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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Characters
Act One
Act Two
Also by Derek Walcott
Copyright
FOR GREG DORAN AND TONY HILL
CHARACTERS
‘BLIND’ BILLY BLUE, a singer
ODYSSEUS, the Greek general, King of Ithaca
ATHENA, a goddess, also disguised as CAPTAIN MENTES, A SHEPHERD, etc.
Ithaca
PENELOPE, wife of Odysseus
TELEMACHUS, son of Odysseus
EURYCLEIA, his old nurse
ANTINOUS, a suitor to Penelope
EURYMACHUS, AMPHINOMUS, CTESIPPUS, LEODES and POLYBUS, suitors
MELANTHO, a maid
EUMAEUS, an old swineherd
ARNAEUS, a lout
Pylos
NESTOR, King of Pylos
Sparta
MENELAUS, King of Sparta
HELEN, his wife
PROTEUS, the Old Man of the Sea
The Ship
EURYLOCHUS, Odysseus’ lieutenant
ELPENOR, the helmsman
STRATIS, COSTA, STAVROS and TASSO, Odysseus’ crew
Scheria
NAUSICAA, a princess
ALCINOUS, her father, King of the Phaeacians
ANEMONE and CHLOE, Phaeacian girls
The Island of the Cyclops
CYCLOPS
A PHILOSOPHER
TWO PATROLMEN
RAM, a manservant
The Island of Calypso
CIRCE, a witch
REVELLERS and CELEBRANTS
The Underworld
ANTICLEA, Odysseus’ mother
TIRESIAS
AGAMEMNON, ACHILLES, THERSITES and AJAX, the ghosts of Troy
Suitors, Attendants, Maids, Sailors, Mermaids, Courtiers, Athletes, etc.
The play was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, at The Other Place, 2 July 1992, with the following cast:
ODYSSEUS
Ron Cook
PENELOPE
Amanda Harris
TELEMACHUS
Stephen Casey
EURYCLEIA
Claire Benedict
EUMAEUS
Trevor Martin
ATHENA
Susan-Jane Tanner
BILLY BLUE
Rudolph Walker
ANTINOUS
Jonathan Cake
NESTOR
David Westhead
THERSITES
Gordon Case
PROTEUS
Antony Bunsee
NAUSICAA
Sophie Okonedo
CYCLOPS
Geoffrey Freshwater
CIRCE
Bella Enahoro
ANTICLEA
Darlene Johnson
ACHILLES
Peter de Jersey
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Director
Gregory Doran
Designer
Michael Pavelka
ACT ONE
PROLOGUE
Sound of surf.
BILLY BLUE (Sings)
Gone sing ’bout that man because his stories please us,
Who saw trials and tempests for ten years after Troy.
I’m Blind Billy Blue, my main man’s sea-smart Odysseus,
Who the God of the Sea drove crazy and tried to destroy.
Andra moi ennepe mousa polutropon hos mala polla …
The shuttle of the sea moves back and forth on this line,
All night, like the surf, she shuttles and doesn’t fall
Asleep, then her rosy fingers at dawn unstitch the design.
When you hear this chord
(Chord)
Look for a swallow’s wings,
A swallow arrowing seaward like a messenger
Passing smoke-blue islands, happy that the kings
Of Troy are going home and its ten years’ siege is over.
So my blues drifts like smoke from the fire of that war,
Cause once Achilles was ashes, things sure fell apart.
Slow-striding Achilles, who put the hex on Hector
A swallow twitters in Troy. That’s where we start.
(Exit.)
SCENE I
Troy. Dusk. Heavy smoke. The kings, AGAMEMNON, MENELAUS and NESTOR, with AJAX and THERSITES, the mercenary, pile weapons on a pyre. Drums.
AGAMEMNON
Pile our worn weapons on this remembering cairn.
NESTOR
Till salt air rusts them, till they’re wrapped in veils of sand.
MENELAUS
Turn the gaping beaks of our fleet homeward again.
AJAX
Since Troy is a plain of ashes where kites ascend.
THERSITES
Till men ask ‘Was it here?’ of the gliding frigate.
AGAMEMNON
‘Was it here that their lances pinned Achilles’ pyre?’
NESTOR
Who rattles his angry lance along heaven’s gate.
AGAMEMNON
Through the length of war, home was our long desire.
MENELAUS
It was mine, Menelaus, whose wife was its cause.
AJAX
And mine, Ajax, the heir of Achilles’ armour.
(ODYSSEUS enters at a distance.)
ODYSSEUS
What?
THERSITES
Not mine, Thersites. No wife, no son, no house.
AGAMEMNON
And ingenious Odysseus.
NESTOR
And mine, Nestor.
(Pause. A swallow twitters overhead. They look up.)
MENELAUS
That swallow’s eager to leave. Where’s Odysseus?
THERSITES
In his tent, checking his tribute.
AJAX
Once more, we wait.
