Читать книгу Howard Barker: Plays Nine - Howard Barker - Страница 9

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.)