Catastrophe Practice Read Online Free Page A

Maid goes to the table, left, on which there is drink and food. She picks up the table so that she seems to bar Judith’s way
.
    Judith stops. She turns and looks at the loggia. The Footman has gone to the other table, right, so that he seems to be barring Judith’s way from the other side
.
    Judith comes to the front of the stage and looks at the audience. She takes off the belt of her dress, provocatively
.
    The Footman and the Maid put down their tables. They watch
.
    Judith goes to the loggia and leans with her back against a pillar. She dangles the belt from her hand. The Footman goes and stands in front of her and holds out his hand
.
    The Maid goes to the centre of the stage quickly and squats down by the crack in the rocks and puts her fingers in. Then she looks at the audience. Then she straightens, picks up her table, and carries it out through the loggia, right. The Footman goes and picks up his table and follows her out
.
    The backdrop goes blank
.
    Judith is left with her belt hanging from her hand
.
    After a time Helena appears from behind the loggia. She is pushing a garden chair on wheels. She acts as if she does not see Judith. She wears sunbathing clothes and dark glasses. On the chair there is a basket. She comes to the centre of the stage and puts the chair down carefully over the crack in the rocks. Then s
he sits on the chair and puts her feet up.
    The backdrop changes to a bright gold
.
    Judith winds up her belt into her hand
.
    Helena takes from her basket a half-made tapestry, and needles and thread. She begins to stitch. After a time she puts her stitching down and gazes at the audience
.
    She enunciates carefully —
HELENA
— The same direction at both ends or in between —
    Then she goes back to her stitching
.
    There are three loud bangs from behind the backdrop. Helena takes no notice. After a time she looks up
.
    She enunciates carefully
—
    A fate. A weaver of tapestries.
    She closes her eyes
.
    After a time she sings, in a faded but passionate contralto, a few bars from the 1 st Norn’s song in Wagner’s
Götterdämmerung
(‘So gut und schlimm es geh’ —’)
.
    Judith puts her hands over her eyes. Then she looks at the audience and smiles. Then she goes out through the loggia
.
    Helena stops singing. She looks in the direction in which Judith has gone. Then she goes back to her stitching
.
    From now until the end of the act it is as if the actors are finding and coming to terms with a style — moving between acting a script and not acting, and acting not-acting — which they hope will be, and demonstrate, what they wish to convey
.
    After a time the swing sofa begins to rock and bounce
.
    Ariel’s head pops out through the curtains. He holds the curtains wrapped round his neck as if he were a clown
.
    Helena continues with her stitching
.
ARIEL
Ariel —
HELENA
No!
ARIEL
Yes.
HELENA
Oh you did frighten me — .
    She jumps, puts a hand to her heart, and acts as if she had been alarmed
.
    Ariel climbs out of the swing sofa. He arranges thecurtains carefully so that Jenny cannot be seen. He watches Helena. He murmurs as if quoting—
ARIEL
— Two arms, two legs —
    Helena murmurs —
HELENA
— And one in between.
    She is looking down at her finger as if she had pricked it with her needle
.
    Ariel waits. Then he seems to prompt her
—
ARIEL
— Yes, I’ve been at school —
HELENA
Oh, what school did you go to?
ARIEL
I don’t think it matters, do you, where you go to school?
    Helena goes back to her stitching
.
HELENA
You mean home environment’s more important?
    Ariel stares at her. Then he moves round the stage. He acts as if quoting
—
ARIEL
— Huts. Watchtowers —
HELENA
— Ladies and gentlemen on the grass —
    Ariel stands looking down at her
.
    Helena puts down her stitching. She closes her eyes. She acts as if she is having difficulty with her