Play With a Tiger and Other Plays. Doris Lessing

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      MARY: I was saying to Anna, only today, I’m getting a proper old maid – if a widow can be an old maid, fussing over a cat, well you’d never believe when you were young what you’ll come to.

      DAVE: You an old maid – you’ve got enough spunk for a twenty-year-old.

      MARY: Yes, Harry was saying, I wouldn’t think you were a day over twenty-five, he said. [to DAVE] Did you know my boy was getting married next week?

      DAVE: Yes, I heard.

      MARY: He’s got himself a nice girl. But I can’t believe it. It seems only the other day … [There is a bang upstairs. A moment later, a loud miaow outside ANNA’S door.] Why, there’s my pussy cat. [Another crash upstairs.] I must go and see … [She scuttles out. HARRY’S shadow on the stairs.] [putting her head around the door] Isn’t it nice, Harry’s decided to pop back for a cup of coffee. [She shuts the door.]

      [ANNA and DAVE, in silence, opposite each other on the carpet. Dance music starts, soft, upstairs.]

      ANNA: A good lay, with music.

      DAVE: Don’t, baby. If I was fool enough to marry I’d be like Harry.

      ANNA: Yes.

      DAVE: Don’t hate him.

      ANNA: I can make out Harry’s case as well as you. He wanted to be a serious writer, but like a thousand others he’s got high standards and no talent. So he works on a newspaper he despises. He goes home to a wife who doesn’t respect him. So he has to have the little girls to flatter him and make him feel good. OK Dave – but what more do you want? I’ll be back on duty by this evening, pouring out sympathy in great wet gobs and I’ll go on doing it until he finds another little girl who looks at him with gooey eyes and says: oh Harry, oh Dave, you’re so wonderful.

      DAVE: It wouldn’t do you any harm to indulge in a bit of flattery from time to time.

      ANNA: Oh yes it would. I told you, I’m having the truth with a man or nothing. I watch women buttering up their men, anything for a quiet life and despising them while they do it. It makes me sick.

      DAVE: Baby, I pray for the day when you flatter me for just ten seconds.

      ANNA: Oh go and get it from – Janet.

      [MARY comes in fast, without knocking.]

      MARY [she is very aggressive]: Anna, I didn’t like your manner just now. Sometimes there is something in your way I don’t like at all.

      [ANNA turns away.]

      ANNA: Mary, you’re a little high.

      MARY: I’m not. I’m not tight at all. I’ve had practically nothing to drink. And you don’t even listen. I’m serious and you’re not listening. [taking hold of Anna] I’m not going to have it. I’m simply not going to have it.

      [HARRY comes in. He is half drunk.]

      HARRY: Come on, Mary. I thought you were going to make me some coffee. [MARY bangs ineffectually at ANNA’S shoulder with her fist.] Hey, girls, don’t brawl at this time of night.

      MARY: I’m not brawling. [to DAVE] He’s smug too, isn’t he. Like Anna. [to ANNA] And what about you? This afternoon you were still with Tom and now it’s Dave.

      HARRY: You’re a pair of great girls.

      [ANNA looks in appeal at DAVE.]

      DAVE [coming gently to support MARY]: Hey, Mary, come on now.

      MARY [clinging to him]: I like you Dave. I always did. When people say to me, that crazy Dave, I always say, I like Dave. I mean, it’s only the crazy people who understand life when you get down to it …

      DAVE: That’s right, Mary. [He supports her.]

      [HARRY comes and attempts to take MARY’S arm. MARY shakes him off and confronts ANNA.]

      MARY: Well Anna, that’s what I wanted to say and I’ve said it.

      [HARRY is leading MARY out.]

      MARY: The point is, what I mean is.

      HARRY: You’ve made your point, come on.

      ANNA: See you in the morning, Mary.

      MARY: Well I’ve been meaning to say it and I have.

      [HARRY and MARY go out, HARRY with a nod and a smile at the other two.]

      DAVE: Anna, she’ll have forgotten all about it in the morning.

      [He goes to her. She clings to him.]

      DAVE: And if she hasn’t, you’ll have to.

      ANNA: Oh hell, hell, hell.

      DAVE: Yes, I know baby, I know.

      ANNA: She’s going to wish she were dead tomorrow morning.

      DAVE: Well, it’s not so terrible. You’ll be here and you can pick up the pieces. [He leads her to the bed, and sits by her, his arm around her.] That’s better. I like looking after you. Let’s have six months’ peace and quiet. Let’s have a truce – what do you say?

      [The telephone rings. They are both tense, listening. HARRY comes in.]

      HARRY: Don’t you answer your telephone, Anna? What’s the matter with you two? [He goes to the telephone to answer it. Sees their faces, stops.] I’m a clod. Of course, it’s Tom.

      ANNA: It isn’t Tom.

      HARRY: Of course it is. Poor bastard, he’s breaking his heart and here you are dallying with Dave.

      ANNA: I know it isn’t.

      DAVE: Never argue with Anna when she’s got one of her fits of intuition.

      ANNA: Intuition!

      HARRY: Mary’s passed clean out. Mary’s in a bad way tonight. Just my luck. I need someone to be nice to me, and all Mary wants is someone to be nice to her.

      ANNA: I hope you were.

      HARRY: Of course I was.

      ANNA: Why don’t you go home to Helen?

      HARRY [bluff]: It’s four in the morning. Did you two fools know it’s four in the morning? I’ll tell Helen my troubles tomorrow. Anna, don’t tell me you’re miserable too. [going to her] Is that silly bastard Dave playing you up? It’s a hell of a life. Now I’ll tell you what. I’ll pick you up for lunch tomorrow, I mean today, and I’ll tell you my troubles and you can tell me yours. [to DAVE] You’ve made Anna unhappy, you clod, you idiot.

      ANNA: Oh damn it, if you want to play big Daddy why don’t СКАЧАТЬ