, and what I am targeting.. What will make it easier
is that so much of their ill-gotten gain is controlled by me.
LUCAS. How
will you get away with it? They are not going to stand by and let you milk them
dry?
Mr
JOHANN. You wait and see.. At first, I expect to find quite a few of them willing
to fall in with my plan. And the rest will accuse them of backing the wrong
horse, pleading for a united front to thwart my designs, and soon be fighting
each other tooth and nail. In no time, the whole opposition will have broken up
in total disarray, powerless to prevent me acting as I see fit.
LUCAS. OK.
And when they're all washed up and you are riding high, what then?
Mr
JOHANN. By then it will be too late for any of them to do anything.
LUCAS. Except...
Mr
JOHANN. Except what?
LUCAS. Pay
someone to kill you.
Mr
JOHANN. True. If the scenario works out as I predict, I'll keep that in mind,
and watch out for my back.
LUCAS. I
wouldn't wait till then. You made it quite plain to the person you were talking
to just now, that he had little or no hope of ever recovering. He's got it in
for you, and no mistake.
Mr
JOHANN. It was my mistake losing my temper with him. I shouldn't have
let my anger carry me away like that.
LUCAS. It
was extraordinarily foolish. Quite unpardonable. And now you will have to face
the consequences.
Mr
JOHANN. What do you mean?
LUCAS. Well.
If Vector has guessed what you are planning,, similarly Jurgi and Ladog, and
almost certainly several of the others, they will have come to the conclusion
that they have only one way of getting rid of you; and I should imagine that
their hired assassin is loading his pistol at this very moment.
Mr
JOHANN. What are you saying?
LUCAS. If
they have cottoned on to what you intend to do, you're a dead man. If you are
not prepared to compromise, meet them half way, come to some sort of
arrangement, there is no future for you. There is no place for you in their
world. You are finished. Or rather, they will finish you..
Mr
JOHANN. I don't get it. Just what do you think I can expect to happen?
LUCAS. In
view of the threats they made as they took their leave of you, I would say it
was obvious.
Mr
JOHANN. You don't know them as well as I do. It was just a try-on; trying to
scare me. That's all.
LUCAS. If
they had actually found out precisely what you proposed doing, this statue here
would come to life and play a significant part in the situation in which we now
find ourselves.
Mr
JOHANN. That's where you're wrong. The statue is the Great Kirby.
LUCAS. Your
conscience is pricking you so hard, you are unable to see what is around you.
Mr
JOHANN. What is that?
LUCAS. [gently]
Emptiness… We are alone in here.
Mr
JOHANN. I don't believe you.
[He
walks into the gloom of the Stage Right space, where there is the table with a
telephone on it, and starts urgently looking around upstage and shouting out]
Mr
JOHANN. Hey! Anyone there? Come on, show yourselves!
[He
comes down to the table, presses various bell switches and picks up the
telephone receiver. and holds it to his ear; cries "Hello!"and
receiving no response , jerks it down and up on its cradle, finally slamming it
back]
Mr
JOHANN. Out of order. Nothing's working. What's the meaning of all this, Lucas?
LUCAS. That
they've uncovered your plan. They now know exactly what you're up to, and are
poised to thwart you with every weapon at their disposal..
Mr
JOHANN. Nonsense. That's just not possible, Lucas.
LUCAS. [pointing
to statue] There stands the statue of Don Gonzalo De Ulloa, .which, as you
know, slew Don Juan di Tenorio, sending him down to hell in flames. Don Juan no
longer exists, Mr Johann.
Mr
JOHANN. [shouting] No!
[He
starts to run forward, but LUCAS stops him. Noises off of people
running]
LUCAS. Hear
that? They're on their way. They're coming for you – right now.
Mr
JOHANN. You're right. There's someone coming. [dithering] From – er –
there? Or there? Or – er...
[Noises
off of a different kind]
LUCAS. Do
you hear that? That's something else. The clinking of metal. [he begins to
slink off in the darkness]
Mr
JOHANN. Where are you going Lucas?
LUCAS. I
don't want to have anything more to do with you.
Mr
JOHANN. Wait! I'll come with you..
LUCAS. No
thank you, Mr Johann. Now I'm going it alone – not with you anymore. [He
exits]
[Mr JOHANN
takes a
few steps in the direction of Lucas, but Lucas has disappeared in the darkness.
