Brecht Collected Plays: 6: Good Person of Szechwan; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; Mr Puntila and His Man Matti (World Classics) by Bertolt Brecht

Author:Bertolt Brecht [Brecht, Bertolt]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Dramas & Plays, Regional & Cultural, European, History & Criticism, Genres & Styles, Drama, Arts & Photography, Theater, Drama & Plays, Continental European, Criticism & Theory
Amazon: B00UTKIRBK
Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
Published: 2015-04-14T23:00:00+00:00

2

Eva

Entrance hall of the Kurgela manor house. Eva Puntila is waiting for her father and eating chocolates. Eino Silakka, the Attache, appears at the head of the stairs. He is very sleepy.

EVA: No wonder Mrs Klinckmann got fed up waiting.

THE ATTACHÉ: My aunt is never fed up for long. I have telephoned again for news of them. A car passed through Kirchendorf with two rowdy men in it.

EVA: That’ll be them. One good thing, I can always pick out my father anywhere. Whenever there’s been someone chasing a farmhand with a pitchfork or giving a cottager’s widow a Cadillac it’s got to be father.

THE ATTACHÉ: Enfin, he’s not at Puntila Hall. I just don’t like scandal. I may not have much head for figures or how many gallons of milk we export to Lithuania – I don’t drink the stuff myself – but I am exceedingly sensitive to any breath of scandal. When the First Secretary at the French embassy in London leant across the table after his eighth cognac and called the Duchess of Catrumple an old whore I instantly foresaw a scandal. And I was proved right. I think that’s them arriving now. I’m a little tired, dear. Would you excuse me if I went up to my room? Exit rapidly.

Great commotion. Enter Puntila, Judge and Matti.

PUNTILA: Here we are. But don’t you bother about us, no need to wake anyone, we’ll just have a quiet bottle together and go to bed. Happy?

EVA: We expected you three days ago.

PUNTILA: Got held up, but we’ve brought everything with us. Matti, unload the bag. I hope you kept it on your knee the whole time so nothing got broken, or we’ll thirst to death in this place. We knew you’d be waiting, so we didn’t dawdle.

THE JUDGE: May I offer my congratulations, Eva?

EVA: Daddy, it’s too bad of you. Here I am, been sitting around for a week now in a strange house with nothing but an old book and the Attache and his aunt, and I’m bored to tears.

PUNTILA: We didn’t dawdle. I kept pressing on, saying we mustn’t sit on our bottoms, the Attache and I still have one or two points to settle about the engagement, and I was glad you were with the Attache so you had company while we got held up. Look out for that suitcase, Matti, we don’t want accidents. With infinite care he helps Matti to set down the case.

THE JUDGE: I hope the way you grumble about being left alone with the Attache doesn’t mean you’ve been quarrelling with him.

EVA: Oh, I don’t know. He’s not the sort of person you can quarrel with.

THE JUDGE: Puntila, your daughter doesn’t strike me as being all that enthusiastic. Here she is, saying the Attache’s not a man you can quarrel with. I tried a divorce case once where the wife complained that her husband never belted her when she threw the lamp at him. She felt neglected.

PUNTILA: There we are. Another successful operation. Anything Puntila puts his hand to is a success.

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