Howard Barker: Plays Nine. Howard Barker

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СКАЧАТЬ she all right? /

      WARDROBE: All right? / yes / yes / she’s all right / isn’t she? /

      (WARDROBE looks to BIBLE for confirmation.)

      BIBLE: All right / yes /

      ENGINE: (To BIBLE.) And for you? / Is she all right for you? /

      BIBLE: (Without conviction.) Yes / yes /

      ENGINE: You two / you are not anybody / I know that / and I do my best for you /

      WARDROBE: We are grateful /

      ENGINE: That’s silly /

      WARDROBE: No / no /

      ENGINE: If I knew a better woman you would have her /

      BIBLE: She does everything we ask her to /

      ENGINE: Within the rules I’ve gone as far as it is possible to do / you are who you are / but at the same time /

      (He shrugs.)

      WARDROBE: You are who you are /

      (ENGINE senses WARDROBE’s irony. He is patient.)

      ENGINE: And who am I / Mr Wardrobe? /

      WARDROBE: You are the individual upon whom the Emperor relies for the execution of his decisions / decisions about which you may or may not have your own opinion / but which / with regard to their effects / you make no attempt to moderate / on the one hand / nor exacerbate / upon the other / an attitude which / I feel sure / more than entitles you to the medals you carry on your chest /

      (BIBLE looks to WARDROBE with apprehension. ENGINE seems to contemplate a response, but thinks better of it.)

      ENGINE: I must get on /

      (Despite his resolution, ENGINE does not move a muscle. WARDROBE, in a condition of wary triumph, watches him.)

      I must get on /

      (Now ENGINE departs, without haste. Out of the silence, WARDROBE exults.)

      WARDROBE: DID YOU FRIG MY MOTHER? / DID YOU? / DID YOU? / DID YOU FRIG MY MOTHER? / YOUR FINGERS SHONE / YOUR SHINING FINGERS / HE SAYS YOU FRIGGED MY MOTHER /

      (He laughs insincerely as the boots fly in, causing him to duck his head.)

      3

      BIBLE leaps off the canvas bed, flinging the photographs aside. The boot storm ceases.

      BIBLE: He has a sense of humour / the Emperor /

      (WARDROBE, routinely, removes his waistcoat and replacing BIBLE on the bed, covers himself. The wind blows.)

      We know he has a sense of humour /

      (BIBLE signals the OLD WOMAN. She gets up and goes off.)

      We said / rather early on / this sense of humour / more than anything / explains not only why we are here / but the conditions under which we are kept here /

      (THRASH returns with BIBLE’s clothes. A soiled jacket, soiled trousers, crushed boots.)

      Yet up till now / out of terror that we might / in some way / by appealing to his humour / misjudge it /

      (THRASH holds up his clothes. BIBLE steps into them.)

      And as a consequence / bring down on ourselves worse punishment /

      (He extends a foot. THRASH helps him into a boot and proceeds to tie the laces.)

      We have scrupulously refrained from employing the most innocuous remarks in our petitions / they are grave / horribly grave and mirthless / let us try another tack / is he not perhaps / in his typically oblique and arcane manner / inviting us to do precisely this? / I am thinking of Sisi / how / in begging Sisi for a portrait / a portrait no bigger than a postcard / we exposed ourselves to this grotesque riposte / this was not Sisi / was it? / Sisi would not / however confident she was of the charm of her each and every part / Sisi would not post us pictures of her cunt and arse / this was the Emperor / and the scale / the sheer scale of these / these /

      (He waves an arm towards the bed.)

      This was the Emperor / so /

      (He plucks a dirty comb from the pocket of the jacket and drags it over his hair.)

      I suggest / given six months has certainly elapsed since the last petition was submitted / we request a sheet of paper / and do our best to be amusing / I have to go / I’m late /

      (He stuffs the comb back in his pocket.)

      By amusing I mean /

      (Not certain what he means, BIBLE shrugs.)

      What do I mean? / I mean / whilst scrupulously avoiding the slightest implication we are satisfied to be here / nevertheless to / to /

      (He is frustrated.)

      It’s a matter of discovering a tone / a tone which / I’m late / I’m late now / a tone which somehow conceals our pain behind an obviously insubstantial posture of / contrition /

      (He grasps at a word.)

      Irony / irony perhaps /

      (And repudiates it.)

      No / not irony / he hated that / I’m going /

      (BIBLE makes for the door but stops on a thought.)

      THE PROBLEM IS HE / HE IS SO /

      (He frowns. THRASH resumes her crouching posture.)

      EVERYTHING WE APPLAUDED IN HIM / HIS SUBTLETY / HIS MISCHIEF / HIS / HIS CONTEMPT FOR LOGIC / HIS / LOATHING FOR CONVENTION / IT’S / IT’S NOT SO DELIGHTFUL / IS IT? / WHEN IT’S TURNED ON US? /

      (He suppresses a sob.)

      I’ll think about the tone / there is a tone / I know there is / it’s a matter of / discovering it /

      WARDROBE: (Grimly.) You’re the poet /

      BIBLE: I’m the poet / I’m the poet / yes /

      (A boot flies in, followed by another.)

      I’m late /

      (He goes to hurry away and stops.)

      He’s with Sisi now I expect / the two of them / naked /

      WARDROBE: I expect so /

      BIBLE: Naked / yes /

      (His inclination to meditate upon this is curtailed by a flurry of boots. With a low moan he swiftly departs. Once he has gone, the boots cease. The wind moans. THRASH and WARDROBE are perfectly still for some time.)

      4

      WARDROBE: СКАЧАТЬ