MS. Pages: | 01r - 05r | 06r - 06r |


for
Reading University
with all good wishes
Samuel Beckett
London Jan. 1973
-
[0001] Stage in darkness but for
MOUTH, upstage audience right, about 8' above stage level, faintly lit from close up and below, rest of face in shadow. Invisible microphone.
[0002] AUDITOR, downstage audience left, tall standing figure, sex undeterminable, enveloped from head to foot in loose black djellaba, with hood, fully faintly lit, standing on invisible podium about 4' high, shown by attitude alone to be facing diagonally across stage intent on MOUTH, dead still throughout but for four brief movements where indicated. See Note 1.
[0003] As house lights down MOUTH's voice unintelligible behind curtain. House lights out. Voice continues unintelligible behind curtain 10 seconds. With rise of curtain ad-libbing from text as required leading when curtain fully up and attention sufficient into:
MOUTH: |
[0004] ...out...into this world...this world...tiny little thing...before its time...in a godfor-...what?...girl?...yes...tiny little girl...into this...out into this...before her time...godforsaken hole called...called..no matter...[0005]parents unknown...unheard of...he |


MOUTH: |
[0008] whether standing...or sitting...but the brain-what?..kneeling?...yes...whether standing |


MOUTH: |
[0015] moving...that she could feel...just the eyelids...presumably...on and off...shut out the light...reflex they call it...no feeling of any kind...but the lids...even best of times...who feels them?...opening...shutting...all that moisture...[0016]but the brain still...still sufficiently...oh very much so!...at this stage...in control...under control...to question even this...for on that April morning...so it reasoned...that [0016]April morning...she fixing with her eye...a distant bell...as she hastened towards it...fixing it with her eye...lest it elude her...had not all gone out...all that light...of itself...without any...any...on her part...so on...so on it reasoned...vain questionings...and all dead still...sweet silent as the grave...when suddenly...gradually...she realiz-...what?...the buzzing?...yes...all dead still but for the buzzing...[0016]so-called!...[0017]when suddenly she realized...words were-...what?... |


MOUTH: |
[0023] all that...steady stream...straining to hear...make something of it...and her own thoughts...make something of them...all-...what?...the buzzing?...yes...all the time the buzzing...so-called!...all that together...imagine!...whole body like gone...[0024]just the mouth...lips...cheeks...jaws...never still-...what?...tongue?...yes...lips...cheeks...jaws...tongue...never still a second...mouth on fire...stream of words[0024]....in her ear...practically in her ear...not catching the half...not the quarter..no idea...what she's saying...imagine!...no idea what she's saying!...and can't stop...no stopping it...she who but a moment before...but a moment!...could not make a sound...no sound of any kind...now can't stop...imagine!...can't stop the stream...[0025]and the whole brain begging...something begging in the brain...begging [0025]the mouth to stop...pause a moment...if only for a moment...and no response...as if it hadn't heard...or couldn't...couldn't pause a second...like maddened...all that together...straining to hear...piece it together...and the brain...raving away on its own...trying to make sense of it...or make it stop...[0026]or in the past...dragging up the past...flashes from all over...walks mostly...walking all her days[0026]...day after day...a few steps then stop...stare into space...then on...a few more...stop and stare again...so on...drifting around...day after day...or that time she cried...the one time she could remember...since she was a baby...must have cried as a baby...perhaps not...not essential to life |


MOUTH: |
[0028] and the beam...ferreting around...painless...so far...ha!...so far...[0029]then thinking...oh long after...sudden flash...perhaps something she had to...had to...tell...could that be it?...something she had to tell...tiny little thing...before its time...godforsaken hole[⁁]...no love...spared that...speechless all her days...practically speechless...how she survived!...that time in court...what had she to say for herself...guilty or not guilty...[0029]stand up woman...speak up woman...stood there staring into space...mouth half open as usual...waiting to be led away...glad of the hand on her arm...now this...something she had to tell...could that be it?...something that would tell...how it was...how she-...what?...had been?...yes...something that would tell how it had been...how she had lived...lived on and on...guilty or not...on and on...to be sixty...something [0029]she-...what?...seventy?...good God!...on and on to be seventy...something she didn't know herself...wouldn't know if she heard...then forgiven...God is love...tender mercies...new every morning...[0030]back in the field...April morning...face in the grass |
MS. Pages: | 01r - 05r | 06r - 06r |