The Simpleton

Sergei Kokovkin, John Freedman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134427093
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

First Published in 2000. The Simpleton, which was written in 1968 and could not be performed for political reasons, saw the light of day only in 1994. Its complex games of power and identity, played out among a group of actors, remain entirely contemporary today. Set in a theatre, The Simpleton, in the age-old tradition of Russian drama, tackles the timeless problems of personal freedom and inner independence. It is anything but a simple play with its complicated chameleon-like nature new levels of reality continually moving in to push their predecessors out of the way. The mystification begins at the outset with the future arsonist, the Fop, prowling through the gall grumbling about the presence of spectators... The Simpleton is unlike anything else that was being written in the Soviet Union at the time and aside from its searing thematic content, it is astonishingly inventive in its theatricality.

THE SIMPLETON

A GROTESQUE IN TWO ACTS

CHARACTERS

The Simpleton

The Fop

The Director

The Leading Lady

The Heroine

The Raisonneur

The Extra

The Fireman

ACT I

(The stage depicts the stage of a theater. The Top moves towards it through the audience)

FOP: What are people doing here? I ordered the doors to be locked and no one to be let in. Trapped now, aren’t you? Saps. What is it that makes people so hungry for spectacles these days? You sit there and watch how other people suffer in torment and even die. It’s a terrible vice. But today I’m taking things into my own hands. I’m going to burn this theater down. I’m going to blow it up right before your eyes. Everything is ready. All that’s lacking is just one tiny spark. Shut the door. Dim the lights. Darkness!

(Enter the Raisonneur on the darkened stage)

RAISONNEUR: And now we begin! In the beginning there was night.

EXTRA: (Peering out from backstage) Night!

RAISONNEUR: Night!

EXTRA: Night.

RAISONNEUR: Night.

EXTRA: Nighty-night.

(Enter the Director)

RAISONNEUR: Bravo! Bravo, Mister Director! What a beginning! What a night! A night as black as fright! You know, there’s something to that …

DIRECTOR: What’s going on? How come it’s so dark? Who turned out the lights? Give me something, quick!

EXTRA: Give him something, quick.

(The Raisonneur disappears. A moment later he reappears and sets down a fire extinguisher at center stage)

DIRECTOR: What’s that for?

RAISONNEUR: To put out fires.

DIRECTOR: What fire?

RAISONNEUR: Any fire.

DIRECTOR: There’s nothing burning here. What did you bring that in for?

RAISONNEUR: You said to give you something quick. I didn’t have any choice.

DIRECTOR: I asked you to give me light.

EXTRA: We asked you to give us light!

RAISONNEUR: Ah-h-h! Give you light! That’s right. You know, I said right away that this darkness doesn’t do us justice. I mean, in this darkness nobody can see our faces.

DIRECTOR: Give me a spotlight!

RAISONNEUR: A spotlight! Good! Courageous, wrathful and uncompromising! You’re a hero! What valor, Mister Director!

(The stage grows light)

DIRECTOR: The end. It grows dark.

EXTRA: (Ingratiatingly) It’s getting light!

DIRECTOR: “More light and light: more dark and dark our woes!”¹ Where’s that from? I forget. Life is passing. I am theater. Theater is me. I feel sick.

EXTRA and RAISONNEUR: Sick!

DIRECTOR: There’s not a single face around me. Nothing but masks. Masks, masks and masks, but not one living face. A life lived among masks. Empty.

EXTRA and RAISONNEUR: Empty!

DIRECTOR: Even so, it still is life. And you get stingy when it starts petering out. You start grasping at straws and counting every breath. Gentlemen, don’t take away my life!

EXTRA and RAISONNEUR: Us?

DIRECTOR: I haven’t lived yet, gentlemen. Everything up to now has been a test-ride. A rough draft, an approximation. Life always seems like it’s really going to happen the way it’s supposed to somewhere up ahead, later on. If only I could rewrite it all, gentlemen, I would really do a job of it. Nothing, nowhere, not one little … But now it’s too late. Too late. All is lost. (To the Raisonneur) You know how to use that?

