STATE OF EMERGENCY

(Im Ausnahmezustand)

Falk Richter

Translated by David Tushingham

 © S. Fischer Verlag

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email: [email protected]
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No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

2
Characters

WOMAN
MAN
BOY

3
WOMAN Look

MAN Yeah?

WOMAN Are you alright?

MAN Short pause Yeah

WOMAN …everything’s alright, I mean… you?

MAN What? Yeah, sure

WOMAN You’re…

MAN What? Yes

WOMAN Is everything ok with

MAN With me you mean? Yeah.

WOMAN You’re sure?

MAN What?

WOMAN Are you sure?

MAN Yes

WOMAN quite sure

MAN Short pause What? Yes

WOMAN Uh-huh

MAN Yes

WOMAN So there’s nothing?

MAN What? No

WOMAN Nothing

MAN What’s supposed to be, no

WOMAN Everything’s ok?

MAN What?

4
WOMAN With you?

MAN Yes

WOMAN Good

MAN Yes

WOMAN Uh-huh
Pause.
Come here

MAN What is it?

WOMAN Just come over here

MAN I’m right next to you

WOMAN No, come… closer

MAN Yeah

WOMAN Look at me

MAN What is it?

WOMAN Just look at me

He does this
What is it?

MAN What?

WOMAN What’s wrong?

MAN Leave me

WOMAN No, look at me

MAN Yeah

WOMAN That look, something’s… I don’t know what it

is but… something’s…

MAN No it’s not

WOMAN Different

5
MAN What?

WOMAN Different, about you… something’s different

MAN No

WOMAN There’s something different

MAN About me, no, nothing’s different

WOMAN You sure?

MAN What?

WOMAN Are you sure about that?

MAN Me?

WOMAN Look at me again

The MAN does it.
Everything’s so

MAN What?

WOMAN Everything’s as it should be?

MAN Yeah, of course

WOMAN Everything’s just as it should be?

MAN Everything’s just as it should be

WOMAN ‘S not very convincing the way you say it,

say it again

MAN Everything’s fine, everything’s just,

everything’s

WOMAN I’m worried

MAN There’s no need

WOMAN I’m worried about you

MAN Don’t be
Short pause.

6
WOMAN Can you hear… shooting?

MAN What?

WOMAN I thought it had stopped but

Short pause
no, it’s getting closer, every day and I
She stops, a faint noise can be heard, the
man holds his temples, the woman listens
very precisely to the noise.
Shooting.

MAN No

WOMAN You can’t hear it?

MAN uncertain No, it’s quiet here… isn’t it?

WOMAN Is something going on? Is there something

going on? That’s… right here in the
neighbourhood, isn’t it?

MAN No

WOMAN It’s getting closer all the time

Short pause, the sound of waves can be
heard.

MAN That’s nice

WOMAN Now they’re playing that noise again, that

means that…

MAN No

WOMAN Yes, it does, it means… when they play the

waves, then they’re doing that so we can’t
hear the screams, the gunshots because
someone somewhere’s gone and tried again to

MAN No people say that but it’s not true

Laughs.
They really are waves

WOMAN So where’s the sea then?

7
 Short pause
If they play the sound of waves, then

MAN They do it because it sounds nice, it’s

soothing, because it’s beautiful, because
the sun’s going down and it fits… we might
not have the sea, but they’ll build us one
here soon, it’s just a question of money
and… whether they get permission for
resettlement but

WOMAN We’re not safe here any more are we?

MAN Yes we are

WOMAN At night people get over the walls or

someone’s letting them in… someone here in
the complex is leaving the gate open at
night and

MAN Shhhh, come on, let’s just listen to the

waves for a bit and

WOMAN Look at me

MAN Yes

WOMAN Look at my face

MAN I am

WOMAN Properly
He looks at her.
It’s not you, is it?

MAN What?

WOMAN Who’s leaving the gate open at night?

MAN Me?

WOMAN I’m not sure any more

MAN Me?

WOMAN Somebody here, here in the complex, that’s

what they’re saying, somebody… apparently

8
 people get in through the sewers or let
themselves be thrown in from above, I don’t
know, that’s what they’re saying, nobody’s
saying it officially but… the gun shots, I
am not imagining those am I and.. at night
people go sneaking round the buildings, it
didn’t used to be like that, can nobody
sleep or are they really people from
outside, but how are they doing it, how are
they getting in here, there’s got to be
somebody, that’s what they’re saying,
somebody, who… we’re not safe here any more…
are YOU leaving the gate open? You’re not
doing that are you? You’re not. I don’t
know… I’ve been sleeping so badly recently,
and the pills, they’re… they’re not helping,
but I… I can’t keep on going back asking for
more, that… I can’t, it would be noticed,
there would be talk, then the company would
find out and, we’re not supposed to be
afraid, we aren’t, I don’t want to be
either, I WANT not to be afraid, but…
you’re… there’s something… about
Short pause.
… you and… I’m having such… weird dreams all
the time now, I… can see you at night and…
but I know… I’m not dreaming, it doesn’t
feel like a dream because when I wake up and
look beside me… you’re not there or… no…
you’re there but you’re not you or you’re
another man who looks like you but isn’t
you, not like you used to be when… is
everything ok with you?

MAN With me? Yeah

WOMAN Nothing’s changed?

MAN No

WOMAN I just thought, because you, it feels

MAN Calm down, everything’s fine

He kisses her.

WOMAN It’s odd

9
MAN What is?

WOMAN You kiss differently

MAN What?

WOMAN It’s not like you. Something’s… different…

I don’t know, but

MAN kisses her again Everything’s fine,

everything’s just as it should be, I’m no

WOMAN Different, but you are

MAN I’m not

WOMAN I can tell, something’s going on inside you…

but what? What exactly is it? Where’s my
husband? Where is he? I can’t find him any
more, when I look at you, I
Short pause.
D’you notice that? It’s so quiet suddenly,
first there’s shooting, then the waves and
then complete silence, listen…

MAN It’s not shooting, it’s kids playing

WOMAN Uh-huh, so what are they playing then?

MAN I don’t know, they

WOMAN And why are they hanging from the fence at

five in the morning with their eyes wide
open? What’s that game called?

MAN I don’t know, they’re accidents, that

happens every now and again, it…

WOMAN Silence can you hear

MAN They ought to build a sea then we’d be safe

WOMAN Then they’ll swim across and… I climbed up

on the roof yesterday

MAN You did what?

10
WOMAN I climbed up on the roof

MAN That’s not really… planned, is it?

WOMAN It was five in the morning and I looked over

at the other side

MAN Oh yes?

WOMAN D’you know that at night here it’s teeming

with people

MAN Teeming?

WOMAN None of them can sleep, they all walk the

streets

MAN Maybe they’re shadows, shadows of the trees

WOMAN Trees don’t run away when you throw stones

after them.

MAN You did… what?

WOMAN I saw you

MAN Me?

WOMAN Yes, you… running around, on the other side,

you wanted to drive our car out of there but
you couldn’t find it… you were running
around there, in front of the gate, alone,
looking for the car but you didn’t find it,
it had been torched, all the cars had been
torched, and you were looking but the burnt
out corpses of the torched cars all looked
the same and you’d forgotten where you’d
parked it or whether you even had parked it
ANYWHERE, you couldn’t remember anything any
more, nothing, you were running around in
the dark and you wanted to get back in but
you’d forgotten the code and then you ran
round in circles between the burning cars
and screamed, just screamed

MAN Aha

11
WOMAN And when I woke up you were lying here but I
couldn’t feel you, you were… still out there
among all the corpses

MAN Oh yeah?

WOMAN We’ve lost something… is that possible,

something’s different but it’s nothing to do
with me, is that right?

MAN With you?

WOMAN You’re not sleeping

MAN What?

WOMAN You’re tired but you don’t sleep… you lie

there next to me and… what’s the matter with
you?

MAN What’s the matter with YOU?