He turns and goes in the direction of the tables to try and discover where the
new sound is coming from. He peers around and then stops, believing he has
traced it to someone hidden in the darkness, which gives him a fright. He wipes
the sweat from his forehead, and panics]
Mr JOHANN. Don't shoot! I don't know who you are,
but
wait. Wait!
I'm not afraid of dying. but my life is by no means over. I still have a lot to
give. If you kill me now, there will be nothing left of me, nothing of what I
have achieved, merely a dimly remembered feats of some sort which will soon be
lost in the mists of time… If you kill me, you will trash all I have done up to
now. Without me at the helm, it can never reach the stage of development I
planned for it when I first set it on its voyage through time. You will be
making a nonsense of everything I set out to do. If you fire at me, Mr Johann
will go down to the pit in flames, and for what remains of him there will be no
monument, only a handful of earth. Wait! Put that gun down. Don't fire! [shouting] No!...
BLACK OUT
SCENE 5
(Stage
Left.
Time – 14th c.)
[Interior
of 14th c. Spanish church, as in Act 1, Scene 1. At the foot of the statue of
Don Gonzalo,' lies the body of Don Juan face down covered by a cloak.
Standing around are King Alfonsso XI's THREE
COUNSELLORS, and several NOBLEMEN]
1st
COUNSELLOR. There he lies, the man who raped women, the enemy of God and
Honour.
2nd
COUNSELLOR. Brought to justice at last.
3rd
COUNSELLOR [bending over the body of Don Juan and lifting a corner of his
cloak] He was stabbed six times. From behind. One would have been enough.
2nd
COUNSELLOR. With a sword, was it?
3rd
COUNSELLOR.. No. A dagger, it seems.
1st
COUNSELLOR. How comes that? The soldiers who were patrolling the street had to
put up a fight if they were not to be cut to pieces by this maniac who came
charging at them so impetuously.
2nd
COUNSELLOR. They had to defend themselves, even though they were not facing him
but behind him.
1st
COUNSELLOR. Do you find fault in that? Is not being stabbed six times by a
dagger just what a scoundrel like him deserves?.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. We should never forget that Don Juan Tenorio was a nobleman. I do
not think it wise that citizens should ever come to think it acceptable that
the life of a nobleman should be ended by a common dagger.
1st
COUNSELLOR.
Ending the life of such as
Don Juan is the job of the hangman, not the commander of a military patrol, who
should be severely reprimanded.
2nd
COUNSELLOR. We are rid of a sinner, but the way of his dispatch gives us no
opportunity publicly to condemn the sin which caused his fall from grace.
1st
COUNSELLOR. So what? It would appear that some of you gentlemen have the death
of Don Juan Tenorio on your conscience But surely, for all of you his departure
is good riddance?
3rd
COUNSELLOR. Yes – but it is the manner of his departure that worries some of
us. How are we going to get rid of his dead body?
2nd
COUNSELOR. And what will the King think of it all?
1st
COUNSELLOR. We will know very soon. Consalvo has agreed to give him all the
facts..
2nd
COUNSELLOR. What if he doesn't approve?
1st
COUNSELLOR. There's not much he can do about it now. Anyway, the King started
it all by signing the man's death sentence
3rd
COUNSELLOR.... . which many will say has not been carried out, since before
that was possible, Don Juan was murdered.
.1st COUNSELLOR. Does that worry you? He had
no following among the common people.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. Is that so? Why then should anyone want to kill him?
1st
COUNSELLOR. Because there are many waiting in the wings, noting how
successfully he has ploughed his own furrow, and finding it difficult not to
admire his brave approach to out-worn conventions. Over the years their numbers
could swell into a formidable body of libertines with considerable influence on
what is 'accepted' as normal behaviour.. That is what we had to prevent,
whatever the cost.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. How far had you got when you heard of Don Juan's murder? What did
you learn from the tactics you were employing? That depravity will never go
unpunished.? That if divine justice hesitates to make itself felt, the man-made
variety can be relied upon to ensure he paid the price of defying society and
what to him were its out-moded morals.- and no arguing the point, no delay, no
prevarication...
2nd
COUNSELLOR. By having a dagger plunged into the sinner's back?
