RALPH
Who?
BEL
Him.
MARIA
I hadn’t noticed.
RALPH
What’s the trouble?
BEL
He’s on the way out.
Pause.
RALPH
Old Andy? Not a chance. He was always as fit as a fiddle. Constitution like an ox.
MARIA
People like Andy never die. That’s the wonderful thing about them.
RALPH
He looks in the pink.
MARIA
A bit peaky perhaps but in the pink. He’ll be running along the towpath in next to no time. Take my word. Waltzing away in next to no time.
RALPH
Before you can say Jack Robinson. Well, we must toddle.
RALPH and MARIA out.
BEL goes to telephone, dials.
Lights hold on her.
Lights up in Fred’s room.
The phone rings. JAKE picks it up.
JAKE
Chinese laundry?
BEL
Your father is very ill.
JAKE
Chinese laundry?
Silence.
BEL
Your father is very ill.
JAKE
Can I pass you to my colleague?
FRED takes the phone.
FRED
Chinese laundry?
Pause.
BEL
It doesn’t matter.
FRED
Oh my dear madam, absolutely everything matters when it comes down to laundry.
BEL
No. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Silence.
JAKE takes the phone, looks at it, puts it to his ear.
BEL holds the phone.
FRED grabs the phone.
FRED
If you have any serious complaint can we refer you to our head office?
BEL
Do you do dry cleaning?
FRED is still. He then passes the phone to JAKE.
JAKE
Hullo. Can I help you?
BEL
Do you do dry cleaning?
JAKE is still.
BEL puts the phone down. Dialling tone.
JAKE replaces phone.
JAKE
Of course we do dry cleaning! Of course we do dry cleaning! What kind of fucking laundry are you if you don’t do dry cleaning?
Andy’s room.
ANDY and BEL.
ANDY
Where are they? My grandchildren? The babies? My daughter?
Pause.
Are they waiting outside? Why do you keep them waiting outside? Why can’t they come in? What are they waiting for?
Pause.
What’s happening
Pause.
What is happening?
BEL
Are you dying?
ANDY
Am I?
BEL
Don’t you know?
ANDY
No, I don’t know. I don’t know how it feels. How does it feel?
BEL
I don’t know.
Pause.
ANDY
Why don’t they come in? Are they frightened? Tell them not to be frightened.
BEL
They’re not here. They haven’t come.
ANDY
Tell Bridget not to be frightened. Tell Bridget I don’t want her to be frightened.
Fred’s room.
JAKE and FRED.
FRED is out of bed. He wears shorts. They both walk around the room, hands behind backs.
JAKE
Pity you weren’t at d’Orangerie’s memorial.
FRED
I’m afraid I was confined to my bed with a mortal disease.
JAKE
So I gather. Pity. It was a great do.
FRED
Was it?
JAKE
Oh yes. Everyone was there.
FRED
Really? Who?
JAKE
Oh … Denton, Alabaster, Tunnicliffe, Quinn.
FRED
Really?
JAKE
Oh yes. Kelly, Mortlake, Longman, Small.
FRED
Good Lord.
JAKE
Oh yes. Wetterby, White, Hotchkiss, De Groot … Blackhouse, Garland, Gupte, Tate.
FRED
Well, well!
JAKE
The whole gang. Donovan, Ironside, Wallace, McCool … Ottuna, Muggeridge, Carpentier, Finn.
FRED
Speeches?
JAKE
Very moving.
FRED
Who spoke?
JAKE
Oh … Hazeldine, McCormick, Bugatti, Black, Forrester, Galloway, Springfield, Gaunt.
FRED
He was much loved.
JAKE
Well, you loved him yourself, didn’t you?
FRED
I loved him. I loved him like a father.
Third area.
BRIDGET
Once someone said to me – I think it was my mother or my father – anyway, they said to me – We’ve been invited to a party. You’ve been invited too. But you’ll have to come by yourself, alone. You won’t have to dress up. You just have to wait until the moon is down.
Pause.
They told me where the party was. It was in a house at the end of a lane. But they told me the party wouldn’t begin until the moon had gone down.
Pause.
I got dressed in something old and I waited for the moon to go down. I waited a long time. Then I set out for the house. The moon was bright and quite still.
Pause.
When I got to the house it was bathed in moonlight. The house, the glade, the lane, were all bathed in moonlight. But the inside of the house was dark and all the windows were dark. There was no sound.
Pause.
I stood there in the moonlight and waited for the moon to go down.
ASHES TO ASHES
CHARACTERS
DEVLIN
REBECCA
Both in their forties
Ashes to Ashes was first presented by the Royal Court at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, on 12 September 1996. The cast was as follows:
DEVLIN Stephen Rea
REBECCA Lindsay Duncan
Directed by Harold Pinter
Designed by Eileen Diss
Lighting by Mick Hughes
Costume by Tom Rand
Sound by Tom Lishman
Time: Now
A house in the country.
