KNOCK, KNOCK – WHO'S
THERE? POLICE!
[ “Pum Pum! Chi è? La Polizia!” ]
by Dario Fo and the
Theatre Collective
translated by Ed Emery
[Please note: This is a draft translation.
For reference only. Please do not copy or circulate.]
All rights reserved. This text shall not
by way of trade or otherwise be copied,
reproduced or recorded in a retrieval
system. Nor shall it be lent, resold, hire out or otherwise circulated without the owners' specific
written consent.
For
performance rights, please contact:
ed.emery [@] britishlibrary.net
Please
be aware that this translation can only be performed with explicit permission
in writing from the agency representing Dario Fo and Franca Rame, the
Danese-Tolnay agency in Rome.
Original text copyright © Dario Fo
Translation copyright © Ed Emery
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KNOCK, KNOCK – WHO'S THERE? POLICE!
[ “Pum
Pum! Chi è? La Polizia!” ]
by Dario Fo and the Theatre
Collective
translated by Ed Emery
STAGE
DIRECTIONS:
At
the start of the show the Actors are squatting at the back of the stage, behind
a very large desk. During the song they get up slowly and advance to the front
of the stage.
At
the front of the stage are two other trestle tables, and at their ends they
have small steps so that the Actors can walk up onto them.
On-stage
there are fax machines, telephones, typewriters.
Throughout
the show the scenic action consists of continuous comings and goings of Actors
who read dispatches out loud, moving as if in a ballet. The TOP OFFICIAL will
remain on-stage for the whole duration of the show.
Only
a few of the entrances will be marked in the text by way of indication.
SONG:
What
we are about to tell
Is
not a story of imagination.
What
we are about to tell
Certainly
is a true story.
In
the world there is only one law,
That
of violence.
Power
founds itself on violence.
It
has always been that way.
Those
who behave like sheep know that the wolf will eat them.
The
donkey that kicks out on its own will be put down.
But
if there are many of them kicking,
You'll
see all the scabs run away,
You'll
see all the scabs run away,
It
has always been that way.
What
we are about to tell
Is
not a story of imagination.
What
we are about to tell
Certainly
is a true story.
TOP
OFFICIAL: This here is the secret affairs office of the Ministry for Home
Affairs, the Viminale!
CHORUS:
Yes. We know, we see, we control everything and everyone, we control the police
too, and the magistrates. We have the whole world in our grip, the government,
the organs of every ministry, we control the Vatican, the Pope…
[They
exit]
TOP
OFFICIAL: And even God himself. And for anyone who didn't get it the first
time, this is the secret affairs office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the
Viminale.
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Dottore, if you'll allow me, here's the latest news…
Disturbing facts!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Let's hear!
FIRST
OFFICIAL Today, 12th of December, at 4.30 in the afternoon, in Piazza Fontana,
in Milan, in the Bank of Agriculture, while there was a crowd of people inside,
of people depositing money, most of them small savers, small farmers, women,
housewives, children… there was a tremendous explosion.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Sixteen dead.
TOP
OFFICIAL: [Entering] A hundred injured… Some in danger of their lives…
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Children too…
TOP
OFFICIAL: A slaughter! This is unheard of!!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: They think it may have been an explosion of underground boilers…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Has the Rescue Squad* arrived?
CHORUS:
[All the Men enter] Yes.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What do they say?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: They say it was a dynamite attack.
CHORUS:
A bomb!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: With highpower explosives!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Criminals!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Another bomb has been found… In another bank…
In Milan again…
FIRST
OFFICIAL The bomb was found intact in a back leather folder.
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: The technicians assure us that this is an important clue in finding
the criminals!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Who obviously are the same people who put the bomb in the first bank.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Very good. Give orders for the
intact bomb to be exploded immediately.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: But Dottore, it's an important piece of evidence.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Precisely… I mean, it's dangerous… It could explode at any minute…
FIRST
OFFICIAL The defuser is arriving…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Precisely, get on with it! Have it blown up!
CHORUS:
[They make as if to exit, and come back on-stage immediately] Done.
Carried out. Bomb blown up in a courtyard. Evidence disappeared. Stop, stop,
stop.*
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: A bomb has gone off in Rome too, in the Bank of Labour!
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Not much damage. Fragments of the bomb have
been found, as well as the burnt remains of a mock leather bag.
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: An identical bomb has exploded at the monument to the Unknown
Soldier.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: A lot of noise. Not much damage.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What do the people think?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: People are alarmed… Terrorised… Some of them think it must have
been done by criminals… By Leftwing organisations.
CHORUS:
Anarchists!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well thought! And what do the middle of the road* newspapers say?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Which tendency?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Middle of the road has only one tendency!*
CHORUS:
Correct!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: They are very upset! They say the criminals should be punished.
They want the death penalty to be brought back!
CHORUS:
Well said!
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: The Leftwing newspapers are describing it as a provocation.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Excellent! As long as they limit themselves to accusing us of
provocation, that's fine. And what are the unions doing?
FIRST
OFFICIAL They've signed. They've signed all the contracts.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Excellent! That's the real bomb! The working class disoriented,
bewildered, no longer knws where to put its head… The trade unions sign. Put
out a reward for 50 million!
CHORUS:
Fifty million.
TOP
OFFICIAL: As a reward for anyone who gets information.
CHORUS:
Even if its false and tendentious?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Especially if…! So as to identify the killers.
CHORUS:
[They telephone] Done! Published in all the newspapers.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Immediately find the guilty anarchists.
CHORUS:
Here they are: already found!
FIRST
OFFICIAL In Milan they're arresting them at this very minute. We already had
them ready!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well done…! Er, I mean… In what sense, ready?
FIRST
OFFICIAL In the sense that we wre already watching them, we had our eye on
them.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: We had planted a few informers in their group…
THIRD
OFFICIAL: Two, to be precise…
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: A policeman, and a fascist by name of Merlino.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Idiots, irresponsible, they're going to say that we were the ones who
actually organised the bombs… That we encouraged them to do the deed… Like with
the massacre in the Diana Cinema in 1922… Come on… immediately find the brains
behind the bombing… Find the MONSTER!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Only one?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well, the anarchists are few in number.
CHORUS:
Found.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: He's an ex-dancer.
TOP
OFFICIAL: An ex-dancer? It would have been better if you'd found an ex-butcher…
A rock-breaker. And is being a dancer his only job?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: No, he's also a lampshade maker… He threads coloured beads and sticks
together different coloured bits of glass to make Liberty lampshades.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Homosexual?
CHORUS:
No.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What a shame!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: He only goes with women. At any rate, L'Unità has already
stated that Valpreda, that's the monster's name, is a disconcerting* individual
with a mysterious and stormy past.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Very good.
CHORUS:
Well said, L'Unità.
TOP
OFFICIAL: We're not there yet… There's nothing murderous in this anarchist…
nothing perverted… nothing of the Monster… You are useless! Fancy finding me
such a wishy-washy character … What kind of interest could a male dancer
lampshade maker have in this crime? Why would he go chucking bombs?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Because he's seriously sick.
TOP
OFFICIAL: That's an interesting detail! Well done! What's his sickness?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Bürger's disease.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: Which results in a rather serious deformation* of the lower limbs.
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: In a while he won't be able to dance any longer.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Very good! A dancer hit by a tragedy, who knows that he won't be able
to dance any more… Very good… Amazing! That explains why he hates the society
of happy men and women who dance and sing. Is he tone deaf too?
CHORUS:
Yes.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Very tone deaf.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Good, a lame, tone deaf male dancer, hates singing society and puts bombs in banks near to La
Scala, the temple of Italian opera! Pass the word* to the newspapers…
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: The word? Really?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Just a figwhere do you come from?
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: Yes, yes, a news leak…
FIRST
OFFICIAL Delicate.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Reserved…
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: Yes, sir, general questor, I understand… An indicative leak… [He
exits]
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Here they are. The Corriere d'Informazione,
and also La Nazione and Il Resto del Carlino have published your
leak word for word. "A crippled male dancer hates society and carries out
a massacre: he's a monster!