WOMAN You know, I… I lie awake at night and… I

watch you… sleeping… uncomfortably, you lie
awake, all night, tossing back and forth,
you pretend to be asleep, you don’t want me
to notice, you’re afraid, lying there,
tossing back and forth and

MAN And what?

WOMAN What’s the matter with you? What’s

happened?

MAN Nothing

WOMAN You scare me

MAN You scare ME

WOMAN What are you doing there? What are you

looking for out there? Wandering around
there, looking and looking, what are you
looking for? You stand around for hours at
night by the entrance, not coming in, then
you sneak past the guards and

12
MAN Me

WOMAN Something’s not right with you, you

Pause.
Are you leaving the gate open at night? Is
it you?

MAN No, I

WOMAN I listen to you

MAN You do what?

WOMAN You talk

MAN Oh yeah?

WOMAN In your sleep

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN You talk in your sleep

MAN Uh-huh
Pause.

WOMAN What are you talking about?

MAN What?

WOMAN WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I WANT TO KNOW,

WHAT?

MAN What am I talking about then?

WOMAN DON’T YOU KNOW? Arrgh, something… I can

hear that noise again, I… why are you doing
this? Why are you putting everything at
risk now? Suddenly now after all these
years we’ve
Pause, he looks at her
the way you’re looking at me now
Short pause
that’s how you look at me every night

MAN When?

13
WOMAN You wake up for a fraction of a second and
look at me, very briefly, like you are now…
in panic… like you want to run away… I lie
awake… at night… and watch you sleeping, I
lie awake and listen to you breathing… I do
it every night… night after night… I watch
you… that breathing seems to get louder and
louder, like a roaring, a screaming, a… I
don’t know, OWW, I’m so close to you and…
where are you trying to run to? … you rock
back and forth, sometimes you scream, not
for long, YOU SCREAM, don’t you realise, you
must realise, you suddenly scream, grab hold
of me and then… I lie awake watching you
because I want to understand, I want to
understand but OW this roaring noise, am I
the only one who can hear it? I watch you, I
watch you sleeping or pretending to sleep,
you’re dreaming about something, and in your
dreams you’re wandering around, wandering on
the other side of the fence, talking to the
people there, getting lost behind the
rubbish tips, lying down in the snow and
laughing, you’re lying there with your eyes
closed and laughing… such a strange… laugh…
it’s coming out of you… at night… and
you’re talking, talking in your sleep…
where… where are you? where are you then?
at night? where are you then? where?
that’s what I want to know, where?

MAN uncertain I’m with right you

WOMAN No

MAN I am totally and utterly with you, I… what

am I supposed to… I mean, where… what?

WOMAN You hold onto me and scream… I want to give

you everything you need, but… what am I
supposed to do, I… where’s my husband gone,
where is he? What have you done with him?
WHERE IS HE? I WANT MY HUSBAND BACK, what
have you done with him, where is he, where?

MAN cautiously I am here

14
WOMAN No

MAN Yes, I’m

WOMAN No, you’re not, you are not, that is not…

and that is why I thought

MAN What?

WOMAN I thought that… it would be better if… it

might be better

MAN No

WOMAN Better if I

MAN No

WOMAN Purely to help you I mean, if I, if I… if I

were to tell them

MAN No

WOMAN So that they could check

MAN What? No

WOMAN Check to see if everything’s alright with

you

MAN No

WOMAN It might be something chemical… the

magnesium levels aren’t right, there’s
something… the blood levels or… I just
thought, maybe

MAN No, my levels are fine.

WOMAN And you’ve had them tested?

MAN Yes

WOMAN Have you?

MAN Yes
Short pause.

15
WOMAN What about more sport?

MAN What about it?

WOMAN Didn’t you have to do more sport?

MAN Me?

WOMAN Get out in the evenings, go for a walk round

the lake with the dog.
Short pause.

MAN We haven’t got a dog

WOMAN Then we’ll hire one, you can hire things

like that here, or we’ll order one, then

MAN No, I don’t want a dog.

WOMAN Or you could dig in the garden with the

neighbours

MAN That’s… there are people employed to do

that… that’s not planned, for us to go round
digging up the garden, if everyone did that,
then

WOMAN Hold me tight

MAN What?

WOMAN Hold me tight, please

MAN hugs her for a while Is that good?

Short pause.

WOMAN We can tell each other everything, we don’t

need to keep any secrets from one another,
do we? We don’t need to

MAN No

WOMAN If something’s not right then we would tell

each other, wouldn’t we?

16
MAN Yes

WOMAN If a time comes when you don’t want to have

sex with me, you just don’t fancy me, then…
you don’t have to

MAN But I want to, I mean, I like doing that,

so, I…

WOMAM Yes?

MAN No, that’s… fine, that’s what we agreed,

once a fortnight

WOMAN You don’t have to if it’s too much bother.

MAN But it’s not too much bother, I mean, it’s…

no, once a fortnight…
We need that too, I mean, we… you do too,
don’t you?

WOMAN It’s ok if you miss the odd one, honestly…

take a break and… I can do without it for a
month or two, that’s fine… I mean… there are
people who NEVER

MAN Stop it

WOMAN They just come home and stare at the ceiling

Short pause.
Compared with that what we’ve got here is
beautiful, desirable, enviable… I mean there
are people who just lie around and shout all
day or bang their heads on the ceiling or
THEY KEEP wanking, wanking and wanking and
wanking till they’re so empty and wrung out
that they’re so stupid and stubborn they
keep running into the door without finding
the way out, THEY KEEP DOING IT OVER AND
OVER AGAIN, by those standards we’ve got a
great life, haven’t we, eh?
The MAN has closed his eyes as if he’s gone
to sleep, he tries to breathe evenly.
Darling.
Short pause.
Love.

17
 Short pause, very tender I understand,
other couples don’t have sex, we work… we do
a lot of work, so… so we don’t always have
to have sex with each other
The MAN says nothing.
I think it’s ok for you to come home and not
want to talk to me, if you just sit down and
don’t look at me, don’t touch me… don’t talk
to me

MAN But I do

WOMAN You don’t notice

MAN I

WOMAN ’Cause you’re not here

MAN I

WOMAN On some endlessly long sheet of ice

somewhere… somewhere in the Arctic a group
of young polar bears are searching for food…
suddenly the ice breaks and they all plunge
down three thousand metres into the depths
and drown… you can hear their screams for
days while they’re drowning, while the sun
slowly eats away their brains
Pause.
That was on tv yesterday.

MAN A documentary?

WOMAN On the news.

Pause.
Look… it’s ok, if you don’t think about me
or…my body, sure, I mean I understand… I am
over 40… and by that time your body

MAN Stop it

WOMAN No,no,I understand, I understand… my body’s

Rather forced laughter.
And yours, well, yours is
She strokes his body, takes a close look at
a couple of places and laughs.

18
 It gets to be like that eventually, it’s not
a bad thing, we’ll deal with it, you know,
course we will
Pause.
It’s just, it’s just… you don’t have to be
happy with me, and you don’t have to make me
happy, that’s ok, in that area I really
don’t have such high… but… you should…
Short pause.
… go to work

MAN What?

WOMAN Because if you don’t do that… if you show

the same kind of attitude there as you do
here, then

MAN Me? No, how

WOMAN I just think you ought to go back

MAN But I’m there

WOMAN Your body’s there

MAN What?

WOMAN You’re not present and… they can tell…

there’s something missing… you’re no fun.
Pause.
It’s alright, if you find that somewhere
else, not here, not with me, after all this
time no-one’s expecting a lot of action in
that department, that’s fine, but… but, can
I say this one thing, as a ‘friend’ or
whatever you want to call it: get yourself
what you need to keep on working, get it… so
you… so… you’ve got to work, you’ve got to
be good, you understand what I mean?

