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Doctor Kronos |
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Scene V |
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(EVENING. THE FAMILY ARE SITTING TOGETHER WATCHING TELEVISION) NEWREADERS’ VOICESVOICE OVER 1: The tragic mystery
of the twelve missing babies came to a dramatic head today as a secret
cellar was discovered and opened under the residence of the ex-minister of
the interior… VOICE OVER 2: The minister’s
remains were found half-eaten by the last three survivors of the twelve
missing babies, themselves chained to the walls… VOICE OVER 1: The scene reeked
with death and excrement… YVONNE: I’m going to be sick (RACES OUT) MARIE: This is disgusting. SERGE: Unbearable. Dr KRONOS: (SNIGGERING) That one great society could fall so low MARIE: Our politicians
corrupt SERGE: All politicians are corrupt MARIE: The nature of politics is corruption Dr. KRONOS: The sexual preferences of any politician
must be regarded with suspicion SERGE: Enormous suspicion MARIE: They will spurt their sad seed into any hole they find open SERGE: That is the nature of politics Dr. KRONOS: Of politicians, son
Politics has been perverted by politicians
whereas politics in itself
could be something quite beautiful MARIE: I will never eat meat again Dr. KRONOS: (SARCASTICALLY) I will never operate again
never save another life
no life is worth saving MARIE: What will become of the babies who survived?
What nightmares will they have to endure? SERGE: What kind of killers will they themselves turn into? MARIE: Their survival
Must be considered
as a most definite threat to our own fragile security SERGE: Our chances are so
limited
so fragile is life (RE-ENTER YVONNE, WIPING BILE FROM THE SIDE OF HER MOUTH) YVONNE: Have they finished? Dr KRONOS: Yes
Now they are reporting the famine in northern Asia. YVONNE: Can you turn it off? (Dr. KRONOS TURNS THE TV OFF. MARIE GOES TO THE WINDOW) Dr KRONOS: we could listen to music
Something soft YVONNE: No!
I don’t want you drinking
not now
I want you to hold me (Dr KRONOS HUGS HER) MARIE: (FROM THE WINDOW) There’s a crowd outside
A marching crowd
With banners, protesting Dr KRONOS: (RELEASING HIS WIFE AND GOING TO THE WINDOW) The society
moves
like a bowel with gastro-enteritis
It’s sickening SERGE: They have been shaken like us
But we are forbidden from protesting
our parents forbid it Dr. KRONOS: Your anger is so puerile
What does it matter that some babies were eaten? (YVONNE SCREAMS AND RUNS OUT)
The population of the world doubles every twenty years
That is tragic MARIE: You are so cold father Dr KRONOS: (SHAKING HIS HEAD) It is nothing to march for
We used to march for mighty issues SERGE: In ’68 DR. KRONOS: When the entire world was crumbling MARIE: It was really not so bad then either Dr. KRONOS: (BECOMING ANGRY AND RUNNING TO THE BAR)
How would you know?
