The Blue Room

A Play in Ten Intimate Acts

David Hare

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9780802135964
• eBook ISBN:
  9780802196439
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The Tony Award–winning playwright and screenwriter delivers "a witty, contemporary reworking of Arthur Schnitzler's nineteenth-century shocker La Ronde" ( The Mail on Sunday, four stars).
 
Arthur Schnitzler described Reigen, his loose series of sexual sketches, as "completely unprintable," and indeed, its premiere in 1921 spurred an obscenity suit. It was only when Max Ophüls made his famous film in 1950 that the work became better known as La Ronde.
 
Now David Hare has reset these circular scenes of love and betrayal in the present day, with a cast of two actors playing a succession of characters whose sexual lives enmesh like a daisy chain. The Blue Room is a brilliant meditation on men and women, sex and social class, actors and the theater. With deft insight about the gap between the sexes, it takes the treacherous Freudian subject of projection and desire and reinvents it in a bittersweet landscape that is both eternal and completely up to date.
 
"[Hare's] play slides up on one insidiously—always suggesting more than they first suggest, planting depth charges in the mind, subtly laying a minefield in the self-confidence of one's first impressions." — New York Post
 
"In the jungle of this city, sex is a driving force, a commodity and a need . . . This play could almost be a vividly illustrated Freudian textbook: the erotic drive in action, amoral and ruthless. Hare's version is, in the deepest and most essential sense, completely faithful to Schnitzler." — The Sunday Times
 
"Hare—buttressed by Freud and Proust—has turned sexual disappointment into something more interesting, the idea that what we are in love with is part illusion." — The Observer

1. The Girl and the Cab Driver

Darkness. Music. You have the impression of the stage opening up, as if it were expanding. You begin to see a GIRL, sitting on a bench, smoking a cigarette. As the stage grows around her, it becomes clear she is under a scrubby tree by the side of a street. She looks 18, like an amateur, in a short black leather skirt and shoes, but she also has an odd self-confidence. A CAB DRIVER walks past, taking no notice. She makes no reaction. Then ten seconds later, he passes again, going back in the other direction. This time, the music stops and she speaks as he passes her.

Girl What? What did you say?

Cab Driver I didn’t say anything.

Girl I thought you said something.

Cab Driver No.

Girl What made me think you just spoke?

She puts out her cigarette.

Girl Do you want to come home with me?

Cab Driver Do I want to go home with you? Go home? Why would I go home with you?

She is impassive, not responding.

Cab Driver Where is your home?

Girl Quite near.

Cab Driver Where?

Girl South.

Cab Driver I’m not going south.

Girl We can take a taxi.

Cab Driver Take a taxi? I drive a fucking taxi.

Girl Is it yours?

Cab Driver It’s mine.

Girl I mean, does it belong to you?

He turns to go.

Girl So?

Cab Driver I haven’t got any money. I just spent the lot on sushi.

Girl So?

The CAB DRIVER looks at her a moment.

Cab Driver Right, I’ve heard about you. You’re new. Aren’t you?

Girl New-ish.

Cab Driver How long?

Girl A week.

Cab Driver You enjoying it?

Girl Once or twice.

He looks at her, tempted.

Cab Driver How far is this place of yours?

Girl It’s ten minutes by cab.

Cab Driver Oh look, forget it. Ten minutes? No. Forget it. I have to work. I’ve made nothing tonight. And I’m not doing it in the car. It’s the first rule of driving. I never do it in the car.

Girl Give me a kiss.

Cab Driver Here?

She takes his hand and leads him quickly to a darker place across the street.

Girl Now give me a kiss.

She kisses him. It’s magical, suspended for a moment. They stay in each other’s arms. It is dark in the street and deserted.

Girl The kiss is the best bit. I like the kiss best.

Cab Driver It’s still too far.

He looks at her. They start to walk towards the river. As they go down by the riverside, it is very beautiful, the reflection of the water thrown high against the wall.

Girl What do you think? Do you think you’ll always want to drive a cab?

Cab Driver Shall we just stick to what we’re doing?

She throws a glance at him.

Girl What I want … what I really need is someone long-term. I need someone ambitious.

Cab Driver Long-term I’d make you jealous.

Girl Oh yeah?

Cab Driver Sure.

Girl Why?

Cab Driver I’m irresistible. Women can’t resist me.

Girl Watch out. It’s dark down here. One foot wrong and you’re in the river.

Cab Driver I’d love to be in the river.

She smiles. He tries to push her up against the wall.

Girl Let’s do it on the bench. There’s one over there.

Cab Driver Let’s do it here.

Girl Watch out, or we’ll both be in the water …

Cab Driver Great …

Girl We’ll both be in the water.

Music engulfs them. The lights go out. A projected slide reads: THREE MINUTES.

****

Light returns. The GIRL is lying on the ground. The CAB DRIVER is kneeling beside her, his hands on his knees.

Girl It would have been better on the bench.

Cab Driver On the bench. Off the bench. Up the fucking wall. What’s the difference? Up you get.

Girl Hey, where you going?

Cab Driver Back to work.

Suddenly he reaches down with unexpected tenderness and pulls her up. He smiles.

Cab Driver I told you. I’ve done no business tonight.

He begins to leave.

Girl What’s your name?

Cab Driver Oh no, I’m not telling you my name.

Girl My name’s Irene.

Cab Driver Irene, well!

Girl What’s yours?

They both smile. He turns to go.

Girl Hey listen …

Cab Driver What?

Girl Come on.

Cab Driver What? What are you asking?

Girl Come on. I didn’t want any money. Really. I didn’t. But, please: give me some money.

He looks at her a moment.

Cab Driver It went on the sushi. I’m not an idiot. Irene.

He goes.

Girl I’ll be here tomorrow.

2. The Cab Driver and the Au Pair

At once the sound of Elvis Presley. A slow ballad is being amplified very loudly and resonantly inside a neon-lit dance hall. Suddenly a door opens. Warm colored light falls across a darkened space, and onto the CAB DRIVER and the AU PAIR as they come in on a wave of good humor into a darkened storeroom, next to a dance hall. She is young, with a foreign accent and wearing a dress which is subtly too small for her.

Cab Driver Show me. Go on. Show me again.

Au Pair You won’t get it.

Cab Driver I will get it. You wait. I will get it.

Move by move, she demonstrates an intricate jive maneuver. She does it beautifully. He copies, learning.

Au Pair I do that.

Cab Driver Uh-huh.

Au Pair I do that. Then I do that.

He gets it. They laugh together at the neatness of it.

Cab Driver It’s great.

Au Pair By the way, what are we doing in h...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Characters
• 1. The Girl and the Cab Driver
• 2. The Cab Driver and the Au Pair
• 3. The Au Pair and the Student
• 4. The Student and the Married Woman
• 5. The Married Woman and the Politician
• 6. The Politician and the Model
• 7. The Model and the Playwright
• 8. The Playwright and the Actress
• 9. The Actress and the Aristocrat
• 10. The Aristocrat and the Girl