(ODYSSEUS steps forward, eating.)
AGAMEMNON
We’re piling gifts on Achilles’ mound. Any size.
(ODYSSEUS pays his small tribute.)
ODYSSEUS
There. I couldn’t choose what to give. Sorry I’m late.
(Silence.)
O lucky dead, who can’t tell friends from enemies!
(Silence.)
Agamemnon denied you flame-haired Briseis.
(Silence.)
Menelaus mocked you: ‘Deliverer from Mice’.
(Silence.)
Now all your glories are reflected in their eyes.
NESTOR
This scrolled shield Hephaestus hammered, who is its heir?
(He holds up a shield.)
THERSITES
He willed it to Odysseus on the battlefield.
AJAX
Achilles was fitful. He promised me first.
ODYSSEUS
Where?
AJAX
Look, two claims injure his spirit! You take the shield.
ODYSSEUS
No, no, you take it, Ajax, you fought the hardest.
AJAX
You heard me say that? Did I ever make that boast?
MENELAUS
For God’s sake, it’s his burial mound. Let him rest.
(He gives ODYSSEUS the shield.)
AJAX
Bear it, you turtle! Take ten years to
reach your coast.
AGAMEMNON
Now let the coiled rams’ horns moan with our departure.
MENELAUS
Let the eagle’s pennon steer us through the cloud’s foam.
(Horns and drums.)
AGAMEMNON
Let these pennons tatter after ten years of war.
NESTOR
Let wet-heeled Athena race our lunging ships home.
(Exit except THERSITES and ODYSSEUS, who retrieves more souvenirs from the mound.)
THERSITES
So. We’re naked men again. Our armour is shelled.
ODYSSEUS
Yes. Home to the fig tree’s shade, the wine press, the farm.
THERSITES
Hang it on a hook, but cries will ring from that shield.
ODYSSEUS
How’ll you live?
THERSITES
This old war-dog? Off scraps of fame.
ODYSSEUS
You regret victory, Thersites. I know why.
THERSITES
Yeah? Then you make my dissatisfaction exact.
ODYSSEUS
After victory what?
THERSITES
Peace. Screw peace. No money.
ODYSSEUS
Peace ruins mercenaries.
THERSITES
No? I’ll note the fact.
ODYSSEUS
THERSITES
And of course you think you know what my unrest is.
ODYSSEUS
A warm white back curled against you. Your own ceiling.
THERSITES
The sky is my roof. This sword sleeps with Thersites.
ODYSSEUS
Get a son.
THERSITES
And a dog. And a blooming garden.
ODYSSEUS
Come to Ithaca.
THERSITES
Can you promise me a war?
ODYSSEUS
No. Hang your sword on a hook.
THERSITES
What? Hang my own wife?
ODYSSEUS
Our ribbed bodies long for their original shore.
THERSITES
Except this body. That’s found no shore to believe.
ODYSSEUS
Lend me your wife, your sword. Here’s my will, Thersites.
(THERSITES gives his sword to ODYSSEUS, who draws on the sand.)
THERSITES
My white ribs, a harp that the sea-crab’s fingers pluck.
ODYSSEUS
My shoal-pebbled island, too stony for horses.
THERSITES
Except Thersites loves horses. His usual luck.
ODYSSEUS
I bequeath him Mount Neriton’s marching poplars.
THERSITES
I’d tell them to halt, man. Trees spread peace. I decline.
ODYSSEUS
You’d rule next to me.
THERSITES
I’d piss on the populace.
(ODYSSEUS draws on the sand.)
ODYSSEUS
Take my hunting dog, Argus.
THERSITES
That’s it! I resign.
ODYSSEUS
Why?
THERSITES
Hate dogs. Slobberers. Dumb pain, dumb affection.
ODYSSEUS
Open the gates of those locked teeth. Admit love, friend.
THERSITES
I’ll say it with grinding jaw. I loved you. Go on.
(They embrace, then exit in opposite directions.
A distant roar, growing. Banners, masts.
BILLY BLUE enters.)
BILLY BLUE
Then, as the slow forest of Greek masts began sailing,
(A long cry of a bird or woman.)
They heard the wide cry of a woman or frigate bird …
And that cry lanced their hearts for all that it augured:
Over the stones of her children, Hecuba wailing.
A funeral cry like a torn cloth, then a huge hum,
The wings of flapping standards unfurling like cranes.
CHORUS OF ARMIES (Off)
Ranks and divisions, hoist our banners for home!
BILLY BLUE
Like cranes that darken the sky before winter rains
CHORUS OF ARMIES
The bones of our comrades rattle like dice on this shore.
Ranks from Pylos, divisions from Ida, shapely men.
BILLY BLUE
Their white ribs hoisting the black sail of the vulture.
CHORUS OF ARMIES
Divisions from Aspledon, ranks of poplars fallen.
