The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas 9781783195466, 9781783190478

Citation preview

THE RITUAL MASTROMAS

SLAUGHTER

2

OF

GORGE

Dennis Kelly THE RITUAL SLAUGHTER OF GORGE MASTROMAS

OBERON BOOKS LONDON WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM

3

First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd 521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629 e-mail: [email protected] www.oberonbooks.com Copyright © Dennis Kelly, 2013 Dennis Kelly is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted his moral rights. All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ ([email protected]). No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

4

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. PB ISBN: 978-1-78319-047-8 EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78319-546-6 Cover image by Thomas Zimmer Printed, bound and converted by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY. Visit www.oberonbooks.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

5

Contents Characters The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas

6

ROYAL COURT The Royal Court Theatre presents THE RITUAL MASTROMAS

SLAUGHTER

OF

GORGE

by Dennis Kelly THE RITUAL SLAUGHTER OF GORGE MASTROMAS was originally commissioned and first produced by Staedtische Buehnen Frankfort am main BMBH on May 12 2012 at Ruhrfestspiele Reckling Hausen and subsequently at Schauspielhause, Frankfurt on September 16 2012. This production of THE RITUAL SLAUGHTER OF GORGE MASTROMAS was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Sloane Square, on Thursday 5 September 2013.

7

THE RITUAL MASTROMAS

SLAUGHTER

by Dennis Kelly Cast in alphabetical order Gorge Tom Brooke A Pippa Haywood Pete Joshua James Gel Jonathan McGuinness Hotel Porter Aaron Monaghan Louisa Kate O’Flynn M Alan Williams Director Vicky Featherstone Designer Tom Scutt Lighting Designer Philip Gladwell Music Nick Powell Sound Designer Gregory Clarke Casting Director Amy Ball

8

OF

GORGE

Assistant Director Ned Bennett Production Manager Niall Black Stage Manager Joni Carter Deputy Stage Manager Fran O’Donnell Assistant Stage Manager Heather Cryan Stage Management Work Placement Holly Barbour Costume Supervisor Jackie Orton Movement Director Georgina Lamb Set Built by Factory Settings Scenic Work by Tink Cant, Kirsty Glover, Zoe Hurwitz Stage Management Cover Sunita Hinduja The Royal Court and Stage Management wish to thank the following for their help with this production: J&K Business Machines, Photocopiers & Printers 4U Ltd, TLJ Hotel Locks, Young Vic Theatre.

9

THE COMPANY DENNIS KELLY (Writer) THEATRE INCLUDES: Matilda the Musical (RSC/ West End/Broadway); The Gods Weep (RSC); Orphans (Paines Plough/Traverse/Soho/Birmingham Rep); DNA (NT Connections); Taking Care of Baby (Hampstead/ Birmingham Rep); Love & Money (Young Vic/Royal Exchange); After the End (Paines Plough/Traverse/Bush/ UK & international tour); Osama the Hero (Paines Plough/ Hampstead); Debris (503/BAC). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Utopia, Pulling. RADIO INCLUDES: 12 Shares, The Colony. AWARDS INCLUDE: The Meyer Whitworth Award (Osama the Hero), The John Whiting Award (Taking Care of Baby), The Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Angel Award (Orphans), Theatre Heute Magazine Award for Best Foreign Playwright, Prix Europa Award for Best European Radio Drama, Radio & Music Award for Best Script for Broadcast (The Colony), Tony Award for Best Musical Book (Matilda the Musical), The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical (Matilda the Musical), Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Musical (Matilda the Musical). NED BENNETT (Assistant Director)

10

AS DIRECTOR FOR THE Primetime, Lost in Theatre.

ROYAL

COURT:

AS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR THE ROYAL COURT: The President Has Come to See You, Death Tax, Pigeons (Open Court Weekly Rep); Collaboration, Narrative, If You Don’t Let Us Dream - We Won’t Let You Sleep, No Quarter. AS DIRECTOR, OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Mercury Fur (Old Red Lion/Trafalgar Studios); Mr Noodles (Royal Exchange); Blue Rabbits (Templeworks); Excellent Choice (Old Vic Tunnels); A Butcher of Distinction (King’s Head); Edmond (West End); Smartcard (Shunt Vaults); Selling Clive (Lost). AS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Of Mice & Men (Watermill); A Letter to England (Finborough); Odette (Bridewell); Vent (Contact). Ned is the Trainee Director at the Royal Court. TOM BROOKE (Gorge) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Jerusalem (& West End), Wild East. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: The Kitchen (National); I Am the Wind, Some Voices (Young Vic); The Caretaker (Liverpool Everyman); Wallenstein (Chichester Festival); Two Cigarettes, He Said (Bush); Dying for it (Almeida); After the End (Bush/Paines

11

Plough); The Long & the Short & the Tall (Sheffield Theatres); Osama the Hero, A Single Act (Hampstead). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Sherlock, Ripper Street, Playhouse Presents: Mr Understood, Game of Thrones, Lewis, Restless, Mrs Biggs, Henry V, Room at the Top, Thorne: Scaredycat, Foyle’s War, Pulling, Hustle, Thieves Like Us, Murder Prevention, Coming Up: Rockabye, D-Day. FILM INCLUDES: The Veteran, The Boat that Rocked, Venus, The Libertine, Small Dark Places, Bridget Jones:The Edge of Reason, The Happiness Thief, The Young Victoria, Of Mary. AWARDS INCLUDE: TMA Award for Best Supporting Performance In A Play (The Long & the Short & the Tall). GREGORY CLARKE (Sound Designer) THEATRE INCLUDES: The Doctor’s Dilemma, Misterman, Twelfth Night, No Man’s Land, Tristan & Yseult, The Emperor Jones, Earthquakes in London (National); The Night Alive (Donmar), The Silence of the Sea (Donmar at the Trafalgar Studios); All’s Well That Ends Well, The Heart of Robin Hood, Great Expectations, Coriolanus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Tantalus, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC); A Flea In Her Ear, National Anthems, Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic); The Birthday Party (Royal Exchange); The Seagull (Headlong), The Color Purple, Travels With My Aunt, 12

Proof (Menier); Journey’s End, Equus (West End/New York); Pygmalion, The Philanthropist (New York); Goodnight Mr Tom, A Voyage Round My Father, The Vortex, Cloud Nine, The Philanthropist, And Then There Were None, Some Girls, Waiting for Godot, What the Butler Saw (West End). AWARDS INCLUDE: Drama Desk Award for Best Sound (Journey’s End), Tony Award for Best Sound (Equus). VICKY FEATHERSTONE (Director) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Talk Show, Untitled Matriarch Play, The President Has Come to See You (Open Court Weekly Rep). OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Enquirer (co-director), Appointment with The Wicker Man, 27, The Wheel, Somersaults, Wall of Death: A Way of Life (co-director), The Miracle Man, Empty, Long Gone Lonesome (NTS); Cockroach (NTS/Traverse); 356 (NTS/Edinburgh); Mary Stuart (NTS/Citizens/Glasgow/ Royal Lyceum); Wolves in the Walls (co-director) (NTS/Tramway/Lyric/UK Tour/New Victory, New York); The Small Things, Pyrenees, On Blindness, The Drowned World, Tiny Dynamite, Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco, Splendour, Riddance, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Crave (Paines Plough). CREATED FOR TELEVISION: Where the Heart Is, Silent Witness. 13

Vicky was Artistic Director of Paines Plough 1997-2005 and Artistic Director of The National Theatre of Scotland 2005-2012. Vicky is the Artistic Director of the Royal Court. PHILIP GLADWELL (Lighting Designer) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: No Quarter, Oxford Street, Kebab. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Love The Sinner, The World of Extreme Happiness (National); Before The Party (Almeida); If Only (Chichester); Miss Julie (Berlin/Barbican); Too Clever by Half, You Can’t Take It With You, 1984, Macbeth (Royal Exchange); Testing the Echo (Out Of Joint); The King and I (UK Tour); Limbo (Southbank); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic/US Tour); Low Pay Won’t Pay, The Fahrenheit Twins (Told by an Idiot); Small Hours (Hampstead); For Once (Pentabus); Amazonia, The Member of the Wedding (Young Vic); One For The Road, God of Carnage, Blood Wedding, Hedda Gabler (Northampton); The Wiz (Birmingham/WYP); Further than the Furthest Thing (Dundee); Five Guys Named Moe (Underbelly); Gypsy (Curve); Terminus (Dublin/ Australia/New York/Young Vic); Ciara, I’m With The Band, The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society (Traverse); The Spire, Design For Living (Salisbury); Mogadishu, Punk Rock, Cinderella, Aladdin (Lyric); My Romantic History (Bush/Sheffield Theatres/Edinburgh); Pastoral, Dandy In The Underworld (Soho).

14

PIPPA HAYWOOD (A) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Wanderlust. OTHER THEATRE: Alice (Crucible, Sheffield), Landscape with Weapon (National); House & Garden (Salisbury); Vortigern (Bridewell); Private Lives (Farnham); Requiem (Theatro Technis); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale (Regent’s Park); The Importance of Being Earnest (Wolseley); Double Double (Derby Playhouse); Black Comedy/Private Ear (Bill Kenwright); Turkey Time, Richard II, Peter Pan, This Happy Breed, The Voysey Inheritance, Harvey (Bristol Old Vic). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Mr Selfridge, Prisoners’ Wives, Scott & Bailey, Without You, Green Wing, The Brittas Empire, Kingdom, The Wrong Door, Poirot, Lost in Austen, Lewis, Fear Stress & Anger, Confessions of a Diary Secretary, New Tricks, Miss Marple, The Commander, Like Father, Like Son, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Love or Money, Dalziel & Pascoe, Holby City, My Family, Office Gossip, Mike & Angelo, Roger Roger, Goodnight, Sweetheart, Tangier Cop, Jonathan Creek, Grown-Ups, Cuts, Headhunters, House of Elliot, Chimera, Boon, Capital City, Shelly, Home James, Brushstrokes, The One Game, The Last Word. FILM: Eight Minutes Idle, Tamara Drewe, Huge. RADIO: The 12 o’clock Girls, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Says on the Tin, Forgiveness, Faust, Rubbish, Jazz Dads, Tiger, Tiger. 15

AWARDS: Rose D’Or for Best Comedy Actress (Green Wing). JOSHUA JAMES (Pete) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: No Quarter, Love & Information. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Gabriel, The Tempest (Globe). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Utopia, Whites, Silent Witness, Identity. GEORGINA LAMB (Movement Director) AS MOVEMENT DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Chimerica (Almeida/West End); Too Clever By Half (Royal Exchange); The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Doctor Faustus, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Frontline (Globe); Cinderella: The Midnight Princess (Rose, Kingston); The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens); Much Ado About Nothing (West End); Electra, Dream Story, Lulu (Gate); A Game of Love & Chance (Salisbury Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Paradise Lost (Headlong); The Three Musketeers (Rose); The Talented Mr Ripley, The Duchess of Malfi, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Glass Cage (Royal & Derngate); Macbeth (Regent’s Park); Gambling (Soho – also co-director); Romeo & Juliet (RSC); A Christmas Carol (Chichester); King Lear (Headlong/Liverpool Everyman/Young Vic); Far From 16

the Madding Crowd (ETT); Macbeth (Chichester/West End/Broadway); Six Characters In Search of an Author (Chichester/Headlong/West End/Sydney Festival Theatre); The White Devil (Menier Chocolate Factory); The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic); Faustus (Hampstead/ Headlong); The Golden Goose (Library). JONATHAN McGUINNESS (Gel) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: The Knocky, Corner Boys. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, The Tempest (RSC); Fatherland (Gate); 1984 (Royal Exchange); Alice, Richard III, Mojo (Sheffield Theatres); Orphans (Traverse/Birmingham Rep/Soho); Love (Lyric Hammersmith); Metamorphosis (Vesturport/Lyric Hammersmith); Once in a Lifetime, Playing with Fire, The UN Inspector (National); Pyrenees (Paines Plough/Tron); Comfort Me with Apples (Hampstead); Jeff Koons (ATC); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rose Rage (Propeller/Watermill/West End); Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Henry V (Propeller/Watermill); Crazy Horse (Paines Plough); Two Weeks with the Queen (Leicester Haymarket); The Champion of Paribanou (Scarborough). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Bletchley Circle, Silk, Casualty, Doctors, The Catherine Tate Show, Robin Hood, A Touch of Frost, In Search of the Brontes, The Convicts, Have Your Cake & Eat It, Coogan’s Run, Sharpe’s Gold, The Soldier. AARON MONAGHAN (Hotel Porter) 17

THEATRE INCLUDES: Druid Murphy, Penelope, The Silver Tassie, The Playboy of the Western World, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Year of the Hiker, Empress of India, DruidSynge, The Walworth Farce (Druid); King Lear, Sixteen Possible Glimpses, Translations, Arrah na Pogue, Christ Deliver Us!, Tales of Ballycumber, Romeo & Juliet, The Wolf of Winter, Drama at Inish, I Do Not Like Thee Dr Fell, The Shaughraun, Burial at Thebes, She Stoops to Conquer (Abbey); Emerald Germs of Ireland, The Tinker’s Curse (Livin Dred); Handel’s Crossing (Fishamble); Falling Out of Love (UK Tour); Roberto Zucco (Bedrock); Pubu (Articulated Anatomy). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Jack Taylor, Single Handed, Love-Hate, The Tudors, Hide & Seek, The Last Furlong. FILM INCLUDES: 71, Hideaways, Foxes, Deep Breaths, Speed Dating, LSD: 73, Ella Enchanted, Patrick’s Day, The Deep End. AWARDS INCLUDE: OBIE Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Manchester Evening News Award (Cripple of Inishmaan), Irish Times Theatre Award (Druid Murphy). KATE O’FLYNN (Louisa) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: A Miracle. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Port (National); Lungs, The Sound of Heavy Rain (Paines Plough/ Sheffield Theatres); Marine Parade (ETT); The Whisky Taster (Bush); House of Special Purpose (Chichester

18

Minerva); See How They Run, The Children’s Hour (Royal Exchange,). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Above Suspicion, Room at the Top, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kingdom, The Palace, Trial & Retribution, Heartbeat. FILM INCLUDES: Untitled Mike Leigh Project, Up There, Happy Go Lucky. AWARDS: TMA Best Supporting Performance (The Children’s Hour), Manchester Evening News Best Newcomer Award (The Children’s Hour). NICK POWELL (Music) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Talk Show (Open Court Weekly Rep); Collaboration, Narrative, Get Santa! (co-creator), The Vertical Hour, The Priory, Relocated. AS COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER, OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: Bank On It (Theatre Rites); Othello (National); A Life of Galileo, Richard III, Dunsinane, The Drunks, God in Ruins (RSC); ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Cheek By Jowl); The Danton Affair (Stadsteatern, Gothenburg); 27, The Wheel, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (NTS); Dunsinane (NTS/ RSC/UK tour); Lord of the Flies, The Crucible (Regent’s Park); Falstaff, Urtain, Marat-Sade (Spanish National Theatre); Paradise (Rhur Triennale/Theatre Rites); Penumbra, Tito Andronico (Animalario, Madrid); Panic (Improbable); The Family Reunion (Donmar); Bonheur

19

(Comedie Française); Realism (NTS/Edinburgh); The Wolves in the Walls (NTS/Improbable). AWARDS INCLUDE: Animalario Award for Best Musical Composition for Scenic Arts Premios Max (Urtain). Nick also writes extensively for TV & film. He is half of Oskar, who have released two albums and produced installations for the V&A and CCA, as well as written live soundtracks for Prada in Milan. TOM SCUTT (Designer) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Constellations (& West End), No Quarter, Remembrance Day. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: 13 (National); The Weir (Donmar/West End); Absent Friends (West End); South Downs/The Browning Version (West End/ Chichester); The Life of Galileo, Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice (RSC); The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens); King Lear, Through A Glass Darkly (Almeida); Hamlet (Sheffield Theatres); Mogadishu (Royal Exchange/Lyric); Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin, Dick Whittington (Lyric); Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong); Vanya, Unbroken, The Internationalist (Gate); Bay (Young Vic); The Merchant of Venice (Octagon); Metropolis (Bath).

20

OPERA INCLUDES: How the Whale Became (ROH); Wozzeck (ENO); The Flying Dutchman (Scottish Opera); Rigoletto (Opera Holland Park). AWARDS INCLUDE: Whatsonstage Award for Best Designer (Constellations); Linbury Biennial Prize and Jocelyn Herbert Award 2007 for his work with Headlong Theatre. ALAN WILLIAMS (M) FOR THE ROYAL COURT: Open Court Weekly Rep, Memory, Stoning Mary, Lucky Dog, Local, Under the Whaleback, Terrorism, Black Milk, Crave. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES: A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, The Birthday Party (Lyric); Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, War Horse (National); A Number (Abbey); Comfort Me with Apples (Hampstead); The Scarlet Letter (Chichester Festival). TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Guilty, Endeavour, Utopia, Casualty, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Luther, Shameless, Starlings, Rome. FILM INCLUDES: War Horse, London Boulevard, Vera Drake, The Life & Death of Peter Sellers, Grow Your Own.

21

THE ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY AT THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE ‘For me the theatre is really a religion or way of life. You must decide what you feel the world is about and what you want to say about it, so that everything in the theatre you work in is saying the same thing … A theatre must have a recognisable attitude. It will have one, whether you like it or not.’

photo: Stephen Cummiskey

George Devine, first artistic director of the English Stage Company:

22

notes for an unwritten book.