1st
COUNSELLOR. No one will ever ask how Don Juan met his end.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. What will he do once he is buried beneath the ground? No one knows
what the dead do in their graves, do they? Some of them ,it is said, tunnel out
and emerge into the sunlight to surprise everyone.
1st
COUNSELLOR. None of us will be called upon to account for Don Juan's death,
take it from me; or ever tell of the circumstances in which he died…
3rd
COUNSELLOR. Let's hope so. Because last night we knocked down a sinner, but
to-day it looks as if we have raised up a hero.
2nd
COUNSELLOR [indicating with his head] The King!
[The
COUNCELLORS and the NOBLEMEN bow, as KING ALFONSO XI, enters,
followed by CONSALVO, both of who go downstage and stand by the
proscenium arch]
ALFONSO.
Do you think you were justified in acting as you have done?
CONSALVO.
I acted as I did for the good of the state, and for your good, Majesty.
ALFONSO.
That's what you always say when you're unsure sure how you should answer me.
CONSALVO.
Because that is my duty, is it not?
ALFONSO.
Yes, but does it require you to go as far as that? Was that not overstepping
the mark?
CONSALVO.
Maybe, and I am determined to step even further beyond what you see as 'the
mark'.
ALFONSO.
Even further? What makes you think you will allowed to get away with that? The
palace courtyard is packed with knights, their horses and dogs, raring to set
off on the deer hunt. They won't go without me; but I can't keep them waiting
for ever.. That may not worry you, but it worries me. You burst
into my room, and without any attempt to explain what's going on, you whisk me
off to this place.
CONSALVO.
It was the only possible. way to do it.
ALFONSO,
Really, Consalvo! I beg you. Just tell these people the meeting has been
postponed and will take place later on.. It's unthinkable that I should leave
all those ladies and gentlemen in the courtyard, without any notice, to hold
their horses and twiddle their thumbs while I sit and listen to...well, what? I
would be more than letting them down, I would be testing their patience – and
their loyalty – very unwisely.
CONSALVO.
They will wait, Majesty, You see.
ALFONSO.
They are not servants, Consalvo, but noblemen.
CONSALVO.
[pointing to the Counsellors] So are your counsellors.. And they too
have been waiting for your arrival.
ALFONSO.
Among the people panting to spur their horses on to the hunting field and begin
the chase, are the French ambassadors. They can't be allowed to feel insulted
by my rude disregard for the inconvenience I am subjecting them to. What will
they think of me?..
CONSALVO.
The king who gives priority to affairs of state over hunting deer
can expect praise not contempt., sympathy not
criticism.
ALFONSO.
Are you telling me that any government business is so urgent that it cannot
wait until the end of a hunt?
CONSALVO.
I am, your Majesty. Be so good as to follow me.
[They
walk up to the statue of Don Gonzalo. Two SERVANTS brings a chair and KING
ALFONSO sits in it]
CONSALVO.
Your majesty, Don Juan Tenorio is now shrouded by eternal night, and it is in
the folds of that compassionately dark cloak that his body now lies.
ALFONSO.
How was he killed?
1st
COUNSELLOR. Knowing that we had sent out a search party to bring him in, he was
trying to escape down an alley when a patrol of our soldiers barred his way..
ALFONSO.
Where did they wound hum?
1st
COUNSELLOR. He was felled after a doughty fight. We could not possibly have
taken him alive.
ALFONSO, What I asked was 'Where
was he wounded?'
CONSALVO
[quickly] On his chest, Majesty. He was run through by a sword.
ALFONSO.
[standing up] I would like to see him.
CONSALVO.
[stepping towards him] I must insist on sparing your majesty so very
unpleasant a sight..
ALFONSO.
Lift up his cloak.
CONSALVO
[blocking the servants] His face bears the unmistakable hallmarks of the
sinner. You can see from the look on it, and in his sightless eyes, that to his
horror he found himself on the threshold of the inferno, at the very gates of
hell.
ALFONSO
[returns to his chair and sits down] Don Juan is dead, and we of
Castile.can take it that goats will once more be born with one head. What
remains for me to do now?..
CONSALVO.
Your majesty must sign a proclamation which will carry the news of Don Juan's
death to every corner of your kingdom
ALFONSO.
Read it out to me.
CONSALVO.
