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Howard Barker

Barker: Plays Five

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  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    HELEN: Don’t die…! Don’t die, Dancer!
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    DANCER: Oh, how they hate me, Jane…in this, these arch-opponents are of one accord…for I am the antithesis of History, which has manacled their souls…
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    The world revolves and dynasties can come and go but that diabolical and cynical parcel of depravity
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    She sleeps because she cannot tolerate a world whose poverty of spirit includes even her…
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    DANCER: (Hacking another slice.) LET THEM EAT CAKE! (He tosses it wildly over his shoulder.) She was not cruel…she was struggling with incomprehension, Marie Antoinette…
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    You because you believe in nothing.
    And me, because I represent everything.
    The cynic.
    The symbol.
    Lucidity.
    And illusion.
    Take me to a foreign city and we can live as poor as beggars in a room…
    I will be a mystery to you.
    Naked.
    On a mattress.
    Poverty
    Exile
    And
    Desire… (DANCER looks at her…)
    My body is not perfect –
    DANCER: I’ve seen it –
    CAROLINE: Three children leave their mark –
    DANCER: Seen it I said –
    CAROLINE: But an empress is an empress and – (Pause.)
    Seen it, how? (DANCER shrugs…)
    DANCER: All night on a balcony
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    DANCER: (Looking into the night.)
    Hated nightfall
    As long as there was day
    I sensed the power to distinguish
    Will from appetite
    What thrilled me in the sun
    Is threatening by night
    Hated nightfall
    I’ll lie awake all hours
    Plotting injury to those I love
    And you will pass an unclean hand
    Over the eyes of malcontents
    The senile dissidents
    And those
    Who find a recompense in cruelty…
    (CAROLINE, steering her SON into the direction of his SISTERS, goes towards DANCER, who gazes into the evening
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    Sophisticated! (ROMANOFF steps forward.)
    ROMANOFF: I’ll give the bride away…
    (DANCER is puzzled. The telephone rings. He is still. It rings and rings.)
    Shall I?
    Wouldn’t you like that?
    (Ignoring him, DANCER walks out of the room. They speak at once.)
    It’s all right, I know what I’m doing
    HELEN: (To CAROLINE.) Don’t quarrel with him –
    ROMANOFF: I know his type –
    HELEN: Whatever he says, do it –
    ROMANOFF: Humour him –
    HELEN: Things that horrify or possibly disgust you, still –
    ROMANOFF: Grit your teeth and –
    HELEN: Crawl, Mother –
    ROMANOFF: I never thought I’d say this but –
    HELEN: Creep, Mother –
    ROMANOFF: The lives of our children depend on the denial of our feelings –
    HELEN: Submit –
    ROMANOFF: Caroline –
    HELEN: Submit –
    ROMANOFF: Caroline…! (He stretches out an imploring hand.) I shall suffer every second of your degradation…!
    Every second…!
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    The beautiful exists…but only because the hideous exists… I am the hideous, and the agent of the hideous… I have never concealed it from myself.
  • ggulnurdemircihas quoted8 years ago
    DANCER
    A Tutor
    ROMANOFF
    An Emperor
    CAROLINE
    An Empress
    CHRISTOPHE
    HELEN
    GRISELDA
    Their Child
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