Eleuthéria Read online

GLAZIER

  It's a good start.

  DR. PIOUK

  If you please . This young man, for

  reasons still to be determined,

  seems to have lost his taste for life .

  H e was working - (To Mademoiselle Skunk) - he was writing, I

  believe?

  MLLE. SKUNK

  Yes. The critics said he would be

  talked about.

  GlAZIER

  That must have dealt him a low

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  SAMUEL BECKETT

  blow.

  DR. PIOUK

  Good. He was writing. He no

  longer writes. He was associating

  normally with his family. He has

  left and no longer wants to see

  them. He got engaged, which is

  normal at his age, to a ravishing

  girl, oh yes, oh yes, Mademoiselle,

  ravishing, and he denies her right

  of entry. (To the Glazier) Excuse

  me?

  GlAZIER

  Nothing.

  DR. PIOUK

  He was taking an interest in the

  inexhaustible variety of the Parisian scene, in art, in theater, in

  science, in politics, in every new

  school of philosophy, in the -

  GlAZIER

  Get to the point, get to the point.

  DR. PIOUK

  And he had made himself a veritable specialty out of the idle

  kings. Isn ' t that so, Mademoiselle?

  Good. All that is now dead for

  him, just as if it had never existed?

  Do I exaggerate, dear Mademoiselle?

  MllE. SKUNK

  No.

  DR. PIOUK

  He travelled, for his amusement

  and for his edification . Now -

  GlAZIER

  Which class?

  DR. PIOUK

  Now he no longer leaves, for

  months on end, this (circling

  look) - this foul sty. He had

  ELEUTHERIA

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  money, now -

  GLAZIER

  All right, all right, we have understood.

  DR. PIOUK

  If you interrupt me every minute,

  I have no choice but to leave . In

  fact, I ask nothing more .

  GLAZIER

  But you go on and on. We are not

  asking you for a catalogue. He no

  longer does anything, he is no

  longer interested in anything, he

  no longer wants to see anybody,

  that's settled. Now what? What

  must be done to get him put up

  with?

  DR. PIOUK

  Get him put up with?

  GLAZIER

  But of course. It makes no sense, a

  creature like that. I t does not hold

  water.

  DR. PIOUK

  But get him put up with? By

  whom? No, it is quite simply a

  matter of coming to his assistance

  and, in coming to his assistance,

  of coming to the assistance of

  those closest to him and -

  GLAZIER

  Oh no, oh no, you don 't get it.

  Nobody gives a damn if he drops

  dead, provided that -

  DR. PIOUK

  Monsieur, if you have something

  to say, something reasonable,

  which I strongly doubt, you will

  say it in a little while, when I

  myself have finished. You ask me

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  SAMUEL BECKEIT

  my opinion, I am giving it to you.

  There is no arguing on that score.

  I never argue. Sorry. Am I to go

  on? Or am I to leave?

  MllE. SKUNK

  Go on, go on, you are the only

  one saying things I can understand.

  DR. PIOUK

  Ah , Mademoiselle, if you only

  knew, if you only knew! ( He woolgathers)

  GlAZIER

  Go ahead, go ahead, she will

  never know.

  DR. PIOUK

  Where was I?

  GlAZIER

  Raving right along, about the

  need to help him and, while

  helping him, to help his family

  and, while helping his family, to

  help who knows who else, quite

  the whole of mankind, probably.

  You must love mankind, Doctor.

  DR. PIOUK

  You are crude. No matter. Good.

  Yes. I was in effect saying that in

  helping him I would be helping

  those close to him and, first of all,

  you , dear Mademoiselle, so incomprehensibly forsaken , so

  cowardly, insanely abandoned.

  The problem thus reduces to this:

  finding a suitable means to -

  how should I put it? - to restore

  him to himself and therefore to

  others. (A silence) As for the

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  means, I have it - (He pats his

  belly) - here .

  MllE. SKUNK

  Oh Doctor, if only you could !

  DR. PIOUK

  Yes. (He reflects) When I was the

  director - There wouldn ' t be a

  chair over that way?

  GLAZIER

  No . He is no longer interested in

  chairs. But there is a bed, of all

  the objects that poison existence

  the only one he still tolerates. Ah,

  beds ! Sit down .

  DR. PIOUK

  (With a glance toward the bed)

  Thank you. So much the worse.

  What was I saying?

  MllE. SKUNK

  When you were the director -

  DR. PIOUK

  Oh yes. When I was the director

  of the Hospice Saint-Guy, in the

  Haute-Marne, every day, every

  other day rather, I would see an

  unbalanced person whose nationality was Romanian and who

  believed he was afflicted with -

  (He glances toward Mlle. Skunk,

  lowers his voice) - with syphilis.

  Need I say he was not.

  GLAZIER

  Of course you need to say it.

