CHARACTERS
LUCRECE
SEXTUS TARQUIN, her rapist
COLLATINE, her husband
BRUTUS, her husband’s friend
Everyone is always on stage.
1.
LUCRECE in the dark. She clicks her tongue, sighs. She goes out, stumbling a little, making a sound of irritation when she does.
2.
LUCRECE in the light. Her hair is in six braids. She starts undoing the braids.
LUCRECE
I give my toys and dolls to the household gods, and I step over the threshold.
I’ve made a to-do list, and I think I’ve done everything on it. Did I turn off the oven?
3.
LUCRECE in the dark. The sound of a sheet filling with air as it’s thrown over a bed. The sound of a television turning on and then immediately turning off.
4.
LUCRECE in the light, reciting:
LUCRECE
“The week drags on
And the burden of beauty does not subside
It rises and rises.
“What I want.
What I want.
Do I have to tell you?
“The places I hurt,
The places I don’t hurt;
Even the sound of my language knows them.
“The places I hurt.
The places I don’t hurt.
Don’t you know them?
“O Invader.
O Thief.
You broke into my eyes.
You.
“Sir.
Thief.
Teach me your art.”[1]
5.
LUCRECE invisible in the darkness. With little variation:
LUCRECE
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
If you could be sure that I wasn’t lying to you, I would only say it once.
But as things are, I can’t say it enough.
6.
LUCRECE lying in the light. TARQUIN stands on her hair. He looks at her.
TARQUIN
The burden of beauty. I thought it would never get light. And I think you say it so many times because you want to hurt us with the monotony of it. / Make us suffer through the repetition.
At the “/” LUCRECE begins again:
LUCRECE
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
I hurt.
TARQUIN
I know you do.
He grinds his foot in her hair.
I hurt
you.
It was awkward for me. Not as much as if I’d had a condom, too, but still. Doing two things at once. Holding my sword and fucking you; it was awkward and a little distracting. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t had to do both.
Silence.
LUCRECE
You’re proud of yourself.
Silence.
TARQUIN
Always.
Your hair looks like a bird’s nest.
She tries to sit up, is obviously restrained by his foot in her hair.
Nightingales and ravens.
He gives a cry of pain and takes a deep breath.
I hurt.
I can say it as easily as you.
Do you believe me?
LUCRECE
I want to step on your throat. I want to stand on your broken chest and wash my hair in your blood. I want to make a noise like a falcon in your head and force your hands into the fire, up against the burning wood.
TARQUIN
Do you? Will you?
LUCRECE
No.
TARQUIN
You ought to hurt me. I say that for you, not me, by the way. Why aren’t you screaming?
LUCRECE
It’s not that kind of pain right now. I just
hurt.
You hurt me; that’s past tense. I was hurt by you; that’s past tense, too; past tense passive.
I hurt.
Present continuous.
COLLATINE
Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.
[I love, you love, he/she/it loves, we love, you (plural) love, they love.]
TARQUIN
Really?
COLLATINE
First conjugation. Present tense active. Easy.
Magis arduus postea fiet.[2]
[It gets harder later on.]
TARQUIN
What do you think he means by that?
Lightly, amusing himself:
Is what’s conjugal harder than what’s conjugated?
COLLATINE
Non comprehendas.
[You wouldn’t understand.]
Again she tries to get up and can’t because of his foot in her hair.
LUCRECE
I found some paper and I took out a pen. I started to write “Come home,” but I put down a C and then I felt sick, and I couldn’t finish the word.
TARQUIN
Why don’t you ask me to let you up?
He grinds his foot in her hair.
7.
Darkness. COLLATINE turns on a small light, like a flashlight or a small candle. It doesn’t illuminate his face. From the darkness:
COLLATINE
Uxor mea pulchra est.
[My wife is beautiful.]
BRUTUS and TARQUIN turn on the same kind of light; their faces also remain in darkness. They have lights; none of them are illuminated.
BRUTUS
Tell me.
TARQUIN
Yes. Tell me.
COLLATINE
Redibo domum et obices ianuae resolvam. Ibi virgo est. Ne qua femina pulcrior clarum ab Oceano diem viderit venientem.
[I will go home and open the bars of the door. There is the young woman. No more beautiful woman has seen the rising light of day.]
BRUTUS
Tell me.
TARQUIN
Tell me more.
LUCRECE translates COLLATINE’s next few lines softly, on a delay of a few seconds.
COLLATINE
In somnia mea illam video. In flammeum me adit. Uxor mea in cubiculum decumbit; in memoria mea sua corpus ardit.
[In my dreams I see her coming to me in her flame-colored veil. My wife lies in her room; her body burns in my memory.]