CHORUS:
He's a monster!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Long live the press! Ah! What would we do without them!
They
all gather at the front of the stage. Enter a SINGER, who distributes newspapers as he sings.
SONG:
The
press serve so that
These
imbeciles believe everything that
Is
told to them
And
the police will say
This
person did such and such
And
here and there and there
If
we didn't have the press
These
coups would be impossible to carry out
Oh
yes!
And
then they speak badly of the press.
How
is public opinion created?
With
the press, television, we have astrength here.
Yes,
poor things, they didn't turn stupid by themselves,
They
turned stupid thanks
To
the services which are rendered to them
Every
day
Yes
– yes indeed
The
press is useful for that…
The
all exit slowly, except the TOP
OFFICIAL.
The
phone rings. The TOP OFFICIAL
answers it.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Yes, this is the office of… Oh it's you, minister…? Yes, it was me
who had the idea… Did you like it? No… Correct, you're right… Correct… But
certainly… The trouble is, I have employees, collaborators who… Certainly. [He
puts down the phone] Imbeciles! He has to be a monster, but not isolated…
THIRD
OFFICIAL: Two monsters??
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Three monsters?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] A family of monsters?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Don't go too far with your idiocy. The responsibility has to come out
of the subversive environment which pushed him. The propaganda of the Left…
especially the extra-parliamentary Left, who stir up class hatred, push workers
to go out on wildcat strikes… They're the ones who are responsible, the real
villains… Down with Parliament!
CHORUS:
[All on stage, apart from the three WOMEN OFFICIALS] A strong state! A
presidential republic! Viva De Gaulle!
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] There's another of them… Another monster. His
name's Pinelli!
FIRST
OFFICIAL We were keeping an eye on him too…
SECOND
OFFICIAL: A group in Milan.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Anarchist?
CHORUS:
Yes.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Is he a dancer too?
CHORUS:
No!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: A railway worker. Married with children.
TOP
OFFICIAL: We didn't need that! Too normal a job! For God's sake, what kind of subversive are you
finding me here? Does he have some kind of illness?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: No, he's only a shunter.*
TOP
OFFICIAL: Does he hate his job?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: No, he likes it.
TOP
OFFICIAL: He's sick… You see…? [He laughs] Does he have some torrid
relationship?
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: No.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Little vices?
CHORUS:
No.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What does the Corriere say about his past?
CHORUS:
Doesn't say.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Why doesn't it say?
FIRST
OFFICIAL It wasn't in time.*
CHORUS:
He flew out of the window.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who was it?
CHORUS:
SONG:
Nobdy
knows, nobody must know.
He
was arrested, and that has to be enough.
An
anarchist by name of Pinelli
Flew
out of the window.
Who
did it?
Nobody
knows, nobody must know.
Who
threw him out?
Nobody
knows, nobody must know.
He
was a red, and that must be enough.
TOP
OFFICIAL: [Singing]
Pinelli
found himself in the room
With
three policemen
Who
were all smoking.
Pinelli
the anarchist was smoking too.
They
opened the window to get a bit of
Air
into the room
And
Pinelli went over to the window
And
threw out his cigarette end and then
He
had second thoughts
My
goodness, such a long dog-end,
What
a shame to waste it,
And
then he came flying out…
[He
lifts a phone]
Hello…?
Ah, minister… Yes, he sang… Yes, I was singing… Well, that's how I get my
ideas, I sing, and ideas come to me… Did you hear that idea, that he threw
himself out because of the cigarette… Eh…? What…? It's too much…? But there
were so many of them… But it's still too much? Alright… alright… You tell me…
What…. Oh yes, of course… Certainly… I shall pass the word around… immediately…
[He puts down the phone and turns to the others] Send out the word to
all the newspapers, the radio, the television, that he threw himself out
because he felt he was trapped.
CHORUS:
Already done!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [She enters carrying a very small television] They're
saying it on television.
TOP
OFFICIAL: That's Guida. He's doing a press conference. There's Calabresi and
Allegra too… What a jolly bunch! What are they saying?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: They're saying what you said. Suicide out of desperation… He had been
identified as responsible for a number of bombs, on trains, on the trade fair*
and in a chicken coop.* He felt himself lost. "It's the end of
anarchy!" he shouted. And he threw himself out.
FIRST
OFFICIAL Guida says that the anarchist behaved coherently by committing
suicide… He says that he would have thrown himself out of the window too if he
had been in the anarchist's position.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What a shame, we shall never have that satisfaction, and not even the
hope. Guida will never find himself in the place of an anarchist, right from
the times when he used to run penitentiaries for Mussolini.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Doctor Guida had a tear of sympathy.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well done! Fine actor! If Agnelli sees it, he'll give him a pay-rise.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: Dottore, things are in a mess, public opinion is upset.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Pinelli was arrested illegally, no arrest warrant was issued
for him.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who cares about warrants?
THIRD
OFFICIAL: Sure, but without the support pf public opinion, how do we proceed?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who cares about public opinion?
FIRST
OFFICIAL But Pinelli had a cast-iron alibi. During the explosion of the bombs
he was in a bar on the canal.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Sink his canal, dismantle his alibi! [The FIRST and FOURTH
officials exit]
SECOND
OFFICIAL: The ambulance was called befor ethe anarchist flew out of the window.
TOP
OFFICIAL: So that's why it's called "prompt response"?* You don't get
mmore prompt than that! What are they complaining about?
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: Pinelli has a big bruise at the back of his neck, evidently due to
broken vertebrae. Which were not broken by the fall.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Oh yes…? It's a congenital condition… He was born with it broken…
Vanish that bruise…! Or rather, the proof that there was a bruise… I mean… In
short, the doctors are not to notice that the vertebrae were broken!
CHORUS:
Carried out! The doctors saw nothing, and there's ne mention of it in the
coroner's report [The THIRD and FOURTH OFFICIALS exit]
FIRST
OFFICIAL And there isn't even the indication regarding the mark of the
intravenous injection done in haste… very probably carried out in order to help
him recover from the blow.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well done… That group of doctors was so distracted.
CHORUS:
[They all enter] Long live distracted medicine!
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: More upsets.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Let's hear.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Some people are expressing doubt about the correctness, the
honesty of the judicial inquiries.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL:* They're saying that Valpreda was indicated too early as the
person responsible… almost before the explosion of the bombs, when they were
still talking about exploding boilers.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: A radio ham recorded a police communication, a few hours after
the explosion, which ordered all police cars to track down the taxi driver
Rolandi, an eye witness.
FIRST
OFFICIAL And the taxi driver Rolandi goes to give his witness statement, not
immediately, but only a few days afterwards… and not to the police, but to the
Carabinieri.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: While he is giving his witness statement, the colonel of the
Carabinieri who is in the cathedral for the funeral of the victims already
knows that a taxi driver has made a statement.
CHORUS:
[All on stage] He had visions!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Why not? Can't a Carabinieri colonel have visions? In a cathedral
it's completely normal.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: But he already knows what's written in the statement.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Arrest the ham radio operator for spying!
FIRST
OFFICIAL It's not a ham radio operator…
but the radio of the newspaper Il Giorno.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Arrest Il Giorno!
CHORUS:
We can't.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Arrest Bocca! I'm sure he was the ham radio operator! Damned red
dressed up as a moderate! [The phone rings. He answers. He listens, and
then:] Don't arrest Bocca!
FIRST
OFFICIAL The serious problem is that Rolandi, the taxi driver, confides in an
engineer, in his taxi, before he goes to make his statement. He says that he's
agitated… that he is not sure whether to testify or not.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: He says different things to what he told the police, or rather,
to the Carabinieri and the judge.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Arrest the engineer for false testimony to the deposition of a
witness. [The phone rings, as above] Or rather no, drop it… Show the
photograph of Valpreda to Rolandi, for the ID parade.