  DR. PIOUK

  He would ask me every time, in a

  desperate tone of voice, if I was

  bringing him the poison. The

  poison? I would say, which poison,

  my friend, and to do what with?

  To put an end to my torment, he

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  SAMUEL BECKEIT

  would reply. But my dear fellow, if

  you absolutely insist on putting an

  end to your torment, you have at

  your disposal all that is needed for

  that. Three times a day you eat in

  the refectory, surrounded by

  plates, cups, forks and even

  knives, with which to put an end

  to a thousand torments. Then he

  would get angry, saying that it

  behooved me, as his physician ,

  and not him, to put an end to his

  torment. But what torment after

  all, I would say. There is nothing

  wrong with you. Fourteen physicians have examined you under

  conditions of the most thoroughgoing independence of each

  other and found nothing.Yes they

  have, yes they have, he would

  reply. I have - ahem - (Same

  business as before) syphilis and it

  is your duty to do away with me. It

  is on that note that our dialogue,

  always identical, would come to a

  close . (Pause) Up until the day
I

  brought him the poison he had

  been clamoring for.

  (A silence)

  MllE. SKUNK

  ( Gasping for breath) And then

  what?

  DR. PIOUK

  His recovery was swift.

  (A silence)

  ELEUTHERIA

  I l l

  GLAZIER

  He wasn 't a true madman .

  DR. PIOUK

  I will not waste my time arguing

  about that. (Pause) And Victor, he

  is a true madman? (A silence . All

  of a sudden Dr. Piouk has slightly

  disjointed gestures, starts a dance

  step, makes odd movements with

  his arms, like signals, in other

  words, such as suit the actor's

  fancy, then comes to a stop. Mild

  embarrassment) Yesterday I set

  forth, before the late lamented

  Monsieur Krap, a remarkable

  man, I might add, in his O'\-TI way,

  the manner in which I view the

  problem of human existence, for

  a problem it is, in my opinion ,

  despite the efforts today being

  made to demonstrate the contrary. (Pause) I will even say that I

  see no other. Not being an ant,

  for example, or a whale. (Pause)

  You were there , Mademoiselle .

  MllE. SKUNK

  Yes.

  DR. PIOUK

  You see, I am not making up

  anything. I therefore said,

  plagued with questions, for I don 't

  like to put myself too much in the

  picture , I said that I was taking up

  again on my own behalf the

  solution already put forth by

  numerous thinkers to this problem of consciousness and which

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  SA.tUEL BECKEIT

  consists quite simply of suppressing the latter. I said it was the

  modalities of that suppression, the

  technical aspect, that interested

  me very particularly, for I am a

  man of action, and I pointed out

  some of the means best suited, in

  my view, to bringing it about with

  the utmost promptness and the

  least inconvenience. Need I say I

  don ' t believe in them one bit, not

  for a minute? I mean that life has

  cured me of all hope of seeing it

  end, on a grand scale. At the very

  most it could be curbed. (Pause)

  But I am a methodical man, in my

  own way, courageous, in a sense,

  and I venture to say upright, and I

  remain at the disposal of those

  who, while being of my opinion

  concerning them, surpass me in

  sadness and resolve.

  MLLE. SKUNK

  But you want to kill him !

  GlAZIER

  You think he needs you to end it

  all, assuming he wants to end it

  all?

  DR. PIOUK

  My dear fellow, it is amazing the

  help people need in ceasing to be.

  You have no idea. You almost have

  to hold their hand. ( Pause) Take

  my Romanian, for example . Did

  he need me to put an end to his

  torment? Of course not. What is

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  1 1 3

  more , he is now a cattle-dealer in

  Iassy. He writes to me from time

  to time. A postcard . He calls me

  his savior. His savior! Hal

  GLAZIER

  There is no similarity. He believed

  he was gravely ill .

  DR. PIOUK

  I am in ignorance as to what this

  young man is complaining of

  exactly. Of something more

  severe, I think, than any given

  illness and assuredly more vague

  as well. I was told that he enjoys

  robust health. Let us assume that

  he is complaining quite simply of

  existing, of the life syndrome. It's

  conceivable, isn ' t it? We are no

  longer in the nineteenth century.

  We know how to look things full

  in the face. Good. I am putting

  him in the way of existing no

  more , of passing over, with the

  greatest smoothness, from the

  state of consciousness to that of

  pure extension -

  MuE. SKUNK

  No ! no! I won 't allow it!

  DR. PIOUK

  (Breaking out) - while I ' m

  telling him I will stay a t his side to

  see to it that the transition is

  carried through without let. So,

  my dear friends, either he discovers good reasons - for he's a

  thinker, that's obvious - to go

  back among his fellow creatures

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  SAMUEL BECKETI

  for the same old shit, or - (Expressive gesture) But rest assured

  it's more than likely he is as

  scummy as the rest of us.

