Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
Holy Land
by Mohamed Kacimi
translated by Colin Teevan
This play was translated in the context of TRAMES, a project organised by the Comédie de Saint-Etienne and the European Theatre Convention, in collaboration with West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Fondazione TeatroDue Parma, Free Theatre of Minsk, Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and the Fondation Beaumarchais.
2
SCENE 1
IMEN Fuck's sake, leave me in peace.
ILAN Open up, I said!
IMEN I'm sick to death of opening up for you.
ILAN For the last time, open up!
Enter ILAN a soldier dressed in civilian clothes, very calm. He walks slowly around the room.
ILAN Who started the fire?
IMEN What fire?
ILAN Who set fire to the tyres?
IMEN I want to sleep, just once, the night through.
ILAN And the flag, who set fire to the flag?
IMEN What flag?
ILAN Our flag.
IMEN I didn't see.
ILAN That bag, what's in that bag?
3
IMEN Photos of my mother.
ILAN No, not with your hands! Don't move. Go to it slowly. Take off your shoes. Pull the bag towards you gently, with your right foot. It's closed? Put a big toe in each handle, now, slowly, spread your legs.
She does so. He lifts the bag of photos. That's her? The doctor, your mother?
IMEN Yes.
ILAN Where is she?
IMEN She disappeared. Yesterday.
ILAN
(looking at the photo again) Where?
IMEN The checkpoint.
ILAN There were no deaths at the checkpoint yesterday.
IMEN I said disappeared.
ILAN Your father?
IMEN Prison.
ILAN How long?
IMEN
4
Life.
ILAN Tough shit for him. She's not bad looking.
He puts one of the photos into his pocket.
IMEN Give me back the photo.
ILAN What are you afraid of? I'm a good guy. Why are you looking at me like that? Don't look at me like that. Those dark eyes of yours. What's going on in them? I can't tell. What's going on in your mind?
IMEN Nothing, there's nothing in my eyes. Nothing, nothing but black rings around my eyes. Television, that's all there is, all the crap I watch, nothing but music videos, music videos for Manu Chao going on in my mind.
ILAN People with dark eyes, you can't read them. Stop looking at me like that. I'm going to pull out your eyes. I'm going to take them between my fingers, I'm going to crack them like nuts to see what's inside them. Do you know Stravinsky?
IMEN Stravinsky?
ILAN You don't like music, I can see that much in your eyes, I'm going to smash them open like little piggybanks to see what's inside. Stop shaking, I said, I'm a good guy.
He gives her back the photo.
ILAN What are these drops of blood on the floor?
IMEN Jesus's blood.
ILAN Don't mess with me?
IMEN
5
Jesus, my cat, he's a tomcat . He jumped up on the tank down below the house, he scratched at the gun turret, the soldier got frightened, he got out and grabbed Jesus. With one hand the soldier snapped his paw, like that, like a straw. I brought Jesus to the vet, he pulled out his claws and put dressing on them. After that Jesus lost it completely, he ran everywhere, banging his paws on everything, leaving drops of blood everywhere, on my bed, on the floor, on my clothes.
ILAN Where is this bleeding Jesus then?
IMEN Alia my neighbour's house. The mid-wife.
ILAN I'll go check it out.
IMEN Why are you afraid of cats?
ILAN We've the right to be afraid as much as you.
Exit ILAN.
SCENE 2
Enter Alia.
ALIA Imen! I've had enough.
IMEN Me too.
ALIA This time it's just too much.
IMEN Everyday it's too much.
ALIA I'm talking about your cat. The soldiers came my house at two in the morning to check your story. If he puts a paw in my front room again, I'll throw him out of window under a tank.
6
IMEN Do you think it's easy to be a cat without claws in this shithole of a country?
ALIA The white damask canope that covers my bed, you know what it looks like now? A tampax, that's what, a tampax all because of Jesus.
IMEN If anyone touches a hair on the head of my cat, I'll kill them, I swear.
ALIA You'd be better off praying your mother shows up instead of worrying about your cat.
IMEN My mother always shows up, but not my cat. He's all I have left.