CHORUS:
Guida's already seeing to that.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Precisely: Guida is already showing it to him, and is saying to him:
"My dear Rolandi, here is Valpreda's photograph. This is the face of the
monster that you're going to have to identify. Tomorrow we shall show you six
people, of whom five will be policemen… You will recognise the policemen by the
fact that they are not in uniform… There is nothing that looks more like a
policeman than a policeman in civilian clothes. You will recognise them
immediately… Like dressing up a nun as a go-go dancer!
TOP
OFFICIAL: [He laughs] At one time I did see a nun dressed up as a
dancer, and she looked precisely like a policeman in civilian clothes… What
else does Guida say?
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: He says: "And now you can be sure that you've finished being a
taxi driver!"
TOP
OFFICIAL: Why? Does he already know that he's going to die? What a wizard, that
Guida… If Agnelli were to see him he'd give him a pay rise.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: No, he means that with the reward of 50 million that he'll be
getting, he'll be set up for life.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Never count your chickens before they're hatched, I mean, your
anarchist, before you've killed him…
CHORUS:
It's bad luck!
THIRD
OFFICIAL: Well, at least one of them we've already killed!
TOP
OFFICIAL: What d'you mean, "we've killed"? He killed himself. Or
rather, we were a factor in… no, I mean… We have…
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: The Milan judge to whom the Inquiry has been entrusted is a
stickler for detail… He wants to carry out inquiries among the Right too…
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: He says that in his opinion there are fascists among them.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Enough! Take him off the Inquiry!
??
Under what pretext?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Any pretext. Or rather, take the Inquiry down to Rome. That way it'll
be closer, and we can keep a better eye on it.
MISSING
SECOND
OFFICIAL: But at a second attempt, after having changed all the locks of the
aforementioned doors, the respective keys worked in the locks: all the doors
were opened!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well done! Hallelujah! What are they saying? What does public opinion
say?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering with the FIRST OFFICIAL] They're non-plussed.
Independent newspapers and television are putting out the line, and it's a
pleasure to hear. An extra-parliamentary Left newspaper, bastard reds, however,
is insintuating that this was a dirty manipulation. It is pointing out that the
contract for renting the two cellars which were found to be fitted out with
various weapons was set up four days after the death of Feltrinelli. And
therefore the keys were acquired before the place was rented.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well, what's strange about that? It's perfectly normal. You always do
it that way. First you buy the keys, and then you find a cellar with locks that
fit the keys! It's the rule! And then they're going to have to lay off, all
these people from the groups and groupuscules, making trouble… They drive me
crazy. I hate them! I hate them!
FIRST
OFFICIAL Oh, just ignore them, Dottore… Anyway, nobody believes them, they're
isolated, who listens to them?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Isolated be damned! They're beginning to move, and they're getting
themselves arrested so that public opinion knows, and then the trials become
trials of us, and then there's the workers, who are also moving a lot, and these
vanguards which move the working class, and then the working class moves… I
warn you that if it moves…. [He mimes an explosion] And meantime they've
started putting some of those trouble-making journalists there too!! [The
phone rings. He answers it. Enter the SIXTH OFFICIAL] Hello, yes? Oh
minister… I forgot… Yes, I do rememberwhat month we're in, yes, in May… What do
you mean, what month is May? ….It's the month of flowers, the month of the
Madonna, the so-called Marian month… Oh of cours, you're right! I forgot to
send you greetings, Minister! [To the bystanders] A bunch of flowers,
quickly, to the Ministe, every day!
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: Every day?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Yes, for a whole month, this is the Marian name month [Into the
phone] Ah, no? You don't want greetings? Yes, of course, there are
elections in three days. Ah yes, you're right, the usual pre-election police
operation, in big style, certainly. I'll order it immediately. Tell me, tell
me, I'll take notes. Forty thousand arrests, yes, in all streets, ten thousand
searches, eighteen thousand arrest warrants, sixteen thousand arrests, two
thousand fogli di via… Suspicious materials found… contraband, drugs, stolen
goods, arrests of prostitutes and homosexuals. Operation Order and Public Health… Morality… Maximum publicity.
Certainly, that way the average citizen will feel himself to be in a secure
state. It will be done, Minister, and many happy returns of the month! [He
puts down the phone] Off you go, get moving… Round-up operation… fill the
prisons… tomorrow we shall have several thousand flea-bitten proletarians the
fewer, out of harm's way, and they won't be able to vote! [The phone rings
and he answers]
Yes,
yes, tell me… At the public meeting of Almirante, Birindelli, and the rest? A
thousand police? Certainly, I'll send them straight away! Should we make it two
thousand? Yes, and five hundred carabinieri too. Yes, special forces, with
rubber bullets at man-height, pistols at child height, straight away, I'll send
them straight away… Should I put them on account, or will you be paying? Yes, I
mean… Nothing, nothing… I was just saying for the sake of saying. It will be
done!
FIRST
OFFICIAL [The FIRST OFFICIAL and the TWO WOMEN OFFICIALS enter]
Worrying news, Dottore. In many meetings being held by the fascists, the young
people from the groups that were disturbing the meeting itself wre attacked by
the police, and defended by the citizens. Women and old people too started
throwing stones at the police. All hell broke out in Alessandria. And the same
in Siena.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What is the man in the street saying? What's he doing?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: He's throwing stones too. [She exits]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Give him a rubber bullet in the mouth! What are the parties of the
parliamentary Left saying?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] They are calling for calm. They say don't accept
the provocations, isolate the fascists.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: What does that mean, "isolate the fascists"?
TOP
OFFICIAL: It means ignore them. As if they didn't exist. That way, the fascists
will hold their meetings, undisturbed, they'll find political space, supported
by the small and medium bourgeoisie, supported by the army, by the police,
benevolence and understanding on the part of the magistracy, they'll […] and
burn red party headquarters, they'll stab workers and students, they'll walk
all over people, still protected by the immunity, and even the affection, of
the Vatican, which sends them little images with saints wrapped up in the
tri-colour.
CHORUS:
[They sing] Gloria! Gloria!
TOP
OFFICIAL: What are the independent journalists saying?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Some are in a very good mood. Others are
grunting and grumbling under their breath, talking about the anti-fascism of
the Risorgimento.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What does that mean…? How can anti-fascism be of the Risorgimento…?
Ah, through La Malfa… And what are the newspapers of the Parliamentary Left
saying? What is L'Unitá saying?
FIRST
OFFICIAL It is announcing petitions, appeals,* and is singing very sweet
lullabies.
CHORUS:
[They sing]
Sleep,
sleep, and I will sing to you
Don't
worry, the wind is not howling,
The
red flag has been put in a convent*
Broken
shoes are no use now.
Broken
shoes, throw them in the toilet.
Buy
another pair at the Standa* coop.
Broken
shoes aren't used now.
Broken
shoes, throw them in the toilet.
Buy
another pair at the Standa coop.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: Wow, wow, wow!
FIRST
OFFICIAL What's all that "Wow, wow" abou? [The FIRST OFFICIAL
exits]
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: The ultra-democratic judge of Milan, D'Espinoza, has given the OK for
two penal proceedings against Calabresi, for the death of Pinelli.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Oh bother, oh bother… And how did Calabresi take it?
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Badly. He went bonkers. He said that the Viminale
have dropped him… that it's clear now that the state wants to use him as a
scapegoat… He says that he can't take it any longer… that he's going to resign…
and that he'll back the Judge Viola for his comic entries* which don't suit him
any more.* He said that he doesn't want trials to block him,a nd that it* [The
FIRST AND SECOND OFFICIALS exit]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Give him a special post…
FIRST
OFFICIAL No, no, nothing to be done… We've given him the most special post
there is… the inquiry into the "Red Brigades"… He says that it's all
a set-up, that it's all obvious now, a frame-up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: [The SIXTH and FIFTH officials enter] Ah, if Machiavelli's
rules for good government could only be applied…
SIXTH,
THIRD AND FOURTH OFFICIALS: Why, what rules are those?