You were not even born! MARIE: No father
We were not SERGE: But we have history teachers father MARIE: And history tells us that ’68 was not so tough SERGE: And yet you marched father MARIE: You marched until the soles of your shoes wore through SERGE: Until you could feel each pebble under foot MARIE: That is what you told us (Dr. KRONOS SWIGS WHISKY AND GOES TO THE DISK PLAYER) Dr KRONOS: Let’s have some music
Some good music
Let’s have Hendrix (HE PUTS ON HENDRIX) MARIE: Ah, Hendrix
Always the same when he is depressed
Always “Hey Joe” and
“All along the watchtower” SERGE: Hendrix and Dylan MARIE: Pathetic
To turn your mind away from the dead babies
you run to Hendrix and Dylan SERGE: Just as you have always done
They make you feel radical
The radical man you always wanted to be MARIE: Even when you say
“I will never vote for the communist party again”
you think you are being radical SERGE: When you say
“I’ll never give another centime to charity,”
you pretend you are enlightened MARIE: You despise crime and poverty
And still think you are a revolutionary SERGE: still listen to Hendrix and Dylan DR. KRONOS: (LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW)
They are marching to the Parliament
They demand the resignation of the cabinet (MARIE CLIMBS UP ON THE TABLE AND BEGINS TO SWAY TO THE MUSIC “HEY JOE”) MARIE: The revolution has started SERGE: Or the end of the world (YVONNE SUDDENLY RACES IN SCREAMING WITH A BLOODIED KNIFE. HER MIDRIFT
IS WET WITH BLOOD. SHE RUNS TOWARD HER DAUGHTER WHO SCREAMS. YVONNE HOLDS
HER BELLY AND COLLAPSES. MARIE SCREAMS AGAIN. SERGE BACKS AWAY, SCREAMS
AND CROUCHES IN A FOETAL POSITION ON THE FLOOR. DR KRONOS RUNS TO HIS WIFE,
WRESTLES THE KNIFE FROM HER. HE TOUCHES HER BELLY, LOOKS AT THE BLOODIED
HAND) Dr KRONOS: Quick, help me get her up on the table. (MARIE GETS DOWN AND HELPS. SERGE DOESN’T MOVE. THE MOTHER IS LIFTED
ON TO THE TABLE)
She has lost a lot SERGE: of blood and mind MARIE: Call an ambulance… Dr KRONOS: No time
She
would be dead in ten minutes
I will have to cut and sew SERGE: Cut and paste Dr. KRONOS: Cut and sew!
Fetch me your basket MARIE: What basket? Dr KRONOS: Your sewing basket MARIE: I don’t have a sewing basket (YVONNE, HALF CONSCIOUS, GROANS) Dr KRONOS: My God! SERGE: (GETTING UP) We have a stapler. (YVONNE YELLS AND PUSHES
THEM AWAY. SHE LIFTS HERSELF OFF THE TABLE THEN CRUMPLES TO THE FLOOR) YVONNE: Let me die. SERGE AND MARIE: Mother! YVONNE: Before they come
They will have to come eventually
I could not give myself up
It will be easier to die MARIE: You are not going to die YVONNE: I must,
how could I bear the shame otherwise?,
when they come Dr. KRONOS: When who come? YVONNE: The crowd
They went past, but they’ll be back SERGE: She’s delirious MARIE: They’ve gone to the ministry mother. YVONNE: And then they’ll come here Dr. KRONOS: No, darling
No-one’s
coming here YVONNE: (HYSTERICALLY) Yes!
Shut up! (PAUSE)
They will come
Their fingers pointing at me
At you
They will accuse you too
but I am the one to blame
the one who brought the meat into this house SERGE: The meat? YVONNE: My lover
The writer Pawlowsky
gave it to me
He had it supplied,
a thriving market it was,
black
the blackest market
but Pawlowsky was such a good cook
with a penchant for the exotic
and the promise of immortality made it impossible to resist
Haven’t you noticed how young I look?