ALIA You can't say that, you still have your homeland.
IMEN You know where you can put your homeland.
ALIA At least it will be safe there.
IMEN My only country is my cat; his claws, his purr, his miaow, his cuddling up to me when he's hungry, the way he leaves me in peace when he's had enough. Do you know a promised land as beautiful as a cat? (Beat) Alia. . .
ALIA Don't I'm angry.
IMEN I love you, Alia.
ALIA Now I'll forget, forget why I'm angry. I forget easily you know, I'm going to wash my damask canope.
IMEN
(lighting the hookah) Here, taste that for me.
7
ALIA Why?
She takes a drag on the hookah.
ALIA What is it?
IMEN Egyptian apple.
ALIA I can taste the Nile already.
IMEN Take care with the pipe, Alia. It's like sex, the harder it is the better it is.
ALIA You shouldn't watch so much television, Imen.
IMEN Give me a drag.
She takes a drag.
IMEN I'm flying away, far away.
ALIA Where are you going?
IMEN To Carcassonne.
ALIA What's that?
IMEN You've never heard of Carcassonne? You don't know what you're missing. I wanted to cross the border this morning to buy cucumbers for the black rings around my eyes. I know, I'm obsessed with them. At the checkpoint, the loudspeakers were shouting: 'Everyone on your knees, advance slowly on your knees. Men slowly take off your T-shirts with tips of the fingers on your left hand. Women open your blouses with your left hand. Everyone advance slowly on your knees, right hand behind your head.' It was raining like mad, and the soldiers
8
stopped an old man to search his bag of potatoes. One by one they tested the potatoes. The old man laughed, he touched my arm 'It's nothing, girl, let them search the potatoes, it's their destiny to search our potatoes. I'm going back to France. The road to Carcassonne. It's beautiful. On the road to Carcassonne is wide and full of cars. At a certain point you have to stop and take a small ticket and then you can drive on again and then when you leave the road, you have to stop again and pay. You always have to pay at the checkpoints in France, but they don't beat you up.'
ALIA And the cucumbers?
IMEN No chance. Wouldn't let us through.
ALIA
(putting a hand to Imen's face) I've never see that before.
IMEN What?
ALIA You don't take care of yourself.
IMEN Every day another wrinkle, in a year I'll be ready for the knackers' yard.
ALIA When are you going to get married?
IMEN When my father's released.
ALIA How much longer has he?
IMEN Five years at least.
ALIA It'll go quickly.
IMEN
9
Everything goes quickly, love, life, dreams, death, everything goes, except the rings around my eyes, they don't go, they never go.
ALIA If you have children, have eight, then when they kill four, you'll have the rest.
IMEN I'm not mad.
ALIA Destiny's in the hands of God, he alone knows.
A burst of gunfire is heard.
ALIA It's started again.
IMEN I'll look after my own destiny, it's easier that way. What more can they can bomb? There's nothing left.
ALIA It's funny, each time they bomb us, I feel hungry.
IMEN All I've got is some low-fat yogurt.
ALIA I like yogurt. Is that an RPG?
IMEN No, missile. What type of yogurt do you like?
ALIA Greek.
IMEN You're mad.
ALIA Why?
IMEN Makes your bum fat.
10
ALIA Is that a missile?
IMEN No, RPG.
SCENE 3
Enter Yad.
YAD Alia, where's the whiskey?
ALIA There's no more whiskey, my love.
YAD If there's no more whiskey, the East is lost.
IMEN Come here to me my kittycat.
YAD Night's falling, we must do something.
ALIA There's nothing to be done.
YAD We could cross the checkpoint.
ALIA It's a total blockade. They're shooting anything that moves.
YAD There's still the tunnel.
IMEN They blew up the tunnel.
YAD Is there not even a drop of whiskey left?
ALIA
11
Not one drop, Yad.
YAD And your delivery?
ALIA Push, push, push, girl. I spent three hours shouting at her. Finally the baby dropped. I cut the cord. The husband took me by the scruff of the neck and threw me out in the street, like an old sack of rubbish.
IMEN Because it was still born?
ALIA No, because it was a girl.