MAN Yes

WOMAN They rang up

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN They rang me up and asked about you

19
MAN Did they?

WOMAN Whether everything’s alright, they’re

worried, they’re all really worried about
you.

MAN Really?

WOMAN Yes, all of them, the management, the team,

the lot

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN They’re all really worried about you… and

about me, they’re asking how I can have let
this happen that you, let you become so
different, you’re so absent, they want to
know where you get to in this absence of
yours, what you’re thinking, they’re asking
me for clues because none of them can make
any sense of your behaviour, it’s so
unusual, like something happened… they…
they’ve asked me, not to leave you to your
own devices, to take responsibility

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN You’re so passive

MAN But I

WOMAN You’re getting left behind

MAN No

WOMAN You’re not achieving

MAN What, of course, I

WOMAN Your performance is down

MAN No

WOMAN That’s what they’re saying

20
MAN That’s not true, I’m doing everything just
like I… like I always do

WOMAN But something’s different

MAN No

WOMAN Your performance is down, they’ve measured

it

MAN That can’t be true

WOMAN It is

MAN No

WOMAN And they want to know why

MAN I do everything they way I’ve always, I get

just as much done as before

WOMAN But you’re not enjoying it

Short pause
It’s no fun any more, you’ve fallen out of
love… with the job and that’s… they can tell
and they’re wondering why, because the job’s
still the same so it would seem to be
something with you

MAN I do enjoy it

WOMAN And they want to know what can be done

MAN I enjoy doing it

WOMAN They’ve had a couple of meetings about it

with the team, individual interviews and…
and here in the complex, they’ve talked to
the neighbours… they’ve looked at your video
analysis, all your stats for the last five
years.
Short pause.

MAN What?

WOMAN They say you hardly laugh any more, you…

don’t enjoy the job any more, you do the

21
 work… hesitantly and look out of the window
a lot, three or four minutes an hour on
average. And increasing.
Short pause.
What are you looking for?

MAN I

WOMAN The others don’t like to be in the same room

as you, late at night you seem… tired…
you’re always the last one to leave the
office but what are you doing there? Your
scores are falling… what are you doing there
so late if you’re not working, what? When
you all go away at weekends or just go out
for a drink together… no one wants to sit
next to you, when they put together new
teams, nobody wants you on their team,
nobody, you don’t really engage in
conversations… it’s like it’s not really you
who’s talking, it’s like you’re… somewhere
else… and the customers can tell, the
customers… the customers don’t want
appointments with you, you’ve got fewer
appointments

MAN That is not

WOMAN 3.45 per cent less than last month

Pause.
4.13 per cent less than the month before,
you’re dropping back, soon… soon you won’t
exist any more, the numbers… are against
you… you don’t convince the customers any
more, because… because… what is it? What’s
wrong, what?
Pause.
…like you’re… somewhere else and where you
are exactly that’s something they’d like to
know… they really want to know that.
Pause, very softly Where are you?
Short pause, normal volume You don’t tell
jokes any more, you used to really enjoy
telling jokes, why don’t you do it any more?

MAN uncertain I do

22
WOMAN produces a piece of paper with diagrams on
it and checks 17 per cent down on last
month. 23 per cent down on the same month
last year.

MAN I

WOMAN you’d tell people about yourself, your life,

stories, anecdotes, or if there was
something you’d enjoyed in one of the shows
you’d act them out, imitating the candidates
or someone stumbling… they’d all laugh, they
thought it was… funny… it cheered them up,
gave them so much strength they really
wanted to be together with you, get through
the day with you, but… why not, why don’t
you do that any more?

MAN But I

WOMAN No

MAN I

WOMAN Tell me a joke then

MAN What? No

WOMAN Come on

MAN Now?

WOMAN Yes
Long pause, he starts but breaks off after
the first word.

MAN A man goes into

Breaks off, short pause.
A

WOMAN And you’d sing

MAN What?

WOMAN Before you used to… sing when you were at

work and… now you don’t any more

23
MAN Yes I

WOMAN Sing then

MAN No

WOMAN Sing

MAN Now?

WOMAN Yes
The MAN hums something softly, then stops.

MAN I

WOMAN Come on, let’s sing together

MAN Leave me

WOMAN No, come on, let’s practice

MAN Leave me alone, can’t we go… eat or

something

WOMAN starts singing I want to live

Waits for him to sing the second line and
when he doesn’t she carries on singing.
I want to give
Waits for him.
Come on.

MAN I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold

WOMAN You missed several awaydays, where were you?

MAN I was there

WOMAN No you weren’t

MAN Why do you believe that?

WOMAN I KNOW, they called me, they… I know. She

flicks through a series of papers. I know
all about it, for God’s sake, have you any
idea what you’re doing… I’m going to have
to leave here too if you... you can’t do it
any more, if you can’t get into the next

24
 round… they’ll… they’ve got out all your
files, gone through them all again, your
aptitude tests, they thought you might have
cheated, you had very consistent results,
absolutely top results and now, if it
carries on like this, they’ll

MAN I do my best

WOMAN That’s not you any more, I don’t know you

any more, that’s not my husband, that’s some
other man, you’re not the man I… maybe it
would be better if you

MAN No

WOMAN Or I, if we, if we’re not going to, but

MAN No

WOMAN What’s the point of all this?

MAN No

WOMAN Go to sleep

MAN I’m trying to

WOMAN Get some sleep, rest, find whatever it is

that you… find it, that I don’t know, that
strength, find it, go on… Don’t lie awake,
sleep

MAN That’s what I’m trying to do, I’m…

WOMAN What are you talking about in your sleep?

MAN Me, nothing

WOMAN I listen to you

Short pause
I write it down

MAN You do what?

WOMAN I write it down, I… I… make notes, I… asked

Stefan whether

25
MAN like a foreign word “Stefan”?

WOMAN Your friend, you go back a long way, I

thought maybe he could

MAN I’ve known him six months

WOMAN But you’re with him all the time

MAN We sit opposite each other in the office

WOMAN Yes, but you

MAN Occasionally we go and do… sport together,

but

WOMAN I thought maybe he can help you, but

MAN What are you doing?

WOMAN I’m worried about you, I don’t want people

to think I don’t take care of you, you know,
I don’t want people to say that I neglected…
they asked me to

MAN Who are you?

WOMAN They like you, we all like you, we don’t

want to lose you
Short pause.
You seem upset

MAN Is there anyone else here in this room?

WOMAN You seem upset?

MAN Is anybody there?

WOMAN You seem upset, right now this minute, now…

the way you’re… yes, now… the way you’re
looking at me

MAN What way?

WOMAN So tired

26
MAN Me?

WOMAN So exhausted

MAN Aha

WOMAN Is it anything to do with me?

The MAN does not answer.
Is something annoying you?

MAN No

WOMAN About me?

MAN No

WOMAN Do you fancy me?

MAN What? Yeah

WOMAN Say it

MAN I fancy you

WOMAN Doesn’t sound very convincing

MAN What?

WOMAN It doesn’t sound very convincing the way you

say that, say it again

MAN Now?

WOMAN Yes

MAN Is there someone else in here with us?

WOMAN Say it

MAN What is the point?

WOMAN Say it

MAN Can’t

WOMAN What?

27
MAN Can’t just because you tell me to

WOMAN Say it

MAN NO

WOMAN SAY IT DAMN IT SAY IT

MAN I fancy you

Pause, she laughs, the sound of waves.
D’you like the new stove?

WOMAN ’S nice

MAN It is nice, isn’t it

WOMAN Yes

MAN It’s calming.

WOMAN Adds value

MAN Maybe you should look at it a bit more

often.

WOMAN You can get a better price when you sell it

later on

MAN Maybe you should just sit in front of it a

bit more often and take a good, long look at
it, at the fire, at the way the flames
slowly build up and then die away again… a
very long look… a very, very long look…
maybe then everything’ll sort itself out.
Pause.
Leave me alone all of you

WOMAN Right now I wouldn’t if I were you…

MAN Shut your stupid, just shut your idiotic

WOMAN Not now I wouldn’t, no, that

MAN I’m doing what I can

WOMAN If that’s all you can do then I’m very

28
MAN I am doing everything I can.
Short pause.

WOMAN He was screaming again

MAN I know, I’m not deaf.

