Penelope and Ulysses (8 page)

and make you even more famous and wealthy.

The more you kill,

with every hunt and netting,

the more you will lose your way,

the more you will become a wanderer

in the realm of shadows

you used to call “your life.”

You will not be physically dead,

but more dead than the dead will you be.

When you no longer can find your way home,

the voices, hands, and embraces of the dead

will hunt and haunt you.

YOUNG ULYSSES: I have learned and participated in such horrors

by sacrificing others.

I have learned that you must navigate your own vessel,

and you must follow your nature and destiny.

This is the lesson of the Promethean fire maker,

even though I have not lived as a fire maker

and fire giver.

BOTH: And let the fires burn.

YOUNG PENELOPE: So that the living can see me.

YOUNG ULYSSES: So that the dead can find me.

YOUNG PENELOPE: To give light to the world,

you first must burn.

YOUNG ULYSSES: You are one of these women

who I can neither find nor lose,

for I am always searching, longing,

seeking, aching for you.

You are all women.

My desire, longing, aching,

my joy in life.

I have looked into the veil of mystery

and I have seen your face.

I have heard your voice,

I have touched your breast,

I have tasted your skin.

You are the mistress of my body.

Come to me.

[
PENELOPE
embraces
him
.]

YOUNG PENELOPE: There is no possible way

to reach to the bottom of your world.

There is no possible way to reach

to the top or the sides.

You continue swimming. Look!

And there float your phantoms,

reaching out for both of us!

Of all the men I could have been with,

I chose you,

not because I am blind to who you are

and what you have done,

but because you have the capacity and humanity

to realise and admit your frailties

and the damage you have caused to others

for your benefit.

I could have been with another,

but I chose you,

for the strength that you have

in your character.

Now ask me,

would I choose another man

before you or after you?

Ask me.

ULYSSES: Would you choose another

before me or after me, Penelope?

And who would you like

for me to bring to you?

Socrates, Plato,

Aristotle, Pericles?

I would surrender you to them

if you so desired.

I want you to have joy

and not be shipwrecked

on the shore of quiet despair

because you are not fully in your life.

So tell me, Penelope,

mistress of my senses and body,

who do you want me to bring to you

to keep your sanity and sexuality burning?

YOUNG PENELOPE: I burn for you!

I do not desire other men.

They are not even sexually desirable to me.

As pleasing as all the men you mentioned

may be to many women,

I can only think of them as my sisters.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Come and kiss me, light of my heart.

[
They
hold
each
other
and
kiss
tenderly
.]

YOUNG PENELOPE: I remember that old philosopher, Socrates,

telling me that if one is to jump

the abyss of separation,

one needs to be a dancer.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Does the abyss separate us?

YOUNG PENELOPE: No, the abyss is all around us.

Imagine if it is all around us,

then we are closer to each other

than we thought.

I sat with him under that old oak tree

for one day and one night

and all the time I wanted to warn him,

to plead with him to become a dancer.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Whatever happened to Socrates?

Did he jump into the abyss?

Did he finally seduce the forest nymphs

or did they seduce him?

Or did they consume him,

or did political man hunt him into the ground?

YOUNG PENELOPE: My poor teacher had to pay with his life

for his dance with the truth of the forest nymphs.

I learned that in order for one

to remain above the ground

one has to have mad dancing feet.

I am a dancer when my nimble feet and toes

dance on the tightrope of my life.

I am found and lost in dance,

“and there is only dance.”
27

YOUNG ULYSSES: Come, my wild forest nymph,

and consume me with your dance.

What do the shepherds

say about wood nymphs?

YOUNG PENELOPE: If you are lucky enough to be sexually consumed

and burned by one,

it is said everyone will know of your ecstasy

for your feet will face backwards.

YOUNG ULYSSES: Come, my wood nymph,

and turn my feet backwards.

Let all the world laugh and say,

“There goes Ulysses!

He has been loved

by Penelope,

for his feet are taking him backwards

rather than forwards.”

Is that why you desired our bed

to be carved from a living tree?

We built our bed around this tree.

Did you need to sleep in the embrace of the tree

to feel protected and cherished,

my wood nymph?

YOUNG PENELOPE: You carved birds and the sea

so that when you are not with me,

I can still sleep and wake in our world.

I can still see what you have seen

in your journey into the sea,

into the sky, into the ground,

into the fire of all shaping and forming life.