TOP
OFFICIAL: You ignorant people! Machiavelli, in his "Prince": "If
one of your men at arms* has offended* the people too far, with his extortions
and misdeeds, even though it may be in your favour of your power and
government, he who has committed them, should not have any second thought. You
should have that man-at-arms killed by the men-at-arms themselves…
Immediately…* Because once your faithful servant has given death, the people
will feel themselves happy… But be mos
careful that you must immediately let it be known to the people that it was
people from the people who killed him out of revenge… The people will feel
themselves to have been repaid. Some will weep…. big tears… and you cry along
with them, and it hurts you, and you make big monuments and orations for that
servant of yours… on his tomb. Because there is no better cover of all deaths
that you have caused among the people than putting as a cover over those graves
one of your own men-at-arms killed by your very own men-at-arms. In eternam,
amen!
CHORUS:
[Singing] Gloria!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] This is madness! Listen to this, Dottore.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Let's hear.
SO
Near Trento, on the road coming from the Austrian border, a finance guard
stopped a lorry driven by a certain Biondaro, a
known local fascist. When the lorry was inspected it was found to be
absolutely packed full of weapons… TNT, rifles, submachine guns, etc… All
contraband material from neighbouring Austria. Biondaro smiled happily at the
finance guard, and declared that he was carrying out arms smuggling for the
Carabinieri…
FIRST
OFFICIAL What a son of a whore!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Then he gave the phone number of the colonel of the local provincial
carabinieri… When the Colonel was phoned, he said that, yes, those weapons had
been commissioned by the Carabinieri…
FIRST
OFFICIAL Imbecile! I'll have him stripped of his rank, down to a private I'll
take him! [He goes to phone]
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Biondaro was immediately released…
FIRST
OFFICIAL Oh my goodness, what idiots!
TOP
OFFICIAL: But why are you complaining, don't telephone anyone… [The FIRST
OFFICIAL puts down the phone] What were they supposed to do… Is it or is it
not true that these fascists are working for us…? How many of them are there…?
Dozens, hundreds, eh? And what would you want to do, drop them? Let them be
sent to prison? And afterwards how would we manage to find others ready to
collaborate with us…? Do you want them all to run off? We've already made right
fools of ourselves with Merlino, that noted local Roman fascist, whom we
caught, banged him inside for three years, to play the game of "opposing
extremisms": "We put Valpreda inside, and to demonstrate that the
opposing extremisms are the same thing, we'll put that one inside too…",
threey years! To such an extent that now, if we need some little job done by a
known local fascists, we go, and we say: "Excuse me, Mr Known Local
Fascist, we in the police need you to do a little job for us…" "Who,
me?" "Umm, yes…" "Do I have Merlino written all across my
forehead?!"
FIRST
OFFICIAL But public opinion will realise what's going on, their stomachs will
churn.*
TOP
OFFICIAL: No, it's us who makes public opinion, our television, our newspapers,
our radio…
CHOIR:
[They begin singing] La Stampa, [They're immediately silenced by the
SECOND OFFICIAL, who enters with the newspapers in his hand]
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Silence! Those from the various red groups and clubs aren't letting
go. They've published the whole Biondaro business in their bastard leaflets.
They've pointed out that the weapons found in the van were the same that were
found in the cellars of the " Red Brigades", with right next door,
unfailingly, Feltrinelli's photo memento.*
THIRD
and FOURTH OFFICIALS: They are suggesting that it was us who brought them
there!
FIRST
OFFICIAL So who cares? Anyway, nobody believes them… They've got no following,
that handful of extremely mad subversives!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Anyway, bring charges agains them, arrest them, put as many of them
on trial as you can… [The SECOND, THIRD and FOURTH OFFICIALS exit. He
telephones] Calamari… Falco… Coniglio? Wake up…! [He puts the phone down]
How strange, did you notice…? These sympathising judges of our order, almost
always have names of animals, except Sossi, who has the name of a known local
fascist… It's really strange.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [The SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH and FIFTH OFFICIALS enter] They've killed him!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who, Sossi?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: No, Calabresi… With two shots from a pistol… American technique.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who was it?
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: Machiavelli!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Silence, you, cretin. Who was it?
CHORUS:
[All entering] It is not known, nor must it be known.
Now
he is dead.
And
that must be enough.
Calabresi,
killed with two shots.
There
are some who say that it was a crime of the state
A
favour requested and carried out,
A
killer specially sent, all free
All
ready, all paid for.
Who
was it? The CIA? It is not know, it must not be known.
Now
he is dea, and this must suffice.
They
shot him while he was bending over to open the door.
Two
shots in the back, the other to the brain.
It's
the technique of the slaughter-man, like you do with a calf.
It
is not a technique of ours, it is an American technique.
The
killer was informed of everything.
He
knew that Calabresi's bodyguard had been removed six days previously.
Who
told them? It is not known, it must be known. Now he is dead and this must
suffice.
The
killer, after having fired, calmly got into the car.
Calmly,
and even brushed down
With
one hand his trousers, which had been dirtied.
The
car stopped after a hundred metres.
The
killer and his driver
In
full sight casually got out
And
casually disappeared.
They
knew that nobody would have followed them.
Who
helped them, assured them that they could act undistrubed?
It
is not known, it must not be known.
Now
he is dead, and this must suffice.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [The phone rings. He answers. Then:] Oh goodness, what a mess.
A number of officers, one in Rome and two in Naples, and three from other
cities, are threatening to resign!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Why?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: They say that they don't necessarily object to being killed on duty,
for the state… but to be killed on the orders of the state by other policemen
in civilian clothes, no, they can't go along with that. [He puts down the
phone]
TOP
OFFICIAL: [During this speech all the OFFICIALS exit and re-enter]
Woah, woah, sweeten up… Have them retract, sweeten them up, threaten them… kiss
them do them some favours,* speed up their promotion, and next time send them
down to Calabria, on an island, pensioned off! Away! Dead, buried! [Exit all]
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] The extra-parliamentary Left are agitating. The
"Manifesto" group has launched a campaign for Valpreda. They are
actually talking about putting him on their list as a parliamentary candidate,
to get him out before the trial.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Does Manifesto have the support of the other groups…?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Little support…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Good, Valpreda is stuffed. [The FIRST OFFICAL exits]
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Start the Valpreda trial here in Rome. Things
are getting bad for us.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] All the political groups are in the street.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] There are so many of them… Fortunately the
parties of the parliamentary Left are keeping out of it.
FIFTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] It has been discovered that Occorsio has stolen the
trial off to Milan!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Send a bunch of flowers to Occorsio, and tell him that even if he is
making a fool of himself worthy to be ashamed of, the Viminale is entirely with
him, in the disgusting matter!
THIRD
OFFICIAL: [Entering] The Valpreda trial has been called off. It's no
longer being done in Rome…
CHORUS:
Cuckoo, cuckoo, it's not going to be done in Rome any more… The trial has been
put off to the song of the cuckoo…*
TOP
OFFICIAL: Silence! Put it off again. Send it to Milan first, and then tell De
Peppo to get it put on somewhere else. [Slowly, they all exit and re-enter]
There we go, the dance begins. The Court of Cassation must accept the legitimate
suspicion: Milan is a dangerous city, full of subvesives, and in particular
there is a working class which is beginning to be too angered. It is dangerous.
Go on, get this trial sent down to Catanzaro. Dance…! And in Catanzaro they
should not accept it. So off we go to somewhere else. Dance…! This trial is not
to take place, this trial is never to take place.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Valpreda is ill, he's seriously sick. [Everyone on stage]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Exactly. May he die, that's just what we need. Unfortunately, I'm
sorry, but we're going to have to get him out. In a few months we're going to
have to get him out, we're going to leave him at liberty for five, six months,
then we'll wait for the Inquiry to be ready, on the Padova fascists, Freda and
Ventura, and we'll have two trials. Think, what a nice caldron: the fascist
people who ordered the slaughter, and the anarchists who carried it out. What a
stroke of genius! What a fine mish-mash, what a poweder-keg!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: People will no longer understand a thing.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Precisely. That's precisely what we want! Off you go, dance, dance…!