As Britain’s leading national company dedicated to new work, the Royal Court Theatre produces new plays of the highest quality, working with writers from all backgrounds, and addressing the problems and possibilities of our time. “The Royal Court has been at the centre of British cultural life for the past 50 years, an engine room for new writing and constantly transforming the theatrical culture.” Stephen Daldry Since its foundation in 1956, the Royal Court has presented premieres by almost every leading contemporary British playwright, from John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger to Caryl Churchill’s A Number and Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. Just some of the other writers to have chosen the Royal Court to premiere their work include Edward Albee, John Arden, Richard Bean, Samuel Beckett, Edward Bond, Leo Butler, Jez Butterworth, Martin Crimp, Ariel Dorfman, Stella Feehily, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Eugène Ionesco, Ann Jellicoe, Terry Johnson, Sarah Kane, David Mamet, Martin McDonagh, Conor McPherson, Joe Penhall, Lucy Prebble, Mark Ravenhill, Simon Stephens, Wole Soyinka, Polly Stenham, David Storey, Debbie Tucker Green, Arnold Wesker and Roy Williams. “It is risky to miss a production there.” Financial Times In addition to its full-scale productions, the Royal Court also facilitates international work at a grass-roots level, developing exchanges which bring young writers to Britain and sending British writers, actors and directors to work with artists around the world. The research and play development arm of the Royal Court Theatre, The Studio, finds the most exciting and diverse range of new voices in the UK. The Studio runs play-writing groups

23

including the Young Writers Programme, Critical Mass for black, Asian and minority ethnic writers and the biennial Young Writers Festival. For further information, go to www.royalcourttheatre.com/playwriting/the-studio.

24

25

ROYAL COURT SUPPORTERS The Royal Court has significant and longstanding relationships with many organisations and individuals who provide vital support. It is this support that makes possible its unique playwriting and audience development programmes. Coutts supports Innovation at the Royal Court. The Genesis Foundation supports the Royal Court’s work with International Playwrights. Theatre Local is sponsored by Bloomberg. Alix Partners sponsor The Big Idea at the Royal Court. The Jerwood Charitable Foundation supports new plays by playwrights through the Jerwood New Playwrights series. The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation supports the Royal Court’s Studio, which aims to seek out, nurture and support emerging playwrights. The Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award is given annually by his widow, Lady Antonia Fraser, to support a new commission at the Royal Court. PUBLIC FUNDING Arts Council England, London British Council European Commission Representation in the UK CHARITABLE DONATIONS Martin Bowley Charitable Trust Columbia Foundation Fund of the London Community Foundation Cowley Charitable Trust The Dorset Foundation The John Ellerman Foundation The Eranda Foundation

26

Genesis Foundation J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust The Golden Bottle Trust The Haberdashers’ Company The Idlewild Trust Jerwood Charitable Foundation Marina Kleinwort Trust The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation John Lyon’s Charity The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rose Foundation The Royal College of Psychiatrists Royal Victoria Hall Foundation The Sackler Trust John Thaw Foundation The Vandervell Foundation Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement The Garfield Weston Foundation CORPORATE SUPPORTERS & SPONSORS Alix Partners American Airlines BBC

27

Bloomberg Café Colbert Coutts Ecosse Films Fever-Tree Kudos Film & Television MAC Moët & Chandon Oakley Capital Limited Quintessentially Vodka Smythson of Bond Street White Light Ltd BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, MEMBERS & BENEFACTORS Annoushka Auerbach & Steele Opticians Bank of America Merrill Lynch Byfield Consultancy Capital MSN Cream Hugo Boss Lazard Savills

28

Troy Asset Management Vanity Fair Waterman Group DEVELOPMENT ADVOCATES John Ayton MBE Elizabeth Bandeen Kinvara Balfour Anthony Burton CBE Piers Butler Sindy Caplan Sarah Chappatte Cas Donald (Vice Chair) Celeste Fenichel Emma Marsh (Chair) Deborah Shaw Marquardt (Vice Chair) Tom Siebens Sian Westerman Daniel Winterfeldt INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS MAJOR DONORS Eric Abraham Rob & Siri Cope Cas Donald

29

Richard & Marcia Grand Jack & Linda Keenan Adam Kenwright Miles Morland NoraLee & Jon Sedmak Deborah Shaw & Stephen Marquardt Jan & Michael Topham Monica B Voldstad MOVER-SHAKERS Anonymous Christine Collins Jordan Cook Piers & Melanie Gibson Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Mr & Mrs Roderick Jack Duncan Matthews QC Ian & Carol Sellars BOUNDARY-BREAKERS Anonymous Katie Bradford David Harding

30

Madeleine Hodgkin Philip & Joan Kingsley Emma Marsh Philippa Thorp Edgar & Judith Wallner Mr & Mrs Nick Wheeler GROUND-BREAKERS Anonymous Allen Appen & Jane Wiest Moira Andreae Mr & Mrs Simon Andrews Nick Archdale Charlotte Asprey Jane Attias Brian Balfour-Oatts Elizabeth & Adam Bandeen Ray Barrell & Ursula Van Almsick Dr Kate Best

31

Sarah & David Blomfield Stan & Val Bond Kristina Borsy & Nick Turdean Neil & Sarah Brener Deborah Brett Mr & Mrs William Broeksmit Joanna Buckenham Lois Moore & Nigel Burridge Louise Burton Clive & Helena Butler Piers Butler Sindy & Jonathan Caplan Gavin & Lesley Casey Sarah & Philippe Chappatte Tim & Caroline Clark Carole & Neville Conrad

32

Andrea & Anthony Coombs Clyde Cooper Ian & Caroline Cormack Mr & Mrs Cross Andrew & Amanda Cryer Alison Davies Roger & Alison De Haan Noel De Keyzer Matthew Dean Polly Devlin OBE Sophie Diedrichs-Cox Denise & Randolph Dumas Robyn Durie Glenn & Phyllida Earle The Edwin Fox Foundation Lisa Erikson & Edward

33

Ocampo Mark & Sarah Evans Celeste & Peter Fenichel Deborah Ferreira Beverley Gee Nick & Julie Gould Lord & Lady Grabiner Reade & Elizabeth Griffith Jill Hackel & Andrzej Zarzycki Carol Hall Stephen & Jennifer Harper Mr & Mrs Sam Haubold Gordon & Brette Holmes Damien Hyland Suzie & David Hyman Amanda Ibbetson Nicholas Jones Dr Evi Kaplanis David P Kaskel &

34

Christopher A Teano Vincent & Amanda Keaveny Peter & Maria Kellner Nicola Kerr Steve Kingshott Mr & Mrs Pawel Kisielewski David & Sarah Kowitz Rosemary Leith Larry & Peggy Levy Imelda Liddiard Daisy & Richard Littler Kathryn Ludlow Beatrice & James Lupton CBE Dr Ekaterina Malievskaia & George Goldsmith Christopher Marek Rencki Mrs Janet Martin Andrew McIver Barbara Minto

35

Takehito Mitsui Angelie Moledina Ann & Gavin Neath CBE Clive & Annie Norton Georgia Oetker James Orme-Smith Mr & Mrs Sandy Orr Mr & Mrs Guy Paterson Sir William & Lady Vanessa Patey William Plapinger & Cassie Murray Andrea & Hilary Ponti Lauren Prakke Annie & Preben Prebensen Wendy & Philip Press Mrs Ivetta Rabinovich Julie Ritter Mark & Tricia Robinson Paul & Gill Robinson Corinne Rooney

36

Sir & Lady Ruddock William & Hilary Russell Julie & Bill Ryan Sally & Anthony Salz Bhags Sharma J Sheridan The Michael & Melanie Sherwood Charitable Foundation Tom Siebens & Mimi Parsons Andy Simpkin Anthony Simpson & Susan Boster Andrea Sinclair & Serge Kremer Paul & Rita Skinner Mr & Mrs RAH Smart Brian Smith Barbara Soper Saadi & Zeina Soudavar

37

Sue St Johns The Ulrich Family The Ury Trust Amanda Vail Constanze Von Unruh Ian & Victoria Watson & The Watson Foundation Matthew & Sian Westerman Anne-Marie Williams Sir Robert & Lady Wilson Mr Daniel Winterfeldt & Mr Jonathan Leonhart Martin & Sally Woodcock Katherine & Michael Yates With thanks to our Friends, Stage-Taker and Ice-Breaker members whose support we greatly appreciate.

38

FOR THE ROYAL COURT Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS Tel: 020 7565 5050 Fax: 020 7565 5001 [email protected], www.royalcourttheatre.com

Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone Associate Directors Carrie Cracknell, Simon Godwin, John Tiffany Artistic Associate Emily McLaughlin* Diversity Associate Ola Animashawun* Education Associate Lynne Gagliano* Executive Assistant Sarah Hopkins Trainee Director Ned Bennett ‡ Literary Manager Christopher Campbell Senior Reader Carissa Hope Lynch* Literary Assistant Louise Stephens Alexander Studio Administrator Chloe Todd Fordham* Writers’ Tutor Leo Butler* Associate Director International Elyse Dodgson International Projects Manager Chris James International Associate Richard Twyman Head of Casting (Maternity Leave) Amy Ball

39

Head of Casting (Maternity Cover) Julia Horan CDG Casting Deputy Lotte Hines Head of Production Niall Black Production Manager Tariq Rifaat Production Assistant Zoe Hurwitz Head of Lighting Jack Williams Lighting Deputy Marec Joyce Lighting Assistants Jess Faulks, Sam Smallman Lighting Board Operator Laura Whitley Head of Stage Steven Stickler Stage Deputy Dan Lockett Stage Chargehand Lee Crimmen Chargehand & Building Maintenance Technician Matt Livesey Head of Sound David McSeveney Sound Deputy Emily Legg Sound Operators Joel Price, Laura Hammond Head of Costume Iona Kenrick Costume Deputy Jackie Orton Executive Producer Lucy Davies General Manager Catherine Thornborrow Administrator Holly Gladwell

40

Associate Producer Daniel Brodie Finance Director Helen Perryer Finance Manager Martin Wheeler Finance Officer Rachel Harrison* Finance & Administration Assistant Rosie Mortimer Head of Marketing & Sales Becky Wootton Marketing Manager (Maternity Leave) Ruth Waters Marketing Manager (Maternity Cover) Sebastian Stern Press & Public Relations Officer Anna Evans Communications Officer Dion Wilson Communications Assistants Jasdeep Phull, Rachel Pronger Sales Manager Liam Geoghegan Deputy Sales Manager Áine O’Sullivan Box Office Sales Assistants Ryan Govin, Joe Hodgson, Chelsea Nelson, Zainab Hassan*, Helen Preddy* Head of Development Rebecca Smith Senior Development Manager Sue Livermore Development Managers Lucy Buxton, Luciana Lawlor, Anna Sampson Development Assistant Kate Garbutt Front of House Manager Rachel Dudley Theatre Assistant Chris Sonnex

41

Events Manager Joanna Ostrom* Duty Managers Elinor Keber*, Helen Matravers* Bar & Food Manager Sami Rifaat Deputy Bar & Food Manager (Interim Cover) Siobhan Lightfoot Bar and Food Supervisor Jared Thomas Head Chef Tim Jenner Sous Chef Paulino Chuitcheu Bookshop Manager Simon David Bookshop Assistant Vanessa Hammick* Stage Door/Reception Paul Lovegrove, Tyrone Lucas, Jane Wainwright Thanks to all of our ushers and bar staff. ‡ The post of Trainee Director is supported by an anonymous donor. * Part-time.

ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY President Dame Joan Plowright CBE Honorary Council Sir Richard Eyre CBE Alan Grieve CBE Martin Paisner CBE

42

Council Chairman Anthony Burton CBE Vice Chairman Graham Devlin CBE Members Jennette Arnold OBE Judy Daish Sir David Green KCMG Joyce Hytner OBE Stephen Jeffreys Wasfi Kani OBE Phyllida Lloyd CBE James Midgley Sophie Okonedo OBE Alan Rickman Anita Scott Katharine Viner Lord Stewart Wood

43

Become a Member The Royal Court has been on the cutting edge of new drama for more than 50 years. Thanks to our members, we are able to undertake the vital support of writers and the development of their plays – work which is the lifeblood of the theatre. In acknowledgement of their support, members are invited to venture beyond the stage door to share in the energy and creativity of Royal Court productions. Please join us as a member to celebrate our shared ambition whilst helping to ensure our ongoing success. We can't do it withour you. To join as a Royal Court member from £250 a year, please contact Anna Sampson, Development Manager: Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 7565 5049

44

www.royalcourttheatre.com The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre is a registered charity (No. 231242).

45

Characters GORGE MASTROMAS A PETE GEL HOTEL PORTER LOUISA M

46

– Gorge Mastromas was conceived on the 15th of July, 1972. – It was a warm and balmy night, not too hot with a gentle breeze coming in through open summer windows – it had rained earlier that day but the air was now clear and the night had a softness to it that felt like…a pause. – The lovemaking was not particularly enjoyable, but neither was it particularly unpleasant – Gorge’s father had not been in the mood… – Gorge’s mother had not been in the mood… – but it had been some time since they had made love so the act had been instigated by a kind of mutual and unspoken guilt. – clumsy at first, it may well have been aborted at several key moments, but once things got going it

47

was pleasant enough with both participants feeling satisfaction by the end. – Gorge’s father had meant to pull out – (a regular feature of their lovemaking) – but having tried so hard to work himself into the act he became confused and couldn’t be sure if he was clear in the final instance. – He said nothing to his wife. – Gorge’s Y chromosomes rushed towards his X chromosomes at a speed of 0.00004km/hr and as Gorge’s mother was in the bathroom the next evening about her nightly toilet, Gorge came into being. – The gestation was normal, unremarkable as all parts of Gorge began to form – the brain, the spinal chord, the heart and the gastrointestinal tract – a stream of commonplace miracles happening inside a fleshy sack of liquids and tissue creating the human being that would later come to be known as Gorge Mastromas. – The pregnancy itself was not difficult, no sign of the worrying swelling and preeclampsia that had dogged their previous pregnancy

48

– and on the 31st of May, 1973, Gorge Mastromas was delivered to the world by – as a precautionary measure – caesarean section – a fact that should have nothing read into it whatsoever. Pause. – Gorge’s early years were pleasant enough – At times he was happy, at times he was sad. – He learned things, found things out and his mind developed into what we should probably regard as a mildly above average intelligence – He loved his parents and they appeared to love him, though his father was prone to exasperation and his mother to a kind of cool indifference – he looked up to his older brother, was shy when he came into contact with other children, though enjoyed their company and the possibilities of play. – The first remarkable thing that happened to Gorge was that on the first day of school he was sat next to Paul Koscrow. – Paul was a beautiful boy, a head of dark curly hair, a sandy complexion, soft skin that people just wanted to touch

49

– (skin that would later be permanently devastated by acne) – deep brown eyes that radiated calm and, yes well, love, maybe or something… – Girls inexplicably wanted to be near Paul – Boys wanted to play with Paul – and Gorge was (by the good fortune of the alphabetical seating index) sat next to Paul which of course meant that they had to be best friends. – Paul was the hardest in the class. – The hardest being at that age a mixture of popularity and strength – but by association Gorge was now understood to be third hardest – second hardest having gone to Adam Grosan, an angry, crazed, disturbed boy who stood outside the social order, but whose physical prowess could not be ignored. – Gorge loved being with Paul. He loved playing with Paul, loved talking to Paul, loved talking about Paul – He sometimes had an uneasy feeling in his belly when Paul spent time with others and found

50

himself inexplicably nasty to Paul when he talked too much with girls – (Paul seemed to like girls almost as much as he liked boys). – But generally everything was, well, great, and life moves on and continues and Gorge develops and grows in a not-unusual fashion. Beat. And then, at the age of eight, a change came. – For many years Gorge had basked in the reflected glory of Paul, yes. But it should not be thought that Gorge was without qualities himself. – He could be funny – he could be kind – he was a fast runner – he knew a lot about dinosaurs and machines – (Gorge had a thing for machines) – Gorge was not without his charms – But Gorge knew that Paul was best. – Everyone knew that Paul was the best – he was the best. – But

51

sometime over that year… – A change came over Paul and in turn over the perception of Paul. – He had begun to fill out. He gained weight as his body found the shape that it would generally adhere to for the rest of his life. – Paul was a fat kid… – His sandy skin seemed stretched over what was now a bulky frame, and instead of sandy it seemed, well…yellow – the colour of urine – those deep brown eyes receded into his face – the shock of curly brown hair which had once looked so wanton on a five-year-old now looked girlish. – And other facts were noticed about Paul – his parents were poor, his dad didn’t have a job and smoked far too much for a parent – Paul’s clothes were shabby and he sometimes said dumb things – These facts became noted, and having been noted they were accepted and having been accepted they were talked about

52

– and once they became talked about they became laughed about. – And then…the unthinkable happened. – A new boy called Kenton beat him in a fight that left Paul with a bloody graze on his chin – And Paul…cried. – He cried like a baby, like a girl, Paul cried like a little baby girl. Beat. – Gorge had watched Paul’s slide from grace with disbelief, denial even, then with shock, then dismay, moving through to anger and frustration, tinged with a fair amount of fear. – He didn’t understand what was happening. A fundamental law of the universe was being betrayed. – Gorge would have been less surprised if the sky had turned green or if dogs had started to talk. – He became angry with his friend, furious in fact – part of him had still clinged to the residue of the Paul he had known, the Paul of the past, the real Paul perhaps – but this latest humiliation had rocked everything Gorge knew and he began to feel…disgust.

53

Beat. – So far Gorge’s position had not been challenged. – Somehow he had remained untainted, sort of liked. – He could still be funny, could still run fast, he was still a bit kind – He still knew a lot about machines and dinosaurs – but he knew that he had no immunity: and now something else was happening within the class, a change a kind of… savagery – a kind of…seriousness – they were no longer playing – they were no longer kids – they were deciding who they were. They were becoming people. They were setting out their stall, they were saying ‘here I am, this is me, look at me, look at this thing that I am, and am going to be for the rest of my life, how does that fit into the person you are going to be, you fucker?’ – Poor Paul. – The writing was on the wall for Paul and it seemed so unfair. – But fairness is the luxury of children and they were now nine.

