Penelope and Ulysses Read online

  You never disappoint me, Agamemnon.

  Just when I thought you could go no further into the abyss,

  you come back from the deepest darkness

  with the teeth and nails of all the creatures from that darkness.

  AGAMEMNON: Thank you for your admiration, Ulysses.

  I also have learned much from you

  but you do not disappoint me.

  You do understand the thoughts behind my actions.

  You do understand the ways of men like me.

  You understand them because you are of them.

  You are not this meek and melancholy philosopher or poet

  but rather a shrewd and cunning man

  who has advised me on many night slaughters.

  Now listen and understand me.

  I will allow you to speak your thoughts

  in the privacy of this room,

  just to show to you what a democratic

  and compassionate man I am

  towards you.

  This will be the only time

  you will voice your thoughts

  and when you have finished

  telling me what you have practised

  in manipulation, agendas and going to war,

  you will accompany me to Troy.

  ULYSSES: I am not able to do that, Agamemnon.

  I am not your fox or bloodhound.

  My thoughts are scattered and lost.

  Listen to the way I have spoken to you.

  In the past I was the one planning all this,

  and now I am lost in my mind.

  I seem to have lost my senses,

  lost my abilities to navigate in life and war.

  I would be useless and a weight to you.

  AGAMEMNON: I suggest you remember your place, Ulysses,

  and I suggest you remember my power

  and do not make me forget

  that we have been united in brotherhood

  through the blood of many,

  for I value you as my advisor.

  ULYSSES: Agamemnon, you weave the truth

  and the lie in the same thread.

  Then you twist and wrap it

  around the throat of the unsuspecting,

  like an unwanted umbilical cord.

  And you pull and pull

  until you get submission or death.

  In my madness

  I can see Iphigenia’s death,

  the death of your daughter.

  Is it true that her last words to you were

  “Father, have you no heart?”

  “Did you not wrap her around and around

  in her gowns so that she could not move?

  Did you not seal her mouth

  so that we would not hear her pleas and curses?”29

  I am sure we would have heard her pleas in Ithaca.

  We would have heard her

  had you not sealed her mouth

  and then proceeded to seal her eyes and her life.

  AGAMEMNON: This is the law, and the law is the law.

  I am bound by the laws of my country.

  This has been a yoke of necessity—

  to have no personal life

  because my people, my country

  come before my needs as a man.

  Do not moralise to me!

  How many men can sacrifice their own child

  to prove their love for their country?

  Can you? I suspect you could.

  You did not spare other men’s children in war.

  ULYSSES: There is also another law,

  and that is “blood will have blood.”30

  AGAMEMNON: There you go again, moralising to me.

  Is this the madness you are suffering from?

  Iphigenia, my poor daughter.

  If only she knew how much

  she has blessed with her blood

  this war of honour and justice.

  I ask you once again

  to remember your place and position,

  for I will not suffer this weakness in you.

  I will not suffer your moralising to me.

  I love and loved my daughter.

  This was the most painful duty I had to conduct.

  I had to offer part of me as an offering

  so that the army could see that I was and am

  a man of honour and self-sacrifice.

  I am so bound in the laws of our land,

  the laws of our gods,

  the laws of our civilised code and way of life,

  that I would and could

  cut into the heart of my daughter.

  Is there any greater loss to a father

  than to offer his child as a sacrifice

  to save his country?

  It was difficult but achievable.

  Could you have done it?

  With those bloodstained hands,

  could you have done it?

  Don’t judge me as an ordinary man,

  for I am of the land of the law,

  of the blood of the land,

  and of the people.

  My will is of metal and my heart is of stone.

  How do you think I have become master over so many lives?

  By showing weakness in emotion?

  Practising humanitarian acts of kindness and justice

  to those I need to use and harvest

  to bring expansion and glory for my country?

  Your country, Ulysses.

  You should be praising me.

  It does not matter what you have to do

  as long as gain and profit is the result.

  And well you know that the ordinary man

  does not want to think and make decisions.

  He is cowardly and lazy, and that is why

  I have the power and permission from my people

  to keep them in the privileges they are used to.

  They do not want to lose their way of life and living,

  and therefore we need to continue

  our expansion and conquest of others.

  ULYSSES: Great, Agamemnon.

  What a great political animal you are.