CHORUS:
First here, then there, and the people won't understand.
They
will remain stunned. And the press will help us.
If
it wasn't for the press,
and
all because the workers, the workers,
Once
they are prostrate, bewildered,*
Will
have to accept their contracts
Will
have to accept all the blackmail,
And
pay, by God,
Pay
for the downturn, for the crisis,
in
order to re-animate and give a transfusion* to capital
To
piss blood.
[Almost
all exit]
THIRD
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Excellent news… Elections have left things as they
were before, but also Giulio Andreotti is now in government, a right-wing
government with the Liberals.
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Mafia ministers, swindlers* being investigated for
diversion of funds,* building swindles…
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: The fascists support and they feel themselves all in order.*
THIRD
OFFICER: They threaten violence, and carry it out. [He exists]%
TOP
OFFICIAL: OK… And what does public opinion say?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] The man in the street is asking whether the
Resistance ever took place, or whether he dreamed it. [He exits]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Tell him that he dreamed it. There never was a Resistance, for
heaven's sake! The results is what counts…
FIRST
OFFICIAL The worker feels bewildered: he asks himself what was the point of
giving so many votes to the Parliamentary Left if then the bosses don't give a
damn for your votes, they set you up such a filthy bastard government, that
anything more to the right of it and you would die.
TOP
OFFICIAL: That's good, that the worker is bewildered like that… That's how I
want to see him, at the moment of the signing of the contracts, with his crest
down, destroyed! The working class down on its knees! Let it be clear, the
Italian police work for the working class.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] A telegram: Agnelli sends his thanks.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: [Entering] There's also a present for the lady, outside there.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Pass it to the Minister.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Other telegrams… Pirelli, Falk, Borletti,
Monti, everyone sends their thanks. [The FOURTH OFFICIAL exits]
TOP
OFFICIAL: And they are also sending their pesenti?** I'm sorry, presents…?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Yes, always for the Lady.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Yes. Good… Pass it to the Lady… I mean, to the Signor Minister.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: But they are flowers! Roses and gladioli…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Precisely… The Signor Minister loves roses.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: But it's no longer the one with the Marian month…*
TOP
OFFICIAL: Makes no difference. He loves them equally! [Exit FIRST WOMAN
OFFICER]
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Other fascists attempts… In Vallterrina*.
FIFTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] Three carabinieri opening an abandoned FIAT 500, in
the Veneto, are blown up.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What, we're beginning to shoot among ourselves? To act
disrespectfully to each other?*
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Once again in the Veneto, a group of fascists have been
discovered in SS uniform with a car full of TNT. [She exits]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Release them immediately. I don't want problems with the German
government!
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering] More workers have been attacked and stabbed.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: [Entering] The fascists who stabbed them have been arrested.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Away, away, let them go free… Immediately! Arrest the ones who were
stabbed for unauthorised appropriation of the knife.
THIRD
OFFFICIAL: The extra-parliamentary groups are reacting, they'r fighting too,
they're defending themselves and resisting as best they can.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Arrest them for aggravated resistance to a fascist public.* How are
the parelimanetary parties reacting? [The SECOND, FOURTH and FIRST*
officials exit]
SECOND
OFFICIAL: the usual lullaby.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] But nevertheless people are beginnign to
agitate. They're saying "enough"! They're saying it's clear… The
fascis on their own would not hav ebeen able to achieve so much, if they hadn't
had the state behind them, and its organs to support them, defend them, back
them up.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] Another telegram: Monti and Pesenti say
"Well done, carry on like that".
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] And Agnelli and Pirelli, as a pair, say: "Don't
[….] to San Gennaro! About turn… Here we're […]" [He exits]
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: What does it mean…?
TOP
OFFICIAL: It means that we must no longer pay attention to Monti, Pesenti, and
co…. That those are stupid right-wingers…* That we have pulled the rope too
tight… And that if the rope is pulled too much, then the shower which comes
down is a cascade which risks to become a cataract and sweeps us all away!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: In other words, the Andreotti government is in danger… The order is
to throw it down…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Down the toilet!
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Latest news. Surprise finale. Andreotti gets a whiff of the
smell of toilet and gives a flick of his tail, and does a double somersault
without back-up* and without a net.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] In order not to allow himself to be thrown in
the sea, he and his stinky government, Giulio Andreotti attacks head-on his
competitors in the Christian Democrats who wanted to do him the service.*
FIRST
OFFICIAL To start with, he who got into government with the votes of the
fascists, is now making like an anti-fascist. In fact, when he heard than in
Sesto San Giovanni, the red city of the North, the fascists had thrown bombs
and walked all over warm reds and hot subversives, he goes running up to Sesto
San Giovanni himself, to hang on the banner of said city the gold medal for
Resistance.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] The parties of the parliamentary Left lay on the
stewarding… and keep subversives and agry workers at a distance…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Disorders, a rout,* rubber bullets… Wailing sirens!
FIRST
OFFICIAL But Giulio, unperturbed, continues talking the same, even if it's all
totally incomprehensible! What is important is the image for TV… The sound can
always be dubbed!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Leone too, a president also elected with fascist votes, doesn't
want to be left out, and two days after
a worker in Parma, a certain Lupo of "Lotta Continua", was stabbed
and killed by fascists, he runs like a boy to an adjacent locality called
Montefiorino and gives it a gold medal for Resistance. The leaders of the
parliamentary Left applaud deliriously!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: For goodness sake… But I no longer understand anything… What game are
we playing…? I'm seeing black… Here the big fish of the Christian Democract
party are clashing with each other within the governing establishment, which is
scary! I would not want that in this clash between bisons we got stuck in the
middle: it's always the rags* that fly
first! [The THIRD OFFICIAL exits].
TOP
OFFICIAL: And who told you that we are rags? We are macigni*! Get this well
into your head! [The phone rings] Hello… Yes… Signor Minister… Give the
off…? A free road….? But isn't it a bit…. But certainly… certainly… consider it
done… It's an order. [He puts the phone down, and turns to the FIRST WOMAN
OFFICER] Telephone Milan… They must give a free hand to D'Ambrosio's
researches, and the other judges, who are conducting the investigation into
Freda and Ventura…. No interference…*
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Yes, but I mean… You know that we…. Don't forget the stock
exchanges… Padova…!
THIRD
and FOURTH OFFICIALS: [Entering] Indeed, Padova!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: If they discover that we…
TOP
OFFICIAL: It's an order… This absolutely nothing to do with us, we carried out
orders… Nobody's going to throw us in the air because we are macigni,
understood? Not rags. And if you throw a macigno into the air, then it falls
onto your foot, and it hurts!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: More trouble on the line: the business of the death of Calabresi is
coming back as an issue,. Public opinion is beginning to believe the voices of
the extra-parliamentary groups, around the fact that the police were not at all
external to his death.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Find a portrait bust of Calabresi, and put it in the police station, in courtyard near to the
place where Pinelli fell. Big quantities of flowers. They will be much moved! [The
SECOND OFFICIAL, and the FIRST and SECOND WOMEN OFFICIALS exit]
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL [Entering] Public opinion is not sufficiently moved. They
say that, in fact, the death of Calabresi went entirely to the advantage of the
police and the incriminated organs!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] In fact, when the first responsible figure
disappeared, Calabresi, two trials for the death of Pinelli were blocked, the
post mortem* was carried out inn a way that was entirely sloopy,* and nobody
even any more talked about the dead man!
TOP
OFFICIAL: What are the leftwing newspapers saying?
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] L'Unità is asking that light should be shed.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Light shed? And then?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Light, that's all.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] News from Milan: the judge D'Ambrosio is
laying into things. He's blown all the alibis of Freda and Ventura, he has
shown that the timers from the banks are their stuff.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: [Entering with the SECOND OFFICIAL] Throughout the whole of
Italy there have been street demonstrations supporting Valpreda.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: Stuff organised by the usual Left groups. They're shouting:
CHORUS:
Free Valpreda! Lock up the fascists, their backers and their protectors…" [The
THIRD and FOURTH OFFICIALS are chased away by the TOP OFFICIAL]
TOP
OFFICIAL: But they're still got it in for us!