IMEN The horror! The horror!
ALIA I can tell, you know, all a woman has to do is open her legs, one quick glance and I know if it's a boy or a girl. When it's a girl, I can feel a great big storm welling up, a great big storm on the whole female sex. I feel it really strongly. I'm never wrong. Girls are like death, I can see them coming from a mile off.
YAD There's still a drop, one little drop. Men who treat women like dogs shouldn't be surprised when they treat them like shit in return . . .one drop to stir up the night, one drop to bring the sea to me, there, to my feet. One drop to taste the milky way, one drop-
ALIA Here, have the last drop yogurt, you need some calcium.
IMEN You hear?
ALIA What is it?
YAD Nothing serious, just helicopters.
ALIA Open the windows to stop them blowing in.
12
IMEN I never close my windows in case they're blown in.
YAD Where are they going?
ALIA Towards the sea, I think.
IMEN South.
ALIA Why are they bombing us tonight? Nothing's happened.
YAD They're bombing us tonight because nothing's happening. They're bombing us because we've got no whiskey. Because our glasses are empty. They're bombing us because there's nothing left to say.
IMEN Where did that one fall?
ALIA It wasn't far, it wasn't far at all. The house shook.
IMEN Calm down, kittycat, calm down.
YAD There's a smell.
ALIA Burning. There's an big fire opposite. It's the racecourse burning, they've bombed the racecourse. More light-
YAD One drop, just one drop and I'll piss down their helicopters, I'll drown them all.
ALIA Just eat your yogurt, my love.
IMEN Light's back.
13
ALIA The helicopters, the helicopters are swooping down on us, the searchlights are blinding.
Dust from the helicopters fills the house.
ALIA All this noise, I can't do it anymore, there is only one God who is the one true God, Yad, we're going to die.
YAD My God, My God, what a bloody palaver!
IMEN My head's going to explode. No Jesus, not there-
Jesus jumps on Alia's knees.
ALIA Away with you and your paws, you filthy animal, shoo!
She smacks the cat off her.
YAD The helicopters-
IMEN Shut up with your helicopters. Are you crazy? You've scared him stiff. Look, he's shaking?
ALIA My silk blouse, look what he's done to it?
YAD Our very own shroud of Turin.
IMEN Cat's blood washes out! Just dab it with hydrogen peroxide, rub it, then rinse it in cold water, you'll get rid of it immediately-
ALIA That doesn't work on silk.
IMEN Going on about silk when we're being bombed.
14
ALIA What should I be going on about, acrylic? Don't you know that if you're dressed in acrylic and you die, your corpse begins to stink immediately?
YAD They're moving off. Here, Imen, run to Joseph's, he's always open. Tell him to give you a bottle of whiskey, Johnny Walker, Black Label, he knows.
Imen leaves.
ALIA Are you mad, we've nothing left and you throw twenty dollars down the drain.
YAD Just because we've lost our homeland does not mean we have to give up our drunkenness.
SCENE 4
ALIA I must tell you.
YAD I know.
ALIA You know what?
YAD I know everything you're going to say before you say it.
ALIA You do.
YAD Thirty years.
ALIA What a love story!
YAD Thirty years, it's no longer love, it's lifetime in public service.
ALIA
15
Do you remember anything anymore?
YAD I remember everything.
ALIA What shoes was Imen wearing tonight?
YAD Black shoes, goat's leather, with very thin laces. The lace on the left foot is beginning to fray and the heel of the right one is slightly worn.
ALIA When we first met, do you remember that?
YAD Ah no, not that please.
ALIA What's wrong with you, Yad?
YAD Couples remembering gives me rheumatism.
ALIA We've seen so much together.
YAD But what of the things we haven't seen?
ALIA Have you always loved me?
YAD Like mad, same as ever.
ALIA You don't mean it, really.
YAD I can't do any better.
ALIA Why not?
16
YAD The war.
ALIA A good excuse, the war.
YAD There must be some upside to it.
ALIA She's late, Imen.
YAD She always survives.
ALIA Yad, I must tell you something.
YAD What?
ALIA We have to talk.