  And when you stop the rhetoric,

  it comes down to the ground

  where the blood has been spilled,

  where it will continue to be spilled.

  You and I are murderers of the young and innocent.

  AGAMEMNON: A murderer, Ulysses?

  How do you think you became master of all these lands?

  Did you not murder men, women, and children in their sleep?

  So that you can become a master in this land.

  So that you can have servants doing your work in the fields.

  So that you can fornicate all day and night without worrying

  about earning your living by working.

  How do you think you got this privileged life?

  How do you think you got these lands

  and these rights that other men do not have?

  Do you still insist that you are mad?

  ULYSSES: You are right. I have done all these things.

  I am lost.

  I am confused.

  I am losing my mind.

  AGAMEMNON: So be it! Enough!

  [To a soldier outside the door] Take Ulysses son.

  He must be outside. I saw him as I came in.

  Bring two strong horses and tie

  one on the left arm of his son

  and
the other on the right arm,

  and then ask the soldier to get the horses to run

  in different directions.

  Do this now!

  Come, Ulysses, to the window,

  so that you can see.

  Since you are claiming that you are mad,

  you will neither know the danger nor care.

  [Screams are heard from Telemachus, Ulysses’s son.]

  TELEMACHUS [offstage]: [screaming] Father, where are they taking me?

  AGAMEMNON: Come, Ulysses.

  This cutting in half of your son

  will feed and keep your madness.

  [PENELOPE enters the room to ask what is happening.]

  AGAMEMNON: Good of you to join us, Penelope.

  Obviously you are looking for your screaming son.

  He’s out in the courtyard with my men.

  [PENELOPE moves towards the door.]

  AGAMEMNON: Stop. If you leave this room, that boy is dead

  before you get to the courtyard.

  [PENELOPE draws closer to ULYSSES.]

  Come, Penelope.

  Come and watch the cutting in half of your son.

  I think the black horse will do more damage.

  It seems stronger than the grey one.

  I like children.

  Actually, I love children.

  I recently lost one of my pretty ones

  and feel closer to her

  by watching the cutting in half of yours.

  Tell me, Penelope,

  is it true that your husband has tried to trick me

  by pretending that he is mad?

  Why, only a mad man would put salt in his fields,

  and only a mad man will allow

  his son to be torn limb from limb as he watches.

  The lengths to which men go

  to stay in a woman’s bed.

  Is he mad, Penelope?

  Can you confirm or deny

  either his sanity or his clever insanity?

  ULYSSES: [having been frozen to the window that overlooks the court yard]

  Stop! Tell them to untie my son and bring him back to his mother!

  [AGAMEMNON looks out the window into the courtyard and orders his men to stop.]

  AGAMEMNON: Untie the boy, but leave him with you, until I finish

  speaking with Ulysses.

  ULYSSES: Leave my son and wife out of this matter.

  This is between you and me.

  AGAMEMNON: What is this I hear?

  You are not mad, Ulysses?

  You have tried to trick me?

  Shame on you, Ulysses,

  for now you have made angry.

  And you know what a damaging emotion this is for me.

  Speak to me, Ulysses.

  ULYSSES: Do not involve my son or wife in this.

  AGAMEMNON: You have involved them by hiding the truth from me.

  So how can I not involve them

  when you have refused to come with me because of them?

  You leave me no choice.

  Penelope, has your husband grown old

  and slow in his wits?

  In the old days

  he would have jumped at the chance

  to bring honour and fame to his country.

  He would have invented the war

  to gain more land and wealth.

  Now he complicates the life of his family

  and this war with a madness that he claims he has,

  and worse—this madness stinks

  of manipulation and deception!

  Shame on you, Ulysses, for trying to trick me

  with your martial cleverness.

  I think he has become this way

  because he has not been in battle.

  He has lost the purpose and direction of what a man must do.

  Rather he has been sitting here in Ithaca and rotting,

  devising a clever insanity

  so that I can declare him mad

  and leave him here to rut and fornicate.

  PENELOPE: Please spare my son’s life.

  My husband makes his own decisions

  with or without my approval.

  Let me go and get my son and give him lunch.

  AGAMEMNON: Leave him there with my men for a little while longer.

  Some of my men love young boys,

  and they have not seen one in some time.

