Complete Works, Volume IV. Harold Pinter
I walk to the sea. There aren’t many people. It’s a long beach.
Pause
ANNA But I would miss London, nevertheless. But of course I was a girl in London. We were girls together.
DEELEY I wish I had known you both then.
ANNA Do you?
DEELEY Yes.
Deeley pours more brandy for himself.
ANNA You have a wonderful casserole.
DEELEY What?
ANNA I mean wife. So sorry. A wonderful wife.
DEELEY Ah.
ANNA I was referring to the casserole. I was referring to your wife’s cooking.
DEELEY You’re not a vegetarian, then?
ANNA No. Oh no.
DEELEY Yes, you need good food in the country, substantial food, to keep you going, all the air . . . you know.
Pause
KATE Yes, I quite like those kind of things, doing it.
ANNA What kind of things?
KATE Oh, you know, that sort of thing.
Pause
DEELEY Do you mean cooking?
KATE All that thing.
ANNA We weren’t terribly elaborate in cooking, didn’t have the time, but every so often dished up an incredibly enormous stew, guzzled the lot, and then more often than not sat up half the night reading Yeats.
Pause
(To herself.) Yes. Every so often. More often than not.
Anna stands, walks to the window.
And the sky is so still.
Pause
Can you see that tiny ribbon of light? Is that the sea? Is that the horizon?
DEELEY You live on a very different coast.
ANNA Oh, very different. I live on a volcanic island.
DEELEY I know it.
ANNA Oh, do you?
DEELEY I’ve been there.
Pause
ANNA I’m so delighted to be here.
DEELEY It’s nice I know for Katey to see you. She hasn’t many friends.
ANNA She has you.
DEELEY She hasn’t made many friends, although there’s been every opportunity for her to do so.
ANNA Perhaps she has all she wants.
DEELEY She lacks curiosity.
ANNA Perhaps she’s happy.
Pause
KATE Are you talking about me?
DEELEY Yes.
ANNA She was always a dreamer.
DEELEY She likes taking long walks. All that. You know. Raincoat on. Off down the lane, hands deep in pockets. All that kind of thing.
Anna turns to look at Kate.
ANNA Yes.
DEELEY Sometimes I take her face in my hands and look at it.
ANNA Really?
DEELEY Yes, I look at it, holding it in my hands. Then I kind of let it go, take my hands away, leave it floating.
KATE My head is quite fixed. I have it on.
DEELEY (To Anna.) It just floats away.
ANNA She was always a dreamer.
Anna sits.
Sometimes, walking, in the park, I’d say to her, you’re dreaming, you’re dreaming, wake up, what are you dreaming? and she’d look round at me, flicking her hair, and look at me as if I were part of her dream.
Pause
One day she said to me, I’ve slept through Friday. No you haven’t, I said, what do you mean? I’ve slept right through Friday, she said. But today is Friday, I said, it’s been Friday all day, it’s now Friday night, you haven’t slept through Friday. Yes I have, she said, I’ve slept right through it, today is Saturday.
DEELEY You mean she literally didn’t know what day it was?
ANNA No.
KATE Yes I did. It was Saturday.
Pause
DEELEY What month are we in?
KATE September.
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DEELEY We’re forcing her to think. We must see you more often. You’re a healthy influence.
ANNA But she was always a charming companion.
DEELEY Fun to live with?
ANNA Delightful.
DEELEY Lovely to look at, delightful to know.
ANNA Ah, those songs. We used to play them, all of them, all the time, late at night, lying on the floor, lovely old things. Sometimes I’d look at her face, but she was quite unaware of my gaze.
DEELEY Gaze?
ANNA What?
DEELEY The word gaze. Don’t hear it very often.
ANNA Yes, quite unaware of it. She was totally absorbed.
DEELEY In Lovely to look at, delightful to know?
KATE (To Anna.) I don’t know that song. Did we have it?
DEELEY (Singing, to Kate.) You’re lovely to look at, delightful to know . . .
ANNA Oh we did. Yes, of course. We had them all.
DEELEY (Singing.) Blue moon, I see you standing alone . . .
ANNA (Singing.) The way you comb your hair . . .
DEELEY (Singing.) Oh no they can’t take that away from me . . .
ANNA (Singing.) Oh but you’re lovely, with your smile so warm . . .
DEELEY (Singing.) I’ve got a woman crazy for me. She’s funny that way.
Slight pause
ANNA (Singing.) You are the promised kiss of springtime . . .
DEELEY (Singing.) And someday I’ll know that moment divine, When all the things you are, are mine!
Slight pause
| ANNA (Singing.) | I get no kick from champagne, |
| Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all, | |
| So tell me why should it be true— |
DEELEY (Singing.) That I get a kick out of you?
Pause
| ANNA (Singing.) | They asked me how I knew |
| My true love was true, | |
| I of course replied, | |
| Something here inside | |
| Cannot be denied. |
DEELEY (Singing.) When a lovely flame dies . . .
ANNA (Singing.) Smoke gets in your eyes.
Pause
DEELEY (Singing.) The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations . . .
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ANNA (Singing.) The park at evening when the bell has sounded . . .
Pause
DEELEY (Singing.) The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses . . .
ANNA (Singing.) The waiters whistling as the last bar closes . . .
DEELEY