WOMAN Is it actually him or?

MAN Did the police come again?

WOMAN No, it was his coach.

MAN Which one?

WOMAN The co-ordination coach

MAN Is he asleep?

WOMAN One hour, then he wakes up again, last night

there was some kind of noise, footsteps,
then he spent two hours in the shower with
all that horrible loud shouting and crying
the whole time and then they played that
violin concerto through the streetlamps
again and it was so loud that… waves, the
sound of waves all the time… the next
morning the charred body of a dog is lying
in our drive and the boy’s wearing his
jacket and trainers in bed, he’s all out of
breath… and when I open the door he shouts
at me LEAVE ME IN PEACE JUST LEAVE ME IN
PEACE
Short pause.
Two hours later I go in anyway, he’s lying
awake, breathing heavily, I go in there, he
doesn’t even know I’m there, I sit down on
the edge of the bed, he’s rocking and
rocking, cradling his laptop in his arms
like it’s a cuddly toy, very carefully I try
to touch him, to calm him down, suddenly he
tenses up and twitches… twitches and
twitches… and then his eyes open wide and he
shouts GET OUT OF HERE THE LOT OF YOU RIGHT
NOW
The MAN has fallen asleep.
Hello.

29
 The MAN does not react.
Darling.
As if she’s talking to some undefined person
in the room You can take him away now

MAN opens his eyes immediately What?

WOMAN laughs See, I still know how to get your

attention
Laughs.
If we don’t do something, we’re going to
lose him.

MAN He’s sixteen, there… there are boys

WOMAN He’s thirteen. He’s got a plan, he’s got

some kind of plan, but I can’t work out what
it is, I can’t work it out.

MAN Maybe you’ve

WOMAN I hid yesterday. Under his bed and he

MAN You did what?

WOMAN I was hiding under his bed last night and he

short pause
he’s odd, our boy, I don’t know, somehow… he
touched my hand and then he said, don’t
worry Mum, I’ll get rid of him.

MAN You were lying under his bed while he

touched your hand?

WOMAN He meant you.

MAN How are you going to

WOMAN I can feel it, he’s up to something. With

YOU. There was a photo of you under his
bed. But it wasn’t you in the photo, it was
just something that looked like you,
something that reminded me of you but… he
was shaking when he
She breaks off.
Short pause.

30
MAN Maybe you just dreamt it all.

WOMAN What do you mean, “it all”?

MAN It all.

WOMAN “It all”?

MAN I mean, maybe…

WOMAN In my dream there was water running the

whole time, it went on for hours, it was
boiling hot and our son was standing in the
shower screaming and screaming and screaming
while our dog was in the garden bleeding to
death in the snow

MAN We haven’t got a dog

WOMAN The charred body of a dog was lying in our

drive this morning and its guts and its
severed head were outside our bedroom window
and our bathroom was flooded.

MAN I didn’t see anything.

WOMAN The day before he stared at me for a whole

hour and then he said “Know who you are.”

MAN He’s going through a difficult

WOMAN He doesn’t speak in sentences, he

MAN Of course

WOMAN No he doesn’t, he doesn’t

MAN Of course, he goes to school doesn’t he

WOMAN laughs Yeah, right, they’re starting to

bring in teachers from the other side now
because they’re running out of money because
OUR HUSBANDS aren’t bringing enough money
home because their returns are down because
they’d rather look out of the window or fall
asleep than… that’s why my son can’t talk

31
 properly, all he can speak is… gibberish
that… I can’t understand a word of it, I

MAN You’ve just got to listen properly

WOMAN There’s nothing to listen to. Most of the

time he doesn’t say anything at all.

MAN What does the co-ordination coach say?

WOMAN Wait and see

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN The man comes here five times a week, walks

off with a ton of money every month and says
“Wait and see”, that’s all he says, BUT I
DON’T WANT TO WAIT AND SEE I’VE DONE ENOUGH
WAITING, what’s wrong with our boy? What’s
wrong with him? I can’t get to the bottom
of it, he doesn’t write anything, nothing,
no diaries, nothing, not even notes in the
margins of his schoolbooks, his emails are
all completely average, his internet use,
the sites he visits, who he chats to, who he
orders things from or what films he rents,
the coach says it’s all perfectly normal,
that can’t be true, it can’t, that boy is
not normal, I can tell, he keeps such
irregular hours, there’s something there,
something’s not right, something’s not right
about
The MAN has fallen asleep again.
The WOMAN watches her husband sleeping, she
looks around her, rushes round the room then
she goes right up close to her husband and
looks at him sleeping.
They feel you might be “ill”, you’ve got to
get well again, take yourself out of
circulation for a while, to think about your
self, life, everything… how you want to
spend the time, that’s what they said, “the
time you’ve got left”, because it seems you
can’t go on like this.
Pause.
What are you DOING? What? Do you know how
long it’s taken us to get this far? To get

32
 this house, your job, this property here in
the complex, where everyone wants to be and
there are hardly any places left, to get a
school for the boy at last, to sleep through
the night at last, where it’s quiet, there
are trees, avenues, short distances, not
travelling through the city for hours every
morning, missing the train, assuming it’s
actually working, stuck in the car somewhere
for hours on end, never getting where you
want to go, always in a rush, always
frustrated, it’s so quiet here, we’ve got
our own airport here, we’re picked up in the
morning, taken to where we need to go, there
are people here who have the same interests
as us, people who look out for us, people
who are glad to be living here with us, who
organize garden parties for us, play
badminton with us. If it’s our wedding
anniversary, the whole community has a
party, the children go off to school in the
morning and get there, they walk home in the
evenings and get there too, where else does
that happen? And if we’ve got to work late
or go away for the weekend, there are places
where we can leave them and where they’ll
stay until we collect them. There are no
muggings, no crazy old people who can’t stop
asking you the way because they’ve lost all
sense of direction, they’ve escaped from
their homes or they’ve not got a home to go
to anymore, throwing themselves in front of
moving cars, here nobody throws themselves
out of a window out of desperation, here
nobody shouts at their wives or beats their
children, ties their children to a radiator
at Christmas and abandons them till they’ve
starved to death, the lake, the sunset here,
the silence

MAN What silence? You said yourself that you…

WOMAN There are piles of applications and loads of

competent people, there have never been as
many competent people in the world as there
are now and they all want to come here.

33
MAN We hardly know anyone here. We get up while
it’s still dark and go to work. We don’t
get back until long after the sun stops
shining. We have a garden, a park, a little
lake next door, yes, it is nice here, nice
and quiet, EXCEPT FOR THE SHOOTING AT NIGHT…
We’ve got no friends here. Sure, we go to
all these get-togethers and barbecues and
yard sales and polo nights and garden
parties and weddings and I don’t know what
other events and training seminars and
theatre productions and beauty contests and
wellness conferences and what do I know
parenting counselling and coaching seminars
and then for a change we do yoga or pilates,
we’ve even got a creative writing group,
where we all get together and write short
stories
Laughs.
but… we don’t know any of them, we hardly
talk to them, not properly, we all exchange
the same sort of pleasantries and no-one
gets any closer, nobody’s remotely
interested, nobody’s interested in anything,
even when they’re all singing and laughing
together and telling jokes and WHAT DO I
KNOW acting out funny scenes from the shows,
nobody’s seriously interested in these
painting lessons or creative writing or
church services… or we get a surfing weekend
as a bonus but we can’t go because we’ve got
to work or we’ve got community service,
we’ve got to attend all these meetings here,
or meetings at the town hall where no-one
ever says anything of any importance or
because we’re just too stressed to get
through all the security checks or because
we don’t know how to surf in the first
place, because we don’t enjoy it, the whole
ocean’s already full of surfers, all members
of some bloody team who are surfing away all
their bonus points, so as not to stick out
or to go windsurfing from some hot air boat

WOMAN You’re mad

She drinks.