  (A silence. The Glazier walks up

  and down . Olga crushed. Dr.

  Piouk beaming)

  MLLE. SKUNK

  It's abominable. You mustn 't!

  DR. PIOUK

  Mademoiselle, if I 've been a little

  bit off in my own world, if I have

  minced words insufficiently, lay it

  to the account of an old enthusiasm, about to be snuffed out. For

  me to speak thus is to breathe

  another air, that of my youth, of

  my ardors, of my innocencies,

  before the black flag and the

  bowed skull. (Moved) Mademoiselle (He takes her chin and lifts

  it) , look at me. Do I seem like an

  ogre? (He smiles hideously) Do

  be confident! I will save him ! As I

  saved Verolesco.

  MLLE. SKUNK

  But if he takes it?

  DR. PIOUK

  What?

  MLLE. SKUNK

  The - the - poison .

  DR. PIOUK

  He will not take it.

  MLLE. SKUNK

  But if he wants to take it?

  DR. PIOUK

  Well - (Straining) - well, it is

  against my principles, but, to

  please you, well, we will prevent

  him. You see, dear Olga, yes, let

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  1 1 5

  me call you Olga, I am ready for

  anything to oblige you.

  MLLE. SKUNK

  But if we get there too late?

  DR. PIOUK

  (Laughing) It is easy to see this is

  not your department. How many

  things that pretty little head is

  unaware o£1 How many nasty

  things ! The very idea! Why, I ' ll

  know immediately if he is serious

  or not. Even before I hand him

  the tablet.

  Mu.E. SKUNK

  It's a tablet?

  (Dr. Piouk takes a phial out of his

  vest pocket, rolls a tablet out into

  the palm of his hand, holds it out

  toward Mlle . Skunk who hesitates,

  then takes it)

  DR. PIOUK

  There .

  (Enter Michel. He gives the Glazier a sandwich)

  GLAZIER

  You ate yours?

  MICHEL

  Yes, papa.

  GLAZIER

  You were gallivanting about.

  MICHEL

  No, papa.

  GLAZIER

  Hand over the change. ( Michel

  g
ives him the change , which he

  counts) Good. Here, hold this.

  (He gives him back the sandwich)

  Take this too. (He gives him the

  hammer and chisel) Get over

  there and be quiet. (Michel goes

  and sits down on the toolbox,

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  SAMUEL BECKETI

  near the window)

  MLLE. SKUNK

  (Tearing herself away from gazing

  at the tablet) Quite so.

  (Dr. Piouk takes back the tablet,

  puts it back in the phial and puts

  the phial back in his pocket)

  DR. PIOUK

  Yes, quite so, that little thing,

  languor, rockabye, bottomless

  blanknesses, rock bottom, peace,

  standstill. What time is it. (He

  pulls out his watch) Five past five

  (He puts back his watch) My

  goodness!

  MLLE. SKUNK

  And what if you -

  GLAZIER

  (His mind made up) Agreed. It is

  not -

  DR. PIOUK

  (To the Glazier) Be quiet! (To

  Mlle. Skunk) You were saying?

  MLLE. SKUNK

  What if you gave him a simple

  aspirin?

  DR. PIOUK

  ( Straightening up) Mademoiselle,

  I am only a poor Joe, but I do not

  trifle with sedatives. No. I don 't

  get mixed up in things like that.

  Anything to please you, but not

  that.

  (A silence)

  GLAZIER

  I am set -

  DR. PIOUK

  Will this take long?

  GLAZIER

  Not as long as you.

  DR. PIOUK

  You've got five minutes.

  ELEUTHERIA

  1 1 7

  GLAZIER

  I am set within a viewpoin t ­

  DR. PIOUK

  One moment. May I? What is your

  stake in the matter? It is not very

  clear to me.

  GLAZIER

  Don ' t concern yourself about that.

  DR. PIOUK

  All right, all right, I am listening.

  GLAZIER

  Within a viewpoint that is not the

  same as yours, far from it.

  Whether he gets a new lease on

  life , as you put it so prettily, or

  goes on wallowing here or

  whether he croaks, it is completely

  one and the same to me, provided

  that the thing is not groundless,

  understand?

  DR. PIOUK

  I admit -

  GLAZIER

  You need reasons, God damn it!

  Why has he given up everything?

  Why this senseless existence? Why

  consent to die? Reasons! Jesus

  himself had his reasons. Whatever

  he does, it has to be known more

  or less why. Otherwise he is going

  to be spewed out. And the rest of

  us with him. Whom do you think

  we are dealing with? With esthetes?

  DR. PIOUK

  I don ' t get you and no mistake.

  GLAZIER

  Don ' t you see that we are all busy

  focusing over and over on something that has no meaning? A

  meaning for it must be found ,