ACT ONE
The interior of a round fortress tower built of granite.
Upstage are a large pair of doors with glass windowpanes, through which can be seen the sky at dusk and a distant shoreline with some lights. To the side of each door is a window.
There is a dresser with some framed pictures and books; a piano; a table with some chairs; an armchair; a mounted mercurial barometer and a desk with a telegraph machine. There is also a kind of âbarâ âa high table against one wall â with glasses and bottles of liquor with a mirror above it. There are a few rugs, but the walls are bare granite and nothing can take away a feeling of foreboding â this building used to be a jailhouse. On one wall hangs a portrait of ALICE in costume on stage in a production twenty-five years ago.
There is a lamp suspended from the ceiling. A heavy door, stage right, leads to steps going down to the kitchen, and beside this is a large free-standing hat stand on which hang coats, pieces of military equipment: gloves, helmets and swords.
It is a mild autumn evening. The doors are open. The sea is dark and still.
ALICE, an attractive woman in her forties, sits at the table listlessly staring into space.
The CAPTAIN, a well-built but tired-looking man in his sixties, is sitting in the armchair, fingering an unlit cigar. He is dressed in a worn dress uniform with riding boots and spurs. A discarded newspaper lies on his lap. In the distance they can hear snatches of a military band drifting in on the wind.
CAPTAIN. Play something?
ALICE. Play what?
CAPTAIN. Whatever you like.
ALICE. You never like what I play.
CAPTAIN. Well, you never like what I play.
ALICE. Edgar, you canât play. Do you want the doors left open?
CAPTAIN. I donât mind.
ALICE. Well, are you going to smoke that cigar?
CAPTAIN. You know, Iâm not sure strong tobacco agrees with me any more.
ALICE. You should take up a pipe.
CAPTAIN. A pipe?!
ALICE. Why not? Why deny yourself your âonly pleasureâ, as you call it.
CAPTAIN. Pleasure? Hmph, Iâve forgotten what that is!
ALICE. Well, donât ask me to describe it for you! Have a glass of whiskey.
CAPTAIN (shudders at the idea). Better not. Whatâs for dinner?
ALICE. How would I know? Go down and ask Christine.
CAPTAIN. Isnât this the time of year for mackerel? Autumn?
ALICE. I suppose so.
CAPTAIN. Yes, itâs autumn â outside and in. You see, what you do is, you take a mackerel, grill it, drizzle a little lemon on it, serve it up with a huge glass of white Zinfandel â and one doesnât feel quite like blowing oneâs brains out any more, does one?
ALICE. Youâre asking the wrong person.
CAPTAIN (smacking his lips). Have we any of that Zinfandel left, chilling away down there in the wine cellar?
ALICE. We donât have a wine cellar.
CAPTAIN. What happened to our wine cellar?
ALICE. You mean the laundry room?
CAPTAIN. I mean the wine cellar, where we keep the wine.
ALICE. There is no wine.
CAPTAIN. Well, this is not good enough. We have to stock up for our silver wedding celebrations.
ALICE. You really want to celebrate that?
CAPTAIN. Well, of course I do. Donât you?
ALICE. I thought we might show more decorum by keeping our long miserable mistake to ourselves.
CAPTAIN. Oh come, Alice! Weâve had fun. (Beat.) Now and then. And soon it will be all over. Weâll be dead, and all thatâs left is your rotten carcass. And all itâs good for is to fertilise the cabbages.
ALICE. So we go through all of this just for the sake of the cabbages?
CAPTAIN (picking his paper up). Listen, I donât make the rules.
ALICE. Well, it seems like a stupid waste if you ask me. Was there any post?
CAPTAIN (affirmatively, while he reads). Mm-hm.
ALICE. The butcherâs bill?
CAPTAIN. Mm-hm.
ALICE. And?
CAPTAIN (still reading, he takes the bill from his pocket and holds it out to her). I canât read his writing.
ALICE (coming to take it). Thatâs old age, you know.
CAPTAIN. What?
ALICE. Your eyes.
CAPTAIN. Rubbish!
ALICE. Well, I can read it.
CAPTAIN. Your scrawl is worse than his.
ALICE (reading). Oh my God! Can we pay this?
CAPTAIN. Of course we can. Just not at the moment.
ALICE. Then when? In a yearâs time when your miniscule pension kicks in? Which wonât even be enough for the doctorâs bills when youâre sick.
CAPTAIN. Sick? How dare you? Iâve never been sick. Not one day in forty-four years of military service!
ALICE. Thatâs not what the doctor says.
CAPTAIN (dismissively). âThe doctorâ⌠What does he know?
ALICE. Well, who else would know?
CAPTAIN. Now, you listen to me. Thereâs nothing wrong with me and there never has been. Real soldiers donât get sick. They just drop dead where they stand, in their boots. Bang! Just like that. And I have twenty good years left in me, you knowâŚ
ALICE (simultaneously with him). âTwenty good years left in meâŚâ Yes, well youâre half-deaf already. You probably canât hear that music is coming from the doctorâs house. You do know heâs throwing a party for the entire command this evening.
CAPTAIN. Yes, I do know actually, and do you want to know why I wasnât invited? Shall I tell you? Because I refuse to mix with that scum â and because they all know Iâm not afraid to speak my mind, thatâs why.
ALICE. You think everyone is scum.
CAPTAIN. They are scum!
ALICE. Except you.
CAPTAIN. Hey, I have always behaved in a decent, civilised manner, no matter what life has ever thrown in my path. You know I am not scum! (Beat.) Alice.
Pause.
ALICE. Do you want a game of cards?
CAPTAIN. Not if youâre going to cheat, I donât.
ALICE. I wonât!
ALICE gets the cards and starts dealing.
Yes, well, apparently itâs the first time the regimental band has ever been given permission to perform at a private party.
CAPTAIN. Well, if I spent the bulk of my working life creeping round the garrison, sucking up to the Colonel all day, I could have the regimental band in here while I ate my bloody breakfast if I wanted! But I donât. (Takes up his cards.) That doctor was always a little dirtbag.
ALICE. There was a time I used to be quite friendly with Gerda. Until I found out she was backbiting me.
CAPTAIN. Theyâre all backbiters! Whatâs trumps?
ALICE. Where are your glasses?
CAPTAIN. They donât work. Theyâve never worked, just tell me.
ALICE. Spades.
CAPTAIN. Spade...