54

– However nothing had been decided about Gorge. – Everything was still up for grabs for Gorge. Pause. – On the 18th of March 1981 Lye Creel challenged Paul to a fight. – It was to take place at second break and was eagerly anticipated by the entire class. – Lye was no one, had languished somewhere near the bottom, a child who ate his own bogies and wore shit shoes – but sensing his chance he opportunistically challenged Paul – unthinkable only a few short months ago, but now… – The anticipation of Paul’s final humiliation was huge. – Everyone was there. – Gorge felt sick in his guts like never before, – and when it began it was not a fight it was a murder. It was an atrocity, a massacre, a destruction; Lye battered Paul, pounded him – Paul had no will, was crying before the fight had even begun

55

– blow after blow rained down on him and nothing did he do as the bays of the children screaming like animals enraged Lye to lay into Paul with fists and feet and knuckles and fists. – It was a walkover, it was a slaughter, it was a genocide. – Paul had a bloody nose, a cut lip and a bruise on his eye. – The fight was broken up by teachers and Paul and Lye were lead away, one crying in desolation, the other crying in triumph. Beat. – That afternoon Gorge waited and he felt like vomiting. – He waited with one eye on the door for the moment when Paul and Lye would return. And when they didn’t he allowed himself to think that they would not; that Paul had been killed and that Lye was in prison. And then he felt guilty for wishing such terrible things. – At third break Paul appeared. – Sullen, chastened, beaten, broken. All eyes on his every move. – And he went straight to Gorge and Gorge’s stomach clenched like a howl

56

– He cannot remember what Paul said to him. – It could have been ‘do you want to come to my house?’ ‘do you want to play football?’ ‘would you like a sweet?’ The words did not matter – what he was really asking was ‘would you for god’s sake please still be my friend?’ – Gorge wanted to die. – He wanted Paul to die, he wanted to scream and shout and spit, he knew that everyone was watching and he knew too that going with Paul was somehow, to some extent the end of everything. – Just like he knew that the rejection of Paul would somehow be the beginning of everything – Paul; utterly broken, in pieces, fat, bruised, sweaty and girlish with piggy eyes and poor parents, Gorge wanted to punch him so much. – But part of him… – part of Gorge… – part of Gorge saw…Paul. Just Paul. His friend. – The boy he had sat next to. – The boy he had worshipped. – Just Paul. His friend. Paul.

57

Beat. – Gorge went with Paul. – There is no record of where they went or what they did, history does not tell us what place they were in or the things they talked about. – But he went with him and his fate was sealed. He was a loser. He was nothing. He was at the bottom and he would amount to nothing. – Now why Gorge made that decision, is difficult to say… – Morality? Kindness? Goodness? An innate sense of right and wrong? – Or was it something more complex? – Was it, in some strange and bizarre way, an act of cowardice? – Goodness or cowardice? Goodness or cowardice? A long silence. – Vanessa Larusdottir was beautiful – Dark hair, dark eyes – there was something going on with her cheeks

58

– you couldn’t quite tell what it was, but there was something going on with her cheeks and she was beautiful – and with the hair and the eyes and attitude and the smile – a slight darkness to her, and you know the way you just can’t help but like that? – and the attitude and the humour, I mean she was so… great. – Gorge knew Vanessa was out of his league. Gorge was seventeen, Vanessa was sixteen and her boyfriend was a man named Gavin – who was twenty-four, by the way: good looking, rugged – of course – witty, urbane – of course, of course – probably had a great big fat cock – the bastard – probably did things to Vanessa that Gorge didn’t even know were things – and we can look at this now perhaps, and judge; Twenty-four?

59

– With a sixteen-year-old girlfriend? – a bit tricky? – Not paedophilia, no one’s suggesting paedophilia, but slightly…? – but at the time everyone thought ‘of course she has a man like that’ ‘of course he has a girl like that’ – they were the sugar couple. – Gorge loved Vanessa. – They were friends, but in a loose sense. Not someone you could call just someone who might be around, might turn up, just someone you might chat with, might casually laugh with even though the mere smell of them made you want to weep. Someone whose appearance you would pray for and if it happened it would make your heart fizzle with some kind of electrical pulse and if it didn’t it would crush all the joy out of your body like liquid evacuating a corpse. – Gorge had it bad… Beat. – Ever since the incident with Paul, Gorge’s life had followed what we might describe as a predictable path. – He went to his secondary school with a sense of relief, but there his rank, file and attributes were

60

assessed immediately and immediately he found his place…near the top of the bottom half. – And he never saw Paul again. – Secondary school had been a dull, frightening, confusing, exhilarating and ultimately pointless affair, and Gorge left with the kind of qualifications that marked him out as neither especially good nor bad, and at the same time were pretty much useless. – He did however discover a kind of politics. – This may well be neither here nor there, but we note it nonetheless. – He read Marx and Engels – Orwell and Popper and then to balance things out a bit of Ayn Rand – and though he soon strayed from dogma and though it was only for a short time that he would annoy his parents by calling himself anything that ended in an ‘ist’, perhaps a kind of view was born? – Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Who knows. Nevertheless, whenever Gorge was faced with a decision/opportunity he tended for the moral, despite the fact that generally it would work out the worse for him

61

– He once found a wallet full of cash, immediately handed it in and was immediately accused of stealing it. – In year two he told a bully not to hurt a smaller child and was battered to within an inch of his life, humiliated in front of the entire school. – at the age of thirteen he didn’t accept a blowjob from Tina Laysing on the grounds that she was drunk and so remained a virgin. – (when he approached Tina the next morning far from being grateful she treated him like he was dipped in dog shit and she told everyone that he had tried to touch her – something that resulted in ostracism and being singled out by teachers and a sexually ‘concerning’ child) – Gorge always did the right thing. – Nothing else seemed to occur to him – was it Paul? was it him? was it politics? – Was it goodness or cowardice? – Was it goodness or cowardice? Pause. It was a warm July evening, one of those evenings you just… – you know?

62

– one of those evenings you just feel special – one of those evenings designed for specialness – The sunset had been spectacular, breathtaking – but really breathtaking, I mean people literally gasped – The air felt warm and dry but not too dry, just enough to feel soft as it brushed against your skin like hair – Had you been in a forest you would almost certainly have seen a fawn – you know those days when all of a sudden the air is full of flying ants? Well it might not have happened on that day but that is exactly the sort of day it was, it was that special a day. But the day had been…strange, too… – To cut a long story short Gorge had gotten off with Sarah – He had not really wanted to get off with Sarah, he was not really interested in Sarah. He liked Sarah and he liked that Sarah liked him, but at the same time he found her dull and, well, yes, plain. – They had shared some cider by a lake, a lake that Gorge always for some reason found himself at; his spiritual home perhaps, a refuge? One thing had led to another, things were shared, deep thoughts, and

63

the proximity of a female body so close to his, even one that he was not supposed to be attracted to proved very…well, attractive. – They kissed – they touched, they fumbled – Gorge had felt her breasts and become confused by her pubic area – She had shocked him by touching his penis through his jeans – passion, heat, sex, it was all so… – they in fact made the most extraordinary declarations to each other, declarations Gorge meant 100% at the time, but not at all only hours later, declarations of love, almost – passion, heat, sex, it was all so… – They had to go. Both of them had to go. Gorge was meeting friends, she had to get back home, and as they left the kisses were long and lingering, deep and profound, and the things that had passed between them felt like promises. – Gorge went home with a spring in his step. – A man. – He came back and saw his partly disassembled Honda CR250 in his back yard (Gorge’s love for

64

machines had developed into a obsession with motorbikes) but instead of experiencing his usual desire to become lost in that wonderful web of interconnecting engineering, he was surprised to find that he wanted to be with people. Humans. – That evening they were going to a club, a local club, a dull club, we might say, but it meant so much to them. – They met in a bar first and Gorge was magnificent – there was something about him, a confidence, an ability – An easy grace with the world – Everyone laughed at his jokes and his jokes were great. – This was Gorge at his best. A glimpse of the best of the many thousands and hundreds of thousands of possible Gorges that there could be, and oh, how much Gorge longed to be this one, how much he enjoyed being this one, he could be this one forever. – Vanessa was there. – The air was so…soft. – Something in her was changed…

65

– The air was so soft and warm and clear, if you had felt it… – something in her was different. You see, she had split up with Gavin. – He might have been cheating, it’s unclear. History does not record. But they were no longer together and she had come out fighting, proving, to herself, to him, to everyone. – Inside she was so, so hurt, but no one could see it. Except Gorge. You see that night Gorge was superhuman. He could do anything. Beat. – They drank. – They laughed. – They joked. – They talked and pontificated; they put the world to rights. – They danced, even – And…and now this is not nice to say or even to think, but it is true and Gorge knew it was true, but the blow that Vanessa had received, coupled with the boost that Gorge had received had… well, it levelled them out. They were on the same level.

66

– Gorge and Vanessa, on the same level. For one night. – For one night only. Beat. – After the club everyone went back to someone’s house, a boy named Dan – Dan was a whole other story – and they drank Dan’s parents’ booze (who were off on holiday or some such), a house to themselves… – Vanessa confided in Gorge that she had been considering going away – Leaving – that’s how exciting this woman was, somewhere foreign and European, a job a friend of her father’s friend had promised in a country where they knew how to live – something in either the arts or journalism or humanitarianism, it was something like that, we don’t know exactly, but it was something she cared deeply for, but the thing with Gavin had prevented her following this dream, had given her pause, but now… – and do you know what Gorge said? – He said ‘Yes, do it’ – He said ‘You do it.’ He was magnificent.

67

– another day he would’ve exploded inside at the thought of losing her and gone all weird leaving Vanessa confused and slightly creeped out, but not today, this was not today’s Gorge, today’s Gorge said ‘You do it, it’s the right thing for you – you do it’ and he meant it. – on a night like that? with those hormones? – with the booze and the joy and the feelings that are practically in and of themselves drugs, on some kind of chemical level? – Gorge and Vanessa themselves…alone.

suddenly

found

– How did that happen? – On a couch – How the hell did that…? – Everyone gone. – And they talked. – And they talked. – And they talked. – And they looked. Into each other’s eyes. Those eyes, Vanessa’s eyes. And suddenly there is something in those eyes. And their flesh is somehow touching on the couch

68

– through jeans, okay, but still – and suddenly Vanessa’s face is close, very close and she utters the three most romantic words that can be said in this world. – Come. With. Me. Pause. – Let me tell you what happens in moments like these. In fact let me tell you what happens in this particular moment. In this particular moment Gorge looks into Vanessa’s eyes and sees two futures. One cloudy, one clear. Surprisingly the clear one is the one with Vanessa. The one he has if he leans forward right now and touches his lips to hers. He sees himself on a plane in less than a week, Vanessa at his side, new people, new places, new experiences ahead of them both. He sees the change that takes place in him, the profound growing that will happen to a man who is the man of a woman who is a woman like Vanessa. He sees passion, love, intense love and no it may not last forever but it leaves its mark on him forever, a shining scar of joy deep within his heart from which his most perfect version of himself unfolds for him to inhabit and be for the rest of his existence, and yes he may say goodbye to her in a few years, both crying, perhaps in the open elegance of the Volksgarten, Vienna or in the Neapolitan Café madness of Piazza Bellini, but

69

when he does he is changed and god it was worth it. The other future is less clear. But it is…not exciting. It is…not explosive or dangerous or amazing or even noteworthy, really. It is…well it feels sort of…beige. Pause. – Gorge had been with Sarah that day – things had been said – things he didn’t mean, god knows they meant nothing to him now. But he had said them. They had been said. – Goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice… – Gorge did not lean in. – He did not touch his lips to Vanessa’s, he did not kiss Vanessa. – He never kissed Vanessa. Never, ever, in his entire life, even though he spent the next four years dreaming and wishing that he had. – Four years, by the way, in which he was in a relationship with Sarah – a pretty bad relationship, by the way

70

– a pretty awful and devastating relationship, by the way – an absolute disaster of a relationship, by the way. – And Gorge’s beautiful, exciting, exotic life inhabited by that perfect version of himself just…popped out of existence. – And Gorge never saw Vanessa ever again. A long silence. – There is only one more incident from Gorge’s early life worth relating before we move on – it won’t take long – He is now twenty-six and in a relationship – What we should probably describe as the love of his life. – Tanya. – But Gorge had just gotten another girl pregnant. – Shit. – Tanya was an ordinary girl – Does this mean Gorge was ordinary too? Probably. Who knows?

71

– They had met through a work thing that had been organised by someone who worked for some company or other and they had just… – they just clicked. You know when you just click, well they just… – they just clicked and they had to go out together, they had to move in together, they had to be together and their life together it was…well what was it? it was…it was just fun, actually. They had fun. – Their life together, it was like a warm bowl – does that make sense? probably not, but look, let’s go with it anyway, Tanya and Gorge living together was like a warm bowl of…sunshine – oh Christ, that doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t make sense at all, but when he thought about it that was the image that came into his heart, a warm bowl of sunshine, so go on, laugh but that is what he thought. – Tanya and Gorge laughed a lot. – That was it – they laughed lot. – They did other things a lot – they went out a lot, they fucked a lot, they fought a lot, let’s not forget that – but the biggest thing was that they laughed a lot, together, Gorge and Tanya in their warm bowl of, yes, well, sunshine. They were in love.

72

– Though in the interests of fairness and complete disclosure it should also be said that they were doing a lot of MDMA at that time – but who knows what love is and what it is not, so let’s not prescribe or qualify, let’s not find caveats, let’s call love love and not diminish with chemistry or explain it into dust, okay? – Tanya knew nothing of Gorge’s stupidity as they boarded the train to her father’s that Christmas. Christmas was always spent with her dad as Gorge’s parents now lived in Australia. His family had become…estranged from each other. Not through passions and secrets and un-nameable wrongs, just because…well, just because they had. – He had not seen his brother in many years. – Had not spoken to his parents in many months and would in fact only speak to them again once more as they would both die in about eight months time because of a loose gas pipe. – (Gorge goes over for the funeral but his brother isn’t even there) – Tanya’s father was an industrialist, a self-made man, wealthy now but born to a poor family. He’d educated himself, become an engineer, made a life, a mild man, slightly conservative, but not judgemental

73

– Her mother had died some years before, a searing, bonding agony shared by Tanya and her dad over many months and when he had remarried a kind, decent woman named Jenny Tanya was pleased. – Tanya’s father thought Gorge was an idiot. – No, that’s too strong, he just didn’t like him very much, didn’t think he ‘had it in him’ and secretly he hoped that Tanya would move on. – Jenny liked Gorge. – But then Jenny liked everyone. – Gorge had discovered that very morning that he was to be father to another woman’s child. – Idiot, fucking idiot… – Whilst drunk he had slept with someone else. – Four years into the relationship with Tanya, living together for three and a half, arguments, conversational bald patches, a kind of settling that is a feature of long-term love and can actually be quite beautiful in and of itself if handled and understood properly, but to young hearts casually addicted to hormones and ejaculate it can seem stale. – They still loved each other…

74

– it was just that the joints of life were seizing up somewhat. – They went out less. – They laughed less. – They communicated less, they kissed less – and Gorge had found himself in bed with another woman. – Gorge had not enjoyed the sex. The novelty of a new female form had worn off as soon as he had got to know it. – She was bumpy where Tanya was smooth, angular where Tanya was rounded, disappointing where Tanya had been discovery – Gorge had been a little frightened by her, in fact – But something inside had led him pounding on – the intercourse, wild, rough and aggressive, and not exactly pleasant. – Afterwards she behaved as if she didn’t like him, but at the last moment had cried; it was confusing. – And a slight feeling of devastation grew inside him as the stupidity of what he had done settled in. – The past month had been difficult. He had picked fights with Tanya for no reason, he had clung to

75

her like he was drowning, he had declared huge plans for them both, holidays and barbecues and family events that previously he would have avoided; he was acting strange and he knew it. But he could not stop himself as the kernel of darkness, a tiny void, a singularity of nothing that had taken root in his soul that night with that girl had grown and grown and grown until Gorge felt overwhelmed by the rising blackness inside. – And earlier this week…the other woman – if we may call her that – had contacted him. She wanted to talk. The talk. – Shall we name her? Isn’t it wrong to give her no name? – They met, that morning and she told him – she was pregnant. – The usual conversations ensued; language that pours from you at these moments sounding so clichéd that you disgust yourself – ‘Are you sure?’ ‘I don’t understand?’ ‘How could this happen?’ – Arguments and recriminations and pledges of support and denial ebbed back and forth, and soon one clear thing emerged from the froth of feelings and pain to confront Gorge with its terrible solidity

76

– She did not want to have an abortion. – The girl was not religious, it was nothing like that. She just…did not want could not have an abortion. – She was pro-choice, don’t misunderstand, but she just could not have one herself, it was just…that way. – It would devastate her. She knew it would devastate her. – There were tears, from both of them actually. – Her seeing her life slipping away, so confused, but unable to take the action that might have stopped this thing happening. – Gorge seeing his life slipping away, that warm bowl of sunshine that he had taken for granted, darkening. Glooming over. Disappearing. – things went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth for ages and ages and ages and ages. There was no way out. Beat. – And then suddenly…Gorge saw something – a moment, a glimpse, a truth that hovered into view – Gorge suddenly saw…her fragility. Her pain, her inner disquiet

77

– What, had this not been visible before? – Well, no, actually. He had seen she was upset, hurt, angry, but this was different. What he saw now was that she was… vulnerable. – She was vulnerable. She didn’t look it, but she was vulnerable. And he knew in that second, absolutely knew with a thrill of freedom screaming into his heart that he could convince her. He could push her. He could – not bully her, no, – that’s the wrong word, not force, we’re not talking force here, but he could nudge. He could certainly nudge. Gorge saw he could convince this woman to take that mass of cells or foetus or emerging human soul depending on your point of view and turn it into medical waste. – And despite the fact it would devastate her, despite the fact it would demolish her, despite the fact that she would live with the decision in her dreams for the rest of her life – All Gorge’s problems would disappear and his life with Tanya would survive – Goodness or cowardice – Goodness or cowardice? – Goodness or cowardice?

