Читать книгу Polonius - Victor Cilinca - Страница 9

ACT I

SCENE 2

The same, DAISY, coming from upstairs. She bends her head to pass under the curtain.

DAISY

OK, they’re all gone, you can wipe your make-up. Prince Hamlet is waiting in the dressing room to congratulate you. He seems a little nervous, though!

BOOGEYMAN

I hope he enjoyed our improvisation. We took the script and scented it with rumours from the crowd, exactly as the Prince ordered us to, but the audience, dear madam, looked undeservedly hostile to some poor actors!

KING

I’ve heard he’s violent. I do hope we came up to the mark.

QUEEN

(aside) He seems a delicate person....

DAISY

The King got angry when they told him...the Queen fainted! But the words about Hamlet’s father made the Prince go crazy too. I think you’re in trouble! You don’t know him! I wish you could hear him, screaming whole passages from Shakespeare along the corridors of the castle, looking so prudish you feel like sanctifying him, then, all of a sudden—bang! He slaps your buttocks or pricks you with his sword, to have fun! I complained to my superiors, but how much does a servant’s life matter when it comes to the young prince’s entertainment? The guards adore him, though. He speaks well, the rake: about martyrs, saints, golden futures, the rain that’s going to come and flood it all, their time, the time of the youth of pure race...bla-bla-bla!

KING

Could he be mad?

DAISY

We all get paranoid. Those at the top, how can they avoid going completely crazy. Generals slaughter their armies for a historical victory that has brought along only hunger and lice. Princes rummage through history to find a nice berth in the neighbouring country. Lawmen believe the world starts and ends with them. But you can’t call your rulers “crazy.” You call them “eccentric,” and the people love their eccentrics—the more royal they are, the better! And, generally speaking, the people love Hamlet because he is handsome.

BOOGEYMAN

The people are sentimental—they bear anything as long as there are photos in the paper, and the leader’s smile is sweet enough....

DAISY

Look out!