  Penelope, my messengers tell me

  of your wit, your humour,

  your discipline, and your prowess with the sword.

  You are an accomplished woman.

  You have rights and your own ideas—

  although, at this very moment

  you look dumb and stupid,

  helpless and anxious for the safety of your son.

  Come, Penelope,

  Defend or betray your husband.

  It makes no difference to me.

  So much for your wit.

  Look at you, standing there, like a mute.

  One can be witty when she is comfortable

  and with friends.

  Now that you have a crisis, Penelope,

  you are tongueless.

  I can arrange that also!

  ULYSSES: Agamemnon, let me appeal to you,

  for all the things that we have done together,

  for all the times that we have saved each other’s lives.

  AGAMEMNON: Stop, Ulysses. I am having fun.

  Tell me, Penelope,

  is your old husband losing his senses?

  Is he going to be useless to me in Troy?

  Will he serve you better to stay in your bed?

  Let me hear your voice and wit, Penelope.

  PENELOPE: There are stages for all things

  and phases in life.

  Ulysses is older and is forgetful and neglectful

  in simple and complex things

  concerning the running of Ithaca.

  Therefore, he should be admired

  for seeking to serve you

  with sincerity and a moral conscience

  by telling you of his weakness.

  AGAMEMNON: I am surrounded by well-rehearsed actors.

  So what you are telling me is that your husband,

  a man that has made blood vows to me,

  is really mildly mad

  and that he has a moral fibre

  for speaking the truth to me?

  So you are going to protect your husband’s bad judgement

  and make him out to be an ethical man?

  Ulysses, an ethical man?

  Did I miss anything?

  ULYSSES: Allow my wife and son to leave so that we can speak as men.

  AGAMEMNON: Now this is deep for me, Ulysses.

  I don’t remember being anything else but a man.

  Sentimentality is wasted on me, Ulysses.

  Now let me tell you what I am going to do.

  I will tear your son limb from limb with those horses outside,

  and you will have two of him.

  Or will I give him to my men

  as I have told you before.

  There are men in my army that are especially fond of young boys.

  ULYSSES: Stop, Agamemnon! Stop!

  AGAMEMNON: No, Ulysses.

  You have taken me this far

  and now I will take you further than you want to go.

  I will take you and your family into brutality and hell.

  ULYSSES: I have se
rved you and have assisted you

  in your accumulation of wealth and power.

  I have been stained by the same enemies’ blood.

  I have fought side by side with you.

  We have saved each other’s lives in many war struggles.

  AGAMEMNON: I have told you before that I can go further into hell.

  I think you stop at the gate.

  I come from there and live there,

  and will bring this hell to your wife and son.

  I will finish what you cannot.

  You should have not started this clever madness with me.

  You should not have tested my patience and

  blood vows that I have taken with you in the past.

  You will stand quietly while I tell you

  what I will do with your wife,

  the one that you want to stay with.

  You will not interrupt me again

  while I take you into this the great suffering

  that involves your son’s and wife’s destiny at my hands,

  at my men’s hands.

  I will consume her physically—and you know I am carnivorous—

  burn your lands,

  kill your servants and villagers.

  My men can get some practice on your kindred:

  they are a little restless.

  I will not kill you.

  I will make you watch.

  I will have you tied to the bed.

  After I have violently consumed your wife

  and she has surrendered to me,

  I will hand what is left of her to my men

  who have not seen a woman for some time.

  And the last man who has her

  will decide what her fate will be.

  Maybe she will be returned to me—

  but I do not feed on the meat

  that other men have fornicated on and have eaten from. [He goes over to Penelope and puts his hand on her groin.]

  PENELOPE: I would rather die!

  AGAMEMNON: But you will!

  But not before giving pleasure to me and to many other men.

  And you, Ulysses, will be tied to the bed.

  You will watch it all!

  And after we have finished

  and burned everything,

  you will come with me to Troy,

  and you will advise me on matters of war.

  ULYSSES: Why would I come with you after you have killed everyone I love?

  AGAMEMNON: Thank you, Ulysses.

  See how intelligent your wits are?

  You are right.

  Why would you come

  if you have nothing to live for?

  So I’ll tell you what I will do instead.

  We will take Penelope with us to Troy and we will all share her.

  We will also take your son,