FIRST
OFFICIAL But who cares! They're isolated anyway.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: [Entering] No, not so much. This time it's not only those from
the groups… There are also quite a lot of workers getting involved, and also
the so-called consequent* democrats…. They're picking up courage too.
TOP
OFFICIAL: And the parties of the parliamentary Left?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Absent.
TOP
OFFICIAL: What are they saying?
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Let there be light.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Enlightenment parties?
FIFTH
OFFICIAL: They have found the presumed killer of Calabresi. It appears we're
dealing with a fascist… Nardi is his name.
TOP
OFFICIAL: No, he's not the killer.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: So why then, if you knew that he's nothing to do with it, did
you have him arrested?
TOP
OFFICIAL: We were keeping him on the boil…. He's a maniac for firearms,
involved in amurder. The fact that we pulled him out in this moment enables us
to reassure the man in the street… It's a way of telling him: "You see,
dear street-walker,* we of the police do also hunt down rightwing criminals, so
go home quietly, get off the street, sit yourself down in front of the
television, and watch "Canzonissima" or the football live, or read
yourself a nice little porno-drama… Or go out, go to the first cinema on the
right, because they're showing a porno movie there too… Thighs and big round
breasts and nipples and bottoms of all the kinds you could want, and you, dirty
old man, you could get your pleasure there too, go and relax, because even the
Pope is closing his eyes to it, and has said that it's the devil, dirty beast,
that's tempting us… not Capital. The police is watching over you. And don't any
longer cause trouble.
You
sleep, and let us shoot in peace. Amen.
CHORUS:
[Singing] Gloria!
THIRD
and FOURTH OFFICIALS: [Entering] Oh hell and damnation, we really didn't
need this!
TOP
OFFICIAL: What's up? Stop frightening me like that! What's the matter?
FOURTH
OFFICIAL: D'Ambrosio has discovered the affair of the exchanges* in Padova, and
also that we have removed the findings* of the German company, and also the
fact of the little rope…* which Alegra had swallowed.
CHORUS:
They're going to stick a charge on us all?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Calm down, calm down!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: We should have him thrown out, that one, blocked, replace him!*
TOP
OFFICIAL: Calm, calm, start to frighten him a bit, start by having his closest
collaborator shot.
[The
THIRD and FOURTH OFFICIALS exit]
CHORUS:
Done!
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] Judge Fiasconaro, his right-hand man, has
disappeared.
CHORUS:
Taken away for other duties.
SECOND
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Forty judges in Milan have signed a petition for him to be
removed from duties. Stop.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Ah, these cornuti are rearing their heads! I said it, I said it, that
with all this coming and going* those fucking red pigs, with their little
newspapers and their demonstrations, would set public opnion against us.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: But what's public opinion got to do with it….? Here, I already told
you, it's entirely a question of a clash between bisons. The order for throwing
shit comes from Giulio Andreotti in person, Giulio against Mariano…
Contradictions within Power.
FIRST
OFFICIAL Exactly, and who made these contradictions explain then?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Only the […] for power. Or there are in the middle also these effing
subversives, and the workers who are beginning to prick up their ears? And
together they are pushing and pulling…
THIRD
OFFICIALS: [Entering] Look here, even Il Corriere della Sera are
now firing at us. It has to, we realise, in order not to be left behind and
lose face, but they're shooting at us… Dottore…. Montanelli too…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Indro! Indro! That leaves us only with Spadolini now.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Now he's shouting, and getting angry… because of the unjust
detention of Valpreda… while two years ago he was shouting about him as a
"monster", do you remember?
TOP
OFFICIAL: Of course, we advised him ourselves. Relax, we are not rags to fly in
the air. Other rags will fly, not us. All we have to do is to be alert,* as
Molière said, in Tartuffe.
THIRD
OFFICIAL: I really am not interested in Tartuffe
and Molière!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Don't become trivial. "The first symptom of the mediocre person
when he is losing is that he immediately lets you smell the unmistakable whiff
of his lowly origins," Molière, Don Giovanni, Act Three, advice to
the hypocrite. You see the importance of the classics? And listen again to what
Molière says in our regard:
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: What does he say?
TOP
OFFICIAL: "Always reach out your hand to the powerful person, even if
momentarily he is losing."
FIRST
OFFICIAL He's alluding to Mariano.
TOP
OFFICIAL: "He will be immensely grateful to you when his star will rise
again."
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: I adore the classics! Continue, Dottore.
TP:
However, watch out, in your support for him, that he does not then become so
hated by the powerful man who is more powerful than him"!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Is he referring to Agnelli or Pirelli?
FIRST
OFFICIAL To both.
TOP
OFFICIAL: "Always clothe yourself in dark clothes and your face in
white…"
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: It's a portrait of Colombo.
TOP
OFFICIAL: "You must smile, but not laugh, when your old patron is crushed
by the new! When you see the archangel transfixing the dragon, do not
applaud…"
SECOND
OFFICIAL: I can't quite see Andreotti as an archangel, and neither Rumor as a
dragon… A baby dragon at most!
TOP
OFFICIAL: "Shed a tear for the widow in weeds…"*
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: If you ask me, now he's talking about Colombo again! He's the
widow of the dragon!
TOP
OFFICIAL: "It'll help you when she ends up marrying a new ruler…"
FIRST
OFFICIAL No, he's talking about Moro, Aldo Moro,… He's the widow!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Widow of whom?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Of Fanfani.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Really?! So small? A teeny-weeny dragon, an itsy-bitsy dragon… a
dwarf lizard!
FIRST
OFFICIAL But poisonous! You should know how poisonous it is!
FWP:
Silence! Don't interrupt the classics. Go ahead, Dottore, with the advice to
the hypocrite!
TOP
OFFICIAL: "Weep in consternation when you see injustice, or rather when
others notice it and it is so overt that you aren't able to hide it… Then rend
your clothes, and your hair, and do it in such a way that everybody sees your
discomfort, when you're suffering, especially if the injustice was committed
thanks to your efforts"!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Ah, now I also understand. Now he's referring to the Corriere
della Sera, which is finally getting indignant over the unjust detention of
Valpreda, a poor innocent victim,a nd only two years ago, you remember? It was
shouting about "monsters".
TOP
OFFICIAL: On our advice!
FIRST
OFFICIAL Certainly, and it was lamenting the fact that the death penalty had
been removed!
SIXTH
OFFICIAL: So, then, are you saying that we too have to tear our clothes and
hair?
TOP
OFFICIAL: No, not necessary. Again, as Molière says: "Let the clouds pass,
be attentive to how the wind changes, let the obtuse ones go forward at the
wrong moment when too many people are disgusted,* but for now you too should
breathe in the […] . Go, make a big din of groaning. Go quickly, shed tears,
yell! Yell that it is unworthy"! It's uncivilised! Enough! Stop! I added
the "stop" myself. Free version! Weep again, denounce, but don't give
names. Stop! Let it be understood that you know, but don't say. Stop!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: For me here the reference is to Forlani!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Dry your tears, say that it's all the fault of the wicked laws, of
God, not of men.
FIRST
OFFICIAL That's Gonnella.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Tear your clothes.
FIRST
OFFICIAL You see? Justice for* Gonnella.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Throw yourself on the ground… Stop! You're just right. "Strike
when they don't see you. Never let the goons* rear their heads! Stop! Say that
you'll do everything you can to free the innocent from hunger and prison. Make
it a question of style and good taste, but don't press too far. Stop! You may
name as your witness, if you believe in him, Christ himself, but don't remind
anyone that he came to earth to make us free and equal, that's not necessary,
and it's dangerous too… Stop!"