BILLY BLUE
Then, a sail, for ten years crawling on the sea’s line.
(Exits.)
SCENE II
Ithaca, ten years later. TELEMACHUS, seated, is staring at another chair. EURYCLEIA enters with wine, waits.
TELEMACHUS
A swallow spoke to me from the wrist of that chair.
EURYCLEIA
You send for wine? What happen to your sea captain?
TELEMACHUS
The elect can take natural shapes, Eurycleia.
EURYCLEIA
Lord, bird t’ief this boy’s wits.
TELEMACHUS
It twittered, ‘He’ll return.’
EURYCLEIA
These thoughts is like straw, whirling around your father.
TELEMACHUS
The whirr of one swallow starts destruction’s engine.
EURYCLEIA
An’ this nest empty. This house that he should be in.
TELEMACHUS
You said Athena, the sea-eyed, is Egyptian.
EURYCLEIA
But never in life me call any bird captain.
TELEMACHUS
She said she’d argued with God to save my father.
EURYCLEIA
Nancy stories me tell you and Hodysseus.
TELEMACHUS
I believe them now. My faith has caught a fever.
EURYCLEIA
Launching your lickle cradles into dreaming seas.
TELEMACHUS
EURYCLEIA
People don’t credit them now. Them too civilize.
TELEMACHUS
It had a girl’s voice.
EURYCLEIA (Laughing)
A girl? So that’s your distraction!
TELEMACHUS
Why?
EURYCLEIA
A girl make sense. But when bird mater’alize …
TELEMACHUS
He was trim and bearded and far too young for Troy.
EURYCLEIA
Troy old as you, Telemachus. Twenty years’ pain!
TELEMACHUS
She’s here, Eurycleia!
EURYCLEIA
I old. Don’t mock me, boy!
TELEMACHUS
Believe me!
EURYCLEIA
My faith gone. It can’t come back again.
TELEMACHUS
To me and my father you have been slave and nurse.
EURYCLEIA
Yes. Is Egypt who cradle Greece till Greece mature.
TELEMACHUS
Then why doubt the goddess now in a swallow’s noise?
EURYCLEIA
Well, if that bird was your captain, make him stand there.
(A sea captain, CAPTAIN MENTES, appears.)
TELEMACHUS
Your faith has returned.
(EURYCLEIA turns.)
EURYCLEIA
Forgive my sins, sir. You is?
CAPTAIN MENTES
Your sins are so far back God has forgotten them.
EURYCLEIA
Eurycleia. Me raise both boys.
TELEMACHUS
This is Captain Mentes.
CAPTAIN MENTES
I swam Troy’s smoke with his father, that clouded time.
EURYCLEIA
Why you come only no
w?
CAPTAIN MENTES
Because he’s in danger.
EURYCLEIA
This boy come of age. Them suitors don’t want no heir.
CAPTAIN MENTES
Strange things may happen here, but there will be stranger.
TELEMACHUS
A swallow has lanced us with light, Eurycleia.
EURYCLEIA
I looking at God and can’t remember my sins.
TELEMACHUS
I turned my back. We were talking. Then you weren’t there.
CAPTAIN MENTES
I went to the window. My ship is loading bronze.
(A roar from the SUITORS.)
TELEMACHUS
You can hear for yourself.
CAPTAIN MENTES
What’s all the feasting for?
TELEMACHUS
What else? My mother’s marriage and my father’s wake.
EURYCLEIA
They go spew like vomit through the gorge of that door.
CAPTAIN MENTES
You’ve come of age. You know what you must undertake.
EURYCLEIA
A hundred boars jostling to nose his mother’s trough.
TELEMACHUS
Grunting and shoving till she finishes her shroud.
EURYCLEIA
Is a hundred in there, Captain. Plenty enough.
TELEMACHUS
My father is lost. My faith has entered a cloud.
CAPTAIN MENTES
He’ll fix them. His bow-string humming like a swallow.
TELEMACHUS
I can’t leave my mother with them. It isn’t right.
CAPTAIN MENTES
Look, the day she chooses, you die. You must leave now.
EURYCLEIA
She will choose one.
CAPTAIN MENTES
Then he’ll murder you one night.
(Enter drunken SUITORS — ANTINOUS, EURYMACHUS, AMPHINOMUS, CTESIPPUS and LEODES — dragging BILLY BLUE and MAIDS with them.)
AMPHINOMUS
What’s the boy doing here? This stuff’s not for you, lad!
(A food fight, they pelt TELEMACHUS.)
EURYMACHUS
We’ll keep doing this till we hear from your mother.
CTESIPPUS
Who’s your friend?
(They crowd TELEMACHUS and MENTES.)
AMPHINOMUS
Can’t you see the kid’s missing his dad?
EURYMACHUS
Your dad’s dead. You’ll choose one of us for another.
(Silence.)
CAPTAIN MENTES
Why are they suddenly quiet?
TELEMACHUS