78

Beat. – The fact that Gorge did not act, the fact that Gorge did not seize that moment and force the issue, the fact that he did not say ‘I’ll go with you to the clinic and pay for everything’ is a fact that would torture Gorge with knives for some years to come. Beat. – Gorge told Tanya on the train. – Desolation. So broken. – Like grief, in fact. – The pain he had caused her stamped into his guts. – She could not control her tears, it was almost literally like losing control of her bodily functions on a train, on a fucking train. – You see there is one thing we haven’t mentioned. – Tanya could not conceive. – A genetic abnormality. – Oh, and she loved children – Just like she had loved Gorge – and Gorge would witness in that day, both of those loves dying. Pause.

79

– No point in going into Christmas; telling you what the father had said, Jenny’s vitriolic rage that had surprised them all. – No need to say that Tanya and Gorge were over. – Surely no need to describe Gorge’s devastation, the distinct feeling that a vital part of him had been shut down, never to function again. – The only thing that we really need to say is that some weeks later he received a voicemail from the girl – from the other woman. – She had miscarried. – The child was gone. The child was history. – And yet Gorge was alone. The laughter gone. Beat. – Goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice… – You decide. * * * A, M and G, standing staring, slightly shocked. A: a woman, early forties, M: a man, late fifties, G: a man, early thirties.

80

A long pause. A:

Are you not ready?

M:

No, I’m not ready.

Pause. What time were you told? A:

Quarter past.

M:

Quarter past? No, not quarter past, half past.

A:

Oh.

M:

Yeah. Yes.

A:

Oh, I was told…

M:

Why? What, I mean… I mean what? no. No that’s…

Turning to G. What is this? G:

You said quarter past.

M:

No I never

A:

I thought it was a bit odd

M:

I never said quarter past

81

A:

Quarter past is an odd time, so…

M:

Why would I say quarter past that’s a completely odd time G:

I thought you said –

M:

Well I didn’t, did I. I said half past and you gave the wrong time, this is the wrong time, this is all happening at the wrong time. A:

Oh well look, I’m here now. We could just start a bit early. M:

Yes, yes, we could, we could just start a bit…

Pause. No one moves. A:

Or I could give you a few minutes…?

M:

could you give us a few minutes?

A:

Yeah, sure, I’ll wait

M:

It’s just I’ve got this call, this quite important call at – what time is it now? A:

Quarter past.

M:

I’ve got this quite important call at quarter past

A:

I’ll just wait outside, it’s no problem.

82

M:

It’s so annoying, it’s the pointless stupidity of the whole thing I find A:

It’s fine

M:

(Pointing at G.) I hardly know him.

G:

I can check the diary if you like. I’m sure it was at –

M:

Well no one’s interested in that now are they!

A:

I’ll just wait outside.

M:

Thanks. Thank you. David’s out there.

Beat. A:

Oh, is he? Er, yeah, I’ll…I’ll talk to him them.

M:

Great, great, thank you so much and so sorry.

She goes, M showing her out. He stays by the door. A pause that goes on a little too long. G concerned. Can I get a drink of water? Beat. G fetches a drink of water from the table, brings it to M. M drinks the whole thing down and hands the glass back. I’m shaking. G:

It’ll be fine. 83

M:

I just panicked, there. Did you see? I just panicked. I’m old enough to be her father and I was just like a little boy again, pretending to be sick so he can get out of doing games, what’s the matter with me? G:

This is a difficult time.

M:

I’m sweating. Christ, I’m actually sweating.

You’re so reasonable. I always thought that was a weakness. G:

I…

I think you should sit down. (Pulling over a chair.) Here look… M sits. For a second G doesn’t know what to do. G:

Do you want some water?

M:

Yes please, thank you.

G fetches him another glass of water. M drinks it down in one. I shouldn’t drink too much or I’ll want to pee. I keep wanting to pee these days, I have a very small bladder, it’s like I can’t keep anything in, I go to the toilet five times a night. I went to the doctor because I thought it might be a prostate thing, but he wouldn’t give me a prostate exam, I mean at my age why can’t I have a

84

prostate exam? I mean what the fuck is so wrong with me having a prostate exam? Beat. Have you had a prostate exam? G:

Erm…

M:

This company’s been in my family for a hundred years. Two world wars, a Great Depression, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, and I’m going to be the one that loses it. G:

You’re not necessarily going to lose it.

M:

I love history, I wish I was a historian, my father was a bastard. It’s alright for you. You’re nice. You’re decent. You’ve put your life into you, into making you a decent and rounded human being and you have friends I’m sure, a wife maybe, or a partner if you’re gay and that’s fine, these days and everything, but the point is you’ve put your energies into you and I’ve put mine into this and she is going to take it away from me. David’s terrified. He thinks I’m going to throw him to the wolves, I’m not going to throw him to the wolves G:

You’re not that kind of person

85

M:

He should be terrified, I should throw him to the wolves, the expansion was his idea, he kept badgering me. Did you see her face when I mentioned his name? Like I’d said there was bucket of sick out there, she despises him, if I had any sense I’d throw him to the wolves, I’d tell her the expansion was his idea. But I won’t do that, I mean I’m not that sort of person. G:

Listen to me; nothing is decided yet, okay? This is just a meeting. We’re not in administration yet. You have to meet her, the bank want you to meet her, and maybe it’ll be great, there’s still a chance – M:

She’s going to kill me.

G:

She’s not going to kill you.

M:

She’s going to rip me to shreds.

G:

She’s not going to rip you to –

Suddenly M is crying. G is surprised, taken aback. Goes to say something. But what? He goes to get him some water, but realises that is sort of stupid. So he just stands there. Then he gives him a hug. M responds.

86

M:

Don’t let her kill me.

G:

I…won’t let her kill you. I promise.

M pulls himself away. Starts collecting himself. Suddenly they are both embarrassed, like being naked. Would you like some water? M:

Yes, yes, thank you, get me some water, please.

G does so. I’ll be peeing, though. So maybe not a good idea… But he drinks the water anyway. Beat. There are no trace of the tears now. Awkward. Suddenly M holds the glass out. Here. Take this. Automatically G does. Now let’s make sure everything is okay, is everything okay? G:

Yes I think so, I think –

M:

You think?

G:

Erm…yeah it’s all…

87

M:

The chairs, are these chairs…?

G:

The chairs are fine.

M:

Yes. But bring that one here please.

Beat. G does so. The place is a bit dreary, you should have got flowers. G:

Should I?

M:

Well yes, really. Too late now. Remember for next time. Show her in. G starts to go to the door. Sorry about saying I didn’t know you. G smiles, then opens the door. Goes out. A moment. M adopts a position. A strong one. G brings A in. M immediately goes to shake her hand. M:

I’m so sorry about all that…

A:

No, no, not at all

M:

I had a call and my PA’s sick, it all goes to hell when she’s sick A:

It’s fine

88

M:

She’s brilliant my PA but most of these others are not (Little laugh.) Pricks to be honest, little shit-arses. Not him, he’s good. And he’s not a PA, he’s just covering, so… A:

It really is very fine.

M:

Would you like a tea?

A:

No thank you.

M:

Or coffee or water?

A:

I’d just like to start, actually.

M:

Great. Let’s start.

Pause. Nothing happens. A:

So. We all know where we are. You borrowed 25 million for your expansion, the expansion hasn’t gone well – no fault of your own of course – but now, quite understandably, the bank is concerned. M:

Not understandably. We just need a few months

A:

Yes, but you don’t have a few months, you’ll be gone in a few – M:

We will if the bank fucks us, yes.

89

A:

They’re just worried, Martin. That’s all. I mean the expansion… M:

The expansion was David’s idea.

A:

It

doesn’t matter whose idea it was, it M:

No, but I’m just saying. It was his idea. The whole thing, the whole damn thing was his idea, he persuaded me to do it, he can be very persuasive. Do they want me to get rid of him? Because if they do, I am willing to discuss that. If that is a prerequisite, so I’ll get rid of him in a – A:

I’m not from the bank, I don’t know what the bank thinks about David, they probably don’t even know his name. Beat. Now this was before my time, but I am aware that eighteen months ago, the company I represent for made an offer for your company… M:

Fifty-six million, which I turned down.

A:

which you turned down, but that does show that we are committed to what you do. We think you’ve been doing great work: the brand is established, it’s a quality product, the food is excellent I enjoy it personally, and I

90

want you to know that now that I’ve been brought in, our commitment to and interest in your company is still there. M:

Which is why you’re here

A:

Which is why…

which is why I’m here, yes. And as you know the bank wants you to bring in someone else. M:

We don’t need anyone else, you should just know that. A:

Do you want me to go?

M:

No.

Beat. A:

To be more precise, they want you to bring us in. They’re very happy with that, for them that is a good solution for everyone. They know we’re committed. They know we have the financial backing. They know we can see through some of the things you’ve been reaching for and they know we can absorb some of the hits you’ve been taking, they are very happy with this. It really could be a very positive thing. M:

Really? Selling my business.

91

A:

Selling part of your business.

M:

That’s like saying selling part of your brain.

A:

Not really. It’s really not like that at all.

M:

Why did they loan us the money if they thought the expansion was a bad idea? A:

look I’m not from the bank, I can’t speak for –

M:

And fifty-six million was not enough, by the way, it was a low offer, everyone said it was a low offer. Beat. A:

What we are proposing is that we come in for forty-nine percent of your company M:

What? Forty-nine?

A:

leaving you with forty-three

M:

forty-nine, you want to take forty-nine percent?

A:

leaving you with forty-three percent and David with his eight percent so you and David together will own a combined M:

You’ll be the majority shareholder!

A:

fifty-one percent, no we’ll be the largest shareholder, there won’t be a majority shareholder which is the point:

92

together you and David will have the majority and look, we just need to satisfy our investors. We just need to be able to go in there and make them think that we will be the largest shareholder. M:

You will be the largest shareholder.

A:

Exactly.

I should say that the bank approves of this plan. They like it. Beat. M:

This is insane. How did we get here? How did this get here? (To G.) Do you know how this got here? G:

Well, the expansion –

M:

Oh fuck off!

Pause. He gets a drink of water. Drains it in one. I mean what if… (To G.) Sorry about that, that was wrong, I’m sorry, I… (To A.) What if you don’t agree to a decision I make? As chief exec? A:

We’ll have forty-nine percent. We’d a need a majority.

93

M:

So as long as I had David…?

A:

David has been with you for years, we all know where David’s loyalties lie M:

But in theory…?

A:

In theory, yes, but in reality. And anyway…

Beat. Something… M:

What? And anyway what?

A:

Well arguing this is a bit academic as you would no longer be chief exec. You’d be replaced. We have a man called Kronstad, he’s good. M is staring at her, almost like not understanding. Look, he’s a specialist, he’s turned around so many failing companies, I mean he comes in and he will – He can be a bit abrasive. He’s tough. But he will do what needs to be done. He is still staring at her. They want you replaced. We think it’s a good idea. You’ll chair the board, you and David will have a majority, I mean you’re this guy’s boss, technically you can fire him. Technically. He is still staring at her.

94

It’s a condition. We’re making it a condition of purchase. The bank want it too. Or you’ll go into administration. He is still staring at her. He turns to G. M:

What do you think of all this?

G:

Me?

M:

Yes, you. What do you think?

G:

I think… I’m not qualified to…

M:

Yes, but I’m asking you.

G:

Yeah, but I’m not qualified to –

M:

Yes, but I’m asking you.

G:

I

think you should say yes. M:

Do you?

G:

Yes.

M:

Why?

G:

Because…you have no choice.

He turns back to A.

95

M:

Okay. Yes, then.

Beat. A:

Good. Great. Well, that’s…great! You won’t regret this. M:

Won’t I?

She goes over and shakes his hand. He shakes. Then pours and drinks another glass of water. A:

So. Let’s talk about price.

M:

What? I thought there was a price.

A:

Really? What price?

M:

Fifty-s…

Fifty-six million. A:

What? No, that’s not the price.

M:

What? But isn’t that the sum…

A:

No, that’s not the sum.

M:

we’ve been talking about, it’s the sum we’ve been, the figure, we’ve A:

Historically, we’ve been talking about it historically.

96

M:

But that is the figure. I mean it’s out there, we can use that as a base figure because A:

We can’t do that.

M:

and if we factor in the expansion and pro rata

A:

We are not using that figure as a base, you owe the bank twenty-five million, fifty-six as a base figure is out of the question, if we use that as a base figure I will walk out of the fucking room. Even the concept of a base figure is out of the question, there is no base figure, that implies negotiation and we are not going to negotiate, we are going to offer you a figure and you are going to accept it because you have to. M:

Why are you doing that?

Why are you being like this, why is she being like this? Have I done something? What have I done, I haven’t done anything, I… G:

Martin? Are you okay?

M:

What…figure are we talking about?

A:

Twelve million.

M:

Did you just say twelve million?

A:

Yes.

97

M:

You are seriously offering me twelve million for my share of this company? A:

No. We are saying the company itself is worth twelve million. We are offering you forty-nine percent of that. We are offering you five point eight million. Pause. He can’t seem to speak. The bank approves, by the way. They think that’s fair. M:

So if I don’t…

A:

You’ll go into administration, yes.

Beat. He pours himself a glass of water. Lifts it to his lips. Does not drink. Puts it down again. M:

I feel like something’s being done to me. Do you know what I mean? Like something’s being done to me, something… I’m not a bad man, I mean I’m not a particularly good man, but I’m not a bad man, I mean I don’t see why… He turns to G. M:

Do you think I should say yes?

G:

Me?

M:

Yes.

98

G:

I’m not qualified to answer this at all.

M:

yes, but you said you’d help me.

G:

I know, but this is not what I meant.

M:

Please, tell me, I need

A:

Are you asking your PA?

M:

Yes, and he’s not a PA

A:

Look, I don’t think that is a very good –

M:

Shut up! You just shut up, you shut up, okay, you just…shut up! Sudden silence. They stare at him. I need to pee. A:

What?

M:

I need

I need to pee, I need to… A:

But we’re in the middle of a –

M:

I need to…yes I do, I need to pee.

Suddenly he leaves. They are both shocked. A:

Is…he okay? 99

G:

He’s fine. He just needs to…he’ll be back in a minute.

They wait. She sits. Would you like something, some water, or…? A:

No, thank you. I’m fine.

Pause. She thinks. Takes out her phone. Texts something. Places the phone on its edge on the table so she can see it. Smiles. This is all going quite well, actually. Beat. G:

Sorry?

A:

It’s all going quite well. This.

G:

I…don’t think we should –

A:

Do you have any hobbies?

G:

What? Erm…well, I like motorbikes, and…

A:

That’s great, what do you think he should do?

G:

Why are you asking that?

A:

Please.

100

Beat. G:

I think he shouldn’t sell. I think he should refinance and try and make it work. He just needs to get through these few months, if he can – A:

He can’t refinance.

G:

He could try.

A:

Won’t work. For two reasons. One; people know I am after the company and I have a certain reputation, it precedes me, and two; he’s weak. They’ll smell it on him. They’ll smell the weakness. G:

Look, don’t take this personally, but I don’t want to talk to you. Now, he’ll be back any minute and – A:

He won’t be back any minute.

I have stopped time. Pause. She smiles. G is confused. I texted David and told him to keep him there. For exactly six and a half minutes. (Indicates the phone.) We have five minutes and…twenty-eight seconds left. G:

Sorry, what is this, I don’t –

A:

Do you possess the power of prophesy?

101

G:

What the fuck does that mean?

A:

Can you see into the future?

G:

No, I can’t –

A:

I can. I can stop time and I can see into the future. I’m pretty amazing when you think about it. I can see that he is going to say yes. This new man, Kronstad, he’s a shark. He’ll do things that Martin’ll hate. He’ll close branches, he’ll cheapen the menus, he’ll get rid of staff who have been in the company for years, he’ll re-brand and re-boot, he will tear this place to shreds, just like he’s done before and just like he will be asked to do. Eventually Martin will have had enough, he’ll sack Kronstad, he’ll mount a coup. It will fail because the bank will be furious, they’ll withdraw their support, this business will go into administration where it will be valued at say four or five million, say five, let’s be generous. But it still means that I will buy the remaining forty-three percent for about two point one million. What with David’s eight percent at a couple of hundred thou, we will have bought the whole thing for about eight million. Give or take. A business that in better times will probably be worth about eighty million. Beat.

102

G:

That’s not seeing into the future.

David? What do you mean, David, you texted David, what do you – A:

It is all David’s fault, the expansion. Well done David. Good old David. Martin’s right; something is being done to him. He’s just too scared to really believe it, too weak to believe the unbelievable. G:

So David’s…?

The bank won’t let you do all that, what you said. Beat. She smiles. A:

Now I’m going to make this quite quick as I only have two minutes and twenty-three seconds left. Existence is not what you have up until this moment thought it is. It is not fair, it is not kind, it is not just – the majority of the universe is in fact so cold that it would freeze the water in your eyes in an instant. The rest; great big balls of fire surrounded by clumps of matter. Matter doesn’t care. Most of the world are ignorant of this, they believe in god, or daddy or Marx or the unseen hand of the market or honesty or goodness. They swim through life, eyes closed, taking it on the chin and getting fucked. He’s like that. You’re like that. But a tiny, tiny handful of us, a small fraction, let’s call us the resistance, let’s be romantic, a miniscule fraction

103

of the population know the real nature of life. And to those people is given the world. They are rich and powerful and have everything because they will do anything. The rest of the world will always be meat to them, cattle, animals to be herded and sometimes hunted. We are a secret society: we don’t have handshakes, we don’t have meetings, we don’t wear silly costumes on full moons but we exist and we know each other and when we see each other we smile and inside we say to each other ‘look at those idiots. Look at these food. Why are they so stupid? Why do they just not take what they want like we do?’ He is going to come back in here. And he’ll ask your opinion. Because he is so scared and weak, like a cow smelling the deaths of other cows at the slaughterhouse, he needs reassurance. And surprisingly he will do what you say. Say ‘yes, sell’ and you can join our society. You can be one of us. I will give you so much, so very, very much. You can see what this offer is, can’t you? I hope you can. What you need to do now is say ‘there, there, it’s all fine, nothing can harm you’ as you hold the bolt gun to his head and pull the trigger. Pause.

