von Horvath: Two Plays,

Don Juan Comes Back from the War; Figaro Gets Divorced

Ödön von Horváth, Christopher Hampton, Ian Huish

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781783197880
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Europäisches Drama

DON JUAN COMES BACK FROM THE WAR (DON JUAN KOMMT AUS DEM KRIEG): The anti-hero of the title returns from the front in a fervour of despair. The girl he is searching for has died and the romantic ideal he is trying to construct is opposed by endless recriminations from the succession of women he encounters. Don Juan Comes Back from the War was first performed in this translation at the National Theatre in 1978. FIGARO GETS DIVORCED (FIGARO LÄSST SICH SCHEIGEN): An aristocratic couple and their two servants are on the run from a revolution. Their fortunes rise and fall against a background of social and political upheaval. Figaro Gets Divorced was premiered in this translation at the Gate Theatre in 1990.

FIGARO GETS DIVORCEDfor Louise

Preface

The comedy Figaro Gets a Divorce begins some years after Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro. Nevertheless I have taken the liberty of setting the play in our own time because the problems of revolution are first: timeless, and second: especially topical in our time. It is not the great French Revolution of 1789 that is meant here but quite simply any revolution, since every powerful upheaval has the same common denominator in its relationship to that which we respect, or disdain, as humanity. In The Marriage of Figaro there are rumbles of the coming revolution; in Figaro Gets a Divorce there will probably be no rumbles, for humanity is not accompanied by any storms, it is only a weak light in the darkness. Let us hope all the same that no storm, however great, will be able to extinguish it.

Ödön von Horváth

Louise Adey, Stephen Daldry and Professor Trangott
Krischke have all made invaluable contributions to this
translation, I owe them my deep gratitude.

IH

Characters

COUNT ALMAVIVA

THE COUNTESS

his wife

FIGARO

Valet to the Count

SUSANNE

Figaro’s wife and chambermaid to the Countess

FOUR BORDER-GUARDS

OFFICER

DOCTOR

FORESTER

MIDWIFE

HEADMASTER

MAID

ANTONIO

Susanne’s uncle and the castle gardener

FANCHETTE

his daughter

PEDRILLO

her husband, formerly groom to Count Almaviva

POLICEMAN

CHERUBIN

former page to Count Almaviva

GUEST

CARLOS

an orphan

MAURIZIO

another orphan

Other ORPHANS

The play is set some time after ‘The Marriage of Figaro’

Figaro Gets Divorced was first performed in this translation at the Gate Theatre in 1990, with the following cast:

FIGARO, Roger Sloman

COUNT ALMAVIVA, Richard Mayes

THE COUNTESS, Ellen Sheean

SUSANNE, Diana Kent

FIRST BORDER GUARD / FORESTER / PEDRILLO, Mark Spalding

SECOND BORDER GUARD / ADALBERT, Simon Linnell

THIRD BORDER GUARD / BASIL / SERGEANT / CUSTOMER, Robin Polley

OFFICER / HEADMASTER / INSPECTOR, Peter Wear

JOSEPHA / FRAULEIN DOKTOR, Joanna Wake

MIDWIFE, Christine Drummond

ANTONIO, Brian Badcoe

FANCHETTE, Kate Paul

CHERUBIN, Paul Besterman

CAESAR, Robin Clifford

ORPHANS, Seamus Gonzalez, Chloë Sutcliffe, Carra Rodway, Katrina Manson, Oliver, Zoë and Edward Lynch Bell, Eileen Roell

Director, Stephen Daldry

Designer, Ian MacNeil

Music, Stephen Warbeck

Lighting Designer, Ace McCarron

Production Manager, Caroline Maude

ACT ONE

Scene 1

In the depths of the forest near the border. COUNT ALMAVIVA, the COUNTESS, FIGARO and SUSANNE are fleeing from the Revolution. Only their voices can be heard as it is a pitch-black night.

COUNTESS: Where are you?

COUNT: Over here.

COUNTESS: I can’t see anything.