34
MAN And every Saturday we go to the shows and
watch some load of people they’ve brought in
from the outskirts in buses beating the crap
out of each other, we watch them at the
weekend and laugh ourselves sick but we’re
afraid of them, we’re afraid, we hope
they’re not going to stay here, that one of
them isn’t going to hide under a bus and
find a way in here before they leave and
attack us all, none of our old friends has
managed to get into the community here,
they’re all still outside the gates and
can’t get in or don’t want to get in, do you
never think about them? Not ever? Or we
spend hours in the market square standing
waving after parades of soft toys or
whatever, what are our neighbours called?
What are their names? Tell me, tell me,
WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES? Here in our
CELEBRATION COMMUNITY, what is it we’re
actually celebrating? ’Cause I’m not so
sure.

WOMAN They all queue up by four thirty in the

morning and rattle the gates, they want to
get in, they all want to get in and they’re
no better and no worse than you, but they’ve
got the right ATTITUDE, d’you understand,
they have a laugh. And they sing. They
enjoy themselves, their lives and the world
around them, they LOVE their families AND
their jobs, they leave the house in the
mornings in a good mood and come back in the
evening in a good mood, then they go and do
some sport with their friends and at night
they sleep in a good mood with their wives.
Men who enjoy a good fuck, you understand,
they’re waiting out there and they want your
job and to be honest I’ve got nothing
against it if they

MAN Be quiet! The boy can hear us.

WOMAN Let him

MAN Afterwards he’ll tell everyone at school

again how coarse and stupid his mother is.

35
WOMAN Shush
Short pause.
perhaps he is listening
Short pause.

MAN They all gave us such weird looks at the

last parents’ evening, as if they knew
exactly what we talk about in the evenings.

WOMAN He’s so odd, he scares me.

MAN Shh, was that? No I think… is he even at

home?

WOMAN I don’t know.

Pause.
Speaks quietly. There’s no prison here and
that’s why, they say, it would be better to
suspend your contract for a while.

MAN They said that?

WOMAN Yes, “suspend your contract for a while”… I

hope you know what that means… no-one’s
going to sack you
Short pause.
You get a lot of time to retrain.
She laughs.
A lot of time to prepare for another career,
as whatever. Maybe you can start guarding
the gate from next Friday or scrape the
bodies off the electric fence of all the
nutters who try to climb over here.
She fetches herself a drink, opens a bottle
of wine and drinks.

MAN I

WOMAN What’s wrong with you, I’m so frightened, I…

I don’t know you any more, what are you
doing, do you know what you’re doing?

MAN Please, I, it’s just that

WOMAN You’re gambling with our lives, our futures.

Pause.

36
 If they suspend the contract for a while,
we’ll have to move out of the house, we’ll
have to leave the complex, the lake, the
garden, last week someone had to leave and
within 72 hours somebody else had taken
their place and nobody says anything about
it, you understand, they’re gone, simply
gone, we’ll have to leave the community, the
company, go to another city, more interviews
aptitude tests, for days, questionnaires, do
we fit in with the other residents, where
have we come from, what’s our background,
are we team players, how do we handle
stress, then they’ll question the boy and
put him through a load of behavioural tests
and apart from all that… DO YOU KNOW HOW OLD
WE ARE? Nobody’s going to take us in our
mid forties, why?
She laughs.
This damned container
She means her body.
nobody wants it any more
She laughs.
You can become a dustman or scrub graffiti
off the walls or guard the railway station
or I don’t know… Lie down in the snow and
hope someone dumps you in front of the
clinic, we’ll lose everything

MAN Pause, he considers for a moment, then

What? What are we going to lose? What?

WOMAN EVERYTHING

MAN What?
Short pause.
What “everything”? Just what “everything”
are you talking about?
Short pause.

WOMAN His emails are entirely normal and yet he

spends all night sitting in front of the
computer and the next morning none of the
security cameras work, they transmit images
of people who are, but no, they show some
kind of weird stuff going on on the other
side… how does he get those pictures?

37
 Short pause.
That dead dog’s still lying there in the
snow.

MAN What?

WOMAN They promised it wasn’t going to snow here

any more

MAN Did you tell them?

WOMAN The dead cat’s still hanging in the tree.

He just lies there in his room with
headphones on, perfectly quiet, with his
eyes closed and tonight, when we’re trying
to sleep, then he’ll be ghosting through the
house

MAN Did you tell them to take the dog away.

WOMAN And the way he… the stuff he wears… and

always alone, he’s always alone, but the
coach says that’s perfectly alright. Can’t
we send him on some kind of course?

MAN What kind of course?

WOMAN I don’t know but there must be something,

some kind of course that can raise his self-
awareness, relieve him of stress or… you
know, sometimes I dream about white
surfaces. White people moving very slowly
across these white surfaces and talking to
each other in very simple sentences, saying
things like:
- I love you
- I know
- I like everything about you
- I like everything about you too
- The most beautiful moment for me is to
wake up next to you and know you’re there
and you always will be
- That’s just what I feel
- I love you
- I love you too
And these white people slowly wander round
this white surface and there’s snow falling

38
 and their hearts get warmer and warmer the
colder it gets outside and they hold hands
really tight

MAN And suddenly the ice breaks and they all

plunge down three thousand metres and drown…
you can hear their screams for years while
the sun slowly eats away their brains.

WOMAN Just like you.

MAN Yes, just like you.

Short pause.
How was your amateur dramatics at the
Community Centre?

WOMAN The director cut one of my lines

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN You’re not doing us any favours there

MAN Is that what you said to him

WOMAN No, my husband, that’s what I said to my

husband

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN Now I don’t any more

MAN What?

WOMAN Everyone else got to keep their lines

MAN Maybe there were artistic reasons

WOMAN No, it was pure hatred, he hates me, just

like everyone else in the group

MAN I don’t believe that

WOMAN Everyone else got to keep their lines, just

not me

MAN Maybe he was trying…

39
WOMAN You’re not doing us any favours with that

MAN Just to

WOMAN I’ve spent weeks practicing that line

MAN The rhythm

WOMAN Then suddenly without any warning

MAN Maybe the rhythm

WOMAN The line’s gone

MAN One line here or there

WOMAN That line was essential to my character

MAN So there were characters?

WOMAN I needed that line

MAN Were they historical?

WOMAN That line meant everything to me, without

that one line I was… I was invisible, I
wasn’t there any more YOU’RE NOT DOING US
ANY FAVOURS WITH THAT I wanted that line,
without that line I

MAN So what did you say?

WOMAN You’re not doing us any favours with that

MAN No, I mean

WOMAN Yes, what do you mean? You’re not even

listening. You’re not doing us any favours
with that.

MAN To him, the director?

WOMAN Oh I don’t bother talking to him, he just

laughs when you say something to him, he
wants everything to be jolly, that’s all.

MAN Yes, but

40
WOMAN Nothing, I didn’t say anything else, I said:
if I’m not allowed to say this line then I’m
not going to say any of the others either, I
WON’T SAY ANYTHING ANY MORE, that’s what I
told him, he can ring me if he changes his
mind, my character needs that line, it
doesn’t need any of the others but it needs
that one, that one, you understand,
otherwise it can’t breathe, it’s going to
suffocate, its throat is going to freeze
shut and it’s going to throw up everything
it’s eaten in the last few years in one
hard, slimy icy lump and stir it around in
its own disfigured mask of a face burnt out
by the emptiness of its own utter talentless
uselessness like a bucket of paint you pour
onto a blank canvas and stir around for so
long that eventually it turns into a WORK OF
ART, I NEED THAT LINE and if I don’t get
that line then nobody should say anything,
we don’t need words any more because
humanity will be finished ONCE AND FOR ALL,
there’ll be no more people any more, at
least not any who can put one foot in front
of the other without the benefit of
artificial limbs or very strong painkillers,
THEN THEY’LL ALL COLLAPSE, if there’s
anything left that’s worth leaving the house
for, then it’ll all be gone, EVERYTHING, if
I lose that line the world will lose its
light and GOD WILL RECLAIM THE GIFTS HE HAS
WASTED ON THE UNWORTHY

MAN What’s the play about?