That tree is alive.

It still breathes and moves

and whispers to me your secrets.

Did you know that in certain parts

there are trees that are

thousands of years old?

And in their deep silence they speak

to the pure heart and devoted soul.

In that carved tree

that we have made our marriage bed

I have given and received,

I have had your seed grow in me.

In that tree I have climbed

and looked into the secrets of the sky.

That tree we sleep on is from my home.

This is our shared world

and the tree will live

as long as we feed it with the seed of our love.

If ever life separates you from me,

no man will come into this room

and no man will sleep under the carvings

that you created from the language of our love.

No man will ever trick me,

making me believe that he is you,

unless he knows the intimacy of our secret.

The key to my bed is the tree.

The planning in my tapestry is the tree.

The beauty of my world is the tree.

YOUNG ULYSSES:
Agape
mou
,

my sweet love,

my breath and life,

my blood,

if ever anyone tries to convince you

that they are me,

if ever the world parts us

and you are uncertain,

you can be sure by asking

the man who says he is me,

to describe the carvings.

Ask him about the carvings

that I have engraved to keep your dreams alive.

I have carved the forest,

the trees, the sky

and even the river pebbles for you,

my siren that seeks and finds me

in the deepest seas of my soul.

YOUNG PENELOPE: Ulysses, I can hear horses.

Many horses riding towards our world.

Can you hear them?

An army, a plague is coming our way.

YOUNG ULYSSES: My love, my joy,

let me hold you to me

before they arrive and remove me

from you and our son.

Hold me, for I sense

the hunter and the net are near.

Hold me my love.

You cannot protect me from what is mine,

but I am fox enough to protect you

and our son from what is not theirs.

You belong to no man,

not even me, my wild bird.

Look to your tapestry, your training, your tree

and there you will find me.

[
The
sound
of
horses
gets
louder.

They
hold
each
other
and
kiss
]

YOUNG PENELOPE: It is no other.

It is your past decisions and actions

that have arrived to claim you and me,

to remove you from me.

It is Agamemnon,

and the blood you spilled together

in your past and future wars.

Shall I lay out the deep red tapestries

or will I leave this gesture to his wife, Clytemnaestra?

Such a king should not step on the naked earth,

for he has soaked it with the blood of men,

cut down in their prime,

cut away from their lives,

cut away from their children.

Let him walk on the dead bodies

that have brought him here

and will take him to Troy.

YOUNG ULYSSES: What have I done?

What wolves have I killed with,

and what wolves have I brought to my den?

Kiss me one more time.

Hold me close and put your lips to mine.

Closer,
closer
.

Penelope, leave now.

Leave me now to my past and future decisions

and the consequences

that they will have on our lives.

Hide our son.

Hide our son

from the darkness of this barbarian,

from this wolf

that would sacrifice his own daughter

to quench his blood thirst

and his excessive appetites.

Leave now!

[
PENELOPE
runs
off
stage.

ULYSSES
closes
the
door
of
their
secret
chamber
and
the
backdrop
indicates
a
change
of
scene,
into
that
of
a
white,
barren,
cold
room.
He
awaits
Agamemnon’s
entrance.
]

Act III
Agamemnon
 

Colours of Blood

“
If
we
could
end
the
suffering,
how
we
would
rejoice.

The
spirits
brutal
hoof
has
struck
our
heart

and
that
is
what
a
woman
has
to
say.

Can
you
accept
the
truth?”

(Clytemnaestra)

[
The
setting
is
outside
the
sacred
chamber.
It
is
a
large,
cold
room
that
has
a
door
and
a
window
that
faces
the
courtyard.
Agamemnon
is
a
strong,
heavyset
man,
wearing
full
war
armour.
He
has
long,
unkempt
hair
and
a
beard.
His
armour
has
much
gold
on
it.
He
wears
his
sword
and
has
some
scarring
on
his
face
from
the
wars
he
has
been
in.
His
hair
is
dark
and
his
eyes
darker.
He
rarely
smiles
and
has
an
air
of
arrogance
and
vanity
about
him.
He
is
well
trained
in
war,
a
successful
politician,
a
successful
king,
a
father
and
husband.
He
does
not
look
like
a
monster;
he
actually
looks
human,
and
that
is
what
makes
him
more
dangerous,
because
one
thinks
they
can
negotiate
with
him
and
reason
with
him
for
the
good
of
others.