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Nice, nice, really good, that Molière! He understood
everything. What clear allusions! He even understood that Giulio Andreotti is
making great efforts to be the first one to set Valpreda free. That way
everyone will say: "Giulio the Liberator"!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: It's true! Have you noticed? All of a sudden now everyone's busying
themselves to get him freed, even those who wanted him dead, all running
headlong! It seems like a horse race, the betting's opened! [The FIRST
OFFICAL exits]
TOP
OFFICIAL: First there was just that handful of ne'er-do-wells* in the political
groups, and a few isolated individuals, who busied themselves, who got
themselves arrested, persecuted, beaten, risking their necks.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Now, all of a sudden, everyone's popping out… Now that it's all too
clear that the anarchists have nothing to do with this, everyone's coming out,
those of the parliamentary Left, barefoot Republicans,* Americanising
socialists, Indian nuns, Piedmontese bishops, bersaglieri on leave… They all
come running, shouting: "Free Valpreda". And the first to arrive gets
the prize. How strange life is. [The FIRST WOMAN OFFICIAL exits] No,
you're not going to screw me! [Turning to the others]. Don't tell me
that stuff. There's rot here! There's something stinking in here! But do you
really think that I swallowed the little story about Stiz… Judge Stiz, brave,
intelligent, a judge from the provinces who gets up every morning, puts on his
little hat and his coat, takes his little dog and says: "Now that's
enough, I want to go to see this business about the red trail… But this trail
doesn't seem so red to me… Go, go, little dog, go because you're a […]
dog…" A provincial 007, alone, isolated, who goes… No, this one moved
because he had a support… And somebody told him "Go on, because we'll
support you from behind without anyone seeing us, we'll sustain you, we'll give
you backing and we'll be the ones supplying the leaks.* …From here. [He
looks threateningly at the others] Here is where the traitor is! The Judas
Iscariot is inside here! I warn you that I don't want to end up like Jesus
Christ… I warn you that the first person who in a more or less familiar
dinner,* comes over to me… Do you have a […]? …Crack! I'll break everything.
Clear? And I'll also tell you that I know who is the Judas among you.* [He
suddenly points to one of the people present] It's him! [The person he
points to is immobilised by the others. The TOP OFFICIAL pulls out a programme]
Here is a telegram, in code, which asks the Milan magistracy to go and check
out the central police station in Milan, itself. Here it is, here, [He shows
it to the semi-immobilised person] It's in code, but it's signed, and the
signature is yours, in code!
THIRD
OFFICIAL: But Dottore, why would I have had to…? What were we supposed to find
in the police station…?
TOP
OFFICIAL: I don't know what you were supposed to find, but what they have
found. They have found a whole series of verbals and evidence* on the Pinelli,
Valpreda and Feltrinelli cases, not handed over to the magistrates by the
inquirers, and kept out of justice! Clear?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Dottore, look what I've found! A roll of film… [The immobilised
person is manhandled]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Now, would you be so kind as to speak? On whose behalf wree you
spreading rumours? On the orders of whom? Move it!
THIRD
OFFICIAL: It was entirely my own personal initiative.
TOP
OFFICIAL: It's a very fine thing when a policeman sacrifices himself to cover a
superior. I thank you for this delicatesse of yours… But if you don't talk now,
I'll make you swallow this entire roll, by God! Speak!
THIRD
OFFICIAL: [Ill-treated] No, no, he'll kill me if I talk!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Who?
THIRD
OFFICIAL: The director of the Special Services.
CHORUS:
Him! [They point to another of those present, who is in turn immobilised.
The THIRD OFFICIAL launches himself at the SECOND OFFICIAL, and by mistake
gives the TOP OFFICIAL a punch, hitting him on the jaw. From his mouth fall
dozens and dozens of teeth]
TOP
OFFICIAL: Seventy-four teeth… New false teeth… Just as well I've got another
set in reserve… [He takes it from a drawer and puts it in]
FIRST
OFFICIAL [Entering] I said it, I said it would end up like this. Look,
have you seen?!
TOP
OFFICIAL: What?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Now they're firing at us point-blank! They're telling us purely and
simply that we are murderers. Here, look, Calamari too is washing his hands of
it. Serentini*, that anarchist lad from Pisa whom our men in the Roman
battalion killed by clubbing him…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Well?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Look, the inquest verdict says that the police broke his head, that
they massacred it for him. Do you understand? An inquest which says the truth,
and which incriminates us!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: [Entering] And now they also want to know the name of
the police who did the killing, and of their commander!
CHORUS:
And we're going to have to give them that!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Calm down! Calm down! [He phones] Hello, Calmari… Yes… Ah,
there you are! Correct. There's nothing to worry about, it has never happened
that a policeman has ever been charged with having killed a subversive. Up
until the presnet day we have killed more than 160, what with workers, peasants
and students, and none of our lads has ever taken a day in prison, or even a
fine! [Turning to the IMMOBILISED OFFICIAL] But we are going to send you
to prison, in fact I'm going to give you a good drubbing.* [To one of the
others] Go and get me a can of petrol,* we'll soak him in petrol, a nice
sprinkling, then we'll light it and we'll throw him from the window, and we'll
say that he was a meteorite, a suicidal meteorite! Come on, speak! Who were you
working for?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: I gave the orders myself, but the initiative came from above.
TOP
OFFICIAL: From whom…? Wait, let me guess… Restivo, eh?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Higher up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Rumor.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Higher up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: …Colombo…?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Higher up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Moro?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Higher up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Let's see… Fanfani?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Higher up…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Nixon!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: …No, lower down…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Giulio Andreotti!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Yes, him…
TOP
OFFICIAL: And how does it come about that Giulio Andreotti gave this order?
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Because the others were trying to make fun of* him, that's why!
FIRST
OFFICIAL A clash between bisons, contradictions within the powers of the
Christian Democrats.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: That's exactly right, Giulio Andreotti, in order to make them look bad, gave me orders to dredge
up some nasty business from the last government… Rumor… Restivo… etc…
TOP
OFFICIAL: Oh for goodness' sake… set him free… He received orders from above…
Now I understand, why Forlani, the general secretary of the DC, made that
speech a little while ago, where he says that too much pressure was being put:
"Watch out, that's enough jostling among yourselves, because now […] pull
out a little something, won't I, Andreotti? I shall name names, and all hell's
going to break loose.
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Mamma mia, but I we start talking here, emptying the bag, one
after another, it'll be the end of the world.
TOP
OFFICIAL: No, nothing's happening! These people snarl* and bark, but they don't
bite, they don't start slashing* at each other, they are wolves but of the same
breed. Relax. They are all in the same boat, and all of them are rowing in
time. Relax. These are the sons of the the same Great Whore… All it needs is a
few idiots, and slightly ingenuous people, like certain leaders of the
regulation Left, to delude themselves* to create and explode contradictions
within the heart of the Christian Democrats. Can you imagine it,* these big bad
priests* and their gang* have teamed up together, and have actually formed a
united anti-fascist front! With them! Anti-fascit with them, who invented
fascism for you! Not only that, they were made pregnant by fascism. They gave
birth to you, they raised you, come on dear, come on, tomorrow I'll give you a
toy train, and a little bomb so that you can blow it up. They've teamed up with
them, who went to school in the finest sacristies in the region, in the finest
bishops' beds in the region. These Christian Democrat ministers who could
recite you the whole pantomime of Molière's Tartuffe even with their
eyes shut…
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Tartuffe's pantomime?
TO;
Yes, Scapino's one. Antonio Scapino… the actor… No, he's not on the wanted
list… In 1500 this Scapino went, precisely, to France, and there he met
Molière, and they embraced, because they knew each other, and immediately
Molière said: "You saved me… You can save me, because they've censored my
latest play, Tartuffe, the whole last act… and you could help me."
"But I'm a poor actor… and then… in French…" "Yes, but you act
with gestures, with your face, with your hands, you're an extraordinary mime…
You come and act with gestures, a word or two just to give the sensation, you
can even burp* chew, say outrageous things, it doesn't matter… you will make
yourself understood with your hands, with gestures, with pantomime, they won't
be able to censor that."