WOMAN The truth

MAN And what else?

WOMAN It’s about the truth – for my character it’s

only ever been about the truth although all
the others claim the opposite, but they’re
wrong, the others are wrong, I’m right,
they’re wrong, it’s a play about a woman who
is right and about other people who are

41
 wrong, RIGHT YOU UNDERSTAND I AM RIGHT
RIGHT, that’s what the play’s about
Short pause.
and it’s really up to me to decide what
lines I need and what I don’t need.

MAN Are you still going to do it?

WOMAN Everyone else could keep their lines, some

of them even got new ones, just me, I was
the only one who’s got a line less, the only
one who had their tongue cut out in front of
all the others and turned into a figure of
ridicule, I was the only one who got chained
naked to the gates of the prison and paraded
on a long leash and everyone killed
themselves laughing KILLED THEMSELVES YOU
HEAR ME KILLED THEMSELVES and my line was
the only line that really needs to be heard,
you can get rid of any other line in the
play just NOT THAT ONE
Suddenly dangerous and aggressive on a level
never suspected before NOT THAT ONE YOU
UNDERSTAND NOT THAT ONE IT’S MINE just like
my child he’s mine too and I’m not going to
let anyone or anything take him away from
me! D’YOU UNDERSTAND ME YOU… VICTIM

MAN What?

WOMAN I’m not going to let my son be taken away,

I’m not going to move from here either, I’m
not giving him up, he’s mine, he’s going to
protect me when they all come over here,
when they break through the walls, when they
swim over here and set fire to everything,
line us all up and stare at us… for hours…
staring and staring… their knackered,
awkward, filthy eyes staring at us for days,
for hours on end, and we’ll just stand there
in a line naked and they’ll be staring at us
for days on end till we collapse devoid of
strength or will and they’ll just leave us
lying there, step over us while they settle
down in our homes and watch the fire in the
grate and listen to the gentle roll of the
sea on a balmy summer evening, because there

42
 will only be balmy summer evenings, of
absolute calm and purity, like a song from
long-forgotten days, bright and tender and
somewhere in the rising flames a child is
playing… I don’t care about the theatre
group from the community centre. I don’t
care whether I say that line or not… but
they will come and their stares will
overwhelm us and we will drown in a pool of
blood created by all the questions they have
for us when they line us all up and we’re
called to account for everything we’ve done…
they’re going to really fuck us ragged with
their big dirty bodies till we’ve nothing
more to say, NOTHING, it’s going to be so
quiet here, so quiet, and all that, all that
pent up testosterone over there’s going to
flush us away, we’ll be out of here, gone.

MAN You’re sick.

WOMAN I can see the truth

MAN Your mind is completely sick

WOMAN I went there

MAN When?

WOMAN Last night. I had a look round

MAN Uh-huh

WOMAN I was there, first time in years, went down

our old street, where we both went to
school, when there still were schools and
streets, I went round there, at night, took
a good look at everything, GET MAKE AN
EFFORT WORK, I don’t want to lose all this

MAN We were happy there

WOMAN That was twenty years ago, WORK MAKE AN

EFFORT, if they suspend your contract then…
this house belongs to the company… they’ll
just book a lorry, it’ll take fifteen
minutes, no more, they’ve got special units,

43
 twenty minutes at the most, and every sign
will be wiped out, we won’t exist here any
more and we’ll never see the boy again

MAN How did you get through the gate at night?

WOMAN I don’t want to go back there again, I want

to stay here in this area, if the police
come they DON’T shoot you… where else does
that happen? Where else have you got the
feeling that the police are genuinely there
for your safety, they won’t rape you while
you’re out shopping, where else does that
happen? Not even the camera crews go there
any more, all images are embargoed, no
photos, nothing’s permitted, and you’ve got
no chance of ever getting out of there
again, no matter how many forms you fill in,
even if you fill the forms in correctly
you’re not going to get out because there
aren’t any places left in the centre, if we
have to leave now, if we have to leave now
then… then we’ll never be coming back, I’m
telling you, never ever, we will be out for
ever and stay there… with all the confused,
deranged filth they’ve kicked out
Short pause.
Sometimes you can hear the screams at night,
the sirens, you can see the fires on the
other side, in the Autumn, when the leaves
have fallen, in November: then through the
bare branches you can see the city behind
the electric fence slowly falling apart.
The people there, demented, ugly, full of
anger and incomprehension, muddling their
way around between all the billboards, all
the hospitals closed, the schools

MAN I love you

WOMAN That’s not the point.

MAN I can’t do this any more

WOMAN That doesn’t matter. Nobody can. Pull

yourself together, everyone else is.

44
MAN I’ve got the feeling…

WOMAN “Feeling”, “feeling”, that’s not the point.

People like us ought to be glad that we’ve
made it this far, we shouldn’t really be
here, we don’t belong and they notice, they
notice that… they notice that you don’t
enjoy anything any more and they see it as
ingratitude, they’ve given you so much,
given you a job, gradually built you up and
you thank them with this indifference, this
inertia, nothing matters to you.

MAN Come here

WOMAN No

MAN Come to me

WOMAN No
Sound of waves.
We’re going to see this through to the end,
together, you and me.

MAN And where exactly is that going to take us?

WOMAN To the end, till we can’t go any further,

till we’ve no strength left.
Pause.
D’you understand.

MAN But I don’t

WOMAN Do you understand!

MAN Yes.
The BOY enters.

WOMAN Hello
The BOY says nothing, looks at his parents
contemptuously and crosses the space in the
direction of his room. The MAN and WOMAN
say nothing, they sit there waiting,
motionless.

BOY comes back You shouldn’t

45
WOMAN Good evening, how are you?

BOY Thousand times. A THOUSAND TIMES MAN

WOMAN Would you like something to eat?

BOY How many more? I MEAN HOW MANY MORE?

He exits again.
Pause.
The BOY enters once more.
NO FUCK NOT NO I YOU OH MAN
He exits, re-enters, intending to leave the
house, looks at his mother.
I’m warning you
He exits again.

WOMAN Stop.

BOY What do you want?

WOMAN I wanted

BOY What? What is it you want?

WOMAN Sit down

BOY No

WOMAN very softly Just sit down

BOY No

WOMAN Please just sit down

BOY No, I

WOMAN Sit down, just for a moment

BOY If you’re going to… then

WOMAN Please just sit down a moment, ok

BOY sits down, stares at the WOMAN and the MAN

I’m sitting

WOMAN I

46
BOY Can I go now?

WOMAN In a minute. I wanted to

Breaks off.
Pause, the BOY stares at her again, looks
deep into her eyes.

BOY ’S everything ok?

WOMAN What?

BOY With you?

WOMAN I

BOY “Mum”
Pause.

WOMAN I wanted to

BOY Yeah?

WOMAN Listen, I

BOY What?

WOMAN I wanted

BOY Yes?

WOMAN To ask you

BOY What?

WOMAN Something

BOY What is the

Short pause.
matter with you. “Mum”

WOMAN Just a minute.

Pause.
Are you moving the furniture in the night?

BOY What?

WOMAN Are you

47
 Short pause.
The furniture. Every morning it’s always
Short pause.
Somewhere else
Short pause.
Here, I mean. In the room. Every morning
the furniture is somewhere else in the room
and I can hear scratching, this scratching
sound, in the night, and you never sleep.

BOY Can I go now?

