Porcelain Vase

Porcelain Vase

Scene 1 – Teddy Bear
Scene 2 – Fishing Song

A railroad car full of stacked coffins. Through the cracks of the car flimsy streams of light come in. The train is moving. PETAR and ANDREJ are inside. PETAR sits on a coffin and eats crumbs from the army rucksack, mechanically. ANDREJ is sitting and looking outside.

ANDREJ: Uncultivated soil: there are no people, trees, houses; wasteland… It’s the same everywhere. (Pause.)
PETAR: It’s night?
ANDREJ: Sunset…
(ANDREJ approaches PETAR, takes his rucksack, takes out a bottle of brandy, pours some on his hands and rubs them with extreme effort, as if were very dirty. He gives PETAR back the brandy. PETAR drinks and puts it back in the rucksack.)
ANDREJ: It’s been nine days of travelling. We should have got there by now.
(Long pause.)
PETAR: (Singing.)

“Lambs must be killed, son Petar mine.
Why do you lie, your bones so bare?”
“Nine rooms I burned, with nine young boys.
Nine mothers I burned there.”

“Rooms must be burned, son Petar mine.
Why do you hold that same fixed stare?”
“Go mother, leave me. The night grows cold.
Bare bones are all my share.

ANDREJ: Let’s sing together, I sing well, I studied acting before the war.
PETAR: I keep forgetting your name…
ANDREJ: Andrej.
PETAR: Andrej, this song… I sang this song with my grandfather when we went fishing. He drank constantly, he was fishing with the line on his finger, he lost his sight during one of the wars; never talked about the… I haven’t sung it since I was a child, I thought I’d forgotten it.
ANDREJ: That place where you went fishing, were there any aspens there?
PETAR: Aspens? I don’t know, one forgets such things; I know there were big fish: carps, catfish, barbells, sometimes even chubs…
ANDREJ: The aspens are like brides in April, their trunk is softer than usual. It’s warm when you touch it, it shivers under the hand.
PETAR: My little boy and the girl were born in April. (Pause.) How many children have you killed?
ANDREJ: There was no April this year.
PETAR: It’s war…
ANDREJ: Let’s sing.
… … … … … …

Review

AuthorJugoslav Petrovski
2018-08-21T17:23:54+00:00 April 1st, 2000|Categories: Play, Blesok no. 14, Theatre/Film|0 Comments