104

G:

I’m…not gonna do that.

A:

That’s a shame.

G:

I’m gonna tell him what you said.

A:

Okay then.

G:

Why did you tell me that, why did you take that risk?

A:

Just for the laugh.

G:

I’m gonna tell him what you said.

A:

You do what you have to. But remember, I stop time, I see into the future, I have super powers, I do so many incredible things and all of those things can be yours. And this opportunity will never cross your path, ever again. G:

You’re asking me to deliberately ruin… I’m not doing that. A:

Then I’ve misjudged you. Do what you think is best.

He’s coming back in…five…four…three…two…one… Now. Beat. Nothing happens. She smiles. Would’ve been great if he had, though, wouldn’t it? Beat.

105

Now. The door opens. M enters. Stares at them. M:

I shouldn’t’ve drank so much water. My bladder it’s… Pause. He looks very awkward. He goes to the table. Sits. They wait. I need a moment. To think. A:

Of course. Do you need to be alone?

M:

Just for a moment.

A:

Of course. Of course you do. I’ll step outside.

M:

Thank you.

A:

I can talk to David.

She goes. G follows. M:

Not you.

G stops. A looks at him, tries not to smile, then leaves. G goes back into the room. G:

Are you okay?

M:

I feel so alone, I feel…

Beat. 106

What should I do? Should I sell? – And in that moment Gorge understood everything. – In that moment Gorge understood his life. – Goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice – it was as if he had previously lived in two dimensions and now he was living in three, like he had just discovered colour, and Gorge’s world was suddenly screaming at him from that third dimension in the richest palette you could possibly imagine – Goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice – he saw the stupidity of the person he had been and the things he had believed. In that moment he understood absolutely something that was very simple and beautiful and elegant, and yet very, very true – Goodness or cowardice, goodness or cowardice – You see Gorge understood in that moment that those two things – Goodness or cowardice – Are in fact exactly the same thing. Beat.

107

– Gorge was remade in those few tiny eternal seconds. His rules were born, his mantra, his new way of life. His three golden rules. – One: whenever you want something – take it. – Two: all that is required to take everything you want is absolute will and an ability to lie to the depths of your heart. – Three: The effectiveness of a lie is compromised only by your attachment to the outcome of the lie. Therefore never think of the outcome, always assume discovery, embrace each second as if it were your last. Never, ever, ever regret. – Three simple rules – Three golden rules for life – And when Gorge looked at that old man he looked at him with fresh and energetic new eyes. – new and beautiful eyes. And he opened his mouth and he said G:

Yes. You must sell.

*** – Gorge Mastromas leapt into the second phase of his life with all the energy of a bullet tearing into the soft fleshy parts of a man’s guts.

108

– Without wanting to get too biblical it was as if he had been given the keys to the kingdom – three simple rules, three golden rules – Whenever you want something – take it. – All that is required to take everything you want is absolute will and an ability to lie to the depths of your heart. – The effectiveness of a lie is compromised only by your attachment to the outcome of the lie. Never think of the outcome, assume discovery, embrace each second as if it were your last. Never, ever, regret. – He was reinvigorated, reinvented, reshaped and reborn into the form that we would perhaps recognise today when we hear the name Gorge Mastromas – He became rich – powerful – Everything happened just as the lady had predicted. Within months Martin had done all she had said, walked into the trap and was out – by the time he paid tax and debts and this and that he was actually quite poor

109

– The lady took Gorge under her wing and it was indeed as she had said, it was as if he had entered into a kind of secret society – he advanced, always taking what he wanted, never putting store in truth, never fearing discovery or experiencing regret. Truth, as he understood it just simply ceased to exist, for what was truth but the shades of his earlier life clinging to a past that just didn’t, in real terms, exist? He rose in the company. – Then he was running the company – Then he was in the lady’s company, the parent company – Then he was running the lady’s company, the parent company while she did other things – and when she came back from those other things she found that he had taken over the company, the parent company, and she was out – Gorge kicked her aside with a ruthlessness that she would have admired had she not been so utterly, utterly devastated. Beat. – With his power Gorge acquired things – he expanded into different fields; he bought suppliers, contractors, took over rivals, and then

110

via their online presence he moved into marketing, digital media, media itself, PR, communications and communications providers; he soon owned a vast array of interconnecting companies, fingers in so many pies – He would buy a company and look people dead in the eye and say ‘you will not be fired’ – Then he would fire them – He would gain information and power by saying ‘if you tell me I will look after you’ – and he would look after you only so long as he needed you after which you were discarded like something picked from a nostril – He would say ‘if you are loyal to me I will be loyal to you’ yet his only understanding of loyalty was as a tool to be used when controlling another human being – For new Gorge had been saved from drowning, and his only loyalty now was to the thing that had saved him; to his three Golden Rules – And his loyalty to those was…absolute. Beat. – He was successful with women. Was it power? – That old cliché?

111

– Or his ability to lie, his ability to tell another human being exactly what they wanted to hear in order to get what he wanted from them – sex – information, love, adoration, worship – sex – he left a trail of broken hearts behind him – some of them quite badly broken actually – but what did he care? – People never suspected. – At first this surprised Gorge, but he soon came to the conclusion that in fact people actually wanted to be lied to – they would rather believe something nice than something terrible, even if that thing could not be remotely true. – He assumed discovery every time he lied, embraced the risk, for didn’t his last Golden Rule demand that he should do so? – But he was not discovered. He was never discovered.

112

– And so he lied and cheated and bribed and fucked his way through great bloody troughs of life to enormous wealth and power. – And then… he met someone. Beat. – Louisa had come to work for him in a company that he was at that time particularly interested in, for some reason that does not matter. – She came highly recommended, was smart, very driven – Gorge had liked her, wanted her instantly, he didn’t know why – it wasn’t her looks – although she was not un-pleasant to look at – it wasn’t her charm – although she was not without charm – it wasn’t raw sex, although she wasn’t someone you would not want to not necessarily have intercourse with – Gorge pursued Louisa, turned on the charm, but nothing worked.

113

– He could not get near to her – He lied to her, bought her flowers and tickets to dinners in far off places but nothing worked – she remained unmoved – she liked him, he could tell, but… – Nothing worked, – and Gorge wanted her more and more – and let us not put this down to being rebuffed, let us not dismiss this with the dreary notion of desiring that which you cannot have – Gorge had in fact fallen for Louisa. Big time. – Remember when we said that Tanya was the love of Gorge’s life? – You remember when we said that? – Well, that was not strictly true – That was a lie. It was Louisa. – And Gorge could not have her. Beat. – He decided the only thing to do was to give up, withdraw – treat her like a colleague and friend

114

– but Gorge did not experience the letting go he expected – If anything things became worse, his feelings intensified – until he experienced something that we might call despair – And it is fair to say that at that stage Gorge’s judgement became…clouded. A hotel room. Nice. in a suit, blood on his head, down his face. He is trying to not let it drip. Looks scared, nervous. A little fucked-up. GORGE

Suddenly there is a banging on the door. He freezes. Silence. He hardly breathes. LOUISA:

(Outside.) Are you in there?

He doesn’t move. Silence. Are you in there? Doesn’t move. Long pause. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yes.

(Outside.) Are you okay?

Beat. 115

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, fine.

Pause. You? LOUISA:

(Outside.) Are you gonna let me in?

Pause. He doesn’t move. GORGE MASTROMAS:

I’m, er…

I’m a bit busy right now. LOUISA:

(Outside.) Are you okay?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, I’m just a bit…

Are they still downstairs? LOUISA:

(Outside.) Of course they’re still downstairs.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Are they in a bad mood?

(Outside.) Of course they’re in a bad fucking

mood. Silence. He tries not to drip. Gorge! GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, hang, on, I’m…

116

Okay. Okay, right; I need you to go downstairs and find Marco, okay? Tell him to, to take them to Browns, buy them dinner, drinks, whatever they want. Ask for Leanne, tell him to put it on my account. Then you need to call Jan Steiger at Keatley’s and ask him how soon we can get an indemnity policy on all existing stock and real estate, all real estate, that’s very important, Louisa. Then, then, then get a quote and bring it back here to me, here. Okay? Pause. LOUISA:

(Outside.) No.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Louisa, I’m not –

(Outside.) Open this fucking door!

Beat. Another tack. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Look, I don’t know how they did things in your last company– She starts banging on the door, loud, insistent. For a second he doesn’t know what to do. Gives in. Alright! The banging stops. Alright, I’ll let you in. But when I do, just don’t…

117

Beat. Goes to the door. Deep breath. Opens it. She almost jumps when she sees him. LOUISA:

Jesus Christ!

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I

knocked my head. LOUISA:

What?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

On the…thing.

LOUISA:

Your head is bleeding, you’re bleeding from your head. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I do know that, Louisa

What thing?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

The thing in the, the bathroom

thing LOUISA:

You knocked your head?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, no, I banged it, or fell

LOUISA:

You’re bleeding loads, you’re really fucking bleeding loads. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Well, I knocked my head, I

slipped, I fell on the

118

Look, I was having a shower and LOUISA:

What?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

and I fell and there’s the thing that

comes out from the – LOUISA:

Why were you having a shower?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I wasn’t having it, I was preparing for it, the floor was wet, so I banged my head on the, on the, on the thing that comes out LOUISA:

Are you okay?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

on the sink, not the sink the thing next to the sink, the thing that has stuff on it that comes out LOUISA:

The shelf?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

No, it’s like this thing that comes out that they’ve built into the wall and it’s next to the sink and you put your stuff on it. LOUISA:

The shelf.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, the shelf it’s…yeah. I was preparing for a shower. Beat.

119

LOUISA:

We’re in the middle of a fucking presentation!

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I felt

dirty. A moment. Suddenly he winces with the pain. LOUISA:

(Coming into the room.) Jesus Christ…

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

You’re not fine! Sit down, is there first aid?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

No, I’m fine, I’m

I don’t think so, is there…?

Let me see it.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

in hotel rooms, do they…? such an idiot, it’s fine, honestly LOUISA:

It’s not fine, let me see

GORGE MASTROMAS:

just bleeding a lot because it’s a head wound. Head wounds always bleed a lot. LOUISA:

That’s shit.

She sits him down, looks at his wound. Oh god. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Is it bad?

120

LOUISA:

No.

You’re gonna have a bruise. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Let me get a

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Am I?

Am I gonna have a bruise?

towel, or

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Louisa, am I gonna have a –

But she is gone. A moment on his own. Glances to the phone. She returns holding a towel. LOUISA:

There’s no towels.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

You’re holding a towel.

LOUISA:

That’s a small towel and a face cloth. Where’s your big one? GORGE MASTROMAS:

I didn’t get a big one. I’ve just got

that. LOUISA:

But you’re in a suite.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I just got that.

LOUISA:

You haven’t got a big towel? Why? That doesn’t make any sense.

121

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I don’t know, I just got –

But she is gone again. Sound of water running. He closes his eyes. Does something with his mouth. Odd gesture. She returns and he opens his eyes. She goes straight to him and starts cleaning the blood away. LOUISA:

There’s a lot of blood.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

It’s heads, if you hit your head it

bleeds a lot. LOUISA:

(She cleans.) I can’t stand this. Blood, I can’t stand blood. I have a friend who’s a nurse and she’s always telling me about these people who come in and some of them have terrible things, like you couldn’t even imagine, like open wounds that you could put your whole hand inside. That’s what she says, septic and, I mean how can you put your whole hand inside a person, how does that even work. And people that do things to themselves, put things inside themselves and sometimes it’s not even sexual they’re just putting things inside themselves, for…what reason, I don’t know, I don’t know why people do the things they do, but people do do things. I couldn’t be a nurse. I hate sick people, they make me angry. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Thank you.

122

Louisa, thank you very much. LOUISA:

Is it hurting?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yes.

Hold this.

She gets him to hold the towel there. She cleans. Finishes. Goes to the phone. Dials reception, waits. Oh, hello, this is the Carlton suite, there’s been a slight accident and I need some bandages. No, no, everyone’s fine. What? No, nothing’s damaged, why would you ask that, what’s that got to – Look could you just bring us the fucking – Thank you, yes. Hangs up. Turns to him. A moment. So? What was that? GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

What?

Downstairs. 123

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

You went mad!

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Are they still there?

Yes, just about. They’re threatening to leave

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I didn’t go mad, Louisa, I wasn’t –

You were crazy, you were insane.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I don’t know what you mean, I –

Christ. What, they said that?

Of course they fucking said that, you insulted

them! Beat. He says nothing. I mean you were like, I’ve never seen something like that, you were just insulting, you were GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I wasn’t insulting, I didn’t –

You made a joke about the Chairman’s disabled

wife. GORGE MASTROMAS:

That

backfired

124

LOUISA:

Backfired? it was wrong, it was just wrong. Marco is down there now trying to keep them in the building, but they’re ready to go GORGE MASTROMAS:

Shit, shit, shit

LOUISA:

I mean are you mental? Is this a breakdown, honestly because if I know that, at least I can deal with that, at least I would know – GORGE MASTROMAS:

Don’t talk to me like this Louisa,

this is not – LOUISA:

I mean last week you fire Graham for no reason, you get rid of our best account exec for absolutely no – GORGE MASTROMAS:

Graham was a prick.

LOUISA:

Graham was great! Graham was brilliant, Graham was incredibly talented, we were lucky to have Graham GORGE MASTROMAS: GORGE

Graham was a sneak.

makes an involuntary movement with his jaw.

LOUISA:

What? what are you talking about, what does that even mean? GORGE MASTROMAS:

Alright, Louisa, don’t overstep the mark. I am your boss, you’ve been kind, okay and I thank you for that, but don’t –

125

LOUISA:

And what the fuck was it with you and that guy down there? Beat. He doesn’t answer. You just went for him. I mean what the fuck was that? does the mouth movement again. What were you doing, what was that about? GORGE

GORGE MASTROMAS:

No, I didn’t ‘go’ for him, I –

LOUISA:

I mean he’s just some bloke in the room, who is he? I’ve got no idea who he is, do you know who he is? GORGE MASTROMAS:

No, I don’t know–

LOUISA:

I mean he’s just some junior exec, just some man in the room and you start throwing this shit at him, questions, these questions, I didn’t know where to look. No one knew where to look. GORGE MASTROMAS:

He couldn’t answer.

LOUISA:

He doesn’t have to answer! We’re pitching to them! They ask questions, we answer, he wasn’t even saying anything, he’s there to take notes or something, you just went for him, it was vicious. Didn’t you feel the atmosphere change? He was dying in his seat, you were like a fucking hyena or something GORGE MASTROMAS:

hyena? what are you –

126

LOUISA:

I mean is this some sort of death-wish, are you trying to close this company down or are you just on self-destruct? GORGE MASTROMAS:

He had no answers!

LOUISA:

Your questions had no answers! ‘What’s your opinion of the market at the moment? Why’s that your opinion? Do you think you might have got that opinion from somewhere else, are you just saying that to impress the room? So you don’t think this room is worth impressing? Are you saying that to offend me, are you just saying words because they sound good, I mean do you even know what they mean, do you even think about them before they come out of your mouth?’ GORGE MASTROMAS:

That’s not what I said, you’re para,

that’s paraphrasing… LOUISA:

That’s exactly what you said! And then you start asking about the figures. He doesn’t know about the figures, no one knows about the figures, there are no figures yet so you get him to guess and then tear his guts out for daring to make suppositions. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

He was disgusting

What?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

with that beard of his, I mean who

did he think he was? He does the involuntary jaw movement again.

127

LOUISA:

Beard?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I mean who did he think, did you see him squirming? Squirming, like a disgusting, filthy, bearded little, he was… LOUISA:

What…?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I mean he was disgusting, are you standing up for a person like that? You? For him? He couldn’t answer a single question, not one single question, you think I’m going to do business with him? LOUISA:

Yes! because we go down if you don’t!

He does the mouth movement. What is that with your mouth? GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Nothing. Nothing, it’s a twitch

You don’t have a twitch.

Almost does the mouth movement again, but stops himself. Pause. He is about to say something. Doesn’t. She is about to say more. Doesn’t. Walks away a little. The mouth gesture comes anyway.

128

You do know that we’ve put over eighty million into this don’t you? I mean you are aware that we lose that if we don’t get them to sign today? Can we absorb that? It’s your company, you tell me. Okay, I’ll tell you – no, you can’t, we cannot just lose eighty million, we will fucking go down if we lose eighty fucking million. I mean why did you go down there yesterday and put a deposit on the new building if you were going to fuck this, I mean how much was that, like ten million, twelve million just…pissed away? He cannot answer. She tries to calm. I moved here, Gorge. I relocated. My mother, my mother is very ill, and she is a very, very difficult, but I got her into a new place, I found a place that she would fucking accept. Do you know what that’s like, it’s… I mean you took me on for this expansion, what do I do if you drive it into a wall? I mean what am I here for? GORGE MASTROMAS:

I…

I didn’t put a deposit on the new building… LOUISA:

Well. That’s something, I suppose.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

…I bought it. I bought it outright.

Beat. She stares at him. LOUISA:

You… Sorry? You…

How much…did you buy it for?

129

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Two hundred and forty-eight

million. She stares at him, not able to believe. Which I borrowed. Because we’re broke. Stares at him again. Pause. Suddenly he doubles up. LOUISA:

What are you doing?

Are you crying? Oh, shit, don’t do that, Gorge. Gorge? Pause. She waits. He starts to pull it together. She waits more, not knowing what else to do. He is in control again. GORGE MASTROMAS:

I don’t know what’s happening to

me. I’m not like this. I’m never like this. I’m destroying my own company. I’m never like this, I’m falling to pieces. I’m broken. I’m a broken person.