WOMAN You go through the house. Slowly. Or you

crawl. In the night you crawl through the
house on all floors and rearrange the
furniture. Some things are missing and the
paint… the paint’s been scratched off the
walls.

BOY Can I go now?

WOMAN Where are you going?

BOY OUT!!!

MAN has woken up How did the training go?

BOY Can I go now, please.

WOMAN No.

MAN Come on. How did the training go?

BOY God’s sake, it’s training, that’s all, we

chase the ball around and try to score
goals, what about it, what the hell, can I
go now?

WOMAN No, first I want. At night… where are you?

BOY I’m tired

MAN He’s tired.

WOMAN Of course he’s tired, he never sleeps.

BOY Can you lend me some money, I need

48
MAN How much?

BOY Two thousand

MAN Two thousand?

BOY Yeah, I… please

WOMAN Two THOUSAND?

BOY Yeah, it’s only because… just give it to me

WOMAN Where are you?

BOY Here

WOMAN At night, where are you then?

BOY Here. In my bed.

MAN Do you know anything about the boys who are

missing?

BOY Leave me alone.

WOMAN Do you know them?

BOY No-one knows anything about the boys who are

missing.

WOMAN But you know them?

BOY Can I go now?

WOMAN You meet them occasionally?

BOY What?

MAN Do you

BOY CAN I GO NOW?

WOMAN Where do you want to go?

BOY Out.

49
WOMAN Yes, but where

BOY OUT I WANT TO GO OUT

WOMAN YES BUT WHERE?

BOY calm again You know,out, God’s sake, out.

JUST OUT.

WOMAN You sleep less than four hours a day.

BOY I want to get out of here.

He stands up and goes to the door.

MAN Yeah, go on, go, just go, go out

WOMAN No, you’re staying here. Sit down there.

Short pause.
Do you know the boys who were found on the
fence? Do you know them?
The BOY looks at the floor, does not answer.
Did you know them?

BOY How am I supposed to know?

MAN Did you know them?

BOY What does he mean?

WOMAN Did you know the boys they found on the

fence?

BOY How am I supposed to know that. They didn’t

have faces any more, no idea if I knew them
or not.

MAN But a couple of boys disappeared at the same

time, what about them, did you? I mean do
you know

BOY I don’t know anything

WOMAN Why aren’t you sleeping? What are you doing

all night?
He sits down, a DVD can been seen in his
pocket which could not be seen before.
What’s that film you’ve got there?

50
BOY Don’t know. Some film.

WOMAN Oh right.

MAN What your mother means is what’s on there.

BOY Don’t know. Don’t know it.

WOMAN Where did you get it from?

BOY Don’t know, someone gave it to me.

WOMAN Someone gave it to you, fine.

Short pause.
Who?

BOY What?

MAN Who gave you the film?

BOY Kid in my class.

WOMAN What’s this kid’s name, do we know him?

BOY No.

MAN Name.

BOY Thomas.

WOMAN Aha, Thomas, and what does this Thomas do.

BOY He’s in my class.

MAN Yes, and what does he do apart from that,

when he’s not at school. What does he do
then?

BOY Homework or he goes on the computer.

At the word “computer” the MAN and WOMAN
exchange alarmed glances.

MAN What’s this film about? What’s the story?

Has it got a subject?

WOMAN We’re only asking.

51
BOY But I don’t know the answer. Can I go now?

WOMAN No, we’re talking now, we’re having a

conversation. For God’s sake, what’s so
difficult about that, we can just talk to
each other, can’t we, we’re a family.

BOY But I don’t know this man.

WOMAN Stop being so stupid, that’s your father, so

BOY So what, I still don’t know him.

MAN Let’s just talk for a bit then

Pause, no-one says anything.
How was it at school?

BOY It’s Sunday.

MAN Ah right.
Pause.

WOMAN Well… Paul? Do you still see him now and

again?
Pause.

BOY D’you mean me?

WOMAN Yes I mean you, who else would I mean?

BOY Your husband.

WOMAN No, I mean you.

BOY Who’s Paul?

WOMAN You know, Paul.

BOY Don’t know any Paul.

MAN Your friend Paul from the Astronomy Club.

BOY What Astronomy Club?

WOMAN For God’s sake, the Astronomy Club. The one

you started six months ago.

52
BOY You sure you’ve not got me confused with
somebody else?

WOMAN No, I mean YOU.

BOY Some other kid who lived here one time

WOMAN No

BOY Or from another marriage with another

husband, is that possible?

WOMAN You started an Astronomy Club and there was

a boy in it called Paul.
Pause.

BOY Paul?

WOMAN Yes, Paul.

BOY Oh right. You mean Paul.

WOMAN Yes, that’s right, Paul.

BOY He disappeared.

WOMAN Disappeared, how?

BOY Gone. Suddenly he just wasn’t there.

WOMAN And why is that, because… look, I’m only

asking because
The MAN has fallen asleep.

BOY Can he go?

WOMAN What?

BOY Don’t want him here.

WOMAN You didn’t sleep again last night.

BOY I did

WOMAN No

53
BOY I did

WOMAN You weren’t in your room.

BOY You shouldn’t go looking in my

WOMAN Where were you?

BOY Leave me alone.

The MAN wakes up.

MAN Leave him alone. Just leave him alone.

WOMAN What’s that DVD got on it?

BOY A film
The MAN has fallen asleep again.
Why don’t you send him away, we don’t need
him.

WOMAN Are you letting those people in here at

night?

BOY All he does is sleep. He doesn’t do

anything, he just lies around. WHO IS HE
ANYWAY?

WOMAN Answer me: are you letting people in here at

night?

MAN Leave the boy a

BOY You keep out of it.

MAN But you’re the one I want to

BOY But I don’t want you to

WOMAN QUIET! There are people in here who don’t

belong here

BOY Go

MAN What?

BOY Go away, please, just go.

54
WOMAN What do you know about it?

BOY stands up HE’S GOT TO GO

MAN All sick

WOMAN The cameras don’t work any more, someone’s

hacked into them, the recordings have all
vanished, the cctv cameras don’t transmit
any more, they send nonsense, things that
aren’t happening.

MAN Your mother’s spent all day evaluating the

cctv footage and doesn’t know any more
whether she dreamt it all or whether

WOMAN QUIET! The cameras are showing something

that’s not happening. And that scares me!
They send weird, really, really weird, have
you got something to do with this?

BOY Can I go, I’ve got to

WOMAN NO! Where is this Paul? He was here, he

used to keep visiting you, where is he now?
HE WAS ON ONE OF THESE FILMS, why are the
cameras showing him here at night when he’s
disappeared? Where is he? What are you
doing at night?

BOY You’re sick, both of you.

MAN You are

BOY What

MAN You’re sick, everyone says so!

BOY Who says that?

MAN Everyone

BOY Who’s everyone, who?

MAN Everyone.

BOY Yeah, who, who says that?

55
MAN EVERYONE

WOMAN What are you doing on your computer at

night, what is it?

BOY Everyone talks about you.

WOMAN The cctv pictures show… people who aren’t

listed anywhere and nobody knows whether
these people actually exist or whether

MAN Everyone talks about YOU. My son is…

peculiar, inhibited, no-one can get near
him. He’s up to something.

BOY He should leave me alone. Tell him to go

back to sleep AND LEAVE ME ALONE. If you
come into my room once more, at night, and
search through my things or mess up my data,
then YOU ARE OUT OF IT, got that. It
happens very fast.
Pause.

WOMAN What is going ON here? MY GOD!

Pause, sound of waves.

BOY Can I go and play now, Mum?

MAN “Go and play”, what is it you want to play?

WOMAN They found a child’s body near the town hall

last night, someone had thrown it over the
fence, as that you?

BOY There is no town hall here.

WOMAN BUT THAT’S WHAT THE CAMERAS SHOWED.

BOY Bollocks.

