missed my playing / and Bible’s verse / a loving sigh escaped your lips / whereupon / with that inexorable frivolity we grew to dread / the Emperor declared / I see it now / I see his face / or if not his face / the mischievous illumination flickering over it / your nostalgia would be gratified / and instantly / oh / instantly I suspect / your blood ran cold to contemplate this disastrous slip /
SISI: (Anticipating the logic.) I’m visiting / Wardrobe /
WARDROBE: He had no intention / none whatsoever / of recalling us from this hideous place / it was Sisi who had to make the trip /
SISI: (A desperate affirmation.) VISITING / I SAID /
WARDROBE: (Cruelly.) And the duration of the visit / Sisi / what is it? /
(SISI regards WARDROBE fiercely. Then she falters. Her lip trembles. She looks at the floor.)
Sisi / oh / Sisi / if I’m spiteful it’s because you / oh /
(He waves a hand wildly.)
You are so / proud / and vain / and /
(He shakes his head.)
Whoever comes here is obliterated / Sisi / you should have wiped us from your memory / as a skivvy wipes stains from a café table with a stinking cloth /
(SISI shakes her head now. BIBLE climbs off the lap of the OLD WOMAN and goes to her, tentatively laying one hand on her, but unable to lift his eyes to her.)
BIBLE: (To WARDROBE.) You say stinking all the time now / have you noticed that? /
WARDROBE: Yes /
BIBLE: Stinking this / and stinking that /
WARDROBE: I do / I do describe most things as stinking /
BIBLE: There are other words / filthy / for example / you could say / a filthy cloth /
WARDROBE: (Resolutely.) No / the cloth stinks /
BIBLE: But the cloth is hypothetical /
WARDROBE: (Throbbing.) IT STINKS / IT STINKS /
BIBLE: (Equalling his rage.) A HYPOTHESIS CAN’T STINK / WARDROBE /
WARDROBE: (Relapsing.) DID YOU FRIG MY MOTHER? / DID YOU? / DID YOU? / DID YOU FRIG MY MOTHER? /
(SISI seems enchanted by WARDROBE’s swift decay. She claps her hands.)
SISI / WARDROBE: (In unison.) YOUR FINGERS SHONE / YOUR SHINING FINGERS /
(WARDROBE ceases, but SISI completes the article.)
SISI: HE SAYS YOU FRIGGED MY MOTHER /
(SISI collapses in a spontaneous and delighted laugh.)
He still / oh blessed / blessed / boy /
WARDROBE: I still /
SISI: You still /
WARDROBE: (Sharing her pleasure.) I do like still /
SISI: When everything stinks /
WARDROBE: Including you /
SISI: When all things stink / including me / how wonderful is still / still / still /
(The SOLDIER enters, discreetly.)
BIBLE: (Feeling his exclusion.) Finish the story / Sisi /
SOLDIER: The Captain says /
SISI: Does he? /
BIBLE: The story of the little hearts /
(WARDROBE fetches SISI’s bag, the sight of which fills BIBLE with despair.)
DON’T GO / SISI /
(SISI accepts her bag from WARDROBE. BIBLE transforms himself, adopting a tone of casual indifference.)
Thanks for the picture of your arse /
(Feigning indifference, BIBLE strolls over to the canvas bed and flings himself onto it. He smothers himself in his arms and wails.)
I’m dying / I’m dying of my love for you /
(SISI frowns, gazing at the wretched spectacle which is BIBLE.)
SOLDIER: The Captain says /
WARDROBE: Quite / and if she stays a minute longer /
SOLDIER: I’ll be thrashed /
WARDROBE: It’s true / he will be /
BIBLE: (Ranting now.) DYING / DYING /
(SISI gazes on WARDROBE, who smothering a rising dread, places his forehead to hers before propelling her with a mild shove towards the SOLDIER. SISI departs to the accompaniment of BIBLE’s ranting as he shreds the photographs in his fists. At last his rage subsides.)
THRASH: Men die for arse / for arse like that / they die /
WARDROBE: You should know /
THRASH: I do know / some died for mine / so I don’t disparage Mr Bible /
WARDROBE: (Going to the wrapped violin.) Me neither /
(Instantly he repudiates.)
I do / I do disparage it /
(He starts to tear off the wrapping.)
I disparage it / whilst simultaneously conceding the possibility of some greater design concealed in it / admitting therefore its status / if not as a paradox / as a conundrum / notwithstanding which /
(He flings the paper aside.)
I deplore the fact that arse has / does / and always will / humiliate intelligence / there is nothing in this case /
(He is briefly still.)
Possibly intelligence requires to be humiliated / it’s empty / on a regular basis / humiliated / ridiculed / even annihilated / the animal and the spiritual conducting a mutual discipline without which /
(He is silent. Then he lifts the case between extended fingers.)
Or if there is something inside it’s /
(He barely shakes it.)
It’s not a violin /
(BIBLE sits up.)
BIBLE: Don’t open it / Wardrobe /
(WARDROBE remains kneeling with the violin case held aloft.)
Don’t open it because /
(WARDROBE looks at BIBLE.)
Because