YAD Alia, my love, when two people who love each other say 'we have to talk' it means there's nothing left to say.
ALIA Prove you love me.
YAD How?
ALIA Socks.
YAD What socks?
ALIA You promised me new socks.
YAD What about the ones from Nicosia?
17
ALIA Melted to air.
YAD They weren't ice, they were pure Scottish wool. I bought them in Nicosia.
ALIA It's three years since your trip to Cyprus.
YAD Cyprus, what a beautiful country; donkeys everywhere, the treacherous sea, and Johnny Walker on tap.
ALIA You want to see them?
YAD Show me. True, there's a big hole, just under the big toe of the right foot, and two small holes on the left foot under the sole, it's the Occupation, my love, it's put the holes in our socks.
He kisses her.
YAD It puts holes in the sky, holes in the earth, holes in our history, holes in our bodies, and the holes in our love, this Occupation.
He kisses her. She pushes him away.
ALIA Don't think you can make love to me when I have holes in my socks.
Exit Alia.
SCENE 5
YAD So is it going to fall tonight or not? Too many exiles, too many deserts in my throat to cry out. For once I wish it would fall close to me, not on the ground, but between my fingers. Night always falls so suddenly. I wish it would fall bit by bit. Little by little, Drop by drop,
18
Step by step in front of my eyes. I want to tear up the night into little pieces as it falls on me. I want the night to stammer as it enters me. The night, when it falls, bursts out everywhere. I can feel it bursting out so powerfully in my head. It springs up like a stream in my belly. I don't smoke anymore, my lungs are clear, But the night takes my breath away. The night spews out into my guts. When night falls it rises in my throat. I rip out my own throat, I cut it in two. Vertically from pharynx to larynx, Revealing the mass grave. The mass grave where all the nights are decomposing, All the nights that have fallen on me. I am the mass grave of all the nights who don't know where else to fall. When night comes I plough the sea, But she doesn't move, she will never move, this dead sea. Too much salt, too many manuscripts, too many fragments, too many corpses in her depths. I hear the jackals lapping up the waves. Only jackals are allowed near the sea now. I can hear them, the jackals, they spew up on the beaches of black mud and stones. The jackals spew up the heads of children blown off by exploding bullets. Night falls but there's still white light everywhere, And all these exploding stars which howl on high, And the tracer bullets which howl in my head. One night, I went out, and I returned burnt by the salt and the corpses. Everything's poisoned, rotted, in the night, the sand, the water. The alphabet too is poisoned. And the desert, above all, the desert. We are going to eat up the desert until the last grain of sand. We are going to eat up the desert until the last star falls. All falls here: The desert falls The sea falls Forgetting falls Exile falls The body falls Language falls Sight falls God himself falls Here it's not just night that falls.
SCENE 6
19
IMEN Pistachios from Aleppo?
YAD Crazy like your mother.
IMEN One cube?
YAD Two. Do you hear it?
IMEN Helicopter.
YAD Apache.
IMEN Some water?
YAD A fingernail, like usual.
IMEN There! An RPG?
YAD Missile.
IMEN That okay?
YAD Perfect. It's fallen on the neighbours' house.
IMEN Their horse trampled a soldier.
YAD He's one of us, the horse.
IMEN The soldier's dead.
20
YAD This whiskey is sublime
IMEN They've stopped firing.
YAD Taking a breather.
IMEN I'll go see.
She goes to window.
IMEN There's nothing left.
YAD Nothing new.
IMEN The neighbours' house.
YAD Nothing?
IMEN Just a pile of dust.
YAD Shame, I lent them a Dostoyevsky yesterday. I wanted Maria, the mother, to read them the scene where Natasha Fillipovna throws a thousand roubles on the fire to spite Rogojine who wanted to buy her. A thousand roubles up in flames. 'You're not to blame, Natasha Fillipovna, I adore you.' Beautiful. Sometimes you can dream too much, you become part of the problem. And now they're all dead, and Maria never got to read them Dostoyevsky. Such a shame.
IMEN I never got far with Dostoyevsky either.
YAD It's too difficult for you. Another?