RAISONNEUR: More or less, but less than more.

DIRECTOR: But you can put out a fire?

RAISONNEUR: I’m afraid I can’t, Mister Director.

DIRECTOR: Then that makes you one of the arsonists. Mankind splits into two categories: those who set fires and those who get set fire to. I belong to the latter. Like most of us. What about you, Mister Extra?

EXTRA: I’ve tried all kinds of professions, Mister Director. I can do anything.

DIRECTOR: No, Prometheus blew it. You can’t trust people with fire. What are my mistakes next to his fateful error?

RAISONNEUR and EXTRA: Your mistakes?

DIRECTOR: Yes! Why hide it? It’s my fault, of course. So please forgive me. But that’s life, folks. It has its own rules and regulations … By the way, there should be some instructions there. Take a look, Raisonneur.

RAISONNEUR: (Looks over the fire extinguisher) Nothing here.

DIRECTOR: What about underneath?

EXTRA: Nothing there, either.

DIRECTOR: Isn’t there anything written on it?

RAISONNEUR: Yeah, there’s something scratched here. But it doesn’t have anything to do with us.

DIRECTOR: What does it say?

RAISONNEUR: There’s just one word, but I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for.

DIRECTOR: Come on.

RAISONNEUR: (Reads) “Exit.”

DIRECTOR: A-ha! That’s the key “Exit!” That’s our salvation.

EXTRA: Down below there’s an arrow.

DIRECTOR: Where was the fire extinguisher hanging?

RAISONNEUR: By the big back door.

DIRECTOR: And the arrow?

EXTRA: Pointed towards the door.

DIRECTOR: Where’s the door lead to?

RAISONNEUR: Nobody knows. It’s nailed shut from the inside.

DIRECTOR: You’ve never looked through the crack?

EXTRA: There isn’t any crack.

RAISONNEUR: Or door knob.

EXTRA: There’s a sign on the door.

RAISONNEUR: With two words on it.

EXTRA and RAISONNEUR: “No Exit!”

(Pause)

DIRECTOR: Don’t take away my life, gentlemen!

VOICE OF THE LEADING LADY: No! I won’t do it! I won’t go on stage! (Enters) I refuse to perform. That’s it! I’ve had enough! Kick me out if you want! Replace me. Let somebody else play! I’m leaving! You call this life? Let me out of here! (Approaches the large back door upstage. Knocks) Won’t you please open up? I’m not feeling well. I’m feeling terrible! (Knocks) They don’t hear me. (Cries) A-a-a-a!

DIRECTOR: (While the Leading Lady cries) What a range! What virtuoso transformations! What a pity I didn’t stage something ancient or tragic with you last season.

LEADING LADY: (With sympathy) Something bothering you?

DIRECTOR: No, no. Do go on.

LEADING LADY: (Enunciates) “Sing, O Goddess, the wrath of Achilles, scion of Peleus …”² This gray is a horrid color. Makes me look like a mouse. I am a gray, homeless mouse. I can’t perform in this dress.

DIRECTOR: You are gorgeous! You are unique! You are the only thing I’ve got left. Where do you want to play?

LEADING LADY: In the theater.

DIRECTOR: For whom?

LEADING LADY: For spectators.

DIRECTOR: You are ravishing! Pure, natural, impetuous and stunningly naive! We don’t have any spectators. We don’t have anyone. We don’t have anything. We are ruined. We are a raft of the “Medusa,” lost at sea.³ We are the last tiny throng of thespians. Surrounded by a wall. We don’t even know if there is life left beyond that wall. We are locked in. With no exit. There is nothing left us but theater – the theater within us.

RAISONNEU...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Series
• List of Plates
• Introduction
• The Simpleton