La Ronde

Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)

Arthur Schnitzler, Stephen Unwin, Peter Zombory-Moldovan

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781854595874
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780016443
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

Arthur Schnitzler's famous 'daisy-chain' play of sexual coupling, set in Vienna in the 1890s.

La Ronde is a play of ten scenes, each depicting a couple in a sexual liaison. There are ten characters altogether, each appearing in two adjacent scenes, forming an endless chain of sexual links across all the layers of Viennese society.

This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, features a translation by Stephen Unwin and Peter Zombory-Moldovan.

LA RONDE

Ten Dialogues

Characters

PROSTITUTE

SOLDIER

MAID

YOUNG MASTER

YOUNG WIFE

HUSBAND

SWEET YOUNG THING

POET

ACTRESS

COUNT

1. The Prostitute and the Soldier

Late evening. By the Augarten Bridge. The SOLDIER enters, whistling, on his way home.

PROSTITUTE. Come on, handsome.

He turns, then keeps walking.

D’you want some company?

SOLDIER. Me? Handsome?

PROSTITUTE. Course. Who else? Come on, I’m just up the road.

SOLDIER. Ain’t got time. Got to get back to barracks.

PROSTITUTE. You’ll get back to barracks all right. Better at my place, though.

SOLDIER (closer). Maybe.

PROSTITUTE. Ssh. A copper might turn up.

SOLDIER. Yeah, right. Like to see a copper deal with this.

Pats his bayonet-case.

PROSTITUTE. Come on then.

SOLDIER. Piss off. Anyway, I ain’t got no money.

PROSTITUTE. Don’t need any.

SOLDIER (stops short. Under a street lamp). No money? Who are you, anyway?

PROSTITUTE. Ordinary blokes pay. Soldiers like you get it for free.

SOLDIER. I bet you’re the one Huber told me about.

PROSTITUTE. Never heard of him.

SOLDIER. You must be. You know – the café in the Schiffgasse – you went home with him.

PROSTITUTE. Wouldn’t be the first from there. Mmm . . .

SOLDIER. Come on then. Come on.

PROSTITUTE. In a hurry now, are we?

SOLDIER. Well, what’re we hanging about for? And I’ve got to be in barracks by ten.

PROSTITUTE. When did you join up, then?

SOLDIER. What’s it matter to you? How far’s your place?

PROSTITUTE. Ten minutes.

SOLDIER. That’s too far. Give us a snog.

PROSTITUTE (kisses him). I always think that’s the best bit. When I really fancy a bloke.

SOLDIER. Dunno ’bout that. Forget it, it’s too far.

PROSTITUTE. Tell you what, come round tomorrow then. In the afternoon.

SOLDIER. All right. Give us your address.

PROSTITUTE. But you ain’t gonna come, are you?

SOLDIER. I told you.

PROSTITUTE. Tell you what, if my place is too far – what about down there?

Towards the Danube.

SOLDIER. You what?

PROSTITUTE. It’s quiet down there. No one about.

SOLDIER. Nah. Not my idea of a good time.

PROSTITUTE. I’ll give you a good time, don’t you worry about that. Come on, stay with me. Who knows, we could all be dead by tomorrow.

SOLDIER. All right. But hurry up.

PROSTITUTE. Watch out. It’s dark. One slip, and you’re in the river.

SOLDIER. Best place for me.

PROSTITUTE. Afterwards, maybe . . . Hey, slow down a bit. There’s a bench just ahead.

SOLDIER. You know your way around.

PROSTITUTE. I could do with someone like you.

SOLDIER. You couldn’t handle me.

PROSTITUTE. I could have fun trying.

SOLDIER. Ha ha.

PROSTITUTE. Keep it down. Coppers come wandering round even down here sometimes. Wouldn’t think it, would you: here we are, right in the middle of the city.

SOLDIER. Come here. Come on.

PROSTITUTE. Careful, or we’ll both be in the river.

SOLDIER (has got hold of her). Oh yeah.

PROSTITUTE. Hold on tight.

SOLDIER. Don’t you worry . . . ah . . .

PROSTITUTE. Would have been better on the bench.

SOLDIER. Who cares? Come on, get up.

PROSTITUTE. What’s the rush?

SOLDIER. Got to get to barracks. I’m late.

PROSTITUTE. So what’s your name, then?

SOLDIER. What do you care?

PROSTITUTE. I’m Leocadia.

SOLDIER. Uh! That’s a new one.

PROSTITUTE. Hey . . . I want to tell you something . . . you were so good . . . so . . . ooh . . . so . . . come here . . .

SOLDIER. You’ve got to be kidding.

PROSTITUTE. Hey.

SOLDIER. What is it now?

PROSTITUTE. At least gimme sixpence for the housekeeper.

SOLDIER. Huh! What sort of a sucker do you think I am? See you, ‘Leocadia’.

PROSTITUTE. You scum! Bastard!

He’s gone.

2. The Soldier and the Maid

The Prater. Sunday evening. A path leading from the Wurstelprater towards a dark avenue of trees. The distant sounds of the amusement park; and the ‘Five-Kreutzer Polka’, a corny dance tune, played by a brass band.

MAID. Go on, tell me. Why do you have to go so early?

The SOLDIER is embarrassed, and laughs stupidly.

It was lovely. I love dancing.

He holds the MAID around the waist. She lets him.

We’re not dancing now. Why are you holding me so tight?

SOLDIER. What was your name again? Kathi, isn’t it?

MAID. You’ve got some Kathi on the brain.

SOLDIER. Oh, yeah, I know: Marie.

MAID. It’s getting dark. Spooky.

SOLDIER. You got nothing to worry about. You’re with me. I’ll look after you.

MAID. What are we doing out here? All on our own. Come on, let’s go back inside. It’s all dark out here.

SOLDIER (draws on his cigar, making the end glow). There, that’s lit things up!

Laughs.

Hello, gorgeous!

MAID. Hey, what are you doing? I might have known . . .

SOLDIER. Damn, if yours aren’t the nicest handful in there tonight.

MAID. Tested all the rest, then, have you?

SOLDIER. You can tell, dancing with someone. Quite a lot you can tell that way, wouldn’t you say?

MAID. But you was dancing with that blonde a lot more than you was with me. That squinty one.

SOLDIER. Friend of a friend, you might say.

MAID. What, that corporal with the twirly moustache?

SOLDIER. No, my friend was the civvy: you know, he was sat next to me, the bloke with a croaky voice.

MAID. Oh, him. He’s got a bloody nerve.

SOLDIER. What’d he do to you? I’ll show him. What’d he do?

MAID. Oh, nothing. Just how he was with the other girls.

SOLDIER. So tell me, Marie.

MAID. Watch it with that cigar, will you?

SOLDIER. Sorry. Marie. Come here, darling.

MAID. You’re being a bit familiar, aren’t you?

SOLDIER. Don’t you like me calling you darling? Come on, it’s just an expression . . .

MAID. Bit soon for that, isn’t it? Now then, Franz . . .

SOLDIER. You remember my name, then?

MAID. Course I do, Franz . . .

SOLDIER. The lads call me Franzi. And the girls, too . . .

MAID. Steady on. What if someone was to come out?

SOLDIER. So what if they do? They’ll never see us.

MAID. Where are you taking me?

SOLDIER. Hey, look, a couple over there, just like us.

MAID. Where? I can’t see...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Introduction
• For Further Reading
• Arthur Schnitzler: Key Dates
• La Ronde
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information