Howard Barker: Plays Nine

A Wounded Knife; At Her Age and Hers; In the Cloth Cathedral; After Naked

Howard Barker

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781783193127
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

The latest collection of plays by Howard Barker, one of the most significant and controversial dramatists of our time. Internationally renowned, his plays challenge, unsettle and expose. The latest volume in Oberon's Howard Barker series comprises the plays Harrowing and Uplifting Interviews, In the Cloth Cathedral, In the Depths of Dead Love and More No Still.

‘And what is our attitude to suicide?’

‘We confine ourselves to matters of practicality.

For example, should you wish to throw yourself into a well, ask first if the well is still in use, for certainly your corpse will contaminate the water...’

Chian H’si, ‘Conversations with Hu’

(circa 1380)

Characters

CHIN

The Proprietor of a Bottomless Well

HU

An Old Woman, His Servant

HASI

A Suicide

GHANG

Her Husband, a Lord

1

A well in ancient China. A decayed armchair in which a woman is seated. Her posture is rigid, her hands folded. She gazes fixedly at the hole. At length a man enters, formal and discreet. He makes and sustains a low bow.

HASI: (At last.) Yes I am not /

(Neither moves even fractionally.)

I am not yes /

(Or even lifts his eyes.)

Yes /

(She is resigned.)

I am not going in /

(She rises to her feet, reluctant, pitiful.)

Your appearances / how perfectly judged they are / it is as if you knew before I did that a decision had been reached /

(CHIN does not move or speak.)

On the other hand / it is perhaps the fact of your appearance that persuades me I have come to a decision when / had you delayed your interruption / I might / it is impossible to say / I might have / with further deliberation /

(She falters.)

Either way / it’s nothing to you /

(She is swiftly efficient.)

I will return tomorrow if I may / perhaps earlier / earlier in the day / I am more resolute in the morning / even if / come dusk / the solitary songbird in the flat black tree seems to invite me to do the thing I / do you find this funny? / lack the capacity to /

(Again she falters.)

CHIN: (Infinitely solicitous.) My lady Hasi knows the well is at her disposal / she must come and go as she wishes /

HASI: But if others / equally / or more entitled to /

CHIN: No one is more entitled than my lady Hasi to the well / and should it happen that a queue forms / as it has on rare occasions / I will remind them that mine is not the only well / even if it is / indisputably / the only well that is bottomless / and therefore / the only one which fully guarantees destruction / yes / now I think of it / there was once a queue / of farmers / during a failure of the harvest / a terrible year for them / but good for me / sadly / sadly /

(He has not risen from his bow. HASI seems to study him before turning to go.)

HASI: I will leave the money on the stone /

CHIN: On the stone / thank you /

(HASI stops.)

HASI: I have to say / I find it peculiar that / having left money on the stone before visiting the well / we wretches who / swamped with self-disgust at our failure to leap into the void and put an end to lives that are repugnant to us / must pay a further sum on our departure / I do not criticize / I do not lack for money / I merely remark / I remark / how this represents itself to me / as a tax on cowardice /

(CHIN is silent for some time.)

CHIN: My lady Hasi / visiting the well three times now / without availing herself of its unique facility / has had ample opportunity to meditate upon the formula by which a poor and undistinguished poet / far / far from his / or any other / city / earns a meagre living / the fact is / however / in perfect contradiction to my lady’s logic / that in dividing the charge / far from punishing the survivors / a discount is applied to those unhappy souls who succeed in flinging themselves into the well / whereas those / a significant majority / who return to the world / merely pay the standard fee / small enough I think my lady would agree / but sufficient to keep a man alive and to maintain the / admittedly uncomplicated / facilities / the armchair / for example / which / because it is old and routinely sodden with tears / frequently requires rep...