IMEN Another.
21
YAD Your health.
IMEN And yours. I want to ask you, Mr. Yad, but how. . . Have you ever killed anyone?
YAD The problem with pistachios is you can never stop once you start.
IMEN I'm asking you about killing.
YAD Same thing.
IMEN How?
YAD I don't remember anything.
IMEN I don't believe you.
YAD My memory's like a fuse.
IMEN How?
YAD The circuit trips when the load becomes too much. Mr. Johnny Walker, he trips my tears, stops them from flooding the circuit.
IMEN Two cubes still?
YAD Never more than two, or you'll kill the taste of the whiskey.
IMEN What's it like to kill?
YAD
22
I always closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger. I remember nothing but black. Lots of black. Pass me the pistachios, please. Death is simple, like pistachios.
IMEN I hear footsteps.
YAD You think it's your mother?
IMEN They're not hers.
YAD I love her very much.
IMEN I know.
YAD When I first knew Carmen she used dance the tango on the terrace of the casino in Beirut. She was beautiful, crazily beautiful like Beirut. She'd fly in from London, Havana or Granada. She was mad for roulette. I'd be waging war all day and then gambling all night with her, there at the casino in Beirut. Carmen dancing under the Beirut sky, she danced under the F-16 when the F-16s rained cluster bombs down upon our heads. And we played on, played at baccarat at the Casino in Beirut .. . the good old days. We'd play till dawn. . . played no matter what. . .we gambled too much in Beirut.
IMEN I don't know where she's gone this time. I'm frightened.
YAD She loved to gamble, you know.
IMEN Lots of people don't like her.
YAD She's too free for them.
IMEN Some say that-
YAD Some spend their lives saying that-
23
IMEN Some say that she-
YAD Has too many boyfriends?
IMEN Yes.
YAD One woman at least who escaped with her beauty in tact.
IMEN Jesus, where's he gone to? I hope he didn't jump into the neighbours' house. Jesus, where are you? Come back, kittycat.
Exit Imen.
SCENE 7
Enter Amin.
AMIN What are you doing, Dad?
YAD Trying to get the last cube out of the tray. It won't come. It gets on my wick this thing.
He bangs the ice-tray on his knee.
YAD Shit, it's fallen in the cat's piss. The last cube.
AMIN You're drinking?
YAD A miracle. The times we live in.
AMIN Did you see?
YAD
24
See what?
AMIN The neighbours'.
YAD I saw nothing. Imen told me.
AMIN It's ten metres away. Under your nose.
YAD Ten metres is the other end of the world in this insane country.
AMIN The whole Elias family is dead. The whole family, Elias, the father, Maria, the mother Maria. The children, Jeremy, Nathan, Paul, Rachel, Naomi.
YAD So they weren't that caught up in the scene with Natasha Fillipovna.
AMIN I was there when the soldier died. The boy Jeremy was on the horse, galloping. He was going fast, too fast, like a bullet. He didn't see at the corner of the street the roadblock. The soldier saw the horse coming, he fired a first shot in the air, the boy Jeremy tried to stop the horse, but the horse wouldn't stop, the soldier fired again, the bullet grazed the horses rump. The horse reared up, hooves in the air, then he let fly kicking in front of him. He smashed the soldier's ribs.
YAD Do you think it's bad to use a cube that's fallen in cat's piss?
AMIN Don't you care? Look at my hands. Look at the state of them. Do you see what's in them, do you? I was digging with everyone else, after the missile, I dug and I found this tuft of hair, you recognise it, the hair? Do you? You see it? It's Naomi's hair. The little girl. It's all that remains of her, I dug and I saw so much flesh mixed with plaster, I dug and I saw so much blood mixed with cement, I dug and I saw fingers, I saw arms, I saw feet, I saw scraps of clothes, I saw eyes, I saw bowels, I saw genitals, I saw cigarette ends, I saw jewelry, I saw fear. I dug and I found the smell of death, you know the smell of death? It's warm, it rises, it rises everywhere, Dad, I thought it was me who smelt at this point, I tore off my clothes but the smell was still there, stronger than the ruins, stronger than the corpses, stronger than the living, stronger than all the dead, this smell. And I realised then that you were lying when you said that God's not a serious option, I realised
25
you've been lying to me from the start. If the smell of death is so strong, it's because God is there. And only God can take away this smell of death.