"Yes,
agreed… But what am I supposed to act, whet should I be saying… What's my
character…?"
"You'll
be a servant. You'll be called Scapino, and you'll serve in one of the richest
houses in France. And there's a young man, the first-born son, who's entering
the world of politics… And you're going to teach this young man the whole
trick, the art, of hypocrisy, of Tartuffinage, of full-scale jesuitry… The true
art of a minister of the Christian Democrats…"
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Dottore, would you act it for us!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Alright… I should tell you that this splendid way of speaking is
called grammelot… It's all chewed up, all spat out…* The important thing
is not to listen to the words, but watch the gestures, it's the gestures which
are important…
[…]
He
begins, this servant, by describing the wig that the man in power usually wear…
No, you shouldn't wear that to become a true politician… And you should not
wear certain too showy things, like certain collars…, or too big mantles… No,
you shouldn't wear them… You should
dress soberly, without being too apparent… Look… Now I'll begin with the
description of the wig… [All the actions are mimed; he begins with the
mime's description of a wig full of curls and great circumvolutions. With a
sudden gesture he rejects it] … Pas de perruque…! [He gathers his hair
behind his neck] … [Description of an extremely rich mantle, large, full
of folds, and then he comes out of it, rejecting it] Pas de manteau…! [With
indicative gestures he shows how the politician should ress: with his hair
gathered at the back of the neck, a simple subdued set of clothing, a jacket,*
with a lot of buttons, which constrain him and limit him in his gestures. He
makes the sign of the cross] …Ca suffit de se signer… [He describes very
[….] which limit his steps, and he makes as if to genuflect] …Ca suffit de
se genufler!… [He indicates how one should not speak in a loud voice, but on
the contrary should figure* the mouth in subdued tones, with a nasal voice,
entirely in the style of the Jesuit… He mimes a duel, and immediately rejects
it. He shows how one should behave towards the poor, when there are a lot of
people around and, on the contrary, how you should give them a kick when nobody
is watching… He mimes a fierce mourning*, and then checks himself and shouts]
…Pas de violence… directe! Pour ca il ya a la loi… ["No violence…
direct… for that there is the law"] [He mimes the action of
thumbing through huge law books, he mimes the arrest of someone, he mimes the
trial in its entirety, with all witnesses, reading of articles, consultations
of law books… At the end, almost at the end of an edition of the various
articles, he decrees the result: the death sentence] …A mort! …Pendu…! ["To
death… hanged…"] [He mimes the action of the condemned man being
hanged] … [He repeats the trial and sentencing with another defendant,
in an even more exasperated form, and then – after having hanged him – he hurls
himself to his knees, spluttering out* prayers of horror, whinging against the
cruelty of men, he exalts the goodness of God, and Christ in particular… Then
he opens his mouth in the act of receiving the blessed Host, then another Host…
and another… and gradually the rite is transformed into a punch. He becomes
starving hungry… The action finishes with a "Gloria" sung by the
whole CHORUS.]
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: Yes, yes… well said, Dottore, those hooded ones* up there are
good, but I wouldn't want it to happen that that we ended up in the middle of
this confrontation between Jesuit bisons, and that we ended up being the ones
to be eaten.
TOP
OFFICIAL: There's no danger. We too have learned the lesson of Tartuffe; we can
perform it easily as well as them. Sure, there's going to be a few inquiries…
because there are too many people… for light to be shed… and you will be the
subject of an inquiry to…. And he'll carry it forward, and there will be an
inquiry into you as well… and you'll carry it out… [He continues, pointing
to the various characters] …And there'll be an inquiry into you, and it'll
be him carrying it out, and you two together will do an inquiry into me, and
I'll do one into you… And then we'll go and deliver the results of our
inquiries, because the results of inquiries always have to be delivered, and
when they're delivered, all of us together we'll begin with a […] [He sings]
How
fine it is to go and deliver inquiries together
You
take it, you put it under, you cover it up
You
bury it, you conceal it.
If
anyone wants to know where it is, it can't be found.
Shame,
it was nice, it was a day for a party.
We
can't find the inquiry any more
I've
lost the inquiry… Fiat Lux! Let there be light… for FIAT!
FIRST
OFFICIAL No, Dottore! No light there, regarding FIAT… There it's total
darkness, Dottore!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Why?
FIRST
OFFICIAL But can't you see, we're continuing to go forward, that makes four
years now… Disaffection, they're disaffected from work, they're striking,
they're going ahead, we make a fuss and they're even worse. Look, read it
there. [He opens the newspaper] A hundred thousand, two hundred
thousand… Now they've reached half a million… And their slogans, as you said,
it's true, I went to see… I checked them out… Once again the trade unions are
obliged to pedal* if they don't want to lose the workers…
SECOND
OFFICIAL: And as for the trade union struggles, look here… [He too has an
open newspaper] Something which has never happened in twenty years of
government… Fourteen thousand chemical workers have rejected an agreement that
had already been signed by the trade unions. tore it up in their faces… gave
the bosses a heart attack!
TOP
OFFICIAL: I can believe it!
SECOND
OFFICIAL: And then, at the mass assembly in Alfa Romeo… they were shouting:
"Fight to the end!"… "Fight to the end, this time"! And
what about the struggles over housing? Over rents? The struggles which are
picking up in schools again? And we thought that we had buried them forever!
FIRST
WOMAN OFFICIAL: And what do you think, that these workers and students and
housewives will have unerstood these things all by themselves, or was it always
these… what do they call them… "vanguards", which have continued to
work like blacks throughout these years, was it they who opened their eyes?
FIRST
OFFICIAL Well, there was also the fact that with Vietnam, Cambodia, the Middle
East… people are looking around them, and understand from there too.
TOP
OFFICIAL: That's the mistake, letting people look around too much. We should
put their necks in plaster. First break their necks and then plaster them,
that'll teach them to go turning their heads.
SECOND
OFFICIAL: Listen to what I say, things are looking bad here, I'mm telling you!
There's no attacks, no bombs on trains that are going to stop this lot… You
can't hold them any more, you can no longer frighten them with anything.
TOP
OFFICIAL: Oh! For heaven's sake! Do something! Introduce preventive arrest!
CHORUS:
Oooooh!!!
TOP
OFFICIAL: Preventive arrest which not even Mussolini in 1926 had the courage to
pull out. And here we are, finally, the democratic state, born from the
Resistance, hopla! [He laughs] I want to see what's going to happen now!
With arrest on suspicion… "Halt there," says the policeman,
"You're under suspicion." "What for?" "A… a… I'm not
telling you, I can suspect you without having to tell you what you're suspected
of! And the game is done… I come to your house, I look in a drawer, in the
kitchen, find a knife! Murderer! And what's this? A nutcracker? To break
policemen's fingers, eh?" And then I can hardly imagine that they're going
to go arresting people in Parliament… The problem is that they won't arrest
them in Parliament, but elsewhere, in the factories, in the struggles in the
streets. For heaven's sake! This is the problem, that they have started moving…
I told you so, they're moving they've understood what's going on… They have
understood an old proverb: "Those who keep their heads down, the bosses
break their heads," as the song dsays.
CHORUS: What song?
TOP
OFFICIAL: This one. [All the actors on the forestage sing]
Those
who keep their heads down, the boss breaks their heads.
Raise
your head high, comrade.
It's
true, comrade, if you're on your own raising your head,
The
boss will smash it.
But
if there are very many heads raising themselves
The
boss will have some difficulty.
So
raise your head too, comrade.
But
certainly we can't expect to be many of us.
In
order to move, we need to become many.
Only
if someone has already started,
Started
in order not to be alone,
A
sole hero, but because it is useful to the masses
In
all mass struggles
There's
always someone who had to begin
Raise
your head
And
walk with us
If
we walk shoulder to shoulder we shall not fall.
I
have seen armies of steel fall apart before women and children
Armed
only with hatred and rage
It's
precisely with this rage that we must arm ourselves, comrade.
We
cannot expect to be many,
We
will become many once we have begun,
Even
if we are only a few of us.
Ends