130

It’s you. Beat. I can’t stop thinking about you. I wake up at four in the morning and I can smell you, I can actually smell you when you’re not there and I’m devastated. When you walk into the room I feel scalded, like someone has just thrown boiling water all over my body, but when you’re not there it’s like I’ve had concrete poured into my chest. I can’t breathe. I can’t eat. I can’t shit properly. I keep vomiting, I vomit every day now, many times a day, I keep having to run out of the room and vomit. And I’m destroying everything around me. Like…I want to, or… Pause. LOUISA:

Oh.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yeah. Sorry.

No, no, that’s…

I thought all that was over?

131

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

No.

I thought those feelings, you said they were

gone, or GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I lied. They weren’t. Sorry.

Where’s those bandages?

But it is not really a question. Silence. Graham had a beard. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

So? Why are you saying that?

I don’t know.

Beat. Suddenly he gets up. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Right. Okay. That’s that.

Yeah, that’s erm…yeah, that’s that, I feel better now. LOUISA:

What?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, I feel…like, like I’ve got it

off my… Where is that guy, actually? LOUISA:

Are you okay?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Sorry, I think I’m just…a bit… Right, so what do we do now? 132

LOUISA:

What do you mean?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

What, downstairs?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yes.

Fix it?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Let’s…you know, let’s fix this.

Yes.

You’ve borrowed two hundred and forty-eight

million. GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah. That…that is a bit bad.

Okay, we’re just going to have to… Right, we’re here: I’ve done these things, we just have to try and sort this out. LOUISA:

How?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I don’t know, but…

I need to call Marco LOUISA:

Right

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I need a fucking bandage!

Shall I call them?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

No, no, he’ll be here, I just… 133

What shall I say happened? LOUISA:

Say…you hit your head.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

How?

Say…you slipped.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Right, I’ll say I slipped. Will they

believe that? She shrugs. They either do or they don’t, we’re here now, fuck them if they don’t. LOUISA:

Okay.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I’m gonna call Marco and –

No, you call Marco, I’ll clean up, I mean how long does it take to bring a fucking bandage, call down to Marco and tell him – GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Browns, go to Browns, ask for Leanne and –

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I know what to tell him.

I know what to tell him.

Then call Keatley’s okay?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Okay.

134

LOUISA:

Right.

Beat. He starts to go. Turns. GORGE MASTROMAS:

I’m sorry about this. And if I don’t get the chance to say this to you again, I – LOUISA:

Why won’t you get a chance to say it to me

again? GORGE MASTROMAS:

Doesn’t matter.

He goes into the bathroom. Pause. She goes to the phone, picks it up, dials. LOUISA:

Hi, it’s me.

Yeah, yeah, he’s fine, he’s just a bit… He’s knocked his head. I don’t know. I don’t know. Marco, I don’t fucking know, will you listen to me please, will you – Yes, some blood. Beat.

135

Alright, listen, take them to Browns, ask for Leanne, get them anything they want, we’ll be there in five…ten minutes. No, he’s much better now, he’ll apologise, it’ll be… She notices something on the wall. A mark. Dark. Head height. Yeah. Yeah. But she is no longer interested in the conversation. She reaches out absorbed. Yeah, well that is…not good, yes… She touches the mark. It is blood. What? Oh, no, no. I’ve, erm…got to go. She hangs up. The blood is sticky. She turns around. Thinks. Silence. re-enters. He has cleaned up, looks much better, although he still needs a bandage. Sees her. Smiles. Sort of. GORGE

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Thank you for this. For not judging me. I think I just needed to say it. I’ll be fine now, I can already feel it lifting, and, look I appreciate what an awkward position it is for you and I just want you to know, I’ve never done this before. I’m not some sort of, I understand boundaries is what I’m saying, I –

136

LOUISA:

There’s blood on the wall.

Beat. Gorge? There’s blood on the wall. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

It is. It’s blood.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

No, that’s not –

I don’t think –

Is this your blood?

Beat. Gorge? GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I leant there.

What, with your head?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Yeah, I leant in

despair, or, I suppose, or – LOUISA:

There’s a dent.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Is there?

Yes.

There’s a dent in the wall where the blood is.

137

GORGE MASTROMAS:

So?

Silence. LOUISA:

Did you bang your head here?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Did you?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

No, I told you, I –

No, I said I fell on the thing, I –

Did you bang your head here until you drew

blood? GORGE MASTROMAS:

No, that’s insane, that, why would

I– LOUISA:

Did you do this to yourself?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

What are you –

Suddenly she goes over to him. For a second it looks like she’d going to hit him but instead she goes to inspect his wound. He pulls away. Louisa don’t! But she is not gentle, grabs him to her. He submits. She walks away, suddenly very upset. He has no idea what to say. Then.

138

Look, I didn’t – LOUISA:

Where’s the towel?

Pause. Where’s the towel? GORGE MASTROMAS:

What towel?

LOUISA:

You know what towel, the big towel, where’s the big towel? GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

I didn’t get a big towel.

Where’s the big fucking towel, Gorge!

Beat. He says nothing. She looks around; the bedroom. Is it in there? GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

No.

So I can open the door.

He doesn’t answer. So I can open the door. GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Don’t open the door.

If it’s not in there, I can open the door.

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Louisa, don’t open the – 139

She opens the door. Sees what’s in there. Shocked. Goes in. GORGE sags, almost collapsing. She comes out with the towel. It has been cut in two, lengthways and tied into a noose. He goes to speak. But suddenly can’t. – Now the thing about Louisa – inside Louisa – the thing about Louisa was that inside she was a mess. A churning, complicated, damaged messed-up human being, desperately trying to escape certain patterns of intensely self-destructive behaviour – She was doing well – She was getting help – Psychiatric help, counselling, therapeutic help – She was successfully moving away from a kind of hateful, destructive narcissism that had characterised her early life – drugs, drink, self-harm, suicide attempts, relationships with individuals so clearly on the edge that to meet them was to be frightened of them. She had even done things and allowed things to be done to her that she was not proud of…

140

– And always it was relationships with Louisa, always relationships that dragged her into the pit of her own darkness – Why? Why this weakness brought about by an unhealthy need for emotional human contact? – well…abuse, actually – sexual abuse – quite bad, actually – quite disgusting, actually – If we told you the things her father had done to her… – If we told you the things her father had done to her… – for a period of years, actually. A number of years until a police operation had traced credit card numbers linked to a certain website and exposed this man for what he was and had cracked an ordinary middle-class family to pieces – there are still photos of her, out there. On the web. Aged nine, doing things… – Are you sick, yet? – Are you disgusted, yet?

141

– This was what she was moving away from – quite successfully, don’t you think? – Is this what the victims of abuse look like? surely not, surely not like this, surely they don’t look like this, like this? – Really? Tell me; what do they look like? – took years to get here, took a lot of help; an understanding support group, a decent and humane psychiatrist, a generous-hearted and sensitive counsellor. And with that help she had now identified two key areas around relationships that were danger zones for her – two key switches that when flicked would almost certainly render her powerless over her darker, needier self – the first was being shown a love so apparently profound that it was life threatening – A suicidal love. Not hard to see where it came from, is it? – I love you so much, my daughter, if you tell Mommy I’ll fucking kill myself – not hard to recognise the seed of this terrible trigger

142

– Daddy loves his little girl so much that if she continues to cry he will slit his own throat, right here, right now, I swear to god – Are you sick yet? – Are you disgusted yet? – And you wanna hear the bad part? – You wanna hear the really bad part? – Gorge knew. – Gorge. Knew. Everything. – That psychiatrist? That generous-hearted and sensitive counsellor? – But you can’t bribe a psychiatrist? You can’t bribe a counsellor? – You think that? You think you can’t find a way, you think you can’t say here’s 350,000, information please, you think that can’t be done? – You can do that. You can do that so easy. – Gorge knew everything – And Gorge was lying – None of this was real.

143

– Oh, he’d smashed his head, tied a noose, insulted investors and borrowed two hundred and forty-eight million – for Gorge knew that to lie you had to lie with everything – And Gorge, to give him his credit – and I’m not really sure we should – was deeply in ‘love’ with Louisa – Is that love? You call that love? – I don’t know, who knows, but he wanted her so bad and isn’t love possession or something, I don’t know, and hadn’t he dedicated his life to a creed? And wasn’t this his greatest test so far? – Gorge was flicking a switch and hoping – and let me tell you, on some level it was working. – Are you sick yet? – Are you disgusted yet? – But that’s not the worst part – oh no – That is not the worst part. – The worst part is yet to come.

144

Pause. Neither one of them moves. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. They don’t move. Knocks again. GORGE MASTROMAS:

I just

couldn’t… Knocks again. go on. Beat. Knocks again. HOTEL PORTER:

(Outside.) Hello?

GORGE MASTROMAS:

Without you.

Pause. Knocks again. HOTEL PORTER:

(Outside.) Hello?

Suddenly LOUISA goes to the door, opens it. GORGE turns away, doesn’t want an outsider to see his pain. Oh. I thought you weren’t in. LOUISA:

Yeah, sorry, we’re here.

HOTEL PORTER:

I was knocking

145

LOUISA:

Yeah, sorry, we’re here, we –

HOTEL PORTER:

Where’s the victim?

Beat. LOUISA:

What?

HOTEL PORTER:

I’m a trained first-aider.

LOUISA:

Oh, right. Yeah, he’s in…look, I’ll just take the bandages. HOTEL PORTER:

I’m a trained first-aider, I should have a

look. LOUISA:

It’s not that bad, it’s just a cut, he’s fine, he just

HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

he just banged himself on a, the shelf, the

HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

I should have a look, though.

it’s in the bathroom, next to the sink, and he –

HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

I should probably have a look.

I really should have a look.

Okay then, come in and have a fucking look.

She steps back. Beat. The HOTEL PORTER steps in. He has a beard.

146

turns, sees him. Is stung by the sight of him, like electricity. LOUISA notices. The HOTEL PORTER doesn’t. GORGE

HOTEL PORTER: GORGE

Oooh, nasty.

cannot look at him, but cannot look away.

Better take a look at that. GORGE MASTROMAS:

no, no, no, I can’t…

The HOTEL PORTER starts to come over. HOTEL PORTER:

Won’t take a minute

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I can’t, I can’t, don’t, please, I

can’t… HOTEL PORTER:

Might need stitches, that

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

no, no, no, no

Gorge?

GORGE MASTROMAS: HOTEL PORTER:

no, no, no, no, no, no

won’t take a minute, I’d better take a

look LOUISA:

Gorge he just wants to take a look. Gorge?

147

Her voice seems to have an effect on him. He masters himself, somewhat, though he is still in a state of high anxiety. He cannot look at the man’s face. HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

Gorge it’s fine

HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

I’m not going to hurt you, sir.

I’ll be very gentle

it’s fine

HOTEL PORTER:

I’m a trained first-aider.

GORGE MASTROMAS: HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA: GORGE

Just…don’t…touch me.

Alright, I won’t.

Gorge? You okay?

looks to her. Nods.

The HOTEL PORTER comes to him. The proximity shoots through GORGE, although he retains control of himself. The HOTEL PORTER leans slowly in. HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

Oh dear.

Is it okay?

HOTEL PORTER:

Oh dear, oh dear. Nasty knock. Could put a stitch in, even, but…

148

GORGE

is squirming, writhing. The HOTEL PORTER leans

in. But I think it’ll be fine if we just – He touches GORGE. GORGE MASTROMAS:

GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM

ME! He shoves the man away, instantly wiping his hands as though they were covered now in something disgusting. DON’T TOUCH ME, DON’T TOUCH ME, DON’T YOU FUCKING… HOTEL PORTER:

Jesus Christ!

GORGE MASTROMAS:

don’t you fucking touch me, with

your hands you HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

I was just trying to help!

Gorge!

GORGE MASTROMAS:

disgusting, dirty, filthy, bearded, you dirty filthy little creature HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

I was just trying to

You’d better go

149

GORGE MASTROMAS:

disgusting, filthy, dirty, you

disgusting HOTEL PORTER: LOUISA:

Why’s he saying that? I haven’t –

Please, go now…

GORGE MASTROMAS:

I will kill you…I will fucking kill you. Do you hear me, I will fucking kill you, I will cut you up I will cut you to pieces, I will LOUISA:

He’s not well, please

HOTEL PORTER:

He’s threatening, is he threatening…? You can’t speak to me like – LOUISA:

Just go!

The HOTEL PORTER leaves. She closes the door. is trying to master himself, but it is difficult. He is trembling, breathing hard, almost like he is having a fit, but isn’t. GORGE

She waits. He is actually regaining control. She waits. He is almost there. What was that? He looks up at her. He has control, though his breathing is still slightly juddery. He cannot hold her gaze.

150

Gorge? What was that? GORGE MASTROMAS:

I…

He can’t say. Sits. Does the mouth gesture. Silence. She looks at GORGE. Back at the door. LOUISA:

Gorge?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Can I ask you something?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

GORGE

Yes. Maybe.

Will you?

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yes.

And will you answer? Truthfully.

GORGE MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Yes.

Yes.

Did…did something happen to you…?

says nothing.

Did something happen to you when you were a child? He is no longer breathing hard. He looks at her.

151

– You want to know Louisa’s second trigger? – You want to know the second trigger that leads Louisa into the uncontrollable embrace of destructive relationships? – Empathy. – Empathy run riot. – Empathy with the victim. – Empathy with the downtrodden, the beaten, the mistreated, the… abused. – Are you sick yet? Pause. – That evening they stayed in and they talked, they talked so much. – Gorge found playing his new role surprisingly easy – for like all patients there was a part of Louisa that wanted to heal? – Gorge confessed, unburdened, wept – He was so good at this – He told her all about his childhood and everything he told her was made up, but what is the difference between made up and real?

152

– He was so good at this – destructive behaviour in his past that had been re-triggered by her rejection of him, do you see? – the gagging movement with his mouth, do you see? – men with beards, do you see? – Beards, why beards, did his father have a beard? No? – No, Gorge was much better than that; the beards, a repressed memory, pubic hair near his face. Or something – Do you see? – Are you sick yet? – Are you disgusted yet? – Gorge had committed himself to a life, to a creed, to a way, and when Gorge Mastromas committed himself he did it utterly. – Whenever you want something – take it. – All that is required to take everything you want is absolute will and an ability to lie to the depths of your heart. – The effectiveness of a lie is compromised only by attachment to the outcome of the lie. Never think of the outcome, assume discovery, embrace each

153

second as if it were your last. Never, ever, ever regret. – Are you sick yet? – Are you disgusted yet? – Are you sick and disgusted yet? *** – Gorge embraced his new past like it was real; he had to, for a lie must be embraced for it to work. He met Louisa’s friends, her mother, her stepdad – her psychiatrist, attended her support group: was this too much? – he made new friends of her friends – he embraced his new past and was admired for his courage – and his relationship with Louisa, though born in a lie was something he could not let go of, did not want to let go of, love, heat, sex, possession screaming though his body and mind and soul and not abating, no, no, no, no, no, not abating, no – They were married – Talked of children, talked of the future, as Gorge embraced that new past. And some might say he embraced it a little too hard…

154

– He wrote a book – A memoir – ‘No Daddy, please don’t’ – It was a bestseller. .

– There had been misery lit memoirs before, stories of childhood stolen, of horror and triumph over adversity, but this one…it was different – inspiring – Gorge was already known, a captain of industry, an entrepreneur, but coming forward now and writing of his past like this, so honestly, so frankly…this was different, it was as if this one memoir, had taken all of the best bits of the other memoirs and combined them into one perfect memoir – because that is actually what happened, god help us, if there is a god, I don’t know, why are we talking about god now? – it was as if the strength of this victim the terrible, unspeakable things he had suffered and the incredible things that he had subsequently gone on to do with his life was so profound that he had managed to discard the abuse from himself as if it had actually not happened

155

– because of course it had actually not happened, god forgive this, but what if there is no god, do you see what I mean? – Gorge went Global. International. – Talk shows, chat shows, reviews and adoration. And all the time he sits in this maelstrom of esteem knowing that one good push will bring the whole thing crashing down – if a maelstrom can be pushed – One good question, one good strong look, one good strong push. Beat. But the question never came. The push never came. – People wanted to believe. – And his wife… And his wife, Louisa… Here is the strange thing, the strange thing, the strange thing, here is, this is the strange thing. – Louisa felt bad. – All the time. – Didn’t know why: she just felt bad.

156

– I mean yes, what is this, is this because there is a person who survived and had survived so incredibly well and that person was next to her and somehow that threw some kind of shadow over her own survival? A person who had suffered ten times worse – (Gorge had piled it on) – and had achieved ten times more, a hundred times more – (look at who Gorge was) – maybe, yes, but maybe it was something else, but Louisa felt bad. – All the time. – Did Gorge notice? – No. Yes. Maybe. – in a maelstrom? Do you notice things in a maelstrom? – Do you notice someone diminishing beside you, do you notice them crumbling and ebbing away? – Don’t forget Gorge was still a man of business, successful, so busy, so influential, he mixed in circles, powerful, unsavoury sometimes – you think you don’t rub shoulders with bad people in circles like that

157

– criminals, maybe, you think you don’t make dubious decisions, investments, connections? – things become murky – Did politics beckon? – Yes, of course it did. But more than that; power. Real power beckoned, not politics, dirty politics, but real power, the power that politics serves, the power that none of you shits ever even comes near – Hey! Don’t insult them – Sorry – For Christ’s sake! – I’m sorry – and all the time Louisa diminishes. And all the time Gorge grows – I’m so sorry – marvelling at his creation, at his him, at how far this has gone – I’m so, so sorry about that – and perhaps beginning to marvel at how far it can go. – And actually Gorge perhaps begins to think that this is him.

158

– That he will actually get away with it – He does. He actually begins to think that he will never be discovered. – the idiot – the fucking idiot – for isn’t that breaking his third rule? Always assume discovery? – But he had indeed begun to think this. He had begun to think that the push would never come. Beat. – And then. On the 11th of September, 2013…the push came. MASTROMAS

is by a lake in the shadow of a hill.