Before I do that, I would like your majesty to reflect for a moment on what the
sentence imposed on Don Juan signified, and why it was essential that it was
carried out.
ALFONSO.
What do you mean?
CONSALVO.
A member of the nobility who dies by the sword can be said to have fallen with
honour in a duel.
1st
COUNSELLOR. As would be the case if he died in battle.
CONSALVO.
So there is no question of his death being a punishment - for sacrilege
or indeed for anything. Of no one who was killed in a duel or in battle could
it be said 'it served him right'. No man of virtue could claim that, by killing
his opponent in a duel, he was taking vengeance on him. He could not boast that
the man's death would stand as an example to other sinners of what they could
expect if they spent their time on earth in as depraved a way as Don Juan.
ALFONSO,
What then?
CONSALVO.
For us, Don Juan's end came in quite the wrong way, serving no purpose, giving
no message, from which no lesson could be drawn.
ALFONSO.
How so?
CONSALVO.
Because there was no public proclamation calling attention to the evil nature
of the life he led. Being told that it had been ended by the sword, people took
for granted that his demise was an honourable one.- as set down in the code of
chivalry.. In our view, the scandalous life of Don Juan should have been
terminated with a solemn, publicly staged act of justice.
ALFONSO.
Was he not formally condemned to death?
1st
COUNSELLOR. He was indeed. But there was no public execution.
CONSALVO.
Therefore, since human justice has failed, there must be divine justice…
ALFONSO.
What form can that take?.
CONSALVO.
The proclamation that I am asking your majesty to sign will state that Don Juan
died here, beside the statue of the man he murdered, engulfed in the flames
from the pit that opened up below him, into which inferno he fell to his death.
ALFONSO.
You must have all gone off your heads! How dare you suggest I do any such thing!.
Is that your idea of divine justice? It would get me, and all of us,
excommunicated. Hadn't that occurred to you?
CONSALVO.
Unless this man's death serves to warn mankind of what to expect from a life of
sin, and beg all people that on earth do dwell to avoid the same fate by living
righteously; unless it serves to make the wicked tremble at the thought of
having to pay so painful a penalty for a lifetime of corruption,; then we have
killed Don Juan in vain. We are no more than common murderers.
ALFONSO.
You feel we should have publicly condemned him to death, and made clear our
reasons? And now you want to me to sign a document prescribing his sentence as
descent in flames to the lower regions where the inferno never dies? Can it be
right for the Catholic King of
CONSALVO.
Not just right but essential.
ALFONSO.
Then count me out.
CONSALVO.
He would already have gone to hell if he had not become caught up in a somewhat
untidy military venture.
ALFONSO.
I stand by what I have just said. That's final.
CONSALVO.
[warding off the others who start to move towards Alfonso] For more than
an hour now, your guests have been waiting on the palace courtyard to ride off
on the hunt.
ALFONSO.
They have been kept waiting far too long.
CONSALVO.
Indeed. The stable boys will be finding it difficult to hold on to the horses,
rearing to go like their mounts, with the greatest difficulty restraing the
hounds, who already have a whiff of the scent in their nostrils, from racing
out across the fields to head the chase.
ALFONSO.
I've had enough of all this talking. I can't take any more Couldn't you tell
this lot to keep it short from now on, and wind it up as quickly as possible.
CONSALVO. I'll do more than that. I'll tell
them to stop at once; that the meeting is closed.
ALFONSO.
Would you really?
CONSALVO.
At once. [unrolling parchment in his hands] But first of all, your
signature on this proclamation, your gracious majesty, if you would be so good.
ALFONSO.
[after a brief hesitation] Give me a pen. Quickly.
[ALFONSO
is given a quill pen. He signs the document at its foot, and starts impetuously
to rise from his chair when CONSALVO intervenes]
CONSALVO.
Hold on. All in good time.. This is a solemn occasion and we must all behave in
an elegant and solemn manner, following the example of your majesty. You have
not come to this decision on the spur of the moment, but after calm and
prolonged deliberation and meditation. All your movements must reflect that…
Right! Up
you get – with slow, measured dignity. [he steps back and gestures to ALFONSO
who slowly rises to his feet]
[ALFONSO walks out in as dignified a way as
he can muster, as everyone bows. CONSALVO hands the signed parchment to
one of the noblemen]
CONSALVO.
