Read The Ride Across Lake Constance and Other Plays Online

Authors: Peter Handke

Tags: #Fiction, #Literary

The Ride Across Lake Constance and Other Plays (11 page)

VON STROHEIM

Can't one tell just by looking at us?
crop
.)

GEORGE

I guess so, now.

PORTEN

(
To
GEORGE
and
JANNINGS) And how is it with you two? Do you belong together?

(GEORGE
and
JANNINGS
look at each other, look away. The second glance: they look at each other as though for the first time.
)

GEORGE and JANNINGS

(
Simultaneously
) Yes, he belongs to me. (
To one another,
GEORGE softly, JANNINGS
louder
) You belong to meâyou belong to me.

GEORGE

Why?

JANNINGS

Because it has always been like that.

GEORGE

Who says that?

JANNINGS

People in general.

GEORGE

And why do you tell me that only now?

JANNINGS

There was no need to tell you until now.

GEORGE

And now it has become necessary?

JANNINGS

(
Looks at his cold cigar
.) Yes. (
He points with the cigar at the box of matches lying on the footstool.
GEORGE
bends down, then he hesitates and straightens up again
.) There, you see how necessary it was. (GEORGE,
confused, thereupon hands him the matches, and
JANNINGS,
content, lights his cigar. He drops the match
.) You've lost something there.

(GEORGE
glances briefly at the match, looks away. The second glance: he picks up the match and puts it in the ashtray
.)

VON STROHEIM

(
Applauds by way of suggestion, but one hears no clapping
.) Much better already! Much better! Of course, if I were you â¦

PORTEN

Who's stopping you?

VON STROHEIM

Yes, who's stopping me? (
He takes a deep breath and assumes a pose.
(JANNINGS
takes the coins from the table and flings them into his face
. VON STROHEIM
shakers himself and comers to his senses. He speaks
to
JANNINGS
and
GEORGE
as though teaching them something
.) You're still here?

JANNINGS

(
Repeating, but twice as loud
) You're still here?

VON STROHEIM

That's it! Exactly! That's how I would have done it!
(Pause.
VON STROHEIM
gives JANNINGS a sign to go on speaking. He prompts him.)
What do you want here?

JANNINGS

What do you want here?

VON STROHEIM

We just want to take a look around.

JANNINGS

This isn't an amusement park!

VON STROHEIM

Why don't you let him speak for himself!

(JANNINGS
nods to
GEORGE
and sits down on the fauteuil, his back to the others.
)

GEORGE

This is private property. (JANNINGS
nods.
) You're not in a restaurant. You have nothing to say here. Please talk to each other only in whispers. If you must intrude here, at least take off your hats. Didn't you see the felt slippers by the entrance? Look at me: I'm talking to you. You're not at
home here, where you can put your feet on the table. What has the world come to that anybody can come in? Watch your step, man-traps and self-detonating charges have been set. Danger, rat poison. Don't touch anything. Beware of dog. Long, hard winter. Floods in spring, mud in the closets, no more cranes wake with their shrill screams in the meadows, no more June bugs buzz through the maple trees. (
Pause
.) It's terribly painful to be alive and alone at one and the same time.

(
Pause
.)

VON STROHEIM

He'll never learn it.

(
Pause
.)

GEORGE

It wasn't raining yet, but farther away one could hear it already raining â¦

(VON STROHEIM turns away with PORTEN and walks around with her as if he wanted to inspect the furnishings. He wants to take out a magazine, but when he straightens up with it, it turns out that the magazine is chained to the table, like a
telephone book, and he quickly puts it back. Then
PORTEN
wants to pick up the little statue covered with a paper bag, but it turns out that the statue is either screwed or glued to the chest of drawers. She pulls the bag from the statue: it is a multicolored painted dog sitting in an upright position. She touches it and it squeaks: it is made of rubber
. VON STROHEIM
joins her and pulls on one of the chest drawers. It will not open although he makes repeated attempts. Finally he tries a different drawer, which opens very easily
.)

VON STROHEIM

You see!

(
They leave the drawer open and continue their inspection tour. He takes off and drops the cover from the first picture: a seascape, not a rough sea, not a calm sea, no ships, only ocean and sky.