Beautiful. He has a machine part with him, is filing it down, has brought it out to do by the lake. He wears old clothes, smokes. There is a half-eaten sandwich and a bottle of beer. He works away. enters. At first MASTROMAS does not see him. Then does. Stops. Puts out his cigarette. Beat. MASTROMAS wipes his hands on his clothes, then a cloth. Goes over to GEL. A moment. GEL

159

embraces him. GEL doesn’t know what to do. The embrace continues. GEL is frozen. MASTROMAS pulls back, breaking the hug, tears in his eyes. MASTROMAS

MASTROMAS: GEL:

It’s so good to see you

Is it?

MASTROMAS:

Yes! Of course it is.

GEL:

They sent me up here. I thought we’d talk in the house MASTROMAS:

I asked them to send you here, Christ, it is so, so good to… GEL:

I thought we’d talk in the house, Gorge, I –

MASTROMAS:

I asked them to send you here. This is my favourite place, I love this place, I wanted you to come here. I wanted to see you here. You look… I can’t believe this! I’m shaking. Look at me, I’m shaking GEL:

Yes.

MASTROMAS: GEL:

You look well.

You look different.

160

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Do I?

Yes. Completely different.

Beat. MASTROMAS: GEL:

I searched for you.

I changed my name.

MASTROMAS:

I know, I know, I couldn’t find you

GEL:

Well I changed my name, it was, I was in a period where I, some years ago now, many, many, I just needed a change, I changed everything. MASTROMAS: GEL:

(Correcting.) Gel, it’s a hard ‘G’

MASTROMAS: GEL:

‘Gel’? What sort of name is ‘Gel’?

Gel. What sort of name is Gel?

My name. It’s my name.

Beat. MASTROMAS:

Yes. Yes it is.

Do you want food or… GEL:

No

MASTROMAS:

drink, a beer or wine or –

161

GEL:

No, I don’t, I

I had, I had pro, I had a problem with drink. MASTROMAS: GEL:

Do you want food?

Is that a sandwich?

MASTROMAS:

Yes.

Beat. Yes, it’s turkey, it’s a turkey – GEL:

I could just have that.

Beat. MASTROMAS:

I can have them make you something, Gel. I can get them to – GEL:

I’ll just have that.

MASTROMAS:

That’s…mine, that’s my sandwich. I’ll have them make you GEL:

Can I have it?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

something, I can call down to the house

can I have that

MASTROMAS:

and have them, whatever you want, that’s half-eaten, let me call down and 162

GEL:

Can I have that please?

Beat. MASTROMAS smiles. Offers him the sandwich. GEL takes it. Starts to eat. Do they know you have a brother? Them, down there? MASTROMAS:

They work for me, Gel, what they know doesn’t matter. GEL:

Do people know?

MASTROMAS:

I don’t know what people know, can I call you Larne, Gel sounds so – GEL:

No, call me Gel, it’s my name, that’s my name

now. MASTROMAS:

Okay, okay. Gel it is.

Silence. I’ve missed you. GEL:

(Pointing at the machine part.) What’s that?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

It’s a er, con rod

What’s a con rod?

MASTROMAS:

it’s a con rod and piston, though really just the con rod, the piston is back at the house.

163

GEL

is staring.

It’s for a, erm, bike, a 1912 Excelsior, actually. GEL:

Is that what you do?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Yes, it’s a hobby.

It looks dirty, why don’t you get someone else to

do it? MASTROMAS:

Because it’s my hobby, Gel, I like working with my hands. Do you like bikes? GEL:

No. You do then?

MASTROMAS:

Yes. Yes I do.

Awkward pause. Yes, erm…this is quite rare less than two hundred made, only a handful left, and – GEL:

Is it valuable?

MASTROMAS:

Valuable, no, not, well yes, but that’s not what I’m… It’s valuable to me. I’ve been searching for this part for twelve years, actually, you see I found the bike in Rotterdam but many of the original parts had been replaced and slowly I’ve

164

been trying to replace the replacements with original parts. But I couldn’t find this, it eluded me, and then last year, I found it, in Arizona, it had been in a shed, would you believe, all this time. So I went there and I got it and I brought it back. It was in terrible shape, so I’ve been restoring it, it’s taken me eight months but it’s nearly ready, is this interesting to you? GEL:

What?

MASTROMAS:

What I’m saying, is it interesting to you? Me, who I am? GEL:

Am I interesting to you?

MASTROMAS:

Of course you are, you’re my brother, you’re my family, you’re my only family. I searched for you. I did, I searched everywhere GEL:

Why?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Why?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

I wanted you to be part of my success.

I wanted to share it.

Why?

MASTROMAS:

Because…

I don’t know, I don’t know why, Gel, I just –

165

GEL:

Is all this yours?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Yes.

The lake? The trees?

MASTROMAS:

Yes.

GEL:

The hillside, the bushes, the earth we’re standing on, the worms inside? MASTROMAS: GEL:

Yes, I suppose you could say that.

Nice. It’s nice.

Takes a bite of the sandwich. MASTROMAS:

Gel, you seem uncomfortable or at odds.

Tense. GEL:

I’m not tense.

MASTROMAS:

Is it me? This?

GEL:

You’re my brother. You’re my only brother. Why would you make me tense? I’ve been through some things. Some bad things, bad times, bad, bad times. MASTROMAS: GEL:

Tell me

No. I don’t think I will tell you.

MASTROMAS:

I’m your brother.

166

GEL:

Doesn’t matter

MASTROMAS:

Of course it does.

GEL:

Just two people, aren’t we. Only you’ve got everything including the worms. MASTROMAS: GEL:

Why don’t you stay here?

Here?

It’s beautiful MASTROMAS: GEL:

You have others?

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Yes, it’s beautiful, it’s a beautiful home

I…have others, yes

I haven’t got any

MASTROMAS:

That’s why you should stay here. Treat it

as your own. GEL:

You don’t even know me and you’re inviting me

in? MASTROMAS:

You’re my brother, I know you. Louisa’s coming up later from the city, we’ll have dinner, we’ll have food, out here by the lake and we’ll get to talk and you can stay as long as you like. GEL:

But you don’t even know me.

167

MASTROMAS:

Stop saying that, Gel, I do, I’ve searched

for you GEL:

You don’t. You don’t know me at all. But I know

you. I know you. Beat. I just have this way about me Gorge. When I do something it falls to pieces. I can’t make relationships work. I’ve had so many, I’m good at the first bit but then…my latest one was with a twenty-three year old, I’m forty-six so I’m exactly twice her age but she broke my heart. I couldn’t stop weeping, her father beat me up, her brother warned me off, they called the police, I have a restraining order. I’ve gone from job to job, I moved around a lot, I travelled. MASTROMAS:

I’ve always wanted to travel, I mean I do with work but I’ve never got the time to – GEL:

No, no, not like that, not like going to great places and seeing great things, just fleeing messes, knowing someone in Belfast or Flagstaff or Stuttgart and going there and ending up staying for a year or two years or five years or six months on the outskirts, the outskirts of these dull places. Here I am telling you about my life.

168

MASTROMAS:

That’s okay.

GEL:

I have a daughter. Sierra. I sent her a leather jacket for a birthday present last month and she sent it back to me cut to ribbons. MASTROMAS: GEL:

I’m sorry.

Do you have children?

MASTROMAS:

No.

No, not yet, I’d like to though, I would love to, I’m not sure if Louisa’s ready but there’s still time, I think. It does worry me a little though as I would love to – GEL:

I suppose what with your childhood and all.

Pause. I read your book. Your book about our father. MASTROMAS: GEL:

It’s about me Gel, not about him.

He’s in it though, isn’t he.

MASTROMAS:

Yes, he’s…in it, yes he –

GEL:

You wrote about him and the things he, what? did to you, the things he did to you?

169

MASTROMAS: GEL:

I did.

I’m in it.

MASTROMAS:

Yes.

GEL:

But not very much. I’m not in it very much, you said I was missing presumed dead. MASTROMAS:

Well at that time you were, but you’re not

now, so – GEL:

The implication was, I thought, that I too was a victim of our father. That I’d disappeared, perhaps dead now, because of…abuse, is it? MASTROMAS:

That…I did not imply.

GEL:

But I’m not. And just in case you were worried, he didn’t abuse me. He never abused me. MASTROMAS:

Okay. Okay, I know what this is about. You’re angry and you have every right. There are things in that book that you probably don’t recognise, things that happened to me, bad things, but because you didn’t see it, does not mean it did not happen. And I am sorry, I did not know you were alive, I have searched so hard and I have a record of that search, I can show you how much I wanted you to be in my life, but I thought I was alone. I thought I was alone, Gel and I wrote the book. And I do not think that I implied

170

anything that common sense and experience would not draw a person to conclude, so if I have – GEL:

You know what the worst part for me was that bit with the Turkish earthquake. Beautifully written. It was so detailed, you describe the wallpaper, I mean suddenly I’m back there, in our living room. Well done, that was, incredible. Do you remember that bit? MASTROMAS:

Of course I –

GEL:

And you’re crying, watching the footage of dead people being pulled out of the rubble and he comes home and asks why you’re crying and you say the dead people and he gets angry with you and tells you he’s going to give you something to cry about? MASTROMAS: GEL:

And then he takes you upstairs

MASTROMAS: GEL:

Gel, I remember, you don’t have to –

And then he does things to you

MASTROMAS: GEL:

It happened, Gel

And beats you

MASTROMAS: GEL:

I know this is hard to hear but –

You weren’t there.

For hours and hours and hours and –

171

MASTROMAS:

You weren’t there!

Long pause. MASTROMAS collects himself. GEL:

Neither were you.

He hands MASTROMAS a photo. MASTROMAS looks. MASTROMAS:

What’s this?

Can’t see in the light. What is this, what…? GEL:

We’re in Spain. You and me and Mum, you remember? Costa…something or other. You remember that cowboy, that cowboy in the arcade, you were obsessed with that cowboy, do you – MASTROMAS:

Why are you showing me this?

GEL:

Look, we’re standing under that stupid sculpture, remember? The arcade’s just behind that, just – MASTROMAS:

Yes, I remember, why are you showing

me this? GEL:

It was when the Turkish earthquake was.

Remember? Everyone was suddenly talking about it, down on the beach, remember? You weren’t at home. You were here. In this photograph.

172

You were in Spain with us. And Dad wasn’t there, he was working, it was just you me and Mum. Remember? Do you remember? Beat. MASTROMAS: GEL:

No. You’ve got this wrong.

I haven’t.

MASTROMAS:

You’ve remembered wrong. This is later,

we went later, GEL:

No, this is then.

MASTROMAS:

Gel, Memory is a funny…it’s a funny

thing and – GEL:

That’s not a sculpture. It’s a clock.

There’s a date on it. Some clock counting down to some event or other, they were going to build some stupid stadium or something. MASTROMAS

is looking at it.

MASTROMAS:

No, that’s not…

But it is. Pause. GEL:

Gorge?

173

MASTROMAS

looks at him. Beat.

MASTROMAS: GEL:

I made a mistake.

You lied.

MASTROMAS:

No. No, Gel, I made a mistake. Memory, it’s easy to do, one mistake – GEL:

I’ve got others. Other incidents, other inaccuracies. I mean actually thousands, I’ve got the whole book for that matter, the whole book is lies except for the colour of the wallpaper. But ones I can actually, physically prove? Fourteen. Fourteen lies that I can actually prove. Pause. GEL takes another bite of the sandwich. Chews. MASTROMAS walks away. Picks up his beer. Puts again. GEL swallows. MASTROMAS turns back.

it down

MASTROMAS:

What do you want? Do you want, is it money, do you want money? GEL:

Money?

MASTROMAS:

Is that what you’re here for, are you here

for money? Because you just had to ask, Gel, you just… You just had to ask. I’m a rich man, I have a lot, I’m not un-generous, you are my brother and I searched, I searched so hard for you, I wanted you to be part of, so if

174

you wanted money, Gel, if that’s what you wanted Gel, you didn’t need to sneak in here like – GEL:

No. I don’t want money. I don’t want your fucking money. Long pause. MASTROMAS is thinking. MASTROMAS:

You can have this place.

You like this place? The lake, the woods? The trees, servants, I mean forty acres, Gel, you want this place? You can have this place. GEL:

You’re offering me…this house?

MASTROMAS:

Yes. If you want it, do you want it?

I mean do you think people are going to believe you? You? Against me, do you? Do you know how powerful I am? Do you have any – Okay, yes, you’re my brother. You’re my brother and I love you, so I am offering you GEL:

You love me?

MASTROMAS:

this place, I am offering you this, yes, Gel, I love you, I love you and that is why I am saying here, this place, this whole…everything, the lake, the house, even the worms.

175

GEL:

You destroyed my childhood. You made it something dirty, you made my dad filthy, everyone thinks he’s filthy MASTROMAS:

He’s dead, Gel, he doesn’t care what people think of him. GEL:

I care!

What kind of person are you that you can say those things? What kind of person does that, what kind of person can make up those terrible, disgusting things about their own father? Don’t you think people are going to ask that? Don’t you think they’re going to be horrified, don’t you think people are going to say who is this disgusting man who can say those terrible lies about his own – Suddenly MASTROMAS storms over to GEL. flinches, steps back. MASTROMAS stops. Stands there staring at him, but only snatches his sandwich out of his hand. GEL

MASTROMAS:

You idiot, you moron, you stupid moron. You don’t know this world, are you telling me about this world, you don’t know it! I know it, I make it, Gel, I fucking make this world, people like me, we own it. You think people will listen to you, who will listen to you? A tramp, a reject, a man who flees catastrophe, who fucks twenty-three year olds and cries like a little baby when they go. A man who can’t handle his booze, who gets put into treatment centres, oh I know, Gel, Shady Pines, 176

was it? three times, a man with criminal convictions, a fraudster, a thief, a man so disgusting his own daughter rips apart his pathetic tokens of love rather than have them in her home for one second. No one will believe you. I will make sure no one believes you, you think I can’t do that? I can do that, I can do that as easy as shitting. Beat. GEL looks scared. For a moment MASTROMAS looks like he will go further. But instead he moves away. relaxes just a little. MASTROMAS takes a bite of his sandwich. Chews. Spits it out. GEL

Now I am making you an offer. I am making you a good offer, this land, this lake, this house, all you can see and I advise you to take it, because no one will believe you, Gel. No one will believe you. Takes another bite of the sandwich. Chews. This time he swallows. Drinks the beer. GEL

has not moved.

GEL:

MacArthur believes me.

MASTROMAS: GEL:

What?

MacArthur. MacArthur believes me.

MASTROMAS:

What? Who’s…who’s MacArthur, who is

–

177

GEL:

The journalist. He’s the journalist who found me. He told me all about you. He gave me your book to read. James MacArthur, he’s the one who found me and gave me your book to read. So much stuff he has. On you. All the lies you have told. Not just in the book but all throughout your life. He asked me for evidence. I’ve got evidence. I’ve got evidence and now I’m going to give it to him. Beat. MASTROMAS goes to take another bite of the sandwich. Can’t. Puts it down. MASTROMAS:

You’re lying.

But they both know he isn’t. MASTROMAS gets up. Doesn’t know what to do. Turns to the lake. GEL:

I want you to suffer. That’s what I want. I want you to pay for what you’ve done. Look at me; I’ve got nothing now, my life is over, you offer me things, what good is that to me? I’m already me, I’m not gonna be not me am I? I’m not going to start being someone else. The one thing I had was my past and you stole that. You stole it and broke it and perverted it. You destroyed Dad, you destroyed Mum, you destroyed me as a child, the only me that was ever worth anything. You’re disgusting. You’re evil.

178

I want you to pay, that’s what I want. MacArthur’s giving me money, not all this, but some. I’ll have some money. I’ll have some money and I’ll see you punished. Pause. MASTROMAS:

I’m glad this happened here. By this lake, I love this lake. There was a lake when we were kids, remember, the smell of the lake it’s… I’ve been expecting this for so long. I thought I’d feel relieved. But I don’t, I just feel… not ready, or… I’m just not ready, I don’t want it to… I’m not ready. Pause. Turns back. Sees GEL. Gel… Actually, can I call you Larne now? GEL:

No.

MASTROMAS:

Gel, then. Come with me. Please. Let’s go up the hillside to that copse up there. GEL:

Why?

MASTROMAS:

I want to show you what I’m offering you. I want you to see the land, the trees, the canopy, the land

179

as far as you can see, all this. I want you to see what I’m offering. I want you to consider. GEL:

I won’t say yes.

MASTROMAS:

I know. But I want to offer it to you.

Please. Beat. GEL is unsure. Then nods. MASTROMAS smiles. Thank you. Go on up ahead, I need to make a call. GEL

hesitates.

I’ll catch you up. I need to call my wife, tell her not to come here. I don’t think she should come here now, do you? Go on. I’ll catch you up. Beat. GEL goes. MASTROMAS

waits a little. Pulls out his phone. Dials.

Marco, it’s me. I need you to find a journalist. James MacArthur. No, me neither, but I need you to find him. Find out what paper he works for and buy it.

180

Yes, the paper, the whole paper. It doesn’t matter how much. Now. Yes. Yes. Whatever it takes. He hangs up. Looks around. Goes to the con-rod, picks it up. Hefts it, the weight of it in his hands. Looks off in the direction of GEL. Goes after him, carrying the con-rod with him. – and what is the feeling of loss, is it anything real? – as you wrap your brother’s body in heavy plastic sheeting – as you tie and tape it together – rocks inside – as you drop it into the deepest part of the lake – as you do these things with your own hands – what is the feeling of loss, does it hit you? – or does it only appear when you drop a piece of metal that you have searched for many years into the cold water, never to be seen again – And what effect does this have on you?

181

– Does it have an effect? – Does it? – Does it? – Does it? The house. MASTROMAS enters. is there, smoking. She is wearing her coat. Has a suitcase. MASTROMAS sees. Assesses. He was not expecting the suitcase. He understands what this means. But moves to get a drink. LOUISA

MASTROMAS:

I cut my hand.

She says nothing. I’ve cut my hand. I did it on a, with a, I had this con-rod and I was, I hit down with this… on a… Pause. This is new. The suitcase. Am I supposed to be, what? She doesn’t answer. What, then? No answer.