BRUTUS
Tell me.
TARQUIN
More.
COLLATINE
Factura rosea et candida clara et sine pari est; in vultu aurora, in colli cervice crepusculum; in omnibus gaudiis voluptiabusque limitem illuminat.
[She is a thing of clear and unmatched red and white; her face is dawn and dusk is at the nape of her neck; she lights the way to every joy and every pleasure.]
BRUTUS
Oh. Oh.
COLLATINE
O veni a me. Veni in flammeum tuum; veni niveo pede. Non tuus levis vir est; a tuis teneris volet secubare papillis. Veni. Veni.
[Oh, come here. Come in your flame-red veil, come on your snow-white feet. Your husband isn’t fickle; he doesn’t want to sleep apart from your dainty little breasts. Come. Come.]
8.
Sudden full lights. BRUTUS and COLLATINE stand at LUCRECE’s feet. All three men look down at her. She screams.
9.
Darkness.
TARQUIN
The word you couldn’t write was “come.” Because you know.
LUCRECE
The pen was crap; I paused and the ink bled; the paper was soaked and my hand went black at the edges. I hurt. I hurt. Oh God. There is ink in my eyes. There is ink in my mouth.
TARQUIN
Where is your husband?
LUCRECE
I am swallowing ink, and I am crying ink, and nothing is written. I hurt. I hurt.
TARQUIN
Why do you want to write to him?
LUCRECE
Where is my husband? I am in pain; I want aspirin. I’m sick; I want someone to bring me ginger ale. I want one person. I cry ink and it’s only teardrops; there are no words.
TARQUIN
All you are is a voice. You are only a voice, and a voice proves nothing and means nothing.
LUCRECE
(screaming:)
I hurt! I hurt!
TARQUIN
Your voice has no hands and your voice has no sword. Your voice is nothing that could move a man who left bruises in six places on your body. Your voice is something I can kill with a handful of your own clothing.
The word you couldn’t write was “come.” Because you know.
I have a voice of my own.
11.
In the light. BRUTUS and COLLATINE are where they were before, but kneeling, leaning in very close to LUCRECE. There are black lines down her face from her eyes to her jaw.
LUCRECE
No.
BRUTUS
Rape displays a total contempt for the personal integrity and autonomy of the victim; short of homicide, the ultimate violation of self.
LUCRECE
No.
BRUTUS
Rape is very often accompanied by physical injury, and because it undermines the general sense of security, it may be considered an injury to the public at large.
TARQUIN
You didn’t want me to start. But you finished first.
She tries to sit up, is prevented by his foot in her hair, but stays there, straining.
You were begging me to stop when I shoved your nightgown in your mouth, and everything I did to you felt better because you were crying like that. It made me so hard. And I would have lasted longer if I hadn’t felt you coming all over my cock. I had my head down by your head; I had my mouth next to your ear. I said, “Come for me, whore; I know you want to; come,” and you did. I know
you did.
She falls back to the floor. He bends over her. A whisper the audience can hear:
Look at you.
Straightening up:
Prove me wrong.
LUCRECE
I am swallowing pain and I am crying ink.
COLLATINE runs his fingers down the black marks on her face.
TARQUIN
Anyone can cry.
LUCRECE
Bruises.
TARQUIN
You’re a masochist. Most women are.
LUCRECE
I hurt. I hurt.
TARQUIN
The truth of that is buried in your body, tangled in your nerves and neurons.
BRUTUS
Actions speak louder than words.
He takes one of her feet and lays it against his shoulder. He addresses her foot.
We’ll give you leather boots with buckles and sharp heels and you’ll wear heavy eye-liner. Your hair will be loose and blown back from your face. Your leather jacket will be full of knives and guns. He will cower, and you will have no mercy. You’ll have tight leather pants, and your shirt will be open at the top. Revenging angel.
LUCRECE
I want to shave my head and wear my puffy winter coat and furry hat inside. Please turn up the thermostat.
BRUTUS
Dip your hand into his chest, and dye the part in your hair black-red with arterial blood. Put your fingers to your wet and shining lips and lick them clean.
LUCRECE
Ibuprofen and ginger ale and let me sleep. Please let me sleep.
BRUTUS
High, sharp heels on your boots.
COLLATINE is leaning close to LUCRECE.
COLLATINE
Rape is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It is a crime against humanity. The gods allow themselves to be born as mortals in order to revenge it.
LUCRECE
(to COLLATINE:)
Can I get in the bath with my pajamas on?
COLLATINE
Everywhere my wife goes, a perfume goes with her, and I can refuse her nothing.