Ground-floor room. A large window.
Garden beyond.
Two armchairs. Two lamps.
Early evening. Summer.
The room darkens during the course of the play.
The lamplight intensifies.
By the end of the play the room and the garden beyond are only dimly defined.
The lamplight has become very bright but does not illumine the room.
DEVLIN standing with drink. REBECCA sitting.
Silence.
REBECCA
Well … for example … he would stand over me and clench his fist. And then he’d put his other hand on my neck and grip it and bring my head towards him. His fist … grazed my mouth. And he’d say, ‘Kiss my fist.’
DEVLIN
And did you?
REBECCA
Oh yes. I kissed his fist. The knuckles. And then he’d open his hand and give me the palm of his hand … to kiss … which I kissed.
Pause.
And then I would speak.
DEVLIN
What did you say? You said what? What did you say?
Pause.
REBECCA
I said, ‘Put your hand round my throat.’ I murmured it through his hand, as I was kissing it, but he heard my voice, he heard it through his hand, he felt my voice in his hand, he heard it there.
Silence.
DEVLIN
And did he? Did he put his hand round your throat?
REBECCA
Oh yes. He did. He did. And he held it there, very gently, very gently, so gently. He adored me, you see.
DEVLIN
He adored you?
Pause.
What do you mean, he adored you? What do you mean?
Pause.
Are you saying he put no pressure on your throat? Is that what you’re saying?
REBECCA
No.
DEVLIN
What then? What are you saying?
REBECCA
He put a little … pressure … on my throat, yes. So that my head started to go back, gently but truly.
DEVLIN
And your body? Where did your body go?
REBECCA
My body went back, slowly but truly.
DEVLIN
So your legs were opening?
REBECCA
Yes.
Pause.
DEVLIN
Your legs were opening?
REBECCA
Yes.
Silence.
DEVLIN
Do you feel you’re being hypnotised?
REBECCA
When?
DEVLIN
Now.
REBECCA
No.
DEVLIN
Really?
REBECCA
No.
DEVLIN
Why not?
REBECCA
Who by?
DEVLIN
By me.
REBECCA
You?
DEVLIN
What do you think?
REBECCA
I think you’re a fuckpig.
DEVLIN
Me a fuckpig? Me! You must be joking.
REBECCA smiles.
REBECCA
Me joking? You must be joking.
Pause.
DEVLIN
You understand why I’m asking you these questions. Don’t you? Put yourself in my place. I’m compelled to ask you questions. There are so many things I don’t know. I know nothing … about any of this. Nothing. I’m in the dark. I need light. Or do you think my questions are illegitimate?
Pause.
REBECCA
What questions?
Pause.
DEVLIN
Look. It would mean a great deal to me if you could define him more clearly.
REBECCA
Define him? What do you mean, define him?
DEVLIN
Physically. I mean, what did he actually look like? If you see what I mean? Length, breadth … that sort of thing. Height, width. I mean, quite apart from his … disposition, whatever that may have been … or his character … or his spiritual … standing … I just want, well, I need … to have a clearer idea of him … well, not a clearer idea … just an idea, in fact … because I have absolutely no idea … as things stand … of what he looked like.
I mean, what did he look like? Can’t you give him a shape for me, a concrete shape? I want a concrete image of him, you see … an image I can carry about with me. I mean, all you can talk of are his hands, one hand over your face, the other on the back of your neck, then the first one on your throat. There must be more to him than hands. What about eyes? Did he have any eyes?
REBECCA
What colour?
Pause.
DEVLIN
That’s precisely the question I’m asking you … my darling.
REBECCA
How odd to be called darling. No one has ever called me darling. Apart from my lover.
DEVLIN
I don’t believe it.
REBECCA
You don’t believe what?
DEVLIN
I don’t believe he ever called you darling.
Pause.
Do you think my use of the word is illegitimate?
REBECCA
What word?
DEVLIN
Darling.
REBECCA
Oh yes, you called me darling. How funny.
DEVLIN
Funny? Why?
REBECCA
Well, how can you possibly call me darling? I’m not your darling.
DEVLIN
Yes you are.
REBECCA
Well I don’t want to be your darling. It’s the last thing I want to be. I’m nobody’s darling.
DEVLIN
That’s a song.
REBECCA
What?
DEVLIN
‘I’m nobody’s baby now’.
REBECCA
It’s ‘You’re nobody’s baby now’. But anyway, I didn’t use the word baby.
Pause.
I can’t tell you what he looked like.