182

You’re not going. You’ve got nowhere to go, where have you got to go to? You’re not going, put the suitcase away, stop being… But she doesn’t move. I’ve had quite a day, Louisa, quite a hard day, I feel like my brain is… Pause. you know? So maybe you could put the case away and we can stop all…this. She doesn’t move. What? What, what is it, I can’t… I’m not… Is this serious? Is this serious then, is that what you’re saying? Fine. Absolutely fine with me, I’m going to have a drink, do you want one? She says nothing. Do you want a drink? Do you want a fucking – What you can’t speak, now? She says nothing. He fixes himself a drink. Sits.

183

Fine, leave me. You can’t…hurt me, Louisa, I can’t be hurt, I’m… I’m not built like that I’m…so what? Alright, look; don’t go. There, said it. Don’t go, please, don’t – No, fuck you, go. What do I need you for, what the fuck are you, just some little bitch who’s sucked one too many cocks, including her fucking father’s by the way. Get out. Beat. He is trying not to cry. Get out. Go on get… Get out! Get fuSuddenly tears come, tears he cannot control. She watches. He is suddenly angry with himself, hits his leg, hard. Jesus Christ, you fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Calms. Is a bit more together, though the tears are still there. Looks up at her. Tell me what to do. Tell me what to say, what to be, what you want me to be, I’ll be that, please, tell me what I’ve done, tell me, Louisa. Don’t leave me, I can’t, not without you, I can’t. Please.

184

He seems a mess again, but without the anger. She watches him. Puts out her cigarette. LOUISA:

If…

if I could believe that you knew whether or not you were lying now, if I could just for one second know whether even you believed this, if I could have that then that would be something. Beat. MASTROMAS:

Have you been unhappy?

Pause. LOUISA:

Sometimes you live with –

Beat. Sometimes you live with a darkness so profound that you absolutely cannot breathe, and yet you cover it up and pretend it’s not there, you make yourself believe that it’s not there, but it is. And if it’s there, then…well, it gets you. MASTROMAS:

Louisa, we can get you help. I mean better help than Dianna, I don’t think she’s very good, we don’t have to, you don’t have to be victim to this, you can –

185

LOUISA:

I’m not talking about that darkness.

I’m not talking about my childhood, that’s not the darkness. I’m talking about a worse darkness. I’m talking about the worst darkness in the world. I’m talking about you. You’re the darkness. Pause. He stands. Sits. Drinks. MASTROMAS:

Okay. And what is it I have done to

deserve – LOUISA:

I spoke to a man called MacArthur today.

Beat. He called me. We talked. I listened. Beat. MASTROMAS:

That man…

That man is, he is on some sort of, you cannot listen to that man, okay? Jesus Christ, I thought – No, no, listen, you cannot listen to that man, he is trying to do something terrible, don’t worry about MacArthur, I have dealt with MacArthur, I have, he will not be –

186

LOUISA:

What upset me, the only thing that upset me actually, about the whole thing was that I wasn’t shocked. I knew it all. Every single thing he said I already knew, like there was two of me, one sitting and listening and the other in the background just nodding and going ‘See? I told you’. I already knew, Gorge. I already know. Pause. MASTROMAS:

What are you going to do?

LOUISA:

I don’t know. But I’m going. And I feel quite positive now. MASTROMAS: LOUISA:

Louisa, please don’t, don’t –

Say one true thing.

Say one true thing now and I’ll try and listen to you. Pause. A long pause. He thinks. MASTROMAS:

One? One true thing?

Beat. Ask me how I hurt my hand. LOUISA:

How did you hurt your hand?

Beat. He opens his mouth to speak. Stops. Turns away.

187

MASTROMAS:

I hurt it on the con-rod of a 1912 Excelsior. I took it in my hand and I Long pause. Silence. I smashed it on a piece of wood in frustration at not being able to fix it. LOUISA:

Why does that matter?

MASTROMAS:

It doesn’t. Not at all. Nothing actually matters. That’s the point. Beat. You cannot hurt me. You cannot touch me. The things I have done. The things I am capable of. I have changed the inevitable, I have super powers, super abilities, I can stop time and I have the power of prophesy. You think you can do something to me, you can’t do something to me, I am beyond what you can – He turns back to her. But she is gone. He stares. At the space where she was as if trying to understand it. It is like she has been beamed up. He drinks. Stares. And a black hole opens up inside of him. It is huge. He is devastated, shattered – agony.

188

And the black hole never leaves him again, ever. *** PETE

enters the room. Twenties.

Stuff everywhere, a crazy person’s room. Some things a bit odd. He looks around. Waits. An old man enters. Dirty, unkempt except for brand-new trainers. He looks at PETE. Like he was an alien. Neither one speaks for some time. GORGE:

They tell me that you’re some kind of political activist. They tell me that we’re related. But to be honest I find this second fact hard to believe when I look at you, I see none of you in me. PETE

says nothing.

Are we related then? PETE:

You know we are. You made me do a DNA test.

Beat. GORGE: PETE:

And what is it you’re politically active about?

I’m sure you know.

GORGE:

People like me?

189

PETE:

The world’s changing.

GORGE: PETE:

Do you live like this? Like this?

GORGE: PETE:

Is it money you’re after?

you have so much and you live like this?

GORGE: PETE:

Fuck off.

I mean, I’d heard, but…

GORGE: PETE:

Oh, is it now? Is that what it’s doing?

It usually is money –

I’m not after your money.

GORGE:

You might be. You might be without knowing

it. PETE:

This isn’t really the way I imagined this, it’s a bit more… spiky. I thought we might be more friendly to each other, we are related. PETE

holds out his hand.

My name’s Pete. GORGE: PETE

So?

retracts the hand, unshaken.

190

They didn’t want me to see you, they said you might be dangerous, one of these dangerous types you have these days. They said you might want to do something to me, they seemed to think you are linked to violent groups, violent – struggle, is it? Are you violent? PETE:

No. Not really.

GORGE:

What are you, some kind of anarchist? Some kind of anarchist, socialist, Marxist, nationalist, fascist, what is it you have these days? PETE:

I’m probably not as political as you think. Although, you know. Maybe it’s not a bad time to change things. People can change things. GORGE: PETE:

Oh good. That is nice.

Why are you like this?

Beat. I read about you. All this: two hundred and eighty rooms, fifteen square kilometres of land and yet you live in this room and that one. It seemed…romantic. But when you see it, it’s actually just a bit… He has no words for it. I have a friend, Kai, he’s political, he’s very political. He said I should do something to you, he said I should seize the opportunity. He said I should…well, he said I should

191

kill you, actually. He was very keen on me killing you. He’s a bit nuts is Kai. Nice, but…nuts. Beat. He even made me a special shirt that could get past your men, it had a nylon wire running down the edge where the buttons are that you pull out. And you can take the plastic in the cuffs out and they roll round really tight to form handles and you can thread the wire through and it’s like a cheese cutter, a garrotte, I suppose, I mean he spent ages on it, I mean he is so… How does it feel to be that hated? No answer. Look, I just wanted to meet you and see if… I mean are you happy? GORGE: PETE:

Yes. Yes, I am actually.

GORGE: PETE:

Are you?

Give it time.

I would kill myself if I thought I’d become like

you. Beat. GORGE:

Your lawyer said you’d only agree to the DNA test if the nature of our relationship was not disclosed so

192

I have no idea who you are to me. Just that we share some blood. PETE:

I thought you might not see me if you knew.

GORGE:

Well, I’m seeing you now, so why don’t you just fucking tell me. PETE

says nothing.

What is it, distant cousin? Uncle’s brother’s nephew? Great, great grandfather’s brother’s sister’s boy? Do you think it will matter one tiny piece to me that somewhere along the line someone’s sperm managed to bust through the wall of an egg in some cunt’s cunt? PETE:

You’re not a family man, are you.

GORGE:

What was intriguing was that we couldn’t find the connection. My lawyers felt confident in signing your little agreement because we knew we could dig around, but I’ve had teams of people looking into all branches of my family: no gaps, no one missing so here we are sharing the same DNA with no explanation, so I fired them. PETE:

You fired them? Why would you do that?

GORGE:

Just tell me who you are!

PETE:

What do you do? I mean what do you do with yourself all day?

193

I read you fixed bikes. Do you still fix bikes? Long pause. GORGE:

Do you

like bikes? PETE:

(Shrugs.) No. Not really.

GORGE:

No. I don’t fix bikes anymore.

A long pause. So let me ask you, then: what do you do? What’s your thing, Pete, apart from the political activism that you may or may not be involved in, what’s your reason for getting up in the morning? Lad, like you, I hope you’re not doing nothing, are you doing nothing, Pete? PETE:

No, I’m, I’m doing something.

GORGE: PETE:

And what is it?

We’re…

I’m…starting something. GORGE: PETE

Really, what? What are you starting?

doesn’t answer.

194

What, you’re not gonna tell me? Don’t want to let me in, is it? No answer. Is it a business? Are you starting a business, Pete? No answer. A commune, then? No answer. A criminal fraternity, perhaps? A newspaper, a political journal? A political party? A terrorist cell, are you a terrorist Pete, you and Kai are you terrorists? An arts collective? Is it something in the arts, please tell me it’s not in the arts. No answer. Well, whatever it is it’s good you have something, really, it really is, it really, really is. Is it with Kai? No answer. But… Oh. Oh, it is. It is with Kai, isn’t it. Oh dear. Oh dear Pete, really? With Kai? Is that wise? I mean you’re friends, of course, you and Kai, decent, political, slightly murderous Kai and if you’re going to start something it is good to have someone and he is a friend but…

195

Is he holding you back? No answer. He is, isn’t he. He’s holding you back. I know he is, I can feel it, I can see it on you, I can smell it on you, Pete. He’s holding you back. Because he’s not as smart as you. He’s not, come on, you know that, you don’t have to say, but decent, political, slightly nuts Kai, he doesn’t have your intelligence, he doesn’t, I can see it, you’re smart, quick, clever and Kai, well, does he not say the right things? No answer. Does he embarrass you? Does he get things wrong, miss the point – does he rub people up the wrong way, Pete? No answer. He does. And in your heart, in your deep down, dark and secret heart you look at him and you say ‘I’ve got to get rid of Kai. I’ve got to cut him free. I don’t want to, but I have to hack away the dead wood, I have to slice the rotting flesh clear from the healthy tissue’ – and Kai is rotting flesh, we both know that, don’t we. So. Here’s the question – what’s stopping you, Pete? He’s going to drag you down, he’s going to destroy your big idea and you know it, so what is stopping you from hacking him away? Is it…goodness? Or is it cowardice?

196

Goodness or cowardice? Power is doing. And you’re going to fail. PETE

stares, trying not to show he is upset. Fails.

PETE:

Why don’t you fuck off?

GORGE

raises his hands in compliance.

Why don’t you just go and fuck yourself? GORGE:

Are you upset?

Are you upset, boy? I’m only saying this because I see something in you. So why don’t you just tell me who you are? Why don’t you just reveal our relationship to each other, it might be good for you, Pete. It might be so good for you. Pause. PETE stares at him. PETE:

Tell me why you live like this.

GORGE:

Because I want to and I can do anything I want.

PETE:

And what you want is this? Living in filth, away from people, no human contact? GORGE: PETE:

Yes, I like it.

Are you ashamed of something? 197

GORGE: PETE:

I’m ashamed of the human race.

Tell me, what do you do here?

GORGE:

Why?

PETE:

Because you have more than anyone I have ever met. And I want to understand if there is some small chance of that being remotely fair. GORGE:

Fair?

Did you say fair? Are you out of your fucking mind? Fair is fictitious. Fair is god, Allah, Scorpio with Leo rising, fair is elves and pixies, why are you talking about fair? You’re a grown lad, you can’t be this much of an idiot, are you this much of an idiot? Beat. I asked you a question! Are you this much of a fucking idiot, boy? He doesn’t answer. Why did I take myself away, you ask why did I take myself away, well let me describe something to you. You know when spring comes and you can see the blossoms and the air smells of those incredible smells after a long winter of winter smells that you had got so used to you didn’t even know they were there, and the moisture is different, the sky is different, the smell of the

198

light is different – every single thing feels as if it had been made for the first time? Do you recognise the things I’m talking about? Again, no answer. Well it’s all a fake. It’s all a trick, it’s not real, none of it. None of it’s new, none of it’s fresh, it’s been happening for hundreds of millions of years, year in, year out, and every year it pretends to be new, it fools all of us, even the fucking animals. There have been millions and millions and millions of springs, and not one of them meant a thing. And all of those things you believe in, the newness you are going to birth into this world, none of it is real. None of it matters. It has all happened again and again and again. You are not different. Pause. Now. I am going to write you a cheque for two hundred – no, three thousand right now if you tell me who you are. Not for Kai, not for you and Kai, but for you, just you, Pete. Three hundred thousand, right now. If you just…tell me who you are. PETE:

I don’t get why you are like this. Why be this?

GORGE:

Four hundred thousand.

Five hundred thousand.

199

No answer. Okay, good. 650,000, right here, right now. 650. A pause. PETE unbuttons his cuff. Pulls out a piece of plastic, rolls it tight, clicks it into place. It is now a handle. Does the same with the other cuff. Two handles. GORGE

watches with a mounting sense of horror.

teases a nylon wire from his shirt’s edge. He attaches these things to make a garrotte. PETE

He looks up at GORGE. Places the garrotte on a nearby table, ready. PETE:

You said something about a cheque?

stares at him, terrified. Beat. He gets out his chequebook, writes, hands shaking. Finishes. Looks up at PETE. Back at the book. Adds some zeros. Places it on the table. GORGE

PETE

goes over. Looks.

My, my, that is a lot of zeros. Looks at GORGE.

200

You have all this. I need you to tell me what you do with it. Pause. GORGE:

I…

nothing. I don’t do anything with it. Silence. PETE:

My mother was called Evelina Moritz.

Does that name mean anything to you? GORGE: PETE:

No.

Never heard that name?

GORGE:

No.

Beat. PETE:

She died last month. Pancreatic cancer, but she died so well. I mean she was… Long, long pause. incredible. She was incredible. But before she died she told me about you, her relationship to you. GORGE:

I… 201

I don’t… PETE:

She was your daughter.

Beat. GORGE:

I…I don’t have a…

PETE:

When you were younger, much younger, you got a girl pregnant, you were with someone else at the time, the girl knew you didn’t want it, knew you were scared, so she told you she’d miscarried. But she didn’t. She was my grandmother. Karen was her name, by the way. GORGE:

Karen?

Karen was… Long pause. Something in GORGE is cracking. I had a daughter? PETE:

My mother. She was my mother.

GORGE

is finding it hard to stay standing, but…

GORGE:

What was she like?

202

PETE:

Mum? She was great. She was so great.

Beat. GORGE cracks, something inside him devastated, but utterly silent. PETE watches. Waits. Do you want a hankie? GORGE

turns away. Pulls himself together. PETE waits.

GORGE: PETE:

You’re my grandson then?

Yes.

GORGE:

I…

I’m pleased to meet you. PETE: PETE

Yeah.

picks up the garrotte.

GORGE: PETE:

What are you going to do with that?

I don’t know yet. I really, really don’t know.

Pause. They stare at each other. GORGE:

I want to offer you something, Pete.

More than that, more than money. I want to offer you the world. You see…you see I am a member of a secret society. We don’t have handshakes or uniforms or clubhouses or 203

anything like that, but we see each other and we know each other and everything is ours. We own the world, everything… I’m offering you everything. You can do with it what you want, it will be yours, you can make the world how you want it; whatever you think is right. But you will have the power to do that, do you see? A silence. PETE:

Being here is…odd. It’s a strange experience for me. It’s definitely not what I expected. You’re not what I expected. I expected something to hate. You’re not that. And this, all this, I didn’t expect all this. Pause. PETE considers. This moment, this…choice – it hasn’t happened before. Never. So it could go either way… Long pause. What you’ve said is of no interest to me whatsoever. When I look at you I don’t see a monster. It’s much worse than that. I see a sacrifice. You’ve been sacrificed. Your entire life has been a sort of sacrifice to

204

something…stupid, wrong. And I know that inside you is a human being screaming, begging, wailing and wondering just how the fuck he ever let himself get trapped inside you. He hands the garrotte to GORGE. Mum was great. You would’ve loved Mum. There’s a whole world out there, Gorge. It’s not all just about you, you know. He starts to go. GORGE:

What about the cheque? Are you gonna take the

cheque? PETE

stops. Turns. Looks at the table. Comes back.

Looks at the cheque – all those zeros. Looks at GORGE. Then at everything else. PETE:

Nah, fuck it.

Turns, heads for the door. GORGE: PETE

Will you come back?

doesn’t stop…

PETE:

Yeah I might.

205

PETE

doesn’t even look back…

But then again, probably not. He goes. GORGE is left there, holding the garrotte. Alone. End.

206

OTHER DENNIS KELLY TITLES TAKING CARE OF BABY 9781840027785 DNA 9781840028409 OSAMA THE HERO 9781840025743 AFTER THE END 9781840025804 DEBRIS 9781840024333 ORPHANS 9781840029437 THE GODS WEEP 9781840029925 LOVE AND MONEY 9781840026955 207

FROM MORNING TO MIDNIGHT Georg Kaiser, A new version by Dennis Kelly 9781783190133 THE PRINCE OF HOMBURG Heinrich Von Kleist, A new version by Dennis Kelly 9781849430999 THE FOURTH GATE Péter Kárpáti, Translated by Dennis Kelly 9781840024685 ROSE BERND Gerhart Hauptmann, Translated by Dennis Kelly 9781840025514 KELLY: PLAYS ONE Debris, Osama the Hero, After The End, Love and Money 9781840028034 KELLY: PLAYS TWO

208

Our Teacher’s a Troll, Orphans, Taking Care of Baby, DNA, The Gods Weep 9781783190126

209

WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM Follow us on www.twitter.com/ @oberonbooks & www.facebook.com/oberonbook

210