Almost simultaneously
PORTEN
has removed the cover from the second picture: a mirror without particular characteristics. She settles on the second, so far unused, sofa while
VON STROHEIM
returns from the bar with a bottle and two glasses. He sits down next to her and twists the bottle top but cannot open it. He quite casually blows into the glasses, and a cloud of dust swirls into his face. He casually puts the glasses and bottle aside. He looks at his hands, turns one palm up and down.
)

PORTEN

(
Suddenly seizes his hand
.) Watch out! (
Pause. She sees his hand.
) Oh, it's only your hand. I thought, an animal.

VON STROHEIM

Why don't you look at me?

PORTEN

I don't dare look at you closely because I'm afraid I might catch you at something! (
She looks at him
.)

(
Pause
. BERGNER
in the meantime has gone to the mirror and calmly viewed herself in it.

GEORGE,
still standing, carefully wipes the cutlery on the table with a large red cloth he pulled out of his pocket and then places itânow and then he tries to stand it on endâon a second red cloth as if he were putting the cutlery on display. He and
JANNINGS
are spectators.

PORTEN
has put her hand on
VON STROHEIM'S
knee and is caressing her own hand with her other one.
)

VON STROHEIM

(
Moves his lips soundlessly, but every so often a word becomes audible
.) Snowplows
â¦
hedges
â¦
a dog portrait? (
At one point he presses down the intertwined fingers of both hands so that the joints crack.
)

(BERGNER
is combing herself, but with movements becoming increasingly more insecure. She does not know in which direction to comb while viewing herself in the mirror. With a small pair of scissors she wants to cut a strand of hair, holding it away from her head, but keeps missing until she finally lets go of the strand. She wants to put on makeup, pencils the eyebrows and the eyelines, puts rouge on her cheeks, powders her nose, puts on lipstick. But as she does this her movements become more and more shaky, and contradictory. She confuses the direction in which she wishes to draw the lines. She is mixed up. She wants to put the cosmetics back into the handbag but they fall to the floor. She walks away. She turns around, walks in the opposite direction, at the same time looking back over her shoulder, turns around again. She is totally confused, her face is badly made up. She walks in a direction where no one is and says: “
Help me!
” but with wrong gestures, hopping around. She bumps into things, bends forward to pick up things that physically lie behind her
.)

PORTEN

(
Calls to
her
.) Open your eyes! Say something! Pull yourself together! (
But
BERGNER
does not turn her head toward her
,
instead to somewhere else
. PORTEN
gets up and walks up to her from behind.
). Don't be frightened.

BERGNER

(
Startled, looks up toward the stairs. She tries to point to the painting with the seascape but is unable to
.) It winked at me! It's winking at me!

(PORTEN
calms her down by caressing her and leading her around the room. Together they bend down for the coins and other things on the floor. At first
PORTEN
guides her hand, then
BERGNER
reaches for the things herself and also points at them correctly again. While doing this they talk to each other, and the longer they talk, the more sure of themselves and graceful they become.
)

PORTEN

Once when it rained I walked with an open umbrella across a wide, heavily traveled, street. When I had finally reached the other side, I caught myself closing the umbrella.

BERGNER

And once when IâPlease, help me. (
She is still insecure
.)

PORTEN

(
Grabs her and wipes her face with the stole
.) Once when I bent over a bouquet of carnations while there was a great deal of noise around me, I couldn't smell anything at first.

BERGNER

Once while I wanted to put a tablecloth over â¦ (
She cannot think of the word and becomes afraid again.)
Help me, please.

PORTEN

(
Speaks now very distinctly to set an example.
) Once I walked down a stairway and had such an urge to let myself fall that out of fear I began to run as soon as I had reached the bottom.

BERGNER

(
Breathes a sigh of relief
.) Once I wanted to put a tablecloth over a table, I was with my thoughts (
She neatly points to the picture
.) at the seashore and caught myself shaking the tablecloth as if wanting to wave with it.

(
They embrace, then dance around while they put the coins and cosmetics into the handbag. They talk and move more and more lightheartedly.
)

PORTEN

Why “caught”? Why not: “I saw myself,” “I noticed”?

BERGNER

I saw myself! I noticed myself! I heard myself!

(
They stand facing one another
.)

PORTEN

Someone keeps looking over his shoulder while he's walking. Does he have a guilty conscience?

BERGNER

No, he simply looks over his shoulder from time to time.

PORTEN

Someone is sitting there with lowered head. Is he sad?