WOMAN All the cars were torched, that’s what the

cameras showed, but the next morning… they
were all there again… all new cars, so we’d
have no suspicions, or were they never
torched, because they were just images that
YOU during the night while you’re not

56
 sleeping and you’re here next door on your
computer

BOY I’ve got to go

WOMAN Where?

BOY To my friends.

MAN You haven’t got any friends, they’ve all

disappeared.

WOMAN to the BOY Do you know the code? Did he

give you the code? That gate has got to
stay shut, even if you don’t understand that
yet, but that gate has got to stay shut.
There are all those young men there on the
other side and you, you’re all alone, one
little boy on his own in the whole area and
there, there are hundreds, thousands, tens
of thousands in every high rise, you haven’t
got a chance boy, when they come, they’re
going to trample right over you, they won’t
even see you and that’s why we’ve got the
code, THE FENCE HAS GOT TO STAY SHUT, DO YOU
UNDERSTAND ME!
She grabs hold of the BOY.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
Short pause.

BOY YES!
She releases him, short pause.
Can we move away from here, Mum?

WOMAN Where do you want to go to?

BOY There’s nothing here.

WOMAN There’s everything here we need for a

wonderful life.

BOY If I see one more happy pensioner painting

the sun setting over the sea, I am going to
beat them to a pulp.

WOMAN We’ve got our own airport

57
BOY But we don’t fly anywhere.

WOMAN Why should we when we’ve got everything

here?

BOY We hardly know anyone here.

WOMAN We know everyone here, absolutely everyone.

BOY I don’t mean that, I mean

WOMAN And everyone knows us

BOY But still, there’s… nothing here, nothing.

He looks at the MAN, lying there with his
eyes closed.
And this bloke here, “your husband”.

WOMAN Come here

BOY Couldn’t you find any other father for me?

Did you have to pick him? Was there nothing
better on offer? There are masses of men
looking for families, why did it have to be
him? He’s useless.

WOMAN Come over to me, please

BOY Who is that?

WOMAN Come on!

Takes him in her arms.
You mustn’t destroy your own future. One
day you’ll understand the point of all this.
Short pause.
The gate has got to stay locked, that is the
one really important thing I can tell you to
take on your way, don’t forget that, ever:
the gate has got to stay locked!
Short pause.

BOY Can I go out for a bit, just a bit, please.

Can I just go out for a bit, please, can I.
Listen to the waves. Hear them breaking,
the sound, the colours of the shadows in the
evening sun. The roar. The light at the
other end of the water. The sound when

58
 they’re just about to break, it’s so…
beautiful.
Pause, he exits, pause.

MAN wakes up Has he gone?

WOMAN He knows something.

MAN He’s not coming back.

WOMAN Maybe he is the one who’s leaving the gate,

but how can he be, he doesn’t know the code,
the kids don’t know the code, do they? Did
you tell him the code, did you?

MAN They’ve all vanished. Unreachable.

WOMAN You don’t care at all

MAN Go to sleep
He closes his eyes.

WOMAN Talk to him.

MAN He’ll just laugh at me.

WOMAN Try somehow

MAN He despises me

WOMAN Everything’s leaving me, everything.

MAN Go to sleep.

WOMAN Everything’s swimming away. The tide is

coming in and it’ll wash them up on the
shore and everything else will be driven
away. There’s nothing else left, nothing.
Pause.
You’ve got to find it again, inside you,
that or else we’re or else we’ll have to NO
you’ve got to, that strength, you’ve got to
go there and you’ve got to, you’ve got to
search inside yourself, search for it, keep
going, the boy needs you, the boy’s
completely confused because you, these
children are all leaving us, they’ve all

59
 gone, quite suddenly, they go out and never
come… you’ve got to, can’t you see how
confused our boy’s been since he could feel
that we’re, we’re no longer secure here,
that we might have to, because you, they
tell the children at school if their parents
have problems at work, if their performance
dips, can’t you see how CONFUSED the boy is,
you’ve got to

MAN with his eyes closed Perhaps he knows

everything, he knows the code and lets them
in, just to, to see what they’re going to
do, like other boys his age dissect insects
and watch them slowly die, twitching and
writhing in pain, so he, as soon as he’s
cracked the code, ’ll open the gate and let
them all in, to see how we’re slowly buried
under the tide of them, how they slowly cut
off our air supply, how we, you and I, and
everyone he knows slowly twitch to our
deaths.
Pause.
Shot.

WOMAN What?

MAN They shot Paul and the other boys, I heard,

it’s what they’re saying, because they
wanted to open the gate at night, just to
see what would happen and it’ll be exactly
the same with him… he won’t be able to stand
it here much longer and then he’ll try to
break through the fence and open the gate

WOMAN That’s your fault, he can tell that there’s

something not right with YOU and he’s
reacting to it, he’s very… vulnerable

MAN still with his eyes closed What do you

think about us?

WOMAN About Us?

MAN Yes. About you and me, our life? Do you

like it?

60
WOMAN Yes.

MAN Are you sure?

WOMAN We’ve got everything here we

MAN No, I mean you don’t miss anything?

WOMAN No

MAN You’ve got no

WOMAN Needs, no

MAN You want everything to

WOMAN Where we are in life… for people like us…

remember where we’ve come from, it can’t get
any better for us, it can’t, it can only get
worse, it’s all in your hands

MAN I work

WOMAN You don’t enjoy it

MAN I

WOMAN You don’t love your work, you go in but

you’re not looking forward to it, to the
people there, your desk, your computer,
you’re not looking forward to that, you
don’t love them, the people you see there

MAN They’re different every day

WOMAN That doesn’t matter, you’ve got to love them

MAN The others just disappear

WOMAN And you don’t love them and that’s

something… they notice… like him… they
notice that something’s different, it
doesn’t matter that you’re still good you’re
committed, they notice something about you…
IN you… has changed and that’s… not what
they want… please

61
MAN What?

WOMAN Please

MAN What is it?

WOMAN Please please please

MAN What is it?

A wave is heard.

WOMAN Now

MAN No

WOMAN Yes

MAN No

WOMAN Gunfire, can you hear it? Now he’s gone.

MAN I can’t hear anything

WOMAN Now, this second, and… now they’re playing

those waves again, I…

MAN People just say that… they really are waves…

believe me

WOMAN Pause, wave gets louder You’ve got to get

it back

MAN What?

WOMAN Inside you, you’ve got to

MAN He’s not coming back.

WOMAN You’ve got to, got to find it again

MAN That’s how they all disappeared.

WOMAN Or else we’ll be lost, no matter how hard

you work, they can tell, they can feel it
and I can’t go on lying for you any more

62
MAN Or he’ll make it, he’ll meet the boys who’ve
disappeared and they’ll open the gates
together and watch us slowly plunge to our
deaths, thousands of metres, our legs
twitching in mid-air as if they’re trying to
touch the ground and we’re screaming,
screaming as the sun slowly eats away our
brains. You can’t do WHAT?

WOMAN I’ve got to tell them tomorrow whether you

want to stay here or not, whether you want
to try again or whether they should give the
place to someone else, another man who wants
to make more of his life than you, I’m
supposed to tell them that tomorrow.

MAN When?

WOMAN looks at her watch In eighteen hours

Short pause.
Look for it, look for it inside yourself,
for that, that, look, you’re so inert,
you’re going to kill us, you’ve got to find
it again and… find it and keep it, hold it
tight and… if they give someone else your
contract, we’re both dead, then we’ll be
living a life that’s not a life any more.

MAN And this one here, is this one?

WOMAN I don’t know, yes, it is, yes, this here,

this here is the best thing that people like
us can get, people with our background, we
can’t expect any more, we’ve made it, we
can’t get any higher, don’t gamble with
this, please, don’t throw this away, go to
sleep, doesn’t matter how, go to sleep, have
a really good sleep tonight and go in there
in the morning with a new strength, go to
sleep and find that… that joy, find it again
at last, or else we’re finished.

Fade out, the end.

63