YAD You take the good Lord for an ass, you burden him with too much, he'll end up by breaking his back and your's with it.
AMIN I want to die for my country.
YAD Have a pistachio, they leave a better taste in the mouth than this country.
AMIN You don't want to fight anymore?
YAD I'm all beaten.
AMIN You've lost your balls, Dad.
YAD No, I'm like Natasha Fillipovna, I've dreamed so long that now I'm partly to blame.
AMIN You've blown everything, lost everything.
YAD Perhaps. I lost the war, I lost the land, I lost two children, I lost my history, I lost sleep, I lost love. I've blown my fortune, but I learnt one thing.
AMIN What?
YAD You should look for the upside, even in catastrophe.
AMIN And these bodies, what about all these bodies?
YAD With the dead, you've got to do what you do with poker. When you lose, when you've taken a hit, you don't let on, you button it, don't show your hand, bank your money and wait for the next opportunity. Go on, have a glass.
26
AMIN No.
YAD No hard feelings.
AMIN You know it's forbidden.
YAD By who?
AMIN By God.
YAD A God who spends his time forbidding Johnny Walker Black Label is not a God but a ball-breaker.
AMIN Don't talk like that Dad or you'll go to hell.
YAD What hell, my son? Hell is here, under your nose, ten metres from you, like you say. It's in your mouth, it's up your ass, my little lion.
They leave.
SCENE 8
Alia's house, enter ILAN.
ILAN Who burnt the tyres?
ALIA It wasn't my son.
ILAN Who burnt the flag?
ALIA Which flag?
27
ILAN Our flag.
ALIA It wasn't my son, my son's at university.
ILAN What age is he, your son?
ALIA He's twenty one, Amin.
ILAN Your son Amin is twenty one and twenty three days. You lot lie all the time.
ALIA Amin never gets mixed up with what's happening in the street.
ILAN Where is your husband?
ALIA I don't know.
ILAN You lot never know anything.
ALIA We don't have to, you know everything for us.
ILAN What time did your husband leave?
ALIA An hour before the bombing.
ILAN You're sure?
ALIA I'm sure.
ILAN He sleeps here?
28
ALIA The nights he's not in prison, he spends here.
ILAN What colour underpants was he wearing this morning?
ALIA White, ten percent cotton, ninety percent viscose bought in Nicosia three years ago with three holes on the left cheek and one on the right.
ILAN I'll check on that.
He takes a book out of his pocket.
ILAN And this, what's this?
ALIA A book. A Russian novel.
ILAN Who does it belong to?
ALIA God knows.
ILAN It's your husband's book.
ALIA Possible, he's thousands of them, I don't know them all.
ILAN But you know all his underwear?
ALIA I don't wash his books by hand each evening.
ILAN The book was found in the house of your terrorist neighbours.
ALIA What terrorists? They were children.
29
ILAN Shut your mouth. We only kill terrorists. Children! You lot are inhuman.
ALIA My son did nothing. He's top of his class at university.
ILAN What's happened your other neighbour's mother?
ALIA Carmen?
ILAN Yes, Carmen.
ALIA I don't know anything.
ILAN We know you'vc no money.
ALIA It's not so bad, we used to.
ILAN We could help you. For just the odd bit of information, I'll give you a mobile. Just tell us what you see, you could have money again. A Nokia triband with sixty ringtones, all classical music. Listen to this.
He takes out a mobile, trips the ringtone and holds it towards Alia's ear. She tries to break away from her, he seizes her.
ALIA Leave me, leave me alone.
ILAN Don't move, stop shaking, I'm a good guy, listen to me, listen, it's beautiful, you hear what it is? Stravinsky.
ALIA Leave me, leave me, or I will kill you.
She bites him, he lets go.
30
ILAN Savages, you don't understand music.
He lets go of Alia and picks up a remote control.