COUNT: This is the blackest night of my life.

(SUSANNE lets out a scream.)

FIGARO: What’s the matter?

SUSANNE: I just stepped in something soft.

COUNTESS: I hope there aren’t any snakes round here.

SUSANNE: God help us!

(A pale moon breaks through the clouds and now the fugitives become visible.)

COUNT: (Looking heavenward; ironically.) The moon is waxing.

COUNTESS: (Looking round.) Do snakes bite at night too?

(SUSANNE shudders with fright.)

FIGARO: My dear lady – gracious Countess – if I may most humbly make a request. Please don’t confuse the situation any further. It’s already confused enough without snakes.

COUNT: Amen to that!

SUSANNE: I’m covered in scratches from the undergrowth.

COUNTESS: And my clothes are all torn –

(In the distance a shot is heard.)

SUSANNE: (Anxiously.) What was that?

FIGARO: A shot. But we are safe.

COUNTESS: I must sit down. (She sits down on a tree-root.)

COUNT: (Talking slowly and softly to FIGARO.) Are we definitely over the border now?

FIGARO: Count, I know every clearing here. To the left is the lake, to the right the gorge, over yonder the moor and behind us our own dear fatherland.

COUNT: Let’s hope you’re right. For the last twenty-four hours I’ve been wondering what crime I committed that made it necessary for me to sneak out of the land of my fathers like a common criminal, just in order to save my skin.

FIGARO: You are the honourable Count, Your Honour, highest noble lord by birth, judge and master of all you survey. Are those not crimes enough? (He smiles ambiguously.)

COUNT: The events of the last few days are unbelievable. His Majesty murdered, the nobility driven out and killed, estates plundered and churches destroyed, castles looted – a baker’s boy is Field Marshal, a cobbler is President and a clerk is our ambassador in London! Privileges abolished, equal rights for all, whether prince or vagrant: equal rights. No, this is all wrong and things can’t go on like this, it just flies in the face of the divine law. No one would ever have dreamt of such a thing happening.

FIGARO: Apart from those who brought about the revolution.

(The COUNT stares at him wide-eyed.)

COUNTESS: (Anxiously.) There’s somebody there –

SUSANNE: Where?

(They all listen.)

COUNTESS: (Without expression.) We’re being hunted.

FIGARO: There’s nobody there.

COUNT: You can always hear footsteps in the forest at night.

SUSANNE: Especially in autumn when the leaves are falling.

(Silence.)

COUNT: (Tenderly to the COUNTESS.) We must move on, my dear –

COUNTESS: (Softly.) I’d like to go to sleep.

COUNT: Here? In the forest?

(The COUNTESS looks at him with wide eyes and hums a melancholy air. The COUNT puts his hand over his eyes.)

FIGARO: (In an attempt to cheer her up.) Gracious Countess, I once spoke with a man given up for dead and he said he’d rather be a hunted animal in the undergrowth than an emperor under the ground. Better alive but in bed than in heaven and dead. Gracious Countess, I swear to you that we’ll reach the first village in half an hour at the latest – I can feel it in my bones. Rely on me and my infamous instinct!

COUNTESS: (Who cannot help smiling slightly.) Your instinct, my dear fellow, with all due respect –

SUSANNE: (Interrupting her, also in an attempt to cheer her up.) Oh yes, your Grace! I won’t hear a word against Figaro’s instincts! Everything that he prophesies comes about and he has prophesied everything.

COUNT: Even the Revolution?

FIGARO: Prophesying that wouldn’t exactly have required genius.

COUNT: No genius required?

FIGARO: (Evasively.) We were all deaf. Or blind.

SUSANNE: I can see a light! Over there!

(They all look.)

COUNT: I can’t see anything.

COUNTESS: Where’s my lorgnette?

FIGARO: Yes, it’s a light all right. I can see it clearly – without doubt it’s a house, gracious Countess!

COUNTESS: God help us! (She stands up.) I do believe I’m in hell and hell is just one great forest of trees.

Scene 2

It is four hours later and ...