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A Lesson from Aloes
Athol Fugard
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eBook - ePub
A Lesson from Aloes
Athol Fugard
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About This Book
Two former political activists confront each other and the events which led to their sudden falling-out years ago.
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Topic
LiteraturSubtopic
Afrikanisches DramaAct One
SCENE 1
The backyard. It is cluttered with a collection of aloes in a variety of tins of all shapes and sizes.
There is a gate with a nameboard: Xanadu.
PIET, seated at a garden table with an aloe in front of him, is studying a small field book on the plants. He is wearing spectacles, short trousers, no shirt and sandals without socks. GLADYS, behind sunglasses, sits very still on a garden bench.
Time: late afternoon.
PIET (Reading from the book) ā... small, glaucous leaves, erect or incurved . . .ā(Studies the specimen in front of him, then turns back to the book) āTuberculate-based . . .ā(Turns to the glossary at the back of the book) Tuberculate ... āHaving knobby or warty excrescences. ā(Back to the entry he was reading) āTuberculate-based soft prickles on both surfaces.ā (He holds the book at armās length for a comparison between the illustration and his plant. He shakes his head) No. Thatās not it.
(He closes the book, and takes off the spectacles. He gets up quietly, the aloe in his hands, and looks at GLADYS)
GLADYS (Without moving) Iām awake.
PIET Well, my dear, we have a stranger in our midst. Aloe Anonymous! Because that is what it is until I know its name. Iāve been through my book twice, page by page, but there is nothing that looks quite like it. I donāt think I can allow myself to believe Iāve discovered a new species. That would be something! Iād name it after you, my dear. Hail aloe Gladysiensis! Sounds rather good, doesnāt it? (He reads the other aloes) Hail ferox! And you aristata ... arborescens ... ciliaris ... and now Gladysiensis! Welcome to the most noble order of Eastern Cape aloes. An impressive array of names, isnāt it? And knowing them is important. It makes me feel that little bit more at home in my world. And yet, as little Juliet once said: āWhatās in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.ā (These lines, and all his other quotations, although delivered with a heavy Afrikaans accent, are said with a sincere appreciation of the words involved. He thinks about those he has just quoted) Alas, itās not as simple as that, is it?
GLADYS Are you talking to me?
PIET Who else, my dear?
GLADYS The aloes ... or yourself. Iām never sure these days.
PIET Names are more than just labels. (He sits beside her on the bench) Petrus Jacobus Bezuidenhout. (He gives a little smile) āSo, would Petrus, were he not Petrus called,/Retain that dear perfection which he owns without that title?ā
GLADYS What are you talking about?
PIET The balcony scene. Where the little lady laments Romeoās name. I was just thinking about mine, trying to hear it as others do.
GLADYS And?
PIET Nothing ... except that when other men say Piet Bezuidenhout it is me they are talking about. Yes! That is whatās in a name. My face, my story in mine, as much as theirs, is in Romeo and Juliet. āThen deny thy father and refuse thy name.ā Hell! I donāt know about those Italians, but thatās a hard one for an Afrikaner. No. For better or for worse, I will remain positively identified as Petrus Jacobus Bezuidenhout; Species, Afrikaner; Habitat, Algoa Park, Port Elizabeth, in this year of our Lord, 1963 ... and accept the consequences.
(He looks at his wrist watch)
GLADYS What is the time now?
PIET Just on four oāclock.
GLADYS Itās passing very slowly, isnāt it?
PIET Yes, it is. The sun is as lazy as we are this afternoon.
GLADYS (Shaking her head) Itās because weāre waiting.
PIET Let me get you something to read.
GLADYS Iām all right.
PIET Iāve got todayās paper inside.
GLADYS Stop fussing, Peter. Iāve learned how to sit and wait. When should we expect them?
PIET I didnāt fix a definite time. I just said, āSupper.ā So what do you think? Half-past six? Seven? They wonāt be too late because of the children. If we start to get ready at five, we should be all right. Everything under control in the kitchen?
GLADYS Yes.
PIET Then relax, my dear. Enjoy the sunshine.
GLADYS Iām perfectly relaxed.
PIET Good.
GLADYS Youāre the one who canāt keep still.
PIET (He moves back to the garden table where we first saw him) Just tidying up my mess.
GLADYS I hope Iām not getting too much sun.
PIET No danger of that on an autumn afternoon. This is the start of our gentle time, Gladys ... our season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of the maturing sun. On the farm there was almost a sense of the veld sighing with relief when autumn finally set in. We certainly did. Man and animal. Months of grace while we waited for the first rains.
GLADYS My skin canāt take it. I learned that lesson when I was a little girl.
PIET Sunburn.
GLADYS Yes. A holiday somewhere with my mother and father. On the very first day I picked up too much sun on the beach and that was the end of it. My mother dabbed me all over with calamine lotion to soothe the pain. I can remember looking at myself in the mirror ... a frightened little white ghost. Mommy was terrified that I was going to end up with a brown skin. But she neednāt have worried. It all peeled away and there I was, the same as before.
PIET The voortrekker women had the same problem. Thatās where the old white bonnet comes from. Protection.
GLADYS I think it was Cape Town. Not that it...