DEVLIN
Have you forgotten?
REBECCA
No. I haven’t forgotten. But that’s not the point. Anyway, he went away years ago.
DEVLIN
Went away? Where did he go?
REBECCA
His job took him away. He had a job.
DEVLIN
What was it?
REBECCA
What?
DEVLIN
What kind of job was it? What job?
REBECCA
I think it had something to do with a travel agency. I think he was some kind of courier. No. No, he wasn’t. That was only a part-time job. I mean that was only part of the job in the agency. He was quite high up, you see. He had a lot of responsibilities.
Pause.
DEVLIN
What sort of agency?
A travel agency.
DEVLIN
What sort of travel agency?
REBECCA
He was a guide, you see. A guide.
DEVLIN
A tourist guide?
Pause.
REBECCA
Did I ever tell you about that place … about the time he took me to that place?
DEVLIN
What place?
REBECCA
I’m sure I told you.
DEVLIN
No. You never told me.
REBECCA
How funny. I could swear I had. Told you.
DEVLIN
You haven’t told me anything. You’ve never spoken about him before. You haven’t told me anything.
Pause.
What place?
REBECCA
Oh, it was a kind of factory, I suppose.
DEVLIN
What do you mean, a kind of factory? Was it a factory or wasn’t it? And if it was a factory, what kind of factory was it?
REBECCA
Well, they were making things – just like any other factory. But it wasn’t the usual kind of factory.
DEVLIN
Why not?
REBECCA
They were all wearing caps … the workpeople … soft caps … and they took them off when he came in, leading me, when he led me down the alleys between the rows of workpeople.
DEVLIN
They took their caps off? You mean they doffed them?
REBECCA
Yes.
DEVLIN
Why did they do that?
REBECCA
He told me afterwards it was because they had such great respect for him.
DEVLIN
Why?
REBECCA
Because he ran a really tight ship, he said. They had total faith in him. They respected his … purity, his … conviction. They would follow him over a cliff and into the sea, if he asked them, he said. And sing in a chorus, as long as he led them. They were in fact very musical, he said.
DEVLIN
What did they make of you?
REBECCA
Me? Oh, they were sweet. I smiled at them. And immediately every single one of them smiled back.
Pause.
The only thing was – the place was so damp. It was exceedingly damp.
DEVLIN
And they weren’t dressed for the weather?
REBECCA
No.
Pause.
DEVLIN
I thought you said he worked for a travel agency?
REBECCA
And there was one other thing. I wanted to go to the bathroom. But I simply couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. I’m sure they had one. But I never found out where it was.
Pause.
He did work for a travel agency. He was a guide. He used to go to the local railway station and walk down the platform and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers.
Pause.
DEVLIN
Did he?
Silence.
REBECCA
By the way, I’m terribly upset.
DEVLIN
Are you? Why?
REBECCA
Well, it’s about that police siren we heard a couple of minutes ago.
DEVLIN
What police siren?
REBECCA
Didn’t you hear it? You must have heard it. Just a couple of minutes ago.
DEVLIN
What about it?
REBECCA
Well, I’m just terribly upset.
Pause.
I’m just incredibly upset.
Pause.
Don’t you want to know why? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway. If I can’t tell you who can I tell? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. It just hit me so hard. You see … as the siren faded away in my ears I knew it was becoming louder and louder for somebody else.
DEVLIN
You mean that it’s always being heard by somebody, somewhere? Is that what you’re saying?
REBECCA
Yes. Always. For ever.
DEVLIN
Does that make you feel secure?
REBECCA
No! It makes me feel insecure! Terribly insecure.
DEVLIN
Why?
REBECCA
I hate it fading away. I hate it echoing away. I hate it leaving me. I hate losing it. I hate somebody else possessing it. I want it to be mine, all the time. It’s such a beautiful sound. Don’t you think?
DEVLIN
Don’t worry, there’ll always be another one. There’s one on its way to you now. Believe me. You’ll hear it again soon. Any minute.
REBECCA
Will I?
DEVLIN
Sure. They’re very busy people, the police. There’s so much for them to do. They’ve got so much to take care of, to keep their eye on. They keep getting signals, mostly in code. There isn’t one minute of the day when they’re not charging around one corner or another in the world, in their police cars, ringing their sirens. So you can take comfort from that, at least. Can’t you? You’ll never be lonely again. You’ll never be without a police siren. I promise you.
Pause.
Listen. This chap you were just talking about … I mean this chap you and I have been talking about … in a manner of speaking … when exactly did you meet him? I mean when did all this happen exactly? I haven’t … how can I put this … quite got it into focus. Was it before you knew me or after you knew me? That’s a question of some importance. I’m sure you’ll appreciate that.