The Rivers of China

Alma De Groen

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781760626716
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

In 1923 the writer Katherine Mansfield went to the guru Gurdjieff in Fontainebleau in the hope that he might 'cure her soul'. In the 1980s in Sydney, a young man awakes in hospital to find a world dominated by women. This daring re-examination of the female artist challenges the threshold of sexual politics.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

Wayne’s room. The lights come up on WAYNE and AUDRA in bed.

WAYNE:

… The soul has moments of Escape—

When bursting all the doors—

She dances like a Bomb, abroad,

And swings upon the Hours,

…

The Soul’s retaken moments—

When, Felon led along,

With shackles on the plumed feet,

And staples, in the Song,

The Horror welcomes her, again …

When I recite Emily Dickinson, I am Emily Dickinson.

AUDRA gets up.

Audra?

AUDRA: I’m on call.

She starts to dress.

WAYNE: I don’t believe it! I made dinner. I thought you’d stay over.

Pause.

When am I going to see you?

AUDRA: You’ll see me at the hospital.

WAYNE: You know what I mean. I mean when am I going to see you?

AUDRA: I’ll let you know.

WAYNE: Was it the poetry?

AUDRA: I’m a doctor, Wayne. I don’t have time for words.

WAYNE: You’re seeing someone else.

AUDRA: I’m not seeing anyone. We have our own lives to lead.

WAYNE: Speak for yourself.

AUDRA picks up her bag. She crosses to WAYNE.

AUDRA: Look, Wayne: you’re cute, you’re funny, you make me laugh—and when I can get you to shut up, I enjoy going to bed with you. That’s all there is to it. You either accept things as they are, or not at all. I’ll see you on the ward.

AUDRA exits. He waits a safe interval.

WAYNE: [shouting] Bitch! Rotten bitch! I hate you. I hate all women! I wish you’d disappear off the face of the earth.

He flings himself back on the pillows, feels around underneath and pulls out a packet of lollies. He munches disconsolately.

Bitch.

He turns on the radio.

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: … baffled by an incident involving a man who is reported to have fallen from the top of the A.M.P. Building¹ at Circular Quay shortly before midday. Startled office workers reported seeing the figure as it plummeted to the street below, but surprisingly, no trace of a body has been found. An extensive search of the area failed to account for the disappearance of the man, whose fall was witnessed by upwards of forty people … Suicides by young men in New South Wales have risen in 1987² to—

WAYNE switches it off.

WAYNE: I’ve never told Audra I want to be a writer. I quote other people’s poetry and slip in one of mine alongside Stevie Smith³ or whoever:

Words which have never been born

Or seen the light

Shimmering on the edge of Mind

Perilous ghosts …

He stops, considering, then starts to exit.

‘Falling without sound …’ [Approvingly]

‘Dying on the haunted air …’

He exits.

SCENE TWO

Fontainebleau 1922. A gallery above the cowshed.

KATHERINE and GURDJIEFF enter. There are faint sounds of bicycle bells and distant shouts and laughter. GURDJIEFF studies KATHERINE through a haze of cigarette smoke.

KATHERINE: Well. It all sounds wonderfully good and simple and what one needs … Perhaps I might go and unpack … ?

GURDJIEFF continues his silent regard. KATHERINE moves to the window using her stick.

What are they doing over there?

GURDJIEFF: They dig found...