ILAN What's this here?
ALIA The remote for the television.
ILAN examines the remote for a long time before pressing on the on-button. The TV comes on, loud eastern rap is heard.
ILAN Have pity on me, not that, anything but that shit.
He kicks the screen until the screen blows up.
ALIA You've smashed my television? Why did you do that? Why did you do that?
ILAN
(falling to his knees in front of the broken television, crying)
You're inhuman, you don't realise! You're truly inhuman to make me listen that. . .I am a good guy, I'm good little boy.
He leaves in tears.
SCENE 9
Enter Amin.
AMIN What is it?
ALIA For years I've dreamt of kicking the TV in.
AMIN You've blown it up?
31
ALIA Since I was a girl.
AMIN You saw what happened the neighbours?
ALIA I saw everything.
AMIN A nightmare.
ALIA A nightmare.
AMIN A total fucking nightmare. You liked her, Marie.
ALIA Yeah I liked her, the back-biting bitch.
AMIN She's dead. Pulverised.
ALIA A back-biting bitch is a back-biting bitch, even when she's just the dust of a back-biting bitch.
AMIN They still haven't finished re-assembling the body.
ALIA I'm not going to cry. All the gossip was about Carmen, but it was her. She never stopped flirting with your father. She wanted him to call her Nastassia, the bitch Marie.
AMIN Dad flirts with all women.
ALIA Your Dad's pissed away his life trying to liberate that filthy rabble. He's a right to flirt with who he wants to. These women, in their veils, you can't even see the tips of their nails. All those back-biting bitches disguised as crows who pray night and day yet would sell their fathers, their mothers, their lovers and even their precious God for a Nokia tribande with sixty ringtones. Have you heard of Stravinsky?
32
AMIN Who?
ALIA I'm knew your hands were clean.
AMIN You're talking to me like my father.
ALIA And some.
AMIN But the children, Marie's children, they didn't die for nothing.
ALIA No one's innocent anymore, we're too far stepped in shit to have the luxury of innocence. Some day we should stop dying just to spite the enemy, because our deaths only spite ourselves, though I'm not sure they do that anymore.
AMIN But you'll go to the funeral, Mum?
ALIA You'll have to go alone, I've seen too many deaths to have pity. Bringing the living into the world, that's what I do, there's nothing I can do for the dead.
AMIN But we must do something, Mum-
ALIA You're right, we must make some coffee. Let me show you, shameful at your age, you don't know how to make good coffee. How can you expect to make revolution if you can't make coffee. First you put the water, the coffee and the sugar in the pot and stir it well. Bring it to the boil on a medium heat, watch it closely, the coffee can bubble over quickly. When the foam rises, let it rise just to the rim, then take it off the heat, let the foam fall back, then return it to the heat and let the foam rise again. . .after that, take it off the heat again and pour it straight into the cup.
AMIN You are all mad. There's a bloodbath outside our window and my father sings hymns of praise to whiskey and my mother recites recipes for Turkish coffee.
ALIA
33
You must control the foam like anger, like I told you, if it bubbles over it will burn your hands.
AMIN
(he paces up and down then turns towards the window)
God is great!
ALIA What is it, Amin?
AMIN A sign from God, Mum, a sign from God, you see, there, directly below the house, the soldier sitting on the ground leaning against the wall. Look he's exhausted, his helmet's off, he is directly under the window. It's a sign from God.
ALIA No, Amin, you're top of the class at university.
AMIN Leave me.
ALIA Amin, I've nothing left except you.
AMIN You'll have a hero for a son, Mum, a hero.
ALIA I've had enough of heros, I'm sick to death of heros.
AMIN Leave me , Mum, leave me, it's a sign from God.
ALIA Stop, Amin, I'm sick to death of the good Lord.
AMIN You stop, or he'll go away.
ALIA Think of your home, thirty years work to build it.
AMIN
34
Aren't you ashamed to think of your house instead of your homeland?
He pushes her aside, he takes the television and throws it out of the window. He scores a direct hit.