Make sure his majesty's wishes are carried out to the letter; that everyone in
his kingdom, even those in the most out-of-the-way villages, are made aware of
what he is proclaiming in that document. All must know the nature of the end he
has decreed for Don Juan Tenorio. [The NOBLEMAN with the proclamation
parchment hurries off with it, and CONSALVO turns to servants] Off
you go and bring the sulphur and tar with which we must drench his body and
feed the flames of his funeral pyre.
3rd
COUNSELOR. Well done, Consalvo. But what about Don Juan's servant? Have you
forgotten him? He can't be allowed to go free.
CONSALVO.
On the contrary. He is our most effective witness of Don Juan's evil life,. He
will be able to confirm in the minds of doubters that the lascivious wretch was
responsible for all the scandals we are pinning on him; that we have invented
nothing, that all our accusations are true.
3rd COUNSELLOR.
But he also witnessed the way his master died.
CONSALVO.
Be that as it may, if he accompanied him on every notorious escapade, and
indeed helped him, he must recognise that ending up in hell was a thoroughly
appropriate fate for a congenital sinner such as he. If he does not, he shows
himself to be a heretic and rebel of the worst kind, whose death can only be on
the gallows.
1st
COUNSELLOR. Count on us to get his testimony. Be sure too that we will make
full use of it – in the warnings we make of the fate of those who choose to
adopt the same unsavoury lifestyle.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. With his testimony, the picture we paint of his master's life will
be more lurid, the detail more repelling; everything we are able to say about
him will be enhanced and magnified.
1st
COUNSELLOR. His crimes will appear immeasurable, is that what you mean?
3rd
COUNSELLOR. Yes. Because he will appear to have been a giant, not just a
simple-minded sinner as so many are, but one who stands out as a man who dared
challenge heaven.
1st
COUNSELLOR. And for punishment has been burnt to ashes.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. With whom could he possibly be compared? He was beyond compare. Did
CONSALVO.
The danger lies much deeper. By sinning, a sinner defies the Almighty. Anyone
who transgresses the law is acting exactly as Prometheus did and merits the
same punishment.. But it is of little use to tell that to the hills, however
loudly we may shout It is not for us to pass judgement on those who have
strayed.
from he
strait and narrow path of righteousness.. We can put a clumsy giant out of
harm's way.by tying him to a mountain maybe, remembering how the Almighty
showed his wrath by having Prometheus bound in chains to that rock.
3rd
COUNSELLOR. Long may it be that men fear
CONSALVO.
It is up to each of us to choose the path that takes us to our final
destination. .What 'destiny' has to do with it is anyone's guess, if indeed
there is such a thing. What is certain however is that it falls to each
one of us to live through different times. Each age generates different
conventions, codes of honour, concepts of right and wrong, of what matters and
what matters not. There have been times when nations were forever furiously
raging together, and they will come again. There will be an Age of
Enlightenment.followed by an Age of Barbarism; of Joy and then Misery. We have
to thread our way through whatever has been our lot, whether it has fallen on a
fair ground, a friendly or a hostile one. It is a lottery – and very risky.. In
this day and age, people like you and I [looking around at the others]
who are responsible for shaping the times in which we Castilians live out our
days , must be aware of the risks and take them on board at every stage of
every deliberation over affairs of state that we know will have such vital
consequences, not only on our lives but those of future generations.
[CONSALVO
calls for a torch]
CONSALVO.
No more talk. Bring a torch. And we will execute his majesty's decree.
[A SERVANT
brings in a flaming torch and sets it on the wooden funeral pyre on which
lies the cloaked body of Don Juan, which starts to kindle]
CONSALVO.
Let the church bells ring! Open the gates and let the people enter and
celebrate with us, on this festal day, the due treatment of this wicked man
whose sacrilege we have now vindicated. Let them rejoice in knowing that the
soul of Don Juan Tenorio has been cast into hell where he will burn for all
eternity in the flames of the inferno.
[The
church bells ring out, and the sound of an organ swells. The two halves of the
stage become one, transformed into the well-lit nave of the Spanish church. A
few townsfolk enter hesitatingly, but keep their distance, gazing
with awe and fear at the burning funeral pyre
on which lies the body of Don Juan]
CURTAIN