I have been eating it for twenty years
An old anthropophagous recipe,
baby’s brains on toast,
and of course I brought some home
without telling you
I did not want to offend
What you did not know could not have hurt you
But now we are lost
All of us (SERGE AND MARIE CLUTCH THEIR STOMACHS AND BEGIN TO MOAN. Dr. KRONOS
DROPS THE KNIFE)
Not just us
There are hundreds
Probably thousands
Belgium,
Europe,
Probably the whole world is crawling with them
Connoisseurs of babies’ flesh Dr KRONOS: I will kill Pawlowsky YVONNE: If you can find him
He’s been missing for weeks Dr KRONOS: Don’t worry
Be strong
You have been so weak
Now you must be strong
You did not want to do this
It was the drugs
The drugs YVONNE: I can see hell
Yes,
I can see it
I think I will be happier there
Much happier than here
Free of all this hypocrisy (SHE DIES) (LIGHTS FADE END OF SCENE V) SCENE
VI (IN A HOSPITAL WARD. BABIES 1, 2 & 4 IN SEPARATE COTS) BABY 1: Safe BABY 2: at last BABY 1: Protected BABY 2: Forgiven BABY 1: Even though we ate our gaoler BABY 2: they have forgiven us BABY 1: Because BABY 2: they said BABY 1: our innocence should not be judged BABY 2: But BABY 1: are we innocent? BABY 2: After what we suffered? BABY 1: Did we not receive a conscious satisfaction BABY 2: fully aware that what we were doing was itself evil? BABY 1: Were we not aware? BABY 2: Yes BABY 1: But still, they protect us BABY 2: Outside BABY 1: they say BABY 2: our champions are marching through the streets BABY 1: thousands of them BABY 2: tens of thousands BABY 1: Here BABY 2: at the hospital BABY 1: loyal guards have been placed at the doors BABY 2: We are martyrs BABY 1: Society is purging itself of the evil within BABY 2: The cancer within BABY 1: which had taken complete control BABY 2: A society without compassion BABY 1: that is what devoured our brothers BABY 2: A society which dared not forgive BABY 1: which had lost faith in their own BABY 2: in their own parents BABY 1: in their own children BABY 2: A society in which boys were sodomised by their fathers BABY 1: and daughters fisted by their fathers BABY 2: then by their mothers BABY 1: Fisted black and blue by fathers and mothers BABY 2: In which uncles killed fathers to marry mothers BABY 1: In which all dreams depended on cash BABY 2: and the general condition of being human BABY 1: was misanthropic BABY 2: But we BABY 1: they say BABY 2: represent the future BABY 1: After the purge, we BABY 2: they say BABY 1: will lead the formation of a more compassionate world BABY 2: The leaders of the cannibals BABY 1: are being rounded up BABY 2: For the real leaders BABY 1: they say BABY 2: have not yet been found BABY 1: The government has fallen BABY 2: but they were not the real leaders BABY 1: The real leadership is far more insidious BABY 2: The clandestine leadership BABY 1: that really rules BABY 2: is the most evil of all BABY 1: Our gaoler is dead BABY 2: but she was not the real leader BABY 1: They say they are sweeping the internet BABY 2: and records of telephone messages BABY 1: for the sake of a more compassionate world BABY 2: But BABY 1: we ask ourselves BABY 2: is all this vengeance necessary? BABY 1: Is a purge BABY 2: necessary? BABY 1: We BABY 2: they tell us BABY 1: represent the future BABY 2: But they forget that there are three of us BABY 1: (POINTING TO BABY 4) and he BABY 2: is different BABY 1: He never speaks BABY 2: never shows the slightest compassion BABY 1: We have to love him BABY 2: but we know he is plotting our destruction BABY 1: While he is with us BABY 2: we cannot be good BABY 1: While he is with us BABY 2: there is always a threat BABY 1: Whenever we show the slightest weakness BABY 2: he will leap at us BABY 1: He is stronger than either of us BABY 2: Only by talking BABY 1: constantly BABY 2: can we mesmerise him with our intelligence BABY 1: The slightest pause BABY 2: and he is on us BABY 1: When we play games BABY 2: he cheats BABY 1: If we protest BABY 2: he beats and bites us BABY 1: and we have to restrain him BABY 2: together BABY 1: with the help of our guards BABY 2: He is as human as us BABY 1: but so different BABY 2: Barbaric BABY 1: He has no interest in the development of his own intelligence BABY 2: Watches television BABY 1: but does not read BABY 2: Will act BABY 1: without the slightest thought BABY 2: In the sense of “survival” BABY 1: he is superior BABY 2: and we are destined to fail against him BABY 1: if we do not change BABY 2: harden ourselves BABY 1: If not BABY 2: the revolution of compassion is already doomed (LIGHTS FADE END OF SCENE VI) |