Barker: Plays One: 1 (Oberon Modern Playwrights) by Howard Barker

Author:Howard Barker [Barker, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oberon Books
Published: 2012-05-02T19:30:00+00:00

SCENE THREE

A room in Vienna, shuttered. The bell ceases. Into the obscurity, STARHEMBERG walks slowly. He removes his clothing, item by item. He goes to a chair, and sits. KATRIN is discovered, already naked, in a chair distantly opposite his own. They gaze, unfalteringly.

KATRIN: I show myself to you. I show myself, and it is an act of love. Stay in your place!

STARHEMBERG: I was not moving. Only looking.

KATRIN: You were not moving, no...

(Pause.)

I am in such a torment it would be an act of pity to approach me, pure pity, but you will not, will you? I know because you are not kind, thank God, you spare us kindness, and your body is quite grey, it is so far from perfect, spare us perfection also! You are a beautiful man, so beautiful my breath is stiff as mud to breathe, don’t come near me.

STARHEMBERG: You shudder...

KATRIN: Yes, may I call you my love, whether or not you love me I must call you my love, DON’T GET UP!

STARHEMBERG: I shan’t get up...

KATRIN: I am in the most beautiful Hell. Praise me a little, mutter me a bit, describe, describe for Christ in Heaven’s sake, I could gnaw your knees to blood, and you mine, I know you could –

STARHEMBERG: Yes...

KATRIN: I would rather take one look from you than pulp a night in hopeless effort, there, I’m better now, much better...

(Pause.)

It’s odd, but though I have done all that suggested itself to me, I never looked at any man but you, I think. Looked, I mean. I never knew to look was love.

(Pause.)

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

(SUSANNAH enters, opening the shutters one by one.)

SUSANNAH: My priest is dead.

(Pause. Light floods in.)

With all Vienna watching.

(STARHEMBERG and KATRIN are still)

My priest is dead, and I am marrying a farmer.

(She freezes.)

NOT DIFFICULT IF YOU TRY.

(Pause, then STARHEMBERG rises, pulls a long coat over himself. A child’s cries distantly.)

STARHEMBERG: We are going to Wallachia.

SUSANNAH: Wallachia? Why?

STARHEMBERG: To inspect the forts.

SUSANNAH: What forts?

STARHEMBERG: Within whose compass New Europe is to breathe. Under whose benign regard the vines may ripen undisturbed, and marriages be blessed with endlessness...

(He leans his head on SUSANNAH’s shoulder.)

KATRIN: Yes! Show me the frontier! I will study the trajectory of shells, and arcs, dead grounds and fields of fire, I have Holbein, Durer, Montecucculi in my library! What don’t I know of wars!

(She pulls a gown over herself as a nurse enters holding CONCILIA, crying and swaddled. STARHEMBERG goes to the nurse and takes the child in his arms.)

STARHEMBERG: And Concilia! Concilia, obviously!

(He lifts her in the air. A fortress wall descends. The sound of knocking on a door.)

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