The lights go out extremely abruptly, and all four make brief sounds of surprise.
12.
In the dark. Before the men are done making sounds of surprise, LUCRECE begins to talk very loud and fast.
LUCRECE
Night is the very image of hell; we do not know what it contains, but we are terrified. The lonely mind at night will stray to horror and to fear; the mind in circles makes the writhing worm, come from shining throne on high, come to watch me where I lie, and I do not remember light and I do not believe in light; I remember no names but the names of the dead; I remember no acts but the radioed slaughter; the glow of the clock means nothing or means panic—unilluminating passage down to what? No instant of clarity precedes. No moment of clarity follows.
Pause.
He ruin’d me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.
13.
Light. TARQUIN kneels downstage. BRUTUS and COLLATINE pull or almost throw LUCRECE up to her feet. They hold her upright, each one with his neck under her arm.
COLLATINE
The most beautiful woman in India stood before the court and said, “Listen, you princes here! I tell you, if I do not tie up my hair as I stand on the heart of the man who has done this wrong to me, then I am not who I am; neither the daughter of my father nor the mother of my sons nor the wife of my husbands!”
BRUTUS
Who are the daughters of Rome? They are daughters of war; they are daughters of wolves. The justice of Rome for Sextus Tarquin.
They take their heads from under her arms, leaving her standing alone.
COLLATINE
Kill him.
BRUTUS
Kill him.
BRUTUS puts a butcher’s knife into her hand. COLLATINE takes TARQUIN by the hair and bares his throat.
TARQUIN
Let me tell you my crime.
You are beautiful and I desired you.
I threatened you with murder and humiliation.
I inflicted physical pain.
I denied you your autonomy.
I acted for my own pleasure in contempt of your intelligence, will, and humanity.
Rape is a form of torture.
Rape is a war crime.
I am soldier.
Like your husband, and your husband’s friends, and every man you know.
Torture on one hand and death on the other—
you can feel your pulse. You can speak. Air goes in and out of your lungs, and if you want to, yes, you can shave your head and wear your winter coat inside and get into the bath in your pajamas. There is no help for death. There can be no recovery.
LUCRECE stands without moving.
BRUTUS
Kill him.
TARQUIN
Can you swear that your pain and my death are equivalent?
COLLATINE
He doesn’t deserve to live.
TARQUIN
We’ve always been soldiers; who deserves what has never been our business.
COLLATINE
Don’t you want to kill him?
TARQUIN
The charge is rape and the penalty is death. Your beauty is my motive. The burden is on you.
LUCRECE
Your motive.
TARQUIN
My reason.
LUCRECE
Your excuse.
TARQUIN
Time drags on, and the burden of beauty does not subside.
LUCRECE
I hurt.
BRUTUS
We know.
LUCRECE
Why do I have to tell you?
COLLATINE
Why don’t you kill him?
LUCRECE
(to TARQUIN:)
You’ve broken my eyes.
TARQUIN
You have your excuses and I have mine.
She puts the knife to his throat.
LUCRECE
Invader. Thief. Teach me how to do this.
TARQUIN
If I haven’t, then I can’t.
LUCRECE drops the knife and presses her hand to her diaphragm. Blood appears around her fingers. COLLATINE drops TARQUIN and rushes to hold her. BRUTUS picks up the knife. TARQUIN doesn’t move.
COLLATINE
Mea puella pulchra . . .
LUCRECE
The places I hurt.
The places I don’t hurt.
Do I have to tell you?
COLLATINE
No. You’re bleeding.
LUCRECE lies down. COLLATINE takes her blood and draws red lines down his face to match the black lines on hers. He picks up the knife.
BRUTUS
Can you swear that her death and his death are equivalent?
COLLATINE
I think I can swear they’re not.
He kills TARQUIN. BRUTUS and COLLATINE drop him. The lights go out, and LUCRECE turns on a small light of the kind the men had earlier. She takes a sheet and throws it over TARQUIN, letting it catch the air. After it has settled, and a moment has passed:
LUCRECE
Rate your pain on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being no pain and ten being unendurable pain.
If it were unendurable, how could I tell you about it? I am here, so I have endured, so the pain is endurable. Better or worse than a broken bone? I don’t remember what it felt like when I broke a bone. How can I make comparisons?
Everyone understands blood; everyone believes it.
I am only a voice.
Death is something else entirely.
She turns out the light.
Notes
[1] An adaptation of the lyrics to “Kalvare,” written by Vaimuthu. Parts of this translation were done by “Leaf” and tabula rasa, at http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=28357.0
[2] Latin assistance here and elsewhere very kindly provided by Josephine Livingstone and Eric Arora.
