No Exit and Three Other Plays (Vintage International) by Jean-Paul Sartre & Albert Camus

Author:Jean-Paul Sartre & Albert Camus [Sartre, Jean-Paul]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780679725169
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Same set. OLGA’S place, two years earlier. It is night. Through the back door, opening on the court, comes the hum of voices, now rising, now falling. Evidently several persons are engaged in heated discussion.

HUGO is typing. He seems much more youthful than in the previous scene, IVAN is pacing back and forth.

IVAN: Hey!

HUGO: What?

IVAN: Couldn’t you stop typing?

HUGO: Why?

IVAN: It gets on my nerves.

HUGO: You don’t seem the nervous type.

IVAN: I’m not! But right now it bothers me. Can’t you talk to me?

HUGO [eagerly]: I should like nothing better. What’s your name?

IVAN: In the underground I’m known as Ivan. What’s yours?

HUGO: Raskolnikov.

IVAN [laughing]: What a name!

HUGO: It’s my name in the party.

IVAN: Where’d you dig that up?

HUGO: It’s some guy in a novel.

IVAN: What does he do?

HUGO: He kills.

IVAN: Oh. And have you killed?

HUGO: No. [A pause.] Who sent you here?

IVAN: Louis.

HUGO: And what are you supposed to do?

IVAN: I’m supposed to wait here until ten o’clock.

HUGO: And then what?

[A gesture by IVAN indicating that HUGO is not to pursue this point.]

[Loud voices from the rear. Apparently there is some dispute.]

IVAN: What are the boys cooking up, back there?

[A gesture by HUGO, mimicking that of IVAN just before, indicating that IVAN is not to question him further.]

HUGO: You see. That’s what’s such a mess; conversation can’t go beyond a certain point. [A pause.]

IVAN: You been in the party long?

HUGO: Since 1942; that makes a year. I joined when the Regent declared war on the Soviet Union. How about you?

IVAN: I don’t remember any more. I sometimes think I’ve always been in the party. [A pause.] You put out the paper, don’t you?

HUGO: Myself and some others.

IVAN: I often get hold of it, but I seldom read it. It’s not your fault of course, but your news is always a week behind the BBC or the Soviet radio.

HUGO: Where do you expect us to get the news? We listen to the radio just like you.

IVAN: I’m not complaining. You do your job; no offense. [A pause.] What time is it?

HUGO: Five minutes to ten.

IVAN: Whew! [He yawns.]

HUGO: What’s wrong with you?

IVAN: Nothing.

HUGO: You’re not feeling well.

IVAN: Sure. It’s O.K.

HUGO: You’re so fidgety.

IVAN: It’s O.K., I tell you. I’m always like this just before.

HUGO: Before what?

IVAN: Never mind. [A pause.] When I’m on my bike I’ll feel better. [A pause.] I’m too easy-going. If I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t hurt a fly. [He yawns.]

[OLGA comes in through the front door. She sets a suitcase down by the door.]

OLGA [to IVAN]: There it is. Can you tie it on your baggage-carrier?

IVAN: Let’s have a look at it. Yes. Easily.

OLGA: It’s ten o’clock. You can beat it now. You’ve been posted on the gateway and the house?

IVAN: Yes.

OLGA: Then good luck.

IVAN: None of that stuff. [A pause.] Are you going to kiss me?

OLGA: Sure. [She kisses him on both cheeks.]

[IVAN picks up the suitcase and then, on the point of going out, turns round to face HUGO.]

IVAN [with comic emphasis]: Good-by, Raskolnikov. [He goes out.

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