The Selected Plays of Hélène Cixous

Hélène Cixous

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781136366000
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático

Cixous' work as a playwright - working mainly with Theatre du Soleil and their director Ariane Mnouchkine - establishes her as a participant in some of the most adventurous European theatre making of the last 40 years.
This collection brings together for the first time, four translations into English of Helene Cixous' plays. It is a unique and extraordinary resource for scholars, students and theatre-makers.
The collection includes: *The Perjured City, translated by Bernadette Fort
*Black Sail, White Sail, translated by Donald Watson
*Portrait of Dora, translated by Ann Liddle
*Drums on the Dam, translated by Judith G. Miller and Brian J. Mallet
This exciting new anthology will disseminate her work to a wide and receptive English-speaking audience.

PORTRAIT OF DORA

TRANSLATED BY ANN LIDDLE¹

Characters (in order of appearance)

VOICE OF THE PLAY	Mr K.
DORA	Mrs K.
REUD	MR B., Dora’s father

VOICE OF THE PLAY “… These events declare themselves, like shadows, in dreams, they often become so clear that we feel we can reach out and grasp them, but, in spite of this, they elude any final clarification, and if we proceed without skill or particular caution, we find ourselves unable to determine whether or not such a scene ever really took place.”

DORA [in a voice that shatters a silence – with a tone between a request and a threat] If you dare to kiss me, I’ll slap you! [With a cajoling inflection]

DORA [suddenly in his ear] Just dare to kiss me, I’ll slap you!

FREUD Yes, you will tell me about it. In every detail.

DORA [in a faraway voice] “If you like.” [In an awakened voice] If you wish. And then?

10

FREUD You will tell me about the scene by the lake, in every detail.

DORA Why did I keep silent for the first few days after the scene by the lake?

FREUD To whom do you think you should address that question?

DORA And then why did I suddenly tell my parents about it?

FREUD Why do you think?

DORA [doesn’t reply but relates in a dreamy voice] When Papa was getting ready to leave, I said that I wouldn’t stay there without him. Why did I tell my mother about the scene so that she would repeat it to my father?

20

MR B. Mr K. has always been very kind to my daughter, ever since our two families became such close friends several years ago. When he was there, Mr K. would go for walks with her. With an almost paternal affection. Although she was only a child. He gave her little presents and looked after her with an almost paternal affection. And Dora, for her part, took marvellous care of my friend’s two little children. She was like a mother to them. Two years ago, my daughter and I joined the K.’s who were vacationing at one of our mountain lakes. Dora was to stay with them for several weeks.

DORA I’m not staying, I’m leaving with my father.

MR B. But the lake and mountain air would be so good for your nerves. I’m sure that in a few days.

DORA I’m leaving with you. [Then abruptly threatening] I’ll never forgive you!

MR B. I don’t understand you!

DORA You understand me, but you’re not sincere. You have a strain of falseness in your character. You only think of your own satisfaction. You don’t understand. I’m not sincere. I reproach myself for being unfair to you. Give me a bracelet.

30

[A pause

My father is very generous. He enjoys doing things to please poor Mrs K. At the same time, he is generous with his wife and his daughter. My father never buys a piece of jewellery for me without buying one for my mother and one for Mrs K.

MR B. Dora is still a child and Mr K. treats her like a child. He sent her flowers, he gave her little presents.

She was like a mother to the children, she gave them lessons, took them for walks. Gave them the same tender care that their own mother would have shown them.

40

DORA I have never loved Mr K. I was never mad about him. I could have loved him, but ever since the scene by the lake, it’s altogether impossible. There had been talk of divorce between Mr and Mrs K. I took care of the children. When my father visited Mrs K. I knew that the children would not be at home, I liked to turn my steps in a direction where I would be sure to meet them and then I would go for a walk with them.

MR K. Dora is no longer a child.

MRS K. Dora is a child, who is only interested in sexual matters. When she was staying at our house on the lake, she used to slip off and read The Psychology of Love by Montegazza and other such books, which excited her. She adores me. She trusts me. She is a child who arouses mixed feelings; you can’t give credence to all that she says, this reading material goes to her head.

MR B. She probably “imagined” the entire scene by the lake.

DORA Do you hear him?

50

FREUD Yes.

DORA There’s a door in Vienna through which everyone may pass except me. I often dream that I arrive in front of this door, it opens, I could go in. Young men and women are streaming through it, I could slip in among them, but I don’t, yet I can’t walk away from this door forever, I go past it, I linger but I don’t do it, I am unable to, I am full of recollections and despair, what is strange is that I could go through but I am held back, I fear, I am beyond all fear, but I don’t go in, if I don’t go in I die, if I went in, if I wanted to see Mr K. but if Papa saw me, but I don’t want to see him, but if Papa saw me see him he would kill me, I could see him just once. It would be the last time. Then

MRS K. [in a laughing, mocking voice] I’ve always said that the key is in the lake! …

DORA Then … nothing. Nothing to be done.

60

As soon as I understood Mr K.’s intention I cut him of...