AMIN God is great, God is great! I smashed his head in, Mum, look at his brains on the pavement, look at all that blood! I'm a hero, Mum, I'm one of the heros, let me hold you, Mum, let me hold you, I am a hero, God is great, Mum.
Exit Alia running, he follows her.
SCENE 10
Imen's house. Imen and Amin.
IMEN What are you doing there?
AMIN I'm one of the heros.
IMEN You've passed your exams?
AMIN No, I've killed.
IMEN Killed what?
AMIN A soldier, a soldier in uniform.
IMEN The life expectancy of someone who's killed a soldier is one hour. The clock is ticking.
AMIN I'll be a martyr.
IMEN You'll be a stupid asshole! You're going to die.
35
AMIN I'm not going to die, bitch, I'll be brought back to life.
IMEN Of course, they're going to gun you down, you'll die, then seconds later you'll open your eyes you'll be in bed eighty virgins.
AMIN You don't believe it?
IMEN I've problems enough with Little Red Riding Hood.
AMIN But everyone says so.
IMEN Everyone swallows any old bullshit in this country.
AMIN I'm going to paradise. I'm going to paradise.
IMEN Why say you're dying for your homeland when all you wanted was to empty your balls.
AMIN Bitch, you're nothing but a bitch like your mother. You know what she did your bitch of a mother?
IMEN What do you know? Tell me.
AMIN She was at the check point, your mother, behind her was a mother who held her child in her arms, the child who was dying, the ambulance was on the other side. Your mother took out her doctor's papers, she talked to the soldiers, but the soldiers would only let her pass and not the mother. She started to shout, an officer came, he took a fancy to your mother. There, in front of everyone he said he'd let the mother and child pass if she'd kiss him on the mouth. And you know what she did, the bitch? She kissed him. She kissed him on the mouth. The soldier put his tongue down her throat there in front of everyone. My God, what an embarrassment for your father, and him serving life.
IMEN And the child, what did they do with the child?
36
AMIN They let it through. But that's not the point, you can sacrifice a child, but not your honour. Not our honour in front of the enemy. The brothers, they burnt her alive, your whore of a mother.
IMEN Get the fuck out of here!
AMIN I can't, the whole area is sealed.
IMEN Get the fuck out of here or I'll scream.
AMIN
(taking a pistol out of his pocket) If you open your mouth I'll put a bullet in it.
IMEN Shoot, I'm not afraid of death. . .
A beat.
AMIN You're not afraid of death? Okay then, come here kittycat, come here little Jesus.
He takes the cat in his arms.
AMIN Now you're going to do exactly what I say or I'll blow his brains out.
IMEN Not Jesus, Amin, not Jesus, please.
AMIN On your knees whore, on your knees I'm telling you. Like that, now raise your hands, there. Now you'll do exactly what they do at the checkpoint, advance slowly on your knees, raise your jumper, higher. I can't see anything. Higher, so I see everything. Now with one hand lift your bra. Take it off, throw it on the ground. Raise your hands again. What a pair of tits, God is great! Open your trousers, slowly, just with your finger tips, throw them at my feet. Like that, and take off your socks and give them to me. You've holes in your socks, look. Your mother really was a whore. Now, with one hand pull down your white knickers. Give them to me. Now, lie down, spread your legs. Quickly! Show me! I've never
37
seen it before, never seen a woman, a woman's cunt. I'm afraid. No! Don't close your legs, if you do I'll shoot Jesus. Roll over so I can see your ass. Quickly, or that's the end of Jesus. Jesus! I've never seen it before, a woman's ass. Roll back over, onto your back. God is great. God is great, God is great!
He comes on her. Impassively, as though dead, she takes her cat on her neck and strokes it.
IMEN It's nothing, my sweet Jesus, don't be afraid, kittycat, I'm here.
SCENE 11
Enter Yad, he sees Imen with Amin over her. Amin gets up abruptly. Yad throws a jacket on Imen, takes a packet of cards out and shuffles them slowly.
AMIN I didn't do anything Dad.
YAD Nothing like a bit of poker to get you through the shit.
He continues to shuffle the cards.
[...]
If you would like to read the play in its entirety, please email
